Transmigrated into a Grandpa, Embracing the Laid-Back Life

Chapter 420: A Five-Year Chess Game

But just the next day, when he walked out of his room, the servants in the manor noticed that their always gentle and refined Vice Minister had sprouted a few strands of glaring white hair at his temples overnight.

When he "happened to run into" the Yongchang Marquis's Heir, who had come to the Ministry of War on business, at the entrance of the Ministry of Revenue,

Xu Qing even took the initiative to step forward, his face full of smiles, bowing deeply and repeatedly apologizing for his "runaway carriage that had startled the neighbors" a few days prior.

The Yongchang Marquis's Heir looked at this middle-aged scholar bowing and scraping, as humble as a dog before him. A cold, contemptuous smirk curled at the corner of his mouth as he patted Xu Qing on the shoulder and said in a "kind" tone:

"Lord Xu is too serious. A young man like you should walk with a steadier step."

Xu Qing, after a thousand thanks, withdrew.

Returning to his own office, piled high with archives, he closed the door. The smile on his face vanished instantly.

He walked to the window and gazed at the gray, overcast sky outside. In his eyes, there was no fear, no anger—only a calm as placid as dead water.

"Not enough."

He spoke softly to the window, in a voice only he could hear."Far from enough."

Fear was a potent drug. It could shatter a man's will, but it could also forge his resolve into unbreakable steel.

The threat from the Yongchang Marquis Manor hadn't made Xu Qing retreat. Instead, it made him realize that trying to topple that deeply-rooted towering tree with his own strength alone was nothing short of an ant trying to shake a tree.

He needed allies.

In the fourth year, he began his gambit.

It was a process far more dangerous and demanding of patience than secretly investigating the ledgers. He dared not trust anyone easily, because in this capital, behind every smiling face lurked hidden loyalties and interests.

He turned his gaze toward the censors and remonstrating officials in the court who, like him, came from upright backgrounds and harbored resentment toward the Yongchang Marquis Manor's arrogance, yet dared not speak out.

These people, for the most part, held little real power, but they represented the last vestiges of backbone in the imperial court.

step through the doors of those censors. The Yongchang Marquis Manor's informants were like

the most primitive and secret method—coded

through the official courier system. Instead, they were delivered by privately-raised carrier pigeons with spotless backgrounds, paid for handsomely by Xu Qing. The content of the letters

encrypted using the "code" that Su Ming had taught him half-jokingly back at the County

obscure vocabulary from a minority tribe in *Records

the Waking of Insects, a red-tailed butterfly flies south" might mean

might be a query: "Is

Ming, no third person in this world could ever decipher

eyes constantly scrutinizing him. He dared not make the slightest outcry or move, because he knew that all his efforts so far were merely castles in the air. The slightest breeze could topple everything, plunging

Secretary. They formed an invisible alliance, like moles diligently digging tunnels in the shadows, gradually

Revenue's

among the common people cited in

memorials related to the Yongchang Marquis Manor that the Supervising Secretary had blocked

stitch, wove these needles and threads across that vast web

his unseen allies: This chess game

...

the Northern Frontier finally brought

hundred thousand iron cavalry from the Northern Barbarians brazenly crossed over the Heaven's Moat Pass and surged like a tide into

flames of war spread with the

entire Great Xing Dynasty court was shaken. The war faction and the peace faction argued

an inconspicuous appointment document from

senior clerk of the Ministry of Revenue, was promoted to Left Vice Minister of Revenue, ranked at

hair's breadth away from the very

the opportunity

a giant, greedy meat grinder. It would devour countless lives, but it would also mercilessly expose the corruption and darkness

Marquis Manor wanted to maintain its absolute control over the military, it had to achieve brilliant victories in

could not be filled by the already-drained reserves of the national

tap into his hidden, shady money reserves. And every flow of this money would leave an

would force the web of lies and embezzlement that the Yongchang Marquis had woven to

there was not a shred of joy in

sat in his study, looking at the battle reports

fallen. Defender General Wang fought to the death. The entire garrison of