Chapter 895: The Bestowed Title

Life is never short of accidents, and it is precisely those accidents that make life rich and colorful.

So when Zhou Wang, kneeling on the ground, saw one of his former subordinates standing before him with a token one rank higher than his own, he was somewhat flustered, but not truly shocked.

The Secret Intelligence Department was, after all, one of the Emperor’s secret-police yamen. Its internal structure was necessarily meticulous. Even among its own people, there were eyes watching other eyes.

The middle-aged eunuch before Zhou Wang, a man whose career had gone so poorly he had nearly been sent to sweep the imperial tombs, was precisely such a person.

Still, Eunuch Wu did not put on excessive airs. He first revealed his identity, displayed the secret decree, then personally helped Zhou Wang to his feet.

There was no shortage of scheming, rivalry, and petty jealousy among palace attendants, but things were not quite as vicious as the folk tales made them sound.

They were rootless men to begin with, and men without descendants. They fought when there was something to fight over and competed when there was something to seize, but the victor would usually still leave the loser a little dignity. In that respect, they were often far more merciful than the officials of the outer court.

And the present situation was merely a transfer of authority.

Worse, the authority being transferred was only the Secret Intelligence Department’s Fengxin City Liaison Office. Forget revenge or retaliation. There was hardly even enough prestige here for the winner to feel smug.

Zhou Wang had been dumped here to serve as little more than a messenger, which meant his career had obviously not gone well. By the same logic, a man assigned here merely to keep an eye on that messenger could hardly have been doing any better.

Once the two completed the handover, Wu Youxi brought out a box.

Inside were imperial decrees.

“Two?” Zhou Wang asked.

Wu Youxi glanced at him. “The decrees were sent over in advance. But who knew whether the child would be a boy or a girl? Naturally there had to be two versions.”

“You can... do that?”

“Why not?” Wu Youxi shook his head, picked up one of the decrees, and said, “Come with me. We’re going to Prince Pingxi Residence to proclaim it.”

“Oh. All right.”

The gates of the Secret Intelligence Department’s Fengxin City Liaison Office opened. Wu Youxi and Zhou Wang changed into eunuch robes, while the twelve men behind them put on the uniforms of the Department’s agents.

The group left the office and headed directly toward Prince Pingxi Residence.

When the people along the streets saw the uniforms, they displayed none of the fear ordinary citizens elsewhere showed at the sight of imperial secret police. Instead, they pointed at them with open curiosity.

In truth, the most direct representation of imperial authority was neither the army nor the bureaucracy.

It was organizations like this, agencies answering directly to the Emperor.

They carried out the Son of Heaven’s will. And the Son of Heaven’s will was supposed to stand supreme, breaking through every restraint, unconcerned with law or reason. This was the purest form of power over life and death.

The fact that the people of Fengxin City were not afraid of the Secret Intelligence Department meant one thing.

This place did not submit to imperial authority.

Wu Youxi and Zhou Wang were both used to it by now. Eastern Jin was essentially a state within a state.

They knew it.

The officials at court knew it.

The Son of Heaven certainly knew it too.

Everyone knew just how good Prince Pingxi was at trampling on taboos.

Back when Prince Jingnan and Prince Zhenbei were still alive, those two at least maintained the proper outward respect toward the court, the central government, and the Emperor.

Prince Pingxi, by contrast... whether he respected the forms or the substance depended entirely on his mood.

And precisely because he behaved this way, the court had to praise him all the more loudly and repeatedly as a loyal pillar of the state, devoted to Great Yan and His Majesty, a model for all civil and military officials.

Well... that was simply how things worked.

When Wu Youxi and the others reached the gates of Prince Pingxi Residence, the Brocade-Clad Guards saw an armed group approaching and followed procedure without hesitation.

Sabers came free of their sheaths.

At the same time, crossbowmen appeared atop the courtyard walls flanking the gate.

“Who goes there?”

A Thousand-Household Commander among the Brocade-Clad Guards barked the question.

Some of the visitors were dressed as eunuchs.

The rest wore Secret Intelligence Department uniforms.

Who were they?

One glance answered the question.

Anywhere else in Great Yan, those uniforms alone would have made the gatekeeper of even the grandest household afraid to block their path, afraid even to ask a question. He would probably have invited the Department men inside for tea at once, terrified that delaying them for even a moment might bring some enormous disaster down upon his master.

But here... they saw you arrive... and insisted on doing everything by the book.

From top to bottom, Fengxin City carried an undisguised arrogance.

Wu Youxi smiled.

He stepped forward, holding the imperial decree in his left hand and a horsetail whisk in his right. He lightly swept the whisk across his body in what passed for a small salute.

“By His Majesty’s command, we have come to proclaim an imperial decree to His Highness the Prince.”

“Understood.”

The Thousand-Household Commander nodded.

He did not lead his men in kowtowing to the decree.

He merely waved one hand. One guard turned and entered the Residence to report.

Meanwhile... the sabers on the steps remained unsheathed.

The crossbows atop the walls remained aimed and ready.

And so Eunuch Wu and Eunuch Zhou simply stood outside and waited.

It was a strange circle.

Since ancient times, there had always been Emperors who killed the hound once the rabbit was caught, or who ended up doing things that pained their friends and delighted their enemies.

Sometimes it was not because they were shortsighted.

Sometimes the situation simply became that way.

When Prince Jingnan and Prince Zhenbei still lived, the Jingnan Army and Zhenbei Army had always hoped their own Prince might someday sit upon the dragon throne.

Now Prince Pingxi had won battle after battle and fully inherited their banner.

And among Prince Pingxi’s direct forces, old-blooded Yan natives were actually a minority. These soldiers lacked the instinctive awe toward the State of Yan and the Yan Emperor possessed by men raised within that system.

Naturally, their desire to throw an imperial robe over their own Prince only grew stronger.

As for the Demon Kings... the Blind Man had always wanted to rebel.

The others could hardly embarrass him by openly opposing the idea, so they simply pretended not to notice.

Master himself understood the atmosphere very well. On occasion, he even instructed those below to preserve at least a little outward propriety.

Unfortunately, he personally hated swallowing humiliation or deliberately staining his own reputation.

When the mood struck him, he acted without restraint.

Those above set the example.

Those below followed it.

And so this atmosphere could no longer be stopped.

It was a very dangerous threshold.

A short while later, Xiao Yibo, steward of Prince Pingxi Residence, came outside.

At the same time, the guards sheathed their sabers, the crossbowmen withdrew, and the path was opened.

“Eunuchs, please.”

Xiao Yibo was at least a smiling man.

Wu Youxi and Zhou Wang returned the courtesy and followed him inside.

Nobody cared whether any of this matched proper ritual.

The eunuchs had arrived to proclaim an imperial decree.

Instead of the master of the household rushing outside, setting up an incense table, and kneeling with his entire family, he had sent a steward to escort them in.

Xiao Yibo did not lead the two eunuchs toward the yamen office or the front hall.

He took them directly into the rear residence.

The Prince had just finished practicing the saber and was wiping away sweat.

“This slave pays respects to Your Highness. May Your Highness enjoy health and fortune!”

Zhou Wang immediately dropped to his knees.

Wu Youxi, still holding the decree, merely bent into a half-crouch.

“A title for the Princess?” Zheng Fan asked.

“Your Highness, this slave has not yet proclaimed the decree. I do not know what is written inside it either. Your Highness, if you would permit—”

“Then read it,” the Prince urged. “This Prince just finished practicing the saber. I still need to go soak in the bath.”

“This slave understands.”

There was no incense table.

No entire household kneeling in rows.

Wu Youxi opened the imperial decree and began reading.

“By the Mandate of Heaven, the Emperor decrees: Prince Pingxi Zheng Fan of Great Yan has served as a wing of the state and repeatedly rendered distinguished military service... Now Heaven has bestowed a splendid bloom, and a jewel has descended... We hereby grant Prince Pingxi’s eldest daughter the title Princess Huaichu, together with a stipend estate of...”

“All right, all right. No need to read the rest.”

Zheng Fan had little interest in fiefs or stipend estates.

The court was not truly going to cut off a piece of territory and hand it to his daughter.

At most, the title placed his girl directly into the highest tier of Great Yan’s official support system, entitling her to a generous allowance every quarter.

But by now, eastern Jin and Great Yan had already begun showing signs of living their own separate lives.

This did not mean eastern Jin had declared independence or intended to rebel.

The problem was simpler.

Great Yan had exhausted its national strength once again during this war, while eastern Jin had sent no troops and therefore retained a considerable surplus.

Siniang was carrying out fiscal reforms here.

Ji Old Sixth merely wrote over every so often to ask how things were going.

The general meaning was:

Do whatever you want.

No problem.

You handle your own profits and losses.

You already know what my household finances look like.

I’m broke.

And so, aside from a few ceremonial additions, beginning this quarter the central court would no longer supply eastern Jin with grain, military equipment, and military pay the way it once had.

Even Zheng Fan’s own salary as Prince Pingxi and the revenue supposedly coming from his enfeoffed lands were nowhere to be seen.

It was not that Ji Old Sixth had suddenly become shortsighted.

The court truly was poor.

From the death of the late Yan Emperor until now, it had barely managed to accumulate a little reserve.

Then the moment the army marched out through South Gate Pass, it had nearly vomited out even the acid remaining in its stomach.

Besides... keeping their accounts clean this way was not necessarily bad.

You maintain your de facto independence.

I stop spending money to support you.

Of course, that applied only in peacetime.

If war came again, the court and eastern Jin would unquestionably still stand together.

Wu Youxi quietly reminded him:

“Your Highness, there is more below.”

“Oh? Then keep reading.”

“Yes.”

Wu Youxi drew a deep breath.

Then his tone changed.

With a smile, he began again:

“Zheng, I have both sons and daughters here. Originally I was thinking, if you had a son, then I could marry my girl over to your family. And if you had a daughter, then my Chuanye...”

Prince Pingxi, still sitting there, raised one eyebrow.

“Then my Chuanye obviously has no chance at all! Zheng, I figured you out long ago. You’re a damned miser who only knows how to take advantage and refuses to suffer even the smallest loss. If I married my daughter into your family, you would shamelessly accept a future daughter-in-law for your son and raise the child right beside you as a little bride from childhood. I’m afraid you wouldn’t even let her go home, terrified the cooked duck might somehow fly away. But if I said I wanted to marry your daughter into my family, you’d probably immediately decide to rebe—”

Wu Youxi opened his mouth.

Then continued.

“—rebel against me. I know you. If you ever had a daughter, you were bound to become a complete daughter slave. I keep thinking: why is it that my imperial palace cages that old Pixiu instead of you? You’re the real creature that only takes things in and never lets anything back out! Hahahahaha! You bastard!”

Wu Youxi read those final two words with tremendous satisfaction.

Prince Pingxi had no interest in punishing the eunuch who happened to be reading the decree.

Once it was finished, he stuck a finger in one ear and scratched lightly.

Then he told Xiao Yibo:

“Entertain them.”

“Yes.”

The Prince rose and headed deeper into the residence.

...

Inside Xiong Liqing’s courtyard, Tian Tian and the Crown Prince had arrived as usual.

Big Girl was clutching Tian Tian’s finger.

The two children, one large and one tiny, were having a wonderful time.

Whenever Crown Prince Ji Chuanye tried to join in, Big Girl rejected him with remarkable clarity.

It was almost as though she were saying:

This is an interaction between spirit children. What are you, an ordinary person, trying to butt in for?

The Crown Prince did not lose heart.

Apparently convinced that sincerity could move even metal and stone, he went so far as to make funny faces to entertain Big Girl.

Unfortunately, Big Girl was still too young.

Once she grew a little older, she would probably learn what “humoring someone” meant.

When Zheng Fan entered, Tian Tian and the Crown Prince both greeted him first.

The Prince nodded, walked over, and lifted his daughter into his arms.

His daughter smiled again.

Zheng Fan kissed her forehead, then carried her into the inner room.

“Husband.”

The Princess was leaning against the headboard, properly observing her postpartum confinement.

“A decree came from Yanjing. Our daughter has been granted the title Princess Huaichu.”

The Princess smiled.

“At least some thought went into the title.”

The implication was obvious:

There was nothing else of practical value.

Her reaction was entirely normal.

She had already borne this man a child. Her future, her foundation—more accurately, the angle from which she now considered everything—was centered entirely upon this household.

And because she had given birth to a daughter, she possessed no further private ambitions in the matter. She was genuinely calculating for the Residence as a whole.

“Heh-heh.”

The Prince laughed.

The scene was not unlike a husband and wife sitting at home criticizing someone behind his back.

The mother calculated their household’s gains and losses.

The father merely chuckled.

“How is your body?” Zheng Fan asked.

“Husband, this concubine doesn’t want to keep lying around like this. Elder Sister has been regulating my body with acupuncture, so I should be fine now. Elder Sister still hasn’t given birth herself. I want to come out and do some work, take a little burden off her shoulders.”

That was one advantage of having given birth to a daughter.

She could speak openly.

She did not have to worry that anyone might interpret her actions as an attempt to seize authority for her son.

Of course, Siniang probably would not have cared about the authority anyway.

Most of the time, she was only playing with it.

“Finish the full confinement period first. Right, did my brother-in-law send gifts too?”

Xiao Yibo seemed to have mentioned that Jing Renli had come again carrying presents.

“Yes. He granted a title too: Princess Mingshuo. He also bestowed a rather large fief, though it’s down on the southern frontier.” After everything that had happened, especially the last incident involving the Que Dan, the Princess had long since lost whatever affection remained for her biological elder brother. She said with open disdain, “In truth, being Emperor amounts to about this much. Once someone’s achievements become too great to reward properly, all you can do is throw out empty titles like these. It’s rather... pitiful.”

“No rush. Put it on the account.”

Sooner or later... they would go collect it.

The Princess nodded in agreement.

“Exactly.”

“Rest properly. Finish the full confinement month before you come out to handle affairs.”

“Yes. This concubine understands.”

Zheng Fan remained in the room a while longer, playing with his daughter.

Only when Xiao Yibo called from outside did he return Big Girl to her cradle and leave.

Siniang was preserving her pregnancy.

The Blind Man had not yet returned from South Gate Pass.

But Prince Pingxi Residence possessed a meticulous bureaucratic system capable of operating perfectly well on its own.

There were very few matters important enough to disturb the Prince personally.

The meeting in the yamen office some time ago had happened only because he himself had become curious about the new coinage and bonds and wanted to listen and take a look, together with the routine report on eastern Jin’s development during the previous quarter.

Someone in charge had to sit there and hear it.

This matter, however...

Zheng Fan truly could not ignore.

Keyan Dongge had sent a messenger back from Snowsea Pass with a military report.

“The Savages on the snowfields are moving?”

Zheng Fan sat in the chief seat, reading Keyan Dongge’s memorial while listening to the messenger finish his report.

“Your Highness, according to intelligence from our scouts and reports from the Hailan Tribe and the other tribes, yes.”

“All right. This Prince understands. You may withdraw.”

“Yes!”

Zheng Fan closed the memorial and lightly tapped it against his forehead.

At that moment, Siniang entered with her swollen belly.

Zheng Fan immediately put down the memorial, walked over, and supported her.

His tone carried reproach.

“Why did you come out?”

“I heard there was military intelligence from Snowsea Pass, so this servant felt she ought to come take a look.”

“I could have brought the memorial to you,” the Prince said.

Zheng Fan guided Siniang into the seat he had just vacated.

She opened the memorial, read it once, then asked:

“Master, has trouble broken out on the snowfields again?”

The snowfields were eastern Jin’s rear.

First, if the snowfields were unstable, eastern Jin could not be stable.

Second, eastern Jin’s development necessarily depended upon drawing resources from the snowfields.

The relationship between eastern Jin and the snowfields had long since gone far beyond simple military defense.

And if troops really needed to move, then even with such a large belly, Siniang would still have to come out and begin handling logistics.

Zheng Fan shook his head.

“It isn’t the snowfields that are unstable. It’s the army’s morale.”

Siniang understood immediately.

“Master means... Keyan Dongge?”

“Not just Keyan Dongge. I soothed one group of people when I came back, but the resentment is still there. It isn’t that they dare resent me. Their hands are simply itching. They didn’t get to fight in this war, and it drove them half-insane. So naturally, they’ve started finding things to do for themselves. If there were genuine military danger, if things had truly reached the point where troops had to be sent, Keyan Dongge wouldn’t be stupid enough to sit still and send a messenger asking first. If he had any sense at all, he would first dispatch a detachment to probe the situation, then bring me more concrete intelligence. But he didn’t. He sent a messenger and a memorial. The unspoken meaning is that the generals at Snowsea Pass want to arrange a little outing, warm themselves up, farm a few military merits, and report it to me for the sake of appearances. Heh. Give it another couple days and perhaps a military report from Zhennan Pass will arrive too. I know these tricks far too well. After all, didn’t we used to do the same thing? If there was an opportunity, we jumped on it. If there wasn’t one, we created one. What a familiar style.”

“Then what does Master intend to do?”

“This isn’t Keyan Dongge’s problem alone. Snowsea Pass and Zhennan Pass cannot be left under one man forever, nor can the same force remain stationed there indefinitely. I need to make a trip to both passes myself and drag these fellows with fur growing over their hearts back by the ears. I already spoke nicely to some generals on the way home. But some people still need a beating. Everyone needs to hear the board crack before their heads clear. When we first arranged things, we placed our most trusted men in the east. The forces stationed in the west were the ones we trusted somewhat less. But the situation has changed. The scale of things is different now. Our arrangements have to change with it. I’ll finish cleaning up the outside affairs, then come back and stay beside you while you give birth. And there’s one more thing. Old Tian could tolerate a man like me under him back then. But I can’t tolerate another version of myself under my command.”

At that, Zheng Fan could not stop himself from laughing.

“The thought that someone like me might actually appear beneath me someday... somehow it gives me chills.”

[End of Chapter 895]