Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 374: Chapter 359 King City, The Silver Vault

As dawn’s first light descended once again, Yang Zhenshan was already standing within the main hall of Prince Qing’s King City.

Every King City’s main hall is known as Chengyun Hall, the place where the Prince holds celebrations and wields his power. Typically adorned with dovetailed eaves, intertwined dragon carvings, edged in gold, and painted with the eight auspicious flowers. The seats in the hall are made with red lacquered dragons, curtains hanging with gold-traced dragons, and the wall behind the throne is decorated with painted dragons amidst colorful clouds.

However, the Chengyun Hall of Prince Qing seemed rather stingy, lacking any golden splendor, giving instead an oppressive feeling.

The reason for this traces back to over thirty years ago when Prince Qing was granted his fief.

Prince Qing, the son of a former Crown Prince, had never been favored by Emperor Chengping, who was even wary of him; naturally, the Emperor wouldn’t have arranged for a lavish palace for him.

When Prince Qing received his fiefdom, Qinghua Prefecture had no King City. It was only upon Prince Qing’s arrival that the construction of King City began. Prince Qing waited three years within the city before the King City was completed.

At that time, everyone knew Emperor Chengping held no affection for Prince Qing, so the officials overseeing the construction of King City showed little regard for Prince Qing, skimping on materials and reducing costs where possible. Ultimately, it resulted in the construction of the worst quality King City in Da Rong.

What was supposed to be an impressive and grand Chengyun Hall turned out to be a roughly made palace.

Yang Zhenshan stood in Chengyun Hall, looked around at the decorations, and slightly shook his head.

“How miserable!”

He even felt sorry for Prince Qing.

It was supposed to be an imperial commandment, but it cruelly morphed into a Prince’s commandment. It would have been just fine to become a Prince, but instead, he faced suppression and surveillance by Emperor Chengping.

Barely surviving the Emperor’s wrath, hoping for an opportunity to rise, only to have collided with someone like himself.

Yang Zhenshan felt a sense of irony at play.

“Sir! We’ve found out that Prince Qing escaped from the city last night! He left through the west gate!” Yang Mingzhi came to report.

Yang Zhenshan stepped out of the main hall and gazed at the vast expanse of morning clouds. “What about Prince Qing’s children?”

“It seems they left together. Some commoners saw a team of over a hundred people with a few horse carriages leaving the city last night,” Yang Mingzhi said.

Yang Zhenshan nodded slightly; with only a hundred or so people, it seemed Prince Qing left in great haste.

“They must be going to find Ji Feiyu!”

“It doesn’t matter. Even if they find Ji Feiyu, they have no chance left!”

The situation had changed!

In the battle of Qinghua Prefecture, Prince Qing suffered a crushing defeat, which completely undermined the foundation of the already embarrassingly unnamed rebel army.

Had Prince Qing defeated the Tenglong Guard, they could have secured a foothold in Liaodong, and with Ji Feiyu cleaning up the aftermath in Chongshan Town, they could have swept through the whole of Liaodong in a short time and swallowed it whole.

Then, while stabilizing Liaodong, they could position troops in Jizhou, keeping the imperial forces at bay outside Jizhou. Perhaps then Prince Qing truly had a chance to vie for control of Da Rong.

But now, not only had they failed to defeat the Tenglong Guard, but they also lost Qinghua Prefecture. What’s more critical is that they lost too quickly, leaving Ji Feiyu with no time to settle the situation in Chongshan Town.

A single misstep can lead to the loss of the whole game.

“What about the officials within the city?” Yang Zhenshan asked.

“They’re all in the dungeons!” Yang Mingzhi said.

“Hmm, have them brought out and hand over the city’s affairs to them. Additionally, send someone to notify Mr. Pang Tang, have him come to clean up the aftermath!”

“We will rest for a day and then leave Qinghua Prefecture!”

Yang Zhenshan said.

Yang Mingzhi nodded and added, “What about the siege weaponry outside the city?”

“…”

Yang Zhenshan was somewhat speechless.

The engineers had labored in vain this time, working hard for several days without their equipment being put to use.

Whose fault was that? It was simply because the enemy was too incompetent!

“Disassemble them for now, don’t throw anything away, find a place to store them. When Mr. Pang Tang has organized laborers, have them sent to Chongshan Pass! We might still need them.”

The final battle will surely take place at Chongshan Pass. Prince Qing has been defeated, Ji Feiyu will certainly not venture out again, and will likely fortify Chongshan Pass.

To attack Chongshan Pass, more siege weaponry would be needed.

If the Tenglong Guard were to transport these siege weapons, it would certainly be impractical, but if they waited for Mr. Pang Tang to arrange laborers to do it, then it wouldn’t matter.

“Alright, but what about the prisoners?”

“How many?”

“Nearly six thousand!”

The two guards’ soldiers amounted to eleven thousand two hundred in total, meaning nearly half had perished.

Yang Zhenshan furrowed his brow; these prisoners were a tricky issue. They couldn’t be killed, as they were all children of Da Rong, but keeping them was also not feasible as the Tenglong Guard currently didn’t have enough manpower to supervise them!

As for handing them over to Qinghua Prefecture’s local government office, that was even more out of the question. The local government office was like a paper tiger at present, with the Magistrate imprisoned by Prince Qing, civil servants, and constables all dismissed. The Magistrate was now just a figurehead, and it was unsettled whether he could even keep the city in order, not to mention managing anything else.

“Send someone back to the Tenglong Guard to reallocate some more soldiers!”

Left with no other choice, Yang Zhenshan had to reallocate soldiers from the Tenglong Guard again, who were now just reservists expected to watch over these prisoners.

“Also, send a message to Liao Yuan Prefecture, telling them to hurry up and send troops to take over!”

“These prisoners are their soldiers, falling into rebellion is their responsibility—we’ll give them a five-day deadline to send people to take over. Otherwise, I will formally report their negligence!”

Yang Zhenshan said somewhat discontentedly.

He was truly dissatisfied with Liao Yuan Prefecture; after so many days, there was still no response from them. Logically, Liao Yuan Prefecture should have been the first to act, but here they were, with Qinghua Prefecture already secured by the Tenglong Guard, and yet Liao Yuan Prefecture was utterly silent.

“Understood!” Yang Mingzhi grinned and then went about his tasks.

Just as he left, Ding Qiu arrived.

“This humble servant pays respects to the master!” Ding Qiu bowed with some embarrassment.

He had hidden in Qinghua Prefecture for five years, only to seemingly achieve nothing.

Sent to gather intelligence, he had barely uncovered any useful information. With Prince Qing’s rebellion, he failed to report in time, and during the battle outside the city, he was of no assistance.

From beginning to end, he seemed like a spectator with no impact on the events.

“You’ve worked hard!” Yang Zhenshan, however, did not blame him, but patted his shoulder with a smile.

“I’m useless, I have failed the master’s trust!” Ding Qiu said with embarrassment.

Yang Zhenshan smiled, “It’s normal for you not to accomplish what even the Secret Martial Guards couldn’t.”

What a joke; even the Secret Martial Guards were played for fools by Prince Qing, what could Ding Qiu possibly do?

Although Ding Qiu had a dozen helpers with decent cultivation, they were nowhere near the Secret Martial Guards.

In fact, the fact that Ding Qiu and his men were able to hide in Qinghua Prefecture for several years without being unearthed by Prince Qing showed that they had done quite well.

As for gathering intelligence, Ding Qiu and his men had not come up completely empty-handed.

“Master, we know where Prince Qing’s treasury is!” Ding Qiu whispered.

Yang Zhenshan’s eyes brightened. “Where?”

“In Spring Garden!”

Ding Qiu led Yang Zhenshan to Spring Garden.

Spring Garden was not an embroidery workshop, but a brothel—the finest in the government office’s city.

Yang Zhenshan looked at the elegantly decorated brothel and then glanced at the nearby King City.

Spring Garden was located just outside the King City, only about thirty feet away.

“Master, the treasury is in the cellar of Spring Garden!” Ding Qiu said.

Yang Zhenshan gave Yang Minghao a signal and Yang Minghao immediately led the trusted aides into Spring Garden.

“Ladies and gentlemen, esteemed soldiers, I’ve sinned, please don’t kill me!”

The moment the trusted aides broke into Spring Garden, a chorus of pleading voices from the courtesans rang out.

The corners of Yang Zhenshan’s lips twitched slightly.

A brothel!

Speaking of which, he had never visited a brothel before!

Stepping inside, he saw a group of lavishly dressed singing and dancing girls kneeling on the ground—the scene was too seductive, and Yang Zhenshan found his thoughts running wild.

A man dies young, and men’s desire never fades until death!

Yet a huddle of prostitutes wouldn’t cause Yang Zhenshan to lose his composure, especially with his subordinates, ah, and his son around.

“Shut up, anyone who makes noise again gets dragged out and beheaded!” Yang Zhenshan said coldly.

Immediately, silence filled the building.

“Search!”

Yang Zhenshan didn’t want to look at these brothel women any longer.

Soon, Ding Qiu and the trusted aides found the entrance to the cellar.

Yang Minghao and Ding Qiu went inside and looked around, and by the time they came up, their eyes were sparkling with little stars.

“Dad, there’s so much silver!” Yang Minghao’s eyes flickered.

Yang Zhenshan nodded slightly, “You keep watch over them, I’ll go down to take a look!”

With that, he jumped into the cellar.

After seeing the contents of the cellar clearly, his mind also went blank for a moment.

He finally understood what Yang Minghao meant by a lot of silver!

This wasn’t just a lot; it was a veritable mountain of silver!

Truth be told, Yang Zhenshan didn’t lack silver. The Tenglong Guard’s silver belonged to Tenglong Guard, and the Yang family had also earned quite a bit over the years. It would be an understatement to say they could easily come up with a hundred thousand taels or so.

But that was just the Yang family’s silver. In the Spiritual Spring Space, there was still five hundred thousand taels of silver lying around—originally, when Yang Zhenshan had robbed the Liu family’s treasury in Jiangnan, that silver had been there ever since.

He simply had no use for so much silver.

Chests were placed in the cellar, each containing fifty-tael silver ingots.

However, there were only silver ingots here, nothing else, which clearly indicated that Prince Qing’s treasury was not confined to this spot.

As they say, a crafty rabbit has three burrows; Prince Qing would certainly not have placed all his belongings in Qinghua Prefecture.

He had not even put the treasury inside King City but had chosen to hide it in a brothel outside, showing that this fellow liked to hide his silver.

The cellar was not small; it was about the same size as the underground space Yang Zhenshan had found in the Prefectural Government of An Yuan City. Furthermore, the entrance was very simply constructed, with only a disguised cellar cover on the outside, hiding the large silver vault underneath.

Yang Zhenshan counted the chests, approximately one thousand in total, amounting to a million taels of silver!

Looking at these chests, Yang Zhenshan stroked his beard thoughtfully.

He might not lack silver, but looking at so much silver made him feel uneasy for not take some of it.

After a moment’s hesitation, Yang Zhenshan took a third of the chests into the Spiritual Spring Space.

“Seal this place up and hand it over to Mr. Pang when he arrives!” Yang Zhenshan instructed Yang Minghao as they returned to the surface.

“What about these women?” Yang Minghao looked at the brothel women.

Yang Zhenshan glanced at the old procuress, “Kill the procuress, keep the others for now!”

One didn’t have to think hard to know that this Spring Garden was definitely related to Prince Qing; the others might be innocent or coerced, but the procuress surely wasn’t.

Also, the procuress might know how much silver was in the treasury, so it would be simpler to kill her.

In truth, Yang Zhenshan wasn’t very concerned about someone knowing that he had taken silver from the treasury, for two reasons. First, no one could find evidence since he moved the silver using the Spiritual Spring Space. Second, the unwritten rule of war spoils distribution.

Since they were spoils of war, naturally, the vanguard troops would feast first. During the battle in the Northern region, Yang Zhenshan and the soldiers from the An Yuan City garrison were the first to drink the broth. After the war ended, Wang Bin still shared a good amount of war spoils with them.

These incidents could not be concealed from others, even the old Emperor was crystal clear on them. However, nobody pursued the matter.

The reason was simple; the soldiers fought valiantly in front, and it was only just to let them have their share of spoils. If not, it would be unreasonable.

So even if someone knew Yang Zhenshan took the silver, no one would hold him accountable.

Actually, by leaving two-thirds of the silver, Yang Zhenshan was already being quite generous.