146: Chapter 146 Outwardly Compliance, Inwardly Disobedience

"My Lord! This cannot be! This is a tremendous humiliation! We would rather die in battle than suffer such disgrace!" The trusted generals under his command were also filled with righteous indignation, drawing their swords one after another to request battle.

Chen Jingzhi gave a miserable smile. Looking at his subordinates who remained loyal to him, he waved his hand and said in a hoarse voice, "It's too late... it's all too late..."

"Do you think we still have any room for choice?"

He pointed out the window at the gray, gloomy sky and the lifeless city.

"The commoners outside the city view him as a god. The soldiers inside the city have lost their morale. With what shall we fight? Shall we use our heads to strike against his blades that cut iron like mud?"

"He is... forcing me to die, and to die with full clarity, to die... completely convinced."

Two lines of turbid tears flowed from Chen Jingzhi's eyes.

He knew that he was no longer playing a game against a Mortal, but struggling against a torrent capable of changing the world, a torrent called "The Grand Trend."

And in the face of this torrent, his personal honor and disgrace were so small, so insignificant.

After a long while, he slowly stood up, straightened his already wrinkled official robe, and as if using all his strength, said word by word:

"Pass down the order..."

"Open... the official granary!"

Three days later, the four gates of Ji City were packed with people.

All the commoners gathered beneath the city walls, looking at the surrender document personally signed by the Military Governor, discussing it with complex expressions.

They saw the once high and mighty Military Governor truly take off his magnificent official robe, wear simple cloth clothes, and personally ladle bowls of hot porridge for the ragged disaster victims in front of the porridge shed outside the city.

His movements were so awkward, and his expression was so desolate.

Finally, under the gaze of everyone, this former master of Youzhou walked step by step to the living shrine erected for Gao Feng.

He looked at the idol in the shrine, molded from mud by the commoners but made lifelike by the smoke of incense, his eyes filled with endless bitterness and confusion.

Then, he lifted his robe and, under the gaze of countless eyes, slowly knelt down.

One kowtow.

Two kowtows.

Three kowtows.

The dull sound of the kowtows seemed to toll the funeral bell of the old era.

It also seemed to play the prelude to the new era.

On this very day, the Panshi Army camp, far away a hundred miles, finally moved.

Tens of thousands of iron cavalry, personally led by the "General Who Pacifies the North" Gao Feng, marched majestically toward Ji City.

They did not encounter any resistance.

When the black-bottomed, stone-patterned "Panshi" banner appeared on the horizon of Ji City, the tightly closed city gates slowly opened.

Inside the city, there were no soldiers with bristling swords and spears, only commoners lining the streets to welcome them with excited expressions.

They spontaneously knelt on both sides of the street, holding fresh water and flatbread in their hands, welcoming the army that brought them new life and hope in the most simple and honest way.

"Respectfully welcome the Provincial Governor into the city!"

"Long live the Provincial Governor!"

The deafening cheers, like a mountain collapsing and a sea roaring, echoed through the sky.

Gao Feng, riding on a majestic black steed, looked at the scene before him, his heart filled with many emotions.

He knew that from this moment on, this vast land of Youzhou, along with the fate of these hundreds of thousands of commoners, was tied to him alone.

This was an honor, and even more so, a heavy responsibility.

He dismounted and personally helped up an old man with white hair kneeling at the very front, saying warmly, "Old man, please rise quickly. I, Gao Feng, cannot accept such a great courtesy from all of you."

"From this day on, you and I are all masters of this Youzhou. There will be no more distinctions between high and low, noble and base."

His voice, amplified by the power of his Qi and blood, clearly spread through the entire long street.

All the commoners who heard these words were moved to tears and bowed down to the ground again.

The hearts of the people were completely won over at this moment.

Gao Feng's entry into Ji City marked the end of one era and the beginning of another.

The former Military Governor's mansion now bore the plaque of the "Youzhou Provincial Governor's Mansion." Inside the mansion, a grand victory banquet was being held.

The core generals and civil officials of Panshi Land, the high-level members of the Tingfeng Sword Pavilion, and those local Youzhou officials who chose to support Gao Feng at the critical moment gathered together, drinking and toasting, the atmosphere extremely lively.

"My Lord! Your subordinate toasts you!" The bearded Du Wei, holding a wine cup the size of a bowl, walked up to Gao Feng with a flushed face. "If it weren't for my Lord's brilliant strategy, taking Ji City without shedding blood, we would still be drinking the northwest wind in the Youyun Mountain Range! I'll finish this cup first as a toast!"

After speaking, he tilted his neck and gulped down the bowl of strong liquor, drawing cheers from the whole hall.

"Hahaha, Old Du, you brute, you only know how to drink!" Wulu, on the side, laughed and patted his shoulder. "If you ask me, the one who deserves the most respect from our Lord is his benevolence! Using ill-gotten wealth to win the hearts of the people! Such a move, such breadth of mind—I, Wulu, have never admired anyone in my life, but I admire our Lord!"

Ying Xuan, Lin Waner, and others also frequently raised their cups. Looking at Gao Feng, who sat in the main seat with a calm and indifferent expression, they were filled with awe. After this battle, they truly understood that this young Provincial Governor possessed not only unrivaled martial strength but also the great wisdom to perceive people's hearts and govern the world.

It was truly a fortunate thing for the Tingfeng Sword Pavilion to form an alliance with such a person.

Gao Feng smiled, responding to everyone's toasts one by one, but his gaze remained clear and deep.

He knew that taking Youzhou was just a beginning.

It is easy to conquer the world, but difficult to keep it.

How to truly digest and absorb this land, which had just experienced war, was in economic decline, and had deeply entrenched internal forces, and turn it into a solid rear base for Panshi Land, was the most severe test he would face next.

After the banquet dispersed, the night was deep and quiet. In the study, the lights were bright.

Gao Feng did not rest. Standing before him were the two civil officials he relied on the most—Liu Chengfeng and Gu Changfeng.

Gu Changfeng was specially transferred by Gao Feng from Yunzhou. He had once single-handedly pushed through new fiscal and commercial law reforms in Yunzhou. He was experienced and ruthless, making him the best candidate to handle the current mess in Youzhou.

"My Lord," Liu Chengfeng spoke first. The joy on his face had faded, replaced by a touch of gravity. "In the past few days, Brother Changfeng and I have preliminarily sorted through the government affairs and local files of Youzhou. The situation... is even more complex than we imagined."

Gu Changfeng nodded and took over. He pushed up the crystal glasses on the bridge of his nose and said in a deep voice, "Youzhou is different from Yunzhou. Yunzhou experienced a great purge after the aristocratic rebellion, and the old forces were uprooted, so our implementation of the new policies met with minimal resistance. But Youzhou... the aristocratic clans here are deeply rooted. Over hundreds of years, they have already formed an invisible but ubiquitous web."

"They control over 80% of the fertile land in Youzhou and have monopolized almost all profitable industries such as salt, iron, and cloth. When Chen Jingzhi was in power, he was called the Military Governor, but in reality, he was just the biggest spokesperson pushed forward by these powerful clans. If we want to implement new policies like land equalization, new taxes, and free trade, it is no different from cutting flesh from their bodies. The intensity of their resistance can be imagined."

Gao Feng listened quietly, his fingers rhythmically tapping on the table, making a "clack-clack" sound.

"What is their attitude?" he asked.

"Compliance in appearance, opposition in heart." Liu Chengfeng spat out the four words, with a hint of anger in his tone. "On the surface, they are extremely respectful to you, My Lord, sending a large number of gifts and speaking earnestly, claiming they are willing to serve the Provincial Governor. But once it involves the implementation of specific government decrees, they meet us with soft resistance everywhere."

"We want to check the farmland, and they say the rural situation is complex, accounts are lost, and it takes time to sort out, delaying it for months. We want to implement new commercial laws to break industry monopolies, and they secretly join forces to boycott all foreign merchants, even inciting the commoners in the city, saying we are trying to cut off everyone's livelihood. We want to open schools in various places to give children from poor families the opportunity to read and write, and they spread rumors, saying things like 'studying wastes money and food, it's better to go to work in the fields early,' resulting in the schools not being able to recruit a single student."

Gu Changfeng added, "They are extremely smart and never have direct conflicts with us. Instead, they use the clan relationships and local prestige they have built over hundreds of years to dissolve our decrees into nothingness at the execution level. The officials we send down are either sidelined or lured and corrupted by them using various means. If this continues, our new policies will become empty words, and the actual control of Youzhou will still remain firmly in the hands of these aristocratic clans."

A silent internal game had already begun fiercely in invisible places.

Panshi Land, this powerful force that rose by relying on iron blood and the hearts of the people, after taking control of Youzhou, for the first time, encountered the growing pains of "indigestion."

After listening to their report, Gao Feng did not show the expected anger on his face, but instead revealed a cold smile.

"Very good," he said slowly. "I was originally worried that they would choose to shrink back and not move, which would make it hard to take action. Since they have actively jumped out, things will be much easier to handle."

Liu Chengfeng and Gu Changfeng looked at each other, both a bit puzzled.

"What does My Lord mean?"

"To deal with these old trees with tangled roots, cutting them directly with an axe won't work; it will only hurt yourself." Gao Feng stood up, walked to the window, and looked at the cold bright moon outside. "What we need to do is not to cut the trees, but... to dig up the roots."

His voice was cold and calm: "Don't they like to use rules and relationship networks to restrain us? Then we will use the methods they are best at to deal with them."

"Changqing," Gao Feng suddenly spoke.

A black shadow, like a ghost, appeared silently in the corner of the study.

"My Lord." Xu Changqing bowed in salute.

"How is the 'Heavenly Net' laid out in Youzhou?"

"Reporting to My Lord, with the full cooperation of the Tingfeng Sword Pavilion, the tentacles of the 'Heavenly Net' have already extended to every county under Youzhou, and even every important town," Xu Changqing replied.

“Very well.” A sharp, cold glint flashed in Gao Feng's eyes. “Pass on my order: let ‘Tianwang’ operate at full capacity. I don't want those superficial things. I want to know, among these noble clans, which family has encroached on how much land, which family has evaded how much in taxes, and whose descendants have treated human lives like grass! I want every dirty deed they have hidden in the shadows for hundreds of years to be dug up, one by one!”

“The rules they take for granted will be vulnerable in the face of absolute evidence. The network of connections they pride themselves on will only become the very rope that hangs them in the face of absolute public grievance.”

“Liu Chengfeng, Gu Changfeng,” Gao Feng turned around and looked at his two trusted aides. “Continue to push forward with the new policies. Do not be afraid of encountering resistance; the higher they jump, the more they will expose themselves. I give you the greatest authority, and I also give you sufficient time.”

“I want to see whether their roots are dug deep, or if the blades of my Panshi Land are honed sharper!”

A raging fire instantly ignited in the hearts of Liu Chengfeng and Gu Changfeng. They understood Gao Feng's intention; this was an overt strategy to strike only after the enemy had struck, a lethal blow!

First, let the enemy perform to their heart's content, exposing all their criminal evidence under the sun, and then, with the force of a thunderbolt, uproot them entirely!

“Understood!” the two replied in unison, their voices filled with unprecedented confidence and motivation.

Just as Gao Feng and his officials finalized their plans to perform a thorough surgical operation on the stubborn ailments within Youzhou, an unforeseen, monstrous blood catastrophe from the north had already quietly descended.

The north wind became incomparably biting overnight.

It seemed to carry the bloodshed and wails from the far northern ice plains, sweeping across the Great Qian Dynasty's towering yet long-riddled Great Wall.

Suzhou Province, bordering the western part of Youzhou, was also a vital military stronghold of the Great Qian northern border.

However, unlike the separatist rule of Youzhou's Jiedushi, Chen Jingzhi, Suzhou Province had always been guarded by the main force of the border army dispatched by the imperial court. The hundred-thousand-strong army was known as the “Wall of the Northern Frontier.”

Yet, this wall had long since turned into a fragile pile of dross amidst decades of comfort and decay.

On the grasslands, a terrifying name that had been silent for nearly a hundred years was awakened once again.

The Tianlang Tribe!

The former overlord of the grasslands, after experiencing a tragic internal strife, had lain dormant for nearly a hundred years. Now, a new, ambitious, and talented leader—the “Azure Wolf King” Ashina Kuotai—had finally completed the unification of the tribe.

His hundred thousand Heavenly Wolf Iron Cavalry, carrying a century of accumulated grievances and an endless desire for wealth and land, were like a black torrent that had been building for a hundred years, tearing through the decaying Great Qian Great Wall defense line and viciously flooding into the fertile Suzhou Province!

When the news arrived, the Great Qian border army collapsed at the first touch!

The commander of the border army guarding Suzhou Province did not even have the courage to resist and fled directly, abandoning the city.

The hundred-thousand-strong army crumbled!

Suzhou Province, this gateway to the northern frontier, was completely thrown wide open almost overnight!

Beacon fires rose everywhere, smoke billowed, and endless slaughter and wails enveloped the entire land of Suzhou Province.

And the first-hand intelligence regarding this catastrophe was being delivered toward Ji City by a group of Tianwang scouts walking on the edge of a blade, using their lives.

Li Four felt like he was about to freeze stiff.

He lay behind a snow-covered earthen slope, a dried-out grass root in his mouth, struggling to keep his breathing steady and long to avoid exposing his position with the white mist of his breath.

He was the most ordinary scout in Tianwang, yet also the most elite.

He and his squad, totaling five people, were ordered to conduct routine patrols along the border between Youzhou and Suzhou Province.

Three days ago, they discovered something unusual.

On the distant horizon, columns of black smoke began to rise; it was not the normal smoke from cooking fires, but the signal smoke carrying an aura of despair that only appeared after villages were burned.

The experienced captain immediately realized that something major had happened. Without the slightest hesitation, they crossed the provincial border and stealthily moved toward the place where the black smoke was rising.

Everything they saw made these men, who were accustomed to life and death, feel a trembling from the depths of their Souls.

Village after village had turned into charred ruins. On both sides of the road, abandoned corpses could be seen everywhere—white-haired elders, infants still in swaddling clothes—their faces still frozen with the endless terror they felt before death.

There were no women, not a single one. Their fate was even more miserable than death.

Heavenly Wolf Iron Cavalry!

These three words, like a nightmare, surfaced in the heart of every scout.

They were not simply burning, killing, and looting; they were executing a “Three Alls” policy that was cold to the extreme—kill all able-bodied men who dared to resist or had no utility value; loot all food and property that could be taken; burn all villages and houses they could not take away.

They wanted to use this most cruel method to completely destroy the will to resist of everyone on this land, turning it into a pasture suitable only for their warhorses to gallop upon.

“Captain, ahead... is Xinghua Village,” a young scout said, his voice hoarse.

Li Four's heart sank abruptly.

Xinghua Village, he knew this place.

There was a huge apricot tree at the entrance of the village, and the apricot blossom wine brewed in the village was incredibly mellow.

Last spring, when he passed through this place, he had been warmly hosted by the villagers; a kind-hearted auntie had insisted on stuffing a cloth bag full of flatbread into his hands. He dared not imagine what it had become.

The captain's expression was grave, and he made a gesture. The five of them, like the most agile civet cats, moved silently toward the direction of Xinghua Village.

However, they were still a step too late.

When they arrived at the hillside outside the village, the final slaughter in the village was underway.

Hundreds of cavalrymen from the Tianlang Tribe, like a pack of wolves surrounding their prey, drove the last surviving hundreds of villagers to the open space at the village entrance.

Those cavalrymen were all tall and sturdy, wearing crude leather armor, with bloodthirsty and cruel grins on their faces. The scimitars in their hands were still dripping with fresh blood.

An old village chief with white hair and beard stood out, leaning on a cane, trembling as he begged with a voice filled with tears: “Honorable soldiers, we... we have already handed over all our grain. Please, let these children go! They... they are still so young!”

Answering him was a sneer of contempt. A Tianlang Tribe officer, who looked like a Centurion, sat on his horse, looking down at him from above, and said in stiff Great Qian language: “Old thing, our Azure Wolf King has ordered: wherever the iron hooves of the Heavenly Wolf trample, all men taller than a cart wheel must die!”

“As for these women and children...” his greedy gaze swept over the women and children shivering in the cold wind, “they will become the lowest slaves of our Tianlang Tribe!”

“No—!!!” The old village chief let out a desperate wail.

“Fight them to the death!”

“Fight these animals to the death!”

The villagers, with no hope of survival, finally erupted with their last bit of spirit. Grabbing stones, wooden sticks, and even using their own teeth, they roared and charged toward the knights who were high above.

However, how could flesh and blood withstand sharp slaughtering blades?

“Puchi!”

“Puchi!”

Cold blade light flashed wantonly through the crowd. Each swing brought up a spray of hot blood, and each time, a vibrant life fell silently.

The old village chief who rushed to the front was decapitated by the Tianlang Centurion with a single strike. That gray-haired head rolled far across the snow, eyes still wide open, filled with unwillingness and anger.

Li Four and his comrades lay on the hillside, biting their lips hard, their fingernails already deeply embedded in the frozen earth. Their eyes were blood-red.

They wanted to rush down, wanted to use the steel blades in their hands to tear these animals into pieces! But they could not. They were scouts, and their mission was not to engage in a hopeless slaughter, but to bring this bloody intelligence back! Bring it back to their Lord!

“Record it... use the xuan guang mirror, record all of this for me!” The captain's voice was as hoarse as two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together. “We must let our Lord, let all the soldiers of Youzhou, see with their own eyes! See what these animals have done!”

Li Four, with trembling hands, raised the specially made xuan guang mirror he carried. This Magical Artifact, newly developed by the craft workshop of Panshi Land, could briefly record the scenes it saw. He aimed the lens at that living Hell.

He saw a young mother who, in order to protect the infant in her arms, was stabbed through the body by several scimitars while alive; before she died, she still used her own body to tightly shield the child.

He saw a seven or eight-year-old boy who, upon seeing his father hacked down, cried out and pounced on the assailant, biting the cavalryman's calf tightly with his teeth, only to have his head crushed by that cavalryman with a stomp, accompanied by wild laughter.

He saw the auntie who had once stuffed flatbread into his hands being dragged by her hair across the ground by a Tianlang cavalryman, letting out shrill, miserable screams...

“Click!”

Li Four's heart shattered. He felt his chest cavity as if it were about to be completely burst open by endless anger and grief!

“Enough... enough...” the young scout was already streaming with tears, sobbing uncontrollably.

Just at this moment, a sudden change occurred!

“Who is it!?” A sharp-eyed Tianlang cavalryman seemed to have discovered the anomaly on the hillside. He let out a sharp shout, drew his bow and nocked an arrow, and shot an arrow toward their hiding place!