Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
As the Emperor’s tour to the south approached, the atmosphere in the Imperial Capital grew restless. Although the imperial court had managed to trick many citizens into believing that the Heavenly Tribulation was merely a hoax, their influence was diminishing among the people within the court system.
The higher the positions, the more influential and richer the officials were, and the more they understood the intention behind the imperial court trying to cover up the impending Heavenly Tribulation. Some of them were even the driving force behind the lie. Therefore, it was only natural that they wouldn’t be tricked.
The influential clans, high officials, and nobles started leaving the Imperial Capital. It was after these people left that the imperial court began issuing travel passes to citizens who wished to leave and started saying that the Heavenly Tribulation was a hoax.
If the Emperor didn’t bring all his ministers to tour the southern region, the people who remained in the Imperial Capital would have a little confidence with the Emperor around. However, the Emperor was leaving soon. Something would be wrong if the people who stayed in the Imperial Capital weren’t scared or anxious, especially the mid and lower-ranked officials.
Early in the morning when the sun had just risen, the public road outside Deer Villa was quite empty and deserted.
Yan Liqiang kept thinking about this matter while walking on the road. Even the officers in Deer Villa began to grow restless and afraid. There was nothing much to say about how the other officials who had to stay behind in the Imperial Capital felt. The Emperor and the ministers were leaving, but the capital regions still needed to be guarded.
Last month, the low- and middle-ranking officers in Luyuan could still hold their anger. None of them came asking for a travel pass. As the Emperor’s tour to the south drew closer, people started to break out of their restraints to find a way to leave the capital regions, especially those with families and children. After all, who could bear watching their families stay in the Imperial Capital and risk gambling the lives of their family members in the Heavenly Tribulation?
Although the news of the earthquake in Gong Province wasn’t reported in the court bulletin, news of the incident that occurred in the first lunar month still reached the Imperial Capital by the second lunar month. Even if the imperial court didn’t talk about it, information was exchanged through traveling merchants and all kinds of gossip flew around. The prophecy on the back of the stone turtle came true once again. Who wouldn’t panic?
Some officials and soldiers from the imperial court left while some stayed behind. Would those who got left behind feel no resentment?
Everything was silently changing!
To Yan Liqiang, such a change was a good thing and it was also well within his expectations. As more people started to panic, be afraid, and be dissatisfied, they would start finding ways out for themselves and their families. This meant that the web of lies that the imperial court had weaved was getting weaker as the hole in it grew bigger. With this, Yan Liqiang would be able to make bigger holes in the web.
There was still half a year until the Heavenly Tribulation. If he could make a hole that was big enough to break this web of lies, then the citizens in the capital regions could still escape in time. As long as they could escape from this place, they would be able to create a chance of survival for themselves.
Yan Liqiang followed the public road, and it didn’t take him long to arrive at a town near the Hundred Clans Market outside of the Imperial Capital’s western gate. On the side of the town was a wealthy clan’s courtyard. The courtyard’s walls were high and surrounded by lush trees. There was also a small bridge over a small river. The place was a rather quiet. The owner of the courtyard had moved out of the Imperial Capital last year and put the courtyard on sale. Fang Beidou secretly bought the courtyard at a low price some time ago and made it their base for any secret activities.
The Hundred Clans Market was a labor market. A lot of people with various backgrounds came to and from the market every day. There was a carriage parking lot nearby. Although the courtyard’s location seemed like it would easily be exposed, it was actually the least noticeable and safest place instead. The Hundred Clans Market was already as busy as a train station at dawn.
Yan Liqiang, with half of his face concealed by a bamboo hat, came to the side entrance of the courtyard. He knocked on the door twice in succession with the door knocker, three long and one short knocks. Bang, bang, bang, bang… Bang, bang, bang, bang…
Within a few seconds, the side door cracked open. Xu Enda’s vigilant eyes peered through the crack of the door. Upon realizing that it was Yan Liqiang, he opened the door and allowed him to enter the courtyard.
“My lord, you’ve come…”
Xu Enda, Little Wu, and a few other familiar faces instantly gathered around him, looking quite excited.
Yan Liqiang took off his bamboo hat and nodded to everyone with a smile. “Enda, I nearly couldn’t recognize you with that beard on your face…”
Xu Enda chuckled, looking a little embarrassed. “Manager Fang said that this is good. I used to be an unnoticeable, insignificant figure in the Imperial Capital. With this appearance now, no people will pay attention to me even if I come back!”
Yan Liqiang was a little touched when he looked at all the earnest faces around him. These people knew what he was going to do, yet all of them followed him without any hesitation. They were willing to risk their lives to work with him. There were no visionary words, no impassioned speeches, and no sermons. Everything was as it should be, and this was truly precious.
“Let’s go. This is not the place to talk. We’ll go in first…” Yan Liqiang looked around the courtyard then waved his hand. When they arrived at the drawing room, Yan Liqiang sat down on the main seat while the rest sat down on both sides.
“Was the trip to Imperial Capital smooth? Did you run into any trouble on the road?” Yan Liqiang asked.
“Of course it was a smooth journey. The capital region is no longer allowing people to go out as they please. We encountered no problems on the way. No one made any trouble for us,” Xu Enda replied.
“Good. Have you all sent your families away?”
The question made everyone smile. Xu Enda was immediately grinning from ear to ear, seemingly very happy. “Rest assured, my lord! Everyone has been sent away. Just two days ago, I received a falcon post saying that they have reached Kang Province safely and met up with the person you arranged for them. They will probably reach Gan Province in another few days. It’s the first time my younger sister has traveled this far — she is extremely excited after hearing about all the things in Qiyun Prefecture that you told her. It doesn’t even seem like they are fleeing from a calamity!”
Yan Liqiang smiled and looked at his loyal men. “I’m glad. I already have people preparing the houses in Qiyun Prefecture. As soon as all of you return, each family will get a new courtyard to settle down!”
“My lord, are you saying that we can still live with our families when we reach Qiyun Prefecture?” Little Wu asked excitedly.
“Of course. All of you will live in Qiyun City. There’s a huge area in the city that used to be a Shatu district. Now that those Shatu people have been driven away, the area is being rebuilt. It’s way better than before now. When all of you return in the future, you will be neighbors with each other!”
Xu Enda and the others exchanged glances, and were all overjoyed. “That’s great! Thank you, my lord…!”
“Haha, no need to thank me. You deserve it!”
“Then, can we still run a newspaper in Qiyun Prefecture next time?” Little Wu asked. When the others heard his question, all of their eyes instantly lit up as their expressions grew conflicted and rather nostalgic. Although they weren’t running newspapers now, they couldn’t deny the fact that ‘The Great Han Times’ had made their ordinary lives wonderful and fulfilling for the past two years.
Yan Liqiang looked at everyone, then nodded affirmatively. “Of course you can. Why not? By then, the newspapers are ours to run. We’ll no longer need to follow instructions from others. We’ll not only sell them in Qiyun Prefecture, but also all over the northwestern region. We’ll make it an even bigger success than ‘The Great Han Times’!”
“Ah, what should we name our newspaper then?”
Yan Liqiang replied without even thinking. “We’ll call it ‘The New Newspaper’. It’s a reset. We will start over again…”
“Alright. As long as you don’t mind, we will continue to work for you!” Xu Enda clapped loudly and spoke bluntly. He cast a glance at the people around him and made a gesture with his eyes. “Take the thing out and let Lord Yan look at it…”
Little Wu and the rest stood up and went out from the side door. Within two minutes, they came back to the drawing room, lifting a huge wooden box which was then placed on the table beside Yan Liqiang.
Since there were no outsiders around, Yan Liqiang didn’t bother to hide anything. He stood up, walked over to the box, and opened it up.
Inside the box were the travel passes issued by the bureaucracy, neatly stacked and wrapped like bundles of banknotes.
Yan Liqiang picked up a small bundle of the travel passes, randomly took out one of them, and carefully examined it. The travel pass still looked the same. Even with Yan Liqiang’s eyesight, the material and the words imprinted on it were perfectly identical to an authentic travel pass. The quality wasn’t lowered compared to the one that Fang Beidou showed him previously. It looked even more authentic instead.
“How many of them are in this big box?” Yan Liqiang asked.
“50,000 copies. We brought 400,000 copies in one go as instructed. There are eight boxes like this. Manager Fang set up a large printing workshop in Hui Province and moved the stuff to the basement. The helpers he found are all our old friends and trusted people. After slightly remodeling the tools, the workshop is now printing at full power, twenty-four hours a day. The printing speed is faster than when we were printing newspapers. It can print around 800,000 copies a day…” Xu Enda licked his lips while explaining.
“Good, good. I have no doubts in any matter that Manager Fang handles…” Yan Liqiang nodded in satisfaction after checking a few travel passes. His eyes were shining. These travel passes would become cannonballs and bullets that would shoot through the web of lies that the imperial court had weaved soon enough.
“My lord, I heard that many people from the Imperial Cavalry Unit left the Imperial Capital to make the necessary arrangements in the southern region before His Majesty’s tour…” Little Wu asked casually.
“Yes, indeed many of them have left, about ten battalions in total. Even so, there are still quite a few from the Imperial Cavalry Unit left inside the Imperial Capital and other capital regions. When His Majesty leaves the Imperial Capital with all the ministers and members from the Imperial Cavalry Unit, that will be the best moment for us to carry out our task…”
