Chapter 313: Proclaiming the Decree

For the people of Litian City, life over the past year could only be described as deeply nerve-racking.

Back when the Wenren Clan ruled the region, they had always prided themselves on being the most cultured and refined of the powers in the lands of the Three Jin.

Compared with the Helian Clan, whose ancestral bloodline was considered impure, and compared with the Situ Clan, who seemed to know nothing except fighting and killing, the Wenren Clan truly had been the most elegant of the Three Golden Flowers.

One needed only to look at the countless fox-spirit and ghost stories circulating throughout the Three Jin.

Whenever a scholar appeared in such a tale, the opening line was almost always something like:

*There was once an impoverished scholar from Litian City...*

That alone said plenty about how the people of the Three Jin viewed Litian.

The Wenren Clan had produced several great Confucian scholars and renowned academics as well.

And as with any great family, no shortage of scandalous household stories had circulated around them, providing ordinary people with endless material for imagination and invention.

Back then, life in Litian City had been fairly leisurely.

If one were to compare it to a city in later generations, it had something of the flavor of the “Chengdu” of the Three Jin.

But once the Yan people invaded and replaced the Wenren Clan as rulers of the region, everything changed.

It was not that the Yan were especially vicious or brutal.

The Yan court genuinely intended to govern this place as part of its own territory.

So aside from the purges that were inevitable at the beginning, they had not committed any acts outrageous enough to provoke the wrath of Heaven and man.

Taxes and criminal punishments were now roughly equivalent to those in Yan proper.

Occasionally, a Yan native who committed a crime might receive a little favoritism, but the people of Jin could understand even that.

After all, their own army had been defeated.

But ever since the Marquis of Jingnan established his residence in Litian City, the common people had found themselves frightened every few days.

It was like being slapped across the face.

A slap hurt.

But at least the pain came all at once, perhaps followed by a lingering sting.

What they were suffering now was different.

It was like someone repeatedly pretending to slap you, faking the motion again and again.

Each time, you flinched.

Each time, you panicked.

The psychological pressure was countless times worse than simply being hit once and getting it over with.

The Southern Marquis of Yan was a legendary figure.

Everyone in Litian knew that.

Truthfully, the city’s people had long prepared themselves for the possibility that he might open the prisons, launch mass arrests, and kill people on a grand scale.

They were merely waiting for the day he finally exploded.

Then, the wife of the Marquis of Jingnan suddenly “died of illness.”

The eyes of the Jingnan Army soldiers inside and outside Litian turned so red that the sight genuinely terrified people.

Eventually, that matter seemed to settle down.

Just when everyone started thinking they could finally relax something happened again.

...

Inside a spice shop on Changchun Street, a regular customer sat behind the counter with the proprietor, helping him distinguish a newly arrived batch of spices.

In a low voice, he asked:

“The one the day before yesterday... that makes two, right?”

The proprietor, already past fifty, carefully lifted his teacup and took a sip.

Only when he lowered it again did he silently nod.

Neither man belonged to the Secret Intelligence Department or the Silver-Armored Guard.

But the intermittent high-pressure atmosphere hanging over Litian City for the past year had practically forced its ordinary residents into becoming neurotic.

“Ah.

“This is the first time in my life I’ve ever seen something like this.”

“The Wenren Clan disappearing was the first time in your life too,” the proprietor said, glancing at his old customer and tea companion.

For the people of Litian, from the generation of their grandfathers’ grandfathers onward, Litian City had carried the surname Wenren.

“Dynasties changing, clans being destroyed— you hear that stuff in opera all the time.

“But this?

“Even an opera wouldn’t dare write something this outrageous.”

The proprietor lifted his teacup again and nodded.

“You tell me.

“Is that Southern Marquis of Yan really going to rebel?”

The proprietor shook his head.

“No idea.”

“He’s gone this far and still won’t rebel?

“Both stone lions outside the Marquis’s Residence are already stained with blood.

“I heard another one is coming today.”

“Yan affairs aren’t something people like us can understand,” the proprietor said.

“Heh.

“Whether you understand or not, let me ask you this.

“If you were the Emper— if you were that person, could you tolerate something like this?”

“Affairs involving that person in Yan are even less something we can understand.”

“You old bastard.

“Stop twisting everything into circles.”

“Heh.

“You’ll leave the city after collecting your goods.

“I still have to keep this shop open.

“My entire family lives here.”

“What are you afraid of?

“I’ll tell you something.

“Yesterday, I bought back the residence and shops I sold last year.”

“Why suddenly move your business back here?

“Business outside not going well?”

“Business is fine.

“Shengle City keeps producing strange new goods.

“As long as you can get stock, you never have to worry about selling it.

“I hear their order books are backed up three months now.

“I got in early, so I still have some inventory in hand.”

“Then why move back?”

“That isn’t the whole reason.

“I’ve been thinking.

“If that Southern Marquis really rebels, maybe our Litian City ends up becoming the place beneath the Son of Heaven’s feet.

“If that happens, shops and houses here land prices too they’ll all double!”

“That makes sense.

“But what if he loses?”

“Heh.

“What business beneath Heaven guarantees profit without loss?”

“True.”

“Still, I actually think rather highly of this Southern Marquis.

“Think about it.

“When the Yan people used him as commander in previous wars, did he ever lose?

“Not only did he never lose, he won great victories several times!

“This time, the Yan suddenly replaced him with that whatever-the-hell First Prince as commander.

“And look.

“He actually got beaten by the savages.

“The savages!

“What are savages?

“Back in the old days, they were the slaves merchants from the Three Jin loved buying most.

“Cheap lives.

“And that Yan First Prince couldn’t even beat those bastards.

“That proves the First Prince is genuinely useless.”

“No matter what, I don’t want that Southern Marquis rebelling right now.

“If the Situ Clan truly cannot stop the savages, and those heaven-damned bastards fight their way over here heh.

“Just remember what used to happen to savage slaves.

“Our own ending wouldn’t be hard to imagine.

“Say whatever else you want.

“That Southern Marquis really has frightened people from the moment he arrived.

“But over the past year or more, we still haven’t seen him do anything outrageous enough to enrage Heaven and man.

“Besides, with him in Litian City, no matter how chaotic things become outside, I genuinely feel safer in my heart.”

“Exactly.

“This world is changing too quickly.”

“Do you still want these spices?”

“Pack them up.”

“Fine.”

“Right.

“You know what’s interesting?

“When he slaughtered his entire clan, he immediately went off preparing for war like nothing happened.

“But once his wife died, he locked himself inside the residence and refused to come out.

“Looks like an entire family put together still can’t compare with one wom—mmph! Mmph!”

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?

“You can spout whatever nonsense you want about other things.

“But is *that* something someone like you has the right to say?

“Who the hell do you think you are?

“Say anything like that again and I won’t do business with you anymore.

“You won’t drink another cup of my tea either.

“I genuinely fear you’ll get me killed one day!”

...

“Send this letter to Yanjing.”

“Yes.”

After handing over the letter, Wen Yin—currently the head of a jianghu organization aligned with the Crown Prince’s faction, while in reality serving as a hidden piece of the Sixth Prince—quietly turned his gaze toward the window on the second floor.

After the Eastern Expedition Army suffered defeat, the imperial court had already sent decree after decree.

The two most recent ones were even more extraordinary.

The eunuchs proclaiming the decrees had carried imperial-bestowed objects granting them the authority of:

*As if We were personally present.*

Yet the gates of the Marquis of Jingnan’s Residence remained tightly shut.

The Jingnan Army soldiers guarding the entrance had perfectly demonstrated what it meant for soldiers to recognize only the Marquis’s military orders and not the Emperor’s decrees.

Two eunuchs who came to proclaim decrees had already smashed their own heads against the stone lions outside the residence after reading the imperial edicts to the tightly closed gates.

Because both had carried imperial tokens, they could not simply return to Yanjing in disgrace like their earlier colleagues.

The bodies had naturally been removed.

But blood still stained the two stone lions outside the Marquis’s Residence.

From ancient times until now, when a great general responded to an imperial command in this manner, it basically amounted to publicly declaring his intention to rebel.

Yet not only had the imperial court refrained from condemning the Marquis of Jingnan, it continued dispatching eunuchs with decree after decree, almost like someone who had been slapped across the left cheek and then voluntarily offered the right.

Lately, Wen Yin had been receiving letters from the Crown Prince in Yanjing almost without pause.

The Crown Prince repeatedly asked about the situation in Litian City, even inquiring about the movements of Jingnan Army troops around the city and the preparation of grain and military supplies.

Idiot.

That was Wen Yin’s assessment of the Crown Prince.

Of course, one could not exactly say the Crown Prince’s reaction was wrong.

As heir apparent of a state, wanting to understand the situation in advance was perfectly natural.

But at a moment like this, even if the entire world believed the Marquis of Jingnan was going to rebel, officially, nobody should say it aloud.

Keeping words inside your heart and speaking them from your mouth were two completely different things.

Compared with the Crown Prince sending a letter almost every two days, the Sixth Prince had not sent Wen Yin a single letter asking about the situation since the incident began.

Presumably, Sixth Highness had already understood perfectly what kind of flavor hung over this entire affair.

From the beginning, he had never intended to get involved.

That was genuine wisdom!

What Wen Yin did not know was that Little Sixth had long since been demoted by the Emperor of Yan and sent away to serve as the Chief Constable of a local county.

Publicly, the Sixth Prince was said to have fallen ill and remained at home recuperating.

Wei Zhonghe had personally arranged the deception.

Naturally, outsiders could discover no flaw.

And Sixth Highness, now living as Yan Little Sixth, could hardly reach across such an enormous distance to activate his intelligence network and issue instructions.

Nor would he risk doing so.

“Haaah...”

Wen Yin took a sip of yellow wine, then tossed several peanuts into his mouth.

Rubbing his hands together, he sighed:

“The weather’s getting cold.”

...

A eunuch in red robes rode directly through Litian City’s western gate at the head of a detachment of guards.

He did not pause for even a moment.

He headed straight for the Marquis of Jingnan’s Residence.

In most places, when an imperial eunuch arrived to proclaim a decree, local commoners would gather around to stare at the spectacle.

True, eunuchs had lost the root of manhood.

But everyone understood that any eunuch entrusted with this kind of mission was inevitably a figure of some standing within the imperial palace.

And for palace eunuchs, being sent outside to proclaim an imperial decree was the kind of assignment people fought desperately to obtain.

The gifts and benefits involved were one thing.

Those were not even the most important part.

What mattered most was that no matter how high your standing inside the imperial palace, a servant was still a servant.

But once you left the palace with an imperial decree tucked in your sleeve well.

At last, you could enjoy the feeling of being the master for once!

For Eunuch Huang, however, this particular assignment tasted entirely different.

And when he entered Litian City, the gazes of the commoners watching him contained no reverence whatsoever.

Instead they contained pity.

The closer Eunuch Huang came to the Marquis of Jingnan’s Residence, the more tears gathered in his eyes.

*This old eunuch is suffering inside!*

*And this old eunuch can’t even say it!*

In the past, people fought desperately for assignments like this.

You had to work connections up and down the hierarchy.

Sometimes you even had to offer favors and benefits to secure the trip.

But now, every supervising eunuch within the palace avoided assignments to Litian City like the plague.

At first, when the Marquis of Jingnan merely refused the decree, the worst that happened was that you returned dusty and humiliated, forced yourself to report failure, and endured a scolding.

The journey from Yanjing to Litian City was terribly long.

One round trip practically broke your bones.

You received no prestige.

No welcome.

Not even half a scrap of face.

It certainly did not feel good.

But experienced palace eunuchs were masters at enduring humiliation.

It was still survivable.

Now, however ever since the Eastern Expedition Army suffered defeat and the court decided to order the Marquis of Jingnan back into command, the decree-proclaiming eunuchs had been required to carry one of His Majesty’s personal tokens.

That changed everything.

Previously, if the decree went undelivered, you merely suffered criticism and exhaustion.

Now the question waiting for you in Yanjing was:

*You still have the face to come back alive?*

Two had already died.

This time, the palace eunuchs had drawn lots.

Eunuch Huang’s luck had been rotten.

He drew the losing lot.

So he had no choice but to come.

The rank of the eunuch sent to proclaim an imperial decree depended on the status of the recipient.

To proclaim a decree to the Marquis of Jingnan, the emissary had to be at least one of the palace’s supervising eunuchs.

Every one of them had spent years enduring hardship before finally rising to his present station.

Their status had not come easily.

Inside the palace, they could already accept younger eunuchs and palace maids as godsons and goddaughters.

Their glorious eunuch lives had only just begun.

And now they were being forced to draw lots and line up for the execution platform.

If they had known things would come to this, why in Heaven’s name had they cut themselves and entered this damned palace in the first place?

So before leaving Yanjing, Eunuch Huang retrieved the “treasure” removed from his body all those years ago and entrusted it to his most trusted godson.

Then, before entering Litian City last night, in fact he separately ordered one subordinate to enter the city apart from the main group the following day and purchase a coffin for him.

That way, after he died, his corpse could be sent back to Yanjing, reunited with his “treasure,” and buried whole.

Everything had been arranged.

Eunuch Huang felt ready to die.

Ah.

No.

Ready to proclaim the decree.

*Motherfucker.*

*This old eunuch is just a ball-less castrate.*

*Why the hell am I the one who has to do something so heroic and death-defying?*

But the road always ended eventually.

At last, the gates of the Marquis of Jingnan’s Residence appeared before him.

Armored soldiers stood in perfect order outside.

Eunuch Huang’s gaze instinctively moved toward the two stone lions by the entrance.

There really was blood still staining them.

Couldn’t the Marquis’s Residence at least worry about bad luck and taboos?

Couldn’t they scrub the damned things properly?

Or simply replace the two stone lions?

Then, Eunuch Huang started looking around for other options.

The two stone lions had already been claimed by the previous two unlucky bastards.

One man per lion.

Which one was he supposed to use?

The steps?

No.

Hard to build enough momentum.

Ah.

A pillar.

He could smash himself against a pillar.

The attendants and guards behind Eunuch Huang tacitly refrained from urging him while he stood there in a daze.

A man about to die... well.

They could wait a little.

Everyone could sympathize with him on this matter.

Besides, perhaps because Eunuch Huang had already made his peace with death before setting out, he had finally realized that wealth and possessions truly could not be brought into life or taken beyond death.

Throughout the journey, he constantly rewarded the guards and often treated them to meals with meat.

“Haaah...”

Eunuch Huang let out a long breath.

He reached into his robes and drew out the imperial decree.

It was supposedly the sacred, inviolable will of the Son of Heaven.

But here it did not seem especially useful.

Even the Jingnan Army soldiers outside the residence plainly saw him take out the imperial decree.

They still showed no reaction whatsoever.

*Where is your reverence?!*

Eunuch Huang sighed again.

He dismounted.

Opened the decree.

And shouted directly:

“MARQUIS OF JINGNAN, TIAN WUJING—

RECEIVE THE IMPERIAL DECREE!”

Once he finished shouting, Eunuch Huang did not intend to waste time waiting.

The first unlucky bastard had stood here screaming “Marquis of Jingnan, receive the decree!” for an entire day.

He shouted until his throat stopped producing sound.

The gates never moved.

In the end, he smashed himself to death against the stone lion on the left.

The second unlucky bastard shouted for half a day.

Then he killed himself against the stone lion on the right.

Eunuch Huang thought: if death is inevitable anyway, why not conserve some strength?

No need to torture himself before dying.

More importantly, once you had already prepared yourself for death, the sensation of waiting for it became torment with every passing breath.

Eunuch Huang bent at the waist.

Eunuch Huang began gathering momentum.

Eunuch Huang closed his eyes.

And then, at that exact moment a deep grinding sound suddenly came from ahead.

The gates of the Marquis of Jingnan’s Residence actually opened.

Eunuch Huang had already completed all the preparatory motions for his charge.

The sudden shock threw off his balance completely.

With a *thump*, he pitched forward, performed an accidental somersault across the ground, lost his hat, and scraped his face full of dust and dirt.

But Eunuch Huang did not care about any of that.

He merely sat there, mouth hanging slightly open, staring blankly at the man standing within the open gates.

The man wore a white python robe.

His gaze was cold and clear, like abyssal ice.

Most striking of all was his head of white hair.

Outside the Marquis’s Residence, the armored soldiers all dropped to their knees in perfect unison and shouted:

“WE GREET THE MARQUIS!”

“WE GREET THE MARQUIS!”

The guards Eunuch Huang had brought from the palace immediately dismounted and knelt as well.

Not the slightest trace remained of the reserved pride belonging to men from the imperial palace.

When this man appeared before you, submission was almost instinctive.

The feeling was... not much different from seeing His Majesty.

And everyone understood that the hope of the Eastern Expedition Army perhaps even the hope of Great Yan’s foundation itself now rested upon this man.

Eunuch Huang sat on the ground and moved his lips.

As the Marquis of Jingnan stepped outside as he walked toward him—

Eunuch Huang gathered his courage.

In a voice that somehow sounded pleading, cowardly, and flattering all at once, he whispered:

“Mar...

Mar...

Marquis...

The decree.

The decree.”

Then, with extraordinary care, he slowly extended the imperial decree toward the Marquis of Jingnan’s hand.

When other households received an imperial decree, they first burned incense and bathed.

Then they arranged an incense table and offering altar.

The entire household knelt in fear and reverence to receive the imperial will.

A eunuch holding an imperial decree represented the Emperor’s face itself.

*As if We were personally present!*

When had there ever been a precedent for someone like him humbling himself this thoroughly and begging the recipient to please accept the decree?

But Eunuch Huang did not feel wronged.

Not wronged.

Not even slightly.

He wanted to cry.

But those were tears of gratitude.

Compared with the two unlucky bastards before him, what more could he possibly demand?

What face did he have to demand anything?

“Mar...

Mar...

Marquis...

The decree.”

Seeing that the Marquis of Jingnan still had not taken it, Eunuch Huang softly reminded him again.

The eagerness in his voice surpassed even the enthusiasm he had once shown, only a few years after entering the palace, while desperately currying favor with that palace maid from Yuxiu Palace.

The Marquis of Jingnan did not accept the decree.

He merely spoke in a voice so calm that it made the heart tremble.

“I know.”

[End of Chapter 313]