Chapter 374: Overbearing

The First Prince’s wedding was held.

There were no lanterns strung along the long streets.

No procession of noble sons formed an escort for the bride.

No crowds of Yanjing commoners pressed forward to watch.

Everything was kept simple.

Everything was kept quiet.

The State of Yan’s court sent a State Letter to the Barbarian Royal Court in the desert. Along with it came two separate messages.

The first was official language—little more than talk of friendly relations between neighboring states and how the people of both sides longed for peace.

The second was written personally by the Emperor of Yan.

When an emperor possessed genuine centralized power and supreme authority, a letter written in his own hand carried infinitely more weight than any amount of diplomatic boilerplate.

He could sit openly upon the Son of Heaven’s high platform.

He could also sit beside you like a neighbor and chat about family matters.

That was his freedom.

His power.

And, more than anything his confidence.

In his personal letter, the Emperor of Yan first explained to the Barbarian King why the wedding had to be kept simple.

For one thing, Ji Wujiang was a defeated commander and still carried responsibility for that defeat. There could be no grand celebration, so the Barbarian King’s daughter would have to suffer a little grievance.

Second, war between Yan and Chu might erupt again at any moment. According to Yan custom, marriages were forbidden during such periods, so the wedding could only be conducted quietly.

At the bottom of the letter, however, the Emperor of Yan personally made one promise to the old Barbarian King:

As long as the two states did not resume war, he, Ji Runhao, would guarantee the Barbarian Princess’s safety for the rest of her life.

And if war did break out if Yan won he would still guarantee her safety.

The letter was exactly that blunt.

It was said that after the Barbarian King received it, he cursed the Emperor of Yan three times for being utterly shameless.

But that night, he drank alone until he passed out.

And when he finally fell asleep drunk, one hand still clutched a wolfskin cloak he had personally made for his youngest daughter when he was young.

A political marriage began this way.

And, just as quietly it ended.

Two enemies who had fought for centuries now both needed respite.

One had to focus its strategic attention upon the states to the east.

The other had to deal with pressure from the west while also completing an internal transfer of power.

And so without either side needing to say it aloud a ceasefire was reached.

...

“Relations between states are not actually that different from doing business. In the end, what matters is that both sides get what they need.”

Ji Chengjue sat at the table, drinking tea with one leg crossed lazily over the other.

The First Prince, Ji Wujiang, sat in the seat of honor beside him.

“Of course, if you can smash the other man’s business completely and swallow the whole thing for yourself, that’s even better. But if you can’t afford to smash it, then you still have to settle for mutual benefit.

“As long as there’s no war on the western front, Great Yan can devote more energy to the east.

“Qian and Chu are the truly rich and splendid lands. What exactly are we supposed to gain by biting into the desert?

“A mouthful of sand?

“Isn’t that right, Sister-in-law?”

The Barbarian Princess rolled her eyes at Ji Chengjue.

“You talk too much.”

“Hahahaha!”

Clearly, the brother-in-law and sister-in-law got along very well.

The Sixth Prince had a natural talent for building rapport.

Even when some of his words pricked, people rarely found him offensive. If anything, they tended to feel he was being sincere.

Among those who stood above others, only the supreme sovereign could rely entirely upon imperial authority.

Everyone else had to mix in a little genuine warmth.

Until you actually wore the dragon robe, that flavor remained indispensable.

The First Prince, meanwhile, had become much more open-minded.

“I have nothing to complain about. I was a defeated commander. Everything that followed was only natural.

“The one who suffered is your sister-in-law.”

“Don’t, don’t. There’s no need to talk about suffering or not suffering.

“Elder Brother, just treat Sister-in-law well.

“Since ancient times, how many marriage alliances between states ever ended happily? Even marriages between great households—how many couples truly love each other?

“Treat Sister-in-law properly. You don’t need to live so formally that you’re forever raising trays to each other like honored guests. But there’s nothing wrong with a peaceful life either.

“Harmony.

“Sweetness.

“A household like ordinary people have.

“That’s good too.

“Wouldn’t you agree, Sister-in-law?”

The Barbarian Princess smiled with easy openness.

“Mother once told me that life is lived for yourself to see.

“Husband—

I do not care about those things.”

Hearing this, the First Prince nodded.

His relationship with the Barbarian Princess truly was good.

There were nights when he would suddenly feel melancholy because this marriage had completely destroyed whatever remaining possibility he once had of competing for the throne.

But then he would look at his wife’s sleeping face and his heart would soften again.

How could anything in life ever be completely perfect?

“Has your wife arrived yet?” the Barbarian Princess asked Ji Chengjue.

“She should be close. I came first. My wife and her elder brother wanted to bring over a pig so we could slaughter it and make a proper pork feast, so they went to the market to pick one.

“Judging by the time, they should be arriving soon.”

“Then I’ll go receive them.

“Your wife has a wonderful temperament too. We get along well.

“Sixth Brother, when you have the chance, bring her over more often. The two of us sisters-in-law can play and talk together.”

Ji Chengjue immediately cupped his hands.

“How could I dare refuse the command?”

The Barbarian Princess rose and headed toward the front courtyard to welcome Young Lady He and her elder brother.

Once she was gone, the First Prince glanced at Ji Chengjue.

“When you were talking earlier about an ordinary, peaceful life being the truest kind... you were really talking about yourself, weren’t you?”

A mighty imperial prince marrying a butcher’s daughter.

Ji Chengjue shook his head.

“I do not want what happened to Mother’s clan to happen again.”

The topic had wandered into a painful place.

Emperors had always despised powerful consort clans.

Because the authority of an imperial in-law clan and the authority of the imperial house existed in symbiosis. The in-laws attached themselves to imperial power.

If the in-laws grew too strong imperial power inevitably weakened.

In earlier generations, the great clans had stood everywhere and imperial authority had been squeezed thin. That had forced members of the Ji imperial house to marry into those great clans.

The clans were already powerful.

Once they acquired the additional status of imperial in-laws, they naturally swelled even further.

Therefore, after the present Emperor reclaimed authority, he cut away the consort clans and sent cavalry trampling through the great aristocratic houses.

From the standpoint of expanding and consolidating imperial power there was nothing questionable about the policy.

But beneath it lay layer after layer of blood and tears.

Once great clans, imperial in-laws, and the imperial house had grown together like branches from the same tree, cutting away one branch inevitably wounded the others.

The Min Clan had been like that.

The Tian Clan had been the same.

“The ten thousand barbarian cavalry have already been sent over,” the First Prince said.

In truth, even before the wedding, the Barbarian King had already sent an entire tribe across.

The tribe had a population of nearly thirty thousand.

It could field close to ten thousand men capable of drawing a bow.

Of course, that figure included both youths and old men.

Among the desert barbarians, once a person reached the age where he could sit a horse, he counted as a qualified warrior.

“The Marquis of Jingnan submitted a memorial long ago,” Ji Chengjue said. “He wants that barbarian tribe.

“And his memorial left no room for discussion.”

The moment the argument of **using barbarians to control the savages** was proposed, it received widespread approval.

Use barbarian troops to defend against the snowfield savages and reduce Great Yan’s burden.

What a marvelous policy of statecraft.

Add the fact that the Marquis of Jingnan had openly demanded the tribe, and its transfer into Jin territory to reinforce the defenses became a settled matter.

At present, the Jingnan Army was responsible not only for the defense of the entire Three Jin and suppressing the possibility of Jin rebellion, but also for guarding against the snowfield savages, Chu, and the threat from Nanmen Pass.

Its manpower was genuinely stretched thin.

And once this tribe entered Jin territory there was no need to guess where it would ultimately be sent.

Reliable intelligence had already confirmed that the newly appointed Chief Commander of Snow Sea Pass, Count Pingye Zheng Fan, had been the man who issued the massacre order against the Chu army in place of the Marquis of Jingnan.

There was one matter Count Zheng himself had always understood far too shallowly.

He had thought that by issuing the order in the Marquis’s stead, he had merely gained a wave of goodwill and trust within the Jingnan Army.

At court the consequences were far greater.

The fact that Count Pingye Zheng Fan had been personally chosen by the Marquis of Jingnan as his successor inside the army was already nearly an open secret.

And many of the true giants at court also knew exactly who was helping raise the Marquis of Jingnan’s son.

Great Yan remained far from the point where the birds were gone and the fine bows could be hidden away.

The state still faced enormous threats of war.

And when it came to leading armies on campaign, no one in Great Yan could match the Marquis of Jingnan.

The Emperor and ministers of Yan were not foolish enough to tear down their own Great Wall.

At the same time, although the Prince of Zhenbei had already surrendered half his military authority, if the court moved against the southern Marquis, it could hardly prevent the western Prince from feeling the chill of seeing a rabbit die before the fox.

Touch one and the other would inevitably stir.

The triangle that had once been so stable could be viewed another way: pull one strand and the entire structure moved.

Therefore, keeping the Marquis of Jingnan stable remained an urgent matter.

And by the same logic stabilizing the Marquis of Jingnan’s chosen successor was essential to maintaining the continuity and stability of Great Yan’s military power blocs.

Almost without obstruction, the barbarian tribe was transferred into Jin territory.

“Heh.

“Back then, I even told Zheng Fan to his face that I would give him this dowry.

“Turns out, in the end, I did not even possess the qualification to say a word about it.

“It was always going to be his.”

The First Prince sounded somewhat desolate.

He had once regarded those ten thousand cavalry as one of the cards he could play.

Who would have imagined the card had never truly belonged to him?

“Haaah.”

Ji Chengjue sighed too.

Then said:

“Elder Brother, isn’t your next opportunity already in front of you?

“In less than two months, you should be leading troops again.

“The last time the cavalry trampled the great clans, the killing went too quickly. After the Zhenbei Army swept through once, it immediately headed south and entered the war.

“So the weeds grew back too fast.

“This time, we brothers can clean things properly.”

“Corrupt officials and greedy clerks can never be killed clean,” the First Prince said.

“I never said I wanted to kill every last one.

“If they can actually do their jobs, let them skim a little.

“I understand the saying that a man travels a thousand li to become an official for the sake of wealth.

“But there are people in some places who have become too greedy.

“They eat until grease runs from their mouths while mice are about to start nesting inside the national treasury.

“That will not do.

“It’s like a house.

“You can’t expect it to remain clean forever.

“Spotless cleanliness is even more absurd.

“So every so often— you have to sweep it properly.”

“Then do whatever you think should be done.

“Your elder brother can already be considered half crippled anyway.

“If there is something I can help you with, say it directly.”

“Elder Brother, there’s no hurry.

“We’ll take it slowly.

“One step at a time.”

“Oh, right.

“Your sister-in-law mentioned something.

“The Keyan Tribe the Barbarian King sent over this time is supposedly extremely unruly.”

The Barbarian King’s dowry was also, in some sense, a way of exporting trouble.

He naturally could not send away one of his own direct tribes.

The Royal Court needed to strengthen itself, not continue cutting away its own power.

So the Keyan Tribe which had always refused to submit properly to Royal Court authority became the sacrifice.

The Royal Court could not openly campaign against and massacre the Keyan Tribe.

That would make the other desert tribes feel the chill of lips dying after teeth were lost, and it would harm both the Royal Court’s continued rule and the coming transfer of power.

So the Royal Court instead presented the arrangement as sending the Keyan Tribe to enjoy the rich lands of Yan.

Through the marriage alliance, under the name of a dowry, and backed by the threat of tens of thousands of Royal Court cavalry, the Keyan Tribe was forced to accept relocation.

It was the most stable solution.

Politicians had a habit: every needle had to find some use.

“Don’t worry about Zheng Fan on that account,” Ji Chengjue said. “That bastard surnamed Zheng is hardly some good bird.

“No matter how strong the flavor of the food, he can digest it cleanly.”

When it came to Zheng Fan, Ji Chengjue possessed complete confidence.

The First Prince continued:

“I also heard that recently, people at court have been impeaching you for favoring certain places in the distribution of money and grain.

“Using public resources for private purposes.

“Raising your own followers with the wealth of the court.”

“Oh?

“That wind is blowing hard indeed.

“It even reached Elder Brother’s ears.”

“Where there is no wind, waves do not rise.

“And besides— you admitted to me before that you truly did it.”

“Yes, yes. I did.

“So what?

“If you hold power and refuse to give your own people a little extra benefit, then who in the world will still be willing to work for you?

“Even these ministers attacking and impeaching me now— when the day eventually comes that everyone has to choose a side, won’t they still stand with me?

“At the very least, they’ll know one thing:

“If they follow me— there’s meat to eat.”

“Heh.

“You don’t even bother hiding these things from me anymore?”

“If I keep hiding them, that becomes treating Elder Brother like an outsider.

“Besides, hiding every damned thing all day is exhausting.”

The First Prince hesitated.

Then still said:

“The impeachment against you this time probably was not Second Brother’s doing.”

“Of course it wasn’t.

“He worked himself half to death producing that alliance, only for everyone to use it as toilet paper.

“How could he possibly be stupid enough to jump out now and pull something like this?

“As for me—

I have to work like mad.

“When autumn comes and the money and grain reach Yanjing, I need to hand Imperial Father an answer he finds satisfactory.

“And Second Brother— since doing more means making more mistakes, he may as well do less.

“Or even do nothing.

“My Second Brother— your Second Brother is good in every respect.

“He is simply too steady.

“So steady that he has become boring.”

“What kind of man talks about his own elder brother like that?”

“Am I wrong?

“Oh, right.

“Elder Brother, there is one more matter I need to discuss carefully with you.”

“What?”

Ji Chengjue took a letter from inside his robe and placed it on the table.

“This is a secret letter sent to me by Xu Wenzu, Chief Commander of Nanwang City.”

The First Prince’s eyes narrowed involuntarily.

“As an imperial prince...”

Ji Chengjue answered before he could finish:

“As an imperial prince, if I don’t make connections with the army, am I supposed to sit around waiting to die?”

The First Prince choked on the words.

But he quickly recovered.

“If I remember correctly, Xu Wenzu came from Beifeng Commandery.

“Although in his earlier years at court he and the Marquis of Zhenbei’s Residence were practically mortal enemies, judging from how he held Nanwang City against Qian’s border troops during the war two years ago, the man is certainly not incompetent.

“So...”

Most truly capable men had little interest in becoming weeds that bent whichever way the wind blew.

“Who cares whose man he used to be?

“Now that the Prince of Zhenbei has surrendered military authority, Xu Wenzu belongs to the court.

“And if he belongs to the court— that means he belongs to the pool we can dig from ourselves.

“I won’t hide this from you either.

“I even used Zheng Fan’s connections to open communication with Xu Wenzu.

“Zheng Fan and Xu Wenzu have a fairly good private relationship.”

“Sixth Brother.

“You are playing with fire.”

“Then who put me on the rack above the fire?”

Ji Chengjue tapped one finger against the envelope.

“Elder Brother.

“Want to read it?”

“I won’t.

“It isn’t that your elder brother is afraid.

“It simply is not suitable for me to read.”

“Look at that.

“Treating me like an outsider again.

“You’re doing it again.”

“Sixth Brother, I’ve noticed something.

“Have you never been afraid of Second Brother?”

“Afraid of him?

“Why?”

Ji Chengjue rose from his chair and stretched lazily.

“Because he is Imperial Father’s eldest legitimate son?

“Because he is the future son-in-law of the Prince of Zhenbei?

“Because he is the Marquis of Jingnan’s biological nephew?

“Heh.

“The Prince of Zhenbei matters a little more, perhaps.

“But the marriage still hasn’t even happened yet, has it?

“As for our Imperial Father— and our Marquis of Jingnan which one of those two has ever truly cared about blood kin?”

Ji Chengjue drew in a deep breath and released it slowly.

“Elder Brother, do not think I’m walking too fast.

“And do not think I’m being too arrogant or overbearing.

“Whether this little life of mine survives has never depended on whether I behave humbly or arrogantly.

“If I am respectful and restrained— or if I am wild and domineering it does not affect whether I live by half a copper.”

“Then what does?”

“Hmmm...”

Ji Chengjue drew the sound out.

Then began chuckling to himself.

He pointed toward the door.

“Elder Brother, tell me if this isn’t hilarious.

“Whether your younger brother lives or dies actually depends on the faces of that ruler in Qian and that Regent in Chu.

“If the two of them are useless and Imperial Father sweeps them away cleanly— then the best ending I can hope for is being sent to the pavilion in the middle of the lake to compose poetry with Third Brother.

“But if those two can hold on— then even if I walk into court tomorrow carrying a saber, Imperial Father will have to pinch his nose and pretend he never saw it.

“Tss...

“I understood that principle a long time ago.

“That’s why I find the whole thing absurd.”

Ji Chengjue clicked his tongue.

“Damn it all.

“Am I supposed to pray that those two are enlightened sovereigns— or useless trash?”

————

[End of Chapter 374]