Chapter 309: The Bitterest Peak

“Master has already concluded that the court will ask the Marquis of Jingnan to come back out?” A’Ming asked.

“Before this, when the Emperor of Yan appointed the First Prince as commander, I honestly didn’t think there was anything wrong with it.

“The First Prince’s performance wasn’t bad either.

“If some other great general had been placed in command, they might not necessarily have done any better.

“Who could have known the people of Chu would suddenly stick a foot into the middle of it?”

Of course, there was another meaning hidden beneath those words.

If the Marquis of Jingnan had led the campaign, then even if Chu had suddenly intervened, would the situation really have deteriorated to this extent?

First, anything that had never actually happened always allowed endless room for imagination.

People naturally tended to place more hope in the alternative.

Second, the Marquis of Jingnan’s battle record was simply too dazzling.

Before him, there seemed to be no impossible situation.

No enemy he could not solve.

Zheng Fan paused.

Then he continued:

“The First Prince lost.

“From what I can see, the Eastern Expedition Army will probably have no choice now but to shift from offense to defense.

“They’ll rely on Yingdu’s defensive line.

“At the very least, they cannot allow the savages and Chu coalition to cross west over the Wang River and push them backward.

“But that kind of situation absolutely cannot be allowed to continue for long.

“Reinforcements have to be sent.

“And given the temperament and pride of Yan people, the First Prince will inevitably become the target everyone curses in order to vent their anger.

“There is no chance whatsoever that he can continue serving as commander-in-chief of the Eastern Expedition Army.”

“But our Emperor of Yan is a man with a temper.

“He genuinely does not care if people accuse him of shielding his own son.”

“Yes.

“Our Emperor of Yan really is that kind of person.

“Once he decides something is right, he can carry it out without hesitation and persist to the very end.

“But the problem is no longer whether he personally wants to persist.

“When the First Prince marched east before, the Jingnan Army did not move.

“The Marquis of Jingnan did not move.

“That meant there was still an insurance policy left behind.

“A final support holding up the bottom.

“Now, after this defeat, if the court wants to mobilize more troops, then either it continues pulling the remaining Zhenbei Army forces from the Yanjing region, or it draws troops from Xu Fatty’s line at Nanwang City the forces originally stationed there to defend against the State of Qian.

“Those routes are long and troublesome.

“And neither of those places has so many spare soldiers that troops can simply be pulled away without consequence.

“So mobilizing the Jingnan Army already stationed in the Jin lands is the most appropriate choice.

“More than that— it’s necessary.

“And the Jingnan Army commanders have already used their actual behavior toward the First Prince— and, in truth, toward His Majesty as well to prove something clearly.

“Without a military order from the Marquis of Jingnan, the Jingnan Army simply will not obey anyone else’s mobilization.”

Zheng Fan leaned back slightly.

“There’s another problem.

“Yan can no longer afford to lose.

“If a second Eastern Expedition fails, then not only will the excellent situation created by Dacheng’s internal submission be completely ruined even the half of Jin territory we previously seized from the Helian and Wenren clans could be endangered.

“Under circumstances like these, if they change commanders, they *must* choose Tian Wujing.

“There is no other choice.”

Because they could not afford another loss, there could be no gambling.

No wishful thinking.

They had no choice but to play their strongest card.

The northern and southern Marquises had always been the two great peaks of Great Yan’s military establishment.

But Li Liangting remained at the Marquis of Zhenbei’s Residence in Beifeng Commandery.

He was needed there to guard against the desert barbarians.

There was no possibility of transferring him over to command this war.

Besides, when the First Prince previously led the campaign, the Emperor of Yan had wanted to train his own son.

Fine.

Everyone could pinch their noses and understand that.

But if the Emperor now truly dared transfer Li Liangting over and order him to command the Jingnan Army then the hearts of the entire Jingnan Army would be chilled completely.

At that point, even if Tian Wujing said nothing, the Jingnan Army itself might very well revolt.

“Master is truly brilliant.

“This subordinate genuinely never imagined that punishing one head of the Secret Intelligence Department could contain so many calculations behind it.”

The connection between Zheng Fan’s household and the Marquis of Jingnan’s Residence had already become so close that they could barely be separated.

At this point, Zheng Fan no longer had the option of changing doors and joining another faction.

So other than drawing infinitely closer to the Marquis of Jingnan, he had no road left.

More importantly, once the fighting resumed, there was a very high chance that Shengle’s army would again fall under the Marquis of Jingnan’s command.

If Zheng Fan did not hurry now to flatter him and warm the stove, then when exactly was he supposed to do it?

All one could say was that Xiao Liang had chosen the wrong person when trying to seize a chance to rise.

Back then, for Tian Wujing’s sake, Zheng Fan had crippled the Third Prince, and the Emperor of Yan had not even frowned.

Now, the court would probably need Tian Wujing to clean up the disaster in Dacheng.

Forget humiliating one regional head of the Secret Intelligence Department.

Even if Zheng Fan ran over to Eunuch Wei himself and shouted, “You’ve got nothing down there!”

he would probably still escape punishment.

The Emperor of Yan was realistic to an extreme.

A’Ming’s flattery, however, went in one of Zheng Fan’s ears and out the other.

He merely said:

“At the end of the day, I’m still that child’s godfather.

“As godfather, I ought to look a little like one, shouldn’t I?”

“Yes.”

“You’re free now?”

“The workshop has already shut down.”

A’Ming’s position was effectively that of a research-and-development manager.

But starting some time ago, Shengle City’s already strained manpower and resources had been redirected toward preparing the army for campaign.

So he genuinely had little left to do.

“Fine.

“Come practice archery with me.”

“...”

A’Ming.

...

The order for total war mobilization had already been issued.

Thanks to Shengle City’s propaganda methods, which were far beyond anything normal in this world, combined with certain universal principles derived from pyramid selling, the reaction here was very different from other places.

Elsewhere, the moment people heard war was coming, panic spread.

In Shengle, the mood was closer to delight at the smell of battle.

Truthfully, subjective initiative mattered enormously in most things.

From Zheng Fan’s perspective, both the Jingnan Army and Zhenbei Army had already passed the stage where every soldier was desperately hungry for battle.

Half the Zhenbei Army had even been divided away from the old frontier establishment.

Those men no longer had to gnaw sand at the border as they had before.

The Jingnan Army had also escaped cramped Yinlang Commandery and was now stationed across the Jin lands.

They possessed military achievements.

History.

Tradition.

Both armies had already accumulated too much.

Their hunger was not as fierce as it once had been.

Shengle City was different.

Because former Jin soldiers made up the overwhelming majority of the army, they were effectively “second-class subjects.”

They urgently wanted to use war to win status for themselves.

To earn a place under the new rules and before the new banker controlling the table.

At the same time, life in Shengle City might feel somewhat “oppressive,” but for people of this age, it was already unusually peaceful and stable.

Cheap medical halls.

Free private schooling.

Even in later generations, those were problems capable of giving entire governments headaches.

Yet General Zheng had solved them in Shengle.

The price was enormous.

But the effect in gathering people’s hearts was equally powerful.

That was how cohesion formed.

So when the military order arrived, and everyone learned that the First Prince’s army had suffered a disastrous defeat at the Wang River, the military camps outside Shengle City nearly erupted.

Many men cursed in the Jin dialect with both vindication and relief:

“Motherfucker!

“They finally lost!

“Hahaha!”

Then, smiles spread across their faces as they began the final preparations.

Sabers already sharpened to an edge were sharpened again.

Warhorses already fed until sleek and strong had their coats brushed once more.

Along with the formal mobilization order came another announcement: starting next month, military pay would be doubled.

And the doubled pay for next month would be issued in advance.

If the war dragged on for a long time, then naturally the following months’ pay would have to wait until the army returned before being settled.

Cart after cart entered the military camp, each loaded with chests of silver.

The clerks attached to every formation began distributing the money directly into the soldiers’ hands.

Shengle’s army possessed far more clerks than most forces.

They had all been selected by the Blind Man as “believers.”

Generally, they possessed some education and could read and write.

At the same time, their political reliability had to be strong.

Ordinarily, their job included propaganda passing General Zheng’s, or rather the Blind Man’s, “spirit” down to the soldiers.

They also possessed another extremely important responsibility.

Whenever military pay or army supplies were distributed, the clerks collected and passed them on directly.

The money did not go through the hands of the military commanders.

That minimized the chance of padded rosters, stolen pay, and officers drinking their soldiers’ blood.

Of course, only Shengle’s army a system built from the ground up starting with those original “three hundred barbarian soldiers” could implement reforms like this.

Other armies were entangled in relationships far too deep and complicated for such a system to function effectively.

Once the silver was distributed, soldiers with families took it home to their wives.

They were about to march out.

Sabers and swords had no eyes.

Heaven alone knew whether they would return alive.

Leaving more property behind for the household was extremely important.

As for the single-dog soldiers they formed groups and headed toward Shengle City’s officially operated, exclusive Red Tent.

Men who had previously only been willing to pay for savage slave women decided to indulge themselves this time and try something fresher.

Soon, the outside of the Red Tent was packed with people.

Many actually had to stand in line.

Some loudly urged the brothers ahead of them to hurry the hell up and finish.

There was nothing shameful about it.

Soldiers about to enter a battlefield and risk their lives wanting one last round of pleasure beforehand was perfectly understandable.

Many other soldiers went to Gathering Righteousness Tower to feast together.

The place filled completely.

Tables had to be laid out directly onto the street.

In any case, practically all of Shengle City belonged to the General’s Residence.

Gathering Righteousness Tower was government-operated too.

If it wanted to occupy the roadway for business, there certainly were not going to be any city-management officers coming over to stop it.

From a broader perspective, however, once this entire wave of military pay had circulated through the city, a considerable portion of it flowed straight back onto the General’s Residence account books.

The losses in between were naturally still enormous.

But those losses could only be replenished through external plunder.

Inside and outside the city, the mobilization order made everything increasingly noisy and lively.

Before long, the General’s Residence issued another order: the curfew would be suspended tonight.

At once, drunken soldiers filled the streets, cheering at the tops of their lungs:

“GENERAL ZHENG IS MIGHTY!”

Some who had poured down too much “horse piss” even shouted:

“LONG LIVE GENERAL ZHENG!”

They were immediately punched down and silenced by the men beside them.

...

“Little Yu.

“You work at the city gate.

“They’ll leave you behind this time, right?”

The old woman asked cautiously while stitching a shoe sole.

The child named Liu Dahu was practicing the characters his teacher had taught that day by candlelight.

The moment his grandmother asked the question, the sound of the spatula in the kitchen stopped.

Clearly, the woman cooking inside was waiting for his answer too.

Yu Huaping shook his head.

“Of course I’m going.”

He was the Sword Saint of Jin.

The State of Jin might be gone, but the people of Jin remained.

If the savages were coming, then he had to carry his sword out and kill savages.

He had already lost too many things.

This one belief was almost all he had left.

More importantly, Yu Huaping did not believe that fellow surnamed Zheng would agree to let him remain behind and continue guarding a city gate.

Sometimes, judging from everything Yu Huaping had seen in Shengle City, he felt Zheng Fan resembled a merchant more than a general.

And merchants always tried to squeeze every last bit of value from everything around them.

For example, his sword.

“The girl’s monthly wage isn’t much, but it isn’t small either.

“Your own post pays pretty well too.

“Put the two together and this household can live quite comfortably.

“Why go?”

“If we can’t stop the savages outside, then they’ll reach us here.

“And when that happens, all these good days in front of us will be gone.”

The old woman fell silent.

In this age, a household woman like her might be experienced and sharp-tongued enough when it came to neighborhood gossip and family quarrels.

But on major affairs, she genuinely did not know how to respond.

Yu Huaping smiled again.

“Besides, General Zheng is pretty good at fighting.

“This expedition should be meant to win.

“Once we return victorious, I’ll have earned some military merit and reward money.

“Then I can...”

The old woman’s eyes lit up immediately.

She hurriedly asked:

“Then you can what?”

“I can have a full set of silver ornaments made for the girl.”

“Oh my!

“Oh my!”

The old woman covered her mouth and laughed.

Then she shouted toward the kitchen:

“Girl!

“You hear that?

“You hear that?”

The woman inside the kitchen was too embarrassed to answer.

The old woman grabbed Yu Huaping’s hand instead, eager to settle the whole matter completely.

If Little Yu had not been so handsome and if the old woman had not herself once been young enough to understand that men liked pretty women while women also liked handsome men she would already have driven Yu Huaping out with a broom after watching him drag his feet this long.

Ah.

Women.

They might always say marrying an honest, dependable man was safest.

But who did not want the person sleeping beside them to be a little better-looking?

“As for our Dahu, this old woman has already thought it through.

“In the future, let him take your surname Yu.

“A hundred years ago, the surname Yu was still the glorious imperial surname of Jin.

“There’s no loss in being surnamed Yu.

“All I ask is that you treat him well.

“And treat our girl well.

“If you do that, then even when this old woman closes her eyes for the last time, my heart will be at peace.”

Yu Huaping smiled.

He did not answer.

A short while later, the woman brought the food out.

A small household like theirs did not care about ceremony.

Push two square wooden stools together and place the dishes on top.

Set another few little stools around them for sitting.

That was enough.

There was plenty of meat tonight.

Liu Dahu ate happily.

The old woman blinked a few times.

Halfway through the meal, she could not stop herself from asking:

“You still need to go back and pack later, right?”

“Ah.

“Mm.”

Yu Huaping understood immediately.

The old woman was afraid that after eating dinner tonight, he might stay and sleep here.

And truthfully, that was exactly what she was thinking.

Everything had sounded good in conversation beforehand.

But he was about to march to war.

Who could guarantee nothing would happen?

If he stayed here tonight, wouldn’t her girl suffer too much of a loss?

Yes, she had already married once and given birth to a child.

She was no maiden.

But there was still a great difference between being widowed once and being widowed twice.

And if Little Yu truly lacked the fate to survive and died outside, wouldn’t that confirm the belief that her daughter-in-law brought death to husbands?

Trying to find another man afterward would become extremely difficult.

The safest course was obvious.

Feed him tonight.

As for staying the night and truly hitching the household together that could wait until he returned from the war.

If Little Yu returned safely, even if he came back injured, the old woman would accept it.

She would serve and care for this son-in-law herself.

If something happened and he never returned, then in future years, whenever they burned incense for the child’s dead father, they could burn a little paper money for Little Yu as well.

That would count as repaying the affection between them.

And if he earned military merit, rose in status, returned, and no longer thought the girl was good enough for him then so be it.

If he was truly that kind of person, it would be better that she had never married him in the first place.

The old woman could calculate as much as she liked.

In the end, one sentence from the woman destroyed all her plans.

Holding her rice bowl, the woman ate in small bites.

Very calmly, she said:

“Sleep here tonight.”

Women of the Jin lands resembled women of Yan in certain ways.

Both possessed a wild, open boldness.

They were not bound by nearly as many restraints and ritual rules as women of Qian or Chu.

And in the end, she was a widow who had already married and borne a child.

She had supported this household alone, with an old woman above and a young child below.

Without the ability to make decisions for herself, that would never have been possible.

The old woman heard those words and hurriedly nudged her daughter-in-law’s shoe with the tip of her foot.

Yu Huaping’s smile, on the other hand, grew even wider.

He reached inside his robe and took out a pouch of silver.

He placed it on the table.

*Thud.*

Heavy.

The old woman’s eyes nearly bulged out.

“This is my military pay.

“You hold onto it first.

“When I return from the war, we’ll fix the household up properly.

“No matter what, if you’re going to follow me, I can’t let you do it in some shabby, miserable way.”

The Sword Saint taking a wife in earlier years, even the ruler of Jin would have sent an envoy with congratulations.

Now the State of Jin was gone.

But the rulers of other states would probably become even more enthusiastic.

A Sword Saint without a state or homeland was easier to recruit, after all.

“Mother of Heaven!

“Why is there so much silver?

“I heard Second Niu’s wife next door saying this afternoon that General Zheng cares for his soldiers and paid next month’s double wages in advance.

“But you’re only guarding the city gate.

“How could your pay be this much?

“Little Yu.

“Tell Mother the truth.

“General Zheng treats ordinary people like us well.

“Mother gets treated at the medical hall for almost nothing.

“Dahu goes to school without us paying a coin.

“You cannot reach out and take silver you shouldn’t touch.

“Have you seen those government lords’ chairs?

“All those layers of human skin stretched over them came from corrupt officials who were caught and flayed alive.”

“This includes the pay from the past several months.

“I never spent it.

“I saved all of it.

“That’s why it looks like so much.”

Saved it?

More accurately, he had never even bothered collecting his pay.

The General’s Residence already covered the Sword Saint’s food and lodging.

Inside Shengle City, even if the Sword Saint wanted to visit the Red Tent every single day and sleep with the top courtesan, General Zheng would probably have signed the bill and told them to serve him properly.

It was only today, after seeing everyone else collecting their pay, that the Sword Saint had casually gone over to ask.

Then he had collected all the old wages he had never taken too.

Now, handing his military pay over to the woman, the Sword Saint suddenly felt an indescribable warmth.

“Oh!

“So that’s how it is.

“That’s how it is.

“Girl!

“Hurry and put Little Yu’s silver away for him.”

The woman did not reach for it.

The old woman kicked her lightly again, telling her to hurry up.

Yu Huaping said as well:

“Take it.

“Keep it until I come back.

“I don’t have any family here anyway.”

The woman bit her lip.

Then she nodded.

Right there in front of everyone, she began counting the silver.

The old woman kicked toward her again.

This time, the woman moved her foot away.

She continued counting.

She even went inside to fetch a scale and weighed the silver properly.

The old woman’s face burned with embarrassment.

Who would have expected that after the woman finished, she carefully put the silver away, reported the exact amount, and then said solemnly:

“I’ll keep it for you.

“When you come back, I guarantee not a single coin will be missing.”

“Good.”

Yu Huaping nodded.

After dinner, he stepped out of the cramped little courtyard.

The moment he reached the street, he happened to run into Zheng Fan taking an evening walk with A’Ming.

Of course, whether this encounter was genuinely “by chance” was difficult to say.

But the polite words still had to be spoken.

General Zheng smiled warmly.

“Well, what a coincidence.”

The Sword Saint smiled.

He could not be bothered playing along.

Just like that, the two-person walk became three.

The Sword Saint was the first to speak.

“Your Yan First Prince suffered a defeat.

“This time, they should ask Tian Wujing to command again, yes?”

“Uh...

“Are you planning to challenge the Marquis to another duel?”

“We can talk about that after the savages are dealt with.”

“Your righteousness is admirable.”

When it came to national and ethnic duty, the Sword Saint’s moral character genuinely left nothing to criticize.

“It will be him, right?”

“How should I put it...

“We received the military intelligence early.

“Right now, Yanjing is probably still busy with the wedding between the Crown Prince and the Commandery Princess of the Marquis of Zhenbei’s household.

“His Majesty may not even know what happened yet.”

Dacheng was very close to Shengle.

But from Dacheng to Yanjing was still an enormous distance.

Even an eight-hundred-li urgent dispatch could not travel instantly.

There would inevitably be a delay.

“But...”

Zheng Fan paused.

Then continued:

“Eight or nine chances out of ten, it should be the Marquis who takes command again.”

The Sword Saint suddenly asked:

“Will Tian Wujing be willing?”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Heh.”

The Sword Saint gave a dry laugh.

“I’m asking whether he’ll be willing.”

“Why wouldn’t he?”

“Some things can only be understood.

“They cannot be spoken.”

The Sword Saint looked at Zheng Fan.

Then he continued:

“You never kept asking me what happened during those days in Litian City.

“The fact that you didn’t ask already proves you have some idea in your own heart, doesn’t it?”

Dujuan had been an agent of Qian’s Silver-Armored Guard.

Her death had been meant to drive a wedge between the Marquis of Jingnan and the imperial court.

Great Yan’s State Preceptor Xue Yi had dissolved himself on Tianhu Mountain, using the mountain’s fortune and his own destiny to feed the Yan Cauldron back.

At the same time, he had used his death to prove his innocence to Tian Wujing.

That was the rough shape of everything.

But there were still many hard knots inside it.

The most obvious was this:

Dujuan had handed her child to the Sword Saint precisely because she wanted to preserve the child’s life.

Somewhere in the dark, an unseen hand seemed to have reached in and manipulated events.

Zheng Fan again remembered that night before the mourning hall.

On the threshold, the Marquis of Jingnan his hair turned white overnight had spoken two words to him:

“Pacifying the Crisis.”

And afterward, the Marquis of Jingnan had personally climbed Tianhu Mountain.

Rumors outside claimed the Marquis had forced State Preceptor Xue Yi to death, leaving the man no choice but to use his death to prove his innocence.

But anyone who truly understood Tian Wujing knew something else.

The Marquis of Jingnan liked controlling everything when he fought.

He peeled away layers.

Followed threads.

Mapped every movement.

If that was how Tian Wujing handled war, then surely he would handle people and events the same way.

“You tell me,” the Sword Saint said.

“Will Tian Wujing take command?”

Zheng Fan hesitated.

Then said:

“He will.”

Because this was for the State of Yan.

The Sword Saint sighed.

“Yes.

“You and I both know it.

“Many others probably know it too.

“In the end, Tian Wujing will still walk out of the Marquis’s Residence and take command.

“Heh.

“Decades from now.

“A hundred years from now.

“If Great Yan still exists, then perhaps when Yan people read this part of history, they will sigh with emotion.

“Three great peaks of Great Yan held up the sky of the state by force.

“Yan’s national power truly flourished for a time, pressing down upon every other state.

“But perhaps no one will ever know— the peak carrying the greatest bitterness, the greatest weight, and the deepest wounds... was the one surnamed Tian.”

[End of Chapter 309]