Martial Arts Crossover: My Wife is the Top Scholar

Chapter 210 The Eastern Depot Needs Talents Like You

As the saying goes, if you take someone's money, you have to do their bidding.

Rights and responsibilities are equal.

Martial arts sects that occupy mountains and rule over the land, enjoying the offerings of the surrounding people, have a responsibility to protect their territory and ensure the safety of the people.

This is a customary rule among the various sects.

If bandits appear near a sect, it means that the sect is not capable of protecting the surrounding people and is not qualified to rule the mountain. They should obediently give up their blessed land.

We have no choice but to allow it.

There are countless martial arts masters, but there are only so many blessed lands. Once someone has occupied one, it is inconvenient for someone else to take it by force. They can only hope that the other party will decline day and night.

Gongsun Ce's decision to have the martial arts sects of Jiangling provide funds and manpower to suppress the river bandits was perfectly in accordance with the rules, both from the perspective of the imperial court and the martial arts world.

Gongsun Ce understood the rules of the martial arts world.

Gongsun Ce was ignorant of the ways of Jiangling.

Jiangling is different from other prefectures; it doesn't have any powerful and influential sects that dominate the area. Instead, it's full of small and insignificant families.

These small families wove together a dense network of relationships through marriage, business dealings, and opening shops, with various forces deeply intertwined.

A strong dragon will not overwhelm a local snake.

Even someone as powerful as Shen Yumen had to seize the opportunity of the bloodshed after the opening of the Liancheng Treasure to gain the support of Wudang and Nujiao Gang, and use the balance of power between the righteous and evil forces to become the leader of the Jingxiang martial arts alliance.

If Shen Yumen were alive, and Gongsun Ce were to consult with him about suppressing the bandits, Shen Yumen would surely agree and provide substantial assistance to maintain his prestige.

With Shen Yumen dead, the Jiangling martial arts world has returned to a state of disarray yet deep-rooted connections. It's impossible to force them to submit by making an example of them. Faced with the sects' evasive and prevarication tactics, a strong approach is necessary.

Given their "free-spirited" nature, they were very willing to help Gongsun Ce when he asked them to suppress the bandits, but the various forces kept their intentions to themselves due to mutual checks and balances.

Social interactions are everything.

Until Gongsun Ce stopped showing them any mercy.

Gongsun Ce sat in the main seat, poured himself a glass of cold wine, drank it all in one gulp, and then turned and left, giving the local bullies some time to consider.

A response must be given by tomorrow morning.

Either cooperate!

Either relocate the sect to another prefecture.

How can you expect to enjoy the convenient transportation of a major thoroughfare connecting nine provinces without contributing any money or effort to suppress bandits?

The next morning, the government office was packed with people!
One by one, the tall, strong, and fierce-looking bandits were paraded around wearing wooden shackles. Around them hung thirty or forty corpses, with notes attached to the bodies bearing the names of these people, all of whom were bandits from the surrounding area.

Soldiers are valuable and quick.

After interrogating Li Zhaoting and obtaining the location of the water fortress, they launched a surprise attack on the Blackwater Road's water fortress in Jiangling that very night. They had an undercover agent in Jiangling City who learned that Gongsun Ce wanted to use Li Zhaoting to intimidate the martial arts world of Jingxiang and was hosting a banquet for him that night.

Unexpectedly, this was a ruse.

Only Gongsun Ce attended the banquet.

Li Zhaoting led his constables in a night raid on the water fortress.

Gongsun Ce arrived an hour late, partly to put pressure on the local bully, and partly because he genuinely couldn't leave.

There were bandits among the yamen runners.

It is impossible to identify in a short period of time.

The best way is to trap them and prevent them from sending messages outwards. By the time they realize what's happening, the imperial warships will already be at the gate of the water fortress.

Thank you, Ling Tuisi.

The warships belonged to the Longsha Gang of Lianghu.

It is best suited for navigating rapids and treacherous shoals.

Seeing the bandits in shackles and chains outside the yamen, the martial arts sects of Jiangling no longer dared to underestimate Gongsun Ce.

Some of the more astute among them guessed Gongsun Ce's deceptive and secretive scheme, realizing that this seemingly weak scholar was actually a man of great talent.

Before noon, Liu Chengfeng selected dozens of elite disciples from the Tai Chi School to report for duty at the government office.

All of "Falling Flowers and Flowing Water" participated.

Other sects followed suit, sending their elite disciples to those with manpower and their provisions and medicine to those with money.

You have neither money nor people, you have absolutely nothing, so what gives you the right to establish a sect in Jiangling? You are given five days to relocate. After five days, if any martial arts practitioners come to provoke you, the imperial court will not be responsible.

……

"Thank you, Buyi!"

Gongsun Ce flipped through the files with a delighted expression.

The problem that had troubled him for months was gradually solved as Li Zhaoting took strong action, and the martial arts sects that had refused to cooperate quickly changed their minds.

Feng Suzhen said, "My lord, things will turn around when they reach their extreme. If we suppress them too much, will they resort to tricks and take revenge on Lord Gongsun in secret after we leave?"

Li Zhaoting said, "They wouldn't dare. I've already spread the word that Gongsun Ce is my classmate and good friend. If Gongsun Ce is killed by some kind of江湖 (jianghu) method, I will go door to door to investigate the case. Don't go looking for trouble."

Lan Fenghuang said, "Li Lang, sister, these people are all shameless. They won't follow you when you lead them, and they'll back down when you hit them. If we don't give them a few lashes, they won't know what's going on."

Gongsun Ce sneered disdainfully: "I saw long ago that these people were all bark and no bite, and now that you've taken action to wipe out the river bandits, they've started to fall into disarray."

"You made a mess of things on your own? How did you make a mess of things?"

Li Zhaoting was completely unaware of this.

“I gave them an ultimatum: those with money should contribute money, and those with strength should contribute strength; those with neither money nor strength are not qualified to establish their own sect. They are given five days to relocate and give up their territory to another sect.”

Gongsun Ce sneered: "What do personal relationships matter in the face of interests? Deeply entrenched power? With a single sword stroke, a commoner like me can uproot their foundations!"

Li Zhaoting gave a thumbs up.

If Gongsun Ce was corrupt, abused his power, and acted arrogantly, then his actions were indeed problematic.

However, Gongsun Ce's request for them to send men to suppress the bandits was in accordance with the rules of the martial arts world. They repeatedly made excuses for their own small plot of land, and they deserved to be punished by Gongsun Ce.

If you're not willing to spend money or effort, get out of here immediately.

There are too many martial arts sects in Jingxiang. Some of them should have been eliminated long ago to give them the incentive to compete with each other, and hopefully a new leader of the Jingxiang martial arts alliance will emerge from this competition.

Gongsun Ce took out a map.

He drew this map himself.

In recent months, Gongsun Ce has been conducting both overt and covert investigations to locate bandit strongholds and understand the needs of the people. He has also marked out waterways that need to be cleared based on the guidance of veteran boatmen and towmen, and is preparing to carry out some projects.

Upon seeing the map, Blue Phoenix was completely baffled.

Feng Suzhen frowned: "Why are there so many waterways that need repair? What is Ling Tuisi doing? Even if he's keeping river bandits, this is going too far!"

Gongsun Ce sighed: "These waterways have not been maintained for more than ten years. They are blocked by silt and full of hidden reefs, making navigation very inconvenient. It is easy to run aground and sink. There are also water bandits all around, and we may be attacked at any time."

At this point, Gongsun Ce became even more furious: "You don't know, some time ago, the imperial salt transport ships were attacked by river bandits. These bandits were extremely fierce and seemed to be a clan force. They wanted to imitate the Iron Hand Gang!"

What is the Iron Hand Gang?

Lan Fenghuang skillfully played the straight man in the comedy.

"The Iron Hand Gang was a fortified village militia that occupied Jiangnan during the Tang Dynasty. Its leader was called the clan leader. During the Wu Zhou period, the clan leader 'Yuan Qi' made great contributions to the court and was enfeoffed as the 'Prince of Ying'. In order to gain profits, Yuan Qi woven a private salt network."

First, they attacked the imperial salt transport ships, then bribed officials in nearby prefectures, and finally bribed salt merchants to sell the stolen official salt at ten or a hundred times the original price.

The price of government-issued salt was 20 wen per dou.

They sell them for four hundred or even five hundred coins.

The surrounding people were suffering terribly from being exploited.

The Iron Hand Gang made nearly ten million taels of silver a year from the smuggled salt business. They bribed all the officials in the relevant prefectures and counties, and the people had nowhere to turn for help. It wasn't until Di Renjie accidentally met a few fishermen who came to the capital to file a complaint that the court learned about the matter. Di Renjie personally investigated, and the invincible Li Yuanfang almost died in the case.

This matter has long been sealed off. The imperial salt transport ships have been equipped with early warning devices and special mechanisms to deal with water ghosts on the bottom of the ships. These people are probably delusional!
There's no point in robbing salt-carrying ships.

Bribing Gongsun Ce is the right way.

Li Zhaoting briefly explained the relevant cases.

Li Yuanfang was a peerless warrior, and few enemies had ever managed to kill him. One of them was the Iron Hand Gang, who brought him to the brink of death. The gang leader even forced Li Yuanfang to fight to the death.

The patriarch's private salt business relied on a network of relationships built upon power, money, and force; plunder was only a part of it, and a negligible one at that.

Officials protected each other and covered for each other, and the threat of assassination was everywhere. The real reason for the smuggling of salt was to open money shops to quickly launder money. In the words of the sect leader, the scale and methods of this case were unprecedented.

Those bandits only saw robbery in ancient books and thought they could do business. What good would it do them if they succeeded? Gongsun Ce reported this matter to the court, and the court would send a large army to suppress the bandits as quickly as possible, wiping them out in an instant.

Gongsun Ce angrily said, "I would rather beg on the streets or starve and thirst to death than spend a single penny of this dirty money earned by exploiting the people's blood and sweat."

Feng Suzhen raised two questions: "This case must be very secretive, right? How did they find out about it? Even ignoring the source of the information, are they fools to immediately pursue a business that could make millions without considering the risks? Or is there something else going on?"

A glint of light flashed in Li Zhaoting's eyes: "If they can replicate the Iron Hand Gang's smuggling salt business, they can not only make huge profits, but also disrupt the nearby prefectures."

"They want to rebel? No way! With these people's brains, do they even have the ability to rebel?"

Gongsun Ce grinned in surprise, "Your ability to frame others is probably no less than that of the Eastern Depot."

Li Zhaoting rolled his eyes: "Who told you that all those who want to rebel are smart people? Would a smart person rebel during a time of peace? Does he have the surname Zhao?"

"A commoner, be careful what you say!"

"Just saying, take it as a joke."

Who would use rebellion as a joke?

"Some people's rebellions are a joke."

……

The Twelve Linked Docks did indeed have a water fortress in Jiangling.

There are three in total.

One of the companies specializing in robbery, led by the Three Evils, consists of ordinary river bandits; there's no need to think too much about them.

One company, led by Si Gun, was responsible for transporting supplies. They built several warehouses to store a large amount of supplies.

The most secretive of them all was that even the seven managers, including the Three Evils and the Four Sticks, did not know their location. They only knew that the person in charge of the water village was "Gentle Water God" Yong Xiyu.

Li Zhaoting launched a surprise attack overnight, but only managed to destroy the strongholds of the Three Evils and Four Sticks, failing to find the last one.

The fortified village mentioned by Gongsun Ce, as well as the other hidden water fortresses, require further investigation.

Perhaps we need to use some strategy.

— Startle the snake in the grass and lure it out of its hole!
The purpose of displaying these river bandits in shackles was twofold: first, to appease the people and assure merchants that the waterways were open; and second, to lure the mastermind behind the scenes into killing them to cover their tracks. No one knew whether these people had confessed or how many secrets they had revealed.

To ensure the safety of their own water fortress, the easiest way is to kill and silence them. Whether it's poisoning, sneak attacks, or assassinations, these people must be silenced.

……

night.

"Falling Flowers and Flowing Water" patrols outside the prison cell.

Lu Tianshu, though old, remains strong and full of energy;

Hua Tiegan sighed and went through the motions.

Liu Chengfeng was calm and composed, and made absolutely no mistakes.

Shui Dai's face was expressionless, revealing neither his likes nor dislikes;

They had been willing to help Gongsun Ce suppress bandits, but were persuaded to turn back due to the complex web of personal relationships they had to maintain.

Last night, after being intimidated by Gongsun Ce, Lu Tianshu was somewhat unwilling, but he was the most excited.

Lu Tianshu was the oldest and the most impulsive. He had no children and his greatest wish was to establish his own sect, pass on his swordsmanship, and let future generations remember him.

I didn't have the chance before, but now I do.

Once Gongsun Ce has cleared out some gangs and freed up some territory, he can then earn some merit in exchange for Gongsun Ce's support and establish his own sect.

All four are qualified to establish their own schools and can be called martial arts masters, no less than the Blood Saber Ancestor.

Why is the story of Blood Blade Ancestor fighting four opponents single-handedly a classic?

Not only because Blood Blade Ancestor used the terrain to set up traps, but also because Falling Flowers and Flowing Water were strong enough that each of them had the ability to fight Blood Blade Ancestor to a draw, which meant that Blood Blade Ancestor was fighting four of himself by himself.

Despite Hua Tiegan's mental breakdown and surrender to Blood Saber Ancestor, he is actually the most skilled in martial arts.

Each of the four individuals has their own strengths. Their martial arts skills, internal strength, agility, and experience are roughly equal. To determine a winner, weapons play a crucial role. Hua Tiegan is skilled with the horizontal spear, which is clearly more powerful than swords and sabers.

Hua Tiegan excels in both long-range marksmanship and close-quarters combat, making him effective in both areas and possessing the strongest overall strength.

The only weakness is an unstable mindset.

When faced with a formidable enemy, it is easy to have an emotional breakdown.

Once such a famous person experiences a mental breakdown and turns to the dark side, they will quickly plummet to the lowest point, reaching a level of depravity that is utterly appalling.

Just like it is now.

A dark figure silently approached Hua Tiegan.

"Hua Tiegan, look what you've done!"

Upon hearing the sound, Hua Tiegan was startled. He looked around and, seeing his brothers patrolling elsewhere, whispered, "Why are you here? If Li Zhaoting finds out, neither of us will escape!"

“Are you afraid of Li Zhaoting but not me? Do you want me to tell you all the shameful things you’ve done? What is Li Zhaoting? Compared to our lord’s great cause, he’s nothing but an ant trying to shake a tree. We’ll get rid of him sooner or later.”

What are your orders, my lord?

"Kill him to silence him."

"Impossible, there's no chance, it can't be done!"

"I'm not asking for your help. This is the lord's order to you: either complete it or die. How about trying the Azure Dragon Society's 190 kinds of torture?"

"Don't force me! Don't force me!"

"What can you do? Go and complain to Li Zhaoting? If Li Zhaoting catches me, I'll immediately betray you, ruin your reputation, and make sure you die a horrible death!"

"You...you're ruthless..."

(End of this chapter)