Chapter 956: The Twin Jewels of Great Yan!

Tian Tian picked up a brush and wrote one character on each side of the red stone.

“Heaven” on one face.

“Earth” on the other.

“All done, Brother. Here.”

Chen Xianba reached out and accepted the red stone.

Then he looked at Tian Tian standing before him.

This little brother... was still too innocent.

The dangerous job should be handled by the elder brother.

If Tian Tian truly suffered some accident, then even if the battlefield was merciless and the Prince understood and would never punish him... how would Chen Xianba ever face the Prince afterward?

“Little Brother, watch carefully. No going back on your word.”

“I absolutely won’t.”

“Toss!”

Chen Xianba threw the red stone into the air.

It spun.

Rose.

Fell.

Then...

Clack!

It landed on the ground.

The character “Heaven” faced upward.

“...” Chen Xianba.

Tian Tian walked over, picked up the stone, and smiled.

“Brother, that means me. You can’t go back on it. There are no joking words in the army.”

Chen Xianba’s face twitched unnaturally.

He looked curiously at Tian Tian.

Then at the red stone.

But a wager was a wager.

He himself had intended to cheat.

Even if there had been some trick involved... what right did he have to complain?

“Deputy Commander.”

“This general is here.”

“This is barely even a situation worth mentioning. So we are definitely going to win. If the two of us can’t even pacify a little Sansuo Commandery, we should be too embarrassed to keep showing our faces in the eastern Jin army.”

“Yes.”

Tian Tian was rubbing the characters off the stone.

He had written on Big Sister.

He needed to wipe it clean quickly.

“Why are you still carrying that stone around?”

“It’s lucky. I’ll keep it as a talisman.”

“Fine.”

Chen Xianba reached out and patted Tian Tian on the shoulder.

“Brother won’t act coy anymore. Originally, I thought that among our generation in the eastern Jin army, Liu Dahu would always remain beside the Prince, and Zheng Man has a one-track mind. I figured the next generation would depend on me to shoulder the load. Now there’s you too.”

“Brother, our army still has plenty of talented people.”

“Those people?”

Chen Xianba snorted.

“Your elder brother doesn’t think much of any of them.”

“Fine.”

“One man carrying the main beam looks impressive, sure. But sometimes it must get tiring. Two jewels are better. At least one of us can rest from time to time.”

“Brother, you’ve listened to quite a lot of storytellers these past few years, haven’t you?”

“Hahahahahaha!”

Chen Xianba laughed for a long time.

Once he finally settled, he said:

“Little Brother, if only you had been born in Chu or Qian. Then at least your elder brother would have a real rival. Right now, no matter how I look at it, Qian and Chu are full of useless pastries.”

Tian Tian scratched his head.

In that dream...

Brother Ba’s wish had actually been fulfilled.

“Eh. Tell me, if we had been born in different states and met one another on the battlefield, who do you think would win?”

Tian Tian blinked.

Brother... it seems I would stab you to death with one saber.

“Brother, can you stop asking strange questions?”

“Fine, fine. Why think about nonsense like that? Since this little Sansuo Commandery still wants to play some tricks, then this time we brothers will clean them up thoroughly. Let the world know. Let the Prince see. Exactly what level the two of us have reached.”

“All right!”

Chen Xianba turned and left to reorganize the troops.

Tian Tian reached up and tapped his silver armor, which Uncle Xue San had repaired for him.

The chest mirror opened.

Behind it was a hollow compartment.

Tian Tian held the red stone in front of him and whispered:

“Thank you, Big Sister.”

After thanking her... he placed Demon Child back inside and closed the chest mirror.

Truthfully...

Tian Tian had never worried that Demon Child might deliberately turn the “Earth” side upward merely to protect him.

This elder sister who had helped raise him did love and care for him.

But Big Sister was no brooding mother hen guarding chicks beneath her wings.

More importantly...

Big Sister herself loved to play.

Tian Tian touched the chest mirror again and muttered:

“Big Sister raised me because you wanted someone to play with you once I grew up, didn’t you?”

...

The Yan army continued west.

Its pace slowed somewhat.

Even so, on the third day they entered Mount Wufeng, twenty li east of Sansuo Commandery’s capital.

Mount Wufeng had originally been a religious mountain.

There were Buddhist monasteries and Daoist temples scattered across it.

In normal times, commoners from around the commandery capital often came here to worship gods and Buddhas.

Once the Yan army moved in, most of the monks and Daoists on the mountain fled.

That was hardly surprising.

There was a Gourd Temple outside Fengxin City.

But throughout all of eastern Jin... that was basically the only temple that existed.

Any wandering religious figure who dared enter eastern Jin without authorization was usually bundled up and shipped to the snowfields, where he could contribute to the spiritual development of the Savage commoners.

As a result, the eastern Jin army had an atrocious reputation among monks and Daoists.

Even bandits and wandering brigands usually maintained some basic politeness toward men of religion.

Prince Pingxi Residence... showed none at all.

It did not matter that the monks and Daoists had fled.

As the saying went, the monk might run, but the temple remained.

Here, the saying became literal.

Yan soldiers searched the monasteries and temples and uncovered several hidden grain caves.

Gold and jewels were easy to carry, so the fugitives had naturally taken such things with them.

Grain was different.

Either you did not stockpile it at all... or once you did, the quantities were too large to move quickly.

All the monks could do was hide it.

The grain stores proved so abundant that the Yan army’s supply worries vanished instantly.

Even if everyone ate freely, there would still be plenty left.

Over the next two days, many soldiers noticed that a large portion of the cavalry seemed to have disappeared from the army.

Even their Field Commander had vanished.

The ordinary Yan troops did not think too deeply about it.

But the local sons of great families who had sworn brotherhood with Chen Xianba along the way sensed that something was wrong.

As Deputy Commander, Tian Tian issued his first order after the army occupied Mount Wufeng: search the entire mountain.

Once the search was complete, he ordered almost all the laborers and auxiliaries out to fortify positions using the terrain.

Inside the Mahavira Hall...

Tian Tian held a report delivered by a military clerk.

Two auxiliaries surnamed Qin had just discovered another two hidden caches.

Inside were large quantities of weapons and armor.

Sansuo Commandery bordered Shanggu Commandery and sat on the fringe of a region repeatedly troubled by war.

The ordinary people here did not live especially well.

Otherwise, Qu Peiluo would never have been able to absorb so many refugees into the Chu Battalion years earlier.

But the monks and Daoists had lived very comfortably.

And they understood the importance of self-protection.

Still... when the real Yan army arrived, those religious men had not taken up arms to resist the “bandits.”

Instead, they had very decisively chosen to flee and continue their religious lives somewhere else.

Eastern Jin did not think much of the weapons and armor they had left behind.

Without exaggeration, eastern Jin’s military equipment was the finest in All Xia.

But things like arrows were always useful.

The more, the better.

On defense, arrows mattered enormously.

They were consumed quickly too.

“Pass down the order. Distribute the weapons and armor to the laborer battalions. And those two Qin auxiliaries... record a First-Class Merit for each of them.”

“Yes!”

“Wait.”

Tian Tian frowned.

“Qin... why does that sound familiar?”

“Your Highness has forgotten? Back at Zhennan Pass, when you executed that Young Master of the Hailan Tribe under military law, the whole thing began because that fool had bullied two brothers.”

“Oh? Those two?”

Afterward, Tian Tian had written a memorial defending his actions to his father.

He had used the brothers’ surname in it.

“Exactly. Those brothers have spent all this time in camp telling everyone about Your Highness’s valor and strict impartiality back then.”

“Heh.”

Tian Tian laughed.

Then waved his hand.

“Fine. Pass down the order. And invite those gentlemen in as well. Haven’t they been making noise about wanting to see the Field Commander?”

“Yes!”

Tian Tian pulled over a chair and sat down.

Behind him... stood a Buddha statue.

At first, Tian Tian sat very properly.

Then he started feeling vaguely uncomfortable.

Why did Chen Xianba so often like discussing whether this pose or that expression resembled the Prince?

At root... because these two brothers actually shared the same hobby.

They had common ground.

Tian Tian admired his father even more than Chen Xianba did.

And for a son... imitating his father was instinctive.

The problem was...

Tian Tian had kept trying and never managed to imitate him properly.

It had been the same after landing on the riverbank.

He had wanted to copy Father’s way of speaking before the battle.

Instead, he had ended up silently eating shaqima.

Tian Tian refused to believe the reason was that he was not Father’s biological son.

After all... he sometimes thought Chen Xianba imitated Father quite well.

If Brother Ba could do it... there was no reason he could not.

Tian Tian opened his chest mirror and took out Demon Child.

“Big Sister, if Father were sitting here now, what would he do?”

Demon Child floated out of the stone and “looked” at Tian Tian.

“Big Sister, teach me. If Father were here, what posture would he use right now?”

Tian Tian asked again.

Demon Child could not understand.

Why imitate him?

What was there to imitate about that man?

Most importantly...

Demon Child still remembered Yupan City.

After Zheng Fan had ordered the execution of captives there, he had walked alone along a riverbank covered in floating corpses while his mind transformed.

Prince Jingnan had followed behind, guarding the process.

That time, Demon Child had manifested too.

It had been the first time Demon Child fully appeared before Tian Wujing and directly met his gaze.

The memory had left an extraordinarily deep impression.

So in Demon Child’s opinion... why not simply sit there and imitate your biological father?

Why imitate that troublesome bastard?

Still...

Demon Child’s heart was soft.

At least, when it came to the child it had helped raise... refusal was difficult.

Tian Tian sat there.

The red stone floated closer and began adjusting his posture, correcting small details one after another.

Soon...

Tian Tian had one leg crossed over the other.

His left hand propped up his chin.

His entire body leaned lazily against the chair.

Then, using his memories, Tian Tian adjusted his expression too.

He tried to form the faintly smiling, faintly mocking look his father liked.

“Thank you, Big Sister.”

Demon Child flew straight back into the chest compartment at full speed.

Time to run.

The eighteen “Chu brothers” who had sworn brotherhood with Chen Xianba now entered the Mahavira Hall.

They had expected to see Chen Xianba.

Instead... only the Heir Prince sat inside.

His Highness looked remarkably lazy in the chair.

The image formed a violently incongruous contrast with the Buddha statue looming behind him.

For these sons of local strongmen, either one of Tian Tian’s identities—Heir Prince Jingnan or eldest son of the Regent Prince—was something they could only look up toward.

“Greetings, Your Highness the Heir Prince!”

“Greetings, Your Highness the Heir Prince!”

All eighteen knelt together.

Tian Tian said nothing.

Several of them instinctively started to rise.

Normally, military greetings were more or less ceremonial.

But halfway up... they realized the figure in the chair had not told them to rise.

In fact... he had even closed his eyes.

“This...”

The men who had risen halfway could only kneel back down.

A long time passed.

Tian Tian still kept his eyes closed.

Only his fingers moved.

Tap...

Tap...

Tap... against the armrest.

Many things in life were like knitting.

The hardest part was casting the first row.

Once the beginning had been done properly... everything afterward could follow naturally.

Tian Tian opened his eyes.

Among the eighteen kneeling men, he remembered only one.

His surname was Zhou.

His name was Zhou Feng.

There was a large mole beside his mouth.

More importantly, Zhou Feng had once told Chen Xianba that his wife was exceptionally good in bed and offered to share her with him.

Chen Xianba had repeated the story to Tian Tian as a joke.

So Tian Tian remembered Zhou Feng better than the others.

He could not even call out the other seventeen names.

It did not matter.

Remembering one was enough.

“We are about to be surrounded,” Tian Tian said. “The commandery troops of Sansuo will, by tonight at the latest, surround this Mount Wufeng beneath us.”

The eighteen men kneeling below looked stunned.

“Ai.”

Tian Tian sighed.

Then continued:

“It is not that this Prince looks down upon you Chu people. It is simply that you Chu people... are too disappointing. Even the Emperor of Chu understands that he must avoid Father Commander’s edge. Why do these local clowns keep imagining their scraps of flesh are enough to bite us? You have all seen it yourselves. Xianba is not on Mount Wufeng. Where did he go? He went to summon reinforcements.”

Tian Tian yawned.

He looked terribly sleepy.

“During the Wei River landing, this Prince personally led Father Commander’s Brocade-Clad personal guards and defeated the cavalry of Prince Ding Xiong Tingshan. This time... Father Commander likewise sent Xianba and me west to temper us, seize a few cities, and collect some military merit. But... Father Commander worries about me. He is afraid that I am young and do not understand when to stop. More than that, he fears I might suffer some accident because of youthful recklessness. So... behind our army, there has always been another eastern Jin iron cavalry force following us. Not many. Only thirty thousand.”

Thirty thousand eastern Jin iron cavalry...

The men kneeling below exchanged glances.

It might sound like “not many.”

But on a battlefield... how many Chu lives would it take to fill the path of thirty thousand eastern Jin iron cavalry?

Combined with Tian Tian’s tone and status, everyone naturally assumed the supposed thirty thousand cavalry had to be elite troops.

Chen Xianba deserved credit here too.

Whenever he drank and ate with these “brothers,” he had arranged for his subordinates to occasionally report the position and marching schedule of the rear army.

He never explicitly said what force it was.

But he had long since created the illusion that a great army followed behind them.

So now that Tian Tian said it openly... the men believed him without hesitation.

“You should all understand that Father Commander did not lead the army into Chu this time merely to raid a little grain and leave. Our eastern Jin troops will control this land firmly. And in the future... you will no longer be people of Chu. You will be people of eastern Jin. This Prince originally thought all of you understood how to behave. Who would have imagined... there are still people among you harboring other thoughts? Zhou Feng.”

Zhou Feng’s heart jumped.

“Xianba has treated you generously. Why have you secretly continued exchanging messages with the commandery capital? You... what exactly are you planning?”

“I...”

Zhou Feng froze.

What exactly was he planning?

Nothing!

“The Zhou Clan has already been razed flat. Men. Take his head for this Prince.”

Tian Tian lazily pointed toward the bewildered Zhou Feng as he rose.

“I’ve been wronged! Wronged! Your Highness, I truly have been wronged!”

Tian Tian’s gaze suddenly sharpened.

He barked:

“What are you waiting for?”

Under that furious shout, someone immediately drew a saber.

Others beside Zhou Feng grabbed him.

Then... the blade plunged into his body.

“Your Highness, do we cut off the head?” someone asked.

After all... beheading was ugly work.

“Cut it off.”

Tian Tian continued:

“You. You. You. And the rest of you in the back who didn’t get a chance to act... go outside now. By this Prince’s order, kill every last member of Zhou Feng’s household who came with us. Hang their heads from the flagpole.”

“Yes!”

“Yes!”

Tian Tian rose from the chair.

He bent over and lightly brushed dust from the surface of his boots.

Then, very calmly, he said:

“There are several others. This time... this Prince will not name them. I’ll watch how you perform next. Truthfully... you never had a choice in the first place, did you? Think of your clans. Think even more carefully about your wives, children, parents, and elders. Think... about what happens when you stand against three hundred thousand eastern Jin iron cavalry.”

“We swear loyalty unto death to Your Highness! We swear loyalty unto death to the Prince!”

“Go. Take the head away too.”

“Yes!”

Once they had left...

Tian Tian sat back down.

He reached up and rubbed his own face.

There was a trace of excitement there.

After imitating Father... he still needed a little time to recalibrate himself afterward.

But that did not diminish the pleasure he had just felt.

Was Zhou Feng truly a spy?

Judging from his reaction just now... probably not.

Were there spies among those eighteen representatives of local families?

Certainly.

But right now... identifying the exact spies was secondary.

This was the moment to use men.

Those eighteen families together had brought almost three thousand followers.

That force was useful.

Mr. Bei had once taught Tian Tian that when a superior considered a problem, he should focus upon the result and disregard the process.

The only pity was that Xianba was not here.

Without Brother Ba’s evaluation afterward... the happiness could not be doubled.

...

At dusk...

Chu forces appeared in all four directions around Mount Wufeng.

Their scale was considerable.

They had formed a complete encirclement.

The banner of Sansuo Commandery’s Governor flew beside Chu’s Fire Phoenix Banner in the evening wind.

Tian Tian sat halfway up the mountain and looked at the scene ahead.

Demon Child rested beside him.

He did not feel especially nervous.

Because behind the Chu banners... lay sunset.

Twilight.

And on top of that, the enemy had actually split the army into four equal parts to surround a mountain.

That kind of deployment... could only have come from some naive civil official with no understanding of war.

“Ai.”

Tian Tian shook his head.

Then said:

“Brother Ba kept saying we would use this battle to establish the reputation of the two of us as the future Twin Jewels of Great Yan. But looking at an opponent like this... it really is hard to get excited.”

The red stone beside him swayed involuntarily.

In Demon Child’s eyes... that tone.

That expression.

Now *that*... finally carried the flavor of that man.

[End of Chapter 956]