In the governor's manor of Yongshui Commandery, the current governor, Lu Weidao, looked at the report in his hand and sneered at once. "This Wei Yuan harbors wolfish ambitions, and he has finally shown his true colors! Leading an army of a hundred thousand into the capital for an audience with the King? How come I've never heard that His Majesty issued an imperial edict?"
Beside him, an officer said, "Lord Lu, Wei Yuan will arrive in a few days. How should we respond? Should we prepare a campsite for them beforehand?"
Lu Weidao sneered, "Prepare a camp for them? Not a grain of food or a drop of water! Pass down the order: shut the gates tight for the next few days and let no one out. I would like to see if this Wei Yuan truly dares to attack!"
The officer advised, "My Lord, Wei Yuan is fierce, arrogant, and dangerously unpredictable. Why provoke such a harbinger of doom?"
Lu Weidao snapped sternly, "We naturally cannot share the earth with rebels and traitors! At worst, it is merely death. If I can leave my name in the annals of history, it will be well worth it!"
The officials dared say no more.
Farther away, Wei Yuan, advancing alongside his main army, received the report as well. He smiled and said to his attendants, "Yongshui Commandery has locked its gates; our envoys couldn't even enter. This Lu Weidao seems to have some backbone!"
From just behind him, Yuan Qingyan snorted and said, "Lu Weidao is stubborn and eccentric by nature. He has offended plenty of people, and his official career reached a dead end long ago. What he loves most is vainglory. He is betting that the Domain Lord will deem him beneath notice and not actually kill him, allowing him to earn the glorious reputation of a loyal and unyielding minister."
Wei Yuan nodded. "So that's how it is."
On this march, Wei Yuan would have to deal with a host of petty officials across the Western Jin bureaucracy akin to Lu Weidao, so he had brought Yuan Qingyan along. Sure enough, Yuan Qingyan knew every official in Western Jin, high and low, like the back of his hand.
Beside them, Cui Yu remarked, "Doesn't that sound a lot like Lord Yuan back in the day?"
Yuan Qingyan shook his head. "Not at all. It was not that I failed to understand worldly affairs; I simply chose to be a solitary minister so His Majesty could employ me with peace of mind. This Lu Weidao desires only fame. He would do anything for renown—the only thing he cannot do is govern a commandery."
Hearing his response, even though Cui Yu still found him distasteful, he could hardly say anything more.
Having grasped the situation, Wei Yuan said, "I was just fretting over having no way to establish my authority, and here Lu Weidao delivers himself right to my doorstep. Perfect—I'll sacrifice him to the banners and let those down the road see whether anyone can win a fine name beneath my hand."
The army rolled forward, arriving before the commandery seat a day later.
Lu Weidao had already led a host of officials to stand atop the city walls. Gazing down at the vast, dark sea of troops stretching endlessly below, many of the officials were trembling so badly their knees knocked together. Lu Weidao, however, was flushed with color, trembling slightly with excitement.
He had long drafted a speech in his mind. Clearing his throat, he had only managed to call out, "Is that Wei Yuan below?" when Wei Yuan let out a thunderous roar. The shout shook the wilderness and echoed through the entire city:
"Insolent! A minuscule, sesame-sized petty official like you—why do you not kneel upon seeing this official? Do you still hold the court in your eyes? Do you still respect royal law? Are you attempting to rebel?"
Lu Weidao was stunned. These towering accusations slapped onto him instantly scattered his rehearsed speech to the winds. He stammered frantically, "You are nothing more than a rebel and a traitor! Why should I kneel—"
Before he could finish, Wei Yuan pulled a scroll from his robes. His voice rang across the whole city, drowning him out completely once more: "The King's imperial edict is here, and you still refuse to kneel? Why have you not taken this rebel into custody?!"
Lu Weidao's mind was in total chaos. Wei Yuan looked every bit like a rebel—how could he actually hold an imperial edict?
Before he could gather his thoughts, Wei Yuan shouted sternly, "Refusing to kneel before the edict, locking the gates against us—Lu Weidao, you are in open rebellion! Men, bombard the city! Today, we capture only the ringleader; the rest are pardoned! Anyone who dares resist shall be slain on the spot without mercy!"
From Wei Yuan's ranks, three eight-drive battle chariots surged forward. Once clear of the formation, each chariot retracted its sixteen legs, dropped its hull to the ground, and anchored firmly with steel spikes driven into the earth. Then, they fired in rapid succession—shattering the city gates to splinters in just a few blasts!
Immediately afterward, more than a dozen dharma idol experts from Wei Yuan's army led hundreds of Dao Foundation cultivators soaring onto the ramparts.
The officials on the wall had already been scared out of their wits. Aside from Lu Weidao, who put up a token struggle, the rest fell to their knees and surrendered outright.
With a wave of Wei Yuan's hand, the army rolled into the city.
The next morning, having eaten and drunk his fill, Wei Yuan arrived at the main hall of the governor's manor. Taking the chief seat, he picked up the gavel and examined it. Finding the quality of the wood quite fine, he casually pocketed it.
Lining both sides of the hall stood the officials of the commandery manor, high and low, disheveled and pale as ash.
Wei Yuan smiled and said, "Though you gentlemen also committed acts of disrespect toward the court, this official has investigated and determined that you were coerced by the rebel, which is excusable. Furthermore, no evidence of treason was found during the searches of your homes last night. Therefore, this matter shall be dropped, and all of you are restored to your posts. Do any of you... have any objections?"
Although their homes had been turned upside down and ransacked, the losses were merely gold, silver, and portable valuables. The deeds to their lands and estates were their real wealth, and Wei Yuan had not touched those. How could any of them dare complain? They hurried to proclaim his magnanimity, offering boundless thanks.
Wei Yuan asked again with a beaming smile, "Since you were all coerced by the rebel, who then is the rebel?"
The officials looked at one another. Suddenly, a petty official dropped to his knees and wept bitterly, "Lu Weidao has long harbored disloyal intentions!"
Wei Yuan was overjoyed. He turned to his attendants and asked, "See what lucrative vacancies there are in this commandery and promote him to one! I'll have the Ministry of Personnel issue the formal appointment later."
The officials carried out the order on the spot. None dared drag their feet; the moment anyone slowed down, Wei Yuan's gaze would sweep over them.
Soon after, Lu Weidao was dragged in. He did not have a stitch of clothing on him and was covered in wounds, clearly having endured a night of torture. Naked before his colleagues, he was so overwhelmed by shame and fury that he nearly fainted.
Wei Yuan cast a glance over his body and chuckled, "So Lord Lu is an ivory toothpick! Rather delicate, to be sure, though it seems the womenfolk of your household have had it rough."
The officials wore bizarre expressions, their eyes darting back and forth.
Lu Weidao spat a mouthful of blood right then and there, choked with speechless rage.
Wei Yuan slammed the scroll onto the desk. "Why do you still refuse to kneel before the imperial edict?"
Only now did Lu Weidao clearly see the format of the scroll. Seething with fury, he cried out, "How is that an imperial edict?!"
"This is the imperial edict."
"Nonsense! That isn't an imperial edict at all!"
Wei Yuan glanced around at the officials. "Gentlemen, is this an imperial edict or not?"
The officials chimed in one after another, "This is indeed His Majesty's imperial edict."
Wei Yuan laughed heartily and took back the scroll. "Excellent! With all of you here, this official can rest easy. Well then, it's time for me to head to the capital. Men, strip Lord Lu of his office and let him go for now. Once I have had my audience with the King in the capital, I shall return to deal with his crimes!"
Wei Yuan then left the governor's manor and marched north out of the city, flanked by his fierce generals. The officials felt as though they had awakened from a nightmare; many fell gravely ill once they returned home.
That night, Lu Weidao threw himself into a cesspool and drowned.
The entire city buzzed with talk of the ivory toothpick and the death in the cesspool; no one cared about Lord Lu's past heroics.
After that, Wei Yuan's journey to the capital went smoothly without any further hindrances. The army snaked northward, stripping seven commanderies clean until not a blade of grass remained, before finally arriving beneath the walls of Yingdu. By then, among the hundreds of thousands of troops, every single man had gained a few pounds.
The Crown Prince had not slept all night.
Dawn had just begun to break, but the council hall in his manor was brilliantly illuminated. The officials all looked weary, having debated for the entire night. The discussion had revolved around a single question: how should they handle Wei Yuan's hundreds of thousands of troops?
A civil official was speaking with passionate fervor, "There are still a hundred thousand Imperial Guards in the city, and several hundred thousand capable fighters. This official is willing to lead tens of thousands of troops atop the walls to defend and keep the enemy outside the city gates—"
"Shut up!" the Crown Prince roared suddenly, startling all the officials.
With an ashen face, the Crown Prince snapped fiercely, "Our main armies are currently in the north, leaving the royal capital empty! Even if this prince were to personally take the field, I couldn't guarantee we would hold the city. Are this prince's troops meant for you to fish for fame and earn posthumous glory?! Empty talk ruins the state—get out!"
The civil official turned pale as dust and did not dare utter another word, slinking out of the hall with his head bowed.
The Crown Prince was typically deep and inscrutable, rarely losing his temper like this. At this moment, he had clearly lost his composure somewhat.
At this point, the Left Prime Minister cleared his throat lightly and said, "Wei Yuan's intentions remain unclear. Why don't we hear what Director Wang of the Directorate of Astronomy has to say?"
An elderly man seated in the back row rose and said, "The secrets of heaven were suddenly thrown into chaos the day before yesterday, yet the state fortune has not waned. From this, Wei Yuan has not come to rebel. This is merely my humble assessment; Your Highness may judge for yourself."
The Crown Prince's expression softened slightly.
The Left Prime Minister then said, "Since Wei Yuan has no rebellious intent, things are much easier to handle. A bit of arrogance is only to be expected. In this old official's view, since he desires an audience with the King, let him have it."
The Crown Prince remained silent for a long time. Only when the morning bell chimed in the distance did he slowly nod.
Beneath the walls of Yingdu, the one who received Wei Yuan was once again Commander of the Nine Gates Lü Zhongzhi. In the past, Lü Zhongzhi had stood aloof and superior, but this time he stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Wei Yuan. Gazing at the dark, vast mass of soldiers before him, a barely perceptible trace of alarm flickered in his eyes.
Maintaining a normal demeanor, he said, "Lord Wei, traveling ten thousand li to the capital—why bring so many men? It drains the people and wastes treasury funds!"
Wei Yuan sighed. "Years of war have made the realm turbulent. Quite a few in the provinces have nurtured treacherous ambitions. I'm someone who values his life, so I brought a few extra men. Speaking of which, I nearly lost my life to an ambush in Yongshui Commandery. The thought of it still fills me with dread. Yet I couldn't do much to Lu Weidao, so in the end, I had no choice but to let him go."
Lü Zhongzhi could only say, "I have heard of that matter as well. There must have been some misunderstanding. But Lu Weidao is already dead, so there's no rush; we can investigate it slowly."
Wei Yuan asked in surprise, "Lu Weidao is dead?"
Lü Zhongzhi cursed inwardly, but said aloud, "He committed suicide out of guilt, which served him right. With his death, his crimes are wiped clean, so let us speak no more of him. How does Lord Wei intend to quarter these troops?"
Wei Yuan said, "I only brought twenty thousand men this time. Squeezing into the barbican will be plenty enough to house them. The other ten or twenty thousand are just laborers; camping right against the city walls will shelter them from the wind and snow."
Lü Zhongzhi cursed again in his heart. This massive, pitch-black swarm—twenty thousand? One or two hundred thousand was more like it! As a late dharma idol cultivator, he wasn't blind.
Still, he forced a smile and asked, "The barbican is narrow; twenty thousand might be a bit cramped."
Wei Yuan laughed. "No matter. If they are quartered inside the city walls, I can conceal their military qi within myself. If some late dharma idol cultivator tries to assassinate me, I'll suppress him with military qi, and he'll be little better than a pig."
Lü Zhongzhi, a late dharma idol cultivator himself, let out a few dry laughs.
Thereafter, everything proceeded just as Wei Yuan wished. Once the army was garrisoned, Wei Yuan took several hundred personal guards and moved into an official courier station within the city, preparing for an audience with the King the following morning.
Outside the city, within the Jingang Zen Monastery, Qingtong slowly opened her eyes. Her irises were a deep, fathomless teal as she murmured softly, "...The moment of heaven's design has arrived."
Chapter 685