Chapter 282

The King's Diary:

【June 20, Rui'an City.】

The siege went fairly smoothly; we wiped out 4,366 Xiongnu soldiers, nine cavalrymen were injured, none in immediate danger.

My cousin successfully beheaded the Xiongnu general Qiu Linyi; I heard he was a close aide of the Wise Prince of the Left, so consider it collecting interest from the Wise Prince.

We captured a mutton‑fat white jade Buddha statue over three feet tall, exquisitely carved, top‑grade jade, looks incredibly valuable—mine now!

Conclusion: The Xiongnu fight fiercer than the Xianbei; not a single one thought of surrendering.

All I can say is, the current Xiongnu Chanyu is probably a tough character.

Still, I will never give up my wish to trample the Xiongnu under horse hooves!

The Xiongnu are brave; worst case, I'll just prepare a bit more, humph!】

…………New Chapter………………

…………New Chapter………………

…………New Chapter………………

Bingzhou is already considered close to Chang'an; after a moment's hesitation the King still ordered someone to send Qiu Linyi's head to Chang'an.

Between letting it rot and having a satisfying show to comfort the spirit of the Jin's meritorious dead, the King unhesitatingly chose the satisfying show.

He quickly took care of it, tidied up, and sent someone rushing to Chang'an.

He has a ten‑thousand‑strong Youzhou reinforcement behind him; what's Baili Jin?

Wei Shen asked him, 'Didn't you just coax Baili Jin into relaxing his guard on Youzhou? How come you're now sending a head to anger him?'

'…Even if he's stupid, he'll still think twice.'

The King boasted, 'I'm doing this all for my cousin! My cousin admires the Protector General of the West; now I've personally beheaded his enemy to comfort the general's spirit, so of course I have to cooperate.'

Wei Shen: 'Honestly, how did you change your mind again?'

'The truth is, I'm still afraid Baili Jin is a novice trying to climb a tree?!'

'Huh?'

I've already told them what to say; Baili Jin doesn't know the northern situation, so he won't act rashly. Up north he still fears the Xiongnu and Xianbei, and the head of the Protector General of the West's enemy can't stay fresh long—this weather rots things quickly, and I can't help it. The Xue family and our Wei family are both military lineages; I'd rather put their minds at ease and let them feel better. Compared to that, what's Baili Jin? He's not important.

You see, he hasn't even taken the throne yet; even if he tried to lead an army north to cause me trouble, those old officials at court would talk him down.

Wei Shen was deeply impressed; this person had figured out everything precisely.

The King sighed affectingly, 'What's good about fighting to the death for that position? Besides, you have to listen to those old fogeys. This way I'm fine—I decide for myself.'

Wei Shen: '…Such a one‑man show is rare. So how did you manage those officials of the previous dynasty? The chancellor, the grand tutor, and the various attendant officials—do they never oppose you when you mess around with these matters?'

The King, a bachelor, said: 'Objection? But it's useless. The Youzhou troops are in my hands, and these troops are privately maintained by me—no penny of Youzhou finances spent—what can they control?' A whole set of officials struggled for a year; the surplus handed to the King is less than what he digs out of the mountains in a day, and yet running those departments still requires the King to subsidize them with silver.

What the King didn't say out loud was that Youzhou's finances are also solely in his hands; that Zhuque Avenue, from start to end, is the entire Youzhou GDP. Even if we speak modestly, he alone accounts for maybe eighty or ninety percent.

How to manage?

The King has people when he needs them, money when he needs it, and isn't subject to anyone's manipulation.

What he wants to do, he usually just does it himself.

They fought a battle at Rui'an; after they cleared the city, the supply train finally caught up. Everyone regrouped and set out again, targeting the main city of Bingzhou.

Chang'an City

Nowadays the biggest gossip in Chang'an City is that the You Prince from the north sent a head to the Xue family!

'What a huge grudge!'

'You don't get it—I heard it's the head of the killer of the General, sent straight to the General's spirit altar!'

'That's not a Xiongnu? How did the You Prince kill him?'

'Right, I heard the Xiongnu killed the Protector General of the West…'

'No way! The Xiongnu are easy to kill—why would the court compensate so much silver?'

……

Yeah, and then it got cold.

Baili Jin heard the news and sent someone over to verify again.

Upon hearing the report that the General's spirit altar really had a head placed on it, he suddenly flew into a rage.

Old Three is really trampling him to death!

'What does the Xue family say? Is it really that Xiongnu general?'

The Xue family confirmed it was Qiu Linyi, a close aide of the Xiongnu Wise Prince of the Left, the very man who killed the Protector General of the West at Capital Wilderness.

'…Just repeat exactly what the You Prince said when he sent it!'

It is said that… they happened to meet the great general's enemy, and specially sent a head to offer as a sacrifice to the spirit of the great general in heaven.

What a coincidence! Nothing else?

That's exactly what was said; the Xue family also asked about it, and in private they sought confirmation from others. The person who sent it said exactly that, with no preceding or following context, and no other words were transmitted.

Baili Jin judged others by himself, 'Old Three wants to befriend the Xue family; it won't be just these two sentences—there must be other communication.'

The next day he also told his confidant, 'Old Three is actually clever, knowing to befriend the Xue family. The 100,000 troops withdrawn from Jade Gate Pass were stubbornly stopped at Han Yang. I see they just want to mix together with the Southwest Army.' What's most infuriating is that most of the court officials still support it.

'It is indeed heard that Jade Gate Pass and the Wei family have a very good relationship.'

Baili Jin grew increasingly annoyed hearing this, and his confidant advised him that what's most important now isn't this, but rather sorting out priorities.

Now Long Peace really has no time to study a few rebel kings; their primary task is to relocate the capital.

After Cool Prefecture was lost, Long Peace became the capital on the frontier. Not only was Baili Jin uneasy in his heart, but court officials and prominent clans of the capital all clamored to move the capital southward.

At this moment, the court officials are of one mind, doing nothing but waiting for the Ningde Emperor's burial and the Great Jin's relocation of the capital.

There are two candidate locations, and they are still arguing about it.

One is Ru South, the other is Establishing Health.

The goal happens to be the same: moving east.

The aristocratic clans in the capital want to go to prosperous Establishing Health, but there are opponents in the court, saying it's too close to the rebel king Bai Li Ying.

Those associated with Bai Li Ying remain silent.

As for Bai Li Jin, he naturally wants to move the capital to Yu Yang, but this time the Grand Minister of Agriculture leads the opposition.

Each side can list a pile of pros and cons, arguing every day with no result to date.

Going further south isn't lacking good places, but unfortunately rebel kings are everywhere.

The Marquis of Han Shou and the King of River Summer have taken the best places; going further south, peace is out of the question. Compared to Bai Li Jin's throne, the court only wants a peaceful relocation, and there are always people who have no interest with any of the princes, so they don't care who occupies that seat.

After days of this wrangling, Bai Li Jin felt utterly stifled.

Finally, a compromise was reached, and some people chose to support Ru South.

When selecting the site for the capital, the arguing would eventually turn to suppressing rebellions, and news came from the south that the King of River Summer had already begun expanding toward Lu Jiang.

Actually, Bai Li Ying's fief lies right north of Establishing Health; moving anywhere would have a rebel king nearby.

Bai Li Jin hated those rebels who blocked his move to the prosperous South of the River, so compared to the Prince of Secluded State who just guards the frontier, these rebels occupying the best fiefs in South of the River are his greatest hidden trouble.

Although he wished to immediately dispatch troops south to quell the rebellion, the Ningde Emperor remains unburied, he has not yet ascended the throne, lacking legitimacy. Initially, he forced a peace agreement despite opposition, thereby successfully offending the General of Establishing Might and his entourage of military lackeys; just look at those border troops who withdrew from Jade Gate Pass—aren't they passively resisting his orders?

Bai Li Jin, vexed and troubled, after the Eunuch Xiao returned and described Secluded State to him, became even more agitated.

The Marquis of the Eastern Capital actually teamed up with the third brother!

Now he also heard that the Great King sent over the head of a Xiongnu commander; he felt no joy, and the next day he still had to steel himself to affirm the Great King when others brought it up.

"Although the rebel king of Secluded State harbors rebellious intentions, he is still a subject of Great Jin, and can still distinguish right from wrong." After saying this, he almost vomited blood.

The little thief with an undead rebel heart!

Those the Great King sent out to run errands for him are surely clever people.

This person is called Qian Yi; normally he is one of the Twelve Guards who follow the Great King in and out.

He returned to Long Peace without lightly gathering news.

With the mindset that since he had come, he should collect as much information as possible to make the trip worthwhile. As for whether this information is useful, he believes the people around the Great King will analyze it.

He rested in Long Peace for a few days without idling, and soon learned that the garrison at Jade Gate Pass, like that at Upper Valley Pass, had not withdrawn.

This is major news—unlike Upper Valley Pass, Jade Gate Pass has two hundred thousand!

Following the General Who Pacifies the West, they went to the wilds with a hundred thousand; even then, Jade Gate Pass still has at least a hundred thousand!

These people have now retreated to Han Yang, not withdrawing to Long Peace as the Prince of Yu demanded.

Qian Yi immediately had the information group left in Long Peace send this news back to Secluded State—anyway, that's what the Great King ordered, saying this way he could receive the news more quickly.