238: Chapter 238 The Battle of Gaixia, Ambush from Ten Sides

Old Master Li had climbed to the third-highest position in Jiangnan Province; his temperament and depth of character had long been honed to be impervious to fire and water.

Since the situation had shifted and the momentum was no longer in his favor, the Old Master did not show the slightest loss of composure.

He resumed a gentle smile.

"Old Wang."

Li Zhenguo raised his voice. "We have distinguished guests today. Have the kitchen add a few more solid dishes at noon. Bring out that bottle of vintage wine I keep in my cabinet. We have a newcomer entering the game today; this welcoming toast must be drunk."

Butler Wang Jianan bowed outside the door and replied repeatedly.

Li Zhenguo finished his arrangements and turned to look at Minister Xiao Dingyu beside him.

"Dingyu, let's go to the inner room and sit for a while."

The Old Master pointed to the tea table inside the study. "This white-skin tea that Zhu Wenhao brought is rare. Let us borrow flowers to offer to the Buddha today and properly savor its flavor."

Minister Xiao Dingyu had the same intention.

The Li family had been deeply entrenched for decades. Even if the cards on the table had been played, he still needed to gauge what connections and backup plans remained hidden in the shadows.

Although the two had fallen out, in Jiangnan Province, fighting without breaking was the norm.

"Since the old leader invites, how could I refuse?" Minister Xiao Dingyu stepped forward.

Su Qinghan, quick-witted, saw the elders moving, immediately took off her handbag, and walked to the tea table.

She sat down, cleaned her hands, rinsed the cups, and silently took on the role of brewing tea.

The steam from the tea rose in curls, diluting the sharp edges of this small space.

On the other side, Li Juan stood where she was, her gaze lingering on Secretary Zhu Tianhe's broad back.

The scene just now, where her husband stood in front of their son, facing Old Master Li's thunderous rage, had completely shattered the perception she had held for over twenty years.

This man, whom the Li family regarded as a live-in son-in-law and who had always been timid, had grown an unbendable spine at some point.

She stepped forward and stopped at a palm's distance.

"Tianhe." Li Juan spoke.

Before Secretary Zhu Tianhe could respond, she reached out, her fingers probing into the man's palm, interlocking with his fingers.

Since they had married, this was the first time Li Juan had set aside the airs of a noble family daughter to hold the hand of this mason.

The moment their palms touched, Secretary Zhu Tianhe's body stiffened slightly, and he turned his head to look at her.

"It's stuffy inside, accompany me to the courtyard for a walk." Li Juan lowered her voice. "There are some things that we, as husband and wife, should properly lay out on the table."

Secretary Zhu Tianhe gripped her slightly cool hand back, said nothing, and they walked out of the room side by side, heading into the winter courtyard.

Around the chessboard, the area cleared out in the blink of an eye.

Only Zhu Wenhao and Li Zhengxing remained.

Li Zhengxing's face was livid as he stared fixedly at the chessboard before him.

Especially that lonely white piece that had landed in the corner; it was particularly glaring.

Having grown up in the compound, graduated from a prestigious university, and later joined the central organs in The Capital, Li Zhengxing's resume was illustrious. Accustomed to macro-control and top-level design, he believed he had a grasp of the big picture.

Coming south this time, he thought that with the brand of the Li family's eldest son and the real power of being a deputy minister in the Provincial Organization Department, gathering his old subordinates would be as easy as taking something out of his pocket.

He never calculated that he would fail at the first battle, suffering a defeat at the hands of Zhu Wenhao.

Where did he lose?

Zhu Wenhao pulled out the wooden chair opposite him and sat down steadily.

He extended his slender fingers and picked up the remaining black and white pieces from the board, one by one, into the bowl.

"Uncle." Zhu Wenhao spoke, his tone sounding like an old friend chatting. "Would you be willing to play another game?"

Li Zhengxing raised his eyes, looking at this unfathomable nephew.

The unwillingness in his heart turned into an obsession; he stiffened his face and nodded.

The two quickly cleared the board.

Zhu Wenhao did not compete for the first move, pushing the bowl containing the black pieces over and pulling the white pieces to himself.

Playing white second, yielding the first move.

Li Zhengxing did not stand on ceremony, starting by placing a piece at the Tianyuan point, moving as if flying.

For the first dozen moves, the black pieces pressed hard, with bold and unrestrained moves.

This approach was fierce and peerless, intending to use overwhelming momentum to force a quick victory.

Zhu Wenhao's expression did not change.

The white pieces fell, like needles hidden in cotton.

He did not engage in meaningless slaughter with the black pieces in the middle, but instead played solidly along the star points, advancing steadily.

When the black pieces came aggressively, the white pieces lightly avoided the edge; when the black pieces revealed a flaw, the white pieces gave a gentle prick from the flank, touching and leaving, never greedy for merit.

Let the wind and rain rage; he remained unmoved.

After more than forty moves.

The pattern of the board was set.

The black pieces connected in the middle, with a magnificent momentum, as if having already taken the vast world in the center of the board into its pocket.

Li Zhengxing pinched a black piece, looked at this beautiful landscape, and the pent-up frustration in his heart finally dissipated a little.

He thought he had won back a round and regained his dignity as an elder.

"Yuntong, look clearly." Li Zhengxing slammed the black piece onto the center of the board. "Major affairs of the world must be based on the center. Controlling the hub and locking the throat—this is the only way to win. The petty gains in the corners and edges will never amount to anything."

These words, using chess as an analogy for politics, were still promoting his top-down theory.

Zhu Wenhao picked up a white piece from the bowl.

"Uncle, you have studied history books; do you know about the Battle of Gaixia?"

Li Zhengxing was stunned.

Zhu Wenhao did not wait for his reply, pushing the white piece out horizontally, landing on an extremely inconspicuous star point intersection.

"Xiang Yu, the Hegemon of Western Chu, was peerless in strength and arrogance. Han Xin did not compete with him head-on but sent troops to bypass him, occupy the corners, seize the grain routes, and finally set up an ambush from all sides. Although the Hegemon was brave, he could only commit suicide at the Wujiang River."

Zhu Wenhao picked up another piece, cutting off a vine of the black pieces extending outward.

"You have lived in the halls of government for a long time; have you ever truly studied the writings of the great figures?"

"The power of the people is infinite. If you keep the land and lose the people, both are lost; if you keep the people and lose the land, both are preserved."

"Do not care about the loss of one city or one territory."

"You think that by occupying a few positions of real power in the Provincial Party Committee Compound, you can command the heroes. But you do not know that this foundation lies in the lowest soil, in the rice bowls of the millions of common people."

"You are suspended in mid-air, your feet not touching the mud; this so-called big picture in the middle is nothing but water without a source, a tree without roots."

Li Zhengxing heard this and suddenly lowered his head to re-examine the chessboard.

Sweat, without warning, seeped out from his temples.

On the surface, the black pieces indeed occupied the center.

But upon closer inspection, the surrounding corners and edges had long been completely eroded by the white pieces.

Even more fatal was that the two white pieces Zhu Wenhao had just placed were like two sharp knives, silently cutting off the last breathing holes connecting the black pieces to the corners.

The white pieces surrounded from all directions, and the black dragon, which seemed huge, had actually been cut into two dead segments that could not look after each other.

Ambush from all sides.

A net cast from heaven and earth.

Li Zhengxing had trained in the central organs of The Capital for many years, accustomed to using documents and instructions to mobilize resources. He thought that as long as he parachuted down and revealed his identity, the subordinates below would bow down.

He simply did not understand what kind of brutal hand-to-hand combat grassroots cadres had to engage in for a project or a sum of funds.

The high ground of theory was vulnerable in the face of practical combat.

Li Zhengxing's hand holding the black piece began to tremble; he tried to force a breakthrough, looking for a ko threat in the cracks.

He played three moves in a row.

Zhu Wenhao met each move, hand rising and piece falling, cleanly and efficiently killing the black pieces' struggle in the cradle.

Every move was heavy with the weight of Mount Tai.

Finally, the black piece in Li Zhengxing's hand could no longer be placed.

He let go of his five fingers dejectedly, and the black piece fell back into the bowl, making a muffled sound.

He surrendered the game.

Just at this moment, Study Committee Member Cao Rui returned from his phone call.

"Secretary, the fire in Jingjiang City has been lit."

Study Committee Member Cao Rui reported the situation at high speed: "My uncle said that he and Secretary Feng of the Political and Legal Affairs Commission have met up, and their cars are on the way to the Municipal Public Security Bureau."

"The Municipal Political and Legal Affairs Commission has issued an emergency notice, requiring all cadres at the middle level and above of the Municipal Public Security Bureau to gather in the grand conference room at 2:00 PM. They are convening a clean governance warning education meeting to conduct a surprise inspection of the party style and clean government construction of the Municipal Public Security Bureau. My uncle and Secretary Feng will deliver keynote speeches at the meeting."

Two members of the Municipal Party Committee personally sitting at the Public Security Bureau—this was by no means an ordinary warning meeting; this was forcing the palace, setting up cannons directly on Bureau Chief Hao Jianguo's turf.

"In addition, my uncle has already laid out the plan according to your instructions just now." Study Committee Member Cao Rui continued, "Our eyes inside the Municipal Public Security Bureau have already spread the news through various secret channels that 'a certain sub-bureau leader who handled the case back then could not withstand the pressure and went to the Provincial Commission for Discipline Inspection to surrender'."

"Now the entire Jingjiang Municipal Public Security Bureau is in panic. Those bigwigs who once followed Bureau Chief Hao Jianguo and Secretary Lei Zhen to reap benefits are all like frightened birds. Once this meeting starts in the afternoon, the defense line will crumble without attack, and the pot of water in the Municipal Public Security Bureau will be completely boiling."

Attack the heart.

Make the enemy suspicious internally and trample on each other.

"Very good." Zhu Wenhao leaned back in his chair. "Tell Secretary Cao that there is no need to show mercy at the meeting; smash down the attitude of Director Qi from the Provincial Public Security Department. The trend is established; those who follow it will prosper."

After listening, Study Committee Member Cao Rui went out to make a phone call again.

Li Zhengxing, sitting opposite him, pieced together the fragments of this phone call, his inner shock reaching its peak.

He watched his twenty-four-year-old nephew, sitting in this study, without even leaving the door, just relying on a few phone calls, turn the political and legal system of the provincial capital, Jingjiang City, upside down.

The study door opened again.

Butler Wang Jianan walked out, breaking the tension outside.

"Old Leader, the meal is ready." Butler Wang Jianan announced to the inner room, then turned and bowed to Zhu Wenhao and the others. "Everyone, let's move to the dining room. It hasn't been this lively in the house for a long time."

Li Zhenguo and Minister Xiao Dingyu walked out of the tea room one after the other.

"Let's go, let's eat." Li Zhenguo's expression was as usual, as if the breathtaking scene just now had never happened.

Zhu Wenhao stood up and straightened his clothes.

Su Qinghan walked up from behind and stood side by side with him.

The group walked through the long corridor toward the dining room.