Even though Jinhe City had over three hundred county soldiers and the county prison had over fifty jailers, there was a saying: “A thief can strike for a thousand days, but no one can guard against thieves for a thousand days.”
Xu Province not only provided detailed intelligence support and had elite personnel like Diao the Half-blind and Pei Pu directly participating in formulating and executing the specific plan, but also transported necessary weapons, armor, and some equipment into the city in batches.
Although Jinhe City was dilapidated, the county prison built right against the north city wall was still the most heavily guarded location.
Besides the north side pressed against the north city wall, the prison’s other three walls were all rammed earth high walls three chi thick and over two zhang high, with sharp broken porcelain shards inserted on top of the walls, and watchtowers at the four corners.
Even after Tan Yuliang’s group joined forces with the people Zhang Guangli and Dong Qing had previously gathered, they only had about thirty people total.
If they tried to forcefully break through the prison’s main gate, which had a structure similar to a barbican, casualties would be hard to control, time would be delayed, and the city’s garrison troops would quickly converge from all directions. They would fall into a desperate situation with no reinforcements.
The final plan involved contacting Dong Tai, Dong Ping, Zhang Guangdeng, and others imprisoned inside through jailers secretly participating in the prison raid. On one hand, they would first organize the trustworthy prisoners inside and prepare them. On the other hand, they occupied a courtyard adjacent to the county prison and, taking advantage of the night, used windlasses and thick cables to directly pull down and collapse the three-chi-thick rammed earth prison wall. Carts were also used to block the alleyways on both sides to delay the speed at which jailers could converge from the alleyways to seal the breach.
Nearly five hundred prisoners became agitated and surged out through the breach like a tide.
Although Tan Yuliang and Dong Qing had sent people into the prison to make contact early on, to avoid leaking information, it was impossible to notify and organize every single prisoner.
When the prison wall collapsed and people set fires throughout the city, the jailers were at a loss, momentarily unable to make sense of the situation. The prisoners screamed shrilly and ran about in agitation, while some shouted everywhere that horse bandits and mountain thieves were attacking the city. The city quickly descended into chaos.
Aside from those who had been contacted beforehand, most of the prisoners kept in the dark fell into confusion and excitement. In the night with flickering firelight, everyone desperately fled through the breach. Except for the prisoners already contacted, who would listen to Tan Yuliang and Dong Qing’s instructions at this time?
Most people rushed directly toward the nearest north city gate, wanting to escape through it, while many others wanted to find places to hide within the city.
In short, the situation became like a pot of porridge—a complete mess.
Tan Yuliang’s group initially only gathered about a hundred people.
Besides Dong Qing and Zhang Guangli’s previous preparations, Tan Yuliang and his group had also brought over twenty sets of swords and armor into the city, hidden in the city for several days. They had additionally manufactured a batch of wooden shields and bamboo spears, which were hidden in the courtyard next to the county prison.
The hundred-plus people equipped themselves as quickly as possible, then headed along the main street toward the most weakly defended west city gate.
Chaos had its benefits.
Of the nearly five hundred prisoners, most charged toward the north city gate, setting fires, killing and wounding garrison troops, and seizing weapons and armor. In a short time, they created enormous momentum.
This caused the county officials and garrison troops in the city to immediately judge that the north city gate was the breakthrough point for the rioting prisoners to escape the city.
Besides the hundred-plus garrison troops and fifty-plus jailers already near the north city gate, the other three gates deployed troops as much as possible, rushing reinforcements to the north gate at maximum speed.
Under the cover of night and chaos, Tan Yuliang’s hundred-plus people instead became a less obvious target. It wasn’t until they approached the inner side of the west gate that they were discovered by guards on the city wall.
However, at this time only half a squad—merely twenty-five or twenty-six garrison soldiers and officers—remained on alert at the west gate, not abandoning their posts.
Never mind that Tan Yuliang, Tan Xiuqun, and the Tan family sons and nephews were all extraordinarily brave fighters. Dong Tai, Dong Ping, Dong Qing, Zhang Guangdeng, Zhang Guangli, and others—these illegal salt traffickers whom the provincial government regarded as salt smuggling ringleaders and cracked down on—which of them weren’t powerfully built and mighty men?
In the world of salt smuggling, everything ultimately depended on fists and strength.
Although they lacked any real tactics, they had superiority in numbers. Everyone raised long swords, short spears, shields, and long lances, swarming forward in a chaotic stabbing and hacking assault that scattered the west gate garrison troops—less than one-fifth their number—like birds and beasts.
Afterward, everyone worked together in a disorderly fashion to open the west city gate. Not daring to linger in the city at all, they rushed out in confusion and first fled toward the eastern foothills of Panlong Ridge.
There were no ready-made post roads or highways going deep into the eastern foothills of Panlong Ridge—only small paths submerged in grass. Everyone groped in the dark, stumbling with deep and shallow steps, unable to move quickly.
After walking for over an hour, when a hint of fish-belly white appeared in the distant eastern sky, Tan Yuliang’s group climbed a broken ridge and hid in the forest. Only then did they discover they had only escaped fourteen or fifteen li from Jinhe City.
At this time, they could see from afar a cavalry unit, holding high torches, about two or three hundred people, already rushing from the direction of Tiger Gorge Pass to the east gate of Jinhe City.
Any prisoners who hadn’t managed to escape the city by now naturally had no more chance to escape with their lives.
No matter how fierce the salt smugglers were, without weapons and armor, they had no chance of escaping the encirclement and slaughter by Yang Shouyi’s elite barbarian cavalry.
Of course, since Tan Yuliang’s group had opened the west gate first, quite a few prisoners in the city, seeing the chaotic assault on the north gate failing, turned and fled to the west gate instead.
By this time, about a hundred more prisoners had broken free from the suppression by garrison troops and jailers and escaped through the west gate, lagging behind Tan Yuliang’s group by about eight or nine li, also fleeing deeper into the eastern foothills of Panlong Ridge.
The reinforcing barbarian cavalry rushing from Tiger Gorge Pass didn’t enter through the east gate but instead circled directly through the open wilderness to the north, charging straight toward the west of the city.
“We’re leaving. This isn’t a place to linger. We need to enter deep into Panlong Ridge to initially be safe,” Tan Yuliang said.
By now the riot inside the city should be mostly suppressed. The fact that over two hundred elite barbarian cavalry didn’t enter the city made it obvious even to the dullest person that their main task had changed from suppressing the county prison riot to pursuing and eliminating escaped convicts.
The most and densest concentration of prisoners fleeing through the west gate toward the depths of Panlong Ridge made it obvious to any fool where the cavalry’s main pursuit direction would be.
Their hundred-plus people, though they had quite a few skilled fighters, were ultimately just a motley crew.
If they were caught by over two hundred elite barbarian cavalry, they’d have to thank heaven if half could survive, never mind talking about any grand uprising plans.
They rebandaged the wounds of five escaped prisoners who had been slashed by garrison troops and jailers during the chaotic escape. The others all ate dried meat and wheat cakes washed down with mountain spring water to satisfy their hunger, then quickly passed through the dense forest behind the broken ridge. After hastily covering their tracks, they continued fleeing deeper into Panlong Ridge. In the height of summer, vegetation in the mountains was lush, and the traces of over a hundred people trampling through were very difficult to conceal. They mostly chose steep and remote places difficult for horses to traverse, climbing to increase the distance from pursuing troops.
Along the way when reaching high ground, they could still see the escaped prisoners behind them. Besides those who had scattered earlier to flee into steep mountain terrain, about fifty-plus people died directly under the pursuing cavalry’s blades. Surrendering when caught was useless—the cavalry’s gleaming spear blades slashed, stabbed, and thrust like lightning, with blood spurting out like small fountains.
In the afternoon, Tan Yuliang’s group crossed Rock Eagle Peak on the eastern foothills of Panlong Ridge. The terrain around them became increasingly treacherous. After confirming that the cavalry absolutely wouldn’t dare rashly penetrate deep, they finally relaxed slightly and rested. After fleeing on such treacherous mountain roads for so long, most places not even having sheep-track paths, the vast majority were exhausted and collapsed.
“Great kindness requires no words of thanks. From now on, whatever Master Tan commands, whether it’s a mountain of blades or a sea of fire, if Dong Tai so much as furrows his brow, I’m a son of a dog!” Dong Tai was a burly, tall man. Carrying a heavy bag of something, he walked up to Tan Yuliang and said.
If there were no other plans, they truly should part ways here.
That way, even if some would ultimately still be unable to escape capture, the chances of most successfully escaping would be much greater.
Tan Yuliang looked at the heavy bag Dong Tai carried. From the angles, he knew it contained the hundred gold ingots Dong Qing and Zhang Guangli had promised when they came to the door.
This was also about the only wealth Dong Tai and his group could produce.
“After we part here, where does Master Dong plan to go, and what do you plan to do in the future?” Although Tan Yuliang was only forty-six years old, this escape had exhausted him thoroughly. He himself knew his body had long passed its peak and would only decline from here. He didn’t rush to take the bag of gold but calmly looked at Dong Tai and asked.
“I don’t know. Perhaps I’ll take it one step at a time.” Five hours ago, Dong Tai had still been in prison, not knowing if he could escape the fate of beheading.
At this moment, he only wanted to find a remote mountain valley deep in Panlong Ridge to hide and evade official pursuit. As for future plans, he hadn’t considered them yet.
“Would Master Dong become a mountain bandit?” Tan Yuliang asked.
Dong Qing, Zhang Guangli, and the others’ eyes lit up. As the organizers of the rescue, they had naturally considered plans after a successful rescue. Becoming mountain bandits was the only way out they could think of.
Dong Tai’s pupils remained filled with confusion.
To be honest, he didn’t really think becoming mountain bandits was truly a way out.
Si Province’s terrain was eight parts mountains, one part water, and one part farmland. The mountain ranges were continuous and steep. There were indeed many dangerous places suitable for establishing strongholds and defending themselves, but the problem was that Si Province’s barbarian soldiers had all grown up in the wilderness since childhood, coming from barbarian settlements. They were extremely skilled at mountain warfare and fearlessly brave—no weaker than them.
With their thirty to fifty people wanting to occupy dangerous terrain, establish a stronghold, and become mountain bandits, Dong Tai didn’t think they could last long.
However, that said, if they didn’t become mountain bandits, what else could they do?
Perhaps becoming mountain bandits was currently their only path?
Regardless, Dong Tai felt that Tan Yuliang helping them to this point was already enough. Thinking that they could still use their merchant identities as cover to withdraw from Si Province before their identities were exposed, he was unwilling to continue burdening Tan Yuliang and his group at this time.
“Has Master Dong ever thought about why people are divided into noble and base from birth? Great clan nobles don’t engage in farming or weaving yet eat fine food and wear silk, while inferior people and base slaves are trampled and enslaved like livestock, working from birth to death without a single day’s rest, yet they can’t fill their bellies or clothe their bodies.” Tan Yuliang stood up and said, “Never mind other places—Master Dong, tell me, in Panlong Ridge, how many base settlement slaves are driven like livestock by great clan nobles? Do they truly willingly accept being enslaved and trampled for all eternity in their hearts, without half a bit of resentment?”
“Master Tan, you mean…?” Dong Tai said with slightly confused pupils.
“When strength gathers, victory follows; when strength scatters, defeat comes,” Tan Yuliang said resolutely. “If everyone now dusts off their backsides and parts ways, hiding for a few days before each returns home, then even if just three to five yamen officers come to arrest you, you’ll have to submit to capture. When your heads roll, you’ll have no room to resist. Although we now only have about a hundred people and would have difficulty withstanding provincial troops’ attacks, inside and outside Panlong Ridge there are tens of thousands of slaves and poor people trampled underfoot by the great clans. They’re full of resentment about the world’s injustice. As long as we raise our arms and call out urgently, supporters will be like clouds. Gathering three to five thousand troops will be an easy matter. At that time, would you all still fear the Yang clan’s attacks?”
Dong Ping, Dong Qing, Zhang Guangli, and the others’ eyes gleamed brightly at this moment. They all gathered around and urged Dong Tai: “Brother Dong, we have no way back. Let’s follow Master Tan and do something big!”