Black Cavalry (Please Follow)

The Black Robe Killing God—no one had mentioned that title for many years.

Only then did the commoners gathered at the entrance remember the tales from back then: wherever the black-robed guards passed during a family's confiscation and extermination, blood ran across the ground.

Tales were reality gone silent.

The tales had turned out to be true.

Anle District was already a place where wealthy households and great clans gathered. Servants sent by many prominent families to investigate turned pale, retreated, squeezed out of the crowd, and raced back to their family's homes.

The Martial Guard Bureau had just done something this huge; naturally, they had to report it at once.

And if their families had any connection to the Tang Family, they needed to cut ties as quickly as possible.

Who knew whether the Martial Guard Bureau would go mad with killing and wipe out another family?

Once their task was complete, the armored guards at the Tang Family entrance began forming ranks to leave.

The alley entrance, which had been packed tight, instantly opened up a path.

All the watching commoners stood to either side, watching the iron-armored Martial Guards advance, not daring even to breathe loudly.

Iron armor paired with the stench of blood; the invisible Sha Qi they gave off sent chills down people's backs.

"Chen... Chen Wu..."

The call from not far away made Chen Wu turn his head.

A delicate-looking youth in a blue scholar's robe saw Chen Wu covered in blood, covered his mouth, and reddened around the eyes.

"I'm fine. It's all rebel blood."

Chen Wu grinned and followed the torrent of the main force onward.

"Heh, what a fine hero!" someone cheered.

"That's right! The sons of Great Qin should be this brave and martial!" someone shouted.

As the commoners watched the iron-armored Martial Guards march past, reverence filled their eyes.

Feng Cheng, walking beside Chen Wu, wore a complicated expression and muttered, "That girl didn't even ask whether her own brother was hurt..."

Luyang Prefecture was neither particularly large nor particularly small.

For a prefectural city, with fewer than five hundred thousand permanent residents, it truly did not count as a major city.

But as a border city, Luyang Prefecture governed the surrounding counties and was already the center of power, commerce, and military affairs.

Within an hour, news that the Martial Guard Bureau had exterminated the Tang Family of Anle District spread throughout the city.

Naturally, that hour began when the Black Armored Martial Guards marched out of the Tang Family in formation and corpses were laid one after another outside its gates.

According to the watching commoners, more than a hundred corpses had been carried out of the Tang Family. The only survivors were scattered women, children, and elderly folk.

The last time the Martial Guard Bureau had slaughtered like this was over a decade ago.

In recent years, the city had seen only Martial Guards in black robes. Hardly anyone had witnessed an iron-armored tide charging through the streets.

Only after the bloodshed in Anle District did many remember where the term "the court's hawks and hounds" came from.

Only when the Martial Guards confiscated a family's property and exterminated its clan would those families facing calamity curse them that way.

For two days straight, the Martial Guard Bureau remained extraordinarily busy, plundering the Tang Family's wealth, sealing its shops, and sorting out its farmlands.

On the main streets, squads of Black Robe Guards could be seen rushing past at any moment, only to plaster seals over some shop or residence.

"Isn't this the Hu Family Old Shop? How is it Tang Family property too?"

"No wonder Hu Laosan hasn't been seen. So the Tang Family stole all his property."

"The Tang Family truly deserved to die..."

The hatred between great clans and commoners was impossible to reconcile; no one failed to resent the rich.

As shop after shop was sealed and managers dressed in brocade were hauled away, the commoners applauded in delight.

The Tang Family's crimes required no detailed investigation.

The illegal weapons stored in the Tang Family warehouse, the smuggling ledgers, the transaction records of dealings with Northern Yan, and the large quantity of Northern Yan military equipment all nailed the Tang Family's guilt beyond doubt.

Even Qian Mu, He Jin, and the others were surprised. They had originally been preparing to find a way to fabricate some grave charges for the Tang Family, but now there was no need at all.

At the prefectural office, in the magistrate's hall.

Clerks compiled case files one after another and placed them on the long table before Magistrate He Jin.

"Three thousand six hundred mu of farmland, thirty-two shops, two distilleries, two mines—converted to silver, worth at least one hundred thousand taels."

"Two thousand three hundred taels in movable assets, with jewelry and other valuables worth another eight hundred or so taels."

"One Tang Family has this much money. If we confiscated a few more families, cough, cough, cough—"

Ordinary commoner families lived hard lives; a single tael of silver ingots could sustain them for months.

Yet a city family like this could amass a fortune of more than one hundred thousand taels.

How many commoners had they scraped this wealth from?

The case files alone recorded dozens of instances of the Tang Family using trickery and coercion, forcibly buying and selling property.

"I'll give the information that can be made public to the Prefect. These past two days, commoners have already come to the prefectural office to cry injustice. Whatever property the Tang Family seized should be returned, and whatever should be confiscated will be confiscated. If we can do something for the commoners, our hearts will be steadier too."

"Old Qian, this time, you're about to strike it rich."

Looking at the files in his hands, He Jin wore a somewhat unusual expression as he spoke softly.

At He Jin's words, an irrepressible smile appeared on Qian Mu's face.

He had originally been due for transfer to the commandery office as a Subordinate Sixth Rank official—a promotion in name, a demotion in fact.

Yet at the very last moment, he had gained such a merit.

With this achievement, once he went to the commandery office, he could not possibly be assigned the idle post arranged for him before.

This time, it was a genuine promotion.

"What a pity Tang Wenshang, the Tang Family head, fled in fear of punishment." Qian Mu showed a trace of regret and looked toward Zhang Yuan beside him.

"That man has some skill. You should be more careful from now on."

Tang Wenshang had abandoned his office and fled before the Black Ice Platform could capture him. That showed decisiveness.

Moreover, someone must have tipped him off, allowing Tang Wenshang to flee before the Black Cavalry of the Black Ice Platform arrived.

With this man still at large, the credit for the case was diminished somewhat, while for Zhang Yuan and the others, it meant one more potential threat.

Tang Wenshang would never forget the hatred of having his family confiscated and exterminated.

Zhang Yuan was also curious why the Black Ice Platform had failed to catch Tang Wenshang.

Given the circumstances at the time, Tang Wenshang should not have been able to escape.

After leaving the prefectural office, he headed straight for Wang Qinian's woodenware shop.

The moment he entered, he saw Wang Qinian sitting behind the counter with his head hanging low.

"Zhang Yuan, I've let you down..."

Seeing Zhang Yuan, Wang Qinian let out a long sigh.

What he meant by letting him down was that not only had they lost the merit already within reach, they had also botched the matter.

"I thought that if I led the Black Cavalry over, nothing could go wrong. But that old Tang bastard received word beforehand and ran."

"The Black Ice Platform undercover agent hidden in Jiulin County said the higher-ups had already uncovered information about Jiulin County trafficking weapons and secretly colluding with Northern Yan's Zhenbei Army. They had been tracking it all along. This move against the Jiulin County magistrate was meant to make Tang Wenshang's line surface and catch the big fish..."

Then he, Wang Qinian, had let the man escape.

Naturally, the big fish could not be caught either.

"Zhang Yuan, it took me ten years of grinding to reach my position as chief of the Black Ice Platform in Luyang Prefecture."

"I thought smoke was rising from my Wang family ancestral graves, that my ancestors had blessed me, and that Wang Qinian could take another step forward."

"Who would have thought..."

"I've calculated it. For a mistake like this, I'll be stripped all the way back down and have to become an undercover agent again."

Regarding Wang Qinian's misfortune, Zhang Yuan could only offer sympathy.

Perhaps, just as he said, this was all fate.

"Since you're here, I'll take you to meet the Black Cavalry." Wang Qinian stood up and shook his head.

"Those fellows are arrogant as hell. They don't take me seriously at all. We'll see whether you can keep them in line."