The reason the Prince of Jin sought out Guo Sida, and even expressed a willingness to join forces, was, of course, because Yan Jingzhou had tormented the royal family and nobility of Jin to the point where they could hardly go on living.
Back when Qin Jingzhou returned to West Gate Pass from the Capital, he barely took a moment to rest before announcing to the border army's soldiers, "From today on, you'll all receive your rations and pay here, from me. Anyone unwilling is free to leave, and I guarantee there will be no retribution."
In fact, when he had just transmigrated and declared his intention to rebel, the reaction of the Deputy Generals was enough to show where the border soldiers’ loyalties lay. As Ling Jing put it, at the time, the soldiers present all showed smiles on their faces, just short of shouting in unison, "Good!"
Having inherited all the savings of the original host, plus the grain “extorted” from Duke Cheng'en, Qin Jingzhou generously increased the soldiers’ pay and food rations.
Naturally, training intensity and real combat drills rose right along with benefits.
However, because the money was good and the future looked bright, the soldiers had no complaints at all. They were even more eager, proactively seeking out opportunities for advancement. The border army elites at West Gate Pass were stronger and more energetic than ever, fighting guerrilla-style. Outside West Gate Pass, the people of Jin could only suffer.
Helpless, the Jin nobles sent their prince to secretly lead a team, detouring around the northeast to enter Great Qi territory.
Afterward, the Prince of Jin proved his identity to the officials who had defected to Guo Sida, soon meeting Guo Sida and proposing an alliance against Yan Jingzhou.
Guo Sida, hearing this brilliant plan, kept a calm face, but inwardly he was completely unwilling.
He wished he could butcher Yan Jingzhou with his own hands, chop Yan Jingzhou into mincemeat, and scatter it in a cesspit... But all of this could only stay in his mind. In reality, he simply couldn’t beat Yan Jingzhou. The Wang family army, just like his own Guo family army, would flee at the sight of Yan Jingzhou charging, which at least spared Guo Sida and his troops some embarrassment.
Anyway, there was no way he’d send troops. But if he tried to brush them off or tactfully refuse, the Prince of Jin might head south to seek out Duke Cheng'en. Guo Sida mulled it over and came up with the bad idea of a “royal marriage.”
The Prince of Jin thought about it seriously and felt that marrying Yan Jingzhou’s daughter to buy many years of peace might not be such a bad deal. The prince actually agreed.
The two sides quickly reached an agreement. Guo Sida issued what he thought was a “Royal Edict of Marriage” that would thoroughly disgust Yan Jingzhou.
Half a month later, Qin Jingzhou received the edict. He tossed the ragged scroll to the edge of his desk without making things awkward for the eunuch who had come to present it. The eunuch was standing there, head bowed and trembling, but Qin Jingzhou just waved him off. No need to make things hard for a working man with no say in the matter.
His thinking was simple: after the autumn harvest he’d march out and deal with Guo Sida, edict or no edict, and he never bothered getting into squabbles with people who were destined not to survive much longer.
But this composure, in the eyes of those who didn’t know him well and made stories up for themselves, looked very different: “Could it be that your lordship… is actually moved?”
Two days passed with no explanation from Qin Jingzhou. Yan Jun and Yan Duan were busy with Ling Jing handling the autumn harvest and had no time for gossip, and Yan Yun herself was feeling pretty calm. Yet, though the prince himself was unbothered, the local sons and daughters of West Gate Pass noble families who were friends with Yan Jun were getting antsy.
After all, whose family among the West Gate Pass nobles didn’t have a relative who died at the hands of the Jin cavalry?
It wasn’t until Marquess Jingwen arrived in West Gate Pass that the Jin cavalry was unable to breach their defenses again. What’s more, the Marquess was principled, never carrying out sudden acts of “robbing the rich to give to the poor.” But while these families had slept peacefully for ten years, that didn’t mean they’d forgotten the former terror and anxiety of living under the Jin iron hoof.
The young sons and daughters of these families felt the same.
When they learned that Guo Sida had issued a “Royal Edict of Marriage,” they were filled with righteous indignation, gathered to discuss for several days, and then divided up the tasks: bribe the spies, look for assassins to sneak into the Capital and kill the Prince of Jin, and if there was a chance to take out Guo Sida… all the better. Some even went to the Capital to coordinate matters in person.
For the sake of their perfect second young miss of the marquis household, these young people weren’t exactly fearless, but they were certainly bold and determined.
Hot-blooded and surprisingly effective, these young men and women moved swiftly to action the very next day after the meeting.
That night, patrol soldiers at West Gate Pass successively stopped three groups of young nobles, all headed to the Capital on different missions.
Don’t misunderstand, there was no curfew in West Gate Pass. The only reason the soldiers could intercept them so accurately was because one of the young meeting attendees felt it would be wrong to hide this from the marquis household and quietly told Yan Yun…
On hearing this, Yan Yun went straight to her father without hesitation. As a result, group after group of young nobles were “politely escorted” back into the city by soldiers.
There were about twenty prominent families in West Gate Pass, and all their young scions had participated—these weren’t even the marginal branches, but the main family members.
It was obvious their motives weren’t entirely pure, but Qin Jingzhou just teased his daughter: “You have quite the wide circle of friends.”
Yan Yun pursed her lips in a smile. “I’ll go talk some sense into them.” As she left, she grabbed Xue Yi by the hand and dashed out the door.
Ling Jing put down her ledger and laughed. “This girl must have some kind of extreme social skills. I saw it with my own eyes—she can chat with anyone. Even peasants in the fields, whose faces go pale and legs shake at the sight of her, end up confiding in her after a few words, telling her everything with no reservations. To be honest, in all my years, I don’t have her talent.”
Qin Jingzhou replied with a smile, “Affinity is innate, you just have to accept it.” He pointed at himself. “Don’t worry, I’ll back you up.”
Ling Jing patted Qin Jingzhou on the hand. “You being so amiable and close to the people… Just imagining it feels weird.”
Previously, when Qin Jingzhou had floated the idea of “why don’t we give it a try,” Ling Jing readily agreed. But the two of them had a tacit understanding: they’d handle their tasks first and leave romance for later. After all, they’d started as friends, and as fellow cultivators with long lifespans, there was no need to rush anything.
No hurry for love—but dealing with Guo Sida was another story.
Qin Jingzhou had always planned to take him down after the autumn harvest. Now, the man had even handed over a perfect excuse to strike. There was no reason not to accept the gift.
This year, the weather in the Northwest had been just average—not exactly favorable, but thanks to Ling Jing’s efforts in agriculture, early planning, improved planting techniques, and especially the new limited-sale fertilizers, autumn had brought a record-breaking bumper harvest.
At first, the agricultural stewards and managers from each family weren’t convinced. Farming was the source of their livelihood, after all. Who didn’t know how to apply fertilizer? But when they saw the vastly different growth of seedlings in the marquis household’s fields, their attitudes changed immediately.
All in all, after attending the bumper harvest awards ceremony, Qin Jingzhou immediately assembled an army of one hundred thousand and personally set out to strike down Guo Sida.
He left his eldest son, Yan Jun, in charge of the household and defense against the Jin outside the pass. His youngest son, Yan Duan, who harbored deep resentment against Guo Sida, led the Vanguard Army at the very front. Qin Jingzhou himself took command of the Middle Army to prevent his pork belly son from losing all sense and charging ahead at the sight of his enemy.
Even though Yan Duan had repented through rebirth, he couldn’t easily be forgiven for having gained the position of Regent by stepping over the corpses of his family in his past life. Qin Jingzhou’s attitude hadn’t changed—he still didn’t want to care about this son, but if Yan Duan lost his life in trying to kill Guo Sida, that was another matter entirely.
Fortunately, over the past few months, Yan Duan seemed to genuinely want to make up for his past mistakes. Qin Jingzhou observed that, whether leading troops or pacifying surrendered garrisons, Yan Duan was doing a surprisingly good job, proving that he really wasn’t Regent for nothing in his last life.
Without incident, they crossed North River, blazing ahead with lightning speed. The one-hundred-thousand-strong army marched straight to the gates of the Capital.
Frankly, Guo Sida was only able to bully Emperor Yongning because the latter was a hopeless muddlehead and there was no one left to correct him. Even though Guo Sida’s uprising was hurried, he’d gotten the result he wanted: one of the three regions under his control.
Yet, despite this precarious grasp on power, the act of holding court alone exhausted him. In name, he seemed to control the Northeast of Great Qi and half the Central Plains, but in reality, he could only defend the Capital and part of the surrounding suburbs.
During his clearer moments, when his pain eased, he worried whether the new dynasty he’d established could even survive three years. That was why he tried to direct disaster eastward.
He’d expected the Prince of Jin to seize the opportunity, but before any word came from Jin, Yan Jingzhou had already raised an army and come for his head.
It wasn’t that he didn’t want to appeal for Duke Cheng'en’s help. He had sent one rescue plea after another—over a dozen in all—each one packed with promises: abdication, restoring Emperor Yongning, even offering to eliminate Emperor Yongning for the duke. Every single letter vanished without trace.
If he could, Guo Sida would’ve grabbed Duke Cheng'en by the collar and shouted, “Don’t you understand the fate of the lips and teeth?”
But Duke Cheng'en was thinking, “Who needs your help getting rid of Emperor Yongning? Emperor Yongning is critically ill, stuck in bed.”
He refused to help Guo Sida because he wanted Yan Jingzhou to unify the north. Martial prowess was one thing, but governance was another, and the northern noble families and surviving imperial clan were not as sincere or easy to manage as the local nobles at West Gate Pass.
Once Yan Jingzhou had exhausted himself struggling with these problems, that would be Duke Cheng'en’s best chance to march north. Going head-to-head with Yan Jingzhou? He’d rather politely decline.
Most of the Southern noble officials thought the same way as Duke Cheng'en.
Put simply, Guo Sida was looking for help everywhere, but no one came. By the time Qin Jingzhou’s army of a hundred thousand completed the “block three sides, open one” encirclement, certain members of the Capital’s noble families had already brought their own household troops to open the city gates.
Qin Jingzhou wasn’t surprised. In these sorts of stories, every time an army surrounded the city, someone would open the gates for them. He couldn’t possibly have less prestige than a band of rebels.
As soon as the gates opened, Yan Duan charged in at the head, with the Vanguard Army close behind.
Qin Jingzhou was also curious to see how Yan Duan would get his revenge on Guo Sida. In the previous life, most of the people who gave Yan Duan bad advice were from the Guo family. Regardless of whether it was under Guo Sida’s orders, putting the blame on him was only fair.
He decided not to bother dealing with the marquis household’s matters in the Capital just yet, and planned to head straight to the palace instead. He ordered his men to set up camp outside the city. The Middle Army soldiers were already experienced in this—they’d camped with the marquis outside the Capital just last year.
While he sat on a folding stool drinking tea, a scout came running to report: the third son had already strung up Guo Sida at the palace gates.