"Eunuch, what we most need to guard against now is the Di Barbarian spies making trouble again." Cui Chengxiu's expression was grave. "If the Di Barbarian spies stir up another rebellion at a time like this, it will truly be hard to answer to His Majesty."
Wei Zhongliang's eyelids immediately twitched wildly.
He had genuinely overlooked that point. Thinking it over carefully, it made perfect sense.
Over the past year, Di Barbarian spies had caused trouble everywhere, growing ever more rampant. Tian Ergeng and Xu Xianchun had been no match for them. Seeing the Flying Fish Guard about to become an utter mess, the Donglin Party had seized the opportunity.
If it happened again, things would truly turn ugly.
"Recall Shen Lian to the capital. First, it will shut the Donglin Party's mouths. Second, it will prevent Donglin Party members from taking office. Third, it will suppress the Di Barbarian spies. As for Shen Lian, once we stabilize the situation, if we can demote him once, we can demote him a second time." Cui Chengxiu continued.
After hearing this, Wei Zhongliang slowly nodded. This truly was a workable method.
After pondering for a moment, he looked at Xu Xianchun, who was kneeling on the ground. "What do you say?"
"Everything shall be decided by Eunuch." Xu Xianchun hurriedly prostrated himself and kowtowed, not daring to show the slightest dissatisfaction.
Several days later, two imperial edicts brought the turbulent strife in court to a halt.
The first edict stated that the Flying Fish Guard had rendered merit by exterminating a Di Barbarian den and capturing Di Barbarian spies. However, Xu Xianchun, Commandery Protector of the Northern Commandery, had mishandled his deployment and failed to achieve complete success, resulting in heavy civilian casualties and damaging national prestige. He was stripped of his post as Commandery Protector and held for future appointment. The families of fallen Flying Fish Guard soldiers were to receive generous compensation.
The second edict recalled Shen Lian to the capital to eliminate the remaining Di Barbarians.
The two edicts struck with exquisite precision at the seven-inch vital point of this court struggle. They answered the impeachment memorials flying in like snowflakes, protected Wei Zhongliang, and made a reasonable arrangement for the present situation.
For a time, the struggle died down and its banners were furled. The streets and alleys were filled with talk of the conflict.
Qin He looked at the government notice pasted on the wall and muttered, "The one in the Imperial Palace isn't stupid."
"Brother Qin, everything's loaded. We can head back."
Not far away, Liu Sanjin shouted. He and Crippled Li were pushing a flatbed cart piled high with goods.
"Coming."
Qin He answered and quickly walked over.
The cart was packed to the brim with food ordered from Tang's Restaurant, along with more than a dozen jars of wine.
What was this for?
A feast!
Before going to the Corpse Burning Hall, Xu Changshou had laughingly said he was waiting to drink Qin He's victory wine.
His words had come true. The Corpse Burning Hall had not only given him silver, but also a copper coin marking his status.
With such grand face, one meat bun per person would hardly hold things up.
If it had only been the five taels of silver awarded by the Corpse Burning Facility, that would have been one thing. But that very night, Qin He had found more than thirty taels' worth of gold and silver on the two Di Barbarian spies.
He!
Had!
Money!
Again!
And he had no idea how to spend it!
Then he would treat them—not merely treat them, but treat them in style.
There was wine and meat, meat dishes and vegetable dishes, rice and noodles, as well as entertainment: a Shadow Play, "Yue Wu Attacks the Yellow Dragon."
The Corpse Burners were overjoyed. Having stayed awake all night, they had come at daybreak, pushing carts to load up the supplies.
Old Liangtou led several Corpse Burners, each holding a stick as they stood guard beside the cart, terrified someone might snatch the wine from it.
More than twenty people sat at three tables, eating, drinking, and watching the show.
They were enjoying themselves as if some rich old landlord were celebrating his birthday.
Only, their table manners were rather ugly. When had this gang of Corpse Burners ever seen such a spread? Naturally, they fought each other for food. Especially the meat—fat and lean, bone and flesh alike—they ate from their bowls while staring hungrily at the platters.
Old Liangtou had the highest seniority and the longest service, so he was pushed out to divide the meat. But he could not divide it fairly at all. After circling around several times, he clamped his legs together and declared that he was done dividing it—he needed to use the latrine.
Qin He took a closer look and saw that the old striker had a wine jar clamped between his legs.
He was clearly hiding wine.
By comparison, Liu Sanjin's luck was far worse. He had just stuffed a roast chicken into his trousers when Crippled Li spotted him.
Crippled Li let out a mournful howl.
Good heavens, Liu Sanjin's trousers were stripped right off him.
The key was that not one among the crowd minded the chicken's stench. They did not even leave behind a single chicken bone, leaving Qin He dumbfounded.
"Next time, white flour will be enough for them. Wine and meat are wasted on them." Xu Changshou raised his wine bowl, took a contented sip, and said to Qin He.
Qin He was not sitting with the Corpse Burners. Instead, he and Xu Changshou had a table to themselves, joined by the villainous trio, including Yang Baitu.
In any case, everyone from the East City Corpse Burning Facility was here. With wine and meat on offer, who would leave work?
Though the drinking feast was chaotic, with dozens of taels of gold and silver thrown into it, both host and guests were thoroughly satisfied.
By noon, every Corpse Burner had eaten until his belly was round as a drum. Those who could not finish packed the leftovers to take away.
Xu Changshou and the villainous trio were all drunk. Yang Baitu was old and had not drunk much, but he was still slightly tipsy.
Qin He was the one least affected.
The Corpse Eating Immortal Skill had given him iron teeth, copper fangs, and a Fine Steel stomach. This little scene barely filled the gaps between his teeth.
After tossing the four drunken men, including Xu Changshou, into the duty room and seeing off the old Shadow Play performer, Qin He had nothing to do. He shouldered his large iron shovel and planned to take a stroll around the Mass Grave.
He had not gone there in days. He rather missed it.
He had yet to clear the title instance for King of the Mass Grave, so he needed to work harder. As for the Di Barbarian spies, even if they had not been exposed yet, they were probably close to it.
Since that was the case, why the hell should he care? On a day when he was in a bad mood, he could just burn down their nest.
But just as Qin He was about to step out through the gates of the Corpse Burning Facility, Yang Baitu grabbed him.
Qin He was somewhat surprised. Although he and Yang Baitu saw each other every day, they had never truly interacted much.
If he had to count it up, he had only borrowed a flatbed cart from him once. Even today's drinking had merely been incidental.
How should he put it? They simply had nothing to connect over.
Yang Baitu was only a daytime gatekeeper, with little presence to speak of.
"Does Old Yang need something?"
Seeing Yang Baitu acting so furtively, Qin He grew even more puzzled.
"Qin He, there's something I'd like to ask you to help with." Yang Baitu cautiously looked around before saying, "A relative of mine has run into something wicked. Someone died, and they want you to help burn the corpse, leaving behind some bones as a keepsake."
Qin He raised his brows at once. "Private work?"
Yang Baitu nodded and crossed two fingers in a gesture. "You'll get this much when it's done. Are you taking it?"
"Is it far?"
Qin He was tempted, not because of the money, but because if such work had found its way to him, it meant the corpse was vicious—and vicious enough that it should have been sent to the Flying Fish Guard's Corpse Burning Hall.
In this world, people cared about burying an intact corpse. If that truly could not be done, keeping the ashes was still good.
That left room for this sort of "private work."
But such jobs were not easy. A corpse of great malignancy was exceedingly dangerous. If it rose as a corpse, the affair would become enormous.
One had to know that even the Corpse Burning Hall relied on the corpse-suppressing divine artifact, the Soul-Capturing Lamp, to suppress most vicious corpses.
There was no such thing for private corpse burning. It was entirely a matter of staking one's life on one's skill. Moreover, the Great Li Statutes strictly forbade private citizens from burning corpses. Violators would be severely punished.
"Not far. We can finish before dark," Yang Baitu said.
"Fine. I'll take it."
Qin He agreed almost without hesitation.
Others might fear it, but he did not.
The more vicious, the better.
Before you continue