Chapter 1175 A Wise Man Avoids Immediate Loss
Wang Chenggong now realized it was useless to invoke the Governor of Henan, Fan Shangzheng. This Officer Zhang was clearly a bandit chief; perhaps even his surname "Zhang" was a fabricated alias. His true nicknames should be bandit names like Megatron, Optimus Prime, Blackarachnia, or Bumblebee.
As for titles like "Runing Commander," they were likely private appointments from Zuo Liangyu, and the imperial court probably didn't even recognize such a position.
"A wise man avoids immediate loss," Wang Chenggong whispered to his subordinates. "Give them the grain. We'll save our lives for now, then notify Instructor Bai. We’ll deal with them once our main force arrives."
Having given his quiet orders, Wang Chenggong looked up and declared loudly, "Alright, since you're also an imperial official, I'll hand over this grain. Consider it a contribution to a fellow officer."
Officer Zhang's face flashed with a smug smile upon hearing this.
But at that very moment, the cotton thread Heavenly Lord embroidery on Wang Chenggong's chest spoke: "Wang Chenggong, don't fear him. Challenge him!"
"Eh? Oh!" After a brief moment of stunned surprise, Wang Chenggong's face lit up with sudden delight. "The Heavenly Lord is here! The Heavenly Lord has entered my body for the first time! Hahahaha, I'm blessed by the Heavenly Lord now! All those years of diligent labor reform weren't in vain, hahahahahahaha!"
He laughed too triumphantly, too loudly, his voice completely unrestrained. His laughter echoed so widely that half of Wuyang County could probably hear him.
The people nearby stared at him, utterly bewildered.
As he looked at Officer Zhang, the smile on Wang Chenggong's face instantly vanished, replaced by a serious, even fierce, expression. The raw intensity he possessed in his days as a roving bandit suddenly surged forth again.
He no longer resembled an ordinary, middle-aged man who had lost his edge, but instead looked like a menacing demon, reminiscent of "Ghost Face" Du Xing, one of the 108 heroes of Mount Liang.
Wang Chenggong scoffed, "I've suddenly changed my mind. Not a single grain of this food will go to you."
Officer Zhang roared, "What?! You've suddenly grown a leopard's gall?!"
Wang Chenggong sneered, "Our grain can feed the common folk, and it can feed good soldiers like the White Pole Soldiers, but it will never go to trashy, dog-shit scum like you. Unless, of course, you become prisoners. Then we might feed you, as convicts."
Officer Zhang: "???"
He was utterly baffled. Why had this man suddenly turned hostile? They had been speaking cordially just moments ago. Had he swallowed gunpowder? Each remark was more aggressive than the last.
"You're looking for death!"
Officer Zhang fumed.
Wang Chenggong burst into laughter. "With the Heavenly Lord protecting me, how can I die?"
The cotton thread Heavenly Lord on his chest grinned, echoing, "Indeed, I've got him covered; he won't die. But as for you... well, that's another story."
Officer Zhang jumped in alarm. "Eh? Eh eh eh? That cotton thread... it's speaking?"
Wang Chenggong roared with laughter. "Surrender immediately, and it's just a minor offense — attempted robbery of a few hundred catties of grain. You won't be locked up for many days. But if you resist stubbornly, and the venerable Heavenly Lord himself decides to act, turning you all into meat patties, don't blame me for not warning you beforehand!"
Officer Zhang exploded in fury. "What the hell are you spouting? You think a few cheap jianghu tricks, using ventriloquism and wiggling your chest fabric to make it look like the embroidery is talking, can scare me? Do you think I was born yesterday?"
Wang Chenggong shrugged, "Don't believe me? Then there's nothing I can do!"
Officer Zhang bellowed, "Attack, you curs—"
At this moment, Li Daoxuan was pondering what to use to deal with this band of bandits. Constantly using a giant palm felt unoriginal and boring. Perhaps it was time for a new prop?
His gaze swept across his desk, landing on his personal seal.
It wasn't anything high-end, just a souvenir he'd bought from a street vendor in a scenic spot. On Taobao, they only cost a few dozen yuan, but he'd been completely ripped off by the scenic spot, paying 150 yuan to bring it home. It looked like jade, but in reality, he had no idea what kind of cheap stone it actually was.
Li Daoxuan picked up the seal and tossed it into the box...
At that very moment, Officer Zhang's men were poised to charge forward.
Wang Chenggong's unit consisted of only two hundred men, a mere detachment. This small number, compared to Officer Zhang's force of over three thousand, was utterly insignificant, completely disregarded.
Yet Wang Chenggong showed no signs of panic. Despite facing three thousand bandit soldiers, he was full of confidence, shielded by the Heavenly Lord. With his hands in his pockets, he was unbelievably arrogant, practically daring them with an unspoken, "Come on, then."
Just as the battle was about to erupt...
The clouds in the sky suddenly parted, revealing a massive seal descending from the heavens!
"BOOM!"
The seal slammed into the open ground between the two armies, right in the center of the county town.
The sound was tremendous. Several buildings nearby, half-burned by roving bandits months earlier, immediately succumbed to the tremors and collapsed.
Dust billowed...
Wang Chenggong and his group stood utterly still. For them, this scene wasn't even shocking enough. They had expected the Heavenly Lord to extend a massive hand. Instead, it was only a "small" seal. Clearly, the Heavenly Lord was already showing mercy.
But what the people of Gao Family Village considered a "small" seal appeared as an enormous, colossal object in the eyes of Officer Zhang's men.
It stood four or five *zhang* tall, thicker than the trunk of a century-old tree, appearing to be a colossal square of "jade."
Such a massive object plummeting from the sky right before them would scare the living hell out of anyone.
Once the dust settled, Officer Zhang peered closely and saw a line of vigorous, flowing characters carved into the side of the colossal "jade": "Shēnsī Dùxíng" (Think Carefully, Act Resolutely). Of course, Officer Zhang was completely illiterate. He merely recognized that there were four characters, but their meaning was entirely lost on him.
However, those four characters conveyed a deeper meaning.
It wasn't a natural jade stone; it was a precious piece of jade that had been carved. And it certainly hadn't fallen before them due to a typhoon, earthquake, or landslide. No, it was... thrown there by someone.
No, that wasn't right. No human could accomplish that. Had an immortal thrown it?
At that moment, Li Daoxuan reached back into the box, picked up the seal, and withdrew it.
Thus, everyone in the box watched as the enormous seal lifted into the air, soared into the clouds, and vanished in an instant.
On the ground, a deep indentation remained, forming the four seal script characters: "Seal of Li Daoxuan."
Officer Zhang was utterly paralyzed with fear.
Wang Chenggong roared, "The Heavenly Lord spared your dog's life! He didn't stamp the immortal seal onto you, but merely onto the ground before you! Don't you know enough to repent? Kneel!"
"Thump!" Officer Zhang immediately dropped to his knees.
Behind him, the three thousand bandit soldiers foolishly followed suit, a wave of them dropping to their knees with thumps and thuds.
Wang Chenggong sighed, "See? I told you to surrender earlier. Originally, it was just attempted grain robbery. Now, you've added attempted robbery and murder to that. Looks like you'll all be spending a good deal more time in the labor reform camp."
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