Chapter 243: A Dragon in One Stroke

Yu Zhaoan was released from prison and promoted in one swift stroke.

He was promoted from Right Assistant Censor to Left Assistant Censor. Left is prestigious—adding "left" meant a clear promotion. As for the former Left Assistant Censor, he was transferred to another department; the excuse was already ready: dereliction of duty in the Censorate.

Yu Zhaoan resumed office and began a vigorous campaign of fawning over the old emperor while suppressing his rivals, determined to seize Jiang Tu's position as the emperor's favorite. But his methods were far superior to Jiang Tu's—after all, his family had deep scholarly roots and substantial influence.

Unlike Jiang Tu, who rose from the common folk, had little education, and spent these years chasing underhanded schemes without mastering proper statecraft.

The difference was immediately clear.

Gradually, Yu Zhaoan gained the old emperor's trust and finally acquired some influence. Though he still could not stand on equal footing with Jiang Tu, he had already stirred intense unease in Jiang Tu, who now regarded him as his greatest rival.

"Once a scholar loses his shame, he becomes truly hard to defeat!" Jiang Tu sighed.

In August, the rebel sects and unrest in Dongzhou gradually subsided. No imperial army was deployed—local garrison forces, supplemented by nearby garrisons, quelled the rebellion. This showed the rebel sects had extremely weak military organization, yet their ability to deceive peasants and ignorant women was formidable; they would surely rise again.

Chen Guanlou followed the unrest in Dongzhou and the court's official bulletins, going to great lengths to obtain them and using connections in the Ministry of Justice to gather intelligence. He had no other motive—only to verify his suspicions.

After scouring all records, he found no mention of Zhang Daohe. For a time, he doubted his guess was wrong.

Then he heard that during the suppression, the sect's Holy Maiden and chief leader had escaped. A quiet certainty stirred within him.

In September, in Pingzhou, adjacent to Jinzhou, the border army's Company Commander Guo Dachun, enraged by his superior's embezzlement of pay, flogging soldiers, and stealing his merits, murdered his officer, led a band of soldiers out of camp, looted villages, coerced civilians, and rebelled. Within a single month, the fire of rebellion swept across all of Pingzhou.

The rebel leader Great Ming Wang, who had lain dormant for two years, rose again, bursting from the mountains and capturing three cities in one stroke. This time, he abandoned his previous habit of killing officials, clerks, and wealthy families. Instead, he opened granaries to feed the people and courted officials and gentry to serve him. Even if officials or gentry refused, he did not kill them—he gave them silver and sent them off with courtesy. Their wealth, of course, was seized for the state.

With three counties as his base, he expanded his army, trained his troops, and consolidated his territory.

This time, Great Ming Wang clearly learned from his first rebellion, heeded the advice of experts, and refused to be a wandering bandit—he aimed to be a seated warlord, building his own domain, ready to advance or retreat. He would no longer act recklessly as before, slaughtering everyone and leaving no one to manage his lands or collect taxes and grain.

Without tax revenue and unwilling to exploit the common folk, he could only keep killing the wealthy. But this strategy drove the gentry and scholars into the emperor's arms—even modestly prosperous farmers and urban merchants came to see him as a murderer, and lost all sympathy for him.

Whoever controls discourse controls the people's hearts.

Discourse lies in the hands of scholars, landlords, and gentry.

Yet Great Ming Wang was not uniformly lenient toward officials and gentry. Those with bad reputations were executed on the spot, satisfying the people's anger and winning their favor.

This approach, indeed, proved far more effective at uniting hearts than his first rebellion. His forces now had a clear platform and a rudimentary administrative structure. Once taxes were collected next year and grain and silver secured, he could expand steadily, inch by inch, eventually swallowing all of Jinzhou—and even neighboring prefectures. Provided he could withstand the court's first two offensives.

With the rebellions in Pingzhou and Jinzhou igniting, the news reached Jingcheng and sent the court into uproar.

Great Ming Wang's resurgence was predictable.

But who the hell was Guo Dachun? Where had he come from? A border army Company Commander? Why would imperial troops murder their officers and rebel? What had gone wrong? The Ministry of War must be questioned.

Ministry of War: …

None of my business!

Pay was issued—even if insufficient, it was issued. Last year, taking advantage of Jinzhou's rebellion being crushed, we extracted a sum from the old emperor, which not only covered the rewards for Jinzhou's pacification forces but also allowed Pingzhou to upgrade its equipment.

So what responsibility does the Ministry of War bear?

Guo Dachun's rebellion stemmed from local officials' rampant embezzlement and border commanders treating soldiers like slaves. This is a long-standing disease—not the Ministry of War's fault, but a systemic flaw dating back to our ancestors.

The Ministry of War shifted blame; the Ministry of Revenue accused the Ministry of War of embezzling military pay; the Ministry of Personnel blamed its flawed officer selection system and insisted the Ministry of Personnel should intervene to prevent countless Guo Dachuns; the Ministry of Public Works accused the Ministry of War of delaying the emperor's palace and garden construction; the Ministry of Rites condemned the Ministry of War for playing discordant tunes and failing to educate.

In short, Guo Dachun's rebellion must be blamed entirely on the Ministry of War.

As for Great Ming Wang—that, well, we must leave it to the Marquis of Pingjiang. He crushed Great Ming Wang once; he can crush him again, and eliminate Guo Dachun along the way.

The old emperor was not the least alarmed. He continued his orderly pursuit of Dao and immortality.

Dressed in a Daoist robe, chest bared, holding a fly whisk, his silver-white beard hanging to his chest, barefoot he paced within the Taiji Palace. Indeed, he bore an air of celestial grace—provided one ignored the cruelty in his eyes.

"Great Ming Wang, and that…" The old emperor's memory grew hazy.

"Guo Dachun," Qiu Defu whispered gently.

The old emperor snorted. "These two men—I killed them once, I can kill them again."

Qiu Defu hesitated, then ventured softly, "The Ministry of Revenue is again crying poverty."

"Nonsense! Autumn taxes have just been collected—how can the Ministry of Revenue be out of money again? Where did the money go?"

The old emperor flew into a rage.

War is fought with money.

Are Guo Dachun and Great Ming Wang hard to suppress?

Not hard at all. They are insignificant rebels.

Provided the army is strong, well-equipped, and well-supplied. Give sufficient pay, and the imperial troops will roar like beasts—these bandits can be wiped out in days.

But the hardest part of suppressing rebels is providing sufficient pay. Had they been paid properly, Guo Dachun would never have murdered his officers and rebelled.

An army discontented with pay is weak; an army well-paid is invincible. This is no joke.

With Great Qian's resources and so many fine soldiers, if pay and grain were fully supplied, the imperial troops' combat power would multiply tenfold. Not even ten Great Ming Wangs could stand against them.

But the problem is—there's no money.

The old emperor's private treasury had plenty, but given his stingy, greedy nature, he would never part with a single silver coin unless absolutely forced.

"Your Majesty, the ministers await your decree!" Qiu Defu had to whisper. Such a grave matter—every minister waited for the emperor's decision.

The ministers had proposed a solution: no need to trouble two masters—let the Marquis of Pingjiang lead the campaign to suppress the rebels. But how to solve the problem of grain and silver?