Chapter 760
Chapter 760
The next day, Ying Qi went to see Crown Prince Ying Zheng.
"Your Highness, several months have passed since Father sent the royal decree to the Xue Clan, yet they still refuse to implement the New Policies, having sent neither the military register nor the maps of their fiefdom. I request to go on Father's behalf to reprimand the Xue Clan and compel them to execute the New Policies, surrender their fief, and disband their army."
*Ying Qi is going south to the Xue Clan?*
Ying Zheng was silent for a long moment before he spoke.
"Third Brother, wouldn't it be better for you to stay in the capital?"
"I volunteer to go to the Xue Clan and press them to implement the New Policies. I ask for Your Highness's permission."
"Third Brother, if you go this time, there will be no turning back."
"I have never considered turning back. Your Highness might as well arrest and imprison me now."
Ying Zheng stared at Ying Qi for a long time. He was magnanimous, but he was by no means conventional, indecisive, or soft-hearted. Even if he didn't kill Ying Qi, he could cripple his martial arts and place him under strict confinement—that had been Ying Zheng's original plan. However, the reason he and Ning Yuanxian had not yet done so was because the state of the world had changed.
"Third Brother, even if you have a plan, can't you wait quietly in the capital?"
"That would make me seem too incompetent."
"Then do you remember what Father said to you?"
"I remember."
Ying Zheng thought for a moment, then asked.
"What are your thoughts on Prince Jiang Li?"
"A great hero, a hero of his generation. But he tried to defy the heavens with human strength, which was truly unwise. Not only did he fail to achieve his goal, but he also brought disaster upon countless people, did he not?"
"I don't see it that way. Prince Jiang Li may have failed, but he left an incredibly rich legacy for the world and gave hope to many. At the very least, the people of the world were able to open their eyes a little to the true world."
"One must first survive before one can speak of the absurdity of changing the world."
"Third Brother, are you truly determined to go?"
"I ask for Your Highness's permission."
"Very well. Then go."
Two days later, the Third Prince, Ying Qi, headed south to the Xue Clan to reprimand Xue Che and urge him to implement the New Policies. This left the people of the capital, and even the civil and military officials, utterly bewildered.
*What is this? Isn't this like releasing a tiger back into the mountains? Your Highness Ying Zheng, Your Majesty the King, are you really being so conventional as to show favoritism because of blood ties? Isn't this a struggle for the throne? It's one thing not to kill Ying Qi, but shouldn't you at least cripple his martial arts and imprison him? And now you're letting him leave the capital? What does this mean? We truly don't understand. Could it be that some change has occurred that we are unaware of?*
Indeed, no one could understand the situation. Ying Jiang, Ying Ji, and Wang Shengchu even rushed to Ying Zheng, speaking frantically, calling him pedantic, and begging him to retract the order. Wang Shengchu, spittle flying from his mouth, urged Ying Zheng to have Ying Qi assassinated before he reached the Xue Clan, but Ying Zheng refused. So, Wang Shengchu, Ying Jiang, and Ying Ji conspired in secret, intending to use the power of the Imperial Secretariat and the Privy Council to have Ying Qi killed.
Wang Shengchu declared with harsh and vehement words that since the king could not bear to kill his son, and the crown prince was unwilling to commit fratricide, it was up to them, the subjects, to do such things for the sake of the State of Yue. The three then planned a route to ambush Ying Qi and secretly dispatched troops to kill him. However, before their plan could be executed, Ning Yuanxian sent the Grand Eunuch Lü Jun to stop them. As the situation unfolded, they found themselves even more unable to comprehend the king's intention to protect Ying Qi.
*Why? Even if they don't kill him, they should at least imprison him. Aren't they afraid he will bring harm to the state if left alive? Why are they doing this? What change has occurred in the state of the world?*
***
The King of Yue once again issued a decree to Xue Che, ordering him to immediately implement the New Policies, surrender his fief, and withdraw his private army, but the Xue Clan pretended not to hear and paid it no mind. The Third Prince, Ying Qi, entered the Xue Clan's territory with the king's decree, after which all contact was lost, and he never returned. King Ning Yuanxian issued a decree reprimanding the Xue Clan, stating that daring to detain a prince was tantamount to rebellion, and that Xue Che must release Ying Qi within half a month and come to the capital to plead for his crimes. The Xue Clan still remained silent. King Ning Yuanxian could bear it no longer and formally declared to the world:
**
Two days later, King Ning Yuanxian once again proclaimed to the world:
**
Not long after the end of one civil war, another erupted in the State of Yue. However, unlike the Zhong Clan, the Xue Clan remained silent from beginning to end. They neither raised the banner of mobilizing troops to save the royal family nor declared themselves to be on the side of justice.
***
"Second Nirvana Army, board the ships!"
At the command, three thousand soldiers of the Nirvana Army boarded the ships in an orderly fashion. It was the Jin Clan's fleet, consisting of a full forty warships. Shen Lang, who had not been seen for a long time, appeared on the flagship, the incomparably beautiful Mulan at his side. In front of Shen Lang stood a large blackboard, upon which was written a single character: 'Xue.' To rid the world of enemies?! This was likely Shen Lang's final enemy.
Xue Che! He was a man with a blood feud against the Jin Clan. The Jin Clan had shown the Xue Clan a kindness as great as a mountain. If not for the Count of Jinzhou, the Xue Clan would have been annihilated over a hundred years ago. Nevertheless, more than twenty years ago, Xue Che conspired with the Hidden Yuan Society and Qiu Tianwei, the deceased Pirate King, to plot against Count Jin Yu, resulting in a catastrophic disaster for the Jin Clan.
Not only that, Xue Che had repeatedly used the power of Mount Budao to try and assassinate Shen Lang, and even schemed to ensure Jin Mulan, after giving birth, would not receive timely treatment and would die in her sickbed. A few months ago, Xue Che had also attempted to murder Ying Zheng on the Great Snow Mountain and had severed the left hand of Li Qianqiu's wife. Xue Xue had posed as an orphan to steal the secret manual from the Sword King and had tried to poison the Sword King's wife, her own adoptive mother. The deeds of this family knew no bounds; they were far more vicious than Su Nan. Thus, Shen Lang had to eradicate the entire Xue Clan.
"Husband, after we eliminate the Xue Clan, will we leave the State of Yue immediately?"
Mulan asked, and Shen Lang nodded. Mulan spoke in a gentle voice.
"I'm really looking forward to that moment."
"Last time, it took three years to destroy our enemy, the Su Clan. I never expected it would take this long to finally eliminate the Xue Clan. Because of them, I've missed out on so much precious time."
"Husband, how long will it take to eliminate the Xue Clan this time?"
"About twenty days! My love, this time, in eliminating the Xue Clan, we will likely stage the most astonishing, miraculous scene."
"Yes. I guarantee it will be ten times more astounding than when we eliminated King Jiang A'rotai, or when we eliminated the Pirate King Qiu Tianwei."
When eliminating the Pirate King Qiu Tianwei, Shen Lang used his most triumphant method. He flooded a massive mine several li in diameter with seawater, drowning all thirty thousand of Qiu Tianwei's pirates. When eliminating King Jiang A'rotai's army of tens of thousands, the scene was visually spectacular. He triggered an avalanche, instantly burying A'rotai's tens of thousands of troops. And this time, in eliminating the Xue Clan, Shen Lang planned to stage an even more thrilling and miraculous scene, one several times more astonishing than the elimination of the Pirate King and King Jiang A'rotai.
"Young Master, the fleet is fully assembled!"
Shen Lang climbed to a high point and looked down upon his fleet, which stretched out vast and endless... alright, that was an exaggeration. There were a total of forty ships, none of them particularly large, and the entire force numbered no more than four thousand men. In comparison, how large was the Xue Clan's fleet? They had at least twenty or thirty thousand men. They had over a hundred ships, including many large warships. The naval power of the Xue Clan was likely seven or eight times that of Shen Lang's.
"Fleet, set sail! Let's go annihilate the traitorous Xue Clan!"
At the command, the forty ships of the Jin Clan's fleet began their majestic journey south to attack the Xue Clan's Nanzhu Archipelago. The Xue Clan's fleet had not yet even attacked Raging Tide City, yet Shen Lang's fleet was instead heading to attack Xue Che's home base, the Nanzhu Archipelago. The world had truly gone mad.
***
The Xue Clan was a family that had set its sights on the world from very early on. While everyone else was focused on the land, they looked to the sea. Of course, this was partly thanks to the awakening brought by the Count of Jinzhou. Over a hundred years ago, pirates ran rampant along the eastern coast of the State of Yue, bringing catastrophic disaster to the Xue Clan. The Count of Jinzhou was a hero of his generation who, with his own strength, annihilated all the pirates along the coastline stretching for thousands of li. It was from that moment that the Xue Clan developed an awareness of the need to manage the seas.
The Xue Clan spent decades, and through the efforts of several generations, finally achieved some small success, gradually shifting the family's core foundation to the sea. But then, a head of the Jin Clan who also valued the sea appeared. That was Count Jin Yu, who put all his effort into borrowing a million gold coins from the Hidden Yuan Society, hiring a fleet, and majestically setting out to attack the Pirate King Qiu Tianwei to seize the Leizhou Archipelago.
At the time, the Xue Clan was not only an absolute ally of the Jin Clan but also related by marriage for generations. Moreover, both sides saw eye to eye on how to manage the seas. The Xue Clan showed incredible enthusiasm in helping the Jin Clan, but who would have thought they would conspire with the Hidden Yuan Society to lead the Jin Clan's allied forces into hell?
No one understood why the Xue Clan did it. Was it the principle that receiving too much kindness from someone turns them into an enemy? Of course not. The reason the Xue Clan acted was that the profits from the sea were finite. Once the Xue Clan got a taste of maritime profits, they naturally did not want to share them with the Jin Clan. Furthermore, under the guidance of the Hidden Yuan Society, the Xue Clan and Qiu Tianwei exchanged immense benefits. Qiu Tianwei took control of the trade rights in the eastern seas, while Xue Che monopolized the trade rights in the southern seas. Count Jin Yu, whose ambitions outstripped his talents, had rashly plunged into maritime affairs, thus courting his own death.
The Leizhou Archipelago was over ten thousand square kilometers, and the Xue Clan's Nanzhu Archipelago was similar in size, at roughly seventeen thousand square kilometers. After decades of management by the Xue Clan, the Nanzhu Archipelago was now home to hundreds of thousands of people. Although the amount of arable land on the islands was not large, the hot climate allowed for three harvests a year. Thus, they could not only be self-sufficient in food but also produce large quantities of salt.
Just as Goldsource Island had iron ore, the Nanzhu Archipelago also had iron mines. Moreover, the Xue Clan ran two major businesses: palm oil and high-grade timber. Within a range of thousands of li in the southern seas, there were dozens of large and small nations and vast primeval forests, allowing for the mass production of palm oil and fine wood. The influential families of not only the State of Yue but also the eastern dynasties all favored huanghuali and zitan wood. And most of that trade was monopolized by the Xue Clan and the Hidden Yuan Society. Compared to the Jin Clan's spectacular capture of Raging Tide City, the Xue Clan was the one truly making a fortune in silence.
This family was so wealthy they could rival a nation, capable of offering immense profits and riches, which was how they were able to establish relations with Mount Budao and the Empire. That was why when Xue Che returned to the State of Yue from Yanjing this time, despite Ning Yuanxian trusting him and confiding in him, Xue Che's response was lukewarm. His sights had long since moved beyond the State of Yue to the Great Yan Empire. It was because the Xue Clan possessed such enormous wealth that they could maintain a powerful fleet and the South Sea Sword Sect.