Chapter 1003: Zhuge Zheng Fan

Mingsu City.

The former Prefect’s residence had now become Nian Yao’s general’s residence.

At this moment, Nian Yao stood holding a muskmelon in both hands. He thought for a long while, then finally fixed his gaze on the threshold.

He looked down at the melon, then at the threshold.

Nian Yao drew a deep breath and walked over. But just as he prepared to sit, his body began trembling slightly.

He had been castrated, yes, but he had not been crippled to the point where he could no longer squat down.

Besides, every time the Emperor of Yan summoned him, Wei Zhonghe stood practically glued to His Majesty’s side.

He was afraid.

He wanted to sit.

Yet he was afraid to sit.

Nian Yao straightened again and drew another deep breath, forcibly swallowing back the emotions that had risen into his eyes.

Years ago... he had loved sitting on thresholds while he ate.

His nose twitched. He wiped it with the back of his hand, drew a third deep breath, closed his eyes... and sat down.

Huff...

Huff...

Huff...

Nian Yao could hear his own heartbeat.

So clear.

So violent.

He slowly opened his eyes.

For an instant, his vision seemed to blur.

He saw nearly a hundred Chu generals seated before him, every one of them wearing regulation armor, every one holding a melon and copying him as they scooped out the flesh with spoons.

They had all been arrogant, vicious commanders. Many had come from great noble houses.

Yet before him—a man born a slave—they had once been docile as quail.

Then the illusion vanished.

Nian Yao lowered his head.

His legs were pressed tightly together.

In his memories, he had always loved sitting on the threshold with his legs spread wide, bold and imposing as he ate.

He tried to ease his knees apart.

But an inexplicable sense of shame immediately surged through him.

Nian Yao set the melon on the ground, clenched both fists, and forced himself to try again.

His legs only trembled harder.

They would not open.

Nian Yao swung both fists down and smashed them against the threshold beside him.

At that moment, he desperately wanted to roar.

Just roar.

Perhaps only by shouting could he release all the fury he felt toward himself, toward the present, toward the past.

But when he opened his mouth... no sound came.

In the end, he could only bite down on his own forearm and let out a muffled whimper.

“Hss...”

He had not even eaten the melon yet, but sweat had already soaked through his clothes.

He was tired.

He gave up.

Nian Yao slid down from the threshold and sat cross-legged on the ground.

He stopped looking at the threshold behind him, as though it had never existed at all.

He picked up the melon again, split it open, and began biting into it. Juice splashed across his face and clothes, but he only ate faster and faster.

After finishing half, he finally stopped.

Too lazy to wipe himself clean, he placed the remaining half on the ground, planted both hands behind him, and sat there in silence.

Things remained.

People changed.

Perhaps this was what that truly felt like.

He had long since ceased to be the man he once was.

No longer the Grand General of Chu who had once sat across from Tian Wujing and played the game with him.

Nian Yao lowered his head in dejection.

Then came a burst of dense footsteps outside, followed by the rasp of armor.

Nian Yao raised his head.

His gaze deepened once more.

The aura around him returned to the stern majesty he had carried while leading troops on the march, as though everything that had happened a moment earlier had belonged to someone else.

Soon, several generals entered with a squad of soldiers.

“Nian Yao, receive the imperial decree!”

Nian Yao started to rise.

But the men opposite him clearly had no intention of completing the full ceremonial process.

The decree was read immediately:

“...General Nian Yao is hereby stripped of command, detained pending investigation, and all military affairs are temporarily entrusted to Zhao Han.”

His military authority had been removed outright.

Nian Yao’s face showed little surprise.

Indeed, there was barely any emotion at all.

The threshold behind him had already exhausted all of that.

The soldiers stepped forward to seize him.

Nian Yao looked toward them and asked:

“Where is Zhao Han? Tell him to come see me.”

Zhao Han had originally been Great Chu’s intended commander of the imperial-clan Imperial Guards for this expedition into Qian.

But at Great Yan’s Regent Prince’s insistence, Nian Yao had forcibly replaced him.

Zhao Han walked in from outside.

He seemed to have been deliberately avoiding this meeting.

For him, taking military command away from Nian Yao was not especially difficult.

But under circumstances like these, he had no desire to look Nian Yao in the eye.

Now that the man had called for him, however, he had no choice but to appear.

“Is this truly His Majesty’s decree?” Nian Yao asked.

“Absolutely genuine,” Zhao Han replied.

“Heh.”

Nian Yao nodded, indicating that he understood.

Zhao Han raised one hand and stopped the soldiers preparing to drag Nian Yao away.

Then he changed the order.

“Let the Grand General rest here.”

His gaze swept over the half melon lying on the ground.

“Since the Grand General enjoys melon, prepare more for him.”

“No need to trouble yourselves.”

The soldiers had already released him.

Nian Yao bent down and picked up the remaining half.

“This is enough. Enough. Whatever it is, tasting something fresh once is plenty. Eat too much and you get sick of it.”

“Please rest well, Grand General. You need not trouble yourself over military affairs.”

With that, Zhao Han turned to leave.

Nian Yao suddenly called out:

“Zhao Han.”

Zhao Han stopped.

“You’re doing this. Does your family know?”

Great Chu’s decline was already obvious.

Its noble houses had previously been suppressed by the Chu Emperor and had grown increasingly alienated from the throne. Now, naturally, they had begun reaching out toward the Yan in hopes of surviving the storms to come.

The Dugu Clan had done so.

The Xie Clan had done so.

Unless the Zhao Clan was stupid, it should have been doing the same.

“Han is loyal only to His Majesty.”

“Heh heh... hahahahaha!”

Nian Yao laughed loudly.

“There’s some edge in you. A pity you were born too late. If you had come along ten years earlier, perhaps Great Chu might have produced another Tian Wujing. I’ll ask you one final question, Zhao Han. Are you afraid? You were just defeated by him once. Now you’re going to face him again. How much martial courage do you still have left?”

“For Great Chu, Han fears nothing.”

“Mm.”

Nian Yao nodded and turned toward the room.

Unless something unexpected happened, he would remain confined here under heavy guard for quite some time.

As he stepped over the threshold, he raised the half melon in his hand and shouted:

“If you’d said you were afraid, I’d still respect you as a damned man!”

Creak...

The door closed.

A squad of soldiers surrounded the room.

Zhao Han waved one hand and led the remaining generals away.

Nian Yao, in truth, had never moved from behind the door.

He took another bite of melon.

Then muttered to himself:

“Here, with melon in place of wine, I wish Great Chu success in clawing back this crucial round and overturning Heaven itself to reverse the fate of the state!”

He took another bite.

Chewing, he continued:

“And this slave, here with melon in place of wine, wishes the Regent Prince good fortune in turning calamity into blessing. May Great Yan endure for ten thousand years.”

...

Ying Capital.

The imperial palace.

Inner hall.

The Emperor sat alone in the center of the hall.

Everyone else had been dismissed.

“That decree... was issued by you?”

The Emperor tilted his head slightly.

A smile appeared.

“Yes. I issued it.”

“You will destroy Great Chu.”

“So what? It’s true that I issued the decree, but when I gave the order, weren’t you standing right there ‘beside’ me and watching? Why didn’t you stop me? Are you going to say you weren’t... awake? Hehehe. Actually, once you woke up, you could have recalled the decree. Or issued another one to countermand it. All this talk of Great Chu. All this concern for the rivers and mountains of the state. Bah. You Chu Emperors, generation after generation—whatever your ability in government, that shameless streak really has passed down perfectly. Stop dragging Great Chu into it. The truth is... you simply can’t stand losing!”

The Emperor did not deny it.

“It is Zheng Fan who has become far too contemptuous of everyone else. Far too... impatient.”

“Oh, listen to yourself. When he was calm and steady, *you* were afraid of him. Now that he’s impatient, *you* blame him for being impatient. No matter what he does, you’ll always have something to say. Whatever you want to do, you can always find a reason and a principle to justify it. That is the one thing humans possess that beasts do not. This hypocrisy of yours... the beasts could never learn it.”

The Emperor raised one hand and slowly began forming seals, preparing to suppress the other presence.

“But I do hope your Great Chu manages to revive. Over these last ten years, I have very clearly felt that fewer and fewer people in Chu sincerely believe in the Fire Phoenix. The Chu are almost forgetting their own totem. Give it a few more years and perhaps people will start saying that the first Marquis of Chu did not ride a Fire Phoenix into Chu lands at all. Maybe they’ll say he rode a Pixiu. No. A Pi Beast. You are the Emperor. That is your dereliction.”

“And you?” the Emperor asked in return. “What have you been doing all this time?”

“Me? What exactly do you expect me to do? I’m nothing more than a somewhat larger beast that happens to know how to fly. Though this time, Heaven knows how many Qi Refiners Qian has gathered together. They’ve been blessing the army while also cutting off what they call the workings of Heaven. Ai. What a joke beneath Heaven. The ancestors of Chu loved divining before battle and begging Heaven for blessing. Yet even the Chu themselves barely take that custom seriously anymore. Instead, the Qian have picked it up and are using it with such extravagant confidence.”

“You have said enough today.”

The Chu Emperor pressed his palm against his own chest.

His body shuddered.

Then his gaze returned to calm.

...

Jinghai City.

Military reports arrived one after another.

First came word that Old Fifth Han’s troops had appeared south of Jinghai City.

Mingsu City had barely slowed them at all.

It had not even raised a single beacon fire.

Then came a report from Xie Zhuyang in Tongyan City:

Le Huan’s Qian army had appeared outside the city.

The following morning, a massive force appeared west of Jinghai City.

Generals of this age liked distinguishing armies by their commander standards.

The force advancing from the west carried the command standard of Meng Gong himself.

All three Qian armies were much larger than anticipated.

The Jiangnan garrisons had previously feared the Yan like tigers and dared not come forward on their own.

But once their own elite armies appeared, those local forces began rallying toward them in great numbers.

The battlefield immediately became lively.

“Zhong Tianlang commands Qian’s largest cavalry corps. Mm. If nothing unexpected has happened, then he should be east of the river right now, responsible for cutting off Xianba, Tian Tian, and Zheng Man—those three garrison forces—from returning to reinforce us.”

The Prince studied the newly marked intelligence on the military map.

Then he suddenly burst into laughter.

“Ai. They outnumber us several times over, yet they’re still moving this carefully, this cautiously. They’re using the stupidest, clumsiest, safest possible method to deal with me. Tsk, tsk. Old Yu, look at that. These Qian people... really are giving us face!”

Liu Dahu stood respectfully nearby and reminded him:

“Your Highness, Mr. Bei and the others are still waiting in front for you to make the decision.”

“Mm. This Prince is ready.”

Zheng Fan pointed toward a pile of brocade pouches sitting on the tea table beside him.

“Send personal guards out. Deliver these brocade pouches to the commanders of every separate force.”

“Yes, Your Highness. But... Mingsu City?”

“Send one there too. And send one to the Wu Clan fleet as well.”

“Yes.”

Liu Dahu gathered up all the pouches.

After estimating the number in his arms, he asked in confusion:

“Your Highness, there still seem to be quite a few extra.”

“Oh. Extras? No matter. Send one to each of those Qian armies too. Call it a meeting gift.”

“Yes. This subordinate understands.”

Liu Dahu carried the pouches outside to dispatch messengers.

Although Qian armies had already appeared south and west of Jinghai City, they had not yet completed an encirclement.

Mounted couriers could still enter and leave without much difficulty.

But not long afterward...

Liu Dahu returned carrying the entire pile.

“Your Highness, none of these pouches are marked. This subordinate doesn’t know which one goes to which commander...”

“Hand them out however you like. They’re all empty.”

Liu Dahu froze.

Then he looked at his Prince sitting there in perfect composure.

Instantly, Liu Dahu’s heart settled.

The Prince was the Prince.

Everything was naturally under His Highness’s control.

After his foolish son finally left again, the Sword Saint, who had been sitting nearby drinking tea with Zheng Fan, asked:

“Empty brocade pouches. What does that mean? If it’s convenient to say.”

If it involved military secrets, the Sword Saint had no need to know.

Zheng Fan shook his head and smiled.

“It really isn’t easy to say.”

“Then forget it. No problem.”

“Hey, hey.”

Zheng Fan reached out and tugged the Sword Saint’s sleeve.

The Sword Saint looked at him suspiciously.

“I mean it really isn’t easy to say.”

“I know, I know. You don’t need to explain. It’s like something performed on an opera stage. If you reveal it early, it won’t work anymore, right?”

“Heh. Hehehehehe...”

Zheng Fan laughed so hard he nearly folded over.

He kept waving his hand.

“No, no, no. That isn’t what I mean at all. I’m sending empty pouches because I genuinely have no idea what military orders I should give everyone right now. The Qian are using the stupidest possible method to isolate and divide us. The battlefield has already been fixed in place. Both sides’ pieces are openly on the board. Even the cleverest stratagems are useless at a moment like this.”

“Then why send them at all?” the Sword Saint asked. “Isn’t that completely unnecessary?”

“No. It’s different.”

“How?”

The Prince lifted his teacup and took a sip.

“What if a miracle happens? That way... I’ll have something to point to afterward when I explain how it was all part of the plan.”

[End of Chapter 1003]