Battle Royale of the Sinners

Julu City.

For almost a month, Tong's daily schedule and lifestyle were repetitive, tedious and tiring.

5 AM in the morning, he woke up for breakfast and morning workout. Occasionally, he sparred with Zhou Cang with real weapons to sharpen their senses.

7 AM, Tong attended the morning assembly with Zhang Jiao to help his father brief the daily tasks of the officials.

The meeting always ended before 9 AM, then Tong stayed in the government hall to settle the internal domestic issues, drafted the new constitution and laws, or consulted with Lu Zhi about the future plans.

After lunch to 7 PM, Lu Zhi reserved this time of the day, so he could impart his knowledge to Tong. Lu Zhi usually taught him about traditional customs, history of China, and culture of various regions. Lu Zhi also took several historical scrolls from Luo Yang with him when he evacuated from the capital, so he had more than enough materials to teach Tong for an entire year.

Although deep down within Tong's heart, he thought some of the subjects were useless, yet he noted down all lessons from Lu Zhi anyway because he had to blend in with the natives if he wanted to be a good sovereign in the future.

After the class and the dinner, from 7.30 PM to 10 PM, Tong visited the city garrison camp with Lu Zhi to train the newbie intelligence agencies. Lu Zhi took charge of the training program while Tong stood at the side to watch and learn at the same time.

At first, Tong thought that it would be enough to rely on the rats from the slums to gather information within other cities, but Lu Zhi disagreed with him. He pointed out that hoodlums and thugs from the slums could double-cross Tong at any time if their identities were exposed to his enemies or they were bribed. Best spies should be the agents that were personally trained under Tong or Lu Zhi's guidance first before they were sent to action.

10.30 PM to 11 PM, Tong usually returned to his room and collapsed head-first on his pillow from exhaustion. Sometimes he found Hua Shi on his bed, begging to be spoiled by him again. Hua Shi usually used her one-night tickets that she had saved up for the night entertainment at this occasion.

Then the circle repeated.

…

February 3rd.

Reply letters from Liu Bei and Gao You had arrived. Both of them declined the invitation from Lu Zhi.

Gao You had explained in his letter that he was working as an assisting teacher with his senior brothers, so he could not come to Julu. Secondly, he found several individuals that were more talented than him, therefore he wanted to polish these young scholars first. Once they graduated from him, he would recommend them to work at Julu in the future.

Meanwhile, Liu Bei gave Lu Zhi a simple excuse. He described in his letter that his mother was sick, and he wanted to take care of her. As a result, he could not travel to Julu at the moment.

Lu Zhi was satisfied with Gao You's reply, but Liu Bei made him annoyed because he understood Liu Bei's temperament and character better than anyone else.

From Lu Zhi's evaluation of Liu Bei, that man wanted to be a leader of an army or a viceroy of a province right away without having experience of working under someone else first. He wanted to become someone big before he had even earned it! For this reason, he rejected his invitation to work under Tong.

Tong also dissatisfied with Liu Bei's rejection. The Liu Bei assassination before he grew up plan failed before Tong even started the first phase of the plan.

"I'm sorry. None of them is coming."

Lu Zhi apologized to Tong. He was embarrassed that the two disciples of his refused his invitation.

"It's alright, master. For the staff shortage issue, I have another idea. You have told me once before that the capital is in turmoil, right? Can I trouble you one more time to write letters to your colleagues? Tell them that I can give them a sanctuary for them and their families. All they have to do is help me with the domestic management."

Lu Zhi stared at Tong in astonishment. He had never thought about this before.

"That's a good idea. I have friends that can't decide where to settle down a new home. I'll make them move here!"

Seeing his master had an enlightenment, Tong was reminded by his instinct that he had forgotten something important. After 10 seconds, he recalled the memory.

"Master, by chance, do you know a person named Sima Fang or someone from Sima family?"

"Sima? Sima Fang?"

Lu Zhi was not familiar with the name. He had heard about this Sima Clan somewhere or had talked to someone with the surname Sima, but he was not that close to the person.

"I might be acquainted with him, but we're not close enough to be called friends. Why did you ask?"

"I wish to invite Sima Fang and his family to this city as well. Can you invite him, too? Oh, I almost forgot it again. Can you also send a letter to your disciple Gongsun Zan? I wish to ask him for a favor. Say, if he had a subordinate with the name 'Zhao Yun' with the courtesy name 'Zilong', could he lend the person to me? Or maybe we can use our agents to locate him first and invite him to join us instead of approaching Gongsun Zan."

Lu Zhi gave Tong an odd stare. He did not know what this eccentric disciple of his tried to achieve, but he accepted the requests and promised Tong that he would write letters to them later.

Lu Zhi had no idea why Tong stressed that he wanted Sima Fang and Zhao Yun no matter what. He decided to dispatch the newly trained spies to the capital and Beiping City to gather the information about the two.

…

…

February 10th.

Tong and Lu Zhi completed the new constitution and the new laws for the citizens of Julu. The details were presented in the morning assembly which shocked Zhang Jiao and everyone.

The officials debated and argued at each other for the entire day because of it, but they eventually agreed to comply after Zhang Jiao suddenly blurted out certain words.

"Don't forget. We are blessed by the child of Heaven …"

The eyes of the 200 officials glinted for a second, then they reverted back to normal as if nothing happened. Meanwhile, the rest of the officials looked at each other in confusion because the majority of their colleagues suddenly shut their mouth.

Afterward, one of them expressed their agreement, after which the other 199 staffs followed suit as if they were part of the flash mobs.

Tong and Lu Zhi stared at the scene, baffled by the sudden reaction of the 200 officials. Although it was a strange turn of events, they did not mind it because their objective was completed.

…

February 15th.

The announcements about the new laws were posted on the local signboards around the city.

"From this day onward, all citizens of Julu City will have to report to the authority at the city hall to make an identity token for yourself. By the end of April, if any citizen is found without any identification token, he will be arrested."

"Second announcement, only Julu city government can buy the food that farmers had harvested from the government farms. No merchant can buy the grain or provision directly from farmers. The violator will be arrested and prosecuted by the laws. However, merchants can still sell food to the citizens of Julu."

"Third announcement, the price that the city hall will purchase the grain from the farmers will be fixed at 5 tons of any vegetable, grain or other kinds of provision per one gold or one coin per five kilograms of any provision."

"Fourth announcement, from this day onward, the farming tax will be reduced to 20% of the harvested crops, and the seeds of various types of vegetables and grain will be provided by the city hall for free. However, the farmer who wishes to request for the seeds must have an identification token made by the city hall and must plant the crops on the city government's territory. Any violator who steals the seeds to somewhere else will be arrested and prosecuted by the laws."

"Fifth announcement, all lands in Julu District territories that is currently owned by any person must be sold back to the city government. The price …"

"Sixth announcement, unauthorized personnel cannot hire or possess any private soldier within the city …"

"Seventh announcement, no weapon is allowed within the following areas …"

"Eight announcements …"

"Tenth announcement …"

"Twentieth announcement …"

Series of announcements from the city government were lined up in an orderly fashion. The scholars who came to read the news were in awe. They could not help but cry out.

"A massive change is coming. Zhang Jiao is planning something big!"