Chapter 631: - Black Dragon Banner

“Kneel down.”

The two words were not shouted.

But although many people had gathered here, the place was exceptionally quiet.

So every syllable came through with perfect clarity.

Situ Yu, the current Prince Cheng, was charged with guarding Yingdu and held a hereditary title in perpetuity.

This was the grace the Yan court, and the Emperor of Yan himself, had bestowed upon the Situ family.

And now, without warning, at the mausoleum of his own father, before the assembled elite of Yingdu, he was being ordered to kneel?

A surge of anger flared in Situ Yu’s chest.

At ten years old, he had once ascended the throne. It had amounted to little more than going through the formal procedure, because he immediately lowered his own state’s rank afterward, descending from emperor to sovereign of a subordinate state.

During the state funeral for his father, the First Prince Ji Wujiang, commander of Great Yan’s eastern expedition army, led troops into Yingdu and proclaimed an imperial decree.

Situ Yu was reduced again, from ruler of a subordinate state to a Prince of Great Yan.

However, because of the goodwill Situ Lei had earned, and because Yingdu subsequently cooperated with its submission to Great Yan, the treatment received by the Situ line was far better than that of the Yu Clan’s Prince of Jin, who had been moved to Yanjing.

At the time, Situ Yu had still been young.

Only ten.

An age of ignorance and confusion.

Situ Lei had not anticipated that the situation would collapse so completely, so he had either neglected or simply not yet found the time to give his legitimate son the necessary education in imperial statecraft.

And Situ Yu was no natural-born princely monster like Old Sixth Ji.

Back then, pushed and urged by the bureaucrats and powerful families of Great Cheng, he had carried out each step they placed before him.

He had effectively been erected as a ceremonial archway, a figurehead used to preserve Great Cheng’s old institutional structure.

But after several years, he had gradually grown older.

He had seen more.

Read more.

Most importantly, almost every day he had been forced to taste one particular dish.

That dish was called: the fickleness of human warmth and cold.

It was remarkably nourishing.

He had begun lying awake at night, unable to stop rage and depression rising inside him.

Why?

On what grounds?

How could this have happened?

Perhaps the emotion resembled that of Puyi after his abdication, riding the motorcycle that was still something of a novelty in his time to the foot of the Forbidden City and gazing up at its walls.

Everyone wore a mask of his own.

Marquis Zheng did too.

He had worn his often in the past.

Now he rarely cared to.

Perhaps when he eventually went to Yanjing, he would have to take it out again, wipe off the dust, and make do with it for a while.

But people capable of living as freely as Marquis Zheng, while also possessing the qualifications to live that freely, were as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns.

The Marquis seated on the steps did not look directly at Situ Yu.

But from the corner of his eye, he had been watching the young Prince all along.

He was angry.

Heh.

And yet for an individual, anger was the cheapest and most useless emotion in the world.

Behind Marquis Zheng, Gou Moli had already suppressed the unpleasant feelings stirred up earlier when he offered incense to Situ Lei.

His calm eyes now rested on Situ Yu below.

This was the son of his old opponent.

He was not especially young anymore.

When Gou Moli had been his age, he was already helping Jin merchant caravans transport goods and could tell at night whether wild wolves were prowling beyond the edges of camp.

Still, Gou Moli did not particularly despise the young Prince.

There was no need.

Inside the Marquis Residence, the Blind Man had always been the firmest advocate of rebellion.

If the Blind Man ranked first in that regard, Gou Moli ranked second.

He made no effort to hide that attitude.

Because he understood perfectly well that if the Marquis of Pingxi Residence truly became another Marquis of Zhenbei Residence, passing peacefully from generation to generation for a hundred years, then neither he nor the snowfield would ever have the slightest room to struggle again.

He knew exactly what he was now.

A dog beneath the Marquis’s feet.

Only if his master reached the banquet table could this dog gnaw bones that still had meat on them.

So during the journey he had already advised Marquis Zheng that although the Marquis Residence was established in eastern Jin, its influence had to spread outward by every possible means.

The best method was alliance and maneuvering.

The central principle was simple: each side taking what it needed.

One ready-made opportunity was Prince Cheng Residence.

Prince Cheng Residence was weak now.

It possessed a hereditary title in perpetuity and enjoyed the treatment of a princely house, but truthfully, whether it was the First Prince in the early days or Yingdu Prefect Mao Mingcai afterward, both had respected Prince Cheng’s line on the surface while in reality cutting away its reach and deliberately separating the Situ family from any influence over Cheng State or even Yingdu itself.

And the old officials of Great Cheng had not merely failed to resist or obstruct that process.

For their own interests, they had nearly all rushed forward to divide up the vacuum left behind as the Situ family withdrew from power.

But no matter what, the Situ family’s influence within Cheng State...

No.

More accurately, throughout the entire Three Jin lands, was actually the greatest.

Because the Situ family had once proclaimed an emperor.

Because its line had been preserved intact.

So Gou Moli had suggested drawing Prince Cheng Residence closer.

A fledgling sparrow would eventually grow.

And once grown, its appetite would naturally grow with it.

One was a newly established Marquis Residence.

The other was an old princely house of Jin.

If the two could develop a tacit understanding, then if one day the winds changed, the realm fell into upheaval, and all beneath Heaven began to shake, the armies of Marquis Pingxi Residence could march west, pass Yupan City, cross the Wang River, bring Prince Cheng Residence under their arm and raise their own standard, gaining the legitimacy to command the Jin lands.

Perhaps, if that young fledgling had inherited even three-tenths of his father’s ability, he might even seize Yingdu himself and present the city to the Marquis Residence with both hands.

In Gou Moli’s view, the threat facing the Marquis Residence did not lie to the north.

Nor did it lie to the south.

The threat visible to the naked eye came from the west.

From the court that, nominally, stood above both his own head and the Marquis’s.

Make the arrangements early.

Bring Prince Cheng Residence into the fold.

Then, if the time came, the Marquis Residence would need only move once and send out three armies.

In an instant, the old might of Great Cheng could be restored.

Gou Moli had offered the suggestion.

But he did not know whether Marquis Zheng would actually accept it.

The Marquis’s reaction had been noncommittal.

Gou Moli had once caught the tail end of a conversation between A’Ming and Xue San.

They were lamenting that Master was growing more and more mature.

What?

Had he somehow missed the Marquis’s innocent, sweet, silly phase?

Still, at minimum, the Marquis had come to Stone Mountain.

He had come to Situ Lei’s mausoleum.

And the moment the little fledgling climbed the steps, he had ordered him to kneel.

It seemed the Marquis had probably accepted the plan.

First the stick.

Then the sweet date.

The officials and powerful men said nothing.

Those born in Jin were already a head shorter by nature in this political order.

They certainly did not dare speak up.

They did not dare make trouble either.

Those born in Yan should, by rights, have possessed stiffer spines.

In fact, quite a few of the Jin elite were already secretly glancing toward the Yan officials around them.

But precisely because those men were Yan people, they understood even better what a Marquis of military merit meant.

Before the Princes of North and South appeared, Marquis had already been the highest title available to a noble outside the imperial clan in Great Yan.

Most importantly, everyone present understood the principle of a newly appointed official lighting three fires.

And the man before them had just been made Marquis.

His authority needed someone to sacrifice himself for it.

Whoever stepped forward now to remonstrate would effectively be rushing to offer up the lives of himself and his entire family.

Great Cheng had already endured war after war.

More than half the people with truly hard bones had broken long ago.

A few hard bones remained, such as Grand Tutor Sun Youdao.

But even men like him had gradually learned to preserve themselves in times like these.

The state had long since ceased to be a state.

No matter how much the people below wanted to stand upright and remain righteous, there was nothing left for them to stand upright for.

The Queen Mother turned and looked over the people behind her.

Clear contempt filled her face.

Her son was suffering this kind of humiliation, yet not one of those officials or powerful men dared speak.

Not one dared make a sound.

Women were weak, but mothers were strong.

She immediately stepped forward, intending to question this Marquis Pingxi of Great Yan.

What exactly did he intend?

Why did he insist on humiliating the Situ family like this?

Why humiliate Prince Cheng like this?

And in front of her dead husband’s mausoleum, no less!

Did the ruler and ministers of Yan truly intend to force this orphan and widow so far?

Would they only feel their faces shone brightly if she smashed her head against one of the stone pillars of the mausoleum and died here?

A woman could throw everything aside.

Especially in circumstances like these.

In truth, this was the first time Marquis Zheng had properly met the Queen Mother of Prince Cheng Residence.

Of course, he only glanced at her once before looking away.

Outsiders had always misunderstood Marquis Zheng in certain ways.

The claim that he had a taste for other men’s wives, for example, was utter nonsense.

Ma Changshan was probably still lying in bed drinking ginseng soup.

That was the consequence.

Most importantly, this Queen Mother was too thin.

Zheng Fan did not know whether she had been born like that or whether years of worry and exhaustion had worn her down, but even her formal robes looked as though they barely had a frame to hang from.

By comparison, the Dowager of Jin was much more charming.

Especially after Zheng Fan had discovered her secret involving Mr. Horn.

That mixture of shame and anger...

Her son was already so old, and she herself was no longer young, yet she could still reveal the shy embarrassment of a maiden.

Tsk, tsk.

Heh.

At this moment, no one could possibly have guessed that this was what Marquis Pingxi was thinking about.

The Queen Mother stepped forward.

She had just opened her mouth when Situ Yu seized her hand and pulled her back.

Then

Situ Yu climbed another three steps.

In a clear voice, he declared:

“At Father Emperor’s mausoleum, as his son, it is only natural that I kneel.”

Calling Situ Lei “Father Emperor” was not incorrect.

The person who had lowered the rank of the state was Situ Yu, not Situ Lei.

The Yan court had acknowledged Situ Lei’s status as emperor.

The Emperor of Yan himself had settled that judgment after his death.

Then, following the full rites of ancestral worship, carefully, properly, Situ Yu faced the mausoleum gate and knelt.

Marquis Pingxi remained seated above him.

He did not rise.

And everyone present understood perfectly well that Situ Yu had yielded to those two words.

But any powerful figure still alive and breathing here had long since learned flexibility.

Anyone incapable of that could have followed the late emperor in death on the day Great Cheng fell.

So the assembled elite understood Situ Yu.

Some even inwardly praised this method of bowing his head while preserving as much dignity as possible.

When face and life were placed side by side, life was obviously more important.

But once life was secured, one should preserve as much face as one possibly could.

Then the many officials and powerful men born in the Jin lands behind him also performed the great rite and prostrated themselves.

They did not dare carry the banner at the front.

But they did dare help support the platform from behind.

The Yan officials serving in Yingdu, by contrast, stood where they were and found themselves in an awkward position.

Kneeling felt wrong.

Not kneeling felt wrong too.

Marquis Zheng extended one hand and pressed it downward.

The Yan officials immediately relaxed and knelt as well.

They could simply treat it as making up this year’s belated homage to Emperor Situ.

A black mass of people all prostrated themselves.

A mountain breeze drifted gently past.

Situ Yu did not rise.

So those behind him could hardly rise either.

At that moment, Gou Moli, standing farther back, had already fixed his gaze on his Marquis.

According to the script, this was the point where the Marquis should become angry.

He should stand, stride forward, and furiously berate Prince Cheng for lacking any sense of responsibility.

You cannot even suppress the disorder in Yingdu.

What use are you?

Better still, drag out the people’s blood and sweat, the welfare of the common folk, and every other righteous phrase one could place on the table.

It would look like a rebuke.

In reality, it would be helping Situ Yu retreat in order to advance.

As long as the young Prince was not a fool, he would understand the intention immediately.

First, he would criticize himself.

Then he would promise to do better in the future, work hard, stabilize the Jin lands for Great Yan, and wish Great Yan ten thousand generations of glory.

In the past, Prince Cheng Residence had been nothing more than a mascot.

The residence remained there.

The Prince remained there.

Aside from those members of the Situ line who had rebelled, the rest had never truly been liquidated.

The Yan officials and Yingdu bureaucracy had simply developed a tacit understanding and jointly suppressed the authority Prince Cheng Residence should nominally have possessed.

A tacit understanding like that was difficult to break without some external opportunity.

This incident provided exactly such an opportunity.

Prince Cheng Residence could finally stretch its hands beyond its own gates.

Into the various yamen.

Into the City Patrol Office.

If they were bold enough, even into the Jin army camps outside the city.

The legitimacy was already there.

The Yan decrees had written it clearly.

And with Marquis Pingxi pushing from behind, Prince Cheng Residence could borrow the Marquis’s tiger skin to make its own wedding robe.

Thus, after being ordered to kneel, after being stepped on, Situ Yu would still have to thank the Marquis from the bottom of his heart.

A classic case of delivering charcoal in the snow.

Then, if one day Situ Yu truly received the chance to choose, whose side would he stand on?

The Marquis Residence did not even need to fear that he might throw down the burden and fail at the critical moment.

After all, the Yan army was far away.

The armies of Marquis Pingxi Residence were right across the river.

But to Gou Moli’s surprise, his Marquis seemed to have completely forgotten how the rest of the performance was supposed to proceed.

He simply sat there quietly.

Stone Mountain was not tall.

It was also afternoon.

The wind had been warmed by sunlight, and when it brushed the skin it still carried a thread of warmth.

Marquis Zheng’s face held no particular expression.

When the people below had no idea what the man above them was thinking, there was naturally no way to divine his intentions.

The mystery only deepened.

And another word for mystery was awe.

Gou Moli gradually began growing anxious.

Then, beneath that anxiety, doubt appeared.

The script he had written was exquisite.

There was nothing to criticize there.

The Savage King had once subdued and commanded a gathering of outstanding figures from across the snowfield in an extremely short time.

His skill at handling men was unquestionably hard enough.

But the problem was...

Had he gotten the tone of the entire script wrong?

The overwhelming majority of people present were confused.

Those kneeling were confused.

Those standing were confused.

One man was thinking.

That was Gou Moli.

The other man was sitting.

And perhaps he alone was truly clear-headed.

At last, Marquis Pingxi stood and began walking down the steps.

The Queen Mother had knelt behind her son as well.

When Marquis Pingxi approached, she raised her head and looked toward this Marquis whose military achievements had shaken the realm over the past several years.

What met her was an icy gaze.

The Queen Mother’s body trembled again.

Her son was kneeling before her.

In matters of political wisdom, she was not especially capable.

All she saw was humiliation and trampling.

She had not perceived the deeper intention Gou Moli had arranged beneath it.

Situ Yu, by contrast, had begun feeling strangely reassured after his initial shock and anger.

He remained prostrated there, sensing the footsteps descending toward him.

A dragon gave birth to dragons.

A phoenix gave birth to phoenixes.

No matter how poor Situ Lei’s son might be, his aptitude could never be truly terrible.

Besides, he had witnessed his family and state overturn at only ten years old.

He could disguise himself, but no one would truly believe he could grow into some useless silken-pants noble.

Faintly, Situ Yu had already begun to infer what might happen next.

His mouth went dry.

His breathing quickened.

Then his mother broke the silence.

“Marquis Pingxi, do not push us too far!”

“...” Situ Yu.

At that instant, Situ Yu genuinely wanted to leap up and seize his own mother by the throat.

The corner of Marquis Zheng’s mouth lifted slightly.

He extended one hand and pointed behind him toward the mausoleum.

Then, slowly, he said:

“The Queen Mother grieves so deeply for the late sovereign. Do you wish to follow him in death here?”

“...” the Queen Mother.

Earlier, she had dared imagine whether smashing her own head against a pillar and dying might force this Marquis into embarrassment before the court.

But when the Marquis calmly spoke those words aloud, every scrap of courage vanished from her.

She was a woman who had not been raised as a Princess or Commandery Princess, women trained in politics from childhood whose lifelong greatest pride was producing a legitimate heir.

She did not dare answer.

Her body went limp and collapsed to the ground.

The powerful figures prostrated below were momentarily stunned.

They had not expected Marquis Pingxi to speak so directly, so coldly, almost ruthlessly.

Situ Yu grew frightened as well.

The situation seemed to be diverging from what he had imagined.

Behind them, Gou Moli sighed.

Marquis Pingxi walked past Situ Yu.

He reached out and placed his hand atop the Prince’s crown.

Then he lightly patted it.

One prince knelt.

One marquis stood.

And the marquis was patting the prince’s head the way one might pat a child.

In any other state, the scene would have been unthinkable.

Yet here, people would only feel that the Marquis was refusing to leave Prince Cheng enough dignity.

No one genuinely believed he lacked the qualification to do it.

Because this was a Prince of Jin.

And he was a Great Yan Marquis of military merit.

In the end, the Yan had taken this land with their cavalry sabers.

They could smile warmly and perform some scene about Yan and Jin being as close as brothers.

Or they could tear away the disguise and show everyone what bloody reality actually looked like.

“Prince Cheng, Situ Yu.”

“This Prince... I...”

Before Situ Yu could finish, Marquis Zheng continued:

“If you cannot remain calm when something happens, then read more books. If the outside world cannot remain peaceful, then go outside less.”

“I...”

“Prince Cheng is noble, but still underage. The night before last, the late Emperor of Cheng appeared to this Marquis in a dream and asked this Marquis to look after his legitimate son properly. Therefore, this Marquis came to Stone Mountain today to pay respects and inform the late Emperor of Cheng that this matter has been accepted. Your Highness is still young. You have not yet married, much less produced an heir. His Majesty the Emperor of Great Yan once promised in an imperial decree that the title of Prince Cheng would pass through your line in perpetuity. There can be no mishap whatsoever. Pass down this Marquis’s order. From this day forward, in order to guarantee His Highness’s safety, if the Prince leaves his residence, every guard in Prince Cheng Residence will be deemed negligent and guilty of treason. All will be executed. If the Prince leaves Yingdu, every officer of Commandant rank and above in the four military camps outside Yingdu will be executed!”

Gou Moli lowered his eyes and licked his lips.

He had thought the Marquis came to loosen the chains around Prince Cheng Residence.

Who could have imagined the Marquis had come to add iron shackles?

The person most astonished was Situ Yu himself.

He raised his head and stared at Marquis Zheng.

But the Marquis’s gaze had already moved away from him.

“Everyone can pay respects in turn. This Marquis will wait below the mountain.”

With that, Marquis Pingxi descended.

The officials and powerful men below immediately shifted aside on their knees, opening a path.

The guards in Flying Fish Robes stationed along both sides of the mountain road followed after him.

At the foot of the mountain, Gou Moli finally could not stop himself from asking:

“Marquis, what exactly do you mean by this?”

It was not a challenge.

But he had to ask.

As a subordinate, he needed to understand what his superior actually intended before he could offer advice and carry out the work.

Otherwise, the same thing that had just happened could happen again.

A script of his design could drift away from the actual theme.

Marquis Zheng raised one hand and pointed southwest.

That was the direction of Litian City.

Gou Moli was no fool.

He understood immediately.

So that was it.

Tian Wujing was still alive.

There were indeed limits on how recklessly they could act.

Loosening the chains on Prince Cheng Residence would amount to digging into Yan’s own plate.

Tian Wujing would inevitably see what they were doing.

And only their Marquis truly understood the temperament of that Prince of Jingnan.

But in truth, that was not what Marquis Zheng meant.

At heart, he did not believe in this sort of so-called “greater righteousness.”

Or more accurately, he did not believe it possessed much meaning.

Most importantly, he had promised Old Tian that no matter what happened in the future, the banner he carried in his hands would have to be the Black Dragon Banner.

[End of Chapter 631]