Chapter 152: The Upheaval in Yuezhou

After Qiu Dian launched his rebellion, relying solely on his own forces, he managed to capture only two counties before Zhao Cheng came to join him.

It was under Zhao Cheng's leadership that Qiu Dian successfully breached Yuezhou City, allowing him to sit within its walls and proclaim himself the Prince of Yue.

Because of this, Zhao Cheng held an exceptionally high position within the Yuezhou faction. Later on, Zhao Cheng was placed in charge of all military operations for the entire group, while the esteemed Heavenly King Qiu stayed safely in the rear most of the time.

Although Zhao Cheng was exceptionally capable and had rendered great service, he was not the supreme leader after all. The more brilliant and prominent he became, the more misgivings he would naturally breed in Qiu Dian's heart.

This was precisely what was meant by the saying: a subject's merits are so great that they overshadow the ruler.

Now, Zhao Cheng had captured Qiantang, making him indisputably the greatest contributor within the entire Yuezhou faction, and the suspicion and jealousy that inevitably followed would likely grow even heavier.

Had Su Jing honestly attacked Qiantang, Zhao Cheng honestly defended the city, and Qiu Dian remained in the rear to build up his strength, then the suspicion would have remained merely suspicion, and might have eventually dissipated as the faction grew stronger.

However, if Su Jing bypassed Qiantang and marched straight for Yuezhou, Zhao Cheng would be left with very few choices.

From a rational perspective, he should remain in place. Even if he only managed to stall seven or eight thousand of Su Jing's troops, it would still be worthwhile. At an opportune moment, he could even consider cutting ties with the Yuezhou headquarters, carving out an independent sphere of influence, and later uniting his forces with the main Yuezhou army once he had grown powerful enough.

By that time, their forces would likely have grown to a scale where the imperial court could do nothing against them.

Yet, theory was merely theory after all.

Whether Yuezhou could withstand Su Jing's offensive remained an unknown. To take a step back, even if Yuezhou could successfully repel the imperial army, what would people think of you, Zhao Cheng, if you sat idly by while Yuezhou was in mortal peril?

There was no way to explain that away.

This was a calculated, unbeatable strategy.

General Su Jing had chosen not to pit his new recruits head-on against Zhao Cheng's rebel army in a forced siege, because even if he won, his two to thirty thousand men would have been largely crippled in the process.

Only by employing this tactic could Zhao Cheng be forced to abandon Qiantang.

If Zhao Cheng refused to leave, the Yuezhou faction would naturally collapse from within, making it vastly easier to sweep them up afterward.

Zhao Cheng stood atop the city wall, remaining silent for a long time.

After quite a while, he said with a bitter effort, "Send a fast rider to Yuezhou to report to the Prince. Inform him of the news that Su Jing has divided his forces to attack Yuezhou, and detail the situation in Qiantang so that the Prince can make the final decision."

His subordinate bowed respectfully.

"Understood!"

In the end, this General Zhao abandoned reason and chose to leave the ultimate decision to the Heavenly King of Yuezhou, Qiu Dian.

Zhao Cheng's heart was filled with confusion and uncertainty.

This young general had been struck squarely in his fatal weakness by the seasoned and steady Grand General Su.

***

Yuezhou City.

The Heavenly King, Qiu Dian, had already moved into a temporarily remodeled royal palace.

This royal palace had been converted from the estate of a noble family within the old Yuezhou City. Although it still looked somewhat crude and lacked genuine imperial majesty, both its scale and level of luxury already appeared quite imposing.

At this moment, a messenger was kneeling before the Heavenly King Qiu. Keeping his head down, the messenger reported, "Your Highness, our scouts have gathered intelligence. General He... General He has likely been captured by the imperial army and is being escorted to the capital."

Upon hearing this, Qiu Dian merely raised an eyebrow. Beside him, a dark-complexioned woman clad in magnificent robes stood up abruptly and shrieked, "What did you say?"

"My brother, my brother..."

Just as she was about to question further, Qiu Dian frowned and waved a hand, saying, "No one told him to leave the city. He insisted on going to Tianmu Mountain all by himself—who else can he blame?"

The Heavenly King, who possessed an upright appearance and now sported a handsome beard, let out a cold grunt and said, "He Gang has gone too far. I heard that the ten young maidens sent to me by the people of Tianmu Mountain were all intercepted by him and taken back to his own residence. Now that he has been captured at Tianmu Mountain, he has only himself to blame."

Although Qiu Dian came from an impoverished background, he had learned to read as a child and had read quite a few books, which was why he had once been able to cry out the slogan, "My grievance is the inequality between the rich and the poor."

It was precisely because of this phrase that he quickly gathered a large group of talented individuals around him, including Zhao Cheng who had come to join his cause.

Having studied, coupled with Qiu Dian's own innate cleverness, his speech and demeanor no longer bore any resemblance to those of a peasant who had once been conscripted for corvée labor.

Even when using imperial pronouns like a sovereign ruler, it no longer seemed awkward.

Seeing his weeping wife, the Heavenly King frowned and instructed, "Take two thousand... no, three thousand strings of cash and give them to He Gang's family, and tell them to mourn and accept their fate."

Qiu Dian had originally intended to say two thousand, but catching the fierce glare of his primary wife, he quickly changed his tune.

Although this man had been somewhat intoxicated by the flattery of his subordinates after starting his rebellion, he possessed one virtue: he never forgot his loyal wife of humble origins.

He had slept with all the beauties he ought to sleep with, but up until now, more than half a year later, he had always maintained deep respect for his original wife. Even his heavy reliance on He Gang was partly due to her influence.

Just as he finished dealing with the matter regarding He Gang and was about to rise to rest in his chambers, a panicked figure stumbled inward in a disheveled state and collapsed to his knees before Qiu Dian with a loud thump.

"Your... Your Highness!"

"This humble subordinate has been dispatched by General Zhao to report an emergency military situation!"

Qiu Dian had already stood up by this point, and upon hearing this, his brow furrowed deeply. "What has happened?"

The messenger lowered his head and spoke, "Your Highness, the imperial Grand General Su Jing has reorganized his troops today and made a move!"

"However, instead of attacking Qiantang as Your Highness and General Zhao anticipated, Su Jing has left a portion of his forces to watch over Qiantang, while leading the rest directly toward Yuezhou!"

"Right now, Su Jing's division of over ten thousand, nearly twenty thousand men, is about to reach Yongxing. Once past Yongxing, they can strike straight at Yuezhou!"

Qiu Dian's expression remained calm; he merely raised an eyebrow and asked, "What does General Zhao say?"

The messenger hesitated for a moment before answering, "Reporting to Your Highness, General Zhao did not know how to decide, and thus sent this humble subordinate here to ask for Your Highness's instructions!"

Qiu Dian pondered this for a moment, then smiled. "It seems General Zhao still has reservations. Return immediately and tell General Zhao to remain in place at Qiantang. I will personally lead the troops to block the imperial army. Since these imperial troops are mostly new recruits, they are bound to be inept at sieges."

"Once their morale is broken, we will encircle them from both sides and swallow up old man Su's army whole!"

The messenger stood up, bowed respectfully, and kept his head lowered. "This subordinate obeys!"

With that, he hurried out in retreat.

Military strategist Zhu Min furrowed his brows deeply and said, "Your Highness, Su Jing is a renowned general of many years standing; he will likely be difficult to fend off."

"Difficult to fend off or not, we must fend him off. This Grand General Su is clearly trying to force General Zhao out of Qiantang City. Capturing Qiantang cost us tremendous effort and the lives of so many brothers; we cannot simply hand it over so easily."

The Heavenly King looked at Zhu Min, frowning as he asked, "Does Mister Zhu expect this Prince to order General Zhao to withdraw from Qiantang?"

"Your Highness misunderstands."

Zhu Min lowered his head and said, "Since we have raised the banner of rebellion, we must face the imperial army sooner or later. Furthermore, in this subordinate's view, the military order Your Highness just sent to Qiantang could not be more appropriate."

"With such an order, given General Zhao's temperament, the moment Yuezhou is in danger, he will undoubtedly come to the rescue."

Qiu Dian flew into a rage. He stood up, slammed his hand onto the table, and shouted, "Mister Zhu takes this Prince to be far too petty! This Prince acts openly and honorably; how could I harbor such sordid thoughts!"

Zhu Min shrank his neck and dared not speak another word.

Qiu Dian stood up and, without waiting for Zhu Min to reply, swept his sleeves and strode away.

Yet, within the Heavenly King's eyes, there lingered a trace of guilt, as if his true intentions had been exposed.

Zhu Min remained kneeling on the floor, watching Qiu Dian depart, and looked thoughtfully at the ruler's retreating back.

***

About ten days after Su Jing bypassed Qiantang and launched his direct assault on Yuezhou, Li Yun, who was stationed in Dongyang, also received Grand General Su's military orders.

When this command arrived, Li Yun was busy tallying up the bandits and the loot from their stronghold that Li Zheng had escorted back. Upon receiving the military directive, he first read through its contents.

The instructions were simple: Li Yun's detachment was ordered to leave the vicinity of Dongyang County town, station their entire force along the border between Dongyang and Yuezhou, and remain on constant alert to prevent the Yuezhou rebels from escaping through the Dongyang direction.

After reading the order, our Mr. Li tucked it into his robe, turned to Zhou Liang, and said with a smile, "Third Uncle, we're going to move."

Knowing it was an official military order, Zhou Liang nodded and asked, "Monkey's counter-insurgency operation just concluded half a month ago. Should my men continue hunting down bandits here?"

"Go ahead, you guys handle your bandits."

Mr. Li glanced sidelong at those captured bandits and muttered under his breath, "Old man Su is ruthless. The situation in Yuezhou might change drastically very soon, so I'm taking the men to station ourselves at the border between Dongyang and Yuezhou."

"Once you and Third Uncle finish clearing out the bandits, just come look for us there."

Zhou Liang took a step back, cupped his fists, and bowed.

"This subordinate obeys!"

Recommendation for a friend's new historical novel, set in the Three Kingdoms era ~ Feel free to check it out if you're interested!

(End of this chapter)