A large army of people set out towards the Thick Earth Fortress, and as they passed by the battlefield from yesterday, it was still littered with remnants everywhere. A pungent smell wafted through the air, and many wild dogs were roaming around, occasionally gnawing on the corpses on the ground. When they saw someone approaching, they cautiously lifted their bloody dog heads, their slightly greenish eyes sending chills down ones spine. On the dry trees above the battlefield, a murder of crows perched, and after one of them let out a cry, they flapped their wings in unison and flew into the air, forming a black whirlpool before swooping down towards the corpses, presenting an apocalyptic scene.

  When the army arrived at Hou Tu Fort, it was already broad daylight. Liu Ce felt something was off from the start. Originally, there should have been over 6,000 people in the entire flag team campsite, but now one-third of them were missing. Moreover, except for Vice General Flag Zong Shengs personal bodyguard and a few campsite managers, not a single person from General Flag Zhu Songs headquarters or any of the participating generals was present. After collecting his thoughts, Liu Ce felt that something fishy was going on, but he didnt have time to think about it further as he was assigned to his designated defensive area.

  The Thick Earth Fortress, built in the 76th year of the Great Zhou calendar, was originally established as a fortified settlement for the people to cultivate the land. At the time of its construction, the fertile fields in this area were approximately 6 million mu (about 400,000 hectares), and four crops of rice could be harvested every year (due to the short growth cycle of grains in this world). This was enough to supply the city of Gaoyang, ten miles away, for a whole year. However, later on, due to the corruption of the officials and the collusion between the aristocratic families and wealthy merchants, they forcibly seized the land and turned it into private property. The local villagers went bankrupt one after another and had to seek other means of livelihood. By the 176th year of the Great Zhou calendar, the Thick Earth Fortress was only able to collect taxes on less than 1 million mu (about 66,667 hectares) of land, which decreased year by year. By the 202nd year of the Great Zhou calendar, Gaoyang City had to purchase over 10 million dan (one dan is approximately 150 kilograms) of grain from outside every year in order to sustain the tens of thousands of people and livestock within the city for a whole year. By the 232nd year of the Great Zhou calendar, the Thick Earth Fortress had been completely transformed into private property. The original inhabitants of the fortress either sought other means of livelihood or became tenants of those aristocratic families, struggling to make ends meet... In the 288th year of the Great Zhou calendar, due to the monopoly by the aristocratic families and the corruption of the government officials, a large-scale peasant uprising broke out in He Yuan Province. However, it was brutally suppressed by Zhao Zhenyuan, the governor of He Yuan at that time. It is said that 60,000 peasants who participated in the uprising were captured and executed by Zhao Zhenyuan on the banks of the Hun River, staining the river red with their blood for several weeks. The Thick Earth Fortress was the first to be affected during this rebellion, with tens of millions of mu (about 6,667 hectares) of land being trampled, and over 200 fortress inhabitants were brutally killed by the bankrupt and enraged peasants, whose heads were piled up into a small mountain.

  In the 322nd year of the Dazhou calendar, Heyuan Province was once again plagued by a large-scale peasant uprising. At that time, Zhao Yingshan, the son of Zhao Zhenyuan, was the governor-general. His methods were even more brutal than his fathers. It is said that the captured peasants were cut into human dry meat to feed dogs. In that riot, Houtu Fort was trampled by mobs again, and tens of thousands of mu of land were destroyed. Dozens of people in the fort were killed, and the loss of the gentry was huge.

  After Zhao Ying Shans death, his eldest son, now Zhao Yuan Ji, succeeded him as the governor. Unfortunately, this did not last long. In the fifth year of his succession, which was 353 AD, a massive refugee uprising broke out in the history of Da Zhou. A large-scale refugee army composed of bankrupt city merchants, farmers, and people from other places seeking survival, as well as dissatisfied soldiers and generals in the military, swept through the entire northern and central regions of He Yuan Province. Zhao Yuan Ji was powerless to face the chaotic situation, so he sought help from the Da Zhou Central Government. The Da Zhou imperial court attached great importance to this matter and dispatched one of its elite armies, the Lei Feng Army, to enter He Yuan Province to quell the rebellion. However, after more than a decade had passed, the situation was even more chaotic than before. The Da Zhou army and the refugee rebel army were at an impasse for over ten years, with the only difference being that the number of bandits increased with each battle. Under repeated attacks by the bandits, Hou Tu Fort had long been reduced to a desolate wasteland, devoid of the prosperity it once knew in its early days as a Da Zhou stronghold.

  Houtu Fortress is a must-pass place to go to Gaoyang City. If you take a detour, you need to walk for another 6-7 days, so the bandits will definitely attack Houtu Fortress first this time. Although there are many bandits, Liu Ce knows that their food is extremely scarce, and even cannibalism has occurred, so it is impossible to take a detour. Zong Sheng sent troops to defend here, and he was very convinced in his heart. To sit on the important position of Leiting Army, to be sealed as a general, and to hold the flag, if you just rely on the reputation of the scholar-official family, it is absolutely impossible.

  Liu Ce arrived at the place he was defending, a half-mile long earth wall that only reached his chest appeared before his eyes. This earth wall was less than one meter thick and had many holes.