Chapter 792: Fine Work!
Yanjing.
The imperial palace.
Empress He sat alone before her dressing table, cheek resting in one hand, the rims of her eyes red.
At that moment... the Emperor, dressed in dragon robes, quietly approached from behind.
At the same time, he waved for the palace maids inside the room to leave without making a sound.
The bronze mirror had already reflected the man behind her.
But Empress He still noticed nothing.
Her thoughts were nowhere near the mirror.
The Emperor stepped forward.
Then wrapped his arms around her.
“Aiyo.”
The Empress jumped.
She turned, saw him, and lightly thumped his chest with one hand.
“Empress, missing our son?”
“How could this consort not miss him?”
“I miss him too.”
He was, after all, their first child.
And once... that child had even fought shoulder to shoulder with his father.
Later signs had shown that the late Emperor had probably arranged everything long in advance.
But the heart of an Emperor was ever-changing and impossible to read.
Who could say whether the late Emperor had prepared a second possibility as well?
That one phrase, “fine imperial grandson,” had unquestionably added the most important weight at the most crucial moment.
Compared with that... an Emperor was lonely.
Ji Chengjue handled endless affairs of state every day.
Truthfully, he had long since lost the leisure to personally train the two younger children.
The eldest had grown up enough to speak and converse.
Keeping him nearby under the pretext of “instructing the Crown Prince” at least gave his father someone to talk to.
“Your Majesty does not need to comfort this consort. This consort understands what matters.”
“Mm. But I have some good news for you.”
“What good news?”
“The latest battle report arrived from the front. That man surnamed Zheng won. He killed another Pillar of State of Chu and captured Chu’s Grand General alive.”
“Really? That’s wonderful. Winning is good. Winning is good.”
Back when Empress He had still been a butcher’s daughter, she would celebrate every Great Yan victory.
Now... naturally she was even happier.
Because what had once been affairs of state had become affairs of her own household.
And because the battle had ended in victory this time, her son would not be entering danger once he reached eastern Jin.
Unless...
“Your Majesty, this consort should not be asking about these things. But this consort worries about our son. If Your Majesty finds it convenient to tell...”
“There won’t be a national war. It should probably end here.”
How clever was the Emperor?
How could he fail to know what the Empress wanted to ask?
Empress He pressed one hand to her chest.
“Thank Heaven. Thank Heaven.”
There had always been rules forbidding the inner palace from interfering in politics.
But He Sisi had been born among commoners and possessed no powerful maternal clan behind her.
So as Mother of the Realm, the Emperor did not mind letting her know certain matters of state.
Sometimes... he even spoke to her about them voluntarily.
“You should have seen the faces on those ministers in the Imperial Study earlier. Heh. Quite a sight.”
“Your Majesty, did they not expect Marquis Pingxi to win?”
The Emperor shook his head.
“Not exactly. They know perfectly well what that man surnamed Zheng can do in war. But perhaps in their eyes, this campaign was something I ordered him to fight.”
“Wasn’t it...”
The words nearly slipped straight from Empress He’s mouth.
But she had spent many years inside a princely residence now.
And she was Empress.
In certain matters... she had already been tempered.
Some things the Emperor told her were merely because he wanted someone to listen.
That did not mean she should offer opinions.
Still less should she whisper poison into his ear.
Especially when the subject was Marquis Zheng.
The Emperor’s expression did not change.
“I did discuss a rough framework with him. Small fights, small trouble, let him handle them as he saw fit. The results this time were frighteningly large, but court itself has borne no burden.”
Empress He nodded.
She did not dare speak further.
“There was already the battle that destroyed the Barbarian Royal Court to establish prestige, but in the end that was still part of Father Emperor’s legacy. This time, people outside all think this was my hand. They think I must have known in advance. Otherwise, how could I have reacted so decisively the instant news of war arrived and sent the Crown Prince toward eastern Jin? I trust that man surnamed Zheng. And I was willing to gamble together with him. Now... I won the gamble. Father Emperor once told me that the art of ruling through balance was ultimately a lesser path. A sovereign should hold the laws of Heaven in his mouth, carry the Son of Heaven’s will, seize thunder itself as reins... and drive forward at full gallop. That man surnamed Zheng fought this battle well. And beautifully. Every civil and military minister at court should understand now. Father Emperor is gone. But in truth... Father Emperor is still here.”
What lay beneath those words was the effect of imperial prestige upon actual imperial power.
An Emperor who possessed absolute prestige did not need to spend his days playing at balance inside court.
He did not need to stuff every bureau with personal loyalists.
He could simply act without restraint.
The countless rules ministers used to bind an ordinary Son of Heaven... were useless against a truly established powerful sovereign.
“The weather is good today. I’m in a good mood too. I already ordered Wei Zhonghe to prepare a carriage. Let’s leave the palace and relax a little.”
“Your Majesty is... not busy today?”
A major victory report had only just arrived from the front.
The Emperor should have been busy.
“There’s no hurry over that. Let them stew for a while. Come, Empress. Walk outside with me.”
“This consort obeys.”
...
The carriage left the palace.
This time, it did not travel to some place ordinary people could never approach.
Disguised in plain clothes, the Emperor took the Empress by the hand and began walking through the streets.
In every direction, experts of the Secret Intelligence Department protected them in the shadows.
Eunuch Wei himself dressed like an old household servant and followed behind the imperial couple.
The streets were lively.
Most importantly... walking through ordinary neighborhoods like this made Empress He feel as though she had suddenly returned to those leisurely days in Nan’an County when she and her husband had first begun living together.
Back then... her husband had not been a Prince.
Still less an Emperor.
He had merely been Yan Little Sixth... the head constable of Nan’an County.
At present, the two most exalted people in the State of Yan wandered and bought things, eating snacks as they went.
Utterly carefree.
While the imperial palace and every ministry yamen boiled over with discussion of the battle report... the two of them looked like genuine outsiders.
Wave after wave of ministers hurried to the Imperial Study requesting an audience.
All were stopped by Eunuch Zhang.
His answer was simple.
His Majesty was resting.
He should not be disturbed.
Most of those ministers had previously joined in impeaching Marquis Pingxi.
Now Marquis Pingxi had won a great victory.
A rich victory.
They would never conclude that *they* had been wrong.
Because in their view, the essence of the matter had never been merely one battle between eastern Jin and Chu.
It concerned the stability of imperial authority.
They could not change the old era in which Prince Jingnan and Prince Zhenbei stood as twin pillars beyond ordinary court control.
But they had tried to make sure another pair of Northern and Southern Princes would never arise.
Unfortunately... the Emperor’s attitude had been far too decisive.
And at the same time...
Marquis Pingxi had won too fast.
Too cleanly.
Too perfectly!
It was not that the ministers wanted Great Yan to lose.
But now... everyone who had impeached Marquis Pingxi had effectively handed the Emperor a handle.
Naturally, the Emperor could not simply punish every single one of them.
More than half had acted from sincere public concern.
But he could use the matter as an excuse.
He could more easily pull out certain “radishes” whose offices he wished to clear.
A purge could follow naturally.
And the ministers would have little ability to resist.
Because on this particular matter... they stood on weak ground.
Most of them were implicated.
Almost no one could cleanly support anyone else.
And now... the Emperor refused to see them.
The meaning could not have been clearer.
I’ll wait a little longer.
Wait until all of you become more sober.
Wait until you make your preparations.
Then...
I can start pulling radishes.
That might sound contradictory to the earlier idea that a powerful Emperor had no need for balance.
It was not.
If a minister had committed crimes, accepted bribes, broken laws, or used office for private gain... then the Emperor could decide according to his needs whether to prosecute him.
Those men were easy to handle.
The truly difficult ones were another type.
Men who were honest.
Whose records were clean.
Whose public reputations were good.
Or men who could spend every night happily admiring the moon and Stars, utterly content, without any deeper ambition for office... yet were simply incompetent.
Or whose political views did not align with the Emperor’s road.
The Emperor could certainly replace such people by force.
But doing so invited criticism and trouble.
Now... there was a convenient opportunity.
“A pity that man surnamed Zheng barely returns to the capital twice a year. Sometimes I genuinely miss him. When I’m with him, talking, drinking tea, chatting... I never get bored.”
“That’s true. This consort also feels that every time Marquis Zheng returns to the capital, Your Majesty becomes especially happy. This consort almost gets jealous of Marquis Zheng.”
“Hahahaha.”
At that moment, the two passed a teahouse.
Coincidentally, the storyteller inside was in the middle of recounting the tale of Marquis Pingxi entering the Qian imperial palace and speaking before the Qian Emperor with neither servility nor arrogance, displaying the spirit of a true son of Great Yan.
In the storyteller’s version... the Qian Emperor was enraged by Marquis Pingxi.
Privately, he sent Baili Jian to harm him.
Then atop the Forbidden City of the Qian imperial palace...
Marquis Pingxi and Baili Jian fought three hundred rounds.
At last Baili Jian sighed:
“At present, I can only fight you to a draw. But if you did not waste your mind on commanding armies, you would certainly be stronger than I am.”
Over the past several years, as Marquis Pingxi’s reputation soared, even battles in which he had originally done little more than appear in the background were gradually rewritten so that the main glory fell onto him.
Even during Yan’s first campaign against Qian...
Li Fusheng had somehow become, in the storyteller’s version, a subordinate of Zheng Fan, who had then been merely a minor Garrison Commander.
Everything Li Fusheng did supposedly followed Marquis Zheng’s orders.
There was no helping it.
The common people loved stories about Marquis Pingxi.
They felt close to ordinary life.
And they stirred the blood.
When boys in Yan played together, everyone fought to take the role of Marquis Pingxi.
Fight Savages.
Fight Qian.
Fight Jin.
Fight Chu.
Then marry a Princess.
How heroic!
A great man should live exactly so.
The Emperor did not bring the Empress into the teahouse.
Instead, they stood by the doorway among a cluster of people too stingy to buy tea but unwilling to miss the story.
The Emperor pulled from his pocket the peanuts he had bought earlier while walking.
He gave half to the Empress.
Then began shelling the rest himself while listening.
Every so often... he laughed along with the people inside.
Suddenly, riders with colored pennants fixed behind their backs galloped down the street, shouting:
“Great victory for Marquis Pingxi! Great victory for Marquis Pingxi! A Pillar of State of Chu slain! The Grand General of Chu captured alive!”
“Great victory for Marquis Pingxi! Great victory for Marquis Pingxi! A Pillar of State of Chu slain! The Grand General of Chu captured alive!”
Court had received the news long ago.
The officials already knew.
Once the report had been verified and the proper arrangements made, the authorities had staged the spectacle of an eight-hundred-li urgent courier riding into the capital to announce victory.
The common people loved this kind of excitement.
And since the reign of the late Emperor... they had grown accustomed to victory reports arriving again and again.
Inside the teahouse... the storyteller’s face flushed red with excitement the moment he heard the courier’s cries outside.
These days, some storytellers no longer even worshiped the traditional patriarch of their profession.
They worshiped Marquis Pingxi instead.
After all, Marquis Pingxi’s endless experiences had given them enough excellent material to make a living for years.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
The storyteller struck the wooden block three times, quieting the jubilant crowd.
Then... he raised one hand.
Took his stance.
And began chanting in a resonant, perfectly articulated voice:
Yan has a fierce tiger, whose roar shakes the Central Plains;
Eastern Jin has its eagle, whose gaze is deep as the sea!
Its claws bully the snowfields, its beak pecks southern Chu;
It overawes the Three Jin and looks down upon all Xia!
Heaven blesses Great Yan and grants us Marquis Pingxi;
Great Yan shall rise!
Great Yan shall rise!
“GREAT YAN SHALL RISE!”
“GREAT YAN SHALL RISE!”
Inside the teahouse and outside it, people shouted together in excitement.
It was enough to show just how astonishing Marquis Pingxi’s popularity had become among ordinary Yan people.
Especially after the two Princes had left Great Yan one after another... the people desperately needed a new God of War to protect them.
Someone who would keep winning battle after battle beyond the borders.
For some reason...
Empress He suddenly looked worriedly at the husband standing beside her.
But her husband had already raised one arm along with everyone else.
He shouted:
“Fine work! Reward him!”
[End of Chapter 792]
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