Before coming here, Wei Yuan had also put considerable effort into studying the political landscape of Western Jin's imperial court.
Factional strife in Western Jin was exceptionally fierce. Chief among the various factions were the upright civil officials led by the Left Prime Minister and the Right Prime Minister, the two Grand Secretaries. Yet the Left and Right Prime Ministers were at odds with each other as well. At present, the Right Prime Minister was at a disadvantage; otherwise, Sun Chao'en's silver would not have been paid up as tribute so smoothly.
Next were the nobility and military commanders led by Prince Cheng. Prince Cheng was the current King of Jin's blood uncle, possessed earth-shattering cultivation, and his Mind Manifestation world had already begun to manifest externally. The vast majority of generals commanding heavy military forces in the court belonged to this faction, but Yue Jinshan was not one of them.
Yue Jinshan belonged to no faction at all.
Then there was the eunuch faction headed by Liu Quangong, Grand Eunuch of Ceremonies, and Zhao Tong, Grand Eunuch of the Brush. This faction enjoyed overt and covert support from the King of Jin, yet still struggled bitterly, caught under the joint suppression of both civil officials and military officers.
Originally, this had been the faction Wei Yuan inclined toward. Although eunuch factions never enjoyed a good reputation in historical records, those chronicles were written by scholars, and scholars naturally would never write a kind word about eunuchs. In reading history, Wei Yuan looked only at deeds themselves rather than the court historians' appraisals; viewed that way, a great many things became clear.
Historically, the eunuch faction's ties of interest were relatively straightforward, and what they wanted was simple: mainly money, with power second. Once enriched, many eunuchs would actually get things done. Unlike the civil officials, who let nothing slip by—power, wealth, beauties, pleasures, and reputation; they wanted this, they wanted that, and they wanted more on top of it, their relationships tangled to an exhausting degree.
Another reason was that the eunuch faction was the weakest and held no military authority, which happened to be a shortcoming Wei Yuan could remedy.
To his surprise, Western Jin harbored an even weaker faction: the imperial in-laws. Weak to what extent? Their central figure, the Marquis of Xiang, had actively sought him out on his own initiative.
Wei Yuan had a very clear appraisal of his own standing. In the Palace of Grand Beginning, he was merely a Dao Foundation cultivator, of which the palace had roughly nine thousand. In the mortal world, he could not even count as an independent warlord holding territory, at most a bandit king holding out in the mountains and forests. After repelling the Shamans' offensive, Wei Yuan felt his status had risen somewhat, taking a step closer toward becoming the greatest horse bandit of the Western Regions.
An imperial noble personally recruiting a band of bandits? Wei Yuan figured not even popular romance novels would dare write such a thing, unless that bandit chief went by an alias like "A Single Blossom" or something.
Yet Wei Yuan truly did hold a blossom in his hands.
Wei Yuan said, "This Marquis of Xiang couldn't be eyeing my celestial tree, could he? If so, he's daydreaming."
"He'll certainly eye it, but taking it isn't an absolute requirement. That's why he needs to gauge your strength first. Besides, I suspect there are things in the envoy delegation that higher-ups want, yet don't want anyone knowing about—so it would be best if those items were plundered. Otherwise, there would be no reason for the Marquis of Xiang to bring it up in passing," Sun Chao'en said.
"Understood. When the time comes, I'll adapt as needed. But if someone wants to use me to balance the books, the handling fee might be a bit steep," Wei Yuan said.
The two of them quickly settled on the details, finalizing the matter. Yue Qilin listened from the side, fidgeting in his seat, unable to leave and unable to stay.
Seeing his thoroughly constipated expression, Wei Yuan laughed. "Is the chair uncomfortable?"
Yue Qilin said, "At most, I just traffic in a little military grain and armaments! What you two are doing are capital offenses that'll wipe out whole clans! I've got a family on my shoulders, and I haven't even spent enough tender moments with the new little wife I just married!"
Wei Yuan consoled him, "Trafficking in military grain and armaments also wipes out whole clans. It won't get any worse."
Then Wei Yuan added, "Though I am somewhat curious: General Yue shouldn't be lacking for anything, so how could you sell me a million jin of military grain in one breath?"
Yue Qilin snapped irritably, "First of all, I'm not the one selling grain—Lord Sun is, along with everyone from top to bottom across the entire commandery government, and Lord Li tacitly approved it too, taking no small cut himself. Second, giving the grain to you eases my conscience.
"Lastly, the soldiers in my camp are at full headcount—eight thousand means eight thousand real men. Under imperial court regulations, the allotted funds and grain are enough to feed half that number at best. If I don't scrape together money, what will my brothers eat? This is the front line, where we fight the Shamans. How can they manage without full bellies?"
At that point, Sun Chao'en said, "Speaking of troop headcount, I happen to have an idea. Mister Zhang is here too, so let's deliberate together."
Sun Chao'en produced another map and unrolled it, likewise hand-drawn by himself. This map was slightly less detailed than the previous one, but covered in dense annotations that marked the defensive deployments of all four commanderies in the Shattered Lands.
Yue Qilin sucked in a breath of cold air. "Are you two staging a rebellion?"
Wei Yuan chuckled. "You exaggerate. I'm a law-abiding citizen! I just want to know where the defenses are weak and might be raided by horse bandits."
Several military redoubts were circled with eye-catching red ink; these were traps Yue Jinshan had laid. Several other military redoubts were marked with question marks, so Wei Yuan and Sun Chao'en turned to look at Yue Qilin together.
"What are you looking at me for? This will cost me my head, I'm not doing it!"
Sun Chao'en laughed. "Has General Yue committed few crimes worthy of losing your head? Besides, you wouldn't want bandits attacking your uncle's core troops, would you?"
Yue Qilin snorted and pointed to one spot on the map. "I only know this one. I know nothing about the rest."
Wei Yuan nodded. "Four traps. That should be about enough."
"What do you plan to do?"
Wei Yuan pointed his finger at a small town situated on the second line of defense. "I intend to empty this place out."
Yue Qilin remembered that some grain and fodder were stockpiled in that small town, but not a large quantity—only two or three hundred thousand jin. So he asked, "Are you still short on grain?"
"I'm not, but I need others to believe I am," Wei Yuan said.
Wei Yuan and Sun Chao'en talked well past midnight, scheming over several more matters. Throughout the entire night, Yue Qilin had no idea what his food tasted like; after all, he was implicated in every single one of these major affairs.
This single meal had served up several crimes punishable by death by a thousand cuts.
Now he finally understood that the fellowship in factional politics could come from birds of a feather flocking together, or simply from having one's hands forced.
When he returned to the territory, Wei Yuan had reaped a bountiful harvest, with several more maps tucked into his robes. They detailed military redoubt defenses, commercial trade routes, and the distribution of mineral veins and leylines.
With these schemes, Wei Yuan had no real intention of throwing his lot in with any particular faction; he merely wanted to muddy the waters. As long as he was given enough time, Wei Yuan would return the favor with plenty of surprises.
Through the preceding battles, over forty thousand people in the territory had perished. After obtaining that shipment of military grain, food was no longer in short supply, enough to sustain them until the harvest of the twenty thousand mu of newly cleared farmland.
Among those who survived, nearly half had been tempered by the flames of war, while the rest had lived in the territory for some time and seen their physical constitutions improve considerably.
Facing a shortage of troops, Wei Yuan had early on exchanged merit for several of the most easily accessible Body Casting cultivation methods from the Palace of Grand Beginning, distributing them directly to everyone. Now, among the ninety thousand-odd people, forty thousand had newly advanced to Body Casting; combined with the original number, the entire territory boasted a full sixty thousand Body Casting cultivators.
The vast majority of these so-called Body Casting cultivators were merely at the level of the farmers from Poplar Village back then, but blessed with the territory's power and provided with adequate food and warm clothing, their cultivation progressed remarkably fast, forging their muscles and sinews in just a few months.
In truth, anyone who managed to survive the manifold torments of the Shattered Lands possessed a robust constitution; the weaker ones had died long ago, never surviving to adulthood.
Upon returning to the territory, Wei Yuan carefully handpicked three thousand newly advanced cultivators, preparing to take them out to temper them and see what caliber Western Jin's local garrisons possessed.
Within Qingming, matters were handled with swift decisiveness as always. Wei Yuan had returned before dawn, and by full daylight, the company had already set out, heading eastward.
Chapter 245