Ting County sat on the northeastern fringe of Xiangshui Commandery; step just outside the county walls and one was practically in the territory of another commandery. While this small county seat had been spared the devastation of war for the moment, it was currently packed with commandery officials ranging from the governor down to roving commanders, suffering human disaster in full measure.
The governor had taken refuge here along with his entire retinue of officials, which meant they were not yet considered to have fled their jurisdiction. But if the rebels truly marched this way, flight would be their only option.
At that moment, the governor stood crowded around a map with a cluster of officials and vice generals, staring intently at Guantun County. Clearly marked on the map was the fact that Guantun County had already been seized by the Military Commissioner of Qingyang from Great Tang.
The governor turned and asked, "Have you sensed the boundary stones?"
An elderly cultivator opened bleary eyes and said, "I have. The boundary stone of Guantun County remains undisturbed. The boundary stones of the surrounding counties and cities have all been uprooted, and there are currently eight boundary stones gathered in Guantun County. Aside from Guantun and Ting County, only one other boundary stone remains unmoved."
The governor's expression darkened. "Our commandery has twenty counties, yet only twelve boundary stones remain? Eight boundary stones have been destroyed?"
The gathered officials all turned pale as ashes. Having a boundary stone uprooted was an offense far graver than losing territory. To have it uprooted and then destroyed was utterly unforgivable; mere execution was not enough—it warranted the extermination of the entire clan.
A vice general suddenly chimed in, "Why are there so many boundary stones in Guantun County?"
Another added, "This is bad! That man intends to run off with the boundary stones!"
"What Military Commissioner of Qingyang? He's clearly come to steal our boundary stones!"
"Governor, you are Grand Secretary Xu's nephew-in-law! An official of Great Tang dares come into our State of Ji's territory to plunder—we cannot simply let him get away with it!"
The governor's face shifted through dark uncertainty before he finally settled on a plan. "Send someone to Guantun County to order that so-called Military Commissioner of Qingyang to withdraw from our commandery's borders and surrender all nineteen boundary stones! If he refuses, this official will submit a memorial to the throne charging him with treason!"
The assembled officials all recognized that the count of boundary stones the governor demanded was incorrect, but seeing through his scheme, they remained prudently silent.
***
When the governor's emissary delivered the letter of reprimand, Wei Yuan was taken aback at first. He gave the Confucian scholar standing ramrod-straight in the hall a long, hard look, then glanced down at the missive in his hands, murmuring in confusion, "A con artist?"
His attendants replied, "From his robes, he doesn't look like one. But from the way he conducts business, he certainly does."
Wei Yuan frowned. "The road from the city gates to this commissioner's yamen hall is hardly short. Was he blind to what's in the city? With so many elite troops and fierce commanders under my command, none of it could intimidate this fellow?"
The scholar, who had been craning his neck stiffly, snapped, "I come under orders from the commandery governor! Even if you have thousands of troops and ten thousand horses, what have I to fear? Dare lay a finger on me today, and when the imperial court's grand army arrives tomorrow, you will be annihilated in an instant—left with no burial ground for your bones!"
Wei Yuan gave the letter a flick and turned to his attendants. "I've only received eight boundary stones, yet this fellow claims I have nineteen! Heh, daring to balance his accounts on my head—what a talent! Hmm? Not only balancing his books, but he even wants to pocket two extra?"
His attendants each let out two dry chuckles to show their amusement.
Wei Yuan looked at the scholar once more and remarked, "This State of Ji is truly bizarre. No matter what kind of worthless dregs they are, the moment they get even the slightest brush with officialdom, they immediately hop around and put on airs, itching to trample everyone they know underfoot. Truth be told, not even the mad dogs this commissioner has seen have been quite so rabid."
His subordinates exchanged awkward glances. Though they knew their commissioner was entirely right, they had no idea how to respond.
The scholar trembled with fury, pointing a finger at Wei Yuan. "How dare you! Do you know who I am?"
Right before his eyes, Wei Yuan tore the governor's letter in half and said, "It seems this gentleman wishes to leave his name in the annals of history. Let us ensure he doesn't get his wish. Drag him out and chop off his head. Leave none of his entourage alive. When two armies clash, executing each other's envoys is an established tradition. But remember to dispose of them cleanly, without leaving the slightest trace. We must never allow the imperial historians to discover this gentleman's name."
The guards in the hall seized the scholar at once, hauling him out like a scrawny chicken.
At first, the scholar continued his curses and threats, but as he was dragged farther away, terror finally seized him. He begged frantically for mercy, and when Wei Yuan ignored him, he turned to threaten the soldiers, his mouth still babbling, "Do you know who I am?"
Wei Yuan ripped the torn letter into shreds. A young vice general trained by Qingming spoke up, "Realm Lord, wait! That letter was ironclad evidence proving the governor's incompetence and insubordination—more than enough to take his dog head!"
Wei Yuan chuckled. "Why waste effort on a mere commandery governor? Besides, only the living need evidence."
The young vice general pondered the words, falling deep into thought. Wei Yuan then said, "Go see which rebel detachment has come to deliver people today. Then tell them that Ting County still has a boundary stone, and have them bring it over."
The vice general was struck with boundless admiration and hurried off to carry out the order.
Wei Yuan returned to his study in the rear hall and set about drafting a memorial to the Tang imperial court, petitioning for an official investiture.
The memorial opened with claims that immediately upon arriving in the State of Ji, he had decisively routed the rebels, recovered a thousand li of lost territory, and decapitated three hundred thousand enemy soldiers. Next came lavish praise declaring Emperor Jing an enlightened monarch rarely seen in millennia. Finally, he requested an investiture, petitioning to be appointed the Xianghan Defense Commissioner.
Once the memorial was finished, Wei Yuan had a map of the State of Ji brought forward. He circled Xiangshui Commandery, but finding that insufficient, he circled the adjacent Hanji Commandery as well, completing the two characters of "Xianghan." As for the closer Fengyuan Commandery, Wei Yuan turned a blind eye to it.
Wei Yuan attached the map to the memorial, had three copies made, and dispatched three Dharma Idol cultivators along different routes to deliver them to the Tang court.
When the commanders learned of this, they discussed it among themselves in private. Everyone in the world knew that the Tang court was currently nothing more than a figurehead; even if the Emperor of Tang issued an edict explicitly naming someone, few would bother to comply. Thus, none of the commanders could understand why their realm lord pursued this with such relentless enthusiasm.
After sending off the memorials, Wei Yuan split off a strand of divine sense to continue reading novels within the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World.
A mortal had recently written a fascinating story titled *Mighty Warrior of Xiliang*, which chronicled the tale of a dark, burly horse bandit who rose from Xiliang.
The bandit was crude and illiterate, but he could fight like a demon and commanded a band of wolf-like brothers. Later, when the emperor fell into dire straits and issued a summons calling upon heroes across the realm to march to the capital to rescue the throne, the dark, burly man seized the chaos to enter the capital, crushed the various warlords, and spent every night sleeping in the imperial harem.
Wei Yuan read this section with great relish, cross-referencing it with historical records to deepen his appreciation of the importance of moral legitimacy and official titles. The second half of the book described how someone, seeking to curry favor, presented him with the realm's foremost beauty, followed by the tangled passions, entanglements, and love-hate drama between the beauty and the beast.
Wei Yuan had originally been interested, but the moment he encountered the mortal author's village-belle-style descriptions, all flavor drained away, and he skipped back to the beginning.
At that point, Wei Yuan deliberately allocated several strands of divine consciousness to comb through historical texts, extracting every passage concerning moral legitimacy and rightful titles, carefully savoring the causes and consequences.
Meanwhile, another hundred strands of his divine consciousness continued reviewing the analysis of Immortal Monarch Liumiao inside the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. He was also turning over the problem in his own mind: what kind of game was Immortal Monarch Liumiao playing?
Clearly, this gambit was tied to population and boundary stones, with purging mortals and uprooting stones serving as pivotal links. Yet for Immortal Monarch Liumiao, killing people did not seem strictly necessary; driving mortals out of his territory achieved the same result, and the boundary stones merely needed to be uprooted, as Liumiao did not appear to have any use for them.
From the looks of it, Liumiao destroyed the boundary stones primarily to prevent them from being replanted into their original lands.
A thought suddenly crossed Wei Yuan's mind: if that was the case, was cooperation with Liumiao not impossible after all? Liumiao could eradicate the borders of the State of Ji while Wei Yuan took in the mortals and boundary stones from behind, expanding into what was currently the Mountain Folk's territory instead.
Yet Wei Yuan cast the thought aside at once. Based solely on what Liumiao was currently doing, Wei Yuan would never collaborate with him in any way. This was a fundamental clash of Dao paths and convictions, something no amount of self-interest could alter.
***
In the fourth month of the second year of Hongjing.
The King of Jin of Great Tang was reviewing imperial memorials. Beside him sat Emperor Jing at a side table, perusing the reviewed memorials before mechanically applying his vermilion brush to endorse them with "Approved" or "Seen."
In name, once the Regent King reviewed a memorial, it required Emperor Jing's secondary approval to take effect. But everyone understood that Emperor Jing was merely going through the motions.
The young Emperor Jing stared numbly at the memorials, woodenly signing off on them. Yet upon seeing one particular memorial, he paused, a rare occurrence.
The young emperor remembered this Military Commissioner of Qingyang. Stationed far to the northwest, he had traveled countless tens of thousands of li to wage war down in the southwestern State of Ji, and now he wanted a swath of Ji's territory granted as an investiture. In the young emperor's eyes, this was not merely overreaching—it was downright absurd.
Separated by hundreds of thousands of li, how was he moving troops, where was his grain coming from, and from where would follow-up reinforcements be drawn?
In the eyes of the young emperor, who fancied himself thoroughly versed in military strategy and falling short of history's renowned generals by only a hair, this memorial was riddled with flaws, hardly worth refuting. It was an outright insult to his intelligence and that of the entire court.
Men like Wei Yuan, though bearing honors from Great Tang, always held a separate official post within the Nine States. Wei Yuan, for instance, was concurrently Western Jin's Military Commissioner of Dingxi. Generally speaking, only titles conferred by the Nine States held any practical significance.
Consequently, whenever Great Tang received such outrageous petitions for investiture in the past, it typically gave them the cold shoulder, shelving them without approval or rejection. But this time was different—the Regent King had actually agreed!
The young emperor felt a jolt within his chest, his gaze turning profound as he began to privately speculate about the relationship between Wei Yuan and the Regent King.
Just then, the supervising eunuch beside him let out a soft cough. The young emperor realized he had lingered on this memorial for far too long. Lifting his brush, he inscribed the word "Approved," applied his imperial seal, and handed it to the supervising eunuch.
***
In the sixth month of the second year of Hongjing, Wei Yuan received Emperor Jing's imperial edict, officially investing him as the Xianghan Defense Commissioner.
Wei Yuan was thoroughly surprised upon receiving the decree. His memorial had actually contained an implicit threat, an emulation of ancient precedents that the court ministers would surely understand. Wei Yuan had expected the court would likely approve it, but never that it would be approved so swiftly. This timing was deeply intriguing.
With a bit of reflection, Wei Yuan glimpsed several facets of the relationship between the Tang imperial house and the turmoil in the State of Ji.
Nonetheless, such a swift approval naturally left Wei Yuan's Dao heart untroubled and clear, so he went off to capture another inner demon.
By then, exactly one month had passed since the governor of Xiangshui Commandery had disappeared.
To those paying attention, the news sent a chill straight through their hearts. Over the past few months, many officials across the State of Ji had already realized that anyone who made an enemy of Master Wei tended to meet a bizarre and flamboyant end.
Chapter 974