Chapter 540: - Rebellious Intent

The Pixiu, deliberately restrained by its rider, plodded forward at a slow pace, forced to watch warhorse after warhorse thunder past as their riders urged them onward.

After a while, with the cries of battle ahead still ringing fierce and loud, Count Pingye simply pulled on the reins and had the Pixiu turn around.

No farther.

Too dangerous.

The Sword Saint had already gone home to his wife, child, and warm kang bed. Without him at his side, Count Pingye truly did lack a sense of security on the battlefield.

Especially now, when the fighting inside West Mountain Fort was still raging. It might continue all the way into the night. In a place like this, it would be far too easy to run into scattered Chu soldiers or small bands of stragglers.

Forget it.

A man worth a thousand gold does not sit beneath a dangerous eave.

There was no reason to take the risk.

Count Pingye returned to the gate. Xue San, his legs still clamped awkwardly together, was continuing to bandage Fan Li, vividly demonstrating the profound friendship shared between Demon Kings.

After dismounting the Pixiu, Count Pingye climbed onto the wall.

This stretch of wall had borne witness to Heaven knew how many clashes between soldiers from both sides over the past several days. Now corpses lay piled everywhere, making even the stairs difficult to climb.

But in the end, Zheng Fan made it up.

A group of wounded Yan soldiers were sitting on the wall, bandaging one another. The moment they saw Count Pingye appear, they tried to rise and salute.

“Sit, sit.”

Count Pingye pressed one hand downward, then walked on toward the gate tower.

Part of the gate tower had been destroyed. Arrows covered the surviving structure, and scorched marks blackened the wood and stone.

A’Ming dragged a chair out from inside.

Count Pingye did not sit immediately. He first tore down a nearby Chu military banner and used it to wipe the chair clean before lowering himself into it.

A’Ming then dragged over a second chair, wiped it with the same sort of banner, and sat down. From his pockets, he produced peanuts, sunflower seeds, and several other snacks.

Count Pingye looked at him in surprise.

“You don’t strike me as someone who eats this kind of thing.”

“I thought Master might want something to snack on while commanding.”

Count Pingye shook his head. “The wind was so strong on that platform. How was I supposed to crack sunflower seeds up there? Besides, it wouldn’t have been conspicuous enough.”

“What, was I supposed to set up a guzheng for you?”

“Hah. You know, that actually reminds me. When I get the chance, I ought to learn guzheng or pipa. Next time I run into a scene like this, I can sit there and play *Ambush from Ten Sides* to suit the mood.”

When it came to showing off, the Demon Kings and their Master were professionals.

More importantly, they analyzed their performances afterward, summarized what could be improved, and pursued ever better effects without falling into cliché.

Count Pingye grabbed a handful of peanuts and began shelling them slowly.

The cries of battle inside the fort still rose and fell, but West Mountain Fort had effectively been taken.

With both East Mountain Fort and West Mountain Fort gone, it was as though a crab had had both of its great claws torn away.

The defensive system Chu had established north of Zhennan Pass had lost its support and its anchor.

Yan could now openly push its main forces forward, concentrate superior strength, and clear out the remaining forts and camps one by one. Stripping the entire region north of Zhennan Pass bare and forcing Chu influence back to the line of the pass was now only a matter of time.

But this was only the beginning.

Judging by his previous conversation with Tian Wujing, the Prince of Jingnan had probably never intended to batter his way head-on through Zhennan Pass.

East Mountain Fort and West Mountain Fort had already been this difficult to take.

Zhennan Pass was a mighty strategic pass famous enough to stand beside Snow Sea Pass, and behind it waited a seemingly endless stream of Chu reinforcements.

Trying to chew through that would be far too difficult.

And now, there did not seem to be any need.

The real reason they had to uproot all these forts and military camps was to clear the field and make the board wider.

Keep the land and lose the men, and both land and men are lost.

Keep the men and lose the land, and both land and men are gained.

That, more or less, was the theme of the Prince of Jingnan’s campaign against Chu.

Only the lesson had not been prepared for Yan.

It had been prepared for the Chu.

A mighty pass stood where it stood. Its advantage lay in its towering strength.

Its weakness also lay in that same towering strength.

A pass had no legs.

It could not move.

From beginning to end, it could only remain where it had been built.

Just as when Tian Wujing had led his army into Jin, campaigning a thousand li in ten days and smashing the entire main strength of the Helian and Wenren clans, half the Jin lands had afterward practically fallen at a proclamation.

Even Zheng Fan’s own Shengle City had surrendered early.

Its later reversals had come from local snakes squabbling among themselves.

Outside the gate tower, a command banner had been planted.

When Count Pingye entered the fort, a number of Li Fusheng’s personal guards had accompanied him.

Even when Li Fusheng went off to fight personally, he had not forgotten to order part of his guard to remain behind for protection.

And according to army custom, wherever Count Pingye went, the command banner was to be planted there as well.

“Heh. Enough. I’m not eating anymore.”

Count Pingye dusted off his hands.

In the end, he could not imitate Li Fusheng’s particular sense of enjoyment, sitting there drenched in blood while eating side dishes and drinking the strong liquor used to treat wounds.

It was not that corpses or the surrounding environment disgusted him.

He simply could not find that particular mood within himself.

“Sssht... glug, glug, glug...”

Count Pingye turned around and saw A’Ming draining blood into a wineskin.

The corpse wore a fairly good set of armor and had probably been some kind of officer. The fact that A’Ming had chosen him meant the man’s cultivation in life must not have been too poor.

Once A’Ming finished, he tossed the body aside.

“I say, couldn’t you get some more out of him?”

There was clearly still blood left.

“Master, even the blood inside the human body differs depending on where it comes from and what part it is. I’ve already taken the best portion. What remains doesn’t have the same flavor.”

“Wasteful.”

A’Ming sat down on the threshold and took a drink. His tongue slid across the corner of his mouth, licking away the faint trace of blood there.

That posture.

That expression.

Pretty-boy idols in later generations would need layers of makeup and carefully arranged lighting to achieve this particular image.

A’Ming possessed it naturally, from the inside out.

“I heard Fourth Lady say that back in Tiger Head City, some wealthy older woman once wanted to keep you?”

A’Ming shook his head.

“Never happened.”

“It did!”

Xue San came hobbling in, still walking slightly bowlegged.

“Master, back then all of us told him he should just go along with it. Swindle some gold and silver from her, maybe some connections too, so we could establish ourselves in Tiger Head City. But he refused. In the end, we had to rely on the Blind Man handing out talisman water before we earned our first real pot of gold.”

A’Ming lifted his eyelids and glanced at Xue San.

Xue San, who had already advanced, glared right back.

He was not afraid of A’Ming in the slightest now.

That same confidence was why he had dared tell Fan Li the truth right in front of his face earlier.

But Fan Li had been absolutely shameless about it.

At that moment, a commotion came from outside.

An Assistant General approached with a group of men. They had captured a man with disheveled hair who wore blue-green armor.

Thud!

The prisoner was thrown to the ground.

The Assistant General saluted Zheng Fan.

“Count, this man should be Zhou Huaizong.”

Zhou Huaizong was one of the Zhou Clan’s leading figures and Shi Yuantang’s adopted son.

Once the fort fell, Chu officers like him naturally became valuable catches.

They had landed a big fish.

But Li Fusheng was Heaven knew where inside the fort, fighting to his heart’s content with his personal guards, and no one could find him. Since the command banner was planted here anyway, the Assistant General simply brought the prisoner to Count Pingye.

Count Pingye nodded.

“Record the merit.”

“Thank you, Count!”

The Assistant General led his men away.

The fighting was not yet finished.

Neither was the fishing.

Zhou Huaizong’s arms had been bound behind his back. With difficulty, he raised his head and looked at Zheng Fan.

“You... you’re Zheng Fan?”

“This Count is.”

“Animal! Beast!”

Zhou Huaizong began cursing at him furiously.

He was wounded, and several of his joints had been dislocated. There was no chance of him lunging up from the ground now.

But the fury in his voice came unmistakably from the bottom of his heart.

“Heh.”

Count Pingye merely smiled.

Shi Yuantang had already died at his hands. Zheng Fan himself would also receive merit for the battle at West Mountain Fort.

Faced with a fish this small, he genuinely could not summon much interest.

“A gentleman may be killed, but not humiliated! Yan dog, one day you too will meet a terrible end! The evil you commit today will surely bear bitter fruit in your future!”

“Oh? Listen to Buddhist sutras often?”

Zhou Huaizong continued glaring viciously at Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan had already lost interest.

If he had not taken that medicine the other day, and if Shi Yuantang had not already been determined to die, perhaps Zheng Fan would have enjoyed sitting down with that old Pillar of State of Great Chu, sharing a drink and talking properly.

Too many coincidences had made their meeting painfully brief.

“My adoptive father’s remains... his remains...”

The fort had fallen, and the man was still thinking about that.

One could only say Shi Yuantang had truly done well in educating the younger generation.

And this was merely an adopted son.

“Sorry. They were probably trampled into meat paste a long time ago.”

“You... beast! You fucking beast!”

“The victor is king, the defeated become bandits. This Count does not believe he did anything wrong.”

Technically, Zheng Fan had only told Fan Li to conduct the funeral procession.

The yangge dance today had been Fan Li adding his own improvisation.

There was no need to explain that to outsiders.

In truth, even among the Yan, desecrating the corpse of an enemy commander would normally draw contempt.

But first, the Prince of Jingnan had already slaughtered prisoners below Yupan City and absorbed the overwhelming majority of public criticism.

Second, the Chu had come out of the fort.

Then the fort had fallen.

What might otherwise have been called desecration of the dead had transformed into a stratagem that broke the enemy’s will.

People judged by results.

That had been true since ancient times.

Now not only would no one despise the act, many would sincerely admit:

Damn, that worked.

Zhou Huaizong stared at Zheng Fan.

There was no longer any possibility of communication between them.

Not that he had intended to communicate in the first place.

The gulf between their values was simply too wide.

Chu pursued ancient ritual and adored romance.

When nobles within Chu fought one another, an enemy noble captured alive was supposed to be treated well and eventually returned. A noble killed in battle was to be properly buried, or his body preserved and sent back to his family.

So Count Pingye’s actions had truly touched a raw nerve among the Chu.

It looked civilized.

And indeed, that was all it did.

Xiong Liqing had once explained these rules of war to Zheng Fan late one night.

Zheng Fan had merely smiled and said:

“In your Chu, only nobles count as people.”

Chu romance.

Chu ritual.

Chu morality.

All of it existed only within the noble class.

That was why even after Nian Yao reached the office of General-in-Chief, he still had to call himself a slave.

Count Pingye had no intention of planting some banner of universal equality in this world.

That did not prevent him from criticizing the system or looking down on it.

Just as he was about to have Zhou Huaizong dragged away before the man’s endless shouting became too irritating, a Lieutenant Commander arrived with another prisoner.

This one, remarkably, still retained a trace of elegance.

If you wanted to judge whether a Chu man was truly disheveled, look at his hair.

The prisoner’s helmet had been removed, but the hair at both temples remained long, smooth, and neatly draped against his ears.

That meant he had already taken the time to fix his hair after being captured.

“Feng Yuanyang of Great Chu’s Feng Clan pays respects to Chief Commander Li!”

With that, he actually knelt before Count Pingye and saluted.

“Insolence! This is Count Pingye of my Great Yan!” the Lieutenant Commander barked.

Feng Yuanyang raised his head and looked at Zheng Fan again.

A smile unexpectedly appeared on his face.

“Imperial Son-in-Law?”

For some reason, Count Pingye immediately felt much more comfortable after seeing Feng Yuanyang.

He had honestly grown tired of loyal, unyielding commanders.

At last he had run into someone with a soft spine.

If every Chu man were loyal unto death, Great Yan’s iron cavalry would find the road ahead painfully hard on the teeth.

“Get up.”

“Thank you, Imperial Son-in-Law.”

The Lieutenant Commander said:

“Count, this man voluntarily led his personal guards in surrender.”

“Record merit for you as well.”

“Thank you, Count!”

The Lieutenant Commander withdrew with his men.

Count Pingye pointed at Feng Yuanyang.

“Give him a seat.”

Xue San dragged over a chair.

Feng Yuanyang sat down with the cultivated bearing of a noble and even took a moment to smooth the long hair beside his temples.

Zhou Huaizong stared at him and shouted:

“What are you doing? What are you doing!”

Feng Yuanyang seemed not to hear him at all.

Instead, he turned toward Count Pingye.

“If I had known Imperial Son-in-Law was here, Yuanyang would never have dared order any resistance. I would have opened the gates myself and asked to surrender. In my eyes, surrendering to Imperial Son-in-Law is not humiliating at all. It is the honor of my lifetime. After all, not everyone is qualified to become one of Imperial Son-in-Law’s defeated opponents.”

This man really did know how to talk.

“The Feng Clan is not a major clan in Chu,” Count Pingye said while admiring his own fingernails.

“But neither are we a minor one,” Feng Yuanyang replied with a smile.

“So you intend to be one of those wise men who submits to circumstances?”

“Yes. Yuanyang is afraid to die.”

“What about your family?”

The forces stationed in the various forts and camps outside Zhennan Pass were composed mainly of the private troops of Chu nobles.

The reason Nian Yao had dared arrange things this way was simple.

If the sons of those noble families surrendered, their clans in the rear would be purged almost immediately.

“Simply report that Yuanyang died in battle. Who could verify otherwise? Even if the Phoenix Nest Guards are formidable, I doubt they can truly spy their way into the Great Yan army. Perhaps the Feng Clan will even receive compensation from the court for my death.”

Count Pingye nodded.

The man truly was shameless.

“Feng Yuanyang, the Feng Clan will perish because of you!”

Beside them, Zhou Huaizong started cursing again.

Feng Yuanyang finally looked toward Zhou Huaizong, who lay bound on the ground.

“You and Shi’s third son were the ones who insisted on opening the gate and sending cavalry out to recover Father-in-Law’s remains. I opposed it. You refused to listen. If not for your stupidity, how would West Mountain Fort ever have fallen?”

“You shameless animal!”

Zhou Huaizong was beside himself with rage.

Feng Yuanyang ignored him again.

Smiling, he said to Zheng Fan:

“Count, Yuanyang sincerely admires you. Before Great Yan’s iron cavalry enters Chu, I hope I might serve beneath your banner.”

He was negotiating the treatment he would receive as a prisoner.

Clearly, following the rising Count Pingye offered the greatest benefit to him.

Returning to Chu was impossible now, and he did not even mention it.

But if he could become a surrendered general in the Yan army, and if Yan later entered Great Chu the way it had once entered Jin, then perhaps both he and the Feng Clan could survive the upheaval intact.

Count Pingye looked at him.

Looked at him.

Kept looking.

Then he smiled.

Feng Yuanyang smiled too.

An almost bashful expression appeared on his face.

“Count, you have a use for me.”

“Oh?”

Feng Yuanyang glanced around.

Zheng Fan waved one hand.

Someone stuffed Zhou Huaizong’s mouth and dragged him away.

The personal guards outside withdrew from the gate as well.

Feng Yuanyang then looked toward the terrifying giant sitting at the entrance, and toward A’Ming and Xue San, who remained in the room.

Count Pingye said:

“Our own people.”

Feng Yuanyang nodded.

Then he stood, dropped to his knees before Zheng Fan, and bowed low.

“Count, there is something you will most certainly find very interesting.”

“Speak.”

Feng Yuanyang drew a deep breath.

Then, in a low voice, he said:

“General-in-Chief Nian has harbored rebellious intent for a long time.”

[End of Chapter 540]