Anning

According to historical records, the Bloody Night of the Imperial Capital, though incredibly brutal, truly lasted only one night. By the following morning, Di Lin's notices began appearing on the streets of the Imperial Capital:

"Have you brats had enough fun? Get back here before noon!

Di Lin

March 27th"

***

Historians, often being amateur grammarians, all agreed this notice had significant flaws. Firstly, the target of the command was unclear: who were the "brats"? How could people "get back"? Secondly, the term "noon" was also vague: what time did "noon" start? Was it "noon" today, or some "noon" in the future, or in the Year of the Ox? Furthermore, what did "fun" mean?

In short, they concluded: this was a notice riddled with errors, utterly useless, and ironclad proof of the drafter Di Lin's failure to study diligently in elementary school and his frequent truancy. This further led to the deduction that if Di Lin had received proper moral education as a child, he would never have become such a cold and bloody individual—ultimately concluding: patriotic ideological and political education must start from childhood...

However, the reality was that before noon that day, the vast majority of the Far East Army soldiers had returned to their barracks—they understood that their commander Di Lin was not someone to discuss grammar with. By one o'clock, various units began taking roll call and assembling. The personal guard captain Gopla led Di Lin's personal guards onto the streets. Any Far East Army soldiers still lingering on the streets "having fun"—for various reasons: they hadn't seen the notice, misread the time, misunderstood the notice, were too engrossed in their "fun" to remember to return—were immediately hanged.

After two o'clock, Sterling's Imperial Guard began patrolling and suppressed a group of hooligans and thugs who, still shaken from the recent events, wanted to take advantage of the chaos to rob people. As a result, by the afternoon, order in the Imperial Capital had largely been restored.

Posterity cannot understand: why would a renowned general like Di Lin indulge his subordinates in plundering and slaughtering civilians? There are many explanations, but the one offered by the young historian Tang Chuan is the most convincing: "Di Lin had no choice. He ruled his army with an iron fist and severe punishments. If he didn't occasionally give his subordinates opportunities to vent and plunder for profit, his troops would have mutinied long ago—his troops were always the most spirited, had the strongest combat power (history later proved they could rival King of Light's 'Xiu Battalion'!), and the highest loyalty (referring to loyalty to Di Lin personally, not the Zichuan Family) among all Zichuan Family armies! The only drawback was the exorbitant cost of creating such an army... a cost the Family could not bear."

***

After quelling the rebellion, Commander-in-Chief Zichuan Canxing began distributing rewards, issuing a dazzling array of personnel orders:

The former Chief of Staff, Luobo Minghai, was appointed Family President Commander—upon hearing this order, Zichuan Xiu secretly told Zichuan Ning, "Might as well just invite a Buddha statue from a temple to take the President Commander's seat. Everyone is the same and doesn't speak anyway—and a Buddha statue's smile is much better than Luobo Minghai's scowl."

The former Deputy Commander of the Imperial Guard, Sterling, was appointed acting Commander of the Central Army, responsible for its reorganization and restructuring. This was the only personnel order from Zichuan Canxing that everyone agreed with. Sterling was widely respected, and people expected him to quickly shed the "acting" prefix from his title.

What was most unacceptable was that after order was restored, petitions accusing Di Lin of indulging his subordinates and wantonly killing innocents flooded the Inspectorate, forcing the new Inspector General, Di Lin, to sign approvals on thousands of petitions daily—exhausting him to the point of developing tenosynovitis in his finger joints for several days. But there was a silver lining: the ugly characters he had always been terrible at since childhood became comparable to calligraphy in just one week—though limited to a few specific characters: "Investigate," "No," "Such," "Matter," "Di," "Lin."

Considering the past grievances between Di Lin and Luobo Minghai, this appointment made everyone unable to fathom Zichuan Canxing's true intentions: was he deliberately using the hatred between his subordinates to keep them in check and control them, or...? But looking at his senile appearance, he didn't seem like someone with such political acumen—or was it simply unintentional?

As a result, at Luobo Minghai's inauguration ceremony, the Inspector General Di Lin, who was supposed to attend, did not. At Di Lin's inauguration ceremony, Luobo Minghai did attend, but the burning hatred in his eyes made the high-ranking Family officials present find it incredible that he didn't pounce on Di Lin and bite him.

The Inspectorate is responsible for supervising the administration of the Commanders' Office, and their traditional relationship was: discussion on Monday, arguments on Tuesday, shouting matches on Wednesday, throwing watermelon rinds at each other on Thursday, and a ceasefire on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Now, everyone expected it to escalate into round-the-clock warfare, with staff from the Commanders' Office and the Inspectorate preparing for stomach ulcers and many pre-emptively buying life insurance.

***

The former Director of Administration, Deputy Commander Ge Shan, had already been dismissed for speaking in favor of the rebels. However, due to the massive backlog of civilian affairs after the suppression of the rebellion and the lack of efficient handling, Zichuan Canxing agreed to Ge Shan's request to "atone for her crimes by meritorious service" and temporarily oversee daily administrative affairs.

The former Deputy Director of Administration, Deputy Commander Zichuan Xiu, had an unclear stance and poor judgment. Relying on his minor contributions during the suppression of the rebellion, he became arrogant and conceited, even sympathizing with the rebels. What contributions did you have? Weren't you just there drinking and watching adult films with those deadbeats in the Central Army? Do you really think you were the only one who killed Lei Xun? He even angered Commander-in-Chief Zichuan Canxing, a truly heinous crime! However, due to the pleas of Inspector Di Lin and acting Central Army Commander Sterling, the magnanimous Commander-in-Chief decided not to pursue the matter further, merely reassigning Zichuan Xiu from his current post to the reserves. Everyone knew that a reserve commander was worse than a current-serving dog.

Thus, the future King of Light had to bid a tearful farewell to his luxuriously decorated office, comfortable and stylish furniture, and beautiful secretaries in miniskirts. He was heartbroken: the bet about whether the secretaries were virgins would remain an eternal mystery.

***

The consequences of this order were that one afternoon:

Shirakawa: "Are you kidding me! Why were we also assigned to the reserves?"

Roger: "Yeah, we didn't speak for the rebels!"

Chuan: "Lord Xiuchuan, please help us check if there's been a mistake—isn't it said that Lord Sterling is reorganizing the Imperial Capital's military affairs now? Could you help us get in through his back door?"

Zichuan Xiu pondered: "Now... using back doors and favors is very expensive. Besides, my integrity and dignity don't allow me to do such things..."

Shirakawa: "Pah! As if you ever had 'integrity and dignity'!"

Roger: "Sir, for the sake of our years of following you, please..."

Chuan: "Yes, sir. At most, we'll pool our money to help you 'make arrangements'!"

Zichuan Xiu: "You really put me in a difficult position... This isn't about money. Even if you gave me a thick stack of bills..."

The three subordinates immediately placed their entire savings, accumulated through years of frugal living, on the table.

"...Even if Shirakawa were willing to let me kiss her without slapping me..."

At this moment, Zichuan Ning appeared at the doorway. Zichuan Xiu immediately said, "I won't kiss her either! How can I do such a thing, taking advantage of someone's weakness and bullying a woman—I detest such people!"

"Alright, I'll take your money and try to help you out—but I can't guarantee success. Recently, I've heard they're cracking down on corruption and promoting integrity..."

The three expressed their immense gratitude.

"It's okay. As long as you're willing to help, sir, we're grateful whether it succeeds or not!"

"Sir, you've worked so hard!"

"Sir, safe travels!"

***

That evening, Zichuan Xiu and Sterling were dining at a restaurant.

"Ah Xiu, regarding your assignment, I'll mention it to the Commander-in-Chief in a couple of days when he's in a good mood."

"I don't mind. Being in the reserves isn't so bad; it's peaceful."

"By the way, Ah Xiu, why did those subordinates of yours suddenly say they were too tired and requested to be assigned to the reserves? I felt it was such a shame when I issued the order."

"Oh, Roger's hemorrhoids flared up, Chuan is going through menopause, and Shirakawa needs to take physiological leave."

"That's truly a shame. They were all talented—especially that young lady Shirakawa, she's quite spirited. I was planning to have her serve as a Red Guard Captain in the newly formed Central Army, but since they requested it... I couldn't do anything."

"Yes, they are all very rare—they've played mahjong with me for so long, lost so much money, and still couldn't tell when I was cheating—where else can I find such easy marks? I'll be so lonely without them—and I'm too embarrassed to win Ah Ning's money."

***

As it turned out, administrative officials like Luobo Minghai and Ge Shan possessed excellent talents. After the great disaster, they organized firefighting, provided relief to the deceased, cleaned the streets, rebuilt houses, and arranged aid, carrying out a series of reconstruction tasks with remarkable speed and efficiency. Coupled with Sterling's significant contributions to the Imperial Capital's security environment—the Imperial Capital finally struggled out of its pain, order was restored, people began to heal their wounds and resume normal lives. Just as the people of the Imperial Capital were celebrating the end of the disaster—

On April 1st, Imperial Calendar 779, a piece of news that sounded like an April Fool's joke—like a bolt from the blue—shocked everyone:

"Far East Commander Ge Yingxing has been killed in action."