Chapter 198

Bad news eventually arrived.

On the third day after Wang Che formally assumed the position of Head of Family, the urgent sealed letter from Zhenbei City was delivered to his desk.

The content of the letter was simple.

The lord of Zhenbei City, Wang Meng, Governor of Dongying for the Wang Family, who had accumulated wounds from early campaigns and, over many years, exhausted himself laboring for the family's foundation, died of exhaustion on the seventh day of the ninth month of the fourth year of Jianlong, in the Zhenbei City lord's mansion.

He was sixty-three years old.

The letter was written in Wang Heng's own hand, Wang Meng's nephew. The characters were steady and the strokes sharp, but some had already been soaked through with tears, and the wording revealed sorrow.

He also informed the Head of Family that he had temporarily taken charge of all affairs in Zhenbei City, awaiting the family's formal appointment, and that he would escort his uncle's coffin back to Yangzhou for burial.

Wang Meng never married; he strictly carried out the family's various instructions and plans in Dongying. His nephew Wang Heng was the person closest to him and the Wang Family's tacit heir.

Wang Hao stood behind Wang Che, watching this new Head of Family.

Wang Che merely stared at the letter in silence for a long time. There was not much sorrow on his face, because sorrow could not solve any problem.

"Uncle Hao." He spoke, voice steady, "Uncle Wang Meng gave his last drop of blood for the family. His posthumous affairs must be of the highest standard."

"Yes." Wang Hao nodded.

"By order of the Head of Family, posthumously confer upon Wang Meng the title of Marquis of Dongying Expansion. Wherever his coffin passes, all Wang Family properties shall hang white banners in mourning."

"Furthermore, formally appoint Wang Heng to succeed as lord of Zhenbei City, concurrently holding the position of Governor of Dongying. Tell him the family trusts him, just as it trusted his uncle."

"Also, order the Science Academy to allocate a special fund to erect a bronze statue of Uncle Wang Meng in Zhenbei City. Make it as tall and grand as possible, so that all Dongying people, generation after generation, will remember who gave them what they have today."

Each order was clear and decisive.

Wang Hao looked at him, as if seeing the shadow of Wang Zhen from years ago.

He sighed inwardly, the son of a fierce tiger is ultimately a fierce tiger. Even as a branch line, the Wang Family's bloodline tolerates no half-heartedness.

…

Half a month later, Dongying, Zhenbei City.

This city, the most prosperous and sturdy on the island built by the Wang Family, is today shrouded in a white solemnity.

Inside the lord's mansion, a massive coffin made from a whole thousand-year-old nanmu log rests silently in the center of the memorial hall.

Wang Heng, dressed in pure black attire, kneels before the coffin. He is not wearing mourning garb, and at his waist he still bears the narrow sidearm he never parts with.

He is meticulously wiping the blade with a white silk cloth. The blade's cold light is fierce, reflecting his young but expressionless face.

Outside the memorial hall, there are muffled sobs and footsteps.

Along the long street before the lord's mansion, countless Dongying civilians have come spontaneously to mourn. Most are middle-aged or elderly, the generation that personally experienced the Warring States chaos and was pulled back from the brink of hunger and death by Wang Meng.

They wear their finest clothes and hold various offerings in their hands.

Some offer a bowl of newly harvested white rice, some a few fresh fish just caught from the sea, and others merely a handful of wildflowers picked from the mountains and fields, unknown in name.

They line up in a long queue, silently walk to the memorial hall, place their offerings down, then kowtow deeply before the great coffin, tears streaming down their faces.

"Governor Wang Meng... is our great benefactor..." a white-haired old man kneels on the ground, weeping uncontrollably, "Without him, we would have long been slain by those warriors' swords; where would today's good days come from..."

"Yes, it is the Governor who gave us land and gave us enough to eat..."

"My son's life was saved by the doctors of the Governor's mansion..."

These simple words come from the heart.

To them, Wang Meng is not some invader, but the leader who ended a century of war and brought order and peace.

Wang Heng turns a deaf ear to all of this.

He merely wipes his blade, as if in this world only this sword is his sole friend.

A Wang Family Chief of Guards walked up behind him and said softly, "Young Master Heng, the auspicious time has arrived; it's time to set out."

Wang Heng grunted an assent and slowly sheathed his sidearm.

He rose, walked to the coffin, took a deep look, then turned away without the slightest reluctance.

"Lift the spirit."

Two words, direct and straightforward.

Eight of the tallest Wang Family guards, working together, lifted the heavy coffin onto the great hearse already waiting outside.

As the hearse slowly drove out of the lord's mansion, the streets on both sides fell silent in an instant.

Then, a wailing like mountains and seas erupted skyward.

Along both sides of the street, crowds knelt shoulder to shoulder. From the lord's mansion, stretching several li to the harbor, as far as the eye could see were figures bowing and kneeling.

White flower petals, like heavy snow, fluttered down from the pavilions lining both sides of the street, quickly covering the entire long street.

The hearse, amidst this white sea of people and petals, moved forward slowly.

Each step was taken with immense weight.

Wang Heng rode a tall black horse at the very front of the hearse. He stared straight ahead, as if the earth-shaking grief around him had nothing to do with him.

His gaze swept past the kneeling crowds, looking toward the outskirts of Zhenbei City, at the newly established mines and smelting workshops.

There, tens of thousands of Dongying youths who had already graduated from the academy were now laboring, sweat pouring like rain.

His uncle had given these people food and warmth.

And also to squeeze out every last bit of their value.

Benevolence?

A cold smile unnoticed by anyone curled at the corner of Wang Heng's mouth.

That is something only the weak need.

What the Wang Family needs is resources, is steel, is the power sufficient to conquer the seas.

For this goal, let alone one Wang Meng dying, even if ten or a hundred died, what would it matter?

He himself is also always ready to become a sacrifice for this great undertaking.

The hearse finally reached the harbor.

A huge Wang Family treasure ship had already lowered its half-mast flag, waiting silently there.

As the coffin was slowly hoisted onto the deck, the tens of thousands of mourners on the dock could no longer hold back; many wailed loudly, and some even fainted on the spot from crying.

They chased after the ship, running and shouting along the coastline, until the great vessel became a tiny black dot between sea and sky.

Wang Heng stood at the bow facing the icy sea wind, glancing back at that weeping land.

"Pass my orders." He said to his deputy behind him without turning his head.

"From today onward, across all of Dongying, output of all minerals, timber, and grain will increase by thirty percent. All laborers will have their working hours extended by one double hour."

"Anyone who dares to resist or slack off will be stripped of rank and left to fend for themselves."

The deputy felt a chill in his heart, as if he could already foresee the kind of bloody storm that would soon erupt over this land that had just calmed down.

"Yes, Governor."