Chapter 204: Iron Blood
With the assassination precedent ahead, Pei Yan first led people to clear the way. Shops on both sides of the street, two or three stories high, were searched one by one.
Pei Qinghe mounted her warhorse again, proceeding unhurriedly until the Prefectural Governor’s Mansion.
Prefect Shen had originally prepared several tables of feasts, which naturally went to waste. The magnates were all escorted to prison, and Pei Qinghe had no leisurely mood to eat, drink, and listen to flattery.
Pei Qinghe ordered the meals to be distributed. After the Pei Family Army officers and soldiers, who had traveled the whole way, ate and drank their fill, they each settled down to rest.
There were more than twenty empty houses in the Prefectural Governor’s Mansion, with ten people per room accommodating two hundred.
In addition, Prefect Shen had vacated several nearby large courtyard houses, where the remaining eight hundred temporarily stayed.
The Pei Family Army was organized in teams of ten, with ten teams per camp, usually eating and living together. Now a team squeezed into one house, but they weren’t unaccustomed to it.
Pei Yan habitually slipped into Pei Qinghe’s quarters: “Cousin Sister Qinghe, I’ll stay with you.”
Pei Qinghe hummed in acknowledgment and glanced at Pei Yan: “Today you wielded your saber very cleanly.”
Pei Yan was still harboring a belly full of frustration: “I only killed four. In my view, all these magnates should be killed off.”
Pei Qinghe rolled her eyes: “Killing is to deter hearts. Those four were indeed all killable. Some magnates still have redeeming qualities. Keeping them to run their businesses, the silver they earn can be offered to us as military expenses, and it can also maintain stability in Beiping Commandery.”
“If we kill them all, how would we differ from the Liaoxi Army and Fanyang Army?”
“You’ve seen the booklet Shi Yan wrote. Can you use your brain and remember something!”
Pei Yan had skin thick as a city wall; being lectured a few times didn’t faze her. She grinned: “If you tell me to kill, I wield the saber. If you don’t kill, I sheathe it. Anyway, I listen to you.”
Pei Qinghe was amused and reached out to smack the back of her head.
After resting half a day, Pei Yun returned leading people.
Gu Lian went and returned with Pei Yun, firmly holding the deputy position. Wang Erhe shamelessly followed beside Gu Lian.
Pei Qinghe was completely at ease with Pei Yun’s capability and methods, asking only: “Have all the confiscations been handled?”
Pei Yun nodded slightly: “I’ve left them their courtyard houses and farmland. The money and grain, gold and silver, I’ve all confiscated; the exact amounts haven’t been tallied yet. Later, when sent to the barracks, they’ll be registered in the accounts.”
The barracks Pei Yun mentioned were precisely the empty camp left by the Beiping Army.
With ready-made barracks, there was no reason not to use them. Pei Yun planned to leave half the personnel to garrison Beiping Commandery, the other half to go to the Beiping Army Camp, and use the ready money and grain to recruit new soldiers and train troops. There was no worry about lack of usable people; Gu Lian could take charge of a sector, and Wang Erhe could barely manage the money and grain.
Pei Qinghe smiled: “For these matters, you can decide yourself.”
Those leading troops outside must have decisive capability and methods. Pei Yun lacked nothing in this regard.
With Pei Qinghe’s instruction like this, Pei Yun didn’t stand on ceremony and nodded in agreement.
Gu Lian volunteered: “General, I’ll go to the prison to see how the interrogations are going.”
Gu Lian was even more ruthless, vicious, and bold. Pei Qinghe glanced at Gu Lian: “First let Prefect Shen interrogate. If it’s really unclear, then you take over.”
Gu Lian cupped her hands, accepted the order, and left.
Wang Erhe automatically followed along.
Gu Lian entered the prison and disdainfully looked at the clean cells and the unscathed magnates: “Is this how the Prefectural Governor interrogates? What can this get out of them?”
Prefect Shen was usually stuffed full of fat by the magnates and couldn’t bring himself to be harsh. In this half day, he had questioned more than ten magnates one by one; each had an innocent face, claiming ignorance of the assassination, crying and begging the Prefectural Governor for mercy to release them.
At Gu Lian’s words, Prefect Shen immediately sighed: “This prefect is soft-hearted and no good at interrogations. Miss, you’ve had a good laugh!”
“My surname is Gu; call me Leader Gu.” Gu Lian was actually quite beautiful, but the saber scar on her face was too ferocious, making people startled and afraid to look closely. Those sharp eyes carrying killing intent made hearts even more uneasy.
Who knew where the Pei Family Army got so many powerful women from. No need to mention Pei Qinghe; Pei Yan was also a god of slaughter, Pei Yun was unflinching in confiscating family businesses, and this scarred woman before them was also brimming with killing intent.
Prefect Shen hurriedly changed to calling her Leader Gu and earnestly begged Leader Gu to take over the interrogation.
Gu Lian firmly remembered her general’s instruction and refused to rashly take over, saying only that she would accompany at the side.
Prefect Shen rallied his spirits and brought the magnates over one by one for questioning.
Gu Lian drew her long saber and casually hacked at the hard table, sinking three-tenths deep. She hacked again, the same depth.
Gu Lian smiled and asked Wang Erhe: “Tell me, if this saber of mine lands on someone’s neck, can it sever it in one stroke?”
Wang Erhe was an honest man; he looked carefully and shook his head: “At most half.”
Gu Lian was somewhat unconvinced; her gaze drifted over the magnates’ necks, eager to try, quite intent on testing it out.
The magnates felt chills on their necks and cold in their hearts, trembling as they offered to contribute fifty percent of their family business as military expenses.
Gu Lian continued hacking at the table for fun, looking delighted: “Wang Erhe, come look; this time it can sever it, right!”
Wang Erhe peeked over: “It can still leave a bit of skin.”
The magnates were scared out of their wits; someone changed to offering sixty percent of their family business. Gu Lian ignored it and kept hacking the table, which was now wobbling unsteadily.
When someone said they would offer seventy percent of their family business as military expenses, Gu Lian’s expression immediately softened. She asked for the magnate’s identity and name, then said to Prefect Shen: “This one is utterly loyal and devoted to our general and can be released.”
Prefect Shen wiped sweat with his sleeve, a face full of fawning smiles: “All as Leader Gu says.”
With this precedent, the other magnates quickly caught on and successively offered seventy percent.
Matters of the Yu Clan colluding with the Liaoxi Army were also gradually confessed. The assassination was indeed privately done by the Yu Clan. The Prefectural Governor had been kept in the dark, and they had only heard some rumors early that morning, with no time to stop it.
Gu Lian dragged over that magnate who claimed there was no time to stop it and coldly hacked off his head.
After one night, Pei Qinghe slept soundly and recovered her abundant energy.
Gu Lian, who had stayed up all night without sleep, came over with dark circles under her eyes, smiling as she reported the “harvest” from the night’s interrogations.
Gu Lian acted ruthlessly but knew limits. She handled scaring people and killing, but left confiscating family businesses to Pei Yun.
Pei Yun thought to herself that no wonder Pei Qinghe valued Gu Lian so much. Having such capable and attentive subordinates was truly worry-free.
“Cousin Sister Yun, you’ve worked hard these few days.” Pei Qinghe smiled and instructed: “Still the old rules: the magnates’ courtyard houses, farmland, and shops remain untouched; take all the money and grain, gold and silver to keep as military expenses.”
Raising troops was a bottomless pit; money and grain were never enough.
Pei Yun also smiled: “This errand is not hard at all; I wish there were ones like this every day.”
Pei Qinghe smiled faintly.
