Chapter 0129: The Vicious and Unscrupulous Hu Lai? The Hypocritically Unscrupulous Xie Chengze!
“Could it be that Lord Shen is afraid our Second Prince might steal your credit?” Seeing Shen Yuan’s apparent disbelief, Hu Lai speculated, “You needn’t worry—the Second Prince holds you in high regard and would never seize your achievements.”
After all, the more accomplishments Shen Yuan accumulated, the more he would be valued by His Majesty, making him increasingly useful to the Second Prince in the future.
Just as Shen Yuan was about to respond, Da Dangjia approached, having evidently overheard their conversation. He chimed in supportively, “Since he’s your martial nephew’s man, why not hear him out? Perhaps he has some clever strategies?”
But what clever strategies could there be? Only underhanded and unscrupulous schemes.
For instance, secretly poisoning the bandits in the stronghold, forcing them to surrender obediently in exchange for monthly antidotes to stay alive. In reality, this was a deception: the poison was genuine, and the immediate antidote was real, but the claim of monthly flare-ups was false. It was simply a matter of re-administering the poison after a month, feigning recurring symptoms. By the time the conscripted bandits realized the trick months later, it would be too late—they could only curse the imperial court for its treachery.
Or, taking advantage of a windy day, stealthily setting fire to their stronghold. Liaozhou’s winters were windy and dry, making fires difficult to control once ignited. With their stronghold destroyed and grain supplies burned, bandits with families could return home, while those without had to seek alternatives.
Then there were tactics like spreading rumors and framing—stealing the wife of one stronghold’s leader and delivering her to another, or abducting the son of a different stronghold and leaving him in the first. This would sow discord between the two groups, and once their leaders had weakened each other in conflict, they could step in to mop up the remnants, recruiting the survivors…
Or perhaps…
After listening to these unscrupulous proposals, both Shen Yuan and Da Dangjia fell silent.
Da Dangjia began to regret his earlier impulse to invite Hu Lai into the discussion.
Though he had become an outlaw, he had always conducted himself with honor—killing when necessary, persuading when possible—never resorting to such vile tricks.
Watching Hu Lai expound these sinister strategies with an air of righteousness, the bandit leader couldn’t help but mutter to himself: Truly, officials are terrifying—all wolves in sheep’s clothing.
No wonder he could never become an official—he was far too much of a sheep in wolf’s clothing.
The room grew quiet. Noticing the silence, Hu Lai stroked his beard and asked, “Could it be that you both find these methods too underhanded?”
In truth, he had tried to be somewhat ethical. After all, he needed to recruit Shen Yuan for the Second Prince. Shen Yuan was known for his integrity and moral uprightness, and he despised deceitful tactics. Thus, Hu Lai had held back to avoid causing Shen Yuan to resent the Second Prince by association.
He had truly worn himself out worrying for the Second Prince!
Hu Lai moved himself to tears with his own devotion.
Seeing Hu Lai’s suddenly moist eyes, Shen Yuan assumed he felt wronged. Clearing his throat, he explained, “Not exactly. The goal of pacification is to bolster the imperial forces…”
Or even to use “bandits” to fight “bandits,” thereby reducing the threat they posed to the Jian’an Dynasty.
“So naturally, the more people, the better,” Shen Yuan mused. “These methods would cause significant loss of lives and resources. Especially with wildfires—once they spread, the consequences could be dire.”
Hu Lai twirled his beard. “If you want a gentler approach to pacification, the only option is to offer monetary rewards. But you… does the court have the funds?”
If they became the Second Prince’s private troops, Hu Lai could still find a way to reclaim the rewards, but if they became imperial soldiers, that would be difficult indeed. After all, mountain bandits are wild by nature. If provoked, it’s common for them to simply abandon their duties and flee.
“Squeezing them in is always possible.” Shen Yuan’s idea was to pacify them gently. If they refused, the people of Qianjin Zhai could suppress them by force.
The only concern was that the bandits’ intelligence network was extremely agile. If the mountain bandit strongholds learned of their actions and united in resistance, pacification would likely become difficult.
That was why he was here, asking Da Dangjia about the situation in the various strongholds.
“Ah, damn it, it’s so hard!” Da Dangjia slapped his thigh. “If only I could remember the names of all the leaders in the strongholds, and if their physiques weren’t so distinctive, I would have long ago flown into every stronghold with Wuji and cut off the leaders’ heads!”
Shen Yuan shook his head. “Those who become leaders must possess either intelligence or martial prowess. If we can persuade them, they could serve the court in official positions someday.”
Moreover, if all the leaders were killed, the bandits below would not readily submit to new leaders in a short time. Mountain bandits also value loyalty. If they discovered the new leaders were the ones who killed their old bosses, chaos would inevitably ensue.
“This won’t work, that won’t work—what a hassle.” Da Dangjia stood up. “Regarding the pacification, for my junior apprentice’s sake, I agree. As for the specifics, I’ll follow your instructions.”
He walked toward the door. “I’ll go prepare that ice sculpture for my junior apprentice first. That’s the most important matter.”
Just as he stepped outside, he saw Er Dangjia striding over with a brazier, excitedly saying, “Big brother! Look what we found!”
Inside the brazier were several black stones burning fiercely with flames. Er Dangjia placed the brazier on the ground and exclaimed, “Our Qianjin Zhai truly lives up to its name! This mountain is actually full of black gold!”
Black gold?
Er Dangjia’s voice was loud, drawing Shen Yuan and Hu Lai outside. Seeing the black stones burning in the brazier, they were both astonished.
Xie Chengze sauntered over. When he saw Hu Lai, he raised an eyebrow and asked, “What are you doing here?”
Hu Lai quickly bowed in greeting. “I came to help Lord Shen brainstorm pacification strategies, but unfortunately, I wasn’t of much use.”
Xie Chengze’s lips twitched. He exchanged a glance with Shen Yuan: What were you thinking, daring to use Hu Lai?!
Shen Yuan looked back helplessly: Da Dangjia asked. I couldn’t refuse.
“Stay put and don’t ruin my merits.” Xie Chengze patted Hu Lai’s shoulder with slight disdain. “Do you think accumulating merits is easy? If you ruin them all, this prince will end up in hell.”
Hu Lai quickly agreed.
“However, regarding pacification, this prince might have a feasible method.” Xie Chengze narrowed his eyes with a smile, like a mischievous kitten. “Though it’s a bit unscrupulous, as humans, when are we ever not unscrupulous?”
Hu Lai: ???
Your Highness? Weren’t you just telling me to be less unscrupulous? How come when it’s about yourself, it becomes “humans are always unscrupulous at times”?
Don’t be such a hypocrite!
The group returned indoors and listened as Xie Chengze lowered his voice, murmuring his idea. After a while, everyone in the room let out a collective sigh.
Second Prince, you are truly wicked!
——
Black Tiger Stronghold has struck it rich.
Recently, all the major mountain strongholds in Liaozhou have received this news.
It is said that Black Tiger Stronghold recently considered establishing a branch stronghold and thus set their sights on Qiantai Mountain, which had yet to be occupied by any bandits. Unexpectedly, while building the stronghold, they dug up black gold from the mountain.
That black gold could burn for days and, when sold in the county town, earned them a fortune. Black Tiger Stronghold immediately decided to wash their hands of banditry and start digging up the mountain to sell the black gold.
The other strongholds were green with envy. While they wanted to seize the black gold mine discovered by Black Tiger Stronghold for themselves, they were also wary of the evil spirit legends surrounding Qiantai Mountain. Just as they were planning to wait and see a little longer, they heard another piece of news.