Chapter 842 - Let Him In
Chapter 842: Let Him In
Zhang Heng was a little surprised that the person who wanted him dead was an Imperial Guard. Considering that he had spent most of his time here taking down gangs, it was not surprising that the bigger gangs wanted him dead. However, it was bizarre that an Imperial Guard wanted him dead.
The person he first suspected was Clint. After all, Clint had a conflict of interest with him. Commodus now favored him more than anyone else, and if he was asked to work by Commodus’s side, there was a high chance that Clint’s position would be affected. In other words, if he died here, Clint would benefit the most.
And Clint had done something like this before. Earlier, he appointed Pannonax to make things difficult, not to mention that Pannonax was also an imperial guard. This time, it seemed Clint was eager to get rid of Zhang Heng once and for all after seeing how he improved the patrol team.
Zhang Heng also knew that he could be mistaken. Although assassination was the most effective method to get rid of someone, politicians never used this method unless it was their last resort. That was because if their target survived the assassination, they would have to bear a lot of risks.
After Zhang Heng talked to Clint, he proceeded to profile him. As expected, he was indeed full of jealousy and thirst for power. Once the situation worsened, he would not mind hiring someone to assassinate Zhang Heng. Most of the time, he was a relatively cautious and conservative politician.
This was evident in the way he dealt with Zhang Heng. More accustomed to hiding himself behind the scenes and twisting the existing rules to play to his advantage, assassinating Zhang Heng was not something he would do right now. This would just make it easier for his rivals to go against him. As of now, Zhang Heng was not too large of a threat. Taking such a huge risk wasn’t worth it.
After that, Zhang Heng received the portrait given by the Samaritan and found that the person was not Pannonax. It was someone that he had never seen before. For now, Zhang could investigate this matter no further. The only thing he could do was ask the Samaritan to scrutinize the imperial guard that struck a deal with him. He didn’t put much hope in this one either. The person who wanted him dead clearly tried his best to cover his tracks, not wanting anyone to know about him. After discovering that the assassin had failed to kill him, Zhang Heng figured that he would not contact the Samaritan again.
If he wanted to keep investigating, he had to wait until he returned to Commodus’s side. By that time, there would be more opportunities to contact the imperial guards.
Although Zhang Heng’s attempted assassination not life-threatening, it was a stark wake-up call for him. Now, he knew that someone was watching him from the dark.
This, however, did not affect the next step of his plan. Zhang Heng’s wanted to integrate all large and steadily advancing smaller forces.
After all the bottom forces had chosen their sides, Zhang Heng soon started a new war. This time, he used the excuse of investigating a patrol member assaulted on the street to attack a medium-sized gang. Of course, Zhang Heng knew that the medium-sized gang was not the one responsible. Previously, the assassin had already confessed how he planned the assassination. After its failure, the assailants at the bakery quickly fled from the scene. The member of the patrol team suffered some minor injuries.
But it would be a pity for them not to take advantage of this incident, especially after Zhang Heng noticed that one of the accomplices belonged to the medium-sized gang. He managed to locate the accomplice and went ahead to plan the dramatic revenge.
The patrol team attacked the medium-sized gang after they refused to hand over the accomplice. While the gang boss was still trying to figure out what was going on, the other patrol team had already come knocking at his door.
The current patrol team had gone through a huge transformation. They were no longer the useless puppets they were a month and a half ago. Every single one of them had showered in the enemies’ blood before, and they had been recruiting soldiers as well. Combined with the people they had spent money on to hire, they now had more than fifty people. With Zhang Heng leading the team, they were now stronger than ever.
The medium-sized gang had a lot of members, amounting to more than a hundred people. However, they seemed to lack teamwork, working all over the place around the area. It was difficult for them to gather at the same time.
Zhang Heng had stated that it was a grievance between the two parties. However, none of them informed Soap about it. According to the rules, it was difficult for other forces to intervene in a matter like this. In the end, he could only watch the medium-sized gang getting defeated by the patrol. Zhang Heng did not kill the gang boss this time. He was willing to show him mercy.
But even so, he received an invitation later. Someone had asked him for a drink at a tavern in five days.
Zhang Heng could not reject this invitation because it came from a person from one of the three major forces in the nearby area. And Zhang Heng figured that the other two major forces would be there as well. In other words, these gangs had reached their limits and wanted to stop what Zhang Heng did. If everything went well, they would attack him tonight.
If the patrol team could survive the attack, it meant they could continue to develop in the future. Strictly speaking, most of Zhang Heng’s goals had been achieved. With the patrol team and the other small forces under his control, he was confident that he could pass the assessment two weeks later. However, if he wanted to complete all his plans, he would need to work hard for it.
To everyone’s surprise, Zhang Heng paid Clint a visit.
The two talked for about an hour in Clint’s study, which surprised his wife. She had rarely seen her husband, known for his efficiency, chatting with a person for so long. And he even sent Zhang Heng to the door personally after that.
After Zhang Heng left, Clint asked an old servant who served the two in the room just now, “What do you think of this?”
“Haven’t you decided that you’d suppress him?” the old servant asked, “If that is the case, why would you help him?”
“Because, he turned out to be such an interesting person,” Clint smiled. “And I can hardly refuse the bargaining chip he offered.”
“Why, wasn’t he asking for a favor?”
“Yes, but that’s not the whole picture. I believe he has a backup plan,” Clint said. “A person like him would not put all his chips on one person.”
“But you suppressed him before, and then there is that incident. Aren’t you afraid that he might retaliate when he gains power? Besides, you keep saying that the emperor values him a lot, and he just asked you about his current situation, right?”
“There are no absolute friends in politics, and naturally, no absolute enemies either.” Clint smiled. “I’m beginning to think that it’s not so bad having one more competitor. After all, we have the same opponent, and that person is Altrus, the emperor’s most trusted person. He even gave his ring to Altrus. In the past two years, I have been sitting in a tough spot. Instead of hanging on, it’ll be better that someone new be brought in to cause more chaos. He looks like a smart man, and he should know who his real enemy is.”