Sure enough, along with horses marching towards the cities around the Song Capital, the waves of robbery, just like a huge fire, engulfed the other cities one by one. The lighting of fires didn"t require any complicated process, as long as there was firewood, the entire cities burst into flames as though barrels of gasoline had exploded completely.
Three, ten, twenty, the only thing that the citizens had in mind after they received the decree was to rob, furthermore, they didn"t need to be fastest, just quicker than their peers. The mob of citizens was as or even more frightening than a swarm of locusts.
In just a short period of few days, almost the entire Song Kingdom fell into a complete state of chaos.
On the fourth day, the closest city to the border of the Song Kingdom, the Border City, was also engulfed by chaos.
At this moment, within the Border City, flames were rising from everywhere as countless robberies, screams, crying, and sounds of frenzy continued resounding without an end.
At the Marquis’ Mansion within the Border City.
At this moment, Gao Xianzhi furiously gazed at a middle-aged man who was dressed in a luxurious gown.
“Marquis w.a.n.g, when your city is in chaos, how can you, how can you allow your retainers to go and pillage the shops?” Gao Xianzhi furiously said.
“No, no, no, General Gao, you are worrying too much. Hahaha, this is His Royal Majesty’s order, His Royal Majesty’s command cannot be violated. Everyone has the right to destroy Gu Hai’s stores. I am just following His Majesty’s order. Furthermore, even if I don’t send anyone to steal, others would still steal. General Gao, why are you so anxious?” Raising his tea cup, Marquis w.a.n.g said with a smile.
“No, this is not right. I don’t know what happened at the Royal Capital, in just half a month, how could His Royal Majesty allow the citizens to turn into bandits? This trend would lead the nation in a state of chaos!” Gao Xianzhi anxiously and furiously said.
“General Gao, you are overthinking this too much, it"s just robbing Gu Hai’s properties. We have to move along with the popular sentiment, the citizens are fuming in anger, and the destruction of Gu Hai’s industries will unite the hearts of everyone, from top to bottom, from Officials to the citizens of our Song Kingdom more than ever. Only then could we resist Gu Hai’s machinations in more straightforward manner. General, I heard that you have already gathered 50,000 soldiers, and it seems that there are soldiers included among those pillaging Gu Hai’s properties. You can’t even control your men, what’s the use of preaching me?” Marquis w.a.n.g calmly said.
“The deserters of my barracks will be punished according to the Military Law. Sir w.a.n.g, can’t you see the flames within the city? The citizens have gone mad, and this must be a part of Gu Hai’s villainous plan!” Gao Xianzhi anxiously stated.
“Well, General Gao, this is His Royal Majesty’s command, you have no right to interfere. 800,000 soldiers were handed to you, yet you fell short of destroying the Chen Kingdom. His Royal Majesty has already shown greatest grace to you by not condemning you, but instead of feeling grateful, you are standing against His Royal Majesty’s order in all respects. Do you think that the Civil and Military Officials in the Royal Court are worse than a Military man like yourself? Humph, this is not your front line, this is my Border City, and I have the authority here!” Marquis w.a.n.g reproached while staring at Gao Xianzhi.
“You!” Gao Xianzhi glared.
“My mansion is quite busy, I am unable to entertain General Gao, attendants, escort the guest out!” Marquis w.a.n.g shouted.
“Humph!” Gao Xianzhi coldly snorted before he turned around and departed.
Just when he reached the entrance, a steward rushed into the hall.
“My Lord, it’s not good, we were a bit late and only managed to rob one store, resulting in just a few thousand silvers!” The steward bitterly said.
“d.a.m.n, we should have acted earlier, blame me for being indecisive in the beginning, if not, you could have gone a bit earlier!” Marquis w.a.n.g burst with regret.
Gao Xianzhi’s complexion turned ugly, as he gradually walked away from the Marquis’ Mansion.
Song Capital.
Along with the verdict of the first robbery, the entire capital began seething with no end. Countless citizens started robbing and fighting, flames erupted everywhere, turning the entire capital into a mess.
Within just a single day, brawling incidents occurred one after another, so much, that all of the officials were mentally disturbed during the Royal Court hearing the following day.
No one had ever imagined that it would be this fast. Just in a single day, all of the properties of Gu Hai in the entire Royal Capital had been wiped clean; it was too fast. So fast that all the Officials had no time to even react.
The entire Royal Court including the Song King were slightly disturbed. No one knew whether the previous verdict was right or wrong, so during the Royal Court hearing, no one actually mentioned this matter.
After two days, the entire Song Capital had gradually calmed down. All the Civil and Military Officials in the Royal Court finally managed to heave sighs of relief.
“Royal Father, it turned out to be nothing, citizens only robbed Gu Hai’s stores. Now, all the citizens are united at heart, allowing us to resist Gu Hai’s machinations together!” Crown Prince Song was the first to stand before he laughed and said.
“That’s right, Your Royal Majesty, Gu Hai’s machinations will no longer be effective, we have gained the popular support, and, we will be able to destroy all of Gu Hai’s schemes in short periods of time!”
“Your Royal Majesty, all Gu Hai can do is concoct some schemes, that’s all. Now that all the citizens" of my Song Kingdom are united, he will be powerless!”
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All of the Civil and Military Officials were loudly singing the same tune. When the Song King nodded his head, everyone once more, heaved sighs of relief.
“G.o.dfather, these two days have truly been peaceful! The people that robbed my Gu Mansion’s stores have all quieted down. It seems that nothing is going to happen.” Gu Han said with a smile.
“Peaceful? They didn’t cause any more robberies, however, the beliefs of all the citizens of the Song Kingdom had been madly aroused, and those beliefs have already begun to be led by us.” Gu Hai revealed a sliver of sneer.
“Oh?”
“Just listen to what they are saying!” Gu Hai sipped a mouthful of wine before he smiled and said.
At the moment inside the pub, sat a crowd of drinkers who were chatting with each other.
“That dog son Ergouzi Sun had actually robbed a Golden Buddha, furthermore, started flaunting it off in front of me, pooh!”[1]
“Hahaha, don’t blame him, blame yourself for being slow!”
“Slow my a.s.s, I was just asleep and when I went, I could only grab a silver ingot!”
“Aren’t you content? I didn’t manage to grab anything. I think, Gu Hai’s properties didn’t have a lot of treasures, right? What do you think?”
“One has to grab them while it lasts. I have heard that some people had even grabbed tens of thousands of silver taels.”
“Tens of thousands? f.u.c.k your ancestors!”
“If I am given another opportunity, I will definitely not sleep and keep on guarding the entrance of the goldsmith shop to be the first to rob!”
“Who isn"t going to plan this? You don’t know, over these two days, my wife had been nagging me all day, saying that I am too slow, our next door neighbor Ergouzi Sun had grabbed a Golden Buddha, originally they were dest.i.tute, but now our family simply cannot compare with them; with this robbery they have simply surpa.s.sed my family!”
“It’s all Gu Hai’s fault, why would he have so little stores, it would have been a lot better if he had a bit more!”
“That’s right, the most annoying are the people that have grabbed more than me! It’s annoying me to death!”
“Brothers, don’t be angry, come drink, drink!”
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The pub was filled with these kinds of noises.
Meanwhile, Gu Hai and Gu Han listened quietly.
“G.o.dfather, those who didn’t grab anything are grumbling and are deeply regretting!” Gu Han said with a smile.
“The people aren’t worried about scarcity, rather the uneven distribution! If the wealth was equal, no one would have said anything, however, now the wealth has been unevenly distributed, it can easily create psychological knots. The foremost robbery of my Gu Mansion’s stores in the broad daylight was just the leading act, while the robbery of my Gu Mansion was the foundation. They are already addicted to plundering, and still want to rob. Therefore, in order to satisfy themselves, all the stores in the Song Kingdom have become targets for them to rob. Everyone is acting like a bandit, their feelings are in chaos, the hearts of the citizens have completely turned into the hearts of bandits, the Song Kingdom is completely crippled!”
“G.o.dfather, I will go and supervise!” Gu Han immediately said in excitement.
“No need, wait for two more days so that the citizens’ suffering becomes more intense and they begin to feel the gap becoming wider, which will make them even crazier and more chaotic!” Gu Hai said while shaking his head.
“Yes!” Gu Han immediately replied.
At this time, after the burst of madness of the entire Song Kingdom, everything quickly calmed down. However, the hearts of people were still completely seething. When they looked at others, their gazes were filled with jealousy, their grim, red eyes couldn"t conceal the madness within their hearts. The hearts of countless citizens were like weeds, and those hearts were itching but they were unable to scratch. Whenever they would occasionally walk by the countless stores on the streets, their gazes were no longer filled with appreciation and what to chose, but rather greediness.