Having learned another lesson, Lord Jiang behaved himself again and wrote Wang Yan another letter full of flattering words. His posture was certainly soft enough—truly a model of flexibility and thick-skinned cunning.
Lord Jiang lamented that he could not control his own fate, but he was far from the only one who felt that way. Many people did.
Even someone as iron-blooded and absolute a powerhouse as Wang Yan, with mountains of corpses beneath his feet and seas of blood behind him, had to compromise on many matters. True, the blade was in his hand, but it existed to safeguard the bottom line, preserve stability, and protect what had been achieved. He could not settle every matter with a blade.
Matters had priorities, and many problems could be slowly worn away through the system. Clearly, time was on Wang Yan's side as well. From that perspective, he was instead the kindest of men. After all, many things could be slowly ground down for him...
While Wang Yan enjoyed peaceful days here, the Manchu Qing continued its death throes, while the Heavenly Kingdom was far from peaceful.
Because Yang Xiuqing had monopolized power, the internal struggle within the Heavenly Kingdom reached a fever pitch. In the end, it came down to the simplest and most direct solution: the Heavenly King secretly ordered the Northern King, Wei Changhui, to return to Tianjing, where he slaughtered Yang Xiuqing's entire family. He then expanded the purge against Yang Xiuqing's followers, carrying out widespread collective punishment. He even wanted to kill the Wing King, Shi Dakai. Shi Dakai fled to Anqing, raised troops to clear traitors from the ruler's side, and Wei Changhui was subsequently killed.
Soon afterward, Shi Dakai assisted the Heavenly King in managing military and political affairs. Yet less than a year