Chapter 150: On the Eve of the Mutiny

The territory of the Inspector of Liangzhou was, of course, in Liangzhou. Originally, the seat of Liangzhou was Hanzhong, but later, when the northern nomadic tribes invaded, the Inspector of Liangzhou colluded with them without putting up the slightest resistance, yielding all the regions north of Mount Ba to the Yao Qin dynasty.

With everything north of Mount Ba fallen, the seat of Liangzhou was relocated to the Shu Plain, not far from Chengdu. Consequently, rather than residing within his own jurisdiction, he built a lavish mansion in Chengdu and lived there permanently.

The Inspector of Liangzhou was a textbook fence-sitter. Back when the northern tribes attacked, had he resisted, it would undoubtedly have depleted his own Liangzhou forces. Moreover, holding out against the iron hooves of the nomads was far from certain; even if he managed to retreat bitterly to Chengdu, he would have lost the leverage to compete with the Inspector of Yizhou in the future. It was for this reason that he had colluded with the nomads.

Yet, although he colluded with them and surrendered all lands north of Mount Ba, he never fully surrendered, as he was still playing a waiting game. If the nomads gained massive momentum and breached Chengdu, he would seamlessly and logically throw in his lot with them.

Indeed, for a time he truly believed that the fall of Shu to the nomads was a foregone conclusion. He had never expected a figure like Zhang Chi to emerge and effortlessly crush Yao Shuode's army of three hundred thousand.

Yao Shuode was mobilizing an army to conquer Shu, and Shu had to resist. They were like two boats, one of which was bound to sink. Since he could not foresee which one would go down, he preferred to keep one foot in each boat; when one sank, he would simply step onto the other.

In short, he would never lose out. Whichever side was stronger, he would stand with them, ensuring his own power remained intact.

His calculations were clever, but unfortunately, sometimes the dominant side does not tolerate such opportunism.

Such was the current situation.

After descending the grand hall and returning to his mansion, the Inspector of Liangzhou was consumed by rage. Gritting his teeth, he muttered, "Zhang Chi, you brought this upon yourself!"

To strike first is to gain the upper hand, while to strike later is to be constrained by others—how could the Inspector of Liangzhou fail to understand this principle? In the present circumstances, he could hardly be blamed for taking the preemptive strike.

Although his main military forces were not stationed in Chengdu, he had planted quite a few trusted men within the city precisely for contingencies. Having colluded with the nomads, how could he not leave himself a backup plan? Now that his plot had been exposed, he might as well go all in: he would order the Liangzhou troops to march swiftly on Chengdu, while simultaneously staging a military coup within the city.

If he could first assassinate the Prince of Chengdu, and then dispose of the Inspector of Yizhou and Zhang Chi, would not the entire region of Shu become his own?

When that time came, whether he chose to surrender to the nomads or declare himself king and carve out an independent domain in Shu would depend on how the situation unfolded. At the very least, it would allow him to weather the immediate crisis.

In truth, the Inspector of Liangzhou had long made preparations for this. He asked one of his trusted aides, "How are the weapons and armor coming along?"

"Blades and spears have already been forged, but the armor will still take quite some time."

"There is no time to wait," the Inspector of Liangzhou declared. "Order our men within the city to gather at the mansion and prepare for the coup at a moment's notice."

In fact, ever since he had first taken up residence in Chengdu, the Inspector of Liangzhou had been making preparations. While it was easy for him to enter Chengdu alone, his main army could only camp outside the walls, and the troops within the city were the personal imperial guards of the Prince of Chengdu. However, he had devised a countermeasure: he had ordered his soldiers to disguise themselves as ordinary commoners and enter the city in batches, scattering across various districts of Chengdu to reassemble when the time came.

As for weapons and armor, he had secretly brought in a number of craftsmen to toil day and night within his official residence.

This was the accumulation of strength before the eruption, and the moment for his outburst had finally arrived. "Furthermore, send word outside the city, ordering Military Advisor Qiao Zong to take command of the Liangzhou forces and rush to Chengdu for reinforcements."

"Understood!" The subordinate acknowledged the order and departed.

While the Inspector of Liangzhou was deep in frantic plotting, Zhang Chi acted as if nothing at all was the matter. Day after day, he attended banquets hosted by various officials, drinking no small amount of wine.

Dark Edge grew somewhat concerned on his behalf and once remarked, "By pressing the Inspector of Liangzhou so hard, aren't you afraid he will be driven to desperate measures?"

Zhang Chi merely smiled with an air of mysterious amusement and replied, "Let him jump, let him jump. My only fear is that he won't jump at all."

On this day, the Prince of Chengdu summoned Zhang Chi to the hall and asked him, "The Governor sent men to Hanzhong to retrieve the evidence of the Inspector of Liangzhou's treason. In how many days might they return?"

To this, Zhang Chi answered with complete honesty, "To not deceive the Prince of Chengdu, your humble servant actually sent no one to Hanzhong."

This single sentence left the Prince of Chengdu momentarily stunned. "Why is that?"

"In truth, I hold no concrete evidence of his treason in my hands." Zhang Chi spread his hands and smiled. "Your Highness need not worry; I am not speaking wild nonsense. The Inspector of Liangzhou certainly harbors suspicions of treason, but he is meticulous and leaves no easy handles to grasp. My actions were merely designed to force him to reveal his true colors and flush the snake out of its hole."

"So that is how it was." Only then did the Prince of Chengdu experience a flash of realization, though after a moment of reflection, he offered a cautionary word: "I only fear that flushing the snake might result in getting bitten on one's own hand, which would hardly be a desirable outcome."

"Your Highness can rest easy; I have long since made thorough preparations," Zhang Chi smiled. "If he were innocent of treason, he would naturally have no fear of my so-called evidence. But if he is indeed guilty, he will inevitably resort to any means to save himself. Now that he is trapped within Chengdu and cannot leave, there is only one course left to him..."

Here, Zhang Chi paused abruptly, yet the Prince of Chengdu had already guessed the rest, supplying the word himself: "A coup!"

Zhang Chi smiled and nodded.

Within two days, Daoxuan had ridden like the wind to Badong, bringing back Xie Lingyun and Master Han.

By this time, Xie Lingyun had changed remarkably from when they had first encountered him.

Back then, Zhang Chi, Daoxuan, and the Three Paulownias had rescued Xie Lingyun in Shanyin, Kuaiji, after his entire family had been slaughtered by the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice. When he first accompanied Zhang Chi and the others to Shu, he had remained deeply gloomy, but by the time Daoxuan met him again, he had grown much more cheerful.

With Master Han guiding him in his studies on ordinary days, his life had become quite pleasant.

Master Han originally hailed from the Sanwu Academy in Jiankang, and he proved adept at putting his talents to good use.

Xie Lingyun had always been fond of learning and possessed a solid foundation; even Master Han could not help praising him as a youth of vast erudition and extraordinary brilliance.

Yet, young as he was, Xie Lingyun possessed a certain pride in his own talent. A favorite saying of his was: "If all the talent in the world amounts to one stone, Cao Zijian alone possesses eight bushels, I claim one bushel, and the rest of the world shares the remaining one."

Cao Zijian naturally referred to Cao Zhi. Master Han did not agree with this boast and smiled, saying, "Your words show far too much contempt for the learned scholars of the present day. I know not about others, but I know that today there is one man, Zhang Chi alone, whose literary talent falls in no way short of Cao Zijian's eight bushels."

With that, he recounted to Xie Lingyun the past events of Zhang Chi composing poetry over wine at the Sanwu Academy in Jiankang, adding, "Among the scholars of Jiankang back then, the saying of the 'Three Peerless Wonders' was widely circulated. The three wonders referred to Zhang's poetry, Wang's calligraphy, and Zijian's prose—referring to Wang Youjun's calligraphy, while the foremost of the three wonders was Zhang Chi's poetry, truly a rare and peerless masterpiece of the ages."

Hearing these accounts, Xie Lingyun grew intensely eager to meet Zhang Chi and see whether he truly possessed the genuine talent Master Han described. Thus, when Daoxuan arrived in Badong to escort the two of them to Chengdu, Xie Lingyun was filled with joyful anticipation.

"If Heaven did not love wine, the Wine Star would not be in heaven. If Earth did not love wine, Earth should have no wine springs. Since both Heaven and Earth love wine, loving wine brings no shame to Heaven. We hear the clear wine is like a sage, and they say the cloudy is like a worthy. Since sages and worthies alike have drunk, why must one seek immortals? Three cups lead one to the Great Way, a whole dou harmonizes with nature. Once you grasp the joy found in wine, never impart it to the sober." Xie Lingyun softly recited.

These verses had naturally been taught to him by Master Han. During the poetry banquet at the Sanwu Academy in Jiankang, Zhang Chi had composed poetry over wine, profoundly captivating Master Han.

Though young, Xie Lingyun possessed an eye for treasure and naturally recognized that such poetry was exceedingly rare through the ages, deepening his admiration for Zhang Chi all the more.

Daoxuan laughed and said, "What is so remarkable about that? Following by Elder Brother Zhang's side, I frequently witness his poetic genius. And that is secondary; what matters most is the wisdom Elder Brother Zhang displays in his conduct and dealings with the world—a wisdom one can never finish learning. Furthermore, much of it subtly aligns with our Buddhist Chan principles, filling one with boundless admiration. No wonder my senior martial brother bade me follow him into the secular world for cultivation; looking at it today, I finally understand the profound meaning behind it."

With both of them constantly praising Zhang Chi in his ear, the moment Xie Lingyun arrived at the Governor's Mansion in Chengdu, he pestered Zhang Chi to compose a poem for him.

Though young, Xie Lingyun was quite persistent. Unable to shake him off, Zhang Chi smiled and said, "Even if you ask me to write a poem, there must at least be a theme, no?"

Since he was young, Xie Lingyun addressed Zhang Chi as "Elder Brother Zhang" just as Daoxuan did. Pondering for a moment, he said, "On the battlefield, brave warriors charge the lines, their divine might shaking the heavens, full of heroic vigor. How about Elder Brother Zhang takes warfare as the theme?"

Zhang Chi sighed, patted Xie Lingyun on the head, and said, "You only know of the thunderous might on the battlefield, but do you not realize how many heroic souls perish because of the ravages of war, and how many families are torn apart, flesh and blood separated? There is no heroic vigor upon the battlefield; there is only clutching one's halberd to gaze at the moon, uttering bitter sighs in the dead of night."

With that, Zhang Chi intoned a poem: "The bright moon rises from the Tianshan Mountains, amidst a vast and boundless sea of clouds. A strong wind blows for tens of thousands of miles, crossing over the Yumen Pass. The Han armies descended the Badeng path, while the nomads spy upon the Qinghai Bay. From of old, this is the land of campaigns and battles; not a single man is seen to return. The frontier travelers gaze at the border towns, their faces heavy with longing and bitter grief. In the high towers on such a night as this, their sighs are unending."

Though young, Xie Lingyun understood the underlying meaning. Had not his own parents been mercilessly slaughtered during the rebellion of the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice? He felt these sentiments profoundly and softly echoed the lines: "From of old, this is the land of campaigns and battles; not a single man is seen to return."

"I only hope that by the time you grow up, there will be no more warfare in this world," Zhang Chi said with a faint, reluctant smile. "To know the world's calamity of swords and spears, just listen to the midnight cries at the butcher's gate."

These very words had once been spoken by Zhang Chi when he passed through the market upon his previous return to Chengdu, spoken then to Princess Wuyou.

Ever since that day, Princess Wuyou had frequently recited this verse.

As coincidence would have it, just as Zhang Chi finished speaking with Xie Lingyun, Yu'er walked in and reported, "Young Master, Princess Wuyou has sent a female official to invite you to a banquet. The official is waiting at the entrance right now; please go out and meet her."

"Princess Wuyou?" Doubts arose in Zhang Chi's mind.