Chapter 842: The Choice

You only got to waste someone’s time with nonsense if you had the relationship for it. Put another way, if the relationship was not close enough, you were not even qualified to have nonsense said to you.

Chen Yang did not believe his relationship with Prince Pingxi ran that deep. More importantly, Li Fusheng’s death still stood between them.

Besides, this was hardly the place for idle chatter.

So...

Chen Yang raised his head and looked at Zheng Fan.

For a moment, admiration for the other man’s nerve mingled with the instinctive alarm of a veteran commander.

Those two emotions twisted together. This old general, who had spent most of his life in the saddle and, much like Zheng Fan, had almost never stood attendance at court, actually lost control of his expression.

His face contorted into something strange, and for a short while he could not even organize words.

Fortunately, Prince Pingxi was looking down at the map beneath his feet.

Also fortunately, Xue San was stunned.

A’Ming was stunned.

Even Fan Li was stunned.

There had been no warning. No buildup at all.

Their Master had simply sat there, thought for a while... and somehow suddenly decided to do this?

Still, the Demon Kings’ shock lasted only a moment. It was merely the natural reaction of digesting the information.

Then Third Master Xue, sitting in his chair, began bouncing all three legs with excitement.

“Oh-ho. Are we finally saying goodbye to this boring life of marching in circles?”

A smile appeared on A’Ming’s face.

As everyone knew, the State of Qian produced excellent wine. Fresh blood mixed into wine was one of life’s great pleasures.

Besides, no matter how fine the wine, a long journey always ruined some of its original flavor. Wine was like a beauty; after traveling dusty roads for too long, even she would arrive travel-worn.

Fan Li shouted:

“Kill our way into Shangjing and seize that Emperor’s bird-seat for our Master!”

Chen Yang finally recovered and was about to speak, but Zheng Fan raised a hand to stop him.

“I know what you’re going to say. You probably think there are risks. But I’m stifled right now. I’m tired of circling around the Qian-Chu coalition, and I’m even more tired of sitting here watching them leave Liang and return home. From the moment the coup in Liang broke out, the tempo of the entire war has been in Qian and Chu’s hands. Our army came south through South Gate Pass. I tried several times to seize the tempo back, but none of it worked. The other side has already become slippery as an eel, and their thinking is unified. Trying to discover a strategic flaw in them and exploit it is almost impossible.”

Flaws appeared because of greed.

But the other side was already “satisfied.” They had no desire to “create fresh complications.”

No desire, no weakness.

“So this Prince has decided to jump out of their tempo altogether and start a new one of my own.”

One “tempo” after another churned through Chen Yang’s mind.

But he still said:

“Your Highness, this general thinks...”

“What you think isn’t important.”

“Yes.”

Chen Yang stopped arguing.

“Just obey orders.”

“This general obeys.”

“Good. First, draw for me the route we marched back then.”

“Yes.”

“San.”

“This subordinate is here.”

“Tell Liu Dahu and the others to prepare some food.”

“This subordinate obeys.”

Chen Yang sat down, took up a writing implement, and began drawing the route. Some details on the map were inaccurate, which was unavoidable, so he corrected them as he went.

“You remember it quite clearly,” Zheng Fan said, also sitting cross-legged on the floor.

Chen Yang replied:

“Back then, the old Prince took this general along that road himself.”

Zheng Fan nodded.

Chen Yang added:

“Later, the old Prince stopped taking this general with him and started taking Your Highness instead.”

The instant he said it, Chen Yang realized he had misspoken.

There was an unmistakable sourness in the air.

Prince Pingxi himself did not get angry, however.

After all... the favored one was always fearless.

Just then, Chen Xianba arrived with Liu Dahu and Zheng Man, carrying food.

After setting everything down, the three young men kept their eyes rolling toward the map on the floor and Count Yishan crouched over it, even as their bodies turned reluctantly toward the exit.

Holding a steamed bun, Zheng Fan said:

“Sit down and look with us. Help think it through.”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

“Yes, Your Highness!”

The three immediately became excited and crowded around Chen Yang.

Chen Yang looked up at them.

He was a Count, after all. Sitting shoulder to shoulder with a few personal guards like this was not particularly proper.

Zheng Fan did not look over. He had turned sideways and was drinking from a bowl of soup.

“Chen Xianba took the head of a Chu Pillar of State before the battle line. He shares your surname too, Count Yishan.”

Chen Xianba immediately understood and cupped his fists toward Chen Yang.

“Greetings, Count Yishan.”

Chen Yang nodded to this “clansman” and continued drawing.

Zheng Man brought over a lampstand, carefully keeping the oil and wax from dripping onto the map.

Liu Dahu used his own waist dagger to sharpen charcoal pencils for Chen Yang.

Chen Xianba lay prone beside the map, staring at it with complete concentration.

After eating and drinking for a while, Zheng Fan quietly lit a cigarette.

“Xianba, ask if there’s anything you don’t understand.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Chen Yang handed out the charcoal pencil in his hand and accepted a newly sharpened one from Liu Dahu.

In that brief pause, he could not help glancing at Chen Xianba again.

He could tell that Prince Pingxi thought extremely highly of this young man.

Chen Xianba did not stand on ceremony or shrink back. He immediately began asking questions.

What surprised Chen Yang was that every question struck directly at the important points.

More surprising still, the boy seemed extremely familiar with the terrain in this region.

“You’ve been in Zhao before?”

“Replying to Count Yishan, never.”

“Then how are you so familiar with the terrain here? You seem to know it quite deeply.”

Liu Dahu said:

“Brother Ba hauled out every geography book he could find in the Zhao royal palace.”

Prince Pingxi, sitting to one side studying his fingernails, could not help flicking another glance at Chen Xianba from the corner of his eye.

Without making a sound, the boy had already done so much preparation on his own.

Zheng Fan instinctively thought of himself back then.

Heh.

Compared with Chen Xianba, he had truly been lazy.

But the jealousy he had felt before was gone.

Wanting to nurture someone while also worrying whether that person might threaten you one day was the sort of twisted struggle Prince Pingxi could not be bothered with.

“Brother Ba, what are we doing?” Zheng Man asked.

He was trying very hard, but he still could not make sense of it.

The barbarian youth was first-rate at riding and archery, yet every time he saw a map his head hurt. He was the bizarre sort of person who would never get lost in real life but could never tell north from south or east from west on paper.

Chen Xianba looked back at Zheng Fan.

“His Highness plans to enter Qian.”

“Enter Qian?”

Zheng Man tried very hard to think.

Chen Yang set down his charcoal pencil and rubbed his hands together. Liu Dahu immediately rose and brought over a basin for the Count to wash.

Then Chen Yang said:

“Back then, the old Prince and the old Prince Zhenbei jointly led troops through Qian to open Jin. After that, the Qian people built some fortifications along their northeastern frontier and established several cities there.”

Zheng Fan said:

“They didn’t build them merely because the old Prince passed that way. Originally, Qian could handle these small states well enough. Besides, Qian had always maintained a very good relationship with the Wenren Clan.”

When the three clans divided Jin, the Wenren Clan’s image among scholars had always been far better than that of the other two.

It could be called a classic example of Qian’s “cultural export.”

So long as Qian’s Three Frontiers could hold the Yan army in the north, there had originally been no need for Qian to deploy much in this direction.

But once the State of Yan swallowed Jin, the Qian court began filling that gap.

“Xianba. Tell us what you think.”

Zheng Fan remained seated there at perfect ease, wearing the expression of an elder generously giving a young man the opportunity to speak and advance himself.

Chen Xianba said:

“Entering Qian is a brilliant move. It can bring this entire board back to life.”

The fishing-village youth was terrible at actual chess, but that never stopped him from loving chess metaphors.

Chen Yang glanced at him.

“A lone army driving deep into enemy territory...”

Chen Xianba immediately replied:

“It isn’t as though we’ve never done that before.”

“Qian back then and Qian now are not quite the same.”

“You’re right, Count. These past few years, Qian has kept sharpening its weapons and training its troops. It has even formed several new armies with considerable combat strength. But...”

“But what?”

“But aren’t most of Qian’s newly trained armies, along with most of the generals who can actually fight, in Liang right now?”

“This...”

Chen Xianba continued:

“His Highness means to turn passivity into initiative. Since the coalition in Liang refuses to expose a flaw on its own, then we carve one out ourselves. Once our army enters Qian, we can completely ignore the Three Frontiers to the north and keep driving south, repeating what those two Zhenbei Army commanders did back then. If the Qian army in Liang turns back to reinforce its homeland, then once we pull it out of position, we can choose where to intercept it.”

Chen Yang pointed at the map before them.

“Liang, Zhao, our Left- and Right-Wing Armies still in Wei and Qi, and now our own army entering Qian. On a battlefield this vast, how could anyone possibly command it all?”

Chen Xianba fell silent.

Zheng Fan smiled.

“Back then, whenever Count Huwei entered battle, what he loved most was personally leading the Assault Battalion to punch straight through the front. At the time, I didn’t understand. I even advised him that a commander should keep the whole situation in mind. Count Huwei told me that every Assistant General, Guerrilla General, and even the Lieutenant Commanders at the bottom under him knew perfectly well what they were supposed to do in a battle, how they were supposed to coordinate, and when they were supposed to act. I trust Luo Ling and Ren Juan with the Left and Right Wings.”

“But Your Highness, whether an interception like this succeeds will depend on Heaven’s will.”

“No. Even if the interception fails, it’ll still be worth going to the walls of Shangjing to reminisce with that Emperor of Qian. The Qian people want to use Count Huwei’s death to lift their army’s courage and morale? Fine. Then this Prince will personally ride beneath Shangjing again and beat that morale right back down. The capital of a state. I come when I want and leave when I want. I refuse to believe Qian knees can keep stiffening after that.”

“Your Highness, then how should our forces coordinate?” Chen Yang asked.

“The Qian-Chu coalition wants to circle around Liang with us? Fine. We’ll keep circling with them. Send the overall plan to Ren Juan and Luo Ling. Tell them to continue their previous steps in Wei and Qi. My route has the largest concentration of former Jingnan Army troops. Chen Yang, pull out your own core force, then take elites from under my Central Army until you have fifty thousand men. Those fifty thousand will enter Qian with me. The rest of the troops will be handed to my strategist Bei in Zhao’s capital. He’ll keep up the appearance on this front for now and prevent the Qian-Chu coalition in Liang from realizing that the main strength of this route has already been withdrawn.”

“What about South Gate Pass, Your Highness?” Chen Yang asked.

“Originally, our three routes formed pressure from three directions. Unless our army suffered a defeat in Liang, South Gate Pass would remain safe even without a main force stationed there. But once we pull out the main force now, if the bluff on the Zhao front fails and the Qian-Chu coalition spots the weakness, they could completely loop north through Zhao and strike straight at South Gate Pass.”

“You believe they would?”

“I... this general...”

Zheng Fan shook his head.

“This Prince can afford to gamble. They cannot. Count Yishan Chen Yang, receive the order!”

“This general is here!”

“Immediately assemble the troops and prepare to enter Qian with this Prince.”

“This general receives the order!”

Then Chen Yang stood.

And burst out laughing.

“Hahahahaha!”

His advice and objections just now had come from the responsibility of a subordinate commander. He had to go through the motions.

In truth, what he feared most was that Prince Pingxi might actually listen to him and abandon the plan.

Chen Yang had once devoted himself to wanting to place Prince Jingnan on the Dragon Throne.

After Prince Jingnan left, it felt as though more than half the flavor had gone out of life itself.

Zheng Fan took a mint from his iron case and put it into his mouth.

“You think this Prince has gone mad?”

“Your Highness, this general sincerely wants to go mad with you this once. Back then, although this general followed the old Prince campaigning through Jin, every time I later met Li Fusheng and Li Bao, especially Li Fusheng, that bastard would brag to me about just how splendid and prosperous everything beneath Shangjing’s walls was. He acted as though he had suddenly seen the whole world. The way he looked at me was like looking at some bumpkin fresh out of the countryside. To tell the truth, this general was a little envious. I’d like to go see Qian’s... splendid realm for myself. See what sort of scenery it truly has.”

After saying that, he saluted and withdrew to assemble the troops.

Zheng Fan remained seated.

There was still some hesitation in his heart, but also a certain release.

He had no real experience commanding an army group on this scale.

He had tried to do the best he could, only to discover that he still could not obtain the result he wanted.

And then... this decision had appeared.

He was the Prince commanding the army and responsible for the entire course of the campaign.

In theory, his responsibility was enormous.

Yet on a sudden impulse, he had directly changed the entire strategic plan.

Not only had he stood up the two armies still operating in Wei and Qi, he had effectively done the same to allied forces in eastern Jin, Nanwang City, and every other direction.

Still, hesitation was hesitation.

To say he was truly panicked would be false.

For a commander, there was ultimately only victory and defeat.

If you lost, then no matter how well you had performed beforehand, the most you could hope for was a meaningless epitaph: “glorious in defeat.”

But if you won, victory became the validation of everything you had done before.

Sitting in this position, Zheng Fan’s attitude toward war felt more like... drawing a lottery ticket.

At that thought, Zheng Fan scratched his chin.

If Old Tian were standing here right now and heard him use that comparison, he would probably punch him first and then curse him for being useless and unambitious.

“Aiya.”

Zheng Fan sighed and stood.

Chen Xianba was still completely absorbed in the map.

Liu Dahu and Zheng Man did not really understand it, but they were still staring at it with great seriousness.

Zheng Fan walked past them and went outside for some air.

The moment he stepped out of the hall, he saw the Sword Saint standing by the entrance.

He was about to greet him when he noticed Xu Chuang standing farther ahead in the courtyard.

A saber and a sword had been thrust into the ground before Xu Chuang.

“Your Highness. This subordinate wishes to leave.”

“Where are you going?”

“Back to Wenming Mountain.”

Xu Chuang was a man of Liang.

He had trained in martial arts on Wenming Mountain since childhood, then wandered the jianghu. Later, acting on someone else’s instructions, he had tried to kidnap Tian Tian and been captured.

During the assassination of Zhao Jiulang on Xiping Street in Yanjing, Zheng Fan had promised him that if Zhao Jiulang died, all old debts between them would be wiped clean.

Afterward, Xu Chuang had decided that staying with Prince Pingxi Residence was actually rather pleasant, so he stayed.

In truth, from the moment they entered Zhao and Xu Chuang saw the Yan army begin sweeping the countryside for grain under Zheng Fan’s orders, the Sword Saint’s eyes had rarely left him.

Zheng Fan clasped his hands behind his back.

“This Prince will also be going to Wenming Mountain. Don’t want to wait?”

Xu Chuang dropped to his knees and saluted.

“This subordinate does not dare wait.”

“Why?”

“Because this subordinate knows Your Highness is angry. Liang has a share in that anger too. This subordinate understands what Your Highness will do to Liang once your army reaches it.”

“This Prince has always been benevolent.”

“This subordinate understands Your Highness’s benevolence.”

“What will you do after you go back?”

“This subordinate will climb Wenming Mountain.”

“And if this Prince comes?”

“This subordinate will invite Your Highness up the mountain for tea. I’ll hunt a pheasant and personally roast chicken skewers for Your Highness.”

“Heh. And if this Prince isn’t coming for tea and food?”

Xu Chuang fell silent.

Then said:

“Chuang has only this saber and this sword.”

“Never saw that side of you before. Fine. Go.”

“Many thanks for Your Highness’s grace!”

Xu Chuang kowtowed three times with complete seriousness.

Then he rose and left.

The Sword Saint looked somewhat puzzled.

“I thought you were going to tell him that if he walked out of this courtyard, Wenming Mountain would be wiped clean from bottom to top, not even chickens and dogs spared.”

“I would never say something like that. I’m very benevolent. If he wants to leave, let him leave. Everyone has their own ambitions. A melon twisted off the vine by force isn’t sweet anyway.”

“Fine.” The Sword Saint nodded. “Today, at least, that does sound like you.”

As they spoke...

Xu Chuang came back.

The Sword Saint asked:

“Forget something?”

Xu Chuang shook his head, looked at Zheng Fan, and knelt again.

“Your Highness. This subordinate isn’t leaving.”

“This Prince didn’t force you,” Zheng Fan said.

“Yes. Your Highness has always been benevolent.”

“Mm.”

Zheng Fan looked at the Sword Saint.

“See? He was moved by my virtue and came back.”

The Sword Saint frowned slightly.

It could not possibly be that simple.

And the whole thing had become absurdly childish.

Just before...

Xu Chuang had barely stepped out when he ran into Xue San.

Xue San smiled at him and said:

“After you leave, when the army reaches Wenming Mountain one day, we’ll wipe it clean from bottom to top. Not even chickens and dogs will be spared.”

[End of Chapter 842]