Chapter 3: The Art of Rebellion

  Li Da was shocked and lost his composure, thinking to himself that things had taken a turn for the worse. Guan Yu had barely escaped with his life last time he attacked Beihai, and now he might rise up again because of Li's careless remark "the victorious king and the defeated bandit".

  Following the course of history, the Yellow Turbans were bound to be defeated. Guan Yu managed to save his own life, but watching him go to his death was unbearable. He had implicated 180 million innocent civilians and would have been struck by lightning if he hadn't acted.

  "It's no good! It's too dangerous!" Li Chong hastily waved his hand.

  Guan Hai exclaimed: "What do you mean by 'Zi Hui'? Don't you think that our Yellow Turbans have no chance of winning? You should know that although our Yellow Turban followers are scattered all over the place, the various leaders are still mutually supportive. Moreover, the imperial court is now even weaker, and the various provincial governors are disobeying the imperial edicts in secret while pretending to obey them in public, each fighting for their own interests. We still have some chance of winning."

  "It's still a winning situation, the Yellow Turbans will definitely be defeated." Li Zhong said with an iron tone, his firm attitude made Guan Hai feel greatly puzzled.

  Seeing that Guan Hai was not convinced, Li Chong had no choice but to acknowledge that what the book said was indeed true. Guan Hai was not a wise general after all, which explained why he couldn't defeat even a few thousand soldiers from Beihai despite leading tens of thousands of men and horses.

  Actually, Li Chong really underestimated Guan Yu. He himself came from two thousand years later, and the knowledge level of the two was vastly different.

  In the history books of later generations, there are detailed analyses of major events in each dynasty. TV pundits and commentators are as numerous as hairs on an ox, repeatedly evaluating major historical events, and with the bombardment of online platforms, it can be said that unless you're a fool, going back to ancient times would make you a theoretical mastermind.

  "So be it." Li Chong adjusted his thinking and continued: "When Da Xianliang Shifu was alive, your Yellow Turbans were more powerful than they are now. What was the outcome? Brother Guan experienced it personally. And now, how does Brother Guan compare to Da Xianliang?"

  His expression suddenly darkened, and he said angrily: "If it wasn't for Tang Zhou's betrayal back then, Da Xianliang wouldn't have had to rush into action. If the imperial court hadn't been prepared, we would have already overthrown the Liu dynasty."

  Li Chong immediately retorted: "Let's put aside the matter of Tang Zhou's betrayal for now, but didn't the Yellow Turbans have at least tens of millions of followers back then?"

  "It's not just several hundred million, our Yellow Turban followers are in the tens of millions."

  "Look! It's tens of millions! The Han Dynasty has only tens of millions of households, on average each household has a follower, how can the court not know, how to keep it secret?" Li asked with his hands spread out.

  Guan Hai was stunned, as he had always thought that the failure to overthrow the Han Dynasty was due to the fact that they did not keep their plans secret, which led to a hasty uprising. This was also an excuse for the Yellow Turbans' defeat to comfort themselves. Who would have thought that today Li Zhong would expose him with just one sentence?

  "This is not a matter of being careless, without Tang Zhou, there would still be Wang Zhou and Li Zhou. The Yellow Turbans are a mixed bag, with all sorts of people lurking about." Li Chong said very affirmatively, this is human nature, how can it be possible for tens of millions of people to not have a single traitor?

  Li Chong was about to continue speaking when he suddenly heard a horse whinny outside, and the temple door was pushed open. A group of people walked in, braving the swirling snowflakes.

  Guan Hai suddenly stood up and smiled: "How did you guys come here?"

  A young man in his twenties rubbed his hands together, let out a breath and said: "We came to find General Guan, today the scouts reported that Bei Hai Wu An led many troops straight to Dong Lai, I was afraid something unexpected would happen to General Guan, so I came out to look for you. Didn't expect there were also... Oh! Our own people too."

  It's clear that Hanzi has mistaken Li Chong for a Yellow Turban rebel again. Guan Hai smiled and said, "This gentleman is named Li Chong, styled Zi Hui, and he is not a follower of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, nor is he an enemy. Coincidentally, his arrow wound was inflicted by Wu An Guo."

  Li Chong only then knew who had shot and injured him. Wu An Guo was a relatively well-known general during the Three Kingdoms period, but he was quite unlucky. At Hu Lao Pass, he actually dared to exchange blows with Lü Bu, and ended up losing an arm. It's really a case of karma coming full circle, who would have thought that the one avenging him would be the ominous god Lü Bu? Li Chong immediately felt a hint of goodwill towards Lü Bu, whom he had yet to meet.

  The young man immediately clasped his fists and said: "I am Liao Hua Liao Yuanjian, I have seen Mr. Li."

  It turned out to be Liao Hua, Li Zhong silently sighed and hurriedly returned the courtesy.

  Guan Hai invited everyone to sit down and smiled: "Don't look at Mr. Li's youth, but his vision is extraordinary. I was just listening to Mr. Li analyzing the reasons for our failure in this matter. Come on, let's listen together, you can also gain some insight."

  A few people noisily found some dry firewood and sat on it, all staring at Li Chong. These people were all Yellow Turban believers, mostly poor commoners, and those who knew a few characters like Guan Hai were rare, let alone having any knowledge or experience to speak of. This was also one of the main reasons why the Yellow Turbans collapsed after Zhang Jue's death. Now that they heard there was a "wise scholar" explaining great things about the world to them, they naturally became very enthusiastic.

  Li Chong was extremely puzzled. Logically, Guan Hai and Liao Hua were both followers of Zhang Jue, yet they still had the heart to listen to the reasons for Zhang Jue's defeat, and even did so with great enthusiasm, making people feel a bit ridiculous.

  Li Chong didn't know that Guan Hai and Liao Hua weren't really Zhang Jue's trusted followers. Zhang Jue made use of Guan Hai to guard Xiaopei just because he was skilled in martial arts. In history, Guan Hai failed to attack Beihai and immediately went into hiding, presumably with some inside story. The true historical record is that he wasn't killed by Guan Yu, but was actually defeated by Taishi Ci.

  Liao Hua was not loyal to Zhang Jue at all, after the failure of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, Liao Hua disappeared and later joined Liu Bei, a bandit with big ears, and did not continue to rebel like other sect members.

  Li Chong humbly said, "I'm just talking nonsense, don't take it seriously. You know that rebelling has been the most dangerous thing since ancient times. If you're not careful, you'll be exterminated to the ninth degree of kinship. Chen Sheng Wang might not have risen up if he hadn't encountered a desperate situation. Moreover, the means used by Chen Sheng Wang are similar to those spoken by Tian Gong Jiangjun - 'the blue sky has died, and the yellow sky should rise.' Don't get angry, I didn't mean to belittle Tian Gong Jiangjun, but rather speak the truth. If prophecies were reliable, Tian Gong Jiangjun wouldn't have been defeated and killed."

  Everyone was silent, Li Chong's words were very practical. When Zhang Jiao won, anything he said would be fine, even if he said he was the reincarnation of the Heavenly Emperor, someone would believe him. But once you fail, people will immediately react, oh... it turns out that General Tian Gong is not a god incarnate, nor did he learn immortal techniques. Since you are also an ordinary person, why should I still believe in you?

  "How can we succeed in rebelling?" Liao Huaxin asked straightforwardly.

  Li Chong smacked his lips and remained silent. Seeing the crowd staring at him with scorching gazes, he finally spoke in a low voice after a long while: "Learn from High Ancestor!"

  "How to learn?"

  "Who is Gao Zu?"

  "Silly fool, it's Liu Bang"

  "How do we know how Liu Bang rebelled, it's really hanging in our stomachs, hurry up and say it." A group of rebellious enthusiasts asked in unison, fully demonstrating their longing and pursuit for the proletarian revolutionary cause.

  "This... there's no use talking about it, you guys are hopeless anyway, let's talk about something else?" Li Chong didn't want to continue this topic, the Three Kingdoms were already chaotic enough, stirring up these revolutionaries' passion would only add to the chaos!

  Guan Hai used chopsticks to pick at the wolf meat in the incense burner and said loudly, "Come on, come on, eat while we talk. Liao Hua, go get some dry rations, leave the remaining wolf meat outside, and bring it all back to cook together."

  Everyone responded with a loud noise and took action one after another.

  After a while, everyone sat around the incense burner, and Guan Hai asked: "Zi Hui, you are a scholar, tell us about our future!"

  Li Zhonggang wanted to respond, but immediately didn't know what to say. Throughout history, the various lords' attitude towards the Yellow Turbans was one of recruitment, selecting the strong and able-bodied as soldiers, and the rest as civilians. In Li Zhong's understanding, this meant cannon fodder and slaves. How could he answer? Should he tell them not to worry, that in a few years Cao Cao would recruit them, with those who should be soldiers becoming soldiers, and those who should farm becoming farmers?

  Knowing 500 years ahead and behind is not a fairy but a neuropathic patient.

  It's better not to know, eating at someone else's house is embarrassing, Li Chong felt a bit humiliated.

  Liao cleverly noticed that Guan Zhi valued Li Chong highly, and taking advantage of his young age, he smiled and said: "General Guan says that Brother Li is a native of Pingzhou, are you returning to your hometown via Donglai?"

  Li Chong's expression changed suddenly, his heart filled with anxiety and unease. As soon as he thought of the warm word "home", his excitement vanished into thin air. Li Chong's eyes turned red, and he said gloomily: "Can I still go home? No way! I really miss home!"

  "Is it that you regret something has happened at home, or are worried about the difficulties on the way back? These are not problems. If there is a change in your family, we need some money and grain, and the mountain stronghold still has a surplus. Even if the road is treacherous, don't worry, we can escort you for a while."

  Although he knew that Guan Hai was being polite, Li Zhong was still deeply moved. He knew that Guan Hai's intention was to pull him into partnership. In this chaotic and contentious era, people with knowledge were extremely valuable. Even if you didn't have great talent, it didn't matter; couldn't you at least become a minor official?

  Zhuge Liang was indeed a capable person, exceling in both military and administrative affairs. However, he had no one to delegate trivial matters to, and ended up exhausting himself to death. Ultimately, the reason for this was that Shu lacked talent.

  In the 21st century, what is most precious? Talent! The Three Kingdoms were the same, and they went even further.

  "Brother Guan's intention is appreciated, but this matter Brother Guan really can't help with, because my home has...not...been...!" Li Chong bowed his hands in gratitude, the three words "not been" were said with some choking, he said to this point, Li Chong hung his head in grief and secretly shed tears.

  Guan Hai and Liao Hua exchanged a glance, with some joy on their faces.

  Liao Hua also knew what Guan Yu was thinking, and immediately asked: "Then Brother Li plans to go where? If there is no place to go, why not join us in creating a career, and it would be a waste of Brother Li's knowledge!"

  Li Zhongxin said that you can't bear it, but Li Zhong is not interested in joining the Yellow Turbans at all. In Li Zhong's heart, he didn't consider Taiping Dao as a heretical sect. As for immortals and the like, Li Zhong now somewhat believes in them. After all, such an absurd thing as crossing over has happened, so it's normal to have immortals in this world.

  Can join a terrorist organization that is bound to fail, isn't this jumping into the fire pit by oneself? Li Zhong's ideological realm has not reached the level of Red Party personnel, even if Guan Hai lends a helping hand to himself.

  So Li Zhongben thought of immediately refusing, but after thinking about it again, he felt that it was not right. These people were a terrorist organization, what if they disagreed with him and killed him? TV shows had portrayed such situations many times, the most common one being that as soon as he refused, a younger brother would jump out, draw his knife and shout: "Big brother, kill him to silence him, otherwise the government will..."

  Li Chong decided to answer more tactfully: "This General, I didn't have the intention of belittling everyone's abilities. However, I'm really afraid of death. As I said earlier, the Yellow Turbans are definitely doomed to fail...".

  Liao Hua replied: "Didn't Big Brother Li say that if we learn from our ancestors' methods, we might succeed? We can also learn from our ancestors and finish this soon?"

  Li Zhong sighed and said: "But the key is that you can't learn from Liu Bang!"

  Without waiting for others to ask, Li Chong continued: "Rebellion requires building high walls, accumulating grain, and delaying the claim of kingship. At the same time, one cannot become a leader, or they will only become the target of everyone's criticism. Liu Bang was able to rise up by first surrendering to Xiang Yu, accumulating strength, and then turning the tables! Therefore, the most important thing in rebelling is not to raise the flag of overthrowing the Han dynasty at first. Secondly, it is best to join the Han court as a vassal lord, slowly accumulate power, and if one can control the emperor and command the other lords, they can eliminate dissenters and destroy their competitors under the guise of legitimacy. When in control, nothing will be impossible."

  This passage says that Gan Hai and others are like a sudden enlightenment, nodding their heads in agreement, shouting that Mr. Li is a great talent, and is a far-sighted proletarian revolutionary and great mentor.

  Li Chong smiled to himself, isn't this nonsense? He had absorbed the successful strategies of Li Yuan and Zhu Yuanzhang, two geniuses at rebelling, and summarized them for himself. It's strange if it doesn't make sense.

  "So you Yellow Turbans are not feasible, first of all, you have already become the target of public criticism. Secondly, many of you have been named on the list in the Han court, it's hard to get a decent job, even if you surrender to the Han court, you will absolutely not be trusted, am I right?" Li Chong asked back.

  Liao Hua's eyes rolled, and he smiled: "Brother Li is right, we can't be officials, but Brother Li, you have a clean background and know the right people, asking for an official position shouldn't be difficult, should it?"