Heavenly Master Attacks

The dusk was heavy, and the flags on the city wall whipped furiously in the wind.

Zhang Tianshi's purple robe hung loose as he gazed at the row of black gun barrels on the wall. His expression did not change as he called out in his hoarse voice, "Since Eunuch Zhao has arrived, why not show yourself?"

"I have something I'd like to ask. Which is better, 'eating from the lakes and ponds' or 'managing the mountains and seas'?"

Coughing, Zhao Wujiu emerged from the shadows and narrowed his eyes as he looked down below.

"Eating from the lakes and ponds, managing the mountains and seas" was a famous debate recorded in Discourses on Salt and Iron.

During the reign of Emperor Zhao of the Western Han, the Worthies and Literati faction had debated Sang Hongyang, the Grand Minister of Finance, at the Salt and Iron Conference over whether wealth should be left among the people or resources centralized so that the nation could grow rich and its armies strong.

On the surface, these words sounded more like a dispute between the local faction and the Open Sea Faction.

Yet Dragon Tiger Mountain had taken no side during the factional struggles before this. For Zhang Tianshi to bring it up now clearly meant something else.

He had just been making fierce threats about "defying Heaven," yet after meeting them, he had become evasive and guarded. It seemed that this Old Celestial Master was also unwilling to push things too far with the imperial court.

But those words were a trap as well.

If one considered only the human world, the imperial court naturally intended to "manage the mountains and seas." But the Old Celestial Master had come because he already knew that the Celestial Court had issued an edict.

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