Chapter 291: Waves Rise

“Master, this is this month’s revenue.”

Feng Siniang handed Zheng Fan a thick account book. A single sheet of white paper lay on top, separately listing the principal sources of income and several major expenditures.

Generally speaking, Zheng Fan could not be bothered to read the thick ledger underneath. There was a good chance he would not understand it anyway. A rough idea of the totals was enough.

As for whether the Demon Kings under him might embezzle his money, Zheng Fan genuinely did not worry about that.

There were eight of them in total, counting himself. To a certain extent, the bond created by their shared fate was far stronger than what most people called family.

Zheng Fan glanced over the summary and rubbed between his brows.

Compared with the enormous expenditures, their so-called income looked pitifully small.

The whole of Shengle City was a gold-devouring demon beast, constantly sucking at Zheng Fan’s treasury.

“Master, the main problem is that the workshops still aren’t fully operational,” Siniang said. “Once they are, our revenue figures will look much better.”

Much better was all she dared promise.

Even Siniang found it difficult to predict when Shengle City might actually become self-sufficient.

One could even say that unless there was some major upheaval—or, more precisely, unless war broke out—these losses would continue indefinitely, right up until Zheng Fan burned through all his money.

They were maintaining far too many soldiers.

“Not a problem. There should be a war soon.”

Barring any surprises, the imperial commissioner from the State of Yan should already be on the road carrying the Emperor’s decree. Once contact with the State of Dacheng succeeded and its legal incorporation into Yan was established, Great Yan sending troops to drive out the savages would be almost inevitable.

The only real uncertainty now was what choice the Emperor of Yan would make.

Would he leave Dacheng hanging there and instead accumulate strength for the next campaign against Qian?

Or would he first finish swallowing the lands of the Three Jin whole?

Even Zheng Fan understood that if Qian were given too long to “develop” and “recover,” then with the State of Qian’s manpower and resources, dealing with it later would become genuinely difficult.

But from Zheng Fan’s own standpoint, fighting the savages was obviously preferable.

If there was no war, all these troops under him could do every day was sit around burning money and grain.

“Master, Tian Wujing’s child really is different from ordinary babies,” Siniang said. “He’s only a few months old, but he already looks as lively and sturdy as another child of seven or eight months.”

“His father’s genes are strong, and his mother wasn’t an ordinary person either.”

There was nothing strange about the child having an excellent constitution. In later generations, plenty of athletes had parents who had themselves been athletes.

“And Master really found a solution,” Siniang said with a chuckle. “You actually made the Demon Child watch the baby.”

“A child watching a child. Perfectly normal, isn’t it? Don’t worry. The Demon Child might get angry enough to...”

Zheng Fan wisely swallowed the words *kill me*.

Instead, he continued, “But he can’t bring himself to harm other infants.”

The Demon Child hated everything in the world.

Yet precisely because he himself was still a child, he naturally felt very differently toward his own “kind.”

Of course, if it were some little child whose parents were both alive and whose family was perfectly happy, the Demon Child might conceivably act out of jealousy.

But the Young Marquis had lost his mother the moment he was born, while his father still had not shown his face even once, as if he had completely forgotten he had a son.

That sort of fate made it very easy for the Demon Child to empathize with him.

Of course, the most important reason—the real reason—was that making the Demon Child babysit was simply hilarious no matter how Zheng Fan looked at it.

Hahahahahaha!

“I’ll go first, Master. I’ll send the Blind Man in.”

“All right.”

This was their routine reporting meeting, held once every half month.

Siniang oversaw money and grain—in other words, economic development.

The Blind Man, meanwhile, was responsible for officials and for ideological and political work within the army.

The Blind Man entered and first handed over a list.

It was the current batch of people marked for execution.

“There are this many?” Zheng Fan asked helplessly.

“You could never finish killing them all, Master,” the Blind Man replied.

“I know. Hm? There are even two men surnamed Wen on here?”

Because of Wen Sutong, the Wen Clan had joined Zheng Fan’s camp fairly early, and as a result occupied no small number of positions within Shengle City’s system.

“Yes.”

“If you kill these two, will it affect your marriage?”

The Blind Man shook his head. “If I don’t kill two brothers-in-law, how am I supposed to establish authority? To tell Master the truth, I’ve been watching the Wen Clan for a long time. But perhaps Wen Sutong really did raise his family well, because I could never find a proper problem. Now that I’ve finally caught something, I absolutely cannot let the opportunity slip past.

“The Wen Clan has grown a little too powerful inside the city. We should prune the branches before they spread any farther.”

“Fine. Do it your way.”

“Yes, Master.”

After seeing the Blind Man out, Zheng Fan stood, picked up several small dishes Siniang had prepared beforehand, and walked toward the very rear of the inner residence.

A detached room stood there.

Normally, servants were not even permitted to enter and clean it.

Zheng Fan pushed open the door and went inside.

A coffin rested in the room.

Every so often, Zheng Fan came here to drink and chat with Sha Tuo Queshi.

He set out the dishes, sat cross-legged before the coffin, and began pouring wine.

He drank slowly, ate a few bites, and casually talked about some of the things that had happened recently.

By the end, Zheng Fan drained the wine in his cup and sighed.

“Old Sha, tell me. How good would it have been if nothing had happened to you and you were still a normal living man?”

Liang Cheng knew how to wage war.

But Sha Tuo Queshi had once risen to the position of Left Guli King among the desert barbarians. Obviously, he too had been a man of great strategy and vision.

In some respects, he might not truly have been much inferior to Tian Wujing.

Just imagine it.

Zheng Fan already had a Sword Saint guarding one of his city gates.

Add a Sha Tuo Queshi at his full strength...

Tsk, tsk.

The picture was so beautiful it was almost unbearable.

Once he had finished talking, Zheng Fan tidied up, reached out, and patted the coffin lid as a farewell to Old Sha.

Then he left the room.

Slightly buzzed from the wine, Zheng Fan returned to his own courtyard and pushed open the door.

The Young Marquis lay fast asleep in a cradle.

When Zheng Fan entered, the cradle was still gently rocking.

Beneath it lay a stone.

“Heh.”

Apparently, the moment the Demon Child noticed Zheng Fan had returned, he stopped rocking his little brother’s cradle.

Zheng Fan walked over and looked down at the baby.

The child really was adorable.

Zheng Fan made time almost every day to play with him.

Pinch his cheeks.

Pat his bottom.

And while doing so, imagine Tian Wujing’s face.

That particular wicked pleasure brought Zheng Fan tremendous satisfaction.

After watching the child for a while, Zheng Fan walked to the bed, lay down on his side, closed his eyes, and prepared to take an afternoon nap.

Everyone in the city was so busy they were practically dying from overwork.

Yet the true person in charge somehow enjoyed leisure every single day.

And at almost the same moment Zheng Fan lay down, in three other places, three other men were forced to sit up from their beds.

The first was Situ Lei, bedridden inside the imperial palace at Yingdu.

The moment he heard that the commander of Shaye City to the east had opened the gates and surrendered to his two elder brothers, the Emperor of Dacheng forcibly pushed away both the attendants and imperial physicians beside him and sat upright.

Shaye City was one of the barriers guarding Yingdu.

Now that the barrier was gone, if the rebel forces led by his two elder brothers and the savage army wished to march on Yingdu, the road ahead was practically wide open.

“Someone!

“Bring Us Our armor!”

...

The second was Li Bao in Quhe City.

His son had married the night before, and Li Bao had drunk himself into a stupor.

His subordinates had to force him awake.

Li Bao had always possessed a temper like a leopard. Ever since losing an arm, that temper had only grown worse.

Dragged awake through a vicious hangover, he had already opened his mouth to curse when he saw a palace eunuch standing ahead of him, holding a bright yellow imperial scroll.

The piss of drunkenness in his head evaporated by seventy or eighty percent on the spot.

Once the people around him had arranged the offering table and incense, Li Bao dropped to his knees and received the decree.

The imperial decree ordered Li Bao to lead the troops under his command to the old capital of Jin.

...

The third man dragged out of bed had been in the middle of an activity not suitable for public description.

When the commotion of a decree-bearing eunuch entering the residence reached them, the woman in his arms became visibly flustered.

“Relax. Father already knows I secretly brought you back to Yanjing.”

The woman beneath him was the youngest daughter of the Barbarian King.

By now, the First Prince had already taken her into his bedchamber.

The young woman rose and began helping the First Prince dress.

Still nervous, she asked, “Will this bring trouble to Your Highness?”

“What trouble? No matter what else is true, you are still a princess. A princess who dared follow me back to the capital without even having an official status—if my imperial father knew, he’d praise me before he blamed me.”

“But Great Yan’s ancestors decreed that their descendants were never to make marriage alliances with foreign states or peoples.”

“What they forbade was sending Yan’s daughters away in marriage. They never said we couldn’t marry someone else’s daughter and bring her home. If anyone has been wronged here, it’s you.”

“This servant does not feel wronged. Being able to stay with Your Highness is enough to satisfy me.”

“Endure it a little longer. Or better yet, let’s work a little harder and get some movement in your belly soon. Then I can enter the palace and report the good news to Father. Once that happens, your proper status should follow.”

“If there is a child, then I can...?”

“Of course. My father and your father have fought each other their entire lives. Now his son has stolen the old rival’s daughter, brought her back, and even gotten her pregnant. For Father, just think how satisfying that would be. He would certainly proclaim it throughout the realm, then make up the betrothal gifts and all the proper rites afterward.

“How should I put it?

“This Prince would practically be displaying the might of our state and greatly raising the spirits of the sons of Yan!”

“Then... could the desert barbarians and Great Yan stop fighting in the future? Could the tribes of the desert and the people of Great Yan live together in peace?”

Hope lit the young woman’s face.

The First Prince reached out and stroked the cheek of the woman in his bedchamber.

Smiling, he nodded.

“Yes.

“Certainly.”

“That would be wonderful. If the two sides no longer fought wars, so many fewer people would die every year.”

“Yes. Everyone could live their own lives peacefully. How wonderful would that be?

“Rest a little longer. I’ll go to the front and receive the decree.

“It is probably ordering me to lead an army into the Jin lands.”

Now fully dressed, the First Prince stepped out of the room.

Then he turned away, and his expression immediately sank.

He genuinely liked the girl inside.

The Barbarian King had not lied.

She really was as clear and pure as a spring in the desert, enough to move a man’s heart.

But there was one thing the First Prince had not told her.

His imperial father seemed particularly fond of cutting down the maternal clans and marital clans of his sons.

His Second Brother and Sixth Brother understood that more deeply than anyone.

The First Prince sighed and shook his head, forcing his attention back to the matter before him.

The Marquis of Jingnan was clearly already in the Jin lands.

So why was Father still ordering him to take command and lead the expedition?

[End of Chapter 291]