“Where are the men of the baggage train?”
Ning Chen asked.
Lei An bent forward. “Reporting to General Ning, the men of the baggage train are camped outside the city.”
Ning Chen made a sound of acknowledgment and said, “You’ve come at exactly the right time, Lei An. Get the men of the baggage train into the city now, to help Mu Anbang and Yuan Long put the rebels down.”
“Yes!”
Lei An took his orders and went.
It was the hour of the Dog before Mu Anbang, Yuan Long, Feng Qizheng and the rest came to the Governor’s residence, one after another.
Ning Chen sent a man to call Pan Yucheng back too.
In the main hall of the Governor’s residence, Ning Chen sat in the seat at the head.
Ning Chen said, smiling, “Report, all of you. How did it go?”
Mu Anbang grinned wide and said in high spirits, “The rebels are soft eggs. They went to pieces at the first push… I killed something over three thousand and took better than six thousand. We don’t have the exact numbers yet.”
Yuan Long said, “It was much the same with me… the rebels are put down almost everywhere by now. There are still small parties of them making trouble and our men are searching for them.”
Ning Chen inclined his head slightly.
“You have all worked hard. But tonight you are going to have to work a while longer.”
“The Left Chancellor has already passed word to the Grand Tutor that the Empress was granted death. We don’t know yet how the Grand Tutor will take it, but we had better be ready early.”
“So before daylight we have to get everything straight and see Mangzhou quiet again.”
“Then even if the Grand Tutor’s army comes down on us tomorrow, at least we won’t be all hands and elbows ourselves.”
They nodded.
Ning Chen said, “Mu Anbang, hear the order!”
“This officer is here.”
“Marshal Mu, take men and go on hunting down the rebels that are left… I have only one requirement. Those rebels either die or they surrender. When I am dealing with the Grand Tutor I don’t want them making trouble behind me.”
Mu Anbang bent forward. “This officer has his orders!”
Ning Chen nodded, and then said, “Yuan Long, hear the order!”
“This officer is here.”
“Take men and hold the key points in the city. Every street corner is to have men on it, and the patrols go around the clock without a break.”
Yuan Long cupped his fists. “This officer has his orders!”
Ning Chen made a sound of acknowledgment.
“Lei An.”
“This officer is here.”
Ning Chen said, “Take men and deal with the bodies in the city, clear the streets, and get me a count of the dead and wounded… those prisoners can be put to use. Don’t let them sit idle, work them as laborers, have them carry the bodies… and if any of them will not behave, I give you leave to execute first and report afterward.”
“Yes, this officer has his orders!”
Ning Chen waved a hand. “All right, go get to work.”
“Wait!”
The three of them were on their way out when Ning Chen suddenly called them back.
“Does General Ning have further orders?”
Ning Chen said, low and hard, “Tell the men below you that they are not to trouble the common people. If any man takes advantage of the confusion to line his own pockets, or leans on the people, or turns to rape and robbery… he is beheaded without pardon, and no mercy for him.”
“Keep your subordinates in line. If they offend, you answer for it with them… we came here to protect Mangzhou, not as bandits. Don’t make the people hate us. Before your men do anything, have them think about how the Empress’s brother ended.”
The three of them changed color and said quickly, “Yes, this officer obeys!”
Ning Chen nodded slightly and waved a hand.
The three of them withdrew.
Ning Chen looked at Feng Qizheng. “Take men and search and seize the houses of every official in Mangzhou, high and low.”
Feng Qizheng nodded. “No trouble!”
Ning Chen turned his head to Pan Yucheng and said, “Old Pan, you and I have to write a notice and put it up all over the city, so the people know we came to put down a rebellion and not to ruin them.”
Feng Qizheng took men and left.
Ning Chen and Pan Yucheng went to the study and began writing the notice.
“Old Pan, we’ll split it up. You write the notice, I’ll write the memorial.”
The state of Mangzhou had to be reported to the Xuan Emperor.
Every official in the city, high and low, had been cooked in one pot, so the Xuan Emperor would have to send new officials to handle Mangzhou’s affairs.
Ning Chen ransacked his stomach and his guts, wrung out every drop of milk in his brains, and produced a memorial… the emphasis falling heavily on how hard and how bloody this battle had been. In a word: play the victim, fish for sympathy, protest his loyalty, and blow up his own merits without limit.
“Old Pan, I’ve finished! Take a look at it for me.”
Pan Yucheng took the memorial, read one line of it, and could not stop the skin of his face from twitching.
The first line ran: May Your Majesty’s health be strong. Your subject, a thousand li away, knocks his head upon the ground before Your Majesty, and may our emperor live ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand times ten thousand years…
“Isn’t this… a little overblown?”
Ning Chen said, smiling, “Overblown?”
The corner of Pan Yucheng’s mouth twitched. “This part above all. The rebels were savage and cunning, they thirsted after blood as after life itself, they were fierce and did not fear death… your subject led his officers and men in a fight to the death, and in the end, with several blades in his body, his strength failed and he fell… and at the point of death your subject thought of Your Majesty, and all at once it was as though a god had come to his aid, and strength poured through his whole body, and he sprang up… Are you writing a storybook here?”
Ning Chen rubbed his nose and laughed dryly. “It does sound a little overblown when you say it out loud.”
“A little?”
Ning Chen coughed, snatched the memorial back, rolled his eyes and said, “Perhaps His Majesty likes them overblown.”
Pan Yucheng’s forehead filled with black lines. Do you imagine His Majesty is as unsound as you are?
Ning Chen was about to have the memorial sent off to the capital when he thought of something and asked Pan Yucheng, “Old Pan, I mean to write Yudie a letter and tell her I’m safe. Do you want to write one to Miss Nanzhi?”
Pan Yucheng nodded and made a sound of acknowledgment.
“Get to it, then, and we’ll send them back to the capital together.”
As he said it, Ning Chen picked up his brush and wrote:
Yudie, a not seen day — no, that’s wrong. A day not seen is like three autumns apart.
How is your body healing? I am a thousand li away and very worried about you.
I am well enough, only I miss you a little… let me say at the outset that I am absolutely not missing your body.
By the way, there is something I have been meaning to say. Your lute playing is very fine, but I hope that when you have time you will learn the flute from Miss Nanzhi.
When we parted, and you were comforting Ning the Second, I felt your technique was no better than ordinary.
I hope that by the time I come back your technique will be past all knowing, and you can give Ning the Second a surprise.
Ning Chen rattled on like that for a good long while.
When he had finished, Ning Chen picked it up and read it over and nodded, satisfied… he had the makings of a novelist.
“Old Pan, have you finished?”
Pan Yucheng nodded. “Finished!”
“What did you write?”
“That’s a secret!”
Ning Chen made a face. “Tch… it’ll be something sour like I miss your kiss, I miss your smile, I miss the smell of you. Do you want me to polish it up for you?”
Pan Yucheng stared for a moment, and then spread the letter paper out again.
“You haven’t finished after all?”
Pan Yucheng said with a perfectly straight face, “Give me a moment. I’m adding those lines you just said.”
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched.
Once Pan Yucheng had finished, Ning Chen had the memorial and the two letters sent to the capital, riding hard.
When Ning Chen came back he set to writing the notice with Pan Yucheng.
A notice had to go up on every street, so there were dozens of copies to write, and his wrist ached with it.
“Christ… if only there were a printer!”
Ning Chen rubbed his wrist and griped without thinking.
Pan Yucheng looked up at him. “A what? A chicken? You want chicken?” (TL Note: The last syllable of the word for printer, jī, is also the word for chicken.)
Ning Chen had nothing to say to that, and gave him a roll of the eyes.
(End of Chapter 250)