Chapter 263：Mars

The Southwest citizens had suffered under the exploitation of corrupt officials, natural disasters, and man-made disasters, they were already unable to see the hope of living. Obedience to the imperial household would only lead to a dead end, the only way out was to raise the rebel banner, with this mentality, the Southwest citizens banded together to overthrow Da Qi. As the saying goes, even a dog will turn around and bite when backed into a corner, so they bravely confronted the imperial soldiers, and very quickly, they took over large tracts of the Southwest's land.

In these kinds of circumstances, the usual way of handling it was to send the army to steam roll the rebels, otherwise, the situation was simply unlikely to quiet down. But Zhou Yun Sheng was, after all, a man from the future, he didn't appreciate the ancient's poisonous 'the Emperor acts alone', 'Imperial power reigns supreme', 'a human life is as insignificant as a mustard seed', feudalistic ideas.

Although he was very ruthless, that was when he was dealing with the enemy, when dealing with innocent suffering people, he was willing to use a more moderate way to solve the problem. As he already said, as long as he was sitting on Da Qi's throne, he would be a good Emperor, and take care of his people.

He ordered the army to disperse the nearby rebels, then arrested all the Southwest officials and gave them a thorough trial. According to the severity of their crime, he openly sentenced them, then had their sentence results spread out by word of mouth. In the end, of the Southwest's 74 large and small officials, 16 were sacked and exiled, and 55 would be publicly beheaded. Because the last three's crimes were too serious, not only was their whole family convicted, the men themselves would receive death of a thousand cuts.

"Don't kill the 58 people for the time being, wait for the day I offer sacrifices to heaven, their blood will be used to comfort the people. Master Luo, send men to spread the news that I'll be offering sacrifices to heaven to pray for rain. Say that I am the real Son of Heaven, and will certainly send up an imperial decree to make the Heavens send down the needed rain. As long as the rebel army's citizens peacefully return to farming, I won't hold them to account. I'll not only return their stolen farmland, I'll also exempt them from taxation for three years, and from then on, I'll send an imperial envoy to secretly inspect the country every year. If they find an official raising taxes without authorization, I will severely punish them!" Zhou Yun Sheng fiddled with the rain calling tool in his hands, his attitude was casual, but his tone was full of killing intent.

Luo Zhen admired the Emperor's care for the common people, but he was also worried that his responses were too mild. Although the Southwest's chaos hadn't increased, it was even more turbulent, so he persuaded, "Your Majesty, the decrees you issued are indeed very wise, but please reconsider offering sacrifices for rain. Wouldn't saying you'll offer sacrifices to bring rain attract an angry mob? If the rain prayer fails, I fear that they'll spread rumors that your destiny has reach its end, you're not blessed by Heaven, you're not the real Dragon Emperor, and so on. Rather that receiving their criticism for no reason, wouldn't it be better to have the Qin Tian official be responsible for the rain prayer? What do you think?"

"No, keep the decree, I am the true Dragon Emperor, I will send up an imperial decree to make the Heavens send down rain to the Southwest. The declaration should be written boldly like this, there's no need to use vague and subtle brush strokes." Zhou Yun Sheng counted on his fingers, then said "The rain prayer shouldn't be delayed, I've calculated, it needs to be set two days after we reach the top of Fei Lai Mountain, send men down to prepare."

Luo Zhen painstakingly tried to persuade him, then glanced at the silently standing beside him Duke Yu Gou, surprised to see him looking on in concentration, like he was listening to the Emperor's every order.

Whatever, since ancient times, how many Emperors offered prayers for rain, and how many were successful? But even if the rebel army used the failure as an excuse to attack the Emperor, as long as Zhao Xuan was here, the upheaval could still be stomped out. Thinking of this, Luo Zhen had no choice but to bow and take his leave, but Zhao Xuan stood in place, he seemed to have something to ask.

"Ask whatever you wish to know." Zhou Yun Sheng spread out the Fei Lai Mountain map, using the conversion method in the Book of Changes to find the best position to call rain. His background was really complex, he came from the interstellar era where science and technology was very developed, and later, he was sent to a world of immortal cultivation, western fantasy, and other worlds.

Although he was now just a mortal, he couldn't topple mountains and overturn seas, with the combination of his scientific knowledge and teachings of yin and yang, calling down heavy rain was still fairly easy. Recalling the past life, after Qi Jin Yu pacified the rebellion, the Heavens suddenly sent down days of heavy rain, nourishing the Southwest's dry, cracked soil, giving the people hope of survival.

Zhou Yun Sheng had calculated it, that natural heavy rain was at least two months away, but the longer he delayed this, whether it was the citizens or the imperial army, the casualties would be disastrous. He couldn't afford to delay, and he didn't have Qi Jin Yu's protagonist halo- he couldn't casually say a few noble sounding words and appease an angry mob- so he could only come up with this kind of unpredictable method to awe them.

Zhao Xuan step forward half a step, cupped his hands and asked, "Your Majesty, how do you plan to call rain? Can it be done?"

"It can be done." Zhou Yun Sheng raised his brush and marked the map, slowly explaining, "The rain is in the clouds. When the small water droplets collide with each other and condense into large water droplets in the clouds, it will turn into rainfall. There are many ways to make the small droplets condense, you can disperse solid particles into the clouds to increase the weight of the water droplets. You can also release an electric current, light waves, sound waves and other things to stimulate the clouds to rub against each other and condense into raindrops. The reason why priests usually pray for rain by beating drums and shouting, is because they're releasing sound waves towards the sky. Although the success rate of rainfall is very low, it's not entirely impossible. What I'm going to do is identify the location where the water vapor is most concentrated and use the four tubes, then I can have at least a 70% or 80% chance to get heavy rain."

The electric current, light waves, sound waves and other things the Emperor mentioned were foreign to Zhao Xuan, but inexplicably, he actually felt like he understood, and couldn't help nodding in agreement.

Zhou Yun Sheng picked up one of the logs shaped into a tube and said, "This is a rain caller, it'll help me send the electric current, light and sound waves directly into the clouds. You shaved the logs for so many days, Duke You Gou really worked hard."

As it turns out, the Emperor had unexpectedly handed such an important errand over to him, Zhao Xuan's mood brightened, his eyes unconsciously shining in delight.

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The imperial declaration quickly spread throughout the Southwest by word of mouth. The rebel army learned that the Emperor personally came, and even had the known as Da Qi's War God, Duke Yu Gou at his side. If he sicked his Tiger Wolf Northwest Army on them, in not even a few days, their ten thousand men strong rebel army would be crushed. If they could live comfortably, who would want to do such a dangerous thing like take up arms?

Not only did the Emperor say that he wouldn't hold them to account, he would also return the farmlands to everyone, so it was better to lay down their machetes and return to farming. This idea was shared among ​​the vast majority of peasants, but Chen Shisan, the peasant leader of the rebel army, was extremely opposed. During the course of the rebellion, he gradually enjoyed the benefits of having power, and unexpectedly completely lost his senses. He thought he could overthrow Da Qi and establish a new dynasty, become the new Emperor.

If his brothers quit at this time, his dream of becoming Emperor would be completely out of reach, how could he be willing? He ordered his subordinates to find a copy of the declaration and read it over, then sneered, "Inform the brothers, we'll wait and see for the time being. When that dog Emperor's rain prayer fails, we'll say that he was rejected by the Heavens for being tyrannical and abusive, and killing him is for the sake of Heaven, it's a gift to the world to protect all the people. Whoever is able to take his head, who is the Lord of salvation, will receive immeasurable merit."

The subordinates sighed in admiration and shouted agreements, but one of them hesitatingly asked, "Brother Chen, what if the dog Emperor actually calls down rain? What do we do??

His voice had barely faded before Chen Shisan burst out into laughter and mocked, "The Southwest has been suffering from drought all these years, you saw those dog officials snatch hundreds of cattle and sheep, and virgin boys and girls to sacrifice to the Dragon God, but how much rain did we get? None!

It's obvious that Da Qi's fate has reached its limit, even the Heavens are no longer willing to look at us. Look at how crazily this declaration is written, 'send an imperial decree up to order the Heavens to send down rain', does that dog Emperor think he's a god? Don't ask for rain, it'll be a miracle if he isn't struck down by clear sky lightning on the spot."

The subordinates laughed heartily, as if they'd already seen the dog Emperor's charred black corpse.

The upper reaches of the rebel army refused to easily give up after getting a taste of power, so they scoffed at the so-called 'rain prayer', but the lower level people were still reverent of imperial power, and were secretly looking forward to the event. However, regardless of whether the rebel army was united, the spread of the declaration had its intended effect, the Southwest war had temporarily stopped.

Two days later, at the top of the Southwest's highest mountain, Fei Lai Mountain, the army built a high platform with planks, a number of sky drums were erected all around the platform, and Zhou Yun Sheng put on his most gorgeous dragon robes, and wore his ancient royal crown. He walked up to the edge of the sacrificial alter, then flicked out his sleeves and slowly kneeled, looking up at the sky in silent prayer.

He was once a priest, and a god, with just a little change in expression, he could naturally exude a noble and holy aura. Along with the accompanying officials, many of the citizens that had not participated in the rebellion, and the spies Chen Shisan had sent were also gathered at Fei Lai Mountain. They were stopped from approaching the sacrificial alter by the soldiers, so they set about making a racket and talking constantly, however, when they saw the handsome Emperor resembling an immortal, stepping on clouds and riding the wind, they quieted down, only able to stare at him dumbly.

"Blood sacrifice." The Emperor was clearly kneeling a few hundred meters away, above on a stage, but this sentence distinctly echoed in everyone's ears. It was impassioned, like the sound of soldiers colliding with swords, numbing the people's ears. This was the voice of an Emperor, full of majesty, but also like the sounds of nature.

The vast majority of the citizens didn't have to wait for the sacrifice to officially start, as soon as the Emperor's words were taken in, they immediately understood the true meaning of "Blood sacrifice", and couldn't help but inwardly cheer.

The corrupt Southwest officials were brought to the stage one by one, the clerk read each name aloud, and the executioner immediately raised his axe and beheaded them. After chopping off 55 heads, they were piled into a human head tower, and only then were the remaining three men brought into the open, blood soaked space.

They were the Southwest Provincial Governor, the Southwest Inspector-General, and the Southwest Circuit Intendant, after the suicide of the Southwest Governor-General, they could be regarded as the three most powerful people in the Southwest. The once prosperous three were now in miserable conditions, fastened to a torture rack, the executioner's blade slicing into their flesh.

Death of a thousand cuts was undoubtedly Da Qi's most cruel criminal sentence, common people have only ever heard of it, never seen, so even though they hated the three men, they still covered up their eyes, or turned their faces away. The accompanying officials all stared at their feet, similarly not daring to watch. In no less than three thousand six hundred cuts, the three men finally no longer breathed, the open space under the tall platform was soaked scarlet, and an extremely thick, nauseating smell of blood tainted the air.