Chapter 992: Trouble Brews Anew
The Cao family uncle and nephew glanced at the glass, a strange expression spreading across their faces.
"What a massive glass cup!"
Cao Wenzhao mused, "Could this be the Jade Lamp that Sha Wujing broke in *Journey to the West*? The heavenly Jade Lamps are truly formidable."
Cao Bianjiao exclaimed, "Uncle! Can we please focus on what's important? Is this really the moment to be thinking about *Journey to the West*? We're being held hostage!"
Cao Wenzhao corrected him, "No! You're the one missing the point. We aren't being threatened by people; we're being threatened by a god."
Cao Bianjiao could only stare.
It was truly a moment of awkwardness! His uncle, who typically struggled to grasp the core of any situation, had somehow hit the nail on the head this time.
Cao Wenzhao continued, "If we were being threatened by mere mortals, when have we, the Cao uncle-nephew pair, ever flinched? Hmph. So, if it's a god holding us hostage, then we..."
Cao Bianjiao asked, "Uncle? Are we going to fight?"
Cao Bianjiao gaped.
Cao Wenzhao urged, "Come on, let's go to class."
Cao Bianjiao sputtered, "Wait, what?"
The Cao family uncle and nephew took off running, veering around the enormous glass cup before them and hurrying after Gao Jie.
Gao Yiye watched their undignified retreat and couldn't help but let out a little snort of laughter. "Heavenly Lord, you've frightened them," she commented.
Li Daoxuan asked, "Oh really?"
Gao Yiye chuckled, "Heavenly Lord, you're usually so gentle with everyone, never bullying us mere mortals. Why are you so tough on Gao Jie and the Cao uncle-nephew pair?"
Li Daoxuan sighed faintly. "Imperial officials and military generals need a firm hand; without proper guidance, they won't do. If they don't properly attend their ideological lessons, not only will they prove useless in the future, but they'll become obstacles to building a new era. In any case, don't worry about those fellows. Just go and have fun."
Gao Yiye grinned. "Alright!"
She dashed into a small snack shop by the road. "Shop owner," she called out, "bring me one of everything delicious you have!"
"Coming right up!" —
In the following days, Cao Wenzhao, Cao Bianjiao, and Gao Jie all found themselves attending classes at Fan Shangzheng's Governor's yamen. Their instructor was a military officer from the Gao Family Village Militia, whose title was "Political Commissar." None of the three had ever heard of such a strange position, and they couldn't tell if it was high-ranking or low.
Still, judging by his self-assured demeanor, he certainly seemed like an important figure.
The lessons he delivered were incredibly dull, mostly discussing concepts like nationhood, ethnicity, justice, and evil. Cao Wenzhao, Cao Bianjiao, and Gao Jie found themselves constantly yawning, but dared not skip. They had to endure the lectures, however tedious.
Days swiftly slipped by...
Soon, the ninth year of the Chongzhen Emperor's reign (1636 AD) arrived.
This year felt wrong from the very beginning!
Heaven, yet again, withheld its blessed rain.
Spring rain was already precious as oil, but if not a single drop fell, it would become more valuable than any commodity. In Shanxi and Henan, not a single drop had been seen.
This kept Li Daoxuan incredibly busy.
He had no time for leisure, frantically making artificial rain inside the Diorama Box.
While the box's dimensions hadn't been mentioned in a while, with the ever-increasing Salvation Index, Li Daoxuan's Diorama Box had expanded twice more. It now measured ten meters long and six meters wide, completely filling the entire second floor of his spacious villa.
The expanded area of the box also meant Li Daoxuan could cover a larger region with each rain shower.
He could now bring rain to a colossal area two kilometers long and 1.2 kilometers wide in a single go. He simply needed to deploy a few more atomizers, arranging them in a circle around the box's perimeter, and then using stands to extend additional atomizer hoses into the center, spraying mist directly over the heart of the diorama.
And so, the tiny inhabitants within the Diorama Box would frequently witness a miraculous sight: a multitude of dragon heads appearing in the sky, mouths agape, spouting rain and mist down onto the land below.
"Just how many Dragon Kings had been summoned?" they wondered.
The Four Dragon Kings alone surely wouldn't suffice; it seemed the Heavenly Lord must have enlisted every obscure Well Dragon King, Lake Dragon King, and any other lesser-known rain deities from every forgotten corner of the celestial realm to join in this monumental effort.
The villagers, in turn, not only marveled at the Heavenly Lord's immense power but also at his vast network of divine connections in the immortal realm... or rather, his extensive divine network.
But even with Li Daoxuan's tireless efforts, he couldn't bring relief to the entirety of Shanxi and Henan.
His Field of View Expansion still only covered half of Shanxi and a small portion of Henan.
In the areas beyond his reach, the situation remained grim.
The Governor of Shanxi immediately allocated vast sums of silver and grain, desperately striving to aid the people. Thanks to his relentless efforts, the disaster in Shanxi was alleviated to some extent. In the affected regions, taxes were waived, and porridge distributed, with the relief work conducted in an orderly fashion.
Meanwhile, in Henan, Governor Fan Shangzheng was likewise working tirelessly to help his people. However, his relief efforts simply couldn't cover the entire Henan region.
That was because...
Henan wasn't entirely under Fan Shangzheng's control. A formidable seventy-two bandit armies were still wreaking havoc across Henan, Hubei, and Anhui.
Fan Shangzheng's relief efforts could only be implemented in areas under imperial control. For those regions difficult for supply convoys to reach, he was powerless to assist.
Large numbers of suffering common folk were once again swept up by the bandits, swelling the ranks of the rebel forces.
The bandit armies surged in numbers and power! —
January, the ninth year of Chongzhen.
A swift rider galloped furiously, pulling up before the Governor's yamen.
The rider tumbled from his saddle and sprinted inside, yelling as he ran, "Military dispatch! Urgent military dispatch!"
At that moment, Fan Shangzheng, the Cao uncle-nephew pair, and Gao Jie were all seated before the Political Commissar, enduring his ideological lecture.
That's right, even Governor Fan Shangzheng had to attend.
The four were on the verge of dozing off when the messenger burst in, shouting, "Military dispatch! Urgent military dispatch!"
The Political Commissar paused his lecture.
The four "students" simultaneously turned their heads toward the messenger.
The messenger was a little bewildered himself. What was happening here? Four high-ranking officials attending a lecture?
"Ah, focus, focus!" he silently chided himself. "This is no time for musing." He quickly relayed, "The bandit armies, led by Chuǎng Wang and Chuǎng Jiang, have marched east to besiege Luzhou, capturing Hanshan and Hezhou... Their camps stretch for ten *li*, numbering hundreds of thousands of men!"
The four sprang up, startled. "My heavens, they dare to attack even Luzhou?"
Luzhou, known today as Hefei, was an incredibly important city.
For the past few months, the bandits had mostly kept to the mountains, engaging in minor skirmishes. The imperial court had assumed they wouldn't be able to muster any significant threat. Who would have thought that their next move would be hundreds of thousands strong, directly assaulting Luzhou?
Fan Shangzheng stated, "Luzhou is quite far from my Luoyang. As the Governor of Henan, I fear it falls outside my jurisdiction."
The messenger replied, "Yes, this matter is not for your Excellency, Governor; it is to inform the generals. Supreme Commander Lu Xiangheng has issued an order: General Cao and General Gao are to depart immediately and link up with General He Renlong on the front lines, proceeding together to Luzhou to encircle the bandit army."
The three men—Cao Wenzhao, Cao Bianjiao, and Gao Jie—all rose simultaneously. "Your humble generals accept the order!" they declared.
With that, the three began to rush out. A military order had been issued, specifically stating "depart immediately." They had no choice but to comply instantly; even a moment's hesitation would be an act of defiance.
However, just as the three men reached the doorway, a strange sound echoed from the sky. Li Daoxuan, clad in a swordsman's attire, descended from above, landing with a soft thud right in front of the door, blocking their path.
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