Recaps

Yang Zhengshan confronted Luo Fu and the officials who had gathered to block him in Liao'an Prefecture, while suspecting that powerful figures stood behind the Salt Transport Commissioner. The arrival of Tenglong Guard cavalry strengthened his position, and he revealed that he had already sent reports to the Capital, forcing the officials to choose whether to resist or submit.

• Xu Huazhen and Luo Fu arrived at the west city gate with hundreds of soldiers, and Yang Zhengshan intimidated Xu Huazhen into silence.
• Luo Fu tried to bargain with Yang Zhengshan over the salt field and warned him not to ruin his future, but Yang pressed him to reveal who was backing him.
• Pang Tang, Dong Yanhe, Tang Bo, and other officials arrived, and Yang challenged Tang Bo's authority over military affairs.
• Two hundred Tenglong Guard cavalry rode up to the gate, and Song Dashan reported that the Infantry Battalion would arrive shortly.
• Yang Zhengshan told Luo Fu and the assembled officials that he had already sent Official Zheng's memorial and his own petition of guilt to the Capital.

Yang Zhengshan captured Luo Fu and Xu Huazhen, took control of Liao'an Prefecture, and ordered the Salt Transport Commission and Zhang Family businesses sealed. He then discussed the Zhang Family’s influence with Zheng Xiao before setting out to inspect the family’s estate.

• Pang Tang and the other officials left after Yang Zhengshan assured them he would not harm innocents, and Dong Yanhe ordered the Liao'an Forward Guard soldiers back to camp.
• Yang Zhengshan stopped Luo Fu and Xu Huazhen from leaving, arrested them, and had the remaining loyal soldiers disarmed and captured.
• Yang Zhengshan ordered Song Dashan to take over the city gates, seal the Salt Transport Commission, and close Datong Pawnshop and the Zhang Family’s businesses.
• Yang Zhengshan met Zheng Xiao at the Zheng Family estate, where they discussed possible princely backing for Luo Fu and the Zhang Family’s widespread influence.
• Yang Zhengshan decided the Zhang Family posed the greatest problem and left to inspect it, with Zheng Xiao following.

As Tenglong Guard seized control of Prefecture City, Zhang Maosheng prepared to surrender the Zhang Family’s silver and records rather than resist. Yang Zhengshan arrived to find the family cooperating, and Zhang Maosheng offered detailed accounts of the Salt Transport Commission officials’ dealings with them.

• After learning that Luo Fu had been captured, Zhang Maosheng ordered his sons to bring out the family’s ready silver and Lord Luo’s account books.
• Song Dashan arrived with soldiers and began sealing the Zhang Family’s properties, refusing to hear Zhang Maosheng’s explanation.
• Zhang Maosheng opened the chests to reveal a vast amount of silver, while Song Dashan ordered his men to search the estate and gather the family.
• Zhang Maosheng stopped his household from resisting as Yang Zhengshan and Zheng Xiao arrived.
• Zhang Maosheng handed Yang Zhengshan account books recording the Salt Transport Commission officials’ deposits and loans, and offered to provide more records and pay compensation.

Yang Zhengshan sealed the Zhang Family’s residence and explained why they would not resist, while messages and people slipped out of Liao'an Prefecture. In the Capital, Yang Mingzhi and Yang Minghao delivered memorials, and Emperor Chengping learned that Luo Fu’s corruption involved a powerful figure behind him.

• Yang Zhengshan ordered Song Dashan to confine the Zhang Family to its home, and Zhang Maosheng promised they would await the court’s investigation.
• Yang Zhengshan told Zheng Xiao that the Zhang Family had kept records of Luo Fu’s dealings so it could abandon him, while Song Dashan’s soldiers shot down some of the carrier pigeons leaving Liao'an Prefecture.
• Yang Zhengshan and Zheng Xiao inspected the sealed Salt Transport Commission yamen, where Luo Fu, his family, officials, and clerks were being held.
• Yang Mingzhi and Yang Minghao delivered memorials from Zheng Xiao and Yang Zhengshan to the Outer Memorial Office in the Capital.
• Emperor Chengping read the memorials, grew furious at the corruption behind Luo Fu, and summoned senior judicial and censorial officials.

Prince Xin ordered Luo Fu killed to conceal their connection, but Emperor Chengping summoned him and punished him after the scandal reached the Capital. In Liao'an Prefecture, Yang Zhengshan received the emperor’s decree and reflected on his progress toward the Innate Realm, leaving the case awaiting the arrival of the judicial officials.

• Prince Xin learned Luo Fu was in danger and ordered A'da to kill him, following Ji Zhonghuai's advice.
• Eunuch Zhang arrived with Emperor Chengping's summons, and Prince Xin was taken to the palace; Emperor Chengping later fined him one year's salary and confined him for half a year.
• Yang Zhengshan received Emperor Chengping's decree to seal off the Salt Transport Commission, imprison Luo Fu, and await the three judicial Yamens.
• Yang Zhengshan and Zheng Xiao discussed the danger from Luo Fu's allies and the mystery of Innate Martial Artists.
• Yang Zhengshan assessed himself as Half-Step Innate Realm because he could condense Innate true qi, though his cultivation remained at the eighth layer of the Post-Heaven Realm.

Yang Zhengshan waited at the Salt Transport Commission as a group of masked intruders entered the yamen. The intruders reached the guarded courtyard, where Yang Zhengshan confronted their leader.

• Yang Zhengshan chatted and ate with Wang Xie while the soldiers guarded the imprisoned officials and Luo Fu’s family.
• A lantern signal appeared on the city gate, and Wang Xie gathered the soldiers as masked figures moved through South City.
• Yang Zhengshan armed himself with his Mysterious Iron Spear and hid ordinary soldiers inside to avoid needless casualties.
• The masked intruders entered the Salt Transport Commission and searched the quiet yamen for the prisoners.
• The intruders reached the side-chamber courtyard, where Yang Zhengshan and his men stood waiting, and Yang Zhengshan called on their leader to come out.

Yang Zhengshan fought A'da and Prince Xin’s black-clad men after they came searching for Luo Fu. He overwhelmed A'da, revealed that he had reached the Ninth Layer of Postnatal Realm, and stopped A'da’s blade with Yi Wood Everlasting True Qi.

• Yang Zhengshan revealed that he knew the black-clad attackers’ number and positions, then told A'da that Luo Fu might be in a room behind him.
• A'da drew his saber and attacked Yang Zhengshan, while the other black-clad men charged the soldiers.
• Yang Zhengshan and his soldiers fought back; the soldiers’ coordinated spear formation killed more than a dozen attackers and trapped the rest.
• Yang Zhengshan struck A'da through a wall, and A'da recognized that Yang Zhengshan was stronger than an Eighth Layer martial artist.
• Yang Zhengshan asked A'da whom he served, but A'da attacked again instead of answering.
• Yang Zhengshan caught A'da’s saber with his hand, using Yi Wood Everlasting True Qi, and named the technique.

Yang Zhengshan defeated A'da and guarded the Salt Transport Commission yamen until Imperial Guards arrived to take over the case. He handed A'da to Marquis Nanyang Lu Baishu, who learned the captive served Prince Xin and decided to report the matter to Emperor Chengping, while Yang Zhengshan left Liao'an Prefecture feeling relieved.

• Yang Zhengshan overwhelmed A'da in combat, captured him alive, and ordered the attackers' bodies buried after his soldiers defeated them.
• Yang Zhengshan kept Luo Fu hidden in a well and guarded the yamen until eight hundred Imperial Guards and judicial runners arrived on the sixth day of the seventh month.
• Yang Zhengshan handed Luo Fu, Xu Huazhen, and the other detained Salt Transport Commission suspects to Lu Baishu.
• Yang Zhengshan introduced the captured A'da to Lu Baishu, who recognized him as an attendant of Prince Xin.
• Lu Baishu said he would report A'da and Prince Xin to Emperor Chengping, then departed Liao'an Prefecture as Yang Zhengshan left the case to Zheng Xiao.

Yang Zhengshan returned to Tenglong Guard, learned that Emperor Chengping had punished Prince Xin while ordering a strict investigation of the Liaodong Salt Transport Commission, and resumed organizing the guard’s troops. He arranged for a large warhorse purchase and considered building a horse farm as the salt field continued to expand its production.

• Yang Zhengshan returned to Tenglong Guard, checked that affairs were stable, and reunited with Yu Qingyi and Xiao Mingzhao.
• Yang Mingzhi told Yang Zhengshan that Emperor Chengping had ordered a strict investigation into the Liaodong Salt Transport Commission and fined Prince Xin one year’s salary and confined him for half a year.
• Yang Zhengshan restarted troop training and poured spirit spring water into wells at the barracks, his home, and the yamen.
• Lu Wenhua reported that the Guard Division Office had reserved 1,342 warhorses and 10,000 dan of fodder, and Yang Zhengshan ordered strict inspections and a search for a site for a horse farm.
• Zhou Ren told Yang Zhengshan that the salt field’s second batch had sold for 380 taels and that the third batch was being dried.

Yang Zhengshan inspected Guard City's repairs and revised plans for its future residential and commercial districts. He then pushed to establish maritime trade and a Naval Force, but as his memorial went to the Capital, punishment from the Central Military Governor's Office arrived.

• Yang Zhengshan inspected the wall repairs and reviewed the Engineering Department's plan for the city.
• Yang Zhengshan replaced the plan for eight hundred large courtyards with a mix of larger homes, detached courtyards, and low-rent housing.
• After the wall repairs were nearly complete, Yang Zhengshan began preparations for maritime trade and sent Luo Shang to seek skilled sailors in Jiangnan and the southeast.
• Yang Zhengshan drafted a memorial asking to establish a Naval Force and sent it to the Capital.
• The Central Military Governor's Office delivered its punishment to Yang Zhengshan.

Yang Zhengshan received only a year's salary docked for leading troops across the border, while Emperor Chengping banished Prince Xin to his fief after his failed plot against Luo Fu. Emperor Chengping approved a naval force for Tenglong Guard, and Yang Zhengshan turned his attention to opportunities in Liaodong's disrupted salt trade.

• Yang Zhengshan accepted the salary deduction and continued building Tenglong Guard.
• Emperor Chengping condemned Prince Xin for sending men to kill Luo Fu, then ordered him to leave the Capital for his fief for the rest of his life.
• Emperor Chengping read Yang Zhengshan's memorial and approved the creation of Tenglong Vanguard, allowing General Yang to command it concurrently.
• The Liaodong Salt Transport Commission corruption case ended with four officials executed, other officials punished, and salt merchants' property confiscated.
• Yang Zhengshan told Luo Shang to assess whether the Luo Family could expand into the salt markets left open by the crackdown, but did not seek Zheng Xiao's support.

After the Salt Transport Commission case, Zhang Maosheng visited Yang Zhengshan to thank him and secure a connection, but Yang Zhengshan instead arranged to buy the Zhang Family’s fleet for Tenglong Guard. The fleet arrived at Tenglong Guard’s docks, where Yang Zhengshan went to meet its captains and boatmen.

• Zhang Maosheng and his sons thanked Yang Zhengshan, who accepted only a reduced portion of their lavish gift.
• Yang Zhengshan asked to buy the Zhang Family’s eight ships and their sailors, insisting the Guard Division Office would pay market prices and higher wages.
• Yang Mingcheng completed the purchase, and Han Fei sent the silver to the Zhang Family.
• The Zhang Family’s fleet arrived at Tenglong Guard’s docks, where Yang Zhengshan inspected the ships.
• Yang Zhengshan went to meet captains Sun Cheng and Ning Bo and the fleet’s boatmen, while soldiers began guarding the ships.

Yang Zhengshan recruited boatmen and shipworkers for the Tenglong Guard, testing Ning Bo’s pride and asserting control over the dock. He left Wu Zhao in charge and planned to train a naval force and acquire warships and stationary crossbows.

• Yang Zhengshan doubled Sun Cheng’s pay and recruited him, then offered Ning Bo a centurion position that Ning Bo rejected.
• Yang Zhengshan had Ning Bo spar with Wu Zhao, who defeated him in two moves and revealed his skill as a battle-hardened soldier.
• Yang Zhengshan explained that Ning Bo’s navigation and naval warfare skills mattered more than his current cultivation, and Ning Bo submitted after being promised a chance to become a thousand-man commander.
• Yang Zhengshan ordered the shipworkers to serve under him, warned them against disobedience, and assigned Wu Zhao to oversee the dock and their training.
• Yang Zhengshan returned to Guard City and considered training sailors and soldiers, developing naval officers, and obtaining warships equipped with stationary crossbows.

Yang Zhengshan asked Emperor Chengping to split the Tenglong Vanguard from the Tenglong Guard, send an imperial overseer, and provide troops and warships for a naval force. Emperor Chengping approved his requests and appointed naval officer Yu Tonghai as Commandant, leaving Yang Zhengshan determined to build an elite force worthy of the emperor’s support.

• Yang Zhengshan read the order separating the Tenglong Vanguard from the Tenglong Guard and sent a memorial inviting the emperor to appoint an overseer while requesting ten thousand military households and warships.
• Emperor Chengping recalled Earl Haichang’s maritime map and appointed the Earl’s son Xue Ping as a Thousand-Man Commander in the Tenglong Vanguard.
• Emperor Chengping approved Yu Tonghai as Commandant, ordered ten thousand military households transferred to Yang Zhengshan, and directed the Ministry of Works to equip the vanguard with warships.
• Yang Zhengshan received the appointments and supplies, felt grateful for Emperor Chengping’s support, and resolved to build an elite naval force.

Lin Zhan passed the Prefectural Examination and left with Liu Zhe to travel, while Yang Zhengshan prepared Tenglong Guard for incoming warships and military households. A newly appointed Vanguard Commandant, Yu Tonghai, arrived at Tenglong Guard to report to its Commander.

• Yang Zhengshan prepared docks, a naval camp, soldiers, housing, and grain for Tenglong Guard’s incoming warships and ten thousand military households.
• Lin Zhan passed the Prefectural Examination as a top-ranked xiucai, then returned to Tenglong Guard with Liu Zhe before setting out to visit scholars.
• Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi gave Lin Zhan a sword and sent him off with Liu Zhe and their traveling party.
• Lin Zhan noticed a formidable man leading an eastbound convoy as their party traveled west toward Anning County.
• Yu Tonghai arrived at Tenglong Guard with his family and convoy after receiving an unexpected promotion to Commandant of Tenglong Vanguard.
• Han Zhao, a sentry captain of the Tenglong Guard Rear Army, greeted Yu Tonghai at the city gate and went to report his arrival.

Yu Tonghai arrived at the Tenglong Guard and met Yang Zhengshan and Xue Ping, while Yang Zhengshan explained why the new naval force had been established and how it was being organized. The chapter ended with Wu Chongzhe detailing the Tenglong Vanguard’s personnel, construction, and plans for acquiring ships.

• Han Zhao checked Yu Tonghai’s documents and token, then escorted him through the rebuilding Guard City to the Guard Division Office.
• Yang Zhengshan welcomed Yu Tonghai, arranged lodging for his family, and introduced him to Xue Ping, the Tenglong Vanguard’s Assistant Commissioner.
• At a simple welcoming banquet, Yu Tonghai asked why he had been sent to the Tenglong Vanguard, and Yang Zhengshan explained that he had requested officials skilled in naval warfare but did not know why the emperor had selected Yu Tonghai and Xue Ping.
• Yang Zhengshan described how the emperor had approved the Tenglong Vanguard as an independent naval guard post and appointed him its commander as well as commander of the Tenglong Guard.
• Wu Chongzhe reported that the Tenglong Vanguard was recruiting and building its wharf and camp, had enlisted more than 280 experienced boatmen, and expected warships and additional military households within half a year.

Yang Zhengshan assigned Yu Tonghai and Xue Ping duties in Tenglong Vanguard’s naval force as it prepared to escort merchant ships and develop naval training. The first three thousand relocated military households arrived at Tenglong Guard, where Li Qicheng’s family received food, registered, and was assigned to Nanling Tun.

• Yang Zhengshan explained that Tenglong Vanguard’s naval force would escort merchant ships and assigned Wu Chongzhe to the military colony farmland, Yu Tonghai to train the soldiers, and Xue Ping to write naval training records with Yu Tonghai.
• The Central Military Governor’s Office sent three thousand relocated military households to Tenglong Guard, where officials distributed them among the Thousand-Man Battalion Offices and tun fortresses.
• Li Qicheng and his family reached Tenglong Guard after fleeing years of drought and received bowls of thick rice porridge from the soldiers.
• Li Qicheng registered his nine-person household, received a wooden tally, and learned that his family would become military households of Nanling Tun.

Li Qicheng and his family arrived at Nanling Tun as relocated military households and received a new home, food, cotton cloth, and coins. The family settled in for their first peaceful night, while Li learned about the general whose support had made their new start possible.

• Zhang Hu collected nineteen households, including Li Qicheng’s family, and led them to Nanling Tun.
• On the journey, Wang Laosan told Li about Tenglong Guard’s camp soldiers and their better pay, and said the general had helped build the tun’s houses.
• Zhang Hu explained the military households’ duties and rules, then arranged for the newcomers to receive houses and provisions.
• Li Qicheng’s family found grain in their kitchen and collected cotton cloth and two hundred and seventy copper coins from the duty room.
• Wang Laosan told Li that the general was Tenglong Guard’s commander, the General of Dingguo appointed by the emperor, and Li’s family settled into their new home.

Yang Zhengshan organized care and paid work for Tenglong Guard’s newly arrived military households while overseeing naval training and the arrival of the first warships. He left the naval force with a goal of sailing alongside merchant ships next March, though Yu Tonghai said a year of training was needed to make it an elite force.

• Yang Zhengshan told Xie Yuan to provide tonic medicine to the sick military households and form a paid labor team to help with the autumn harvest.
• Yang Zhengshan visited the naval force’s first 500 soldiers as training began and learned about their instructors and the need to compile the Record of Military Training.
• The Tenglong Guard completed a plentiful autumn harvest, and the Ministry of Works delivered the first batch of warships on September twentieth.
• Yang Zhengshan examined the ships and their Stationary Crossbows, and Yu Tonghai explained their capabilities and warned that even powerful Martial Artists could be killed by crossbow bolts.
• Yang Zhengshan said he hoped the Tenglong Naval Force would sail with merchant ships to Jiangnan and the Lisheng Dynasty next March, and Yu Tonghai agreed that the voyage could serve as training.

Yang Zhengshan received news that Yang Yunxue was pregnant and arranged for tonics to be sent to her in the Capital. There, Yang Yunxue continued light martial training despite Liang Jinyan’s worries, and she read her father’s letter as Liang Jinyan rushed to claim the Hundred Herb Brew and Dongling Spring Tea.

• Wu Hai told Yang Zhengshan that Yang Yunxue had written from the Capital to announce she was a little over two months pregnant.
• Yang Zhengshan read Yang Yunxue’s letter and arranged for Mingcheng to buy precious medicines and send them to her.
• Yang Zhengshan played with Xiao Mingzhao and teased Yu Qingyi while the family prepared for Wang Yunqiao’s upcoming wedding.
• Liang Jinyan tried to stop Yang Yunxue from practicing martial arts, but agreed to let her train for a quarter of an hour each morning and evening.
• Yang Yunxue received Yang Zhengshan’s letter and gifts, and Liang Jinyan hurried to bring the Hundred Herb Brew and Dongling Spring Tea into the courtyard before Liang Chu could take them.

As the Tenglong Guard reached full strength and prospered, Wang Yunqiao married Song Hao in a joyous celebration hosted by Yang Zhengshan. The next day, Yang Zhengshan discovered that the wedding guests had emptied the Yang family’s wine cellars.

• The Tenglong Guard’s military households reached full strength, its population approached one hundred thousand, and new clerks eased the yamen’s staffing shortage.
• Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi celebrated Wang Yunqiao and Song Hao’s wedding, and Wang Yunqiao tearfully thanked her master before Yang Mingcheng carried her out.
• Yang Zhengshan hosted officials and guests at the wedding feast, promising them unlimited Hundred Herb Brew.
• Song Dashan and the other guests took so much wine that the Yang family’s cellars were emptied by the next day, leaving Yang Zhengshan aghast.

As winter approached, Yang Zhengshan planned next year's roads, schools, and trade for the Tenglong Guard. He recruited the Luo family to invest in the new Guard City and discussed what goods to carry on its first maritime voyage, planned for Jiangnan next March.

• Yang Zhengshan set plans for four official roads, improved local roads, and schools for children in each centurion office.
• Luo Shang and Luo Zhen reported that the Luo family faced little trouble in Anyuan City but could no longer expand easily in Chongshan Town.
• Yang Zhengshan told the Luo family to focus on the Tenglong Guard and showed them the Guard City's districts, shops, and residences.
• Luo Shang agreed to buy residences and rent several shops, including an inn, cloth shop, gold and silver shop, teahouse, and Jinxiu Workshop.
• Yang Zhengshan and Luo Shang discussed sending merchant ships to Jiangnan next March, carrying silk, tea, and porcelain there and returning with goods such as medicinal herbs, furs, dried goods, and Serpentine Jade.

Yang Zhengshan invited influential families, merchants, and jianghu sects to an investment conference in Tenglong Guard to draw them into maritime trade. As the invitees considered his invitation, Second Master Lu agreed to attend with Lu Qi, while cautioning him to save the Lu Family’s ties to Yang Zhengshan for a more critical need.

• Luo Shang asked to expand the Luo Family’s maritime trade by buying ships, and Yang Zhengshan approved while encouraging him to form an independent fleet.
• After staying in Tenglong Guard for two days, Luo Shang bought a residence and shops, left Luo Zhen to manage the Luo Family’s business there, and returned to Jiangnan.
• Yang Zhengshan sent invitations for an investment conference scheduled for the first day of the twelfth lunar month.
• The Zhang Family discussed Yang Zhengshan’s invitation, and Zhang Maosheng told his sons to attend unless Yang’s request was excessive.
• Shang Mingde welcomed Yang Zhengshan’s invitation and told his servant to keep it safe and remind him when it was time to go.
• Lu Qi consulted Second Master Lu about using the Lu Family’s relationship with Yang Zhengshan to help Lu Zhi advance, but Second Master Lu advised saving that favor and agreed to attend the conference with him.

Yang Zhengxiang received Yang Zhengshan’s letter asking the Yang Clan to send merchants and invest in Tenglong Guard, and decided to travel there with young clan members. Meanwhile, Yang Zhengshan spent his free time with his young son and grandsons before Red Cloud’s tantrum ended in a threat to geld the horse.

• Yang Zhengxiang read Yang Zhengshan’s letter about Tenglong Guard and maritime trade, then decided to take Yang Minghui and a group of clan youths there himself.
• Yang Zhengxiang told Yang Minghui to select twenty young people for training under Yang Zhengshan, despite the Clan School having only about ten martial artists.
• Yang Zhengshan walked with Xiao Mingzhao, who demanded fruit and told Yang Chengyou to call him Little Uncle.
• Yang Zhengshan tried to brush Red Cloud, but the horse grew upset when he refused to take it out and promised to show it a batch of mares the next day.
• Red Cloud kicked at Yang Zhengshan, who caught its hoof and threatened to geld it until the horse begged for mercy.

Yang Zhengshan welcomed guests from the Hengdao Sect, the Azure Sky Sword Sect, and the Yang Clan as he prepared to build ties with influential groups. He told Yang Zhengxiang that he had reached the Eighth Layer of Postnatal Realm and had some confidence in reaching the Innate Realm, leaving his clan elder hopeful and regretful about his past injury.

• Yang Zhengshan welcomed Ji Hai and Ning Qingqing, thanked them for saving Yang Mingcheng, and promised Ji Hai two jars of Hundred Herb Brew for his master.
• Yu Qingyi hosted Ning Qingqing in the rear courtyard, where Ning envied Yu Qingyi’s comfortable life and status and lamented her own ruined reputation.
• Yang Zhengshan and Yu Qingyi went out to welcome Hua Jinqiu, then Yang Zhengshan returned to receive Yang Zhengxiang and the Yang Clan youths.
• After dismissing the others, Yang Zhengxiang asked Yang Zhengshan about his cultivation, and Yang Zhengshan revealed he was at the Eighth Layer of Postnatal Realm and had some confidence in becoming an Innate Martial Artist.
• Yang Zhengxiang regretted that the clan had not helped heal Yang Zhengshan’s injury earlier, but Yang Zhengshan said the hardship had steadied his temperament and comforted him.