Watching Chen Xuanji leave with unhurried composure, Duke of Qianguo Zhang Xuan looked displeased and muttered, "I really cannot stand that man."
The red-faced middle-aged man, Li Wei of Guangyue Prefecture, exchanged glances with the others and said with a wry smile, "Duke of Qianguo, I know you had a falling-out with Lord Chen before, but-but we are all in the same prefecture now, working to wipe out the Japanese bandits. Is there any need to keep harping on that old matter?"
"Why wouldn't there be?"
Remembering what had happened at Mengshui Pass all those years ago filled Zhang Xuan with anger. He snorted. "Back then, the Barbarian Tribe's troops reached our walls and besieged us for three months. Not only did the soldiers at Mengshui Pass suffer heavy casualties, they had nothing left to eat. Almost all of Shuzhou was drained dry."
"Old Xiao petitioned the Imperial Court for grain, and His Majesty ordered Jiangnan Prefecture to allocate some, yet that man kept finding excuses to obstruct it. Had the crisis at Mengshui Pass not been resolved afterward, I would have been the first to make him pay."
Everyone had heard about what happened back then, but as Li Wei had said, wiping out the Japanese pirates was the most pressing matter now.
"That may be so, but after the previous assassination attempt, Lord Chen has been single-mindedly focused on wiping out the Japanese pirates. He even petitioned His Majesty to bring in troops from Jiangnan Prefecture. If you anger him into leaving, wouldn't that jeopardize the greater undertaking?"
"Without Chen Xuanji, can our Guangyue Prefecture accomplish nothing?"
Zhang Xuan cast them a sidelong glance, his expression full of exasperation at their failure to measure up. "You lot-have all these years as officials made you stupid?"
"Have you never