Chapter 1 Dai Shijin's Decision

Dai Shijin, however, had no intention of immediately executing anyone. Instead, he immediately summoned all those involved to Yaning to begin hearings and inquiries. The Dai family disciples behaved respectfully in front of the old patriarch, but at this time, their frankness only made Dai Shijin feel more ashamed and angry.

Wrong, all wrong… In Dai Shijin's eyes, entrusting Yunzhou to Dongping was never for the glory of their family, but for the welfare of the million-plus people of Yunzhou. The facts also proved that Dongping was so cautious, serious, and special in treating Yunzhou. Xu Jingtian stabilized Yunzhou with minimal action and maintained external pressure, while Ye Tao, whether in the Road and Bridge Department or later directly taking over as Yunzhou's Pacification Commissioner, brought unimaginable changes to Yunzhou. Ye Tao and Tan Weixin, as husband and wife, possessed a wisdom that seemed almost extravagant for governing Yunzhou. The current Yunzhou was no longer the same as before, needing to desperately maintain stability, but a vibrant and ambitious new Yunzhou. How much benefit did the Dai family actually gain in the whole process? Indeed, Dai Shijin knew that no amount of benefit could compare with controlling the entire Yunzhou. And the value of various industries that the Dai family had gradually handed over could not be fully reflected by current valuations alone. The complete construction of chain after chain of industries was infused with the hard work of several generations of the Dai family, and they had been preserved with difficulty through generations of war. In this case, Dai Shijin also understood that handing over Yunzhou and gradually withdrawing the Dai family from the forefront of Yunzhou's affairs, no longer being the dominant force, would naturally cause resentment in many people's hearts.

Previously, Dai Shijin had hoped that, no matter what, the Dai family members would be well-educated, and even if they had different opinions, they would take the overall situation into consideration. But now it seemed that he was still optimistic in this regard. The following thought began to rise in Dai Shijin's heart: if Dai Yun was too busy with Yunzhou's military affairs to manage the Dai family, he would still have to do what he had to do. This thought startled Dai Shijin himself. Having been away from Yunzhou's administrative affairs for several years, this was the first time he had been so irritable and so violent.

"All the Dai family and related family disciples involved in the case should be executed." After spending almost a whole day considering, Dai Shijin finally ordered. In fact, all those involved were already waiting for this order in the prison next to the execution ground. If the case was handled by the Third Civil Affairs Office, everyone would probably have a chance to live. Chen Kai would not dare to execute so many Dai family disciples at once, no matter how bold he was. If Ye Tao personally tried the case, he might give the Dai family some face. But precisely because Dai Shijin came here in person, everyone knew that with Dai Shijin's coldness, they would definitely not have a chance to live.

However, shortly after Dai Shijin's order was conveyed, a guard ran in and reported, "Lord, the… the execution ground has been taken over, and the execution order has been rejected."

"Bold!" Dai Shijin was furious. "Which bastard's team is it? Has whose camp mutinied?"

"This…" The guard said in a low voice, "No, it's the Pacification Commissioner's guard team and the Special Operations Battalion."

"What?" Dai Shijin was stunned, and then realized that Ye Tao must have known about this and intervened first. In this way, his idea of killing the chickens to warn the monkeys would be in vain. He definitely could not play the villain. "Sigh, send someone to ask what's going on."

"Lord, Zhou Rui requests an audience." Before long, the answer Dai Shijin was waiting for did not arrive, but Zhou Rui came, and with Zhou Rui was Dai Rong, the deputy commander of the Special Operations Battalion.

"Lord, you're in a terrible temper," Zhou Rui joked with a smile as he entered Dai Shijin's study.

"Zhou Rui, don't make fun of me. Tell me, what does your Lord Ye have to say?" Dai Shijin sighed.

"The Lord said that the trial should be carried out by the circuit court. Even if you are angry, you have to wait. The system is the system and will not change because of anyone. That's the first thing. Also, clan law cannot be higher than national law. That's the second thing," Zhou Rui said with a smile.

"Don't I even have the power to execute a few little bastards?" Dai Shijin snorted.

"Lord Ye's original words were: He doesn't have this power himself," Zhou Rui explained with a smile.

Dai Shijin shook his head and sat down. "When will your Lord arrive?"

"The Lord set off from Ganduo after receiving the news. He sent us the message via flying eagle to have our battalion and the guard team come over first. Fortunately, we were not too far away, otherwise, if we were an hour late, things would have gone wrong," Zhou Rui said with a smile. "The Lord should arrive tomorrow. After all, there are more people in the Lord's party, so they can't run very fast."

"Okay… So now I don't even have the final say in my Dai family's affairs?" Dai Shijin actually muttered like a child.

The news of Ye Tao's impending arrival in Yaning soon spread. Although the commanders of the several battalions stationed nearby were detained, and they did not understand what had happened, they were all absolutely at ease with Dai Shijin here because these were all troops of the Dai clan. Soon, under Dai Shijin's orders, they began to guard the surrounding area. In fact, those garrison battalions were more skilled at doing this kind of thing than the two main combat battalions, especially when it came to checking those merchant teams. Those old soldiers could subtly find out whether a merchant team was carrying anything with just a few words.

However, by noon the next day, Ye Tao had not yet arrived, but Ye Tao's party sent a team to Yaning, bringing an alarming message: Ye Tao's party was attacked on the road, and Ye Tao was injured in the fighting. Due to the severity of his injuries, he was unable to move easily and needed further observation. The guard team had set up camp only three hours away from Yaning and entered a state of combat readiness. They now requested that the other part of the guard team go to meet them and requested that the Special Operations Battalion begin to pursue the enemy.

What happened? Dai Shijin, Zhou Rui, and Chen Kai almost immediately abandoned everything and went to see the situation where Ye Tao's party was.

In fact, Ye Tao was indeed a little careless this time due to the urgency of the trip, which gave Sun Xiaofan's Snake Eyes a chance.

After receiving the urgent documents from Danyang and the villa, Ye Tao made deployments in Ganduo one after another, and then set off. Liu Yong, Zhe Luo, and others also made sense. The situation in Yaning was unclear, so it was not appropriate to land directly there by airship, and he brought too few guards. Moreover, since the airship could not carry horses, mobility was also a problem. They set off from Ganduo and galloped all the way, but when they passed through Huigu, the only way to get to Yaning by land, they had to slow down. There were two merchant teams with a large number of vehicles blocking the road ahead. What they did not expect was that while everyone was slowly following, the merchant teams turned around and attacked, and people on both sides of the hillside also flipped over the grass stacks that served as cover and rushed out. There were more than three hundred people.

Sun Xiaofan had also turned out his trump card for this assassination. This time, he used all the elite assassination action team of Snake Eyes, plus personnel lurking in all areas of Yunzhou who could just make it to Huigu. Unlike Eagle Hall, Snake Eyes did not have various requirements for personnel, but only required that they be patient, dare to fight, and have some skills. Even the requirements for loyalty were not high. The peripheral personnel of Snake Eyes were like mercenaries who usually kept in touch, received some allowances, and then were pulled out to do big business at critical moments. And the more than three hundred people gathered by Sun Xiaofan were still very skilled. However, now Sun Xiaofan had learned his lesson, he would never personally come to the front line to carry out assassinations. After arranging the tasks, he quietly went south, preparing to enter the original territory of Dongping from Dongjiaji. He knew that whether this was successful or not, Snake Eyes would inevitably leave very obvious traces in Yunzhou for contacting so many people in a short period of time, and the situation would be troublesome if they were pursued all the way.

The attack launched in Huigu caused the guard team to lose many people. Originally, Liu Yong and others were holding Ye Tao firmly in the carriage and not letting him out. However, the hillsides on both sides allowed the opponents to drop a large number of rolling stones wantonly, and the carriage became a dangerous target. Ye Tao, who was on his way, naturally did not have the habit of wearing heavy armor. He took out his cavalry sword and off-hand blade and fought with the enemy. In that melee, at the moment when Liu Yong was entangled by seven or eight people who rushed up to die, a short sword pierced Ye Tao's abdomen, and a knife hit Ye Tao's back. At that moment, Ye Tao was still very conscious. He endured the severe pain and leaned his back away from the enemy behind him, killed the enemy who stabbed him with the sword, and then staggered into Zhe Luo's arms. Seeing Ye Tao injured, all the soldiers immediately went berserk. They slashed and killed desperately, pushing the battle circle away from Ye Tao's location. Fortunately, Zhe Luo and others had the most effective wound medicine, the medicine was applied in time, and the injuries were not irreparable. When the battle stopped, more than two hundred members of the guard team who followed Ye Tao from Ganduo had thirty-nine dead and one hundred wounded, and even Liu Yong's arm was cut, showing how tragic the situation was. After losing all the carriages, they had no way to transfer Ye Tao. They carried Ye Tao out of the valley, requisitioned a local villager's yard next to the road, and had to ask Yaning for help.

That night, the two guard teams finally reunited. They directly designated the surrounding area within a third of a mile as a restricted area, guarded by the guard team and the Special Operations Battalion. Zhou Rui did not stay to accompany Ye Tao. When anger struck, the first thing he thought of was revenge, and that was his personality. He handed over the Special Operations Battalion's affairs to Dai Rong and embarked on the road to pursue the mastermind alone. He casually opened the mouths of a few people and knew that it was done by Snake Eyes. Since it was related to Dao Ming Sect, then it was better to kill by mistake than to let go.