Chapter 105: Answering the Marquis

“The encirclement opposite us is beginning to withdraw.”

Zheng Fan nodded and said to Liang Cheng, “Let’s get out first.”

At this point, there was no longer any need to consider whether the Qian army was laying some deceptive formation.

More precisely, the moment these ten thousand soldiers of the Jingnan Army appeared, the situation had already become almost the equivalent of a dragon riding directly on someone’s face.

Unless a meteor suddenly fell from the heavens, how could they possibly lose?

Of course, no matter how you looked at the Qian army or the State of Qian, neither seemed to possess the destiny of a Heaven-Chosen protagonist.

Otherwise, the heavens of this world really would have strange tastes.

Under Liang Cheng’s command, the barbarian soldiers began moving.

The Qian forces were moving as well, though they were mainly preparing for battle.

Whatever decay might exist inside the nearby beacon forts, at least men were now standing atop the battlements and maintaining alert positions.

This made Zheng Fan rather curious about who exactly was commanding the Qian army.

After all, under circumstances like these, someone who was not the emperor yet still dared to back down—and back down so completely—was truly not an ordinary person.

Even an idiot understood that when a dispute arose between states, whoever publicly showed weakness could expect to be settled with after returning home.

Still, watching the Yan cavalry they had chased and encircled for two days swagger away right before their eyes undeniably caused Qian morale to plummet.

They looked like eggplants struck by frost.

But because the threat posed by the Jingnan Army was very real, they forced themselves to remain alert and began forming ranks under the orders of their respective commanders.

A gap opened along one flank of the Jingnan Army’s formation to receive Zheng Fan’s cavalry.

Once they entered, the Jingnan Army began converting its front into its rear, withdrawing in orderly stages while covering one another.

“Powerful without becoming arrogant. Full of momentum without becoming reckless.

“If that really is the Marquis of Jingnan commanding them, then this Jingnan Army is indeed elite.

“And the Marquis of Jingnan himself is even less simple.”

That was Liang Cheng’s assessment.

For anyone—especially a commander of troops—once they reached a lofty position and commanded armored hosts, certain aspects of their personality would inevitably be magnified without limit.

For instance, if Zheng Fan were commanding the army right now, he would definitely leave in a far more arrogant and domineering fashion.

Before departing, he would probably put on one more show in front of the Qian men.

After all, anyone could see that Qian had already backed down. No matter how much you strutted before them now, they would not dare retaliate.

But the Marquis of Jingnan had done nothing of the sort.

He still seemed to be treating the Qian army as an elite force equal to his own and continued guarding against the possibility of pursuit while withdrawing.

Acting like a grandson when you were weak was merely human nature.

Remaining modest and cautious even when you possessed overwhelming strength that was truly remarkable.

After listening to Liang Cheng, however, Zheng Fan said, “If you know how to talk, then keep talking.”

“Mm?”

Liang Cheng did not quite understand.

Anyone hearing those words would instinctively assume they were sarcastic.

“Talk. Don’t stop.

“Formations, warfare, and your thoughts on how Qian should be attacked. Hurry up and say more.

“I’m about to sit an exam.”

“All right, Master.

“But should this subordinate first deal with the injuries on your back?”

“No. Keep talking.

“Don’t touch the wound. Leave it.”

Liang Cheng began speaking.

This was a great zombie who had commanded armies since ancient times. His insights and experience were naturally extraordinary.

Most importantly, he was also good at learning and reflecting on himself.

For example, during the breakout the previous night, Liang Cheng had genuinely acknowledged his mistake before the Demon Child.

A Demon King was not frightening.

What was frightening was a Demon King who knew how to reflect on his own mistakes.

Liang Cheng spoke while Zheng Fan listened carefully, silently memorizing everything.

It was rather like a university student staying up all night in the dormitory before an exam, making cheat sheets with transparent tape.

Not long afterward, a Lieutenant Commander of the Jingnan Army rode over.

He transmitted the order:

“The Marquis commands Garrison Commander Zheng to present himself.”

……

Because the army was still marching, Zheng Fan remained on horseback as the Lieutenant Commander led him to a carriage.

“Come in.”

A woman’s voice came from within.

The Lieutenant Commander looked at Zheng Fan and made an inviting gesture.

“Mm… huh?”

Zheng Fan froze for a moment.

Seeing that the carriage showed no intention of stopping, he drew a breath, guided his horse into a suitable position beside it, then braced both hands on the saddle.

He wanted to jump.

Unfortunately, because the Demon Child’s possession the previous night had left his body unusually weak today, his legs felt somewhat soft.

He tried several times to mobilize his blood qi, but it remained feeble.

In the end, Zheng Fan had no choice but to turn toward the Lieutenant Commander with a slightly awkward expression.

“Brother, give me a hand?”

Zheng Fan was not putting on airs.

He genuinely could not make the jump.

If he misjudged it, fell, and then—through particularly bad luck—got run over by a carriage this large…

Hiss.

What a sensation that would be.

The Lieutenant Commander showed no disdain.

Instead, a trace of admiration appeared in his expression.

He rode closer, reached out, seized Zheng Fan by the shoulder, and lifted.

Using that force, Zheng Fan leaped and finally landed on the carriage platform.

“Thanks, brother.”

Once he steadied himself, Zheng Fan cupped his fists toward the Lieutenant Commander.

The Lieutenant Commander returned the gesture.

Zheng Fan looked ahead and lifted the carriage curtain.

In truth, he was not particularly worried that the Marquis of Jingnan would punish him.

Great figures like this rarely viewed matters primarily through personal emotion.

Even if the Marquis knew Zheng Fan was “deeply scheming,” he would still have to admit, however reluctantly, that Zheng Fan’s actions had actively created friction and hostility along the border and happened to suit the strategic needs of Yan.

For the sake of guiding the wider situation, he would probably have to reward Zheng Fan instead.

The carriage was enormous.

The moment Zheng Fan stepped inside, warmth washed over him.

Behind the brazier, Du Juan was helping the Marquis of Jingnan remove his armor.

The Marquis had his back to Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan simply stood there.

He did not dare act too casually.

The man before him was, after all, a figure of immense rank and authority, and he had just “saved” Zheng Fan.

At the very least, Zheng Fan had to give him some face.

Not every noble was as shameless as the Sixth Prince.

Thinking of the Sixth Prince suddenly made Zheng Fan realize he actually missed the man a little.

After removing his armor, the Marquis of Jingnan sat beside the brazier and lightly pointed with one finger.

“Sit.”

Naturally, Zheng Fan had no stool to sit on.

There was not even a cushion for him.

The carriage was spacious, but there was only one padded seat.

So Zheng Fan simply sat cross-legged on the floor.

This was one good thing about Yan.

Although distinctions of rank and status existed, people did not obsess over every tiny detail.

If someone told you to sit, you sat.

There was no need to kneel there trembling.

The Marquis of Jingnan swept his gaze over Zheng Fan and seemed to notice the bloodstains on him.

“Injured?”

“Reporting to the Marquis, it isn’t serious.”

Du Juan handed a sweet potato to the Marquis of Jingnan.

The Marquis shook his head, pointed at Zheng Fan, and said, “Give it to him.”

Du Juan handed the sweet potato to Zheng Fan.

He accepted it, and their eyes briefly met.

A female agent of the Secret Intelligence Department was actually riding in the same carriage as the Marquis of Jingnan.

The Marquis knew how to enjoy himself.

Was he not even going to bother hiding it?

The sweet potato was extremely hot.

Zheng Fan tossed it between his hands and did not hurry to eat.

He would let it cool first.

“You have a great deal of nerve.”

Zheng Fan did not know how to answer that.

So he did not answer.

“Forget it.

“Tell me instead.

“What is the situation inside Qian’s northern military commands?”

Zheng Fan’s mind immediately began searching through everything he had heard.

He had personally participated in the entire operation, so naturally he had his own impressions.

But it was like visiting the same scenic spot and then asking an elementary school student and a great writer to each write a travel essay.

The results would obviously feel completely different.

Liang Cheng was a general with real command experience.

Answering the Marquis of Jingnan from Liang Cheng’s perspective, using Liang Cheng’s manner of analysis, would clearly be far more effective.

“The Qian frontier army has long since become gold and jade on the outside and rotten cotton within.

“The three northern commanderies of Qian are filled with walled cities and forts, all of them vainly hoping that bricks and mortar can stop the iron hooves of Great Yan.

“But one who understands war must always put men first.

“Weapons, armor, equipment, and city walls are all dead things.

“Dead things may assist, but they cannot be relied upon.

“From everything this lowly officer has heard and seen along the way, although there are some brave and loyal men within Qian’s frontier army, they are far too few to change the larger situation.

“Their military men cherish their lives.

“Their civil officials love wealth.

“Nearly half of the frontier garrisons exist only as empty names on the rolls.

“Of those who remain, nearly half have already been reduced to private servants and laborers for the powerful.

“Qian’s three northern military commands—Chen, Liang, and Wei—claim to possess eight hundred thousand troops between them.

“But in this lowly officer’s opinion, if it comes to field battle, with the Marquis as commander, your fifty thousand Jingnan troops together with fifty thousand commandery troops and fort garrisons from Yinlang Commandery would certainly smash them!”

Zheng Fan had added the part about “with the Marquis as commander” himself.

Liang Cheng’s original words had been:

Under those conditions, unless the commander-in-chief was a pig, it would be difficult to find any reason they could lose.

The Marquis of Jingnan held both hands above the brazier.

He said calmly, “Then in your opinion, why did this Marquis not order an attack just now?”

If the Qian army was truly as worthless as Zheng Fan claimed, why had the Marquis not simply swallowed those several thousand Qian cavalrymen whole?

Zheng Fan had already peeled back the skin of the sweet potato.

He took a bite.

He had not yet decided whether it was sweet, but inwardly he felt a trace of delight.

It was rather like discovering during the postgraduate entrance examination that you had correctly predicted the question.

“Because Qian is rich.

“And Yan is poor.”

At those words, the Marquis of Jingnan’s eyes suddenly narrowed.

But he did not become angry.

“Continue.”

“Qian occupies the prosperous lands of the Central Plains.

“Whether in territory or population, it greatly exceeds Yan.

“Qian’s weakness does not come from being small.

“It does not come from being poor.

“It does not come from lacking people.

“It comes from valuing civil officials while suppressing the military.

“It comes from the scholar-official class growing too powerful.

“It comes from the Emperor of Qian possessing weakened authority.

“The localities are rich while the state is poor.

“The local powers grow increasingly self-important while the state itself grows weaker.

“Since ancient times, when a small state attacks a great state, or a poor state campaigns against a rich state, victory depends upon speed.

“You absolutely cannot give the larger state time to catch its breath and adjust.”

Hearing this, the Marquis of Jingnan deliberately raised his head and looked at Zheng Fan again.

Then he smiled.

“If that is so, didn’t you alert the Qian people by provoking them without authorization?”

“Reporting to the Marquis, this lowly officer acted only to probe the Qian people’s true strength.

“Though the affair caused Qian to lose composure and face, in the end it was merely a minor disturbance.

“It falls far short of the shock Qian would have suffered if the Marquis had given a single command just now and swallowed those several thousand frontier cavalrymen whole.”

“A minor disturbance?”

“Yes.

“A minor disturbance.

“This much force is nowhere near enough to wake a man pretending to sleep.”

“Well said.

“You cannot wake a man pretending to sleep.

“Zheng Fan, you truly have made this Marquis view you differently today.”

“This lowly officer is unworthy.”

“Then in your opinion, if Great Yan wished to attack Qian, what method should we use?”

The Marquis of Jingnan paused, then added, “Be specific.”

“First, pressure Qian as the Marquis did today and force Qian to redeploy the troops within its territory that are actually capable of fighting to the three northern commanderies.

“Then our army should wait for the right opportunity and destroy Qian’s field elites in a single decisive battle.

“As for their cities and forts, we can simply ignore them.

“One cavalry force should drive directly toward Shangjing!

“At that point, whether we force the Qian sovereign and ministers to cede territory and pay indemnities in exchange for peace, or simply finish the matter entirely, break into Shangjing, seize the Qian sovereign and ministers, and bring them back to present before His Majesty—the initiative will be entirely in our hands.”

“Heh.

“According to you, this Marquis’s Jingnan Army alone would be nowhere near enough.”

Zheng Fan drew in a deep breath.

His mind raced as he made his decision.

Finally, he spoke.

“Great Yan still has three hundred thousand soldiers of the Zhenbei Army!”

The Marquis of Jingnan’s left fist suddenly clenched.

For a moment, the flames inside the brazier seemed to be completely pressed down by an invisible force.

The light inside the carriage dimmed instantly.

The Marquis of Jingnan’s face flickered between light and shadow.

A long time passed.

Then the Marquis of Jingnan spoke.

“Did Little Sixth tell you all this?”

“His Sixth Highness and this lowly officer are close and regard one another as intimate friends.

“But these things are conclusions this lowly officer reached himself.

“This lowly officer came from Beifeng Commandery.

“I have also served in the Zhenbei Army.

“There are many things this lowly officer does not understand.

“But there is one thing I can guarantee with my life:

“The Marquis of Zhenbei—will never rebel!”

The Marquis of Jingnan seemed to filter out everything else Zheng Fan had said.

Instead, he seized upon an oddly specific point.

“As an outside subject stationed in the provinces, you privately associate with an imperial prince.

“Do you know what crime that is?”

The conversation between Zheng Fan and the Blind Man from that night instantly surfaced in Zheng Fan’s mind.

After Zheng Fan had told the Blind Man about the Marquis of Jingnan, the Blind Man had reached the following conclusion:

The Marquis of Jingnan was the Empress’s younger brother and the current Yan Emperor’s brother-in-law.

Logically, an imperial in-law like that ought to know how to tuck his tail between his legs.

After all, imperial in-laws were called “outside relatives” for a reason.

That word “outside” represented their greatest limitation.

Throughout history, any imperial in-law who jumped around too enthusiastically usually met a miserable end unless he simply replaced the ruling house outright.

At best, such people were like chamber pots.

Used when needed, then emptied afterward.

Yet the Marquis of Jingnan not only commanded the Jingnan Army, he conducted himself with outrageous arrogance and dominance.

He had stormed cities.

He had carried out vast massacres across Yinlang Commandery.

Unless one assumed the Marquis of Jingnan was a complete idiot who had left himself absolutely no road of retreat, then only one possibility remained:

The Marquis of Jingnan was very likely the same sort of man as the Marquis of Zhenbei.

At this point in his analysis, the Blind Man had looked up at the night sky, slapped his thigh, and sighed over Yan’s astonishing fortune.

Could its national destiny truly be rising so powerfully that extraordinary figures simply kept appearing one after another?

What worried the Blind Man was this:

If Yan’s national fortune really was flourishing to such a degree that it was destined to unify the east, were they supposed to spend their entire lives as obedient subjects?

Chaotic times were the true soil in which ambitious men like them could thrive.

Send Li Zicheng into a peaceful modern China and the man would probably end up working diligently as a delivery driver for JD.com.

In the Blind Man’s analysis, the Marquis of Jingnan had already transcended gains and losses at the level of household and clan.

His vision and ideology had even surpassed concern for his own personal fate.

In his eyes, perhaps only the future of the state and the people remained.

A man like that could no longer merely be called a statesman.

You could put the word “great” in front of it.

A Yan Emperor.

A Marquis of Zhenbei.

A Marquis of Jingnan.

At the end, the Blind Man had cursed aloud:

Put those three bastards together and what the hell are the other three states—or we—supposed to play at?

……

For precisely that reason, when faced with the Marquis of Jingnan’s question, Zheng Fan chose to be utterly shameless.

He answered, “This lowly officer once saved His Sixth Highness’s life, and that was how we met.

“Furthermore, His Sixth Highness has a gentle temperament and the bearing of a benevolent man.

“He does not judge people by family background.

“This lowly officer truly respects His Sixth Highness.”

“The bearing of a benevolent man?

“Why don’t you simply say he has the bearing of a sovereign?”

“Actually…”

“Actually what?”

“This lowly officer really does think so.

“Perhaps it is because among all the princes, His Sixth Highness is the only one this lowly officer knows.

“So this lowly officer assumes the other princes must all be even more outstanding.

“Otherwise, this lowly officer truly cannot understand why His Sixth Highness cannot…”

“Impudent!” Du Juan rebuked.

Zheng Fan immediately tossed the sweet potato skin onto the carriage floor.

He shifted from kneeling on his heels to kneeling on one knee.

“This lowly officer misspoke.”

“Heh.

“You should know which prince is about to enter the Eastern Palace, shouldn’t you?”

“This lowly officer knows.

“His Second Highness.”

“Then you should also know what relationship His Second Highness has with this Marquis.”

“This lowly officer knows.

“He is the Marquis’s own nephew.”

“And you still dare speak like that before this Marquis?”

“Reporting to the Marquis:

“Whatever the Marquis asks, this lowly officer answers truthfully.

“This lowly officer would not dare conceal anything from the Marquis.”

“Well said.

“You ‘would not dare conceal anything.’

“Then since you and Little Sixth are so close, does that mean that if Little Sixth fails to become Crown Prince in the future, you’ll imitate the Marquis of Zhenbei’s estate of old and send troops to help Little Sixth seize the throne?”

“This lowly officer will not.”

“Oh?

“Now you won’t?

“Earlier you said everything that shouldn’t be said.

“You even dared utter such outrageous words.

“And now you suddenly lose your courage?

“Aren’t you very close to Little Sixth?

“When the critical moment comes, you won’t help him?”

Zheng Fan smiled.

Then answered, “Reporting to the Marquis:

“This lowly officer simply doesn’t have enough soldiers.

“Willow Fort only had five hundred cavalrymen to begin with.

“This trip south cost another several dozen riders.

“I don’t have enough men.”

Du Juan’s expression stiffened.

She barely managed to suppress a laugh.

The Marquis of Jingnan simply laughed outright.

He pointed at Zheng Fan.

“You…

“Hah.

“Are you so certain this Marquis cannot bear to kill you that you dare act this insolently?”

“This lowly officer would not dare.”

“You wouldn’t dare?

“What wouldn’t you dare do?

“You had only a few hundred men under you and still dared march south without authorization.

“If you had an entire Jingnan Army under your command, would you directly help your Sixth Prince rebel?”

“If this lowly officer had an entire Jingnan Army under his command, I would rather use it to attack Shangjing of Qian.

“The Willow Fort this lowly officer guards is the place where the first Marquis of Zhenbei broke a willow branch a century ago.

“But the first Marquis of Zhenbei never managed to fulfill his lifelong wish, and regarded it as a lasting regret.

“Therefore, this lowly officer begs the Marquis to grant me this wish.

“If one day Great Yan’s iron cavalry tramples Shangjing beneath its hooves, then even if this lowly officer can no longer serve as Garrison Commander and must instead become an ordinary assault soldier, I ask only that this lowly officer be allowed to be the first man to climb Shangjing’s walls!”

After hearing these words, the Marquis of Jingnan’s expression instead became calm.

He reached out and picked up the remaining sweet potato beside the brazier.

“There’s one more sweet potato.

“Do you want it?”

“This lowly officer has had enough.”

“Why?

“They’re quite sweet.”

“Marquis, if you eat too many sweet potatoes, you fart a lot.”

“…”

The Marquis of Jingnan.

His chest rose and fell several times.

Then he hurled the sweet potato in his hand directly at Zheng Fan.

And cursed, “Get out!”

(End of Chapter)