Thousand-year-old family: its rise began with Shang Yang’s reforms

Chapter 370 Heaven is dead, Huang Tian is here to stand!
Zhang Jue stood under the tree with a normal expression.

There were footsteps in the distance, and his younger brother Zhang Bao came over with a worried look on his face: "Brother, are we really going to do this?"

In fact, Zhang Bao did not really agree with or support his brother's decision. After all, both the Taiping Dao and the three brothers Zhang Jue were loved by county magistrates and governors in various places and were their guests of honor.

As long as Zhang Jue can continue to restrain these ordinary people, the county governors and state governors will continue to treat them well.

If this continues, as long as they continue to develop for two or three generations, the Julu Zhang family will be able to become a wealthy and powerful family similar to the Guanzhong Zhang family, and enjoy endless wealth and glory in the future.

But now, he wants to lead a group of peasants to rebel?

Zhang Bao didn't understand his brother's decision at all, but he couldn't stop it.

Zhang Jue tilted his head slightly, looked at his brother standing beside him, sighed deeply and said, "Zishun."

He pointed at the people in the distance who were full of expectations. These people had already started to wear yellow scarves on their heads and were holding various farm tools that they were supposed to use to farm in the fields. Only a few generals had real weapons in their hands.

“What do you see in them?”

What did you see?
Zhang Bao shook his head slightly: "I saw a group of people who could not possibly defeat the Han people, and I saw that we were doomed to fail."

Zhang Jue chuckled: "Chen Sheng and Wu Guang were able to succeed in the past, so why do you think we can't succeed? Even if you and I can't succeed, when the horn of the uprising sounds, people from all over the world will respond."

"I have many disciples all over the nine provinces. As long as we rise up in Julu, they will follow us."

"Besides, success or failure has never been the key factor in deciding whether we should do this."

Zhang Jiao's eyes were deep and he stood there with an extremely determined expression.

"We are doing this to seek justice for the people of the world!"

Having said this, Zhang Jue walked straight forward.

At this time, a tall altar had been built in the open space. The altar was filled with things needed for daily sacrifices by the Taiping Dao, and a flag belonging to the Taiping Dao was flying in the air.

"Woo-wu-wu-"

The sound of the horn spread throughout the entire camp. All the Taiping Dao disciples stood under the altar, looking up at the three people standing at the top.

They were Zhang Jue, Zhang Bao, and Zhang Liang.

He is also their General of Heaven, Great Sage Teacher; General of Earth, General of Man, and their leaders.

Zhang Jue stood on the altar and took a step forward.

"Boom-"

"Boom-"

"Boom-"

The sound of war drums suddenly rang out. In an instant, the disciples in charge of the sacrifice behind Zhang Jue inserted incense into the cauldron. Countless green smoke made the faces of the three people unclear.

Amid the dull yet stirring sound of war drums, Zhang Jue slowly spoke.

“Misery, corruption, bullying.”

There was a cold tone in Zhang Jue's voice. He was wearing a Taoist robe and holding a long sword in his hand.

"Four hundred years ago, Emperor Gaozu founded the Han Dynasty in obedience to the will of heaven. He provided the people of the world with a chance to breathe, and the Han Dynasty he founded has been passed down to this day."

"In the past, the Han Dynasty was indeed peaceful and stable. There were many benevolent emperors. Under their protection, we barely survived."

"But, fellow soldiers."

Zhang Jue shouted, his voice full of urgency and questioning: "What now?"

"Since the time of Emperor Ling, the people of the world have been living in misery! His Royal Highness King An went to Chang'an City, but was besieged by treacherous people! The emperor even allowed the noble families to unite and attempt to murder King An!"

"After the previous emperor ascended the throne, he became even more unscrupulous."

"King An is struggling to hold on in the imperial court, but there are traitors doing evil in the court. Now the Han Dynasty is in ruins!"

There was a hint of compassion in Zhang Jue's brows.

"boom!"

Behind him, a huge fire suddenly burned up, and countless talismans floated in the sky.

Wisps of flames appeared on the talismans, and these talismans suddenly caught fire when no one was touching them!

Sparks fell on the bodies of these Yellow Turban disciples. The small flames did not cause them any pain, but seemed to make them stronger.

Zhang Jue's voice sounded again.

"After the death of the previous emperor, the world became even more chaotic."

"King An is disappointed with the Han Dynasty and has returned to Guandu City. He has closed Guandu City and taken in some people who can't survive. But my fellow soldiers, even if King An's Guandu City is expanded, how many people can it take in?"

"My comrades and people like us are suffering!"

"The emperor in Chang'an City and the emperor in Langya City, the Han Dynasty actually has two emperors! Isn't this a division of the Han Dynasty? Isn't this a betrayal of the people?"

"In the past, Emperor Gaozu established this magnificent empire with Pei County as its base."

"Now, it's time for us to learn from the great deeds of our great ancestors!"

"Comrades!"

"We, the common people, have experienced many hardships. The Han court is corrupt and considers us thieves! But are we really thieves? Among those standing here, there are farmers, ordinary people, street vendors, and soldiers who shed blood for the Han Dynasty."

"But what about now?"

"The farm tools in your and my hands should be used to till the land, but now they can only be used as weapons. Find a way for us to survive!"

Zhang Jue's voice was very infectious. He slowly and almost choked up as he spoke about the sufferings of the world.

"We are from poor families and can't even fill our stomachs. Some of us even come from Liangzhou, where famine is rampant. Some people even eat their own children!"

"I have no intention of deceiving you. Among those standing among you right now, there are people who came from Liangzhou. They have suffered inhuman hardships along the way. Some of them were a family of five when they set out, but when they arrived here, only three were left."

"They were forced to exchange their children for others."

"If someone has the chance, they will sell the child to a noble family as a slave, beg for food, and hope that their child can survive."

"Ordinary people can only watch their children starve to death in their arms, and they can't even bury their bodies for the sake of other children. They can only exchange their children with others when they die in exchange for other children."

"Everyone!"

Zhang Jue's voice suddenly rose, and he said in an angry voice: "Are we not working hard enough? Or are we born to suffer this kind of pain?!"

"What sin have we committed to deserve such suffering?"

He suddenly raised the long sword in his hand. On the sword was a talisman with divine patterns painted in cinnabar.

Zhang Jue almost roared.

"I am innocent!"

Among the Yellow Turban followers below, there were some soldiers who had suffered hardships before and could not tolerate it. They had been crying quietly along with Zhang Jue's voice. Now, when they heard Zhang Jue's roar, their blood suddenly heated up and countless tears turned into anger in their hearts.

The sound of waves rang out, resounding through the sky along with Zhang Jue's voice.

"I am innocent!"

Zhang Jue's voice was already hoarse at this time, but he still said in a firm tone: "Since we are nothing but ants and moth thieves to the high and mighty Emperor of Han, then why should we continue to serve him?"

"Since we are nothing but weeds to those high and mighty nobles, why should we continue to sacrifice ourselves so that they can stand above us!"

"Since last year, there has been a severe drought and no crops have been harvested, but the officials who are collecting taxes have increased taxes again without caring about our lives! Just for their own extravagant enjoyment!" "We have no place to stand and no weapons, only our numbers and strength."

Zhang Jue's voice had already fallen into calm: "But these weeds cannot be killed completely."

"Even if you burn all the weeds in the spring, they will grow again next spring."

"Since I am just like a weed in the eyes of the rich and powerful, today I, Zhang Jue, will ask the heavens with my talisman!"

"What crime have we committed?"

He turned around and slowly walked towards the large cauldron behind him, where various talisman swords had already been prepared.

"boom!"

Countless bronze mirrors around suddenly turned and focused their light on Zhang Jiao. At this moment, Zhang Jiao was surrounded by golden light, like a god in heaven.

He stood there, his posture erect, as if he would never yield to anything.

Zhang Jue closed his eyes and muttered something.

The Yellow Turban disciples below were also chanting to themselves, following their Taoist leader in reciting the Taiping Dao Sutra.

With tears in Zhang Jue's eyes, he took out a talisman from his arms.

Among all the talismans in the sky, only this one is real.

In other words, the other talismans were just written by him in imitation of this one, but in fact they had no effect at all.

This talisman was made by Chen Chengji, the former head of the Guandu Chen family and the former King of An.

When they were traveling together, there were actually many places in the Han Dynasty suffering from drought. Zhang Jue and Chen Chengji traveled to various places and saw that Chen Chengji prayed for rain with the talismans in his hand, and his prayers were answered every time.

His claim that he had received enlightenment from the "Emperor of Enlightenment" was actually not false.

That year he followed Chen Chengji in saving people from suffering all over the world. When he wanted to worship Chen Chengji as his master, Chen Chengji refused.

Chen Chengji told Zhang Jue that he did not know any magic and could only summon heavy rain with the help of the "rain-praying talismans" left by his ancestors. However, there are only a few rain-praying talismans left by his ancestors.

Over the years, whenever there was a severe drought sweeping the world, the Chen family would secretly take action and use rain-praying talismans to save the people.

When Chen Chengji parted with Zhang Jue, he left him the last three rain-praying talismans of the Chen family.

Zhang Jue once expressed confusion about this matter and asked Chen Chengji, but Chen Chengji's answer shocked Zhang Jue.

Because Chen Chengji said that this was the instruction from his ancestor "Chen Ye", the "Emperor of Enlightenment" who came into his dream. The "Emperor of Enlightenment" said that these three rain-praying talismans would play a greater role in Zhang Jue's hands.

In the years since the two of them separated, Zhang Jue has used two of them.

But never any one of them for my own use.

The first one was because of the severe drought in Xiliang.

Zhang Jue observed the sky at night and found that the severe drought in Xiliang would spread to the whole world. As expected, the drought started from Xiliang and spread to the whole world.

At that time, when the drought was at its worst, Zhang Jue used the "rain-praying talisman" at a just right moment, and then a sweet rain fell from the sky. It was because of this rain that many people were able to survive the drought.

Because everyone was "prepared" for this rain.

It was also on that day that Zhang Jue established the "Taiping Dao" and gained countless followers.

The second one is because of the second severe drought.

On that day, the Taiping Dao swept across the world, and almost all the county governors became his believers and treated him as a "guest of honor".

You can say it's luck that you can use it once.

But being able to use it a second time, is it just luck?

How can it be!

In this world, who doesn’t want to cultivate immortality?
Especially the children of prominent families, after they gain power, they become more afraid of death and want to live even more.

The more powerful you are, the more you fear death!

And this is the last one.

Zhang Jue whispered, "This time, let me be selfish for once!"

He stretched out his hand and lit the talisman in his hand.

"Rumble--"

As the talisman burned, thunder suddenly sounded in the sky!
Zhang Jue stood in the thunderous sky and shouted: "May I ask God!"

"Have we committed any crime?"

Standing in the heavy rain, the group of people wrapped in yellow scarves all asked, "May I ask God!"

"Have we committed any crime?!"

The shouts of thousands of people resounded through the sky, almost louder than thunder.

Zhang Jue looked at the sky full of thunder and just chuckled. Then he spoke with a majestic voice.

"If God doesn't answer, then we are innocent!"

"In this case, we are innocent if we rise up to save our own lives!"

He opened his arms and roared in a hoarse voice in the heavy rain.

"Now, we, the disciples of the Taiping Dao, will gather together and rise up with yellow scarves on our heads, and we will definitely kill the destiny in this world!"

"The Han Dynasty has run out of luck!"

"We will definitely replace them!"

Zhang Jue roared like a wild beast, and his Taoist robe was completely wet by the rain.

But no one can stop him!
"Heaven is dead!"

"Huang Tian is standing!"

"You are as old as Jiazi!"

"Good luck to the world!"

The year 191 AD was also the first year of Chengtai and the first year of Jian'an in history.

A peasant uprising initiated by Zhang Jue of the Taiping Dao broke out with great fanfare.

This was a senseless war and also the first major uprising in history launched entirely by peasants.

It is the successor of the Chen Sheng and Wu Guang Uprising, and also the forerunner of countless peasant uprisings in the future.

In history

This massive peasant uprising that lasted for many years was called
Yellow Turban Rebellion

Guandu City

Chen Zhulou sighed softly, he stretched out his hand and caught the raindrops floating in the sky.

"This day has finally come."

(End of this chapter)