The Blue Sky Is Dead
At the foot of Southern Forest Mountain, in Pingkang Prefecture, a group of people dressed in hemp clothing and wearing yellow headscarves walked along the main road, staring at the blazing sun.
Along both sides of the road, corpses lay scattered everywhere, along with broken bones scrambled by wild animals.
Some of the skeletons even looked like those of infants!
"Help, help me!" A weak cry rang out from the pile of corpses. The Daoist priest at the head of the group twitched his ears, stopped immediately, and stepped forward.
This was a small old man who looked to be in his fifties or sixties. He was hunched over, his eyes were dull, and he had a long, bloody gash on his arm that was more than ten centimeters long. However, the wound had dried up and was no longer bleeding.
The Daoist priest quickly stepped forward, first pulling the old man to the shade of a tree, and then taking out his water bottle to clean the old man's wounds.
Only then did he realize that all that was left of the tree was its trunk; the bark had been stripped away!
"Who are you?" The old man took a couple of sips of water, regained some energy, and managed to lift his head to look at the dozen or so people in front of him.
"We are Daoists of the Great Peace Way, and this is our Celestial Master Zhang!" Behind the leading Daoist, a young girl stepped forward. She held a lump of red, mud-like substance in her hand. After Zhang Jiao cleaned his wound, she followed behind and applied the red mud back onto it.
"This is a medicinal herb, very effective in promoting wound healing!" the girl said gently.
"This, this, this is unacceptable!" The old man was immediately overwhelmed with gratitude. "I'm just an ordinary citizen; this injury will pass on its own! How could I possibly deserve such precious herbs?!"
"These herbs are made for human use!" Zhang Jiao smiled and then asked, "By the way, old man, let me ask you, there shouldn't have been any floods, droughts, or locust plagues in Pingkang Prefecture in the past two years, right? Why are there so many disaster victims along the way?"
"You're from out of town, aren't you?" The old man hadn't wanted to say, but since they had saved his life, and he was also full of anger, he simply spoke up, dissatisfied. "There haven't been floods, droughts, or locust plagues, but there have been man-made disasters. Last year, we tenant farmers really had to hand over 70% of our harvest, and this year it's increased to 95%. How is that enough to feed a family? But we can't not hand it over, and in less than two months, our stored food was gone. We had no choice but to flee!"
"Ninety-five percent?" Zhang Jiao was taken aback. He knew a little about the grain yield here: 400 catties per mu for wheat and 300 catties per mu for rice.
Of course, the rice and wheat here are not the same as those on Earth, but they are very similar, so similar terms were used as substitutes.
If 95% is handed over, how much is left for a farmer?
There are several people in the family, how could that possibly be enough to eat!
"Did the higher authorities explain why so much needs to be paid?" Zhang Jiao asked.
"How would this scoundrel know?" The farmer shook his head and asked again, "Daoist priest, are you going to Pingkang Prefecture?"
"We do have that plan!" Zhang Jiao nodded and asked, "Old man, are you still able to walk? Why don't you come with us?"
"I'm not going!" The old man shook his head and said, "The officials of Pingkang Prefecture initially set up soup kitchens, but later they stopped distributing soup because they felt that the number of disaster victims was increasing. Not only did they stop distributing food, they also sent troops to drive away the disaster victims gathered outside the city. I was driven back by them, so going again would be a waste of effort!"
"Is that so?" Zhang Jiao's face immediately turned ugly.
The old man shrugged. "That's for sure."
"So what do you plan to do?" Zhang Jiao asked. "How will you live when you go back?"
"Just waiting to die!" the old man said nonchalantly. "Fallen leaves return to their roots; at least I can be buried with my ancestors!"
Zhang Jiao was speechless for a moment, then finally spoke, "Old man, you should come with us. With us here, you won't go hungry."
"Really?" The old man's eyes lit up, then he noticed that these people didn't seem to have anywhere to store food.
However, the name Great Peace Way
"Are you... immortals descended to earth?" The old man trembled as he was about to kneel down.
Zhang Jiao quickly helped the man up, then shook his head. "Old man, we are not immortals. We are just ordinary people like you!"
"Ah!" The old man was somewhat disappointed, but considering there was food to eat, he still followed the group.
Someone handed him a yellow cloth, and he followed suit and tied it around his head.
At the front of the procession, Zhang Jiao kept glancing at the corpses on both sides of the road, his expression solemn.
"Father?" the girl who had just bandaged her father-in-law's wound called softly, "Do we still have to..."
"Ning'er, you've seen it too. It's not that we want to rebel, it's that the world is full of corrupt officials, so I have no choice but to rebel!" Zhang Jiao shook his head, his expression stern.
In official historical records, Zhang Jiao most likely did not have a daughter, after all, he was a Daoist priest.
But in Yang Ning's memory, Zhang Jiao could have a daughter, so Zhang Ning appeared.
Zhang Ning has a delicate and serene appearance. She wears an amber-colored long dress, her long hair flowing, and holds a two-meter-long ceremonial staff adorned with gold bells and white ribbons. She looks like a thorny peony, with endless depths hidden beneath her quiet demeanor.
Zhang Jiao led the Yellow Great Peace Way Rebellion, which ignited a fierce war in the Great Han. However, his actions were not driven by personal ambition or a desire to become emperor, but rather by the well-being of the people.
Having witnessed too much suffering and the ugliness of the upper class, Zhang Jiao finally concluded that the Great Han was beyond saving. Thus, he raised the banner of rebellion, proclaiming "The Blue Heaven is dead, the Yellow Heaven shall rise; in the year of Jiazi, great fortune will come to the world," and launched the Yellow Turban Rebellion, which buried the Great Han Dynasty.
This action is in accordance with the will of Heavenly Dao and the common people, but it is somewhat unfair to his own daughter.
At a young age, she had to travel around with her father. At eighteen or nineteen, the age when she was as beautiful as a flower, she could not enjoy the life of other young ladies from wealthy families. Instead, she died in battle with her father in Guangzong City.
When Yang Ning approached the two, Zhang Jiao immediately rejected the idea of starting another uprising. If there were an afterlife, he only wanted to be an ordinary father, to accompany his daughter as she grew up, and to experience the beauty of this world.
Then, they arrived at Southern Forest.
They witnessed a more brutal form of knowledge blockade, land annexation, class solidification, and disregard for human life than even the Great Han.
Moreover, this is not an ordinary world; it is a world with immortals!
Zhang Jiao had read the list of Divine Ability and knew that a single Technique Method from an immortal could bring down an endless rain, making the whole world have favorable weather and abundant harvests with ease.
Even in such a world, tragedies still occur, such as farmers starving to death, people exchanging children to eat, and people being brutally murdered by the roadside. And these are not isolated incidents; the tragedies I've witnessed along the way number far more than tens of thousands.
What difference is there between immortals who only care about cultivation and those from the Aristocratic Clan?
If the Tao is like this, then it's better not to seek it at all!
If the old Daoist priest can overthrow the Great Han, he can also contribute to the Ming dynasty by overthrowing these arrogant and greedy immortal Aristocratic Clan!
"Ning'er!" He patted his daughter's shoulder. "What I'm about to do is a bit dangerous, so I'll send you to the adults' place to save you from having to travel around with me anymore. What do you think?"
"No!" Zhang Ning refused without hesitation. "When you started your rebellion last time, you had two uncles with you. Now you only have me. How could I abandon you?"
"Besides, I also want to overturn this kind of world!"
"Good, good, good!" Zhang Jiao patted the girl's shoulder with satisfaction. "She truly is Zhang Jiao daughter!"
"Then let's join forces, father and daughter, and unleash another Yellow Turban Rebellion upon this world!!"
The heavens are dead, the yellow heavens are here!
The Azure Heaven is dead, the Supreme Heaven shall rise; in the year of Jiazi, great fortune will befall the world!