Seeing the Whole Through the Small

The reigning emperor had launched three great campaigns against the Northern Hu.

The first had been twenty years ago. Everyone under heaven had waited with eager anticipation, and many along the army's route had brought their own provisions and joined its ranks.

Ten years ago, during the second great campaign, wealthy households across the realm had still pooled money and grain to supply the army, but few people had volunteered to enlist anymore.

Yet when this third great campaign came...

Apparently, even the army's grain supplies could not be gathered in full at short notice. Not only had the agricultural tax risen from one-tenth to four-tenths, but additional grain quotas had also been imposed on local gentry everywhere and forcibly collected.

Only the reigning emperor, Lu Che, with his illustrious military achievements and immense personal prestige, could keep the entire realm in check. Had another emperor tried issuing such an order, the fires of rebellion would have flared up everywhere at once.

Wang Qi and Ran Jiao stayed on the rooftop and listened for a while, hearing nothing but Madam Chen and the Chen Family Head complaining about the state of affairs.

There was quite a lot to take in. Wang Qi turned to Ran Jiao and asked, "The land tax is already four-tenths now? Wouldn't that make it almost impossible for ordinary people to save any surplus grain?"

Ran Jiao nodded and said, "Before we left Chang'an, I heard that the land tax would be raised temporarily this year. But that was an unavoidable measure to prepare for the Northern Expedition. Once this year is over, it should return to its old level. Besides, households with someone serving in the army are exempt, so you don't need to worry about your family."

Wang Qi could only sigh helplessly. People of this era really did put the Northern Expedition against the Hu above everything else... In truth, he felt the same way.

A hundred years earlier, the Hu had nearly swept across the entire realm. For a time, Great Peng had only managed to cling to life through annual tribute and marriage alliances.

Even so, every winter the Hu wolf cavalry had still arrived as reliably as promised, raiding within the passes before returning laden with plunder.

The people of the realm, especially the Peng people in the north, had suffered at the hands of the Hu for far too long.

After the first two great campaigns, the Northern Hu had reached an unprecedented state of weakness. Strategically speaking, launching a third or even a fourth Northern Expedition was entirely correct.

But this was purely a matter of wounding the enemy at the cost of one's own foundations. The Northern Hu had been battered from strength into weakness, while the Great Peng Empire's people had been reduced to hardship as well... It all came down to which side would give out first!

Wang Qi found that, when he looked at the world on the scale of nations and peoples, there was nothing wrong with the reigning emperor's decisions.

But when that broad-scale "correctness" was brought down to the level of individual households and ordinary people, it could become the final straw that broke the backs of those common folk.

At first, Wang Qi had been deeply annoyed with Chen Jingtian, the young master of the Chen Family who had sparked this unrest. The only ending he had envisioned for him was one arrow through him, dead.

Yet after learning more about him through his parents' conversation, Wang Qi began to feel some admiration and regret over his actions.

This was a young man who still harbored romantic ideals. He had returned from studying his arts in his early twenties, still filled with the spirit of a Wandering Swordsman who could stir the winds and clouds and draw his blade whenever he saw injustice.

So when he saw the people of his hometown unable to carry on under the tax collectors' ruthless exactions, he could not help becoming the one who raised the banner of revolt.

He had been a young man with boundless prospects, yet he had severed his own future and taken to the wilds as an outlaw.

Even if he later used his family's connections to settle this affair, he would probably never be able to enter official service and accomplish anything within it for the rest of his life.

After all, his habit of overturning the table at the first disagreement would inevitably earn him the suspicion and hostility of everyone in his own social class.

Still, judging by the conversation between the Chen Family Head and Madam Chen, this incident did not really qualify as a rebellion.

They did not even have a program of action. It seemed they had simply led ordinary people who could no longer bear their burdens into the mountains to escape oppressive taxes and levies.

Viewed on a larger scale, this could become a scandal-not just for the Chen Family, but for the local officials, and even all of Yan Province... Indeed, if word spread, it could become a scandal for the reigning emperor himself.

The reigning emperor, wise and mighty, often compared himself to the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors. How could he tolerate being likened to a tyrant?

That made handling this affair rather complicated...

Wang Qi ultimately came from a different background, and he would not look at the problem solely from the bottom rung of society.

In that moment, many thoughts came to him...

From the perspective of those at the bottom, Chen Jingtian's actions were naturally right and deserved their support.

From the perspective of the Aristocratic Clans and local gentry in the middle, his actions were foolish, but still worthy of sympathy and understandable.

But to the emperor at the very top, Chen Jingtian was an outrageous rebel who had set those tensions alight... Yet this affair could not be crushed entirely with thunderous force, or the emperor really would lose "the people's hearts."

Even though Wang Qi clearly understood how these three perspectives viewed the affair, he had no standing to pass judgment...

He did not even know whether to sympathize with or detest Chen Jingtian's actions. He could only watch events unfold as a bystander.

Just then, Ran Jiao, who had lost interest in listening to Madam Chen's endless chatter beside him, suddenly tilted her head to listen. Then she told Wang Qi, "Sima Xu has arrived with the others. He's asking about our current situation."

Only then did Wang Qi realize that Ran Jiao had already made contact with Xu Ping and the others.

Still, Ran Jiao asking for his opinion now left him feeling rather warmed... He had thought a newcomer like himself had no business offering any views.

So he told Ran Jiao, "Just tell Sima Xu and the others exactly what's happening here. We're only carrying out orders. We neither need to nor can make the decisions ourselves."

Ran Jiao gave a slight nod, her impression of Wang Qi improving further... Asking him had merely been a routine inquiry, but his answer deserved full marks.

In fact, this also involved a task Xu Ping had assigned her: assessing this newcomer... So far, aside from the sentimental affectations she did not quite know how to judge, Wang Qi had performed very well.

So she promptly nodded again, then opened her mouth and began making hissing sounds, transmitting a message through the Wind Whisper Spell.

Sensing the subtle fluctuations of spiritual force, Wang Qi immediately concentrated. He had failed to notice how Ran Jiao received information earlier, and this time he did not want to miss it.

He focused and waited for a while, and sure enough, he caught a few clues... As he concentrated fully, he seemed to hear some sounds as well.

Those sounds were like disordered syllables carried on the wind, as though they had been encrypted and required a special "decoder" to decipher.

Wang Qi was stunned on the spot... How is this Wind Whisper Spell like an encrypted "communications channel"? The wisdom of the "ancients" truly is terrifying.

For a moment, Wang Qi's worldview suffered a blow. But considering how fantastical this world was, he weathered it with nothing more than a blink.

Ran Jiao also brought further instructions from Xu Ping. "Sima Xu wants us to take control of Chen Jingtian's parents immediately, then stabilize the situation at Chen Family Fort and await his further instructions."

Wang Qi sighed softly, then asked, "How should we do it? Go down together, or something else?"

Ran Jiao considered it, then said, "I'll go down alone. You keep an eye on our surroundings... I'll be in the open, and you'll stay hidden. That way, if anything unexpected happens, we'll still have room to respond."

Wang Qi nodded, and the two then split up to act...

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