Chapter 879: Spoils of War

The Empress of Qian had spent these past days swept along inside the Yan army.

Unlike the other Princes, nobles, and high officials captured with her, her treatment was noticeably better. Two titled ladies of Qian were still allowed to attend her, and every night she had a tent of her own. The others, once lofty dignitaries, were simply driven into the horse sheds after dark and made to squeeze together.

The Blind Man had once joked that when it came to cultural soft power, Qian ranked first among all Xia.

That was genuinely true.

The greatest feat Qian’s scholars had ever accomplished was taking the historical fact of the Three Marquises Opening the Frontiers and forcibly inventing a “Four Marquises Opening the Frontiers” instead. Worse, they managed to construct the story from top to bottom, citing classics and drawing parallels until a pile of complete nonsense sounded perfectly reasonable to ordinary people.

Even while the three states founded by those historical Marquises still existed, Qian people could rewrite an iron fact of history like that.

Naturally, everything else was even easier.

For example, Qian people had always feared Yan men on the battlefield.

On white paper, however, they could command the realm with a wave of the brush.

And in recent years, as Prince Pingxi rose higher and higher, the main focus of Qian’s literary world had shifted toward him.

Prince Pingxi had always wondered why his reputation kept being persecuted.

There were certainly objective reasons. Add the loose mouths of certain people in his household, and his own tendency to run his mouth, and some of it was self-inflicted.

Even so, one thing could not be denied:

Qian’s jianghu literati had absolutely helped fan the flames.

Many so-called “jianghu scholars” might spend the day as officials, teachers, or great Confucian masters. But once night fell and they began writing their little private chronicles, they could switch faces astonishingly quickly.

Because of that, throughout Qian’s jianghu, in teahouses, wine shops, and even the more refined brothel districts, there was never any shortage of stories about Prince Pingxi.

Under their brushes, Prince Pingxi had become a creature possessed by an almost pathological hunger for other men’s wives. Not only did he force subordinates to offer up their own wives for his pleasure, he also ravaged noblewomen from fallen states and humiliated them in every conceivable way.

Truly enough to provoke the wrath of both men and gods!

In Jiangnan’s most famous pleasure quarter, “Prince Pingxi” was performed every single day for wealthy patrons. Usually, a courtesan played one of the women while the customer himself took the role of Prince Pingxi.

Among the most famous scripts were The Story of Prince Pingxi and the Queen Mother of Jin, The Secret of Prince Pingxi and the Queen Mother of Cheng, and The Lingering Romance of Prince Pingxi and the Savage Queen Mother.

The young gentlemen of Jiangnan denounced Prince Pingxi’s countless heaven-defying, humanity-offending crimes by day, then never tired of playing his role by night.

At heart, they envied him.

Men were men. Buried in their bones, none of them could entirely escape the rule of those two walnuts between their legs.

Everyone condemned Prince Pingxi.

And deep down, everyone wanted to be Prince Pingxi.

From another angle, this also reflected how wealthy and prosperous Qian’s Jiangnan truly was. Without an abundant foundation below, the people at the top could never have played such elaborate games.

No.

Such elegant games.

And rumors like these did not stop at the palace walls.

Which was precisely why, after Empress Cui Ying of Qian was captured by the Yan and learned that Prince Pingxi had reunited with this army, she panicked.

Days passed.

She knew perfectly well Prince Pingxi himself was in the army.

She even heard that he had gone to inspect the captured Princes, nobles, and senior officials.

Yet Prince Pingxi never once came to see her.

And because of that, the Empress grew even more frightened.

“Your Majesty, time to wash.”

The two titled ladies entered carrying the necessary things and began helping the Empress wash and change.

The Empress asked nervously:

“Has that Prince of the Yan barbarians summoned Us?”

She could not bring herself to say the word “serve.”

When the Yan army breached the imperial palace, she had tried to cut her own throat.

Unfortunately, the attempt failed.

And a person’s conviction to commit suicide often collapsed after one failed attempt. In the short term, bringing oneself to try a second time was extraordinarily difficult.

“Your Majesty, His Majesty has sent an imperial envoy.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. I saw the envoy myself.”

The two titled ladies were almost crying.

They had once been noblewomen of great households, clothed in brocade and fed on delicacies, surrounded by servants.

Then disaster struck and reduced them to this.

How could they not be afraid?

How could they not panic?

Even being selected to attend the Empress had already been an enormous stroke of fortune.

The Yan possessed no habit of treating their captives kindly.

The Empress was the exception.

As for the other Princes, nobles, and great officials, men or women, they were basically penned and fed like livestock.

“His Majesty sent someone?”

The Empress burst into tears of joy.

“Yes, Your Majesty. His Majesty must have sent them to bring you home.”

“Your Majesty, please take us with you.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. We beg Your mercy.”

“Do not worry. You two have cared for Us throughout this journey. We will certainly bring you both with Us.”

“Many thanks, Your Majesty.”

“Your Majesty is benevolent.”

“Heh. Your Emperor really has shown plenty of sincerity.”

Zheng Fan set down the gift list and looked calmly at the Qian envoy standing below.

The envoy wore a python robe. He was young, but even inside Zheng Fan’s command tent, he carried a certain heroic air.

Heir of Prince Rui, Zhao Mugou.

“Your Highness, when two states are at war, envoys are not executed.”

“This Prince never said I intended to kill you.”

“No. What this foreign subject means is that even while Yan and Qian are at war, as two great states of Xia, both sides should preserve enough dignity to serve as an example to the realm.”

“A defeated state still wants to talk about dignity?”

“Your Highness, Great Qian has not been defeated!”

Zheng Fan smiled.

“Someone.”

“Here!”

“Escort the Qian envoy out.”

Prince Pingxi flicked one finger against the gift list.

The document sailed down before Zhao Mugou.

“Then we keep fighting.”

Chen Xianba and Zheng Man stepped in front of Zhao Mugou and gestured for him to leave.

But Zhao Mugou shouted:

“Your Highness, can Yan truly keep fighting? Does Yan still have the strength? If this continues, are you not afraid Great Yan itself will collapse into disorder?”

“This Prince is Great Yan’s Prince Pingxi, not Great Yan’s Emperor. Great Yan’s rivers and mountains do not belong to this Prince. If the jars and pots get smashed, what does that have to do with me? There is one thing this Prince has hated most throughout my life: being threatened. Come, then. Go right ahead.”

Zhao Mugou froze.

Chen Xianba and Zheng Man had already lifted him and were nearly carrying him out of the command tent when most of the strength seemed to leave his body.

He shouted:

“Then what exactly does Your Highness want?”

“Good.”

Chen Xianba and Zheng Man released him.

“Xianba.”

“Here!”

Chen Xianba took out a map and spread it before Zhao Mugou.

Two cities had been circled.

“Have your Emperor issue a decree ordering the garrisons of these two cities to open their gates.”

The instant Zhao Mugou saw which cities they were, he roared:

“Impossible! Don’t even dream of it!”

They were not great cities.

Nor were they strategic fortresses.

And for the Yan army in its current state, launching fresh sieges was genuinely unnecessary. The soldiers were exhausted, and their losses from this invasion of Qian had already been heavy.

Several Qian armies remained outside, escorting them from a distance.

However far the Yan marched, the Qian followed.

When the Yan stopped, the Qian set up camp.

The Qian knew they lacked the strength to attack proactively. So from the outside, the scene looked less like two hostile armies and more like Qian ceremoniously escorting the Yan out of its borders.

The First Prince and Li Liangshen had mobilized troops from Nanwang City and repeatedly pressured Qian’s Three Frontiers, preventing Zu Zhuming from sending soldiers south.

The elite Qian force in Liang had already begun circling southward, intending to return to Qian from that direction. One of Luo Ling’s detachments was still shadowing them. That force was distant water, incapable of putting out the present fire.

The main Imperial Guard force had been taken back to Shangjing by the Emperor to stabilize the situation.

After being drained in so many directions, Qian could certainly still organize plenty of troops. On paper, they even looked numerous.

But most were prefectural and commandery troops.

Their combat ability was not merely “concerning.”

Everyone on both sides knew exactly how pathetic it was.

After several exchanges of pieces, once the force around Zheng Fan regrouped to a certain size, he was basically safe unless he deliberately charged headfirst into another Qian encirclement.

So why did these two cities provoke such a violent reaction from Zhao Mugou?

Because they were northern Qian’s transit hubs for military supplies sent toward the Three Frontiers.

In other words, they sat directly on the logistical lifeline behind the Three Frontiers.

Prince Pingxi clearly intended to make a little extra profit before leaving, partly so that once he returned, Great Yan’s losses could be replenished somewhat.

At the very least, it would ease a tiny sliver of pressure on Little Sixth Ji.

The Qian gift list was essentially a ransom.

But the ransom had been divided into installments, and a considerable portion existed only implicitly in future trade with Prince Pingxi Residence in eastern Jin.

Zheng Fan was not some naive fool who could be placated with promises.

Only what he could physically seize and hold counted.

Gold and silver treasures were no longer especially important.

When Chen Yang’s force returned, they had been hurrying and therefore had not brought wagon after wagon of loot.

But every soldier’s pockets and saddlebags bulged to some degree.

What Zheng Fan valued was grain.

In peaceful years, grain was cheap. Compared with rare treasures and precious goods, the difference in value could be like Heaven and Earth.

But grain had to be planted in the proper season.

Then you had to wait through another season before harvesting it.

It could not simply be conjured from empty hands.

Grain was exactly what Great Yan needed most urgently now.

It could solve the immediate crisis.

Zheng Fan waved one hand.

Chen Xianba dragged Zhao Mugou out of the command tent.

Zheng Man remained behind and asked blankly:

“Your Highness, will the Qian agree?”

Prince Pingxi glanced at him.

“When doing business, you can’t be impatient.”

Zhao Mugou had not come alone.

He had brought a sizable diplomatic mission.

Every day, they sent people back to carry messages and received replies from the Emperor in return.

This sort of open, utterly unconcealed communication—together with the Yan army making no effort whatsoever to hide its movements—was itself another humiliation for Qian.

But the Qian knew the Yan would ultimately withdraw.

At present, they neither needed nor possessed the ability to fight another hard battle.

So they could only pinch their noses and endure it.

As for Zhao Mugou himself, he spent every day demanding an audience with Prince Pingxi.

Sometimes the Prince refused to see him.

When that happened, Zhao Mugou stood outside the command tent and loudly cursed Prince Pingxi for lacking virtue.

At night, he went to the horse sheds where the captives were being held and comforted the captured Princes, nobles, and senior officials. He promised them they would all be taken home and would no longer have to endure humiliation from the Yan barbarians.

Inside the entire army, the busiest man was undoubtedly the Heir of Prince Rui.

Every day, Chen Xianba reported everything Zhao Mugou had done to Zheng Fan.

Zheng Fan merely smiled and paid it no mind.

Both men were clever.

Neither had openly revealed his bottom line.

That did not prevent them from cooperating in advance.

The difference was this:

Zhao Mugou could jump around like this now because Prince Pingxi was allowing him to draw his future profits early.

When everything ended, he would have to return the favor.

Otherwise, he would never leave this army camp alive with his diplomatic mission.

Zheng Fan was not afraid Zhao Mugou had ambitions.

He was afraid Qian might send some truly unbending iron-boned loyalist instead.

After all, even if Zheng Fan really hauled all these Princes and nobles back to Yan, the most they could do was send them to Yanjing, let the people of the capital look at the monkeys for amusement, and give Little Sixth Ji something to boast about before his ancestors at the Imperial Ancestral Temple.

They could not be eaten.

They could not be drunk.

And the entire journey home, they themselves would still consume food and drink.

Practically useless.

Zheng Fan believed that if Little Sixth Ji were here, he would think exactly the same way.

That bastard valued practical benefits even more than Zheng Fan did.

And so, as the Yan army continued marching and making camp day after day, Zhao Mugou gradually seemed to grasp this “tacit understanding.”

Every day, he went outside the command tent to recite poems, declare his resolve, curse Prince Pingxi, and express his grief and indignation over the country’s hardship.

Then he went to make trouble with the Yan soldiers, demanding that the captives receive enough food and be given more space.

By now, those Princes and nobles reacted to Zhao Mugou with more excitement than they would have shown their own fathers and mothers.

In an environment like this, stripped of all their former glory and reduced to prisoners, they had long since become no different from ordinary people.

In fact, hardships common peasants could endure as a matter of course became outright torture when placed upon them.

News continued arriving from Zixia Palace in the south.

At last, on the proper day, after the Yan army had withdrawn north to a particular point, Zhao Mugou arrived carrying his sincerity.

He entered the command tent.

He saw Prince Pingxi.

Prince Pingxi smiled.

And Zhao Mugou actually gave a slightly embarrassed smile too.

Then Zhao Mugou produced the imperial decree and the supporting documents.

Not merely the two cities.

Several nearby counties had been added as well.

“Oh? There are even extras?”

A’Ming, standing beside Zheng Fan, asked curiously.

Zhao Mugou knelt and said sincerely:

“Your Highness, this is my Emperor’s sincerity.”

Zheng Fan nodded.

“This Prince understands.”

“This subject withdraws.”

Zhao Mugou left.

“This bargain is very profitable,” A’Ming said.

“At most, we’re recovering a tiny bit of blood. In the end, Qian has a thick health bar. Its true foundation lies in Jiangnan. Twice now. Twice! And the Qian can still act this damned rich. Truly the wastrel son selling off his grandfather’s fields without feeling a thing. Fuck. When will I, Zheng Fan, ever get to fight one of these luxurious wars? I want to bully people with national strength too.”

“Master could bully that one right now.”

Naturally, A’Ming meant the Empress.

He was genuinely curious.

In the past, whether it had been a Queen Mother or an Empress Dowager, even if Master did not truly bully them, he would at least go over, meet them, and offer a few words of concern.

This time, he had genuinely never gone to see her even once.

Zheng Fan shook his head.

“I’m kindhearted.”

Three days later, city after city opened its gates under imperial decree and abandoned resistance, allowing the Yan army to enter.

Of course, the commanders and officials of two counties refused the decree and insisted on keeping their gates closed.

The Yan attacked one and took it.

They attacked the other once, failed to capture it, and simply stopped bothering.

Inside the surrendered counties, the Yan seized large numbers of local commoners and forcibly turned them into laborers responsible for transporting grain and military supplies.

At the same time, the entire Prince Fu household, escorted by Qian troops, had already entered the screen of Yan scout cavalry.

And every Prince and great official captured from Shangjing had his shackles removed.

They wept with joy.

However, that same evening, a tragic piece of news spread through the army. Her Majesty, the Empress of Great Qian, to avoid humiliation at the hands of the Yan barbarians and preserve the honor of the state, had hanged herself inside her tent.

[End of Chapter 879]