The An Sai peasants had risen in revolt, and the Imperial Court dispatched a large army to suppress them. An Hai was one of the officers responsible for transporting provisions. Before the troops moved, the grain and fodder had to go first. Yushan was a land carved by ravines, making transport difficult; coupled with the drought, the burden of serving as grain transport officer had worried him sick. Preparing provisions had already been fraught with difficulties, yet the grain-collection teams in Yulin were repeatedly attacked and robbed by displaced refugees. This filled him with fury, and he spared no effort in personally leading troops to suppress them. Extraordinary times called for extraordinary measures. If he did not wipe them out completely this time and kill a chicken to frighten the monkeys, disaster victims elsewhere would surely follow suit, making matters even more troublesome. Before coming, he had thought them no more than a small band of disaster victims, easy to crush with the turn of a hand. But when he reached Mizhi, he discovered he could not even find where they were hiding. Had Yao Lun not come to him of his own accord, he might still have been wandering through the mountains like a headless fly. Upon receiving the intelligence, he immediately rushed back. The resistance he had encountered at the entrance only further convinced him that he absolutely could not allow them to grow stronger.
At this moment, An Hai held the rear of the army, his gaze shifting between Li Xin, Jiang Shuo, and Li Zicheng. With his discerning eye, he could naturally see that these three were far from ordinary.
"Such a waste of your skills, throwing in your lot with these rioting disaster victims. You're simply courting death!" Watching the disaster victims flee up the