Chapter 155: An Empty House

"Looks like this eastern wind really is going to be strong. Otherwise, it couldn't possibly move Xu Wenzu."

The Blind Man spoke while cracking sunflower seeds between his teeth.

Clearly, this eastern wind had not been prepared for Zheng Fan alone.

Xu Wenzu was ready for it too.

Zheng Fan cupped his tea in both hands for warmth and nodded.

Xu Wenzu had his own sentimentality, but he lacked nothing in ruthlessness. Once the Marquis of Zhenbei's household and the Yan Emperor stood together, the old conflict inside him had disappeared.

A man like that was truly frightening when he devoted himself wholeheartedly to getting things done—and wholeheartedly to climbing higher.

He was an exceptionally capable bureaucrat.

He could see farther than most.

That meant he could predict in advance where he ought to position himself to borrow momentum and prepare accordingly.

"But I still don't understand what this eastern wind actually is," Zheng Fan said.

Liang Cheng, seated nearby, remained silent.

"That's perfectly normal, Master.

"Xu Wenzu handles enormous quantities of supplies every day. Those supplies were indeed confiscated by the court after the great clans were trampled down, but they couldn't possibly inflate Yinlang Commandery like some mindless balloon, sending everything to the front regardless of whether it was useful.

"There must be priorities.

"They may not be obvious, but if you catch those tiny shifts in emphasis, you can infer the Yan Emperor's true intentions.

"This is an information gap.

"Without access to equivalent information, Xu Wenzu can see things we can't.

"That's normal."

Liang Cheng said, "You said all that, yet effectively said nothing."

"I was only comforting you.

"But one thing can be said with certainty.

"It should be soon.

"Possibly within the next few days.

"Yan's true southern campaign is about to begin."

"Your reasoning?" Liang Cheng asked.

"First, the Zhenbei Army's trampling of the great clans should be about finished.

"The remaining cleanup can be left to the Imperial Guards in Yanjing or the First Prince's commandery troops.

"Neither the Marquis of Zhenbei nor the Yan Emperor could possibly allow a blade honed against the desert for a hundred years to be used only against their own people.

"That would be an insult to the blade."

"You're saying the Zhenbei Army is about to march south?"

"Probably within the next few days."

"What else?" Zheng Fan asked.

"There's also the fact that if they don't start fighting soon, winter will be over.

"I previously used the materials available to me to examine the geography between Qian's Upper Capital and the Three Frontiers.

"The Three Frontiers are Qian's main defensive line against Yan.

"Behind them lie Chu Commandery, Xishan Commandery, and Beihe Commandery.

"Beyond those is Qian's imperial heartland, Bianzhou Commandery.

"Bianzhou Commandery is like our Tiancheng Commandery. Its capital is Qian's Upper Capital.

"Once the Three Frontiers are breached, the commanderies farther south are dominated by paddy fields.

"Many years ago, Qian forcibly converted those lands into paddies precisely to guard against Yan cavalry marching south.

"At the same time, on the border between Bianzhou Commandery and Beihe Commandery, the Qian diverted the waters of the Qian River years ago and forcibly changed its course.

"They were willing to endure periodic breaches flooding hundreds of li just to create the Bian River.

"All of it was preparation against a Yan invasion.

"But right now, it's winter.

"Everything is frozen ground.

"Even the waters of the Bian River have frozen.

"If Yan doesn't use troops now, then once spring arrives and the ice and snow melt, every preparation Qian made against Yan cavalry will become useful again."

The Blind Man, Bei, paused.

Then continued.

"Unless the Yan Emperor intends to endure another year.

"But that's clearly impossible.

"Oh, there's one more thing.

"Once the war begins, although I don't know exactly what plan the Yan Emperor and the others intend to execute, assuming the campaign proceeds smoothly, the Great Yan's cavalry could sweep across most of northern Qian between the Three Frontiers and the Upper Capital.

"That would ruin the spring planting across half of Qian.

"Qian has an enormous population.

"If spring planting is lost, Qian will face food shortages on its own.

"That would drastically weaken its war potential.

"Also, Qian may be rich, but ordinary Qian people might actually live worse lives than commoners in Yan.

"We could already see signs of that when Qian civilians began 'smuggling' themselves north into Yan some time ago.

"Peasant uprisings have repeatedly broken out inside Qian in recent years.

"Once famine joins the mix—then it really will become a case of officials driving the people into rebellion."

Zheng Fan took a sip of hot tea.

Then said, "The only thing worse than a barbarian who knows martial arts is a barbarian with an education."

Here, "barbarian" did not refer to the barbarian tribes.

It was the Qian people's slur for the Yan.

They already could not beat the barbarians.

Now those same barbarians wanted to play schemes and politics with them too.

Zheng Fan set down his cup.

"But Blind Man, every one of your assumptions depends on Yan's cavalry campaign going smoothly."

"I don't know whether the Yan Emperor understands warfare, Master.

"Plenty of people who excel at politics are poor at war.

"A person's energy is limited, after all.

"But the Marquis of Zhenbei and the Marquis of Jingnan have both received the Yan Emperor's complete trust.

"With those two responsible for formulating the war plan, I believe the results should be considerable.

"When people specialize in what they actually know, most things in this world aren't that difficult.

"I admit Qian does have some commanders who know how to fight.

"But they definitely don't have the freedom Yan's commanders possess."

Zheng Fan nodded and stretched.

"I won't take those fifteen hundred barbarian soldiers out this time.

"You stay behind and give them a proper ideological education."

The Blind Man nodded.

He understood.

"Ah.

"People are definitely going to die tomorrow."

Zheng Fan sounded genuinely pained.

Xu Wenzu had already made his meaning perfectly clear.

Tomorrow, Green Willow Fortress was expected to fight with everything it had.

"You don't catch wolves without risking the child.

"Besides, Master, there has never been a principle in this world where you take all the benefits without doing any of the work."

"I understand.

"By the way, still no news from San'er?"

"None."

"Send the barbarian cavalry farther out.

"Look for him.

"San'er couldn't die that easily."

"This subordinate obeys."

"Let the brothers enjoy themselves tonight."

"This subordinate understands."

The Blind Man and Liang Cheng exchanged a glance.

Both could plainly see their Master's mood was low.

But this was war.

"I'm tired."

"This subordinate takes his leave."

"This subordinate takes his leave."

The Blind Man and Liang Cheng left.

Not long afterward, the Fourth Lady pushed open the door and came inside.

Then she slid the bolt shut.

"Master, would you like a bath?"

"It's still so early." Zheng Fan smiled.

"There's a battle tomorrow.

"Master should rest early and conserve his strength."

"It's too early.

"I won't be able to sleep."

"Mm.

"Come once, and you'll be able to sleep."

"Heh."

"Master, shall I heat the water?"

"All right.

"I really am a little tired.

"Better wash and sleep early."

"What color would Master like today?"

"Nude."

...

"Hey, did you hear? That Yan general called Zheng Fan was killed by our Young General."

"You mean Zheng Fan, that Yan dog who attacked Mianzhou City twice?"

"Who else?"

"He really got killed?"

"Dead as dead can be. Our Young General brought his head back!

"This time, our Great Qian's iron cavalry rode straight into Yan territory, smashed four Yan military stockades one after another, and killed Zheng Fan himself."

"Now that's something!"

"Look at it.

"Before our Western Army came north, the frontier troops of the Three Frontiers were being beaten down by the Yan. They might as well have let the Yan sit on their necks and humiliate them.

"Now our Western Army's here, haven't we hit them right back?

"Motherfucker. Everyone keeps saying Yan's iron cavalry is the finest under Heaven.

"From what I can see, it's nothing special."

"Exactly. Exactly."

Two cooks chatted while washing vegetables beside a well.

Neither had the slightest idea that below the mouth of the well, a pair of ears was secretly listening.

What?

Master was dead?

Xue San was shocked!

Then, instinctively, he felt his own body.

Hmm.

He hadn't disappeared.

And he didn't seem to have suddenly dropped dead either!

Eh?

Hahahahahaha!

So if Master dies, I don't have to die with him!

After the shock and delight—

Xue San silently examined himself again.

His strength had not changed in the slightest.

Pah.

Sure enough, Fan Li, that iron-brained idiot, couldn't be trusted.

Master was dead, yet the restrictions on them had not vanished.

After that violent swing of emotion, Xue San fell silent again.

Ah.

Master was dead.

Suddenly a faint sorrow rose in his heart.

Then he looked at the head of Prince Fu in his arms, wrapped in cloth and already preserved with salt.

For some reason it no longer seemed quite so adorable.

His own Master had also had his head chopped off.

Xue San suddenly felt lost.

On one hand, he felt free.

This was something he had always dreamed of.

But the freedom was immediately followed by emptiness.

He realized he had never seriously considered what he would actually do once he became free.

If Master was dead, then the Blind Man, the Fourth Lady, and the others were probably gone too, weren't they?

A sense of loneliness welled up inside him.

Xue San decided not to wait any longer.

It was not as though he had made no attempts to leave over the past few days.

But some major figure seemed to have taken up residence inside Mianzhou City, and that person's subordinates had sealed the city so tightly there was practically no gap anywhere.

Xue San had tried several times to escape.

Each time, he had been forced to retreat into the well.

He was an assassin.

Ensuring a safe, decisive strike was instinct.

But after learning of Zheng Fan's death, a self-destructive impulse inevitably rose inside him.

So once the two men outside finished washing the vegetables and left, Xue San climbed out of the well again.

He still carried Prince Fu's head.

Since Master was already dead, logically speaking, the head had lost its purpose.

But there was nothing he could do about that.

Over the past few days beneath the well, Prince Fu's head had been the only thing Xue San could talk to.

At this point, Prince Fu was no longer a severed head in his eyes.

He was an adorable little cloth doll who had kept him company for a long time.

This courtyard had become the army's kitchen, so after the cured meat ran out, Xue San still had no shortage of food.

But once he left the kitchen courtyard, security immediately became far tighter.

Especially near the city walls.

Forget Xue San.

Not even a bird could fly out.

Rumble... rumble... rumble...

The sound of wheels came from beyond the wall.

Xue San immediately pressed himself against it.

Peeking around the corner, he discovered a night-soil cart.

The Western Army maintained strict discipline.

And that strictness extended to every aspect of military life, including sanitation.

Anywhere the army expected to remain for an extended period, its commanders imposed extremely strict hygiene rules within the camp.

That was knowledge accumulated over countless years of warfare.

Because many times, the force that destroyed an army was not the enemy.

It was plague.

Disease.

The auxiliary soldiers and laborers beside the night-soil cart went into the neighboring residence to collect wooden buckets.

The cart was left standing there.

Xue San sighed.

Then quickly removed the golden-thread soft armor he wore beneath his clothes and carefully wrapped Prince Fu's head in it.

Then...

...

That morning, Zheng Fan led one thousand Green Willow Fortress cavalry out of the fortress.

Because the newly arrived fifteen hundred barbarian soldiers needed to be pacified and "educated," the original barbarian soldiers stationed in the fortress remained behind to help them remember the bitterness of the past and appreciate the sweetness of the present.

The thousand cavalry Zheng Fan took were still mostly condemned great-clan soldiers.

Smiles covered their faces.

The previous day, the documents recording their military merit had arrived from Nanwang City.

The messenger should already be on the road.

Very soon, their families would regain their freedom through the military merit they had earned.

They had once been great-clan scions standing high above ordinary people.

Then, in a single day, they had been smashed down from the clouds.

Fortunately they now had a chance to begin again.

Zheng Fan, however, was not in a particularly good mood.

He knew that Xu Wenzu had gathered the elites of six Generals—including Xu Wenzu's own forces—to fight the largest battle yet seen on the Yan-Qian frontier since hostilities began.

And Zheng Fan, as one of Xu Wenzu's direct subordinates, would unquestionably be expected to set the example.

What sort of example?

Be the first to charge the enemy formation.

Be the first to scale the walls.

Do the most work.

Lose the most men.

Zheng Fan could be merciless toward other people without hesitation.

But when it came to soldiers under his own command, Garrison Commander Zheng still had a sentimental streak.

Yet just as the Blind Man had said how could there be war without death?

The force arrived at the agreed assembly point on time.

The six Generals had gathered nearly ten thousand cavalry here!

Naturally, none of them had emptied their entire reserves.

They still needed men guarding their own bases.

But the troops brought here were unquestionably the elites under each commander's authority.

Even so, the cavalry of Green Willow Fortress remained the most dazzling force among those nearly ten thousand riders.

Whether one looked at the horses, armor, or weapons the extravagance was remarkable.

The others did not know that not all of this equipment had come through Xu Wenzu's back door.

A considerable portion was the Sixth Prince's investment.

As a result, plenty of people stared at Green Willow Fortress's troops with naked jealousy.

Only mediocrity inspires no envy.

Zheng Fan was accustomed to it.

He had no interest in exchanging pleasantries or currying favor with his fellow officers.

Garrison Commander Zheng was in a bad mood.

He simply sat silently in the saddle wearing his armor.

That meant the thousand Green Willow Fortress cavalry behind him adopted exactly the same posture.

Every man sat ramrod straight.

Not one slouched or leaned sideways.

The sight made the cavalry from the other commands, many of whom had arrived early and were resting wherever they pleased, increasingly uncomfortable.

Soldiers had always cared about pride.

Who could tolerate being silently shown up like this?

Even if an individual soldier could tolerate it, what happened when his commander came out with the other senior officers and saw the contrast?

Could his commander tolerate it?

So officers, Lieutenant Commanders, and Garrison Commanders throughout the gathering began cursing their own men and ordering everyone to look presentable.

Zheng Fan ignored the chaotic complaints spreading around him.

He simply stared forward in silence.

"Master, we've received word that Triple-Moon Fortress emptied itself during the latter half of last night.

"They should have gone out to scout the situation."

Zheng Fan nodded and said to Liang Cheng, "They're probably planning to attack the fortresses."

Triple-Moon Fortress, like Zheng Fan's Green Willow Fortress, fell under Xu Wenzu's authority.

Clearly, its Garrison Commander had probably received orders from Xu Wenzu to reconnoiter the battlefield.

Over the past few months, under the Marquis of Jingnan's orders, the military commanders along Yinlang Commandery's frontier had repeatedly battered themselves against Qian's stockades and beacon forts.

Every so often, they captured one or two.

Sometimes they broke a few teeth of their own.

But because there had never been large-scale unified coordination, they had never truly broken open the situation.

Clearly, Xu Wenzu intended to concentrate his forces and personally tear a large breach through Qian's fortress system.

Small forts were one thing.

Suppress them with arrows from outside, charge in, and with only a few dozen Qian soldiers inside, you could accept some casualties and take the place.

Large fortresses were different.

They could hold several hundred defenders, sometimes even more than a thousand.

If you wanted to tear open a large breach, there was no way you could simply ignore strongpoints like those.

The thought that his cavalry might soon have to dismount, turn themselves into infantry, and lead an assault against fortifications made Garrison Commander Zheng grind his teeth.

But circumstances were stronger than men.

There was nothing he could do.

His performance before Xu Wenzu yesterday had probably fooled the man well enough.

There was also word that Zheng Fan's promotion to Assistant General should arrive in the coming days.

But official rank was ultimately hollow.

In the Great Yan, what truly mattered was the soldiers and horses in your own hands.

If all these former great-clan troops died in battle, Zheng Fan would once again have to rely on barbarian soldiers to conquer the world.

That would place severe constraints on his future development.

The high quality of the great-clan soldiers was useful for far more than fighting battles.

Xu Wenzu was not wearing armor.

He wore blue official robes, with a sword tied at his waist.

Behind him walked five armored Generals, every stride carrying momentum.

The moment they emerged—

Yan troops in every direction shouted, "Greetings, my lord!"

Soldiers in armor did not need to kneel.

But without anyone organizing it, with everything arising spontaneously the thousand riders of Green Willow Fortress were still the neatest formation present.

The impression was entirely different.

Green Willow Fortress demanded this of its troops.

Officially, the explanation was that only uniform discipline and synchronized movement displayed the bearing of a true iron army.

In reality it also helped satisfy their Master's love of showing off.

Xu Wenzu's gaze fell on Zheng Fan and the cavalry behind him.

Clearly, he was pleased with Zheng Fan's attitude.

Today's battle was not merely about recovering the face lost when Qian cavalry raided north two nights ago.

More importantly it was about establishing Xu Wenzu's position as the dominant frontier official along Yinlang Commandery!

Watching Xu Wenzu brimming with ambition, Zheng Fan felt vaguely irritated.

That was human nature.

Back when the man treated you well and opened every back door for you, you called him Fatty Xu.

Now that he wanted you to fight with everything you had and get your men killed he had become Fat Pig Xu.

People were all fucking like that.

What annoyed Zheng Fan most was this:

If they had truly decided to take these fortresses, why hadn't they prepared earlier?

If Zheng Fan had organized the operation, he would rather spend another half month constructing enough scaling ladders and trebuchets.

That alone could save many lives.

But apparently, a bureaucrat was still a bureaucrat at certain times.

Even a patriotic bureaucrat remained a bureaucrat.

The way he viewed a problem truly was different from Zheng Fan's.

Fat Pig Xu drew his sword.

He raised it toward the sky.

Then shouted, "Soldiers!

"Vengeance and the expansion of our borders—begin today!"

First, the five Generals behind Xu Wenzu drew their sabers.

Then every soldier present raised his weapon and roared, "HU!"

"HU!"

"HU!"

At that exact moment a group of cavalry returned from outside.

The man leading them was the Garrison Commander of Triple-Moon Fortress himself.

A warm smile appeared on Xu Wenzu's face.

When the Garrison Commander dismounted before him, Xu Wenzu personally stepped forward and helped steady him.

"Fangdao.

"You've worked hard."

But Qiu Fangdao, Garrison Commander of Triple-Moon Fortress, wore an awkward expression.

Xu Wenzu noticed.

"What did your reconnaissance discover?"

Xu Wenzu had selected three locations where he intended to open breaches.

The previous night, he had ordered Qiu Fangdao to scout them.

Triple-Moon Fortress was also one of his direct subordinate forces, and it stood at the southernmost edge of Yinlang Commandery.

Qiu Fangdao cupped his fists.

"My lord... the situation... the situation has changed."

Xu Wenzu froze.

The oath-taking rally was already finished.

Everyone's blood was up.

And now this man was telling him the situation had changed?

"What changed?

"Has Qian's Western Army moved forward?"

"No.

"No, my lord."

Qiu Fangdao gritted his teeth.

Then shouted, "My lord!

"The Qian have abandoned every fortress and stockade!

"They've withdrawn thirty li!

"Right now, every large and small fortress along Qian's frontier—is empty!"

"............"

Xu Wenzu.

(End of Chapter)