Chapter 799 – Spring Wind Greens the Two Shores (2/2)

The mood at the Mount Song Army headquarters was different from elsewhere. It was tense and oppressive, the two sides of its main street packed with people. The faces of the soldiers, merchants, and the small number of commoners were all covered in apprehension and anxiety. They were standing here not to celebrate the retreat of the demons, but to wait for the results of an investigation.

In the past few days, a succession of carriages had entered the Mount Song Army headquarters. Some carriages had come from Blue Pass and Snowhold Pass, others had come from Hanqiu City, and some of them had even come from the distant capital. Each carriage represented a truly important personage.

Because Ning Shiwei had died.

One night, he had brought his bodyguards and left his post, vanishing from sight. Later on, when his body was recovered, it was in an unbearably gruesome state. The crucial problem was that he had not died on the battlefield, but in an extremely remote mountain range.

A Divine General had died in a bizarre fashion. An investigation was naturally required.

The soldiers, merchants, and commoners packing the street also wanted to know what was going on.

They had no idea that many more people had died on that night. Zhu Ye, the newly appointed leader of the Zhu clan, Tianhai Zhanyi, the second-generation descendant nurtured by the Tianhai clan, and the Tang Seventeenth Master had, just like Ning Shiwei, died on that harshly cold night.

With the deaths of so many important people, it was only natural that even more important people would be needed to come and investigate.

Two Divine Generals had come respectively from Snowhold Pass and Blue Pass, and the Tianhai clan had sent a truly prestigious figure: Tianhai Chenwen, younger brother to Tianhai clan head Tianhai Chenwu. Yet not even he was the person at the Mount Song Army headquarters with the highest status today, as the Prince of Zhongshan, acting as imperial envoy for the court, had hurried over from the capital. The Zhu clan of Tianliang County, having suffered the successive deaths of two clan heads, was now bereft of any strong individuals and had suffered a severe decline in power, so they had randomly sent a person who would presumably only have the right to listen in during the investigation.

The first priority of these important figures in coming to the Mount Song Army headquarters was naturally to investigate why Ning Shiwei and all those other people had died, but more important was that position.

The position of Divine General of the Mount Song Army.

When the Divine Empress reigned, although the war with the demons did not proceed very smoothly, the military was still not inferior to its peak, having thirty-eight Divine Generals in total. During the coup of the Mausoleum of Books, the renowned Divine Generals Xue Xingchuan and Tian Chui had died, and then there was the equally intense internal strife in the court. When the storms died away, only twenty-three Divine Generals remained.

The capital and Luoyang required Divine Generals to oversee them, decreasing the number of Divine Generals that could be left in the north.

Currently, besides Snowhold Pass and Blue Pass, which had special status, the remaining military headquarters on the snowy plains had only one Divine General each. With Ning Shiwei's death, the position of Divine General of the Mount Song Army had become vacant, and it was not possible to transfer a Divine General from another army. This meant that the Imperial Court needed to appoint a new Divine General.

To the Great Zhou Army and the Imperial Court, the position of Divine General was one of the most critical.

Divine Generals had military authority, and were even endowed with the power to move troops without orders at critical junctures.

Regardless of the reason for Ning Shiwei's death, since there was now a vacancy, a new Divine General would be promoted. Not the Prince of Xiang's faction, the Tianhai clan, or any other faction in the court could miss this opportunity.

In the depths of the winter, no snow was falling over the Mount Song Army headquarters, yet a thick layer of dark clouds sat above the town and fort constructed in the mountains, and the light was very cold.

A similar expression could be seen on the faces of the important personages seated in the main hall of the army headquarters.

The Prince of Zhongshan sat in the middle. Just as was rumored, his face was suffused with a ruthless aura.

Tianhai Chenwen and Divine General Jian Xi of Snowhold Pass sat to his right.

To his left were the high official from the Grand Court of Revision who had come together with the Prince of Zhongshan, and Divine General Cheng Tao of Blue Pass.

The factions were plainly evident, as were their standpoints, or else the mood in the main hall would not have been so oppressive and gloomy.

Divine General Cheng Tao looked at the leading officer of Gaoyang Village and shouted with a very unpleasant expression, ”The commanding general came to your camp, and yet you know nothing?”