Chapter 1635: The Determination of Chongwu

It was still two hours until nightfall, but the swirling snow blurred the landscape, making it seem as if a snowy night had arrived early.

General Chongwu was having dinner. The morning had been fine, so he had put his troops through a training exercise, only dismissing them in the afternoon. This made his dinner more than an hour late.

The meal was simple. The army had caught two wild boars in the mountains a few days prior, and most of it had been eaten. However, two good cuts were reserved for the officers, so General Chongwu still had braised pork. It was fatty and tender, bursting with oil with every bite. The dignitaries in Tianshui City had long since lost their taste for such fatty meat, but in the northern borderlands, being able to devour a large piece of meat like this was pure bliss. General Chongwu's only complaint was that the new cook didn't know his preferences and had prepared a separate dish of herb-stewed fish for him.

The fish was freshly caught from a nearby frozen lake, large and fresh, but it contained litsea cubeba oil and lemongrass. General Chongwu disliked spices! He was a native Bixia, with little fondness for the herbs that the Yao people so deeply cherished. Bixia people ate simply and straightforwardly, rarely using complex seasonings. Despite serving as an official in Yao for many years, General Chongwu's tastes remained unchanged. His former military colleagues often played pranks on him regarding this.

“You can have this plate of fish,” General Chongwu told his personal guards, pointing to the dish. “Tell the cook not to make it again.”

He ate this meal still preoccupied with his thoughts.

The Imperial Nectar was about to erupt, and the grand play orchestrated by the Palace Mistress was also nearing its performance. General Chongwu had known from the start that he had no choice, but now that the moment was near, he still harbored a flicker of hesitation.

What if the Palace Mistress failed? Though she was extraordinary, this was, after all, Yao, not Beijia, her most familiar territory. The Yao officials had also just been won over by the Yao King and were now rallying tightly around him. The Palace Mistress's plan indeed had a possibility of failure. If she failed, her own life might not be at risk, but Chongwu, as one of the key participants and a Bixia, would certainly have no way out! But if the Palace Mistress's plan succeeded, he wouldn't have to remain sidelined in Yao, wouldn't be looked down upon by the Yao people, and wouldn't have to guard the frigid northern pass!

Success or failure, the chances seemed to be fifty-fifty. What should he do? Should he promptly respond when the Azure Yang Palace Mistress made her move? He deliberated repeatedly, and the braised pork in his mouth lost all its flavor.

Just then, the flapping of wings sounded outside. He pushed the door open and saw a peregrine falcon perched on the large tree in front of the house, speaking in a human voice: “General Chongwu, urgent message.” As General Chongwu reached out, the falcon retrieved a small, blue tube from beneath its belly and placed it in his hand.

Blue? Chongwu was slightly alarmed. This was an urgent message from the Azure Yang Regent, delivered by the fastest bird of prey! He hurried back into the room, closed the door, and then opened the blue tube. Inside was a slip of paper with a single line of small characters:

“Yao King's secret order to replace you. Wang Sili headed north this morning with 200 elite soldiers!”

Fewer than twenty characters made General Chongwu's pupils constrict. The Yao King was replacing him! The Azure Yang Palace Mistress had only just managed to secure him the position of guardian of the north, and he had been in office for less than three months before the Yao King sent someone to replace him!

What did this mean? The Yao King knew! The Yao King not only knew that Azure Yang was preparing to move against him and overthrow his regime, but also suspected that Chongwu intended to cooperate with his troops. That's why he wanted to replace Chongwu with his trusted Wang Sili before the Imperial Nectar erupted! How terrifying was a monarch's suspicion? These mere dozen characters made General Chongwu's heavy garments damp with sweat, even in the snow.

He had no retreat. Since the Yao King had already grown suspicious, whether Azure Yang's uprising succeeded or not, and whether Chongwu participated or not, he would not spare Chongwu! Chongwu had gained influence because of Azure Yang; in everyone's eyes, he had long been branded with Azure Yang's mark. If the Yao King won, how could he possibly overlook Chongwu when purging the remaining Azure Yang forces?

“I'll do it!” He clenched his fist tightly, then ate the slip of paper. He picked up the plate of braised pork from the table, opened the door, and placed it on the ground. “Eat up,” he said. As the peregrine falcon flew down to feast, he summoned a few of his trusted confidants into the room, set up a barrier, and closed the door to discuss matters. These confidants were all Bixia, who had followed him from his homeland to Yao, risen through the ranks with him, and remained unfailingly loyal. So Chongwu didn't beat around the bush and said directly, “The King is secretly replacing me with General Wang Sili!”

Everyone was shocked and angrily exclaimed, “That's preposterous!”

“Once the replacement happens, none of us will have a way out.” Even if he meekly surrendered his military authority, the Yao King would not show leniency. General Chongwu wasn't willing to gamble his life on how ruthless the royal family could be. Without military power, he would be a lamb to the slaughter.

Everyone understood the gravity of the situation and said in unison, “General, just give the order, and we will obey without question!”

“If Wang Sili enters our northern garrison and proclaims the King's decree, it would be difficult for me to act against him in plain sight.” General Chongwu had thought it through and made up his mind. “We must eliminate him on the road before he gets here.” Azure Yang's urgent message to him also implied this.

Someone produced a map and spread it on the table. “For Wang Sili to arrive here quickly, he'll have to take a shortcut, which is—,” General Chongwu used a red pen to outline a route on the map, “—this path.” He knew it well because he had taken the same route just over two months ago. There were actually not many suitable ambush points for two hundred elite soldiers along this route. Everyone brainstormed, and they quickly settled on a plan.

“In half an hour, Yuwen Yong is also scheduled to meet with me. We'll depart after that meeting.” He and Yuwen Yong were stationed separately, their two armies several li apart.

Immediately, a confidant reminded him, “Lord, could General Yuwen have already received the message and is simply waiting for you to arrive?” General Chongwu was startled. Indeed, this possibility couldn't be ruled out. Azure Yang's intelligence would surely have arrived later than the Yao King's orders. Now that Azure Yang's peregrine falcon had flown to the northern line's main camp, who knew if the Yao King's urgent message had already reached Yuwen Yong? After Xue Zongwu's death, Yuwen Yong and Chongwu had replaced him as the northern garrisons' generals. Unlike Chongwu, Yuwen Yong was from a prominent, well-established noble family in Yao. The Yao King had originally sent him to guard the north alongside Chongwu precisely to keep a close eye on Chongwu. Now that the Yao King was suspicious of Chongwu, would he secretly order Yuwen Yong to preemptively apprehend Chongwu to prevent him from resisting later? Viewed this way, the meeting in half an hour might very well be a trap set by Yuwen Yong to lure him in.

Chongwu immediately said, “Send someone to Yuwen Yong and tell him I injured my leg during training today and can't move easily. Ask if he can come to my camp for the meeting.” The confidant went as instructed.

More than half an hour later, he returned to report: “General Yuwen said that since your leg is inconvenient, you should rest well, and he also asked if you had a military doctor, offering to send one. I told him you had one nearby, so he said he would visit you the day after tomorrow.”

Chongwu then understood: “He did receive the King's secret order!” Yuwen Yong wanted to lure him over, but Chongwu used an excuse not to go, and Yuwen Yong didn't dare come over either, fearing an ambush as soon as he entered Chongwu's main camp. If he had no ill intent, why would he be so wary? This meant he had a guilty conscience.

His men then asked, “General, what should we do now?”

“The original plan remains unchanged,” Chongwu decided decisively, a fierce glint in his eyes. “It's dark now. We'll sneak out of the camp towards Tianshui City, kill Wang Sili first, and everything else will be easier.”

For him, the chaotic curtain of this grand drama was finally slowly rising.

Chaos had begun.

As He Lingchuan leisurely ate his herbal baked egg at Yongquan Mountain Villa, an appalling riot suddenly erupted in Tianshui City: that night, a total of 1,200 displaced people from four shantytowns in the city's south attacked the warehouses of two grain merchants, seizing over 13,000 catties of grain. They also raided the Xie family, a renowned noble household in the city's north, not only plundering all their gold, silver, jewels, and food but even casually taking the herbs cultivated in their garden and the pet dogs kept by the family! During these two attacks, over 180 people were injured or killed in total, including warehouse workers, Xie family guards, and displaced people from the shantytowns.

Upon hearing this news, He Lingchuan sighed deeply: “It has finally begun.”

Grain prices were soaring, and people's lives were hard. The displaced people, living at the very bottom of Tianshui City, were the first and worst affected by hunger. They worked themselves to exhaustion all day, only to earn barely enough to buy a single steamed bun. Moreover, landlords had no surplus grain now, and even powerful noble families were cutting expenses. Who would hire them for work? In the past few days, over three hundred displaced people, primarily the elderly, weak, and young, had gradually starved to death. Unable to earn money or buy grain, there was only one last resort—

In truth, the displaced people had already committed numerous crimes in Tianshui City recently; the authorities even received three hundred cases in a single day. However, these were previously scattered, small-scale disturbances, petty thefts and minor outbursts that didn't affect the lives of the upper-class nobility. The nobles and wealthy residents of Tianshui City lived in the northern and northeastern districts, completely isolated from the commoners and displaced people in the south. Their environment was serene and peaceful, with disheveled, ragged, and foul-smelling individuals completely barred from entering, unable to take a single step inside. Naturally, there were no shantytowns for the displaced people here.

However, the robbery that night involved displaced people organizing themselves and storming into the noble homes in the north, smashing, looting, and burning! This was an outrageous riot! Nearly two hundred people were killed or injured during the riot, including warehouse clerks, Xie family guards, and displaced people from the shantytowns. Oh, and two noble members of the Xie family also died: the twelve-year-old young master and his mother.

But the goods looted by the displaced people were truly abundant; they wouldn't have to go hungry for days. It was like unearthing a giant rat's hoard during a famine. The displaced people who had seized food scattered and fled, no longer caring about their groups, eager to find a corner to eat. Some couldn't resist gnawing on raw flour and dough right on the road. The magnificent trees in the northern district also suffered. Houses in Tianshui City were generally made of stone, so the precious ancient trees that had stood peacefully by the roadside for over a hundred years were chopped down for firewood.

Dinner, fragrant dinner! Around every makeshift bonfire, several ravenous mouths could be seen. On this night when they had food to eat, at least for the first half, they were even happier than most commoners.

The riot by the displaced people shocked the entire upper echelon of Yao. How could these lowly commoners, how *dare* they, rebel against heaven?