Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 361: Chapter 347 Chongshan Town West Road, Ji Feiyu

“Chongshan Town West Road?”

“Why the West Road of Chongshan Town?”

Today’s Chongshan Town, although weaker than it was five years ago, still has a strong foundation. The Rescue Camp under the Six Assistant Generals is composed of formidable soldiers, as are many in the various garrisons and camp soldiers.

However, the fact that the Wuliang Hu Clan so easily broke through the defenses of the West Road of Chongshan Town is obviously illogical!

When the East Sea Hu Clan invaded and looted, it took them more than a month to appear in Anning County.

The Wuliang Hu Clan might be stronger than the East Sea Hu Clan, but today’s Chongshan Town is also several times stronger than it was back then.

“The West Road of Chongshan Town, Ji Feiyu!”

Yang Zhenshan considered a possibility that was hard to accept.

The Wuliang Hu Clan breaking through the defenses of the West Road of Chongshan Town so easily indicates only one possibility: someone deliberately let them in!

And that person is likely to be Ji Feiyu.

Ji Feiyu, the current General of Chongshan Town and former Vice General before his promotion; the West Road of Chongshan Town was under his command.

It can be said that the West Road was Ji Feiyu’s stronghold.

And it may also have been Ji Feiyu who deliberately allowed the Wula Clan to join forces with the Wuliang Hu Clan.

At that time, Ji Feiyu had fifty thousand soldiers in his Rescue Camp, yet he kept chasing after the Wula Clan without annihilating them or even inflicting heavy losses.

No one found this strange at the time, after all, the Wula Clan was also strong, and Ji Feiyu’s reluctance to engage in a decisive battle with them seemed reasonable.

But now, thinking back, Yang Zhenshan suddenly felt that there were many oddities in this matter.

Why was the Wula Clan able to retreat unscathed?

Why was the Wuliang Hu Clan willing to accept the Wula Clan?

It is known that the Wuliang Hu Clan and the East Sea Hu Clan were not close and had significant animosity towards each other.

For the Wuliang Hu Clan to accept the Wula Clan, there must have been an external force mediating between them.

And that person is likely to be Ji Feiyu.

“But why would Ji Feiyu do such a thing?”

Yang Zhenshan was filled with a multitude of thoughts, considering various possibilities.

Suddenly, he laughed—a laugh tinged with exhaustion.

“Prince Qing!”

Aside from Prince Qing, he could find no other reason for Ji Feiyu to do such things.

The treachery case in An Yuan City!

The Secret Martial Guards suspected this case was related to Prince Qing but could never find any evidence.

After this case came to light, Prince Qing did nothing, as if he had abandoned all involved people and assets right from the start.

Now, it seems that it may have been a chess piece thrown out by Prince Qing, aimed at protecting Ji Feiyu.

He has been toying with the Secret Martial Guards all along!

These years, why has there been no movement from the Secret Martial Guards? Have they given up on watching Prince Qing?

Impossible!

The Secret Martial Guards must have been keeping an eye on Prince Qing all this time, yet they’ve reaped no results.

What does this imply?

It means that Prince Qing has long grasped the movements of the Secret Martial Guards.

Even leading the Secret Martial Guards astray!

“Merchant fleets, maritime trade! All these were just smoke and mirrors from Prince Qing!”

Yang Zhenshan felt increasingly suffocated.

He remembered Prince Qing had a fleet of ships, but he had not found any news about this fleet over the years.

And Ding Qiu has been staying in Qinghua Prefecture all along, yet has achieved nothing.

Yang Zhenshan leaned back in his chair, his eyes slightly closed, his mind rapidly churning.

If his speculations were correct.

The old Emperor was critically ill, Prince Qing took the opportunity to make his move, Ji Feiyu was Prince Qing’s hidden trump card, and Prince Qing even colluded with the Wuliang Hu Clan.

Now that the Wuliang Hu Clan has crossed the defense line of Chongshan Town West Road and entered Liaoxi, what will Prince Qing and Ji Feiyu do next?

Firstly, regarding Ji Feiyu, he will certainly aim to take control of the entire Chongshan Town.

Chongshan Town has thirty thousand Camp Soldiers and the Rescue Camps of the Six Assistant Generals, amassing a force around eighty thousand soldiers, but with the addition of many garrison camps and ordinary soldiers, gathering a force of two hundred thousand is certainly feasible.

However, it won’t be easy for Ji Feiyu to take control of Chongshan Town.

He has operated in the West Road of Chongshan Town for many years, so it should be his base.

Moreover, he has been the General of Chongshan Town for five years; by now, he should have control over the thirty thousand Camp Soldiers.

Meaning his current actual control lies with the Camp and the West Road of Chongshan Town.

As for the control over other Assistant Generals, Rescue Camps, and garrison camps in each city, that remains to be seen.

Commander Tang Feihu of the Central Route Jinzhou Guard, originally a trusted aide of Duke Dingyuan Zhang Shouwang and leader of the Right Camp, continued as the commander of the Right Camp after Liang Chu became the General, and was promoted to Commander of the Central Route Jinzhou Guard after the East Sea Hu Clan was defeated.

Yang Zhenshan was very familiar with Tang Feihu because Zhou Lan had a good relationship with him. This man was bold but meticulous and exceptionally capable, otherwise, he would not have been valued by two consecutive Generals Zhang Shouwang and Liang Chu.

Certainly, Tang Feihu would not collude with Ji Feiyu and engage in treacherous conspiracies.

The Assistant General of the Jianning Guard in the central route, Niu Zhuang, was originally the thousand commander of the Left Camp and the Commander of Jianning Guard, as well as the defense officer of Ningzhou City. Before Zhou Lan returned to the Capital City, she recommended Niu Zhuang as the Assistant General of Jianning Guard.

It could be said that Niu Zhuang was personally promoted by Zhou Lan. If Yang Zhenshan was once a trusted aide of Zhou Lan, then Niu Zhuang was her loyal follower, as Niu Zhuang was brought to Chongshan Town by Zhou Lan from Duke Ning Mansion.

Therefore, it was impossible for Niu Zhuang to conspire with Ji Feiyu either.

The Assistant General of the southern route of Chongshan Town, Ji He of Dingliao Guard, was Liang Chu’s man and certainly would not collude with Ji Feiyu.

The Assistant General of the northern route of Chongshan Town, Hou Yao of Fuzhou Guard, was formerly the leader of the previous Camp and a Guerrilla General.

The Assistant General of the eastern route of Songzhou Guard, Liu Zeqing, was formerly the leader of the rear Camp and a Guerrilla General.

These two had worked under Liang Chu’s command, but they were not Liang Chu’s trusted aides, only considered usable people selected by Liang Chu from Chongshan Town.

Hence, the position of these two was still to be determined.

As for Cui Liang, the Assistant General of the western route of Daning Guard, no need to think about it; this man was definitely Ji Feiyu’s man.

By this account, in reality, the forces Ji Feiyu could control in Chongshan Town were not many. Apart from the Five Camps and the western route, at most, the northern and eastern routes could be added.

And there was Han Cheng on the eastern route!

“Come here!”

Thinking of Han Cheng, Yang Zhenshan called out towards the door.

“Sir!” The personal follower standing outside the door immediately entered and responded.

“Just a moment!”

After saying this, Yang Zhenshan wrote a letter, “Arrange for someone to send this letter to An Yuan City immediately, give it to Han Cheng!”

“Hm, have the Personal Guard Camp dispatch a team to deliver it, and later I also have a few letters to be sent out!”

The personal follower responded, took the letter, turned, and left the room. But he promptly returned.

Sending a letter naturally did not require the personal followers by Yang Zhenshan’s side to personally go; it could be done by sending soldiers from the Personal Guard Camp.

Yang Zhenshan wrote another letter, “This one, send to Tang Feihu, General of Jinzhou Guard!”

“This one, send to Niu Zhuang, General of Jianning Guard!”

“This one, send to Ji He, General of Dingliao Guard!”

He did not know the current situation in Chongshan Town, but he must inform these individuals of his suspicions, whether as a reminder or a warning, at least to make them vigilant of Ji Feiyu.

“This one, send to Ningzhou City, to Yang Chengzhang!”

“This one, send to Yinghe Castle, to Yang Qinyong!”

Both Yang Chengzhang and Yang Qinyong were scions of the Yang family. After Yang Chengze followed Zhou Lan to the Capital City, Yang Chengzhang took over the position of defense officer of Yinghe Castle, and last year, when Yang Chengzhang was promoted to defense officer of Ningzhou City, Yang Qinyong succeeded him at Yinghe Castle.

Currently, there were about twenty members of the Yang family holding positions in Chongshan Town, with Yang Chengzhang having the highest rank; the rest were mostly officials like Hundred Households or households.

Yang Zhenshan couldn’t possibly notify every descendant of the Yang family, he could only inform Yang Chengzhang and Yang Qinyong, hoping that they would notify the other Yang scions to make preparations in advance.

As for the rest, Yang Zhenshan could not attend to them at this time.

After all the letters were sent out, Yang Zhenshan immediately summoned a group of officers from Tenglong Guard.

The matters in Liaoxi and Chongshan Town, Yang Zhenshan could not manage for now, for he had a serious trouble in front of him.

The Prince of Qinghua Prefecture!

And this one was right beside him!

Soon, the officers of Tenglong Guard gathered in the main hall of the Guardian Department.

Xie Yuan, Song Dashan, Yu Tonghai, Wu Chongzhe, Yang Mingzhi, Yang Minghao, Yang Mingzhen, Luo Feiyu, Xue Ping, Han Fei, as well as Lu Wenhua and Zhou Ren, all were present.

Yang Zhenshan, wearing a grey long gown, strode into the great hall and sat in the main seat.

“Greetings to the Sir!”

Everyone bowed with fists in salute.

Yang Zhenshan waved his hand, saying, “Dispense with the formalities, please sit!”

The main hall of the Guardian Department was the place for meetings, but this was the first time that Yang Zhenshan called everyone together for a major meeting; before this, he had only held small meetings related to specific individuals.

Although everyone did not know what had happened, seeing such an assembly, they each felt a heavy atmosphere in their hearts.

Once everyone was seated, Yang Zhenshan spoke in a deep voice, “I just received a message that the Wuliang army has broken through the defense lines of the western route of Chongshan Town and entered the territory of Liaoxi!”

“According to the information I’ve got, the Wuliang Hu Clan has already sent fifty thousand troops into our territory!”

These words caused a drastic change in everyone’s expression in the hall.

The invasion of the Wuliang army was a grave matter that everyone understood well.

Yang Zhenshan raised his hand to stop Xie Yuan, who wanted to speak, and continued, “According to my assessment, the Wuliang army has been intentionally let in through the western route of Chongshan Town, and it might be related to Prince Qing and Ji Feiyu at this point…”

He briefly explained his suspicions, and everyone exchanged glances, with the others still alright, but Yu Tonghai and Xue Ping were completely confused.

The others all came from Chongshan Town; they understood Chongshan Town very well, so a slight reminder from Yang Zhenshan could lead them to think of Ji Feiyu.

But Yu Tonghai and Xue Ping had no idea about Chongshan Town at all; they had not even been to Chongshan Town.

Yang Zhenshan, with a solemn expression, continued, “If it is as I suspect, then we will have to face Prince Qing next!”

“Without hiding anything from you, when Your Majesty reassigned me to Tenglong Guard, it was to curb the power of Prince Qing!”

“Now with His Majesty’s illness, if Prince Qing intends to rebel, he will surely start by eliminating Tenglong Guard!”