Chapter 43: Killing a man every ten steps

It was evident that this prodigal son of the Tian family was far from as simple as he appeared.

Upon learning that Yun Zheng and his entourage were highly likely to be senior officials of the Embroidered Uniform Guard or top-tier military commanders, the Tian family scion instantly unleashed the finest acting performance of his entire life—surpassing even his usual pretense and play-acting in the pleasure quarters.

He portrayed with three-dimensional depth the character of a man whose family estate had been usurped by his own elder sister, harboring deep resentment yet forced to masquerade as a worthless playboy to avoid being silenced by her.

Of course, for the Tian family scion, it was hard to say that this dramatic performance was entirely devoid of genuine emotion.

Yet, who could blame him when King Yang offered far too much? If King Yang were to carve out a separatist domain in the Southwest, or even declare himself emperor with a new era title, he would become the imperial brother-in-law, naturally eliminating any need to care about the modest foundation of the Tian clan.

"Your acting is indeed commendable, but your execution leaves much to be desired," Yun Zheng mocked.

When Yun Zheng had previously handed over his Assistant Regional Commander's token, he certainly had not intended for her to merely escort an insignificant wandering monk to Fanjing Mountain for advanced studies. His true purpose was naturally to compel these monks to take the plunge directly in the name of the imperial court.

For years, Fanjing Mountain had been suppressed by the Tian family of Tongren Prefecture to the point of being unable to raise their heads, harboring a bellyful of suppressed fury. However, awed by Yang Yinglong's formidable prestige, none dared to utter the word revenge.

As soon as An Miaotong escorted the Honest Monk up the mountain, the moment the assembled monks caught sight of the third-rank Assistant Regional Commander's official seal, several heavy-set monks immediately snatched up their Zen staves on the spot, declaring they would follow the Great Ming imperial troops straight into Tongren Prefecture and level the Tian family stronghold.

These monks rallied their brethren, and soon over a hundred warrior monks gathered, roaring down the mountain in a mighty torrent.

An Miaotong fully agreed with Yun Zheng's assessment that the Tian family scion lacked execution capability.

Initially, when she had gathered the hundred-odd warrior monks, her intention was to stage a counter-encirclement against the scion's hidden ambush force.

Yet in the end, they only spotted a few furtive figures.

The Wumong Chieftain quickly deduced the reason: "Most likely, the eldest miss of the Tian family has always guarded against this younger brother of hers, allowing only a mob of third-rate thugs around him. This playboy must have wanted to summon genuine experts from the estate, but after endless wrangling and buck-passing, only this handful managed to show up."

The Great Ming's official system design in Guizhou separated administrative and military authority, habitually fostering a culture of bureaucratic buck-passing. As a local chieftain governing a region, the Wumong Chieftain was thoroughly familiar with this atmosphere of shifting responsibility, which allowed him to quickly guess why the scion's reinforcements had arrived so belatedly.

The group could not help but cast sympathetic glances at the scion. Facts proved that if one pretended to be a pig for too long, others would truly treat one as swine.

Hearing this, the Wusa Chieftain grew instantly excited, finding that ever since he started traveling alongside Yun Zheng, they always won their battles:

"What are we waiting for? Let's take this playboy hostage, use him to trick open the gates of the Tian estate, and then slaughter our way through this rebel lair until not even a dog or chicken is left alive!"

Two hundred years ago, the Tian chieftain clan had been subjected to the imperial policy of replacing native chieftains with appointed officials, causing their sphere of influence to contract. Nevertheless, they still broke into smaller factions entrenched across the former Sizhou region, keeping Tongren Prefecture as their core stronghold.

Over these past two hundred years, acting as the rulers of Tongren Prefecture's underworld, the Tian clan had long run amok and broken the law with impunity, never placing the imperial court's rotating magistrates in their eyes.

Because the eldest miss of the Tian family had attached herself to Yang Yinglong, the most scorching and powerful warlord in the Southwest, the Tian clan of Tongren Prefecture had grown utterly lawless and committed every imaginable evil in recent years.

The Tian estate appeared to be merely a modest quadrangle courtyard from the surface, but its main body was actually a massive underground stronghold, easy to defend and difficult to attack.

"As one of the four great prominent families of Guizhou, they have now fallen to living like rats in a ditch, dwelling in caves and existing as neither human nor ghost," remarked the Yongshun Chieftain as he drew his saber and cleaved a Tian family retainer clean in half at the waist.

Following the Yongle Emperor's reform of native administration, the Sizhou Tian clan, having slipped into the underworld, retained merely a tattered reputation and could never stand on a respectable stage.

"Senior Brother acting in such a manner violates the harmony of heaven!" said the Honest Monk, whose nature was naturally compassionate. Seeing the mass of monks rampaging through the Tian estate and turning it into a river of blood, he could not help but offer persuasion.

"Amitabha, excellent, excellent. All existence is suffering; this poor monk is merely helping the esteemed donors sever the three poisons of greed, anger, and ignorance to attain ultimate bliss. How can Junior Brother fail to appreciate the profound wonder of this?"

Another monk, clad in tattered kasaya and waving a broken cattail-leaf fan, looked utterly eccentric and unhinged, much like the legendary mad monk Jigong of the Song Dynasty. He shook his head and chanted in a loud voice: "May the benefactor sever the roots of all karmic hindrances and attain the pure land at the earliest..."

Yet his hand was ruthless; with a single sweep of his cattail-leaf fan, he smashed the head of a Tian warrior directly into a rotten watermelon, all the while continuing to recite sutras.

Watching these monks send rolling heads flying and sparing neither the old nor the weak, the women nor the children, Yun Zheng feigned looking away with an expression of unbearable pity:

"Never having experienced another's suffering, one should not urge others to be benevolent. The blood feud between Fanjing Mountain and the Tian family spans many years and has reached an irreconcilable state. Even a monk who has attained the Dao would inevitably transform into a bloodthirsty Asura at this moment. This commander also has his own stories; what is there to say to these monks?"

Yet the three chieftains were crystal clear in their hearts: Don't think we didn't notice that the sole reason these monks are displaying such murderous intent is because you, brat, have been instigating them behind the scenes.

Though these monks of Fanjing Mountain were men of religion, when faced with such notoriously egregious local malignancies, they naturally held back no courtesy. Furthermore, the Sizhou Tian clan's long-term suppression of Fanjing Mountain had forged a generational blood feud. Without Yun Zheng needing to do much prodding, they surged forward directly, turning their monastic robes crimson with blood and transforming their Zen staves into blades and swords.

Those experts of the Tian estate who had previously made excuses and avoided responding to the scion's summons were likewise beaten to death with clubs by the monks amidst the chaos.

Before the monks could set fire to destroy the corpses and erase the evidence, Yun Zheng forced open the Tian estate's treasury, taking only the rare treasures that were easy to carry, and ordered Jin Kaijia to summon a pawnshop owner to exchange all the silver into bank drafts, while distributing the remaining grain and provisions among the common folk.

Jin Kaijia, Shui Rouqin, and the three chieftains all harbored a strange sensation in their hearts: How could Yun Zheng, a dignified imperial Assistant Regional Commander, be so utterly seasoned at carrying out the bandit-like deeds of storming and looting?

At this moment, they seriously suspected that even if Yun Zheng were to turn rebel, he would be far more professional at it than many actual rebels.

Of course, they could not possibly know that back when he was merely a low-ranking squad leader commanding ten men, Yun Zheng had frequently penetrated deep behind enemy lines to engage in intelligence work. He also possessed extensive experience in participating in the sabotage of enemy logistics, the assassination of key enemy figures, and even instigating rebellions among the enemy's rear-guard populace.

Following his monumental feat of opening the gates of Yongning City to create a glorious victory for Qin Liangyu's White-Pole Army, he caught the eye of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and underwent professional secret agent training.

Until the Embroidered Uniform Guard system in the Southwest of the Great Ming paralyzed, Yun Zheng had already climbed to the rank of a Thousand-Household level secret agent within the organization.

It was worth mentioning that it was precisely after joining the Embroidered Uniform Guard that Yun Zheng met An Miaotong, who was likewise a secret agent of the Guard.

Of course, because the Embroidered Uniform Guard network in the Southwest had long existed only in name, at the present stage, both Yun Zheng as a Thousand-Household and An Miaotong as a Hundred-Household were merely commanders without any subordinates.

The flames burned fiercely, seeming to reduce all sins and ambitions back to dust.

In the bustling commercial district of Tongren Prefecture, hundreds of bloody heads were piled high into a traditional victory monument of skulls, atop the corner of which the head of the Tian family scion was casually tossed, his eyes wide open, dying with everlasting regret.

Piercing through the skull monument stood a flagstaff, from which hung a strip of white cloth bearing a few bloody characters: The killer is Yun Zheng.

"Drawing swords, crossing horses, riding through ghost rains; bones like mountains while startled birds fly away. How sigh-worthy."

Watching the flock of crows that descended upon the pile of heads, pecking at flesh and blood and devouring the eyeballs of the dead, Yun Zheng wore a slightly displeased expression. These crows were making too much commotion, knocking down the neatly arranged skull monument—stacked precisely like the Great Pyramid of Giza—and ruining the artistic masterpiece he had meticulously designed.

The Wumong Chieftain sighed with deep emotion: "In a few days' time, this massacre at the Tian estate will shake the entirety of Guizhou."

Embracing the principle of asking when in doubt, the Wusa Chieftain spoke up: "Brother, there is something I do not understand. No, wait, there are several things I haven't figured out yet."