Chapter 842

Porcelain shards slipped from Chen Yan's palm and scattered on the desk. Wine mixed with a few fine traces of blood flowed down from between his fingers, staining a small dark water mark on the red wood desk.

Not a single person in the main hall dared to make a sound.

The grease of the roast lamb was still sizzling, the charcoal fire was still crackling, but these sounds had all become extremely distant background noise at this moment.

Yuwen Ze's complexion turned iron-blue to the marrow of his bones; he punched the desk, and the wine bowls and plates jumped up and fell back down, colliding with a series of chaotic, crisp sounds.

"The Helan Clan!"

His teeth gnashed, his voice raised to a level where the entire Inspector's Office could hear.

"It must be them! These beasts, I distributed their land, and they dare to burn my granary! Thirty human lives, thirty thousand shi of military grain—what great courage they have!"

Helian Shi's hand was already on the horizontal blade at his waist, the armor plates colliding with urgent sounds on his violently heaving chest.

"Prince, this subordinate requests the order! This subordinate will take soldiers to raid the Helan Clan's residence right now!"

Chen Yan did not look at them.

He shook off the porcelain shards remaining on his palm, pulled a cloth from his sleeve, and leisurely wiped the wine stains and blood threads from between his fingers, wiping extremely slowly and extremely carefully.

Everyone's gaze in the hall was nailed to his hands that were wiping his fingers.

He finished wiping.

Chen Yan threw the cloth onto the desk, leaned back into his chair, and rested his fingers on the edge of the armrest.

"Dou Lu Ling."

Dou Lu Ling's body tightened by three degrees the moment he was named; he stood up from his seat, hands clasped in front of him, his voice pressed extremely low.

"This subordinate is here."

Chen Yan's gaze fell on his face.

"Speak, to what extent has Lingzhou truly rotted?"

Dou Lu Ling's Adam's apple bobbed; he looked at Yuwen Ze, and Yuwen Ze nodded at him through gritted teeth.

Dou Lu Ling turned his body toward Chen Yan, squeezing the words out one by one from between his teeth.

"Pillar of State, after the Prince implemented the land distribution policy, the commoners at the bottom of Lingzhou truly turned their hearts to him, but..."

His voice stuck for a beat, his fingers tightening by two degrees in front of him.

"The four great clans of Lingzhou—the Helan Clan, the Dugu Clan, the Yuwen collateral branch, and the local Yang Clan—have entrenched themselves in Lingzhou for over a hundred years, their foundations so deep that even this subordinate cannot touch the bottom."

He moved his gaze from Chen Yan's face and let it fall to the ground.

"After the Prince ordered the land to be measured, the Helan Clan ostensibly handed over six hundred qing of ownerless land, but they used the names of collateral branches and marriage ties in the clan to re-register more than three thousand qing of fertile land. This subordinate investigated three times and couldn't clear it; every time I investigated a layer, another layer of fake names popped up."

Helian Shi's voice interjected from the side, carrying a gnashing hatred.

"It's not just the land problem! This subordinate holds the military tally, but more than half of the commandants and squad leaders below are locals, and no fewer than twenty are related to the Helan Clan. My military orders are discounted as soon as they leave the Governor's Office, and by the time they reach the battalion, they're lucky if they execute thirty percent."

He punched his own thigh.

"The guards of the Changping Granary were thirty people I personally selected, all new recruits transferred from out of town, with no roots and no backers. I specifically changed the people because I was afraid the locals couldn't be trusted!"

His voice trembled when he mentioned "thirty people."

"In the end, they still managed to sneak in. Thirty lives, not one left."

Yuwen Ze stood before the desk, his fists clenched until his knuckles turned white, the iron-blue color on his face layered one upon another.

"Brother, it's not that this younger brother doesn't want to move against them; it's that I can't!"

His voice carried a stifled frustration and helplessness that had been suppressed for several months.

"The Helan Clan has operated in Lingzhou for four generations. Just counting the clan members serving in the army, there are more than thirty. Their grain shops and salt shops control thirty percent of the prices in Lingzhou City. Moving against them is equivalent to poking the largest hornet's nest in Lingzhou!"

His fist struck the desk again.

"Last month, this younger brother arrested a manager of the Helan Clan for tax evasion, and the next day the price of salt in Lingzhou City doubled! The commoners couldn't afford salt and blocked the entrance of the Inspector's Office! This younger brother could only release the person and negotiate the salt price back down. This breath I swallowed almost made this younger brother vomit blood!"

Chen Yan listened to everyone's words, his finger tracing an arc on the armrest.

He stood up, walked around the desk, and stood before Yuwen Ze.

Yuwen Ze looked up at him, the tension of waiting for a verdict churning in those eye sockets burned red by grievance and anger.

"I will answer you with one sentence."

"A Ze, do you still remember the Dragon-Slaying Technique I taught you in Tongwan City?"

Yuwen Ze's voice dropped by half a degree.

"I remember: distribute ownerless land to refugees and veterans, and win the hearts of the people."

The corners of Chen Yan's mouth twitched.

"That is the first half."

Yuwen Ze's brow jumped.

Chen Yan's hand withdrew from his shoulder, and he turned to walk to the center of the hall, the hem of his cloak sweeping across the bloodstain the scout had dragged in as he turned.

"The first half is bestowing grace—distributing land, providing relief, winning the hearts of the people; you did well."

His voice sank by three degrees after this sentence, sinking to a temperature that sent a chill up everyone's spine in the hall.

"But you didn't learn the second half."

He turned around, facing Yuwen Ze, and pointed toward his chest.

"The second half is called killing."

Yuwen Ze's pupils contracted.

Chen Yan's voice dropped by another half degree, every word bitten with tooth marks.

"You distributed land to give the commoners grace, but you didn't plant your own absolute loyalists in the army, and you didn't clean the blade handle thoroughly."

His finger drew a circle in the air.

"The Helan Clan dared to burn your granary, dared to kill your guards, not because they have great courage, but because the blade in your hand isn't fast enough."

He grabbed Yuwen Ze by the collar and pulled him in front of him, the two men's noses almost touching.

"You let them live for months, so they thought you were a soft persimmon; you reasoned with them, so they thought you were afraid of them!"

He released Yuwen Ze's collar and patted his own chest.

"If you don't kill all these bloodsucking parasites, your new policy is a pavilion built on a beach—one wave hits and it collapses!"

Yuwen Ze was lectured until cold sweat dripped from his temples, soaking the collar of his purple robes, but his spine did not bend even an inch.

He stepped back half a step, clasped his hands together, his voice as heavy as a hammer striking an anvil.

"Brother's lesson is correct! This younger brother knows his mistake. May I ask Brother for instruction on how to break the deadlock next?"

Chen Yan turned around, took a thick silk scroll from Ye Zhuxi's hand, and on the cover of the scroll, four characters were written in cinnabar.

Lingzhou Reform Plan.

He slammed the scroll onto the desk, the sound of the silk surface colliding with the wooden board exploding in the main hall.

"This Duke didn't come this time to help you catch a few petty thieves who set fires."

His voice turned completely cold at this moment, cold to the degree that the charcoal fire in the hall dimmed by two degrees.

"This Duke is going to fully launch the military and political reform of Xia Prefecture in Lingzhou, as well as Suizhou, Yinzhou, Yanzhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and Yuanzhou!"

He opened the scroll, his finger tracing heavily over the main title on the first page.

"This Duke has brought fifty of the most elite Political Commissars from the Lecture Hall; we are going to establish the One Heart Society in the Lingzhou army!"

Dou Lu Ling's breathing stopped for two full breaths after these words landed. His fingers tightened until his finger bones emitted a slight cracking sound, his lips moving twice, but not a single word could be squeezed out.

Helian Shi's reaction was three times larger than Dou Lu Ling's. His eyeballs widened to their limit, his mouth opening into a circle that could swallow his entire fist.

"Pillar of State, you mean... that Political Commissar system and One Heart Society from Xia Prefecture..."

Chen Yan glanced at him.

"Copied entirely, not a single link missing."

Helian Shi's Adam's apple rolled up and down twice, and then his voice exploded.

"Good! This subordinate has waited too long for this day!"

He punched his breastplate, the sound of armor plates colliding echoing three times in the main hall.

"This subordinate has heard about that system in Xia Prefecture in the army, and I have been thinking day and night about when it would be Lingzhou's turn! With a Political Commissar watching, those local commandants who act in compliance but oppose in secret still want to fool me? Dream on!"

Yuwen Ze's eyes brightened after hearing the three words "One Heart Society," the light the same as the light when he heard the Dragon-Slaying Technique in Tongwan City months ago.

He stepped forward, pressed his hands on the desk, and leaned forward two inches.

"Brother, Lingzhou will cooperate fully. Whatever you want, this younger brother will give; whoever you want to kill, this younger brother will sharpen the blade for you!"

Chen Yan closed the scroll, his palm covering the silk surface.

"Don't worry about sharpening the blade; first, grip the blade handle firmly."

His gaze turned to Helian Shi.

"Don't worry about the grain being burned; there is plenty in the granaries of the great clans."

His voice picked up by half a degree on the last two words, picking out an arc that made Helian Shi and Dou Lu Ling feel a chill down the back of their necks at the same time.

Chen Yan buttoned up the collar of his cloak again, the dark python patterns emitting a dark golden luster the moment the buckle closed.

He walked with long strides toward the entrance of the main hall, the sound of his boot soles on the blue bricks heavier with every step.

"Helian Shi, lead the way."

Helian Shi sprang up from the ground, his voice eager to the point of smoking.

"Where is the Pillar of State going?"

Chen Yan paused at the threshold and looked back, his eyes burning with two fires that made everyone in the hall feel as if they were standing beside a volcano about to erupt.

"The Lingzhou Camp."

His finger tapped lightly on the hilt of his horizontal blade.

"This Duke is going to meet those old military heads who act in compliance but oppose in secret, and by the way, let them see what true rules brought from Xia Prefecture are."