Chapter 221: The Matter Is Settled

Zheng Fan really had fallen asleep.

He wasn’t deliberately putting on an act, trying to display how calm and unruffled he was. The afternoon sunlight had simply been far too comfortable. Add to that the fact that, from defending the city to entering the imperial palace of Jin, then rushing at breakneck speed with his army to the Shengle City region, he hadn’t had a proper rest in days.

So he genuinely fell asleep.

By the time he opened his eyes, it was already dark.

The Blind Man was still sitting beside Zheng Fan, holding several documents and writing something.

This was the Blind Man’s work these days. One man was being used as ten. Even with mental power supporting him, if he kept this up, sooner or later he would work himself to death.

Fortunately, once everything was settled, the several dozen scholars from the Wen Clan could be trained as clerks. They would be able to take a considerable amount of work off the Blind Man’s shoulders.

“You didn’t even wake me. You let me sleep this long,” Zheng Fan said.

“Master, this subordinate left the courtyard gate open for you. Plenty of Xiong Lie’s savage subordinates came and went, and they all saw you sleeping soundly.”

“Thoughtful of you.”

“As I should be.”

“But weren’t you worried I’d catch a cold?”

“This subordinate was negligent.”

“Remember next time. At the very least, put another blanket over me or something.”

“Understood.”

“Is it over?” Zheng Fan asked.

“Since dusk, there have been faint sounds of fighting and killing outside. They’ve stopped now. It should be over.”

“Oh.”

Zheng Fan rubbed his face and yawned.

“I slept for so long this afternoon that I’ve ruined my schedule. Now I won’t be able to sleep tonight.”

“Perfect timing. Siniang will be entering the city tonight as well.”

“Heh.”

At that moment, Xiong Lie entered the courtyard in full armor and reported to Zheng Fan, “My lord, Tufa Chengji, head of the Tufa Clan, requests an audience. He brought no subordinates. He came alone.”

“Let him in.”

“Yes.”

A short while later, Tufa Chengji entered.

He was covered in blood, carrying a severed head in his left hand and another in his right, with a third hanging from his waist. He looked rather like a young wife returning to her parents’ home on the second day of the New Year, laden with gifts.

He strode straight up to Zheng Fan and was just about to kneel when Zheng Fan spoke first.

“The blood on your armor and the blood on your face—you obviously smeared it on yourself.”

“…”

Tufa Chengji froze.

City Defender Zheng had experienced his share of battles. Having an enemy’s blood spray all over him was practically commonplace. Moreover, he had spent a long time following Li Fusheng, a man who practically enjoyed bathing in blood. Naturally, Zheng Fan could distinguish such details.

That left Tufa Chengji rather embarrassed. For a moment he stood there with his knees half-bent, unsure whether to kneel all the way down or straighten back up. He looked as though he were holding a horse stance.

Seeing this, Zheng Fan smiled.

“Whatever the case, you did put some thought into it. I accept the sentiment.”

At those words, Tufa Chengji immediately relaxed.

But then he looked again and discovered that while Zheng Fan was speaking to him, his eyes were directed at the ground rather than at Tufa Chengji’s face.

Thud!

Tufa Chengji immediately dropped to his knees.

“Tufa Chengji pays his respects to Your Excellency.”

“Introduce the gift list. I’m a man who loves making friends, and I especially enjoy seeing the gift lists my friends bring me. I’m a little greedy and not very dignified about money, so don’t take offense.”

“This humble one would not dare. This humble one would not dare.”

“Get to the point.”

“Yes. This is Zhou Zhengwen’s head. He was a dog raised by the Helian Clan here in Shengle City. The Helian Clan dared offend the heavenly might of the Great Yan Dynasty and unjustly raise troops to invade Yan. Truly, gods and men alike were outraged!

“Now the Helian Clan has already been destroyed beneath the iron hooves of the Great Yan Dynasty’s righteous army. I, Tufa Chengji, therefore slew this wretch and present his head to the Great Yan army!

“This is Ning Cuicui’s head. She was…”

Three heads.

Three household leaders.

In other words, of the five people who had eaten together at noon, aside from Xiong Lie, the other three had now all become severed heads.

They had agreed to stand united and resist the Yan dogs together.

Then the moment they turned around, one of them decisively sold out his teammates.

After Tufa Chengji finished his report, Zheng Fan tilted his head and looked at him.

“Those flowery phrases were awkward to memorize, weren’t they?”

“Your Excellency is discerning. This humble one is coarse and uncultured and feared offending Your Excellency’s ears, so I had someone prepare them beforehand…”

“All right. I already said you put thought into this.”

“Thank you, Your Excellency!”

“I accept your gifts.”

“Many thanks to Your Excellency for honoring me by accepting them!”

“Courtesy calls for reciprocity. I ought to ask after your family as well.”

“Yes…”

“How many members does the Tufa Clan have in the Shengle region?”

“More than a thousand core clansmen.”

“That few? Then it’s not very interesting.”

“Including the peripheral clansmen, more than five thousand. We can field nine hundred clan soldiers. Your Excellency should also know that we lost quite a few clan soldiers this time while exterminating those rebels.”

“Mm. That’s not bad. Then, is the Tufa Clan willing to serve my Great Yan?”

“Of course we are!”

“Good. I like that attitude. I believe the Marquis and His Majesty will like it as well.”

As he spoke, Zheng Fan pointed at Xiong Lie.

“Take those three heads away first. I’m timid. I can’t stand seeing things like this.”

Like hell I believe you!

But Xiong Lie still obediently came over and carried the heads away.

Zheng Fan pointed at Tufa Chengji again.

“The Tufa Clan counts as one of the great clans of the Shengle region. You should have accumulated quite a fortune, yes?”

“All beneath Heaven is the sovereign’s land. Everything belonging to the Tufa Clan belongs to the Great Yan army—and to Your Excellency!”

“Oh, that sounds very pleasant too. But don’t worry. When it comes to wealth and goods, I’m not short of them.”

That wasn’t politeness.

The wealth inside Prince Fu’s tomb outside Chuzhou City still hadn’t been transported out, and the valuables Zheng Fan’s side had plundered from the imperial region of Jin were piled up like a small mountain. At present, Zheng Fan really could slap his chest and proudly declare:

Your daddy isn’t short of money.

Of course, once his own establishment was fully built up, that silver would probably disappear very quickly. Otherwise, the Marquis of Zhenbei wouldn’t act as though his life depended on it whenever he caught sight of meat.

Maintaining troops was expensive.

Maintaining elite troops was even more expensive.

Mass-producing peasant levies and bandit troops was cheap enough, but those things had no real combat strength.

To the west was the Great Yan Dynasty. To the east was the Situ Clan. To the north were the savages.

None of them were soft persimmons.

Without elite troops, you didn’t even have the confidence to speak loudly.

Zheng Fan had not told Tufa Chengji to rise, so Tufa Chengji could only continue kneeling.

Neither side spoke.

The invisible pressure gradually caused beads of sweat to form on Tufa Chengji’s forehead.

People of Jin enjoyed training hawks. Tufa Chengji felt that right now, he himself was a hawk being broken and tamed.

In truth, he had misunderstood Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan simply didn’t know what else to say, so he decided not to say anything at all.

He had the confidence to do that.

If the conversation went cold, then it went cold. It didn’t matter.

Finally, Zheng Fan thought of something to say.

“I’ve heard people say that no matter who governs Shengle City, they still have to rely on local snakes like you to support them?”

At those words, Tufa Chengji immediately turned his head toward Xiong Lie.

Xiong Lie stood there silently without saying anything.

But everyone understood perfectly well.

Xiong Lie had been the one tattling!

“Your Excellency, that was merely this humble one’s delaying tactic, meant to lull the others into complacency while secretly accumulating strength and waiting for an opportunity to joyfully welcome the Great Yan army!”

Zheng Fan nodded.

He smiled at Tufa Chengji.

“Speak like a human being.”

“Yes. This humble one was deluded, failed to recognize Heaven’s might, and deserves ten thousand deaths!”

Tufa Chengji slammed his forehead against the floor tiles.

Heh.

This way of speaking that Zheng Fan had learned from the Marquis of Jingnan really was useful.

The Marquis of Jingnan had always used those words to frighten him before.

Now Zheng Fan had learned and put them to immediate use.

“Clan Head Tufa.”

“This humble one is here.”

“As for what happened in the past, I can let bygones be bygones.”

“Your Excellency is merciful! My entire clan will surely engrave your benevolence upon our hearts!”

“But that will still depend on how you perform from now on.”

“This humble one understands. This humble one understands.”

As for the business of beating down subordinates, Zheng Fan couldn’t be bothered to personally handle it.

Once the army entered the city and he had completely taken over Shengle City, the Demon Kings under him were all experts when it came to manipulating people’s hearts, controlling subordinates, and knocking people down a peg.

All Zheng Fan needed to do right now was put on airs, borrow the bearing of a great eunuch overseeing the Eastern Depot, and enjoy the thrill of pretending to be impressive.

It felt rather good.

You lot do the work.

I’ll do the posturing.

Just then, a savage guard entered from outside. Xiong Lie immediately walked over and listened as the man whispered into his ear.

A moment later, Xiong Lie dropped to his knees and reported, “My lord, the Great Yan army has entered the city.”

That meant the situation in Shengle City was settled!

Zheng Fan nodded.

He turned toward his side, only to discover that the Blind Man had disappeared at some point.

Zheng Fan pulled away the blanket covering him and rose from the reclining chair.

At that exact moment, the Blind Man walked out carrying a suit of armor.

He knelt.

Then respectfully declared, “Master, please don your armor!”

Immediately afterward, the Blind Man barked, “You two slaves! Why aren’t you helping Master into his armor? Have you gone blind like me?!”

The moment an expert made a move, you could tell whether he had the goods.

The Blind Man was already a master at creating an atmosphere and manipulating people’s hearts. On top of that, he had infused his words with mental pressure, naturally imposing an intimidating force upon Xiong Lie and Tufa Chengji’s minds.

The two men immediately rose and stood beside Zheng Fan. Like servants, they began helping him into his armor.

Xiong Lie was somewhat better off.

Even if he had a few private thoughts of his own, in name he was still a household slave adopted by the Sixth Prince. Now that the Sixth Prince had transferred him to Zheng Fan, it was perfectly natural for him to serve Zheng Fan as a slave.

Tufa Chengji, on the other hand, was somewhat dumbfounded.

He had originally thought that after bringing such generous gifts, he could come over and negotiate his future “salary and benefits” or something along those lines.

How had he somehow automatically become the lowest-ranking servant instead?

One could only say that from the moment he stepped through the door, he had been repeatedly cut down and beaten back until all his momentum had been completely ground away.

But under the force of the atmosphere, both men obediently helped Zheng Fan put on his armor.

Zheng Fan simply held out his arms and let them attend to him.

Meanwhile, inside the private group-chat channel the Blind Man had constructed with his mental power—

“Blind Man, why does this scene feel so familiar?”

“Master is wise. Kangxi Incognito Travel.”

“That production isn’t grand enough.”

“Master, rest assured. Liang Shilong has just entered the city.”

“Then you stole the scene. Wouldn’t the effect have been better if I waited until A’Cheng arrived with the troops and the surrounding area was filled with battle-hardened soldiers before putting on my armor?”

“Yes. This subordinate was negligent.”

“Just remember next time.”

“Yes. This subordinate understands.”

“Sigh. I just woke up, and now I have to put on this hard, rigid armor. It really is a little uncomfortable.”

“Master.”

“Mm?”

“Siniang finished embroidering the dragon robe long ago. That should be more comfortable than armor. Shall we change into that right now?”

“…”

Zheng Fan fell silent.

[End of Chapter 221]