Chapter 253: Wind and rain are about to come
Wanniuyu: "I don't know. Earlier, because Qiumuling suffered a big loss in your hands, I, the King, temporarily had no plan to go south. The Xiongnu's… invitation, I originally didn't agree to. Following them, I also didn't know what share we could get…… But later you know, the snow disaster froze to death many livestock and herders; I had no choice, we also had to survive."
"The Xiongnu's invitation was before the big snow, right? Last October?" the King suddenly said.
Wanniuyu admitted it was before the big snow; when asked about anything else, he said he didn't know, insisting he participated only because of the snow disaster.
The King, seeing no further information could be obtained, turned and left; Wanniuyu shouted after him to ask a doctor to treat his leg, but the King ignored him.
After leaving the prison, the King ordered his attendants, "Plug the drafty spots, and get them some blankets. Keep them well-fed so they don't die; they might be useful later."
After coming out, he remained silent all the way—nothing like the King's style; this guy, with no one to talk to, is quite talkative himself.
Lingyin finally spoke to break the silence, "My lord, do you believe what Wanniuyu said?"
The King shook his head, "About seventy or eighty percent. The Xiongnu's organization might be genuine, his participation due to the big snow is fake, obviously playing the victim. The northwest…… is probably truly bleak. They might set an ambush there to snipe the Great Jin's main force. The court still had my father emperor personally lead the expedition…… troublesome."
Wind and rain are about to come.
The King returned to Year Feather Hall and found his creditor had already returned.
Cover Heaven stood proudly on the stone sculpture in front of Year Feather Hall, head high and chest out, extremely arrogant, while Weishen stood shocked, crouching beside it.
Seeing the King return, Weishen rushed over to ask for confirmation, "Did it turn back midway, or has it already returned from Chang'an?"
The King pointed to the strap on Cover Heaven's leg, "Of course it returned—didn't you see the strap changed color?"
Weishen: "... Heavens! I've been rushing nonstop for almost a month! Even without a convoy, half a month I couldn't make it—where's the justice? It even got a reply letter in just a moment—what the heck is this thing?!"
The King solemnly gave him a lecture: "It's called the Rolling Cloud Eagle. It can't ride the wind ninety thousand li, but a few hundred or a thousand li is fine. Crossing the Great Jin once only needs three thousand taels—cheap, right?"
Weishen: "Don't say, don't say—three thousand taels, I actually don't find it expensive now!"
"What about your fifteen hundred?"
Weishen decisively said: "Wait till my dad gets the money! Really, our family hasn't split yet, all the money is in my dad's hands."
……This unreserved style of selling out his dad, the King felt oddly familiar!
In the letter from the Marquis of Wei Ting, it said that at Jade Gate Pass, 100,000 troops had been dispatched to support the emperor's personal expedition to the northwest, commanded by General Who Pacifies the West, Xue Zheng.
After reading it, the King grew even more worried.
The whole Youzhou City was immersed in the joy of the northern victory; the King was happy for a day, but after chatting with Wanniuyu, he began to feel troubled.
He was certain there truly were traitors in the court.
The King heard that Wanniuyu daily shouted insults at him in prison, yet that didn't dispel his unease.
The King's appearance at the court assembly was earlier than the Grand Tutor had estimated by a bit. The King felt he couldn't be the only one worried; as subjects of Great Jin, everyone shares the responsibility, especially those receiving his stipend.
"So, you say, are there traitors in the court? Those who ardently urged and supported my father emperor's personal expedition—are they all traitors?"
Chancellor: ……
How could one answer this? Weren't most officials said to have finally supported it? A court full of traitors?
"I believe the one who first proposed that Your Majesty personally lead the expedition is more likely to be the culprit. Now the situation is set in stone; Your Highness cannot reach far enough, I think this issue isn't the most pressing now. Your Highness should prepare early…… for the worst-case scenario."
The King looked at the Chancellor: "Speak plainly."
"If we suffer defeat, how will Your Highness handle yourself?"
The King thought, if Bai Ze's mention of the northwest disturbance refers to this, then without any "if", there's an eighty percent chance of defeat.
If his father really mustered five hundred thousand at Wuwei, then…… the King just thinking about it feels heartbroken.
So many lives!
He shouted that the Marquis of Wei Ting must not participate, but thinking his father was still in the northwest, whether as a son or a feudal lord of Great Jin, he couldn't stay in Youzhou doing nothing. Having hidden now, he might later feel uneasy in his heart.
But the trouble is, he has no qualification to meddle in this.
Bai Ze said that if the Southwest Army gets involved, it will be drawn into the northwest; would Youzhou be exempt?
————————————————
………………new chapter…………………
………………new chapter…………………
………………new chapter…………………
The King hadn't worried about his father's safety, just like Wanniuyu—even if the royal city fell, he'd still sit tight in Youzhou's prison. His father's position only matters if he's alive; the King doesn't fear that the allied armies killed Emperor Ningde; he aches for the so-called five-hundred-thousand-strong army.
What if there really were five hundred thousand? No, even fifty-five thousand would be heartbreaking.
The King, anxious, clenched his fists and ordered Zhu Ti to send people near the battlefield to gather more intel.
As a result, before the caravan could return with news, the northwest's news suddenly burst forth.
The King held the letter written by the Marquis of the Eastern Capital, reading it over and over. He recognized each character, but together they made his head spin.
Half a month ago, the rear guard troops accompanying Emperor Ningde's palanquin were ambushed and slaughtered by Xiongnu elites; the entire army was wiped out, and Emperor Ningde was captured. Two generals, in an attempt to rescue Emperor Ningde, fiercely attacked Du Ye and died one after another.
Weishen saw him finish reading the secret letter, his face turned pale instantly, and hurriedly asked what had happened.
After a long while, the King looked at Weishen, "Cousin, the General Who Pacifies the West and the Duke of the Solemn State are both gone! Both gone! My unreliable father has also been captured by the Xiongnu."
"What?!"
Weishen nearly choked on his own saliva.
"How could that be? Did your father really go to the front lines? You didn't say he might never have gone to Du Ye, just staying in Wuwei, which is why you desperately suppressed the news?"
"Exactly, I've always thought that. I heard he was ill, recuperating in the rear, never personally set foot on the battlefield—that's why he kept suppressing news of the northwest. Besides the Golden Warrior Guard, he also had the fifty thousand he brought from Chang'an, who were ambushed and slaughtered by the Xiongnu."
The King said each sentence, feeling heartbroken to the point of unbearable.
Fifty thousand lives, plus two pillars of Great Jin—just gone like that!
Weishen also found it hard to believe; he didn't know the Duke of the Solemn State, but being in the southwest, he had come into contact with General Who Pacifies the West, Xue Zheng.
The garrison commander of Jade Gate Pass—gone just like that.
Weishen also stared blankly, his thoughts drifting far away, only to return after a while.
"What about the Emperor? Has he been rescued? And… how did they come to the rear to capture your father?"
The Great King shook his head, "I'm afraid this pit was already prepared, and it's also my imperial father…"
"The Marquis of the Eastern Capital said the Xiongnu have a troop; before the main army marched north, they should have entered Great Jin territory from the capital wilderness and have been hiding in a sparsely populated mountain range. This matches my guess; they definitely planned this for a long time, having made their plans before the Tufa Xianbei seized the capital wilderness. Now my father is said to still be in the hands of the Tufa Xianbei in the capital wilderness."
What worries the Great King goes far beyond his father: "The Xiongnu who killed our fifty-thousand-strong army have moved south; it's said they have already seized Beidi Commandery. Cousin, the northwest has been torn open. The news leaked out before anyone could cover it up, far worse than this king had imagined—a hundred times worse."
Wei Shen is dazed, let alone the Great King.
He came to his senses, vigorously rubbed the Great King's shoulders, "It's fine, fine, don't be scared. The Duke of Su is gone, but the Shuofang garrison remains. To keep an eye on the Xiongnu, there are even more troops there than at Shanggu Pass! Shuofang still has a deputy general!"
"Cousin, their plan is to nibble away and partition Great Jin. That's certain. The earlier oddities in the Western Regions are probably related to this."
"Has there also been a change at Jade Gate Pass?"
"Isn't that utter chaos?"
The Great King hears every day that chaos is coming, and more often thinks about internal contradictions within Great Jin.
The Great King furrowed his brow, worrisome.
This time it really seems like a major problem.
It seems Great Jin isn't chaotic enough, as Zhuti transmitted a second piece of explosive news.
The Marquis of Hanshou has rebelled!
The Great King asked with a calm face, "Who is this? Does it mean rebellion?"
Zhuti also didn't know; she only today received a letter from the Jingzhou subordinates, not even knowing exactly when the rebellion happened, and they still have no one in Hanshou.
The Great King summoned the Chancellor and the Grand Tutor, "Now we truly have internal and external troubles! Well, not exactly—we've been worried for the past two years. Chancellor, do you know where the Marquis of Hanshou comes from? Why wasn't he at my father's Ten Thousand Longevity celebration?"
The Great King paused, then self-consolingly asked and answered, "Could it be that he rebelled because we didn't invite him?!"
Chancellor: ……
A bit relieved, this guy wasn't scared.
"This Marquis of Hanshou was previously the King of Hanshou, demoted several generations ago to become a marquis. The first King of Hanshou should have been Your Highness's great-granduncle; later he angered your great-grandfather, and the royal rank was demoted."
The Great King was unhappy, "What's with this sudden rebelliousness after several generations? They've suddenly become dissatisfied and started rebelling?"
The Grand Tutor drawled, "Maybe it was because their strength previously didn't allow it."
The Great King choked up for a moment—he wasn't wrong.
Put bluntly, his father gave them the opportunity.
If Great Jin were now strong and stable, with all nations coming to court, the Marquis of Hanshou would surely not dare rebel.
Great Jin is now utterly chaotic; even drafting troops to suppress rebellions is difficult.
"Who knows how Chang'an will react upon hearing that my imperial father has been captured—what chaos will ensue. Now there are no troops to go suppress the rebellion… sigh."
The Great King pulled out a map to study Hanshou's location and found it right next to Wuling.
"Great! It's still a good place, with a big lake, truly a land of fish and rice. The earlier northern drought didn't even reach it, right? This has been passed down for so many generations; who knows how much wealth they've accumulated! Surely they now have more money than my imperial father. Just look—this king knows, it's only been a few years, and this king has accumulated ten thousand elite cavalry."
Chancellor: …… You've said it all.
The Great King: "This king only has a verbal condemnation left; otherwise this king would suffocate!"
The Chancellor and the Grand Tutor stood below, speechless as they looked at each other.
Logically, the first priority now is to rescue His Majesty, but after losing the two best fighters, Chang'an must already be arguing over who should lead the troops.
Also, how many of the so-called five-hundred-thousand-strong army that Emperor Ningde took with him remain?
Beidi Commandery really has been occupied—we ought to make some show of it, right? Talk or fight?
In short, one thing is certain: none of this is up to Youzhou to decide.
Their anxiety is pointless; even the real information comes from the Eastern Capital Marquis's intelligence network. The court hasn't notified them of this at all.
As soon as it got dark, the Great King furrowed his brow and went to find his stinky leatherworker strategist.
Bai Yang had been silently listening; the truth wasn't pleasant, and actually he wasn't all that surprised. In a chaotic age, such a situation isn't unusual. That father of the Great King enjoyed a lifetime of blessings—what's wrong with him suffering a bit?
Bai Yang doesn't feel sorry at all; he feels sorry for the fallen generals and troops, which are all our Great King's! Our Great King's!
In a feudal slave-owning dynasty, even if a natural disaster starves a few commoners, it doesn't count as a chaotic age; at most it's just a bad year—how would a child think of these things?
When the Great King mentioned that there were still rebels within the realm, he then looked at Hanshou's location and exclaimed, "What a guy! We can't let him succeed in rebelling! If he establishes himself as king and completely draws out the Great Jin map, you'll have to import even a single hairy crab!"
Great King: ……
That Hanshou is right by Dongting Lake.
————————————————
………………New Chapter………………
………………New Chapter………………
………………New Chapter………………
20241231 noon:
The Great King was still waiting for his older brother Bai to use a developmental perspective to analyze what he should do, but who knew that his older brother Bai, aside from sighing, had his longest sentence be about the hairy crab…
The Great King: "What kind of crab is a hairy crab? Can it even taste better than the big crabs in the sea?" That big lake, no matter how good, isn't as big as the sea; there's no reason the crabs inside would be bigger, right?
"Not the same; each has its own flavor. You can't say that because meat is good, mutton being tasty means beef isn't needed, right?"
Thinking about this guy, born into the ruling class yet never having tasted the good things from his own territory: "Poor, if they don't send tribute, you just can't eat it. In the past, travel was slow; even if the emperor was wealthy across the seas and his territory vast, he himself was just squatting in Chang'an every day." Bai Yang couldn't bear to see the kid who smiles all day furrow his little face in worry, so he deliberately changed the subject.
Too bad, when mentioning Chang'an City, the Great King's attention returned.
"What's wrong with peacefully squatting in Chang'an City? Maybe this time Chang'an City will be gone. This afternoon I met a few generals from our army; their opinions were similar—Chang'an really is in danger this time. The Xiongnu have laid out their plans for so long; they're certainly not just after a few poor border counties. Chang'an is actually not far from the northern border. Everyone says that Xiongnu elite force seized Beidi Commandery, then looted enough supplies in the commandery, and will immediately turn back to launch a pincer attack on the already leaderless main army. The General Who Pacifies the West and the Duke of Su are gone; those several-ten-thousand-strong army also don't know how many remain. If they're wiped out, the remaining troops of Great Jin's northern forces that haven't suffered losses are just the fifty- or sixty-thousand at Shanggu Pass, while Jade Gate Pass and Shuofang simultaneously lose their generals and part of their garrisons, greatly weakening their strength… The northern half of Great Jin is basically done."
Bai Yang looked at the map, then after a moment said, "In the past, travel was slow…"
★
★
★
Hehe:
【End of month, make up homework, recently on a business trip outside, time uncontrollable, please bear with us. Scroll back a bit, refresh.
We have to be tolerant, book ce ended, I started eating dirt again. Foreign persimmon only let me have a good week (≖……】
End of Chapter
