Chapter 996: The Final Arrangements

The next evening, officers of every rank dispatched their personal guards to restore order, rounding up the soldiers scattered throughout the city. Those who disobeyed were executed on the spot under martial law. This process was itself the collection of spoils—over half of what you had looted over these days had to be handed in, then distributed level by level. The most beautiful women, carefully protected, had long since been delivered to the commanding officers' tents.

On the twentieth day of the sixth month, the government troops, after bitter fighting, recaptured Zou County. The people of Zou County wept with gratitude. Early that morning, the government troops began to clear up the aftermath, searching the city for remnant bandits of the Smelling Incense Sect. Their methods were identical to those Zhao's Battalion had used in Jining—house-to-house searches. But this process was accompanied by a fresh round of slaughter, arson, and plunder. The slightest suspicion was met not with questioning, but with the blade. Heads rolled once more.

Caozhou Regional Commander Yang Zhaoji and Shandong Regional Commander Yang Guodong both issued strict orders to investigate thoroughly. The day they entered the city, they had expected a desperate fight to the death at the bandit chieftain Xu Hongru's "palace." They never imagined the army would breach it so easily. Upon entering, they found only corpses strewn across the ground, and the central "imperial palace" ablaze. After extinguishing the fire, they discovered over a dozen charred bodies inside. Only one was male, and they even found the remnants of a golden seal and a jade crown. When they asked around, everyone said these were Xu Hongru's personal effects.

Was that male corpse the bandit chieftain Xu Hongru? If they truly couldn't account for things, they could report it that way to their superiors. Anyone with half a brain could see the doubts were overwhelming, yet they still had to investigate rigorously and confirm that Xu Hongru had indeed committed suicide after his defeat.

All suspicious persons were escorted to open ground outside the city, guarded by the main army. Then, Smelling Incense Sect followers who had surrendered within the city identified them one by one. Any minor leader or follower deemed unimportant was simply beheaded, their corpses tossed aside. Elsewhere in the city, the townspeople, driven by the government troops, were digging pits. The bodies were to be buried in these pits. A pit dug was quickly filled, then covered over, and the digging of a new pit began.

This slaughter did not cease until the afternoon, and not because they had killed everyone. Rather, the troops of the Xuzhou Assistant Regional Commander, who had arrived later, simply set a price: one hundred wen for a living man; for a woman, regardless of looks, two hundred or three hundred wen; and two hundred wen for a child.

At a moment like this, the most valuable commodities were pretty young girls and women. Bold human traffickers had long since followed the army to make purchases—this was also a major way the government troops made their fortune. As for the other living captives, they were just a waste of provisions and were often dispatched with a single stroke. The moment the Xuzhou Assistant Regional Commander named his price, the captives were sold off without a second word. One hundred wen a person—ten people made one tael of silver. No need to waste grain feeding them, no need for the army to guard them. A business deal that pleased everyone.

But just as the deal was settled, a new development arose. The government troops re-entered the city, surrounded all the civilian dwellings around Xu Hongru's palace, and began house-to-house searches. Leading the search, however, was a woman. Those with inside information knew that because this woman was young and beautiful, the government troops had directly violated her. But before the first Battalion Commander to mount her could even pull up his trousers, the woman had pressed a small knife to his neck. The usual practice was to persuade the woman to put down the knife, then either kill her outright or continue the violation. Or, if the Battalion Commander was unlucky and died, everyone would avenge him.

No one expected the young woman to simply say she knew where Xu Hongru was hiding and demand to be taken to see the Regional Commander. The woman kept her knife pressed to the Battalion Commander's neck. Several times, men tried to seize an opening to snatch the blade, but each attempt nearly cost the Battalion Commander his life. Moreover, the information the woman claimed to have was indeed critical. They went straight to the Regional Commander. The men were also afraid—what if this woman was a female dependent of some official's household? If she went weeping and accusing before the Regional Commander, the higher-ups wouldn't be able to gloss things over even if they wanted to. They'd have to answer with their heads. To their surprise, she really did know where Xu Hongru was. The Regional Commander actually dispatched trusted household retainers to oversee the search.

The day they stormed the Smelling Incense Sect's "imperial palace," the surrounding area had naturally been thoroughly searched as well, and no small amount of violation and ruin had accompanied it. Yet nothing had been found. The residents were all just commoners of Zou County—the kind not worth drawing a blade on, the kind one couldn't be bothered to kill.

When they searched one particular household, the man of the house had a face covered in pockmarks. He claimed he had been cooking for the bandits when a wok of oil accidentally splattered, scalding his face with boiling oil, leaving it pitted, disfigured, and ruined. Several relatives had come to care for him and visit. Who could have imagined the government troops would enter the city then? The people in this dwelling all looked like honest, humble folk of modest means, timid and obsequious, trembling with fear at the sight of the soldiers. The pockmarked man was kneeling there as well.

The moment she saw the pockmarked man, the woman leading the way took notice. She simply told the household retainers to bring him out. The retainers were impatient at being ordered about by a woman, but they knew what was at stake. They went straight up to seize and take the man. As they grabbed him, they deliberately watched the people around for any movement. Seeing no resistance or action, they felt even more that the woman was unreliable and had identified the wrong person.

Quite a few people had seen the pockmarked man at the time, but the pockmarks on his face were all fresh wounds, bloody and horrifyingly disgusting. No one wanted to take a second look.

"Stretch out your right hand." The woman's voice was already trembling slightly.

The pockmarked man, who had been cowering the whole time, only now raised his head to glance at her, but he did not extend his arm. The Regional Commander's personal guards beside him, however, had lost their patience. Two men stepped forward directly, pinned him down, and forced the pockmarked man to raise his arm. On the index finger of his right hand was a copper ring.

The copper ring looked like a finger ring, but it was made of no precious material—just an ordinary brass ring. Years of wear had already turned it somewhat black.

"When Wang Haoxian passed the teachings to you, he gave you this ring. You've always believed this ring helped you turn misfortune into fortune, lifting you step by step. You've always said this ring is the lucky star of your destiny, the true transmission bestowed by gods and buddhas. Isn't that right?" The woman's voice turned shrill and piercing. The people around exchanged glances, but the pockmarked man shuddered.

Just at that moment, several of the pockmarked man's "family members" suddenly made a move. Some lunged forward, some backward. But though the Regional Commander's personal guards were impatient, their martial skill was exceedingly high. They reacted instantly. Several were beaten to the ground on the spot, and one was cut down directly. With that, everyone realized something was wrong with the pockmarked man.

"Xu Hongru, your younger brother found you a platinum ring inlaid with the eight treasures in Jining and told you to switch. You couldn't bear to part with this one, saying something about not forgetting your roots, wasn't it?"

At these words, the pockmarked man suddenly lunged forward, nearly breaking free from the two men restraining him. A low growl came from his throat as he asked in a hoarse voice, "Whose man are you? Who sent you? Shen Zhi? Xie Mingxian? Or who..."

"Xu Hongru, you beast who deserves to die a thousand cuts! My mother was violated to death by you bandit soldiers! My little sister was ruined by your vampiric arts! I was given away by you to others! When you were living it up and prospering back then, you never imagined a day like this would come!" Seeing Xu Hongru's frantic, exasperated state, the woman identifying him laughed wildly with excitement. But as she laughed, she realized the pockmarked man opposite her, in his fury, was struggling hard to remember—and clearly could not. This reaction drove the woman into an uncontrollable rage. She lunged, clawing at Xu Hongru's face, shrieking as she attacked, "You beasts ruined too many families! You can't remember, can you?! You can't remember, can you?!"

No one was holding the woman back, and Xu Hongru was being held by others. He was truly caught off guard. The fresh oil-splash wounds on his face had not yet healed when her sharp nails tore several new gashes open. He screamed in pain, trembling.

At this point, everyone naturally knew they had caught their real target. Several of the Regional Commander's personal guards came forward, pulled the woman away, and called for sturdy matrons outside to watch her. The others began the search. Xu Hongru and the people with him were stripped naked and searched. The place where they had just been was dug up three feet deep.

A travel permit for the route from Nanjing to Shandong. Over a hundred gold leaf sheets. Nearly a thousand taels of loose silver. And over a dozen sheets of paper—deeds to country estates in the Southern Metropolitan Region, as well as silver deposited at the Cloud Mountain Trading House. The notes issued by the Cloud Mountain Trading House were now accepted as ready silver in the Jiangbei region of the Southern Metropolitan Area. All these items had been wrapped in oilpaper, hidden inside earthenware jars, and buried underground. Besides these, there were also various tokens and documents of the Smelling Incense Sect. Compared to the wealth, however, these were few in number. One could tell the owner hadn't cared much about them.

After seeing all this, and then applying brutal torture and interrogating the captives, they quickly confirmed Xu Hongru's true identity. It had indeed been a clever scheme. Disfigure his own face with pockmarks so no one could recognize him, take advantage of the chaos of war to hide among the city's commoners, and once everything settled down, dig up the hidden gold and flee south to live a peaceful life in Jiangnan, or go elsewhere to spread his teachings anew. No one would have known their whereabouts.

"... The Wang family spread the teachings for over twenty years. I spread the teachings for over twenty years. We built a following of millions. Once we raised the banner and called for revolt, we should have swept across the realm. How did it come to this..."

"... This is not my fault. It's all those treacherous villains below me. They didn't know how to strive and advance, only how to hoard wealth and lust after women. A grand situation ruined by your hands..."

"... I am the Sect Venerable, the incarnation of Maitreya Buddha. I should be attended by eight hundred and eighty-eight heavenly maidens. Every time I bestow my favor, it is a great virtuous deed..."

After his capture, Xu Hongru completely collapsed. At first, he was full of remorse and regret. Later, it turned into mad ravings and delirious fantasies, imagining himself as a divine immortal of great magical power. He kept saying that before long, celestial soldiers and generals would come to rescue him and place him upon the imperial throne.

Neither Caozhou Regional Commander Yang Zhaoji nor Shandong Regional Commander Yang Guodong conducted the interrogation themselves. They merely issued strict orders to their subordinates that Xu Hongru must be kept alive—alive for delivery to the capital. A major criminal like this was certain to pass through the Imperial Prison and then be executed by a thousand cuts as a public spectacle. They hoped this captive might allow them to shed some of their culpability. Shandong Regional Commander Yang Guodong had always relied on connections with Wei Zhongxian and was far better informed than most. He knew there were officials in the court strongly advocating to send an imperial inspector to Shandong to investigate. But Eunuch Wei and his faction simply said that a major battle was underway and they must not undermine the Shandong civil and military officials. In the course of this dispute, the better Shandong performed in battle, the more room there was to maneuver back in the capital.

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