The World Online

11th month, 30th day, night, Tianjing City.

On the day that Ouyang Shuo led his troops to enter the city, the city was naturally in a peaceful and vibrant state. All the inharmonious elements were suppressed under the iron fist of Yang Xiuqing.

Based on Yang Xiuqing’s arrangements, Ouyang Shuo met the officials and generals from the old regime. He pardoned thousands of the normal criminals and handed out daily items to the people in the city.

Basically, anything that was lucky and auspicious.

Yang Xiuqing was well-versed and familiar with planning such matters, so this could also be considered the specialty of Taiping Country.

When Ouyang Shuo saw that, he could not help but feel amazed.

Ouyang Shuo was kept busy for the entire day. The show only ended after the feast at night.

In the end, when choosing a place to rest, Ouyang Shuo moved contrary to Yang Xiuqing’s arrangements for the first time. Based on Yang Xiuqing’s plan, Ouyang Shuo would stay in the palace Yang Xiuqing had sealed up.

Ouyang Shuo politely declined this suggestion.

Instead, he chose a courtyard in the city. This courtyard previously belonged to the fallen general, Lin Fengxiang. It could be considered majestic, and it was not an insult to his identity.

When Yang Xiuqing saw that, he did not insist.

He could feel that there were reasons behind why the Lord did not want to move into the palace.

After the formalities, Ouyang Shuo finally had time to deal with actual matters.

That night, the Guards Division major general, who was temporarily in charge of the defence of the city, Huwei General Lin Yi, the people in charge of the Black Snake Guards, the Military Intelligence Division, and the young General Shihu gathered in Ouyang Shuo’s courtyard.

This was obviously an internal Shanhai City meeting.

Even Yang Xiuqing was not invited by Ouyang Shuo.

In fact, before Ouyang Shuo had arrived in Tianjing City, the relevant intel gathered by the two intelligence organizations had been sent to Ouyang Shuo for him to read.

As for the small hiccup that occured on their way to Tianjing, it was enough to show that they were putting too much focus on the city and missed out on the villages.

Through the intelligence sent from the two intel organizations, Ouyang Shuo knew that a hidden power currently resided in Tianjing City. Moreover, this power aimed to go against Shanhai City.

Amongst this hidden power, there were generals from the military, ministers, and officials from the old regime. There were even merchants and the like. Basically, there were people from every level of society.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo needed to hurry up and clear out this hidden power before Bao Shuya arrived to take up his role. If not, the moment Tianjing City lacked a huge army keeping control, chaos and riots would start at every moment.

The current problem was what actions he should take.

Lin Yi’s suggested they send out the military and wash the city with blood.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this suggestion, he instantly shook his head and rejected it.

Lin Yi was purely a military person, so it was not weird for him to have such a thought. After all, it was also a viable choice. However, it was a bad idea to Ouyang Shuo.

Since Shanhai City took down Tianjing City so easily, there were naturally pros and cons.

Think about it, if they had forcefully taken the city, Ouyang Shuo could have used the might from that victory to start a slaughter based on the intel gathered by the Black Snake Guards and the Military Intelligence Division.

At that point, there would probably be no one who would oppose them.

Now, it was different because Tianjing City had surrendered.

Facing surrendered people, it was not easy for them to use violence.

If they ignored this concern, it would make the commoners cold to them. Moreover, it would make people like Yang Xiuqing, who had pledged their allegiance to Shanhai City, feel uncomfortable and guilty.

As a result, Ouyang Shuo was really careful when dealing with matters regarding Tianjing City. For this reason, he accepted Yang Xiuqing’s plan and put up with that huge show in the afternoon.

Apart from that, there was another problem that meant that Ouyang Shuo needed to exercise caution.

In the hands of the two intelligence organizations, there was indeed a namelist containing the names of some of the people in this hidden power. However, they were unsure if the list was complete. Even the two in charge were not confident.

The moment the military started to cleanse the place, they would definitely alert the enemies, scaring those people into hiding and making them hide even deeper.

Hence, if they wanted to wash them out, they would need a plan.

The few of them discussed till the dead of night before they finally thought of a suitable solution.

Needless to say, they would monitor and keep in check the already identified enemies to ensure that they could be taken down at any moment.

As for those hidden members in the military, they would be left for Lin Yi to handle.

For this matter, Ouyang Shuo had also instructed Shihu to lead the two independent mountain barbarian divisions to aid the Guards Division, with the reason of protecting the safety of the Lord. They would use this chance to increase their control over the city and take over Tianjing City.

Especially toward the one hundred thousand Taiping Army troops inside the city; they had to be wary of them. They would restrict their logistical supplies and range of activity to lower the risk to a minimum.

At the very root of this, Ouyang Shuo would still need to meet Yang Xiuqing and the other generals to discuss what to do with the one hundred thousand soldiers.

As long as they removed the threat of the military, anything else were just small matters.

Hence, the meeting tomorrow would be a huge test to Ouyang Shuo. He knew that among the generals of Taiping Army, there were definitely at least one or two that were still loyal to Hong Xiuquan.

As long as they did not find a chance to rebel, they would remain undetectable and continue to lie in wait.

Thinking about this point, dealing with such an opponent was definitely not a simple matter.

On the other hand, if he wanted to draw out the other hidden rebels in the city, Ouyang Shuo thought of a method called, ‘Luring the snake out of its hole.’

“Luring the snake out of its hole?” Lin Yi asked.

“That’s right.”

“What great idea does the Lord have?” Lin Yi smiled and asked once more.

When Ouyang Shuo heard this question, he also smiled, “Think about it, in the city, is there any place that is considered a holy ground to the people that are still loyal to Hong Xiuquan?”

“The king’s palace?” Lin Yi and the others replied in unison.

“That’s right!”

“The Lord wants to purposely destroy the king’s palace to anger those loyalists to Hong Xiuquan to make them jump out on their own?” Lin Yi asked.

“No.” Ouyang Shuo shook his head, “To burn it up in flames, won’t it be a huge loss for us?”

Strictly speaking, Ouyang Shuo was still greedy for riches.

As Xunzhou Prefecture and Zhen An Prefecture badly needed funds, Ouyang Shuo naturally needed to think of a method to settle their monetary problems.

As for his specific plan, Ouyang Shuo did not reveal it.

Early the next morning, Ouyang Shuo gave out his first imperial edict since moving into Tianjing City.

The edict stated that since Tianjing City was chosen as the governing city of Xunzhou Prefecture, it should naturally have a suitable provincial office to allow the governor and four departments to use.

After some research, the location of the king’s palace was the best place to build this provincial office.

Hence, Ouyang Shuo had to bear with the pain and demolish the palace to build a standard and practical office.

The moment the imperial edict went out, the city was thrown into an uproar.

The normal people were shocked by the heroism of the Lord. As for those loyal to Hong Xiuquan, removing the king’s palace was the same as breaking the last connection they had with their king. It felt much worse than tearing down their own house.

Hence, the moment the edict went out, many people begged the Lord to take back the order. These people that stepped out naturally entered the books of the Black Snake Guards.

Not to mention those people who were dead loyal to Hong Xiuquan, even Yang Xiuqing was confused by the Lord’s order. After all, as a minister of the old regime, he knew how important the king’s palace was to the people and to the believers of the faith.

If he wanted to build a provincial office, there was no need to go through so much trouble.

Firstly, as long as he made some simple modifications to the palace, it would become a really majestic office. Secondly, even if they did not modify it, choosing another place to build the office was possible.

After all, what he wanted to build was a provincial office. It was not a new palace, so there was no need to pay so much attention to fengshui.

Thinking back to how the Lord insisted on not moving into the palace, Yang Xiuqing guessed that the Lord was really determined to tear the palace down.

Soon, he was going to rush to Leizhou to become its governor, so he naturally did not want to go against the Lord’s intentions and oppose his decision.

There were actually many people who looked for him to ask him to speak out and ask the Lord to retract his decision.

When Yang Xiuqing heard those words, he could only give them an awkward smile.

Needless to say, all those people were blocked out of the courtyard by the Divine Martial Guards, and they did not even manage to see Ouyang Shuo’s face.

Before tearing down the king’s palace, Ouyang Shuo did not show any intentions of using the ten carriages of treasures. Instead, he asked the Business Division to discuss with the various Chambers of Commerces about selling the items off.

Firstly, he was not a materialistic person. Secondly, he wanted to remove the influence of Hong Xiuquan from both prefectures.

Based on conservative estimations, the treasures taken from the palace amounted to three hundred thousand gold; this allowed one to see how luxurious Hong Xiuquan’s life was.

With this huge amount of gold, the finances of the two prefectures would not need the support of the Nanjiang Governor-General House.

As for the palace maids and eunuchs in the palace, they were naturally removed from their duties.

That afternoon, numerous smiths and artisans started to tear down the palace.

That’s right; the place was torn down.

The high class materials, the stone carvings, statues, and the other item were all carefully gathered up. They were not destroyed like Lin Yi had thought.

Ouyang Shuo announced that they would hold an auction to sell these old items from the palace. The people from both prefectures could participate.

These items could act as souvenirs in their homes. Even if they did not want a souvenir, the materials and decorations themselves were all rare products.

Seeing that they were unable to prevent him from tearing down the palace, Ouyang Shuo believed that the loyalists of Hong Xiuquan would not be able to maintain their calm. They would jump out to buy all these products.

With that, he could earn some money and also capture those rebels, killing two birds with one stone.