Chapter 474: Chaos!

The sudden entry of the Jingnan Army from the camp outside the city caught the heads of Yingdu’s great clans and factions completely off guard.

The kind of political struggle everyone was accustomed to was like a game of chess. No matter how much two sides hated each other, once they sat face-to-face across the board they still had to appear cultured and courteous.

It was a style everyone recognized and, more importantly, preferred.

Back when the Situ Clan was still at its height, Situ Lei had pushed his two elder brothers out of the center of power. Yet even then, he had not kicked them while they were down and killed them. Instead, he exiled them far away to guard cities beyond Snow Sea Pass.

Little Sixth had once evaluated Situ Lei this way: brilliant throughout his life, but on this one matter, foolishly pedantic.

Of course, judging after the fact, if Situ Lei had simply cut down those two brothers at the time, or imprisoned them until death, the later Savage uprising might very well have been prevented.

With Situ Lei’s ability, without those two useless brothers first feeding men and positions to the enemy and then collaborating from within, the Savage King would probably have found it extremely difficult to rise at all. Situ Lei had the Situ Clan’s elite troops and Snow Sea Pass itself as a foundation.

But who could predict the future?

At that time, Situ Lei’s father, the old head of the Situ Clan, was still alive and still held enormous authority. Situ Lei’s display of “brotherly affection” reassured his father that he would not slaughter his own kin, while also showing the great powers of Cheng State that he possessed benevolence.

Had Situ Lei truly monopolized all authority back then, he would never later have needed Zhang Pinghang to approach the Sword Saint and borrow his sword to assassinate his own father.

Either way, Yingdu had never grown accustomed to a mode of political operation where blades and soldiers were drawn at the slightest disagreement.

By contrast, the Yan people living inside Yingdu were far less shocked by what was happening.

After all, the current Emperor had once trampled the aristocratic clans beneath cavalry hooves. That affair could practically be called the largest and most extreme example of using military force to conduct politics.

Compared with the Emperor of Yan hiding the two Marquises and their elite troops inside the imperial palace’s rear garden, then using the capital as the starting point for a military sweep across the realm, Count Zheng merely bringing a few thousand Jingnan troops into Yingdu seemed almost trivial.

Besides, the Yan people in Yingdu possessed a little more sense of security than the Jin people did.

Count Pingye was a Yan man too, after all.

The east gate had already fallen under Zheng Fan’s control, but he did not order troops to seize the other three gates.

In truth, once he had forcibly mobilized the Jingnan Army, he could probably have ridden the momentum and mobilized the troops of the south, north, and west camps as well.

No matter how matters were judged afterward, he could have gathered nearly twenty thousand troops from around Yingdu and brought them along for the spectacle.

But that would have made the affair far too large.

Everything required a sense of degree.

No matter how hard the wind blew, even after traveling all the way to Yanjing and suffering the losses of distance, it would still remain only wind.

But if you started making thunder, the nature of the matter changed entirely.

The same principle applied to not dividing troops to seize the remaining three city gates.

Count Zheng had come here to be arrogant and overbearing.

He had not come to seize Yingdu and rebel.

As for what happened next, that was no longer something Count Zheng needed to worry about.

He had already done what he needed to do.

So once the troops entered the city, they marched directly into the Yingdu Prefect’s yamen and official residence: the home of Lord Mao Mingcai.

The armored soldiers charged through without restraint. The guards at the gates did not dare stop them and could only watch them enter.

Count Zheng dismounted from the Pixiu and entered the main hall of the Prefect’s residence.

Normally, behind a residence’s main reception hall there would be another smaller rear hall, used when the master needed to handle private matters while entertaining guests.

Count Zheng went into that rear hall.

Its layout and furnishings were nearly identical to the front hall’s, except everything was half the size.

Count Zheng stretched out across the long chair in the seat of honor and told the trembling steward standing before him:

“Tea. Lord Mao invited this Count here for tea.”

...

At almost exactly the same time, the Blind Man and the Savage King entered the Prefect’s residence as well.

The Blind Man had two tables set up on opposite sides of the front hall.

Both men possessed a list.

Both picked up brushes and began writing arrest slips.

Every time one was set down, a Lieutenant Commander stepped forward to collect it, gathered soldiers, and went out to seize the named people.

The Blind Man’s calligraphy was beautiful. He had always favored the Slender Gold style.

The Savage King’s handwriting matched the man himself.

A dog’s scrawl.

At the beginning, neither man wrote many slips.

The Blind Man produced three.

The Savage King produced two.

After they entered Yingdu the previous night, the head of a local trading house had been summoned to the relay station.

The people who received him were the Blind Man and the Savage King.

That trading house had existed for many years, long before Great Yan entered Jin. Secretly, it was one of the Sixth Prince’s properties.

Ji Chengjue’s eyes and arrangements were truly everywhere.

First, commerce could expand extremely quickly so long as it was managed properly.

Second, merchants operating in a place needed relationships with every layer of society, black and white alike. They had to enter local circles simply to survive.

Naturally, their access to information was far stronger than that of ordinary people.

After receiving instructions, the trading-house head delivered five names the following morning.

Those five names represented five small clans or households.

Some were local powers in Yingdu.

Others already had members holding office.

All had indeed arranged for clan descendants to replace other candidates and enter the examination compound.

Naturally, the true scope of the case had to be far greater.

Still, producing five names after only half a night was already impressive.

After all, the truly idiotic second-generation young masters who stole someone else’s examination place, obtained official eligibility, then strutted around bragging about it were still a tiny minority.

Most people who did something like this knew to make their fortune quietly.

But that did not matter.

Take the slips.

Have Jingnan soldiers break down doors and arrest people.

Once they were brought in, if they could not expose two more households within the time it took half an incense stick to burn, then the household head and the candidate who had stolen the place would both be dragged outside the Prefect’s residence and beheaded on the spot.

And it was not only Snow Sea Pass instructors whose qualifications had been stolen.

Many scholars from other regions had suffered the same thing.

Cases like this were never isolated. Pull up one radish and mud inevitably came with it.

So sheet after sheet of arrest orders continued leaving the hall.

The Jingnan soldiers seized people without pause.

Candidates and officials implicated in the affair were all dragged in so long as their names appeared on a slip.

In earlier campaigns, the Blind Man had gained plenty of experience raiding homes after cities fell.

He was exceptionally practiced at this sort of work.

The Savage King, by contrast, gradually found himself unable to keep pace.

In the end, Gou Moli simply stopped writing slips and let the Blind Man perform alone.

He leaned back in his chair, took copies of the slips that had already been issued, and began summarizing them merely to pass the time and make himself look as though he too were doing something.

At that moment, Gao Yi entered and whispered something beside the Blind Man’s ear.

The Blind Man pointed toward the Savage King seated opposite him.

Gao Yi walked over and reported:

“Liu Chuanyi, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Department in Yingdu, requests an audience with the Count.”

The Savage King nodded.

Such a large disturbance had broken out inside Yingdu.

As head of the Secret Intelligence Department here, Liu Chuanyi could not possibly play the turtle and pretend nothing had happened.

The awkward part was that Count Zheng had mobilized Jingnan troops into the city, and Jingnan soldiers truly were running around everywhere seizing people, yet nothing about the situation looked like a rebellion.

At the same time, no one dared define the Jingnan Army as rebel troops.

If the Jingnan Army itself rebelled, then Great Yan might as well give up Jin entirely.

The Savage King entered the rear hall and reported the matter to Count Zheng, who was drinking tea.

Count Zheng nodded slightly.

“Let him see me.”

A short while later, Gou Moli brought Liu Chuanyi into the rear hall.

When Liu Chuanyi entered, he found Count Zheng reclining on the long chair, already asleep.

He hesitated for a moment, then bowed.

“Liu Chuanyi, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Department in Yingdu, pays respects to Count Pingye.”

“Mm?”

Count Zheng slowly woke.

He looked at the man before him.

Liu Chuanyi was not tall, merely average in height, but he gave off a sharp, capable impression.

“My subordinates reported that the Count mobilized troops into Yingdu on the grounds that rebels were hiding within the city?”

“Yes.”

“But this subordinate has heard that the Count is traveling to the capital under imperial summons to attend an audience.”

The implication was obvious.

You were only passing through Yingdu.

“Because the Prince of Jingnan believes the Secret Intelligence Department in Yingdu is utterly useless and incapable of accomplishing anything. So while I travel to the capital, he told this Count to clean things up along the way.”

The words were exceedingly rude.

In the earliest days, back in Yinlang Commandery, the head of the local Secret Intelligence Department had been Dujuan, the Marquis of Jingnan’s woman.

At the time, because of the war, the Secret Intelligence Department there had effectively been under the Jingnan residence’s authority.

Then Dujuan died.

After entering Jin, the Marquis of Jingnan gradually concerned himself only with military affairs and stopped interfering in ordinary governance.

Naturally, control of the Secret Intelligence Department returned to the imperial court.

Liu Chuanyi bowed lower.

“This subordinate is ashamed. But this subordinate believes the imperial examination is not a matter that should trouble the Count personally.”

“The imperial examination system is one of the foundations of the state. It concerns the everlasting enterprise of Great Yan.

“This Count cannot possibly ignore it.

“This Count is a little tired. Chief Liu need not disturb my rest any longer.

“Also, have Chief Sun assist my subordinates in organizing everything that happens today.”

“Count, this subordinate...”

“The Jingnan Army has a rule.

“Those who refuse the Prince’s orders are executed.”

Zheng Fan gave Liu Chuanyi one last look.

Then he slowly closed his eyes.

“This Count is entering the capital.

“Everything that happens here will be explained personally before His Majesty.”

The meaning could not have been clearer.

I am not rebelling.

In the end, His Majesty will decide the nature of what happened here.

So all of you should stop interfering blindly.

The first rule of officialdom was moderation.

Official rank came with difficulty. Unless matters touched upon fundamental questions of right and wrong, most people preferred to drift with the current.

“This subordinate obeys.”

Liu Chuanyi withdrew.

The Savage King stopped him in the front hall.

“Chief Liu, I’ll have to trouble you to provide me with a copy of the Secret Intelligence Department’s records on Yingdu.

“Nothing excessive.

“Just who is related to whom, whose descendants benefited from whose influence, things like that.

“Shouldn’t be difficult, right?”

Liu Chuanyi looked at Gou Moli.

Naturally, he could never have guessed that the man before him was the Savage King who had once thrown all Jin into chaos.

Then he glanced back toward the rear hall.

“Wait here. Liu will have someone deliver it immediately.”

“Wonderful.

“I’ll be waiting.”

Liu Chuanyi left.

Across the hall, the Blind Man continued writing slips without raising his head.

“How does it feel?”

The Savage King answered:

“If we truly wanted to rebel, it seems like it wouldn’t be very difficult.”

And this was with none of Snow Sea Pass’s own main forces mobilized.

Yet they had already nearly seized half of Yingdu.

The Blind Man shook his head.

“That is because many people can tell Master does not actually intend to rebel.”

“But if we waited until momentum formed, we could simply sweep them along with us.

“We could go to Prince Cheng Residence, raise Situ Yu back onto the throne, and restore Great Cheng.

“Then reward the generals of the Jin camps heavily, win over the hearts of Jin troops, and combine them with our own forces.

“There would be something worth attempting, wouldn’t there?”

The Blind Man laughed.

“And then, a few days later, the Marquis of Jingnan would come over and personally twist Master’s head off?”

“Tsk...”

Gou Moli rubbed his head with a pained expression.

“The court would not even need to organize an army to suppress us.

“One military order from the Marquis of Jingnan, and aside from our own direct troops, every soldier in Yingdu would scatter like birds and beasts.

“You do not understand the Marquis of Jingnan’s prestige throughout Jin.”

“How could I not understand?

“I contributed plenty to that prestige myself.”

Gou Moli returned to his chair.

The two men truly found one another rather congenial.

Their temperaments matched.

So did their interests.

The Blind Man was the Demon King most enthusiastic about rebellion.

The Savage King had never been a peaceful man either.

Not long afterward, men from the Secret Intelligence Department delivered a register.

It recorded the offices held by each household, marriage connections, teacher-student relationships, inherited privilege, and various other ties.

If the powerful people of Yingdu were a cast of characters in an opera, this register was the relationship chart tying the entire cast together.

The Blind Man continued issuing arrest slips.

The Savage King read the register while comparing it against copies of the slips already sent out.

He read very quickly.

Anyone capable of accomplishing great things inevitably possessed abilities beyond ordinary men.

The Savage King had once studied Zhenbei Army methods in Beifeng Commandery. Later, he had commanded a patchwork Savage army and crushed the First Prince’s Eastern Expedition Army.

That alone demonstrated terrifying ability to learn and apply what he learned.

The Blind Man finished another arrest slip and rubbed his wrist.

“Why bother reading all that? Better to seize a few more people and cut off a few more heads.”

Their original intention was simply to make the disturbance larger.

To cut off more heads.

“Heh. You can finish the work alone anyway.

“I’m bored, so I might as well take a look.”

In truth, as a former enemy of Great Cheng, and almost the man who single-handedly destroyed it, the Savage King already understood much of Yingdu’s personnel arrangements and tangled relationships.

The person who understood you best was often your enemy.

But more than a year had passed.

With Yan people entering the city, some of Yingdu’s old factions had inevitably changed.

This register conveniently filled the gaps in his memory.

At present, the rhythm inside the city was straightforward.

Jingnan troops continuously seized people.

Those arrested exposed accomplices one after another.

Those who could not expose anyone, or officials who had directly handled the fraud, were already being dragged outside the Prefect’s residence and beheaded.

There was plenty of thunder.

But the rain itself remained light.

Few of Yingdu’s genuinely great clans or major powers had participated.

They did not need to manipulate examination slots.

If they wanted something, they could simply send a note.

Those caught up in the fraud were mostly middle-level officials and families.

With the Jingnan Army suppressing the city, the camps outside sealed by military order, and, most importantly, their own clan gates still untouched, Yingdu’s truly powerful families all remained silent.

They simply allowed Count Pingye’s subordinates to make trouble.

Let him make trouble.

Once he was finished, Count Pingye could not remain in Yingdu forever.

“Our Prefect Mao really does have remarkable patience,” the Savage King remarked while flipping through the register.

The man’s own official residence had been occupied, yet Mao Mingcai had vanished.

He did not even appear interested in reclaiming his own nest.

Without lifting his head, the Blind Man answered:

“The matter is already large enough. The East Gate Camp has mobilized.

“This is no longer mere fooling around.

“If I were Prefect Mao, I would probably be sitting in some other residence right now deciding how to write my memorial.”

“How do you think he will write it?”

“That depends on our attitude.

“In a while, I’ll draft a memorial in Master’s name.

“It will say that Prefect Mao discovered an imperial-examination fraud case and asked Count Zheng, who happened to be passing through, to assist in cleansing the parasites and defending the foundation of Great Yan’s state.”

“He would agree to that?”

“For men like them, face is not the most important thing.

“They know when to bend and when to stand.

“Whether he agrees or not, I cannot say.

“But he will at least consider it.

“Otherwise, we have caused such a disturbance while he, Prefect of Yingdu, proved completely incapable of responding.

“Wouldn’t that simply demonstrate his incompetence and his inability to govern a region on behalf of the Son of Heaven?

“Besides, just as Master told Liu Chuanyi earlier, Master is entering the capital to attend an imperial audience.

“How this affair is ultimately characterized depends on His Majesty’s will.”

“Heh.

“Sounds rather interesting.”

The Savage King continued turning the pages.

While comparing the relationships, he suddenly noticed something unusual.

By now, the Blind Man’s endless stream of arrest slips had brought in and beheaded many people.

Yet Gou Moli noticed that one cluster of people formed a ring around the eldest branch of the Sun Clan.

The head of the Sun Clan was Sun Youdao.

During the days of Great Cheng, he had served as Chancellor.

He had been among the earliest men to follow Situ Lei.

He and Situ Lei once crushed the Chu army at Zhennan Pass, then later accompanied Situ Lei back to court.

After Situ Lei died, Sun Youdao held the collapsing situation together until the First Prince’s Eastern Expedition Army arrived.

He had also personally organized the logistics supporting the great army’s operations.

After the Situ Clan was reduced to Prince Cheng Residence, Sun Youdao seemed to lose his appetite for public affairs.

Once the war ended, he voluntarily withdrew behind the scenes.

The Yan court bestowed upon him the title **Grand Tutor of Cheng State**.

Much like Count Zheng’s title of Grand General of Cheng State, Cheng State no longer existed.

These titles were mostly decorative, aside from the salary and treatment attached to them.

After Sun Youdao withdrew, the current public head of the Sun Clan became his second son, Sun Liang.

It was not because the eldest son lacked ability.

The Savage King knew perfectly well that Sun Youdao’s eldest son was extremely capable.

When Situ Lei launched his final desperate effort before death, the fury among Yingdu’s young nobles had been pushed from the shadows by Sun Youdao’s eldest son, **Sun Ying**.

But Sun Ying’s legs were crippled.

It was inconvenient for him to serve as the Sun Clan’s visible representative.

Yet now there was a ring of households around him.

Some belonged to Sun Ying’s sons-in-law.

Some came from his wife’s maternal clan.

Others were households and families whose connections eventually led back to Sun Ying’s eldest branch of the Sun Clan.

The Savage King stroked his chin.

He was skilled in political schemes.

That was precisely why he could immediately see that Sun Ying using the imperial examination to plant his own people was wasteful.

Even after Sun Youdao withdrew, the Sun Clan remained one of the most influential households in Yingdu.

Even Prince Cheng Residence had to give them face.

If the Sun Clan wanted to place or promote its own people, there was no reason to resort to a method this low-level.

Put differently, the Sun Clan did not need to dig pits and plant saplings from scratch.

It could simply pick mature trees.

They could directly win over officials already serving in Yingdu.

At that moment, Gou Moli suddenly wanted to take out the embroidered shoe and breathe in its scent.

He resisted the urge.

Instead, he raised his head slightly and looked at the Blind Man still writing arrest slips across from him.

He hesitated.

Of course he understood why they had created this affair in the first place.

There was no need to touch Yingdu’s true great clans and major powers.

But the Savage King had his own anxieties.

He needed to prove his usefulness.

Since Count Pingye had brought him outside, he needed to find an opportunity to shine.

Otherwise, once they returned he would either go back into the secret chamber, or perhaps never return at all.

If they decided he was useless and still too dangerous to trust, Count Pingye and Mr. Bei were both perfectly capable of chopping him up and burying him somewhere along the road.

“Whew...”

The Savage King picked up a brush and wrote two characters:

**Sun Ying.**

He waved one hand.

A waiting Lieutenant Commander stepped forward and accepted the slip.

Then the Savage King leaned back in his chair.

Both hands went behind his head.

His fingers kneaded the back of his skull.

His eyelids kept blinking.

And inside his chest, a drumbeat of anxiety began pounding.

...

When Count Zheng had pretended to sleep during his earlier meeting with Liu Chuanyi, it had merely been a tactic to control the atmosphere of the conversation.

Later, Count Zheng genuinely fell asleep.

The journey had been exhausting.

And he had not slept much the previous night.

Count Zheng was a man who valued his health.

Whenever circumstances allowed, he never treated himself harshly.

One afternoon nap lasted until dusk.

When he woke, Count Zheng opened his eyes and stretched, then gestured for the armored guards watching over him to pour him some tea.

These were personal guards.

While Count Zheng slept, they had remained in the rear hall protecting him.

Such an enormous affair was unfolding outside, yet their Count still slept as steadily as a mountain.

The guards could not help admiring him.

Count Zheng naturally had no idea that taking a nap had somehow increased his prestige in the eyes of his own bodyguards.

Once you already worshiped someone, whatever he did appeared surrounded by a halo.

The tea arrived.

Count Zheng held the cup and drank slowly.

He liked tea, but he was not obsessed with it.

To him, tea was mostly for quenching thirst.

At that moment, Gao Yi hurried into the rear hall.

He dropped to one knee before Zheng Fan.

“Count...”

“How many have we killed?”

Count Zheng lowered his head calmly and continued drinking tea.

He failed to notice the excitement and reverence burning in Gao Yi’s eyes.

Kill some people.

Make the affair large enough.

Express the proper attitude.

Then go to the capital, admit his mistake before the Emperor, confess that he became too emotional, and explain the importance of the imperial examination.

After that, the matter would probably pass.

The court would understand his meaning and his temper.

Snow Sea Pass and the surrounding territory would remain under his civil authority without outside interference, at least for a while.

As for falsely invoking the Marquis of Jingnan’s order to mobilize troops, Zheng Fan believed the Marquis would not say anything.

If the Marquis did not deny it, then it was tacit approval.

Tacit approval meant the military order effectively became genuine.

And if the order was genuine, there was no crime to punish.

Count Zheng possessed enormous confidence in the Marquis of Jingnan’s favoritism toward him.

“Count, your foresight is brilliant.

“This general is in awe.

“A detachment went to search Sun Ying’s residence under orders.

“They discovered many rebels hidden inside.

“When our soldiers entered, those men immediately charged out and attempted to break through!

“At the same time trouble broke out at Sun Ying’s residence, the former west-gate defenders suddenly mutinied.

“It looked as though they intended to support the people inside and help them break out through the city.

“The west gate has already raised warning smoke.

“Also, a Jin defense officer from the City Patrol Office suddenly led his subordinates in an assault on Yingdu’s armory.

“The armory garrison has already sent men requesting reinforcements.

“Count... there really are rebels inside Yingdu!”

“...”

Zheng Fan.

————

[End of Chapter 474]