Chapter 488: - The Imperial House

There was an old saying: serving a sovereign was like accompanying a tiger.

For an emperor, some habits and tendencies had to be understood by the people below him. Otherwise, state policy could not continue smoothly, and the officials carrying out his will would have great difficulty doing so efficiently.

At the same time, however, an emperor could never allow himself to be completely understood. An emperor was only one man. As the saying went, he was the solitary one, the lonely man. He had to face the entire outer court alone. If everything he did followed a perfectly predictable set of rules, then the day he became a figurehead would not be far away.

Even so, no one had expected Emperor Yan to suddenly throw out such a question in the middle of a family banquet.

He had directly ordered the Crown Prince to state his own crimes.

The Crown Prince was the foundation of the state, and the foundation of the state had to be protected.

Making him confess his faults in front of all his brothers like this—was His Majesty trying to make the Crown Prince destroy his own foundation?

And what were the other princes supposed to think?

Count Pingye sat ramrod straight. He knew perfectly well that this was not a moment when he had any right to speak. He was an outside minister, and on top of that, a general who commanded troops.

No matter how loudly people outside called him a member of the Sixth Lord Faction, he absolutely could not openly display that allegiance in front of His Majesty.

Hadn’t even Chief Minister Zhao Jiulang remained as immovable as a mountain, making no attempt to step forward and plead for the Crown Prince or smooth matters over?

This was where the advantage of a family banquet became obvious. If the full court of civil and military officials had been present while His Majesty questioned the Crown Prince like this, a whole crowd of ministers would inevitably have stepped forward to protest the Crown Prince’s innocence, make excuses for him, and beg His Majesty to calm his anger.

Protecting the foundation of the state was instinctive for ministers. It was also one of the pillars that upheld the proper order between sovereign and subject. Under those circumstances, Zhao Jiulang, as head of all officials, would have been forced to speak.

But now he merely raised the half cup of wine remaining in his hand and quietly drank it. Then he picked up a piece of meat with his chopsticks, put it into his mouth to settle the wine, set down his chopsticks, folded his hands before him, and narrowed his eyes, looking as though that single cup had already carried him beyond the mundane world.

Count Pingye silently copied him.

Hands loosely clasped before his belly, eyes faintly unfocused, his spirit wandering beyond the heavens.

Sitting side by side, the two men entered that ethereal state almost at the same moment.

Anyone who did not know better might have thought the Great Yan Dynasty’s Chief Minister and its youngest Count ennobled for military merit had both started life as Qi Refiners.

At the center of the storm, however, the Crown Prince himself did not appear particularly flustered. He quietly kowtowed once more, then slowly straightened his back.

There was another old saying: if the sovereign wanted a minister dead, the minister had no choice but to die.

Between an emperor and an imperial prince, there was not only the bond of sovereign and subject, but also that of father and son. Bound by both relationships at once, a prince had no grounds on which to resist.

“This son is guilty. I have three crimes.”

The Crown Prince began to state his offenses.

Behind him, the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Princes remained kneeling with their foreheads pressed to the floor. At a time like this, the proper course was to make sure the fire did not spread to you.

Even Little Seventh, who ordinarily loved nothing more than acting adorable in front of Father, did not dare foolishly raise his head and flash one of his cute smiles.

“My first crime is that I have accomplished nothing in affairs of state. Though our Great Yan Dynasty has swallowed the lands of Jin like a tiger, the treasury stands empty, spending tomorrow’s grain today. This is my crime.”

At those words, Old Fourth and Old Fifth, kneeling in the row behind him, both turned their heads slightly toward Old Sixth.

Little Seventh had no idea why his brothers were all looking at Sixth Brother, but he obediently turned and looked at him too.

Everyone knew that the Ministry of Revenue was now Ji Chengjue’s territory.

With the Crown Prince bringing up the treasury, it was difficult not to suspect that his words were aimed at someone.

Ji Chengjue, however, remained as still as a mountain.

He had no need to explain the treasury’s true condition to anyone else. Even if he tried, most of them would not understand it, because most people in this world were idiots.

All that mattered was that Father knew the difference between a treasury with Ji Chengjue managing it and one without him.

When the Great Yan Dynasty first swallowed the Three Jin lands, it could have followed the methods of the Savages or the Chu and simply plundered them. Had it done so, there would have been almost no burden at all. The army could have stripped what it needed from the land, and Jin could even have been bled continuously to feed Yan proper.

But Father wanted lasting peace and order in Jin. He wanted Jin permanently incorporated into the territory of the Great Yan Dynasty. It sounded like nothing more than a change in policy, but in reality it transformed Jin from a source of net income into a source of net expenditure.

Instead of draining blood from Jin, Yan now had to transfuse blood into it, while also shouldering the military expenses of every garrison spread across the region.

Then there was trade.

Ever since the Great Yan Dynasty had marched south against Qian, the commercial environment had deteriorated at astonishing speed. In earlier years, Yan had occupied the crossroads between east and west and could make money simply by passing goods from one side to the other. That was no longer so easy.

At the same time, Father’s cavalry purge of the great clans would undoubtedly become a magnificent stroke in the history books, but everything had been done too quickly. The moment the great clans were crushed, the Great Yan Dynasty launched into a massive war. It was as though Yan had stabbed itself twice, then used the pain to drive itself mad enough to immediately go fight someone else.

It had won.

But the great clans had been an important part of the Great Yan Dynasty’s economy, politics, and culture. Whatever benefits or harms they had brought to the state, they had accounted for at least sixty percent of the whole structure.

Such an extreme reform by the blade had directly crippled much of the Great Yan Dynasty’s existing economic production and operation.

Put simply, the worsening commercial environment had caused Yan’s trade revenues to plummet, the enormous territory of Jin had become a colossal burden, and Yan itself was already running deficits and suffering disorder in its finances.

If Father had not realized that the Great Yan Dynasty’s finances would collapse if matters continued like this, why would he ever have dragged a former chief constable from Nan’an County back up and put him in charge of the treasury?

And given this rotten mess, Ji Chengjue had spent a little over a year keeping the lives of the Great Yan Dynasty’s common people reasonably stable, even if things were harder than before. The treasury might still be spending tomorrow’s grain today, but when Mao Mingcai submitted a memorial asking for funds to repair the Wang River works, the court could still squeeze out enough money to contribute.

Ji Chengjue thought he had already done a damned fine job.

Put anyone else in his position, and there was no chance they could have kept the bottom from falling out beneath Father’s “grand imperial ambitions.”

“My second crime is that I failed to serve Mother Empress diligently at her knee, causing her to pass away too soon. As her son, I was unfilial. This son is guilty.”

At the words “my second crime,” every prince kneeling behind him except Little Seventh raised his head in astonishment and stared at the Crown Prince.

Ji Chengjue included.

Earlier, Ji Chengjue had not thought the Crown Prince’s remarks about the treasury were aimed at him. On that matter, Ji Chengjue was taking the blame for Father. Striking that particular pot was the same as striking Father in the face.

Now it was clear.

The Crown Prince truly had not been targeting him.

He was targeting Father!

The Empress had died suddenly. The public explanation was illness, but what had caused that illness?

The Marquis of Jingnan had exterminated his own clan.

No one present could possibly believe that Emperor Yan had not known what the Marquis of Jingnan intended to do at the Tian Clan estate that night.

And yet Emperor Yan had still allowed the Empress to return home to visit her family.

After that day, terror had turned into illness. At times she was lucid; at times she was mad. She had been Mother of the Nation, yet she ended up in such a state. Perhaps, for her, continuing to live had become a torment in itself.

“My third crime is this: above me, I have failed to earn Father’s affection; among the officials, I have failed to win their support; below me, I have failed to earn my brothers’ trust. I have failed the position of the Eastern Palace. This son is guilty. For the sake of the Great Yan Dynasty through a thousand autumns and ten thousand generations, I ask to resign my position in the Eastern Palace!”

With that, the Crown Prince removed the gold-edged flying-dragon cap symbolizing his status as heir apparent, placed it before himself, and bowed all the way down.

At that moment, Count Pingye almost lost control of his expression.

He truly had not expected this.

He had thought Emperor Yan’s sudden demand that the Crown Prince confess his crimes was already the largest boulder anyone could throw into the pond.

Who could have guessed the Crown Prince would answer by throwing in something even bigger?

He was giving up the position of heir!

Count Pingye instinctively looked toward Ji Chengjue.

Ji Chengjue was trembling.

Yes.

Trembling.

Not from excitement.

His teeth were clenched.

He was afraid.

Everyone knew that in today’s Yanjing, Ji Chengjue’s Sixth Lord Faction and the Crown Prince were competing over the position of heir. Logically, if the Crown Prince were driven out of the Eastern Palace, Old Sixth taking his place would be almost a foregone conclusion.

Eldest Brother had married a Barbarian Princess. The fact that he was now being allowed to command troops again was already an extraordinary stroke of fortune.

Old Third had been crippled.

Old Fourth had lost the support of the Deng Clan and had sunk into despondency. To this day, he had not found any hope of returning to prominence.

Old Fifth was the most ordinary of them all and had never made much noise.

Little Seventh was too young. Unless Emperor Yan lived long enough to personally support him into adulthood, the simple principle that “a young sovereign leaves the state uncertain” was enough to keep him away from that seat.

Count Pingye slowly shifted his gaze toward the Chief Minister sitting beside him.

Zhao Jiulang was still “cultivating immortality.”

Count Pingye desperately wanted to lean over and remind him:

Hey. You’re the Chief Minister. The Crown Prince just resigned, and you’re pretending you didn’t hear him?

But Zhao Jiulang genuinely was pretending he had heard nothing.

If Zhao Jiulang was not speaking, there was even less reason for Count Pingye to open his mouth.

A moment later, Count Pingye adjusted his breathing and returned to meditation.

When you had no idea how to cross the swamp ahead, that was fine.

Just follow the senior in front of you.

You could hardly go wrong.

Emperor Yan’s gaze rested upon the Crown Prince for a long time.

In truth, the Crown Prince’s three crimes belonged less to the Crown Prince than they did to the Emperor himself.

The emptiness of the treasury came from Emperor Yan’s hunger for great achievements and his years of constant warfare.

The Empress’s death came from his own failure to cherish the wife who had shared his life.

For a time, rumors had even spread among the common people that the Empress’s death had been too sudden and suspicious. Some went so far as to speculate that His Majesty had arranged it to clear the road for the Sixth Prince. Otherwise, how could anyone explain the coincidence of the Empress dying immediately after the Sixth Prince’s wedding?

As for the third crime, the Crown Prince lacked Father’s affection, the officials’ support, and his brothers’ trust because the very position he occupied in the Eastern Palace was itself a signboard.

And the Emperor was the one who had erected that signboard.

The Eastern Palace was an enormous honor, but it was also a tremendous shackle.

You were the one who put me here.

After putting me here, you raised another younger brother to fight me.

And now you ask what I did wrong?

Why?

Why didn’t you simply make Old Sixth the Crown Prince?

After crushing the great clans beneath cavalry hooves, all you had to say was that the worthy should inherit rather than the eldest. Who in the civil and military court would have dared object?

Across all the ages, how many truly powerful Crown Princes had there ever been?

Admittedly, the Crown Prince’s reasoning sounded somewhat forced at first, but the facts truly did support it.

If the Commandery Princess were now his Crown Princess, if the Tian Clan still existed, if Mother Empress were still alive, then outside the court he would have the two great marquises of north and south answering his call, while inside the court he would possess the unassailable legitimacy of the eldest legitimate son.

He would have stood undefeated from the beginning. No matter how much Ji Chengjue schemed and struggled, he could never have threatened his position.

And all of those supports had been cut away personally by Father.

You lift me up.

Then you prune away every branch and leaf around me.

Then you ask me what my crime is.

On what grounds?

No one had expected the Crown Prince, who had been dispirited for so long, to erupt here and now.

Emperor Yan’s gaze slowly darkened.

He coughed twice.

Wei Zhonghe immediately offered tea.

Weariness appeared on Emperor Yan’s face.

But the tiger was not dead.

No matter how weary it appeared, no one dared reach out and touch its whiskers.

And an aging tiger could be even more terrifying.

“Crown Prince, do you know what your greatest crime is?”

“Father, please instruct me.”

“A ruler must possess a will that bends a hundred times and never breaks. He must have the bearing to stand alone even if Heaven and Earth collapse around him. Your ministers, your brothers, your people are all watching you. You cannot be cowardly. You do not even have the right to be cowardly. To put it another way, ministers may surrender. Common people may surrender. But a ruler—before whom is he supposed to bow his head? This is the dragon throne. The moment you sit upon it, you become a man alone. Other than growing old and dying in this chair, every other way of leaving it is a road to death! My Crown Prince, the heir of the Great Yan Dynasty—how can you be so fragile? How dare you be so cowardly!”

Count Pingye thought His Majesty was genuinely inhumane.

This way of raising sons, like keeping venomous insects in a jar and forcing them to devour one another, was nothing less than torture for the children.

Unfortunately, there was no one in this world who dared teach His Majesty how to raise his sons.

“Are you all dead? Put your second brother’s hat back on his head.”

Emperor Yan was angry.

His words specifically told one of the princes to put the Crown Prince’s hat back on him, so Wei Zhonghe did not step forward.

Naturally, neither of the two immortal-looking fellows seated off to the side had anything to do with it either.

The Fourth Prince remained kneeling without moving.

The Fifth Prince remained kneeling without moving.

Little Seventh obediently stood up.

His mother consort often told him that he had to listen to Father. Whatever Father told him to do, he should do.

So he ran forward and picked up the cap lying beside the Crown Prince.

As he prepared to place it on Crown Prince Brother’s head, he deliberately turned and looked toward Father.

He hoped to see praise in Father’s eyes.

The other brothers aren’t listening. Little Seventh is being good, right?

Instead, in Father’s eyes, he saw deep fury.

Little Seventh suddenly found it difficult to breathe. He immediately dropped the cap and fell back to his knees.

A child of the imperial house possessed certain instincts from birth, no matter how young he might be.

Little Seventh now understood why his other brothers had knelt there without moving.

The scene abruptly became painfully awkward.

At last, Ji Chengjue stood.

He had no idea whether this was the Crown Prince finally breaking in despair or a calculated retreat in order to advance.

Either way, Ji Chengjue was panicking.

Yes, he was useful now.

Normally, he could even use that usefulness to bargain with Father over certain matters. Father and son both understood the nature of those trades perfectly well.

But Father was still Father, and Ji Chengjue knew exactly how proud the man was in the deepest part of his heart.

Father would never submit to anyone.

Once a matter touched upon great principles of right and wrong, Ji Chengjue absolutely could not rely on his usefulness to provoke the dignity that belonged to an emperor.

That was what it meant to sit alone upon the throne.

Ever since having a son, Old Sixth had become much more afraid of death.

There was nothing shameful about being afraid to die.

Take that fellow surnamed Zheng sitting off to the side. He had always spoken openly and righteously about how afraid he was of dying.

He had even brought the Sword Saint with him when entering the capital, then taken the man all the way to the palace gates. If Wei Zhonghe had not intercepted the Sword Saint and arranged something else for him, Zheng Fan might genuinely have brought the Sword Saint into Chunfang Hall!

The other brothers had not moved because they understood exactly whom Father wanted to pick up that hat.

The Crown Prince had removed it, which was the same as vacating the Eastern Palace.

The man most likely to enter the Eastern Palace was therefore the man who had to pick it up.

Not to put it on his own head.

To put it back on the Crown Prince.

The message could not have been clearer.

The Crown Prince had been appointed by the Emperor of the Great Yan Dynasty.

Without his permission, if you wanted to stop being Crown Prince— impossible.

If you wanted to become Crown Prince— also impossible.

Ji Chengjue walked to the Crown Prince’s side and knelt.

He picked up the cap from the floor, brushed the dust from it with his hand, then very solemnly placed it back on the Crown Prince’s head.

Their eyes met.

There was no joy in the Crown Prince’s gaze.

No triumph.

Only calm.

Ji Chengjue realized that ever since the Empress died, the Crown Prince seemed to wear that same expression every time they met.

Old Sixth felt no pity.

They were fish in the same pond, all biting at hooks Father had deliberately thrown into the water.

Who had any right to pity whom?

Finally, Ji Chengjue turned toward Emperor Yan and bowed down.

Count Pingye watched everything unfold before him.

This was the imperial house in its rawest natural state.

To borrow a postmodern phrase, the desire for power had twisted the family ethics of their entire household.

If he could, Count Pingye truly wanted to pull out a canvas and paints right now and make a painting.

He would paint Emperor Yan’s expression, the Crown Prince’s expression, Ji Chengjue’s expression, and the expressions of the other princes kneeling below.

Naturally, he and the Chief Minister seated off to the side would have to be included as well.

As outsiders, the two of them could provide future viewers of the painting with a second perspective.

Something like:

Look at these two men seated to the side. Pay attention to their eyes and expressions. What can you infer from them?

Europe actually had a similar sort of painting.

But Count Pingye felt that painting was too simple and too direct. So direct that all it could evoke was a knowing smile.

That made it inferior.

Count Pingye slowly exhaled.

Then he glanced once more toward the “fellow cultivator” beside him.

Zhao Jiulang was making exactly the same movement.

And at the same time, Zhao Jiulang’s eyes also shifted toward him.

To tell the truth, Count Pingye could not decipher any meaning in Zhao Jiulang’s gaze.

At the same time, he was confident Zhao Jiulang had failed to decipher anything in his own.

Because there was no meaning in it at all.

At that moment, Emperor Yan spoke.

“Draft an edict.”

Wei Zhonghe immediately prepared brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, personally carried them to Zhao Jiulang’s table, removed the wine and dishes, and spread out the imperial edict and writing implements.

With the Chief Minister present, he naturally had to draft the wording himself.

“My health is poor, and I fear state affairs may be neglected. Therefore, from this day onward, the Crown Prince is commanded to oversee the state, take charge of the Grand Secretariat, and handle the affairs of government. Respect this.”

Zhao Jiulang’s brush flew across the page.

Count Pingye noticed that Zhao Jiulang wrote far more words than Emperor Yan had spoken.

That was basic professional skill.

An emperor could speak with elegant brevity, but when you drafted the actual edict, you had to add the proper official formulas and polished phrases to fill it out.

If the edict contained too few words, what would all the officials below have left to study, interpret, and ponder?

Once Zhao Jiulang finished, he set down his brush, lifted the edict, and gently blew across the ink. After inspecting it, he put it back down.

Wei Zhonghe immediately came over with the great seal and stamped it.

Ordinarily, an emperor’s decree would pass through the court.

But the Emperor of Yan of this generation was simply too powerful.

His decree was the will of Heaven in the Great Yan Dynasty.

From that moment onward, the Crown Prince formally assumed authority to oversee the state and take general charge of government affairs.

Then another scene unfolded that made Count Pingye’s urge to return to his old profession and paint stronger than ever.

Ji Chengjue shuffled around on his knees until he faced the Crown Prince.

The Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Princes did the same.

All of the imperial princes bowed together, smiles blooming across their faces as they cried in unison:

“Congratulations to Crown Prince Brother on assuming oversight of the state.”

And at that moment, Count Pingye saw that Emperor Yan, seated in the place of honor, was also wearing the benevolent smile of a loving father.

The scene was so beautiful it was suffocating.

...

The banquet ended.

Wei Zhonghe personally escorted Count Pingye to the palace gates.

Before they parted, Wei Zhonghe said, “Count Pingye, the princess will stay tonight with Noble Consort Qin. You may rest easy.”

The princess had been formally invested today, so naturally she needed to spend a night inside the palace. It was a way of showing the Xiong Clan that the Ji Clan had not mistreated their daughter, and the etiquette was perfectly thorough.

Besides, Count Pingye had no residence in the capital.

In truth, the unspoken meaning was that until Count Pingye left Yanjing, the princess would probably spend most of her time in the palace.

Fortunately, Count Pingye would not remain in the capital long. Three or four days, perhaps.

Snow Sea Pass still needed him to preside over affairs there.

Count Pingye knew that nothing would really go wrong even if he was absent from Snow Sea Pass, since Liang Cheng was there.

Outsiders did not know that.

“Where does the Count intend to stay tonight?”

Before Zheng Fan could answer, Wei Zhonghe continued, “The Ministry of Works previously submitted a proposal to build a Count Pingye Residence in the capital, but His Majesty rejected it. His Majesty said at the time that Sixth Highness’s residence was large anyway, and since you would not be living in Yanjing permanently, constructing an entire Count’s residence for temporary use would be far too extravagant and wasteful.”

“Thank you, Grand Eunuch. I understand.”

Zheng Fan had intended to stay with the Sixth Prince anyway.

How should he put it?

Given his relationship with Ji Chengjue, there was truly no point trying to hide anything anymore.

Even if they tried, no one would believe them.

Wei Zhonghe left.

A short while later, Ji Chengjue also came out, with Eunuch Zhang attending him.

Little Seventh was still being raised in the palace. Old Fourth and Old Fifth were returning to the Princes’ Residence and did not use this gate.

When Ji Chengjue saw Zheng Fan, he bit his lip, took a deep breath, and smiled.

“Come on. Let me show you my new home.”

Count Pingye climbed into the carriage.

Eunuch Zhang drove.

The moment they entered the carriage, Ji Chengjue’s face twisted into a savage expression, then anger, then grievance.

Count Pingye immediately said, “Maybe that doesn’t hurt you, but it hurts me just watching it.”

Ji Chengjue raised a hand.

“No. Before, when you weren’t around, I’d want to act naturally and stop pretending, but there was no one around worth showing my real face to. Now you’re sitting right in front of me, and I wanted to relax a little and let some genuine emotion show. Turns out I’m not used to it anymore.”

“You’ve worn the mask so long you can’t take it off.”

“There you go again with those damned accurate metaphors.”

“Heh.”

“Well? Did you enjoy the show?”

“It was exhausting.”

“Exhausting?”

“More exhausting than fighting a battle.”

“Can’t be helped. We’ve lived like this since we were children.”

Count Pingye said, “The Crown Prince is overseeing the state now.”

“Mm.”

“Did he do it deliberately?”

“You mean, was resigning a retreat in order to advance?”

Count Pingye nodded.

Ji Chengjue waved his hand. “It doesn’t matter. Father is the one pushing him forward. Whether he wants to stand or lie down, the result is the same.”

“True.”

“Let him oversee the state, then. I imagine Father thinks I’ve been gaining too much momentum over the last half year and have pushed the Eastern Palace too hard, so he personally stepped in to restore the balance. Difficult, really. Brothers fighting among themselves is perfectly normal. The worst thing is when the father holding the bowl can’t keep it level.”

“Why does it feel like all your thunder in Yanjing makes very little rain?”

“That’s why, in my next life, I absolutely refuse to be reborn as an imperial prince. No matter how high you climb, you still have to live in fear. You’re free.”

“My freedom has nothing to do with helping you. The troops under me can’t do much for you from where they are. At most, if one day you realize you can’t keep playing this game, you can take your wife and child and come seek refuge with me. If the Crown Prince doesn’t offer enough to make it worth my while, I won’t hand you over.”

“Thank you. I’m deeply moved. Truly.”

“Heh.”

“By the way, you didn’t get enough to eat just now, did you?”

“Mm.” Count Pingye nodded. “I was too busy cultivating immortality with Zhao Jiulang.”

“I didn’t get enough either. When we get back, I’ll have Sisi personally cook a few dishes. We’ll have a proper drink.”

“Good.”

The carriage soon entered the Sixth Prince’s residence.

After stepping down and entering the rear quarters, He Sisi personally came out to welcome them. She curtsied to Count Pingye.

“Greetings, Count Pingye.”

“Greetings, Sister-in-law.”

Ji Chengjue rolled his eyes at Zheng Fan.

“Where’s your shame?”

“I’m older than you.”

“I’m an imperial prince.”

“The imperial prince who picked up the hat?”

“...” Ji Chengjue.

He Sisi covered her mouth and laughed.

“I knew Count Pingye would be coming today, so I put the soup on early. I’ll go stir-fry a few dishes now.”

“Sorry to trouble you, Sister-in-law.”

Servants came forward and set out a small table.

They ate in a place that was half room, half pavilion, with flowing water wrapping around three sides and green bamboo planted nearby. It was fresh and elegant.

Ji Chengjue looked rather proud.

“Well? Nice place, isn’t it?”

Count Pingye nodded.

“Easy to attract mosquitoes.”

Ji Chengjue picked up his teacup.

“I thought Father would ask you about the fighting in Jin during the banquet.”

“What fighting is there in Jin?”

“Whether to attack Qian first or Chu first. Father’s original intention was to attack Qian in two years at the latest.”

“Either one is fine. I don’t care which.” Zheng Fan took a sip of tea, then looked mildly surprised. “Great Marsh Fragrant Tongue?”

Ji Chengjue raised his head and stared at him.

“What kind of extravagant life are you living at Snow Sea Pass?”

He only possessed a tiny amount of this tea himself and normally could not bear to drink it. He had ordered it brewed today only because Zheng Fan was visiting.

“I drink it like cooling tea.”

Count Pingye smiled and drained his cup.

“Speaking seriously, this year the court needs your Snow Sea Pass to help make up the revenue. Those goods you’re producing really can make money.”

“No problem. The workshops should all be built by now. Production will start soon.”

“Mm. Whatever you lack or need over there, I’ll do my best to provide it. Everyone already knows the relationship between us, so I don’t care what gossip they spread. And now that you’ve married a princess, your reputation is more than sufficient. No one has the face to keep gossiping anyway. At the end of the day, when it comes to doing business, you really do know how.”

“Listen to you. The princess and I are genuinely in love. Our feelings are mutual.”

“...” Ji Chengjue.

“Oh, right. Do I still need to visit the Crown Prince tomorrow? He took charge of state affairs today. If I go to the Eastern Palace tomorrow, I’m worried outsiders will think I’m switching sides and turning against you. I might end up shorting the Sixth Lord Faction.”

“Shorting me? You mean hurting morale?”

“Right. Hurting the morale of your Sixth Lord Faction.”

“If the Crown Prince doesn’t send someone to summon you, don’t go. No amount of comfort from anyone else could possibly match what Father just gave him.”

“That makes sense. Then tomorrow I’ll go to Lakeheart Pavilion and see Third Highness. His Majesty gave me that token allowing me to enter and leave Lakeheart Pavilion a long time ago, and I’ve never used it once.”

“Rare to see you still remember him. How did you bring yourself to strike that hard back then?”

As he spoke, Ji Chengjue picked up a chopstick and jabbed it downward.

“Smack!”

Count Pingye shook his head.

He picked up a chopstick too and jabbed downward twice.

“It should have been... ‘Smack! Smack!’”

“Ah. Third Brother has been admiring the snow at Lakeheart Pavilion for three years.”

“He must have written quite a few good poems.”

“No matter how many he writes, none will be as good as that line of yours: ‘Laughing, we thirst to drink the blood of Yan slaves.’”

“It was clearly ‘Barbarian slaves’ or ‘Savage slaves.’ What, His Majesty knows that poem too?”

“Father likes it very much.”

“His Majesty has excellent taste.”

“After we eat, I’ll take you to see my son. You’re not getting out of being his godfather.”

“I’m not helping you raise your child.”

“What? You’re willing to help the Marquis of Jingnan raise his child, but not me?”

“That’s different.”

“What’s different? Just raise him the same way you raise the Marquis of Jingnan’s child.”

“Heh.”

Count Pingye broke into laughter.

Other children were not blessed with lives that hard to kill.

“Besides, that’s only the worst-case scenario. You just called Sisi your sister-in-law and took advantage of me. You can’t do that without showing some sincerity.”

“Ah.”

“If that day truly comes, I wouldn’t trust anyone else with him.”

“We finally meet again after all this time. Don’t say such unlucky things. I hope the next time I enter the capital, it’s to help you settle the struggle for the throne with one decisive blow, not to collect your corpse.”

“You’d come collect my corpse?”

“Of course. It would show everyone under Heaven how loyal and righteous Count Pingye is. Once I finished collecting your body, there’d still be plenty of time to bow to the new Emperor.”

“Beast.”

“Mm.”

“Actually, which state the Great Yan Dynasty attacks first isn’t up to Father. It depends on the Marquis of Jingnan. Once the Marquis starts fighting somewhere, there’s no possibility the Great Yan Dynasty won’t support him. I know the greatest problem you face at Snow Sea Pass right now. It’s room to expand. To the north are the snowfields. To the south is Zhennan Pass. Once Zhennan Pass is broken and you can enter Chu, the entire situation opens up.”

Count Pingye shook his head.

“What? Am I wrong?”

“You’re good at business, but you don’t understand war. My biggest problem right now is time. Give me another three years. Once Snow Sea Pass is properly built up, I can expand the troops under me from twenty thousand to forty thousand. Blind expansion would only leave the foundation unstable. Even the Marquis of Jingnan began with the Jingnan Army as his base and still spent more than ten years personally tempering it. Besides, Zhennan Pass is not easy to attack. We gained such an enormous advantage below Yupan City because the Chu were fighting among themselves and had no attention to spare for the outside, while the Savage main force collapsed too cleanly and left that army stranded alone beyond support. The Chu will not make that mistake again. Zhennan Pass alone has tens of thousands of defenders. Behind it and on both wings are more than a hundred thousand Imperial Clan Guards of Chu. Once war begins, Chu reinforcements will stream toward Zhennan Pass without end. Thanks to your father crushing the great clans beneath cavalry hooves, the nobles of Great Chu will never allow the Great Yan Dynasty to establish itself in Chu territory. In truth, Chu’s present situation resembles the Great Yan Dynasty’s in the old days. They may be constrained when fighting foreign wars, but when defending their own land, they will be extraordinarily aggressive. So if we want to attack Zhennan Pass, we would need to build fortified camps on a vast scale and prepare an enormous quantity of siege equipment. Auxiliary troops and laborers alone would number no fewer than three hundred thousand, and that’s a conservative estimate. The war would inevitably drag on. Every single day that such an army surrounded and assaulted the pass would consume a staggering amount of resources. This would be completely different from the days when the two great marquises of north and south fought a thousand li in ten days and smashed the Helian and Wenren clans one after another. The Chu would use the kind of defensive warfare they excel at, along with the strengths of Great Chu’s infantry, to grind us down to the death. To capture Zhennan Pass, the Great Yan Dynasty would need to mobilize an even larger force than it did to conquer Jin. The entire strength of the state would have to support the gamble. After all, beyond Zhennan Pass lies Chu’s Shanggu Commandery, open country once you break through. The Chu know perfectly well how important the pass is. If it could be attacked casually, the Marquis of Jingnan would have attacked it long ago. The reason he hasn’t is that this battle would have to be fought until the last breath. Any attempt to stop halfway would render every earlier sacrifice and effort meaningless. So I’m sorry. Unless His Majesty makes up his mind to attack Chu first and begins a full national mobilization in advance, a real war against Chu simply cannot begin.”

Ji Chengjue sighed.

“Precisely because Chu is difficult to fight, we should fight Chu first. Precisely because a war against Chu would drag on for so long, we need to fight Chu first. First, if we truly intend to pacify all under Heaven and unite the Xia lands, then naturally we should deal with the difficult enemy before the easy one. Second... I’m afraid Qian won’t stand up to a beating.”

“Qian truly doesn’t stand up to much of a beating, even if I’ve heard they’re training new armies now.”

The Zu Clan Army, the Zhong Clan Army, and the various newly appointed generals of the Qian court had all shown flashes of ability when the Yan army first invaded Qian.

But Qian’s Three Frontiers and the geography of its entire north were what they were. Unless Qian could somehow conjure two hundred thousand elite cavalry out of thin air and contest the Yan army in open battle, there was no changing the overall situation in which Qian could only passively take the beating.

Ji Chengjue said, “But Qian is resilient. Especially its Jiangnan region. The population is incredibly dense and the land immensely wealthy. It would be very easy for the war to turn into a quagmire.”

Count Pingye smiled.

He took out his iron case, removed a mint, and tossed it into his mouth.

“You might as well admit that if we accidentally beat Qian so badly the whole state collapses, your hopes for the throne are finished.”

“A man needs an excuse, doesn’t he? I’m not thinking about the throne. I’m thinking about the bigger picture.”

“Hypocrite.”

“I learned from you.”

“Enough, enough. Let’s stop talking about affairs of state.”

Ji Chengjue reached into Count Pingye’s iron case, took a mint, put it in his mouth, and chewed.

“When are you planning to have a child?”

Count Pingye shook his head.

“You’re showing off.”

“Have one, Old Zheng. A man becomes completely different once he has a child.”

“Soon.”

The Fourth Lady had already promised him. By the time he returned from this trip, her injuries should have fully healed.

“Once you have a child, you can’t help wanting to give him everything good in the world.”

“I can understand that.”

“Once you have a child, you finally have a true attachment in this world. A root.”

When he heard the words “a root,” Count Pingye’s mouth opened slightly.

After a moment, he said slowly:

“Believe me. I need a root even more than you do.”

The atmosphere gradually grew warm.

Earlier, the two grown men had been discussing war and affairs of state.

Now they were talking about children and family.

They shifted between the two with complete ease.

And they were about to become even more comfortable.

“Promise me that for your godson’s sake, if the day ever comes, you’ll treat him well. You can imitate your brother-in-law, become Regent, then try to leave him some dignity.”

“Mm. And after you strip me of military command, throw me into death row, and prepare to exterminate my household, have my godson bring me one last meal. Make the dishes generous. I can do without wine, but there has to be tobacco.”

Ji Chengjue nodded.

“I will.”

“Bitch.”

“Heh.”

“Fine, then I’ll learn from Dorgon.”

“Who’s Dorgon?”

“The name of a king in the West. He was a Regent too.”

“And then?”

“After he died, they dug him up and flogged his corpse.”

“That’s difficult to avoid.”

At that moment, He Sisi personally carried in the dishes and placed them on the low table.

Dorgon Zheng subconsciously looked at He Sisi a few extra times.

Then he immediately turned his head away.

He could only blame himself for getting too deeply into character.

“Drinking?” He Sisi asked.

Ji Chengjue nodded.

“Bring up all the good wine I’ve been aging in the cellar. Today I’m drinking with him until neither of us can stand. Tomorrow I’ll deliberately skip court so everyone understands exactly what the relationship between Count Pingye and me looks like.”

“Very well.”

He Sisi went to fetch the wine.

Ji Chengjue handed Zheng Fan a pair of chopsticks.

“Try it. My wife’s specialty—red-braised pork.”

Count Pingye picked up a piece.

“Delicious.”

“Right? Can your woman cook?”

“Better than this. Let’s not compare women. Yours is nowhere close.”

“The princess is that capable?”

Count Pingye shook his head.

“Not the princess.”

“Heh. You’re something else. You hide one woman at home and still go outside to steal a princess.”

“She helped me steal the princess. She entered Chu with me.”

When men started boasting about their wives, not one of them would willingly retreat a single step.

And in Zheng Fan’s heart, the Fourth Lady was perfect.

Ji Chengjue frowned.

“I’m jealous.”

“Mm. You should be.”

“But I already have a son. My son will be learning to walk soon!”

“Arrows that loose quickly do tend to hit the target more easily.”

“You’re jealous.”

“Sorry. I genuinely can’t bring myself to envy that. Keep being proud of yourself.”

“Seriously, Old Zheng. Let me say something from the heart. Listen.”

“So everything you said before was bullshit?”

“Listen seriously. Didn’t you marry a princess of Great Chu? How about this: in the future, let my son enfeoff you as Prince of Chu.”

Count Pingye immediately shook his head.

“No.”

“Why are you so greedy!”

“How about this? I’ll say something from the heart too. You listen.”

“Fine. Say it.”

“In the future, I’ll enfeoff your son as Prince of Yan.”

[End of Chapter 488]