From Li Dao Xuan's perspective, the entire battlefield lay open.
Zheng Family Village was the first place where his vision had expanded. It was only five or six li in a straight line from Gao Village Family. Since then, his range had continued to grow, now covering more than ten li and encompassing several surrounding villages.
That meant everything east of Zheng Family Village, including the vast mountain forests of Heyang County, was within view.
Eight thousand bandits climbing a mountain together…
It looked strangely amusing.
Like a swarm of ants scrambling over a decorative rock in a flowerpot.
Looking closer, though, the truth became clear.
Out of those eight thousand, fewer than half were actual fighting men. Only the three or four thousand at the front had any real combat ability. The rest were old, weak, women, and children.
A classic feature of late Ming peasant rebellions.
These so called armies were not truly armies. Wherever they went, they dragged the local population along with them. And among those unwilling followers, the majority were people who could not fight at all.
In battle, they contributed nothing.
But they still had to eat.
They drained supplies.
They slowed everything down.
Which was why these forces always sounded terrifying on paper. Tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. But in reality, their combat strength was poor. No matter how much they looted, they still could not stay fed or clothed.
To sustain such bloated numbers, they had no choice but to keep moving, keep plundering, never producing anything, only destroying.
Cheng Xu stood there, practically glowing with confidence.
"Don't be afraid," he told the militia. "The bandits may be many, but most of them are rabble. We only need to defeat the front line. The rest will collapse on their own."
He pointed toward the slope.
"Everyone, find large rocks. Move them to the edge of the cliff."
Beside him, Xing Honglang rolled her eyes.
A moment ago, this man had been talking about retreat. Now suddenly he was fired up like he had swallowed gunpowder.
What changed?
She thought back.
It seemed to start when that simple minded fellow mentioned, "Dao Xuan Tianzun will help."
And just like that, this Instructor He turned into a completely different person.
Strange.
The hundred or so militia members spread out, searching for suitable stones.
Xing Honglang hesitated for a moment.
She had already been thinking about retreat. But now that the militia were preparing to fight, leaving at this moment would feel… cowardly. Dishonorable.
She glanced at her own people.
The thirty or forty salt smugglers looked just as conflicted. They wanted to leave, but none of them wanted to be the one who abandoned loyalty.
She clicked her tongue.
"Move the stones."
That settled it.
They stayed.
People scattered across the mountainside, searching.
Xing Honglang quickly found a rock about the size of a human head. She bent down to lift it, but the moment she tried to exert force, pain shot through her injured arm.
Her wound would split open again if she pushed it.
Her brows tightened.
Just then, a figure stepped beside her.
A man even more solidly built than she was casually lifted the rock and carried it to the cliff for her.
Gao Chuwu.
She shot him a glance. "I don't need help."
Gao Chuwu still felt guilty about what had happened before. He did not argue. He simply turned and went off to carry another stone.
Soon, a pile of rocks formed near the edge.
But…
Not enough.
Good throwing stones were not easy to come by. Too small, and they were useless. Too large, and no one could lift them. The acceptable size range was narrow.
Given enough time, they could gather plenty.
But right now?
They did not have that luxury.
Cheng Xu glanced at the pile.
Less than three hundred stones.
With over a hundred people throwing at once, that would be gone in two rounds. It would barely make a dent.
Xing Honglang frowned. "It's too late to cut trees and make rolling logs."
Cheng Xu rubbed his chin. "Then what do we do?"
Watching from above, Li Dao Xuan grinned.
He reached for a large box filled with disposable chopsticks he had accumulated from countless takeout meals.
So many chopsticks.
He picked one up.
Snap.
A small piece broke off.
Snap.
Another piece.
When snapping became inconvenient, he grabbed scissors and started cutting instead. Before long, he had a handful of short wooden sticks, each only a few millimeters long.
Some were three to four millimeters.
Some six to eight.
All uneven, cut without much care.
He gathered them up and dropped the entire handful into the box.
Down below, Cheng Xu and Xing Honglang were still worrying.
Then suddenly, the clouds above parted.
A large number of wooden logs descended slowly from the sky, carried by an invisible force, landing right in front of them.
Xing Honglang jumped in shock.
Her salt smuggler companions stumbled back in fear.
But the militia from Gao Village Family reacted completely differently.
They immediately bowed toward the sky in unison, then broke into quiet, knowing laughter.
"As expected, Dao Xuan Tianzun is watching over us."
"We were just worrying about not having enough logs."
"And now we have this many."
"These are perfect!"
Cheng Xu's eyes lit up.
Whatever they lacked, Dao Xuan Tianzun provided.
How could they possibly lose like this?
Laughing, he picked up a log about the length of his arm and set it by the cliff.
"Just one of these rolling down will smash who knows how many fools. Hahaha."
Right as he was savoring the thought, a loud thud sounded beside him.
Boom.
Gao Chuwu and Zheng Daniu had carried over an enormous log, nearly the length of a full grown man. They dropped it by the edge and grinned like idiots.
"This one," they said proudly, "will make them cry for their parents."
Cheng Xu fell silent.
The waves of the Yangtze push the waves before them.
The earlier waves die on the shore.
He sighed internally.
Better stick to commanding.
Competing with these two in raw strength was just asking for humiliation.
Only now did Xing Honglang fully process what had happened.
She pointed at the pile of logs that had appeared out of nowhere.
"These… how did they fall from the sky?"
Cheng Xu turned to her calmly. "A gift from Dao Xuan Tianzun."
She looked up. "Dao Xuan Tianzun is…?"
"A deity."
"…"
Her mind froze.
She had visited Gao Village Family several times before. She had heard the name Dao Xuan Tianzun often, but she always assumed it referred to some cult leader.
And Gao Yiye?
Probably just the so called "Saintess," which usually meant… well, you knew.
But now…
Now she realized she had been completely wrong.
Dao Xuan Tianzun was not a person.
Dao Xuan Tianzun was truly a Dao Xuan Tianzun.
And that "Saintess"…
was actually a Saintess.
Her thoughts tangled into knots.
Meanwhile, her subordinates were far more straightforward.
If you saw a deity, you bowed.
Simple.
They all dropped to the ground in unison.
Cheng Xu chuckled. "Enough kneeling. Get up and work. Move all the logs to the cliff."
He glanced down the slope, eyes sharpening.
"The bandits are getting closer."