Chapter 873: Yan Dog

A small pavilion. An elegant chamber.

Antique tables and chairs stood beside exquisite pastries and expensive tea, while sandalwood burned quietly to one side.

Prince Pingxi, fresh from a bath, lounged lazily against his seat, his hair still slightly damp.

Outside, a middle-aged man knelt prostrate. He had a square, dignified face that naturally lent him an air of authority.

There were quite a few men with faces like that at court. In this age, appearance itself could be one of the qualifications for entering officialdom. That had been especially true in earlier years, before Yan possessed an imperial-examination system. As for Qian, which had held the examinations for a century, apart from a rare few whose ability was simply too exceptional to ignore, the vast majority of men who eventually rose to become Chancellors had at least been elegant young gentlemen in their youth.

Among commoners, a man with this kind of face would at minimum belong to the class of landlords and local strongmen. There was no mystery to it. However fine a person's natural features might be, man or woman, grind them through several years of bitter poverty and they would quickly stop looking like much of anything. Looks and bearing needed the right living conditions to be cultivated.

The man before Zheng Fan was Peng Kai, Manor Lord of the Peng Family Manor near the Xiangsi Mountain region.

The Peng Family Manor was called a manor, but its population was not small. It even possessed its own armed force. Pulling together two thousand men was genuinely effortless. It had something of the flavor of Zhu Family Manor from Water Margin.

The Peng Family Manor traced its origins back to Yan's earlier invasion of Qian. At the time, Qian's main armies had collapsed on contact and been broken one after another. With no other choice, the Qian Emperor once ordered local forces to march to the capital and rescue the throne. For a time, strongmen from every region, led by retired senior officials, organized volunteer armies and hurried toward Shangjing to defend the Emperor. It was rather like opening the door to local militia formations.

After the war, these volunteer armies were dismissed and sent home. But once a man had tasted meat, it was difficult to make him go back to chewing grass.

At the same time, the Qian court was generous with nominal appointments. It deliberately raised the status of military men and tried to cultivate a little martial spirit throughout the state. Many leaders of those volunteer armies therefore received official titles. Most were empty posts without actual duties, but at least they represented an officially recognized rise in status.

Naturally, there was another important reason. The grander the title given, the less actual silver the court needed to hand over as a reward.

The Peng Family Manor had taken shape under those circumstances.

The former Manor Lord had been surnamed Peng. Peng Kai was his adopted son. After marrying the old man's daughter, he became his son-in-law as well. When the Manor Lord died, his eldest and second sons had both already died during the earlier expedition to rescue the throne. Of the two sons who remained, one was sickly and the other still young. So Peng Kai inherited the position and went on to expand and consolidate the Peng Family Manor further.

"Heh-heh. Come inside."

"Yes."

Peng Kai entered. He did not dare sit. Instead, he moved to a position directly facing Zheng Fan and knelt again.

His kneeling posture was exceptionally correct. More importantly, it was the kneeling etiquette of Yan.

"This Prince has always believed that although Qian people aren't a match for my Yan army on the battlefield, Qian's Silver-Armored Guard truly stands more than a head above Great Yan's Secret Intelligence Department. But I genuinely never imagined the Secret Intelligence Department had buried a nail all the way out here."

"Reporting to Your Highness, the Department has actually continued expanding and strengthening over these years. It was only that before—"

"Enough. There's no need to explain it to this Prince. After all, the reason I escaped danger this time was largely because you were here. The reason I'm saying this is because I'm expressing an apology. Come. I'll borrow your own tea and use it instead of wine. This Prince drinks a toast to you."

Zheng Fan lifted his teacup.

Peng Kai looked up at the Prince. He shuffled forward on his knees and carefully accepted the cup with both hands. Ignoring how hot it was, he drank it in one swallow.

"To have had the opportunity to serve Your Highness, this subordinate has no regrets in this life!"

Peng Kai pressed his forehead to the floor and kowtowed heavily.

"Sit and talk."

"Yes!"

Peng Kai sat down.

His excitement was plainly genuine.

As one of the Secret Intelligence Department's nails buried inside Qian, a covert agent who had to conceal his identity and wait silently for the day he might finally be useful, he must have endured far too much over the years.

But Peng Kai was fortunate. He had waited here, and what he finally received was a Prince of Great Yan, a Prince who had just broken Qian's Shangjing.

"Your Highness, the news of Shangjing's fall is absolutely genuine. My family members who were originally in Shangjing sent word back very early, and afterward I deliberately sent more people to verify it. Even the imperial palace has been breached by Great Yan's fierce troops. Quite a few members of the imperial clan and nobility were taken away."

Zheng Fan nodded.

Although he had commanded this surprise attack, he had not personally participated in it. Afterward he had spent his time continuously breaking through Qian encirclements and avoiding pursuit. So in truth, he knew very little about what was happening outside.

At first, because of the Silver-Armored Guard, he had nearly been wrapped up by Qian troops several times. Later, the frequency of Silver-Armored Guard activity gradually declined and the threat from the Qian army weakened along with it.

Even so, when he was nearing the Xiangsi Mountain region, he had still encountered a Qian force trying to block his way. In the end, Peng Kai led men out, smashed that Qian force, and escorted him safely into the Peng Family Manor.

"Third Master under Your Highness should also return before long," Peng Kai continued.

The force Xue San and Chen Xiong had taken with them was the decoy Zheng Fan had dispatched earliest. It had not produced much effect because the Qian had acted more aggressively than he expected. Of course, what happened later was something the Qian could never have dreamed of: their Prince had been even more aggressive than they imagined.

In any case, Xue San's force reached Xiangsi Mountain, failed to discover any main Qian army there, and immediately shifted elsewhere. Along the way, they had also established contact with the Peng Family Manor.

Zheng Fan did not know Xue San's exact current position, but he should be returning soon.

"Peng Kai."

"This subordinate is here."

"What do you think will happen to the State of Qian after this?"

A deeply embedded agent who had operated in Qian long enough to become an armed local strongman in his own right was qualified to give him an opinion.

"Reporting to Your Highness: Qian will inevitably fall into great disorder."

"Be more specific."

"Yes. Once the central government has been destroyed, the first result will be that local strongmen like this subordinate grow even more powerful. The court's deterrence over the regions will weaken further. And if Great Yan can now send out a major army and surround the Three Frontiers, I fear Qian's rear will no longer possess the ability to reinforce the Three Frontiers front."

In the past, Qian had genuinely been a state whose power was centralized at court. To preserve the absolute supremacy of the center, its method of governing the provinces had amounted almost to deliberate castration. That made Qian timid in external war, but when it came to suppressing trouble within its own borders, the state remained extremely stable.

This time, however, Shangjing had fallen and the court had lost all face. From now on, trying to gather and integrate regional power again would become far more difficult.

Put plainly, the dignity of a central government often depended on a single layer of skin. So long as everyone agreed that skin was sacred, it remained something lofty and untouchable. But once that skin was ripped away, Qian might genuinely return to the situation after Great Xia collapsed, when the Son of Heaven belonged to whoever possessed the strongest soldiers and horses.

"The reason this Prince took such a dangerous move and entered Qian this time is precisely because Great Yan truly cannot endure another enormous drain at home. Qian must be destroyed, but not now."

A trace of gloom entered Peng Kai's eyes. He concealed it quickly.

Naturally, he hoped Great Yan would immediately march south in force and destroy Qian, or at the very least destroy half of it. That way, his hidden identity could finally emerge into the light.

But if Great Yan did not intend to launch a large-scale invasion of Qian in the near future, then he and the Peng Family Manor would have to...

"Come back to eastern Jin with this Prince," Zheng Fan said. "Of course, if you want to remain in the Secret Intelligence Department, that is possible too. You earned a major contribution this time. Once you return, you'll certainly be promoted."

"This subordinate is willing to remain at Your Highness's side and serve!"

Peng Kai made his choice.

"Then this entire manor of yours can move as well. Once Third Master or Count Yishan arrives, migrate together with us."

"Your Highness... truly?"

Delight appeared across Peng Kai's face.

Zheng Fan nodded.

Peng Kai might have been a Secret Intelligence Department nail planted inside the Peng Family Manor, a man who had always lived with "his body in the Qian camp and his heart in Yan," but he had still married here, built a household here, and made a life here.

Nobody was born with a heart of iron. Not even spies.

Unless forced into absolute desperation, who truly wanted to abandon his wife and children?

At that moment, from the southwestern side of the small pavilion, still within the Peng Family Manor's grounds, a burst of shouting suddenly rose.

The Yan soldiers around the pavilion immediately went on alert. Chen Xianba and Zheng Man came directly upstairs.

The Prince himself remained calm. He pointed in that direction and asked Peng Kai beside him:

"What's happening?"

"Some family business has disturbed Your Highness. This subordinate will deal with it immediately."

"Forget it. A visitor from afar is a guest. Since this Prince came here as a guest, naturally I should pay a visit myself."

"Your Highness..."

"Come. Take this Prince over."

"Yes."

Peng Kai led the way. Yan armored soldiers followed.

When they reached another courtyard, they found more than twenty people inside holding sabers and facing outward. Outside the courtyard stood over a hundred men of the Peng Family Manor pointing weapons at them.

Peng Kai stepped forward and shouted at the people inside:

"What are all of you doing? Put down your weapons!"

The twenty-odd men looked at one another.

They had already been badly outnumbered. Now that a formation of Yan armored soldiers had appeared as well, the courage drained straight out of them. Under the family head's furious command, many immediately dropped their weapons.

Only the young man and woman leading them continued glaring angrily at Peng Kai.

Neither was old. The girl looked perhaps sixteen or seventeen. The young man was not yet twenty.

"Third Uncle, I truly never imagined you were this kind of man!"

The girl carried a sword. As she shouted at Peng Kai, she suddenly raised the blade and rushed directly at Zheng Fan.

Chen Xianba stepped forward. His hammer smashed her sword aside, then he kicked her hard enough to send her tumbling across the ground.

When Chen Xianba prepared to continue in the rhythm of battlefield killing and bring the hammer down to finish her, the Prince called from behind him:

"Stop."

Chen Xianba stopped.

The girl clutched her chest and could not stand for the moment.

Chen Xianba, after all, had never learned what it meant to be gentle with a woman.

The girl was Peng Kai's eldest niece, daughter of the former Manor Lord's eldest son. The young man was the son of the former Manor Lord's second son.

At that moment, the young man still held a saber. He pointed it at Zheng Fan.

Immediately, the Yan soldiers behind Zheng Fan raised bows and nocked arrows at him.

The young man's saber quickly lowered again. His face twisted with struggle. Finally, he forced out:

"Who exactly are you?"

They should already have possessed some answer. Yan armor and Qian armor looked far too different.

Zheng Fan looked at him.

"This Prince is surnamed Zheng."

"Prince... Prince Pingxi!"

Clang!

The saber dropped from the young man's hand.

The people behind him showed expressions of horror as well.

They had known their family head had brought Yan soldiers into the manor. They had not known the identity of this Yan force's commander.

Once the young man learned Prince Pingxi himself stood before him, every shred of courage inside him vanished. He collapsed to his knees.

This was not a rehearsal. Nobody had practiced it beforehand. The three words "Prince Pingxi" simply carried that degree of deterrence on Qian soil, truly enough to stop children crying at night.

Zheng Fan waved one hand.

Chen Xianba immediately led the soldiers forward, kicked away every weapon, and bound the entire group.

Peng Kai's expression had turned iron-blue. He did not dare show displeasure toward the Prince. Whatever else could be said, Peng Kai was a Yan man loyal to Yan.

He was furious because after the Prince had clearly told him he could take the entire Peng Family Manor back to Yan, his own household had still managed to produce this damned scene.

"Come. Let's go inside and have a look."

Zheng Fan strode into the courtyard. Peng Kai immediately followed.

The armored soldiers spread outward on both sides, clearing possible threats. The Peng Family Manor's own men, by contrast, were not allowed to enter.

Zheng Fan lowered his voice.

"Their fathers were killed by you, weren't they?"

"Reporting to Your Highness: I did it. Years ago, when Your Highness invaded Qian, the Peng Family Manor raised troops and marched toward the capital to rescue the throne. On the way there, this subordinate arranged for the Peng family's eldest young master to fall from his horse and die. On the return journey, I arranged for the second young master to 'die of illness.'"

"Must have been difficult."

Zheng Fan smiled.

After all, the Peng Family Manor's force had never even encountered the Yan army on either leg of that expedition. There had been no real fighting.

Under circumstances like that, eliminating two heirs who stood ahead of him in the line of succession while leaving no obvious trace genuinely had not been easy.

"This subordinate believed that controlling the Peng Family Manor could prove useful when Great Yan eventually campaigned against Qian."

"Mm. Very good."

Quite a few people stood outside the main hall ahead. Yan soldiers had already surrounded them. Most were women.

At the front sat an old woman in a grand armchair. Her hair was white, and a python-headed cane rested beneath one hand.

Beside her stood a woman.

The instant Peng Kai saw her, anger entered his eyes.

"Min'er! Why did you do this?"

She was Peng Kai's wife and also a daughter of the Peng family.

After the old Manor Lord adopted Peng Kai as his son, he married his daughter to him as well, making the bond doubly close.

Later, when the Peng Family Manor grew into a significant armed landlord force east of Xiangsi Mountain, Peng Kai as an adopted son should never have been qualified to inherit the leadership. It was like the adopted-son generals of Prince Zhenbei Residence. No matter how capable they became, none of them could inherit the title of Prince Zhenbei.

The reason Peng Kai could command respect and rise to the seat was entirely because he had also married into the Peng family.

That identity had made it possible for him to take power and purge the manor from top to bottom.

Before Prince Pingxi arrived, Peng Kai had already placed all unstable elements inside the clan under control. That included the two young relatives outside. Both had been placed under house arrest.

But his own wife, the mistress of the manor, had secretly released the two of them behind his back. That was what allowed them to gather followers and force their way into this place.

The old woman in the armchair stared at Peng Kai. Her python-headed cane struck the ground twice with force.

"My son, tell me. Are you a man of Qian, or a man of Yan?"

Peng Kai first looked at Zheng Fan.

Seeing that the Prince did not appear impatient, he drew a deep breath, stepped forward, and performed a proper salute toward the old woman.

"Mother, I am a man of Yan."

"Good. Very good. To think that the child this old woman personally decided to take in all those years ago was a Yan man. My eyes failed me. No. I was blind!"

"Mother treated me as her own son. I too will treat Mother as my true mother and serve you through old age."

"Heh-heh-heh."

The old woman laughed.

Then she slowly asked:

"Que'er and Chu'er. One fell from his horse and died. The other died of illness. Was that your doing?"

Peng Kai hesitated for a moment.

Then nodded.

"Good. Very good. When that old bastard led everyone toward Shangjing to rescue the throne, this old woman knelt before the Buddha in our family shrine and prayed for more than a month. All I wanted was blessings for all of you. And yes, we were blessed. That old bastard never encountered the Yan. That was great fortune. But my two sons were gone. Do you know what that old bastard said to me after he returned? He said there might be something wrong with you."

The old Manor Lord of the Peng Family Manor might not have been some great scheming hegemon. But any man capable of beginning with nothing, judging the times, and building this foundation with his own hands could never have been ordinary.

"Your life was saved by me. And it was I who married Min'er to you. I treated you as my own son. I told that old bastard: even if you were a stone, after I kept you pressed against my chest all these years, shouldn't you have warmed by now? And after the old bastard died, it was I who helped you sit in the Manor Lord's seat. So in the end, the old bastard guessed right. From beginning to end, I was blind. This blind old woman invited a wolf into her own house and destroyed her entire family. Blind. Truly blind!"

Suddenly, the old woman seemed to remember something else.

She pointed at Peng Kai.

"Ever since that old bastard received his court title, his health worsened day by day. Was that you too? Were you so impatient for him to vacate the seat for you?"

Peng Kai nodded heavily.

His wife standing beside him went deathly pale. Her knees gave way, and she collapsed to the ground.

The husband she loved, the man for whom she had borne and raised children, was actually the murderer who killed her father and her two elder brothers.

Two young children clung to their mother, their eyes filled entirely with fear and confusion.

"Heh-heh-heh... Hahahahahahaha!"

The old woman burst into laughter.

Laughing and laughing, she finally turned toward Zheng Fan standing behind Peng Kai. She extended one hand and pointed toward him.

"You are...?"

Zheng Fan stepped forward.

He bent slightly at the waist.

"This Prince is surnamed—"

"Ptui!"

The old woman spat directly into Prince Pingxi's face.

Blood mixed with the saliva.

The Prince closed his eyes.

All around them, Yan soldiers immediately drew sabers.

The Prince raised one hand.

Calm down.

Chen Xianba stepped forward and offered a handkerchief.

The Prince accepted it and slowly wiped his face clean.

After forcing out that mouthful of bloody spit, the old woman needed several breaths to recover.

Then she cursed:

"Yan dog!"

[End of Chapter 873]