Chapter 358: Recovery of Yangzhou

“Kill!”

……

“What’s happening outside?”

Startled awake by the cries of battle, Liu Laoxu asked in panic.

Enemy troops have reached the city walls, and now screams of battle echo within—it’s unmistakably bad news.

“General, the city’s prominent families have launched a rebellion—they’re attacking the Garrison Command.”

The personal guard captain replied in disarray.

The enemy came too suddenly; there was not a single warning beforehand.

Had the garrison troops not been old comrades who had fought alongside Liu Laoxu through countless campaigns, they might have been caught off guard and overrun.

Temporarily holding back the enemy’s advance doesn’t mean safety is assured.

With fire already reaching the Garrison Command, the implications are painfully clear.

“This is impossible!”

“Jin’s denunciation was scheduled for two days from now—I specifically ordered internal alertness with external calm to lure the enemy into a trap.”

There are still two full days until the agreed time—how dare they launch prematurely?”

Liu Laoxu spoke in disbelief.

In truth, he never believed the city’s prominent families would rebel.

Wu had accepted them only after they all submitted their blood oaths.

Every major and minor family in the city had blood on their hands—from the Da Yu imperial clan or its officials.

During Fu Haoxuan’s ascension to the throne, these families had lent crucial support.

They had written countless denunciations against Yongning.

Any single one of those letters, if sent to Da Yu, would mean extermination of their entire clans.

To stabilize public sentiment, Wu’s high command had even arranged marriages with these scholarly families.

Nearly every respectable family in the city had daughters married into Wu’s high ranks; many had become imperial in-laws.

Under Da Yu law, treason carries punishment of nine familial clans—every one of them was on the list.

Jin’s denunciation, he had assumed, was merely infighting among the city’s families.

After all, every family had political stains; even if they returned to Da Yu, they’d still face reckoning.

Even in suspicion, he had only been wary of the low-ranking yamen runners, constables, and garrison soldiers left behind.

These men were too lowly to have submitted blood oaths—they still had a chance to turn back.

He never imagined the city’s prominent families, who appeared to stand with them, would betray them first.

“General, Jin’s denunciation may have been meant to deceive you.”

If it were genuine betrayal, they’d have named several accomplices—why give only a single date of rebellion?”

The puppet regime dared to contact them only because they had absolute confidence!”

If nothing went wrong, the city gates have already fallen, and enemy troops have poured into the city.”

The personal guard captain declared with certainty.

To coordinate a city takeover without even knowing who your allies were—that’s absurd.

“Damned traitors, how dare they betray me!”

“If they won’t let me live in peace, neither will they.”

“Issue orders immediately: mobilize all troops in the city to exterminate the prominent families.”

“Especially the Jin family—leave not a single soul alive!”

Liu Laoxu gave the order with murderous intent.

His mistaken belief in the law had made him overconfident.

Treason punishable by extermination of nine clans—that applied to commoners.

For powerful families, the court operated by an entirely different standard.

As long as one wasn’t the mastermind, one could redeem oneself through service and avoid purge.

The city’s families chose to defect because they realized Wu was doomed.

To preserve their lineage, they had to abandon ship at any cost.

Their sons serving in Wu could be discarded; the daughters married into noble houses were likewise expendable.

Though the punishment of “exterminating nine clans” was invoked often, historically, very few had truly suffered it.

The main reason: too many were implicated.

Among distant branches, there were always a few influential relatives who escaped legal retribution.

Having risen from the bottom, Liu Laoxu had never lacked ruthlessness.

His cognitive error led him to believe he’d been deceived by Jin.

Enraged, he no longer cared whether they could escape—he now wanted every prominent family in the city dead.

“Yes, sir!”

Saying this, the personal guard captain immediately dispatched messengers to issue orders.

Traitors stirred more hatred than enemies.

Believing they had uncovered the truth, they burned to kill every traitor.

With the order issued, all Wu troops in the city moved into action.

Not knowing who the traitors were, they launched indiscriminate attacks on the city’s noble households.

……

The chaos within the city created favorable conditions for the imperial army’s assault.

After seizing the city gates, the anticipated bloody battle never erupted—the imperial troops entered Yangzhou smoothly.

Standing atop the city gate tower, Qin Tianrui was startled by the raging fires burning across the city.

He had ordered the Yangzhou families to create chaos to mask the army’s capture of the gates—this level of destruction was far beyond what he’d expected.

He had assumed the strongest military force in Da Yu belonged to the noble warrior clans—but now it seemed the scholarly families wielded formidable power too.

With so little preparation, they had already unleashed such strength; had they planned ahead, they might have seized Yangzhou easily.

“Commander, we’ve taken control of the outer city and captured the inner city gate—we should now advance into the city.”

The Assistant Regional Commander beside him reminded him.

The progress had been too smooth; after taking the outer city, the rebels had sent no troops to block them.

Only after seizing the inner gate did they realize the city’s prominent families had pinned down the rebel main force.

With allies so effective, they couldn’t let them down—they must press forward and swiftly crush the rebels within.

“Wait a little longer.”

“They’re not our allies. Their strength is too great—it’s not good for the court.”

Qin Tianrui said coldly.

The conflict between civil and military factions had been the central thread running through Da Yu’s court.

When the Yangzhou and Huai’an garrisons first arrived in Guangdong, they were ostracized—this was a microcosm of their struggle.

During the suppression of the Bai Lian rebellion, the noble warrior faction had quietly suppressed the civil official families.

Only when the rebels grew too powerful did both sides realize the danger and shift from stabbing each other in the back to cooperation.

Now that the situation had improved, the civil officials in court were stirring again.

Local civil officials banded together with local gentry, quietly seizing power from the Viceroy’s office in obscure corners.

Had it not been for the previous major battles that devastated these families, new taxes and tolls could never have been collected.

As a general of the noble warrior faction, Qin Tianrui knew his place well.

The Bai Lian rebellion, which had spread across half of Da Yu, had severely shaken the court’s foundation of rule.

The Yangzhou scholarly families’ betrayal was far worse than that of the scholarly families in Huguang, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang.

Those families had bet on multiple sides in secret—they had never openly betrayed Da Yu.

The Yangzhou families, to preserve themselves, had not only handed over the city to the rebels but also submitted their blood oaths.

Now that they’ve turned against the rebels and returned to Da Yu’s embrace, it’s merely for self-preservation.

If they could betray once, they could betray endlessly.

Without “loyalty,” their strength becomes the greatest instability.

For the long-term stability of Da Yu, Qin Tianrui chose to ignore the bloody battle raging within the city.

……

The bloody battle continued; the prominent local families, now the protagonists, wept in despair.

It wasn’t that they were powerful enough to pin down the rebel main force—they were simply being hunted down.

The rebels were weak only relative to the imperial elite troops.

The scholarly families were not warrior clans.

The retainers they cultivated were for guarding homes, not for warfare.

Their daily drills focused on individual martial skill.

Their weapons were mostly wooden staves; armor was strictly forbidden.

In both Da Yu and the new Wu regime, privately possessing armor was a capital crime punishable by clan extermination.

The force that had attacked the Garrison Command and drawn the rebels’ attention were the city’s salt guards.

Those retainers raised in comfort, when faced with organized enemy troops, were merely delivering trophies to the enemy.

Jin Mansion.

“It’s a misunderstanding!”

“It’s all a misunderstanding!”

“We are...”

Before the head of the Jin family could finish speaking, his head flew off.

Having been branded traitors, their former status and influence within the Wu state had now become death warrants.

Seeing this, all the Jin family members were terrified, their former arrogance vanished.

Some knelt and begged for mercy; others fled in all directions—none slowed the Wu soldiers’ slaughter.

Similar scenes played out repeatedly throughout the city.

Compared to the utterly unprepared Jin family, other scholarly clans in the city showed far stronger resistance.

Having chosen to side with the imperial court, they had also anticipated the dangers if the plot were exposed.

Core family members were either hidden in secret chambers within their homes or temporarily concealed in some corner of the city, waiting for imperial troops to enter.

Those family members publicly visible had prepared from the start to make the ultimate sacrifice.

After all, they had done so many terrible things—they owed the court an explanation.

Especially those who had killed imperial officials or harmed members of the imperial clan could not be allowed to live.

At the very least, they could not live openly, or they would become a thorn in the emperor’s heart.

Even if they were not punished now, they would be settled accounts with later.

Faking death at the hands of the rebel army and assuming a new identity was the best choice.

In essence, this was also submitting a token of loyalty to the court.

Only by staining their hands with the blood of the Wu army could they regain the court’s trust.

The more family members who died, the heavier the token of loyalty they offered.

As time passed, the scale of battle did not diminish—it grew, drawing in more and more people by force.

The immense wealth plundered after the slaughter soon intoxicated the Wu soldiers, causing them to forget the threat of imperial troops outside.

After looting the city's scholarly clans, some wealthy merchants and prominent families also became targets of slaughter.

Many civilians living nearby suffered innocent casualties.

“Issue orders: full army advance—take Yangzhou City!”

As the first rays of morning sunlight appeared, Qin Tianrui, having achieved his strategic objective, gave the order to attack.

The imperial troops, long waiting, immediately advanced into the city and launched an assault on the rebels, who were busy looting.

“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh...”

“Bang, bang, bang...”

The sound of arrows mingled with musket fire, becoming a deadly weapon of siege.

The sudden strike jolted the rebel soldiers, exhausted from a night of chaos, out of their frenzy.

In panic, they were shocked to discover their superiors were nowhere to be found.

The mid- and high-ranking officers of the army had quietly vanished from Yangzhou City at some point.

Realizing the situation was dire, the rebel soldiers all turned and fled.

A night of burning, killing, and looting had destroyed their chance to surrender.

Anyone with half a brain knew they had enraged every scholar and commoner in the city.

Even if they surrendered to the imperial troops, they must fear their commanders using their heads to appease the city’s populace.

In moments of life and death, human potential is most fiercely unleashed.

Countless Wu soldiers fled the city at top speed.

They were preparing to cross the Yangtze River and retreat to Zhenjiang on the opposite bank.

But when they reached the ferry dock, the boats had vanished without a trace.

While searching for boats to cross, countless imperial troops had already chased them from behind.

With the great river blocking their path ahead and enemy forces closing in from behind, they were suddenly trapped in desperation.

A few soldiers with strong swimming skills immediately made up their minds, shed their armor and weapons, and leapt into the Yangtze.

Most rebel soldiers, however, were driven to the riverbank and forced to pick up weapons and fight.

Nanjingcheng.

Looking at Liu Laoxu kneeling and begging for forgiveness, Fu Haoxuan was filled with rage.

Upon waking, he discovered that Yangzhou Prefecture—his supposed secure rear—had been lost.

“Hmph!”

“The enemy arrived in Yangzhou yesterday, and by nightfall the city fell—how capable you are!”

“If all my Wu generals were as useless as you, my head would not last more than a few days.”

Incompetent officials ruin the state!

I sent you, this worthless fool, to guard Yangzhou—I must have been blind...”

In his fury, Fu Haoxuan launched indiscriminate attacks—even turning on himself.

Liu Laoxu, kneeling and begging for forgiveness, wished he could bury himself in the earth to reduce his presence.

All the excuses he had prepared on the way were now useless.

No matter how he explained it, losing Yangzhou City was an undeniable fact.

Such a massive blunder demanded a price.

“Your Majesty, please calm down!”

“Yangzhou City fell so quickly—there must be hidden circumstances behind it.”

“Let us first hear General Liu’s explanation, and clarify how the city was lost.”

Left Chancellor Qiu Ruiyu immediately spoke up.

He was also furious at Liu Laoxu’s incompetence, but they were fellow clansmen.

As a faction representative, at this critical moment, he had a duty to pull his subordinate out.

He had offered the chance; whether Liu Laoxu could salvage his life now depended on his fate.

“General Liu, it’s your turn to perform.”

“Go ahead and fabricate boldly—as long as you can fool His Majesty, I won’t hold you accountable!”

Fu Haoxuan sneered.

He was deeply troubled by his subordinates’ factional solidarity.

But there was no way around it—every state inevitably suffered from factional strife.

The newly founded Wu state was relatively better off.

Now was the time to seize the empire; though factions disagreed, their overall goal remained the same—to conquer the realm.

“Your Majesty, I dare not deceive!”

“Yangzhou City fell because the city’s scholarly clans collectively betrayed us.”

“They not only opened the gates to let the enemy in, but also organized private armies to attack the Garrison Headquarters.”

“The sudden chaos shattered my military deployment—I could only prioritize quelling the internal rebellion.”

“But these traitors had prepared in advance; each family hid vast private armies disguised as civilians within the city.”

“When the enemy launched their assault, these men coordinated with the rebel forces outside, and despite my troops fighting to the death, we were simply outnumbered.”

“After a night of brutal fighting, I could only retreat with the surviving soldiers to report to you!”

Liu Laoxu spoke with tears and anguish.

To save his life, he exaggerated the enemy’s strength and dragged everyone else into the blame.

After all, the survival of Yangzhou’s scholarly clans was tied to the people present.

Had it not been for political marriages that turned them into in-laws of the powerful, the Yangzhou clans would have been purged long ago.

(End of Chapter)