Wei School's Three Good Students

Chapter 141 Rebellion against Tiangang
According to later historians, the decline of the Da Yao Dynasty was due to Emperor Xu's two consecutive military campaigns in his later years, which resulted in heavy losses of soldiers and generals. This led to the collapse of the dynasty's rituals and music, the government's rampant levies and extortions, and the people's desperate situation, forcing them to flee to the mountains and become bandits.

However, in contemporary times, Xuan Chong, who personally experienced this period, commented that the real direct cause of the collapse of the social order was the conflict between the monarch and his successor within the dynasty.

A military defeat can lead to the collapse of a regime, which is true for European countries, given that Western kingdoms have limited resources.

However, in the Eastern Dynasty, while the northwestern states were ravaged by war, leaving only bones scattered across the land, the powerful and wealthy families in the Heluo states, where Yaodu was located, still composed poems and sang leisurely, saying, "In a bountiful year, guests are left with chicken and pork."

To paraphrase a line from Dream of the Red Chamber: "Such a large family cannot be eradicated by killing from the outside; it can only be overthrown by fighting to the death from within."

In the hexagram "Yao Du," the Zhou king, overseeing the state in the Heavenly Palace, suddenly became diligent in his duties, hastily issuing a series of rewards and punishments. This was like a child who hadn't done well on a test busily doing chores before their parents returned home.

Meanwhile, Emperor Xu was making a grand announcement of his return to Yaodu. Within Yaodu, the situation was turbulent and unpredictable. All the governors watched this grand drama unfold in silence!

The imperial court was a place of solemnity; "rites, music, and military expeditions" all originated from the emperor, who endorsed the legitimacy of the "hierarchical system."

This is completely different from the situation within the Wu family where "Wu Hanluan is not in Lingnan, and Wu Xiaoque is managing the household."

Wu Fei stayed at home, using the system of rewards and punishments to gradually involve the former subordinates left behind by Wu Hanluan in matters of distributing the family's core interests based on their merits. This was because the Wu family operated under a military system, where performance was paramount; those with high performance could bypass the elders and place younger members of their own age in positions of power.

Within the imperial court, there aren't many performance-based rewards; everything is based on legitimacy. If the imperial family has two legitimate entities, and the rewards and punishments for these two entities are inconsistent, this will cause systemic problems.

As seen in games, when developers retconnize certain elements in their game design, it can leave players feeling confused.

Game developers retconning established lore is simply a way to sell new characters, skills, and skins to generate revenue. However, when another entity, supposedly "official," comes along and retconns established lore, conflicts arise between the previously harmonious new and old fanbases, leading to arguments and disputes on forums.

The current "Imperial Family" of the Great Yao Dynasty is the creator of this "game." The core of this "game," which has been running so far, lies in its meticulous design.

The game developers, unable to develop any new projects (no new achievements), have had to rely on nostalgia to maintain the established setting and prevent veteran players from leaving the country during the past ten years of Emperor Xu's rule.

But the game company's CEO insisted on implementing a new system. This is akin to King Zhou promoting his personal attendants and court officials, ignoring the old system of nobility and bypassing the grind and spending of veteran players. He's essentially showering new players with lavish gifts.

This situation makes the game very unpleasant for powerful local warlords and military governors. Many nobles have spent years calculating the rewards of their "heads" and "golden coins" for the emperor's service. Their understanding of nobility is that entry and exit are strictly controlled.

Therefore, after Wu Hanluan did not accept the title from the King of Zhou, the powerful local figures who held considerable military power did not harbor resentment towards Wu Hanluan as the King of Zhou's faction in the court had imagined. Instead, they secretly colluded and united to teach Wu Hanluan a lesson.

Conversely, when Wu Hanluan led his troops to protect the emperor, all sides gave him face when his army passed through the area. Even the mountain bandits knew that when the Wu family army passed by, they would let the emperor pass first, even if it meant going hungry for a few days.

Xuan Chong's historical summary: King Zhou's behavior is similar to those spendthrift CEOs in previous lives who seized large game IPs and rose to power later. They constantly changed settings based on their own preferences and immediate interests, causing a large number of players to leave and migrate to games developed by the same team.

…to set things right…

Emperor Shu's northward march was swift. After passing Jizhou, he quickly mobilized troops from multiple prefectures and reorganized his headquarters, restoring the ceremonial status of an emperor. Wu Hanluan's mission was complete, and his troops maintained a balance of power with the other armies.

The military officers in various regions clearly disregarded the "orders" issued by the Zhou royal lineage, treating them as "children playing house."

Previously, the power of discourse in the court was held by those Confucian scholars. Even if military men misbehaved in the provinces, they would be relentlessly harassed by these scholar-officials. Now that His Majesty has gone on a western tour, without the pedantic scholars gossiping, they must unite properly by His Majesty's side.

Now the emperor summoned everyone to protect him and began to speak with each of them in detail. One edict after another was issued to these powerful local figures.

Emperor Xu made empty promises to local factions, pledging that these powerful local factions could take control of the central government and increase their influence.

This very decision by the emperor led to a year after his return to the capital, when, in order to fulfill his promise, he was forced to launch a major purge within the court to make way for local factions, resulting in even more serious consequences.

After the emperor issued the edict, the troops of the eight garrisons responded quickly. As these generals arrived with their troops, cavalrymen appeared on both sides and dragon horses followed in the sky. This gradually calmed the emperor down. Although his carriage was still guarded by the Wu family army, he no longer felt like he was living under someone else's roof.

As for Wu Hanluan's previous respect, it has now reached the perfect point.

Emperor Xu rewarded the Wu family by summoning the generals who had accompanied him to his presence and placing the Wu family's generals at the very front.

…Blue is in action…

Inside the capital, on the pavilion in the misty rain, the Taoist Master leaned against the roof of the blue-tiled house, opened his third eye and spiritual eye, and looked at the scholars who were reading books in a state of confusion under the bright lights, revealing a strange smile.

Xian Daoren spread his arms and pointed them at the evil moon in the sky: "Heaven has granted us the Shangling Sect." — He had casually made up a new sect on the spot.

For the beings believed in by those who reveal the truth, as long as people still revere wisdom and strategy, and feel fear when faced with confusion, they can take advantage of their vulnerability.

For Xiandaoren, what is happening now is the culmination of his "planning," and the fruit is so plentiful and sweet.

Looking back, Wu Fei's "curiosity" and "confusion" about the movement of underground veins in the tunnel were incredibly sweet.

In the end, Wu Fei only let Xian Daoren smell the "fragrance" but not see the "fruit," completely fooling Xian Daoren.

Now, in the planning of Yaodu, the causes sown by Xiandaoren and the fruits borne are all abundant, leaving Xiandaoren extremely satisfied.

…the place the third eye is gazing at…

The Zhou royal court was now in a state of constant anxiety. With more and more military factions flocking to the emperor and daring not to use the titles bestowed upon them by Yao Du, the scholars who advised the Zhou king were filled with dread. They began to seek more ingenious and unconventional strategies to reverse this chaotic situation.

Inside the library beneath the royal palace, a sorcerer named "Sukang," one of King Zhou's attendants and also Suwang's younger brother, was perusing the scrolls and books, trying to find information that would help his master, King Zhou, pass the test.

He wanted a "legitimate" explanation: after the emperor lost contact with the court on the western front, the Zhou king did not follow the precedents set by the previous kings, but acted expediently and expediently.

Of course, after going through it again and again, he found that there were few examples of crown princes in history who made the same mistakes and got away with it; they all sacrificed their pawns to save their own.

When the Crown Prince's regency displeased the Emperor, he could only gain the Emperor's forgiveness by abandoning his own faction.

Sukang, however, could not accept this outcome. He and his brother Suwang, as close attendants to the Zhou king, represented the entire hope of their family. They had participated in all the schemes during the Zhou king's regency; if they were eliminated, their entire family would be wiped out as well.

In his mind's eye, he seemed to be trapped in his own anxious illusion: a month later, Emperor Xu would return to Yaodu, and King Zhou would discard him like trash in order to protect himself.

In a daze, he was helplessly lifted up by strongmen and dragged away like a rag doll. It took a while before they stopped. He was lifted up and saw the huge cauldron weighing ten thousand catties in front of the Kan Palace. The cauldron was filled with boiling water.

He was stripped of his clothes, and after being held by the head and feet by two strongmen, he was thrown into the cauldron.

As it fell, it first entered a vast expanse of clouds and mist, like a fairyland in the clouds, then heard the sound of splashing water, and finally was submerged in scalding water.

"Ah!" Su Kang screamed and woke up from the table.

The lamplight before him flickered, and as he wiped the sweat from his brow, he suddenly looked up, for it seemed as if an eye was staring at him from the candlelight. Just as he wondered if it was a hallucination, a spark from the candlelight landed on his desk. The spark then bounced like a firefly, traveled to the bookshelf, and finally landed on a bundle of ancient bamboo slips that Su Kang had never seen before.

He carefully opened the bamboo slips, and the first slip clearly read "One door missing".

This strange book records how to create various forbidden devices. It begins by introducing how to create a wooden phoenix, then a puppet indistinguishable from a real person, and then introduces how to extract the soul of a living person and seal it in the device. Just as he was reading with great interest, a phantom image of a wooden phoenix suddenly appeared on the bamboo slip.

Mu Luan stared intently at him and said, "I know what you desire right now, and I can help you solve four problems."

Su Kang's gaze resisted for a moment, but was then replaced by blue: "Who are you? Never mind who you are. If you can help me get rid of the punishment of being boiled alive, I will offer you incense."

From an outsider's perspective, Su Kang is staring at his book, muttering words like "Wo..." that are incomprehensible to others as he talks to himself.

…On the other side, purple is also taking action…

Meanwhile, in Yaodu, Princess Xiasheng awaited her lover. Her lover, whom she had been secretly meeting, was an official of the Imperial Observatory; before this, the two had been deeply in love. However, in recent months, the Imperial Observatory official had become increasingly resistant.

This time, Xia Sheng was prepared to elope with him. She packed her bags, took her valuables, and crossed the palace wall.

The night was deep when Xia Sheng was greeted by a strange Taoist priest. The priest greeted Xia Sheng and said, "Your Highness, my senior brother Yu Zhi is unable to come due to other matters, so he sent me to inform you."

A flash of sorrow crossed Xia Sheng's eyes, but she was still determined and asked relentlessly, "Where is he!"

A crane feather fell, a token of his love with the princess.

The Taoist priest said calmly, “The sect has already summoned him back to Huishan. He should be going to study the Mahayana teachings and won’t come out for decades.” — The so-called study of the Mahayana teachings was just a euphemism for “having made a mistake and needing to go into seclusion to reflect on his mistakes.”

Xia Sheng understood that their affair had been discovered and that the sect was quickly eliminating the negative impact.

Princess Xiasheng quickly found out that the person who reported to Senior Brother Yu's sect was named Wu Yuanyi, who was another cousin of Wu Fei's whom he had admired since childhood for being able to cultivate immortality.

At this moment, Princess Xiasheng, who remained in the palace, picked a flower and whispered, "Together, not together, together, not together..."

As the petals were plucked one by one, Xia Sheng's pupils turned purple. She grinned and said, "I will absolutely not marry someone I don't like (Wu Fei). Not even Father can force me."

Immediately, she stood up, hurriedly left the palace, and rushed towards the Prince Zhou's residence. After speaking with her brother, Xia Sheng revealed that she had a force in the martial arts world that she could utilize.

…thorns began to rise along the way…

On November 3rd, the imperial carriage was attacked. The large army recruited from other prefectures was blocked by purplish-brown locusts leaping from the valley. Soldiers bitten by the locusts began to convulse and become poisoned, and the tightly organized camp quickly became chaotic. At the same time, a group of assassins arrived.

At this moment, Wu Hanluan's hundred-man squad was just fifty paces away from the emperor's carriage. After encountering locusts, the entire squad ate "evil-repelling pills." These pills were Wu Hanluan's secret recipe. After eating them, the soldiers would emit a foul odor, but they would also be resistant to various unknown poisonous insects.

Wu Hengyu took the lead, his body radiating a strong aura of malevolence, so he naturally didn't need to take the "evil-repelling pill".

In an instant, Wu Hengyu arrived before the Emperor and immediately shot down an assassin who was trying to throw a hidden weapon with a spear. The Wu family army that arrived later rushed up and formed a formation around the Emperor's carriage. Facing a barrage of boomerangs, throwing knives and other hidden weapons, the army raised their shields in unison to meet the attack. At the same time, the crossbowmen behind the shields fired back. The "demon wind" that had been driving the boomerangs to accurately take heads was immediately suppressed by the army's formation.

The "blood darts," originally capable of taking a life in a hundred paces and wiping out an entire sect overnight, fell in front of the shield with a series of crackling sounds.

Looking at these fancy, darts that could turn, Wu Hengyu commented disdainfully, "Miscellaneous skills of the cultivation world."

The concept of using qi to make a dart change direction has similar principles in military strategy. Archers use their martial qi to control their bows and arrows, increasing their accuracy. Both methods aim to make the arrows travel straight. Military strategists, especially those using powerful bows and crossbows, rely on speed, power, and ruthlessness to maximize accuracy.

As for the bizarre, unpredictable trajectories of projectiles in the martial arts world, they may seem frightening, but all projectiles are inaccurate when facing malevolent energy. Moreover, soldiers with internal energy possess the ability to "parry" in addition to their armor.

The tricks of the martial arts world are actually just things that military strategists have already figured out after repeatedly comparing their efficiency. — In small-scale combat in the martial arts world, some unusual techniques may be surprisingly effective, but against an army of more than a hundred people, they are nothing more than clowns.

With a loud shout from Wu Hengyu, the auras of the army behind him resonated.

After the shields were erected in front of the army, ten two-meter-long muskets made of wrought iron and reinforced with steel hoops were carried in front of the shields.

With a series of crisp "bangs," the cunning assassins who had launched the sneak attack in front of them all tumbled down like birds from the treetops.

The surviving assassins, seeing the situation was dire, prepared to flee by throwing smoke. Wu Hengyu swept his spear horizontally, the stones on the ground whistling like a dense barrage of crossbow bolts, sweeping across a range of fifty paces.

With a whooshing sound, the assassins had no way to escape. Some were pierced through the chest, their lungs punctured, and they coughed up blood as they fled. Others had their legs pinned to the ground and rolled around.

Soon, the bodies of all sixty-seven assassins were lined up, while the remaining twenty-eight assassins were awakened by being splashed with water and interrogated.

Protected by the Wu family's military formation, the garrison emperor lifted the curtain. He was horrified to see how easily the troops he had recruited from other prefectures had crumbled in the face of this sneak attack. Of course, as a master of imperial strategy, the garrison emperor did not show it on his face. If he panicked, it would appear that he was only able to return to the capital "by relying on the Wu family's military governorships." In that case, he would become a puppet in the eyes of the people.

A guard quietly came over to report to the emperor: "The faces of all the people have been scorched black by the fire marks. As for the prisoners, they are all mute."

Emperor Xu waved his hand to signal that no one should make a fuss, and then said to the soldiers guarding him, "Many soldiers have worked hard." When he saw Wu Hengyu, he couldn't help but feel a little scared for Wu Hanluan's eldest son. Seeing that the man was kneeling but his eyes were still arrogant, he thought to himself, "This kid is not simple." On the surface, however, he greatly admired Wu Hengyu and bestowed a set of purple and gold crowns upon him.

After the guards quietly revealed the very subtle characteristics of the assassins, Emperor Xu knew exactly who was behind the assassination attempt. He clutched his chest, trying to maintain his dignity, but he looked like a helpless old man in defeat.

Half an hour later, the emperor summoned the generals and announced that he was fine and continued on his way, clearly indicating that he did not want to investigate further.

However, the sons of the various governors kneeling before the emperor looked at each other in bewilderment. Such an act of assassinating the monarch was undoubtedly an unforgivable crime.

Why is there no investigation now? This shows that the situation in the court is treacherous, and a single move could cause a major upheaval. Families are sending secret letters home, urging their families to make preparations and avoid getting too deeply involved in court affairs.

…The secret guards have begun their general mobilization…

Meanwhile, Emperor Xu, on his journey, beckoned Wu Hengyu closer. At this moment, as if on a whim, Emperor Xu asked, seemingly inquiring but actually provocative, "How is your relationship with Wu Fei?"

Wu Hengyu was slightly taken aback, and gave a completely irrelevant answer without any politeness: "I am the elder brother, and he is the younger brother."

Emperor Xu was slightly taken aback, then clapped his hands and laughed: "Just as the rumors say (the two brothers are at odds with each other)."

Emperor Shu: "If you were to join forces with Yuan Chang, what would you think of the war in Bo?"

Wu Hengyu: "We can take the city in a month!"

Emperor Xu's eyes lit up.

(End of this chapter)