Yang Ge had inscribed a plaque for Wang Dashi, bearing the bold characters "Justice and Fairness."
Inscription: 6th day of the second month in the 15th year of Xiping, inscribed by Yang Erlang.
The calligraphy was hardly beautiful, even somewhat ugly.
But Wang Dashi treasured it like a priceless gem, immediately dispatching twenty attendants to guard it round the clock, without distinction between day and night.
He knew that with this plaque, on his trip to the south, whether facing the government, the citizens, or the bandits, he would have smooth sailing!
After expressing endless gratitude to Yang Ge, he boarded a ship southward, with the plaque, full of confidence...
Following that, Yang Ge reverted to his idleness, living a repetitive life of drinking tea, playing cards, and eating melons.
Despite the monotony, he relished every moment!
It’s worth mentioning that after the court joined the crusade against the Five Poisons Cult, the martial arts strife in the south didn’t subside but intensified.
The Ming Sect, White Lotus Sect, and Five Poisons Cult fiercely battled, drawing many veteran martial artists out of years of seclusion to stir up storms of blood, alongside numerous rising stars gaining rapid fame with successive victories. The battlefield stretched from Jiangzhe to the Southwest Region, with followers of the three sects ubiquitous in the south, engaging in fierce combat!
Caught up in such intense conflict, the major martial arts factions of southern martial arts inevitably got involved; some couldn’t withstand the pressure from the three sects and collectively defected, while others formed alliances for mutual support, and still others seized this tumult to expand their own powers...
The entire southern martial arts community was in utter chaos, with sensational news continuously popping up, leaving the patrons at the faraway Yuelai Inn exclaiming in wonder, unable to keep up with the flood of events!
Whether it was because of Yang Ge’s trip to the south the previous year, or because Taoist Master Feiyun, stationed at the Wudang Mountains, withstood the three sects’ pressure, the fierce fighting remained fierce, but the flames of war never crossed the Qinling Mountains and Huai River, leaving the martial arts community of Wei deeply divided; those in the south endured hardships, while those in the north enjoyed peaceful days.
This division spurred many ambitious heroes from the northern martial arts community to venture south with their allies to compete, and it also drove numerous southern martial arts practitioners, tired of the strife, to head north in groups seeking refuge.
This indirectly promoted a significant integration of martial arts across the land, from northern legs to southern fists.
The most direct effect was... all inns in Luting County were packed to capacity, with room prices skyrocketing, transforming even the most rundown places into sought-after locations. In some prime areas, prices had surpassed those in Luoyang!
Many locals from Luting, who had lived a hard life for generations, seized this wave of soaring property prices to achieve financial freedom, joyfully returning to their hometowns to buy houses and lands, living a life of boundless joy!
The booming economic growth in Luting County further attracted a plethora of merchants from all corners to invest in Luting, and though the initial phase of the city expansion had not yet completed, plans were already underway for the third phase.
The local residents of Luting, for the first time in generations, enjoyed the benefits of labor, with the assurance that having a Luting hukou meant even the disabled could scarcely escape the rush of businesses eager to employ them...
If Wei had a GDP report, the people would be astonished to find that the GDP of Luting County alone surpassed that of many provincial capitals across the nation!
Far away in Ziwei Palace, Emperor Xiping, upon learning of the booming conditions in Luting County, regretted deeply, lamenting, "Why was I so generous back then, to exempt all taxes from Luting? Even if only half were collected... no, even just 25 percent could have financed the construction of several other villas."
Although Yang Ge was housebound, he was better informed about the specifics of the southern martial arts strife than many southern martial arts veterans.
Every day, various kinds of intelligence flowed to him through different channels: from the Imperial Guard, the Western Factory, the Ming Sect, Lianhuan Fort, and even the White Lotus Sect who would visit every now and then for casual chats.
Regarding Louwailou, it centered around him and established a unit right in Lu Ting. This unit neither undertook any assassin missions nor involved itself in any intelligence gathering, solely responsible for delivering any information that might interest Yang Ge directly to him without alteration!
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As the only Grandmaster in the world who had seen Yang Ge in action and lived to tell the tale, the doctrine of Louwailou clearly understood much more than other Grandmasters.
Yang Ge, although observing the strife within the southern martial arts community, merely treated it as watching a spectacle, with absolutely no desire to intervene or offer advice... after all, he wasn’t a Pacific policeman, why should he meddle so broadly?
The only two concerns that frequently occupied his attention were Yang Tiansheng and Li Jincheng.
The conflict between Lianhuan Fort and Jinfanwu continued, but the dynamics had reversed; it was no longer Jinfanwu suppressing Lianhuan Fort, but Lianhuan Fort pursuing Jinfanwu!
In retrospect, Yang Ge felt that perhaps Li Changjiang was both a support and a shackle for Li Jincheng.
Maybe every boy who grows up under his father’s shadow instinctively believes he can live carefree for his entire life under that protection, until he starts to mature only after losing that sheltering tree.
Under Li Changjiang’s life, Li Jincheng was indeed a libertine... yes, even though Yang Ge got along well with Li Jincheng, he still considered the former Li Jincheng a libertine, albeit loyal and generous, but entirely embodying the poor traits of a rich young master.