The Vice General's Manor, the study.
The night wind poured in through the half-open window lattice, causing the candle flame on the desk to flicker unsteadily. The wind carried waves of sound from the drill ground, each rising higher than the last.
"Lord Tai Sui! Centurion Xu is mighty!"
These voices drifted across more than half of Zhenbei City. Falling into He Minghu's ears, they were more grating than a knife scraping against bone.
Listening to the tidal waves of cheers, He Minghu's mind was filled with the events of the day outside the north gate: Zhang Tiezhu's blood-stained face and Qian Fugui's squealing accusations.
He, the dignified Vice General of Zhenbei City, holding heavy military power, had actually been forced into an embarrassing public corner by a greenhorn girl and a one-armed cripple!
Fury surged within him.
With a muffled thud, he kicked over the desk. The military books stacked on top scattered all over the floor, and the precious Duan inkstone smashed into pieces on the blue bricks.
"This is going too far!"
He Minghu pointed toward the door and cursed loudly.
"A wet-behind-the-ears little girl and a cripple who can't even hold a sword steady dare to shit on my head! I have clawed my way up in Zhenbei City for over ten years, when have I ever suffered such useless humiliation!"
The more he cursed, the hotter his temper burned. He strode over to the weapon rack by the wall and yanked out his fine steel sword.
"Men! Go gather all my remaining personal guards!"
Sword in hand, He Minghu took great strides, about to charge out of the study.
"I'm going to the posthouse right now to hack that witch Xu to death! At worst, the fish dies and the net breaks; no one will have it easy!"
"Halt!"
A calm voice came from the deepest shadows of the study.
Ma Jin'an sat upright in an armchair, his hands folded in his sleeves. His gaze swept over the messy puddle of ink on the floor, then turned to He Minghu, who had reached the threshold.
He Minghu stopped in his tracks, his eyes bloodshot.
"Censor Ma, you still want to stop me? Zhao Si is dead, the eight carts of goods are gone, and now even the morale of the army has been bought off by that Xu woman with a few mouthfuls of mutton soup! If we wait any longer, what will happen to our grand plan!"
Ma Jin'an stood up, slowly smoothed out the wrinkles on the hem of his official robes, stepped around the shattered inkstone on the floor, and walked up behind He Minghu.
"General He is going to the posthouse to kill someone?"
Ma Jin'an asked.
"How many men do you plan to take? Three hundred ironclad guards? Or those domestic servants raised by your Vice General's Manor?"
"To kill a woman, three hundred men is more than enough!" He Minghu gritted his teeth.
Ma Jin'an gave a short laugh.
He raised his hand and pointed out the window.
"General, prick up your ears and listen to the commotion outside." Ma Jin'an stepped closer, lowering his voice. "Those thousands of grunts on the drill ground just drank the meat soup Xu Zhan brought back. What do they call Xu Zhan now? Lord Tai Sui."
Ma Jin'an stared into He Minghu's eyes.
"If you lead troops to the posthouse to touch Xu Qinghuan now, believe it or not, before you even make it halfway, those thousands of starving soldiers will eat you alive. The morale of the army is no longer on your side. If you clash head-on, you won't even have a single intact bone left."
He Minghu knew this bunch of ruffians in the Zhenbei Army better than anyone.
Normally, when there were rations and pay, military law could still suppress them. But now, these men had been starving for half a year. Whoever gave them meat to eat was their living ancestor.
"Then tell me, what should we do!"
He Minghu fiercely threw the fine steel longsword in his hand to the ground, producing a sharp clang.
"Are we supposed to just watch helplessly as she drives us to our deaths?"
Ma Jin'an turned and walked to a spare desk on the other side of the study, picking out a weasel-hair brush from the pen holder.
"We lost the first round, that is a fact."
Ma Jin'an spread out a piece of yellowing rice paper, picked up a block of pine soot ink, and slowly ground it in the inkstone.
"Xu Qinghuan borrowed a knife to kill, firmly nailing Zhao Si's death and the crime of smuggling together. The confessions of Zhang Tiezhu and Qian Fugui have pushed the Vice General's Manor right into the teeth of the storm."
Ma Jin'an put down the inkstick and picked up the weasel-hair brush, which had soaked up the ink.
He did not use his dominant right hand, but instead switched the brush to his left.
"The most urgent task is to pull the Vice General's Manor out of this muddy pit of treason and smuggling. In any case, you, General He, are still the Vice General of Zhenbei City, and you still hold military power. This game of chess is not over yet."
He Minghu leaned forward, resting his hands on the edge of the desk, breathing heavily.
"How do we pull out? Zhang Tiezhu accused me in front of the entire army! Although that old fox Tie Lanshan didn't flare up on the spot, he knows exactly what's going on!"
Ma Jin'an did not answer.
With his left wrist suspended, the tip of the brush landed on the rice paper. The resulting handwriting was crooked and distorted, completely lacking the dignified elegance of his usual formal calligraphy. It looked as if it had been written by a crude soldier who had barely studied for a few years.
He Minghu looked down.
"On the fifth day of the winter month in the thirteenth year of Tianqi, received two taels of gold dust from the Helian Right Luli Prince's tribe, promised thirty catties of fine iron..."
He Minghu read aloud, then suddenly raised his head.
"What is this?"
"Zhao Si's private ledger."
Ma Jin'an didn't even lift his head, his left hand continuing to wield the brush without pause. Line after line of transaction records leaped onto the paper.
"Fearing the matter would be exposed, he recorded these transactions into a ledger and hid it in a secret compartment in his home. His theft of the Imperial Envoy's glazed glass this time was also because the Helian people promised him a heavy sum of gold, so he took the risk, even going so far as to bribe Zhang Tiezhu and the others to go along with him."
He Minghu looked at the handwriting produced by Ma Jin'an's left hand, his breathing growing rapid.
"Censor Ma, you are thinking of..."
"Dead men tell no tales!"
Ma Jin'an stopped his brush and folded the written pages together.
"Zhang Tiezhu says you gave the order, Qian Fugui says you instigated it, but those are all empty words."
"But as long as we produce this ledger to prove that Zhao Si had a prior history of treason, then everything he did was to line his own pockets and has absolutely nothing to do with the Vice General's Manor."
Ma Jin'an picked up a cup of leftover tea from the table, took a sip, and unexpectedly sprayed it over the ledger.
The tea soaked in, blurring the ink, and a mottled, aged appearance surfaced on the paper.
Next, Ma Jin'an held the ledger over a nearby charcoal brazier, slowly baking it with the residual heat of the embers. As the paper heated up, the edges curled slightly and took on a yellowish-brown hue.
"This ledger is ironclad proof."
Ma Jin'an tossed the dried ledger in front of He Minghu.
"Tomorrow morning, you will personally take this ledger to the Commander-in-Chief's Manor to plead guilty. Just say that you raided Zhao Si's residence overnight and found this ironclad evidence of treason."
Ma Jin'an looked at He Minghu, his eyes dark and cold.
"You only need to admit to Tie Lanshan a crime of negligence and lax discipline. What Tie Lanshan wants is stability in Zhenbei City. With this ledger as a stepping stone, he won't investigate further, and the crisis facing the Vice General's Manor will be easily resolved."
He Minghu picked up the forged ledger and flipped through a couple of pages.
Crooked handwriting, aged paper—it was flawless.
He Minghu let out a long, heavy breath, his tense shoulders relaxing.
"Severing the tail to survive."
He Minghu gripped the ledger tightly.
"What a brilliant move to sever the tail to survive! Censor Ma, you really are something!"
He carefully tucked the ledger into his robes, looked up at Ma Jin'an, and a vicious glint once again surfaced in his eyes.
"And what about Xu Qinghuan? That witch caused me to lose Zhao Si and eight carts of goods. How do we settle this score?"
Ma Jin'an sat back down in his armchair, picked up the teapot, and poured himself another cup of hot tea.
"General He, what do you think Xu Qinghuan is after, going to all this trouble?"
He Minghu gave a cold snort.
"What else could she be after? A new official throwing her weight around, using me to establish her authority! And tossing some meat to those grunts to buy their loyalty while she's at it!"
Ma Jin'an shook his head, picked up his teacup, and took a sip.
"All the bustling in the world is for profit, and all the rushing about is for wealth."
Ma Jin'an put down his teacup, his fingers tapping rhythmically against the tabletop.
"She is a pampered noble lady from the capital. Why would she abandon a life of luxury to come to this bitter, cold wasteland? Do you honestly believe it is just to improve the border army's rations? Bringing out those eight carts of colored glaze makes it perfectly clear that she is targeting the border trade."
He Minghu frowned.
"Are you saying she wants to meddle in the border markets?"
"She already has."
Ma Jin'an stood up, walked to the window, and cast his gaze in the direction of the post house.
"She has Qian Fugui in the palm of her hand, and she has opened up the trade route at Wild Fox Beach. What she wants is undoubtedly the financial control of the entire Northern Frontier!"
Ma Jin'an turned around and looked at He Minghu.
"Since we cannot beat her, we must win her over."
He Minghu's eyes widened.
"Win her over? You want me to bow down to that witch?"
"It is cooperation."
Ma Jin'an walked back to the desk.
"The waters of the border markets run deep. An Imperial Envoy alone cannot swallow such massive profits. We have troops, connections, and informants within the Helian Royal Court."
Ma Jin'an lowered his voice.
"We will offer her a cut of the market dividends. As long as she takes the money, she will be in the same boat as us. When that time comes, the Imperial Sword in her hand will become the ultimate protective amulet for our Vice General's estate."
He Minghu pondered Ma Jin'an's words. The anger in his eyes faded, slowly replaced by a gleam of greed.
"Will she agree?"
"No one ever complains about having too much money."
Ma Jin'an straightened his sleeves.
"If she refuses, we will simply have to ask that lord to step in..."
