Chapter 280: Promotion

The rain in Litian City came and went, stopped and started, carrying something of the feel of the plum-rain season.

And on this day, the wife of the Marquis of Jingnan was to be buried.

There was no grand ceremony. In official terms, the funeral was almost excessively simple.

But that “quiet” existed only on the surface. It did not mean the occasion passed without commotion.

No advance notice had been issued, nor had anyone organized or instructed the populace. Yet along every street the funeral procession would pass through, residents and merchants had spontaneously placed incense tables outside their homes ahead of time.

When the procession in white mourning clothes passed by, the people lining both sides of the streets lit candles and burned paper money. Entire families knelt and bowed to the ground.

Someone began to cry.

Then, gradually, many more people started crying as well.

Years later, if the Great Yan Dynasty still endured and remained the orthodox ruling house, court historians or local gazetteers might record the scene something like this:

The wife of the Marquis of Jingnan had been gentle and virtuous, loved the people as her own children, and greatly strengthened the bonds between the peoples of Yan and Jin.

When she passed away, the people of Jin spontaneously mourned her. Their cries of grief carried for dozens of li, moving all who heard them.

But in truth, for the overwhelming majority of Litian City’s people, those tears may not have been fake—but they were not tears of grief.

They were tears of relief.

The unease and dread that had weighed on everyone’s hearts were finally dispersing along with this funeral procession.

The oppressive atmosphere of the past several days had made the entire city struggle to breathe.

Everyone had been wondering how the Yan people would retaliate.

Everyone had been terrified that Yan’s southern Marquis might, in a burst of fury over a woman, do something utterly catastrophic.

When people had been suppressed for long enough, the release of that pressure could easily cause their emotions to collapse.

The funeral was taking place.

The mourning rites were being completed.

The coffin would be interred.

To most people, events were finally moving along the path they ought to follow.

That was a good thing.

Life could continue as before.

On the day of the funeral, the Jingnan Army that had only just returned from its distant campaign also arrived in Litian City.

Dust billowed around the soldiers, testament to the exhaustion of their long march home.

But by then, the matter seemed to have already settled.

The four Jingnan Army Chief Commanders who had participated in the expedition personally dismounted and stepped forward to carry the coffin, accompanying their mistress on her final journey.

The other armored soldiers, the killing aura from the campaign still clinging to them, raised their sabers and formed ranks stretching all the way from the city gate onward.

The official explanation was simple:

The Marquis’s wife had gone up the mountain to pray for her husband’s safety. Burdened by excessive worry, she suffered an attack of a heart ailment and died despite treatment.

How many people believed it was unclear.

Nor did anyone need to know.

The fire on Tianhu Mountain burned intermittently for two full days.

No one yet dared go up and count how many Daoists had died.

Too much had happened lately.

Most people could do nothing more than drift along with the current in a daze. They no longer had the energy to care about anything beyond their own immediate survival.

Ironically, a large crowd of envoys originally dispatched by their respective masters to congratulate the Marquis of Jingnan on the birth of his son and present gifts all ended up attending the funeral instead.

A joyous occasion had become a funeral.

One could only sigh at the impermanence of the world.

And the enormous upheaval that had seemed ready to raise thousand-foot waves after putting on every sign of an approaching storm somehow vanished into nothing in the strangest possible fashion.

It was remarkably similar to the weather around Litian City at the moment.

One moment the sky was clear for ten thousand li.

The next, rain poured down in sheets.

Impossible to read.

...

Night fell.

Inside an inn, Zheng Fan sat silently drinking tea, a strip of white mourning cloth still tied around his left arm.

A man entered through the door, cupped his hands, bowed, and apologized, “This servant arrived late and kept Lord Zheng waiting. I beg Lord Zheng’s forgiveness.”

Zheng Fan nodded without speaking.

Eunuch Zhang sat down carefully across from him.

He poured himself a cup of tea and drained it in one gulp.

Then he poured another before finally sighing.

“There was simply too much to deal with today.”

Zheng Fan set his teacup down.

He was in a poor mood and had no interest in exchanging pleasantries.

Eunuch Zhang could only sigh inwardly.

Back when the man before him had risked everything to save His Highness, Zheng Fan had behaved as though he had finally seized hold of a towering patron.

Forget His Highness himself—he had even treated Eunuch Zhang with the utmost courtesy.

And now?

His wings had hardened.

Heh.

Of course, Eunuch Zhang also understood that Zheng Fan had every right to grow wings.

Even setting aside the Marquis of Jingnan’s favor, Zheng Fan himself had done more than enough to justify his rise.

He had accumulated no small amount of military merit.

A man with both ability and real accomplishments only needed one opportunity before he shot upward whether he wanted to or not.

By contrast, Eunuch Zhang’s own master had spent the past half year being cut down and beaten back by His Majesty again and again.

Most of the Sixth Prince’s visible influence had been stripped away.

Leaving aside the small amount of hidden capital he still possessed, the contrast between his situation and that of City Defender Zheng could hardly have been sharper.

“Lord Zheng, my Prince misses you terribly.”

“Cough, cough...”

Zheng Fan suspected he might be catching a cold.

By all rights, his constitution should have been excellent. As a Martial Artist, failing to maintain a strong body would simply be embarrassing.

But first there had been nearly half a year of campaigning, followed by a grueling ride back to Litian City.

His body had been pushed hard.

With this damned weather on top of that, catching a chill was hardly surprising.

“I miss His Highness as well. Eunuch Zhang, how has His Highness been lately?”

“Terribly.”

“Oh.”

“Lord Zheng, my master can no longer offer you much help.”

Back when Zheng Fan had first begun building his foundation, the Sixth Prince had sent him a fortress, grain, warhorses, weapons, and military supplies.

But now, with their fortunes moving in opposite directions, there was little left to squeeze from the Sixth Prince even if Zheng Fan wanted more.

Even the cleverest housewife could not cook without rice.

“I’m doing quite well now. Please tell His Highness not to worry about me.”

“I imagine His Highness will be very pleased to hear that.”

“Eunuch Zhang, can we speak plainly?

“My apologies, but I have been in a poor mood lately, and I’m not feeling well either.

“And there’s no need for that sarcastic tone. It’s rather pointless.”

“Uh...”

Eunuch Zhang fell silent.

“I remember favors.

“The Sixth Prince knows that too.

“So there is really no need for you to keep probing me.”

“This servant was rash.”

Eunuch Zhang rose to apologize.

But inwardly, he had already caught the meaning.

The man before him was clearly beginning to place himself on roughly equal footing with his master.

“Let’s discuss business.”

“Very well.

“Lord Zheng, several hundred shopkeepers and caravan leaders came with this servant.”

“That many?”

“They are all part of the old foundation.

“After the Ministry of Revenue took over His Highness’s businesses, some were pushed aside, but most simply quit on their own.

“They are all our own people.

“Lord Zheng can use them without concern.”

“Good.”

Capable people were difficult to come by.

Even though Shengle City was now promoting broad-based education, that was an investment in the future.

What Zheng Fan needed right now were people with genuine commercial and administrative experience—people capable of keeping the whole machine running.

Once this group reached Shengle, they would undoubtedly be extremely useful.

“There is one more matter Lord Zheng should know in advance.”

“What is it?”

“The Crown Prince will marry this autumn.”

“The Commandery Princess from the Marquis of Zhenbei’s estate?”

“Precisely.”

Zheng Fan nodded.

Everyone had already tacitly understood that this marriage would happen.

It was merely being formally placed on the calendar now.

Counting the days, there was not much time left.

“In addition, the First Prince will take command of two garrisons of the Zhenbei Army during the bridal escort and rotate them back to the capital.”

“Replacing them with the Imperial Guards?”

“Yes.”

When the war among the three states began, First Prince Ji Wujiang had led nearly a hundred thousand Imperial Guards north to reinforce Beifeng Commandery.

Now the Imperial Guards would remain in the north, while he would bring a hundred thousand Zhenbei Army troops back with him.

Anyone who had served in the military knew exactly what sort of force the Imperial Guards were.

This was unquestionably a blood transfusion.

But from another perspective, it could also be considered part of the Marquis of Zhenbei’s dowry.

Moving frontier troops inward to strengthen the capital was an excellent move.

Originally, the Zhenbei Army had numbered a magnificent three hundred thousand.

The great war had already cost it heavily.

Fresh recruits had been brought in quickly afterward, but one of its six major garrisons had already been split off and placed under Li Bao at Quhe City in the northern part of the newly conquered territory.

Now the First Prince would rotate another hundred thousand men back toward Yanjing.

That meant the original three-hundred-thousand-strong Zhenbei Army had effectively been divided in half.

The sovereign of Qian would probably envy the Emperor of Yan’s directness.

The Qian court had also begun investigating empty payrolls and inflated troop rosters, but it was still using relatively gentle methods.

After all, the vested interests serving as Imperial Guard commanders in the capital were deeply entangled with the court itself.

They could practically be considered a political faction in their own right.

Both states had discovered during the war that their capital troops lacked combat strength.

The Emperor of Yan’s solution had been brutally simple: throw the Imperial Guards into Beifeng Commandery and let them eat sand until they learned how to fight.

“His Majesty truly is willing to spend freely,” Zheng Fan sighed.

Whether the Marquis of Zhenbei was willing hardly mattered.

Given his relationship with the Emperor, the two men were practically close enough to share the same pair of trousers.

And this time his daughter was getting married.

Sending a hundred thousand iron cavalry as part of her dowry was entirely reasonable.

One could easily imagine that the Commandery Princess would become one of the strongest Crown Princesses in history.

Anyone with a hundred thousand Zhenbei cavalry standing behind her as part of her marriage settlement would find it difficult to keep a low profile even if she wanted to.

At the same time, the Zhenbei Marquis’s estate would become the Crown Prince’s marital clan.

Whether in ancient or modern times, using marriage to cement an alliance between two powers was hardly unusual.

Most emperors spent their days guarding against the Crown Prince becoming too powerful, fearing that one day they might wake up as retired emperors before they were ready.

The Emperor of Yan, however, was astonishingly freehanded.

He simply stuffed military power into the Crown Prince’s hands and did so right in the capital region.

“Lord Zheng, my master believes it may become increasingly difficult for him to remain in Yanjing.”

His own imperial father beat him down every few days.

One day, the man ordered his mother’s grave leveled.

The next, he seized all his concubines.

Whenever he was in a good mood, he ground his son’s face into the dirt.

Whenever he was in a bad mood, he ground it in even harder.

That kind of life was hardly fit for a human being.

“His Highness wants to leave the capital?” Zheng Fan asked.

Wasn’t that courting death?

And if Little Sixth told his father that he wanted to come to Shengle City, join Zheng Fan, and contribute to guarding the frontier—

Zheng Fan had no doubt the Emperor would deal with both of them together.

“His Highness intends to ask His Majesty for the post of a county magistrate beneath Tiancheng Commandery.”

“Oh.

“That’s not so bad.”

Tiancheng Commandery was, broadly speaking, part of the capital region.

The Sixth Prince would not truly leave the Emperor’s sight.

But getting out in that fashion might at least let him breathe a little more freely.

Of course, whether His Majesty would allow it remained another question.

“There is one final matter.

“This servant wishes to ask Lord Zheng on my master’s behalf.

“When I departed, His Highness did not specifically instruct me to ask it.

“But I suspect he will certainly question me about it when I return.”

“Ask.”

“Does Lord Zheng believe this entire affair... is truly over?”

Zheng Fan shook his head.

“I don’t know.”

Some matters could be concealed from ordinary people.

They could not be concealed from the true upper reaches of the powerful.

The identity of the Marquis of Jingnan’s wife.

The death and dissolution of the Grand Eunuch from the palace.

No matter how tightly the matter was covered, it could not escape the eyes and ears of those truly determined to know.

Those who needed to know would eventually know.

Deep down, Zheng Fan had a feeling.

The Marquis of Jingnan had gone white-haired overnight because of this affair.

He had even spoken the words “Pacifying the Crisis” directly to Zheng Fan.

And then, in the end, everything had returned to this strange calm through a funeral and burial.

No matter how he looked at it, the attitude Tian Wujing had revealed in front of him earlier now felt somewhat excessive.

Perhaps no one else would sense that.

After all, that day in the mourning hall, only Zheng Fan and the Marquis of Jingnan had been present.

It was a feeling unique to someone who had personally witnessed it.

To put it plainly, even if Little Sixth himself were sitting across from Zheng Fan discussing the matter, Zheng Fan might not tell him absolutely everything.

Much less when the message had to pass through Eunuch Zhang.

When it came to personal closeness, perhaps it was a bit scummy of him, but Zheng Fan still felt that he and Tian Wujing were closer.

“Very well. This servant understands.

“I will take my leave now.

“I depart for Yanjing tomorrow.

“Lord Zheng, may all go smoothly and safely for you.”

With that, Eunuch Zhang left.

The clandestine meeting was over.

A’Ming entered from outside.

“How did it go?”

Zheng Fan shook his head.

“We talked about some nonsense.

“Come on. Let’s go back. I’ll drink some ginger soup and get some sleep.”

“Master, the Blind Man still hasn’t arrived. Could something have happened to him on the road?”

“He can take care of himself.

“That’s one thing I’ve always trusted completely.

“Anyone else might run into trouble.

“The odds of him getting himself into trouble are always the lowest.”

Zheng Fan was not staying in a military encampment.

First, he had not brought troops with him.

Second, he disliked military-camp accommodations.

But staying at the Marquis’s residence was inappropriate at a time like this.

So Zheng Fan had simply rented two rooms at one of Litian City’s better-known inns not far from the Marquis’s residence.

That way, if anything happened and Tian Wujing summoned him, he could arrive quickly.

Of course, ever since Tian Wujing returned from Tianhu Mountain that day, he had neither appeared in public nor summoned Zheng Fan.

Still, Zheng Fan was one of the Marquis’s favored men.

A favored man naturally received the basic privileges that came with such status.

Even the famously strict military discipline officers of the Jingnan Army deliberately turned a blind eye to this minor breach of regulations.

But just as Zheng Fan and A’Ming reached the inn entrance, they found two rows of armored soldiers standing outside.

When Zheng Fan entered, he saw a dispatch Lieutenant Commander standing in the center of the main hall.

Beside him stood a general in his early thirties.

When Zheng Fan came in, the dispatch officer raised a military command token.

It was the Marquis of Jingnan’s token.

Seeing this token was the same as seeing the Marquis himself.

It was normally issued to messengers carrying the Marquis’s military orders.

“The Marquis has issued an order!

“City Defender Zheng Fan of Shengle City, receive the command!”

Zheng Fan immediately dropped to one knee.

A’Ming knelt behind him as well.

“City Defender Zheng Fan of Shengle has repeatedly distinguished himself during the expedition to the snowfields.

“Since ancient times, faults must be punished and merit rewarded. Only in this way can the hearts of men be set right and the spirit of the army established.

“Zheng Fan is hereby promoted from City Defender of Shengle to **General of Shengle**.

“Five thousand men of the Jin Camp under Li Yiyong are ordered north to Shengle and placed under General Zheng’s command, to be deployed as he sees fit in defense against frontier threats!”

For more than ten years, the Jingnan Army had essentially been governed by the Marquis of Jingnan’s word alone.

Rewards and punishments were decided by him.

Even promotions of this sort were the same.

The Ministry of War would simply complete the formal procedure afterward.

No one in the Jingnan Army found this unusual anymore.

Put another way, without that degree of authority and autonomy, Tian Wujing could never have built, in barely more than a decade, an army capable of standing shoulder to shoulder with the Zhenbei Army.

Of course, the current Emperor trusted him.

If the page ever turned in the future, this same practice would inevitably be dragged out as evidence that the Marquis of Jingnan had harbored treasonous ambitions and held no respect for his sovereign.

General of Shengle?

That was a direct increase in rank.

It was somewhat comparable to a Mobile General, but because Zheng Fan possessed his own territory and defensive zone, the post actually stood half a step above an ordinary Mobile General.

Of course, Zheng Fan did not care that much about the title itself.

What he truly cared about was those five thousand men of the Jin Camp.

When Yan entered Jin and shattered half the state, the surviving Jin troops met several different fates.

Some became routed soldiers and fled into the former imperial heartland or the Situ Clan’s territory.

Some were reduced to slaves and used as labor.

And some—those clever enough to recognize the times and competent enough to be useful—were absorbed into auxiliary formations.

Five thousand troops specifically selected by the Jingnan Army would certainly not be poor-quality soldiers.

The cavalrymen of the Three Jin lands had never been weak to begin with.

At that moment, the general standing beside the dispatch officer stepped forward and knelt on one knee before Zheng Fan.

“This subordinate, Li Yiyong, pays his respects to General Zheng!

“From this day forward, this subordinate and the brothers under my command are willing to obey General Zheng’s orders and win merit for our Great Yan!”

Zheng Fan drew a deep breath.

After the initial surprise and delight, a trace of doubt followed.

Old Tian had not even appeared at the funeral.

Yet suddenly he was promoting Zheng Fan.

And not only promoting him he was directly stuffing troops into his hands.

Those five thousand Jin Camp soldiers already had horses, weapons, and military equipment fully issued.

Zheng Fan would not even need to worry about outfitting them.

Before this, Tian Wujing had always held Zheng Fan’s promotions down on the grounds that he needed more tempering.

Now, without warning, he was feeding him fistfuls of sweet dates.

People really were perverse creatures.

Instead of feeling entirely pleased, Zheng Fan suddenly became uneasy.

Just then, an armored soldier approached carrying a long wooden case in both hands.

The dispatch officer continued, “The Marquis bestows upon General Zheng of Shengle a famed sword.

“He hopes General Zheng will guard the frontier with an edge as sharp as this blade and protect the people of Great Yan from harm.”

A sword?

I use a saber.

The dispatch officer put away the command token and turned toward Zheng Fan with a warm expression—even a faintly flattering tone.

“General Zheng, please come forward and receive the sword.”

Zheng Fan rose and walked to the long case.

The dispatch officer reached out and opened it.

Inside lay a sword with an ancient, unadorned hilt and a faintly crimson blade.

Some things revealed their worth even to a complete outsider at a glance.

Zheng Fan did not practice the sword.

He was accustomed to sabers.

But one look at the weapon before him was enough to know this was unquestionably a famed sword of the age.

“This sword is called...?”

The dispatch officer immediately answered, “**Longyuan.**”

[End of Chapter 280]