Wang Jun’s orders came urgently and swiftly. Sima Youjong also acted quickly, immediately making arrangements after receiving the command. By the time his subordinates learned of it, the message had already been delivered to Shi Le.

Protector Sun Wei hurried over to advise, “General, Shi Le’s arrival is suspicious. I fear there’s a trap. You must not see him now.”

Wang Jun refused to listen to the advice. This year, what he had heard most was this can’t be done, that can’t be done. He had long grown tired of it. He just wanted to hear voices of compliance.

So he coldly rebuked Sun Wei and even threatened, “Those who obstruct my great enterprise shall all die. Do you also wish to follow in Wang Ti’s footsteps?”

Wang Ti, Wang Jun’s Chief Clerk—of course, this Chief Clerk wasn’t appointed by him but by the court.

At that time, Wang Jun’s power in Youzhou wasn’t so great. At least he couldn’t completely cover the sky with one hand. Wang Ti was the Youzhou Chief Clerk and had never gotten along well with Wang Jun.

This actually wasn’t Wang Ti’s fault. Many of Wang Jun’s subordinate generals didn’t get along with him because Wang Jun governed harshly and cruelly, and was also ruthless to his subordinates. Just this year alone, eighteen officials, advisors, and scholars had been killed for opposing his claim to the throne.

Yes, while Zhao Hanzhang, who held great power and had the emperor in her grasp, hadn’t thought about claiming the throne, Wang Jun, isolated in Youzhou, was already thinking of becoming emperor.

This goes back to when the previous emperor was captured.

When Wang Jun heard that the Jin Emperor had been captured by the Xiongnu, he was overjoyed, thinking that the Jin state was finished. Even the emperor had been captured—wasn’t this national destruction?

So he turned a blind eye to Zhao Hanzhang’s order to rescue the king and even took advantage of the crisis to attack Jizhou.

He wanted to connect Jizhou, Qingzhou, and Youzhou into one territory, then claim the throne.

Of course, he wasn’t proceeding step by step. He was pursuing multiple approaches simultaneously.

So on one hand, he sent people to attack Jizhou, and on the other, he probed everywhere.

For example, he had people spread word throughout Youzhou that his father Wang Shen’s courtesy name was Chudao, which fulfilled the “Dangtu Gao” prophecy. He used this prophecy to probe everywhere. Those who raised objections—if he could kill them, he killed them; if he couldn’t kill them, he transferred them elsewhere.

Those who remained silent, he gradually grew to dislike. Those he already disliked, he also killed. Those he didn’t particularly dislike, he found ways to get rid of them to avoid them being an eyesore.

Speaking of “Dangtu Gao,” one must mention a very interesting prophecy.

Emperor Wu of Han once lamented, “The Han has a calamity at the sixth or seventh generation. According to the law, it should receive the mandate again. Which descendant of the imperial clan should respond to this? Six times seven equals forty-two generations—the successor to Han should be Dangtu Gao.”

This prophecy spread widely, so Yuan Shu thought he was that Dangtu Gao, and Li Jue also thought he was that Dangtu Gao. Now it was even better—the fifty-eight-year-old Wang Jun pulled out his father, who had been buried for many years, and pointed at him saying he was Dangtu Gao.

He was crazy with wanting to be emperor, but his subordinate officials weren’t crazy. First Wang Ti expressed stern opposition, so he was killed, then Liu Liang, Wang Tuan, Gao Rou, and others.

Just in this half year, Wang Jun had killed quite a few people, and his tolerance for the word “no” had reached its limit. Now the word he couldn’t stand hearing most was this one—upon hearing it he would explode, and upon exploding he would kill.

Seeing he couldn’t persuade him, Sun Wei silently fell quiet.

Even the Protector was like this, not to mention the others. Everyone shrank back and said nothing.

Watching this, Sima Youjong’s anxious heart relaxed slightly.

Receiving the message, Shi Le immediately made arrangements. On one hand, he sent people ahead to lie in ambush at the border and wait. On the other hand, he sent people to contact Zu Ti. “Where has he deployed his troops?”

Zhang Bin said, “According to the message received, Zu Ti has arrived and is just waiting for you, my lord, to take Wang Jun’s head.”

Shi Le said, “We can’t just kill him casually. We’re going to operate in Youzhou in the future. I’ll wait until he completely loses the people’s hearts before killing him, so we can gather popular support.”

Zhang Bin praised him greatly. “That you can think of this now is truly excellent, my lord.”

“I learned it from Zhao Hanzhang,” Shi Le sighed. “Now few people in the world know of the young emperor, but even three-year-old children know of Xiping’s Zhao Hanzhang.”

Because of this good reputation, wherever the Zhao Family Army went, they could quickly win the people’s hearts and install new county magistrates.

After Shi Le seized Shangdang back then, it took a full half year to barely suppress the rebellions that occurred from time to time within the territory. Right up until he lost Shangdang, he had never truly subdued it.

The people within Shangdang were divided into several groups—not only nobility, aristocratic families, and commoners, but also Jie, Xiongnu, Xianbei, and Han people. Except for the Jie people, few from other ethnic groups truly submitted to him from the heart.

But during this period of interacting with Zhao Hanzhang, he discovered there were also Jie people in the Zhao Family Army. They were very convinced by Zhao Hanzhang and respected her as a tribal leader. When they saw him, they didn’t show the excitement of seeing a Jie chieftain but rather looked at him with disgust, considering his raising of two-legged sheep and slaughtering captive civilians to be very cruel behavior.

The Jie people in the Zhao Family Army were like this, and even the Shi Army quickly came to approve of Zhao Hanzhang. Even though they had just crossed swords, fighting desperately on the battlefield, she could still quickly integrate into the Shi Army. Before he left with his main forces, she was already able to carry wine jars and boast and paint grand visions with his soldiers.

His soldiers listened with great interest, their faces full of longing.

Shi Le had once privately asked them, “The Zhao Family Army killed our comrades and wounded our bodies. Don’t you hate Envoy Zhao and the Zhao Family Army?”

The soldiers didn’t care. “That was on the battlefield. Envoy Zhao said that in war there are no fathers and sons, only military orders and generals. Everyone served their own master, that’s all. It’s not a personal grudge—why should we hold it in our hearts?”

The soldiers even turned around to reassure Shi Le. “General, rest assured. We’ll get along well with the brothers of the Zhao Family Army and won’t create conflicts with them.”

He smiled and said, “We also killed plenty of their people. Haven’t they also not hated us?”

Shi Le: …

Shi Le felt that if he continued staying with Zhao Hanzhang, not only would he submit to her, but even the Shi Army would change their surname to Zhao.

When he saw good things, he couldn’t help but claim them for himself. When he saw good methods, he naturally subconsciously learned them. Right now he was learning Zhao Hanzhang’s way of handling affairs.

So after Shi Le selected elite troops and entered through Wang Jun’s wide-open city gates, he didn’t allow his subordinates to plunder but entered in an orderly fashion.

The Shi Army saw the lanterns hanging in the city and the lights between the buildings. Their hearts and hands began to itch. Shi Le seemed to have eyes in the back of his head—he turned and lashed out with a whip, shouting in a low voice, “Pass down the order: whoever dares to violate orders and act recklessly, I’ll kill him as a sacrifice to the flag!”

Everyone knew Shi Le could do as he said, so no one dared to harbor improper thoughts. They could only follow behind Shi Le. Only Shi Hu, who was following behind Shi Le, was very unconvinced. Before coming, he had heard that every time his uncle entered a city, he would allow troops to plunder to supplement military supplies. He had prepared himself and even stuffed two empty bags in his bosom. Yet today he wasn’t allowed to act.

Shi Hu suppressed his rage and followed Shi Le into the temporary general’s mansion in the city. As soon as he entered, he started stamping about. Seeing that Shi Le didn’t stop him, he became even more excessive. Seeing a beautiful maid standing in the corridor, he simply went forward to grab her.

Wang Jun’s wife, sitting not far away, was startled and immediately stood up to rebuke him. “You young general, who are you to dare act so presumptuously in the general’s mansion? How audacious!”