Once I enter the pass, great Confucian scholars will surely debate the classics for me.

On November 7, 1092, the year of Emperor Gengshi, the winter solstice began.

Inside the Luo residence, most of the students gathered together with Luo Bingyi to make dumplings. The atmosphere was peaceful and filled with laughter. Luo Bingyi had no wife or children, and these students, whom he had personally taught, were his children. The students also had great respect for Luo Bingyi.

Therefore, every year on the day of the Beginning of Winter, the students would put aside all their affairs and spend the night with Luo Bingyi making dumplings and drinking yellow wine, so that Luo Bingyi would not be lonely and miserable in his old age and die alone.

Recently, as the situation has become increasingly tense and the struggle has entered a fierce stage, if Luo Bingyi's three-pronged strategy cannot turn the tide and reverse the situation, then only defeat and destruction remain.

Under such high pressure, Luo Bingyi in his prime would have had enough mental strength to withstand the pressure, but now Luo Bingyi's mental strength is insufficient, and his mental state is close to collapse. He relies on chewing tobacco, a highly addictive psychotropic drug, to maintain his normal state every day. He is truly risking his life to fight Zhou Qingfeng.

Even if Luo Bingyi succeeds in defeating Zhou Qingfeng, his days are numbered.

It can be said that Luo Bingyi has fought to this point simply out of pride.

"Teacher, why haven't you married and had children all these years, and why are you still all alone?" Zhai Xingyuan was making dumplings and chatting with his teacher. Che Yuxuan, Hao Duanhun, Bi Muge, and Yan Wenjiu also looked at their teacher with curiosity.

This question has lingered in the minds of students for many years without being answered.

Luo Bingyi laboriously rolled out the dough, cooking for the children like an elder in the family: "Hehehe, who says the teacher is alone? The teacher has you all, you are the teacher's children. It's a pity that little Pei didn't come, so we probably won't be able to eat dumplings this year."

Bi Muge said, "Teacher, I will send someone to deliver the dumplings to the Pei residence later."

Luo Bingyi shook his head slightly and said, "Forget it, Lao Pei already told me not to get her involved."

The students exchanged glances and remained silent. They knew who the teacher was referring to as "Old Pei"—the former deputy commander Pei Wanqian, a retired, hidden bigwig who even Luo Bingyi had to give some face to.

Seeing that the students were not in a good mood, Luo Bingyi smiled and tried to divert their attention: "I used to have a wife and daughter, but they are dead."

The students were immediately surprised upon hearing this, as they had never heard of their teacher having a wife and children.

Luo Bingyi lowered his head and rolled out the dough, his face showing melancholy and sadness: "That was when I was a teacher in a village private school, teaching children to read and write. Although I didn't earn much, it was a stable and respectable job with no danger."

“Occasionally I would go to teahouses to drink tea and watch plays. That’s when I met a girl. She was very young. Her name was Huang Danyi. She made a living by singing in teahouses. We got to know each other and fell in love. She was only 19 years old when she married me.”

"It's funny to think about it now. I was already 36 years old at the time, which was a bit like an old cow eating young grass, haha."

Luo Bingyi recalled with a smile: "I didn't just marry a wife, I married a tyrant. She was young and energetic, loved to drink rice wine, but couldn't hold her liquor. Every time she drank too much, she would go crazy, singing, dancing and talking a lot."

"She likes cats, but doesn't know how to raise them, so I'm always worried that she'll kill them. When I tell her not to keep cats, she cries and cries. She makes a mess of the house every day, and she always likes to sleep with me in her arms, otherwise she can't fall asleep. She's just like a little kid."

The students watched as their teacher smiled and slowly recounted the past, listening quietly. They knew these were the teacher's most cherished memories, hidden deep within her heart, and none of them wanted to interrupt her.

Luo Bingyi said with a smile, "I was worried about whether she could be a good mother, because she got pregnant with my child not long after we got married. However, to my surprise, after the child was born, she became very steady and reliable."

"After the child was born, I personally named her Wanjun, Luo Wanjun."

“My salary as a teacher at the private school was no longer enough to support my family. I had to earn more money, so I resigned from my job at the village private school and came to Jianta to seek better opportunities.”

At this point, Luo Bingyi's eyes couldn't help but reveal sadness and heartbreak, and his face became extremely pitiful, like a lonely old man: "When I gain a foothold in the Sword Tower and go home to pick up my mother and daughter."

“The village has been plundered by a gang of roaming bandits. They burned, killed, and looted the village. My wife and children were burned to ashes by them, just for a bag of grain.”

"I don't understand. If it's robbery, why kill people? Why kill children and women?"

“I killed them all, reduced them to ashes, but it was no use. I didn’t change anything.”

"Over the years, I've occasionally thought about it and wondered if things would have been different if I had been able to go home earlier, and if I were stronger, could I have turned back time."

The students felt a heavy weight in their hearts. They seemed to understand why their teacher had never married and had no children. It was because the teacher deeply loved his wife and children and could not let go of them; his longing for them had become an obsession.

"Teacher, I'm sorry..." Zhai Xingyuan lowered his head, knowing he shouldn't have asked.

Luo Bingyi smiled at him and said, "Xingyuan, don't feel sorry. Your teacher feels that he doesn't live much longer. He has kept this matter in his heart all his life. It's good to tell someone before he dies."

Zhai Xingyuan opened his mouth, wanting to say something to comfort him.

Luo Bingyi, however, took the lead and stretched out his flour-covered hand, lightly flicking Zhai Xingyuan's nose: "I know my own body best, there's no need to comfort me, tell me how the plan is going."

Upon hearing this, Zhai Xingyuan's face turned serious: "Teacher, the plan to ambush Xiao Hongyun has made no progress at all. Xiao Hongyun has a crippled expert by his side who was assigned by Zhou Silang to protect him. Moreover, he refuses to leave the city, leaving no opportunity to strike. It seems that he has sensed that we are going to ambush him."

"Jin Wei left the Sword Tower at some point. It seems that Zhou Silang had already realized that we would retaliate and secretly moved Jin Wei out of the city in advance. It seems that our plan to capture Jin Wei as a breakthrough point will not work."

Luo Bingyi paused in his rolling out of dough, then asked, "How did Zhou Silang find out?"

Upon hearing this, Zhai Xingyuan turned his gaze to Bi Muge without saying a word.

Che Yuxuan, Hao Duanhun, and Yan Wenjiu also turned their attention to Bi Muge.

Suspicion has already arisen at this moment.

Nobody here is stupid; to be precise, almost everyone sitting here is a smart person.

Faced with everyone's suspicion, Bi Muge calmly said, "It wasn't me. With Zhou Silang's intelligence, knowing that we want revenge, he would definitely try to hide or eliminate his own weaknesses."

This explanation makes sense, but once doubts arise, they cannot be dispelled in just a few words.

Luo Bingyi looked at Bi Muge with his cloudy eyes, as if he had seen through everything, and calmly said, "Why?"

Bi Muge knew he could fool others, but not his teacher. He pursed his lips, stopped making dumplings, stood up, and respectfully clasped his hands in a salute: "Teacher, I had no choice but to swallow my anger before, but now that the opportunity has come, I want to take back what once belonged to me."

Upon hearing this, Che Yuxuan immediately burst into a tirade: "Old Bi, how dare you betray us?"

Seeing this, Luo Bingyi tapped the table lightly with a rolling pin: "Shut up!"

Forced by the teacher's authority, Che Yuxuan had no choice but to shut up and sit down, staring fiercely at Bi Muge.

Luo Bingyi looked at Bi Muge with a face full of disappointment. He never expected that Bi Muge would turn against him at such a critical moment. This backstabbing was both accurate and ruthless, and it completely tolled the death knell for the Luo family gang.

In his eyes, these students were all his children, all people he could trust. What parent would suspect their own child of stabbing them in the back? Especially when surrounded by powerful enemies, they should unite, put aside personal grudges, and focus on the big picture to face external threats together.

However, he misjudged the hatred in Bi Muge's heart and regretted that he had not treated everyone equally.

"It was my fault." Luo Bingyi didn't blame Bi Muge, because blaming him was useless. What's done is done, and killing Bi Muge wouldn't save the Luo family gang from its defeat. "Sit down and have one last meal of dumplings with me."

Bi Muge looked guilty and sat down again.

Luo Bingyi put plate after plate of the wrapped dumplings into the pot. The steaming dumplings were placed on the tables of each student, and he said casually, "Eat up, everyone. I'm afraid you won't be able to eat my dumplings again in the future."

Bi Muge's eyes welled up with tears. He picked up his chopsticks and quickly ate the dumplings with his head down. The dumplings, which were originally delicious, turned bitter in his mouth. As he ate, tears streamed down his face. His mouth was full of dumplings, and he didn't dare to look up at the teacher.

He didn't know how he finished the whole plate of dumplings. He just wanted to escape this place as soon as possible because he felt ashamed to face his teacher. He finished the plate of dumplings in a flash, then quickly got up and knelt down to perform a deep bow: "Teacher, I'm sorry, student takes his leave."

After saying this, Bi Muge got up and strode away, no longer looking back, heading towards a better future.

Luo Bingyi, looking old and frail, ate his dumplings with his head down. The students cautiously observed his expression, but Luo Bingyi remained calm and composed, eating as if the sky were falling and it was nothing.

After finishing a plate of dumplings, Luo Bingyi picked up a handkerchief to wipe his mouth and said calmly, "As people get older, their appetites aren't what they used to be. They get sleepy after eating a little. You can eat slowly, and after this last meal, you can all go your separate ways."

Seeing this, the students hesitated to speak, watched Luo Bingyi walk towards the bedroom, then exchanged glances with each other, got up and left one after another, each preparing to find a way out, because the Luo family gang was about to collapse.

Bi Muge's defection at the crucial moment was a fatal blow to the Luo family gang, and the last chance to turn the tide was lost. All the actions were doomed to failure, and Bi Muge lost his value as an undercover agent. Zhou Silang would definitely not let go of this sharp knife and would definitely make Bi Muge deal with his former classmates and teachers.

They must make plans early, or their deaths are imminent.

Sword Tower City, Lord's Mansion, early morning.

The 224 officials were still oblivious to their own mortality, shouting for severe punishment of Zhou Qingfeng. If it weren't for the rule in the Sword Tower that officials are exempt from punishment, these officials wouldn't have dared to shout in the city lord's mansion for a whole day and night. However, after shouting for a long time without any response, they became somewhat lax in their tedious repetition of the same sentence, and their shouts became less and less unified.

In the council chamber, the three elders discussed the matter all night and drafted a new solution. They submitted it again, but it was rejected again without any changes. They revised it repeatedly, submitted it repeatedly, and rejected it repeatedly. The three elders were exhausted.

Qiu Chengde returned the report to the council chamber unchanged, and left with a helpless expression: "Couldn't you all discuss and come up with a result that satisfies the Madam? Don't make me run back and forth. I'm really tired."

The three elders, Sun, Moon, and Star, were speechless. They wanted to take advantage of this favorable wind to seize power and weaken influence, but the First Lady had to affix her seal and approval before the decree could be issued and would have no legal effect.

After arguing for a whole day and night, they finally realized they couldn't win.

Continuing to be stubborn is pointless and will only strain the relationship with the First Lady. Unless there is irrefutable evidence or the perpetrator is caught red-handed, no one can shake Zhou Qingfeng's power.

The assistant commander sighed and said, "Assistant Commander Ma, in your opinion, how should we handle this?"

Ma Dalang, with his hands tucked into his sleeves, sat upright in his chair and said calmly, "Dismissal from office—I'm referring to the positions of these 224 officials. Let's charge them with secretly colluding and plotting to force the emperor to abdicate."

Mao Erlang raised his hand and said, "I second that."

"Seconded, seconded, seconded..." Commander Tang, Commander Song, and Commander Zhu expressed their opinions one after another.

The assistant commanders of Shooting Sun, Cool Moon, and Starshine exchanged a glance and nodded in agreement: "Seconded!"

They had tried, for a whole day and night, but they simply couldn't win against his wife's stubbornness.

The only option was for Ma Dalang to lead the drafting of a new report and submit it to see if the lady would be satisfied.

If the document is indeed stamped and approved, then the positions of 224 officials at all levels will be vacant. People will have to be arranged to fill these vacancies, and the assistant commanders will be responsible for drawing up a list of who will take over the positions.

In fact, this approach is not detrimental to the three elders of the Sun, Moon, and Stars.

If this opportunity cannot be used to weaken the power of the younger generation, then at the very least, sufficient benefits must be secured for the three collateral branches, so that outstanding descendants of the three collateral branches can have the opportunity to take over the vacant official positions.

Ma Dalang drafted the report and summoned Qiu Chengde to deliver it to the First Lady.

The First Lady reclined gracefully on the warm couch, took the report handed to her by Qiu Chengde, and nodded with satisfaction: "Not bad, this is more like it. Chengde, stamp and approve it."

Qiu Chengde accepted the report with both hands, turned around and walked to the desk to the side. He held the city lord's seal in both hands and stamped it on the report. Then he took a red brush and respectfully handed it to the First Lady.

The First Lady held a red brush and wrote the character "准" (approved) on the report.

News of the 224 officials who secretly colluded and plotted to force the emperor to abdicate, and were subsequently dismissed and arrested, quickly reached the Zhou residence and spread throughout the elite circles of Sword Tower City, causing a great uproar.

The newly powerful were all terrified by the First Lady's iron-fisted and ruthless methods, but the veteran elites understood that this was the First Lady's style of doing things. Although she did not care about anything and never showed her face, power was always in her hands. She could kill whoever she wanted within the Sword Tower and had almost absolute power.

Zhiqi looked terrified and clasped his hands in a fist to report: "Young Master, I did not expect the City Lord to be so ruthless, killing more than two hundred officials of various ranks in one go. This is simply... too, too powerful."

Zhou Qingfeng stood with his hands behind his back in the pavilion, calmly gazing at the white bone foundation tower standing in the distance: "My mother is just a woman. If she didn't have an iron fist, how could she have secured the position of city lord? Alright, go and summon Bi Muge to see me."