Stability

According to historical records, Bloody Night of the Imperial Capital was indeed unimaginably brutal, but it truly lasted only one night. By the following morning, Di Lin's notices began appearing on the streets and alleys of the Imperial Capital:

"Have you little bastards had enough fun? Get your asses back before noon!

Di Lin

March 27"

Historians were often part-time grammarians. They all believed this notice had major flaws. First, the target of the order was unclear: who exactly were the "little bastards"? How could people "roll" back? Second, the term "noon" was vague: precisely what time did "noon" begin? Did it mean noon today, noon tomorrow, or some noon in the distant future? And what exactly counted as "fun"?

In short, they believed this was a notice riddled with errors and utterly worthless. The evidence was ironclad: it fully exposed the fact that its drafter, Di Lin, had not studied diligently in elementary school and often skipped class. From this, they further deduced that if Di Lin had received a proper ideological and moral education as a child, he certainly would not have become such a cold-blooded and bloody man—finally reaching the conclusion that patriotic political education must begin in childhood...

But the truth was that before twelve noon that day, the vast majority of Far East Army soldiers had returned to their camps—they understood perfectly well that their commander, Di Lin, was not someone with whom one discussed grammatical theory. By one o'clock, the various units began mustering and taking roll call. Gopla, captain of Di Lin's personal guard, led the guard through the streets. Any Far East Army soldier still lingering outside and "having fun"—for all sorts of reasons: they had not seen the notice, had read the time wrong, had misunderstood the notice, or had been having so much "fun" that they forgot to return—was immediately hanged.

After two o'clock, Sterling's Imperial Guard began patrolling the streets and suppressed another group of thugs and hooligans who, having barely recovered from their fright, sought to take advantage of the chaos to loot and rob. By that afternoon, order in the Imperial Capital had basically been restored.

Later generations never understood why a famous general like Di Lin had been so indulgent toward his subordinates' plundering and slaughter of civilians. Many explanations were offered, but the most convincing came from the young historian Tang Chuan: "Di Lin had no choice either. He ruled his army through harsh pressure and severe punishments. If he did not occasionally give his men opportunities to vent themselves, plunder, and get rich, his troops would have mutinied long ago—his army had always possessed the highest morale, strongest combat power among all the Zichuan Family forces, and the greatest loyalty. Later history proved that it could rival the King of Light's Xiu Battalion! Of course, that loyalty was to Di Lin personally, not to the family. It was an invincible army! Its only flaw was that the price of creating such an army was simply too high... too high for the family to bear."

After the rebellion had been put down, Zichuan Canxing began rewarding merit and issued a dizzying series of personnel orders:

Former Chief of Staff Luobo Minghai was appointed President Commander of the family. Upon hearing this order, Zichuan Xiu secretly told Zichuan Ning, "They might as well invite a Buddha statue from a temple to sit in the President Commander's seat. Neither one says anything anyway—and a Buddha statue's smile would look far better than Luobo Minghai's sour face."

Former Deputy Commander of the Imperial Guard Sterling was appointed acting commander of the Central Army, responsible for reorganizing and rebuilding it. This was the only one of Zichuan Canxing's personnel orders that everyone approved of. Sterling had the support of all, and people expected the word "acting" before his rank to disappear soon enough.

The most unacceptable part was this: after order was restored, complaints accusing Di Lin of allowing his subordinates to slaughter innocents indiscriminately flew into the Inspectorate like snowflakes. This left Di Lin, the newly appointed Chief Inspector, having to personally sign replies to several thousand complaints every day—until his finger joints became inflamed for several days. But there was an upside: his ugly handwriting, which had been too embarrassing to show anyone since childhood, improved within a week until it could rival a calligrapher's—though only for a few words: "investigate," "no," "such," "matter," "Di," and "Lin."

Considering the grudges between Di Lin and Luobo Minghai, this appointment made it impossible for anyone to guess Zichuan Canxing's true intentions. Was he deliberately exploiting the hatred between his subordinates to keep them in check and control them? Or... seeing how senile the old man looked, he did not seem capable of such political maneuvering. Perhaps it had simply been unintentional?

As a result, Di Lin, the incoming Chief Inspector, did not attend Luobo Minghai's inauguration ceremony, though he should have. At Di Lin's inauguration, Luobo Minghai did attend, but the hatred burning in his eyes like fire made the family's senior officials present feel that it was unbelievable he had not rushed forward and bitten Di Lin.

The Inspectorate was responsible for overseeing the Commanders' Office administration. Its traditional relationship with the Commanders' Office had always been: discussions on Monday, arguments on Tuesday, cursing on Wednesday, throwing watermelon rinds at each other on Thursday, and a truce for rest on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Now everyone expected it to escalate into uninterrupted warfare all week long. The staff of both the Commanders' Office and the Inspectorate had already prepared themselves for stomach ulcers, and quite a few had gone out in advance to buy life insurance.

Former head of the Administration Office and Deputy Commander Ge Shan had originally been dismissed for speaking on behalf of the rebels. However, after the rebellion was suppressed, civilian affairs had piled up like mountains and there was a lack of efficient management. At Luobo Minghai's request, Zichuan Canxing agreed to let Ge Shan "atone through service" and temporarily handle the Administration Office's daily affairs.

Former deputy head of the Administration Office and Deputy Commander Zichuan Xiu had an unclear stance and poor judgment. Relying on his tiny contribution during the suppression of the rebellion, he had become arrogant and conceited, acting high and mighty on the strength of his merit. He had actually sympathized with the rebels—what merit did he have? Wasn't he just drinking, having fun, and watching porn with those deadbeats from the Central Army? Did he really think Lei Xun had been killed by him alone? He had even angered Lord Zichuan Canxing, the President Commander. His crimes were truly unforgivable! However, due to pleas from Chief Inspector Di Lin and acting Central Army commander Sterling, the magnanimous President Commander decided not to pursue the matter. Zichuan Xiu was merely removed from his current post and assigned to the reserves—everyone knew that even a reserve commander ranked below a dog in active service.

And so the future King of Light could only bid a tearful farewell to his lavishly decorated office, his comfortable and imposing furniture, and his beautiful female secretary in a miniskirt. He was heartbroken: the question of whether his secretary was a virgin, the subject of a wager, would remain an eternal mystery.

The consequence of this order came one afternoon:

Shirakawa said, "Are you kidding me? Why were we assigned to the reserves too?"

Roger said, "Exactly! We never spoke up for the rebels!"

Changchuan said, "Lord Xiuchuan, hurry and help us check whether there's been some mistake. Isn't Lord Sterling reorganizing the Imperial Capital's military affairs now? Could you pull some strings with him for us?"

Zichuan Xiu pondered. "These days... pulling strings and trading favors costs a lot of money. Besides, my character and dignity do not permit me to do such things..."

Shirakawa said, "Pah! You make it sound as if you ever had any 'character and dignity'!"

Roger said, "My lord, please, for the sake of all the years we've followed you..."

Changchuan said, "Yes, my lord. At worst, we'll pool our money so you can go 'make arrangements'!"

Zichuan Xiu said, "You're really putting me in a difficult position... This isn't a matter of money. Even if you brought me a thick stack of banknotes..."

The three subordinates immediately placed all the savings they had painstakingly accumulated over the years on the table.

"...even if Shirakawa agreed to let me kiss her without slapping me afterward..."

At that moment, Zichuan Ning appeared in the doorway. Zichuan Xiu immediately said, "I still wouldn't kiss her! How could I do something like that, taking advantage of a woman in trouble? I hate people like that most!"

"All right, I'll take your money and help make some arrangements for you—but I can't guarantee it'll work. I heard they've recently been conducting an anti-corruption campaign..."

The three of them thanked him profusely.

"It's all right. As long as you're willing to help, my lord, we'll be grateful whether it works or not!"

"My lord, sorry for the trouble!"

"My lord, take care!"

That evening, Zichuan Xiu and Sterling ate at a restaurant.

"Axu, regarding your assignment, I'll mention it to the President Commander in a few days when he's in a good mood."

"I don't really care. The reserves aren't bad. They're peaceful."

"By the way, Axu, why did those subordinates of yours suddenly say they were too tired and request assignment to the reserves? I felt it was such a pity when I issued the order."

"Oh, Roger's hemorrhoids flared up, Changchuan is going through menopause, and Shirakawa wants menstrual leave."

"That really is a pity. They're all talented—especially that young lady Shirakawa. She's got guts. I had planned to make her a Red Guard Captain in the newly reorganized Central Army, but since they requested it... there's nothing I can do."

"Yes, they're all hard to come by. We played mahjong together for so long, they lost so much money, and they still never realized I was cheating—where else could I find suckers like that? I'll be lonely to death after they leave. Besides, I'd feel too embarrassed to win Anning's money."

The facts proved that administrative civil officials such as Luobo Minghai and Ge Shan possessed outstanding ability. After the great disaster, they organized a rapid and effective series of reconstruction efforts: extinguishing fires, compensating the families of the dead, cleaning the streets, rebuilding homes, and arranging relief. Together with Sterling's major contribution to public security in the Imperial Capital, the city finally struggled out of its pain. Order returned, people began healing their wounds and resuming normal lives, and just as the people of the Imperial Capital were celebrating that the disaster had finally passed—

On April 1st, Imperial Year 779, news that sounded very much like an April Fool's joke struck everyone like a bolt from the blue:

"Far East Commander Ge Yingxing has died in battle."