Everyone felt shocked, and even the previous disputes were put aside.
“Yizhou has fallen. What happened to Xuanchuan Pass?”
The tattoo-faced old man grabbed that guard and hurriedly asked.
The Tianshou King had occupied the three southwestern commanderies, and Xuanchuan Pass firmly choked off the route out of Shu, it was a genuine natural barrier.
What was more, the one guarding the pass was the famous Ning family, renowned throughout the world, with generations of military generals stationed at the border.
Originally stationed permanently on the northwestern frontier, ever since the barbarians beyond the pass declined in power, after General Chu, Lu Zhang, who was the Ning family’s son-in-law, plotted to seize the throne, he sent the Ning family to Xuanchuan Pass in the southwest. The Emperor suppressed them, and the officials in the bureaucracy saw which way the wind blew, causing trouble for Old General Ning at every turn, withholding arms and equipment, delaying rations and pay. Fortunately, the Crown Prince was born to a Ning family daughter, so those people did not dare push things to the extreme.
In recent years, the Tianshou King has become powerful, and the situation in the southwest has grown tense. On the one hand, the Ning family’s circumstances have become increasingly difficult; on the other hand, it also gives them a chance to catch their breath because Lu Zhang cannot directly replace the Ning family’s troops and can only use soft tactics like breaking up their old forces and splitting their military authority.
However, with this year’s palace coup in Taijing, Lu Zhang died a violent death, and the Crown Prince ascended the throne, so one could say that the most difficult days for the Ning family had already passed.
Xuanchuan Pass had steep terrain, and the Ning family now had fewer worries behind them—how did they manage to hold it during those previous hardships, yet trouble arose now?
Not only the tattoo-faced old man, but also Qiu Jing’s two trusted aides felt anxious. With so many people staring at him, that guard began sweating on his forehead and stammered: “It…… was urgent news from an outer commandery, just delivered to the Ministry of War.”
As for the specifics, how could a mere messenger know.
If it had not been something huge, he would not have been sent on this errand, since, on the surface, Cheng Jingchuan was only a captain.
“Pavilion Master Qiu, I, Cheng, begged forgiveness.”
Cheng Jingchuan’s expression changed several times, and finally he just cupped his hands, turned around, and went out the door.
Qiu Jing glanced at the mechanism pivot on the table, and suddenly felt a leaf drifting down.
Where would a leaf come from inside the house? Moreover, it was not autumn now, nor was there a strong wind.
Qiu Jing stepped back warily, raised her eyes, and saw a familiar figure.
“National Preceptor?”
Meng Qi sat with one leg bent and one leg dangling, leaning against the eaves’ rafters and dougong brackets, looking so free and unrestrained as if this were his own roof beam.
Qiu Jing instinctively felt that Meng Qi had changed in some ways, but she could not say exactly what was different.
——Like a sand rat that had stolen something fishy and was satisfied.
She could not see it because Meng Qi had been startled by the news of Yizhou’s fall and was currently troubled.
“Pavilion Master Qiu, it had been a long time.”
“……It was not really that long, it was just that too many things happened during this period.”
Qiu Jing spoke with a wry smile. The last time they met, their opponent had been the ambitious Xiliang people who wanted to restore their country, and the troubling matter was still the horrific effects of the Miaozhong sacred medicine, opium. In the blink of an eye, the opponent had turned into her own father, and Fengxing Pavilion was on the verge of collapse and about to split. The calamity of war in Jiangnan was right before their eyes. In another blink, the Tianshou King had actually taken Yizhou, and the first to bear the brunt would be Jingzhou.
Qiu Jing did not have much confidence in the King of Jing. If administrative governance was corrupt on King Ning’s side, then Jingzhou was even more hopeless.
There were two paths laid before the Tianshou King: one was to advance north into the Central Plains, and the other was to seize Jingzhou.
In Qiu Jing’s view, Jingzhou was more lucrative than Yuzhou. Although few dynasties throughout history had succeeded in unifying the world by going from south to north, Jiangnan was rich. Under the Tianshou King’s command, besides the followers of the Holy Lotus Sect, there were just barefoot bandits, as poor as could be.
Once Jingzhou fell into the hands of the Tianshou King, how could Yangzhou still enjoy good days?
Whether it was the Three Kings of the Former Chu or the Qi Dynasty, they all understood the principle that overeating led to a fall, and would not easily squander their troops. But what about the Tianshou King, who had come from the grassroots? He might very well resort to burning, killing, and looting, not even garrisoning the places he conquered, robbing wherever he went until he had ravaged Jiangnan before turning around to attack the Central Plains.
In that case, Yangzhou would become a big fat piece of meat. Could one still expect the dog not to snatch it away?
“National Preceptor, forgive my rudeness, but right now, I need to contact the King of Wu and consolidate the Jiangnan troops to stop the rebels.”
When Qiu Jing thought that she first had to rally the men in Fengxing Pavilion who were loyal to her, to wrest people away from under her father’s hands with difficulty, then use the network she had painstakingly built over many years to contact all the Jiangnan commercial firms, working hard to achieve a united resistance from the three feudal kings, she felt a splitting headache.
It was not that it could not be done; it was just that the time was too tight.
The earlier it could be decided, the more breathing room the people of Jiangnan would have.
Although Qiu Jing did not say it explicitly, given what kind of person Meng Qi was, he only needed to think for a moment to figure it out.
In fact, he “called out” to Qiu Jing for this very matter.
“The King of Wu was timid and useless, could not be considered clever, and was very easily influenced.”
Among the Three Kings of the Former Chu, the King of Wu was the oldest, almost sixty years old this year. If he had not been favored by Emperor Chu Yuan back then and approved by Prime Minister Deng and others, he absolutely could not have obtained such a fine fief.
Although what was initially enfeoffed to the King of Wu was just one city in Kuaiji Commandery, this was already quite remarkable, for the very title “King of Wu” symbolized that he would never lack for money.
Meng Qi’s impression of those princes had always been faint, especially after so many years.
Fortunately, after meeting Mo Li, he gradually recovered his memories and remembered many things from the past. In Meng Qi’s memory, the King of Wu was someone who knew how to behave; although he did not excel and could not accomplish things, at least he did not stir up trouble.
Because this prince could listen to others, which was both his strength and weakness, in the early years in Taijing, the emperor personally chose the prince’s tutors and reading companions, and even the close-serving eunuchs and concubines dared not act recklessly to beguile or incite him. After the Chu Dynasty’s downfall, when the King of Wu took over the four wealthiest commanderies in Jiangnan overnight, all sorts of riffraff appeared.
Thus, the King of Wu turned into someone who repeatedly made foolish decisions and behaved inexplicably.
For example, he raised a group of Jianghu people, believed in the words of a Taoist from Taiji Temple, and even sent people on a long journey to Yongzhou to cut off the “dragon vein” of the Lu clan of the Qi Dynasty.
Another example was that he might have been bewitched by someone, spending six hundred taels of gold to hire assassins from Piaoping Pavilion to go southwest and kill the Tianshou King, but actually fell into the trap set by the Xiliang people, almost allowing them to cause great chaos both north and south of the Yangtze.
“Among the King of Wu’s former teachers, there was a Hanlin scholar who once willingly followed him from Taijing to his fief, which essentially meant giving up a promising future. If he was still alive, he would be about seventy-eight years old this year. Whatever he said, the King of Wu would surely listen. There was also his principal consort, Madam Cheng, the youngest daughter of the Marquis of Jingyuan. Though her talent could not compare to her father and brothers, she was not a fool, and Pavilion Master could also think of a way to persuade Madam Cheng.”
Cheng Jingchuan and the Marquis of Jingyuan were relatives, but in these tumultuous times, relatives scattered everywhere. Within three generations, they might never have met, let alone developed any feelings. The Princess Consort of Wu would certainly not care about Cheng Jingchuan’s connections. She might not even know who Cheng Jingchuan was. However, with both the King of Ning and the King of Wu in Yangzhou, the principle of “the lips gone, the teeth would feel cold” was something the Princess Consort of Wu would naturally understand.
Qiu Jing’s spirit lifted, and she immediately cupped her hands and said, “Many thanks for the National Preceptor’s guidance.”
“There was something suspicious about the Tianshou King’s side regarding the fall of Xuanchuan Pass. I hope the Fengxing Pavilion would investigate carefully,” Meng Qi said solemnly, not standing on ceremony. “At least find the whereabouts of Master Yuan Zhi.”
Qiu Jing nodded. Even if Meng Qi had not mentioned it, she would have investigated.
Master Yuan Zhi had achieved a breakthrough in martial arts and could be considered a top expert in the martial world. Even if Xuanchuan Pass had fallen, the chances of him surviving by luck were still great.
“To tell the truth to Pavilion Master Qiu, I had always suspected that there were other masterminds behind the Holy Lotus Sect and even the Tianshou King.” Meng Qi frowned.
“……The Xiliang people?”
Qiu Jing immediately became suspicious. Ayanpuka had lain low for many years, and various previous signs had also shown that he was involved with the southwest.
Meng Qi shook his head and said, “There was something the Pavilion Master might not know.”
He then recounted the story of how Master Yin and Qiu Si had severed their friendship in the past. Two literary scholars, each unable to truss a chicken, argued over the world’s grand trends, and as a result, one left a letter and departed, traveling alone southward across the Yangtze, while the other disappeared not long after and, when he reappeared, was actually working for the Holy Lotus Sect.
Regardless of whether Qiu Si had planned this early on, taking advantage of this excuse to go to the King Ning’s territory, at the very least Master Yin was a proud man who could not possibly serve as a strategist for a bunch of rabble.
“In other words, the possibility of the Xiliang people was not great either. Scholars like them placed great importance on the royal family’s legitimate orthodoxy.” Meng Qi said expressionlessly, “So as to where exactly the Holy Lotus Sect’s forces were cultivated, I had never found the truth. Yet the world was vast, and after considering all possibilities, there were only a few such forces.”
The Lu clan of the Qi Dynasty did not qualify as “legitimate orthodoxy” in the eyes of scholars, and would not have made Master Yin ‘endure humiliation’ to that extent.
King Ning’s side had Qiu Si. The King of Jing could not raise a pack of hungry wolves right on his doorstep, as for the King of Wu… the King of Wu himself did not have the brains for that.
Qiu Jing felt somewhat dizzy. She rubbed her forehead, thought over and over again, then tentatively asked, “Could it be that the King of Wu also had someone under him like my father?”
“Impossible.” Meng Qi shook his head. “The King of Wu was too easily influenced, and controlling him seemed easy, but was actually hard, because if he listened to your words today, he could find someone else’s words reasonable tomorrow as well. Unless he had undergone a complete transformation and was nothing like he was in his youth, even if he did have some capable people under him, they could not stir up too big of a storm.”
Qiu Jing suddenly felt a shock and realized something.
Her eyes reddened, and biting her words out one by one, she asked, “Is the National Preceptor suspecting Qiu Si?”
She no longer addressed him as father and did not even avoid using his name.
Meng Qi responded indirectly: “He indeed had such ability and such capability. Because the Crown Prince Zhao Hua had descendants, as far as I knew, even a grandchild had escaped and had been hunted by the Qi Dynasty’s Jinyiwei for many years. Qiu Si could completely fabricate lies and find someone to impersonate the ‘true bloodline of the Li clan,’ secretly recruiting and cultivating a batch of people. As for that former friend Master Yin, he was probably just a pitiful pawn that Qiu Si harmed conveniently.”
Qiu Jing almost could not breathe, her face turning ashen.
Seeing her like this, Meng Qi could not help feeling some pity.
“This was just speculation without evidence. I only said it so that the Pavilion Master could be prepared. Perhaps this matter had nothing to do with your esteemed father.”
The Holy Lotus Sect beguiled and deceived the common people and was truly a malignant tumor with countless crimes. Even the average Jianghu person looked down on them, let alone the officials and scholars.
Qiu Jing’s eyes were filled with anger and pain. Weakly and powerlessly, she asked, “The Holy Lotus Sect was like a gluttonous vicious dog, stupid and evil, only knowing how to bite people… Such a thing, once raised, would it bite its master in return?”
Qiu Jing truly could not understand. Even those insatiable tax collectors were more useful than the Holy Lotus Sect and easier to control.
Meng Qi said nothing.
In fact, he had this suspicion mainly because it all seemed too coincidental.
Master Yuan Zhi had mentioned before that the Tianshou King had intensified his offensive, doubling the pressure on Xuanchuan Pass.
Then the King of Jing confronted the Qi Dynasty across the river, possibly already fighting, which was Qiu Si’s handiwork, and at the same time Ning Tai had prepared to raise troops. Yizhou had fallen at this moment, so the King of Ning now had no choice but to raise troops. It did not matter whether Cheng Jingchuan could persuade Qiu Jing, whether the Fengxing Pavilion would split, or even whether Meng Qi and Mo Li killed Qiu Si— the tide could not be turned, and everything still rolled forward relentlessly.
***
Outside Ning Tai City, at the Ten-li Pavilion.
Qiu Si held a wine cup, gently sniffing the fragrance of the fine liquor.
One after another, fast horses galloped out of the city, heading in all directions— these were all men of the Ministry of War.
The city gates were still sealed; otherwise, the major commercial firms, more anxious than the Ministry of War, would be trying hard to gather information to decide whether to stay or go.
Qiu Si did not wait long before a masked figure in black quietly entered the pavilion.
“Mr. Qiu, everything is done.”
Qiu Si glanced at him casually, as if seeing through the unease in the masked man’s heart. He patted the man’s shoulder gently and said, “Yuheng, you think I should not have done this?”
The masked man bowed respectfully, “Your humble subordinate is dull-witted and only knew that sir must have your reasons. But the Tianshou King is ambitious and ungrateful. Although you helped him back then, and have repeatedly assisted him since, in my view, he had a traitor’s heart and would repay kindness with treachery.”
Qiu Si laughed loudly and waved his hand, “No, I never expected him to repay kindness.”
The Tianshou King was a useful chess piece that happened to fall into his hands; they simply used each other.
There was no kindness, so why expect gratitude?
The masked man let out a sigh of relief, but quickly expressed his worry, “This time, with the Tianshou King aided by you to send troops from Yizhou, I fear he might break his promise and not go north, but march east instead. In that case, Yangzhou would be in danger.”
“Not might, he certainly would.” Qiu Si did not even raise his eyes, speaking calmly.
The masked man was shocked and hastily asked, “What should we do then?”
Qiu Si remained composed, his gaze calm and still. He sighed softly, “What did Jiangnan truly lack? People lived in a corner, and the higher their status, the more they feared death, the more unwilling they were to move. From feudal kings down to traveling merchants, they all had the same idea. When life was hard, they just longed for the Chu Dynasty in their hearts, but when it came to risking their lives, few were willing. Why did those petty officials and clerks dare to take great risks to help us oppose the aristocratic clans and acquiesce to the complete upheaval of Ning Tai City?”
“Because… they felt they could not survive?” The masked man murmured.
“Indeed. I want more people, the people of Jiangnan and even the entire world, to feel they could not survive.” Qiu Si raised his head and drained his cup of fine wine. Then he laughed softly, “Have you heard that if you want to transport live fish caught at sea a thousand miles away, you must put a fierce black snakehead fish in the ship’s water tank? The Holy Lotus Sect was necessary, and the Tianshou King was also necessary. Now that the snakehead had leaped into the pool…”
The masked man’s hands and feet went cold, and sweat broke out on his forehead.
“But, but…”
He repeated nervously, instinctively sensing something bad, yet not daring to question Qiu Si.
Qiu Si patted his shoulder, his tone comforting, but his eyes devoid of any emotion.
“Heh, we’re only scaring them. Look, there’s still Jingzhou standing in front of Yangzhou! When disaster strikes, many people would become more agreeable. They no longer would think it reckless to take up arms if risking their lives could at least fight back, while hiding away only led to waiting for death.”
Author’s Note:
The black snakehead fish, also known as the black fish, is carnivorous and fierce.
Author: No, in this muddy world, the true trouble-stirring black fish is actually the protagonist.
After all, if Mo Li did not leave the mountains, Meng Qi would not recover, and the two dragon veins would not have gone around stirring up trouble. →_→
