The capital.
Lately the princes, dukes, ministers, and every other breed of highborn noble in the capital had begun to feel a creeping sense of panic.
Not ordinary panic, either.
The kind of panic that settles into a man's bones and refuses to leave.
The reason was simple. Chuang Wang, who was now raging across Shandong and the northern Zhili region, had been stirring up more and more trouble with every passing day.
Shandong had long been a nest for the White Lotus sect, and the imperial court had never been especially popular there to begin with. Once Chuang Wang's little nursery rhyme began spreading among the villages, the situation deteriorated even faster.
"Chuang Wang is here, no taxes this year."
Wherever that song was heard, the common people followed him as if carried along by the wind.
Not long ago, the Grand Secretary Li Jiantai had left the capital to investigate the situation outside the city. He traveled with a small escort of household guards and made his way to Dingxing County in Hebei, a place barely two hundred li from Beijing.
When he arrived outside the county gates, the people inside the city walls shouted down to him.
"Are you an official of the Great Ming, or an official of Chuang Wang?"
Li Jiantai replied proudly, "This official serves the Great Ming."
The result was immediate.
The gates slammed shut.
The county refused to receive him.
Li Jiantai was so angry his nose practically twisted sideways, but with nothing more than a few household guards at his back, attacking a county town was out of the question. He could only swallow his anger and leave in humiliation.
After traveling a bit farther, hungry and thirsty, he came across another county town.
He rode up to the gate.
The people on the wall asked the exact same question.
"Are you an official of the Great Ming, or an official of Chuang Wang?"
This time Li Jiantai thought for a moment and answered cleverly.
"I serve under Chuang Wang."
The gates opened immediately.
The townspeople welcomed him inside, set out an abundant feast, and sent him on his way with a full stomach.
The whole thing was so absurd it bordered on lunacy.
When Li Jiantai returned to the capital, he immediately gathered a force of pampered young soldiers from the capital and marched back to attack Dingxing County.
These "young master soldiers" were not exactly elite troops, but conquering a small county town was still well within their abilities.
Li Jiantai broke the city.
Then he flogged the county officials.
Thus the history books recorded a scene so ridiculous that later generations would read it and shake their heads in disbelief.
A county town only two hundred li from the capital had already reached such a state.
One could easily imagine how tense the situation in the capital had become.
Civil and military officials alike went about their days in constant anxiety.
Just then, a piece of uplifting news arrived in the capital.
"The newly appointed Minister of War, Sun Chuanting, has defeated the previous Chuang Wang. He has arrived!"
The moment this news spread, the entire capital erupted with excitement.
Officials and nobles poured out of the city like a flood and rushed toward the gates to greet him.
In the distance, Sun Chuanting's ministerial procession slowly approached.
At the front rode a tall man on a powerful horse.
His frame was broad and strong, the sort of body that clearly belonged to someone capable of fighting. Yet he lacked the crude roughness of a typical battlefield general. Simply by looking at him one could understand the phrase "a scholar who commands the sword."
Behind him marched six hundred household soldiers.
Every one of them looked alert and spirited, their posture straight and their aura fierce. At a glance anyone could tell they were seasoned fighters.
The nobles on the city wall immediately burst into cheers.
"Minister Sun!"
"Just looking at Minister Sun's bearing makes me feel reassured."
"As expected of the famous general who defeated the previous Chuang Wang."
"Now that Minister Sun has arrived, Chuang Wang will surely be pacified."
"Minister Sun, are you married yet? I have a daughter, eighteen this year, still unmarried…"
The crowd shouted happily, growing more excited by the moment.
Inside the procession, however, there was another man who was equally delighted.
The commander of the household guards.
That man was Chen Qianhu.
The capital had never screened any of those strange "films," so nobody here recognized him as the villain who had once been portrayed as committing every evil deed under heaven.
Chen Qianhu thought to himself with great satisfaction.
Heh.
In this place, no children are chasing me with bamboo water guns anymore.
They do not treat me like a villain here.
I, Chen Qianhu, will reclaim everything that once belonged to me.
I will rebuild my glorious and upright reputation.
There is absolutely no way children will hate me again.
This time I will show the utmost sincerity.
I will become a hero admired by all children.
With that noble resolution burning in his heart, Chen Qianhu stepped forward slightly within the formation, positioning himself just behind Sun Chuanting. He raised his hand and waved toward the crowd.
Especially toward the children.
He displayed what he believed was his warmest and most friendly smile.
Surely this level of sincerity would melt anyone's heart.
"Waaah!"
A child in the crowd suddenly burst into terrified tears.
"That man is scaring me!"
The child's parents followed the direction of the pointing finger and looked over.
They were instantly startled.
What kind of terrifying fellow was that?
The man possessed an extremely ferocious face. His expression was filled with killing intent, his entire aura radiating danger.
No investigation into his background was necessary.
Just looking at that face was enough to conclude that his hands had taken thousands of lives.
The sort of person who might casually dip small children in sauce and eat them, washing it down with a bowl of fermented bean juice.
The parents quickly pulled their child behind them.
"Do not look at him."
"Never make eye contact with him."
Chen Qianhu glanced to the left.
The entire crowd on the left immediately lowered their heads to avoid his gaze.
He looked to the right.
Everyone on that side also averted their eyes.
His gaze was like an area attack sweeping across the battlefield.
Wherever it passed, people scattered in panic.
Chen Qianhu fell silent.
At that moment a eunuch pushed his way out of the crowd.
It was Cao Huachun, one of the most favored eunuchs beside the Chongzhen Emperor. He hurried forward and bowed toward Sun Chuanting.
"Minister Sun, His Majesty has been waiting for you for quite some time."
Sun Chuanting replied calmly.
"On the road to the capital we encountered a small band of bandits. I dealt with them along the way, which caused a slight delay."
Cao Huachun looked surprised.
"Oh? Minister Sun also eliminated a band of rebels on the way? May I ask which group it was?"
Sun Chuanting said, "They seemed to be members of the White Lotus sect. Taking advantage of Chuang Wang's rebellion, they also came out to cause trouble. My men wiped them out. Three thousand White Lotus followers were captured."
Everyone present froze.
You captured three thousand rebels...
And you say it so casually?
Cao Huachun asked curiously, "Then where are these three thousand prisoners? I do not see them with you."
Sun Chuanting smiled faintly.
"How could I bring three thousand prisoners into the capital? That would create chaos. I had my household guards deal with them appropriately."
The moment those words left his mouth, the crowd's gaze slowly drifted toward Chen Qianhu.
They only dared to glance for an instant before quickly looking away, whispering among themselves.
"Did you see that man?"
"The commander of Minister Sun's household guards."
"With someone like him around, those White Lotus prisoners must have been handed over to him for execution."
"He looks like the type. Killing three thousand people probably would not even make him blink."
"Not just killing them. If you simply executed someone you would say 'put to death.' But he said 'dealt with.' Think carefully about when people use that word."
"Tsk tsk. How exactly do you 'deal with' three thousand corpses?"
"There is only one possibility."
"They were eaten."
"Ah! Yes! That must be it!"
The faces of the capital's nobles instantly turned pale.
What kind of horrifying monster was this?
He had eaten three thousand people on the road to the capital.
With a collective rustling sound, the crowd retreated several zhang backward.
Chen Qianhu blinked in confusion.
"Huh? Huh? Huh?"
"I am clearly doing my best to show goodwill and repair my image."
"Why are they still afraid of me?"
This would not do.
It seemed he had to invest some real capital now.
Chen Qianhu reached into his robes and pulled out a small iron box.
Inside it were divine treasures bestowed from the heavens by Dao Xuan Tianzun.
They were called fruit candies.
Originally they had been huge, solid pieces of sugar. Merchants from Gao Family Village smashed them apart with large hammers, breaking them into small colorful chunks before packing them into iron boxes for sale.
Bright red, yellow, green, and orange pieces gleamed like jewels.
Each one carried the faint aura of heaven itself.
The price, naturally, was outrageously expensive.
But when it came to winning the hearts of children, nothing worked better.
Chen Qianhu had spent a small fortune buying them.
All for the sake of repairing his reputation so that children would stop chasing him with bamboo water guns.
Holding the expensive candy box in his left hand, he waved to the children with his right.
He revealed what he believed to be the gentlest smile of his life.
"Come here," he said warmly.
"Uncle will give you some candy."
The children screamed in terror.
Then they turned and ran for their lives.