Chapter 817: Fetching

“You like peeling oranges?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Xie Yu’an picked up another orange and said:

“Your Majesty, there are many ways to peel an orange. You can dig a fingernail into the middle, then slowly peel outward from the opening. At the end, you carefully pluck away the white strands still clinging to the flesh. Or you can start from one side and peel around it bit by bit until the front and back meet, though your fingertips will end up stained with more juice. Or you can peel a little, eat a little, peel a little more. After eating half, the other half remains wrapped in its skin, and when you want it again later, it still looks fresh.”

“At the Yunchi Alliance some days ago, We ate crab with the Qian Emperor. He gave Us a set of tools: hooks, spatulas, tiny hammers. Quite delicate. You should like them. We’ll give them to you.”

“This subject thanks Your Majesty for the gift. But at home, this subject normally eats only crab paste.”

“How come We haven’t seen you eat any these days?”

“Reporting to Your Majesty, the smell is strong. This subject feared offending Your Majesty.”

“Why would We care about something like that?”

“Your Majesty speaks truly. But sovereign is sovereign, subject is subject.”

“You’re becoming distant.”

“This subject is terrified.”

“A new imperial garden is to be built outside Ying Capital. We will order plenty of orange trees planted there, prepared especially for you.”

“This subject thanks Your Majesty for boundless grace.”

“Three of the Four Great Pillars of State are already gone. The realm is in urgent need of men. The Xie Clan...”

“The Xie Clan will certainly spill liver and brains upon the ground for the state, for Your Majesty, and for Great Chu, relieving every concern!”

The Emperor of Chu nodded.

With a casual wave, he signaled for the attendant beside him to replace the sandalwood incense.

“You’ve stayed beside Us these past days. Have you gained anything?”

“Reporting to Your Majesty, this subject believes that if I keep accompanying Your Majesty all the way back to Ying Capital, Your Majesty’s reputation may suffer.”

“Heh. Hahahahaha...”

The Emperor of Chu laughed.

Then he said:

“This is Great Chu, not Jin. Besides, what are a few rumors? Other people own their mouths. Even We cannot stop every tongue beneath Heaven. Once you accomplish something in the future and render merit to Great Chu, naturally no one will have grounds to gossip or indulge in improper speculation anymore.”

“For the sake of Your Majesty’s reputation, this subject will certainly exhaust every effort.”

“Speak, then. Before your father left for his post on the Wei River, he told Us you had a strategy to present. We deliberately did not ask these past days because We wanted you to think it through more carefully. Now, do you believe it is ready to be presented?”

“Yes.”

“That confident?”

“Does Your Majesty know what Great Chu lacks most right now?”

Before the Emperor could answer, Xie Yu’an answered for him:

“Confidence.”

Xie Yu’an stood.

The brilliant bearing of the handsome young man revealed itself without restraint.

“This subject asks Your Majesty to forgive my offense!”

“We have never liked punishing speech. Say what you want. Say it freely.”

“This subject thanks Your Majesty.”

Xie Yu’an set the orange in his hand on the table.

“Qi Refiners like observing wind and cloud, reading the flow of qi. They believe the single word ‘qi’ contains the deepest principles of the world. People of the jianghu care about spectacle and momentum. As the saying goes, even when a man loses, his formation must not. And this subject believes affairs of state possess the same thing: national momentum. The momentum of a state can rise day by day or decline step by step, like the endless waves of the Eastern Sea. More than a century ago, when Qian was newly founded, its founding Emperor unified the richest lands of ancient Xia. His armies were strong, his generals fierce, and the momentum of a new dynasty naturally rose. Those founding troops and commanders were fearsome indeed. But Emperor Taizong of Qian launched one northern expedition and buried that strength beneath Yan. From that moment onward, Qian’s national momentum was cut in half, and it has languished ever since.”

“You’ve wandered a little far,” the Emperor reminded him.

As Emperor, his time was precious.

And he disliked conversation partners who constantly dragged in old precedents and classics.

Hear enough of it... and anyone grew tired.

“Your Majesty, what this subject wants to say is this: before the First Battle of Wangjiang, the late Emperor of Yan clearly intended to push his First Prince upward and suppress Prince Jingnan’s faction. But after Yan lost that battle, the late Emperor issued three decrees in succession. Two eunuchs delivering those decrees died before he finally persuaded Prince Jingnan to come out again and lead the army. Because the Yan understood that if they wished to compete in this age of great contention, they had to possess the momentum of great contention. These past years, Yan has campaigned north and south. Its national strength has been emptied again and again, yet it kept holding onto that single breath and forced itself through. What the Yan fear is not defeat. Lose a battle and they will return immediately. What they truly fear is having that momentum broken and never recovering it. In this subject’s view, Pillar of State Qu dying at Yupan City was not in itself some great disaster. Fight back and avenge it, that is all. But in the national war with Yan that followed, Grand General Nian chose the strategy of a turtle hiding in its shell, grinding against the Yan army until it withdrew. It looked prudent. In reality, he dissipated the last remaining breath of Great Chu. Marquis Pingxi of Yan once claimed that when the iron cavalry beneath his command reached ten thousand, none beneath Heaven could oppose him. But in truth, it was we ourselves who lifted them onto that pedestal. We were the ones who told ourselves again and again that we could not defeat the Yan. That is why, when Marquis Pingxi led his army west from Shanggu Commandery this time, he traveled as though through empty land. If even one garrison along the road had dared take the initiative and block him for a short while, giving the warning time to travel, the Dugu Clan army would not have been caught completely unprepared beneath Fan City. One can only say Grand General Nian himself lowered his head before the Yan first. His final end was merely... the fruit grown from the seed he planted.”

“Your strategy.”

“As things stand, we must consider taking the initiative. We must seek a victory somewhere, by any means possible, to restore the people’s confidence, the army’s confidence, and the state’s momentum.”

“Nian Yao tried exactly that.”

“Grand General Nian wagered everything on a dangerous move. He played with fire...”

The Emperor of Chu looked deeply at Xie Yu’an.

“How?”

“When squeezing persimmons, choose the soft one. If Zhennan Pass is held by Prince Pingxi Residence, then we bite somewhere else. For example... South Gate Pass. In the past, Yan was strong because the Zhenbei Army and Jingnan Army were strong. Today, Yan is strong because Prince Pingxi Residence is strong. But how could every army in Yan be elite? In the First Battle of Wangjiang, sons of Great Chu still drove Yan soldiers into Wangjiang to feed the fish!”

“We are tired. You may withdraw.”

“This subject takes his leave.”

After Xie Yu’an departed, Xiong Tingshan emerged from behind.

“Fifth Brother, how did that sound?”

“Reporting to Your Majesty, this younger brother believes the Xie Clan’s so-called thousand-li colt is no more than this. Listening from beginning to end, it was all broad talk. It sounded reasonable enough, but everything floated in the clouds. Very much like the scholars Qian produces in abundance. And what made this younger brother most uncomfortable was his treatment of Nian Yao. That slave was captured and publicly castrated by the bastard surnamed Zheng. It was indeed a great humiliation to Chu, but the disgrace does not belong to Nian Yao. That boy wanted to cater to Your Majesty and pour dirty water onto Nian Yao’s head. That is not the conduct of a gentleman.”

The Emperor of Chu nodded.

He cupped his chin in both hands and looked at his fifth brother.

“Fifth Brother, do you know what We are thinking now?”

“Your Majesty, this younger brother does not.”

“We are wondering whether that brat was deliberately hiding his ability before Us.”

“Hiding his ability?”

“Of the Four Great Pillars of State, only the Xie Clan remains. The Xie Clan may be...”

“The Xie Clan is afraid that...”

The Emperor shook his head.

“It is not the Xie Clan that should be afraid. It is We who should be afraid.”

“The Xie Clan intends rebellion?”

“Back when the Four Great Pillars of State still stood, the Qu Clan supported Us. Qu Tiannan entered Jin with the Azure Luan Army only because We persuaded him to do so. Shi Yuantang was fair-minded. Whoever became Regent, he would serve. But when all was said and done, he still favored Us. The Dugu Clan was accustomed to freedom and accustomed to pride, yet Dugu Mu still possessed a heart willing to serve the state. Only the Xie Clan was different. Was there not an old saying? Whether the Shanyue rebelled depended first on Wutong Commandery, where you were stationed, and second on whether the Xie Clan moved. The Xie ancestors have always had a tradition of intermarrying with the Shanyue. By rights, while ranking among the Four Great Pillars of State, the Xie Clan should also have ranked among the Four Great Noble Houses. Its strength was no weaker than the Qu Clan at its peak. But because of its bloodline, it was never admitted into that order of nobility. And the Xie Clan has always kept an extremely low profile. A live fish covered head to tail in slippery scales. We simply cannot get a grip on it.”

“Your Majesty, Xie Zhuyang is already on the Wei River, is he not?”

“The title Pillar of State exists because the power behind that title is strong enough to support it. That is why the title exists and why the holder can sit in that position. It is not the man himself who creates the power simply by wearing the title. The Xie Clan... has never left Our mind.”

At that point, the Emperor of Chu leaned back and rubbed his forehead.

“If that slave Nian Yao had not caused this disaster and driven the situation nearly out of control, We would not have wanted to use the opportunity after the Yunchi Alliance to invite the Xie Clan out of seclusion. Heh-heh. In earlier years, Great Chu’s nobles congratulated themselves on the purity of their blood. They claimed descent from the most ancient branch of all Xia and looked down upon the Xie Clan. They looked down upon you too.”

Xiong Tingshan had married a Shanyue woman.

If he had not brought Wutong Commandery over to Fourth Brother, and if Fourth Brother had not ultimately won, then such an outrageous violation of noble custom would certainly have drawn crushing pressure from the aristocratic houses.

Had the late Emperor still been on the throne, the nobles might even have forced the Xiong imperial clan to clean its own house.

“And now?” Xiong Tingshan asked.

The Emperor of Chu spread his hands.

“Now they shout: if the Xie Clan does not emerge, what is to become of the people of Great Chu? The Xie Clan they once despised has become their hope instead. We cut them too deeply. Now every one of them is only a step away from running to the Xie Clan and tracing old marriage ties between their ancestors.”

“Since Your Majesty already understands all this, why hand the Imperial Clan Guards along the Wei River to Xie Zhuyang?”

“The late Emperor of Yan could tolerate Prince Jingnan and Prince Zhenbei. The present Emperor of Yan can tolerate this brother-in-law of Ours. Why can We not tolerate one Xie Clan? We believe the Xie Clan also understands the principle that when the nest is overturned, no egg remains whole. Also... once summer begins, the money and grain from Qian should arrive. You will continue training the new army. And there is one more thing...”

The Emperor’s gaze darkened slightly.

“We intend to follow that Xie thousand-li colt’s proposal and send him outside South Gate Pass to knock on the door.”

“Your Majesty, he is only thirteen.”

“If Great Chu still possesses national fortune, if Great Chu is not meant to perish, if Heaven is not so blatantly partial... heh. Then it should send Us one or two monsters too, should it not?”

...

“Young Master, you’re back.”

A maidservant approached affectionately to attend him.

But at that moment, a shadow swept up behind her and tapped the center of her brow.

The maidservant immediately lost consciousness.

The shadow took form, revealing an old man.

“Young Master, you’re back.”

“Mm.”

Xie Yu’an put both hands into a basin of hot water and began washing them.

The old man settled the maidservant into a chair and waved some incense beneath her nose.

The woman had come from the Phoenix Nest Internal Guard.

Clearly, Xie Yu’an did not want the conversation that followed to spread outside.

“The Master is very worried about Young Master’s safety,” the old man said.

“Tell Father to look after himself first. He’s facing Zhennan Pass. Who knows whether that Imperial Son-in-Law of Great Chu on the other side will suddenly decide the weather is nice and come out to go mad again.”

“The Master says he will be careful. The Yan have already dismissed the Savage auxiliary troops that entered Snow Sea Pass. There should not be another campaign soon.”

“Ah. Who knows?”

Xie Yu’an picked up a cloth and wiped his face.

His skin was excellent, yet he never cared for it.

Perhaps this was what women envied as “natural beauty.”

“Young Master, does His Majesty intend to move against our Xie Clan...?”

Xie Yu’an shook his head.

“Perhaps he did before. Perhaps he even acted toward that end. But now he will not. His Majesty originally believed he had enough time to gather up all the jars and pots he smashed, piece them back together, and reorganize them. Who could have guessed that although Yan changed Emperor and changed Prince, they still seem determined to kill us while we’re sick? The Yan... are the greediest beasts I have ever seen in my life.”

“Then...”

“Stop with the thens and the what-ifs. When I first met His Majesty, I spent the whole time talking nonsense at him. He should have heard it for what it was.”

“Young Master deliberately hid your ability before His Majesty?”

“Listen to yourself. Am I really that clever?”

“Young Master is the cleverest person this old slave has ever seen.”

“I do enjoy hearing you speak such honest truths. But His Majesty is absolutely no ordinary man. Leave the late Emperor of Yan aside. I even think that, from top to bottom in Great Chu today, the only thing we possess that does not lose to Yan is our Emperor. Enough of that. When you go to Father, tell him I will probably be sent toward the State of Liang.”

“Young Master is going there?”

The former Emperor of Liang had carried blood from Great Chu’s Xiong clan and could be considered one of their own. But the present Emperor had taken the Dragon Throne by launching a coup together with his Chancellor. Later he even fought the Chu army once. By now, Liang was firmly committed to being Yan’s vassal state.

“Going there is good. At least it’s easier than going to Father and standing beside him while we face our Imperial Son-in-Law. Aiya... tsk. Tell me, how did Great Chu suddenly go from being fine to being this damned weak? When I was eight, I persuaded Father by putting a knife against myself. I used those two little beads to threaten him. If he dared openly stand with Fourth Prince, I would personally make sure his branch of the family ended with me.”

Xie Zhuyang had many wives and concubines.

But only this one son.

Not even a daughter.

So the threat had carried real weight.

“Look at the families who recognized Fourth Prince earliest and supported him most firmly. The Qu Clan. The Shi Clan. What have they become now? Our Emperor spent the first few years wanting to imitate the late Emperor of Yan and stage a Great Chu version of trampling the great families beneath cavalry hooves. If you stick your own neck beneath the knife ahead of time, nobody thanks you for it. They only think, how convenient. One stroke down. Kacha...”

“But Young Master, this time...”

“This time I had to persuade Father not to listen to those idiots trying to lure him into raising troops to Purge the Emperor’s Side. Back then those nobles looked down on the Xie Clan. They thought our blood was polluted and that we were unworthy to stand among the noble houses. Now every one of them comes crawling over like dogs, wanting the Xie Clan to step forward, reorganize Great Chu, and restore the old days. They think the Xie Clan is stupid. They think His Majesty is stupid too. Defeat at Wangjiang. Defeat in the national war. Ying Capital burned. Nian Yao captured. After all these wars, Great Chu lost too many famous generals and elite troops. But the true foundation of the Xiong clan, the Imperial Clan Guards, was actually preserved all along. Nian Yao is gone, but Fifth Highness remains. If that still isn’t enough, the court can always drag out another household slave and train him. If those nobles still possessed the strength they had in the old days, they might be able to play their games. But now even their ancestral graves have been dug up. Calling them strong outside and hollow within would still be flattering them. For the Xie Clan alone to step forward and lead the charge? That would be asking for a beating.”

“The Master...”

“It’s embarrassing to say. At eight, I had to put a knife there once. Now I’m thirteen and I have to do it again. Ah. Now I don’t even dare fool around with the maidservants. What if I accidentally leave a seed behind? If Father gets a grandson, he won’t be afraid of whether I put a knife there anymore. I won’t be able to threaten him. If Father were frail, sickly, and about to die, fine. But except for being unable to give me a younger brother or sister, that old man’s body is ridiculously sturdy. Unless he dies on the battlefield, one look tells you he’s the sort who’ll live forever. Ah...”

The old man’s face twitched.

There was no possible response to that.

“Ah. My cultivation is useless too. I’m trash at martial arts. I can’t sense qi as a Qi Refiner. And as for shamanic arts, just looking at those snakes, bugs, rats, and ants makes my stomach turn. Other people are thirteen and already married. Some are even fathers. I still don’t dare truly enter an alley. What a miserable life.”

The breathtakingly handsome young man muttered to himself, casually spouting filthy words that would have made respectable ears burn.

The old man stood silently beside him like a block of wood.

“Oh, right. Carry one more sentence to Father.”

“Young Master, please speak.”

“This time I’m going to accomplish something real. First, to improve this frightened, restless atmosphere that now hangs over everyone in Great Chu. Second, to let the old men inside the Xie Clan see it for themselves. Before, they only knew I was clever. All that ‘thousand-li colt’ nonsense was something they spread themselves, but deep down they still thought I was young and Father needed to hold the situation together. After this, I need them to see what I can do. I can hold up one side by myself now.”

Xie Yu’an picked up another orange.

As he peeled it, he continued:

“Tell Father to listen to me more from now on. A man with a stupid brain should possess the self-awareness of a man with a stupid brain. If he refuses to listen again after this, I’m too lazy to put a knife to myself anymore. I think... I’d rather see whether all my aunties look fetching in mourning.”

“This...”

“Deliver it word for word. Relax. At worst the old bastard flies into a rage and beats you up. He won’t cut off your head. He still needs you to come back and carry his reply to me. After all, among everyone in the Xie Clan, your lightness skill is the best and your legs are the quickest.”

“This old slave...”

Xie Yu’an held the peeled orange flesh to the old man’s mouth.

The old man opened up and swallowed it.

Clearly, this was not the first time.

Xie Yu’an clapped his hands.

The Young Master of the Xie Clan smiled.

“Actually, I already know exactly what that old bastard will tell you to say back to me. He’ll say: If he dies... then I, his son, will have to put on hemp and mourning too. And I’ll definitely look even more fetching than all those aunties!”

[End of Chapter 817]