Chapter 12 – Who’s Who?

At dusk, the gates of Jiaozhou had long since closed, so that later order from Fan Xian was actually somewhat redundant. However, since such a big thing had happened in the city, such a serious conflict, Wu Ge Fei knew that he had to handle it carefully, otherwise, if the 10,000 sailors and soldiers on the harbor outside the city were allowed to come into the city, it would be extremely difficult for him to save his own life, so he ordered his close subordinates to go up to the city to keep watch on the movements on the other side of the harbor.

At the same time, Jiaozhou government officials and state troops are also in the city to carry out reconnaissance and search, although the court is to investigate the problem of the Jiaozhou naval division, but the governor of the Lord was assassinated …… always want to find the assassin, may be able to dig out some deeper hidden secrets.

Of course, Wu Ge Fei hoped that he would never come into contact with those horrible hidden secrets, and he rubbed his somewhat dry eyes and astringently reported the situation in the city as well as the movements outside of the city to Fan Xian in an astringent voice.

Fan Xian nodded his head, satisfied with this governor’s speed of response; without this governor’s cooperation, it would have been basically impossible for him to take control of the Governor’s Mansion and put a group of the navy’s generals under house arrest.

He warmly exhorted a few words, then let the governor adults temporarily go to rest. Wu Ge Fei is not even dare to say, think even you such a prince are staying up all night, how do you dare to go to sleep? What’s more, the situation in the governor’s mansion is still somewhat ambiguous, who knows what unexpected changes will occur in this long night.

Seeing that Wu Gefei insisted on staying by his side, Fan Xian curled his lips into a smile and asked softly, “Are you worried about what’s going on outside the city?”

Wu Ge Fei was stunned, then smiled bitterly and said, “Chang kun governor has been in charge of the water division for more than ten years, under the account of all the close confidants, in the lower level of the prestige in the soldiers is also very high, today he died in strange circumstances, and adults will be the water division of the upper level of the generals of the house arrest, if the matter is passed on to the seaport …… as long as there are a few people who have the heart to provoke from it A little, those hans will only be afraid to wail.”

Fan Xian sighed: “I was thinking of taking Chang Kun and letting him step in to appease the sailors, who knows that he was actually assassinated ……” He sneered, “The other side is really a good tactic, and in this way, it makes a big rift between the imperial court and the sailors. Produced such a big crack, called this official good for a hard time.”

This is naturally false, often Kun is he killed, if often Kun is not dead, want to subdue the water division, is even more impossible thing, just since in planting, of course, to keep planting.

“What next?” Wu Ge Fei slightly ricked his body, tiredly asking for advice, “The wind can’t always be kept hidden, and since the court is handling the case, the decree must always be passed into the military.”

Fan Xian fell into silence, not knowing if his plan would go smoothly. In his original plan, he first killed Chang Kun, then took down Chang Kun’s close friends, used the means of the Supervisory Yuan to get a first-hand confession, then regained control of the situation with the help of the sailor generals who were still loyal to the imperial court, and then searched for evidence in the sailor division to find out what had happened in the East China Sea, and then made this case into an ironclad case, and used ironclad means to deter the sailor officers and soldiers who had dissenting intentions… …

But now the problem is, among the navy generals, who exactly should one trust? The information from the Inspectorate could not be trusted in many cases, at least not as reliably as an in-person psychological encounter.

In this moment, Fan Xian misses Xiao Yan in Kyoto, if Bing Yun is by his side, he will definitely set up a more perfect plan, not like himself, standing in the night of the Governor’s mansion, to a group of generals of the naval division, but he does not know how to speak.

Fan idle sitting at the stone table, slightly frowned, made up his mind, waved his hand to the side of the Qingwa made a gesture.

Qing Wa was stunned, immediately led the order and went. Not long ago, the firewood room at the back of the Governor’s residence, there was a burst of miserable howling, if there is a person with amazing ear power, may also be able to hear the branding iron fell on top of the human flesh of the sound of giggling, the sound of broken bones.

Wu Ge Fei face as earth, know the Supervisory Yuan began to use torture, associated with rumors that the Supervisory Yuan that the ghosts and gods fear the means, the governor’s hands shook, but forced to suppress the nervousness and fear, and courageously suggested: “…… adults, this move . …I’m afraid it’s just not right.”

Fan Xian understood what he meant, at this time, there were still many people of the Water Division within the Governor’s Mansion, and he was afraid that if he tortured himself so openly, it would only stir up public anger, but …… Fan Xian had originally stored this thought in his mind.

Under the double effect of violence and humiliation, the navy generals will either angrily let out a final roar, or else they will be so frightened that their hearts and livers will jump about, revealing their deepest thoughts to themselves.

As Wu Ge Fei had feared, the sailors under house arrest in the governor’s mansion, listening to this miserable howling, all came out of their rooms and stared at Fan Xian with indignant colors on their faces.

Fan Xian, however, did not even look at them and said, “It turns out that all the generals have not yet slept, do you have anything to say?”

As he was talking, he suddenly heard a commotion outside the Governor’s Mansion, and the sound gradually traveled into the garden, not knowing what was going on. Fan Xian frowned and asked, “What’s going on?”

The night was already this late, the Governor’s Mansion had long been heavily surrounded, and the birthday banquet had been blocked off, so what kind of people were outside?

Wu Gefei wiped the sweat on his forehead and ordered a magistrate to go out and take a look. The officer came back and reported with a hint of difficulty, “It’s people from the generals’ families.”

It turned out that although the news was blocked, but after all, the sailor division has been operating in Jiaozhou for many years, and there were still people who tried to let some wind out, especially at this time when it was already late in the night, the generals’ wives and concubines found that their own men had not yet returned, and naturally were a bit worried, and they received those rumors, and even though they did not know if it was true or not, they still sent people to pick up the people.

Fan Xian smiled, and then thought of the representatives of those rich merchants and the merchants of Jiangnan who had been left in the hall by himself, and thought to himself that he really couldn’t hide it for long, and just hoped that after the city gates were closed, the reaction of the harbor side would be slower.

Wu Ge Fei looked at Fan Xian with some difficulty, while those generals had some complicated faces, they also did not expect those women from their own families to have such great courage, and in their hearts, they were also wondering, who had released the news?

“Since they’ve all come to be picked up, all the generals should return.”

Fan Xian’s words made all the people in the arena dumbfounded, wasn’t it going to be house arrest? How was it released like this.

Fan Xian said softly, “This official is investigating the case by decree, since the party primrose has already blamed himself, and all those evil spirits hidden in the navy have jumped out, all the generals are merely implicated, this official naturally won’t be hard to deal with.”

These generals looked at each other in disbelief that what they heard was true.

“Return.” Fan Xian smiled and said, “Although this official is anxious to talk to all the generals, it’s not good to offend your sisters-in-law.”

There were no proper wives in the city of Jiaozhou, it was all the little wives or even concubines that these naval officers and soldiers had begged for, and with Fan Xian talking like this, he instead made these generals a little embarrassed.

At this moment, the miserable cries of Dang Snapdragon and those people in the firewood room sounded again.

The women outside seemed to have heard it as well, and led the household servants in a loud clamor.

For a time, inside and outside of the Governor’s residence, it was very lively.

The generals left the governor’s mansion with suspicion and anxiety, but knew that there must be countless pairs of eyes of the Supervisory Board inside Jiaozhou city staring at them, and they should not think of contacting the navy outside the city, even if they did, they would not be able to give an explanation to the imperial court at all in the future.

As for Fan Xian’s last words, they fell even deeper into the hearts of the generals.

Talking about the heart …… this is also to be divided into sequential, the Lord of the Division is to give these people a chance to return to the embrace of the court, depending on who snatched the first deep sense of righteousness, to the Lord of the Division to reveal their hearts ……

Each with their own thoughts, these generals left.

Wu Gefei didn’t know what Fan Xian was thinking, and couldn’t be bothered to ask more questions, but just strengthened the defense of Jiaozhou City, and before he left, he finally said carefully, “My lord, it’s best not to aggravate things too much.”

Fan Xian nodded, in terms of Wu Gefei’s performance this evening, the Ministry of Households’ evaluation of him was a bit on the low side, perhaps due to Chang Kun’s presence, this governor has not been able to show a level of performance that matches his abilities.

Fan Xian is not going to kill the party primrose wave, this is the biggest evidence of the East China Sea extermination, later naturally to be escorted to Kyoto.

Even the ladies in the city of Jiaozhou know that the Supervisory Board has taken control of the Governor’s residence, know about the death of Governor Chang Kun, know that the navy has suffered a heavy blow, and know that their own masters are unable to protect themselves.

The news that had been forcefully covered up by Fan Xian for a short while naturally also immediately reached the ears of many people. Although the state troops under Wu Gefei were guarding the city gates, the sailor had his own channels, and the man that Party Primrose had put out beforehand had finally managed to get past the blockade, and had approached the harbor silently along one of the paths outside the city.

He looked at the point of lights in the harbor in the distance, his heart was excited, although he did not know that the party primrose has been taken down by the Supervisory Yuan, but it is clear that the sailor is facing the biggest crisis since its birth, as long as it is able to enter the battalion to transfer troops, and take down the whole Jiaozhou City, it will be able to keep the safety of the sailor generals, as for how to deal with it after the fact, …… that is what the grownups should consider the problem.

Unfortunately, when he was still a few hundred feet away from the sailor’s tent, he suddenly felt the ground shake.

There was no sound, but there was someone behind him.

He turned back, but he didn’t see anyone, all he saw was more than ten horses with black armor, and it wasn’t until these horses got a little closer that he realized that all of these horses were riding cavalrymen dressed in black.

In the midst of the night, those black armor reflected the dark moonlight in the sky, as if carrying a hint of death.

His pupils shrunk and his body trembled, these were the black riders, the black riders of the Inspectorate!

The head flew up into the sky, blood sprayed out of the cavity, this sailor commander did not begin to feel his own stupidity until the moment before he died, since the Supervisory Yuan came to clean up the sailor division, how could they not bring the black rider that the whole world was afraid of?

Jing Ge’s face was still covered with the silver mask, he indifferently glanced at the corpse on the ground and nodded to the guard beside him.

That personal guard pulled his horse’s reins and turned back, standing under the hillside and making a few gestures, only at this time the night was so deep and the moonlight so dim, who could see these orders?

But when his gestures fell, above the short beam between the city of Jiaozhou and the harbor sailor’s quarters, suddenly, like the woodland after a rain, a row of densely packed things arose, which looked to have an inexplicable beauty.

It was all cavalry. On top of the beam a neat line of black cavalry, like a ghost as quiet standby, the formation listed, facing the distant sailor’s quarters.

Formation motionless, do not know these cavalry is how to control the horse on the body, actually did not send out a horse neighing, even the horse’s hooves did not carelessly plow the ground.

The tens of thousands of soldiers and officers in the naval division seem to realize nothing.

Jing Ge led the ten horsemen behind him, indifferently looking at the direction of the naval division, suddenly opened his mouth and said, “There is still half a moment.”

The personal guards behind him buckled their stirrups with one foot and started to wind their crossbows, then they slowly drew their straight swords in a neat and tidy manner, left crossbow, right sword, this is the standard configuration of the black cavalry.

A hint of fury flashed across Jing Ge’s brows. He had been ordered by Fan Xian to stop the connection between the city’s generals and the navy’s officers and soldiers outside the city, but even he hadn’t imagined that the navy’s generals would respond so quickly, and at the very same time that Dang Snapdragon had let that colonel out of the city, there were many other navy generals who had made the same choice.

Although the Black Riders had already sniped seven people before and after this short mountain beam, Jing Ge couldn’t guarantee that any of the sailors had crossed this blockade line and entered the sailors’ quarters.

Watching the direction of the harbor from afar, Jing Ge’s eyes narrowed, the silver mask on his face carrying a cold glow. The sailor’s quarters have already moved, the lights are also a little brighter than earlier, look at the appearance of the soldiers there have already known the news of the city, I think there must be a few generals who are good at instigating, are tempting the soldiers of the sailor’s division to attack Jiaozhou, to save those who have long died …… to let these soldiers go to their deaths.

Jing Ge waited for that moment in silence, he knew that the water division was not made of iron, and the other side could only transfer two thousand people at most, which was something that the Lord of the Tisch had already calculated beforehand.

Four hundred black cavalry against two thousand officers and men of the marine division who were not good at land battles.

Jing Ge couldn’t help but shake his head, they were all people of the Daqing Dynasty, they were all generals of the Daqing Dynasty, and he wasn’t actually very willing to slaughter the other side.

Fan Xian didn’t know about the tense situation outside the city, but he could guess that the sailor division side should have already made a move, and the Black Riders’ ability to surprise and kill was unrivaled in the world, especially at night, no one should be able to pose a threat to Jiaozhou City. Just the night is already deep, if wait until dawn, he still can’t let those sailors’ generals come out to collect people’s hearts, a larger-scale mutiny is afraid to be hard to avoid.

So while worrying about the Black Riders, he sat inside the Governor’s Mansion and waited with a few hints of derision for the generals to return again.

Just like the order of rank, the first general to return to the governor’s mansion was the number three of the navy, and this general, who was over forty years old, directly knelt down to Fan Xian in his study, expressing his unquestionable loyalty to the imperial court, his hatred of Chang Kun’s treacherous behavior and treason, and his condolences for the hard work of Mr. Tisi who had been investigating the case for the whole night.

This statement made Fan Xian very pleased, not in vain he did so many things in this night, set up a psychological attack for so long.

It was only the conversation that followed that made Fan Xian a little annoyed. Although this general surnamed He had a high position in the navy, he also admitted to himself that without Chang Kun and Party Snap, it would be a difficult thing for him to completely control the navy.

What made Fan Xian especially angry was that this General He directly expressed his unwillingness to be the first one to come forward, because in the current situation, whoever is the first one to come forward will definitely gain the most direct resentment from the officers and soldiers of the navy, and I am afraid that if he wants to be in charge of the army in the future, he will have great problems.

Fan Xian’s problem was that he could not be too vicious in the face of this old shameless one.

Because this General He said with a sniffle and a tear, “My lord, this general has been with the great palace in the west to conquer the Hu, come to Jiaozhou only half a year time, for the things in the navy, really do not really understand.”

得，搞了半天原来是大皇子的人，范闲心里叹息着，监察院的情报虽然有这个说法，但对方已经死皮赖脸地表明了身份，自己再怎么着，也要给大皇子一个面子。

Next, one after another, another general returned to the Governor’s Mansion to show their loyalty to His Majesty and express their condolences to Fan Xian, while carefully taking out relevant supporting evidence to illustrate their faction and where they stood.

None of these generals were close confidants of Chang Kun, nor were they the nails that the Princess had planted in Jiaozhou, but the problem was that none of them were willing to come forward to relieve Fan Xian of his troubles either, because the matter was indeed too big, and for the sake of their own futures, and for the sake of their masters behind them, they were more than willing to remain silent for the time being.

The reason why they came to talk to Fan Xian was that they were afraid that Fan Xian would get angry and arrest himself like he did with the Party Snapdragon, and also charge himself with colluding with the bandits and committing treason.

Each of them had their own factions and backers, and those backers had deep or shallow relationships with the Fan family in Kyoto, so Fan Xian always had to give some face.

Fan Xian didn’t have to give face to the Elder Princess and the Eastern Palace, but these people’s face had to be given.

“My lord, I am Ren Shaoan’s distant cousin.”

“My lord, my humble servant is Master Qin’s ……”

“My lord ……”

When a vice admiral controlling the logistics of the naval division mysteriously, yet awkwardly, said, “My lord, my surname is Liu ……”, Fan Xian finally exploded. This was one of the three most powerful water divisions in Qing?

He simply did not think that just one side of the water division, the internal relationship between the factions and the mountains was so complicated. Surname Liu? Your kinship with my stepmother, why didn’t you say so earlier? Fan Xian was angry, and drove this guy out, but did not let him leave the house …… Since it is a relative who is cornered, this drama of appearing as a traitor, you don t want to act but also have to act for me!

Tonight for Fan Xian, the biggest benefit is to know, the army is not a piece of iron plate, internal things are so complicated. There are people in the palace, there are people from the former minister’s office, there are people from the old Qin family, there are people under the door of the middle book, it’s not good to lay a heavy hand on them, but all of these people are slippery, and they’re not willing to jump out and become Fan Xian’s knife.

Fan Xian finally picked out two people to be his sword, and at the same time let the last one walk in.

He didn’t look at that person, he was just thinking about his own mind, he couldn’t help but feel a hint of anger in his heart, the last two generals he selected one of them was a person from Liu Guo Gong’s house, one was a relation of his father-in-law back then, anyway, the relationship was the closest, so he couldn’t afford to let them run away.

Fan Xian smiled to himself, the army has become like this, it has become the place where those big shots in the court arrange employment, if this continues, even the army will become a piece of rot, the fighting power that Qing has always been proud of will still be able to save a few percent? How can such an army protect the people?

Chang Kun was indeed not a good person, but what about these generals and the people behind them?

He sneered and looked at the last general, knowing that the other party is a veteran general of the navy, and has some prestige in the army, but not knowing which family he is, he could not help but say mockingly: ”Dare I ask which of the generals in the dynasty this general has an old relationship with? Minister Lin? Grandmaster Shu? Or is it Elder Qin? Don’t say it’s Lord Dean and that father of mine, I won’t believe it.”

Fan Xian sighed in his heart, observing the water division in one place, he knew that if this went on, Qing Guo would really have to have an army general without an army, and a state general without a state. Soldier is a national matter, letting the disciples and old friends in the army to get benefits, how can these people be so shameless?

The general stood in front of Fan Xian, his face slightly frozen, and then he smiled and said, “Young master, the next general is your man.”

Fan Xian was stunned, not uttering a single word for half a day, his eyes narrowing slightly as he said, “Whose men are you?”

The general’s face did not change as he smiled and repeated, “The next general is your man.”

Fan Xian took a deep breath, and an absurd feeling welled up in his heart, he was still furiously criticizing the courtiers with great righteousness earlier, but how did he get his fist smashed into his face?

However, he had never had any confidants in the army, and Chen Pingping and his father were being watched closely by the emperor, so even if they had planted men, it was impossible for them not to tell him, so Fan Xian narrowed his eyes, sizing up the man in front of him, and couldn’t help but ask again, “Whose men are you in the end?”

The general repeated for the third time, “I’m your man ……,” he said respectfully, “There’s no relation to all of them, I’m just your man.”