My Cold-Hearted Wife Chapter 105

Xie Xuanying, who served at the emperor’s side, was among the first to learn of the rebellion in Shandong.

He did not immediately volunteer to lead a campaign against the rebels. Instead, he quietly observed the court for several days, watching as the emperor and his senior ministers debated whether to suppress the rebellion by force or pacify the rebels through negotiation.

Both sides had their reasons. Those who advocated suppression argued that such a precedent must not be set, lest others follow suit. Those who favored pacification maintained that Shandong was not a place where the court could afford to fight on two fronts. Negotiations would be more convenient and save them the trouble of being attacked from both sides. Once the court had its hands free, it could deal with the rebels at its leisure.

The emperor did not immediately make his position clear. As he pondered the matter, he habitually turned to Xie Xuanying and asked, “San-lang, what do you think?”

“The rebel leader must be killed,” Xie Xuanying replied.

The emperor raised an eyebrow. “Oh? Why?”

“Eternal Venerable Mother is spreading heresy and deceiving the masses. She must not be allowed to get away with it,” he said. “If the court grants her legitimacy, I fear even more ignorant commoners will join her sect, and it will become a grave threat to the state.”

Whenever a rebellion was launched in the name of a religious sect, its leader was bound to be deified.

Eternal Venerable Mother was no exception. According to legend, she was nearly seventy years old, yet still looked like a woman in her thirties. She possessed supernatural powers and was said to be the reincarnation of the Eternal Venerable Mother herself. She would lead her followers to the sacred land in Heaven known as the True Emptiness, their spiritual homeland.

A leader like her was different from an ordinary rebel chieftain. If the court granted her recognition, the people would take it as an endorsement of the Wusheng Cult. More and more would join its ranks and acknowledge the Eternal Venerable Mother as their leader.

Her influence would continue to grow until it became a threat to imperial authority.

The emperor nodded, then asked, “Do you have a good strategy in mind?”

“The rebel army claims to number thirty thousand, but at most ten thousand of them are able-bodied men,” Xie Xuanying said thoughtfully. “Based on the number of government-registered horse-raising households in Shandong, their most troublesome force should be two or three thousand cavalrymen. As long as we defeat those three thousand horsemen, the rest will be nothing to worry about.”

Ordinary commoners, even if they joined a rebellion, could hardly capture so many county seats in one fell swoop. They simply would not have enough weapons. The main reason this rebel army was so formidable was its cavalry.

But how had the commoners managed to obtain so many horses? It was not necessarily because they had colluded with the military. The truth was that the commoners themselves raised horses.

In Great Xia, horses were raised under two systems: military and civilian. Under the military system, the army was responsible for raising horses; under the civilian system, horses were raised by the general populace. Beijing, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Jiangnan had all been assigned specific quotas.

In some places, people paid money towards the cost of raising horses. In others, they were required to raise the horses themselves. Shandong belonged to the latter category.

Many households raised horses on their own. But if raising chickens was already difficult, raising horses was even more so. If anything happened to a horse, the household would have to compensate the imperial court. The corruption that arose from this arrangement hardly needed explaining.

Unable to bear the burden any longer, many horse-raising households had turned to banditry.

When the Wusheng Cult rose in rebellion, numerous horse bandits flocked to join them. Their numbers swelled like a rolling snowball, eventually reaching as many as thirty thousand.

Of course, it was uncertain whether they really numbered thirty thousand, but there were certainly at least ten thousand. Shandong had approximately thirty thousand government-registered horse-raising households, meaning there were thirty thousand horses.

After the rebels captured multiple county seats, there was little doubt they had seized at least a thousand horses.

These formed the core of the rebel army. As long as the court’s forces could eliminate the troublesome cavalry, the infantry would be no match for Great Xia’s regular troops.

However, Xie Xuanying also acknowledged, “The rebels have the advantage of terrain. Most of them were originally horse bandits, and they are entrenched in fortified strongholds. They won’t be easy to defeat.”

The emperor asked, “Anything else?”

After thinking for a moment, Xie Xuanying said, “Horse bandits are ruthless raiders who kill readily and covet wealth and possessions. Their goals differ from those of the Wusheng Cult. They have joined Eternal Venerable Mother merely because they stand to gain from it. We could try to win over a few of them and use them to sow discord within the rebel army. Most members of the Wusheng Cult are ignorant commoners. Once their leader is dead, her heretical teachings will collapse on their own, and the rebels’ morale will crumble with them.

“However, this is only a temporary solution. If we cannot contain the epidemic in the mountain caves in time, provide disaster relief, and distribute grain to the victims, I fear another reincarnation of the Eternal Venerable Mother will soon appear, and the rebellion will rise again.”

The emperor was greatly pleased.

Xie Xuanying could not yet offer concrete details about leading troops to suppress the rebellion, such as how many soldiers and horses would be needed, which route to take, or how the army should advance. Nevertheless, his overall strategy for putting down the rebellion was sound.

Military action was necessary, and the key was the rebel leader, Eternal Venerable Mother. But fighting alone would not be enough. The court also needed to restore order and divide the sect’s followers, lest the government troops suppress the rebellion only for the faithful to turn around and proclaim a second leader.

In other words, the boy needed practical experience.

The emperor smiled and asked, “You’ve thought this through quite thoroughly. It seems you do have ideas of your own.”

With the opportunity laid right before him, Xie Xuanying was hardly going to let it slip away. He immediately replied, “I am willing to help relieve Your Majesty of your worries.”

The emperor did not agree straightaway. Instead, he said, “Bring the memorial submitted by the Embroidered Uniform Guard for San-lang to read.”

“Yes, Your Majesty.” Eunuch Shi personally went to fetch the secret report from the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Xie Xuanying accepted the report respectfully and began reading through it at a leisurely pace.

Before long, he realized the situation was even more serious than he had imagined.

The Wusheng Cult had been growing in Shandong for more than a year. The reason it had launched a rebellion this year was closely tied to the spring drought. The previous year had brought devastating floods, and this year came a drought. The crops in the fields could neither be harvested nor replanted, and large numbers of commoners starved to death. Some refugees who had left early fled north, while most pinned their hopes on the summer rains. To their dismay, the summer brought little rain as well. Household grain reserves ran out, leaving countless people on the brink of starvation.

Had the local authorities taken in the refugees and opened the granaries to distribute grain in time, the situation might not have deteriorated so badly.

Yet aside from a handful of officials with a conscience who provided relief to the disaster victims, most powerful clans and wealthy landowners seized the opportunity to annex their land.

Then, just as the starving refugees were struggling to survive, an epidemic broke out among them. Vast numbers of already desperate refugees died, eventually triggering an uprising.

When the Wusheng Cult raised the banner of rebellion, it immediately found widespread support.

Eternal Venerable Mother’s common name was Bai Mingyue. According to reports, she always wore white and was renowned for her compassion. She had cured many sick refugees and possessed magical powers that protected her from harm. Whenever she recited the Rebirth Mantra for the deceased, extraordinary and miraculous phenomena would occur.

She would rise into the air and sit cross-legged upon a lotus throne, while snow-white crystals formed on the ritual staff in her hand, filling the surroundings with a rich fragrance.

These wondrous manifestations were not merely rumors invented by ignorant peasants. At least a thousand people had witnessed similar phenomena with their own eyes.

The most recent occurrence had taken place in a county town captured by the Wusheng Cult. When Bai Mingyue recited the mantra for deceased members of the sect, ordinary townspeople and even surviving government officials had witnessed the spectacle firsthand.

By the time Xie Xuanying reached this part of the report, he understood.

Even these supernatural manifestations alone would make it impossible for the emperor to consider pacifying the rebels through negotiation.

He continued reading. The next section detailed the Embroidered Uniform Guard’s investigation into the rebel forces.

The Wusheng Cult claimed that Bai Mingyue was the reincarnation of the Eternal Venerable Mother, but the cult had a different person serving as its actual leader. Beneath him were three altar masters, each commanding several incense leaders. The incense leaders were responsible for ordinary followers, and the cult maintained a clearly defined hierarchy.

According to estimates, the Cult Leader Bai and each of the three altar masters commanded nearly two thousand troops. Bai Mingyue herself had several hundred men in a separate force known as the Arhat Army, which served as her personal guard.

In addition, two bands of horse bandits had joined the Wusheng Cult and been appointed its Left and Right Protectors. Each claimed to command three thousand men, though after excluding the elderly, the weak, women, and children, their actual fighting strength was probably no more than two thousand apiece.

The remaining ten thousand could, for the time being, be counted as ordinary civilians who had been swept into the rebellion.

At present, the rebels were mainly active in northern Qingzhou and were gradually advancing towards Jinan Prefecture.

“What have you gleaned from it?” the emperor asked.

“The rebels launched their uprising in Yidu County because they had correctly judged that the main forces of the Qingzhou Guard had been dispatched to the Laian area in the north, where they were coordinating with Laizhou and Dengzhou to fight pirates. This left Qingzhou’s defenses depleted, giving the rebels the confidence to act so boldly. Afterward, they moved south, capturing Linqu and Yishui counties, followed by Mengyin. Their next target will likely be either Tai’an or Jining. Once Jining falls into rebel hands, they will be able to exploit the Grand Canal to seize grain shipments and military supplies.”

The admiration in the emperor’s eyes deepened.

He could tell that while Xie Xuanying might have been taught some of his earlier ideas by the Marquis of Jinghai, the report had not yet been made public. This meant the analysis he had just offered must have come from Xie Xuanying himself.

“Which do you think it will be, Tai’an or Jining?” the emperor asked, testing him.

Xie Xuanying considered the question. “I fear it will still be Jining, even though Tai’an would be the better choice. If they captured Tai’an, they could link up with Mengyin to form a defensive barrier. With the mountains at their backs, they would be easy to defend and difficult to attack. If government troops were sent to suppress them, they could take advantage of the mountainous terrain to disperse and disappear into the forests. However, Jining is prosperous and rich in goods and wealth. The rebels will inevitably be tempted by it.”

The emperor nodded, then suddenly remarked, “The Marquis of Changping told me that even if the rebels capture Jining, the situation will be troublesome but not beyond our control. If they take Tai’an, however, they could become a grave threat to the heart of the empire.”

Xie Xuanying immediately understood. Beyond the two geographical advantages he had just mentioned, there was another, more subtle reason.

Mount Tai.

“My understanding is still shallow. The Marquis of Changping has far more experience and greater foresight than I do,” he promptly admitted, reflecting on his oversight.

The emperor laughed. “You are still young. It is already no small achievement to have thought this far. Why demand so much of yourself?”

Yet for all their careful analysis, neither the emperor nor his minister had anticipated that the rebels would not act according to their expectations.

The Wusheng Cult did move south, but instead of heading straight for Jining, it slipped into the prefectural capital of Yanzhou and made directly for Prince Lu’s residence, where it kidnapped Prince Lu.

When the Dowager Consort heard the devastating news, she fell ill on the spot. Nevertheless, she forced herself to write a letter to the capital.

But rather than pleading with the imperial court to send troops to rescue her son, she declared that the rebels had already killed him and asked the emperor to appoint her grandson as the heir apparent to the princedom.

The emperor was left with decidedly mixed feelings.

For a prince of the imperial house to be taken captive was a disgrace of the highest order. However, Prince Lu was truly a brutal man. In January, his consort had brought their grandson to the capital and revealed that the prince had killed both his eldest son and eldest daughter-in-law. She herself had also been disfigured, and had ultimately resorted to setting herself on fire to ensure that her grandson could remain in the capital and live.

Judging from the Dowager Consort’s letter, even his own mother could no longer tolerate him and would rather consider him dead. This alone spoke volumes about his cruelty.

The Dowager Consort was clearly a woman who put the greater good first, saving the imperial court a great deal of trouble.

With that, the debate was over.

If a prince had supposedly been killed, how could the court agree to negotiate with the rebels and grant them amnesty? Where would its dignity be? The ministers therefore began discussing who should lead the troops.

Suppressing a rebellion was a much easier assignment than fighting the Tartars, the Oirats, or pirates, so various parties were eager to seize the opportunity. The Marquis of Jinghai was one such candidate.

As the commander of the Left Military Command, he had jurisdiction over the Shandong Military Command. Both by duty and by reason, he ought to lead the troops there himself. Naturally, he would also bring along his second son, giving the young man an opportunity to earn military merit and advance his career.

However, the emperor had already made his decision.

He appointed the Commissioner of Shandong as deputy commander-in-chief to take charge of suppressing the rebellion. He also ordered two thousand troops to be transferred from another province to assist in the campaign, and dispatched Xie Xuanying to Shandong with two thousand imperial guards to reinforce the government forces.

This appointment was a remarkably delicate compromise, falling neatly along the fault line of the ministers’ conflicting interests.

Military affairs in Shandong should, by rights, have been handled by the Regional Commissioner. The main reason he had been able to leave his post was that pirates had invaded Dengzhou, prompting the emperor to appoint the Marquis of Changping as commander-in-chief to lead the campaign against them.

Thus, appointing the Regional Commissioner to lead the suppression of the rebellion was entirely justified. He was also familiar with the situation in Shandong, unlike an outsider who might not even know how many mountains the province had.

As for Xie Xuanying, the two thousand troops under his command were neither too many nor too few. Any more, and people might question whether someone so young and inexperienced in military command was fit to lead such a force. Any fewer, and his involvement would be meaningless.

In his current position as deputy commander, the heads of the other prominent noble families considered him beneath their notice, while the younger members of those families lacked the ability to compete for the appointment.

After all, Xie Xuanying was also the Marquis of Jinghai’s own son.

With the son of one’s superior serving as deputy, no one would dare neglect their duties.

The only person who was naturally furious was Second Young Master Xie.

That night, Second Young Master Xie returned home and dismissed the maids. He sneered at Second Madam Rong. “I told you San-lang wasn’t as simple as he appeared. Now his fox’s tail has finally shown itself, hasn’t it? He’s been keeping quiet all this time, yet he’s managed to pull off something so significant.”

The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He raised his hand and hurled the teacup his wife had just handed him.

The cup struck the floor with a sharp crash and shattered into pieces.