Chapter 857: Thunderstorm

The day appointed in the challenge letter passed quietly beneath the pouring rain.

Heaven had actually been considerate.

It had intended to wait until the people below slaughtered one another into mountains of corpses and seas of blood, then send rain to wash away the stench.

Unfortunately, the people below never gave Heaven the opportunity.

Neither side felt embarrassed.

The following day, the Yan sent an envoy proposing another meeting.

This time, however, the protagonists would not be the two commanders.

Qian sent Zhao Mugou, the little flag bearer from the previous meeting. Today, he had become the principal representative.

That was because the Yan had sent Zhao Yuannian.

At present, the flag bearers of both sides stood facing one another.

On the Qian side stood a broad-shouldered man with a full beard.

His true identity was Zu Xinyue, the actual military commander of the Qian army behind them.

As the adopted son of Zu Zhuming, his personal fame was not especially great. Qian’s southeastern coast and the northern lands lay far, far apart.

Yet simply standing there, even without general’s armor and dressed only in the leather armor of an ordinary soldier, he radiated a natural pressure that made people take notice.

Zhao Yuannian did not recognize Zu Xinyue.

Still, the first sight of the man startled him somewhat.

Fortunately... his Prince “cherished” him.

The Sword Saint had not personally accompanied him this time, but the Prince had still sent one of his personal death-sworn retainers.

Inside the command tent, everyone called him “Mr. Ming.”

Compared with Zu Xinyue, A’Ming managed to remain serious for only a little while.

He drove the flag into the ground, yawned, then silently took out a wineskin and began drinking.

Zu Xinyue’s nose twitched.

His ancestors had been pearl divers. During childhood, he had spent more than half his time soaking in seawater, which made him exceptionally sensitive to the scent of blood.

What the Yan flag bearer was drinking was neither water nor wine.

It was blood.

Human blood.

Zhao Yuannian and Zhao Mugou first greeted one another according to the protocol of envoys between two armies.

Immediately afterward, they greeted one another according to imperial-clan seniority.

Strictly by generation, Zhao Yuannian belonged to Zhao Mugou’s grandfather’s generation.

So Zhao Mugou performed the full formal salute.

Once the rituals were complete, Zhao Yuannian glanced at Zu Xinyue, who was pretending to be an ordinary soldier holding the flag.

He smiled.

“So you came planning to chop me to death?”

“Mm.”

Zhao Mugou admitted it openly.

“You are a member of the imperial clan, yet you sold out your country for glory and betrayed your ancestors. When Chancellor Han heard that you would be the one coming today, he said that if circumstances allowed, we should kill you. Consider it cleaning house for the Zhao Clan.”

“And now?”

Zhao Yuannian looked toward Zu Xinyue.

“Do it?”

Zu Xinyue said nothing.

A’Ming continued drinking.

Clearly, nobody intended to make a move.

“Great Qian is a state of rites and propriety. How did you end up planning this kind of thing?” Zhao Yuannian sighed.

Zhao Mugou smiled.

“Rites exist to make the people below obey them, so the people above can live more comfortably.”

Zhao Yuannian tilted his head.

“You mean that?”

“Yes.”

“Do you normally speak to people this way?”

“No. Normally I pretend to be stupid.”

“Then why stop pretending now?”

“I’m tired of it.”

“You’re barely old enough to have started.”

“That Prince Pingxi on your side probably bent his knees before Commandery Princesses, imperial Princes, and superior officers when he had not yet risen. What about now?”

“His Highness is different. Nobody can shake his position anymore. What about you?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“No. I don’t. But I have a feeling that perhaps I won’t need to pretend anymore in the future.”

“Tired of living?”

“Perhaps.”

“You’re this young and already talking like some world-weary old man.”

The two members of Qian’s imperial clan fell silent.

That silence created a pressure of its own.

Two days earlier, Chancellor Han and Prince Pingxi had sat here.

The two men had gone through the motions with perfect mutual understanding, but in truth they had discussed almost nothing.

Both principal figures had deep ravines in their hearts, however, so neither had found that strange.

The two men here today were different.

They were more like two puppies whose commanders had loosened the leashes and sent them out.

Both felt the pressure not to lose face for their own side.

The problem was that neither had been instructed what to discuss before coming.

So after the greetings ended... what came next?

“Should we persuade each other to surrender?” Zhao Mugou asked.

“You persuade me, or I persuade you?” Zhao Yuannian asked.

“This is Qian. Your surname is Zhao,” Zhao Mugou said as though the answer were obvious.

“If my Prince says he surrenders, will you clear a road and let him lead the army safely back to Yan?”

“Probably... yes? Didn’t he come this way last time and leave the same way?”

“Then why did my Prince bother entering Qian this time? Was he only coming to take me away?”

Zhao Yuannian raised a finger and pointed at himself.

“Then why doesn’t your Prince attack?” Zhao Mugou asked. “Your Prince originally intended to continue south. We know that. The reason he stopped here is because he fears the Qian army behind us. But why hasn’t he attacked?”

Zhao Yuannian sighed.

Zhao Mugou looked curious.

“Why are you sighing?”

“My apologies.”

“Mm?”

“I haven’t climbed high enough yet. Matters of military secrets aren’t something I’m qualified to participate in or know.”

“Then what do you do beside him?”

“I tell him about local customs, tell him stories, tell him who is who in the Qian court. I even told him about you not long ago. Your branch has had a miserable time.”

Zhao Mugou shook his head.

“Right now, you’re even more miserable than I am.”

“I thought I would feel disappointed...”

“You don’t?”

“How should I put it? Once there’s no road back, a person actually becomes a little more relaxed. I watched with my own eyes how my father lived. I should have spent my entire life drifting along uselessly the same way he did. But now, it feels as though I’ve been given a new chance. I may truly be able to try accomplishing something.”

“Betraying your country, betraying your ancestors, breaking faith and righteousness. Is doing those things enjoyable?”

“Your branch’s throne was stolen by my branch a hundred years ago. Our branch has spent that century fairly happily.”

“...” Zhao Mugou.

“And your branch has spent that century suffering. So logically speaking, all those claims back then about an Imperial Younger Brother being designated heir, about the throne passing from elder brother to younger brother... perhaps they can fool the history books. But we are members of the imperial clan. How could we truly believe them? Wasn’t my own ancestor also faithless and unjust back then?”

“At least we’re all surnamed Zhao! No matter how the meat rots, it still rots inside the same pot!”

“Eh?”

“What?”

“There are only the two of us here, plus...”

Zhao Yuannian pointed first toward A’Ming, then toward the Qian flag bearer.

Then he smiled.

“Strictly speaking, I’m a surrendered traitor now. I’ve already drawn a clean line between myself and Qian. What I did would deserve ten thousand deaths if Great Qian got its hands on me. Facing a rotten man like me, do you still need to speak hypocritically? Shouldn’t you simply curse me to your heart’s content? So someone present is making it inconvenient for you to say what you truly think.”

Zhao Yuannian’s gaze turned toward Zu Xinyue.

“Heh. By convention, a flag bearer should be one of your own trusted people. In front of a trusted man, what could you possibly be unable to say? So he isn’t your trusted man, yet he still makes you cautious. Oh... Mr. Ming. This big brother holding the flag has quite an extraordinary identity. He isn’t merely some expert assigned to protect the envoy. He’s probably a very large fish.”

A’Ming lowered his wineskin and gently wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand.

Zu Xinyue showed no fear.

Instead, his entire body tightened into readiness.

“So now you’re planning to break the rules?” Zhao Mugou asked.

“No, no, no...”

Zhao Yuannian raised both hands and waved them hard.

Then he looked at A’Ming.

“Mr. Ming, let’s not take the risk.”

A’Ming hesitated for a moment.

Then nodded.

“What should I call you, brother?” Zhao Yuannian asked Zu Xinyue.

“A worthless name. Not worth speaking aloud.”

“Mm. In that case, forget it. Enough for today. Go back and tell Han Sui that if he knows what’s good for him, he should withdraw immediately. My Prince has never had much of a temper for patience.”

Zhao Mugou seemed to breathe out as well.

His expression grew solemn.

“Tell that Prince of yours that this is Qian. The land beneath his feet belongs to Great Qian!”

Then both men rose.

They first took leave according to the formal etiquette of envoys between states, followed by the etiquette of imperial clansmen.

Prince Fu Residence had betrayed the country, but the Emperor had not yet issued a decree stripping the Prince Fu line of imperial-clan status.

So Zhao Yuannian remained, technically, a member of the imperial house.

Both sides took their respective flag bearers and returned.

On the way, Zhao Mugou said to Zu Xinyue:

“My fault.”

“Your Highness gives this general far too much credit. I was the one who insisted on coming. If anyone was reckless and presumptuous, it was this general. What could that possibly have to do with Your Highness?”

“General Zu, why do you think that man refuses to attack us?”

“These past days have brought continuous heavy rain. The roads are mud. This whole region is low-lying, while our camp occupies a raised slope within that low ground. The Yan have many cavalry, and the terrain makes deployment difficult.”

“Is that truly the reason?”

“If it isn’t, then another possibility is that the Prince of Yan opposite us has already seen through the true strength of our army.”

Only... seen through the true strength of our army?

Zhao Mugou did not say that sentence aloud.

He kept it inside his heart.

On the other side, Zhao Yuannian and A’Ming were also returning to camp.

Before A’Ming even asked, Zhao Yuannian hurriedly began explaining.

“Mr. Ming, earlier I didn’t stop you because I thought you would lose to that bearded man.”

A’Ming did not care.

“He’s a hard opponent, and a pure Martial Artist. Given enough time, he would certainly die by my hand. But both sides’ guards were nearby. Even if we fought, there wouldn’t have been enough time to decide life and death.”

As a vampire, unless A’Ming encountered some method designed specifically to restrain him, he could always use his health bar to grind through a proper fight.

Only one flag bearer was permitted, so Kashir naturally could not be there.

If Kashir had been beside him, A’Ming might have had an opportunity to attempt a rapid kill.

“Mr. Ming, that Zhao Mugou obviously isn’t ordinary. At the very least, he has a depth and self-control unusual for a boy his age.”

“You feudal Princes like comparing who has the deeper city walls?”

Zhao Yuannian immediately nodded.

“For us feudal Princes, depth means seeing who can play the pig better and who can pretend to be stupid better.”

“Fine.”

“Back to what I was saying. Originally, I thought I had discovered something unusual about that Qian flag bearer from Zhao Mugou’s wording, so my first instinct was to let you decide whether to strike. The reason I changed my mind is that Prince Rui’s line has lived far more miserably than my Prince Fu line. In a situation like that, how could Zhao Mugou suddenly misspeak by accident?”

“You think he did it deliberately?”

“He deliberately showed us a flaw.”

“So we couldn’t give him what he wanted?”

“Exactly.”

“I understand.”

“Mr. Ming, although we still don’t know who that man opposite us is...”

“No need to explain further. So long as I’m not being used as someone else’s knife, that’s enough.”

“Mr. Ming is wise. Also, that bearded man refused even to give his surname. That may mean his surname alone would reveal his identity. Among Qian military men, only a handful of surnames point this strongly toward someone’s background. Zhong? Zu?”

“Not giving his name means he was trying to hide his surname?”

A’Ming felt Zhao Yuannian’s reasoning was a little too simplistic.

“Sir, how many military men in this world can understand marching, formations, killing, and war while also handling every other matter flawlessly the way our Prince does? Calling Martial Artists crude isn’t always meant as mockery. Often, in moments like that, they genuinely speak without thinking everything through first.”

“Fine.”

“Oh, right. Mr. Ming, when we return, will you report to His Highness or should I?”

“You go.”

“Many thanks for giving me the opportunity.”

“Aren’t you afraid?” A’Ming suddenly asked.

Clearly, he did not mean the meeting just now.

He meant something else.

“I... am afraid. But being afraid is useless. Heh.”

The smile remained on Zhao Yuannian’s face.

“There’s a chief steward at Prince Pingxi Residence in eastern Jin named Xiao Yibo. I think you resemble him.”

“Steward Xiao is one of His Highness’s trusted men?”

“You could say that. By now he barely counts as half family. He followed us all the way from Beifeng Commandery.”

The instant Zhao Yuannian heard “half family,” even his bones seemed to soften.

In his understanding, “family” meant genuine insiders.

People like “Mr. Ming” and the others.

Still, from habit, he immediately humbled himself.

“What virtue or ability does Yuannian possess to be compared with Steward Xiao? Yuannian still has a very long road to walk before I can truly help...”

“Oh. We killed Xiao Yibo’s father too.”

“...” Zhao Yuannian.

...

The rain stopped.

Then fell again.

Then stopped.

Then fell.

Zhao Mugou walked into the commander’s tent.

The furnishings were extremely simple.

There was no sand table and no map.

Instead, a number of books had been placed around the space.

It was not that Chancellor Han deliberately wanted to display scholarly airs in the commander’s tent and lecture Qian’s rough soldiers.

It was simply that this tent was rarely used.

Military councils were held inside Zu Xinyue’s command tent.

On this campaign, Han Sui had relinquished authority completely. He had not interfered in military affairs or placed restraints on the commander.

In the Qian armies of the past, that would have been almost unimaginable.

“Old Chancellor.”

Zhao Mugou saluted Han Sui.

Han Sui did not answer.

He merely turned a page.

Zhao Mugou went to one side and poured tea for him.

Han Sui accepted the cup without raising his head.

“General Zu has already told this old man about today’s meeting.”

“Nothing was really discussed today. That Prince on the other side didn’t seem interested in negotiating anything.”

Han Sui raised his head.

Then smiled.

“This old man does not know what that Prince Pingxi is thinking. But I understand what you were thinking. Do you know... if Zu Xinyue had died today, then this military camp, and the thirty thousand newly trained Zu Clan troops serving as its backbone, might have collapsed as an army immediately?”

Zhao Mugou drew a deep breath.

Then smiled.

“I know.”

Once again, he did not hide.

He did not explain.

He simply admitted it openly.

“Do you know what this camp means right now?”

“Like a nail. It pins down the Yan.”

“And once that nail is pulled out easily, the entire board will be overturned.”

“Old Chancellor. That is exactly why I wanted to try.”

“Because of hatred?”

“Yes. Because of hatred. Because I am dissatisfied.”

“You need to see the greater situation.”

“Then why, when Emperor Taizong stole my family’s throne, did he not think about the greater situation? When Emperor Taizong lost five hundred thousand elites in Yan and broke the spine of Great Qian’s military tradition all the way down to the present day, did he think about the greater situation? Our family had already lost the throne. Yet generation after generation of Prince Rui Residence still suffered sudden deaths, accidents, one after another. Did anyone think about the greater situation then? Why? Why should I care? I don’t want some greater situation. I only know that if I could have let the Yan kill Zu Xinyue back there, this commander who foolishly insisted on following me forward to take a look... then afterward the Yan might have had a chance to escape the restraint of this camp, leave Xishan Commandery, enter Bianzhou Commandery, and give that Emperor of theirs another fine slap across the face!”

Zhao Mugou had become extremely emotional.

After finishing, he needed a long while to calm himself again.

He did not understand why, in front of Chancellor Han, he seemed unwilling to conceal anything.

Instead, almost by instinct, he poured out the rawest thoughts buried inside him without reserve.

Han Sui turned another page.

Then asked:

“Finished?”

“Finished.”

“A man in a high position must not become obsessed with clever stratagems and petty tricks. He should act by pushing with the greater momentum of the age. Even if you wish to take revenge, you should not have chosen that place. Four people. Two sides. That is not momentum. That is petty cleverness. That is laughable... jianghu vendetta.”

“But I have no other opportunity. I...”

“If there is no opportunity, then wait. Did that Prince Pingxi across from us not wait until Yan’s late Emperor died and the Northern and Southern Princes were gone before he truly began displaying his arrogance? He even took in the Crown Prince the moment he wished. A man like him is willing to lie dormant when necessary. What about you?”

“I’m different from him.”

“You are far inferior to him.”

“He has more freedom than I do. But Prince Rui Residence...”

“You are a member of the imperial clan, and you want to compare freedom with a man born among the common people? While you were wearing brocade and eating fine food, he may still have been worrying about how to earn his next meal. You say Prince Rui Residence has always been suppressed. If your line were truly useless, who would bother looking at you twice? Suppression exists because of fear. And fear itself proves that the signboard of Prince Rui Residence still has value.”

“What use? What use does it have?”

“Why are you the only one who hates? Did your father not hate? Did your grandfather not hate?”

“They were thinking of preserving Prince Rui Residence. For the sake of the household’s continuation, they were willing to swallow every humiliation and accept this fate. I don’t want to endure it. I don’t want my descendants to live the same frightened life as me, my father, my grandfather, and my great-grandfather. I refuse to endure it!”

Han Sui closed the book.

He took a sip of tea.

Then said:

“When this old man was young, I too spent a period as wild and unrestrained as Yao Zizhan once was. Your grandfather and I were the closest of friends.”

“My father told me about that.”

“Later, when I served as Military Commissioner of Yaozhou, a rebellion case nearly destroyed my entire career. Fortunately, with your grandfather’s help, I managed to solve the case. That night, your grandfather and I drank together, venting all the fear and depression that had accumulated in our hearts. Once I became drunk... I stayed overnight in Prince Rui Residence. Your grandfather knew how to treat people. He arranged a maid to warm my bed.”

Zhao Mugou looked somewhat bewildered.

He did not understand why Han Sui had suddenly begun talking about the absurdities of his youth.

“A little over a month ago, when this old man began organizing troops to rescue the throne, I went to Prince Rui Residence. I wanted to borrow something from your father that could serve as a signboard. This old man’s prestige was sufficient, but adding a feudal Prince’s name would make the mobilization seem more legitimate.”

“Yes. I know.”

“No. You don’t know. Your father has been bedridden for years. The root of his illness never improved. These last few years, he could not even leave his bed. When I went to see your father, he entrusted you to me. He asked you to represent Prince Rui Residence and help this old man organize the army in his place.”

“Yes.”

“Before I left, your father gripped my hand and asked me to take good care of you.”

Zhao Mugou nodded.

“Then your father called me... Father.”

“...” Zhao Mugou!

“Heh-heh-heh. The maid your grandfather arranged for me that night... was your grandmother.”

“...” Zhao Mugou.

“Your grandfather told only your father about this matter. Nobody else ever knew. You said your grandfather and the others endured humiliation because they wanted Prince Rui Residence to continue? No. Your grandfather was exactly like you. He was even more extreme. He directly severed the true bloodline of Prince Rui Residence himself. And the ridiculous part is... do you know how your father became sick?”

Han Sui’s voice remained calm.

“Years ago, your father wrote a poem about wintersweet blossoms. The poem reached the capital. I read it. Inside those verses, I tasted a trace of pride. The same pride this old man once possessed in his youth. A very familiar pride. But I had placed first in the imperial examination back then. My official career had limitless prospects. I could call myself a model scholar beneath Heaven. Your father was only a feudal Prince. How dared he reveal that kind of pride? What was he planning to do? So... in my capacity as Chancellor, I gave an order to the Silver-Armored Guard. From that day onward, your father developed the root of an illness. His body worsened day by day. Until recently, inside Prince Rui Residence, when your father gripped my hand and called me Father... only then did I finally understand. It was the order I personally gave... that made my own son suffer all these years. And now he lies there with barely a breath left in him.”

Han Sui leaned forward slightly.

His eyes widened.

He stared at the almost completely stupefied Zhao Mugou before him.

“Your grandfather was a beast!”

Then he continued:

“And you... are the grandson of me, Han Sui!”

[End of Chapter 857]