Chapter 180: This is Yong’an County
Inside a stone house constructed on the spot using a Dao spell, Wei Yuan sat across from Niu Jingbao, frowning as he looked at this man who was determined to die.
Although the magistrate was tight-lipped, Wei Yuan probed him persistently, zeroing on every detail and picking apart every word he spoke. After patiently grilling him for an hour, he managed to extract quite a bit of information.
After the interrogation, it became very clear that the royal court had sent this man over to die. If Wei Yuan couldn’t resist the urge to kill him, Western Jin would have the pretext to launch a military attack on the realm of Qingming.
Aside from Niu Jinbao, Yuan Qingyan, the commandery administrator of Ningxi Commandery, was no pushover either. Formerly an oversight advisor, he had once been a notorious mad dog of the royal court, biting anyone he saw, with not a single friend to his name. The intention behind his appointment was just as clear as Ning Jinbao’s.
There was no doubt that the King of Jin had reestablished the four commanderies to bring the realm of Qingming under his control. There would be no point to the reestablishment otherwise.
At the moment, Wei Yuan found himself in quite a bind. He couldn’t kill Niu Jinbao, but he couldn’t yet let him live either. This man was essentially a gift from the King of Jin, meant for him to kill—and killing him would play right into the king’s hands.
Intentionally or unintentionally, Niu Jinbao had also revealed the royal forces were steadily pouring into Ningxi. In fact, the King of Jin had gone so far as to redeploy the border army at the northern frontier. It was clear that he was determined to succeed.
Western Jin shared the longest border with Northern Liao. Many areas lacked natural defenses and relied entirely on garrisons and mobile defenses to repel the enemy. Consequently,out of all the military units Western Jin possessed, the border army of the northern frontier was the strongest of them all.
Wei Yuan pondered for a moment before asking, “Do you want to die?”