Chapter 854: Human skin hanging on the city wall shakes the army's heart, bitterness-telling turns the world upside down

The training ground was silent for two breaths.

Zhao Tiezhu's fingers reached to the bandage on his left shoulder and ripped it off, revealing the arrow wound still seeping blood beneath. The edges of the wound were turning dark red with granulation tissue, shocking in the morning light.

"This wound was shot by horse bandits at Black Wind Pass five days ago."

He threw the bandage onto the high platform, then bent down to roll up his trouser leg, revealing the wound on his right thigh pierced by an arrow head. Both the entrance and exit of the wound had not completely healed, crusted with dark blood scabs.

"This wound was also from that night."

He put down his trouser leg, straightened up, his voice dropping by half.

"There were ten brothers who went to Sui Prefecture with me; only four came back."

The air on the training ground changed flavor after these words. Some people's Adam's apples bobbed, and some people's fingers clenched by two parts at their sides.

Zhao Tiezhu's voice rose by one level.

"Do you brothers know who sent the horse bandits that killed us?"

No one on the training ground made a sound.

Zhao Tiezhu's finger pointed toward the city wall, pointing at the human skin fluttering in the wind.

"It was him, Zhao Chongde, your old Governor."

A burst of fragmented commotion erupted on the training ground. Someone gasped, and some people's footsteps moved back half a step.

Zhao Tiezhu's voice rose by another level.

"Why did Zhao Chongde want to kill us? Because we are political commissars, because we are here to stand up for you!"

His finger withdrew from the direction of the city wall and slapped against the dark red badge on his chest.

"Brothers, do you know what a political commissar does?"

The training ground was silent for three breaths.

Zhao Tiezhu's voice suddenly dropped after these three breaths, to a level that made people involuntarily prick up their ears.

"A political commissar is someone who checks if your military pay has been embezzled, someone who asks why your winter clothes haven't been issued, someone who seeks justice for you against those military leaders who shit and piss on your heads."

His palm slapped against the badge.

"Zhao Chongde killed us because he was afraid that after we arrived, you would know how much empty pay he ate from you and how much of your blood he drank."

The commotion on the training ground grew larger. A voice emerged from the crowd, pressed extremely low but carrying a resentment that had been suppressed for too long.

"Governor Zhao only issued us one and a half taels of pay every month, saying the Court only allocated this much..."

Zhao Tiezhu's voice exploded.

"One and a half taels? The grain and pay standard allocated by the Court to the Sui Prefecture camp is four taels per person per month! Zhao Chongde cut off sixty percent of your pay. Twelve years, twelve years, brothers!"

He grabbed an account book from the edge of the high platform—it was the one Gao Jiong had searched from Zhao Chongde's secret chamber, the cover still stained with wax.

He raised the account book high above his head.

"This is Zhao Chongde's private account book, written in black and white, showing how much oil and water he scraped from you every month. Do you brothers want to see it?"

"Want to see!"

The sound wave surged from the training ground—not the voice of one person, but the voices of hundreds of people merging together.

Zhao Tiezhu opened the account book, his voice reading page by page.

"Last year, the twelfth lunar month, embezzled thirty thousand taels of military pay, of which twenty thousand taels were sent to the Yinzhou Chamber of Commerce, and ten thousand taels entered Zhao Chongde's private treasury."

The voices on the training ground grew larger.

"This year, March, embezzled fifteen thousand taels of winter clothing funds, purchasing a batch of broken cloth as thin as cicada wings to pass off as winter clothes, with the eight thousand tael difference entering his private treasury."

Someone's fists clenched at their sides until their knuckles made a cracking sound.

"This year, June, ate two thousand two hundred empty pay spots, embezzling thirteen thousand taels every month."

Zhao Tiezhu closed the account book and slapped it heavily against the railing of the high platform.

"Brothers, you wear broken armor, eat moldy grain, and take one and a half taels of pay. You thought the Court treated you poorly, that the Pillar of State forgot you!"

His voice reached a level that made the entire training ground shake.

"No! It was Zhao Chongde, this old dog, who treated you as his cash cow, stuffing your hard-earned money into his own pockets!"

The emotions on the training ground reached a critical point at this moment.

An old soldier with gray hair walked out from the crowd. Most of his armor plates were shattered, revealing the inner lining beneath that was so thin one could see his skin. His hands were cracked from the cold, and dried blood scabs were embedded in his fingernails.

He walked to the bottom of the high platform, his knees bent, and he knelt on the muddy ground, his voice hoarse to the point of making everyone around him feel their noses ache as it emerged from his throat.

"Political commissar, this old man has been a soldier for fourteen years. For fourteen years, I haven't received full pay. This old man's wife froze to death last winter because we didn't have money to buy medicine. This old man always thought it was bad luck..."

His voice broke when he said the word "wife," but he gritted his teeth and continued.

"Turns out it was that old dog who harmed her!"

His fist smashed against the muddy ground, smashing his knuckles until they broke skin.

Zhao Tiezhu walked down from the high platform and crouched in front of the old soldier, one hand pressing on his shoulder.

"Old brother, what is your name?"

The old soldier's voice trembled like a withered leaf in the wind.

"This old man is called Sun the Lame, a local of Sui Prefecture."

Zhao Tiezhu helped him up from the ground, patted his shoulder, his voice dropping by half.

"Brother Sun, go up to the platform and tell the brothers every word of the suffering you've endured these fourteen years."

Sun the Lame's knees trembled twice, his voice strained by half a beat.

"This old man, this old man can't speak well..."

Zhao Tiezhu patted his shoulder again, the force not heavy but steady.

"Tell it just as it was bitter. No need to embellish, no need to fear. The Pillar of State's blade will support you."

Sun the Lame was helped onto the high platform by Zhao Tiezhu. He stood there, his legs still trembling, but when his gaze swept over the faces of the brothers below who were wearing broken armor just like him, the tremor in his voice slowly turned into something more intense.

"Brothers, when this old man enlisted fourteen years ago, my family still had three acres of thin land, and my wife had just conceived our first child..."

His voice broke again when he mentioned the child, but he gritted his teeth and continued.

"Zhao Chongde's people said there was pay for being a soldier, four taels a month, enough to support the whole family. This old man believed them, sold the land to scrape together travel expenses, and came to the Sui Prefecture camp."

His fist clenched at his side.

"And the result? The first month, they issued one and a half taels. This old man went to ask the squad leader, and the squad leader said the Court only gave this much. This old man didn't dare ask more, so I endured it."

His voice grew louder and more urgent as he spoke.

"Endured it for fourteen years! Fourteen years of one and a half taels! This old man's wife wove cloth at home to subsidize the family, weaving until her eyes were almost blind. Last winter, she caught a cold and didn't have money to buy medicine, dragging it for half a month until she was gone!"

His tears rolled down his wrinkled face, smashing onto the wooden board of the high platform.

"This old man didn't even have the money to buy a coffin for my wife; the neighbors helped wrap her in a straw mat and bury her!"

The tens of thousands of soldiers below were silent at this moment, silent enough to hear the wind blowing over the training ground.

Then, someone started crying.

One, two, ten, a hundred.

Crying sounds emerged from every corner of the training ground. Some people crouched on the ground holding their heads and wailing, some smashed their fists against their thighs, and some voices squeezed out from between their teeth, carrying a hatred that had been suppressed for over a decade.

"Me too! My pay was also embezzled!"

"My wife couldn't afford a doctor when she was giving birth, and the child didn't survive!"

"Zhao Chongde, that old dog! He eats and drinks well, while we can't even drink a mouthful of hot soup!"

The dam of emotions burst completely at this moment.

Zhao Tiezhu stood on the high platform, looking at the faces that had been suppressed for over a decade and were finally surging out, his voice crushing out from his chest.

"Brothers, Zhao Chongde is dead, but those dog legs who helped him eat empty pay and drink soldiers' blood are still alive!"

His finger pointed toward the dozens of old Sui Prefecture officers who were being held kneeling on the ground by Xia Prefecture infantry at the edge of the training ground.

"They are right there. Do you recognize them?"

The soldiers below turned their heads, their gaze falling on the old officers kneeling on the ground.

Someone's eyes turned red.

"That's Squad Leader Liu! He extracted twenty percent of our filial money every month! If we didn't pay, he'd beat us, and last month he kicked two of Old Li's ribs broken!"

"And that Officer Wang! He deducted all our camp's winter clothes and sold them, exchanging them for three good horses to keep in his own courtyard!"

"Deputy General Zhang! He made us repair his mansion, and after two months of work, he didn't give us a single cent. Whoever dared to speak up was locked in solitary confinement!"

The sound wave of anger surged from the training ground, one wave higher than the next, the fury of tens of thousands of people merging into a torrent that made those old officers kneeling on the ground tremble like chaff.

Zhao Tiezhu slapped the railing of the high platform heavily.

"Brothers, the Pillar of State said: the military law of the One Heart Society—those who embezzle military pay shall be beheaded, those who deduct winter clothes shall be beheaded, those who beat soldiers to disability shall be beheaded!"

His gaze turned to the old officers kneeling on the ground, his voice turning cold.

"Squad Leader Liu, Officer Wang, Deputy General Zhang—you three, stand up."

The three men trembled like chaff on the muddy ground; not one could stand up.

Zhao Tiezhu walked down from the high platform and strode to the three men, holding a horizontal blade in his hand, the blade reflecting a cold light in the morning sun.

"Can't stand up? Then receive the punishment while kneeling."

The horizontal blade was raised.

"This slash is for Brother Sun's wife."

The blade fell.

Squad Leader Liu's head rolled from his neck, turning twice on the muddy ground before stopping face up, a pleading expression still frozen on his face.

"This slash is for Old Li's broken ribs."

The second slash fell.

Officer Wang's body fell forward, blood spraying from the severed neck and splashing onto Deputy General Zhang's face beside him.

"This slash is for all the brothers you treated like cattle and horses."

The third slash fell.

Three heads rolled side by side on the muddy ground, blood pooling into a small dark red puddle.

The training ground was silent for two breaths.

Then the sound wave exploded.

"Well killed!"

"Long live the political commissar!"

"Long live the Pillar of State!"

Tens of thousands of throats exploded at the same instant, the sound wave surging from the training ground, rushing over the camp walls, rushing over the loess hills illuminated by the morning sun outside Sui Prefecture City, and rushing into the morning mist that hadn't yet dissipated at the furthest edge of the horizon.

Zhao Tiezhu shook the blood off the horizontal blade, turned around, faced the tens of thousands of soldiers, and raised his voice to the limit.

"From today on, there are no more old military leaders in the Sui Prefecture army!"

His finger slapped against the dark red badge on his chest.

"The political commissars of the One Heart Society will eat in your camps, sleep beside your bunks, your military pay will be issued to your hands without a single cent missing, and your winter clothes will be worn on your bodies without a single piece missing!"

He raised the horizontal blade high above his head.

"Whoever dares to bully you again, this blade will be unsheathed for you!"

The knees of tens of thousands of people bent at the same instant.

Not ordered.

Spontaneous.

"Long live the Pillar of State!"

The sound wave surged from the training ground again and again, shaking even the human skin of Zhao Chongde on the city wall until it swayed three times.

Chen Yan stood on a watchtower at the edge of the training ground, his fingers resting on the edge of the railing, his gaze slowly sweeping over the tens of thousands of soldiers kneeling on the ground.

Gao Jiong stood half a step behind him, his voice pressed to the bottom.

"Pillar of State, the military heart of Sui Prefecture is settled. The branch of the One Heart Society can start building today."

Chen Yan's finger tapped lightly on the railing.

"Reissue all overdue military pay, from Zhao Chongde's private treasury. Winter clothes will be transported from Xia Prefecture; they must be issued to everyone within three days."

Gao Jiong hammered his fist against his chest armor.

"Your subordinate will go do it."

Chen Yan's gaze withdrew from the training ground and turned toward the wilderness to the south dyed gold by the morning sun.

"Has Zhao Chongde's human skin been sent out?"

Gao Jiong's voice was half a beat faster.

"It departed at the midnight hour last night. With fast horses and whips, it will be delivered to Qian Wansan of the Yinzhou Chamber of Commerce before dusk today."

Chen Yan's mouth curved up, that arc carrying a meaning that made even Gao Jiong feel his spine tighten.

"Good, let Qian Wansan appreciate it well."

He turned around and strode toward the stone steps of the watchtower, the hem of his cloak sweeping across the edge of the railing as he turned.

"Leave the finishing work in Sui Prefecture to Zhao Tiezhu and Zhang Wenqian. I am going back to Lingzhou."

Gao Jiong's voice followed.

"Pillar of State, what about Yinzhou..."

Chen Yan's footsteps stopped on the first step of the stone stairs. He turned back, the things churning in those eyes reflecting a cold light in the morning sun that one dared not look at directly.

"The fat pigs in Yinzhou will jump out themselves. I am not in a rush; let them panic for a few days."

Yinzhou, Chamber of Commerce Headquarters.

At the end of Zhuque Avenue, the most prosperous street in Yinzhou City, a three-acre blue-brick mansion sat at the corner of the street. A gold-lacquered plaque hung above the mansion gate, with four large characters written on it.

Yinzhou Chamber of Commerce.

Inside the main hall, fine Longjing tea and exquisite snacks were laid out on a long rosewood desk, and agarwood burned in a bronze censer, the smoke drifting out from the hollowed-out lid and filling the entire hall with a warm, cozy fragrance.

Qian Wansan sat in the grand master's chair in the main seat, holding a cup of tea. He flicked the tea lid with his fingertips, making a fine sound of porcelain colliding.

He was round and fat, with three chins piled on a fair, round face. He wore four emerald thumb rings on his fingers, each worth a city, reflecting an oily green light in the candlelight.

Lin Xin, the head of the Lin clan, sat on his left, and Wu Hongyuan, the head of the Wu clan, sat on his right. Opposite them was Yang Huairen, the patriarch of the Yang clan. The four sat around the long desk tasting tea, their expressions different but all carrying a shrewdness and calculation peculiar to merchants.

Qian Wansan placed the tea lid back on the tea cup, his voice as round and smooth as if smeared with honey.

"Gentlemen, Zhao Chongde has already acted in Sui Prefecture. By time, the corpses of those ten political commissars should already be rotting in the gravel pile at Black Wind Pass."

Lin Xin stroked the goat-beard trimmed extremely exquisitely beneath his jaw, his voice carrying a trace of imperceptible smugness.

"President Qian's move is brilliant. Although that old dog Zhao Chongde is a bit stupid, he wins by having troops in his hands. With him blocking Sui Prefecture, Chen Yan's political commissars won't be able to come over."

Wu Hongyuan picked up his tea cup and took a sip, his voice dropping by half.

"However, President Qian, this old man has one thing I don't understand. What if something goes wrong on Zhao Chongde's side?"

A confident smile squeezed out on Qian Wansan's round face, and the emerald thumb ring on his fingertip turned half a circle.

"Brother Tuoba worries too much. Two hundred riders against ten people—even if those ten were made of iron, they couldn't flip the sky. Not to mention Zhao Chongde has seven thousand troops in his hands. Even if Chen Yan knew, what could he do? Does he dare move a Governor of the Court?"

Yang Huairen nodded opposite, his voice carrying the steadiness of an old fox.

"President Qian is right. What we need to consider now is not Sui Prefecture, but how to raise the price of salt and iron by another thirty percent in the next step. Before Chen Yan's New Law is pushed to Yinzhou, let's earn enough silver first."

The four looked at each other and smiled, their tea cups clinking together, making a crisp sound of porcelain colliding.

Just then, a sound of urgent footsteps came from outside the main hall.

A middle-aged man who looked like a steward stumbled in from outside the door, his face as white as paper. He was holding a palm-sized wooden box. The craftsmanship of the wooden box was extremely exquisite, the purple sandalwood box inlaid with silver silk patterns, but a trace of dark brown liquid seeped from the gap in the box lid, leaving a few shocking traces on the steward's fingers.

"President! Someone threw this into our gate!"

The steward's voice trembled like a withered leaf in the wind, and he held the wooden box up in front of Qian Wansan.

Qian Wansan's brow furrowed, his fingers withdrawing from the tea cup and taking the wooden box.

"What is it, making such a fuss."

He unbuckled the copper clasp of the wooden box and lifted the lid.

The moment the lid opened, a thick scent of blood surged from inside the box, rushing into Qian Wansan's nasal cavity.

Inside the box was a layer of white silk, and on the silk lay a carefully folded human skin.

The face of the human skin was upward, the outline of the features still recognizable, and the position of the three scars was traced with cinnabar, looking particularly glaring.

Zhao Chongde's face.

Qian Wansan's fingers spasmed on the edge of the wooden box, and the entire wooden box slipped from his hand, smashing onto the purple sandalwood long desk. The human skin inside slid out, spreading across the exquisite snacks and tea cups on the desk.

"Ah!"

Qian Wansan's bottom slid off the grand master's chair, and he fell to the ground. His three chins shook as if he had been slapped, and the four emerald thumb rings on his fingers collided, making a fine clinking sound.

Lin Xin's tea cup slipped from his hand, shattering on the blue bricks, tea splashing half his trouser leg.

Wu Hongyuan's body leaned back three inches, the back legs of his chair scraping a harsh friction sound on the blue bricks.

Yang Huairen's complexion changed from ruddy to waxy yellow, his lips moving three times, but not a single word could be squeezed out.

Qian Wansan sat on the ground, his fingers pointing tremblingly toward the human skin on the desk, his voice changing pitch as it squeezed from his throat.

"Zhao, Zhao Chongde..."

His gaze fell on a slip of paper pressed beneath the human skin. Only one line of characters was written on the paper, the handwriting upright but the brushwork sharp.

The next one is yours.

Qian Wansan's pupils contracted to two pinpricks the moment he saw this line, his entire body trembling on the ground as if he had been fished out of an ice cellar.

Lin Xin stood up from his chair, his voice squeezing from between his teeth with an irrepressible tremor.

"President Qian, Zhao Chongde is dead. Chen Yan knows we are supporting him from behind!"

Wu Hongyuan's fingers clenched on the armrest until his knuckles made a cracking sound.

"It's over, it's all over. We have to run, run now!"

Yang Huairen's voice came from opposite, carrying a tremor but three parts more of an old fox's calmness than the other two.

"Run? Run where? Chen Yan's Mingjing Si is spread all over the Northwest Seven Prefectures. Wherever we run, it's a dead end."

The main hall was silent for five breaths.

Qian Wansan sat on the ground, his fingers slowly clenching on the blue bricks, and in those eyes soaked with fear, something was slowly churning up.

That thing was not courage.

It was a madness fermented by greed and fear after being pushed into a dead end.

He climbed up from the ground, his palms pressed on the desk, pushing the human skin aside. His voice was still trembling as it squeezed from his throat, but every word was bitten heavier and heavier.

"Run where!"

Lin Xin's voice grew urgent by three parts.

"President Qian, Zhao Chongde's seven thousand troops couldn't stop Chen Yan. What do we few merchants have to fight him with?"

Qian Wansan's palm slapped heavily on the desk, the sound of emerald thumb rings colliding with purple sandalwood exploding in the main hall.

"Seven thousand troops couldn't stop him because that idiot Zhao Chongde only knew how to use a knife!"

His voice stabilized after this sentence, to a level that made Lin Xin and Wu Hongyuan feel something was wrong.

"Chen Yan's knife is fast, but can it cut off salt and iron? Can it cut off the grain route? Can it cut off the economic lifeline of the entire Northwest Seven Prefectures?"

His finger pointed toward the prosperous Zhuque Avenue outside the main hall.

"Seven-tenths of the salt and iron mines, grain transport, cloth trade, and livestock transactions in Yinzhou are in our hands. If Chen Yan dares to move against us, the economy of the entire Northwest will be paralyzed!"

Yang Huairen's eyes turned twice, the tremor in his voice slowly suppressed by something more intense.

"President Qian means..."

The three chins on Qian Wansan's round face stopped shaking, replaced by a ruthlessness that only emerges after being pushed to the limit.

"Chen Yan uses a knife; we use money. I want to see whether his knife is harder or our silver is harder!"

He turned around and strode to the secret door leading to the secret chamber behind the main hall, pressing the secret catch on the door frame. The secret door retreated half a foot inward without a sound.

"Gentlemen, follow me. I have a trump card sufficient to cut off the economic lifeline of the entire Great Zhou Northern Frontier."

Lin Xin and Wu Hongyuan looked at each other, hesitating for two breaths, but ultimately followed.

Yang Huairen walked at the very back. He looked back at the human skin still spread on the desk, his voice squeezing from between his teeth, low enough that only he could hear.

"I hope Qian Wansan's trump card is truly harder than Chen Yan's knife."

The secret door closed behind him, isolating the thick scent of blood and the agarwood smoke in the main hall.

Inside the secret chamber, Qian Wansan took an iron box from a secret compartment in the stone wall. Three copper locks hung on the clasp of the iron box. He took a key from his neck, took one from Lin Xin and Wu Hongyuan each, and inserted the three keys into the keyholes simultaneously, turning them three times.

The iron box opened.

Inside was a contract stamped with the seals of the four families. The contract contained only one clause.

Yinzhou Four Great Chambers of Commerce Joint Blockade Order.

Qian Wansan took the contract from the iron box, his finger tracing a line across the last line of the contract, his voice cold enough to lower the temperature in the secret chamber by two degrees.

"Starting tomorrow, all salt and iron mines in Yinzhou will cease production, all grain transport will be interrupted, and all merchant routes leading to Xia Prefecture and Lingzhou will be completely blockaded."

He held the contract up to the candlelight, the seals of the four families reflecting a dark red luster in the firelight.

"I want Chen Yan to know that without our Yinzhou Chamber of Commerce, his seven-prefecture territory won't even be able to eat a grain of salt!"

His voice rose by one level on the last sentence, a ferocious grin that looked worse than crying squeezing out on his round, fat face.

"Doesn't he want to push the New Law? Fine, I will let his New Law be pushed halfway, and the entire Northwest will be cut off from salt, iron, and grain. Let's see what he uses to feed those hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians!"

Lin Xin's voice followed from the side, carrying a trace of excitement born of fear.

"Right, his knife is fast, but it can't cut salt, can't cut iron mines. If the people can't eat salt, they will make trouble; if the army has no iron, they can't fight. When the time comes, he'll have to bow his head even if he doesn't want to!"

Wu Hongyuan's fist hammered against his knee.

"Do it! Fight him! At worst, we'll perish together!"

Yang Huairen stood in the corner of the secret chamber, his fingers slowly clenching in his sleeves, his lips moving twice, but ultimately he didn't speak.

His gaze withdrew from the contract and fell on the flickering oil lamp on the stone wall of the secret chamber. The flame cast the shadows of the four people on the stone wall, the shadows stretching long and short, like four struggling puppets.

Qian Wansan put the contract back into the iron box and slapped the lid heavily.

"Tomorrow morning, all four families will act simultaneously. Within one day, all shops in Yinzhou will close, all mines will stop work, and all grain carts will turn back."

He turned around, his round, fat face filled with a determination of burning all bridges.

"I want to see if Chen Yan, that living Yama, can use his horizontal blade to split salt, and if he can use his political commissars to refine iron!"

Outside the secret chamber, the night sky of Yinzhou City was covered by a thin layer of clouds, blocking the starlight. The lanterns on Zhuque Avenue were still swaying in the wind, illuminating the blue stone road surface until it was flickering.

No one noticed that in the second-floor window of the tea house opposite the Chamber of Commerce mansion, a pair of sinister eyes were recording the location of the secret chamber's hidden door and the time the four people entered and exited, without missing a single detail, through the cracks in the window lattice.

The owner of those eyes closed the window lattice, turned around, and disappeared into the night from the back door of the tea house without a sound.

On the inside of his left arm, in a position not covered by his cuff, half a section of the edge of a dark red sleeve badge was revealed.

The sleeve badge of the Mingjing Si. ===== CHAPTER 855 =====