Chapter 498: - Slave

After Nian Yao drank the wine, even the way he referred to himself changed from “this slave” to “I.”

The change in his bearing was especially obvious.

The trembling household slave from moments ago was gone. In his place stood the General-in-Chief of Great Chu.

For a moment, the Eighth Prince found it difficult to breathe. The “slave” before him now gave him the same feeling he had once felt when facing Qu Tiannan.

This was, after all, a commander who had once held two hundred thousand of Great Chu’s Imperial Clan Guards. Even if he was presently idle in Ying Capital, neither that experience nor those qualifications could be erased.

Jing Renli lowered his head slightly. In truth, the moment he learned the flower boat opposite belonged to Nian Yao, he had quietly retreated into a corner and stopped speaking.

Other people could look down on Nian Yao’s origins.

Jing Renli could certainly put on some airs before Nian Yao too. Whatever else might be true, his surname was Jing.

But in the end, it had been Nian Yao who once gave him a push and created the opportunity for a collateral descendant of the Jing Clan like him to enter this circle.

Whether by sentiment or reason, Jing Renli could not possibly treat Nian Yao with disrespect.

And there was another point.

Others might not understand Nian Yao.

Jing Renli did.

He knew just how seasoned and ruthless the man’s methods truly were.

A good birth could let someone accomplish twice as much with half the effort in officialdom.

A poor birth usually meant spending twice the effort for half the result.

The fact that Nian Yao had risen to such a high position despite being born a household slave was itself proof of his ability.

Nian Yao pointed at the boatmen aboard the flower boat.

“Take us to shore.”

That single gesture sent a stabbing chill from the boatmen’s foreheads all the way down their spines. They immediately began rowing toward the bank.

Once the flower boat reached shore and settled, Nian Yao straightened his clothing, adjusted the ornaments at his waist, then lightly swept his sleeves and stepped ashore.

Zhao Cha watched Nian Yao and the Phoenix Nest Inner Guard walk away.

He sneered.

“Heh. That slave really knows how to put on airs.”

The Eighth Prince picked up the wine pot and filled the cup in front of Zhao Cha.

Zhao Cha smiled.

“Many thanks, Your High—”

Splash!

The Eighth Prince picked up Zhao Cha’s cup and threw the wine directly into his face.

Si Kang stared in shock.

Jing Renli sat calmly with both hands resting in his lap.

Zhao Cha blinked.

He did not wipe away the wine.

He simply let it run down his face and drip from his chin.

The Eighth Prince silently filled Zhao Cha’s cup again.

This time, he did not throw it.

Instead, he said:

“In an army, once something happens, the soldiers look to the File Leader. The File Leader looks to the Squad Leader. The gaze keeps moving upward until it reaches the commander of their own force, and all those commanders look together toward the man in supreme command. Everyone else may panic. The supreme commander cannot. He is the army’s stabilizing pillar. He must remain steady. Great Chu calls such a man a Pillar of State. What does that mean? A pillar upon which the state itself rests. Look around the Mi River. How many powerful officials and nobles are gathered here? How many ordinary people are watching this place? Earlier, Deng Man came across the water in his Fire-Phoenix-and-Burning-Cloud robe, using qinggong to skim the surface. With clothing like that and movement like that, how many nearby people do you think turned their eyes this way? Now imagine what would happen if, a moment later, they saw Nian Yao so panicked that he leapt ashore before the flower boat even docked, then rushed frantically toward the imperial palace. Every sort of guess and rumor would erupt immediately. Hearts would grow unsettled, and unrest would follow. Nian Yao did the right thing. Understand?”

Zhao Cha nodded.

“I understand.”

The Eighth Prince smiled, took out a handkerchief, and wiped Zhao Cha’s face for him.

Zhao Cha remained seated and let him do it.

“I was born into the imperial house. You were born into the Zhao Clan. As long as Great Chu still stands, the two of us can continue living in wealth and comfort. We can indulge in music and women, horses and hounds, and amuse ourselves however we like. There is nothing wrong with being rice worms. But we absolutely cannot be stupid worms.”

Zhao Cha nodded again.

“I understand. Thank you for your instruction, Your Highness.”

“Then what should we do next?”

Zhao Cha answered, “Return home and tell the family about this?”

The Eighth Prince shook his head and sighed.

He was clearly dissatisfied with the answer.

Then he pointed at Jing Renli, who was standing to the side.

“You tell him.”

Jing Renli immediately pointed toward the boatmen.

“Take us back out onto the river.”

The boatmen obeyed and rowed the flower boat back onto the Mi River until it once again drew alongside Nian Yao’s boat.

At this point, when they saw the other boat returning, Nian Yao’s brother-in-law and the burly servant were both kneeling flat on the deck, trembling uncontrollably.

Nian Yao had already told them who owned that other flower boat.

When they remembered all the arrogant words and filthy obscenities they had spat earlier, then saw the boat returning now, it felt as though Heaven itself had collapsed upon them.

Jing Renli climbed across onto their flower boat.

He wrapped an arm around Nian Yao’s brother-in-law and smiled.

“Come. Get down there. His Highness would like to invite you for a drink.”

The brother-in-law, still dazed, allowed himself to be led aboard the Eighth Prince’s flower boat.

Jing Renli quietly retreated to the side again.

The Eighth Prince personally stood, tugged Nian Yao’s brother-in-law by the sleeve, and had him sit.

At the same time, he smiled warmly.

“Meeting is fate. It’s like what those spring girls behind the red curtains like to say: hitting means affection, scolding means love. Still, brother, you really should fix that foul mouth of yours. If you’re going to curse people in the future, at least don’t make it so filthy.”

“Yes, yes, yes. Your Highness, my crime deserves ten thou—”

The Eighth Prince affectionately patted him on the shoulder.

Then he looked at Zhao Cha sitting opposite.

“What are you standing there for? Pour our new friend some wine. From now on, we’ll all play together.”

A warm, refined smile immediately appeared on Zhao Cha’s face.

He rose and poured the wine.

Before long, laughter and cheerful voices once again filled the flower boat.

The Eighth Prince even composed a set of lyrics on the spot and loudly recited them.

Gradually, the noise from the nearby flower boats and the platforms along the riverbanks began returning as well.

...

On the other side, Nian Yao rejected Deng Man’s suggestion that they ride fast horses into the palace.

Instead, he climbed into his own family carriage.

Inside, Nian Yao said to the Phoenix Nest Inner Guard, one of the Regent’s trusted men:

“Stool, don’t panic. Panicking won’t help. The more serious the situation, the less you can afford to panic. The more you panic, the easier it is to ruin things. I know you had talent for martial arts from the time you were a brat, but today was not the time to show off that ‘floating across water’ qinggong of yours.”

Deng Man had also belonged to Fourth Master’s household and was only one generation younger than Nian Yao. When Deng Man was little, he had loved following Nian Yao around everywhere, so there was little restraint between the two of them when they spoke.

“Yes, Brother Nian. I was reckless.”

“You just haven’t been through enough yet. Come. Tell me the details now, so we don’t waste more words once we get before His Highness.”

“Right now, all we know is that the Emperor of Yan has issued an edict to campaign against Chu. We don’t know anything else yet. Our people in Yanjing risked their lives getting the message back. To make sure it reached Ying Capital as early as possible, we lost many brothers along the line through Yan and Jin.”

The State of Yan had its Secret Intelligence Department.

The State of Qian had its Silver-Armored Guard.

The State of Chu had Phoenix Nest.

Inside their own countries, these organizations served as secret-police yamens, helping their sovereigns control the state and monitor the bureaucracy.

At the same time, they were also responsible for gathering military intelligence abroad.

To some extent, foreign infiltration and intelligence gathering were actually their true primary duties.

Of the three, Qian’s Silver-Armored Guard had performed best.

On the intelligence front, it had never truly fallen behind and had even left the Yan Secret Intelligence Department badly embarrassed on several occasions.

Unfortunately, Qian’s army itself was too miserable. The lives sacrificed by so many Silver-Armored Guards had largely gone to waste.

The Emperor of Yan had issued his decree openly in Yanjing before officials and commoners alike.

There was no need to conceal such a thing, and no way to conceal it.

The same was true of the frantic general war mobilization now taking place throughout the Great Yan Dynasty and the Three Jin lands.

This was, after all, a war between states.

The difference lay only in timing.

If one side learned what was happening earlier and could respond earlier, the resulting situation could change enormously.

That was why Phoenix Nest’s agents had been forced to violate the rules and principles governing deep cover in a foreign state in order to send the news back to Ying Capital as quickly as possible.

The Secret Intelligence Department had followed the exposed threads and dug up many of their lines.

But at least the message had arrived in time.

Here, “in time” meant the absolute fastest they could possibly manage.

In reality, with the Great Yan Dynasty already beginning its total war mobilization, Chu would inevitably be slower to respond.

Fortunately, Chu was the defending side and therefore had more room to maneuver.

Nian Yao frowned.

As a general, he despised the feeling of entering a war blind.

But he also knew there was no use demanding too much.

Phoenix Nest had already done everything it could.

“The most urgent thing now is learning the scale of Yan’s deployment. We absolutely must find that out as quickly as possible.”

“Don’t worry, Brother Nian. I think more information will arrive soon.”

Because of the distance involved, there was no way to suddenly increase their intelligence effort from Ying Capital now.

They could only hope the Phoenix Nest Inner Guards already operating there could continue sending several more messages back.

“Brother Nian, what do you think this time...?”

Nian Yao shook his head.

“You know Count Pingye, the man who came into Chu before and stole away the princess?”

“Of course. Allowing him to leave was a humiliation for Phoenix Nest.”

“When he was still serving as Garrison Commander of a fortress in Yinlang Commandery, he repeatedly led troops south into Qian without military orders. He attacked Mianzhou City twice.”

“Brother Nian, I know that. Zheng Fan’s record is already memorized in my head.”

“No. What I mean is that the Zheng Fan of those days was like Tian Wujing is now. Back then, Zheng Fan commanded too few troops. So every time he rode south, even though he managed to snatch military achievements and leave the Qian looking miserable, Qian’s Three Frontiers still remained the Three Frontiers. Tian Wujing is the same. The last time I faced Tian Wujing, I had already judged that he could not possibly launch a genuine assault against the pass. That was why I could remain relatively calm. I knew that as long as I held steady, even if Tian Wujing were the God of War reborn, he could hardly enter Zhennan Pass alone and assassinate me inside it, could he?”

“Brother Nian, you mean...?”

Nian Yao pursed his lips.

“But once the full Yan army marched south, the Three Frontiers that Zheng Fan alone could have gnawed at for three or five years without taking were instantly torn open by an enormous breach. Yan cavalry even reached the walls of Shangjing City. By the same reasoning, last time Tian Wujing was only playing around. Both of us understood perfectly well that no mountain of corpses or sea of blood would appear beneath Zhennan Pass. But this time, the Emperor of Yan himself has issued the decree. That is completely different. One is a frontier general scratching an itch and using troops on his own. The other is an entire state throwing everything it has into war. The distance between those two things is a chasm!”

At that point, Nian Yao slowly closed his eyes.

“Zhennan Pass absolutely cannot be lost.”

It was an obvious statement.

Originally, Chu and Yan had not even shared a border.

But after the Yan annexed Jin, they could now threaten Chu directly from north to south.

The cavalrymen of the Three Jin lands had once been incomparably proud as well.

They had still been beaten flat by the Yan.

Beyond Zhennan Pass lay Chu’s Shanggu Commandery, almost completely open country.

If the Yan broke through Zhennan Pass, their cavalry could immediately pour outward and sweep across the land, using Shanggu Commandery’s terrain to tear a huge chunk of flesh straight from Chu’s body.

Nian Yao slowly opened his eyes again.

He raised a hand and rubbed between his brows.

“This time, it depends on who places his chips on the gambling table faster, and who is willing to bet more ruthlessly. The problem is that I know the Emperor of Yan’s word is law in Yan. With the great clans gone, unless Li Liangting or Tian Wujing suddenly rebels, there is no person and no force in the entire State of Yan capable of challenging his authority...”

His eyes gradually reddened.

His expression became faintly savage.

“What frightens me most is that the Yan might truly dare stake everything. Or rather, judging by the time it took the military report to reach us, the Yan may already be doing exactly that...”

Nian Yao paused.

His teeth clenched.

Then he said, word by word:

“While our ruler still has to summon all the great nobles of the realm first, discuss the matter with them, and bargain over how many soldiers, how much grain, and how many laborers each house will contribute!”

The power of the Chu court had indeed grown stronger during the Regent’s rise through the rebellions of the imperial princes.

Several noble houses that had backed rival princes had been purged.

But overall, the power of Chu’s nobility remained immense and impossible to ignore.

If the Yan truly launched a full war between states, the strength of the imperial court alone would not be enough.

“Brother Nian, these aren’t words men like you and me should be saying,” Deng Man said with concern in his eyes.

Nian Yao smiled.

“I know.”

A moment later, Deng Man seemed to notice something.

He looked outside the carriage.

“Brother Nian, this isn’t the road to the imperial palace.”

“I’m going home first. I’ll change into court dress, then enter the palace to see His Highness.”

“But...”

“A little time won’t matter. Same thing I told you earlier. Steady. No matter what the Yan are doing, we cannot throw our own footing into chaos.”

“But when His Highness sent me to find you, he never gave any such instruction.”

“Because His Highness knows I understand what should be done.”

The carriage entered the General-in-Chief’s residence.

When Nian Yao stepped down, he said to Deng Man:

“You return to the palace first. I’ll follow shortly. Leave through the rear.”

“Yes.”

Deng Man had no choice but to leave by the back way and return to the palace to report.

Nian Yao went to the rear residence.

Inside, his wife, Madam Sun, was playing with their son and daughter.

The moment she saw Nian Yao return, Madam Sun stood.

“Well, look at you. You actually dared hide it from me and take that bastard out to play.”

The “bastard” was Madam Sun’s younger brother.

Nian Yao shook his head.

“You can’t keep him locked inside the residence forever.”

“He has no sense of rules. This is Ying Capital. Once people back home learned you were the General-in-Chief, he started bullying men and taking women. Even the County Magistrate didn’t dare control him. That’s why I sent people to drag him to Ying Capital in the first place. And now you take him outside to make trouble?”

“Ah.”

Nian Yao sighed.

Then he kicked a bamboo ball lying on the ground far across the courtyard.

His son and daughter immediately ran after it.

Taking advantage of the opening, Nian Yao leaned over and kissed Madam Sun on the cheek.

Madam Sun recovered and immediately pinched him hard.

She spat:

“What madness has gotten into you?”

“Heh-heh. My wife looked beautiful. I couldn’t help myself.”

They were already an old married couple, but Madam Sun’s face still reddened slightly.

“Where is that bastard? Why didn’t he come back with you?”

“I came back first. I’m changing clothes and going into the palace to see Master. He’s still drinking on the Mi River.”

“There are nobles everywhere on the Mi River. How could you leave him there alone? What if he offends—”

“My dear wife, your husband nearly died God knows how many times earning all these achievements outside. Someone ought to help our family put on a little swagger. Otherwise I always feel like I got cheated.”

“What kind of logic is that?”

“The logic of my Nian family.”

“You’re spoiling him.”

“I’m not spoiling him. I’m spoiling myself. I’ve spent my whole life being a slave. Even after becoming General-in-Chief, there are habits I still can’t change. So when I look at him, it feels a little like looking at another version of myself.”

“You’re saying strange things again. What’s wrong with being a slave? Our family was born as private household slaves of Master’s house. Other people couldn’t envy us enough even if they tried.”

“Yes, yes, my dear wife. But your little brother is my little brother. How could I not treat him well? Enough, enough. Hurry and find my official robes. We can’t keep Master waiting.”

With Madam Sun’s help, Nian Yao changed into his official robes.

Then he mounted a horse and openly rode toward the palace gates with the private retainers and guards of his residence surrounding him.

Xiong Liqing had once said that compared with the imperial palace of Chu, the imperial palace of Yan looked shabby.

That was true.

The palace walls and great gates of Chu gave off an air of opulence and grandeur taken almost to the extreme.

Nian Yao already possessed the privilege of riding a horse inside the palace.

Even so, he voluntarily dismounted at the gates and entered on foot.

He had a premonition.

This time, the mountain rain was truly coming, and the wind had already filled the tower.

For some reason, entering the palace today made him unexpectedly sentimental.

He remembered that two years ago, after he captured the Second Prince and brought him back, he had once asked Master:

Master, why don’t we simply imitate Yan and clean out all this damned nonsense inside our own state too?

Master had asked him:

Why has this slave of mine suddenly grown such a big mouth today?

And he had answered:

Because this slave believes Master should have the final word in all of Great Chu and become the true supreme ruler of Great Chu!

Later, the Yan had suddenly smashed Jin apart.

That forced many of the Regent’s internal plans to be abandoned.

Instead, he first had to send Qu Tiannan north with an army.

Nian Yao reached the great hall.

He looked up at the golden brickwork and jade-green tiles.

His eyes narrowed.

In truth, that day, he had not told Master the whole truth.

The real reason Nian Yao had suddenly asked that question was simple.

In his eyes, if all those damned nobles inside Great Chu were swept away, then he, Nian Yao, would no longer be a slave.

[End of Chapter 498]