Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Chapter 981: Chapter 691: The Test for Lv Hua

A moment later, the personal followers brought an elderly man to the teahouse.

Yang Zhenshan stood up to greet him, “Brother Wei, haha, it’s been a long time!”

“This old man pays his respects to the Marquis!” Wei Cen’s expression was quite complex.

When he first met Yang Zhenshan, Yang Zhenshan was just a garrison officer, but now he was high above in power, standing superior even to the imperial authority.

In the blink of an eye, more than thirty years had passed.

Seeing him in his aged state, Yang Zhenshan couldn’t help but feel the relentlessness of time.

“You’re still being formal with me, old friend, haha~~”

Yang Zhenshan affectionately put his arm around Wei Cen’s shoulder and laughed heartily.

“Come, let me introduce someone!”

“This is Chen Zhongshu. Brother Wei should have met him!”

Wei Cen was quite surprised to see Chen Zhongshu; of course, he had met Chen Zhongshu before, as he often followed Lv Hua during visits to the Imperial City.

Chen Zhongshu seemingly didn’t remember Wei Cen, whose unremarkable appearance made him easily overlooked.

Moreover, the difference in status and rank at the time meant that Wei Cen wasn’t on Chen Zhongshu’s radar.

“Wei Cen pays respects to Chen!” Wei Cen hastily bowed in greeting.

Chen Zhongshu waved his hand, “No need, I’m no longer a eunuch!”

Not all eunuchs could be called “gonggong,” a respectful term for a chief eunuch; however, outside the Imperial City, eunuchs were generally addressed as such.

In fact, “eunuch” was originally a respectful title, but in the former Da Rong, all court eunuchs in the Imperial City were called eunuchs.

Over time, it became just an ordinary title.

Yang Zhenshan asked Wei Cen to take a seat and then began to reminisce.

He mainly wanted to know where Wei Cen had been all these years.

Wei Cen didn’t hide anything and shared his experiences without reservation with Yang Zhenshan.

The story was long, beginning with Emperor Yanping eliminating Nansheng and the Red Monarch of the Divine Sun Sect, the latter being slain by Yang Zhenshan himself.

Although the operation wiped out the Divine Sun Sect’s operatives in the Capital City, it also exposed the core operations of the Secret Martial Guards.

Many Secret Martial Guard operatives and shadows’ identities were revealed to the Divine Sun Sect.

To restore the Secret Martial Guards, Wang Zhongzhi spent years making numerous arrangements, but over time, Emperor Yanping’s attention turned to the Secret Martial Guards. Around the time he meddled with the Martial Arts Temple, he also planted a large number of his people within the Secret Martial Guards.

Emperor Yanping’s idea was simple: he wanted to firmly control the Secret Martial Guards himself. Whether Wang Zhongzhi or Lv Hua, they were both leftovers from Emperor Chengping’s era, always a layer apart from him, so he intended to plant his trusted people within the Secret Martial Guards.

But Emperor Yanping had a major flaw: he loved playing balance.

It was one thing to play balance elsewhere, but doing so within the Secret Martial Guards nearly amounted to disabling them entirely.

While Wang Zhongzhi was there, he could use his prestige to suppress internal conflicts within the Secret Martial Guards, but ultimately, Wang Zhongzhi grew old.

After Wang Zhongzhi passed away, most of the Secret Martial Guards were dismantled.

Lv Hua had to leave, and Wei Cen, along with Lv Hua’s trusted followers, concealed their identities to become ordinary citizens.

During the five years Lv Hua was imprisoned on Black Mountain Island, Wei Cen was actually in Jing’an Prefecture in Liaodong, always controlling the forces Lv Hua left behind, namely the spies and shadows of the Secret Martial Guard North Station.

On the surface, he was just an ordinary citizen, but secretly, he was Liaodong’s largest intelligence leader.

At that time, although the Yang family already had a strong hold over Liaodong, they lacked their own intelligence agency. Moreover, since Wei Cen was so deeply hidden, most spies and shadows remained in silent mode, neither gathering nor conveying intelligence.

Therefore, the Yang family and its clan genuinely didn’t discover their existence.

But after Lv Hua chose to capitulate, Wei Cen and others were reactivated.

After hearing Wei Cen’s explanation, Yang Zhenshan asked, “So all activities in Chongshan Town have been under your surveillance?”

Wei Cen shook his head, “It can’t be called surveillance, but we did receive a lot of information about Chongshan Town, like the military training outside Fuzhou City and the large grain stockpiles that the Tenglong Guard had started two years ago.”

“You haven’t told Chen Hengchang?” Yang Zhenshan asked.

Wei Cen said softly, “Mr. Lu is not truly loyal to Chen Hengchang, but forced to be.”

Yang Zhenshan’s expression shifted slightly, “So he sent you to find me?”

Wei Cen nodded, “In today’s world, the only person we can trust is the Marquis!”

Yang Zhenshan tapped the table lightly, unsure of Lv Hua’s intentions, but it wasn’t hard to understand that Lv Hua wanted to ally with him.

They were old friends, after all, and there was a basis of mutual trust between them.

In today’s world, while the Yang family cannot say they have stabilized their reign, they are undoubtedly the most likely to recreate a prosperous era.

If Lv Hua isn’t foolish, he’ll know what choice to make.

Yang Zhenshan pondered for a moment and said, “Then let’s rebuild the Secret Martial Guards in the Da’an New Dynasty!”

“No need to wait for the future, send a message to Lv Hua now, have him come to the Capital immediately!”

“But, Mr. Lu has many arrangements in Jiangnan.” Wei Cen said somewhat hesitantly.

Yang Zhenshan smiled, “Those arrangements seem unimportant to me; his loyalty to the new dynasty is what’s most important!”

“Do you understand?”

Sending for Lv Hua now is essentially asking him to defect from Chen Hengchang.

It would be a test for him and a matter of trust.