A large crowd trudged along both sides of the main road in disarray, like refugees fleeing disaster. After the ravages of war, vast stretches of farmland lay barren as soon as they entered Yuzhou. No one worked the fields, and they were overgrown with barnyard grass.
The sight filled many Yellow Turban Soldiers, who had been farmers before, with regret. They murmured among themselves. With the farmland left fallow like this, there would be no harvest for a year. That meant there would be no grain for the coming year, and many poor, helpless people would likely starve to death.
One of the Yellow Turban Soldiers asked, "Commander, weren't we going to Jinan? Why are we heading for Chang'an now?"
Tang Zhou smiled faintly. "What's wrong with Chang'an? It's where the emperor once lived, a place of incomparable glory. And there's the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor. I hear it's filled with countless treasures. If we can dig them up, we'll be the richest people under heaven."
The Yellow Turban Soldier asked, "With so many of us, how will the checkpoints let us through?"
Tang Zhou replied calmly, "We're just a band of refugees. They can't refuse to let us pass. Besides, my Way of Great Peace has Daoist Magic that can conceal us from view."
The Yellow Turban Soldiers immediately cried, "Might to the Yellow Heaven! Peace under Heaven!"
Tang Zhou froze for a moment. These brainwashed fools, honestly. Zhang Jiao really had some skill, getting so many people to join the Way of Great Peace and become so fanatical. Zhang Jiao had founded the Way of Great Peace and used religion to win people over. He had earned a reputation among the impoverished farmers, and his followers numbered in the hundreds of thousands. They were spread throughout