Chapter 737: The Fickleness of the Human Heart

"Rest assured, Mister Xie. Inside and outside Linqing City, throughout Dongchang Prefecture, and in those branches within Jinan Prefecture that honor this side — arrangements have all been made. By all accounts, they should already be in motion," Shen Zhi answered in a hushed voice.

Xie Mingxian swirled the wine cup in his hand, his expression completely relaxed. Across from him, Shen Zhi hesitated a moment, then spoke again: "The Hierarch once issued a decree, saying that affairs in Dongchang Prefecture were to be temporarily managed by Mister Xie, with a formal title to be conferred later."

"I'm going back to Yuncheng. Let someone else take over here," Xie Mingxian said, looking at Shen Zhi with a faint, ambiguous smile, his answer remarkably casual.

Mu Shulan's disappearance was discovered the very next day. There had been gruesome murders both inside the city and at several locations outside — over a hundred youths slaughtered, their blood drained completely clean. The scene at Mu Shulan's residence within the city was the same: young men and women dead in agony, their blood drained dry.

Cases like these reeked of the uncanny. Even veteran constables with years of experience felt a chill creeping into their hearts; the common folk, hearing of it, were even more terrified and horrified.

Immediately afterward, word began to spread: that Mu Shulan was no holy maiden, but a demoness in human form, a monster. All her charitable deeds, it was said, had merely been a pretense, using the name of the Smelling Incense Sect to seize virgin boys and girls and drink their blood, all to bolster her own cultivation.

Such rumors were utterly bizarre, yet with so many corpses laid out before the yamen gates, laid out on the open ground of the estates outside the city — and with those who had seen them returning and describing the scene in a daze of shock — how could any of it be false?

After that, commoners inside and outside Linqing City began filing complaints with the authorities, saying their children had been missing for days. At first they'd thought it was kidnappers, but now, thinking it over — could it be that this demoness had seized them to drain their blood for her evil sorcery?

Word spread outward from Linqing City, and reports from every quarter fed back in turn. It wasn't just Linqing where such cases had occurred — in the prefectural seat of Liaocheng, in Gaotang Department, and in every county, children had gone missing. Then someone with a keen eye noticed: wherever this Holy Maiden — no, this demoness Mu Shulan — had gone, children had vanished.

Children missing, seized and drained of blood — and with the ghastly, all-too-real evidence outside the city, there was no room for disbelief. Everyone who saw it was stricken with terror. Who would stop to think about when exactly those children had been lost, or whether they had truly been lost at all? As for the rumors spreading everywhere, they only grew more and more outrageous.

And as it happened, at that very moment, every member of the Mu family had vanished without a trace. Their trusted guards and sect followers were either dead or scattered, and those who remained had been absorbed by the men sent from Yanzhou and Jinan Prefectures. There was simply no one left to speak up in their defense.

The human heart is fragile and merciless. Before, everyone had been grateful, remembering all the good deeds Mu Shulan had done — how many people she had cured of plague, how she had stepped forward to raise grain and winter clothing to relieve the poor, the old, and the weak. They had wished they could burn incense and make offerings to her every day. Yet once this news spread, all those past good deeds became nothing more than a smokescreen to hide her evil. The very thought of it made people shudder with lingering fear. What Holy Maiden, what Bodhisattva? She was clearly a fiend, a monster.

Once this preconception took root, countless cases and rumors that had absolutely nothing to do with Mu Shulan were all pinned on her. Even the Liao Impost was laid at her feet as an evil deed. Some even claimed that Mu Shulan had a doppelganger in the imperial palace in the capital — none other than that Noble Consort Zheng, who had bewitched the late Wanli Emperor into neglecting court, concocted the Liao Impost, and used her sorcery to bring about the Taichang Emperor's death as well — all for the purpose of throwing the entire Great Ming realm into chaos.

The rumors grew more and more fantastical. Even the refugees and disaster victims on the streets now seethed with hatred and loathing for Mu Shulan. Only days before, they had received food and clothing from her relief efforts and knelt in gratitude, kowtowing, thinking Mu Shulan was no different from Guanyin Bodhisattva herself. But now, every last one of them wanted nothing more than to spit on the doorstep of her former residence.

As one report after another emerged, someone finally spoke up: it was the Perfected One Xu Hongru of Yanzhou Prefecture, a man of great divine power, who could stand it no longer. He had stepped in and captured this Mu Shulan, and was preparing to perform a ritual to suppress and eliminate the evil. After that, there would be no more need to fear calamity, no more grisly cases of children vanishing and having their blood drained.

So that was why the two sides, both under the Smelling Incense Sect, were as incompatible as fire and water. Now, at last, everyone understood: the Yanzhou Prefecture side was the orthodox lineage, and the Dongchang Prefecture side had been nothing but a front. Heaven have mercy — everyone had long known the name of Perfected One Xu of Yanzhou. True to his reputation, he had taken pity on the world and stepped in to save them all.

As the news continued to spread, more and more people switched allegiances and were recruited by the Yanzhou Prefecture side. It was, in truth, enough to make one sigh. All that the Mu family had built up over so long was like a heap of sand by the sea — the moment the tide came in, nothing remained.

For the officials and gentry of Linqing City, it made no difference who came to preach and worship. As long as no chaos erupted, the common people were pacified, and the believers high and low were kept content, that was enough. The men sent by Xu Hongru knew how to handle things well. Once the initial disturbances were suppressed, the region suddenly grew calm. No more major cases appeared.

Achieving that much was sufficient. The silver and contributions the gentry usually donated began to flow again. The Li family, with their vast wealth and influence — the Patrol Chief's household — gave especially generously. The reason for that was known to all: so many had died, yet their son Li Yuliang had returned. He was now confined at home, under house arrest.

What only a few trusted family servants in the Li household knew, however, was that on the very first day of his confinement, the young master had taken the pocket money he had saved, stolen a horse from the family stable, and vanished without a trace.

Li Yuliang was the very lifeblood of the Li family. Patrol Chief Li was a man whose reach extended everywhere in Linqing City, and the rumors outside could not be hidden from him. He knew it was a violent internal purge within the Smelling Incense Sect, and as luck would have it, his own son was deeply entangled with one of the factions. That his son had been released and sent home was already a gesture of considerable face. If any further trouble arose, a death sentence was not out of the question. So Patrol Chief Li, while sealing off all news of the matter, had also sent men out in every direction to search.

The weather had already turned cold. The Grand Canal was frozen over, and the Shandong countryside was far from peaceful. A boy barely past childhood, riding off alone on horseback — it was a deeply worrying thought for his safety.

By now, no one had any attention left to spare for Xuzhou. Or rather, no one was in a position to concern themselves with Xuzhou anymore. Here, Zhao Jin held true, undisputed command.

Five new positions of Grand Company Commander had been established. Aside from Zhang Hubin, whose appointment as Grand Company Commander was already confirmed, Lu Da, Li Wu, Li He, and Li Dajin were all given the title of Grand Company Commander as well. One grand company comprised six companies — two of household troops, and four of militia. Equipment and expenses were calculated according to the distinction between household troops and militia.

Li Dajin, however, did not actually have six companies under his command. He merely held the rank, and worked alongside the Internal Guard Unit on assignments. In terms of standing, Li Dajin was now second only to Liu Yong and Lei Cai within the Internal Guard. No one raised any objection to this — after all, risking his life to go undercover in Nanjing was a genuine, indisputable deed of great merit.

Zhang Hubin's Grand Company Commander position also came with no household-troop companies. During the time Ma Chonghao had led his forces in their charge on Xuzhou, Zhang Hubin had indeed managed to train a thousand household troops at the estate on the eastern shore of Luoma Lake. But all those household troops had since been used as companies for the newly formed grand companies. That said, Zhang Hubin now commanded even more men — the sixteen companies of guard militia at Qingjiangpu had been explicitly placed under his authority.

Dong Bingfeng led the Third Regiment to Qingjiangpu. Shi Manqiang led the Second Regiment to the refugee estate at Luoma Lake. Chen Sheng's First Regiment remained garrisoned in Xuzhou. Lu Da's First Grand Company went to the Kong Family Estate. Li Wu's Second Grand Company went to Suzhou. Li He's Third Grand Company went to Pizhou. The territorial defense of the Zhao Camp was now complete.

Ji Xiang's personal guard unit was also expanded this time. With eight companies of household troops, plus cavalry and archer units, its total manpower now exceeded that of any other regiment. However, this personal guard unit was under Zhao Jin's direct command; Ji Xiang served, for the most part, merely as a deputy.

Aside from these clearly announced formations, there were rumors that several of Zhao Jin's paternal cousins — Zhao Wan, Zhao Song, and Zhao Shiyi — had also been given the rank of Grand Company Commander. But this claim was never confirmed.

There were also those who said that Cheng Dahu had performed great deeds at Qingjiangpu as well, and was now a Grand Company Commander too. But information from the Internal Guard Unit was always tightly sealed and very difficult to pry into. It remained only a rumor; no one could verify it.

Everyone knew that household troops ranked higher than militia. Moving from militia to household troops was a promotion. A company commander in the household-troop system could certainly serve as a company commander in the militia. And a company commander within the household-troop system — well, that man's future was boundless. He would surely be given independent command one day.

To put it plainly, what was the difference between those Grand Company Commanders and the Regiment Commanders now? Only a matter of scale. Each held sway over a territory, and the future glory and wealth that awaited them was plain to see. But for a company commander in the household troops to go and become a Grand Company Commander of militia — it was hard to say whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. There were quite a few men now commanding several companies of militia. That Jiang Mutou, that Cheng Daqi — both had militia under them, yet neither held any formal title or rank.

What puzzled everyone even more was that the man sent out to be a militia Grand Company Commander was actually Li Can. Everyone knew Li Can — he was a relative of the He family, the family of Lord Jin's mother. Despite Lord Jin's towering prominence, the He family had always kept an exceedingly low profile, simply enjoying their wealth and comfort at He Family Estate outside Xuzhou City, absolutely refusing to meddle in any affairs of the Zhao family. The only two people everyone knew of from that family working within the Zhao Camp were Li Can and the other, He Zheng.

Zhao Jin was a filial son — though that word "filial" might invite some debate — and he had always treated his parents' relatives and friends generously. Li Can and He Zheng had both performed excellently within the Zhao Camp and were widely regarded as having limitless futures. So why had one of them suddenly been sent out to command militia?

In any case, the six companies of militia were stationed right here in the Xu family's territory. The Xu family had also drawn eight hundred of their able-bodied young men, along with able-bodied workers from the mines and workshops, to garrison here near Xuzhou, close to the city walls.

Seeing this arrangement, anyone with a discerning eye, recalling the recent bloody purge Xu Zhenzhen had carried out within the Xu family, could deduce the reason. When Xuzhou was in crisis, the Xu family had been the most brazenly restless of all. Those juren and xiucai at least had the sense to keep their distance and avoid suspicion, but many in the Xu family had been on the verge of outright revolt.

Even though Xu Zhenzhen had since purged them once, who could guarantee there wouldn't be a second time? That one's own family should be the source of the greatest unease — it was something of a joke. Stationing this militia was likely the hard-line solution. Next time anything was amiss, there would be no settling accounts after the fact; they would simply act on the spot.

People in Xuzhou and everywhere else who paid attention to such matters all fixed their eyes, with self-satisfied certainty, on positions like Company Commander and Grand Company Commander within the Zhao Camp. Yet very few paid any attention to the opening of the various branch establishments of the Cloud Mountain Trading House.

In a bad mood today, so just one update. Hoping for a few more monthly tickets and tips.