Chapter 208: Sage

Chu Tuantuan personally came to the gate, ran around his own fief, and Zhang Gui found it even stranger.

After thinking, he asked:

"What else did Great Chief Chu do when he came to us besides leaving me a sealed letter?"

"He took away that Yuanshan man Wuritu, who had gone mad in front of the yamen."

"Wuritu…"

She didn't intend to blame the star officer, whose mind was so clumsy that even such an important matter had to be asked about before they could say it.

In Zhang Gui's mind flashed the hypocritical expression of that Yuanshan man outside the shogunate yamen not long ago, who said he would sell me twenty‑five jin of fine rice for one or two silver taels.

He felt he had grasped a clue, but upon further thought got nothing.

Finally, he decided not to waste his mind, got up, activated the internal Divine Cluster 'Zongheng Ruyi', and leapt.

He covered a distance of hundreds of zhang in a single bound, soaring toward Longmen Bo as if flying over land.

Along the way he carefully appreciated the subtleties of 'Zongheng Ruyi', but unfortunately his mortal body, not having become gigantic, could not grasp the deep connection between this technique's Divine Cluster and Kuafu's bloodline.

Yet under the bright sky and clear heavens, he brazenly employed the Black God Explosive Burst Weapon Master Formation within the Ming Song realm, transforming into a metal giant to hurry along.

Even in these times, such arrogance is excessive, a sign of a muddled mind.

So Zhang Gui could only quell his ambitious thoughts and, with his head down, quickened his pace.

In less than half an hour he stepped onto the bluestone road outside Longmen Bo.

On the massive plaque of the Chief of Siyang Commandery city gate tower, the three golden characters 'Shaowei Gate' still shone brilliantly and majestically.

But the port city was visibly much more desolate.

Following the crowd, he arrived at the Longmen Tongbu Bureau.

Zhang Gui reported his identity to the young eunuch guarding the gate, and was immediately ushered, with great deference, into the innermost courtyard—the study that Chu Tuantuan rarely entertains guests in.

The two met.

Chu Tuantuan signaled the newly appointed confidants in the room to step aside.

When only he and Zhang Gui remained in the study, he carefully closed the doors.

He raised a formation that could insulate sound and provide warning.

Chu Tuantuan sighed,

"Heir Apparent Caiyang, do you know you have become a thorn in the flesh of the entire Ming Song officialdom?"

"I've been honestly staying on that shabby island of Xianrong lately; how could I suddenly become so hated for no reason."

Zhang Gui was startled.

"You're the one who, using your position as Eastern Depot Siyang Commandery Chief of Siyang Commandery, took away Wuritu—what's the problem?"

"Isn't it him.

Do you know his identity?"

"What identity? Just a crazy nerve."

"Now, in these times, he comes to my doorstep saying he'll sell me twenty‑five jin of fine rice for one or two silver taels, and even delivers unlimited supplies to my door."

"I am his biological father, yet I wouldn't dare hope for such a filial big son!"

"So I thought there was deception, and I took this grandson, locked him with a pipa‑bone lock, and lifted him up."

"Tied him to the lighthouse at the dock for display—was that wrong?"

"Of course, there wasn't a single iota of wrong."

"But precisely because it was too correct, it caused others to sit on wax."

"Brother Chu Tuantuan, stop playing riddler and just tell me what happened."

"The origin of the matter is that the Yuanshan emperor's mighty ruler Chang Sheng Tie Mu, seeing that our Ming Song Southern Kingdom suffers devastation because the Imperial Court is at war with Yuanshan, could not bear it in his heart."

"So he requisitioned two hundred million dan of grain from the vast Xiang Fan plains he occupied, and sold it at a low price to the local offices of the Ming Song Southern Kingdom."

"The price was one tael of silver for twenty‑five jin of fine rice…"

"Ah, buying this cheap grain locally is treasonous trade; not buying it means letting the subjects under one's jurisdiction be ravaged."

"If the disaster victims thus commit crimes, his whole family being torn apart alive wouldn't be many."

"The central authority, by allowing the locals to buy this enemy chief's mercifully cheap grain, would be tantamount to throwing the Current Emperor's face on the ground and trampling it."

"But if a clear edict forbade locals from buying, it would be like hand‑pinching the mouths of billions of disaster‑stricken commoners in the Southern Kingdom, forcing them to starve."

"That would likely cause the people's hearts to be lost at once, and the state to collapse."

"So the best solution is to all pretend ignorance—everyone should act as if they don't know about this!"

"At that moment, I deliberately beat up one of the envoys Chang Sheng Tie Mu sent to sell cheap grain."

"and gave him a severe beating."

"Then I locked him up as a madman."

"and displayed him publicly at the bustling Tongbu dock."

"More importantly, fearing he might employ some clumsy counter‑plot, I deliberately left his mouth untied."

This kind of unforeseen disaster can even fall on my head, truly the years are extremely ill‑favored!

"Such an unbidden calamity falling on my head—truly the worst of unlucky times!"

After stewing in frustration for a while, Zhang Gui calmed down and said:

"However, Tiemu Changsheng's Yang scheme is truly upright and invulnerable.

Even without my inadvertent cooperation, it would still be a deadly finishing move!"

"I truly don't know which saintly deity presented this 'poisonous scheme' worthy of the way of the sage!"

"Such a mind can only be conceived by the well‑educated sages of our Ming Song."

Chu Tuantuan said softly.

【61】 Zhang Gui's heart trembled as he blurted out:

No, it couldn't be that first wife, whose hometown was destroyed by bandits, whose entire clan perished, who was filled with grief and rage, vomited blood and died.

She lamented the war between Yuanshan and the Ming Song Southern Kingdom, which caused Nanguo's order to collapse.

Thus she went to the great grassland to face Tiemu Changsheng, to earnestly plead to end the fighting, the Academy Head Qing Dou, Huaihe Xiansheng?

Without this great sage of the age, who else could persuade Chang Sheng Tie Mu to provide two hundred million dan of grain to save the millions of commoners of the Ming Song Southern Kingdom?

It is said that Academy Head Qing Dou knows that the Yuanshan Emperor, although saying "once a war starts, it is like an arrow on the string that must be released," has no intention of a ceasefire.

Yet he laments that the people of the Ming Song Southern Kingdom suffer from both natural disasters and human calamities, are displaced and nearly forced to eat their own children, so he summons Xiang Fan to mobilize two hundred million dan of grain to rescue the masses.

His tears welled up, nearly fainting, and in a daze he wept and knelt before Tiemu Changsheng's Da Zhang.

He actually fainted for three days and three nights, almost meeting his end.

Later, realizing he had actually knelt before the imperial ruler, he felt ashamed to return to the Ming Song Southern Kingdom and thus settled in Yuanshan.

He swore never to serve a second lord in his life and would not take office in Yuanshan.

He only established a school, to teach the noble offspring of Yuanshan proper manners and a sense of integrity.

Moved by Huaihe Xiansheng's great righteousness, Chang Sheng Tie Mu personally named the school Xianhezhai.

He sent several children of the Bo Zhi Jin family, the so‑called golden‑bloodline of Yuanshan, into it.

For now this information is known only to us Eastern Depot eunuchs, who, through secret spies concealed in Yuanshan, know a little.

It has not spread outward.

Otherwise it would inevitably alarm the court and the realm.

Zhang Gui stared blankly for a while, then his mouth suddenly burst into applause and laughter.

Good, good, good, good, truly a fine scholar, a fine academic, a fine virtuous person!

Even if this news spreads, what can it achieve?

After all, Huaihe Xiansheng saved billions of common folk with just a single word; even you and I, in his presence, could we utter a single "mistake"?

Chu Tuantuan, hearing this, was also left speechless.

Finally he sighed and said:

Actually, when great nations undergo transformation, those aristocratic families inevitably split, each placing bets on both sides.

Huaihe Xiansheng's method is likely also approved by his elder brother, He Xiang.

In history, during the Age of Great Contention, the biological brothers of powerful aristocratic houses each served their own master, and countless examples exist of them fighting to the death out of loyal devotion.

All of this is merely old events performed anew.

(End of chapter)