415 Defending the City (1/2)
Zhong Heng felt that the heavens were not fair to him. Everytime they gave him some benefits, before he could truly enjoy them, they would be cruelly taken away from him.
Back in the Central Plains, his official career had been full of frustrations. When he noticed that he did not have any achievements after joining the military for many years, he spent a large amount of money to earn a small official post in the Ministry of Defence. However, after only one month into the job, he got posted to Western Region on the pretext that it was for him to undergo a few years of training and that he would have a post waiting for him upon return to the Central Plains. In reality, it was more like exile.
In name, he had been promoted from a sixth to fifth-grade official, but in a convoluted and dangerous environment such as Jade City where the bad mixed with the good, the post of commandant was without actual authority. The nucleus of his job was to ensure the personal safety of the Governor; it was not much different from being a butler.
Different from the Governor, who could easily obtain a 'Protective Talisman', namely a large amount of money, at the end of his term, Zhong Heng did not even have many chances to be bribed.
As he saw for himself how there were rich people all over North City and countless pleasures to be indulged in South City, he realized that it was extremely painful to be poor. It was like forcing an extremely hungry beggar watching the guests in the opposite inn gorge themselves of food through his window.
Living under such torment that he could feel all the time made him develop a nihilistic attitude towards life. ”Should I be loyal to the Emperor? But I've never even seen the ground he walked on before. Should I love my country? The Central Plains is hundreds of miles away and every benefit I fight for here in Jade City will somehow wind its way into the hands of the Governor—it'll have nothing to do with my nation. Should I work towards my ideals? My only wish is to be covered with riches, even at the expense of 10 years of my own life,” he thought.
Then, a weird youth called Slave Huan appeared in his life.
The first time they met, the both of them rarely spoke to each other. Even so, the experienced Zhong Heng could immediately spot the uniqueness in the youth. He was known as a 'slave' but there was still a residual aura of pride carried over from his days being well-off.
It was common in the Western Region for someone to become from poor to rich and vice versa; there were instances of royalty becoming slaves. However, it was not usual for someone who had undergone the tough, inhuman training of the Golden Roc Fort to not entirely accept the role of a slave.
When Slave Huan accepted the commandant's advice that 'discovering the truth and solving the issue are two entirely different things' and successfully extricated himself and the Xu siblings from the homicide case, Zhong Heng felt that the youth was not an ordinary person. That said, it was just a thought he had at that point in time.
What Slave Huan did not know was that his actions at that time gave the commandant much encouragement. It was the first time anyone had valued the insight of this lowly fifth-rank official. Zhong Heng was a man of usual literary talent and his kung fu was average; the only things he prided himself in having been his vision and accurate judgement. However, in the eyes of his superiors, they were not merits but flaws that made them afraid. As a result, they did not trust him and kept finding excuses to exclude him from the inner circle.
One was a commandant who was middle-aged and still unaccomplished, while the other was a youth who was keeping his hatred in check and biding his time for revenge. Their fates were intertwined from that moment onwards, although sometimes they were on the same path and other times on separate ones.
Many years later, Slave Huan became the Dragon King, and Zhong Heng became Prime Minister of the Stone Kingdom in one swoop with his help. Even though it was such a weak nation, it could also be considered a big transition in his life.
The heavens were still unfair to him. Before Zhong Heng could have a real taste of being Prime Minister, the Stone Kingdom was invaded and more than half of its lands had fallen into the hands of the enemy. Only the capital was left, barely managing to keep the enemy at bay.
This time, Zhong Heng did not plan to give in; he did not know if he would have a similar opportunity in the future. No matter what, he wanted to keep it within his grasp and he had no plans to let go.
When the Dragon King had left the Stone Kingdom to rescue the army of the Great Snowmountain, he had promised that he would have come back with reinforcements two months later. Even so, Zhong Heng's judgement told him that even if the Dragon King came back within the promised time, the small Stone Kingdom would still be unable to hold off a huge enemy. As such, he had to carefully plan for the future.
The Stone Kingdom now was extremely chaotic and lacking in cohesion. The former Prime Minister, Yang Dou, was exiled, and there were only a few hundred people left in its army. Its people were in fright and distrustful of their new Prime Minister, while their king was sickly and simple-minded; his only passion was receiving the carefully orchestrated worship of the eunuchs every morning.
The only force he could rely on was those led by the macheteman, Lin Xiaoshan. This forced consisted of dozens of swordsmen from the Great Snowmountain, more than 200 bandits who were unclear which side they stood on as well as four to five hundred soldiers of the Stone Kingdom itself.
The coalition forces of the other four kingdoms surrounding the Xiaoyao Lake were already closing on the Stone Kingdom's borders, which left the newly appointed Prime Minister not much time to act. Zhong Heng immediately began acting on a few things.
He abandoned the tactic of waging war all over the country and sent out messengers to summon all of the soldiers stationed at the border posts back to the capital. In this way, he managed to squeeze out a little more than 200 soldiers.
His next move was to request all of the citizens of the Stone Kingdom to relocate to the capital within three days, and they were only allowed to bring along provisions, money and various jewelry along with them. The Prime Minister promised his people that after the war, their lands and houses would be returned to their original owners and all damages to their property would be borne by the treasury. This last statement caused many citizens who were hesitant to make up their mind to swarm into the capital.
Zhong Heng even made time to make friends with the group of bandits according to jianghu rules and not as the Prime Minister of the Stone Kingdom. Very quickly, he found out the truth that the person they turned to, or rather feared, was not the Dragon King, but his female guard, Maid Lotus. Their fear of her was so great that it was enough to garner some degree of loyalty.
The very day of the Dragon King's departure, Zhong Heng had confiscated the assets of his predecessor, Yang Dou; they amounted to such a high value that it even exceeded that of the national reserves. Zhong Heng did not report the assets but used them to hire craftsmen to patch up the castle walls and also to attract the youthful farmers who were entering the city into joining the army.
The most important supply he had to secure was still provisions, for without food, no matter how strong his army was, it would be unable to guard the city for long.
War was suddenly upon the Stone Kingdom and its official reserve of provisions was extremely small. As such, Zhong Heng used both force and tact to bolster the country's supply of provisions. On one hand, he purchased provisions from the common folk at exorbitant prices while he forced the wealthy and nobles to give up their personal supplies on the other.
It was one of the most important reasons as to why the Stone Kingdom managed to hold on to its capital. After only three months, the price of provisions shot up so much that even an offer of 10 times the original price of rice would not be enough to purchase any from its citizens.
The confiscated money from the Yang Family was soon drying up and Zhong Heng held two discussions with the king before realizing that he was unable to persuade the latter. As such, he decided to bypass the incompetent king and took control of the national reserves as well as the royal treasury. He also sent out his people to take over the shops and banks in the kingdom which were owned by the Meng family by force. In this way, he managed to gather another sum of money.