Just as the patriarchs and elders of the three families were racking their brains to devise countermeasures, urgent footsteps suddenly came from outside.

A tall, sturdy young man burst in, gasping for breath as he leaned against the door frame. Without bothering with proper greetings, he nervously pointed in the direction outside the city.

“This is bad! Troops—there are troops coming!”

“What!” The three family patriarchs were shocked and horrified.

“Are you saying troops are heading our way?”

The young man nodded, his face deathly pale as he said, “It’s an army—there must be over a thousand of them, all cavalry! I saw them from afar at the city gates just now—a vast black mass of people! These troops are heading straight for our Danfu County. Could it be that they’re…”

Suppressing civilian unrest and punishing treason.

These eight words flashed through everyone’s minds, frightening the patriarchs and elders of the three families until their faces turned ashen.

“We’re finished, finished! We accidentally wounded His Highness, and we can’t find which bastard did it. Yesterday we even besieged the government office, making such a huge commotion. I’m afraid there’s no room for us to explain ourselves at all—the court has sent troops to suppress us!”

“Sent troops to suppress us—how will they suppress us?” The young man was already stammering with fear.

“How else would they suppress us? What does the court do to those who rebel?”

Everyone was terrified out of their wits.

It seemed the court had dispatched troops so quickly—they were clearly here to exterminate them!

“Every grievance has its source, every debt its creditor—this matter wasn’t even our doing! We weren’t the ones who wounded His Highness!” The young man could no longer contain himself. “It was agreed from the beginning that we came to ask His Highness to write us a guarantee letter, not to assassinate His Highness! Which son of a bitch did such a thing? Isn’t this going to kill everyone in our entire town!”

“Shouting and screaming now won’t solve all the problems. The key is how to appease His Highness’s anger.”

“But we don’t even know His Highness’s current condition.”

…

The crowd had lost all composure. Even the family patriarchs and elders were, after all, common people. Since ancient times, the people do not contend with officials. This time they too had been forced into desperation with no other options, which led them to devise this method of petitioning for a guarantee letter. They had thought that with all the county’s people gathered together, His Highness surely wouldn’t refuse.

But while having many people had its advantages, now the drawbacks had emerged—collective petitioning and conspiring for treason were two entirely different matters.

Everyone frantically arranged for the younger generation of each family to go outside the city to investigate the situation.

After the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, another youngster came running back, completely out of breath.

“Patriarch, those soldiers have all been stopped by people from His Highness’s main tent. Right now those troops have halted outside the city and show no intention of approaching for the moment.”

“Could it be these people are discussing attacking our county seat?”

“Hard to say. Magistrate Cheng is still kneeling outside His Highness’s camp. Perhaps it really is so.”

“What are we to do! If they truly attack us, how could we farmers be a match for soldiers? I hear this time they’re all from the Five Military Camps—these people usually guard the capital region and are the Emperor’s most capable troops. This time it’s really…”

The rest of their words, several people could no longer voice.

However, since the common people wanted to gather information but couldn’t get close, they didn’t understand the detailed circumstances outside the main camp.

The Eastern Route Commander leading the Eastern Route Army of the Five Military Camps was once Pang Xiao’s subordinate. Thirty-two years old, surnamed Ma with the given name Cheng, his personality was exceptionally fiery and forthright.

Ma Cheng led three thousand Eastern Route cavalry to arrive outside Danfu County, immediately wanting to capture Danfu County with overwhelming superiority. However, he was timely stopped by Xie Yue and Xu Weizhi.

Xu Weizhi and Xie Yue were strategists under Pang Xiao. Ma Cheng had once served alongside Pang Xiao, so naturally he had met them many times. Now seeing these two, Ma Cheng naturally showed no neglect, smiling as they exchanged mutual greetings.

“Master Xu, Master Xie, this subordinate heard His Highness’s call for aid and immediately selected three thousand troops to rush here day and night to quell the unrest. The matter of reporting to the Emperor has also been left with someone to relay on my behalf.” Ma Cheng pointed toward Danfu County’s city gates and said solemnly, “Are there people in this city plotting treason?”

Xie Yue inwardly cursed Tao Hanshan for stirring up trouble, but couldn’t show it on his face. He said gravely, “Many thanks to the Commander for arriving so promptly. The brothers have truly worked hard.”

“I dare not, I dare not. What is the current situation in the city? Where is His Highness?”

Ma Cheng greatly admired and respected Pang Xiao. Not seeing Pang Xiao come out now, he was somewhat worried in his heart.

Xu Weizhi smiled bitterly and said, “The Commander doesn’t know—the matter in this city is not treason. The situation is not simple and cannot be explained clearly in a few words. His Highness was severely wounded and is currently sleeping soundly after taking medicine prescribed by the physician.”

“His Highness was wounded?” Ma Cheng was astonished. “Someone as formidable as His Highness was actually injured? What kind of formidable person would dare do such a thing! I’d like to meet them!”

“No, no, the Commander misunderstands.” Xie Yue sighed. “This matter is truly complex. To put it simply, when Huichuan County was constructing the imperial mausoleum, they conscripted laborers from Danfu County. But after these laborers went, barely one in ten survived—countless numbers died of exhaustion and starvation.”

Xu Weizhi also sighed with compassion and continued, “Because of past events, every family in Danfu County has become extremely afraid of constructing the imperial mausoleum and dares not send their able-bodied men. So the laborers have been delayed in reporting to Huichuan County. His Highness came here to investigate the reason for this matter. When the common people learned there was a channel to air their grievances, they immediately surrounded the place where His Highness was staying.”

“Yes, the people petitioned, asking His Highness to write a guarantee letter that henceforth Danfu County people would not be conscripted to construct the imperial mausoleum. But His Highness is the supervisor appointed by imperial decree to oversee the mausoleum construction—such a matter was difficult for him to decide at once. While being surrounded and during the arguments, he was stabbed by a sickle brought by who knows whom.”

Xie Yue and Xu Weizhi supplemented each other’s account, explaining the whole sequence of events clearly and expressing the people’s desperation thoroughly, giving no opportunity for anyone to misunderstand that the Danfu County people were plotting treason.

Hearing this, Ma Cheng’s brow furrowed into knots. “But His Highness’s call for aid didn’t say this! This subordinate led three thousand cavalry here for the purpose of swift victory, to resolve the matter of treason here.”

“There’s no such thing.” Xie Yue waved his hand, helplessly and apologetically saying, “The situation was urgent at the time—we were all surrounded and didn’t know what to do for a moment, so we had our subordinates hastily write a letter calling for aid. The one who wrote the letter didn’t express things clearly, actually causing such a great misunderstanding. It’s truly a grave error!”

Though Ma Cheng appeared to be a rough man, he naturally had his own meticulous aspects in conduct and affairs. To say someone wrote the call for aid incorrectly with unclear expression—he wouldn’t believe this even if beaten to death.

There must be hidden circumstances in this.

But Ma Cheng was a clever person who knew that some things he shouldn’t know about, he shouldn’t ask too much. Asking too much could easily bring trouble upon oneself.

“This… but now that troops have arrived at this place, and this matter actually has such hidden circumstances—if not handled properly, wouldn’t this become unauthorized troop deployment? This subordinate will have to report this matter to the Emperor.”