Chapter 625: - Sunrise in the West, Rain in the East

This was pleasure.

This was happiness.

This was indulgence.

Great Chu had lost the Yan–Chu War.

Argue however you liked.

Its capital had burned.

Zhennan Pass had been ceded.

Shanggu Commandery had been cut away.

Yan armies had rampaged through Chu territory looting at will.

Rumor even said that the Marquis of Pingxi had created an official post called Tomb-Raiding Commandant.

However one calculated it, Chu had lost.

And lost badly.

But to put it plainly, there truly was no one in Great Chu who dared accuse General-in-Chief Nian of failing in command.

Even those arrogant Yan generals would never mock Nian Yao as a cowardly rat.

Because the opponent he had faced was Tian Wujing.

Prince of Jingnan had gathered countless civilian laborers and endless resources from both Yan and Jin, piled up and even overdrawn the strength of the state, and assembled more than half of Great Yan’s iron cavalry.

Even then, the breakthrough had only come after dikes were breached and a naval force launched a surprise attack.

Even then, Nian Yao had still safely withdrawn hundreds of thousands of Great Chu’s Imperial Clan Guards from Zhennan Pass.

Sometimes, whether a general looked brilliant depended on the comparison.

Some commanders spent half their lives suppressing one peasant uprising after another, but the resulting military merit and reputation contained far too much water.

Their true level was rather like comparing a jinshi graduate of Great Yan with a jinshi graduate of Qian.

Both were technically jinshi.

But in literary pedigree, the difference was visible to the naked eye.

Nian Yao, meanwhile, was the only opponent in recent years to confront Prince of Jingnan directly and still emerge with some dignity intact.

That alone was enough to be proud of.

Matching wits against Tian Wujing had crushed Old Nian beneath enormous pressure.

And that pressure had lasted an entire year.

But he could not tell anyone about it.

Could not roar.

Could not scream:

Do you know how I survived this whole damned year?!

He had to smash his teeth and swallow them into his own stomach.

Now, he could finally hold his head high.

At last, he had been released.

General-in-Chief Nian was deeply grateful to the Qian.

It was the Qian who restored his confidence as a commander.

The Qian who helped him rediscover a joy he had not felt in far too long.

Squelch...

A boot stepped into a puddle of blood.

Not by accident.

Deliberately.

Because taking Minzhou City had not required much effort.

Half the garrison simply abandoned the city and fled.

Most of the remainder surrendered.

So if General Nian wanted to wet the bottom of his boot with blood, he actually had to look carefully for a puddle.

After taking the city, the Chu army did not engage in widespread burning, killing, or looting.

That came from General-in-Chief Nian’s strict military discipline.

Even the members of the Hundred Shanyue Tribes who had been levied to support the campaign refrained from pillage.

The killing intent radiating from the Chu soldiers reminded them with perfect clarity who gave the orders here.

A group of tribal elders knelt before General-in-Chief Nian.

He did not hurry to tell them to rise.

His Highness’s intention was that the Shanyue would be Chu people from now on.

But General-in-Chief Nian still found it difficult to regard them as human beings.

Fortunately, General-in-Chief Nian had been born a household slave.

He knew how to pretend.

“What belongs to you will ultimately be yours. This general knows your young men have been holding themselves back until they can hardly stand it. But for now, they must keep holding back. Do you see the clouds in the west? There are cities there richer than Minzhou City. Populations denser than Minzhou City. Military merit greater than anything Minzhou City can offer. You understand His Highness’s decree. You understand this general’s meaning as well. Follow this general. Continue west. Continue earning merit. You yourselves can enter court as officials. Your sons can enter this general’s army as officers. The nobles who once conquered you have already rotted into worms. What comes next will be your age. Go west. Take more land from the weak Qian. More gold and silver. More people. More... glory!”

“We will die for His Highness!”

“We will die for His Highness!”

“We will die for the General-in-Chief!”

“We will die for the General-in-Chief!”

...

The Chu offensive advanced with terrifying speed.

At the same time, it proved just how weak Qian’s southeastern defenses truly were.

The fall of camp after camp and fort after fort was almost secondary.

Once momentum turned against you, places like those were difficult to hold in the first place.

The truly fatal part was that over the following month, another four military towns like Minzhou City fell one after another.

In the end, Nian Yao’s army even broke into the commandery capital of Nanyuan Commandery.

The fall of one military town meant the collapse of the entire defensive network built around it.

The fall of a commandery capital meant the collapse of an entire commandery’s defense system.

Local forts, county seats, regular troops, and militia might still want to do something, but they would be trapped in a leaderless situation.

What waited for them was simply to be swept away as cleanly as autumn wind sweeping fallen leaves.

The campaign halted after Nanyuan Commandery’s capital fell.

Not because General-in-Chief Nian was satisfied.

His vanguard had advanced too quickly.

His center had spread too widely.

The rear army could no longer keep up.

Yes.

The speed at which they captured cities and seized territory had already exceeded the ordinary speed of marching.

It was absurd.

But when absurd things happened to Qian, they somehow carried an air of inevitability.

If Qian intended to trade space for a battlefield opportunity, then it had unquestionably succeeded.

If a major Qian force suddenly appeared now and surrounded the vanguard under General-in-Chief Nian, it could either devour them directly or besiege one point and strike the reinforcements at leisure.

After all:

Preserve land and lose men, and both land and men are lost.

Preserve men and lose land, and both land and men will be regained.

The Chu army had now committed one of the great taboos of warfare.

It had completely opened its fist.

If the opponent before it were the Yan army, there would be no need for Prince of Jingnan to appear.

There would not even be any need for Liang Cheng to advise him.

Marquis Zheng himself could decisively order cavalry columns to split the battlefield apart and grind the invading Chu army into pieces.

The problem was the army Nian Yao faced now was Qian’s.

Against opponents of unequal quality, being too cautious could sometimes produce the opposite effect.

The so-called principle that a lion should use its full strength even against a rabbit could instead cause you to miss the opportunity.

Facts proved that General-in-Chief Nian’s approach had been entirely correct.

Only after he had held Nanyuan Commandery’s capital for some time and linked up with his following forces did two Qian armies finally arrive.

They neither joined together nor attacked.

Instead, one positioned itself southwest of Nanyuan City and the other northwest, forming a loose pincer.

When the scouts brought this report, General-in-Chief Nian laughed twice.

He understood perfectly.

The two Qian armies approaching from the west had not combined because they were waiting for a superior commander to arrive and establish a clear chain of command.

They had not attacked immediately because they had been transferred from two neighboring commanderies.

They did not dare advance recklessly.

Nor did they want to.

So they chose the safest and most passive response available.

A situation like this could never have happened while playing against the Yan army!

That Marquis of Pingxi of Yan had led a lone force deep into Chu and burned Jing City.

He had already won military merit vast enough to shake Heaven.

Yet even then he continued risking himself, pushing an isolated army straight into Great Chu’s capital region.

What kind of offensive spirit was that?

So General-in-Chief Nian felt completely at ease.

It was almost the same ease he had once felt while catching those princes one in each hand like chicks.

To plan within the command tent and see the battlefield as clearly as firelight, that was where a general truly scratched his itch.

So General-in-Chief Nian ordered his following forces to arrive according to schedule.

At the same time, he told the Chu soldiers inside the city, exhausted from their long-distance advance, to rest openly and properly.

And then he ordered his personal guards to heat water.

General-in-Chief Nian Yao was going to take a bath!

...

State of Qian.

Shangjing.

Master Xundao descended from the mountain and entered official service.

He was appointed Pacification Inspector and dispatched to the southwest.

Everything followed proper procedure.

Master Xundao had once placed third in the imperial examinations as Tanhua and therefore already belonged to the scholar-official class.

He had never entered office at the time, but his later position as head of the Back Mountain now gave his return to serve the sovereign an added aura.

It made the Qian Emperor look like a ruler chosen by Heaven, with even “immortals” descending from Heaven to assist him.

Besides, Luo Mingda was hardly the only person who knew Li Xundao’s true identity.

The descendant of the Tattoo-Faced Chancellor receiving high responsibility and once more being sent to pacify the southwest made perfect sense emotionally, politically, and even in terms of “good omens.”

Most importantly, Pacification Inspector was not a particularly high official rank.

Strictly speaking, it was more of a special commission, rather like an imperial envoy traveling on behalf of the Son of Heaven to inspect and pacify a region.

That meant the court, already reshaped over the past several years by the current Emperor of Qian, raised few objections.

Everyone understood that the actual weight of the commission could be enormous or trivial depending entirely on how much the Emperor trusted the man who held it.

Since His Majesty was sending Li Xundao to the southwest, he would undoubtedly grant him broad authority.

But so long as Li Xundao genuinely stabilized a situation already sliding toward collapse, no one could object if those achievements later earned him promotion, noble rank, and a permanent office.

On the day Master Xundao left Shangjing, three thousand Imperial Guards accompanied him.

And more than half the common people of Shangjing lined the streets to see him off.

The people had no idea Master Xundao was the surviving child of the Tattoo-Faced Chancellor.

Nor did they understand exactly what title or assignment a Pacification Inspector held.

They had come to see the “immortal” descending from the Back Sea.

So incense tables and candles appeared all along the road leading out of the city.

Countless devout residents of Shangjing prepared everything in advance solely for a chance to behold the heavenly countenance of an “immortal.”

The spectacle was even grander than the one used to welcome the Emperor himself on an imperial progress.

...

Li Xundao no longer wore white.

He was dressed in a red official robe.

The Back Mountain was the Back Mountain.

Officialdom was officialdom.

One followed the rules of the place one stood.

That was only natural.

Yet even dressed in official robes, he did not possess the traditional air of a steady, practiced bureaucrat.

He remained graceful and detached from the dust of the mortal world.

To wear an official robe and somehow escape the whole category of “well-dressed beast” was genuinely not easy.

Outside, the Imperial Guards were already prepared.

Their commander was a newly appointed General of the Household surnamed Wang.

He would escort the Pacification Inspector into the southwest and, after arrival, remain under his command.

An imperial message had just come from the palace saying His Majesty would personally leave the palace to see Li Xundao off.

It was an extraordinary honor.

In truth, it was also another deliberate increase in weight.

Once Li Xundao reached the southwest, every civil and military official there would have to think carefully about exactly how they intended to treat this Pacification Inspector.

The hour was almost upon them.

General Wang started to go inside and announce it.

Halfway there, footsteps sounded behind him.

He turned and saw a thin figure approaching with a sword at his waist and eyes like cold ice.

Years ago, a man dressed in white had once entered Shangjing by boat.

The Emperor personally welcomed him.

The entire city had been shaken.

“Greetings...”

General Wang prepared to salute, because the man before him also held the office of Martial Instructor to the Crown Prince.

Baili Sword simply waved a hand, drifted past him, and entered the room.

General Wang hesitated.

Then decided to wait a little longer before going inside.

...

“Quite the spectacle in the city. You don’t seem to be avoiding attention at all.”

Baili Sword smiled at Li Xundao, who stood inside the room.

“I heard you went to the South Sea. I thought you might not return.”

“How could that happen? My Baili Clan has always kept its promises.”

“You came back long ago, didn’t you?”

“Yes. I came back early. I originally planned to visit you on New Year’s Eve.”

Li Xundao smiled.

“Remarkably honest.”

“His Majesty will come out personally to see you off in a little while.”

“I know.”

“The spectacle is too large. That is not good. I am a swordsman. To put it plainly, I stepped from the jianghu into court, took a turn around, and everyone understands that in the end I still belong to the jianghu. You are stepping from the Back Mountain into court. Once you go in, leaving again will be difficult. Most likely impossible. A spectacle this large plants dangerous roots. It was the same when the Tattoo-Faced Chancellor returned to the capital after pacifying the southwest. The people cheered and welcomed him exactly like this. And what happened in the end?”

“The common people want to see immortals. Immortals are immortals because common people cannot see them. Once they do see one, once they keep hearing about what he does, the immortal stops being an immortal. This time will be lively. The next time no one will care. Besides, cultivation on the Back Mountain, this so-called Qi Refining, is nothing more than tempering oneself and fighting Heaven for one breath. Though ten million men stand against me, I will still go.”

“That sounds rather painful to hear.”

Baili Sword reached up and rubbed his earlobe.

He and his younger sister had once come extremely close to killing the man who was then merely a Garrison Commander and would later become Marquis of Pingxi.

But something unexpected had happened halfway through.

Yan cavalry charged out.

Baili Sword and his sister chose not to strike.

They turned and immediately returned to the city.

The incident became a stain that could never be erased.

Especially after the Sword Saint of Jin later cut through a thousand cavalry before Snow Sea Pass and took the head of a Savage general.

That achievement made the Baili siblings’ stain even more conspicuous.

Then Zheng Fan continued climbing.

From Garrison Commander to general to Garrison Commander of an army.

From a newly emerging young commander to one of the four great generals of the younger generation.

Then to the point where the other three could no longer be mentioned in the same breath.

The loss created by their failure to steel their hearts and kill him back then kept growing.

And growing.

Now that man had even become Marquis.

A Great Yan Marquis earned through military merit.

“The lotus pond on the Back Mountain has accumulated some silt. I need to borrow your sword qi to clean it,” Li Xundao said.

“All right,” Baili Sword agreed.

Li Xundao turned and walked over to him.

Looking directly at Baili Sword, he said with unusual seriousness:

“Everyone makes his own choices. Or if you prefer, everyone has his own fate. This is mine. This is Xundao’s fate.”

“I can accompany you. Once I clean the lotus pond on the Back Mountain, I’ll leave and find you in the southwest.”

“I am not that Marquis of Pingxi of Yan. I do not possess the qualifications to keep a Sword Saint beside me as a bodyguard.”

“I need to do something. Otherwise, I keep feeling as though I’ve been left too far behind,” Baili Sword said.

“It seems your journey to the South Sea brought considerable gains?”

“Nothing at all.”

“To let go and have empty hands is itself a kind of gain.”

“You should say things like that to the native chieftains in the southwest. You’ll probably talk them into complete confusion.”

Baili Sword yawned.

“After seeing a few genuine landscapes, you discover that everything you once possessed truly wasn’t worth mentioning. So yes. I came back with nothing.”

“Heh.”

Li Xundao pushed open the door.

“I’m leaving.”

“Safe travels.”

“Baili.”

“Mm?”

“If you were given another chance, back then outside Shangjing, would you strike that man surnamed Zheng with your sword?”

Even knowing Yan cavalry would surround you afterward.

Baili Sword shrugged.

“Isn’t being alive nice?”

Li Xundao asked again:

“A person lives one lifetime. A hundred years already counts as great longevity. Yet once asleep in the earth, one can remain there for a thousand years, ten thousand years. So tell me. What does a person live for?”

“What do you think?”

A faint smile appeared at Li Xundao’s lips.

“A person lives in order to find himself a suitable way to die.”

Baili Sword licked his lips.

“I thought you Qi Refiners would say something about proving the Dao and achieving immortality.”

Li Xundao flicked his sleeves and walked out with easy grace.

As he went, he said:

“Before Master left for Yanjing, he told me that living too long is not especially interesting either.”

...

Ceremonial music rose.

The common people crowded both sides of the road to see him off.

White smoke from incense tables drifted upward, carrying a solemn air.

Shangjing today did not look as though it was sending off an imperial envoy bound for a distant frontier.

It looked as though the city was seeing off a god-statue.

The common people cheered devoutly.

They kowtowed devoutly.

They had no idea that their actions today were, in truth, placing a knife into the hands of the people who might one day stab the very man they now worshiped.

The Emperor personally came with his civil and military officials to see Li Xundao off.

The honors were complete.

The full ceremony ran its course.

Complicated.

Grand.

Solemn.

At last, Li Xundao, his attendants, and three thousand Imperial Guards left Shangjing through the western gate.

Many commoners followed outside the city, hoping to catch a few more glimpses of the immortal.

The officials, meanwhile, looked as though they had finally finished the day’s tiresome ritual and could breathe again.

Some sneered.

Some shook their heads.

Some older officials looked dazed, as though lamenting fate, as though they had genuinely witnessed some cycle repeat itself.

Several Censors had even prepared memorials the night before and now intended to lodge accusations before the throne.

Great Qian was a land of culture and learning. How could it be deceived by “empty and illusory” things?

Great Qian ought to have civil officials who did not love wealth and military men who did not begrudge death, ruler and subjects united in heart, restoring the flourishing age of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors.

How could they ask ghosts and gods rather than the common people?

Fortunately, the Silver-Armored Guard had discovered the plan early and restrained those Censors.

Before they could shout anything, they were arrested for improper conduct before the sovereign.

After today’s ceremonies, His Majesty was somewhat tired and had no interest in dealing with those loud flies.

Of course, another reason was that after driving the old generation of Chief Ministers from court, the Emperor’s authority had risen day by day.

He no longer needed to pursue so obsessively the beautiful reputation of smiling while another man’s spit dried on his face.

The Emperor sat inside his imperial carriage.

He had just removed his dragon robe.

A charcoal brazier burned within.

Someone outside reported that Baili Sword requested an audience.

“Let him in.”

Baili Sword entered.

The Emperor pointed to the seat beside him.

“Sit.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty.”

A eunuch served tea.

The imperial carriage began returning toward the palace.

The Emperor lifted his teacup.

It was a matter of etiquette.

Before discussing business, one allowed the atmosphere to settle first.

A long while later, the Emperor spoke.

“Yu Ciming gambled and lost. He was moved to Yanjing and became their Prince of Jin. Situ Lei gambled and lost. A perfectly good Cheng State became nothing more than the title Prince Dingqin. Do not look at that man in Yan and think he has only been winning. He has been gambling every step of the way as well. They all gamble because none of them can afford to lose. Only We can afford it. With Xundao going southwest, the situation there should be pacified. Next...”

A shout suddenly came from outside the imperial carriage:

“Report! Eight-hundred-li urgent dispatch!”

The Emperor frowned slightly.

“Admit him.”

A messenger quickly entered the imperial carriage and dropped to his knees.

“Great Chu’s General-in-Chief Nian Yao has led troops into our southeastern frontier. Minzhou City has fallen!”

The Emperor slowly set down his teacup.

Baili Sword spoke:

“Your Majesty, how about I go catch Xundao and bring him back right now?”

[End of Chapter 625]