Chapter Summaries

Zhou Ziren’s notices urged peaceful opposition to Qing Kingdom shops, but black-clad men staged violent attacks and left evidence meant to frame the Revival Society. After the arrests, Lu Ming began investigating while keeping Zhou Ziren behind and sending the other scholars to jail.

• Zhou Ziren sent more than a hundred Revival Society members to post notices calling for calm and pressure against Qing Kingdom merchants.
• Black-clad men smashed shops, attacked people, burned an academy, and scattered notices bearing the Revival Society’s name.
• Yan Wu ordered the arrest of the Revival Society members, and Chief Clerk Sun was dismissed after questioning the order.
• Lu Ming explained that he had acted under Yan Wu’s command as thousands gathered outside the county yamen to protest.
• Zhou Ziren suspected the attacks were meant to frame the Revival Society, and Lu Ming kept him for questioning while sending the other scholars to jail.

Fang Yun investigated the Taihe Prefecture smashing and looting incident after seeing scholars use it to smear Xiang Prefecture’s patriots as “Xiang Bandits.” He confronted Dong Wencong through the Moon Gate and accused him of overlooking a deliberate attempt to infiltrate the protest; Dong admitted that he and Commander Fang had suspected interference but set the matter aside.

• Fang Yun read Discourse Ranking posts that mocked the Revival Society and branded Xiang Prefecture’s patriots as Xiang Bandits.
• Fang Yun recognized one of the early commenters as a former attacker of his who had praised Zhang Longxiang.
• Fang Yun contacted Dong Wencong urgently and crossed through a Moon Gate to meet him in Baling Prefecture.
• Dong Wencong explained that he and Commander Fang had gathered civilians to pressure the Qing Kingdom into withdrawing troops from the border.
• Fang Yun challenged Dong Wencong’s account of the looting and said hooligans had been deliberately mixed into the crowd.
• Dong Wencong admitted that he and Commander Fang had suspected outside interference but had set the matter aside amid obstruction from the Left Prime Minister Faction and Qing Officials.

Fang Yun left for Xiang Prefecture to take up the governor-generalship after warning Dong Wencong that branding Jing Kingdom supporters as Xiang Bandits would silence patriots and turn the prefecture against Jing Kingdom. On the way, he examined decades of the Xiang Prefecture Gazette and uncovered a sustained effort to disparage Jing Kingdom and praise Qing Kingdom, leaving him to confront the prefecture’s deep-rooted influence campaign.

• Fang Yun told Dong Wencong that calling Jing Kingdom supporters Xiang Bandits would make them retreat into silence, then ordered all officials of Seventh Rank or above to gather in Baling Prefecture as he assumed the governor-generalship of both prefectures.
• Fang Yun sent a letter to the Empress Dowager promising to resume teaching the young sovereign after returning, notified friends in the capital, and flew toward Xiang Prefecture.
• Fang Yun requested nearly fifty years of the Xiang Prefecture Gazette and found a recent report that framed the Qing River Trading Company's declining sales in Xiang Prefecture as a failure of Xiang Prefecture and its people.
• Fang Yun identified the report's writer and recognized that the gazette was using subtle praise and censure to attack Jing Kingdom.
• Fang Yun rapidly read more than thirty-six hundred issues and found that the gazette repeatedly portrayed Jing Kingdom's disasters, people, scholars, and growth in a negative light while treating Qing Kingdom favorably.

Fang Yun arrived at Baling City in Xiang Prefecture and refused to enter while officials kept the wharf closed, insisting that local people’s livelihoods come first. After the boats returned, the people welcomed him, while Dong Wencong and Fang Shouye reflected on how Fang Yun had thwarted the Qing Officials’ scheme.

• Fang Yun recalled the Xiang Prefecture Gazette’s hypocrisy over travelers and local customs as he flew toward Baling City.
• Demon barbarians ambushed Fang Yun over the Yangtze River, but an unseen force sealed their attack and killed them.
• Fang Yun stopped before Baling Wharf and told the officials to bring back the displaced boats before he would set foot in Xiang Prefecture.
• Dong Wencong and Fang Shouye hurried to restore the wharf, and thousands of boats returned as local people praised Fang Yun.
• Dong Wencong and Fang Shouye discussed how Fang Yun had prevented the Qing Officials from using the disruption to smear him.

Fang Yun arrived in Baling and met its residents before confronting the Xiang Prefecture officials with his authority as governor-general. He pressed them to arrive for the New Office Literary Gathering and reassigned the politically sensitive Revival Society case to Prefect Yan, who hesitated to take it.

• Fang Yun restored the wharf’s bustle, spoke with Baling’s residents for an hour, and Dong Wencong sent a painting of the scene to the Literary Gazette Editorial Review Institute.
• Fang Yun walked with the Xiang Prefecture officials and ordered all local magistrates to reach Baling before the New Office Literary Gathering or not come at all.
• Fang Yun chose the Lu Su Military Review Tower as the venue for the gathering and acknowledged that he would need to compose a poem or prose piece.
• Fang Yun asked Lu Ming about the Revival Society investigation, and Lu Ming said he lacked the strength to handle the case.
• Fang Yun asked Prefect Yan Wu to take over the case, but Yan Wu replied that he had passed it to Lu Ming because he was too busy.

Fang Yun blocked Yan Wu’s attempt to put the Revival Society case before a joint hearing, insisting that the Legal Office handle it alone. He also proposed splitting Xiang Prefecture’s Office of Supervision into separate bodies for overseeing officials and investigating cases, leaving the Qing Officials unwilling to challenge him.

• Fang Yun asked Yan Wu who should hear the case after Lu Ming recused himself, forcing Yan Wu to choose between hearing it himself and pressuring Lu Ming.
• Yan Wu proposed that the Rites Office and Legal Office hear the case jointly, and other officials supported his suggestion.
• Fang Yun rejected the Rites Office’s involvement and ordered the Legal Office to hear the case alone.
• Fang Yun said he would propose making Xiang Prefecture a pilot region that separated the Office of Supervision from a new Prefectural Procuratorate, and no official dared object.

Fang Yun reorganized Xiang Prefecture’s judicial offices and ordered them to try the Revival Society case through an independent process, with Jiang Zhengming, Jia He, and Cai Yuan agreeing to carry out his plan. He then chose to stay temporarily at the Prefectural Office after learning that Qing officials had wrecked Ning Garden and other government property.

• Fang Yun assigned the Criminal Office to investigate the Revival Society, the Prefectural Procuratorate to review the evidence and bring charges, and the Legal Office to hear the case independently.
• Fang Yun ordered Cai Yuan to establish an interim Prefectural Procuratorate, while Jia He and Jiang Zhengming accepted their roles in the new judicial process.
• Jiang Zhengming pledged to protect the Legal Office’s independence, shocking officials from both Jing and Qing.
• Fang Yun dismissed the officials to prepare for the literary assembly at the Lu Su Military Review Tower.
• Dong Wencong told Fang Yun that Qing officials had left Ning Garden in ruins and smashed property at the prefect’s residence, so Fang Yun agreed to stay temporarily at the Prefectural Office.

Fang Yun arrived in Baling to begin his reforms as governor-general, drawing intense debate over his proposal for three offices independence. He visited the Military Review Tower, where residents welcomed him and scholars challenged him to make it surpass the Yellow Crane Tower with his poetry.

• Fang Yun used Dual-Mindedness to discuss Xiang Prefecture with Dong Wencong and Fang Shouye while answering messages about his reforms.
• Scholars and readers argued over three offices independence, the order of trials, and Fang Yun’s rivalry with Zhang Longxiang on the Discourse Ranking.
• Fang Yun settled into the Prefectural Office, chose a temporary workplace, and traveled to the Military Review Tower.
• Baling residents welcomed Fang Yun and urged him to make the Military Review Tower the world’s number one tower.
• Dong Wencong told Fang Yun that local scholars hoped his poem would win over Qing officials, and Fang Shouye asked whether he could surpass the poets who had written at the Yellow Crane Tower.

Fang Yun attended a lively literary gathering at the Military Review Tower, where Dong Wencong celebrated his achievements and young scholars presented poems. As Fang Yun prepared to compose his own poem, Nie Changju disrupted the gathering by warning that it could affect the contest among the Four Great Talents.

• Fang Yun greeted officials, old acquaintances, elderly scholars, and young scholars at the Military Review Tower.
• Dong Wencong welcomed Fang Yun with Tongue Blossoms Thunder, set off fireworks, and recounted his many achievements to the cheering people of Baling City.
• Fang Yun toasted the guests, and after the drinking, Dong Wencong invited Xiang Prefecture’s young scholars to present autumn poems.
• One Academy Student from a poor family won with a county-exceeding poem, and Fang Yun awarded him a Metropolitan Graduate literary treasure.
• As Fang Yun prepared to compose a poem, Nie Changju warned that it could determine whether Fang Yun became the foremost of the Four Great Talents, souring the gathering’s mood.

Nie Changju and other Qing Officials pressured Fang Yun to compete against Zhang Longxiang at the Military Review Tower, using public appeals to make refusal politically costly. Wei Dongshan offered his own and his disciples’ allegiance if Fang Yun could make the tower the world’s number one, and Fang Yun promised to answer before the Mid-Autumn Festival.

• Nie Changju called on Fang Yun to face Zhang Longxiang in a literary contest and declared that the contest would rally Jing Kingdom’s people and elevate the Military Review Tower.
• Officials used Tongue Blossoms Thunder to broadcast their appeal, prompting cheers from Baling City’s residents and leaving Fang Yun under public pressure.
• Wei Dongshan rose and offered to serve Fang Yun, along with all his disciples, if Fang Yun made the Military Review Tower surpass the Yellow Crane Tower.
• Fang Yun told Nie Changju that he was considering the matter because he looked down on Nie, then asked Wei Dongshan to wait for his decision.
• Fang Yun promised to give his answer before the Mid-Autumn Festival, and Baling City’s residents cheered as if he had agreed to the contest.

Fang Yun composed “Ascending Yueyang Tower,” earning widespread acclaim and prompting the Military Review Tower to be named Yueyang Tower. After the gathering, he learned that a crowd had been incited to oppose a new paper-making workshop built by the Zhao Clan Trading Company, and Dong Wencong explained that officials had been pressured to stop it.

• Fang Yun wrote “Ascending Yueyang Tower,” and Dong Wencong recited it to the gathered officials and citizens.
• Dong Wencong and other officials praised the poem, which earned Orange Literary Qi and was declared the finest poem composed atop the Military Review Tower.
• Dong Wencong asked Fang Yun to write a Sage Brush Autograph naming the tower Yueyang Tower, and Fang Yun agreed.
• The poem sparked discussion on the Discourse Ranking, where people resumed arguing over Fang Yun and Zhang Longxiang's challenge for the Mid-Autumn Literary Gathering.
• Fang Yun returned to the Prefectural Office, then discussed governing Xiang Prefecture with Dong Wencong the next morning.
• Dong Wencong reported that more than a thousand people had been incited to protest a new Paper-making Workshop, which belonged to the Zhao Clan Trading Company and was being built by the Zhang Heng Household.

Dong Wencong explained how the Xiang Prefecture Association and Qing Kingdom trading interests controlled Baling’s commerce, then described the Zhao Clan Trading Company’s challenge to them. Fang Yun concluded that Ge Yiming had incited the street protest to weaken his prestige and learned how Ge Million had built his nephew’s reputation.

• Dong Wencong explained that the Xiang Prefecture Association controlled goods and exploited Xiang Prefecture’s people for the benefit of Qing Kingdom trading companies.
• Dong Wencong said Jing Kingdom companies had cautiously entered the market until the Zhao Clan Trading Company began building a large paper workshop that threatened the Qing River Trading Company’s dominance.
• Fang Yun identified Ge Yiming as the likely instigator of Baling’s protest and said the Ge Family intended to undermine his prestige.
• Dong Wencong explained that Ge Million had cultivated Ge Yiming’s literary reputation to protect him and the family if the Qing River Trading Company fell.

Fang Yun learned that the Qing River Trading Company was likely instigating protests against a new paper-making workshop in Baling to protect its monopoly. He disguised himself and traveled toward the Northern Workshop District to investigate, hearing that residents feared pollution while hired thugs had joined the demonstrations.

• Dong Wencong explained that the Qing River Trading Company had withdrawn its workshop from Baling and might be manipulating protests against the Zhao Clan Trading Company's new workshop.
• Fang Yun decided he could not ignore the protests and disguised himself as an ordinary Licentiate before leaving the prefectural office.
• Fang Yun hired a dilapidated carriage to travel toward the Northern Workshop District, despite the driver's warning that trouble awaited there.
• The driver said residents were protesting because paper-making pollution could harm Baling, while local thugs had reportedly been paid to join them.
• The driver said he would accept a workshop elsewhere in Xiang Prefecture, but not in Baling.

Fang Yun went in disguise to Baling City's Paper-making Workshop protest to hear residents’ concerns and investigate the dispute. After returning to the prefectural offices, he overheard the officials’ discussion and condemned their conclusions as absurd.

• Fang Yun heard from a carriage driver that residents opposed the Paper-making Workshop and that rival officials and the Qing River Trading Company were stirring up trouble.
• Fang Yun left the carriage at the protest, joined the crowd’s slogans, and spoke with residents to learn their views.
• Dong Wencong and the other officials used their Official Seals to discover that the disguised Licentiate was Fang Yun, the governor-general.
• Fang Yun stayed with the protesters until night, then revealed his identity and inspected the prefectural offices.
• Fang Yun listened to Dong Wencong and the officials discuss the workshop dispute, then called their discussion absurd.

Fang Yun challenged Xiang Prefecture’s officials over their plan to deceive and suppress residents protesting a paper-making workshop. He confirmed the workshop was safe but pressed the officials to identify why the people no longer trusted them, leaving the question unanswered.

• Fang Yun confronted the officials for treating the Northern Workshop District residents’ protest as a problem to suppress rather than a grievance to hear.
• Dong Wencong admitted he favored arresting protest leaders, placating residents with promises, and quietly continuing the workshop’s construction.
• Fang Yun exposed the officials’ reluctance to hold Qing-aligned officials and influential interests accountable, while mocking their plan to frighten and deceive the people.
• Yan Xiao defended the workshop’s safety and blamed residents’ opposition on ignorance, but Fang Yun argued that years of deception had destroyed their trust.
• Fang Yun said the Zhao Clan Trading Company’s workshops controlled wastewater well and that the Baling workshop would not harm residents, then again asked the officials to name the protest’s root cause.

Fang Yun challenged Xiang Prefecture’s officials to confront why the people had lost trust in them and demanded a concrete solution to the protests against the Paper-making Workshop. He left them facing his proposal to move their offices or homes beside the workshop as proof of their confidence in its safety.

• Dong Wencong admitted that oppression by officials and powerful families had destroyed the people’s trust in Xiang Prefecture’s government.
• Fang Yun argued that the people had lost the power to hold officials accountable and rebuked the officials for neglecting their duty to serve and educate them.
• Dong Wencong proposed canceling the Paper-making Workshop, while Yan Xiao suggested that officials persuade the people it was safe.
• Fang Yun asked the officials to stake their reputations on the workshop’s benefits and safety, and they all affirmed their confidence in it.
• Fang Yun proposed moving Baling’s government offices or the homes of officials of the seventh rank and above beside the workshop, leaving the officials stunned.

Fang Yun responded to the officials’ failure to address the people’s fears by ordering the Governor-General’s Office rebuilt near the Paper-making Workshop. His presence persuaded the workshop’s protesters to return home, though Dong Wencong watched the outcome with mixed feelings.

• Fang Yun challenged the officials for refusing to live near the workshops and left without hearing their excuses.
• Yan Xiao and the other officials worried over how to resolve the dispute, fearing Fang Yun’s judgment and the people’s anger.
• Fang Yun ordered the Governor-General’s Office rebuilt within three li of the Paper-making Workshop, alarming the officials who gathered in his courtyard.
• Dong Wencong learned that Fang Yun had borrowed trusted Criminal Office men, while Fang Shouye revealed he had lent Fang Yun five hundred soldiers.
• The county magistrate told the protesters that Fang Yun was relocating the office to address their concerns, and many decided to leave.
• Liu Sanzi knocked unconscious a man who accused Fang Yun of colluding with officials, and the crowd dispersed as Dong Wencong watched from a carriage.

Dong Wencong's account of Fang Yun's upright handling of the Paper-making Workshop dispute drew widespread praise and veiled criticism of the Qing Kingdom's Half-Sage. After arrests of the troublemakers stirred rumors and anger, Liu Sanzi tried to stop Dawa Village residents from seeking revenge, exposing the cruel reputation of one arrested man's nephew.

• Dong Wencong posted an account of the past two days and quoted Confucius, prompting scholars to praise Fang Yun's conduct.
• An elderly Provincial Graduate cited Xunzi in a way that implied the Qing Kingdom's Half-Sage was insincere, and scholars added further veiled insults until Dong Wencong locked the post.
• Officials in Xiang Prefecture learned that Fang Yun had ordered an investigation and arrests of people who caused trouble at the Paper-making Workshop, and rumors spread that he had deceived the protesters.
• Dawa Village residents gathered to demand justice for their arrested neighbors, while Liu Sanzi blocked them and argued that Fang Yun would not break his word.
• Old Geng insisted on rescuing his nephew, and Liu Sanzi described the nephew's abuse of his mother, a widow, his child, and his wife.

Liu Sanzi learned that Fang Yun had targeted the thugs and merchants who stirred up unrest, not ordinary villagers, and the revelations strengthened support for Fang Yun while he moved against hostile officials. Xiang Prefecture briefly settled, but a pleasure house’s public deference to the Qing Lord triggered a new confrontation in Baling City.

• Liu Sanzi heard constables explain that Fang Yun had arrested local thugs and Qing River Trading Company shopkeepers behind the disturbances, then returned to Dawa Village with the news.
• The confessions appeared on the Discourse Ranking, and scholars stopped criticizing Fang Yun and praised his handling of the unrest.
• Fang Yun ordered the arrest and investigation of four Xiang Prefecture officials accused of attacking him and colluding with Qing merchants.
• The procuratorate released Zhou Ziren and the Revival Society members for lack of evidence, while Fang Yun ordered Yan Wu to investigate the academy burning and alleged rebellion.
• At a Qing River Trading Company pleasure house, Hua Qingniang refused to replace the Qing Lord’s portrait with the Jing Lord’s portrait and threatened guests who objected.

Hua Qingniang’s decision to honor the Qing Lord at Yingfang Pavilion sparked public outrage and a bitter debate between people of the Qing and Jing Kingdoms. As the dispute spread online, Fang Yun discovered the incident while reviewing documents at the Prefectural Office.

• Hua Qingniang threatened to report her guests after they objected to her singers and dancers bowing to the Qing Lord, and the gathering turned against her.
• People from Baling surrounded Yingfang Pavilion and demanded an apology, while a Jing Kingdom Provincial Graduate posted an account on the Discourse Ranking.
• People from the Qing and Jing Kingdoms argued online, and a Provincial Graduate from Kong City explained that Hua Qingniang had staged the performance to gain Huaiyu’s favor and improve her status.
• Ge Yiming posted that anyone who saw the Qing Lord should bow, prompting praise from Qing Kingdom users and furious curses from some Jing Kingdom users.
• Fang Yun finished reading Prefectural Office documents, checked the Discourse Ranking before bed, and discovered the Yingfang Pavilion controversy.