The Decree

The Green Mountain Bandits took over Qi Hua city.

However, all they got was an empty city. This wasn't worth celebrating.

Once they took over the city, the Green Mountain Bandits changed the name and raised high their anti-Qian banner. They claimed to be one of the eighteen rebels in Anzhou Prefecture.

Two days later...

Shen Ling, who was in the sharecroppers' village, received a piece of news.

At the same time that the Green Mountain Bandits besieged the Qi Hua City, 17 other cities within Anzhou Prefecture were also attacked.

This made it a total of 10 cities, including Qi Hua City. The other eight managed to resist the attack, for now.

When people of other parts of the Great Qian Empire got to know about this, they were really shocked.

At this moment, the Great Qian Empire was facing a huge crisis, with enemy troops on the outside and rebels on the inside.

This intensified the rumors that the Great Qian Empire was collapsing. The prefecture overseer was utterly anxious and worried, wondering what to do with the imminent danger.

Soon enough, the long-awaited imperial decree arrived.

The emperor of the Great Qian Empire ordered the prefecture overseer to suppress the rebel troops as quickly as possible. He could not let this situation continue.

The prefecture overseer accepted the order with immediate effect, but there was an issue - he had only twenty thousand troops.

This number couldn't even be compared to that of the rebel troops.

How could they, in their small numbers, possibly eliminate the Green Mountain Bandits?

The prefecture overseer had no choice but to order for more recruits!

However, with the current state of affairs, how many people were willing to defend their country?

"Master, we have a visitor."

An official came to report all of a sudden.

The prefecture overseer immediately got up to receive the visitor.

...

After two days...

"Ha!"

"Ha!"

Shen Ling was busy training the young sharecroppers in the village how to fight.

The bandits were in Qi Hua City at the moment, which was not too far away. Although they referred to themselves as the Volunteer Army, their way of doing things was no different from before.

Since they occupied Qi Hua City and gained nothing, they began to spread to other surrounding villages.

After all, they needed food, and relying on the granary that the Shen family left behind was not going to be enough.

"Dong! Dong! Dong!" The bell rang three times.

"Young Master Shen, it seems the bandits are here!"

Shen Ling, who was still training the young sharecroppers, was surprised when the people keeping watch sounded the alarm!

His expression turned cold as he ordered in a deep voice, "Brothers, go up the camp wall now!"

"Alright, Young Master!" they replied in unison.

Shen Ling went up the camp wall and looked at the Green Mountain Bandits not too far away. When he saw the chief, who was leading the bandits, he wasn't surprised.

However, when he looked around for some time, he didn't see any sign of that madman.

What were they up to?

Shen Ling narrowed his eyes and said in a loud voice, "Chief, you should be staying in Qi Hua City. What are you here for?"

"Well, I'm here specifically for you, Young Master Shen," the chief replied.

"Really? For me?"

Shen Ling smiled and spoke again, "Let's just get to business. What do you want?"

"I want to invite you to join our rebel army so we can overthrow the muddle-headed emperor together. With this, the world would have a brighter future," the chief replied.

Hearing this, Shen Ling shook his head, "I won't disagree with you when you say that current emperor is muddle-headed, but how good can all of you be? The way I see it, there's no difference between you all and him.!"

Shen Ling's voice was very loud and he made sure he drove home his point.

When the sharecroppers heard this, their faces remained blank.

Meanwhile, those citizens of Qi Hua City felt that Shen Ling was simply too bold.

Even Miss Qin had a surprised look in her eyes when she heard this.

If these words spread out, he would be accused of disrespect for the emperor.

He could even be executed!

"If you want to accomplish great things, you have to pay a price. The villagers who died all sacrificed their lives for the rise of a new dynasty. This is the only right thing to do," the chief said in a deep and cruel voice.

"Haha!"

Shen Ling laughed all of a sudden.

The chief made it sound as if depriving people of their right to live was a sacred thing to do. Shen Ling was simply speechless with disgust.

How could they be so shameless! He just couldn't understand.

Could it be that only those who were selfish could succeed?

Shen Ling shook his head and said, "I'm sorry. I don't want to join you."

In reply, the chief looked at him and said, "Young Master Shen, do you really think that just because you've built a camp wall, I can't do anything to you?"

"Whether or not you can do anything to me, why don't you try it first?" Shen Ling said with a smile.

With this, the chief waved his hand.

The bandits around him began to charge towards the camp wall.

One hundred and fifty steps away...

One hundred steps away...

Fifty steps away...

When Shen Ling saw that the bandits were getting closer to the main gate of the camp wall, he clapped.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

In an instant, a large number of bandits were shot. When the other bandits who had not been captured saw the miserable state of the others in front of them, they began to retreat and ran for their dear lives.

But it was already too late!

The firing range of the triple crossbow was seventy-five steps and Shen Ling had deliberately waited until they were only fifty steps away before giving the order to launch an attack.

To those escaping bandits, these short twenty-five steps were the distance they had between life and death.

"Triple crossbow?"

The chief looked at Shen Ling with a sinister smile and said, "Looks like I've underestimated you, Young Master Shen. I didn't expect you to have managed to get triple crossbows."

As soon as he said this, he turned his horse around. "Let's go!"

He left immediately, not feeling any remorse or pain of losing almost a hundred bandits.

Shen Ling turned around and looked at Miss Qin. "Have you heard any news about the bandits recently?" he asked.

Miss Qin shook her head.

It wasn't a secret to Shen Ling that Chennan Trading Company was involved in intelligence, and right now, he needed information. He hadn't heard about the Green Mountain Bandits in the last two days.

At night.

Shen Ling went to visit Miss Qin again. She handed him an envelope.

"Let me see..."

Shen Ling opened the envelope and read the letter.

This letter was filled with all he needed to know about the Green Mountain Bandits.

Through this letter, he got to know that the Green Mountain Bandits had already merged with all the other bandits. As at that time, the number of fighters had increased to eight thousand and the total number of members was over ten thousand.

"This isn't going to be easy..."

Shen Ling said with a frown.

The speed at which the Green Mountain Bandits developed exceeded his expectations.

If they continued this way, the sharecroppers' village would not be a safe place anymore.

A young sharecropper knocked on the door and disrupted his thoughts. "Young Master Shen, someone is here to see you."

"Who is it?"

Shen Ling asked.

"He said that he is the prefecture overseer of Anzhou. I can't tell if it's true or not..." the young man replied.

Prefecture overseer of Anzhou?

Shen Ling and Miss Qin looked at each other in surprise. Shen Ling then said, "Please bring him in."

"Alright, Young Master."

The footsteps of the young sharecropper faded into the distance.

After a while, a noble middle-aged man in plain clothes walked into the room.

When he saw Shen Ling, the prefecture overseer, who was in his forties, asked, "You're Young Master Shen, right?"

Shen Ling nodded, "Yes, I am."

That being said, he and Miss Qin looked at each other. Miss Qin nodded secretly.

The man's identity had been confirmed — he was the prefecture overseer all right.

With a smile, Shen Ling said, "Forgive my manners, my lord. Please take a seat."

The prefecture overseer nodded as he sat on the chair offered to him. "I heard that you are good at training soldiers. This is the reason why I'm here."

What?

What was he talking about?

Shen Ling, who had already prepared his speech, looked at the man with a blank expression.

Good at training soldiers?

Who gave him this piece of information? Shen Ling couldn't help but wonder. He was far gone in his place of thought.

After several calls from the prefecture overseer of Anzhou, he came back to his senses. "No, I'm not... I haven't trained soldiers..."