Chapter 172: Ten-Year Plan, Achieved with a Hundred Corpses

Among those executed in the Autumn Purge were not a few spies infiltrating from the Northern Frontier, Yaozhou, or the southwestern borderlands; what these people said may not have been truthful, yet the Northern Frontier, thousands of li away, was far more chaotic than rumor claimed.

Since Emperor Longping ascended the throne, the Northern Frontier border armies had ceased to be controlled by the imperial court and refused to obey the edicts of the Yong Dynasty, gradually forming a situation of warlord fiefdoms.

When Emperor Jingxing first ascended the Great Throne, he indeed intended to rectify the chaos in the Northern Frontier, but before he could act, matters such as the Yaozhou uprising and the southwestern military mutiny appeared on his imperial desk.

As the saying goes, too many lice do not bite, and too many debts bring no worry; facing such a situation, Emperor Jingxing instead became calm and composed. He sent envoys to Yaozhou to soothe tensions and slowly rectified the southwest, while the matter of the Northern Frontier was set aside for now, though selecting concubines had become urgent.

Emperor Jingxing had not even been on the throne for half a year; he had not yet tasted the sweetness of being emperor, so how could he not, while still 'young', enjoy all the treatment due to him?

Thousands of li away in the Northern Frontier, Zhu Huaian, who once resembled a beggar even more than beggars, had now transformed into the mastermind behind a regional warlord fiefdom.

Although Changting Wang had already passed away, his fame in the Northern Frontier had not only never diminished but had become even more irreplaceable due to the renewed chaos in the region.

Those generals and soldiers who had followed Zhu Cheng through life and death mostly compared the past with the present, wondering: if the Great General were still here, what would the Northern Frontier look like now?

Now, the suddenly visiting Zhu Heir had become a substitute in the hearts of some of these generals.

These old forces were undoubtedly the most precious legacy Changting Wang left to Zhu Huaian; as long as he could grasp them, he would possess a foundation for his standing.

At this moment, in the Northern Frontier's Seven Towns, Fangyi City, inside the Commander's Mansion.

"Your Highness."

Gongsun Jin was just about to speak when Zhu Huaian raised his hand to interrupt him.

"From now on, wherever we are, even in private, do not address me as Your Highness."

After months of tempering, Zhu Huaian's face was no longer pale, and his physique had even grown thinner.

"From now on, there is only Zhu Yong in the world, no Zhu Heir."

To hide his identity, Zhu Huaian changed his name; only a few trusted confidants knew this, while the rest believed he was the nephew of Zhu Hong, the Commander of the Commander's Mansion.

And Zhu Hong had once been a personal guard of Changting Wang Zhucheng.

Gongsun Jin found himself increasingly unable to gauge Zhu Huaian's nature; according to his original expectation, after the Heir took command of the Prince's old forces, he would have been eager to train the troops and avenge his father.

But upon arriving in the Northern Frontier, the Zhu Heir instead remained unarrogant and unimpatient, hid his identity, and started from the bottom as a small flag officer in the military camp.

"Young Master, you are far more steady than I imagined."

Zhu Huaian played with the brocade pouch in his hand, his eyes flickering as he said, "It is not that I am steady; I am simply forced to act this way."

"Currently, in the eyes of that dog Emperor, I am a thorn in the flesh and sand in the eye; if I were to openly train troops, he would inevitably turn his spearhead toward the Northern Frontier first."

"Now, Yaozhou is in rebellion, the southwest has mutinied, and the Nancuo region in Shu is also unstable; as long as we remain calm, with our strength growing as theirs wanes, in ten years at most, or three to five years at least, the foundation of the Yong Dynasty will surely be damaged, and only then will it be the best time to proclaim ourselves king and look southward."

"A general must be tranquil yet profound, upright yet orderly. Young Master, you plan thoroughly before acting; you indeed already show some of the bearing of a great general."

Zhu Huaian shook his head and said, "I am merely a small flag officer now, not yet worthy of heavy responsibility, let alone the bearing of a great general; however, if given enough time, I do have the conviction to retrace the path my father walked."

Only it would not be the path of a subject.

When Gongsun Jin left, Zhu Huaian opened the brocade pouch again; inside was a slip of paper with only a few words written on it.

"Build high walls, store abundant grain, and delay proclaiming yourself king."

Wellside Street.

Inside the coroner's shop, over a hundred corpses were displayed; this was merely the count for the first day of the Autumn Purge.

Xuan Yu was already accustomed to this; apart from finding it slightly dirty, he did not feel afraid, but he needed to be more careful than usual when landing, and he could not let even a trace of his demonic qi leak out, otherwise these corpses would spring up in place like head-banging beetles.

By evening, there was no place to land inside the entire coroner's shop; the courtyard and the shop were filled with headless corpses.

Xu Qing took out the Mother-and-Child Needles, his fingers flying as he stitched; under the cover of night, illuminated by the lamps inside the coroner's shop, on the dim yellow window paper, one could vaguely see headless corpses being sewn back together into complete bodies.

"Adulterous lovers! I am a dignified seven-foot man; how can I endure such humiliation!" On the shop window, three shadowy figures seemed to be arguing endlessly, then suddenly one leaped up, the knife fell, and black blood like spilled ink splattered across the window paper.

Inside the shop, Xu Qing casually tossed the male and female corpses aside.

"I am the official of the people; you are all my subjects under my jurisdiction, and you ought to support and serve me! You must all pay me the pig-slaughtering tax, the well tax, the rat-and-sparrow loss tax, the shoe-wearing donation, and the barefoot donation!"

On the window paper, the dim candlelight cast the shadow of a fat-headed official wearing official robes and hat, greedily scooping up money.

Those who entered the city to do business wearing shoes had to donate shoe money; those who entered barefoot had to pay barefoot money; if you relieved yourself today, you had to pay relief money.

Inside the small coroner's shop, one after another took the stage; a series of silent shadow plays were being performed in rotation.

"The rice jar at home has been empty for three days; the child cries from hunger; what shall we do?"

"Do not worry, my dear; I will go borrow grain first thing tomorrow morning."

"The ruffians kept by Master Wang came to collect again the day before yesterday; if we cannot gather ten taels of silver, they will take our ancestral house to offset the debt."

"Zhang Family Man, today is the day you must repay your debt; if you have no money, that is fine; I will sell your wife to offset the account, and send the child to become a beggar; perhaps later, gentlemen will even go to patronize their business."

"Dog thief, you push people too far!"

On the window paper, a lean man wielding a firewood axe hacked wildly; after a moment of silence in the room, an official constable came to arrest him, and later, he was sentenced to execution in the autumn for murder.

"Ruan Xing, you stole relief grain; your crime deserves death; do you confess?"

"My lord, although I stole relief grain, I distributed it all to the refugees; I did not eat a single grain myself; what crime is there?"

"Well said! The madman Ruan Xing stole official grain and has now confessed in court; the evidence is now conclusive; according to the law, he must be executed!"

Inside the coroner's shop, over a hundred corpses told the story of the world's turbidity and the good and evil of humanity.

Among these people were thieves and villains who drank, ate, whored, gambled, oppressed the countryside, and committed every evil; there were also benevolent men and righteous scholars who accumulated virtue, acted righteously, and gave generously.

Xu Qing forgot himself and others, observing coldly from the sidelines, never immersing himself in them, thus avoiding being affected.

There are thousands upon thousands of worldly matters; even if he wanted to manage them, he could not manage them all; there are countless people in the world, their thoughts harder to guess than ghosts; for those he does not know, perhaps only the dead allow him to see clearly.

After completing the transmigration of a hundred corpses, Xu Qing carefully counted his rewards.

"Flesh-and-Separation Technique, Barefoot-Walking Blade Art, Naked-Bathing-in-Fire Method, Fool-the-People Art, Official-Prestige Art, Soft-Bone Powder, Great-Strength Pill, Five-Knowledge Arithmetic."

Although these rewards were all rated as 'Human' tier, they were the ultimate microcosm of the hundred aspects of human life.

(End of Chapter)