Chapter 153: Troops at the Gates
Jiang Wang did not know how things stood elsewhere, but at least within the city limits of Jiacheng, the flight of Steward Qian had only been known to a select few. The Four Seas Trade Alliance's "operations" here continued as before.
They relied primarily on the warehouses established in various locations when they first set up shop.
Outside of Qingyang Town, these so-called "operations" simply amounted to the warehouse managers in each location finding ways to sell off the supplies at high prices while ensuring not too many people starved to death. Even in its weakened state, the Yang Kingdom's official government still had a bottom line that the people must not be allowed to starve.
All the movable wealth had been taken by Steward Qian, leaving only vast quantities of supplies stockpiled in warehouses across the region.
Ironically, Jiacheng's new city lord was still hesitating over how to respond, not taking the bold step of seizing control of the supplies right away. After all, the other party was the Four Seas Trade Alliance of the Qi Kingdom. Like many Yang Kingdom officials, he still harbored illusions about the Qi Kingdom.
After all, after so many years of being a dog, there were many times when one had come to see oneself as the master.
The new city lord of Jiacheng was named Shi Jing. He was past fifty, having wasted many years. The only reason he managed to land the position of Jiacheng's city lord was through another connection.
He was actually the adopted son of the fourth concubine of the Rizhao County Governor!
No one knew how that connection had been made.
In any case, he became the Rizhao County Governor's adopted son by following that thread. With that "family" connection, he was able to take up his post.
In the current chaos at the top levels of the Yang Kingdom, no one cared about such things anymore.
At least in Jiacheng, supplies were not actually lacking. At the outset of disaster relief, the Four Seas Trade Alliance had mobilized its considerable capabilities to gather and stockpile large quantities of supplies in various locations.
Hadn't it been proven in Qingyang Town? Even after bald-headed guard Chen Yong and his men left, the remaining warehouse continued to support the livelihoods of tens of thousands of townsfolk.
On the twenty-seventh day of the seventh month, under Steward Qian's arrangements, resources had been steadily channeled to Qingyang Town.
On the twenty-eighth day of the seventh month, Jiacheng's new city lord finally awoke from his stupor, banning the movement of supplies throughout the city region and taking control of all supplies in the name of the city lord's office to manage their distribution.
As for the people of the Four Seas Trade Alliance, those who had not managed to escape were mostly captured by him, tortured severely for information about hidden wealth.
But none of this mattered to Jiang Wang any longer. The supply warehouse of Qingyang Town had been filled to the brim. It held enough for the townsfolk's needs for at least three months.
No matter what the Qi army's commander was thinking, the war could not possibly drag on until November.
By the twenty-ninth day of the seventh month, the news of the Qi Kingdom's great army locking down the entire border had spread far and wide.
In the official diplomatic correspondence, the Qi Kingdom's position remained that they were helping the Yang Kingdom contain the mutated plague rats and maintaining security in the eastern region.
Apart from prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving, they seemed to have no plan for war at all. Of course, they also gave the Yang Kingdom ample time to organize its army—and the confidence this displayed was especially despairing.
The Yang Kingdom's people knew full well that they no longer had any truly formidable fighting force. Setting aside the last powerful army that the previous king had sent to its doom...
Just these past years alone, following the Qi army into battle, suffering continuous losses and bleeding manpower in successive wars, what they had received in return was not battle-hardened soldiers, but merely generous financial rewards from the Qi Kingdom.
The Yang Kingdom appeared to grow ever wealthier, its treasury ever fuller, yet its military strength declined and declined.
This was a method of weakening like boiling a frog in warm water. Unfortunately, only now, with the great army's blockade in place, did many people finally realize this.
Yang Jiande understood it all too clearly, but precisely because he saw through it, he was unable to refuse. The only result of refusal would be to accelerate the kingdom's destruction.
So he gradually ceded power, devoting himself wholeheartedly to cultivation. On one hand, having lost hope in state affairs, he turned his hopes to individual extraordinary power. On the other hand, it was also a form of escape.
And because the Yang Kingdom was so weak, after Yang Jiande killed the Crown Prince, he did not immediately summon the army for a death struggle against the Qi forces. Instead, he humbly begged for surrender, willing to gamble the dignity of the king, attempting to lure Chong Xuan Zhuliang to Zhaoheng City and kill him there.
If the Butcher of the North could be slain, it would undoubtedly give a tremendous boost to the morale of the entire Yang Kingdom. Yang Jiande himself would also be able to buy some time to maneuver. Perhaps seek support, perhaps win over allies, perhaps sow discord within the ranks of the Qi people... In short, it was the only way to break through that he could conceive of in the current situation.
But Chong Xuan Zhuliang paid no heed whatsoever, sitting firmly in the commander's tent, unmoved by any wind. He seemed no longer as fierce and valiant as in his younger days, yet this made the despair all the deeper.
Leaving aside the larger situation, just looking at the Rizhao County alone.
While the people across the Yang Kingdom were in a state of panic, the aged Rizhao County Governor, Song Guang, played yet another "brilliant move."
He forcibly requisitioned supplies from every city under his jurisdiction, demanding that the grain reserves kept by each locality not exceed seven days' worth. All supplies were to be centrally allocated by the county government, stabilizing the populace through strict rationing control.
He also levied a massive sum of money under fixed quotas, claiming it was for maintaining the army and defending the territory. But because it had not gone through the Yang court, and had no official name, it was only referred to privately as the "National Salvation Tax."
This series of actions was no longer merely dazzling—it was enough to leave one blind and deaf.
Just in terms of the centralized rationing of grain, coordinating between cities in the name of the city lord's office versus coordinating across the entire county in the name of the county government—these were tasks of entirely different difficulty. It was a case of abandoning the easy for the hard, wasting human resources.
Song Guang was no fool.
To reach the position of county governor, how could Song Guang be a simpleton with mere cultivation strength?
Although in this time of the Yang Kingdom's precarious fate, many of his decisions appeared foolish.
But this "foolishness" was only in comparison to the Yang Kingdom as a whole. For himself, these were supremely wise decisions.
If the Yang Kingdom could recover, he would have helped stabilize the situation.
If the Yang Kingdom had no tomorrow, then he had grasped the resources. To put it bluntly, even selling them off would fetch a good price.
But from where Jiang Wang stood, the feeling was not so pleasant.
Because the requisition notice from the Jiacheng city lord's office had already been sent down to Qingyang Town.
Jiang Wang naturally ignored it, tearing it to shreds on the spot.
He himself was not wealthy, far from enough to fill the insatiable greed of that old bastard Song Guang. As for the supplies stockpiled in Qingyang Town, they were the lifeblood of over thirty thousand townsfolk. There was no way he would let go of them.
But what he had never expected was...
Just one day later, Jiacheng's new city lord Shi Jing actually mobilized the city garrison army and marched on Qingyang Town!!
...
Outside Qingyang Town, the army formed its battle lines.
The general had not yet drawn his blade, but the killing intent already scattered the clouds across the sky.
Jiacheng's city garrison was nominally at full strength with ten thousand troops. The Xi family's complete withdrawal from the Yang Kingdom had seen some mid- and high-ranking officers leave, but the army itself could not be taken away. While some talent had been lost, the overall structure remained.
No matter how Shi Jing had risen to power through nepotistic connections, he knew the importance of military control. So the first thing he did upon taking office was to secure the army, and he had achieved tangible results.
When his adoptive father Song Guang gave the order, among all the city lords, he was the most eager.
Unfortunately, as a severely affected area in the plague rat outbreak, the Jiacheng city region had also endured the Xi family's withdrawal and the Four Seas Trade Alliance's harvesting. It was no longer prosperous—scraping the ground yielded not even a tenth of its former oil.
His march to Qingyang Town with the army served two purposes. First, to kill the monkey to scare the chickens, establishing the new city lord's authority. Second, he had received reliable intelligence that Steward Qian of the Four Seas Trade Alliance had absconded with a vast sum of money and was hiding in Qingyang Town.
He certainly knew about Jiang Wang's forceful killing of Xi Munan.
To be on the safe side, he brought a full five thousand city garrison troops this time, all drawn from the elite.
Aside from the necessary garrison forces maintaining order throughout the city region, this was practically the entire army on the move. Not to mention, through personal connections, he had also invited two peak Tenglong Realm experts from the county government to join the military force.
All these preparations, with the goal of settling everything in one decisive battle, leaving nothing to chance!
Le Wen