Chapter 100: Large-Scale Crowd Event

Andingmen Street.

“…I look up towards the sky, and let out a passionate howl, my heart filled with fervor…”

Yang Xin shouted amidst the wind and snow.

Behind him rose a roar that echoed to the heavens.

By the time they reached this point, even reinforcements from the eastern city had joined the procession.

In essence, the Capital City was actually a city of Military Households. Among the over one million residents in the city, the vast majority were Military Households. All twenty-six Imperial Bodyguard Battalions were stationed here. They and their families formed the main body of the city’s inhabitants. Among these twenty-six battalions, the largest in size was the Imperial Guard. This battalion, often misunderstood by later generations as a spy agency, actually encompassed various functions from palace guards and ceremonial guards to investigators and enforcers of Court Beating. Its numbers had long exceeded the scale of a standard battalion.

Just the regular establishment alone actually exceeded ten thousand. This didn’t include those assigned outside. Furthermore, many positions had several people, mainly because the emperor liked to toss the sons and nephews of nobles or powerful eunuchs into the Imperial Guard. These were merely sinecures with no real power, receiving a small monthly stipend.

And these people were also the main force of this protest…

Those on duty definitely would not come.

Only those not on duty came out to join the protest.

Moreover, while it indeed started with the Imperial Guard as the core, as the news spread through the Capital City, it soon wasn’t just the Imperial Guard anymore. Those off-duty soldiers from the Imperial Bodyguard Battalions also ran out and joined the protest procession.

They were bored at home because of the heavy snow, and they usually disliked the Green Robed Scholars anyway…

How could they possibly like them?

Military Households never looked favorably upon Green Robed Scholars.

Most of these people were descendants of those who followed Taizu and Chengzu to conquer the empire. Now they held no power, and many even struggled to eat. For example, those Military Households just selected for Xu Guangqi were all dressed in rags and looked malnourished. But they were, theoretically, the empire’s strongest military force, the actual imperial guards. Their ancestors followed Chengzu to seize the empire and sweep across Northern Mongolia. They should have continued their ancestors’ glory. But over two hundred years of constant suppression by the civil officials had long stripped them of their former splendor. Now, most of them were just a group of paupers, receiving meager military pay, sinking in hunger and cold, becoming the lowest layer of this city, mud that any civil official or scholar could trample…

Anyone could step on them.

They were even less than archers from the Five City Military Inspectorate.

They had been suppressed for far too long. They needed a good, cathartic release. This protest initiated by the Imperial Guard swiftly turned into a Military Households’ mass protest. More and more Military Households from various Imperial Bodyguard Battalions joined. They weren’t just about building the Yue Fei Temple anymore. In fact, those who joined later had no idea what they were doing. They joined because others joined. They echoed the shouts for better treatment because others did.

The situation was spiraling out of control.

The entire court was in chaos. Huang Kechan, who assisted in managing the Capital Garrison, was sweating profusely on his forehead in the middle of winter. The civil officials from the Six Ministries were all dumbfounded. The City Patrol Censors and officers from the Metropolitan Police Office of each city were even more stunned. No one understood what was happening. No one understood how these Military Households had suddenly flooded the entire city.

Fortunately, order did not break down.

In fact, order couldn’t break down. These Military Households were all locals.

They would not cause chaos.

This was their home where they had lived for over two hundred years. No matter how much they wanted to vent, they would not do so at the cost of destroying their own homes. Especially since these people were soldiers, all bound by the hierarchy of their own battalions.

But this spectacular scene of gradually flooding the entire city still thoroughly frightened the civil ministers.

They were truly terrified.

When the Military Households they had long ignored truly displayed their power, they immediately realized their own weakness.

Fang Congzhe had already hurriedly entered the palace.

Regardless of why these Military Households were doing this, they had to be placated now.

But Yang Xin knew none of this. He couldn’t see behind him at all. All he could see were those Imperial Guards following him at the very front. Even those Imperial Guards who had been making connections had no idea what a terrifying result their networking had produced. These individuals who ignited an exceptionally large-scale protest were singing “The River All Red” on Andingmen Street, completely unaware of just how long the procession behind them was.

At this point, no one was paying attention to the Green Robed Scholars anymore.

What was there to see about those Green Robed Scholars? Rather than watch them wailing at the Confucian Temple as if at a funeral, it was far better to watch this Imperial Guard protest!

This was truly a sight not seen in a hundred years.

Including for the Green Robed Scholars themselves.

Those Green Robed Scholars who had lost their audience poured out from the Confucian Temple. Stunned, they stood on the snow-covered street, watching Yang Xin, who held the Imperial Edict, walk forward. They watched the vast, seemingly endless Imperial Guard army on the street. Then they also watched them stop right at the intersection facing the street leading to the Confucian Temple…

“Stop!”

Yang Xin bellowed.

The Imperial Guards behind him quickly stopped.

“By the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees…”

Then Yang Xin began to read the Imperial Edict. Its content was naturally appointing him as the supervisor, responsible for selecting a site in Lingchun Ward to build the Yue Fei Temple. Soon the edict was finished. The Imperial Guards knelt and shouted “Long live the Emperor” like a mountain roar.

The commoners on both sides also knelt.

Holding the Imperial Edict, Yang Xin stood amidst the “Long live” shouts, looking at the several civilian houses before him.

The local ward chief and others had long since come out to attend to him, cautious and full of fear. Yang Xin signaled the Imperial Guards behind him not to move. He still didn’t know that his stopping here had caused a massive traffic jam in the city. Sadly, the tens of thousands of protesting Military Households behind him had to gradually come to a halt. Immediately, he walked to the roadside and began measuring with his own steps. He quickly finished measuring. At the end, he casually pushed over a roadside hitching post. Then he returned to the ward chief’s side, entered the alley behind him, and continued measuring forward, making a mark at the end.

Only then did he return to continue admiring.

The ward chief looked at him with questioning eyes.

“Requisitioned. His Majesty the Emperor needs this land!”

Yang Xin announced with a sweep of his arm.

A few people by the roadside opened their mouths to wail…

“You’ll be paid. State your price yourselves. Whatever it is, that’s what you’ll get!”

Yang Xin said.

Those people instantly shut their mouths.

“Young Master Yang, Righteous Yang, this is my ancestral home. My ancestors have lived here for generations. I would rather die than sell my ancestral property!”

One of them declared righteously.

“Liu San, your father only moved here. What ancestral heritage are you talking about? You butcher, did you not hear what Righteous Yang said was requisition? Giving you money is His Majesty’s mercy. How dare you haggle? Do you believe I’ll invite you to a comfortable place tomorrow? Want to try the Leg Screw Torture Device?”

An Imperial Guard angrily said.

“But you still can’t force a purchase!”

A Green Robed Scholar nearby declared righteously.

“Exactly! Did His Majesty order you to select a site to build the temple so you could persecute the people?”

Another Green Robed Scholar shouted.

“I don’t want to hear them speak!”

Yang Xin said indifferently.

Xu Xianchun immediately waved his hand. Thirty or forty Imperial Guards swarmed forward. They didn’t hit or curse; they just surrounded them and pressed inward. Amidst the squeezing of thirty or forty burly men, those two Green Robed Scholars instantly disappeared. No one heard their voices again anyway. The remaining Imperial Guards who hadn’t moved looked at the other Green Robed Scholars who wanted to speak up for justice with ill-intentioned eyes. The latter were so frightened they shrank back at the fastest speed possible. This lot was truly not to be messed with. Forget about being beaten; just one Imperial Guard spitting could drown them in saliva.

Especially with countless eager ones behind them.

“Hurry up and name your price. I, Yang Xin, am fair in my dealings. Your houses, all the miscellaneous items inside, everything included. Give me a total price. Then I’ll give you a quarter of an hour. Take the money, go back, and move out. Otherwise, I’ll bury you inside along with everything else!”

Yang Xin said impatiently.

The butcher was also someone who knew which way the wind blew. He quoted a price at the fastest speed.

Yang Xin took the contract the ward chief diligently offered and signed it quickly. Then he separately wrote a promissory note…

“Go to my house to get the money!”

He handed the note to the butcher.

The latter quickly took it and rushed back at top speed to clear out his belongings. Anyway, all the odds and ends were already discounted in the price, and he had padded the quote quite a bit. This deal was a sure profit. He just needed to pack up the valuables and take his family to stay with friends temporarily. With him taking the lead, the other families didn’t waste words either. After all, Yang Xin was not refusing to give silver. This area had no wealthy families; in fact, inside Andingmen was mostly poor people. They signed the Land Deed, took Yang Xin’s promissory note, hurried home, and left with their families and valuables.

Soon, a quarter of an hour passed.

Yang Xin scanned both sides and immediately spotted a mounting block. Under everyone’s watchful eyes, he walked over, bent down, let out a roar, picked it up in one go, and lifted it overhead.

Exclamations of awe rose all around.

In the next moment, Yang Xin, holding this huge stone, just like last time in Kaiyuan, violently hurled it at a nearby courtyard wall…

“Demolish it!”

Amidst the sound of the wall collapsing, he turned and said to those Imperial Guards.

Those Imperial Guards immediately excitedly swarmed forward. In the next moment, accompanied by work chants, the entire length of this courtyard wall was knocked down by hundreds of Imperial Guards. Then they surged in like a flood and began demolishing the houses as if in a frenzy. Behind them, the massive procession that finally began moving again, like a river finding its course, instantly flooded these several residences. The tens of thousands of Military Households arriving in an endless stream, like the starving people dismantling the plane in “Lord of War,” rapidly turned this entire cluster of houses into skeletons, then into ruins. Soon, even the ruins began to disappear…

“There are quite a lot of people!”

Yang Xin, however, stared dumbfounded at this scene before him.