At dawn, in the capital of Great Qian.
Inside the Hall of Heavenly Veneration, civil and military officials stood in orderly ranks beneath the golden steps according to their official grades. Auspicious sandalwood smoke rose from the bronze crane censers in the four corners of the hall, yet it could not suppress the heavy, oppressive air of death that hung over the assembly.
The old emperor sat upon the dragon throne in his imperial robes and crown. Through the twelve strands of beads hanging from his crown, his gaze swept over the assembled officials below.
It had been a full seven days since the last military report had arrived from Zhenbei Pass. In those seven days, the Ministry of War had received not a single word. The entire northern frontier had fallen into a suffocating silence.
Within the ranks of officials, several men in crimson robes were whispering hurriedly.
“The provisions at Zhenbei Pass ran out long ago.” Sun Cheng, Minister of Justice, kept his gaze fixed on the golden bricks beneath his feet, his lips barely moving. “The poison known as corpse ointment was brought into the city by Chen Changfeng, and the gates were sealed. Those inside can’t get out, and those outside can’t get in. A dead end like that simply cannot be held.”
Zhang Lang, Vice Minister of War, swallowed and murmured in agreement. “I fear that city has already become an empty tomb. The five thousand elite horsemen of the Helian Royal Horde have now been freed to act. They could march south toward the capital at any moment. With the few troops stationed in the capital garrison, what do we have to stop them?”
The pessimism quickly spread throughout the ranks of officials.
Liu Yong, Minister of Rites, drew a deep breath and straightened his official robes. He stepped out of formation, walked to the center of the hall, raised his ivory tablet high with both hands, and fell to his knees.
“Your Majesty! This minister, Liu Yong, Minister of Rites, has a memorial to present!”
The old emperor said nothing. Chief Palace Eunuch Li stepped forward half a pace and flicked his horsetail whisk.
“Present it.”
“Your Majesty!” Liu Yong raised his head, his voice echoing throughout the hall. “There has been no word from Zhenbei Pass, and it has become a death trap. Fifty thousand barbarian horsemen are stationed outside the pass and will soon march south, bearing down directly upon the capital region. Great Qian’s realm is in grave danger!”
Liu Yong continued loudly, “This minister humbly begs Your Majesty to make a prompt decision! Dispatch an envoy beyond the pass at once, offer tribute and silk, and negotiate peace with the Helian Royal Court in order to temporarily halt the fighting and preserve the ancestral temples and state!”
The moment he finished speaking, several restrained voices of agreement rang out through the hall.
Zhang Lang stepped out of formation as well and knelt beside Liu Yong.
“This minister supports the proposal! With a great army at our borders, war can only end in certain death.
“Though seeking peace would cost us face, it would buy the court time to reorganize the army and prepare for war. So long as the green hills remain, there will be a chance to turn things around!”
The old emperor leaned back against his dragon throne, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest. He looked down at the two kneeling senior officials without showing any anger.
He had already been planning to retreat south to Jiangnan, and Xu Youde had already taken the imperial sword south to confiscate estates and gather money and provisions.
Liu Yong’s proposal to seek peace was perfectly suited to testing the limits of the court’s ministers.
As for negotiating peace…
He would probe further. And then probe further again.
“How does the Chief Grand Secretary view this matter?” the old emperor asked, directing his gaze toward Chief Grand Secretary Xu Jie, who stood at the head of the civil officials.
Xu Jie’s eyelids drooped slightly, and he was just about to step forward and respond when—
A frantic series of footsteps suddenly came from outside the hall.
The disorderly pounding shattered the solemnity of the court.
“Report!”
A shrill, hoarse cry pierced through the hall.
A palace eunuch in red rushed into the hall, both hands holding a wooden box wrapped in yellow silk high above his head.
He stumbled forward several steps, nearly crawling, before lifting the yellow-silk-wrapped box overhead with both hands.
“Eight-hundred-li urgent dispatch from the northern frontier!” the eunuch screamed, his face alight with excitement.
Summoning every ounce of strength in his body, he shouted, “A great victory! A great victory at Zhenbei Pass!”
Boom!
The Hall of Heavenly Veneration instantly erupted. Shocked whispers and cries rose from all sides.
Liu Yong and Zhang Lang, still kneeling on the floor, abruptly raised their heads and stared at the eunuch in disbelief.
The old emperor’s fingers stopped tapping the armrest. He leaned forward.
“Quick! Bring it to Me!” he commanded in a low voice.
Eunuch Li hurried down the golden steps, took the wooden box from the other eunuch, and tore away the yellow silk.
He returned to the imperial desk and presented the report with both hands.
The old emperor did not take it. Instead, he raised his chin.
“Read it! Read it aloud for the entire court!”
Eunuch Li took a step back and unfolded the military report.
He cleared his throat, and his sharp voice echoed through the hall.
“Your servant, Tie Lanshan, Commander of Zhenbei Pass, bows his head before Your Majesty. Three days ago, the battle outside the pass had already been decided.”
Eunuch Li glanced around the hall before continuing to read rapidly.
“The entire army of the Helian Royal Horde has been routed. The surviving three thousand soldiers of the Western Route Prefecture held their city to the death and refused to retreat.
“The crisis at Zhenbei Pass has been resolved!
“The Helian forces abandoned their heavy siege engines, grain, and supplies, and have withdrawn to the grasslands!”
The hall fell utterly silent.
Every official held his breath. Not one dared even breathe too loudly.
Fifty thousand elite troops had battered the Western Route Prefecture, surrounded Zhenbei Pass, cut off its supply lines, and even deployed a deadly poison…
Under such an inescapable situation, they had retreated?
“Absurd!”
Zhang Lang, Vice Minister of War, suddenly shouted and rose from the floor.
Pointing at the report in Eunuch Li’s hands, he demanded, “Fifty thousand troops of the Royal Horde faced the battered remnants of Zhenbei Pass and the Western Route Prefecture. The difference in strength was enormous!
“How could they have withdrawn for no reason within three days? And to retreat so cleanly and decisively? It must be a scheme to feign surrender and lure our troops into pursuit! Commander Tie has spent years on the battlefield. How could he possibly have fallen for such a trick?”
Zhang Lang’s questions prompted several military commanders in the hall to nod in agreement.
To put it plainly, without reinforcements from a powerful army, the troops at Zhenbei Pass alone could never have driven back fifty thousand barbarians.
The old emperor frowned and glanced at Eunuch Li.
“Continue reading. Tell Vice Minister Zhang how this battle was won.”
Eunuch Li turned to the latter half of the report. As his eyes swept over the words, his wrist began to tremble involuntarily.
“The report states that the second son of the Count of Sincerity’s household, Xu Zhan—”
At the sound of that name, the civil and military officials exchanged bewildered looks.
The Xu family’s crippled second son?
Eunuch Li continued reading:
“Xu Zhan led two hundred light cavalrymen and infiltrated the Western Route enemy camp under cover of night. He beheaded Badu, the barbarian ten-thousand-man commander, and severed the horns of his great standard.
“He then rode toward the central route without losing a single soldier.
“He infiltrated the enemy’s right-wing siege-engine camp and set fire to it.
“He detonated nine gunpowder barrels and nine hu hui cannons. He also blew apart every corpse mound coated with corpse ointment.”
Eunuch Li paused for a moment. Even he felt that this sounded like something from a stage play.
“The central army of the barbarians was struck by the poison from the corpses. Their morale collapsed. Left Gully King Ashina Dubi was unable to suppress the chaos. The barbarian soldiers trampled one another, suffering countless casualties, and the entire army was routed!”
The hall became so quiet that the crackle of a lamp wick could be heard.
The color drained completely from Zhang Lang’s face.
His lips trembled, but for a long while, he could not utter a single word.
Two hundred light cavalrymen had broken through a five-thousand-man camp at night.
They had taken the enemy commander’s head, severed the war standard, burned the siege engines, and destroyed the poison trap.
A feat that even the most outrageous storytellers would never dare write had been recorded plainly in an eight-hundred-li urgent military dispatch from the frontier!
Eunuch Li turned the page and continued reading the memorial appended to the battle report, submitted by Major General Xu Chenguang of the Pacification Army.
“Your servant, Xu Chenguang of the Pacification Army, respectfully submits this report.
“Imperial Envoy Xu Qinghuan remained stationed within Zhenbei Pass and personally directed the distribution of grain throughout the city.
“When the deadly corpse ointment entered the city, Imperial Envoy Xu Qinghuan ordered fleeing soldiers executed on the spot, issued twelve iron-fisted military decrees, and imposed a complete lockdown.
“She then overruled all objections and took the dangerous medical step of introducing inoculation, forcibly requiring both soldiers and civilians to be vaccinated. In doing so, she halted the spread of the deadly poison and saved the lives of the forty thousand soldiers and civilians within Zhenbei Pass.
“At the end of the memorial, this servant, Xu Chengguang, and Commander Tie Lanshan of Zhenbei Pass have jointly signed our names. In this battle, the credit for breaking the enemy and saving the city must go first to the Xu siblings, Xu Zhan and Xu Qinghuan!”
The civil and military fronts had both delivered decisive victories.
Outside the city, two hundred cavalry led by a fierce general had smashed through the encirclement and turned the tide. Within the city, a female official had used an iron fist to seal the gates, saving countless lives.
An enormous stroke of good news had landed squarely on the heads of every court official.
Those ministers who, only moments ago, had been calculating how much territory to cede and how much compensation to pay—or how to flee south and save themselves—now felt their cheeks burning with shame.
Chief Grand Secretary Xu Jie stepped forward.
With measured strides, he climbed the steps and accepted the battle report from Eunuch Li. Xu Jie did not read the main text. Instead, he flipped straight to the end.
His cloudy yet piercing eyes fixed themselves on the red seals stamped across the page.
One was the tiger-emblem seal of Tie Lanshan, Commander of Zhenbei Pass. The other was the personal seal of Xu Chengguang of the Pacification Army. Xu Jie recognized his grandson’s mark. There was no possibility it was a forgery.
After a moment, Xu Jie turned around.
The foremost civil official of Great Qian faced the assembled ministers and raised the battle report high above his head.
“The seals are genuine.” Xu Jie’s voice rang out with authority. “The northern frontier has indeed won a great victory!”
Those words completely set the tone for the court assembly.
Zhang Lang’s knees went weak. He retreated into the ranks and lowered his head without saying a word. Sun Cheng, Minister of Justice, stared fixedly at his court boots, trying to hide himself among the crowd.
Liu Yong, who had just been kneeling on the floor and urging peace negotiations, reacted swiftly. He raised his tablet with both hands and struck it heavily against the ground once more.
“Heaven protects Great Qian! Heaven protects Great Qian!” Liu Yong’s voice boomed. “The soldiers of Zhenbei Pass have given their lives for the realm, while the Xu siblings are peerless among the three armies. This is a sign of His Majesty’s boundless heavenly fortune and the prosperity of our nation’s destiny! I congratulate Great Qian! I congratulate Your Majesty!”
The ministers at the back of the ranks immediately caught on. One after another, they stepped forward, knelt, and cried out their long life wishes. Their praises reverberated throughout the Hall of Heavenly Veneration.
Upon the dragon throne, the old emperor watched the scene below. Suddenly, he threw back his head and burst into laughter.
“Hahahahaha!”
The laughter grew louder and louder until the old emperor’s chest heaved and he began coughing violently.
Eunuch Li hurried forward to pat his back, but the old emperor shoved him away.
Gripping the armrest of the dragon throne, the old emperor rose to his feet. From his elevated position, he pointed at the ministers kneeling across the floor.
“What a fine ‘Heaven protects Great Qian’! What a fine ‘prosperity of the nation’s destiny’!”
