[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers":3,"chapter-restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-chapter-358":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Restoring the Mountains and Rivers",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2364627,4623,"Chapter 358: Recovery of Yangzhou","restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-chapter-358",358,"\u003Cp>“Kill!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“What’s happening outside?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Startled awake by the cries of battle, Liu Laoxu asked in panic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Enemy troops have reached the city walls, and now screams of battle echo within—it’s unmistakably bad news.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“General, the city’s prominent families have launched a rebellion—they’re attacking the Garrison Command.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The personal guard captain replied in disarray.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The enemy came too suddenly; there was not a single warning beforehand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Temporarily holding back the enemy’s advance doesn’t mean safety is assured.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With fire already reaching the Garrison Command, the implications are painfully clear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“This is impossible!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“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.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There are still two full days until the agreed time—how dare they launch prematurely?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Laoxu spoke in disbelief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In truth, he never believed the city’s prominent families would rebel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wu had accepted them only after they all submitted their blood oaths.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every major and minor family in the city had blood on their hands—from the Da Yu imperial clan or its officials.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During Fu Haoxuan’s ascension to the throne, these families had lent crucial support.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They had written countless denunciations against Yongning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Any single one of those letters, if sent to Da Yu, would mean extermination of their entire clans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To stabilize public sentiment, Wu’s high command had even arranged marriages with these scholarly families.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nearly every respectable family in the city had daughters married into Wu’s high ranks; many had become imperial in-laws.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under Da Yu law, treason carries punishment of nine familial clans—every one of them was on the list.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jin’s denunciation, he had assumed, was merely infighting among the city’s families.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, every family had political stains; even if they returned to Da Yu, they’d still face reckoning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even in suspicion, he had only been wary of the low-ranking yamen runners, constables, and garrison soldiers left behind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These men were too lowly to have submitted blood oaths—they still had a chance to turn back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He never imagined the city’s prominent families, who appeared to stand with them, would betray them first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“General, Jin’s denunciation may have been meant to deceive you.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If it were genuine betrayal, they’d have named several accomplices—why give only a single date of rebellion?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The puppet regime dared to contact them only because they had absolute confidence!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If nothing went wrong, the city gates have already fallen, and enemy troops have poured into the city.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The personal guard captain declared with certainty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To coordinate a city takeover without even knowing who your allies were—that’s absurd.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Damned traitors, how dare they betray me!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If they won’t let me live in peace, neither will they.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Issue orders immediately: mobilize all troops in the city to exterminate the prominent families.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Especially the Jin family—leave not a single soul alive!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Laoxu gave the order with murderous intent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His mistaken belief in the law had made him overconfident.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Treason punishable by extermination of nine clans—that applied to commoners.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For powerful families, the court operated by an entirely different standard.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As long as one wasn’t the mastermind, one could redeem oneself through service and avoid purge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The city’s families chose to defect because they realized Wu was doomed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To preserve their lineage, they had to abandon ship at any cost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their sons serving in Wu could be discarded; the daughters married into noble houses were likewise expendable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though the punishment of “exterminating nine clans” was invoked often, historically, very few had truly suffered it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The main reason: too many were implicated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Among distant branches, there were always a few influential relatives who escaped legal retribution.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having risen from the bottom, Liu Laoxu had never lacked ruthlessness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His cognitive error led him to believe he’d been deceived by Jin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Enraged, he no longer cared whether they could escape—he now wanted every prominent family in the city dead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yes, sir!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saying this, the personal guard captain immediately dispatched messengers to issue orders.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Traitors stirred more hatred than enemies.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Believing they had uncovered the truth, they burned to kill every traitor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the order issued, all Wu troops in the city moved into action.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not knowing who the traitors were, they launched indiscriminate attacks on the city’s noble households.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The chaos within the city created favorable conditions for the imperial army’s assault.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After seizing the city gates, the anticipated bloody battle never erupted—the imperial troops entered Yangzhou smoothly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Standing atop the city gate tower, Qin Tianrui was startled by the raging fires burning across the city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With so little preparation, they had already unleashed such strength; had they planned ahead, they might have seized Yangzhou easily.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Commander, we’ve taken control of the outer city and captured the inner city gate—we should now advance into the city.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Assistant Regional Commander beside him reminded him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The progress had been too smooth; after taking the outer city, the rebels had sent no troops to block them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only after seizing the inner gate did they realize the city’s prominent families had pinned down the rebel main force.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With allies so effective, they couldn’t let them down—they must press forward and swiftly crush the rebels within.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Wait a little longer.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“They’re not our allies. Their strength is too great—it’s not good for the court.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qin Tianrui said coldly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The conflict between civil and military factions had been the central thread running through Da Yu’s court.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When the Yangzhou and Huai’an garrisons first arrived in Guangdong, they were ostracized—this was a microcosm of their struggle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>During the suppression of the Bai Lian rebellion, the noble warrior faction had quietly suppressed the civil official families.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only when the rebels grew too powerful did both sides realize the danger and shift from stabbing each other in the back to cooperation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now that the situation had improved, the civil officials in court were stirring again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Local civil officials banded together with local gentry, quietly seizing power from the Viceroy’s office in obscure corners.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had it not been for the previous major battles that devastated these families, new taxes and tolls could never have been collected.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As a general of the noble warrior faction, Qin Tianrui knew his place well.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Bai Lian rebellion, which had spread across half of Da Yu, had severely shaken the court’s foundation of rule.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Yangzhou scholarly families’ betrayal was far worse than that of the scholarly families in Huguang, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those families had bet on multiple sides in secret—they had never openly betrayed Da Yu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Yangzhou families, to preserve themselves, had not only handed over the city to the rebels but also submitted their blood oaths.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now that they’ve turned against the rebels and returned to Da Yu’s embrace, it’s merely for self-preservation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If they could betray once, they could betray endlessly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Without “loyalty,” their strength becomes the greatest instability.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For the long-term stability of Da Yu, Qin Tianrui chose to ignore the bloody battle raging within the city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bloody battle continued; the prominent local families, now the protagonists, wept in despair.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn’t that they were powerful enough to pin down the rebel main force—they were simply being hunted down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rebels were weak only relative to the imperial elite troops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scholarly families were not warrior clans.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The retainers they cultivated were for guarding homes, not for warfare.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their daily drills focused on individual martial skill.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their weapons were mostly wooden staves; armor was strictly forbidden.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In both Da Yu and the new Wu regime, privately possessing armor was a capital crime punishable by clan extermination.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The force that had attacked the Garrison Command and drawn the rebels’ attention were the city’s salt guards.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those retainers raised in comfort, when faced with organized enemy troops, were merely delivering trophies to the enemy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jin Mansion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s a misunderstanding!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“It’s all a misunderstanding!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“We are...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before the head of the Jin family could finish speaking, his head flew off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having been branded traitors, their former status and influence within the Wu state had now become death warrants.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing this, all the Jin family members were terrified, their former arrogance vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Some knelt and begged for mercy; others fled in all directions—none slowed the Wu soldiers’ slaughter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Similar scenes played out repeatedly throughout the city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Compared to the utterly unprepared Jin family, other scholarly clans in the city showed far stronger resistance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Having chosen to side with the imperial court, they had also anticipated the dangers if the plot were exposed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Those family members publicly visible had prepared from the start to make the ultimate sacrifice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, they had done so many terrible things—they owed the court an explanation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Especially those who had killed imperial officials or harmed members of the imperial clan could not be allowed to live.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the very least, they could not live openly, or they would become a thorn in the emperor’s heart.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if they were not punished now, they would be settled accounts with later.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Faking death at the hands of the rebel army and assuming a new identity was the best choice.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In essence, this was also submitting a token of loyalty to the court.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only by staining their hands with the blood of the Wu army could they regain the court’s trust.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The more family members who died, the heavier the token of loyalty they offered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As time passed, the scale of battle did not diminish—it grew, drawing in more and more people by force.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The immense wealth plundered after the slaughter soon intoxicated the Wu soldiers, causing them to forget the threat of imperial troops outside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After looting the city's scholarly clans, some wealthy merchants and prominent families also became targets of slaughter.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Many civilians living nearby suffered innocent casualties.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Issue orders: full army advance—take Yangzhou City!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the first rays of morning sunlight appeared, Qin Tianrui, having achieved his strategic objective, gave the order to attack.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The imperial troops, long waiting, immediately advanced into the city and launched an assault on the rebels, who were busy looting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Bang, bang, bang...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sound of arrows mingled with musket fire, becoming a deadly weapon of siege.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sudden strike jolted the rebel soldiers, exhausted from a night of chaos, out of their frenzy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In panic, they were shocked to discover their superiors were nowhere to be found.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The mid- and high-ranking officers of the army had quietly vanished from Yangzhou City at some point.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Realizing the situation was dire, the rebel soldiers all turned and fled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A night of burning, killing, and looting had destroyed their chance to surrender.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Anyone with half a brain knew they had enraged every scholar and commoner in the city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if they surrendered to the imperial troops, they must fear their commanders using their heads to appease the city’s populace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In moments of life and death, human potential is most fiercely unleashed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Countless Wu soldiers fled the city at top speed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were preparing to cross the Yangtze River and retreat to Zhenjiang on the opposite bank.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But when they reached the ferry dock, the boats had vanished without a trace.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While searching for boats to cross, countless imperial troops had already chased them from behind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the great river blocking their path ahead and enemy forces closing in from behind, they were suddenly trapped in desperation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A few soldiers with strong swimming skills immediately made up their minds, shed their armor and weapons, and leapt into the Yangtze.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most rebel soldiers, however, were driven to the riverbank and forced to pick up weapons and fight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Nanjingcheng.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at Liu Laoxu kneeling and begging for forgiveness, Fu Haoxuan was filled with rage.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upon waking, he discovered that Yangzhou Prefecture—his supposed secure rear—had been lost.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Hmph!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The enemy arrived in Yangzhou yesterday, and by nightfall the city fell—how capable you are!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“If all my Wu generals were as useless as you, my head would not last more than a few days.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Incompetent officials ruin the state!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I sent you, this worthless fool, to guard Yangzhou—I must have been blind...”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In his fury, Fu Haoxuan launched indiscriminate attacks—even turning on himself.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Laoxu, kneeling and begging for forgiveness, wished he could bury himself in the earth to reduce his presence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All the excuses he had prepared on the way were now useless.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No matter how he explained it, losing Yangzhou City was an undeniable fact.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such a massive blunder demanded a price.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your Majesty, please calm down!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yangzhou City fell so quickly—there must be hidden circumstances behind it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Let us first hear General Liu’s explanation, and clarify how the city was lost.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Left Chancellor Qiu Ruiyu immediately spoke up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was also furious at Liu Laoxu’s incompetence, but they were fellow clansmen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As a faction representative, at this critical moment, he had a duty to pull his subordinate out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had offered the chance; whether Liu Laoxu could salvage his life now depended on his fate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“General Liu, it’s your turn to perform.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Go ahead and fabricate boldly—as long as you can fool His Majesty, I won’t hold you accountable!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fu Haoxuan sneered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was deeply troubled by his subordinates’ factional solidarity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But there was no way around it—every state inevitably suffered from factional strife.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The newly founded Wu state was relatively better off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now was the time to seize the empire; though factions disagreed, their overall goal remained the same—to conquer the realm.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Your Majesty, I dare not deceive!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Yangzhou City fell because the city’s scholarly clans collectively betrayed us.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“They not only opened the gates to let the enemy in, but also organized private armies to attack the Garrison Headquarters.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“The sudden chaos shattered my military deployment—I could only prioritize quelling the internal rebellion.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“But these traitors had prepared in advance; each family hid vast private armies disguised as civilians within the city.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“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.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“After a night of brutal fighting, I could only retreat with the surviving soldiers to report to you!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Liu Laoxu spoke with tears and anguish.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To save his life, he exaggerated the enemy’s strength and dragged everyone else into the blame.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, the survival of Yangzhou’s scholarly clans was tied to the people present.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>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.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(End of Chapter)\u003C\u002Fp>",2514,"2026-06-21T08:09:04.021Z",1,"Qwen3.5 397B","aafa45c763b5e0215f8241792c25f836b13f3011717539e0df1d9c3ea2737e60","restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-chapter-359","restoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-chapter-357",391,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Frestoring-the-mountains-and-rivers-cover.jpg"]