Late Ming Dynasty: Summoning players from Liaodong to support the Ming Dynasty

The main house of Guanyi.

The celadon teacup shattered into pieces on the floor tiles.

The warm tea, mixed with tea leaves, soaked a small patch of the blue brick.

Lu Jian shook the water off his hands, revealing bulging veins on the back of his hands. Four elite guards from the Northern Garrison stood dejectedly before him, not daring to even breathe loudly.

The room was deathly silent.

The charcoal in the brazier crackled and popped as it burned.

The path of the Heavenly Soldiers is a dead end.

These immortal, savage lunatics, spouting coded language, are beyond the comprehension of common sense. The Northern Garrison's pride in its interrogation, assassination, and infiltration tactics have all become a farcical spectacle.

Lu Jian snorted coldly, flicked his toe, and kicked a blood-stained shard of porcelain into a corner.

Monsters have no weaknesses, but living people always do.

In addition to the imperial soldiers, there were tens of thousands of living Ming soldiers and civilians in Guangning City.

As long as one eats grains and cereals, one will have seven emotions and six desires, and will have greed, anger, and ignorance, and will have cracks that can be torn open.

He raised his hand and pointed to the gaunt man standing on the far left.

"Mockingbird".

The gaunt man shuddered and immediately stepped forward, clasping his hands in a fist salute: "Your subordinate is here!"

As his name suggests, Bai She (百舌) had an unassuming, honest face that made people feel completely at ease, yet his tongue was so sharp it could talk the dead back to life. In the capital, he once used his silver tongue to incite two hereditary marquises to draw their swords against each other.

"If we can't find out with the heavenly soldiers, then let's go and investigate the local inhabitants of this city." Lu Jian's voice was low. "Those old generals and clerks under Chu Ze can't all have gone mad. Let's sow discord, bribe them, and dig out the grievances in their hearts."

Mockingbird obeyed the order and turned to disappear into the night.

The following morning, at the Guangning City camp.

Wang Erniu had just finished training a batch of new recruits. He took off his helmet, tucked it under his arm, and walked out of the camp gate, cursing under his breath. His faded old cotton armor was covered in dust, and his bronze face was covered in sweat.

Bai She had changed into the clothes of an ordinary merchant, carrying two jars of fine liquor, and was waiting outside the camp gate early in the morning. When he saw Wang Erniu come out, he immediately put on a big smile and went to greet him.

"Commander Wang! This humble subject greets you!" Bai She raised his wine jar, the aroma of which filled the air. "This humble subject has just brought several jars of fine wine from within the Great Wall. I have long admired your reputation for slaying the Tartars, and have come to offer my respects!"

Wang Erniu sniffed and his Adam's apple bobbed. He was a lifelong heavy drinker, and the strong aroma of this strong liquor was indeed enticing. He strode over, took a jar without hesitation, broke the mud seal, and took a big gulp.

"Good wine!" Wang Erniu wiped his mouth, glancing sideways at Bai She. "Why are you being so helpful? Tell me, what trouble have you run into?"

Bai She looked around, lowered her voice, and feigned a heartbroken expression: "My lord, I am speaking out on your behalf!"

Wang Erniu paused, his thick eyebrows furrowing: "What kind of chain of farts are you spouting?"

Bai She sighed and took a half-step closer: "You are the pillar of Guangning City, a veteran who fought his way through countless battles! But look at the city now, it's a mess, completely overshadowed by those heavenly soldiers who appeared out of nowhere. They act arrogantly, have no discipline, and show no respect for you, their old commander. General Chu is too biased, giving them all the good equipment and good positions, leaving a meritorious official like you out in the cold..."

Before he could finish speaking, Momo suddenly felt his collar tighten.

Wang Erniu grabbed Bai She's clothes with his large, fan-like hand, his arm muscles bulging, and forcefully lifted Bai She's feet off the ground.

The wine jar slammed to the ground with a "bang," sending shards of porcelain and strong liquor flying everywhere.

Bai She's feet were dangling in the air, he was having trouble breathing, and his face was flushed red. He stared in horror at Wang Erniu's face, which was so close to his own. There was no trace of grievance on that face, only rage, as if his secret had been exposed.

"You know nothing!" Wang Erniu's eyes, as big as copper bells, glared wide, spitting all over Bai She's face. "These heavenly soldiers are men of passion! When they were killing the Tartars, you, you little brat, were still nursing in your mother's womb! Without them, I and all the people in this city would have been ghosts under the Jurchens' swords long ago!"

Wang Erniu grew angrier as he spoke, and with his other hand he suddenly drew the nicked ring-pommel sword from his waist, the cold blade striking Bai She directly on the cheek.

"I'm a rough man, I don't understand your convoluted ways! I only believe in the law: whoever can kill the Tartars, whoever can protect Guangning City, is my man! If you dare to say another word against the Heavenly Soldiers in front of me, I'll skin you alive and cut out your tongue to feed the wild dogs!"

Wang Erniu swung his arm and flung Bai She away.

Mockingbird rolled seven or eight times on the ground before crashing into a hitching post and nearly passing out. He clutched his chest, watching Wang Erniu turn and leave with his knife, a chill running down his spine.

This is not a marginalized veteran at all! This is clearly a fanatical believer who has been thoroughly brainwashed! The old military regulations and the tradition of seniority have been completely erased from Wang Erniu's mind.

Mockingbird got up, brushed the dirt off its body, and gritted its teeth.

Military generals are crude and easily swayed by military achievements, while scholars should always possess some integrity.

He left the military camp and headed straight for the granary south of the city.

Outside the granary, hundreds of dusty-looking players were chanting as they hauled cartloads of potatoes, freshly dug from the ground, into the warehouse.

Li Xunyi stood at the warehouse entrance, wearing a patched blue scholar's robe and old crystal glasses perched on his nose. He held a thick ledger in his hands, rapidly recording numbers with a brush pen, muttering to himself, his beard trembling with excitement.

Momo straightened his clothes, put on a worried expression, stepped forward and bowed deeply to the ground.

"Mr. Li, I am very grateful for your courtesy."

Li Xunyi didn't even look up, his pen still moving: "What is it? If you want to collect your rations, go line up on the west side, don't block the way to the warehouse."

Mockingbird straightened up and let out a long, feigned sigh of pain: "This junior has not come to collect provisions, but rather to lament that a learned man like you, sir, has stooped to associating with these vulgar and arrogant scoundrels! General Chu, your indulgence of the Heavenly Soldiers, with their bizarre and frivolous skills flying everywhere, violates the teachings of the sages. Now, in Guangning City, people only know the Heavenly Soldiers, not the imperial court. Your actions, General, smack of a military man disrupting the government!"

He thought these words would strike at the old Confucian scholar's weakness in adhering to etiquette.

Li Xunyi abruptly stopped writing with his brush.

He made a heavy dot of ink on the ledger, raised his head, and stared intently at Mockingbird through his crystal glasses.

"absurd!"

The old scholar slammed the account book onto the wooden table beside him, causing ink from the inkstone to splash out and stain his sleeves black. He was thin, but at this moment he exuded a chilling aura, pointing at Mockingbird's nose and cursing loudly.

"Ignorant brat, how dare you bark like that!" Li Xunyi trembled with rage. "General, this is the way of expediency, doing extraordinary things in extraordinary times! Confucius said, 'The superior man understands righteousness.' Although the Heavenly Army acts unruly, they are driven by the great righteousness of protecting their homeland! Do you even know what righteousness is?"

He grabbed a muddy potato from the table and almost shoved it into Mockingjay's face.

"Look at this! This is a divine seed that can save countless lives! With it, the people of Liaodong will no longer have to resort to cannibalism! General Chu was able to guide the heavenly soldiers to create refined steel and grow high-yield grains. This is a blessing from heaven for our Great Ming Dynasty, and a true wisdom for governing the world and benefiting the people!"

Li Xunyi's shouts grew louder and louder, attracting the attention of the players around him who were carrying supplies.

"You, spouting platitudes of benevolence and morality, are in reality a wicked and depraved man! Instead of serving your country, you stir up trouble here—this is not the behavior of a gentleman! Guards, throw this foul-mouthed pedant out of here!"

Several players had long disliked the Silencer, so they immediately abandoned their carts and eagerly surrounded it.

"Old man, has this NPC become hostile?"

"Dare to mess with our logistics chief? Brothers, beat him up!"

The Mockingbird was terrified and scrambled out of the granary area, chased by several players who were throwing potatoes.

At the same time, several other secret agents were also conducting undercover investigations in various corners of the city.

The spy codenamed "Bee Sting" sneaked into a newly built residential area. He intended to extract some complaints from the lowest-ranking people. The common people feared war the most, and the strange behavior of the heavenly soldiers would surely disturb the people.

He knocked on the gate of a house. An old woman with a wrinkled face was cooking porridge in the yard. Thick potato chunks were bubbling in the iron pot, and the aroma was irresistible.

Pretending to be a passerby asking for water, Bee Sting took a sip and tentatively asked, "Auntie, there are all those strange heavenly soldiers everywhere in this city. Do they always bully us common folk?"

The old woman added a handful of firewood to the stove, wiped the sweat from her forehead with the back of her hand, which was covered in soot, and grinned, revealing her missing front tooth.

"Young man, you're being heartless. The Heavenly Soldiers are a bit strange, spouting incomprehensible gibberish and always climbing onto rooftops. Sometimes they even playfully slash at each other in the street. But since they came, we've been able to eat our fill and sleep soundly at night, no longer waking up in the middle of the night fearing the Tartars will breach the city."

The old woman pointed to the brand-new roof tiles above her head.

"The night before last, it snowed heavily, and my roof was leaking. A heavenly soldier happened to pass by, climbed up without saying a word, and fixed it for me. He didn't even have a sip of hot water before running off, muttering something about completing his daily mission. If anyone dares to say a bad word about them, my old woman will be the first to grab a broom and chase them out!"

The bee, holding the bowl of water, remained silent.

He traveled throughout half the city, asking blacksmiths, farmers, and merchants. The answers he received were remarkably consistent.

The people were indeed afraid of the strangeness of the heavenly soldiers, but that fear had been replaced by fervent gratitude. The heavenly soldiers brought absolute safety, inexhaustible food, and unprecedented vitality.

In this chaotic world, those who can feed people and help them survive are living bodhisattvas. As for whether these bodhisattvas occasionally run naked in the streets, ordinary people don't care at all.

Night fell again.

The charcoal brazier in the inn was relit.

Lu Jian sat in the large chair, listening to the reports from Bai She and several of the imperial guards.

Bai She still had a bruise on his face, left from hitting the door frame while fleeing. He lowered his head and repeated Wang Erniu and Li Xunyi's reactions in a dry voice.

Bai She still had a bruise on his face, left from hitting the door frame while fleeing. He lowered his head and repeated Wang Erniu and Li Xunyi's reactions in a dry voice.

The other guards also stepped forward to report what they had seen and heard that day.

"Boss, I went to the workshop area in the north of the city. The blast furnaces there run day and night. I saw with my own eyes the molten iron flowing out like a river. Those heavenly soldiers use a strange mold, and they can cast hundreds of fine steel ingots in half an hour. The quality of that steel is even better than the steel refined by the Imperial Arsenal in the capital!"

"I went to the cellars in the south. There were dozens of large cellars, all piled high with this stuff called potatoes. I secretly broke off a piece and tasted it; it was enough to stave off hunger. That quantity is enough to feed the 100,000 soldiers and civilians of Guangning City for half a year!"

"I have inspected the city walls. That thing called cement, once it dries completely, is so hard that even a steel spike can't penetrate it. The cannons on the city walls have all been modified; their range and accuracy far exceed those of standard Ming dynasty firearms."

The sound of the report echoed inside the room.

Lu Jian remained silent for a long time.

On the table in front of him lay the map of Guangning City. He held a vermilion pen in his hand, the tip of which hovered over the map.

Blast furnaces, farmland, cement city walls, gunpowder workshops, generals thoroughly brainwashed by the heavenly soldiers, and the city's residents filled with gratitude towards Chu Ze.

Lu Jian slammed the vermilion pen heavily on the table.

He had previously focused his attention on the immortal heavenly soldiers, believing them to be Chu Ze's greatest trump card.

He was wrong. Utterly wrong.

Chu Ze was not building a strong military fortress in Guangning at all.

He created a monster here.

A monster capable of producing its own grain, forging its own iron, manufacturing its own weapons, and uniting its own people. The nascent form of an independent kingdom, completely detached from the Ming Dynasty's logistical supply system and capable of self-sufficiency!

Wang Erniu and Li Xunyi's reactions proved that Chu Ze not only controlled the Heavenly Army, but also the thoughts of everyone in the city. The old order, etiquette, and imperial power had been crushed here by Chu Ze with real food and victory.

Once this prototype has fully taken shape, once the refined steel produced by that blast furnace can arm an army of 100,000, once those high-yield crops cover the entire Liaodong region...

Lu Jian suddenly stood up, walked to the window, and pushed it open.

A cold night wind blew in, causing the charcoal fire to flicker.

In the distance, Guangning City remained brightly lit, with black smoke from the blast furnaces rising straight into the sky, and the frenzied shouts of the heavenly soldiers could be faintly heard.

This terrified him even more than the celestial soldiers themselves. No matter how powerful the celestial soldiers were, they were still just blades. But Chu Ze was building a colossal war machine that could continuously wield that blade.

"Boss..." Bai She swallowed hard and asked in a low voice, "What should we do now? Everyone in this city has gone mad."

Lu Jian stared intently at the lights in the distance.

"Write down everything we found today in a secret report, word for word: the quantity of supplies, the output of the blast furnace, and the words and actions of the generals in the city." Lu Jian's voice was as cold as ice. "Send it back to the capital by express courier."

He turned around, his face terribly grim.

"This city is no longer Guangning of the Ming Dynasty." Lu Jian gritted his teeth, enunciating each word clearly. "This is Guangning of Chu Ze."

The imperial guards all shuddered. They understood the weight of those words. Once this secret report reached the emperor's desk, the emperor in the Forbidden City would surely be unable to sleep at night.

Most importantly, even if Chu Ze had just pledged his loyalty, what would Emperor Chongzhen in the capital think?

Chu Ze used the narrative of destiny to cover up the truth about the heavenly soldiers, but he could not conceal the sharp edge of their enormous war potential.

This struggle over power and perception has only just begun.