Chapter 564: - Natural Disaster

“Together?”

It was a question.

Three parts sincerity, three parts probing, three parts joking, and one final part that was impossible to put into words.

But in truth, even if only one part of it had been probing, that alone was enough to leave anyone stunned.

“Are you joking?”

Count Pingye smiled.

But he still did not step forward. Instead, he retreated another half step.

Someone who might be a Third Grade swordsman was nowhere near as frightening as someone who might be a Third Grade swordsman and also seemed slightly insane.

The former could still be reasoned with. He would still weigh profit and loss.

The latter might recognize no taboos at all.

“Joking?”

The Swordsmith shook his head.

“You can tell I’m serious.”

With that, the Swordsmith sat down on the ground again and planted Moshi in the earth beside him.

“Give me a reason,” Count Pingye said.

There had to be a reason.

The Swordsmith shook his head again.

“Don’t want to.”

“Then why should I believe you?” Count Pingye asked.

The Swordsmith lifted one hand.

“Believe me or not. Up to you.”

They were discussing a matter involving the life and death of a sovereign and the fate of an entire state.

Yet he spoke with the same casual freedom as though they were deciding whether to visit the red tents in town tonight.

“Why?”

Count Pingye asked again.

The Swordsmith’s standing in Chu was extraordinarily high. His identity as a son of the Dugu Clan meant he had been born directly into Great Chu’s true upper stratum.

Back when Zheng Fan had gone to steal the Princess, he had personally seen the Regent of Chu riding in the same carriage as the Swordsmith.

If the Swordsmith had wanted to harm the Regent, he surely would have had countless opportunities.

But he had never done so.

If the man truly were nothing more than a fraud deceiving the world and stealing a reputation, that would have been one thing.

But had he somehow deceived even himself?

“The sovereign of Great Chu is Great Chu’s phoenix. That phoenix may be captured by a foreign enemy, but it cannot be bound by the subjects sheltered beneath its wings.”

The Swordsmith finally gave his answer.

What he meant was that the Regent could be captured by the Yan army, but he could not be betrayed and bound by his own people.

That was the reason the Swordsmith offered for why, despite having enjoyed so many opportunities in the past, he had never made a move against the Regent.

Count Pingye found the explanation very difficult to believe.

But whether he believed it or not was one matter.

They could always shelve the dispute and pursue joint development first.

So Count Pingye’s next words were:

“How?”

Hear the practical details first.

Then decide what he stood to gain or lose.

“Let me kill my way three times into and three times out of your army camp. We make the defenders of Juyang City believe your camp has collapsed and lure them into charging out. Then you, Count Pingye, take advantage of the opening and kill your way into the city.”

Count Pingye frowned slightly.

It was a way to lure the snake from its hole.

But...

Count Pingye shook his head.

“No.”

The Swordsmith glanced at him.

“Afraid I’ll turn the fake act into the real thing?”

“Yes.”

“Where’s your courage?”

“Right where I left it.”

“If this succeeds, Great Yan will not need to continue fighting this war. Afterward, Chu will cede land and sue for peace.”

If the Regent of Chu were captured, or, taking things to the extreme, died amid the chaos of battle, then Great Chu truly would have no way to continue this war.

Great Chu’s present internal consolidation rested, on one side, on the Yan army threatening it from outside and on the Emperor of Yan’s precedent of trampling aristocratic clans beneath his cavalry.

On the other side stood the Regent’s willingness to consider the larger picture and his political methods, which had won the acceptance of all sides.

The fact that the Regent still had not formally ascended the throne was itself his greatest concession and his greatest display of sincerity.

Purely from the perspective of warfare, this military gamble was worth taking.

Extremely worth taking.

If it succeeded, the Yan-Chu war could essentially be declared over for the time being.

Count Pingye remained firm.

“No.”

“You should at least give me a reason,” the Swordsmith said.

“I’m afraid of dying.”

He did not want to wager his own life on a brighter future for Great Yan.

No need.

No desire.

Was he stupid?

“It is genuinely difficult to imagine that Count Pingye of Great Yan would ever say such words.”

“You make it sound as though anyone beneath Heaven could have imagined the Swordsmith of Great Chu saying ‘together.’”

“You cannot trust me?”

“I cannot.”

In the middle of the night, they were supposed to stage a crushing defeat.

He had more than ten thousand fighting men here, not more than ten thousand actors.

How were they supposed to perform it?

Perform long enough and it might become real.

Then the Chu troops inside Juyang City would charge out.

Those were elites of the Imperial Clan Guards.

One hard rush and Zheng Fan’s entire force might collapse outright.

If Count Pingye had brought the original Snow Sea Army with him this time, and if everyone still had their warhorses, then perhaps he could have gambled on it.

But the force presently under him only looked full of fighting spirit.

At its core, it was an “elite” army pieced together from multiple formations, and all of them had been reduced to infantry.

If an extreme situation developed, the entire force could be buried here.

As things stood, Count Pingye could still keep his elder brother-in-law pinned down for another few days.

If the wind turned bad, he could simply slip into the Great Marsh and fight a little guerrilla war.

Life would become somewhat bitter, but the problem would not be too serious.

Yet if he went all-in tonight and lost, he might once again end up like he had after stealing the Princess, fleeing for his life under a Chu manhunt that searched every mountain and dragged every sea, personally retracing the road he had once traveled.

“Still no?” the Swordsmith asked.

He felt he had already given Count Pingye plenty of time to consider.

“No.”

Count Pingye gave the same answer.

The Swordsmith nodded.

“Keep half the warhorses. Let my men leave.”

“Fine.”

Count Pingye agreed with remarkable ease.

Keep half first.

The Swordsmith then pointed at Moshi, planted in the ground before him.

“After my men leave, I’ll give you this sword too.”

“Good.”

Count Pingye agreed just as readily.

Your men?

I could keep those too.

The Swordsmith turned toward the Sword Saint.

“The favor you owe me over Longyuan, repay it today. I’ll sit right here. Once my men have gone, I’ll give this sword to him.”

The Sword Saint could certainly protect Count Pingye here.

But if the Sword Saint agreed to this bargain and promised not to intervene, then Count Pingye, who otherwise could already have swallowed these five hundred cavalrymen together with the Swordsmith, would have to honor the bargain seriously.

At this distance, outside the original encirclement, even if Jin Shuke or Fan Li brought men over, the Swordsmith would sense them in advance.

In short, if the Sword Saint did not move, the Swordsmith could still thrust one sword at Zheng Fan.

“Why?”

Count Pingye asked.

“You gave him Longyuan, and he talked you into the Four Great Swordsmen. Who lost and who profited?”

The jianghu had always rumored that the Swordsmith only ranked among the Four Great Swordsmen because the Sword Saint had praised him into the position.

The Swordsmith closed his eyes and sighed helplessly.

“I never asked him to speak for me back then. Four Great Swordsmen or no Four Great Swordsmen, the title has brought me nothing but trouble.”

Then the Swordsmith urged:

“Yu Huaping. Are you agreeing or not?”

The Sword Saint looked toward Count Pingye.

“You just agreed to him.”

“I was lying.”

“...” The Swordsmith.

“Then you’ve made things difficult for me,” the Sword Saint said, pointing at the Swordsmith sitting there. “I really do owe him a favor.”

Longyuan was a genuine debt of favor.

“All the warhorses stay. Your men can fuck off,” Count Pingye said. “I’ll stand right here. Good enough?”

“Good enough.”

The Swordsmith agreed.

Then he took out a signal flare from his clothes, pulled it, and sent a streak of red fire flying into the sky.

On the other side, the black-armored riders dismounted and tied their reins to the trees beside them.

Jin Shuke sent someone to seek Count Pingye’s approval.

After receiving it, he opened a path and allowed those riders to leave the grove.

The warhorses, however, all remained behind.

The Swordsmith closed his eyes and rested.

The Sword Saint sat cross-legged.

Count Pingye leaned against a tree with a mint candy in his mouth.

Only when another signal flare rose into the distant sky did the Swordsmith finally stand.

He tapped the point of Moshi lightly with one fingertip, left the sword where it was, then started walking northwest.

“Where are you going?” Count Pingye asked.

He had assumed the Swordsmith was remaining behind to cover his men’s retreat.

“Juyang City. To protect my sovereign.”

That was the Swordsmith’s answer.

“Are you sick?”

Count Pingye asked the question with complete seriousness.

“When you rejected my proposal earlier, I thought you were sick too.”

The Swordsmith walked to the Sword Saint and smiled.

“It’s different now.”

The Sword Saint replied:

“If you’re leaving, then leave. Stop talking nonsense.”

“It really is different. After today, there will be no more Four Great Swordsmen.”

The Swordsmith sighed.

“Oh, right.”

He turned toward Count Pingye.

“I used certain special materials when forging Moshi. It has a very powerful effect on a person’s heart and mind. I don’t want to call it a demon sword. That sounds too vulgar.”

Count Pingye said nothing.

With the Demon Pill beside him, he truly was not worried about heart demons or anything of that sort.

“That is all. I’m leaving. Yu Huaping, if there is an opportunity in the future, I’ll come to the Count’s Residence, drink wine with you, and admire swords.”

The Sword Saint corrected him:

“The Marquis Residence.”

“Tsk...”

The Swordsmith’s figure disappeared into the northwestern night.

The Sword Saint stepped forward, pulled Moshi from the ground, and said:

“This sword...”

“If you like it, take it.”

Count Pingye had always been generous in matters like this.

“Carrying Longyuan is already troublesome enough. I don’t want another.”

“Then hold it for me first. Once the war is over, I’ll take it out and play with it.”

“Fine.”

“Heh. Tell me. If he really meant it sincerely...”

The Sword Saint laughed.

“What meaning is there in discussing that now?”

Whether he had meant it sincerely or not, the man had already left.

“Why, though?”

Rejecting the proposal did not stop Count Pingye from chewing it over several more times afterward.

That single word, “together,” had been too astonishing.

It had nearly stolen Count Pingye’s soul.

“He has actually always resembled someone.”

“Who?”

“You.”

“Me?”

“You are a Count ennobled through military merit. Great Yan has treated you generously. You are also a Yan man. Yet you rejected his proposal for the sake of your own safety, did you not? He is a hereditary noble, a son of the Dugu Clan whose fortunes rise and fall together with the state. He is a Chu man. Does that mean he is not allowed to live for himself? There are only a few great boxes people try to fit the world into. But there are tens of millions of different people beneath Heaven. How could those few boxes possibly hold every one of them?”

“What you said makes a great deal of sense. Unfortunately, I cannot sit down and achieve enlightenment on the spot the way you do.”

“Sixth Grade Martial Artist is already enough. When I stand in front of you, even he has to negotiate business with you. Sorcerers may fancy themselves beyond the mundane, yet the court drives them into service. Martial Artists and swordsmen become hounds in army camps. Which is greater and which is lesser is obvious at a glance.”

“It’s different. If I...”

The corner of the Sword Saint’s mouth rose slightly.

“Next time, I’ll take a proper look.”

“That sounds creepy as hell.”

Count Pingye rubbed his hands together.

“Live as a country bumpkin long enough and you get used to looking into the neighbor’s yard whenever you have nothing better to do.”

“Heh.”

Count Pingye waved a hand.

“Fine. We’ve been through enough tonight. Get some rest early. In another couple days, when they start chasing us around, I’ll still need you protecting me. Oh, right. Do you think the Swordsmith has some private grudge against the Regent? Maybe the Regent stole the woman he loved, or had that woman killed?”

“Why does it have to be a woman?”

“Right. Why does it have to be a woman? That does sound a little vulgar. Forget it. Forget it. Back to camp.”

Count Pingye started walking toward the army camp.

The Sword Saint followed.

On the way there, the Sword Saint had walked in front and the Count behind.

On the return journey, the Count started in front and the Sword Saint behind.

Slowly, the Count drifted back again, and the Sword Saint once more ended up in front.

The Sword Saint never asked Zheng Fan about his true relationship with those “Misters,” even though he had already noticed certain clues.

Just as he never mentioned that Longyuan’s blade actually carried a restriction specifically designed to break the Phoenix-Locking Hand, Great Chu’s imperial secret technique.

Some matters did not need to be asked or spoken aloud.

If no answer would be given, there was no reason to open one’s mouth.

Inside the army camp, Xue San sat while Fourth Lady stitched his wound.

A’Ming was not there.

He had deliberately returned to his own tent to bleed himself.

“You got hurt?” Count Pingye asked.

Xue San nodded.

“Nothing serious, Master.”

“I had some business outside just now and I’m tired. So I won’t deliberately fuss over you.”

“This subordinate only suffered a small injury and is tired too, so I won’t deliberately pretend to be moved.”

“Heh.”

“Hahaha.”

Count Pingye looked toward Fourth Lady.

“Are the medicinal supplies ready?”

“They should be enough,” Fourth Lady answered. “As long as we don’t deliberately head deep into the Great Marsh.”

“No need to go deep. We’ll stay around the edges and fly a few kites with the Chu. I refuse to believe they’ll be willing to leave a hundred-thousand-man army here forever just to stroll around with me.”

Count Pingye stretched.

“A little hungry. What are we eating for breakfast?”

...

The Swordsmith entered Juyang City.

Unlike other experts, he did not use some cloud-stepping movement art to fly onto the wall.

Instead, he had the guards lower a hanging basket.

He climbed into it, and they hauled him up.

After entering the city, he went to see the Regent of Chu.

The Regent had already gone to bed.

At that moment, he wore a white robe and sat at the edge of his bed.

“Your Highness.”

The Swordsmith saluted.

“How is it outside?”

“The Yan defenses are extremely strict.”

“That brother-in-law of Ours is the direct disciple of the Prince of Jingnan. Tian Wujing’s greatest strength in warfare is his meticulous planning. Naturally he would never make that kind of careless mistake. The gate guards reported that you came back on foot?”

“Yes. I brought five hundred cavalry here. Originally I intended to negotiate a bargain with Count Pingye.”

“What bargain?”

“I asked whether he wanted to enter the city and seize Your Highness. So long as he was willing to cooperate with me in staging a night attack, we could trick Juyang City into opening its gates.”

“He refused?”

“Yes.”

“Did not trust you?”

“Yes.”

“Heh. What a pity.” The Regent sighed. “He missed a tremendous opportunity.”

“Exactly.”

“And the five hundred cavalry?”

“The men left. The horses stayed with him.”

“Generous.”

“And Moshi.”

“You lost badly.”

“I think so too.”

The Regent accepted tea from a eunuch beside him and took a sip.

“Where has Pillar of State Dugu’s army reached?”

“They have already begun spreading the net.”

“Leave the city again and carry an edict from Us to the Pillar of State. There is no need to trouble the old man over matters here in Juyang City. Have him lead his army to the Wei River and Jing City and stabilize the situation there.”

“The family head probably will not listen to me. Your Highness may have a thousand considerations, but in his eyes, whether he comes here or not is a matter of attitude. Great Chu’s noble houses and imperial clan share honor and disgrace, rising and falling together. They may lose anything else, but they cannot lose that attitude.”

“If We had someone else carry the edict, it would naturally have little effect. That is exactly why We are sending you. Has Sun Yuan arrived?”

“Replying to Your Highness, General Sun has already been summoned.”

“Have him come in.”

“As commanded.”

Before long, a one-eyed general entered and knelt in salute.

The Regent asked:

“How many cavalry remain inside the city?”

“Replying to Your Highness...”

The Swordsmith interrupted Sun Yuan.

“Your Highness, Moshi is also a paired mother-and-child sword.”

As he spoke, the Swordsmith reached into his clothes and drew out a small black sword.

“There is no need to trouble General Sun with covering my departure from the city. I can use this to trade for a chance to leave.”

The Regent waved, dismissing Sun Yuan.

General Sun rose and withdrew.

“Go deliver the edict. If that old man of yours still insists on coming here, put the sword against his neck.”

“Fine.”

The Swordsmith rose.

“No need to leave in such a hurry. Stay and drink a bowl of mutton soup with Us first. Juyang City mutton soup.”

The Swordsmith hesitated, then nodded.

Perhaps in return for the bowl of mutton soup awaiting him, the Swordsmith asked:

“Your Highness still intends to remain in Juyang City?”

The Regent nodded.

“Is he not trying to use Us to tie down Great Chu’s troops? Then We refuse to give him what he wants. There is no need to worry about Us here. That brat traveled along the Wei River by ship. The Qu Clan should already have noticed. It will not be long before Great Chu’s navy and the Qu Clan’s Azure Luan Army arrive here. Having the Qu Clan deal with that brat is perfectly appropriate.”

The Swordsmith nodded too.

“Indeed.”

The Regent set down his teacup.

“You really should not have spent most of your thoughts on forging swords. Of civil governance and military strategy, you could have chosen either one. With your talent, Great Chu could easily have possessed another Tian Wujing. None of them saw it. Yet somehow, you did.”

“You are not Ji Runhao. Why are you always so desperate to have a Tian Wujing? Even if you were Ji Runhao, no one yet knows what end Tian Wujing will ultimately meet. But I also want to know why Your Highness is so certain. That old man of my family and the old men of all the other houses did not fail to see it. They simply refuse to believe it. At a time like this, who would still do that sort of thing?”

“But you believe We would.”

“You are not afraid Great Chu might truly fall?”

“The state will not fall.”

“Where does that certainty come from?”

The Regent picked up two books from the tea table and tossed them before the Swordsmith.

One was the *History of Jin*.

The other was the *History of Yan*.

Naturally, neither was the complete work.

They were merely one volume from each history.

“Meng Shou has returned,” the Regent said.

Meng Shou, the man who had compiled histories of all four states, had returned to Chu.

“I know.”

“Meng Shou told Us something. Afterward, We personally ordered men to examine the historical records. In the end, We confirmed it.”

“Confirmed what?”

“One hundred and twenty years make one cycle. During those two years, a great calamity comes, and the north suffers most severely.”

The Swordsmith laughed.

“Did Meng Shou compile history until he turned himself into a Qi Refiner?”

Great calamities and disasters were precisely the sort of words Qi Refiners loved keeping on their lips.

“The calamity here is real natural disaster. Drought. Flood. Bitter cold. Total crop failure. Meng Shou noticed it while compiling the histories of Yan and Jin. Once every one hundred and twenty years comes a cycle, and with it a broad natural disaster. The climate becomes strange and extreme. The northern Xia lands suffer the clearest effects. More than eight hundred years ago, those two years of disaster forced the Barbarians and Savages to move south. Great Xia came under enormous pressure. Only then were the Marquises of Yan and Jin ordered to open the frontiers and resist the Barbarians and Savages. Only then was our founding emperor ordered to drive out the Shanyue and open XJ for all the Xia realms.”

“The last cycle came one hundred and twenty years ago. Yan suffered severe drought. The Barbarian Royal Court saw an opportunity and believed Yan could be exploited. That was why it called the desert tribes east and fought a bloody war with Yan in hopes of crushing the state in one stroke. Qian sent five hundred thousand troops north. The histories record that the Yan fortified their positions and stripped the countryside bare. But across a land so vast, how could they truly strip everything bare? The truth is that the Yan themselves had already run out of grain.”

“Yinlang Commandery takes its name from the victory poem composed by the first Marquis of Zhenbei:
Whip raised, horse spurred, we chased the silver waves;
Along the clear stream, far away, we watched peach blossoms.
The poem speaks of the miserable scene left by the Qian northern expedition, corpses strewn across the roads until nothing remained but armor flashing silver beneath the sun. But in truth, perhaps only the armor remained on the ground. The starving Yan no longer cared about armor or weapons. They treated the corpses of Qian soldiers as grain, dragged them home, and put them in the pot. Hahahaha.”

The Regent laughed as he spoke, then continued:

“Why did the first Marquis of Zhenbei not simply march south and attack Qian? Why did he merely plunder population, grain, and wealth from Qian’s Three Frontiers before returning north? It was not only because Yan was still locked in bloody war with the Barbarians. More importantly, the State of Yan no longer possessed the national strength to sustain another major war. The Situ Clan. The Helian Clan. The Wenren Clan. The three masters of the Jin lands. Of those three, the Situ and Wenren clans were originally vassals of the Marquis of Jin. The Helian Clan carried Savage blood and had surrendered to Jin, but they too were an ancient house. One hundred and twenty years ago, the Jin lands suffered catastrophic flooding. The people were displaced. A massive rebellion erupted among the riverworks laborers and swept across the Three Jin lands. It nearly broke even the Jin capital of that era. The Jin emperor issued an edict permitting local militias to raise troops and come to the aid of the sovereign. The Helian, Wenren, and Situ clans had originally been merely great houses. But during those two years of suppressing the rebellion, they swallowed territory and expanded their armies. By the time the unrest ended, the first outline of the Three Families dividing Jin had already appeared.”

“This year, summer in Yan has lasted far, far longer than in previous years. Drought has already appeared. The torrential rains in the Jin lands have also lasted long enough. Heh. An emperor is called the Son of Heaven. But even the Son of Heaven does not know Heaven’s true will. To use history as a mirror. This is what using history as a mirror truly means. Without Meng Shou, who compiled the histories of all four states, no one would ever have perceived this pattern.”

“The Yan’s period of overwhelming strength ends here. After this year, the Yan and Jin lands will suffer great disaster. The Great Yan court has already overdrawn the strength of both lands to an extreme degree. How can it continue sustaining itself? Let alone continue fighting wars. Phoenix Nest agents in the Jin lands reported that the Yan navy probably sailed out when the Wang River dike broke. That Prince of Jingnan truly deserves his title as a god of war. Even a strategy using the workings of Heaven and nature as its medium can be turned to his use. Astonishing. Admirable. But who can fathom Heaven’s wrath? Hold Zhennan Pass. Then wait until next year and watch the people of Yan and Jin lose even the means to live!”

“Even if Zhennan Pass cannot be held, two years from now, once Yan and Jin are exhausted, We can still lead an army north and recover the lost lands. Some men at court believe the Yan may stop after taking Zhennan Pass and Shanggu Commandery, content with their gains and turning afterward to slow consolidation. But We know better. We understand. Even if the Yan want to expand the war further and dream of destroying Chu in a single stroke, heh, they may possess the heart for it, but they will not possess the strength. Just as a century ago, after the first Marquis of Zhenbei crushed Qian’s northern expedition under such favorable circumstances, he still could not continue south.”

“You asked Us why We are so certain. This is Our answer. You asked why, even at a time like this, We would still do those things. That is because We are preparing early. Now do you understand? What? In your eyes, are We truly some shortsighted ruler who would cast aside Great Chu’s realm and state merely to satisfy Our own lust for power? Or are you still reluctant to part with that so-called precious blood of the Dugu great nobility flowing through your veins? The Emperor of Yan has reportedly already allowed the Crown Prince to oversee the state while he himself withdrew to the Rear Garden for recuperation. His body probably cannot hold on much longer. What a pity. What a pity. The true age of great contention is only just beginning. So in the future, there will still be many places where you and We must work together.”

The Swordsmith lowered his head.

Then he bent forward in salute.

“This subject understands.”

[End of Chapter 564]