Chapter 18: Yingyang and Wulie

"You?" Shang Chaozong looked startled. "What happened?"

Lan Ruoting smiled bitterly. "After Your Highness was imprisoned, I realized something was wrong. People kept piling on while you were down. It was obvious they intended to drive you to your death. The man in the palace feared the military power the late prince had held, yet he also feared what would happen among the surrounding states once the late prince was no longer there to deter them. I knew what worried him, so I released a rumor. I said the late prince had secretly selected the loyal souls of a hundred thousand soldiers who died on the battlefield and refined them into a force of 'Crow Generals.'"

Understanding dawned on Shang Chaozong. He gave a cold laugh. "And here I thought the man in the palace had spared me out of some consideration for family ties. So he wanted those hundred thousand Crow Generals. In that case, the fact that I've been released alive this time is probably tied to them as well. What is the situation in the State of Yan now?"

Lan Ruoting nodded. "Your Highness has seen straight to the heart of it. After the late prince died, His Majesty spent these years carrying out sweeping purges of the late prince's old subordinates. The army's morale became increasingly unstable. The northern commander, Shao Dengyun, was driven so far that in a fit of rage he opened the passes and surrendered the city, bringing the armies of the State of Han across our northern border. They advanced like a knife through bamboo. The court paid an enormous price before it finally managed to stop the Han offensive. Vast stretches of territory fell into the hands of our old enemy, and the surrounding states began watching us like tigers. The situation became so dangerous that His Majesty had no choice but to send several princesses away in marriage one after another, drawing other states to his side as counterweights and only barely stabilizing the situation. Meanwhile, amid the internal disorder, some generals have gradually developed ambitions of their own. A number have begun taking advantage of the chaos to hold troops for themselves and refuse orders. With trouble within and enemies without, the State of Yan is already tottering in the wind and rain!"

Thump!

Shang Chaozong slammed a fist onto the seat. His face twisted with fury. "Sending princesses away in political marriages—what a national humiliation! And Shao Dengyun dared betray us to the enemy. He deserves death!"

Lan Ruoting said nothing. What was there to say about some things? Without those marriage alliances, the state might have faced destruction. What else could the man in the palace have done? If Shao Dengyun had refused to defect, only death awaited him. What else could Shao Dengyun have done?

Once Shang Chaozong calmed down, he sighed. "I understand now. The reason I was released at this moment is precisely because the State of Yan is beset by internal and external crises. The man in the palace is desperate to obtain those hundred thousand Crow Generals and stabilize the situation. He released me in hopes of baiting them out. If he fails to get them, I'm afraid he still won't let me go."

"That isn't what we should be thinking about right now," Lan Ruoting replied. "As long as Your Highness can escape this predicament and leave the capital, there will still be opportunities. If you cannot leave the capital, there will never be any opportunity at all..."

The sun rose, and the capital began another noisy day. Shops opened one after another. Peddlers, porters, and ordinary passersby filled the streets, none of them knowing what sort of person sat inside the seemingly ordinary carriage. The moment the carriage reached the eastern city gate, it received special attention.

A body of troops drove pedestrians away, halted all entry and exit, and surrounded the carriage.

One of the gate commanders rapped the back of his saber against the carriage and shouted, "Out! Submit to inspection."

Lan Ruoting climbed out first and reached back to help Shang Chaozong, whose hands and feet were still injured. Shang Chaozong refused as before and jumped down by himself. One glance at the surrounding scene told both men the arrangements had been made especially for them.

"Well, well. If it isn't little Prince Shang Chaozong!" the gate commander suddenly called in a loud, cheerful voice.

The civilians who had been pushed to the sides turned to stare in surprise.

The commander continued mockingly, "Young Prince, how did you end up dressed in such rags?"

Shang Chaozong looked at him coldly.

He had inherited a princely title. Though he had been reduced from Prince to Commandery Prince, he was still a prince. Addressing him as "little prince" was obviously meant to toy with and humiliate him.

Lan Ruoting cupped his hands with a smile. "His Highness is leaving the city by imperial decree. General, we ask that you show some consideration."

The gate commander sneered. "Leaving by imperial decree and submitting to inspection do not conflict! A young prince can beat an innocent civilian to death in broad daylight and still strut around afterward. Those of us serving below can't compare with His Highness. We have to follow the rules." He waved a hand. "Search him!"

A group of soldiers swarmed forward. Right there in public, they grabbed and yanked at Shang Chaozong all over. His already tattered clothes were torn even worse, nearly exposing his backside. It was blatant humiliation. Shang Chaozong's jaw tightened, but he said nothing. He stood ramrod straight and let them search him.

Lan Ruoting watched and sighed inwardly. It seemed these years in prison had not been entirely wasted. The young prince had been tempered and had matured greatly. With his old temper, he would probably have started fighting long ago. Had that not been exactly how he had fallen into the trap that led him to kill a man?

Fortune is where misfortune hides; misfortune is where fortune rests. Perhaps this was what the old saying meant. The driver, however, was trembling with rage. His eyes bulged as he fought the urge to explode. The instant he began to move, Lan Ruoting caught his wrist. Lan Ruoting shook his head, signaling that he must not act rashly.

The surrounding civilians had heard that the man was nobility and that he had beaten an innocent person to death in broad daylight. They had no idea whether Shang Chaozong had been framed or was now being deliberately humiliated. Most were ordinary people with no access to the truth.

Seeing a noble humiliated, many merely watched the spectacle. Some even gloated or clapped and cheered. The person secretly orchestrating the affair from the city wall looked down coldly, thinking the ignorant rabble stupid and laughable. Yet he never stopped to wonder why those same commoners hated the powerful so much that they would gladly see every last one of them stuffed into pig cages and drowned.

Two men stood at separate windows above, each peering down through a narrow opening. One was the Commandant of Justice, Song Jiuming. The other was a thin, clean-cut man with a pale, beardless face. Frost-white hair showed at his temples beneath neatly bound hair secured with a green-jade pin. He was impeccably groomed, without a speck of dust anywhere on him. His nose was hooked, his expression calm, his gaze cold and heavy. A black cape wrapped his shoulders, and there was a restrained elegance to him that naturally kept others at a distance.

Anyone who could make Song Jiuming accompany him personally was no ordinary figure. His name was Ga Miaoshui. He was a palace eunuch, one of the emperor's own attendants, and a man who had watched the emperor grow from childhood. His standing was easy to imagine. People called him Eunuch Shui.

"Is there any point to this?" Song Jiuming turned and asked.

Ga Miaoshui replied evenly, "Humiliate him. Give him something to brood over. Force him to reveal Shang Jianbo's hidden card sooner."

Song Jiuming looked thoughtful and understood. The disturbance below finally ended, and they were permitted to leave. Shang Chaozong, his clothes now torn so badly they barely covered him, climbed back into the carriage. The driver flicked the reins and continued forward.

But the carriage had only just passed through the city gate when someone came running out from inside the city, pointing after it and shouting, "Officers! Stop him! The carriage! Someone stole my carriage!"

As though the whole thing had been rehearsed, the soldiers outside the gate immediately converged and blocked the carriage again.

The man who had been shouting ran to the horses, grabbed the reins, and cried, "This is my carriage! My carriage! Officers, you have to uphold justice for me!"

The same gate commander who had made trouble earlier strode over with his men. Reaching the side of the carriage, he shouted, "Out!"

Seated inside, Shang Chaozong gave a cold laugh. "It seems this prince no longer even has the right to ride in a carriage. Do they want me to walk all the way to my fief? Tao Xin, sound the horn!"

"Wait!" Lan Ruoting hurriedly stopped him. He cupped his hands toward Shang Chaozong. "Your Highness, please endure it a little longer!"

Shang Chaozong bent down and emerged from the carriage. He stood on the front board, blocking Lan Ruoting behind him from coming out. Though dressed in rags and miserable to look at, his back was straight as a spear.

The gate commander pointed at him and shouted, "Young Prince, you'd better come down so we can clear this matter up!"

Shang Chaozong's voice suddenly rang out with unquestionable authority.

"Sound the horn!"

The driver, Tao Xin, produced from somewhere a glossy black ox-horn bugle weathered by age. He put it to his lips, puffed out his cheeks, and blew with all his strength.

"Woooo... woo-woo... woooo..."

The deep horn call rolled beyond the city gate. The nearby soldiers froze. The gate commander stared blankly as well.

A military horn!

Then came a distant rumble. It grew louder and nearer. Before long, the soldiers guarding the gate had all changed color. At the city wall windows, Ga Miaoshui and Song Jiuming both frowned. Each pushed his window fully open. Two mounted forces were racing toward the gate from opposite directions ahead.

Each numbered a little over two hundred riders. One group wore fitted green garments, the other earth-gray. They galloped in disciplined ranks. Their numbers were not large, yet their momentum was fierce and unstoppable. Song Jiuming's pupils contracted sharply.

He murmured, "Yingyang Guard! Wulie Guard!"

When the late emperor was alive, he had rewarded Prince Ning Shang Jianbo's military achievements with four characters: "Heroic Ascendance, Martial Valor."

Shang Jianbo split those four characters in two and bestowed the resulting names upon the two elite guard units at his left and right. Thus were born the Yingyang Guard and the Wulie Guard. Five thousand Yingyang Guards and five thousand Wulie Guards had followed Prince Ning Shang Jianbo across countless battlefields, repeatedly performing extraordinary feats and striking fear into their enemies.

Their most famous battle had come when the present emperor, then leading an army in person, fell into danger. Prince Ning personally led the Yingyang and Wulie Guards on a hundred-li forced march to rescue him. With only ten thousand men, they charged head-on into an army of one hundred thousand from the State of Han, carved their way into the encirclement, and dragged the present emperor out alive.

That battle made the Yingyang and Wulie Guards famous beneath Heaven. Yet what they received from the present emperor was not gratitude, but fear. Today, both guards were already things of the past. The present emperor's purges had almost wiped them out completely. The few hundred riders appearing now were most likely remnants who had managed to gather together.

The two cavalry groups merged into one. Dust rolled behind them as they thundered forward.

The city guards changed color. Someone cried out, "Yingyang Guard! Wulie Guard!"

"Young Prince, are you trying to rebel?" The gate commander's face had gone white. His voice trembled.

Shang Chaozong, standing on the carriage board, did not even look at him. His face was full of pride as he watched the cavalry racing toward him. Tao Xin's eyes reddened. Tears welled as he watched them approach. He wiped his face, raised the horn again, and sounded another long call.

At the head of the charge rode a woman in green. A gauze-veiled hat concealed her face. The instant the horn sounded, she drew her sword with a ringing hiss and pointed the blade forward. The five hundred riders rapidly shifted into a wedge-shaped assault formation. One after another, they drew gleaming horse-chopping sabers beneath the sunlight and charged forward without hesitation.

At the window above, Ga Miaoshui glanced down at the city guards and frowned. The defenders had already lost their nerve before a blow was struck. They were unconsciously giving ground. The soldiers blocking the carriage backed away and opened the road. The five hundred cavalrymen thundered up to the carriage and reined in almost as one.

In motion, they were like a thunderclap. At rest, they stood like mountains.

"Brother!"

The voice of the woman in green trembled as she halted before him. She was Shang Chaozong's younger sister, Shang Shuqing. Clearly, she had never imagined that her elder brother, once broad-backed, powerful, and robust, could have been tortured into such a skeletal state. Beneath the gauze veil, tears were already streaming down her face.

[End of Chapter 18]