Chapter 543: - Raise the Banner

Count Pingye did not remain for the final cleanup at West Mountain Fort. He returned early to the central army encampment with A’Ming and a contingent of personal guards Li Fusheng had thrown in as a bonus.

Xue San did not come with them.

He still had to gather the craftsmen he had brought and move on to the next battlefield to assist with the fighting. Li Fusheng’s craftsmen would be taken along as well.

Fan Li’s traveling funeral gig had begun at West Mountain Fort and ended at West Mountain Fort.

When Fan Li charged the gate, he had casually thrown Shi Yuantang’s corpse onto the ground. The Yan army’s full-scale assault followed, cavalry charges and all. By now, the remains of Great Chu’s Pillar of State had long since vanished.

Perhaps that was fitting.

A fate one layer deeper than being wrapped in horsehide after death: a soldier’s corpse hidden beneath the hooves of warhorses.

Fan Li himself had to return to East Mountain Fort to recover from his wounds.

In siege warfare and battlefield slaughter, this iron-tower of a man truly could play a role the other Demon Kings found difficult to replace.

He had also paid an enormous price for it.

On the road back, perhaps because he had enjoyed such a full afternoon nap, Count Pingye was in excellent spirits.

A’Ming, riding a horse behind the Pixiu, thought he looked exactly like a student who had scored high marks and could not wait to run home and report the good news to his parents.

And in truth, that was exactly what he was doing.

The fall of West Mountain Fort had been absurdly muddled, yes.

But whatever else one said, it really had fallen.

And it had fallen on the very first day Zheng Fan formally took command.

Fan Li’s yangge dance had even been universally credited as an opening move Zheng Fan had arranged in advance.

Count Pingye had long since grown used to this rhythm of somehow becoming “a god of war” through one muddled coincidence after another.

But he had never believed himself chosen by Heaven.

Nor did he believe his luck was simply that good.

His effortless rise and his string of victories ultimately came down to seven Demon Kings carrying the burden for him.

Perhaps having them beside him was the greatest fortune of his life.

At the thought, Count Pingye instinctively turned and looked back at A’Ming.

A restrained, gentle smile rested on A’Ming’s face.

Count Pingye nodded to him.

A’Ming had no idea what the gesture meant, but his smile immediately became even gentler.

Then

Count Pingye turned forward again.

The smile on A’Ming’s face vanished at once.

He still preferred the cold, indifferent expression.

In that respect, perhaps because both were “cold-blooded creatures,” A’Ming and Liang Cheng were very much alike.

Any unnecessary expression on the face was a burden to them.

But in front of Master, they could not put on airs.

They had to force themselves to appear somewhat “tamer.”

Otherwise, the more satisfying it felt to act aloof today, the more humiliating it would be the next time they needed to lick.

As they entered the outer perimeter of the central army encampment, squad after squad of sentries came over in succession to question them, salute, and report their arrival.

Old Tian had always run a strict army.

But after entering the encampment, Count Pingye caught the smell of wine.

“Count Pingye has returned to camp after smashing West Mountain Fort!”

“Count Pingye has returned to camp after smashing West Mountain Fort!”

The herald was conscientious and generous with face, riding through the army and shouting the announcement.

This did not count as taking liberties.

Had the Prince not lifted the prohibition on drinking today specifically to celebrate Count Pingye earning another great merit?

The soldiers of the central army did not yet know exactly how West Mountain Fort had fallen, but even a fool could see the pattern.

First, Count Pingye had taken East Mountain Fort in only a few days.

Second, Li Fusheng had besieged West Mountain Fort for a long time without result. Count Pingye arrived to take command, and the very next day, the fort fell.

If that was not Count Pingye’s achievement, whose was it?

With the eastern and western forts both gone, the two hardest nails blocking the Yan army’s sweep of the approaches to Zhennan Pass had been pulled.

Was it not perfectly natural for the Prince to celebrate?

Could there possibly be some other reason?

The Drunken Immortal Elder thought the same.

Otherwise, the idea that the Prince had lifted the ban on wine because he had learned His Majesty’s health was failing...

Mm.

How could that possibly be true?

Count Pingye, dressed in golden armor, rode the Pixiu into camp.

The soldiers around him spontaneously raised their weapons and cheered:

“Count Pingye is mighty!”

“Count Pingye is mighty!”

Count Pingye was in high spirits.

He drew his Barbarian saber and raised it high.

“Mighty is the Yan Army!”

The armored soldiers all shouted back:

“Mighty is the Yan Army!”

“Mighty is the Yan Army!”

Count Pingye cried again:

“The Prince is mighty!”

The soldiers’ enthusiasm ignited.

“The Prince is mighty!”

“The Prince is mighty!”

Then someone began shouting:

“Long live the Prince!”

And immediately afterward, the direction of the wind changed completely.

Everyone joined in:

“Long live the Prince!”

“Long live the Prince!”

Watching the fervent cheering around him, Count Pingye once again remembered something Tian Wujing had taught him long ago.

Eating and sleeping with the soldiers was the little trick of a scholar collecting household slaves.

The true way to gather an army’s heart was to lead them from one victory to the next.

A general who never lost was himself a military totem.

Farther away, however, the Drunken Immortal Elder noticed something else.

Amid all the cheering in the army, no one shouted:

“Long live His Majesty.”

For many years, His Majesty had delegated authority over the army to the northern and southern Marquises to an extent almost without precedent throughout history.

That had undeniably laid the foundation for Great Yan’s conquest of Jin, intimidation of Qian, and current campaign against Chu.

But it had also meant that Great Yan’s armies were gradually beginning to shed the imprint of the imperial court.

The Drunken Immortal Elder knew His Majesty’s body had already reached the stage where he was forcing it to hold together.

And the Prince of Jingnan was still in the prime of life.

There was no need to peer into the mysteries of Heaven.

No need to spend nights reading the stars.

Once Emperor Yan’s body began its decline, flickering like the last flame of a dying candle, a great convulsion was destined to descend.

Count Pingye continued greeting the soldiers as the Pixiu carried him toward the Prince’s command tent.

The amount of wine distributed to each soldier was extremely small.

Even so, many men whose bowls were already empty still held onto them, occasionally licking the bottom in search of one final trace of that raw, spicy bite.

Drinking represented a kind of indulgence.

And indulgence was part of human nature.

Army grunts lived under brutal discipline and spent their days licking blood from the edge of a blade.

That ferocity was buried in their bones.

Much less now, with the Great Yan army campaigning far from home while repeatedly facing Chu defenses as hard as bronze walls and iron ramparts.

By all logic, the violence accumulating inside the soldiers should already have reached its peak.

So this was precisely when an army had to be rewarded.

Good wine.

Good meat.

Otherwise morale would inevitably slide.

That was the mild outcome.

If things went badly, mutiny or a camp-wide explosion could follow.

That was why armies on campaign so often disturbed the places they passed.

On foreign soil, troops were allowed to plunder.

On their own land, local officials were pressured into making “contributions.”

It was not that commanders failed to understand such behavior was wrong.

Sometimes they truly had no choice.

Under Tian Wujing, that problem did not exist.

At the very least, it was not widespread.

Unless one personally walked into this military camp, unless one actually touched the core of this army, dominated by the Jingnan Army, one could not understand what Tian Wujing meant to the force invading Chu.

A Sea-Calming Divine Needle.

A genuine Sea-Calming Divine Needle.

To make hundreds of thousands of full-grown men who, once released, could each become an unchecked local calamity quietly set up camp here and obey the rules... it truly was not easy.

Count Pingye pulled on the reins, dismounted the Pixiu, and continued forward on foot.

The Prince’s command tent was the heart of the central army.

It was as though an invisible boundary surrounded this place, keeping all the noise outside from crossing in.

“This old man greets Count Pingye.”

The Drunken Immortal Elder had finally waited long enough for him to return.

Count Pingye still remembered the elder.

The man held an office in the Secret Intelligence Department. Sometimes he appeared in Yanjing, sometimes in Beifeng Commandery, and now he had somehow turned up here.

He was practically the best possible example of selling one’s talents to the imperial house.

He had obtained what he wanted without giving up the leisurely freedom he valued.

Many things in this world were difficult to possess at once.

In the end, the question was merely one of degree, and whether one could grasp it properly.

“Greetings, Immortal Elder.”

“It has been many years. Many years indeed.”

The Drunken Immortal Elder could not say much more.

Back then, he and Zheng Fan had exchanged only a few shallow words.

“The Immortal Elder remains hale and vigorous. Truly enviable.”

“Hahaha. Count, you are still young and vigorous yourself, like the rising sun. Why would you envy an old man already approaching sunset?”

“The Prince is inside?”

Count Pingye asked.

He truly did not have much to discuss with the man before him.

Besides, after Xue San brought Hu Bamei back some time ago, Count Pingye had developed a certain wariness toward occultists who possessed genuine ability.

It was true that when Master Zang severed the dragon vein beneath Yanjing, Emperor Yan had displayed tremendous grandeur and could not have cared less.

But that was because he was Emperor Yan.

He had the northern and southern Marquises behind him, along with hundreds of thousands of Great Yan iron cavalry.

Zheng Fan?

He had no desire to fulfill some damned prophecy and end up tied to a stake and burned like a medieval witch.

The Drunken Immortal Elder nodded and stepped aside to clear the way.

Count Pingye walked forward.

But then the Drunken Immortal Elder placed a hand on his shoulder.

Count Pingye’s eyes narrowed.

He did not believe anyone would dare harm him beside the Prince’s command tent, right under Tian Wujing’s nose.

“Count, I nearly forgot something. This is a Calming Talisman personally drawn by this old man. Please accept it as my congratulations for your great victory.”

Count Pingye accepted the talisman paper.

He merely held it between his fingers.

He did not put it into his clothes.

Yao Zizhan had once given him a talisman as well, saying it could ward off evil.

But... if there was one thing Zheng Fan did not lack, it was evil around him.

He lifted the tent flap and stepped inside.

Count Pingye casually placed the talisman on a nearby rack.

Tian Wujing sat on the commander’s seat, holding a wine cup in one hand.

He was merely looking at it.

“This subordinate general reports back!”

“Sit.”

Count Pingye sat.

Before long, a personal guard entered and delivered a cup of wine.

There was no wine pot.

There would be no refill.

“Your Highness, the commanders of West Mountain Fort, Zhou Huaizong and Feng Yuanyang, were captured. Shi Chengmou died in battle. When this subordinate general left, Li Fusheng was still ordering men to clear out the remnants.”

Tian Wujing nodded.

“Now that the eastern and western forts have been uprooted, everything below will move much faster.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

“The palace sent an oral decree. His Majesty asks how much longer this war will last.”

Count Pingye’s eyes immediately lit up.

Tian Wujing caught that flash in his expression.

Still staring at the wine cup in his hand, he shook his head slightly.

“You do not even know how to restrain yourself.”

“In front of Your Highness, this subordinate general has no need to restrain himself.”

“This war must be fought faster.”

If Emperor Yan failed to hold on until the campaign against Chu was over, his death would have consequences for the entire front that no one could calculate.

If Tian Wujing was the Sea-Calming Divine Needle of Great Yan’s army, then Emperor Yan was the Mountain-Stabilizing Talisman holding the Great Yan Dynasty together.

The unity and balance Great Yan now displayed looked vigorous and flourishing.

In truth, that balance was extremely fragile.

Only with Emperor Yan sitting on that throne could the common people of Great Yan tighten their belts, live frugally, and send their husbands, sons, and nephews to the front so Great Yan could fight this war.

Emperor Yan was where the hearts of the people converged.

He was also where every political force throughout court and country converged.

The Supreme was called Supreme because he carried the realm and the state upon his own shoulders.

It was like the First Emperor in another history Count Pingye knew well.

While the First Emperor lived, the winds and waves within the Four Seas were still. Liu Bang and Xiang Yu could only kneel beside the imperial carriage and cry, “Long live the Emperor!”

Once he died, every demon and monster crawled out.

Demon and monster?

Count Pingye frowned slightly.

Why had he somehow cursed himself too?

“Your Highness, who exactly does His Majesty intend to place on the throne?”

Count Pingye asked the question directly.

By now, when speaking to Tian Wujing in private, he had become remarkably unrestrained.

They were family, after all.

And Tian Wujing had been the one who told Zheng Fan first that His Majesty’s dragon body was failing.

You started the subject.

I am merely continuing it.

Most importantly, although Tian Wujing was the maternal uncle of the Second Prince, Crown Prince Ji Chenglang, the relationship between uncle and nephew had always been strangely delicate.

Tian Wujing appeared never to have regarded the Crown Prince as his nephew.

And because of his own imperial mother, the Crown Prince very likely did not regard Tian Wujing as his uncle either.

How miserable had the Crown Prince’s life become since last year?

First, his marriage to the Commandery Princess had collapsed.

Second, the imperial examination he had painstakingly managed had ultimately become a wedding garment for the Sixth Prince.

Then his imperial mother had suddenly died.

After that string of blows, the Crown Prince’s position and the status of the Eastern Palace could truly be called precarious.

The heir apparent was sitting on needles.

Then again, with such an overwhelmingly powerful father-emperor above him, being Crown Prince had never been easy.

But if Tian Wujing were willing to speak for the Crown Prince, even a single sentence, the Crown Prince’s situation would change enormously.

Li Liangting was far away in Beifeng Commandery.

After the campaign to conquer Jin ended, he had returned to the Marquis of Zhenbei Residence and resumed guarding the desert.

The other wars of the past several years had all been fought by Tian Wujing.

In the beginning, between the northern and southern Marquises, the north had been strong and the south weak.

The southern Marquis had looked more like a counterweight deliberately raised by the court to balance the pressure from the north.

Now, the southern Marquis had long since surpassed the northern one.

Yet Tian Wujing behaved as though he had completely forgotten he even possessed a nephew.

Then again, that was easy enough to understand.

Old Tian also seemed to have deliberately forgotten he had a son.

The moment Zheng Fan thought of Tian Tian, he unexpectedly found himself missing the child.

If his own future children could be as easy to raise and obedient as Tian Tian, never even becoming sick from childhood onward, how wonderful would that be?

Faced with Count Pingye’s question, the Prince of Jingnan answered with the same calm as always:

“Whatever.”

“Uh...”

That answer truly caught Count Pingye completely off guard.

“Zheng Fan.”

“Your Highness.”

Tian Wujing set down the untouched wine cup.

He raised one hand and pointed toward the Black Dragon Banner hanging at one side of the command tent.

“This Prince asks you. What do you think of that banner?”

“I like it very much. It is beautiful.”

He had developed feelings for it.

Real feelings.

Ever since joining the army, Zheng Fan had charged beneath that banner time and time again.

Even after he later gained a “Zheng” banner of his own, every time he saw the Black Dragon Banner symbolizing Great Yan, it gave him a sense of belonging.

That feeling was rather like all those people in another world who would suddenly roar:

“For the Horde!”

Even if one truly treated this life, this world, as nothing more than a game or a dream, one still could not stop it from soaking into one’s whole being.

And more importantly, this was not a game.

This world was incomparably real, and incomparably fine in every detail.

“What about the armor you are wearing?”

Count Pingye smiled bitterly.

“Your Highness, if conditions allowed it, I would truly like to replace this armor. It is far too conspicuous. And even if it has to be something brighter, I still think pure gold armor is much too tacky.”

With the Blind Man’s design sense, Liang Cheng’s practicality, and Xue San’s forging skills, they could absolutely make him a set of armor that was genuinely luxurious, understated, and tasteful.

“What do you intend to do in the future?”

The Prince of Jingnan asked.

Rebel!

There was absolutely no way Zheng Fan could say that aloud.

Although Count Pingye felt he and Tian Wujing had long shared a tacit understanding, that understanding still contained an extremely clear red line.

Outside that line, you could probe, spin, leap, and dance all you wanted.

Actually touching it was asking to die.

“Your Highness, actually, I have always wanted to visit Qian. See its splendor. See its scenery.”

“His Majesty’s greatest dream in this life is to go to Shangjing and sit upon the Dragon Throne said to have been inherited from Great Xia.”

A look of remembrance appeared in Tian Wujing’s eyes.

“And yet Jin was the first to fall. Now it is Chu we are attacking.”

“Your Highness can rest assured. Sooner or later, Great Yan’s iron cavalry will trample flat the splendid lands of Qian and ride freely through Jiangnan.”

“Count Pingye. Go raise that banner for this Prince.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

Count Pingye rose from his seat.

He crossed to the opposite side and lifted the Black Dragon Banner onto his shoulder.

The Prince of Jingnan remained seated.

He looked at Count Pingye standing there beneath the banner.

For a very long time, his gaze did not move.

Count Pingye remained where he was, holding the pose.

Within the command tent, an invisible pressure began to grow heavier and heavier.

At some point, even breathing seemed to require every ounce of strength.

“Swear.”

“Mm?”

“The banner in your hands cannot change.”

“I, Zheng Fan, swear here and now that in this life I will stand beneath no banner but Great Yan’s Dragon Banner. If I break this oath, may Heaven strike me down and Earth destroy me!”

A long time passed.

Then Tian Wujing asked:

“Does an oath mean anything to you?”

Once, beneath Yupan City, the Prince of Jingnan had sworn a vicious oath to the Chu.

Then he turned around and gave the order:

“Kill them all.”

Count Pingye hesitated.

Then he shook his head.

“Your Highness, this subordinate general does not really believe in that sort of thing either.”

When you had a dead man, a vampire, a zombie, an undead being, and a whole crowd of similar existences at your side, it became very difficult to keep believing in some unseen Heaven’s will.

Tian Wujing smiled.

“Then it is useless.”

Count Pingye smiled too.

“Your Highness should know what kind of person I am, even if no one else does. If Heaven itself told me to do something, I would still have to weigh it, calculate it, and figure out whether doing it was worth the cost.”

“Oh?”

Count Pingye planted the banner in the ground.

Then he said:

“But if my brother tells me to do something, I will do it.”

[End of Chapter 543]