No one in the cellar spoke a word. Cold light blazed in Dan Ying’s eyes, and veins bulged on the hand gripping his sword hilt. Just as he was about to strike, he heard Liu Fang say, “I expected this long ago—it’s not surprising. From the looks of it, Marquis Yun is also one of the divine beings. Otherwise, there’s no way to explain how someone so young could accomplish so much. However, this old man dares guarantee that he definitely doesn’t know he’s a divine being, because he’s extremely unfamiliar with these people and knows nothing of their methods.”
“Little Ying, there’s no need to be nervous. Cheng Feng, Qin Zhan, and these others are all people His Majesty trusts. They absolutely won’t go gossiping. Even if you killed them, it would be useless. I’m afraid Marquis Yun wouldn’t be grateful to you. Killing one’s own people is an extremely painful thing. Believe me, Little Ying, that taste is something you definitely don’t want to try. Marquis Yun will have a solution.”
Cheng Feng actually set down the knife in his hand and said, “I will report this secret to His Majesty—I definitely will. But Little Ying, if you want to kill me, I absolutely won’t resist. I’m a member of the Imperial Guards. Loyalty and righteousness have never been able to coexist perfectly. If you kill me, it would be perfect—wronging neither side.”
Qin Zhan also threw down his knife and sat properly facing the wall without speaking. The other several men exchanged glances and likewise set down their knives. Once they no longer had weapons, if Dan Ying wanted to kill them, not one would survive. From the moment they laid down their weapons, matters of life and death were handed over to Dan Ying.
“What a powerful alienation strategy!” Liu Fang suddenly slapped his forehead, pointing at the unconscious Han Zhe with sudden realization. Just now, everyone had been so shocked by Han Zhe’s words that they lost their ability to think. Dan Ying only wanted to keep Yun Ye’s secret, not caring even if he had to strike at Cheng Feng and the others. Cheng Feng and his companions were caught in an internal struggle over whether or not to inform the Emperor that Yun Ye was a divine being. No one had time to think about why Han Zhe would say such things.
Cold sweat densely covered Dan Ying’s forehead. Dejectedly, he threw down his sword, knelt on one knee, and kowtowed three times to Cheng Feng and the others before his entire body went limp with relief.
Cheng Feng, Qin Zhan, and the others looked at the unconscious Han Zhe with collective alarm. A single sentence had nearly caused everyone to turn on each other. What kind of people were these? Even when already at the end of their rope, their lives and deaths still remained in his hands.
“Let’s leave this matter for Marquis Yun to decide. Our wisdom is insufficient to deal with it. If Marquis Yun wants us to keep it secret, we won’t breathe a word of it even unto death,” said a slightly older Imperial Guard spy softly.
Yun Ye was very busy. Sitting on a hillock, he watched as the laborers bit by bit cleared out the city gate tunnel. When the last bag of sand and stone was cleared away, everyone discovered that inside the city was completely empty. Many water bandits lay sprawled across the ground, each looking barely alive. Han Cheng and his men had brought many flatbed carts. Upon seeing water bandits, they tossed them onto the carts like throwing stones, dragging them all outside the city to wooden stockades to await shackles. If not for the Prefect’s orders saying these water bandits were all labor—that the damaged houses and city all needed them to rebuild—the common people would probably have already torn them to shreds.
There were almost no intact buildings left in the city. Everywhere were broken walls and ruins, scorched earth throughout. The laborers ground their teeth with grinding sounds and became even rougher in their handling. Once the bandits had reached this state, it was impossible to treat them as human beings anymore.
From two more solid houses, some people suddenly rushed out, wielding knives and howling desperately as they charged over. Yun Ye didn’t hesitate even slightly—he ordered them shot down with a volley of arrows. Watching these people fall amid the dense rain of arrows, Guan Tinglong opened his mouth wanting to speak but was stopped by Yun Ye, who said, “When the bandits entered the city, for convenience in combat they carried not a single grain of food. Now they’ve been trapped in the city for five days. After five days without eating a bite yet still having the strength to charge and kill, what do you think they’ve been eating?”
Guan Tinglong looked up at Yun Ye in shock and said, “Does the Marquis mean they ate…” Before he could say that terrible word, Yun Ye nodded. The old master immediately felt his stomach churning. He leaned against a broken wall and vomited violently for a long time. Only when there was nothing left to vomit did he lean limply against the wall and say in a hoarse voice, “Kill them all!”
Those who ate human flesh naturally had to be killed completely. This matter needed no one’s permission. When encountering such people in the army, the only thing to do was kill them—one person eats, kill one person; two people eat, kill two people; a whole city eating people meant massacring the city, because they were alien creatures. When they ate the first mouthful of human flesh, they had already cast themselves outside the category of being human.
Zhu Jie had used human flesh to make dried rations. After his defeat, this led to all his subordinates being completely eradicated, killed to the last man. This order was issued personally by Li Er, without the slightest trace of mercy.
Fortunately, there weren’t many water bandits in the city who had eaten human flesh. After a thorough sweep, the remaining water bandits were all carted outside the city to be force-fed thin gruel. After being fed the gruel, their new leaders still had to be further identified. These people must be killed. The more respected and virtuous the water bandit, the more they had to be killed. All were scourges that couldn’t be kept.
Dan Ying pushed aside the wooden boards and listened in all directions. Discovering the city was already quite lively with people everywhere, he immediately lit a pile of firewood, then splashed some water on it to make thick smoke rise.
Yun Ye hadn’t found anyone in the hidden chamber prepared for Dan Ying, Liu Fang, and the others. His heart was anxious when he saw the black smoke and finally felt relieved. Coming to the place where Dan Ying had lit the fire, he quickly discovered those two wooden boards. Tapping on them, the boards opened and he saw Dan Ying smiling up at him.
The militia on land were busy stamping the water bandits, while the fleet on the great lake was busy fishing out corpses everywhere to finally gather and burn them with lamp oil. Everyone was very busy. Master Guan, Han Cheng, Qian Sheng, and Cui Jiu were busily using lime to draw grids in Yuezhou City again, having the laborers start clearing the bricks, stones, and roof tiles from the ground. Under Han Cheng and the others’ threats to die in protest, the city walls were preserved.
The entire Yuezhou City became a city within a city. The land prices of the inner and outer cities had a world of difference. Yun Ye had seen this function of the city walls and only then agreed to preserve them. When Han Cheng saw over a dozen city gates had been opened in the walls, he nearly died of anger. How could such walls provide even half a point of defensive function?
Overnight, Yuezhou City became an enormous construction site again. Lord Liang and those merchants beat their chests and stamped their feet in lamentation. If they had known the water bandits would be so vulnerable, who would have withdrawn from the land at a seventy percent loss? Now the situation was clear—the last obstacle to the new city no longer existed. Seeing the continuous fleet on Dongting Lake transporting various materials, they finally discovered that Marquis Yun’s steps toward building the city had never stopped.
“Marquis, this old man and the others were short-sighted, not believing the Marquis could eliminate the water bandits in a short time. Losing our goods and money is well-deserved. You need not pity us. This old man has only come to ask whether we can purchase again. You see, this old man’s residence has already been burned to ashes by the bandits and is uninhabitable. My humble home wants to expand the house a bit and wishes to buy some more land. What do you think?”
Lord Liang, whose heart had been like dead ashes when the bandits came, saw the government troops extinguish the bandits with lightning speed. One person, one heart completely came back to life. He exiled his eldest son to the countryside to guard the ancestral graves, retook control of the family’s power himself, and the first thing he did was come to fight for the local wealthy merchants’ right to buy land.
“This is naturally possible. I still remember what your son said in my office that day. Merchants have it hard—you’re all making a living just the same, yet yours is a lowly one. At the time, I was also compelled by circumstances. I won’t hold grudges. But you also know that the land being sold this time won’t be much. Yuezhou’s common people suffered military disaster and need compensation, so the land prices are high and the quantity small. You must be prepared. If you withdraw from the land again this time, you won’t get a single copper coin back.”
Hearing Yun Ye’s words, Lord Liang smiled happily. As long as they were permitted to buy land, it was enough. Any fool knew how important it was to secure property in the new city for one’s descendants. Now, just being able to buy land was enough to burn incense in thanks. Who would dare quibble about the price?
The happiest was Old Qian, who walked through the inner city every day with his chest thrust out and belly protruding, alongside the stewards from the Cheng Family, Niu Family, Qin Family, Yuchi Family, the Crown Prince’s Gentleman-in-Attendance, and the Prince Wei’s Manor’s eunuch. Patting remnant stone pillars, he’d say this was his family’s. Old Cheng Family’s steward would point to a stone tablet not far away and say that was his family’s. The Niu Family steward looked like he’d eaten magpie droppings—his mouth hadn’t closed once. As for the Yuchi Family steward, he’d long had his eye on that bamboo grove. The Old Duke had recently been cultivating his mind and temperament, hearing he’d started learning the Dao from someone. Having a bamboo grove for some quiet would be good too. They had come to rescue Yun Ye, so naturally they’d brought sufficient silver. When they said buy, they bought—no hesitation.
As for the Qin Family steward, his heart churned like an upside-down sea. This time he finally understood clearly—in the Qin Family, only the Old Duke was a sensible person. All the others were good-for-nothings. They seemed crafty and shrewd but were actually stupid as pigs. Thinking of how his family had no worthy successors, he felt heartbroken.
The Crown Prince’s Gentleman-in-Attendance and Prince Wei’s eunuch believed this errand would be sufficient for them to earn promotions. What did being confined on a ship for half a month matter? Being served with good food and drink, moreover, since it concerned military secrets, Marquis Yun’s actions were beyond reproach. Now they’d finally seen the moon through the parting clouds. Thinking of the glory after returning, their laughter couldn’t help but grow louder.
Where there were happy people, there were unhappy ones. Those fellows who had raised their cups in celebration when the water bandits launched their massive invasion knew they’d thoroughly offended Yun Ye and could only watch others buy land and shops while their own families could only drool from the sidelines.
For a time, various rumors spread to Chang’an—things like Yun Ye was corrupt and breaking the law, lining his own pockets, looking down on Chang’an’s nobility, hiding alone by Dongting Lake eating alone, grown fat as a pig. Such news had quite a market in Chang’an, to the point that even the court heard wind of it. Some censors who reported on hearsay unanimously requested the court dispatch a high official to Yuezhou to preside over matters and rearrange the buying and selling of new city land, lest the unparalleled talent of Marquis Yun of Lantian be ruined over a few copper coins.
Xue Wanche laughed happily. The steward the Princess sent to buy land had been roundly cursed by Yun Ye and driven back, but the money he himself had secretly instructed Yun Ye to use for buying land had been secretly reported to have become real estate, asking him to send someone over to handle the transfer.
Thinking of that maidservant who had suffered so much on his behalf, who would now take her child to settle in the new city and from then on live without worry about food and clothing, he felt that the thousand-catty boulder on his heart had finally fallen to earth.