The vermilion gates stood wide open to both sides.
The night wind howled through the courtyard, pouring through the gateway into the back hall and scattering the scent of Huadiao wine inside.
Xu Qinghuan stepped over the threshold, the hem of her moon-white dress fluttering in the night breeze.
Below the steps, Xu Zhan sat on the bluestone stairs. Holding a piece of coarse cloth in his left hand, he wiped back and forth along the grain of his meteoric iron mace.
Hearing the footsteps behind him, Xu Zhan stopped what he was doing, stuffed the cloth into his robes, and stood up, holding the mace in one hand.
"Is it settled?" Xu Zhan asked, his voice carried away by the night wind.
"It's settled," Xu Qinghuan said, descending the steps to stand beside him. "Vice General He and Censor Ma are deeply principled. They have volunteered to provide one hundred thousand taels of silver and five thousand shi of provisions to reward the thirty thousand soldiers of the Northern Garrison Army."
Xu Zhan, holding the heavy mace in one hand, nodded.
The brother and sister walked side by side toward the main gates of the Vice General's estate.
Inside the back hall.
Listening to the receding footsteps outside, He Minghu breathed heavily. His hands gripped the armrests of his grand chair, the veins bulging on the backs of his hands.
"Censor Ma!" He Minghu said angrily through gritted teeth. "Are we just going to let her swagger away like this? One hundred thousand taels of silver! Five thousand shi of provisions! That is the very foundation of our survival!"
Ma Jin'an remained seated. He picked up the teacup from the table and took a sip of the cold tea, suppressing the dryness in his throat.
"If General He is so heartbroken over that money and grain, you are more than welcome to grab your sword, chase after her right now, and force that woman to stay."
He Minghu was left speechless, unable to utter a single word.
He turned his head to look at the open wooden doors. Outside, the night was dark, and a few lanterns under the corridor swayed in the wind.
What exactly had happened to the twenty personal guards led by Zhou Biao? Unable to suppress the doubts in his heart, He Minghu stood up and rushed outside.
Ma Jin'an raised a hand to straighten the hem of his official robes and followed behind.
The two stepped over the threshold one after the other.
But their feet froze in place.
He Minghu's gaze swept past the bluestone steps and landed on the center of the courtyard.
By the faint halo of the corridor lanterns, he saw clearly the scene in the courtyard.
Behind the rockery screen, seven or eight burly men lay sprawled in a haphazard mess. Under the red-painted pillars of the eastern corridor, several more figures lay collapsed.
In the grass on both sides of the bluestone path, a few dark figures were slumped over.
All twenty personal guards, clad in fine armor, were lying limp on the ground.
He Minghu rushed down the steps and arrived at the side of the guard commander, Zhou Biao.
He saw Zhou Biao lying flat on his back on the bluestone slabs, eyes tightly shut and face pale. His concealed steel armor was completely intact. The saber hanging at his waist had not been drawn; the hilt was still stuck in the scabbard.
He Minghu crouched down and felt along Zhou Biao's breastplate with his hands. The armor plates were smooth with no signs of indentation, and the leather straps were perfectly fine.
He Minghu felt his way up Zhou Biao's neck, and when he reached the back of his head, his fingers paused.
There was a swollen lump there.
He Minghu tore open Zhou Biao's collar and inspected his entire body. There were no blade wounds anywhere, let alone any blood.
The only exception was Zhou Biao's right arm, which was folded at an unnatural angle. The joint at his shoulder blade was dislocated, hanging limply by his side. His lower jaw had also been dislocated, his mouth half-open and drooling saliva.
He Minghu stood up and walked toward the next fallen guard.
This guard was lying face down in the grass, his legs bent backward. He Minghu leaned down, grasped the man's calf with both hands, and gave it a testing twist.
The grinding sound of dislocated bones echoed in the night.
He Minghu quickly let go and stumbled back two steps, his back hitting the rockery.
"A full twenty men..." He Minghu muttered, his voice trembling. "It took less than the time it takes an incense stick to burn... That brute didn't even use a weapon..."
The courtyard full of guards had all had their joints dislocated or been knocked unconscious by heavy blows to the back of the neck.
He suddenly understood. These men hadn't even had time to react. Half were taken out stealthily, and the other half were neutralized head-on.
During the clash, not a single person had time to draw their blade, nor did anyone have the chance to cry out for help.
The martial trump card that He Minghu usually took such pride in didn't even have the leeway to let out a single scream in this courtyard.
Ma Jin'an looked down from above, taking in the tragic sight of the courtyard.
He scrutinized the twisted postures of the veteran soldiers, then glanced at He Minghu's pale face.
Ma Jin'an calculated the pros and cons.
The martial prowess Xu Zhan displayed had already exceeded the limits of what the Vice General's estate could handle. If they tried to force a head-on confrontation... he feared the estate would meet a grim end!
Xu Qinghuan held ironclad evidence of Zhao Si colluding with the enemy, which could easily condemn the Vice General's estate of treason.
Her parting words before leaving, "Tomorrow the entire army will be notified of the reward," was a brilliant move to cut off their retreat. Once the thirty thousand starving border troops of the Northern Garrison City heard that the Vice General's estate was handing over one hundred thousand taels of silver and five thousand shi of provisions, anyone who dared step forward to stop it would be eaten alive by those arrogant and fierce soldiers.
With martial deterrence, leverage in hand, and the added pressure of the army's morale, Xu Qinghuan was pressing them at every step.
Ma Jin'an clenched his back teeth.
At this point, there was absolutely no way out. Outside the door, Xu Zhan's martial arts were astonishing; Xu Qinghuan's solid proof of treason was irrefutable; and those words about "rewarding the army" would bring thirty thousand cold and starving border soldiers to their door to collect the debt.
Handing over seventy percent of their income and provisions was both a way to spend money to avoid disaster and a stalling tactic to buy time.
As long as the foundation of the Vice General's estate did not collapse, and as long as military power remained in their hands, it could not be considered a loss.
The Helian people beyond the pass had always had massive appetites. The elite iron cavalry under the command of Ashina Gudu would absolutely not let the border markets slip by. If Xu Qinghuan wanted to amass massive wealth, she would have to step beyond the pass.
Once the merchant caravan left the pass and arrived at the foot of the Yin Mountains, facing tens of thousands of foreign iron cavalry, no matter how high Xu Zhan's martial arts were, he could forget about keeping that woman safe.
Sooner or later, this debt from today would be collected with interest, using the curved blades of the Helian people!
"Censor Ma..." He Minghu stood dazed in the courtyard, his voice trembling. "Such... such methods, are they truly something a mortal can achieve?"
Ma Jin'an walked down the steps and came to stand in front of He Minghu.
"General He," Ma Jin'an lowered his voice. "Go open the storehouses. Let everything that happened tonight rot in your stomach. Do not breathe a single word of it to the outside."
"Tomorrow morning, you must prepare exactly one hundred thousand taels of silver and five thousand shi of provisions, and send them to the Commander-in-Chief's estate with gongs and drums."
He Minghu turned his head, his eyes wide. "Are we truly going to give it to them? That is a portion of the family fortune we painstakingly built up!"
"Not give it?" Ma Jin'an sneered. "If we don't, when the Northern Garrison Army mutinies tomorrow, the very first place to be trampled flat will be your Vice General's estate! We lose money to avoid disaster. As long as the green hills remain, there will be no shortage of firewood."
He Minghu cracked his knuckles, looking around the courtyard full of unconscious guards, and ultimately could only loosen his grip.
"I simply cannot swallow this foul anger!"
"You must swallow it, whether you can or not." Ma Jin'an turned around and walked back toward the hall. "Secretly send someone to contact Huyan Chi. Send word to him that Xu Qinghuan holds a massive amount of goods and intends to reopen the mutual trade markets."
"If Ashina Gudu wants real gold and silver, let him personally dispatch his troops to the foot of the Yin Mountains to collect the goods."
"Lord He! Do not jeopardize the grand plan!"
Hearing this, He Minghu suddenly snapped back to his senses. The grand scheme the two of them had been plotting for so long was drawing near; it absolutely could not be derailed by Xu Qinghuan.
The night wind grew increasingly frigid.
Xu Qinghuan raised her head, gazing toward the Yin Mountains, where the dark, imposing mountain range stretched across the horizon.
Xu Qinghuan was perfectly clear about the secret schemes Ma Jin'an and He Minghu were harboring.
In the original trajectory of fate, the struggle over the border market in Zhenbei City was destined to drag multiple powers into its vortex.
Ashina Gudu's greed, the First Prince's covert instigations, and even the noble families, all these factions would inevitably clash upon this northern wasteland.
Possessing an omniscient perspective, Xu Qinghuan naturally saw through the future course of events. Her forceful entry into the fray this time would only make the slaughter between the various factions all the more brutal.
At this point, the treacherous and unpredictable conflicts of the Great Qian Dynasty had only just begun.
