Chapter 1357: Assassination

Shan Xiongxin, Qin Qiong, and the others stayed in Daxing City for another four days before whipping their horses and galloping all the way back to Shandong.

When they returned, they discovered something was wrong.

On the streets, local troops had begun patrolling in armor.

Previously, the local troops had merely guarded the city gates, even when the troops were rotated. But this time, the local troops were all armored! They were all mobilized, patrolling in squads of ten!

Shan Xiongxin and Qin Qiong exchanged a glance, then cupped their hands: "Second Brother Qin, Yingying and I must return first. You and the Princess take care."

"Go quickly, there is no time to delay."

"Let's go, Yingying."

Shan Xiongxin called out.

Shan Yingying greeted Qin Qiong and Princess Yu, then hurriedly spurred her horse to follow Shan Xiongxin away.

Princess Yu looked at Qin Qiong with deep, lingering eyes; the famous Second Brother Qin just couldn't handle this.

He let out a long sigh and said: "It is Duke Wang, or rather, Yang Guang, who intends to purge the mountain bandits and implicate... the great clans!"

He spoke very softly; for now, this was still a secret.

"A fine strategy." After holding it in for a long time, Princess Yu came out with this: "Rotating the troops and launching the attack while the local forces haven't been bought off yet, ensuring the orders can be executed. Duke Wang has always had a good reputation, and the soldiers below are all willing to die for him. I fear the whole of Shandong will not be peaceful this time. No! I fear Henan and Hebei have already been surrounded by the great army!"

"This is an attempt to catch them all in one net," Qin Qiong remarked with emotion.

"You can't catch them all." Princess Yu shook her head: "It's been hundreds of years; the previous emperors were all from the great clans taking turns, and I've never seen one truly wiped out. I estimate this is just a probe; they won't act too ruthlessly. Otherwise, if they truly force the great clans into a corner, rebellion will be everywhere, and both Yang Guang and Duke Wang will lose more than they gain."

She still possessed wisdom, recognizing the severe situation behind it all.

Of course, regarding the issue of emperors, she was still limited by a lack of advanced historical perspective, still needing to distinguish between good and bad; this was her limitation.

"Let's go, Princess, we must hurry. I fear Shandong will not be peaceful from here on out."

Qin Qiong called out, urging the brothers who had followed him to deliver gifts to the late Yang Su—only to have to haul them back—to speed up and return to Yang Lin's side.

With such a major event, it was impossible for Yang Lin not to know; he would certainly be involved. At this very moment, the whole of Shandong was unsafe; only by Yang Lin's side was it safe...

Shan Xiongxin took Shan Yingying back to Erxian Manor. Taking advantage of the fact that fighting had not yet broken out, he hurriedly recalled all the people outside, arranging them either into the merchant teams or into the farms he had acquired by following Wang Yan's lead.

He was learning the methods of managing farms from the old Wang family. Whatever the old Wang family did, he did. Wang Yan was also willing to help him, so the farms he controlled were in quite good condition.

Now that his men were broken into small groups and sent to various places, it happened to be a perfect arrangement.

After he finished these arrangements in a panic, he received news that the locally stationed troops had requisitioned local militia, scraped together five hundred men, and gone to attack a group of mountain bandits entrenched nearby.

Shan Xiongxin even ran to watch the scene of a large crowd being escorted back. Only then did he realize that Wang Yan had already calculated the time and wasn't afraid of him leaking the secret at all. Just as he finished getting busy, the operation had already been launched.

He wasn't stupid; he knew this situation certainly wasn't limited to the place where his Erxian Manor was located, but was large-scale, and other places must have carried out unified actions as well.

Not three days later, Shan Xiongxin heard that on the night of the day before, local troops had surrounded a great clan surnamed Liu in the area, killed nearly half the people, and finally captured all the rest alive, confining them under guard.

By the fourth day, Shan Xiongxin heard that the local centurion had sent men to audit the accounts and directly arrested a large group of local officials.

By the fifth day, he heard again that the centurion had cleared all the tenant farmers and serfs of their innocence, burned all past IOUs, and the government clerks had begun measuring the fields, intending to distribute land to those who had none.

Thus, Shan Xiongxin finally knew that Wang Yan hadn't lied to him. What Wang Yan was doing was truly protecting the borders and bringing peace to the people, and he was still the same as he had always been. Even though he was now the Grand Marshal of the World's Armies, he still hadn't forgotten his humble origins, nor had he forgotten the poor people who were just as humble.

Although Shan Xiongxin looked down on those poor people—because he was a strong man, and he believed those people were crying and tired only because they were weak.

But what Wang Yan did told him that not letting the strong bully the weak was what a strong man should do.

He also knew that things had blown up. Using his wisdom and insight to ponder, he couldn't imagine to what extent this matter would have to go before it could end...

Things had indeed blown up, and it was indeed just as Princess Yu had said: Shandong, Hebei, and Henan were all acting at the same time. The Bingzhou border troops, who were about to return to the capital to rotate and had almost reached Daxing, bypassed Daxing without entering, marching rapidly toward Guandong (east of Hangu Pass).

At the same time, the three naval divisions contracted, all gathering in the area north of the Yangtze River, guarding the entire line.

The southern troops assembled, requisitioned militia, and camped in Jiang Nan, with a strong momentum to cross north. The Youzhou border troops guarding against Goguryeo also contracted, ignoring Goguryeo's provocations, assuming a defensive posture, as if ready to hold off Goguryeo with part of their forces while splitting troops to march south.

In Daxing City, the troops guarding the capital also assembled, adding troops to every city gate, while simultaneously beginning dense patrols within the city...

It was also at this time that various information from outside finally reached Daxing, and the court officials finally began to act.

At this moment, they displayed unparalleled unity. They truly felt the crisis; it was truly a matter of life and death, to the point where they made Yang Guang afraid to attend court.

"Ziyan, one couldn't tell in ordinary times, but now looking at it, the entire court is full of rebellious ministers and thieves..."

Yang Guang thought of the scene when he attended court earlier, and he still had lingering fears. He could feel that those people were truly desperate. He didn't even dare to make a decision or execute someone on the spot to establish his authority.

In the past, executing people worked well, but at this time, it could be said that the entire court was full of dead soldiers who weren't afraid of death. After all, the families behind them and the interest groups they represented were gone; they were no different from being dead.

He looked at Wang Yan with some uncertainty. "Ziyan, should we continue?"

Yang Guang, who had been lawless in the past, prided himself on being brilliant and martial, and had sworn to develop the Great Sui into a great empire and be an emperor for the ages, was afraid.

Wang Yan felt Yang Guang's panic and felt his budding intention to retreat.

"Your Majesty, things have reached this point; there is absolutely no reason to retreat. Otherwise, the great clans will only think Your Majesty is afraid of them. They will push their luck and act even more excessively. At that time, I fear Your Majesty's decrees will be hard to pass down."

"They are already hard to pass down right now!"

"As long as the soldiers still listen to Your Majesty's orders, then there is no problem. Your Majesty should be careful recently; pay attention to food and drink. As long as Your Majesty withstands the pressure, even if you only do half, you will have killed a batch, and Your Majesty's majesty will be even greater. If Your Majesty cannot withstand it and fall short of success, then I fear everything will be over, and this fine head of mine will not be saved."

Yang Guang stared at Wang Yan, a flash of thought in his eyes. After a long while, he let out a long sigh: "Continue! I want to see what other tricks they have. In addition, add more men to the Imperial City and keep a close watch to prevent anyone from plotting mischief."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Wang Yan responded and went out to make various arrangements. Yang Guang was truly afraid and extremely lacking in a sense of security; strengthening the defensive forces was as it should be.

For the next few days, Yang Guang did not attend court or discuss politics, staying honestly in the inner palace and not going out. He ordered Jiang Nan to select a large batch of beautiful girls to be sent into the palace. He had been quite busy before and hadn't had time to favor them. Recently, he had time, and he was very happy every day.

However, the court politics hadn't been neglected. Yuwen Huaji was acting as prime minister. Except for the few places that were causing trouble, the other regions were quite good.

But there weren't many things left; the remaining places weren't many. The grasslands, the Northwest, Guanzhong, and Jiang Nan—the situation in these three places was far from that complex. The places causing trouble were the properly densely populated Central Plains, the proper orthodox China.

Guanzhong and Jiang Nan had long since taken sides and supported Yang Guang. The Turks on the grasslands were all honestly herding and producing. The Northwest was a war zone, with military and politics integrated; this was Wang Yan's job.

So there were no big problems.

Wang Yan's plan was to use this opportunity to take all those people away in one wave. But plans were plans; the actual results were certainly different. This point could be understood just by looking at Yang Guang's current attitude.

However, Wang Yan wasn't in a hurry. He wanted to see just how awesome the Central Plains great clans, who hadn't been baptized, really were.

He sat firmly on the fishing platform, dealing with various information sent back, making various arrangements and deployments, and even inspecting the garrison every few days to further ensure the stability of the army.

At this time, everything could be chaotic, but the army could not be chaotic...

The great clans of the Central Plains indeed had some ability. However, within a month, large-scale rebel armies had appeared one after another in various places. These messages could be received every day. Even if Wang Yan didn't report to Yang Guang, those court officials received news from various channels and sent it to Yang Guang, letting Yang Guang see the good deeds his Wang Mouren had done.

Yang Guang naturally saw them. After the great emperor who was determined to be an emperor for the ages finished reading, he was quite flustered. He urgently summoned Wang Yan into the palace again, asking Wang Yan how the situation was and whether he could withstand it.

Wang Yan naturally gave an affirmative answer. This was something he had long prepared for, and he was a regular army with sufficient armaments. Although the great clans had armaments, they didn't have such high reserves.

There is no need for any military strategy; having armor against those without is just like a massacre.

And in terms of manpower, the first thing done in various places was to distribute land, which built up a mass base. The great clans in various places controlled most of the local land. Now that the imperial court wanted to distribute land to everyone, there were naturally supporters.

The people the great clans pulled together were actually coerced; they weren't willing to risk their lives either.

However, there were indeed difficult ones, such as great clans from different places uniting and combining their forces. With more troops, it was hard to handle.

This was a catastrophe launched by Wang Yan, and the destruction to the production and life of the Central Plains was huge. However, Wang Yan believed this was necessary; sooner or later they had to be killed, sooner or later there had to be destruction.

It was very difficult for the common people to unite. But the great clans had always been united. The interests of the vested interest groups could not be destroyed. If they were destroyed, they would risk their lives and shed blood.

Many reforms couldn't be carried out because the turmoil was too great, and they were beset by troubles from both inside and outside.

Many reforms weren't pushed through because the military force wasn't strong enough, and they weren't prepared to break things and rebuild them.

Once they encountered the enemy's counterattack, they would fold their flags and silence their drums, doubt themselves, and lose their firmness.

Wang Yan was very firm; he had always been firm.

Things still hadn't subsided, and the situation was becoming more severe day by day. Many great clans had already been killed and removed from the register. After such a period of time, it seemed that people were finally prepared, and finally, in Daxing City, they saw a counterattack.

This day, Wang Yan had finished dealing with various affairs and took his personal troops for a stroll, riding his horse to inspect the military camp outside the city.

On the way out of the city, it was a spacious street, and on both sides of the street were multi-story buildings. Just on this street, Wang Yan alertly reined in his happily trotting warhorse, and the horse's front hooves lifted high, neighing.

The next instant, a thick crossbow bolt brushed past the pillar of a shop along the street, scraping off a large chunk, and wood chips flew.

"Heavy crossbow!"

"Guard!"

The personal troops behind Wang Yan shouted, all drawing their carried weapons.

The next moment, more crossbow bolts shot over, and dense crowds of people wearing armor rushed out from the shops, heading straight for Wang Yan.

At this time, Wang Yan also drew the Han sword from his waist, while parrying the dense arrows shooting over, while jumping off his warhorse. This warhorse couldn't live anymore; it had been turned into a hedgehog.

Wang Yan didn't feel sorry for the warhorse, carrying his sword and rushing toward the people who were killing him.

These people were fully equipped, wearing armor, with both long and short weapons, and everyone was red-eyed and shouting to kill, all people prepared to die, just coming to kill Wang Yan.

A rough count, I fear there were no less than a hundred people.

Even Wang Yan had to say a word: the great clans were truly awesome.

But no matter how awesome they were, it didn't delay him from being a tiger entering a flock of sheep, killing in all directions.

Because they were wearing armor, protecting many key places, ordinary attacks were useless, and only precise attacks could be used.

Wang Yan stabbed a sword into the eyes of a heavy-armored soldier rushing over, stabbing in from the eyes. Then he snatched the foot-spear from the heavy-armored soldier's hand.

The sword was too short and didn't have an advantage. The foot-spear was just right, long, sharp, blunt, and heavy.

Wielded in Wang Yan's hand, it was as agile as a sword.

Wang Yan truly let go and killed; whether they were alive or not didn't matter anymore. Relevant places could all be investigated, from the shops nearby, to the city gate guards, to the capital's armory, to the patrolling soldiers, all could find problems.

They didn't intend to hide either; as long as Wang Yan was killed, these things wouldn't be problems. If Wang Yan couldn't be killed, no matter how well they hid, there would eventually be traces, and it was redundant to make those useless arrangements.

So when the nearby soldiers rushed over, what they saw was Wang Yan covered in blood, standing there propped up by the foot-spear, murderous.

Around Wang Yan were a pile of corpses, broken limbs, wailing people, blood all over the ground, and some people standing trembling on the periphery, no longer having the guts to do anything.

Those who could still move, seeing people coming, looked at each other, without extra nonsense, all slit their own throats.

Thus, there was only Wang Yan left in the field...

?? Daily thanks to the good brothers who tipped, voted for monthly tickets, recommendation tickets, and read silently for their strong support!

? (End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 1358 =====