The Fallen Nation System, Turning the Tide - Chapter 83: Plan

Chapter 83: Plan

Xu Ying began listing her new plans.

The campaign against the rebels had gained massive momentum. Those who originally supported Zheng Song and Wei Qiandao, seeing the unfavorable turn of events, swiftly switched sides. Some even raised doubts about the Crown Prince’s lineage, pointing out that Consort Lin showed no signs of pregnancy when Xu Ying released her from the palace. This was likely a pretext fabricated by Zheng Song and the Former Faction of the Crown Prince to obscure the imperial bloodline and seize powerotherwise, why hadn’t Consort Lin reported her pregnancy when she discovered it?

The crowd found this reasoning sound and grew even more resentful toward Zheng Song and Wei Qiandao.

The banner of the Crown Prince’s heir proved unstable. With Jinzhou weakened and He Chongguang’s army yet to arrive, local residents near Jinzhou showed secret paths to the young women joining the campaign. They infiltrated the city and clashed with Wei Qiandao’s forces.

“Troublecommoners have broken in…” A guard rushed in anxiously.

Zheng Song paced back and forth, hands clasped behind him, restless as if walking on hot coals. Only upon hearing the news did he stop abruptly, eyes wide with fury, and snap, “Don’t we have weapons? How could we fail to hold them off?”

The guard pressed his lips together and lowered his head. Wei Qiandao interjected, “We can use force against Xu Ying’s troops, but we must never turn on unarmed civilians. If we lose the people’s support completely, our cause is doomed.”

Zheng Song disagreed, his face dark with rage. Gnashing his teeth, his expression icy, he growled, “They’re nothing but rioters from who-knows-where. Kill them if we must. Are we to just let them storm in?”

Wei Qiandao fixed Zheng Song with a long, bewildered, and stunned stare. He nearly laughed in disbelief at how easily Zheng Song could suggest such a thing.

Holding the Crown Prince’s heir at least gave them some cover and a tenuous foothold. But slaughtering civilians, with so many watching, would sway public opinion entirely to Xu Ying’s side and guarantee their defeat.

The priority now was to stabilize Jinzhou. Wei Qiandao advised Zheng Song, “They’re just a few farmers relying on brute force. Nothing to worry aboutsend more men to capture them. Don’t act rashly.”

No sooner had he spoken than a commotion erupted outsideclattering, the thud of heavy objects falling, and cries of pain.

A guard, face covered in blood, charged in, about to shout a warning to Zheng Song and Wei Qiandao, when a stone flew from behind and struck the back of his head. His voice choked off, his body stiffened, and he collapsed face-first.

As the guard fell, a young face came into view of Zheng Song and Wei Qiandao.

Had they broken in already?

Zheng Song bit his tongue sharply, the piercing pain snapping him back to reality. His eyes flew open in panic, and he hastily ducked behind Wei Qiandao.

“Traitors Zheng and Wei, don’t you dare flee!”

A wooden staff whistled through the air. Wei Qiandao dodged nimbly, but Zheng Song, untrained in martial arts and slow to react, took the full blow. A dry, grating scream filled the room.

The attacker was Yi Tang, who had returned to his hometown and joined the crowd to eliminate the rebels. He swung his staff hard into Zheng Song’s waist. Zheng Song crumpled to the floor, one hand clutching his side, the other gripping a table leg as he scrambled backward, putting distance between himself and Yi Tang.

Spotting Wei Qiandao nearby, Yi Tang fluidly twisted his staff and struck toward him.

Wei Qiandao immediately recognized that Yi Tang was employing military staff techniques, his heart shuddering with shock. He had only heard that a mob of commoners had come to cause trouble, never expecting that the one before him was actually a soldier.

“Xu Ying is too cunning, actually disguising soldiers as commoners!”

He had suspected earlierhow could genuine commoners really get involved, even shouting slogans about eliminating traitors? So it was all Xu Ying’s treacherous scheme.

Believing he had fallen into a trap, Wei Qiandao regretted his actions. He twisted away to evade Yi Tang’s staff, leaped back several paces in quick succession, drew his own blade, spun around, and thrust toward Yi Tang who was closely pursuing him.

Yi Tang hastily sidestepped to avoid the strike and said coldly, “We are not here under anyone’s orders but have come of our own accord. Eliminating rebels is the shared desire of all under heaven!”

While Wei Qiandao and Yi Tang were locked in combat, Zheng Song scrambled away on all fours, sneaking off. Outside, chaos had erupted into full-scale fightingeven a guard’s helmet came flying to land at Zheng Song’s feet, stained with blood and gore. Zheng Song stumbled back in shock and fell seated, his hands feeling wet and sticky. Looking down, he saw his palms covered in crimson. His very soul seemed to scatter in terror. Kicking his legs, he retreated to the base of a wall, pressed against it to struggle upright, then dragged his limp legs and blood-soaked robe as he shuffled away.

Zheng Song frantically fled to the imperial grandson’s chambers. Due to the upheaval, the wet nurse and maids attending the child had vanished without a trace. The imperial grandson was wailing heartrendingly, with no one to care for him.

With the situation critical, Zheng Song cursed under his breath while swiftly gathering valuables. He scooped up the child and hurried out, evading the chaotic fighting.

The imperial grandson kept crying with his mouth wide open. Seeing that Jinzhou was clearly lost, Zheng Song grew increasingly panicked. Witnessing the child’s lack of awarenesscrying so loudly at this life-and-death momenthe couldn’t help but feel irritated. He shouted urgently, “Stop crying! If you keep crying, we’ll both be dead!”

The child didn’t understand any of this. Frightened by Zheng Song’s tone, his cries grew even louder, quickly drawing attention to their location.

Zheng Song took a deep breath, glared displeased at the imperial grandson, and sped up while holding him.

But Jinzhou had already descended into devastation. Commoners who had stormed in to eliminate rebels were everywhere. The imperial grandson’s cries attracted everyone’s notice, exposing Zheng Song’s position. After running only a short distance, Zheng Song found his strength failing.

The pursuers drew closer. Truly out of options, Zheng Song knew the imperial grandson’s crying would get him killed. Survival was paramount.

Spotting roof tiles at a height from the corner of his eye, Zheng Song hatched a plan. He climbed onto the roof using footholds, placed the imperial grandson on the eaves, then watched as his pursuers immediately rushed to the area below.

Carefully stepping across the tiles to the other side of the building, Zheng Song slid down along the wall.

Freed from the imperial grandson and carrying only his pack, he moved with ease and soon shook off his pursuers.

The imperial grandson sat on the edge of the eaves, curious about everything before him. He moved his hands and feet, rolled over and crawled a bit, thento everyone’s astonishmentfell.

News arrived from Jinzhou: before He Chongguang could get there, the populace had charged in and captured Wei Qiandao alive. The imperial grandson had died after being abandoned by Zheng Song. Zheng Song had fled, his whereabouts unknown.

Xu Ying froze, taking a long moment to recover. She swallowed with difficulty and set down the report.

Xu Lang said, “He Chongguang is currently dealing with the rebels in Jinzhou. Most have been pacified, but there’s bad newssome Jinzhou citizens fled to Geng Mountain during Zheng Song and Wei Qiandao’s rebellion and started an uprising there.”

“Really?” Xu Ying’s smile spread.

But before she could beam widely, Xu Lang also smiled and said, “Fortunately, they’ve already accepted amnesty. Jinzhou will soon return to normal order.”

A bolt from the blueXu Ying’s smile instantly froze on her face. Trembling, she forced out a few words: “…They surrendered?”

Xu Lang was deeply impressed by Xu Ying’s reaction. Hearing about the rebellion hadn’t fazed her; she remained calm and composed. Yet the news of surrender made her anxious. She always saw further and planned ahead more than ordinary peoplewhat breadth of vision and courage!

“Don’t worry, everyone. They only fled to Geng Mountain out of fear of Wei Qiandao seizing power through the imperial grandson, wanting to avoid being dragged into the conflict. Now they’ve returned to the city.” Xu Lang clearly explained the aftermath of the rebellion to Xu Ying, helping her make better decisions.

Xu Ying’s emotions were complexshock, gratitude, and a deep sense of despair all mingled together, finally coalescing into a feeble sentence: “Fourth Sister, I’d like to be alone for a while.”

Xu Lang understood. Xu Ying must need solitude to reflect. She nodded and said, “Of course. Although the rebels have been eliminated and the northwest pacified, we must remain vigilant and not grow complacent. I, too, need to return and reflect carefully.”

Once Xu Lang had left, brimming with determination, Xu Ying slumped into her chair and spoke to the system: “I think I might not be able to return. You should bind with someone elseinvest resources in them to overthrow the Great Jin Dynasty and establish a new regime.”

The system promptly spun its little green circle and soon delivered a result: “No qualified candidates detected. Please try again.”

Xu Ying patted her head, causing the system interface to wobble, and said angrily, “What I meant was, can you think of a solution? Or if I change the dynasty’s name, would that count as overthrowing it?”

“…Request submitted to higher authorities. Response received: Changing the dynasty name is feasible. However, the host possesses legal identities in both timelines. System overload prevents direct spatial jumps. You must die in this world to be sent back.”

Xu Ying jolted upright in shock. “Why didn’t you say so earlier? You’ve been evasive all this time, keeping me in the dark and wasting so much time!”

“The system is not an intelligent entity and operates based on database protocols. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.”

Xu Ying gritted her teeth. She wasn’t forgiving anyone. What kind of system was this?!

After her anger subsided, Xu Ying calmed down and pondered the system’s words. According to it, all timelines operated on a real-name system, with one identity per person.

She might have died in the modern era but not completelylingering in a half-dead state or something similarso her old identity hadn’t been voided yet. Due to some error, she crossed into this world and created a new identity, allowing her to exploit a loophole: void the new identity and restore the old one.

Xu Ying immediately thought: “What about my fourth sister? If I want to take her with me, does she also have to die in this world first?”

The system replied: “Xu Lang is an ordinary person who grew up in this world. Scans confirm she meets the Spacetime Bureau’s recruitment criteria. The system can grant her access to internal channels. Once Xu Lang is recognized as dead by people in this world, she can jump to a new world.”

Xu Lang could fake her death to void her identity, but Xu Ying was a product of a system glitch. Re-entering the review process would easily expose her, so she had to die for real.

Xu Ying cried injustice. Now that she understood the rules, she rubbed her hands eagerly. “So the key lies in my death. Does that mean if I just have someone kill me, I can leave?”

The system’s cold electronic tone suddenly took on a stern edge: “In principle, this is not permitted, nor is it advised. Proceed at your own risk.”

Xu Ying propped her cheek helplessly; people couldn’t kill her, so she had to consider objective accidents.

Bored, she opened the memorial and saw the Ministry of Works’ water conservancy plan: reinforcing embankments, digging diversion channels for flood controlespecially since the Yellow River had caused disasters in previous years, managing it was of utmost importance.

Xu Ying began listing her new plan.

Author’s Note:

Update 6.9: Some bad newsI might not be able to finish the 10k-word daily update and meet the plan to conclude next week!

This story started as a spontaneous ideaa “Dihua” type of story for the female lead, and it was my first attempt at a plot-driven narrative (even though I haven’t been writing for long). I never expected it to receive so much love from all of you, dear readers. I’ve been constantly worried about whether it’s too outrageous or off-putting, and because of the genre, I’ve felt restricted, which made me hold back more and more, losing sight of my original intention and becoming too plain. The earlier parts were too unrestrained, leading to many issues I hadn’t fully considered. I feel the story’s fun factor has been decreasing, so I want to give it a satisfying conclusion as soon as possible, review the problems, and hope to provide a better experience for everyone in the future.

If I can manage it, the story will conclude next week; if not, it might extend to the biweekly rankings and finish by the end of the month. I’ll try to see if I can hit 10k words tomorrow.