At the turn of summer and autumn in the thirteenth year of Hongjing, the weather was favorable and the fields yielded bountiful harvests. It was a rare year of bumper crops, and good tidings arrived one after another from all quarters. And then, rebels rose in revolt.
In the imperial court, the King of Ji was furious. He hurled dozens of memorials bearing good tidings from various commanderies right before the assembled ministers and roared, "Rebels! Rebels again! Didn't you say this was a bumper year? Didn't you say the weather was favorable and there were no disasters anywhere?
"Why are there rebels again? Just how much have you lot embezzled? Must I empty my entire private treasury into your pockets before you are satisfied?!"
With a rustle of robes, the frightened officials dropped to their knees en masse. Sun Chao'en was not only the quickest to kneel, but he was also the only one prostrating flat against the floor.
The King of Ji was so infuriated that he let out a bitter laugh. He scooped up a stack of memorials, hurled them at Sun Chao'en, and barked, "Didn't you say the bandits were wiped out completely last time?"
Head pressed against the floor, Sun Chao'en replied, "The old rebels were certainly eradicated. This new batch must have risen in revolt only this season."
"Risen in revolt?" the King of Ji said, his voice turning chillingly cold.
Sun Chao'en remained prostrate. "Your Majesty was entirely right just now—someone must have embezzled so ruthlessly that despite the bountiful harvest, the common people still cannot survive. This subject believes we should thoroughly investigate officialdom in the south, especially the generals of the southern border army."
The moment Sun Chao'en spoke, an immediate chorus of agreement followed. Many veteran and senior ministers exchanged knowing glances and began attacking the commanding generals in the south in unison.
Although many veteran and senior officials in the State of Ji's court were currently at daggers drawn with Sun Chao'en, they still shared common ground on many matters—such as joining forces against the military generals and titled nobility.
The Embroidered Uniform Office was also a formidable faction, but the Chief Director of the Embroidered Uniform Office was too powerful and fiercely loyal to the King of Ji. Thus, the civil official bloc wisely united to prune away the opponents they could handle first.
With the King of Ji already in a foul temper, the looks he directed at the military ranks were decidedly hostile. Under the pressure of the King of Ji's murderous glare, the General Who Pacifies the South, who oversaw the southern border army, had no choice but to step forward and petition: "Your Majesty, the southern bandit infestation is nothing more than a rabble. With the elite soldiers of our border army and the formidable passes at our disposal, we will surely sweep them clean in the blink of an eye."
The King of Ji gave a heavy snort. "It had best be as you say!"
The General Who Pacifies the South continued, "With the natural barrier of Dingnan Pass, the rebels can never break through and can only operate in a remote corner of the borderlands. Therefore, this general implores Your Majesty to dispatch capable senior officials south to thoroughly investigate the causes of these widespread uprisings and discover which tier of government has embezzled the people's vital grain!"
The King of Ji said in a deep voice, "So it should be!"
Thereupon, the King of Ji singled out a handful of officials, led by an inspecting censor, to travel south and investigate local officials for corruption and illicit acts. Once this decree came down, many bigwigs among the civil officials could barely hide their smug satisfaction.
This imperial envoy delegation was composed almost entirely of clean-stream civil officials, filled with old acquaintances and proteges of the faction's senior figures. Once they reached the south, wouldn't they be free to investigate and prosecute whomever they pleased?
When that time came, officials aligned with the clean-stream faction would remain untouched, while heads would roll among their political rivals.
The senior ministers were well-practiced in such tactics, though they hadn't expected the King of Ji to be so cooperative this time, barely mixing any counterweights into the delegation. The officials privately guessed that the sudden rebellion had caught the King off guard, driving him into such a frantic rage that he had made a blundering move.
Regardless, now that they held the Shangfang Sword, the ministers intended to orchestrate a bloodbath in the south, letting heads roll and blood flow like rivers. Even if the King of Ji realized something was amiss later on, it would already be too late; the entire south would fall into the hands of the clean-stream faction.
And so the matter was settled. Because the military situation was urgent, the imperial envoy left the capital the very next day, heading south. At the same time, several spirit sparrows took flight from a courtyard somewhere in the royal capital and flew westward.
Two days later, a spirit sparrow landed in Wei Yuan's palm. Wei Yuan activated the formation concealed within the sparrow and heard a voice message, followed by a route map.
Wei Yuan unrolled a map, compared it briefly against the route, selected a location, and issued an order.
Qingming mobilized far faster than the Ji army. In the blink of an eye, a force was fully assembled and ready. An hour later, three flying boats ascended into the sky—one purely for troop transport, and the other two serving both as transports and escorts.
The three flying boats climbed high into the sky and sailed brazenly over the heads of the defending troops along the Ji defensive line. On the Ji military positions, every dharma idol general tilted their head up, watching the three Qingming flying boats glide past thousands of feet in the air.
The garrison commander immediately issued a strict order forbidding any soldier from attempting to attack the flying boats overhead—even aiming at them was prohibited. Anyone caught doing so would be subject to military law and punished without mercy.
High in the Immortal Heaven, Cangwu opened his eyes slightly, looked down at the three flying boats glowing with the azure light of karmic luck, and couldn't help letting loose a string of vile curses.
Wei Yuan had deep pockets these days, blessing every departing warrior with karmic luck.
Thus, the three flying boats reached their destination without incident, unloaded the troops, and flew to another location to hover at high altitude on standby.
Half a day later, the imperial envoy's convoy passed through a defile sandwiched between two mountains. Suddenly, piercing whistles shrieked above the column. Countless artillery shells rained from the sky, blasting the several-thousand-strong force into complete disarray. Then, a storm of bullets hailed down from the hilltops on either side, cutting down swathes of soldiers trying to flee up the slopes and driving the survivors back into the middle of the road to be pulverized by artillery fire.
The artillery fire roared incessantly. After half an hour of continuous shelling, all signs of life in the valley finally fell silent. The sole official at the mid dharma idol stage attempted to take to the air and flee, but eight flying swords pierced through the sky. Eight against one, they struck him down midair in an instant.
All eight flying swords possessed dharma-idol-level power, though only one was at late dharma idol. The other seven acted in support, each at early dharma idol, backed by Gold Core dharma idols. Even so, the seven Gold Cores—three yang and four yin—formed a sword array that multiplied their might severalfold. A single strike shattered the inspecting censor's protective Dharmic powers, and the leading Qingming general at late dharma idol followed up with a fatal blow.
Three days later, the news reached the royal capital of Ji: the imperial envoy mission had been ambushed by rebels the moment they entered the southern borderlands, and the entire party had been wiped out. From the inspecting censor on down, not a soul survived.
Military law in the State of Ji was draconian. If an imperial envoy perished, every guard soldier was to be put to death. Therefore, even if any soldiers had survived, none dared return to camp, much less go home; their only choice was to flee to distant parts and turn to banditry.
Upon receiving the report, the King of Ji was furious, and civil and military officials throughout the court were stunned, bewildered as to how the rebels possessed such uncanny prowess to execute so precise an ambush against the imperial envoy.
The clean-stream faction suffered heavy losses this time. The inspecting censor had been quite young, a prime prospect for prime minister in the future. His loss was a crushing blow to the clean-stream faction at court.
Naturally, the clean-stream faction first suspected the military generals, believing that the martial nobility had seen through the civil officials' ploy and deliberately orchestrated an assassination. The military generals, on the other hand, believed the clean-stream faction had staged a self-harm scheme to frame them.
The only person no one suspected was Sun Chao'en, because he had consistently striven to suppress the military generals and purge the south, making him a natural ally of the clean-stream civil officials on the matter of the imperial commission. From every angle, Sun Chao'en ought to have wanted the envoy to reach the south safely.
The various factions bickered endlessly, ultimately reaching no conclusion.
The King of Ji cast suspicious glances back and forth across the court. Yet every official was a consummate actor—some feigned anxiety, others anger, and others deep contemplation, with none giving away the slightest flaw. Over the past several decades, those with poor acting skills had either been beheaded or exiled without exception; only true masters of the craft remained.
Ruler and subjects alike were thoroughly accustomed to court debates leading nowhere. In any case, the rebels were still only operating in the borderlands. Furthermore, the King of Ji already knew that Li Zhi was mobilizing troops and massing them in the southwest. But the first obstacle Li Zhi had to face was the formidable Dingnan Pass, and the King of Ji simply did not believe that Li Zhi, marching on an exhausting long campaign, could possibly take it.
What truly worried the King of Ji was the direction of Southern Qi, where Li Zhi's father, Duke Huien, had personally donned armor and taken the field, leading an army of three hundred thousand to the border to face off against Ji's eastern border army. Though hostilities had yet to break out, everyone knew war was only a matter of time.
As for having a righteous pretext, that was never an issue—if one wished to find an excuse, one could always be found. Even if the King of Ji gained a few ounces of fat around his waist, it could be brandished as grounds for a punitive campaign.
While the eyes of the entire State of Ji, both court and commoner, were fixed on the eastern border, a rebel force had already appeared outside Dingnan Pass.
This rebel army was exceedingly peculiar. They pitched camp dozens of li away from the fortress pass, and then began continuously digging trenches and all manner of bizarre fieldworks in front of their camp, pushing heavy artillery pieces into the positions one by one.
Meanwhile, in a strange firing position a hundred li behind the main camp, cylinders dozens of feet tall slowly rose upright. In charge here was Wang Hu, built like an iron tower. He swept his hand across the missiles one by one, establishing divine sense guidance. He then checked the time and waved his broad hand. A missile spewed blazing flames, slowly lifting into the air before accelerating rapidly, vanishing over the horizon in the blink of an eye.
Wang Hu took to the sky to guide the missile with his divine sense. Moments later, it plummeted like a meteor toward the walls of Dingnan Pass.
The garrison on the pass walls had never seen a missile before. Most only saw a spark of fire emerge beyond the clouds, and then, in an instant, the missile was right before their eyes!
The missile plunged with terrifying speed. The dharma idol general on the wall had only just ascended when it struck. A monstrous fireball erupted and slowly rose into the sky.
The shockwave swept away everything along the wall within a thousand feet. Within three hundred feet, even Dao Foundation cultivators were gravely wounded, while those below Dao Foundation were annihilated without exception.
This missile packed more than a ton of explosive payload, wielding unprecedented power. A single blast ripped open a colossal breach in the pass wall. But Wang Hu was not finished. Successive missiles rained down one after another—dozens of strikes that battered the wall, leaving eight or nine massive breaches.
Then came the roar of heavy artillery. This time, the rebels had prepared a full two hours of artillery saturation. Hundreds of heavy guns pounded relentlessly, firing over a hundred thousand shells in total. Within a thousand feet of the walls, not a blade of grass survived, and not a single living thing remained.
Only then did Wang Hu wave his broad hand, and the infantry advanced, occupying the empty Dingnan Pass. In their hurried advance, several soldiers slipped and fell, and one heavy cannon suffered a barrel burst, adding a few minor casualties to the tally.
It was not until ten days later that the battle report reached the State of Ji's court, claiming they had been besieged by several hundred thousand rebel troops, that the defenders had fought bloody battles for days and nights, suffering more than fifty percent casualties while slaying over a hundred thousand rebels, but in the end had been overwhelmed by superior numbers and defeated.
The fall of Dingnan Pass silenced the entire imperial court in an instant.
The King of Ji stared blankly for a moment, then suddenly turned his gaze upon Sun Chao'en, his eyes burning with murderous intent.
Showing no fear, Sun Chao'en stepped forward and memorialized, "This subject believes these rebels have nothing to do with Wei Yuan of Qingming."
The King of Ji's expression softened slightly. "Why do you say that?"
Sun Chao'en said, "It is quite simple. If Wei Yuan no longer wished to negotiate, he would only need to march his army straight in. He has already massed three million troops right now. Which general in this court dares claim he can stop an army of three million fierce beasts? If any lord here says he can hold them off for even half a month, Chao'en will slit his own throat right here to apologize to Your Majesty!"
At those words, not a single general among the assembled military officials dared utter a word.
Sun Chao'en waited a moment before continuing, "Whatever Wei Yuan wants, he can simply ask for it outright. Why would he send men tens of thousands of li away to stir up trouble on the southern frontier? Does he have nothing better to do?"
The King of Ji nodded slowly, the murderous intent fading from his eyes.
Chapter 1094