Chapter 922: Scheme Within a Scheme

Chen Wuji gave Xu Zengyi a strange look and said, "Sir, what benefit did you get from Qian Fugui? Why do you keep speaking up for this scoundrel? Although his actions aren't exactly wrong, in my view they're still not cautious enough."

"That place belongs to that bastard Snake Staff Old Man; his specialty is scheming and intrigue, he must have this premise in mind, or he's just overconfident."

Xu Zengyi waved his hand with a smile and said, "He never gave me any benefits; this brat still owes me several jars of fine wine. This kid is completely a dog—when he asked for my help, he even summoned Grandfather Xu, but once the matter was settled, the promised things vanished."

"This brat's always been a dog—what business does he have coming to you, sir?" Chen Wuji felt a sudden curiosity, his gossipy heart popping up.

Xu Zengyi wiped his face, suddenly at a loss, and said, "Writing a letter to a woman."

"Huh? Sir, please elaborate on this matter."

"……"

"Go ahead—anyway it's all about Qian Fugui; it doesn't matter which we hear first."

"……"

Xu Zengyi fell silent for a moment, then said, "It seems the lord is really tired; I might as well finish talking about Guiling Xian first, then discuss this."

When Chen Wuji discussed serious matters, he was listless, but the moment this topic came up, his eyes lit up.

"Sure." Chen Wuji nodded, then proactively continued the previous topic and asked, "Did the two honest families Qian Fugui first contacted actually cooperate with the reforms?"

"Yes, not only did they cooperate, they also gave Qian Fugui plenty of benefits—gold and silver by the cartload, practically turning over all their wealth, just hoping Qian Fugui wouldn't take it out on their families." Xu Zengyi said.

Chen Wuji shook his head and said, "No wonder Qian Fugui fell for it—the act was really too convincing. If it were me, I'd probably fall for it too."

Even though he had the premise of Snake Staff Old Man in mind, this group acted so thoroughly that, aside from the initial killings, everything else could be said to match the reaction when facing a pressing army, making suspicion difficult.

Two manors with hundreds to thousands of tenant farmers provoked a army of tens of thousands—what could they do? Most people's choice was to contribute everything they could, just hoping their families would survive.

"That's why I say, this battle really can't be blamed on Qian Fugui." Xu Zengyi laughed like an old aunt, "He was somewhat cautious, but in such a situation vigilance definitely needs to be relaxed—my lord, why not guess what happened next?"

Chen Wuji leaned back on the folding chair, his right hand unconsciously stroking his chin.

He's getting older; his beard's been growing faster lately—he just shaved yesterday, and today there's already some stubble.

"If nothing unexpected happens, shouldn't more people choose to surrender and accept our reforms going forward? Have the heads of those two households already died?" Chen Wuji asked.

"Indeed they died, and indeed people have continued to defect afterward." Xu Zengyi nodded.

Chen Wuji felt a little pleased—his prediction was still pretty good—"If Qian Fugui isn't stupid, given his nature he'd surely suspect the truth behind the deaths of those dozens of soldiers and send someone to investigate. With two such large manors, a quick check should turn up a clue."

Xu Zengyi shook his head, "Although the lord guessed the outcome correctly, the process was off a bit. Qian Fugui did send people to investigate, but they found nothing wrong—it was indeed the tenant farmers who killed our soldiers."

"No problem? How could there be no problem?" Chen Wuji interrupted Xu Zengyi's words.

This matter, no matter how he thinks about it, is unlikely to have any problem.

How provoked would those tenant farmers have to be to kill dozens of soldiers in one go?

The troops under Qian Fugui's command are certainly no amateurs.

Perhaps they could handle ten to one, maybe that's a stretch, but taking on several tenant farmers one-on-one is absolutely no problem.

A squad of dozens can definitely charge straight through hundreds of tenant farmers.

The result? They ended up being wiped out by the tenant farmers instead?

Then what's the purpose of having them don armor, upgrading their weapons, and drilling them to death?

This is pure nonsense!

Xu Zengyi's expression turned a bit embarrassed, "My lord, it wasn't a real clash of blades—these soldiers fell into women's hands."

"When those two households saw our troops arrive, they were extremely respectful, serving fine wine and meat, even sending beautiful performers to liven things up; our soldiers got drunk and, seeing their thin clothing, ……"

"I won't go into what happened next—you can probably guess, the scene descended into utter chaos. Unexpectedly, among those women was the daughter of the steward; seeing his daughter defiled, the steward flew into a rage and sent someone to set a fire."

Chen Wuji's face darkened to the point of dripping water upon hearing this, "Looks like I've been too lax in managing the troops, letting them lose their lives in such a ditch! Sir, take note of this—from now on, our army in Xinglin Zhen will do nothing but train and tighten discipline."

Xu Zengyi wanted to say something, hesitated, held back, and nodded, "This is clearly a scheme; if nothing unexpected, those women's clothes back then must have been quite slippery."

"No matter how slippery their clothes are, the fact that these soldiers went there to eat and drink is the problem!" Chen Wuji shouted sternly, "I've said this countless times: when they're off duty I don't care what they do, as long as they have silver in their pockets they can chase after ten or eight women a day. But once they put on armor, all they must do is obey orders—nothing else is allowed!"

Xu Zengyi crossed his arms and nodded.

"Sir, you seem to be turning into a softie lately—this won't do." Chen Wuji said.

Xu Zengyi gave a small shake of his head, "I'm not defending these soldiers—they're definitely at fault; I'm saying this to set up what comes next."

"I've roughly understood—this is their plot to numb Qian Fugui, deliberately sacrificing some people to probe his reaction." Chen Wuji said.

"That's true, but there's more." Xu Zengyi said, "The heads of those two households weren't executed by Qian Fugui—they were killed by their own tenant farmers. After the household heads agreed to the reforms, the tenant farmers suddenly rebelled, refusing the reforms and hacking the heads to death."

"Huh?"

This matter left Chen Wuji completely bewildered.

His reform policy, which could be said to benefit the people entirely, had absolutely broken new ground across the whole of Da Yu; it had always gone smoothly, yet here it turned out the opposite?

These tenant farmers seem to have been thoroughly brainwashed—such great benefits laid before them, yet they remain unmoved and even willingly choose to stay as tenant farmers.

This result is somewhat unbelievable.