The head of Ning Wang was displayed on the western city wall of Ninghai County that very day, witnessed by everyone and receiving the same high-level "treatment" as Geng Jingzhong and his son.
’The mastermind behind the corrupt officials of Jiangzhe—Prince Ning, Zhao Liang’s head.’
’Those who collude with Japanese pirates and cause harm to their own people will be executed without a complete corpse—left by Zhang Muzhi.’
Using the city wall as canvas and the Cold Moon Saber as a brush, Yang Ge personally nailed Zhao Liang to the pillar of historical shame, to be condemned for all eternity!
No sooner had he completed this task, than nearly a thousand armed guards from Prince Ning’s mansion and elite soldiers arrived beneath the western city gate.
They erected shield walls on both sides of the gate, mounted cannons, and aimed bow formations at the ramparts. Then, a burly runner stood out and yelled towards Yang Ge: "Yang Erlang..."
"While I’m still not enraged and don’t wish to harm the innocent..."
Yang Ge’s indifferent voice came from atop the city wall: "You can disperse on your own, otherwise... I didn’t care about killing Zhao Liang, what makes you think I’d hesitate to kill a few more? What do you think, His Highness Prince Ning’s son, Zhao Hao!"
As his words fell, a slender figure clad in infantry armor and an iron mask, guarded by a large group of similarly armored soldiers, moved slowly behind the shield wall, angrily cursing at the top of the wall: "You, Yang Erlang, claim to be impartial and abhor evil, how then can you commit such inhumane acts of humiliating and disgracing the body of a deceased father before his own children? Such behavior is no different from that of beasts!"
Yang Ge: "If you can’t read, you can ask someone literate to read the words on the wall for you... This is my last warning. I don’t kill you not because you don’t deserve death, but because I refuse to be as cruel and merciless as you and your father, lacking humanity. If you dare to bark madly again, even if it means pursuing you to the ends of the earth, I will make sure you and your father reunite beneath the eighteen layers of hell! Don’t believe me? Just try it!"
The man in the iron mask responded angrily: "By committing such disgraceful acts against my family and harming my family, how are you any different from those who attempt to murder all of us?"
Yang Ge laughed aloud and with a flick of his wrist, sent a blade energy whipping down in front of the shield formation.
"Boom."
The cobblestone ground split apart, and the flying chips struck the shields, creating a clatter.
Yang Ge: "Scram!"
The masked man staggered, looking up at the figure on the city wall for a long while, eventually not daring to make another sound.
If the lives of these thousand armed guards and elite soldiers could have brought back his father’s head, he would not have hesitated to sacrifice all thousand on the city ramparts, not even batting an eyelid!
No, even if it couldn’t bring back his father’s head and only brought him peace of mind and the reputation of a filial son, he still wouldn’t have blinked!
But Yang Erlang had directly targeted him...
He no longer dared to take the risk!
Because when Yang Erlang said he would kill him, he really would do it.
His pathetic father was proof!
Thus the man in the iron mask, who had arrived furiously with a thousand men, retreated meekly without leaving any fierce words behind.
The cannons and bow formations that had been set up, all turned into mere decorations.
The sun set in the west.
Yang Ge sat on the crenellation, facing the bloody red remnants of the sunset, swinging his long legs out of sheer boredom, chewing on dry rations with clear water, and watching as a large number of robust knights, dressed in plain clothes but riding high-headed steeds, flooded out of the southern and northern city gates into the sunset, their panic making it seem as if the sky were falling.
"Aren’t you all going through Lu Ting...?"
He lowered his eyelids, murmuring softly, "Can you stop by to see my little Huang for me, and can you tell it that daddy may, perhaps, possibly... not return."
...
Surrounded by a thousand armed guards and elite soldiers, Yang Ge sat quietly on the city wall for a full day and night.
It was not until dusk the following day that he leapt from the city wall and, before the eyes of hundreds, he disappeared into the faint evening haze, stride after massive stride.
Meanwhile, the news that Yang Erlang, under the alias Zhang Muzhi, had publicly beheaded Prince Ning Zhao Liang and hung the head outside Ninghai Gate, along with the words on the western city wall of Ninghai, had spread like a virus, wildly radiating in all directions, swiftly taking over the public discourse wherever it passed with an overwhelming advantage.
Before this incident, Prince Ning’s reputation in the Jiangzhe region was generally good.
The dissident voices had long been suppressed by both Prince Ning and the officials of Jiangzhe, relegated to the fringes of mainstream narrative.
But now, tied up with Prince Ning’s infamy was the name Yang Erlang.
Without an imperial edict...
None dared to suppress it.
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Nor could anyone suppress it.
Along with this, those old stories previously suppressed by Prince Ning and local authorities, stories that had vanished without a trace, were now being resurrected, verified by the people of Jiangzhe, spreading from mouth to mouth.
These included tales of horrific deeds such as Prince Ning’s private organization of smuggling fleets, collusion with Japanese pirates to raid the southeastern coast, seizing production materials, and avarice and murder—now brought back to light, revealed for all the world to see!
Prince Ning’s methods for complete control were indeed very clever.
Using the vast maritime interests established by the Wei Imperial Court, he co-opted the entire officialdom of Jiangzhe with these immense profits. He then turned around to use the officialdom of Jiangzhe to maintain and expand his maritime interests.
Thus he created a perfect closed loop of interest: he leveraged the productivity of the Jiangzhe people for enormous gains while using those interests to bind the entire officialdom of Jiangzhe to his chariot. As a final move, he insulated himself from public anger and continued to exploit the productivity of the Jiangzhe people... a very perfect cycle of benefits!