Chapter 286: Letter of State

“Tell Little Dog to come out and see us!”

“That’s right! Hurry up and call Little Dog out! Tell him to come see the two of us!”

Two men wearing armor marked with purple stripes across the chest stood inside the military camp, roaring at the top of their lungs.

All around them were savages.

At that moment, throughout the savage encampment, the anguished cries of men and the miserable screams of women rose without end.

This people, driven out of the lands of the Three Jin and forced to scrape out an existence on the snowfields for centuries, were now venting all the brutality and repression accumulated over generations upon the Jin people they had once viewed as impossibly lofty.

Rich, delicious food.

Exquisite gold, silver, and jade.

Strong, durable armor.

Beautiful women whose skin seemed tender enough to squeeze water from Hoo...

All of these were things most savages could never have touched even in ten lifetimes.

And now they had been laid out before them, free for the taking.

Stars above it was like a dream!

“Those two fellows are the two from the Situ Clan?”

Far away, two men sat atop a haystack.

One was Sanghu, a necklace of human skulls hanging around his neck.

The man asking the question was one-eyed.

His name was Gelimu.

Unlike most savages, his skin was comparatively fine. Were it not for the missing eye, he would have looked more like a scholar from the Jin lands.

In fact, he truly did possess Jin blood.

His grandfather had fled into the snowfields after committing a crime, and from then onward his family had served one of the savage tribes, handling its trade and business dealings.

Later, when the Savage King raised his banner, Gelimu had been among the first to answer.

He accumulated outstanding military merit.

In some matters, the Savage King was remarkably broad-minded. He never treated Gelimu differently because of the Jin blood in his veins and appointed him a Ten-Thousand Household Commander.

A large portion of the men under Gelimu were Jin soldiers who had been defeated, captured, and reduced to slave-servants.

That made him, as a “Jin man,” especially suitable to command them.

Sanghu nodded.

Pointing toward the two men still shouting and cursing in the distance, he said, “Exactly. One is Situ Yi, the other Situ Jiong.

“They are members of the Situ Clan—no, more precisely, they are the elder brothers of Situ Lei, Emperor of the State of Dacheng.”

Gelimu lowered his head and bit lightly on the grass stem between his lips.

In a quiet voice, he asked, “I heard the King once served their household as a slave?”

“Yes.

“There is nothing shameful about saying it.

“Gelimu, the scent of the Jin people on you is still a little too strong.

“That fact will not make us despise the King.

“On the contrary, it only makes his greatness and nobility seem even greater.”

“You know that isn’t what I meant.”

“Heh.”

“Why have those two come looking for the King now?”

“Because the King once promised them that as long as our Holy Race could enter the pass, he would support one of them in ascending the throne and becoming common sovereign of both the snowfields and the Jin lands.

“Without their help, we could never have won several of those early battles on the snowfields in succession.

“And if not for them working from the inside, Snow Sea Pass would not have fallen so easily.

“The two of them contributed greatly to our Holy Race entering the pass.”

“Those two really have no brains,” Gelimu sighed.

Times had changed.

Back then, the savages had been little more than wandering ghosts on the snowfields.

Naturally, they had needed to bow and scrape before these men, while the two Situ brothers could order them around however they pleased.

But now the savages had entered the pass.

Half of Dacheng’s territory had already fallen.

Yet these two men still dared put on airs, shouting the King’s name inside a savage military camp as though nothing had changed.

“Don’t be fooled by how loudly they’re shouting or how arrogant they look.

“In truth, they’re more frightened than anyone else.

“Their arrogance now is merely a cover for the fear and cowardice in their hearts.

“And they are still somewhat useful.

“There are still Situ Clan cities and clan generals commanding troops who need these two to make contact and smooth the way.

“If those people can be persuaded to surrender, naturally that would be best.”

“What a nuisance.”

“Gelimu, how is it that you sound even more like one of our Holy Race than we do?”

“I began believing in the Stars long ago.”

“Heh. You know that isn’t what I meant.

“Actually, if Situ Lei had not survived Snow Sea Pass, the King really did intend to help one of these two Situ princes ascend the throne.

“Our true foundation still lies on the snowfields.”

The moment Gelimu heard that, he abruptly said in displeasure, “Why?”

“Which part are you asking ‘why’ about?”

“I don’t want to go back.

“My family once lived here.

“Now that I’ve returned, I never intended to go back to the snowfields again.

“This place is far more comfortable.”

“Who says otherwise?

“But you need to understand something.

“If you try to swallow an entire sheep in a single bite, your belly will burst.

“We have to do this step by step.

“For now, first move the Situ Clan’s people, craftsmen, women, and children from Dacheng up onto the snowfields.

“Make it so their children grow up speaking only the tongue of our Holy Race and become warriors of our Holy Race!

“Make their women bear children for our Holy Race and raise an even greater population!

“Make their craftsmen forge more tools and weapons for our Holy Race!

“Make their men herd livestock for us and build cities for us!

“It is not that we do not want to live here forever, Gelimu.

“You were once a Jin man. This place was once your home.

“But you must understand—in an even more distant past, this land was once the homeland of our Holy Race.

“Now we have returned.

“It feels like a dream.

“And precisely because it feels like a dream, we want even more desperately to seize hold of something real.

“We are afraid the dream will suddenly end.

“And when we wake, we will be left with nothing at all.”

Gelimu drew in a breath.

Then he asked, “Because of... the Yan people?”

Dacheng’s most elite and battle-hardened troops had been buried north of Snow Sea Pass.

The State of Dacheng now had little more than the strength to barely hold on.

The force that had spent years guarding the southern frontier against Chu had been cut off and stranded there, unable to return and reinforce the heartland.

Situ Lei had escaped with grave wounds.

If Situ Lei died, then Dacheng’s total collapse could almost be reduced to a matter of time.

The only variable left was probably the state west of Dacheng, the one called Yan.

Yan had once sent an expeditionary force across the Tianduan Mountains and deep into the snowfields.

And now, once Dacheng collapsed completely, the savages would have to face the response of the State of Yan directly.

This time, there would be no Tianduan Mountains separating them.

Sanghu nodded heavily.

“That is exactly why the King has slowed the pace of our offensive.

“To you, perhaps it looks as though he is giving Dacheng time to breathe.

“But are we not also giving ourselves time to breathe?”

“Are the Yan people really that frightening?”

“Not people we should provoke lightly.”

A voice came from behind them.

A’Lai climbed onto the haystack with a lamb leg in one hand, the familiar iron mask covering his face.

Sanghu turned and glanced at him, then laughed.

“You brat. You almost didn’t make it back.”

“I ran fast.

“Just a tiny bit slower and the Yan people would have caught me.

“There was this little dwarf in the Yan army.

“He was this close—really, this close—to grabbing me.

“I only escaped by luck after running into a demon beast from the mountains.”

Gelimu turned to A’Lai.

“Are the Yan people really that frightening?”

“For now, if we can avoid provoking them, then we should avoid provoking them.

“Wait until more of our warriors have armor.

“Wait until our army grows larger.

“Wait until more and more tribes of the snowfields submit to us.

“Only then will we truly possess the confidence to fight the Yan people head-on.”

“A’Lai, it sounds like the Yan people frightened you badly,” Gelimu teased.

“No.

“Those were the King’s own words.

“You don’t actually think the King is a timid coward, do you?

“No one in this world wants to defeat the State of Yan more than the King.

“Once we do, we can force the Yan people to submit and send that Commandery Princess over in a marriage alliance.

“That is the King’s dream.”

Just then, amid the continued shouting and cursing of the two Situ princes, a man wearing wolfskins emerged from the depths of the encampment.

As he passed, every savage around him dropped to the ground in prostration.

Yet the man himself broke into a run and hurried straight toward the two Situ princes.

Then, with a smack he dropped to his knees.

And shouted, “First Grandfather! Second Grandfather!

“Little Dog has come to pay his respects!”

...

Ying City had originally been the place where the Situ Clan first rose to power.

After the State of Dacheng was established, it was renamed Yingdu.

Outside the city, forces from every region answering the sovereign’s call were arriving one after another.

Some still marched beneath clear banners and maintained orderly formations.

Most, however, already carried the unmistakable appearance of chaos.

The Situ Clan’s founding of the state had been rushed to begin with.

On top of that hung the lingering suspicion that Situ Lei had killed his own father.

As a result, various forces within the Situ Clan had never truly been integrated.

Originally, all of those problems could have been cleaned up through the war against the savages.

A new state had just been founded.

Nothing stabilized the hearts of the people or strengthened the authority of a new sovereign more effectively than a major victory in an external war.

But the entire plan had gone disastrously wrong.

The Situ Clan’s elite troops were buried at Snow Sea Pass.

The savages entered the pass.

And now, the State of Dacheng—founded less than a year ago already stood amid raging wind and rain, close to collapse.

At present, countless eyes were fixed upon the imperial palace.

Situ Lei had not died at Snow Sea Pass.

He had returned alive.

But everyone knew even the common people of Yingdu knew that Situ Lei had come back gravely wounded.

This newly founded state was already on the brink of shattering.

If even its founding sovereign died at a moment like this, what would remain to hold the state together?

Inside the imperial bedchamber, Situ Lei lay beneath a quilt.

Two charcoal braziers burned inside the room.

The weather had long since turned warm, yet Situ Lei’s body remained unbearably cold.

His lips were pale.

His eye sockets had sunk deep.

He was not actually an old man, but right now he looked like an oil lamp whose last trace of fuel was almost gone.

Beside his bed, Sun Youdao, Chief Minister of the State of Dacheng, was drafting a letter of state.

After finishing the final stroke, Sun Youdao raised the document and blew lightly across the ink.

Then he looked toward the sovereign lying on the bed.

“Your Majesty, it is finished.”

Situ Lei looked toward the eunuch who had remained at the bedside attending him.

The eunuch understood.

He took out the great imperial seal.

Just as he prepared to stamp it—

Sun Youdao abruptly stepped backward.

Then he dropped to his knees.

Tears streamed down his face as he cried, “Your Majesty!

“If Your Majesty carefully nurses your health and reorganizes the armies, there may still be hope of defeating the savages and recovering the lost territory!”

Situ Lei looked at his Chief Minister.

His lips parted.

In an extraordinarily hoarse voice, he said, “If you only admit defeat after losing everything, people will look down on you.”

“Your Majesty!”

“If you admit defeat while you still have some possessions left, while you still have a little capital in hand, then at least you still retain some backbone.”

“Your Majesty, please reconsider!”

“Youdao.”

“This subject is here, Your Majesty.”

“Add one more sentence.

“One more sentence.”

Sun Youdao immediately wiped away his tears.

He spread the scroll out once more and lifted his brush.

“Write—

“‘We...’

“No.

“‘I, Situ Lei, ask for no throne as ruler of a state.

“I ask for no fief.

“I ask for no hereditary favor.

“I ask for nothing for the future of the Situ Clan.

“Today, I offer up these shattered walls and broken rivers and mountains.

“I ask for only one thing.

“May Yan... may the Great Emperor send his mighty armies as soon as possible, drive out the savages, and restore peace to the people of the Three Jin.’”

[End of Chapter 286]