Chapter 845: The Prince's Banner Descends on Qian!

The helmet spun several times in Zheng Fan's hand.

To tell the truth, Qian armor was genuinely damned uncomfortable to wear.

Zheng Fan had spent a long period of his early career wearing ordinary armor. For a time, he had even resisted wearing proper general's armor because it made him far too conspicuous.

Only in the last couple of years, after his status had risen, with the Sword Saint, A’Ming, his Brocade-Clad personal guards, and no longer much need for him to personally lead charges, had he gradually grown bold enough to wear black armor and serve as a qualified political mascot.

But Qian armor...

It was a rather worldview-shattering thing.

Qian's reputation for possessing the finest culture beneath Heaven was completely genuine, without the slightest exaggeration.

Fine wine, music, chess, calligraphy, painting, beauties, wealth, population... in far too many respects to count, Qian deservedly ranked first.

Yet Qian's military weakness had been criticized for generations.

That weakness did not come merely from the “people.” It arose from every aspect of the system.

It was not that Qian lacked men willing to fight.

Nor did it lack brave men willing to sacrifice themselves for the nation in a time of crisis.

But Qian lacked horses.

Its horse administration had been dragged down by the habits of officialdom. Vast resources were poured into it, yet stable output remained difficult.

And then there was armor.

Forget comparing generals.

Among the ordinary battle troops who formed the real fighting core of both armies, Yan armor was clearly superior to Qian armor.

It was not only a matter of materials.

Yan's forging techniques were better as well.

Qian's wealth existed in every direction.

Yet Qian's weakness, in truth, also existed in every direction.

Armor revealed that with painful clarity.

Even cavalry armor showed the difference.

Yan armor allowed its riders far greater mobility in the saddle.

Qian armor was much more rigid and cumbersome.

If Zheng Fan had not wanted to launch a surprise attack on Lanyang City and relive the gate-seizing escapades of his youth, he truly would not have wanted to change into this outfit.

Fortunately... the Qian people had shown enthusiasm far beyond his expectations.

They knew how uncomfortable this armor was, so with remarkable consideration they had actually come out of the city and delivered themselves directly to him.

Look at the official robes.

Look at the ceremonial entourages.

Look at the banners.

Good heavens.

Probably seventy percent of Lanyang City's highest-ranking officials had gathered here.

They looked exactly like a flock of little white rabbits who had stripped themselves naked and were waiting for him to bestow his favor.

Ever since he began campaigning in Jin, Zheng Fan had not encountered such enthusiastic “old neighbors” in a very long time.

He had missed them terribly.

When Zheng Fan suddenly removed his helmet and shouted those words, the Qian officials initially failed to react.

They truly could not imagine that Yan troops would appear here.

Still less could they imagine that a Prince of Yan would appear before them in person.

And wearing their own army's armor, no less.

But as an almost endless tide of black-armored cavalry pressed toward them from the distance and from flanking routes that had already looped around, they finally understood what had happened.

Zheng Fan sat in the saddle and patted his horse's neck.

Unlike armor, he really was spoiled when it came to mounts.

His Pixiu was simply more comfortable.

Its back was broad, its footing stable, and when it ran, the jolting was mild.

Solid.

Comfortable.

Mm.

He needed to get his precious beast back under him as soon as possible.

At last, some of the Qian people recovered.

Two men in armor, probably military officers of Lanyang City, led their personal guards and tried to flee toward the rear.

Several others also instinctively began moving backward.

Perhaps they were not trying to escape for their own lives but meant to carry warning to the city.

Either way... too late.

Zheng Fan had spotted this gathering long ago and ordered his troops to control their speed, advancing unhurriedly for a while.

While the Qian people recited poetry, arranged themselves by rank, straightened their robes, and instructed painters on composition...

Zheng Fan had been ordering the troops behind him to hurry around and close the bag.

Now the encirclement was complete.

Their route of retreat had been cut off.

The handful trying to flee did not even require a cavalry charge.

Yan soldiers simply drew their bows and shot them down like targets.

Once those who attempted resistance were dealt with, almost everyone remaining became very obedient.

There were actually quite a lot of them.

Add together every official's household guards and they numbered close to a thousand.

But only about half could truly wield weapons, and they belonged to separate households with no unified command.

Faced with absolute disadvantage, rising in resistance was often extremely difficult.

Lying flat came much more naturally.

Zheng Fan pointed toward the man wearing the most splendid official robes.

Yan and Qian used different bureaucratic systems, and the differences in official dress were even greater.

But however robes might change, the broad principle remained the same.

You could always tell which of the beasts in official robes was the biggest beast of all.

At least for the moment, Lanyang City's Military Commissioner displayed something that could be called bearing.

He slowly stepped forward.

Several officials beside him immediately tried to stop him.

“My lord, you cannot go!”

“My lord, don't go!”

The Military Commissioner stopped.

The colleagues who had just shouted at him immediately looked awkward.

If you don't go, who will?

We were only being polite.

Don't actually take us seriously!

Fortunately, the atmosphere did not linger long.

The Military Commissioner started walking again.

He came before Zheng Fan.

His back remained straight.

Even though he stood on foot while Zheng Fan sat on horseback, he somehow projected the demeanor of a man unafraid before a powerful enemy.

In this respect, Qian officials genuinely had an advantage over Yan officials.

Put Great Yan's Fatty Xu here, for example, and he could never create this effect.

One look at Xu Wenzu and you could tell he had been fattened on the people's wealth. His official appearance was truly dreadful.

Of course, Xu Wenzu had once considered rebellion and had personally fought Yan troops with saber in hand in Yinlang Commandery.

The Military Commissioner before Zheng Fan now was different.

His back was straight, yes.

But Zheng Fan could see his lips trembling beyond his control.

His knees were also bending in tiny, irregular motions.

He was afraid.

Terribly afraid.

The instinct of an official to put on airs and preserve dignity was still holding him upright.

Soon, fear would swallow the rest.

People who had truly fought on battlefields were extremely sensitive to such things.

Whether a man was a coward or the real thing was something they judged far more sharply than ordinary people could.

“May I ask who Your Excellency is?” the Military Commissioner asked.

Zheng Fan had already called himself “this Prince.”

Perhaps the man had not heard clearly, had not yet fully processed it, or simply needed to ask for the sake of formality.

Whatever the reason, he asked again.

Zheng Fan looked down at him.

“This Prince is Zheng Fan.”

At that moment, among the Yan cavalry on the perimeter, Zheng Fan's royal banner rose.

The troops he had brought on this expedition were not his own original formation, and even the royal banner had been hastily made back at South Gate Pass.

It was hardly exquisite.

From a distance, however, there was no real difference.

A banner represented identity.

Not fabric.

When the royal banner of Great Yan's Prince Pingxi rose into view... several officials in the crowd collapsed directly onto their backsides.

Others screamed in terror.

Their defenses had broken completely.

Prince Pingxi had only made one great haul from Qian near the beginning of his career before leaving for Jin, but legends of him had circulated in Qian ever since.

Especially after the previous generation's two Princes—one dead and the other gone far away—the label of Great Yan's God of War had naturally settled upon Prince Pingxi.

When Prince Pingxi fought the Savages, Qian people imagined what would happen if he were fighting them.

When Prince Pingxi fought Chu, Qian people imagined what would happen if he were fighting them.

For years, Prince Pingxi had not actually come to fight Qian.

Sometimes that was worse than if he had.

Constantly frightening yourself was an excellent way to collapse your own nerves.

Most importantly, there had been no warning.

He had quite literally descended upon them like divine troops from Heaven.

When Zheng Fan first proposed this strategy, even Chen Yang—no, even the Demon Kings at the beginning—had thought their Master had gone mad.

How could these Qian officials possibly have imagined it?

The Military Commissioner did not collapse.

But he trembled even harder.

Studying the books of the sages truly could nurture a vast and righteous spirit in some men.

Not every scholar succeeded.

A smile touched Zheng Fan's lips.

Good.

A man of appearances only.

If this fellow had truly been one of those men who feared no power and was willing to sacrifice himself for righteousness, Zheng Fan would have had a headache instead.

He dismounted.

Then walked directly up to the Military Commissioner.

He reached out and took both of the man's hands.

The Military Commissioner's body instantly went rigid, like a startled deer.

The scene resembled a tiger licking the neck of a fawn.

“May I ask your honorable name, my lord?”

“Th-this humble... this official is Zhou Chang, Military Commissioner of Lanyang. Presented Scholar of the twelfth year of Shangbao...”

Zhou Chang could no longer speak smoothly.

He had even blurted out the year of his imperial examination, something normally mentioned only when officials introduced themselves to colleagues.

“Oh. So it is Lord Zhou.”

Prince Pingxi's face immediately assumed the expression of a man who had long admired him.

“More than once in Yan, this Prince has heard Lord Zhou's distinguished name. Everyone says Lord Zhou loves the people as his own children, that he is an excellent official, deeply beloved by the common folk.”

“Tr-truly... truly so...?”

Zheng Fan held both of Lord Zhou's hands in his right hand and gently patted them with his left.

“This Prince is tired. This Prince's army is tired as well. For the sake of the welfare and safety of Lanyang's people, I ask Lord Zhou to permit this Prince to enter Lanyang City. This Prince guarantees that not so much as a hair of the common people's property will be touched. And the people will surely remember Lord Zhou's benevolence today.”

“N-no...”

Zheng Fan's grip tightened slightly.

Whatever Zhou Chang had meant to say was forced back down his throat.

“Ah, Lord Zhou. You can see the situation yourself. So many officials are already here. They're grasshoppers in this Prince's hand now. None of them can jump away. Do you really believe Lanyang City can still be defended? Rather than meet with weapons, why not think of the common people? This Prince respects Lord Zhou's reputation. I believe the people will remember it. Even Great Qian's Emperor and honored Chancellors will remember it.”

The meaning beneath the words was clear.

Look at the situation.

Even if Lanyang genuinely tried to defend itself, it probably could not hold.

So why not make things easy for me, and I'll make things easier for you?

Open the city and let me enter.

I'll help polish your reputation, reduce your culpability as much as possible, and leave you the name of an official who loved the people like his own children.

That was called cutting one's losses in time.

“Otherwise, I can only...”

Zheng Fan sighed regretfully.

“send Lord Zhou on his way.”

Prince Pingxi rarely bothered being this “approachable.”

Outside of political theater before the masses, he had long grown too lazy to perform courteous recruitment of worthy men.

This time, however, he was willing to spend a little extra breath on a Military Commissioner whose knees were already soft.

The bargain was too profitable.

Seizing a city gate by surprise could fail.

Right now, Zheng Fan held a great bundle of Lanyang's senior officials in his hand.

On the surface, the city looked practically made of paper.

But he genuinely feared there might still be some official or military commander inside who held to righteous principles and would resolutely organize the people to defend the city to the death.

That would be troublesome.

He had marched here to raid deep into Qian.

If he had to start besieging a city right here, what the hell kind of deep raid would that be?

If Lanyang opened its own gates, his troops could calmly rest and replenish supplies.

Then driving deeper would become much easier.

And look around.

The officials who had come rushing out to chase political opportunity and attach themselves to the victory were almost all here.

Which meant that among the senior officials still inside Lanyang, the proportion of upright men who refused to take part in this kind of fly-chasing, dog-scrambling officialdom had probably increased.

A whole crowd of bureaucrats had come outside.

The people left behind were the ones who actually did things.

Wasn't that dangerous?

Lord Zhou took two steps backward.

Zheng Fan continued smiling at him.

At last, Zhou Chang bent into a formal bow.

“This official is insignificant. The common people are greater. I ask Prince Pingxi to remember the people and harm none of them in the slightest. All culpability shall be borne by this official.”

Prince Pingxi nodded in satisfaction.

“Count Yishan.”

“This general is here!”

“Escort Lord Zhou back into the city to rest.”

“This general obeys!”

Chen Yang looked at Zhou Chang.

“Lord Zhou, please.”

“General, please.”

By now, some of the other officials behind him had figured out exactly what was happening.

Quite a few immediately surged forward, shouting that they too wished to return to the city and rest.

Often, a man simply could not hesitate.

Hesitate too long and even if there was shit to eat, you would not get it while it was hot.

Selling out your country worked the same way.

Chen Yang looked toward Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan nodded.

“Anyone willing to go may go with him.”

Let the Military Commissioner take a whole collection of Lanyang officials back to call open the city gates.

That should solve the problem.

If it still did not, then this expedition's luck was simply bad.

Immediately afterward...

Yan soldiers advanced.

Crossbows were leveled.

Blades pressed forward.

Most of the household guards chose to disarm.

The Yan soldiers began organizing and guarding the captives.

On the Prince's instructions, they did not behave particularly roughly.

“Drop your weapons!”

“Drop them!”

Su Rongrong and Wu Xiang ordered their own guards to surrender their weapons as well.

Su Mingzhe quietly pressed one hand downward.

His guards also threw away their arms.

Then, just as Prince Pingxi turned to mount again...

Wu Xiang and Su Rongrong stepped out of the prisoners together.

When they came close to Prince Pingxi, Yan soldiers blocked their way.

Zheng Fan noticed the commotion and looked over.

“Wu Xiang, Young Clan Head of the Haidong Wu Clan, has long admired Prince Pingxi's great name and specially comes to pay respects!”

“Su Rongrong, daughter of the Xicai Chieftain, has admired Your Highness for many years. We native women are direct by nature. I beg Your Highness to grant me the fate of one night of tenderness.”

The customs of the native peoples truly differed from Qian's heavy ritual propriety.

They were not, however, so different that a woman normally opened her mouth by asking a man to fuck her.

Su Rongrong had said it only to catch his attention.

“Oh?”

Zheng Fan walked over and accepted their greetings.

The man was a rather pretty little white face.

The woman looked decent enough, but she wore too much jewelry. It would get in the way of the hands and pull at the hair.

“The Haidong Wu Clan. I've heard much about you.”

Wu Xiang was delighted.

He immediately said:

“My father also holds Your Highness in the greatest respect. He says Your Highness is the foremost qilin of the age, and he longs for the opportunity to serve beneath Your Highness.”

Behind them, Su Mingzhe quietly spat:

“Shameless.”

“This Prince will strive to give your father that opportunity as soon as possible.”

The Wu Clan operated at sea.

If Zheng Fan wanted them to serve as his dogs, he would at minimum have to conquer the entire State of Qian first.

Eastern Jin currently focused on overland trade.

But Zheng Fan knew perfectly well how enormous the profits of maritime trade could become.

The Blind Man and Siniang had once joked that if they had not spawned in Yan but in Qian instead, they would never have tried to compete with the Northern and Southern Princes during those first few years.

Anyone who touched those two would die.

Better to find an island, become island lords, develop maritime trade, accumulate enough strength, and only then attempt a counterattack onto the mainland.

Wu Xiang immediately said:

“I await Your Highness's good news!”

The greatest capital of a local strongman was that even the imperial court found it difficult to do much about you.

So he could lick as shamelessly as he pleased.

More importantly, no big brother here was in any position to laugh at the second.

They were all prisoners.

What the hell was there to talk about integrity?

If you had integrity, go die.

Seeing that Prince Pingxi was ignoring her, Su Rongrong grew anxious.

“Your Highness, this servant's mother admires you just as much as I do. She longs to join this servant and...”

Zheng Fan really did look at her this time.

Then he smiled.

The Wu Clan interested him because they were maritime merchants.

As for southwestern Qian chieftains, Zheng Fan genuinely did not think much of them.

It was not as though he had never fought the wolf troops before.

The only reason Qian's southwestern chieftain rebellions had remained so difficult to suppress was that Qian troops were too poor at fighting.

Put Zheng Fan in charge instead, and those native forces would never have been allowed to make such trouble.

Still, since she was being so “enthusiastic,” Prince Pingxi gave a slight nod.

“If the opportunity arises.”

Su Mingzhe quietly cursed again.

“Pah. Shameless.”

At that moment... several Yan soldiers came over to seize them and return the captives to formation.

Su Mingzhe twisted free.

The soldiers immediately raised their sabers.

Su Mingzhe hurriedly shouted:

“Your Highness! I'm Su Mingzhe! Su Mingzhe's Su, Su Mingzhe's zhe! Your Highness! Poetic inspiration struck me just now, and I wrote a poem for the imperial army. Let me recite it for you!”

Hero Chen sighed.

He discovered that he had been wrong.

Even without him here, these three people apparently would not die.

A Yan soldier pressed a hand onto Hero Chen's shoulder.

Hero Chen shifted his shoulder.

Two Yan soldiers were immediately forced several steps backward.

Then... a figure appeared in front of Hero Chen.

In the man's hand was the Longyuan Sword.

“Master.”

Hero Chen bowed respectfully to the Sword Saint.

Of course.

If Zheng Fan had come, then his master would naturally be nearby.

The Sword Saint had actually sensed Hero Chen long ago.

Hero Chen had not spoken earlier, so Zheng Fan genuinely had not noticed him.

But the Sword Saint had been watching the entire time.

“Want to go say hello?” the Sword Saint asked. “Once you've greeted him, I'll let you leave. You can carry word back through Qian that the Yan army has come.”

The Sword Saint was from Jin, so he could understand Hero Chen's position perfectly well.

They were friends.

They were master and disciple.

There was no need to make things ugly.

As for Hero Chen carrying warning... once the army began moving, the disturbance would spread too widely for one more or one fewer messenger to matter.

This was simply a suitable excuse to let him go.

Otherwise, if Hero Chen's stubborn temper suddenly rose and he drew his sword to attempt the impossible by killing Prince Pingxi, no one would look good afterward.

At that moment, Fan Li noticed what was happening and walked over.

Hero Chen looked at the Sword Saint.

“I already felt before that you were coming. I warned them many times, but they all thought I was joking. They thought I'd gone mad. They thought I was an idiot.”

Fan Li heard this.

He reached out and patted Hero Chen on the shoulder.

“Same here.”

[End of Chapter 845]