If I made you cannon fodder, how did you manage to achieve your goal of conquering the wolf's l

Inside the mortuary in the west of Yunzhou City, the cold wind blew in through the broken doors and windows, stirring up the scraps of paper money on the ground, which then fluttered haphazardly in the dim candlelight.

The morgue was filled with a strong stench of decay and the pungent smell of vinegar, but at this moment, all the blood and coldness were replaced by a voice of questioning that was suppressed to the extreme.

Zhao Wu placed one foot on Hu Lie's chest, his boot applying slight pressure, causing Hu Lie, the former fifth-rank military officer of the General's Mansion, to let out a pig-like scream. Zhao Wu's scarred face was contorted with extreme anger, his eyes bloodshot, like a wild beast that had been thoroughly enraged.

"Hu Lie! You fucking open your eyes and see who I am!"

Zhao Wu gritted his bloodied teeth, each word seeming to be squeezed out from between his teeth, filled with burning hatred.

"Back in the Vanguard Battalion, I treated you like a brother I'd risk my life for! Every time rewards were distributed, I gave you the biggest share; when Chen Huaishan sent people to reprimand you, I took the blame for you in front of the General's Mansion! Back then, I risked my life for the Chen family, cheered for the General's Mansion, and cursed Xu Qingshan as a traitor and the North Wall as a bunch of ungrateful wretches!"

As Zhao Wu spoke, he became increasingly agitated, his emotions fluctuating wildly, and dark red blood seeped from the gauze wrapped around his chest once again.

"And what was the result?! On the way to deliver the Black Wind Stronghold's account books, I was used as a pawn by the assassins sent by Second Master and stabbed through the neck! If it weren't for the brothers of the Zhenbei Army digging me out of the horse feed cellar, I would be a rotten skeleton torn apart by wild dogs by now!"

Zhao Wu bent down, the steel dagger in his hand gliding gently against Hu Lie's cold cheek, the sharp tip of the blade bringing a chilling sensation.

"You, Hu Lie, are doing all this behind the scenes, working for the General's Mansion to hollow out the northern defenses, trading soldiers' lives for gold and silver. In the end, Chen Huaishan treats you like a mangy dog, using you and then throwing you away. He won't even leave you a proper corpse, stuffing you into a black coffin and smuggling you out of the city to silence you!"

"Zhao Wu...you...you traitor..." Hu Lie's ribs throbbed with pain from being stepped on, blood gushing from his mouth, his eyes filled with resentment and terror. "The Commander-in-Chief has shown me boundless kindness, and you...you dare to betray the General's Mansion..."

"Betrayal?!" Zhao Wu laughed in fury, his laughter sharp and hoarse. "I've been loyal to Chen Huaishan, but when has Chen Huaishan ever treated me like a human being?! In their eyes, we're nothing more than toilet paper to wipe their asses, shields to take the fall! Hu Lie, I'm telling you this right now: if you don't spill every last drop of the mess you've made with the Yunsunfang over the past three years, I won't use a knife today, I'll just use the soles of these shoes to crush your stinking mouth into a pulp!"

Zhao Wu's pent-up anger, coupled with his deep regret for having once been a lackey of the Chen family, was now transformed into the most ruthless interrogation weapon.

Hu Lie's mental defenses had already collapsed when the mortuary was intercepted. Now, facing his former boss, whom he used to know so well but now wished he could skin him alive, he could no longer hold on to the last bit of hope.

"Stop...stop stepping on me...I'll tell you! I'll tell you everything!"

Hu Lie was in excruciating pain all over his body, and he cried out in agony, scratching wildly with his hands in the mud.

Xu Qingshan, Liu Ruyan, and Tang Su, the border patrol commissioner, stood by, watching the scene silently from beginning to end. Xu Qingshan stood with his hands behind his back, his eyes calm as a deep pool, not stopping Zhao Wu's almost venting actions. He knew very well that ordinary torture was often less effective than this kind of "psychological attack" when dealing with such a seasoned veteran of officialdom and the black market.

As expected, under Zhao Wu's thunderous rage and psychological pressure, Hu Lie spilled all the shady secrets of the transportation damage room over the years.

"The Damage Handling Department... Since the President took over, the Damage Handling Department has indeed been under my direct supervision..."

Hu Lie was breathing heavily, and he explained in broken sentences:

"Every year, the grain, armor, and bows and crossbows delivered to the Beicang granary would be categorized and listed as war damage by the transport and damage control office under the names of 'damage caused by snow disaster, looting by bandits, and landslides on mountain roads,' as long as a secret note was sent from the General's Office!"

"Half of these 'damaged' supplies were secretly transported to the grasslands by Chen Huaiyi in exchange for gold dust, silver ingots, and sable pelts from the barbarians; the other half were directly sold to local thugs such as Black Wind Village and Wanhe Carriage Company, with Sun Kui and Ma Rong responsible for receiving and releasing them at Bailangji and several border outposts!"

"Every grain cart that Black Wind Stronghold robbed outside the north wall was actually a 'fake robbery'—a route we marked in advance and deliberately let pass through—to create the illusion of weak border defenses and rampant banditry, so that the imperial court would continue to allocate funds and grain!"

As Hu Lie poured out these shocking pieces of evidence, Tang Su, standing beside him, trembled with rage and pointed at Hu Lie, shouting angrily:

"Heinous! Corrupt officials! You treat the entire northern border defense line as your own cash cow! How dare you! How dare you!"

Liu Ruyan quickly stepped forward and wrote furiously on a blank confession with her brush, clearly recording the time, place, personnel involved, and route of the distribution of spoils as given by Hu Lie.

After Hu Lie had completely explained the entire chain of interests from beginning to end, Liu Ruyan handed the confession to Hu Lie and coldly said, "Sign it."

Hu Lie's face was ashen as he looked at the death warrant and pressed his bright red handprint on it with trembling hands.

"My lord... there's no need to ask anymore. All the accounts and all the transactions have come to an end with me. The commander-in-chief is extremely cautious; he never signs any account books, much less meets directly with those barbarians from the grasslands!"

"Every time I received orders for allocation or accounting, it was always relayed through a single verbal command from the General's personal guards..."

"Password?" Tang Su frowned. "With just a password, you dare to allocate tens of thousands of shi of military supplies from Yunzhou?!"

"Because that's what came from the Marshal's mansion!" Hu Lie smiled bitterly, a hint of despair in his eyes, a sign of abandonment. "Only a few core confidants in the General's office recognize the Marshal's personal token. If he says it's a password, then it's a military order! What can we, as his subordinates, do but obey?"

Upon hearing this, an eerie silence fell over the hall once again.

Zhao Wu kicked the bluestone next to Hu Lie angrily, gritting his teeth as he said to Xu Qingshan, "Centurion! This bastard has confessed everything, but Chen Huaishan still used the word 'password' to block out the crucial details. Without Chen Huaishan's handwritten order, even if we take this confession to the imperial court, we still won't be able to bring him down!"

Xu Qingshan nodded slightly, showing no surprise whatsoever.

He had long anticipated that a high-ranking official like Chen Huaishan, who had cultivated his influence at the border for fifteen years and held the highest rank, would never leave any incriminating evidence on paper that would lead to his utter downfall. Chen Huaiyi had fallen, Hu Lie had confessed, and even the dark secrets of the transport and damage control office had been exposed, but this only scratched the surface of Chen Huaishan's character and did not touch his core foundation.

If they insist on continuing the fight to the death and force Chen Huaishan to a desperate act, the imperial court, without conclusive evidence of treason, would never rashly replace a general in command of troops for the sake of stability in the northern border. In the end, the power struggle within the court might even plunge the northern border into an even more passive and isolated situation.

That's enough.

Xu Qingshan spoke calmly, stopping the furious Zhao Wu.

He walked slowly to Hu Lie, who was slumped in the mud, and looked down at the former commander of the transport and damage control battalion.

"Commander Xu... I've confessed everything I could and should confess..." Hu Lie raised his head, his eyes filled with a humble hope of survival. "Please, for the sake of us both being officers of the Great Qian Dynasty, give me a way out..."

Xu Qingshan remained expressionless, not even twitching the corners of his mouth.

"A way out? When you traded the lives of hundreds of brothers who froze to death or died in battle for gold and silver, did you ever think about giving them a way out?"

Xu Qingshan waved his hand and said calmly to Zhou Laoqi beside him, "Take him away and hand him over to the Imperial Envoy's guards for strict supervision. If even a single hair on his head is missing, I will hold you accountable."

"Yes, sir!" Zhou Laoqi responded, and together with two old soldiers from the Zhenbei Cavalry, dragged the ashen-faced Hu Lie out like a dead dog.

After the other people left, only Xu Qingshan, Liu Ruyan, Zhao Wu, and Tang Su, the border patrol commissioner who had been looking solemn, remained in the large courtyard of the mortuary.

Tang Su turned around, looked at Xu Qingshan with a complicated expression, and sighed:

"Commander Xu, although Hu Lie's confession didn't directly convict Chen Huaishan of death, combined with the remnants of the Beicang tents and the old grievances of the Black Wind Stronghold, it's enough to completely ruin Chen Huaishan's reputation in Yunzhou. I will now, in my capacity as the Border Inspector, submit a memorial to the capital, accusing him of lax military discipline and indulgence of his subordinates. At the very least, this should force him to relinquish some of the military power of the General's Office!"

Tang Su paused, his tone slightly tentative: "What... do you think?"

As night deepened, the faint sound of patrol clappers could be heard from the direction of Yunzhou City in the distance.

Xu Qingshan raised his head and looked at the towering eaves of the General's Mansion. In his eyes, which were like cold pools, there was no weakness or retreat. Instead, a sharp glint flashed in them.

He turned around, looked at Tang Su, and slowly shook his head.

"Lord Tang, we're not in a hurry to get into those endless legal battles with him over memorials in Yunzhou."

Xu Qingshan's voice was deep and resolute, carrying an air of disdain:

"Chen Huaishan managed Yunzhou for fifteen years, not because of the imperial court's praise, but because of the military power and supply lines he held."

Tang Su frowned slightly: "So you're planning to... stop here?"

Xu Qingshan's lips slowly curled into a cold smile.

"stop?"

He turned around, his gaze falling on the vast, cold night sky to the north, and said, word by word:

"The debt that the Yunzhou General's Office owes to the North Wall has only been settled to a fraction of its original amount today."

"Now that we've secured this victory in Yunzhou's officialdom, we must naturally transform all the remaining gains into our own strength."

"Lord Tang, let's not argue with him in Yunzhou—"

"This time, we'll start by collecting interest."