Misunderstood

Taking advantage of this unhappy parting, He Lingchuan readily delineated the boundaries of their respective authority. He had to make Wen Daolun realize that certain boundaries could not be casually crossed, and that one person's will could not be forced upon another. Most importantly, having read the history books of later generations, he knew that Wen Daolun and Panlong City's strategy for dealing with the Longchuan river bandits was dead wrong! The window of opportunity to reverse the adverse situation facing Yuheng City and the Longchuan trade route was far too short. Time was genuinely scarce for He Lingchuan, yet there were far too many matters he needed to handle. He had no leisure to indulge in pointless formalities. Rather than slowly wearing down frictions with Wen Daolun, it was better to bring him to terms with reality quickly, so that each could attend to his own duties in the future and mind his own business. "Mr. Wen may seem gentle on the outside, but he's stubborn to the bone," Sun Fuling said. "Indeed, you won't sway him easily." "If their way had worked, why was Commander Xiao reassigned?" He Lingchuan remarked flatly. "Before I took over Yuheng City, they struggled for more than half a year. Not only did they fail to eradicate the banditry in Longchuan, they couldn't even figure out who among the marshes were bandits and who were civilians!" "In the past, the Panlong Army wiped out the wasteland bandits with complete success. But the bandits of the wasteland were destitute, taking to the roads with pitchforks. Give them a way to survive, and they wouldn't fight to the death. The Longchuan river bandits, however, are wealthy, having plied this trade for generations. Among the reed marshes, every water stronghold—you can hardly tell whether it's a peaceful village or a den of thieves. Decapitating the bandit leaders achieves nothing; kill one today, and a pair sprouts tomorrow, just like a hydra. By Commander Xiao and Mr. Wen's methods, unless you raze all of Longchuan and butcher every living soul, those bandits will never be eradicated." As he spoke, he swirled a thin slice of mutton through the broth, blew off the steam, and placed it into Sun Fuling's bowl. "Eat." Sun Fuling chewed daintily, swallowing before saying, "Mr. Wen thinks there is no need to rush. After all, this is Panlong City's territory now." "He isn't in a hurry, but I am," He Lingchuan thought to himself. *I've seen how the future unfolds. How could I let Yuheng City march straight into a dead end? Old Wen has no idea that I'm saving his life!* According to the original history, Wen Daolun would die because of the bandit scourge. By altering this piece of history, He Lingchuan was saving his life. "The bandit trouble in Longchuan is being driven by Beijia from behind the scenes. Alas, when it comes to outlasting an opponent in a war of attrition, who could outlast Beijia? Yet attempting to crush them by sheer force would inflict such heavy casualties on the Yuheng City Army that it would play right into the hands of Fu Shanlie and the Xiji puppet troops." He Lingchuan sighed softly. "If they reassigned the Gale Army to me, even just half of it, I could steamroll all of Longchuan by force. Regrettably, reality is harsh. The only force I can rely on is the Yuheng Army." His aspiration for the future was to forge the Yuheng Army into an invincible force by the Gale Army's standards. Still, there was a long road ahead. Sun Fuling asked, "Your current approach is to use bandits to govern bandits and isolate Fu Shanlie?" "Who would willingly lick blood off a blade if they could live in peace?" He Lingchuan replied concisely. "As long as Qianjin Stronghold and the Globe Amaranth Gang accept my proposal, the other gangs will follow suit." This was the demonstration effect. No matter how eloquently he spun it, the gangs had to taste real sweetness themselves before they would willingly work for Yuheng City. "From now on, we only need to fight the Xiji puppet troops. And if they dare invade the sections controlled by other gangs, they can't blame us for joining hands with those gangs to beat them down." Sun Fuling took a sip of wine. "You went to great lengths to beat these gangs half to death, yet now you feed them on road tolls. Aren't you worried that once their feathers grow full again, they will become road tyrants?" This was precisely Wen Daolun's doubt and dissatisfaction. "Beating them half to death only plays into Fu Shanlie's hands," He Lingchuan said with clear insight. "The harsher my crackdown on the bandits, the stronger Fu Shanlie's power becomes." The greater the external pressure, the fiercer the consolidation within Longchuan would be, and the game of big fish eating little fish would play out every few days. He had not forgotten the confession Wu Shaoyi extracted from the old water monitor lizard over a century later: it was precisely Fu Shanlie's annexation of the Longchuan river bandits into an unwieldy, untouchable behemoth that caused Yuheng City so much grief. Since He Lingchuan had barged into this slice of history, he had to nip the disaster in the bud. The successive bandit assaults on the city recorded in history had not occurred; as Great Commander, He Lingchuan had already made a good start, and he needed to continually expand this advantage. "As for Qianjin Stronghold and the rest of those river bandits, giving them looser reins is the only way to let them act freely." He Lingchuan's smile faded. "When all is said and done, this is still pacification and amnesty. Sooner or later, the bandits will realize their supreme master is no longer their gang chief or stronghold lord, but Yuheng City!" Sun Fuling picked up a piece of lamb spine with her chopsticks and pouted slightly. "If only you and Mr. Wen could be this frank with each other." He Lingchuan merely smiled without answering. It was easy to say, but since when did one top chief bare his heart to another, or one top chief report on his duties to another? Whoever did that would be conceding ground to the other. Certain words could never be voiced given their positions and status. Otherwise, why would Wen Daolun have asked Sun Fuling to act as peacemaker in the middle? Master Sun would naturally weigh these remarks and pass them along to Wen Daolun. A bit of sauce lingered at the corner of her lips; He Lingchuan raised his hand, wiped it away, and naturally brought his finger to his mouth with a smack. Master Sun rolled her eyes at him, her lovely face flushing an even deeper shade of red. ... Panlong City, Gange Hall. Wen Daolun's urgent dispatch lay on the table; everyone present had already read it. Zhong Shengguang asked curtly, "What do you think?" Vice Commander Zhao Xianhe shook his head. "A few small nests of river bandits—not only are we not wiping them out, but they get to sit and collect road tolls, and we even have to support them? Outrageous!" He had never heard of anything so preposterous! How had that man named He come up with this? General Nan Ke asked, "What is the meaning of this dividend?" "From the road tolls collected by the bandits, twenty percent must be handed over to Yuheng City. If the designated section remains safe and incident-free every half-month, this money is returned to the bandits," Zhao Xianhe explained. "At the same time, Yuheng City must pay an extra subsidy to them." General Nan Ke grew incensed upon hearing this. "Leaving all the road tolls to them was ridiculous enough, but on what grounds should Yuheng City subsidize river bandits on top of that? Isn't that just fattening them up at our expense? Hey, calculated like this, how much money is Yuheng City losing?" "Wen Daolun has calculated the figures. If only Qianjin Stronghold and the Globe Amaranth Gang are employed for now, the subsidy will be around two thousand taels of silver every three months. If the pacified gangs exceed thirteen, this figure will likely climb above six thousand taels." General Nan Ke immediately said, "Then I object." Zhong Shengguang pointed at the urgent dispatch. "Wen Daolun also summarized He Lingchuan's intentions. Have you read them?" "We have. Isn't it just isolating Fu Shanlie and launching an all-out offensive against the Xiji puppet troops?" Zhao Xianhe mused, "Over the past thirty years, Fu Shanlie has risen to prominence, shining brilliantly even in Lingxu City where military talents are abundant. Now that we know he has infiltrated Longchuan, he indeed cannot be taken lightly. But to claim that he alone could stir up storms across the old lands of Xiji is an exaggeration."