Li Daoxuan made a show of pinching his fingers as if calculating fate itself, then smiled lightly.
"I know that you were born on the eleventh day of the sixth month in the first year of the Tianqi era. You were born in Yan'an, into a poor peasant family. At the age of ten, in the third year of the Chongzhen era, you joined Zhang Xianzhong's army. And now, you are only seventeen."
Li Dingguo froze completely.
It felt as though the other man had peeled open his entire life with a single sentence. Terrifying. There was no other word for it.
The shock was so violent that he forgot the pain in his back and shouted, "How do you know all this? You… you couldn't have taken my clan… all of them…"
If the man knew his background this clearly, then perhaps his entire nine generations had already been destroyed.
Cold sweat streamed down his face.
Li Daoxuan smiled calmly.
"Relax. Your clan is fine. Yan'an is now peaceful and orderly. They are living better lives than you are. In my territory, one man's crime does not implicate his relatives."
"Your territory?" Li Dingguo repeated.
"Yes."
In that instant, several clues clicked together in his mind.
This was a militia. Their leading commander carried a ridiculous Jianghu nickname like Flat Rabbit. And this young man in front of him casually referred to Yan'an as his territory.
Put together, the meaning was obvious.
This man was a rebel too.
The strange musket troops must be his forces.
Li Dingguo clenched his teeth. "So you are robbing the robbers."
Li Daoxuan merely smiled and did not deny it.
Flat Rabbit, Zheng Gouzi, and Jiang Daliang, who had just stepped inside, were instantly furious.
"What kind of nonsense is that?" Flat Rabbit barked. "What do you mean robbing the robbers? Dao Xuan Tianzun shines in golden brilliance. If anything, it is gold devouring black."
Li Dingguo shut his eyes. "Since I've fallen into your hands, there's nothing left to say. Kill me."
"If I wanted to kill you, why would I treat your wounds?" Li Daoxuan replied evenly. "Besides, you probably haven't committed any real atrocities yet. Or perhaps you are simply too young to have had the chance."
The Li Dingguo of history would not truly enter the stage until four years later. At twenty one, he would disguise himself as an imperial soldier, seize Xiangyang, and begin the road toward becoming a renowned general. Before that, he was merely a boy following Zhang Xianzhong from place to place.
Which meant that now, he had barely done anything worth judging.
At most, he would be treated like the elderly and women among the roaming bandits, sent to a labor reform camp for a while. After experiencing it, most people earned reduced sentences.
Li Dingguo remained silent.
Li Daoxuan continued in an almost conversational tone. "Let us return to the original question. You have followed Zhang Xianzhong for seven years. How does it feel? Is he truly someone worth following?"
Li Dingguo bit his lower lip. He did not answer, but his hesitation spoke loudly.
Li Daoxuan smiled faintly. "If you truly admired him without doubt, you would be shouting right now that your adoptive father is a great man. But you are not shouting. That silence already answers me."
"I'm not. I didn't," Li Dingguo protested.
"Admit it."
"I didn't!"
Li Daoxuan did not pursue the argument further.
"Rabbit, Gouzi, arrange a squad to escort this young man back to his hometown. I will have his family waiting for him at Yan'an Railway Station."
After saying that, he even winked at Li Dingguo.
That single gesture nearly frightened the boy out of his wits.
"Do not harm them. My rebellion has nothing to do with them."
Li Daoxuan had already said that relatives would not be implicated, yet the boy clearly did not believe him. Since that was the case, there was no need to repeat it. In an instant of shared perception, Li Daoxuan's awareness returned to Yan'an.
Soon afterward, the Gao Family Village Committee issued a notice. Dao Xuan Tianzun was seeking a Li family in Yan'an whose household once had a son named Li Dingguo, born on the eleventh day of the sixth month in the first year of Tianqi.
An edict personally issued by Dao Xuan Tianzun was no trivial matter.
The entire city of Yan'an was stirred into action.
…
Li Dingguo was soon carried on a stretcher to Wuchang. From there he boarded a small boat that traveled upstream toward Hanzhong.
The journey was long, and his injuries improved with each passing day.
He could now sit upright. From the deck, he observed that the Han River was far busier than before. Numerous small cargo ships moved back and forth, transporting vast quantities of goods toward Wuchang.
He was astonished. Where had Shaanxi found such production capacity? It had always been poor.
Several times during the upstream journey, he had opportunities to vault over the railing and leap into the river to escape. Yet the thought never truly formed. He had already sensed the immense power of these people. Since Dao Xuan Tianzun had spoken, his clan must already be waiting in Yan'an.
If he ran, what would happen to them?
He did not dare imagine it.
After many days, they arrived at Hanzhong Prefecture.
Escorted ashore, Li Dingguo saw a newly constructed and imposing building near the northern gate. Inside stood a massive iron vehicle that radiated mechanical power.
"This is Hanzhong North Railway Station," the escorting soldier explained. "It used to be nothing more than a shabby ticket shed. Not long ago, the Crown Prince of Qin, Zhu Cunji, wrote angrily to reprimand the Prince of Rui. Only then did the Prince of Rui finally spend money to rebuild it. Looks impressive now, does it not?"
Impressive was not the point. What shocked Li Dingguo was the sight of countless commoners boarding the iron vehicle with smiles on their faces. Some chatted cheerfully about visiting Xi'an, about what they would buy.
What exactly was happening in Shaanxi?
"Board."
The militia escorted him onto the train. When the iron machine began to move, roaring and breathing steam, his shock deepened further. Its capacity for transport was astonishing.
After a long journey, they reached Xi'an.
Even before disembarking, Li Dingguo saw piles of goods stacked along the platform at Xi'an South Station. Clearly, they would be sent onward to Hanzhong. He recalled the cargo ships he had seen on the Han River.
Understanding dawned. The goods would be transferred onward to Huguang and Sichuan.
In the past, Shaanxi had relied on grain shipments from Huguang and Shanxi to survive famine. Now it was exporting supplies to rescue others.
His heart filled with complicated emotions.
He wished to see more of Xi'an, but there was no chance. The escorts transferred him to Xi'an North Station, where he boarded another train bound for Yan'an.
The train crossed the great bridge erected under Dao Xuan Tianzun's guidance and continued north.
On both sides of the tracks, the fields were lush and green, utterly different from the desolation he had seen seven years ago when he first rose in rebellion with his adoptive father.