Chapter 20: The Domineering Li Yunlong: On My Turf, I Call the Shots! Making an Example of the Guilty! Confiscating the Land!

Li Yunlong strode into the main hall of the Autumn Moon Pavilion with the gait of a tiger. The numerous landlords present immediately fell silent upon seeing him. Even Liu Dequan, usually the calmest among them, felt constrained and lowered his crossed legs. After all, no matter how arrogant Liu Dequan was, he dared not truly oppose the military.

Under the watchful eyes of the landlords, Li Yunlong walked directly to the raised platform at the far end of the hall, then turned to address everyone present.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I am Li Yunlong, commander of the 1st Regiment of the Eighth Route Army,” he said with a smile, introducing himself.

Seeing Li Yunlong’s demeanor, many landlords breathed a sigh of relief. After all, judging from his attitude, he seemed at least somewhat friendly.

But in the next moment, Li Yunlong spoke bluntly: “I have gathered you all here for one reason only.”

“From today onwards, all the land you hold will be confiscated by our 1st Regiment. We will take unified management and distribution of these lands.”

The landlords were dumbfounded. Land was the most crucial, often the sole, source of their wealth and power. Their status came from owning land that compelled the common people to bow before them.

Li Yunlong’s immediate call for confiscation was essentially a death sentence for them.

How could these landlords accept that?

“On what grounds?” a bold landlord suddenly stood up, indignantly challenging, “These lands have been passed down from our ancestors. How can you simply confiscate them because you say so?”

“You Eighth Route Army are being far too overbearing,” he added.

“Exactly!” another portly landlord quickly stood and chimed in, “These lands are our private property. For you to come and seize them is no different from robbery!”

“Is this how the Eighth Route Army treats the people? It’s utterly shameless and tyrannical!”

“Yes, these lands belong to us, and we will never give them up!” Zhou Xu rose, his face full of defiance. “Our family has held these lands for hundreds of years. You come and just seize them? You’ve got a high opinion of yourselves!”

“Let me make it clear today: no land, then it’s our lives you’ll have to take.”

At this moment, the landlords were roused, full of resolve and ready to face death if needed.

Of course, in their hearts, they clung to the hope that in numbers lies safety. Most believed that no matter how overbearing the Eighth Route Army was, they wouldn’t directly attack them—at least, not now.

Just then, Liu Dequan also stood and looked up at Li Yunlong.

“Commander Li, your Eighth Route Army is really going too far,” he said. “Before, whether it was the Nationalist government, warlords, the Japanese, or puppet troops, they all treated us landlords politely and never forced us into anything.”

“We landlords have always maintained a cooperative relationship with the military. Everyone benefits.”

“The military provides us protection, and we help manage Jin Sui Town.”

“But now you Eighth Route Army come and immediately demand our lands be confiscated. Do you think that’s acceptable?”

With Liu Dequan taking the lead, the other landlords grew even more agitated, rising up in resistance, refusing to hand over their land.

Li Yunlong had anticipated this reaction and remained unruffled. He glanced at Zhang Dabiao beside him.

Zhang Dabiao immediately understood and shouted, “Quiet!”

With Zhang’s bark, the hall fell silent.

Li Yunlong then faced the landlords without a hint of doubt. “I have come to notify you, not to negotiate.”

“Your opposition is nothing but a joke to me!”

Hearing this, Liu Dequan snorted coldly and became truly angry.

He turned to the other landlords and said, “Since Commander Li is so unwelcoming, then we may as well leave.”

“Let’s see what these Eighth Route Army soldiers dare to do to us!”

With that, Liu Dequan led the way toward the hall’s exit.

The other landlords rose as well, clearly intending to leave with him.

At that moment, Li Yunlong suddenly raised his rifle and aimed at Liu Dequan, who was already at the door.

Bang—

Li Yunlong pulled the trigger. The bullet shot out, striking Liu Dequan’s head with unerring accuracy.

Using a powerful Type 98K rifle, Li Yunlong’s shot blew Liu Dequan’s head apart.

This was exactly the effect Li Yunlong wanted—to kill the chicken to scare the monkeys.

As expected, the landlords were stunned, frozen on the spot, unable to move a step.

Many of the more timid landlords trembled so violently they nearly soiled themselves.

“I’ll say this one last time,” Li Yunlong’s cold voice rang out again. “I am here to notify you to surrender your lands, not to play games with you.”

“If you refuse to hand over your land today, none of you will leave alive.”

Faced with Li Yunlong’s domineering stance, the landlords wilted.

They were not yet at the point of fearing death.

Seeing his intimidation had taken effect, Li Yunlong turned to Zhang Dabiao and said, “Zhang Dabiao, lead these landlords to sign contracts voluntarily surrendering all their lands, then organize men to collect their land deeds from their homes.”

“Yes, sir!” Zhang Dabiao replied.

Under Li Yunlong’s pressure, all the landlords reluctantly complied and signed contracts agreeing to surrender all their lands.

Next, soldiers from the 1st Regiment went door to door collecting the land deeds.

With these contracts in hand, the landlords could no longer renege.

Li Yunlong was naturally very pleased with this outcome.

Just then, Zhou Weiguo hurried into the Autumn Moon Pavilion, hoping to report on the industrial and commercial situation in Jin Sui Town.

Upon entering the hall, Zhou Weiguo was shocked by the scene before him.

A landlord’s corpse lay on the ground—Zhou knew this man well; he was the largest landlord in Jin Sui Town.

The other landlords stood in line signing contracts, but their unwilling expressions made clear they were coerced.

Zhou Weiguo glanced over and saw the contracts were for the voluntary surrender of all lands.

This puzzled Zhou Weiguo even more.

In his experience, the Eighth Route Army rarely acted so tyrannically.

Unaware that Li Yunlong’s confiscation was part of a land reform campaign, Zhou Weiguo approached Li Yunlong curiously and asked, “Commander, what’s going on here? What’s the point of confiscating these landlords’ lands?”

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