Chapter 266: Chicken Rib

“So this is like that line Huang Feihong says at the end of one of the *Once Upon a Time in China* films—after the Lion King competition, I think:

“We won the gold medal, but lost the country?”

Zheng Fan said it while drinking tea.

In front of him, Xue San was roasting meat, Fan Li was helping pile up firewood, and Liang Cheng sat off to the side watching.

After that battle ended, the Yan army resumed its advance eastward.

They never again encountered any organized resistance from the Savage King’s own forces.

What opposition they did meet along the road came mostly from scattered local savage tribes.

Then news arrived:

Snow Sea Pass of the State of Dacheng had fallen.

The Marquis of Jingnan immediately ordered the army to halt its eastward advance and make camp where they stood.

This encampment was different from the earlier pauses meant to rest and recover before major fighting.

This time, they stopped for one simple reason.

The war could no longer be fought.

Xue San handed Zheng Fan half a rabbit he had finished roasting first.

“Master, at the beginning, the Situ Clan looked pretty damn impressive.

“Who would’ve thought they’d turn out to be a bunch of fucking idiots?”

“What happened?” Fan Li called out.

“Eat your meat!”

Xue San turned back to Zheng Fan.

“Master, with things like this, the war really is going to be hard to continue.

“Does this mean we’re about to withdraw and return to court?”

“No idea.

“We’ll have to wait for the Marquis of Jingnan to decide.

“A’Cheng, what do you think?” Zheng Fan asked.

Liang Cheng answered, “Master, this war most likely truly cannot continue.

“If we keep advancing east, our army may very well run headfirst into the Savage King’s concentrated forces.

“The reason we were able to sweep forward so easily earlier was because the Savage King’s attention had always been fixed on the Snow Sea Pass front.

“Now he can finally free his hands.

“Beyond that, keeping a large army isolated deep in the snowfields is inherently dangerous.

“Recently, I’ve noticed more and more soldiers falling ill.

“And most importantly—we no longer have a clear strategic objective.”

Zheng Fan listened while sipping his tea.

Ever since entering the snowfields, he had eaten so much meat that he was thoroughly sick of it.

He needed tea simply to cut through the grease in his stomach.

“Hard to handle now.

“Really hard to handle.”

Zheng Fan sighed.

They had clearly won battle after battle the entire way.

And yet somehow, the campaign had still ended up in a position like this.

The snowfields were simply too vast.

So vast that whether you wanted to rule them or play at some grand game of “destroying their state and exterminating their people,” the price would be more than you could bear.

Liang Cheng said, “Unless the Emperor of Yan is willing to show the same resolve he displayed when marching south against Qian—mobilize more than three hundred thousand iron cavalry, send them into the snowfields, and be willing to fight here for two full years—only then would it be possible to completely crush and pacify the snowfields.”

Zheng Fan immediately shook his head.

“That isn’t realistic.”

Fight Qian, and you gained population and wealth.

Fight Jin, and you gained land.

Fight the snowfields what did you get?

There were benefits, certainly.

The cattle, sheep, and horses captured during this campaign alone would be considerable.

It would probably be enough to let City Defender Zheng and the local magnates and landowners around Shengle City eat their fill.

But think about what it meant to send an army of three hundred thousand into the field.

The logistical burden would be horrifying.

By then, the cattle and sheep they captured probably would not even be enough to feed the army itself.

And what if that Savage King decided to fight a guerrilla war?

What if he played the game of “as long as the green mountains remain, there will never be a shortage of firewood,” refusing to fight a decisive battle and deliberately hiding from you?

Were you truly going to send three hundred thousand cavalry chasing him around the snowfields in a giant game of cat and mouse?

The facts had already proven that this Savage King was absolutely capable of doing such a thing.

And taking another ten thousand steps back even if they truly pacified the snowfields, how were they supposed to rule such an enormous, desolate region?

Ten years later.

Twenty years later.

There would inevitably be another uprising.

If you suppressed it, fine.

If you failed then all the blood, effort, and resources poured into the region would have been completely wasted.

At that moment, a personal guard approached.

“Lord Zheng, the Marquis summons you.”

Zheng Fan nodded to show he understood.

Xue San picked up a freshly roasted pheasant and said, “Master, take this with you.

“There are chicken ribs inside.

“You might be able to work them into some famous line.”

The Demon Kings had truly put a great deal of thought into helping Master perform properly in front of important people.

Liang Cheng ruthlessly cut him down.

“How did Yang Xiu die?”

Xue San immediately shut his mouth.

Zheng Fan exchanged looks with several of his subordinates.

He did not take any chicken ribs.

Instead, he first straightened his armor, then headed for the command tent.

Inside, Tian Wujing sat alone, reading a book.

A small stove stood beside him.

Something was simmering in the pot atop it.

It smelled quite good.

Only after Zheng Fan drew closer did he realize the book in Tian Wujing’s hands was actually *The Zheng Treatise on War*.

City Defender Zheng’s old face immediately reddened.

When Tian Wujing saw him enter, he set the book aside and gestured for Zheng Fan to sit.

Zheng Fan sat down.

Tian Wujing pointed at the book.

“The situation that day was much like the ‘Empty Fort Strategy’ described in your book.”

When the Blind Man had helped Zheng Fan “write” the treatise, he had folded both *The Art of War* and the *Thirty-Six Stratagems* into it.

“Marquis...”

“Sigh.”

Tian Wujing let out a sigh.

In Zheng Fan’s memory, Tian Wujing almost never revealed an emotion like this.

He had always seemed like a massive boulder.

Unmoving.

“The situation has already deteriorated badly.

“You may not know this, but south of Snow Sea Pass, from the savages’ perspective, the land is essentially wide open and flat.

“Under the worst estimate, the savages may already be rampaging across nearly half the State of Dacheng.”

“That fast?”

“There is no question of fast or slow.

“More than a hundred years ago, the Jin people had already begun building cities and fortresses on the snowfields.

“So although Snow Sea Pass sits upon terrain that makes it the throat between the snowfields and the Three Jin lands, in practice it stopped being Jin’s forward bulwark against the savages long ago.

“And precisely because of that, there are almost no major fortified cities or defensive works immediately south of Snow Sea Pass.”

For several hundred years, the Jin people had been the ones pressing down upon the savages and bullying them.

After the Situ Clan established itself as the greatest clan in eastern Jin, it too kept expanding outward.

Between Jin and the snowfields lay the Tianduan Mountains, forming a natural barrier.

The road from Shengle City into the snowfields was actually one of the easier routes through that mountain range.

Otherwise, it would never have developed into a trade route.

At the easternmost end of the Tianduan Mountains, however, there was an open corridor directly connecting the snowfields to Jin.

The pass controlling that corridor was Snow Sea Pass.

But because Jin had pushed its battle lines outward onto the snowfields very early on, Snow Sea Pass, despite possessing excellent terrain, had not been considered strategically important for nearly a hundred years.

Only after the State of Dacheng suffered one defeat after another, losing nearly every city and strongpoint it possessed beyond the pass, did it suddenly remember Snow Sea Pass’s importance.

Who could have expected them to deliver another wave of troops straight into disaster?

Now even Snow Sea Pass was gone.

From there, the savages’ march south was genuinely smooth.

“That duty you mentioned before—using Shengle City to suppress the savages—

“I’m afraid it will no longer be possible.

“The situation in the State of Dacheng may be even worse than we imagined.

“Whether the Situ Clan can hold on is still uncertain.

“If they cannot, half the Three Jin lands may become pasture for the savages.

“And the savages will gain access to Jin craftsmen and every manner of technical knowledge.

“Their warriors will also be able to put on armor.

“They will no longer be as fragile as the opponents we faced this time.”

“This is a major matter.

“This general understands what carries more weight.”

Before, the savages had merely been a minor problem.

Every so often, you beat them down a little and that was enough.

Zheng Fan could have accepted responsibility for something like that.

But now the savages might erupt into a major threat.

There was no chance the Yan court would leave Zheng Fan to handle it.

They would certainly assign a major commander.

At present, the State of Dacheng had not yet been destroyed and the entire situation had not completely collapsed.

So the court would most likely order Li Bao’s army to shift toward the Xinsu City line.

If the situation continued to deteriorate, then perhaps the Marquis of Jingnan himself would be required to personally oversee that entire front.

“That Savage King truly is a figure of some ability.

“This time, one can say our force was too small.

“But one can also say the Savage King spent the smallest possible price to obtain exactly what he wanted.”

“Marquis, there is no need to worry too much.

“If necessary, later we can simply attack through Situ territory and seize Snow Sea Pass back.”

“That is something the court will consider.

“Still, in the end, it may not be entirely bad.

“Faced with a situation like this, the Situ Clan may very well choose to petition His Majesty for annexation.”

Annexation.

That meant submitting the entire state.

Offering the country to Yan.

Recognizing Yan sovereignty.

Lowering the imperial title on one’s own initiative.

After all, in this war, Yan had not taken advantage of Dacheng’s disaster.

Instead, it had actually sent troops to help.

In both favor and righteousness, Yan’s conduct was practically flawless.

Second, Chu was currently caught in internal conflict.

And even if Chu were not fighting itself, the Situ Clan and Chu had been skirmishing on and off for decades.

Naturally, Situ Lei could not seek aid from Chu.

As for Qian leaving aside the combat strength of Qian’s army, even if the Situ Clan were willing to request help and Qian were willing to send troops, did anyone doubt that the moment that army crossed Qian’s border, Yan iron cavalry would soon appear to collect their heads?

So the Situ Clan now had only one realistic option: submit to Great Yan.

Looked at that way, Yan could still gain enormously from this entire affair.

Of course, that was assuming the Situ Clan did not get wiped out in one clean wave first.

Otherwise, Great Yan—having only just finished the war among the three states—would immediately have to go clean up the mess in eastern Jin.

“Marquis, I genuinely cannot understand how the Situ Clan could be this stupid.”

“There are internal reasons.

“As for exactly what happened, we will have to wait until military reports arrive from that side.

“But this Marquis suspects Situ Lei’s patricide and seizure of the throne caused a split within the Situ Clan.

“Situ Lei was the old clan head’s third son.

“Although he was not the legitimate son of the principal wife, he was the most outstanding of them.

“He was also publicly acknowledged as the future successor of the Situ Clan.

“His two elder brothers were pushed aside early.

“Nominally, they were sent to guard the snowfields against border threats—to defend the frontier for the clan.”

“So there was something behind that...”

“We cannot know for certain yet.

“Wait and see whether news arrives later that Situ Lei’s two elder brothers died in battle.

“But in the Secret Intelligence Department’s earliest investigation of the Savage King, there was already speculation that the man had an extremely close relationship with the Situ Clan’s eldest and second sons.

“In front of them, he called himself their adopted grandson.

“He addressed the two men as First Grandfather and Second Grandfather.

“And he also maintained close business dealings with both of them.”

If that was true, then the Situ Clan’s defeat was hardly unjust.

Of course, you could not simply blame Situ Lei for destroying his own Great Wall.

Before all this, no one could have predicted that the savages would rise into a serious power again.

Originally, his two elder brothers had merely been thrown out to the frontier and exiled far from the political center.

And besides that Savage King truly knew how to lower himself.

Recognizing Situ Lei’s two elder brothers as grandfathers?

That was shameless bootlicking beyond even becoming an adopted son.

Still.

All that licking had finally paid off.

Tian Wujing pointed toward the pot sitting on the small stove beside him.

“Enough of that.

“Want some chicken soup?”

“If it is the Marquis’s chicken soup, this general naturally has to drink it.”

“Heh.”

Zheng Fan was about to rise and bring the pot over.

Tian Wujing lifted a hand, signaling for him to remain seated.

Then Tian Wujing himself picked up the pot with his bare hand and placed it on the table.

He took out two bowls and began ladling soup.

As he served it, Tian Wujing scooped up a chicken rib and dropped it into Zheng Fan’s bowl.

Then he asked, “Chicken ribs.

“Do you like eating them?”

“I LOVE THEM!!!”

Ignoring the heat, Zheng Fan immediately grabbed the chicken rib with his hand and began gnawing furiously with his teeth.

Crunch.

Crunch.

Tian Wujing shook his head.

“But there is hardly any meat on a chicken rib.

“And hardly any flavor.”

“Marquis, I’ve eaten too much meat lately.

“I’ve been wanting something bland to settle the stomach.

“I like it!”

“Heh heh.”

The two men lifted their bowls and slowly drank the soup.

After both had finished, the Marquis of Jingnan gently set his bowl down on the table.

Then he said, “Tomorrow, we withdraw.”

[End of Chapter 266]