Chapter 211: If the Ancestors Have Spirits

The Marquis of Jingnan waited there alone with his beast.

On the surface, it looked as though he were adopting some martial-world pose.

In truth, it was an exchange of pieces.

Li Fusheng had once told Zheng Fan that when two armies fought, there was no guarantee the enemy side would not contain several genuine experts.

There were only two ways to deal with such people.

The first was to surround and kill them with an army.

Shatuo Queshi had died that way in front of the Marquis of Zhenbei’s residence.

It was also said that when Qian’s Western Army was at its height, the Scarred-Face Chancellor had specially trained a force of eight hundred heavily armored infantry whose purpose was hunting powerful warriors among the southwestern tribes.

Their record had been excellent.

The second method was exchanging pieces.

Send an expert from your own side.

Have him entangle the enemy expert or simply kill him.

The Sword Saint of Jin bore the surname Yu.

He had unexpectedly been present in the Jin army camp earlier.

Now there was a very high probability he had returned with that army to the Capital Region.

A Sword Saint unless he was genuinely as idiotic as the little sword attendant’s Master, Qian’s Second Sword should, under cover of night, be capable of killing roughly two hundred cavalrymen by himself.

But the Marquis of Jingnan was very certain the Sword Saint would come specifically to find him.

Not because of some martial-world code of honor.

Not because of chivalric rules.

It was because Tian Wujing believed that once the Yan army moved according to his deployment, then even with fewer than half the enemy’s numbers, it would inevitably force the Jin army entirely onto the defensive.

At that point if the Jin wanted to reverse the situation they would have only one option.

The Sword Saint would have to come find Tian Wujing and attempt to reverse the battle by capturing the king before the bandits.

If he did not come that meant conceding defeat.

If he came—

Tian Wujing would be waiting.

This had not been some improvised arrangement.

From the moment Tian Wujing received news from the Xinsu City area to the moment he raced here with only two standard-bearers to the moment he forced the Jin army to retreat and discovered that the Sword Saint himself was among their ranks every arrangement afterward had unfolded naturally.

Truthfully, following a commander like this into battle gave a man extraordinary peace of mind.

It felt as though everything remained inside his grasp.

All you needed to do was follow his instructions step by step then wait to harvest the fruits of victory.

And his own fruit of victory?

Perhaps because Siniang had influenced him earlier when Zheng Fan thought about the Jin imperial palace, his mind did not immediately turn toward the gold and silver inside.

Instead he thought of the Empress Dowager of Jin.

Immediately afterward the image of Prince Fu’s consort appeared as well.

Hiss...

Fallen.

He had truly fallen.

Patrolling meant exactly that.

Nothing more.

Zheng Fan led the three hundred cavalry left and right like they were taking an evening stroll.

There was no specific target.

His only mission was to waste time according to orders.

Half an hour later the Capital Region erupted into chaos.

Flames began appearing everywhere.

Battle cries rose from every direction.

Zheng Fan drew a deep breath.

His gaze swept across the three hundred Jingnan Army riders behind him.

They truly were Tian Wujing’s direct troops.

Even now, not a single rider showed impatience or agitation.

Everyone remained serious and focused accompanying Zheng Fan as he continued wandering around aimlessly.

Liang Cheng was not beside him.

So Zheng Fan did not dare randomly start “reading the battlefield” and making brilliant judgments.

He simply executed the Marquis of Jingnan’s order with absolute discipline.

He would wait until the full hour was over then move.

...

“Damn their mothers! Brother Xu, this time was humiliating. Truly fucking humiliating!”

The deputy general slammed his wine bowl heavily onto the table and began cursing.

“Exactly. A Yan Marquis brought two men and frightened more than ten thousand of us into retreating. We’ve lost every scrap of face!”

“Lost it all. Completely lost it. A hundred years ago, the first Marquis of Zhenbei used thirty thousand men to defeat five hundred thousand Qian troops. Qian’s frontier army got mocked for a century.

“And now look at us. Three men break fifteen thousand of ours. Haven’t we embarrassed ourselves even worse than the Qian?”

“Exactly! Damn it, the more I think about it, the angrier I get!”

Xu Youcheng silently listened to the complaints of the men under him while applying medicine to the arrow wound on his arm for the second time.

Let them complain.

It was only complaining.

Xu Youcheng did not bother asking the obvious question.

Back then, his unit had been the first to leave camp and confront that Yan Marquis.

If all of you were truly that fierce why did none of you swarm forward at the time?

Several hundred cavalry rushing him together even if Tian Wujing was a Third Grade Martial Artist, surely he could not have handled it easily.

Still these were his own comrades.

So Xu Youcheng let them vent through wine rather than pouring cold water over them.

What happened today was destined to spread.

The sons of the Three Jin lands had lost all face.

If the destruction of several hundred thousand Wenren and Helian troops in ten days had been the Yan stripping the Three Jin riders naked leaving them too ashamed ever again to boast about how their cavalry could rival Yan’s iron horsemen then today was equivalent to ripping away their last pair of underpants.

The commanders above had their own calculations.

The lords had their own schemes.

But in the final analysis the Jin had been beaten afraid.

Beaten timid.

That Southern Marquis of Yan had beaten a nightmare into them.

They truly no longer dared fight.

“Hiss...”

Xu Youcheng gritted his teeth as he finished spreading medicine over the wound and wrapped it again.

Ignoring the men under him, whose cursing only grew louder, Xu Youcheng put his clothes back on.

He did not wear armor.

Still in ordinary clothes, he walked out of the military camp.

Calling it a military camp was somewhat generous.

It had actually been converted from an old training ground.

The place had been specially set aside for routed troops from the Helian and Wenren Clans like them.

As for the original imperial troops of the Capital Region, most were locals.

During normal times, only a very small standing garrison existed.

When war came, they answered the summons by riding their own horses and bringing their own armor and weapons then served as the ruler’s vanguard.

Because of that, after the army returned this time, most Capital Region imperial troops had already removed their armor and gone home.

The evening wind carried faint traces of ash and burned paper.

Somewhere in the distance, faint crying could be heard.

Families of imperial guards who had died in battle were holding funerals.

Xu Youcheng suddenly envied them.

At least when they died there were relatives left to cry for them.

Relatives left to make offerings.

He had been a household general of the Wenren Clan.

Naturally, his own family had lived in Litian City.

After the Yan invaded perhaps his family had already become prisoners because of his refusal to surrender.

The Yan had released word that Jin troops who submitted could preserve their families and have them removed from slave status.

Xu Youcheng knew several Thousand-Man Commanders who had surrendered to Yan after the rout.

But he had not.

He did not entirely know why he had been so ruthless why he had ignored even his own wife and children.

As a Wenren retainer, he naturally possessed little affection for the Situ Clan.

Nor had he ever intended to submit to them.

Perhaps deep down he simply found it impossible to accept that Yan men could run wild across the Three Jin lands and dominate them however they pleased.

He had never spoken these thoughts aloud.

In the eyes of outsiders even in the eyes of many men under his command he was probably just a coldhearted bastard who abandoned wife and children for rank and wealth.

But none of that mattered anymore.

These days, Xu Youcheng had already been living in a daze.

Now that condition had merely deepened.

For a moment, he almost wished the Yan would hurry up and attack again.

Fight another battle quickly.

He did not want to die.

He desperately wanted to live.

But if he truly died perhaps that too would count as release.

The instant that thought appeared violent battle cries suddenly erupted from the west.

“Buzz!”

Xu Youcheng staggered.

Then dropped directly onto his ass.

“They... really came?”

...

“Huacheng! Tell this Dowager honestly. The Emperor—what exactly happened to the Emperor?!”

Inside a side hall, a noblewoman in phoenix robes pointed at Yu Huacheng, commander of the Capital Region forces, and demanded an answer.

The woman was not yet forty.

She had maintained herself extremely well.

Unlike the Jin Emperor’s dark complexion, her skin was pale.

There was no need to spout nonsense about time leaving no traces upon her.

Time had settled into her and what it had produced was an intoxicating maturity.

“Empress Dowager, Huacheng entered the palace this time because I wished to see Your Majesty one final time.”

Yu Huacheng knew perfectly well that the true purpose of his recent military mobilization could not be hidden from this Empress Dowager.

True, he had gained control over the Imperial Guard.

But the imperial clan’s influence within that army ran deep.

Someone secretly reporting to the Empress Dowager was entirely normal.

“What?

“Do you intend to kill this Dowager as well?”

“Your Majesty is Ciming’s birth mother. For Ciming’s sake, this subject would never dare show disrespect toward Your Majesty.”

“You still have the face to mention the Emperor?

“You still dare mention him!”

“Your Majesty, the envoy from Great Cheng will arrive the day after tomorrow. Please spend these two days preparing. You will return to Great Cheng with the envoy.”

“Hahahahahaha...

“Hahahahahaha...”

The Empress Dowager of Jin burst into laughter.

“This Dowager truly regrets it.

“When I first discovered you fooling around together with the Emperor—

“I should have ordered someone to beat you to death with clubs!”

Yu Huacheng knelt.

He kowtowed seriously.

There was not the slightest dissatisfaction on his face.

Only after completing the salute did he slowly say, “After my elder brother became famous—

“Your Majesty even deliberately created opportunities for this subject and His Majesty to spend time together.”

“You...

“You...

“You...”

“Your Majesty, the ancestral temple of the Yu Clan, its incense, its sacrifices—

“Huacheng will protect them.

“The dragon throne lost its flavor long ago.

“Letting it go now—may actually be a blessing.”

The Empress Dowager slowly retreated two steps.

“Yu Huacheng.

“You also bear the surname Yu!”

“Your Majesty is correct.

“My surname is Yu.”

“The ancestors of the Yu Clan will never forgive you!”

“Your Majesty is mistaken.

“Ciming opened South Gate Pass and sold his country to Yan.

“He willingly became a puppet Emperor beneath Yan.

“If the ancestors truly possess spirits in Heaven—the first person they would refuse to forgive is Ciming.

“Your Majesty’s good son!”

With that Yu Huacheng spread both arms and took several steps backward.

He looked around him.

Every eunuch and palace maid nearby avoided meeting his eyes.

They all knew that when Yu Huacheng entered the palace this time, he had brought several hundred armored soldiers.

He had directly replaced the palace’s original guards.

At present the person who truly held authority inside the palace was not the Empress Dowager.

It was this military commander standing before her.

“Your Majesty.

“If the ancestors truly possess spirits—would they have watched descendants of the Yu Clan suffer humiliation beneath the Three Great Clans until today?

“If the ancestors truly possess spirits—then this subject now stands before Your Majesty speaking outrageously and showing no respect.

“Why has no heavenly punishment descended to strike down this traitorous minister?”

The instant he finished speaking violent shouts and screams suddenly erupted outside the palace gates.

“............” Yu Huacheng.

(End of Chapter)