Chapter 1660: The Humble Commissioner of the Wude Office

The Eastern Capital, the Wude Office. The weather had turned cold, and layers of dark clouds pressed down from the sky, casting the world in gloom that weighed on the heart.

Young lord, Commissioner of the Wude Office Wang Yinwu furrowed his brow, flipping through the reports on bandit suppression from the northwest again and again, as if trying to sort some thread of sense from the jumble of information—but the result gave him a splitting headache. There was plenty of news, yet little of it useful.

The smooth conclusion of the Lu An case had put Wang Yinwu somewhat at ease. Though he could not help but feel a sense of kinship in shared misfortune, Emperor Liu had ultimately kept his word, made no further moves, and even let him continue to oversee the Wude Office.

But Wang Yinwu knew full well that Lu An's active performance before and after was not enough to make Emperor Liu truly let him off the hook.

After that unprecedentedly serious political incident, Emperor Liu's trust in him had been greatly diminished—one could hardly even call it trust anymore.

In recent months, a sense of crisis had never left Wang Yinwu's mind. He had even thought of fleeing, but quickly abandoned that ridiculous and cowardly delusion.

On the one hand, he could not escape; on the other, he could not bear to part with the power and position of Commissioner of the Wude Office. Therefore, after concluding the investigation into Lu An, Wang Yinwu had poured nearly all his energy into the Kara-Khanid envoy case and the investigation of northwest military, political, and civilian affairs—this was his last bid for a thread of hope.

And the results were hardly satisfactory. The investigation into the Kara-Khanid envoy case had made some progress—whether from the mouths of the surviving grooms, the identification of the bandits' corpses, or the intelligence gained during the suppression campaign, considerable corroborating evidence had been obtained. The movements of several hundred fierce bandits could not have gone completely unnoticed; following those leads, tracing the trail step by step, at least the force known as—

the "Mingsha Bandits" had been confirmed. They had even traced the bandit leader—

"Lu Nan," but at that point the trail went cold again. His identity and background, his whereabouts and traces, remained an unknown mystery.

It was not until late autumn that, because over the past several months villagers had repeatedly gone missing after entering the mountains, the Lingzhou authorities finally organized a party to investigate. Both by chance and by necessity, they discovered that hidden camp, along with the remnants of buildings and a great number of rotting corpses.

The horrifying scene was both alarming and gratifying. The exhausted officers of the northwest Wude Office rushed over at the news, and after examination, quickly made their judgment—these were the bandits who had committed the envoy case.

However, such an obvious act of silencing witnesses meant that few clues could have been left behind. Even though traces were found among the corpses, and even some notorious bandits and brigands of wide repute, along with a portion of the Kara-Khanid envoy's belongings, the leads obtained had some value—but not much.

In fact, the situation was even more serious than imagined. It was now almost certain that this was no mere gang of audacious bandits, but a true rebel force. The nature of the matter was far too grave.

With the investigation having reached this point, the situation was already clear and plain. The Wude Office's months of painstaking effort had not been wasted, but the results were hardly encouraging.

At this point, one could barely scrape together an investigation report to submit to Emperor Liu, but it would not satisfy him. What Emperor Liu cared about was by no means the Wude Office's diligent investigative process—only the results. And without having captured the bandit leader—

"Lu Nan," how could this matter be explained away? Even his true identity had yet to be determined.

Of course, what gave Wang Yinwu a headache was not limited to this. At least, compared to the utter chaos and all the strange twists of a few months ago, there was now a definite target of investigation—at worst, they could start over.

Those rebels, having committed the great Hexi case, could not simply lie low forever. As long as they continued to act, sooner or later they would show their hand.

What truly worried Wang Yinwu was that, in the nationwide crackdown on public security and in the investigation of northwest military, political, and civilian affairs, he had discovered some equally serious problems.

The decay of public order was not merely due to local officials' inaction or poor governance, but also to the deep contradictions among the people. This was especially evident in the northwest and northern prefectures and circuits that were the focus of investigation.

From the restlessness of the penal labor camps across the north, one could see that some of the Great Han's policies, as time went on, were meeting with more and more resistance.

And the groups dissatisfied with the court seemed to be growing. The policy of relocating settlers to the frontiers, carried out to this day, had indeed strengthened Han power in the borderlands compared to over twenty years ago—but not all Han were of one mind with the court. Too many people were dissatisfied with the status quo, committing crimes throughout the northwest. Those who dared to challenge the court's authority were by no means a tiny handful; several families had already been exposed, and who knew how many more remained hidden.

As for the Hu minority peoples, they were an even more intractable problem. The northwest bandits could never be completely eradicated, and that necessarily meant they had the support of those borderland Hu.

The goal of using Han to control the Hu had been partially achieved, and Han-Hu contradictions had become the norm. But on the other hand, in the Wude Office's investigations, there were quite a few cases of Han and Hu colluding.

All kinds of contradictions and conflicts, accumulated to this day, had become chronic ailments, seriously affecting the stability of the northwest region. And the civil and military officials of the northwest seemed, in their long years of peace and comfort, to have grown lazy and lax, their discipline greatly weakened.

A major rectification of officialdom, supplemented by a thorough public-security crackdown on bandits, had dispelled some of the rising contradictions, and all manner of snakes and demons had calmed down considerably—but none of it addressed the root cause. The contradictions and crises remained.

And Wang Yinwu was almost certain that, as Emperor Liu had said, there truly existed in the northwest certain persons or forces that endangered the Great Han's rule. No one knew how long they had been developing, how long they had been hiding, but they were already stirring, ready to move.

The chill of early winter could not dispel the heat burning in Wang Yinwu's heart. He tossed the official documents in his hand onto the desk, reached up and rubbed his temples hard, and let out a long sigh.

In just a few months, the once robust Wang Yinwu had grown haggard and aged considerably. The pressure his body and mind had borne during this period was hard to imagine.

"Uncle!" Wang Xuanzhen walked in and bowed with a salute.

"What is it?" Taking a deep breath, Wang Yinwu adjusted his mood as best he could and asked.

"Someone has come from the palace to notify that His Majesty summons you!" Hearing this, Wang Yinwu could hardly remain seated. He shot to his feet and asked, "Where is the messenger?"

"Being served tea in the guest hall!"

"How can we be so remiss?"

"It's only a palace eunuch, not some high-ranking official!" said Wang Xuanzhen. Hearing this, Wang Yinwu smiled bitterly: "In my current situation, never mind that Zhang Dejun—even any random person by His Majesty's side is someone I cannot afford to offend!" Seeing Wang Yinwu so anxious and hesitant, so timid and fearful, Wang Xuanzhen opened his mouth but found nothing to say.

As a loyal hound, a keen nose was essential. How could he have failed to notice the changes in Wang Yinwu over these past months? Though he did not know the root cause, he had some guesses.

"Go fetch a hundred taels of silver!" Wang Yinwu instructed as he went to receive the guest.

"Yes!" Wang Xuanzhen acknowledged from behind, but could not stop frowning. He could not help but look down on his uncle for behaving this way.

A dignified Commissioner of the Wude Office—when had he become so humble?... In Chongzheng Hall, whenever this sovereign and his minister met now, there was always a hint of awkwardness in the air. Wang Yinwu remained trembling with fear, and Emperor Liu remained majestic and terrible.

Perhaps what was truly strange was the human heart. No matter how hard Wang Yinwu tried, he could not dissolve the knot in Emperor Liu's heart. The more he looked at him, the more displeased he became.

Emperor Liu's summons was, naturally, still about the northwest affairs. And Wang Yinwu dared not conceal anything any longer, reporting in full detail everything the Wude Office had discovered, great or small.

And thanks to the groundwork laid by the previous several reports, although Emperor Liu's expression was not pleasant, he did not fly into a rage.

He merely rose, walked over to stand beneath that enormous map, and stared at the northwest, lost in thought. After a long while, as Wang Yinwu grew ever more uneasy, he finally let out a faint sigh: "It seems the northwest needs a thorough cleansing. Too many loose ends were left in the past, and the poison lingers to this day!" Although a large part of the northwest's problems stemmed from policy, Emperor Liu would hardly reflect on or question his own policies of long-term stability. He would only think that he had employed the wrong people, or that there were too many rebels.

And the solution was to exterminate those rebels one by one.

"You may go back for now. Continue the investigation!" Emperor Liu gave Wang Yinwu no further instructions, merely issuing the order flatly.

"Yes!" Emperor Liu's indifferent gaze was truly unsettling. Trembling with unease, Wang Yinwu clasped his hands in salute, then added somewhat guiltily: "Your servant will surely find all those rebels!" Emperor Liu made no comment, casually waving his hand.

After Wang Yinwu had withdrawn, Emperor Liu finally said coldly: "This man—now he doesn't even know how to be Commissioner of the Wude Office!"