Chapter 233: Proper Duties

After a spiritual "baptism," Ge Jiayun fearfully and reverently escorted Fang Chongyong out of the Lintao Army's central command camp, secretly rejoicing that he had fortunately not stepped too far forward when he initially stood up, so he could still smooth things over.

If he had recklessly disparaged this acting Military Commissioner back then, the consequences today would truly have been unimaginable.

This young Master Fang, despite his tender age, already possessed deep scheming, flexible tactics, and a measured sense of when to advance and retreat. It was hard to imagine what heights he might reach in the future.

At this moment, Ge Jiayun was thoroughly convinced, feeling nothing but profound reverence for the other man.

He had seen many cases of people overpowering others with authority, but someone with little real substance in hand who could still win people over—this was the first time even Ge Jiayun had witnessed such a thing.

What resources did Fang Chongyong actually have in hand?

In truth, nothing at all—merely the Emperor's letter of appointment, tasking him with recruiting elite soldiers from the Longyou border armies into the newly established imperial guard.

This was merely a tiger skin, and its power was not as great as outsiders imagined. The key still lay in how Fang Chongyong chose to wield it.

If the recruitment of brave and strong men into the Yinqiang Xiaojie Army were boycotted by the various Longyou border army commanders, creating too much conflict and turmoil, then the Chang'an Emperor might well take back the letter of appointment. The various armies under the Longyou Military Commissioner were the front line against the Tibetans—this was no joking matter.

By comparison, the matter of recruiting soldiers for the Yinqiang Xiaojie Army had many possible solutions—for instance, kicking Fang Chongyong all the way to Shuofang or Hedong to do his recruiting.

Taking ten thousand steps back, even if the Chang'an Emperor had his eye on Longyou's manpower, sending someone else to recruit would achieve the same goal, would it not?

It did not necessarily require Fang Chongyong to handle it personally.

Therefore, the fact that Fang Chongyong had just used the Yinqiang Xiaojie Army to threaten him, Ge Jiayun, rather than loudly advertising his own identity before outsiders, could only show that Fang Chongyong was a meticulous-minded, clever person skilled at stratagems.

He had a powerful weapon in hand, but did not bring it out lightly—drawing the sword meant "killing," and the deterrent effect was maximized. Searching his own heart, Ge Jiayun felt he was far from capable of going that far.

If he were Fang Chongyong, if he had the Emperor's letter of appointment in hand, he would never have taken on the blame for Longyou's defaulted military pay! Ge Jiayun believed that with the authority in his hands, it would be no difficult thing for Fang Chongyong to shake off that blame.

Yet this Master Fang had calmly taken on the blame and was handling matters according to his own ideas. Ge Jiayun did not know how Fang Chongyong would resolve the matter of Longyou's defaulted military pay, but he knew it would certainly not follow the conventional path.

"The young are to be feared."

At the gate of the Lintao Army's grand camp, Ge Jiayun watched the retreating figures of Fang Chongyong and his entourage, unable to resist a sigh of heartfelt emotion.

He had originally thought that as the Military Commissioner of the Lintao Army, and since the Lintao Army had neither mutinied over pay nor drawn ghost salaries, he should already stand in an invincible, unassailable position.

He never expected that Fang Chongyong could actually obtain a "letter of recommendation" written by Du Xiwang! This was enough to cost a man his life!

According to the unwritten rules of officialdom during the Kaiyuan and Tianbao eras, a departing Military Commissioner's letter of recommendation carried tremendous weight and could often influence the court's decisions—past cases were as countless as hairs on an ox.

Fang Chongyong was merely a Deputy Commissioner acting as Military Commissioner; the court had no idea whether he was suited for the post, let alone that it was only a sudden appointment by the Chang'an Emperor. So if Fang Chongyong truly wanted to extricate himself, it would not be difficult—he would merely be looked down upon by others.

Du Xiwang's letter of recommendation stated outright that Ge Jiayun was well suited to succeed the position of Military Commissioner, and if Fang Chongyong also wrote back to Chang'an reporting the situation to Li Longji, saying that Ge Jiayun was more fit to be Military Commissioner—

With both measures working in tandem, how the court would choose really required no further thought. Ge Jiayun's formal appointment as Longyou Military Commissioner would be a matter of course.

Ge Jiayun had already guessed that Du Xiwang had never been unconscious at all. That old fox must have struck some kind of deal with Fang Chongyong and was now already back in Chang'an, having slipped away like a cicada shedding its shell! A question suddenly arose in his mind: back then, so many people had failed to see through Du Xiwang's feigned illness—why had Fang Chongyong perceived it the moment he arrived in Longyou?

Or had everyone seen through it (not including himself), and they all simply harbored their own agendas, tacitly saying nothing?

At this thought, Ge Jiayun broke out in cold sweat all over his back!

Longyou appeared peaceful on the surface, but in reality, the Anren Army's mutiny over pay had set off a chain of troubles, to the point that even the Longyou Military Commissioner Du Xiwang felt he could no longer hold things together.

That Fang Chongyong, a young man not yet twenty, dared to take on such a mess head-on—was this what was meant by "a master's skill breeds boldness"?

Ge Jiayun's heart still raced with lingering fear, and he secretly rejoiced that he had just now submitted completely, holding nothing back.

It was better to be a dog. Being a man was too exhausting—you could be ambushed at any time, even done in for no apparent reason, without ever knowing who was plotting against you behind your back.

Without anyone's protection, there was truly no sense of security at all.

The arena of power struggles devoured people without spitting out bones—far more perilous than the slaughter of the battlefield!

Ge Jiayun decided to cling tightly to Fang Chongyong's coattails for the time being. As for more distant matters in the future, those could wait until the future.

……

Winning over Ge Jiayun to serve him was the second step in Fang Chongyong's consolidation of Longyou's military and civil administration. Of course, the first step was taking over the staff and mess left behind by Du Xiwang, as well as the letter of recommendation pushing Ge Jiayun up to take the blame—in exchange for Du Xiwang freeing himself and slipping away from Longyou.

Both sides got what they needed.

Fang Chongyong had never forgotten what his actual job was, strictly abiding by the rules and never crossing the red line.

He held the post of Investigating Censor, and his proper duty was to investigate and correct local wrongdoing—drawing ghost salaries was of course one of the matters within that scope.

He was the Military Commissioner of the Yinqiang Xiaojie Army, responsible for selecting brave and strong men from the Longyou border armies.

He was also the Army Supervision Commissioner of Longyou and Hexi, tasked with verifying whether local generals harbored disloyalty, whether anyone was colluding with the Tibetans, and whether anyone intended to rebel.

As for being acting Military Commissioner and so forth, that was all an "unforeseen" result from Brother Ji, and was not his proper duty. So Fang Chongyong thought it through clearly—what he should and should not do.

Methods served purposes.

As for those matters of secretly building up forces in preparation for rising up in the chaos after the An-Shi Rebellion, Fang Chongyong had not considered them at all. In his view, thinking about such things now was pure suicide.

There was neither possibility nor necessity, and it was extremely dangerous to boot.

In fact, in the "workplace," no one was truly blind. No matter how well a person hid it, whether he was genuinely doing the work or genuinely digging pits, outsiders could see at a glance.

A person who was merely an employee, yet instead of focusing on doing his job well at the company, spent all day thinking about hollowing out the company's foundations and planning to start his own venture and become the big boss himself—this posture was crystal clear in the eyes of superiors and colleagues, as conspicuous as a light bulb suddenly switching on in a dark room.

Those who gathered around such a person, associated with him, and were willing to accept him would inevitably be a group of people who shared his thinking. This was what was meant by "birds of a feather flock together."

Those who did not want to leave the company and only wished to do their work well and earn opportunities for promotion would consciously keep their distance from this group, lest they be dragged down. And this was assuming the company boss was blind and foolish—in fact, many times such an ambitious schemer had barely taken two steps before he walked himself right out of the picture.

In terms of professional ethics, eating the court's rice meant doing the court's business. Eating from the pot while constantly preparing to smash it—such a person would be despised wherever he went. Whatever office Fang Chongyong held, he would do the work of that office. His proper duties could not be set aside.

From the standpoint of where his power came from, Fang Chongyong knew that all his authority was granted by Brother Ji, so serving Brother Ji was only right and proper. Of course, for a post like Flower and Bird Commissioner that purely brought disaster to the common people, he would still find ways to decline.

Born as a human, one carries shackles from the start.

Although Fang Chongyong's body housed a soul from a thousand years later, he still had not felt anything like freedom. He too had not sprung forth from a stone.

By now the night had grown deep, yet Fang Chongyong still had not rested. He remained in his bedchamber, writing a letter to Brother Ji.

He set down in detail, leaving nothing out, all the assorted affairs of the Longyou region—ghost salaries, defaulted military pay, the Tibetans' restless stirrings—and planned to dispatch a rider by fast horse along the post road back to Chang'an the next day.

Seeking instructions in the morning and reporting in the evening—this was simply the norm for a working man. By now Fang Chongyong had grown accustomed to this life of a Tang dynasty official.

"Would you like to take a look?"

The letter finished, Fang Chongyong noticed that Pei Xiu, seated across the desk, had been watching him the whole time, so he handed the stack of letter paper to her.

"Alang really does hold a grudge."

Pei Xiu sighed, feeling somewhat displeased in her heart.

She had indeed been sent to "protect" Fang Chongyong, but now the two of them had "protected" their way into the same bed, so that layer of surveillance had lost all meaning — why even bring it up!

Pei Xiu helplessly took the letter and read it at a glance, instantly frightened out of her wits.

She hurriedly returned it to Fang Chongyong, took a deep breath, and tried her best to calm herself. Pei Xiu then smiled bitterly and said, "So Alang was telling the truth all along — I thought you were just being polite that day. You're far too honest."

That day, Fang Chongyong had said he would send someone to escort her to Didao County and then have her return to Chang'an alone. Pei Xiu had thought he found her a nuisance getting in the way.

She hadn't expected that Longyou was truly dangerous!

A warm current flowed through Pei Xiu's heart. She stood up, sat down beside Fang Chongyong, and said softly, "I won't leave. Wherever you go, I'll go."

"Write a letter to your father and tell him about us, so he won't worry himself sick."

Fang Chongyong grasped Pei Xiu's small hand, its tiger's mouth covered in calluses, and said.

"This... is that all right?"

Pei Xiu asked in confusion, then flushed with embarrassment, lowered her head, and said no more.

At first, she had been drugged by the two women of Fang Chongyong's household — she couldn't resist, and when the deed was done could only consider herself unlucky.

The day before yesterday, when Fang Chongyong held her, Pei Xiu could absolutely have resisted, but she didn't — so she couldn't blame anyone else.

She couldn't very well tell her own father Pei Min that she was playing the other woman for Fang Chongyong and actually enjoying it, could she?

"Write it. I don't like doing things in secret — there's nothing that can't be said."

Fang Chongyong said softly, already pulling Pei Xiu into his arms.

"Understood. I'll write it now and send someone to deliver it to Youzhou."

Pei Xiu nodded slightly and said.

She then took up a brush and wrote a letter to Pei Min. She didn't write the specifics of how she and Fang Chongyong had gotten together, but she made the outcome and her feelings clear. Pei Xiu calmly handed the letter to Fang Chongyong and said, "Alang, have a look — is this all right?"

"I have no need to read it. These are private words from a daughter to her father."

Fang Chongyong waved his hand and said.

"Sigh!"

Pei Xiu sighed softly, wrapped both arms around Fang Chongyong's neck, and offered up a fragrant kiss.

Though he wasn't quite the elegant young gentleman she had fantasized about, still... it was actually rather nice, wasn't it?

This strange thought flashed through Pei Xiu's mind. A moment later, the flames of desire that seemed ready to burn her body to ash emptied her mind completely, and she let Fang Chongyong do as he pleased with her, unable to muster the slightest resistance.

……

"Jiedushi Fang, Jiedushi Fang? Are we entering the Heyuan Army camp now?"

Seeing Fang Chongyong stop in his tracks before the gates of the Heyuan Army garrison, Gai Jiayun leaned in and asked in a low voice.

"No need. We'll wait for Wang Nande right here."

Fang Chongyong said with a calm expression. Just now his mind had been full of Pei Xiu's fair, lovely body in bed, and he had completely drifted off.

Yesterday, to make Pei Xiu willingly write the letter to Pei Min, Fang Chongyong had deployed every "method" at his disposal, going all out to please her in bed. Not only did they light torches in the bedchamber while making love, they even moved the dressing table beside the bed so that Pei Xiu could see her own alluring poses in the bronze mirror during the act.

Under Fang Chongyong's attentive efforts, both of them had been excited to the point of collapse last night! Pei Xiu in particular — when she woke in the morning and looked at Fang Chongyong, her eyes were so tender they seemed ready to drip water.

Of course, Fang Chongyong did this, to a certain extent, not entirely for the pleasure of the bedchamber, but was aiming at Pei Xiu's father Pei Min and the Pei clan's network of connections.

The tactics used to win over a woman weren't exactly honorable, but they weren't excessive either. On the whole, he hadn't forced Pei Xiu — Fang Chongyong had simply broken a rule he had previously set for himself.

Before, Fang Chongyong had felt that his woman should share life's hardships with him, each keeping to their proper place, like a contract. And since it was a contract, it also required the man not to fool around outside.

Now, Fang Chongyong's view was more pragmatic. Pei Xiu and her family background were usable, useful, and practical, and this woman didn't make him feel any revulsion — besides, she had been delivered right to his lips.

So he had to win this Pei Xiu over, even if it violated his former principles. It was more like a transaction that sold one's soul.

In the end, it was all to adapt to this era — a compromise he had no choice but to make!

Fang Chongyong couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

While his thoughts were wandering, Wang Nande, Military Commissioner of the Heyuan Army, came out of the camp with a group of army officers. The moment they met, everyone clasped their hands in salute to Fang Chongyong, who had already dismounted, and said, "We invite Jiedushi Fang into the camp!"

Wang Nande glanced impassively at Gai Jiayun, then at the several hundred Lintao Army personal guards behind him. By their attire, every soldier had a feather stuck in his helmet — this was a special unit under the Lintao Army banner that garrisoned the Longyou Jiedushi Headquarters, and they would not easily leave their post.

What had they come to the Heyuan Army camp for this time?

Wang Nande had no way to bar these troops from entering the camp, because the other party's status was akin to "military police," specifically responsible for enforcing military law within the Longyou armies. Gai Jiayun was also the acting Military Commissioner of the Lintao Army, in charge of commanding these men. That he followed behind Fang Chongyong seemed reasonable enough.

It was just that years of habitual caution made Wang Nande involuntarily nervous. By the look of it, these visitors did not come in friendship!

After entering the Heyuan Army camp's central command tent, Fang Chongyong sat in the master's seat and gave a glance to the Secretary beside him. The Secretary then opened the roster in his hands and shouted at Wang Nande and the other Heyuan Army officers: "Roll call!"

"Roll call" was only two words, yet they were the two words Wang Nande and the others least wanted to hear!

"Jiedushi Fang, the Heyuan Army has over ten thousand soldiers. Calling the roll one by one — when would that ever finish? You can't possibly mean to call one name and have one soldier come in at a time, can you?"

Wang Nande said with an awkward expression. Seeing that Fang Chongyong said nothing, he emphasized again, "Jiedushi Fang, with so many men in the Heyuan Army, if one person comes in for every name called, the roll call won't be finished even in three days."

The time the roll call would take wasn't really the issue — the key point was, doing it this way would cause a major incident!

The Heyuan Army was not at full strength — they had been drawing pay for phantom soldiers.

A portion of the names on the roster didn't match the actual troops; they existed only on paper. For Fang Chongyong to call the roll one by one in the command tent, out in the open before everyone — wasn't this driving a man to his death!

"General Gai, have your troops seal the gates of every Heyuan Army camp. Aside from personnel necessary for delivering supplies, no one may enter or leave the camp, regardless of rank.

Violators will be charged with rebellion."

Fang Chongyong said to Gai Jiayun.

"Understood! This subordinate will see to it at once!"

Gai Jiayun clasped his fists in salute, then turned and left with the personal guards around him.

"What are you standing there for? Call the roll!"

Fang Chongyong impatiently ordered the Secretary beside him.

Sigh, updating isn't easy these days. This kind of state will last a long time.

(End of this chapter)