Rebellion and the Test of Human Nature

Serena Feng couldn’t help but think she must have saved the galaxy in her last life, for her luck to be this absurdly good—she’d guessed everything about Jiangnan exactly right, and just as she was preparing to leave, the crisis erupted...

"So I really have to be baptized by war, huh? Even coming to Jiangnan, you won’t let me off. Heaven, I must not be your real daughter."

She’d thought coming to the Jiangnan region—a supposed pure land—meant she wouldn’t have to worry about war. But just before she left, trouble struck Jiangnan, and it exploded into open conflict.

Serena ground her teeth in rage, wishing she could drag every last rebel out and have Divine Doctor Guile feed each one a poison pill.

Unfortunately, the rebels had already fled the city, and without a culprit to punish, Serena could only vent her anger on the Prince of Jiangnan and Prince Colin.

"I’m honestly speechless. People have already reached into your rice bowl and you two didn’t notice a thing. You really think Jiangnan’s people are all so pure and kind?" Serena fumed, grinding her teeth. Prince Colin and the Prince of Jiangnan should count themselves lucky it was her here and not Ninth Royal Uncle—otherwise, even if they survived, they’d be stripped to the bone.

Jiangnan is Ninth Royal Uncle’s most crucial rear base. If anything went wrong here, he’d absolutely sacrifice family for the greater good and lock these two up for life.

"This... was definitely our negligence." The Prince of Jiangnan and Prince Colin looked utterly ashamed, wishing they could just end it all with a sword.

This Jiangnan revolt was a case of internal traitors colluding with external enemies: their own subordinates joined forces with local magnates to steal official silver and grain.

Jiangnan only had fifty thousand troops, but their own men took more than ten thousand and rebelled. Add in the private armies of the local magnates and the strong young men they recruited, and the rebel force had swelled to a full twenty thousand.

For Jiangnan, this was a formidable force—even more so because several mysterious, unpredictable experts were among the rebels, making them almost impossible to guard against.

Serena exhaled softly; seeing the Prince of Jiangnan and Prince Colin blaming themselves so harshly, she couldn’t bring herself to scold them further. Instead, she comforted them: “The enemy planned this while you were caught off guard. It’s normal not to know. There’s no such thing as guarding against thieves every day—only thieves who plot every day. Fortunately, you prepared ahead of time, so only a small portion of the imperial tax silver and state grain were stolen.”

If not for that, the enemy wouldn’t still be massing troops outside Jiangnan’s borders, preparing to attack and seize the rest of the imperial tax silver and state grain.

The losses this time aren’t heavy, but Jiangnan is now in real danger. We only have forty thousand troops, and who knows when reinforcements from the Capital will arrive. Prince Colin had always wanted to lead troops into battle, but he’d never imagined the battlefield would be in Jiangnan.

If Jiangnan gets caught up in war, who knows if next year’s tax revenue will be affected.

Back and forth, it’ll take a lot of time. Instead of waiting for reinforcements, we should save ourselves. In this era of poor communication, Ninth Royal Uncle in the distant Capital wouldn’t hear about Jiangnan’s situation for days, and even after he did, it would take another ten days or half a month to send troops—by then, it’d be far too late.

Without reinforcements, our odds aren’t good. Even though our troop numbers are double the enemy’s, we have to keep men guarding the state grain, maintain order in the city, and prevent anyone from taking advantage of the chaos. Most importantly, we don’t know how many people inside the city are connected to the rebels. Every one of these is a headache, Prince Colin thought.

If it were just defending against external enemies, fifty thousand troops would be plenty; Prince Colin would have no fear of battle. But internal rebellion is a different problem—he has to both fend off attacks and suppress unrest, and now there aren’t enough men.

Ordinary commoners wouldn’t risk their lives; almost all the rebels are local magnates. Since we don’t know if there are any more traitors in Jiangnan, we should just arrest them all. Serena was convinced that troubled times called for harsh measures—there was no room for mercy now.

Prince Colin frowned, clearly disagreeing, but the Prince of Jiangnan nodded lightly: “It’s not a bad idea.”

Isn’t this disturbing the people? Prince Colin was a strict commander—he never allowed his soldiers to harass civilians, and he couldn’t bring himself to oppress the common folk.

There’s nothing wrong with it—don’t forget, some of them are rebels. The Prince of Jiangnan’s eyes were cold and murderous, his aura so intimidating that ordinary people couldn’t meet his gaze. “Colin…”

Hearing his brother call him, Prince Colin reflexively stood up, clasped his fists, and bowed his head: “Your younger brother is here.”

As soon as he spoke, Prince Colin realized he’d misspoken. He glanced at Serena, saw her looking up at the sky as if she’d heard nothing, and couldn’t help but laugh—relieving the tension in the room.

Prince Colin might not be an outstanding leader, but he was definitely an excellent soldier. He followed the Prince of Jiangnan’s orders to the letter, “inviting” each local magnate to the Prince’s Manor, and anyone related by marriage to the rebels was “invited” straight to prison.

Any family that refused to cooperate was dragged straight to prison; those who resisted were executed without mercy.

Under Prince Colin’s iron-fisted rule, Jiangnan’s wealthy merchants behaved like obedient children. If he told them to go east, they wouldn’t dare go west; and if anyone seemed suspicious, he dealt with them swiftly.

Everything went smoothly. In just one day, Prince Colin had “invited” everyone; the Prince’s Manor was packed, so Serena and her group had to move in with the Prince of Jiangnan at the government offices.

Not only did they “invite” all the families of Jiangnan’s wealthy merchants, but the Prince of Jiangnan also had the families of his officials brought together—all in the name of “protection.”

If any official sent their family away ahead of time, they were sent straight to prison—there was no choice, as their suspicion was too great.

After all these measures, most of Jiangnan’s internal threats were suppressed—now all that was left was to deal with the rebels.

The rebels were Jiangnan natives, deeply familiar with the terrain. If they wanted to hide, we couldn’t find them quickly. And with our limited troops, we couldn’t afford to stretch our lines—if they ran too far, we’d have to stick to defense. When it came to politics, the Prince of Jiangnan took charge; but when it came to war, only Prince Colin had the final say.

So you’re saying we have to wait for them to attack before we can strike back? Serena didn’t know much about military matters, but she could tell this strategy was too passive—and dangerous for them.

That’s the only option. Prince Colin nodded heavily.

Without solid intelligence on the rebels, they couldn’t send out troops. If the rebels slipped through their defenses, Jiangnan would be lost.

Serena frowned, thought for a moment, and said: “Those wealthy merchants you locked up—all of them have family ties to the rebels. Even if they weren’t involved, they probably know something. Treason is a capital crime—extermination of nine clans. They’re included in that. If, in the name of the imperial court, you promise that anyone who provides useful intelligence or is willing to make amends will be pardoned, do you think they’d betray their relatives?”

Human nature can’t withstand that kind of test. Serena wanted to see, when their entire family’s lives were at stake, what choice these people would make.