Lian Guoshi suddenly recalled that during his previous visit, former Assistant General Luo Xi had personally led his household guards to decisively crush the rebel forces here, capturing more than ten thousand surrendered bandits in one stroke.
At the time, Luo Xi had openly declared that these captives would be put to hard labor—building roads, bridges, and fortifications.
Now, seeing the scene before him, it was obvious that those people were indeed being used to construct roads around Wuguan Pass.
"Well, well," Lian Guoshi thought to himself.
"A truly benevolent policy."
However, the cement factory nearby looked strangely familiar.
There was a similar one in Xi'an.
Both had been built by Li Daoxuan.
Now that Li Daoxuan's cement factories had extended all the way to Wuguan Pass, the sheer scale of his operations was undeniable.
Such powerful merchants were truly formidable.
Lian Guoshi continued onward. As he neared the outskirts of Shangnan County, he suddenly saw a massive factory complex rising ahead of him, bristling with chimneys and roaring furnaces.
He had seen something like this before.
At the Zunhua Iron Smelting Plant in Shuntian Prefecture.
These were blast furnaces—nothing but blast furnaces.
Outside the factory gates, countless carts rolled back and forth, transporting iron ore into the compound.
And what came out of the factory?
Blades.
Spears.
Polearms.
And… firearms.
Lian Guoshi's heart jolted.
"Shangnan County is already producing weapons like this?" he wondered in alarm.
Once he entered the city, his shock only deepened.
In an astonishingly short period of time, Shangnan County had been rebuilt with remarkable order. The city walls were already more than halfway repaired. The streets were clean and orderly. The common folk he encountered wore relaxed smiles, their lives clearly far removed from hardship.
This was a world apart from the devastated city he remembered—the Shangnan County left in ruins after Yi Dou Gu and Wa Guanzi had rampaged through it.
"Your Excellency, Governor—you've returned!"
Luo Xi appeared ahead on the street, leading a group of subordinates forward to greet him.
Lian Guoshi clasped his hands.
"General Luo," he said sincerely, "you've managed Shangnan County with exemplary order. Your governance surpasses that of many civil officials."
Luo Xi laughed.
"This humble general doesn't dare take the credit. It's all thanks to Li Daoxuan's tremendous assistance. And Lord Lu Xiangheng's strong support as well—he handed over all the roaming bandits captured in Yunyang for me to put to hard labor. Naturally, progress here has been swift."
Lian Guoshi couldn't help exclaiming,
"With General Luo guarding Shangnan County, this official truly feels a great burden lifted from his shoulders."
Meanwhile, Henan Governor Fan Shangzheng was feeling anything but relieved.
Several days earlier, he had received direct orders from Chen Qiyu, the Supreme Commander of the Five Provinces: Lushi County must be held, preventing roaming bandits from fleeing northeast.
Fan Shangzheng immediately rushed to Lushi County with Henan's Commander-in-Chief, Zhang Yingchang, to personally take command.
Lushi County was rugged and treacherous, its county seat wedged tightly between two mountains. The terrain was exceedingly complex.
No sooner had they arrived than they were ambushed.
The roaming bandits possessed large numbers of firearms and repeating crossbows, obtained from some unknown source. Using the mountains and dense forests as cover, they unleashed a withering barrage.
Zhang Yingchang's troops were instantly thrown into chaos, scattering in panic, ducking for cover with heads lowered.
Fan Shangzheng didn't even manage to enter the county seat before being forced into retreat.
There was no hope.
The Henan garrison troops were utterly useless.
Yet the Supreme Commander's orders weighed heavily on him—Lushi County had to be taken.
What was he supposed to do?
Fan Shangzheng was nearly driven mad with anxiety, so distressed he almost considered resigning on the spot.
"What do we do? What do we do?" Zhang Yingchang cried, grabbing Fan Shangzheng and shaking him desperately.
"Your Excellency, Governor, we're finished! We simply can't take Lushi County! If the roaming bandits break out from Lushi when the four government armies converge, both of us will be guilty of a grave crime—a grave crime!"
Fan Shangzheng, equally frantic, snapped,
"Stop shaking me! Let this official think—let me think carefully."
Zhang Yingchang suddenly said,
"Your Excellency, when you defended Luoyang, didn't you have a powerful firearms unit? Use them! If not now, then when? Are you planning to wait until we're dismissed before deploying them?"
Fan Shangzheng's eyes lit up.
"Ah! That's right—Bai Yuan! I can still seek help from Master Bai Yuan!"
At this very moment, Bai Yuan's militia was undergoing frantic expansion.
After the last roaming bandit assault on Luoyang, Zhu Changxun, the Prince of Fu, had been terrified out of his wits. To save his own life, he had voluntarily contributed funds to expand the militia.
At the same time, he deliberately avoided any real authority—he had no desire to be accused of plotting rebellion.
Thus, the militia—nominally funded by the Prince of Fu, but in reality backed by Gao Family Village—launched an aggressive recruitment drive.
Recruiting soldiers in Henan was far easier than in the territory of Dao Xuan Tianzun.
The people here lived in extreme misery.
Floods followed by droughts.
Hunger and cold without end.
They cared nothing for the saying, "Good iron is not used for nails, and good men do not become soldiers."
Give them a full meal, and they would do anything.
Moreover, "joining the militia" wasn't regarded as formally entering the military register.
Militiamen were still commoners.
That last hesitation vanished entirely.
The moment Bai Yuan's recruitment notices went up, refugees swarmed in. Within minutes, the threshold of the recruitment office was nearly trampled flat.
Bai Yuan effortlessly recruited ten thousand men from Henan.
However, these new recruits could not be deployed immediately.
Men without ideological training, once armed, might easily turn their weapons against the weak—becoming no different from the abusive government troops.
Thus, the ten thousand recruits were first sent to Yellow Turban Fortress at Xiaolangdi.
There, they drilled formations daily, studied the Three Main Rules of Discipline and Eight Points for Attention, and trained with wooden dummy firearms.
One day, as Bai Yuan watched a squad practice bayonet drills with their wooden rifles, a messenger hurried over.
"Master Bai," the man said, "I am a household guard of Governor Fan. I bring an urgent request."
"Oh?" Bai Yuan replied.
"Governor Fan and I are old acquaintances. Speak freely."
The guard quickly explained the situation—how the roaming bandits in Lushi County were armed with firearms and repeating crossbows, and how the government troops had suffered repeated defeats.
Bai Yuan frowned slightly.
"Hmm? Roaming bandits with firearms and repeating crossbows? Could they even afford such things?"
As doubt formed in his mind, a familiar voice resonated from the gold coin medallion on his chest.
"Something is wrong."
"Ah—Dao Xuan Tianzun has arrived?"
Bai Yuan straightened at once.
"This humble one feels the same. Firearms require vast quantities of ammunition, and repeating crossbows consume arrows at an alarming rate. Roaming bandits are constantly on the move and possess no manufacturing capacity. There's no way they could sustain such weapons."
Dao Xuan Tianzun commanded calmly,
"Agree to the request. Go reinforce them. Find out who is secretly supplying the roaming bandits."
"This humble one obeys."
Xiaolangdi barracks immediately burst into activity.
Bai Yuan mobilized four thousand men—two thousand veterans and two thousand new recruits—and marched southwest toward Lushi County.
After reaching the Luo River, they followed it downstream for several days.
Soon, they arrived at Liucun Village, where another army was camped.
It was the battered Henan garrison—Fan Shangzheng and Zhang Yingchang's defeated troops.
The garrison soldiers looked utterly miserable, their combat strength barely better than Xiaolangdi's new recruits.
Seeing Bai Yuan's forces arrive, they cheered in relief, instantly assuming the posture of—
"We're just hanger-ons."