Chapter 476: Suppressing the Rebellion!

“Everything is under this Count’s control.”

Although...

Count Zheng still had no idea exactly what he had supposedly brought under control.

But at a moment like this, for the sake of Prefect Mao’s feelings, he could hardly tell him:

*You knelt to the wrong man!*

How badly would that wound the heart and dignity of a great regional official?

To preserve the man’s face, Count Zheng had no choice but to silently shoulder everything himself.

Fortunately, the objective was now perfectly clear.

A rebellion had broken out in Yingdu.

Then suppress it.

“Lord Mao, please enter the residence and rest. Wait here for this Count.”

“Yes, Count.”

This time Mao Mingcai was exceptionally compliant. He understood that internal disorder had already erupted in Yingdu and that the city urgently needed one central figure to stabilize it. At a moment like this, it was best for Yingdu to have only one voice.

The Blind Man walked over, supported Mao Mingcai by the arm, and gestured for him to go inside.

The Savage King, the man who had actually punctured the whole affair, did not follow them in.

Instead, he continued after Count Zheng.

Once Zheng Fan mounted the Pixiu, Gou Moli quietly squeezed a personal guard off his horse and climbed into the saddle himself.

In truth, only a very small number of people inside Snow Sea Pass knew the Savage King’s identity. These personal guards did not know either. But they often saw him playing board games with Mr. Bei, so they automatically calibrated his status accordingly.

The guard whose horse had been stolen did not become angry. He simply fell back in silence.

As one military report after another continued arriving, Count Zheng gradually entered his proper state of mind.

Whatever else one might say, he had spent years following Liang Cheng and learning warfare. The Marquis of Jingnan had personally instructed him as well. He had fought in campaign after campaign, north and south, and had personally witnessed nearly every kind of battle there was to see, always from the very front.

With teachers of that absurd caliber and so much firsthand battlefield experience, even if one placed a pig in Count Zheng’s position, it could probably grunt out a few theories of armchair warfare.

And Count Zheng was not a pig.

Previously, for the sake of the greater situation and out of caution, he had continuously postponed opportunities to command entirely on his own.

But in the situation before him now, he saw nothing difficult about it.

Since ancient times, anyone seeking rebellion needed two things above all else: military force and legitimacy.

Military force came first.

At present, the rebel-infiltrated elements of the north and south camps outside Yingdu had already been completely suppressed.

So long as those two camps remained stable, the rebellion erupting within Yingdu might look impressive, but it was nothing more than empty flame.

It could not burn anyone badly.

Nor could it burn for long.

As for legitimacy, there was no need to think about it.

The rebels would inevitably rally around the former ruler, Situ Yu.

“Transmit my order. Tell the commander of the West Gate Camp to divide his troops into three forces immediately. Two are to watch the north and south camps respectively. The third is to enter the city and assist in suppressing the rebellion.”

“Yes!”

“Gao Yi, take a detachment to Prince Cheng Residence immediately. Bring Situ Yu to the Prefect’s residence for protection.

“If he refuses to come, tell him he bears the consequences himself!

“Tell him those words come from this Count!”

“This general obeys!”

“The rest of you, follow this Count to the armory!”

A vast quantity of weapons was stored in Yingdu’s armory.

If the rebels seized and opened it, a large amount of military equipment could easily be scattered throughout the city.

Of course, they could not instantly turn ordinary townspeople into an organized army simply by handing them sabers, spears, bows, and crossbows. Untrained civilians remained limited threats even with weapons in hand.

But to prevent future trouble, that spark still needed to be stamped out in advance.

Count Zheng therefore led his armored guards directly toward the armory.

Fighting was still raging there.

The soldiers originally guarding the armory had been caught off guard when Zhou Ren of the City Patrol Office suddenly launched a surprise attack with his own subordinates, throwing the garrison into disorder.

Fortunately, the armory itself had been designed with exactly this sort of emergency in mind.

The remaining defenders immediately began sealing one locked gate after another, successfully delaying Zhou Ren and his men.

That bought enough time for the first reinforcements Gao Yi had dispatched the moment news arrived.

At present, the battle around the armory had split into two fronts.

One lay inside.

The other filled the street outside.

Whether it was Count Zheng’s three hundred personal guards or the Jingnan troops he had mobilized earlier, both were absolute elites and hardened battlefield veterans.

Their true strength did not lie merely in superior weapons and armor, nor in exceptional individual courage.

Naturally, neither of those things was lacking.

Their greatest advantage was that veterans of real battle understood how to remain stable inside confusion and slaughter.

Take the Jingnan soldiers currently fighting the rebels in the street.

As the first reinforcements to arrive, they had not rushed forward recklessly against Zhou Ren and the rebel adherents converging from nearby.

Instead, they formed ranks and used the relatively narrow street to conduct a layered fighting withdrawal.

Whenever the rebels believed they had finally driven the soldiers back and prepared to rush inward to seize and open the armory, the Jingnan troops immediately pressed forward again, applying continuous pressure and preventing them from achieving their objective.

The Savage King, riding near Count Zheng, watched the scene and could not stop himself from licking his lips in envy.

This.

This was why Great Yan was strong.

The quality of its soldiers was almost impossible to answer.

During the second Battle of Wang River, the Savage King’s army had possessed plenty of captured equipment. In terms of weapons and armor, it truly had not been especially poor.

Yet when it collided head-on with the combined Zhenbei and Jingnan forces personally led by the Marquis of Jingnan, it rapidly disintegrated.

It was not because his men lacked courage.

It was not because the warriors of the Holy Race feared death.

Before battle, the Savage King had even used the method he understood best, speeches and agitation, to fill them with absolute fervor.

But under the Marquis of Jingnan’s command, the Yan formations changed while charging.

Like packs of wolves, they penetrated and tore into the Savage army from multiple directions, directly shattering the command structure.

After that, unit after unit collapsed on its own.

The casualties caused by the initial head-on collision between the two armies had not actually been particularly severe.

Yan had simply crushed them on the level of tactics and organization.

And that crushing difference could be summarized by a term the Savage King had once heard from the Blind Man.

A cruel term.

A realistic one.

A **generational gap**.

The Zhenbei Army had been founded more than a century ago upon the bones of the State of Qian’s five-hundred-thousand-man northern expedition.

For the century that followed, it hunted and fought across the desert against barbarians who had once been unstoppable.

Every Lieutenant Commander in the Jingnan Army had been personally promoted by the Marquis of Jingnan.

Over more than ten years, Tian Wujing had completely infused that army with his understanding of cavalry warfare.

And Gou Moli?

He had spent more than ten years enduring and hiding, wandering beneath Heaven, then risen upon the snowfields only in the final few years.

Yes, he possessed a core body of troops who had followed him from the beginning.

But the vast majority of his army had still been assembled in a very short time.

That truly was a generational gap.

Zheng Fan lifted one arm.

He did not even draw the barbarian saber from the Pixiu’s mouth.

He simply raised his hand and pointed forward with casual indifference.

“Break their formation.”

His tone was light and natural, without the slightest hint of smoke or fire.

Exactly like when he had sat on the threshold of the Education Administration surrounded by corpses.

Behind him, more than two hundred riders immediately moved out.

They began urging their horses forward in loose echelon formations, building speed in separate waves.

Count Zheng did not throw every man into the charge.

This was a street, not open country.

There was little room to maneuver.

Fewer riders would actually produce a better result.

The sort of thing where a commander raised his saber and screamed:

“Brothers! Kill them with me!”

Then everyone surged forward in one giant mob.

First, it was stupid.

Second, warfare handled that way lost all sense of precision.

There was no beauty in it.

Liang Cheng preferred stable, cautious warfare.

Perhaps because Count Zheng’s foundation had always been thin, Liang Cheng had also been forced to learn how to calculate every expenditure carefully when fighting.

Tian Wujing, by contrast, favored precision.

No matter how complicated the battlefield became, he could peel it apart thread by thread.

He was like an extraordinarily skilled craftsman.

No matter how chaotic the fighting outside his workshop became, he simply repaired the object in his hands one deliberate step at a time.

Once the object was repaired, he opened the door.

And the enemy army collapsed.

Count Zheng had probably been influenced a little more by Tian Wujing’s tactical style.

It was not because he believed the Marquis of Jingnan’s way of fighting was inherently superior to Liang Cheng’s.

He simply thought... the Marquis of Jingnan looked incredibly handsome when commanding a battle.

Back when Count Zheng had merely been Garrison Commander of Cuiliu Fort, he possessed only a small group of barbarian troops.

Fan Li, that idiot, had even trained them to scream “Ura!” whenever they charged.

Later, when Zheng Fan accompanied the Marquis of Jingnan into the capital and commanded the Marquis’s personal guards inside a Prince’s residence... he drew his saber.

He sheathed his saber.

And every guard around him moved in perfect unison.

From that moment on, Count Zheng finally understood.

That.

That was the feeling he wanted.

A man living one lifetime lived for responsibility.

A man living a second lifetime... ought to live with style.

The cavalry charge entered the battle.

One impact ripped straight through the rebels massed ahead.

The armored soldiers who had remained beside Zheng Fan deliberately dismounted and followed on foot to finish the work.

Meanwhile, the first reinforcement unit that had been holding formation surged forward the moment they saw their own Count arrive with support.

In an instant, the entire situation around the armory reversed.

A rebellion rose by relying upon one breath of momentum.

If that breath failed to continue, it stalled.

Once it stalled, disorder followed.

Once disorder came, the formation broke.

Once the formation broke... the army routed.

Whether a battle was large or small, the principle was the same.

Long ago, when Zheng Fan and Tian Wujing had ridden alone into the Tianduan Mountains, Tian Wujing had explained something to him.

War was not about thinking of how to kill every enemy.

It was about thinking of how to make the enemy collapse.

The rebels tried to flee.

The cavalry that had just punched through them wheeled around and caught them with sabers.

Many others threw down their weapons, knelt, and surrendered.

A Lieutenant Commander turned his gaze toward Count Zheng.

Zheng Fan merely smiled.

“Leave none alive.”

It was not because Count Zheng was bloodthirsty, cruel, or addicted to killing.

The entire city was still in chaos.

This was precisely the moment to extinguish disorder through thunderous measures.

Who had time to take prisoners, imprison them, register them, and slowly sort them out?

Besides, once a rebellion ended, the people who died were never limited to those killed while fighting.

A major purge was inevitable afterward.

Treason had always been the crime most fond of collective implication.

More people would die later.

What happened now was merely drizzle.

The rebels trapped inside the armory broke as soon as Yan troops surged in from outside.

With nowhere to flee, they were all killed.

Count Zheng stroked the Pixiu’s mane while continuing to divide his forces and issue orders.

One unit was sent toward the west gate.

Another was sent to the gates and residences of every major clan in the city with orders forbidding them to leave their homes or dispatch household guards into the streets.

They were permitted only to defend their own gates.

Even if they claimed they were coming out to help suppress the rebellion, violating the order would still be treated as treason.

Another group rode through the streets carrying banners and warning the common people not to leave their homes.

Yingdu was placed under curfew and martial restriction.

After those orders were given, there was not much left to do.

Especially once fresh reports arrived that after dispatching more than three thousand men to watch the north and south camps, the West Gate Camp had sent several thousand additional cavalry into Yingdu.

This empty blaze would soon be snuffed out.

What came after that would be locating the diseased tissue and cutting it away.

And that diseased tissue could not possibly be small.

The rebellion’s flame might have been weak, but it had produced far too many sparks.

This was absolutely not something that a few fugitives hiding in mountain villages or commoner alleys could have coordinated.

Count Zheng stretched lazily.

For a moment, he found himself oddly at a loss.

The armory had been secured.

Reports were continuously arriving that rebel bands elsewhere had been defeated.

He actually did not know where he should go next.

He had originally considered visiting Prince Cheng Residence, drinking a cup of wine there, and lecturing the young Prince Cheng a little, purely to fill the otherwise boring stretch of time.

But Gao Yi sent word that before he could even lead men to the princely residence, Prince Cheng himself had already brought his household guards to the Prefect’s residence of his own accord.

Being too sensible was not always good.

It left Count Zheng with nothing to do.

Fortunately, the Savage King beside him might not possess the Blind Man’s mental powers, but his skill at reading people was no worse.

He immediately detected Count Zheng’s awkward situation.

“Count, we can go to the Sun Residence now.”

Only then did Zheng Fan remember.

He had left in a hurry earlier, but he still remembered the rebellion had first ignited at the Sun household.

Sun Ying’s residence had been like a fuse that instantly set the entire city ablaze.

Count Zheng immediately asked:

“How did we end up investigating the Sun Clan in the first place?”

!!!

The Savage King was so moved he nearly burst into tears.

He had waited and waited for this question.

At last.

At last Count Zheng had asked it.

This had been his doing.

His inspired stroke.

Count, your Little Dog is useful!

Little Dog can help you accomplish things!

Throwing Little Dog back into the secret chamber, or chopping him up halfway to the capital, would be a criminal waste of talent!

No matter how excited he felt inside, Gou Moli did not show it too obviously.

At least, not while making his report.

A superior could appreciate you.

But if you became so pleased with yourself that you acted intoxicated by your own importance, you quickly became irritating.

“Count, please punish this servant. The arrest slip ordering the search of Sun Ying’s residence was written by me.”

“Oh?”

Zheng Fan was somewhat surprised.

Their original plan had been very simple.

Gather enough heads.

Make the affair large enough to express his position.

They had never intended to strike at Yingdu’s genuinely great households.

Yet somehow the whole matter had exploded beyond expectations while simultaneously developing in the direction most favorable to Zheng Fan.

Judging by the way Prefect Mao had knelt before him earlier and actively confessed his own faults... the Prefect who might originally have intended to write a memorial impeaching him would probably spend tonight composing a memorial praising Count Zheng as a brilliant and loyal pillar of Great Yan instead.

“Count, when this servant was reading copies of the arrest slips, I discovered a whole group around Sun Ying, eldest son of the Sun Clan, who had entered the examination compound through substitution.

“But the Sun Clan should have been far above needing such crude methods.

“That made this servant suspicious.

“So I acted without permission and wrote an arrest slip for Sun Ying.”

“That alone?”

Zheng Fan was genuinely curious.

Had Gou Moli really pulled such a huge fish from such faint traces?

The Savage King clenched his teeth and answered directly:

“Count, this servant once played against Situ Lei and Great Cheng.

“So I was already extremely familiar with the tangled relationships inside Yingdu and the temperaments of its different factions.”

Hearing this, Zheng Fan nodded.

That explanation he could accept.

Perhaps this really was the Savage King’s instinct.

When Gou Moli read through those arrest lists, he did not approach them like the Blind Man, whose goal was simply to finish the work cleanly and efficiently.

He viewed them from above.

Almost like an Emperor examining his own ministers.

He analyzed each name.

And eventually... he analyzed his way to Sun Ying of the Sun Clan.

“This time, I’ll credit you with one merit.”

“Many thanks, Count!”

Gou Moli’s heart surged.

He knew this was a good beginning.

Count Zheng patted the Pixiu beneath him and said to those around him:

“To the Sun Residence.

“Grand Tutor Sun’s residence.”

Sun Ying’s own estate had already been broken into.

Naturally, the place they intended to visit now was the Sun Clan’s main residence.

With nothing else pressing to do, Count Zheng decided to meet the former Chancellor of Great Cheng.

He and the Blind Man had once joked about a peculiar custom among Jin men.

Behind every successful man in Jin, there always seemed to stand an even more successful man.

Now...

Count Zheng was going to meet the man who had stood behind Situ Lei.

But just as Zheng Fan’s party rounded the corner of the next street, a black figure suddenly vaulted over the courtyard wall on the opposite side.

The newcomer wore an iron mask and wielded a broken saber.

He launched himself directly at Count Zheng.

An expert among the rebels.

“Protect the Count!”

Gou Moli immediately sprang from his horse, intending to throw himself in front of Zheng Fan and block the blade.

Unfortunately, the Pixiu stood two heads taller than an ordinary warhorse.

Gou Moli failed to clear it.

Instead, he slammed bodily into the Pixiu and tumbled to the ground.

It was not some clumsy scheme to demonstrate loyalty while avoiding real danger.

He genuinely knew exactly who was protecting Count Zheng.

He had peeled roasted chestnuts for that man all the way here!

Two armored guards reacted instantly and raised their sabers to intercept.

A layer of saber aura erupted from the masked man’s broken blade, blasting both guards aside.

The assassin completely exposed his own back to their counterattacks, caring nothing for the sabers behind him.

He wanted only to close the distance to Count Zheng in a single instant.

Count Zheng narrowed his eyes.

Instinctively, he began turning his body sideways, just as he would evade arrows on a battlefield and use his own mount as cover.

Buzz!

At that moment, a sharp sword-cry tore through the air.

Longyuan shot across the street and struck the broken saber directly.

The masked man’s blade shuddered violently.

Forced by the impact, he had no choice but to turn.

That single pause was enough.

Armored soldiers immediately closed around him from every direction.

At the same time, another group formed layer after layer around their Count, shielding Zheng Fan behind them.

The masked man gave a quiet laugh.

He knew.

His assassination had failed.

Longyuan turned in the air.

Then flew back into the hand of a figure dressed in white.

The masked man raised his head and stared at that figure.

He shouted:

“I never imagined that the once-mighty Sword Saint of Great Jin would stoop to wagging his tail and serving a Yan dog noble!”

The white-robed Sword Saint walked forward slowly.

The armored soldiers around him opened a path, allowing him to face the masked man directly.

There was a trace of desolation in the Sword Saint’s expression.

The masked man could not see it.

But from the Sword Saint’s tone, he could probably imagine an extremely ugly look on his face.

“Yu Huaping.

“Yu Huaping!

“Do you still remember that you are a man of Jin?”

“I remember,” the Sword Saint answered.

“So you still remember!

“You actually dare say you remember!

“Yu Huaping.

“Lord Sword Saint.

“Hahaha!

“Today you can block a blade for this Yan dog.

“Tomorrow, will you be drinking merrily with the Savage King too?”

Gou Moli, sprawled on the ground nearby, raised his head.

“...”

The Sword Saint fell silent.

————

[End of Chapter 476]