Chapter 79: The Death of Pan Changwen

Jinyang, West City.

It was the first time Cui Wenjin had come to Jinyang. She gazed at the bustling, lively streets, at the dazzling display of exotic Western goods, and soon found herself lingering in front of stall after stall, utterly captivated.

Before long, the three who followed her—Xiong Ruixiang, Xia Jia, and Cao Yong—had their hands full of items. Some were things Cao Yong and the others had asked Cui Wenjin to bring back to Qinghe and Tiao County; some were gifts Fu Zihou wanted to send to his family. But most of the purchases were simply things Cui Wenjin herself fancied.

“This hairpin is ugly…”

“This jade ornament is even worse…”

“No woman would ever like this at first glance…”

As Fu Zihou tried to choose gifts for Li Cha, Cui Wenjin rejected each one with increasing disdain, leaving Fu Zihou to question his own taste. Some items, clearly more attractive than the ones Cui Wenjin herself had picked, were dismissed the moment he suggested giving them to Li Cha—even things Cui Wenjin had, just moments before, praised as beautiful.

Could it be that Cui Wenjin held some grudge against Li Cha in Tiao County?

Fu Zihou was no fool; after several such instances, it was obvious that Cui Wenjin was intentionally refusing to help select gifts for Li Cha.

Standing beside her, he recalled how, back in Liyang, Cui Wenjin had even asked whether he wanted to break off his engagement with Li Cha and said she could introduce him to a noblewoman.

Fu Zihou thought he should find an opportunity to speak with Cui Wenjin frankly. Setting aside superstition, Li Cha was better than most women he knew. In this open era of the Sui, to find a woman foolish enough to pledge her life and death to him as his wife was satisfaction enough for a man of Fu Zihou’s traditional mind.

“Hyah!”

“Hyah!”

Suddenly, commotion erupted not far down the street. Fu Zihou looked over and saw, beneath a flurry of pounding hooves, a troop of armored cavalrymen galloping at full speed.

“Make way! Make way!”

At the shouted command, Fu Zihou led Cui Wenjin and the others off to the side of the street. Among the horsemen, he spotted Pan Changwen, Zhang Pinggao, and Uncle Wen.

He wondered if he was imagining things, but as their eyes met, he thought he detected a hint of schadenfreude in Pan Changwen’s gaze.

“That’s Pan Changwen?” Cui Wenjin, though she had never met him, could clearly see from her vantage point beside Fu Zihou that Pan Changwen glanced at him as he rode past.

“Let’s go,” Fu Zihou said simply, not explaining further, and continued strolling with Cui Wenjin.

Within the city, there was an abundance of delicacies, allowing Cui Wenjin, a girl from Qinghe in Hebei, to savor a taste of something different.

By the time Cui Wenjin, thoroughly satisfied, returned with Fu Zihou to the East City, dusk was falling.

In the small courtyard, Cao Yong and the others had already retired to rest, their arms full of bundles placed in the rooms. Cui Wenjin, after a moment’s thought and with a rare hint of shyness, made her way to the kitchen.

There she saw Fu Zihou, having removed his sword and changed into plain clothes, bustling about beside the stove preparing dinner.

She watched him quietly. In that moment, Fu Zihou seemed just an ordinary youth, tending to his own fire and meals, with none of the bearing of a military officer or youthful hero.

“Were you not afraid when you first went to Qinghe County?” Cui Wenjin hesitated, then finally spoke.

There were many things she had never gotten to ask her brother in his haste to depart last time.

“What if I was afraid? Didn’t your brother also go to Qinghe and nearly die at the hands of bandits?” Fu Zihou, savoring the aroma of the meal, replied offhandedly as he bent down to ladle food into a porcelain bowl.

“My brother is a member of the Cui clan of Qinghe, but you aren’t! You could have chosen not to go!” Cui Wenjin bit her lip, her beautiful eyes fixed on him.

“I had to go to Liyang to meet someone from the Xie family! Besides, you and your brother, and the Cui clan behind you, are my support. I can’t afford to let anything happen to you.”

Fu Zihou passed her the bowl.

“So opportunistic!” Cui Wenjin shot him a glare, accepting the food before turning and leaving the kitchen.

In the main room, after dinner, Fu Zihou did not rush to rest. By lamplight, he attended to the city’s defenses. There was only one bed in the house, so he slept in the narrow side room. However, since the maps, desk, and documents were in the main room, he had to work there.

Cui Wenjin sat by the window, gazing out at the dimly lit courtyard, then at the humble wooden house, and finally, her gaze returned to Fu Zihou.

In the stillness, she wanted to ask about his wounds, but the words would not leave her lips. Even she wondered why—it was just a question, after all.

“Captain! Captain!”

Suddenly, hurried footsteps and shouts came from outside.

Fu Zihou and Cui Wenjin both looked up. Fu Zihou recognized the voices of Hu Jingyuan and Yin Tianzong and rose, stepping outside. Cui Wenjin, glancing at the darkness, grabbed her sword and followed.

In the courtyard, as Fu Zihou opened the gate, he saw Hu Jingyuan and Yin Tianzong, flanked by several soldiers with torches.

“Captain! News just arrived—General Pan led his troops north today to engage the rebels, but they fell into an ambush and were defeated. Captains Wen and Gao returned to the West City with the remnants, but General Pan…”

Hu Jingyuan paused, exchanging a glance with Yin Tianzong before looking anxiously at Fu Zihou.

“He was mortally wounded and has died!” Hu Jingyuan announced.

Yin Tianzong’s face was equally unsettled. With Pan Changwen dead, there was no one left to command the troops of Taiyuan. With rebels everywhere, and the enemy who killed Pan Changwen still in the north, the blow to the morale of Jinyang and all of Taiyuan was immense.

“What, dead?” Fu Zihou and Cui Wenjin both showed surprise, though their reactions differed. Fu Zihou’s expression darkened with doubt, while Cui Wenjin seemed to mouth the words, “Serves him right!”

“Commander Hu, immediately take men as previously instructed—gather all the noble families’ women and children from the city and move them to the camp, provide protection, and inform them that the city is unsafe and the soldiers will ensure their safety!” Fu Zihou ordered, then turned to Yin Tianzong.

“Commander Yin, slaughter the sheep as ordered, bury them near the water source outside the city, and burn everything that needs to be burned! Move all the villagers from the surrounding countryside into the city!”

He then sent for Cao Yong and the others.

Though he did not know why Pan Changwen had been killed, the thought of Zhang Jincheng’s plot left Fu Zihou certain that caution was necessary—no room for luck.

“What?” Hu Jingyuan and Yin Tianzong were stunned.

They had come in haste to inform Fu Zihou of General Pan’s death, expecting him to cross the river to the West City to confer with the other officers. Never had they imagined that, after brief contemplation, Fu Zihou would order scorched earth tactics and prepare for a siege.

The implications of these actions were severe. With both East and West City full of rumors about Fu Zihou, if he was being overly cautious, the consequences would be grave—far surpassing any of his previous decisions.

“Just follow my orders. I alone will bear all consequences!” Fu Zihou, reading their thoughts, repeated his command.

“Yes, sir!”

“Yes, sir!”

Though troubled, Hu Jingyuan and Yin Tianzong could only accept and depart with their men.

Watching them leave, Fu Zihou turned to Cui Wenjin.

“Tomorrow at dawn, you must head south at once. I’ll have Cao Yong and the others escort you to Luoyang.”

“Is Jinyang in danger?” Cui Wenjin, seeing Fu Zihou’s demeanor, sensed that something grave was about to happen and could not help but feel uneasy—for both the unknown perils and for Fu Zihou himself.

“Yes,” Fu Zihou replied frankly, glancing northward, worry etched in his features.

———

Jinyang, West City.

Deep in the night, carriages led by torch-bearing servants arrived at a grand mansion. Pei Ji and Liu Wenjing, who lived in different parts of the city, also arrived. In the main hall, they found Pan Changwen’s corpse laid out on the floor.

“My beloved! Oh—!” came the wailing.

“Father!”

“Father! Oh—!” Pan’s family knelt by his body, weeping bitterly. Liu Wenjing and Pei Ji were deeply shocked.

“Rest assured, Lord Jiang, messengers have already been sent to Luoyang overnight…” Wen Dayou informed Jiang Baoyi.

“Lord Wen, what exactly happened?” Liu Wenjing and Pei Ji exchanged glances, then looked at Wen Dayou, their faces full of questions.

Though Liu Wenjing had not cared much for Pan Changwen, he knew that his death would have a profound impact on Jinyang. Without a commander, no county or city official would dare act without orders, even within the same county.

Staring at Pan’s corpse, Liu Wenjing could not fathom how he had come to die of his wounds.

“They ran into a band of rebels, but their leader was no ordinary bandit. He was skilled in military tactics, commanding his men with discipline…”

Wen Dayou, recalling the events of the day, grew heavy-hearted. The true terror of rebels was not their burning and pillaging, but their transformation into an army.

Bandits and armies were fundamentally different. Bandits were easily routed because of their chaos and disorganization—like those in Lishi County, thousands in number but mere rabble.

But today’s rebels were different. They already showed the beginnings of military discipline, acting in formation and order, advancing and retreating as commanded.

“Such a band in the north?” Liu Wenjing was startled. Fortunately, Wen Dayou said their numbers were small; if they had been as numerous as the Lishi rebels, the entire Taiyuan region would have been in peril.

Pei Ji, too, was uneasy—especially with the death of Pan Changwen, which meant the Eagle Command had lost the initiative.

“Report! Sir, multiple fires have been spotted east of the Fen River! Scouts say it’s by order of Captain Fu in the East City, and he’s ordered all the surrounding villagers to be brought into the city!” a soldier burst in.

“Fires? Moving the people?”

At this, everyone—Jiang Baoyi, Pei Ji, Liu Wenjing, Wen Dayou, Zhang Pinggao, Zhao Wenke, and the other Jinyang officials—stood stunned and puzzled.

In unison, a thought dawned on them:

Scorched earth?

But why? Pan Changwen’s ambush and death were real, but surely the rebels could not threaten Jinyang itself.

Had Fu Zihou gone mad?

To issue such drastic orders immediately after learning of Pan Changwen’s death?

“Leave us,” Wen Dayou said at last, not offering further explanation. In his eyes, all that could be done was to wait until morning and speak with Fu Zihou directly.

“Captain Fu is certainly decisive,” Zhao Wenke remarked suddenly.

Wen Dayou frowned, but before he could speak, another voice chimed in.

“Heh, I didn’t expect that today even the Brave Martial Captain would be in the army, fighting the rebels,” Zhang Pinggao said, as a physician dressed his wounds, his tone laced with insinuation.

All the officers present caught his meaning. Unlike most, Zhang Pinggao, Wen Dayou, and Fu Zihou were all captains; Zhang could speak without fear, but the others dared not voice their opinions.

Standing next to Jiang Baoyi, Wen Dayou saw the anger in the faces of Zhang, Xu Shixu, and the others. After the bloody battle and Pan Changwen’s death, they all harbored a simmering rage. Hearing that Fu Zihou had ordered scorched earth tactics in the East City, they now vented all their ire on him.

Wen Dayou wanted to defend Fu Zihou, to say it was better to err on the side of caution, but since Zhang Pinggao had pointedly mentioned the Brave Martial Captain, he could not speak.

“Today’s events will be reported to the court,” Jiang Baoyi announced, calming the officers with a promise that all would be truthfully recorded—how Pan Changwen fell, and every action of the Brave Martial Captain.

After speaking, he exchanged a glance with Wen Dayou.

Wen Dayou understood Jiang Baoyi’s position; after meeting the Wang family in West City, he knew Jiang would not side with him in this matter.

Under Jiang Baoyi’s gaze, Wen Dayou sighed. In silence, he too wondered:

Why had Fu Zihou been so reckless?

This situation was not as before. Responsibility would have to be borne.