Chapter 858: I, the Emperor, Have Come!

After days on end, Heaven, which had been waiting to wash the ground clean, finally grew tired of waiting.

At last, the sky cleared completely. Brilliant sunlight poured down.

“You’ve had a hard time these past few days,” Zheng Fan said to Chen Yuan, who stood before him.

“It is this general’s duty. I would not dare speak of hardship!” Chen Yuan grinned. “Besides, those Qian scout riders really can’t take a beating.”

Xue San and Chen Xiong had gone to Xiangsi Mountain, so responsibility for the army’s outer screen and scout cavalry had fallen to Chen Yuan. During the muddy days of relentless rain, Chen Yuan had personally commanded his riders in brutally suppressing the Qian scouts opposite them.

When scout cavalry encountered one another, the fight effectively began the moment both sides were spotted. Whoever gained the advantage in the scout war gained the advantage in battlefield vision.

But just as Chen Yuan had said, the Qian scouts truly could not fight. Worse, they seemed to be spending a great deal of effort catching deserters from their own side. As a result, control of the situation across the entire front had long since fallen into Yan hands.

Seeing Prince Pingxi begin putting on his armor, Chen Yuan asked curiously:

“Your Highness, are you planning to...?”

“The sky’s clear and the rain has stopped. This Prince thinks it’s time to go out for a walk. Heh.”

Helping the Prince into armor was far easier than dressing him in formal robes. Chen Xianba and the others moved through the process with practiced efficiency.

“Call Zhao Yuannian too. Let him come stroll around with this Prince.”

“Yes!”

Not long afterward, the Pixiu once again led Zhao Yuannian to the command tent.

Zhao Yuannian wore leather armor, but his hairstyle had not changed. The combination looked painfully mismatched.

Zheng Fan glanced at him.

“Take off the armor.”

Zhao Yuannian froze for a moment, then immediately began removing it.

“Put your own clothes back on. That outfit hurts this Prince’s eyes.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

Zhao Yuannian changed as quickly as he could into his own clothing, a dark-blue python robe that appeared understated at first glance but carried restrained elegance in every detail.

The gates of the Yan camp opened.

For once, Prince Pingxi charged straight out on his Pixiu. Chen Yuan followed close behind with his own troops.

...

“Wooooooo!”

Things had been peaceful for so long that, apart from the occasional bodies of their own scout riders dragged back each day reminding them that they were still on a battlefield, most Qian soldiers had gradually begun forgetting the rhythm of war.

The Yan army opposite them.

Prince Pingxi of Yan opposite them.

Neither seemed to have any intention of attacking.

Rain had fallen endlessly, and both sides had almost grown accustomed to leaving one another alone.

The enemy was clearly close enough to touch, yet people insisted on imagining him far away. It was much like the candidates gathered in Shangjing for the spring examinations: the closer the examination day drew, the more some of them preferred to drink, play, and indulge themselves recklessly.

So when Yan troops suddenly appeared, even though the force was not large, the entire Qian camp erupted into commotion.

It was like a daughter-in-law whose house was a complete mess suddenly hearing her mother-in-law knock at the door. She leaped out of bed, threw herself together, hurriedly cleaned whatever she could, and rushed out to receive her.

Three small Qian cavalry forces emerged from three sides of the camp. A sizable infantry formation also marched out through the main gate.

It took them quite a while, but at least they managed to form up.

Meanwhile, the Yan riders behind him continued making occasional passes around the Qian camp, teasing and provoking the defenders. Prince Pingxi himself, however, had already seated himself on a blanket spread over a patch of ground, calmly watching the chaos ahead.

Zhao Yuannian squatted nearby. The grin on his face made him look almost endearing.

The Sword Saint stood beside Zheng Fan.

A’Ming stood behind him.

The familiar old arrangement.

The Sword Saint spoke first.

“This surprises me a little.”

Zheng Fan asked, “What does?”

“You’re actually not afraid?”

“Afraid of what? That the Qian army in front of us will suddenly pour out and wrap me up like a dumpling?”

“You know what I mean.”

Zheng Fan nodded and patted his knee.

“There’s nothing left to be afraid of.”

The Sword Saint said no more.

The Qian had sent nearly ten thousand troops outside the camp.

The Yan force that had come out for this “outing,” despite carrying Prince Pingxi’s royal banner, numbered fewer than four thousand.

This was more like reconnoitering the ground before a great battle. The only reason that battle had not begun already was the relentless rain of the previous days.

Even so, the Qian did not choose to attack and create a situation where they could overwhelm the Yan with superior numbers.

There were two reasons.

First, because the Yan had suppressed their scout cavalry so thoroughly, the Qian commander did not know whether the small force before him had a larger Yan army concealed behind it, or whether Yan main forces might be hiding in some other direction around the camp.

Second, the Qian troops who had come out this time were not the main Zu Clan force inside the camp.

Even after marching outside, they still relied upon the camp behind them. Whatever happened, they had something solid to fall back on.

If they grew careless and let the Yan draw them farther out, stretch their formation, then suddenly cut in from several directions, the entire fortified camp might as well have been decoration.

Zu Xinyue was personally directing the deployment. Beads of sweat covered his forehead. It was obvious that he too was under tremendous pressure.

Years ago, when Grand General Nian faced Prince Jingnan, the world had mocked him as “Old Turtle Nian.”

But only those who truly stood in such a position understood how crushing the pressure became when the opponent before you possessed achievements and a battle record that inspired genuine fear.

A general who fought a hundred battles and finally died in battle was not a tragedy. It was an extraordinarily high evaluation.

An ordinary man lost once and might simply be gone.

As for winning a hundred battles without defeat, that already belonged to myth.

Even under this pressure, Zu Xinyue did not bring his entire Zu Clan force out of the camp.

That camp, that nail driven into the ground, was the foundation beneath his feet.

Once the Qian troops opposite had finished preparing, Prince Pingxi ended his rest. He mounted his Pixiu and led his people in leisurely riding back and forth before the Qian formation.

Black armor.

Wuya.

The royal banner.

Prince Pingxi rode in magnificent martial splendor.

Under orders, Zhao Yuannian served once as a battlefield herald. He rode to the front of the Qian formation and shouted:

“My Prince says: Brothers of the Qian army, you’ve worked hard!”

Then Zhao Yuannian immediately wheeled his horse and rode back, cold sweat soaking through his clothes.

He truly feared that a stray arrow might suddenly come flying from behind and end his life on the spot.

Standing before an army was completely different from the formal meetings both sides had conducted earlier.

But when the Prince gave him the order, he had no way to refuse.

Once he returned, Zhao Yuannian practically collapsed over his horse’s back, gasping hard.

The Prince did not bother comforting him.

Instead, he turned toward the Sword Saint.

“Old Yu, do me a favor. Put on a show.”

“What sort of show?”

“You know ‘Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Sect’? Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. Summon several hundred or a thousand swords and send the whole black swarm smashing over there.”

“Leaving aside the fact that throwing around that many swords for spectacle would look impressive but accomplish very little, making the move nearly useless in practice... look at this battlefield. The Yan use sabers. The Qian opposite use mostly sabers and spears. Hardly anyone carries a sword. Even if I wanted to gather that many, there simply aren’t enough swords here.”

“True. Then how about a rainbow piercing the sun? Whatever you do, make sure they know the Sword Saint of Jin is standing here in the flesh.”

Prince Pingxi worried the Sword Saint might not understand what he meant, so he pointed one finger from below toward the sky and even supplied his own sound effect.

“Zzzzzzt... bang!”

The Sword Saint sighed.

He slapped the scabbard with his palm.

Longyuan flew from its sheath.

Sword qi rose like a rainbow and shot straight into the heavens. Seen from afar, it looked like a great strip of light exploding upward with a violent crack, scattering arcs of rainbow radiance across the sky.

“Excellent!”

Prince Pingxi was extremely satisfied.

Then he patted the Pixiu’s head.

The beast turned around and began racing back toward the Yan camp.

Chen Yuan immediately ordered the gongs sounded for withdrawal.

The Yan had come with outrageous arrogance.

And they left with exactly the same outrageous arrogance.

Zu Xinyue closed his eyes and slowly exhaled.

Then he gave the order to withdraw back into camp.

...

Inside the Qian camp, Han Sui and Zhao Mugou stood side by side. Neither had gone out to the battlefield to add to the confusion.

“What is he trying to do?” Zhao Mugou asked.

“Coincidentally, this old man has never commanded troops or fought a war.”

Han Sui stroked his long white beard.

“I’ve felt ever since that first meeting that this Prince has been behaving strangely. As though everything he does is a little too deliberate.”

“Anyone who isn’t blind can feel it. But what does that prove?”

“What does it prove?”

“In Shangjing there is a snack called stinky tofu. Plenty of people smell it and immediately feel like vomiting, then hurry away. Others smell it as though they have discovered some supreme delicacy, and their mouths begin watering on the spot.”

“You mean we think he looks deliberate because the performance isn’t actually meant for us?”

“The imperial court is the same. Sometimes an opponent suddenly appears to lose his composure. He behaves beneath his usual level, perhaps even becomes faintly ridiculous. But that is only how it looks to you. That opponent does not necessarily intend to keep fighting you. He may be preparing to deal with someone else.”

“Then what should we do?”

“What do you think?”

“I’m asking you.”

“And I’m asking you.”

“This...”

“This old man has never led soldiers or fought a war. Relying on my name and reputation to scrape together several forces and gather this many men was already about as much as I could manage. If we truly compare ability in warfare, this old man may not be much better than Yao Zizhan.”

Han Sui paused.

Then continued:

“Years ago, when Prince Pingxi was still nothing more than a Garrison Commander of Yan, he pointed directly at our Emperor and said something extremely rude: that His Majesty did not understand war. That year, the Yan army marched south. If the troops of our Three Frontiers had been able to move south in coordination, it would have been far harder for the Yan to borrow passage through Qian so calmly and open the road into Jin.”

Han Sui closed his eyes.

He waved one hand.

“Let us see what happens today.”

...

A single ride around the field left Zheng Fan drenched in sweat.

Sometimes sweating a little actually made the entire body feel lighter afterward.

A large wooden bath barrel had been erected inside the command tent. By the time the Prince returned, it was already filled with hot water.

Prince Pingxi had always loved soaking in a bath. From Tiger Head City onward, his residences had changed again and again, but one thing never changed: wherever he lived, there had to be a bathing pool.

With Chen Xianba and the others attending him, Zheng Fan removed his armor.

Then Chen Xianba and the others withdrew.

A little later, the Princess Consort of Prince Fu stepped out from behind the curtain and helped Zheng Fan undo the final layer of clothing beneath.

“Your Highness, you’re soaked through.”

“The armor trapped the heat.”

Once all his clothes were removed, the Prince sat down in the bath barrel.

The Princess Consort began wiping his back.

“Yuannian told you, didn’t he?”

“He did.”

“Afraid?”

“Yes.”

“What are you afraid of?”

“Afraid Your Highness won’t want me anymore.”

“Do you carry that much weight in this Prince’s heart?”

“How could Your Highness ever lack women?”

“Oh?”

“But this concubine is willing.”

“You say you’re afraid, yet you also say you’re willing.”

“First, this concubine had no choice to begin with. Now that there is a choice, naturally I should try to make the best of it. Yuannian probably thinks the same way.”

Prince Pingxi closed his eyes and said nothing, simply enjoying the back rub.

“Besides, what kind of woman has Your Highness not seen? I’m sure I’m hardly the first Queen Mother Your Highness has ever taken liberties with.”

When the two were alone, they could speak much more freely.

That was part of the pleasure.

A faint smile appeared at the corner of the Prince’s mouth.

The answer was all there in that smile.

“This concubine thinks that if I’m destined to become nothing more than a decorative vase, then I needn’t ask Your Highness to treasure me forever. At the very least, I should once have made Your Highness look at me and feel amazed.”

“Good.”

“It’s Your Highness who truly needs to take care of yourself.”

“To tell you the truth, this Prince has always had terrible luck on battlefields. Heaven seems endlessly eager to have me suddenly drop dead in the middle of one. Fortunately, I’m cautious enough that all these years, Heaven has never gotten its wish.

“This time will be the same.”

“Your Highness is the sun in the sky. There may be cloudy days. There may be storms. But everyone knows that sooner or later, the sun will always come out again.”

“Enough. This Prince is going to sleep for a while.”

He climbed out of the bath barrel.

The Princess Consort dried his body.

Then the Prince lay down on his military bedding, and she pulled the covers over him.

He rolled his neck a few times, found a comfortable position, and closed his eyes.

“Go tell Xianba outside that until this Prince wakes naturally, there’s no need to come in and report military affairs.”

“Yes.”

The Princess Consort went out.

Not long afterward, Chen Xianba entered the command tent, came around the curtain to the Prince’s bedside, and dropped to one knee.

“Until Your Highness wakes, this subordinate will ensure that everything around Your Highness remains quiet.”

“Mm...”

Chen Xianba rose and left.

A little later, the Princess Consort returned, smiling.

“Little General Chen is very responsible.”

If A’Ming or Xue San had relayed that order, Chen Xianba would simply have accepted it.

But because the message came through the Princess Consort of Prince Fu, Chen Xianba had still entered to confirm it personally, even at the risk of annoying the Prince.

That was called responsibility.

Zheng Fan did not answer.

He truly intended to rest.

The Princess Consort lifted the blanket.

“Your Highness, it’ll be easier to sleep once you let it out.”

...

Here, inside the Yan command tent, Prince Pingxi slept soundly.

East of the Yan camp, however, formation after formation was marching out of Xishan Camp.

These troops should originally have been waiting farther west at Xiangsi Mountain, preparing to ambush the recklessly advancing Yan.

But clearly... they had not been there.

Xishan Camp was the last defensive line north of Bianzhou Commandery. Its predecessor had been formed from the various Qian forces that once blocked Li Bao. After subsequent reorganization, its fighting strength could not compare with Qian’s traditional Western Army or the Zu Clan Army, but it was by no means useless.

Now... that army was marching out.

At the same time, west of the Yan camp, a mass of riders appeared with much of their bodies exposed.

Very few wore armor.

But they had savage faces and superb horsemanship.

“Lord Luo, this Commissioner has brought every one of my sons and warriors. I hope the court will keep its promises. Otherwise, the warriors of my Northern Qiang will never agree!”

“Commissioner Mingya, you may rest assured. So long as you block the western route and prevent the Yan from escaping this way, the court and His Majesty will certainly be lavish with their rewards!”

For generations, the State of Qian had possessed two regions of chronic instability, both pacified again and again only to rebel once more.

One lay among the native chieftains of the southwestern mountains.

The other lay among the Northern Qiang in the northwest.

During Emperor Renzong’s reign, the Northern Qiang had even established an independent state and proclaimed an Emperor, causing the Qian court tremendous trouble.

Later, after the Tattooed-Face Chancellor pacified the southwestern native-chieftain rebellion, he led the Western Army north and subdued the Northern Qiang as well. He then established a court administrative system in their lands and turned the region into one of the imperial horse-breeding grounds.

Today, the Northern Qiang were divided among several chiefs, almost all of whom held titles granted by the Qian court.

These so-called Commissioners were essentially no different from the native chieftains of the southwest.

“Heh-heh. Yan men, is it? Everyone says Yan iron cavalry is foremost beneath Heaven. This Commissioner would very much like to see it for himself.”

“Commissioner Mingya, you absolutely must not underestimate the enemy.”

“Heh. Underestimate them? They say the Yan are wolves. Are the twenty thousand Northern Qiang warriors under this Commissioner made of mud? You Qian people... no.

“If the court had summoned us earlier, promised enough silver and grain, the sons of Northern Qiang would have beaten that arrogance out of the Yan long ago!”

“Of course. Of course.”

...

South of the Yan camp, at the boundary between Xishan Commandery and Bianzhou Commandery, another army was marching north.

Judging purely from its formation, this Qian army belonged among the finest forces the State of Qian possessed.

Years ago, when Yan invaded the south, Qian supposedly possessed a million soldiers.

Some could do nothing but cling to the walls of the Three Frontiers and refuse to come out.

Others existed only on military registers as ghost soldiers.

And among those ghost soldiers, the Imperial Guards of Shangjing had been among the worst offenders.

Over these past years, one of the major focuses of Qian’s new-army reforms had been to tear down those rotten and useless Imperial Guards and rebuild them from the ground up.

The man who trained this new Imperial Guard was Li Xundao, disciple of Master Cang and the posthumous son of the Tattooed-Face Chancellor.

One reason the southwestern native-chieftain rebellion had been pacified so quickly the second time was that Li Xundao had taken these Imperial Guards into the southwest, training them as they fought.

By the time the southwest was peaceful again, this new Imperial Guard had already been thoroughly steeped in the smell of blood.

At the center of the marching army... a Jinwu Dragon Standard rose high above the ranks.

Only one man in the world had the right to raise that dragon standard.

The Son of Heaven.

Upon a war chariot, the Emperor of Qian braced his left hand against the railing while his right rested upon the Son of Heaven sword at his waist.

Yao Zizhan stood on his left.

Li Xundao stood on his right.

“The world says Yan men love to gamble, while we Qian people are timid by nature!

“This time, I will show everyone beneath Heaven that we Qian people can stake everything too.

“Zheng Fan gained nothing in Liang, so he chose to gamble everything and repeat the old affair from years ago. Perhaps he even intends to ride beneath Shangjing again and say hello to me.

“But if you walk beside the river often enough, sooner or later your shoes will get wet.

“I will use this opportunity to teach him that lesson properly.”

The Emperor’s gaze sharpened.

His voice dropped into a low growl.

“After this battle, the balance of all Xia will change. The balance between Qian and Yan will change.

“Hasn’t the State of Yan always been unable to afford a defeat?

“Then this time...

“I will force them to lose!”

[End of Chapter 858]