Chapter 504: Besieging the City, Destroying the Nation

A thousand armies and ten thousand horses, the sun itself dimmed.

A youthful promise, fulfilled at twenty — a sentiment worthy of being recorded in lavish detail even in the annals of history, a sentiment even the Shi Guan would have to acknowledge; and yet such an expression of feeling still carried that restraint peculiar to the Central Plains.

A restrained intensity is always more moving than a casually given promise.

Chen Qingyan held her sword, leaning against the arrow battlements of the city wall, watching the young ruler — now twenty, now a name that shook the world — smile and address her by name, watching Xue Shuangtao press her hands against the thick city wall, nearly unable to keep herself from leaping down.

Just like in their youth, when she had jumped down from that great tree and ended up twisting her ankle, and in the misty rain, that young man had carried her back to the Xue family — what a fine joke that had made.

Xue Shuangtao's heart stirred with eagerness, but she still held herself back.

She had grown up too, no longer the self of seven years ago; the passage of time had, after all, left its marks upon the human heart. Chen Qingyan's white hair at the temples lifted in the wind; watching this scene, she did not know what she was thinking of, and the light in her eyes softened.

Old man Chen Chengbi sighed in admiration and shook his head: "Much braver than that lad Li Wanli."

"Tsk tsk tsk, interesting, very interesting."

Chen Qingyan looked at Chen Chengbi and said: "What's interesting?"

"Does Uncle also take an interest in such things?"

Chen Chengbi was thoroughly puzzled: "What things? I was saying that when he goes wandering the jianghu in the days to come, those taverns and teahouses should have plenty of new stories to hear over drinks — the jianghu will be all the more interesting for it."

Chen Qingyan said: "A lifetime in the jianghu, and you don't find it dull."

Chen Chengbi burst into laughter: "Dull?"

"How could the jianghu ever be dull? Those who find the jianghu dull are merely finding themselves dull."

Then, looking toward the young ruler over there, he said: "Ah, but then — Qin Wang, just how far has that lad Li Guanyi's Wu Gong actually reached? Tsk tsk tsk, looking from afar, that aura soaring to the heavens is truly terrifying, terrifying."

Chen Qingyan's expression also grew slightly Solemn.

Even from this distant rear, they could only hear the reports sent back from the front — they knew what level of battles and trials the young Qin Wang had endured over these years, having seemingly fought his way through the great many powerful enemies and legends of this vast realm.

Word-of-mouth news always gets mixed with the imaginings and longings of those who pass it along; by the time it traveled ten thousand li and reached their ears, it had become utterly incredible, like legend itself.

Brave, stern, bearing himself with the ease of a sovereign descended from the heavens.

The bearing of dragon and phoenix, the countenance of sun and sky.

Bold and grand, vast and sweeping.

Unseen in the eight hundred years since the Scarlet Emperor.

Nothing at all could connect him to the boy of seven years ago — the one who hadn't even entered the realm, who was quite slippery when trouble came, who would directly shout for Auntie Qingyan; an old friend standing before them, yet inevitably calling to mind the days of old.

Especially so when one was of such an age oneself — day after day passing, seven years gone in a flash, like a fallen leaf dropping into a pond, rippling once, the ripples stilling, and then feeling nothing more.

Only upon seeing that little fellow of those days, now possessed of such bearing,

did one suddenly awaken to the passage of time.

How could such a thing not stir an inexpressible sigh in the heart?

Even Chen Qingyan, whose nature had always been cool and indifferent, could not help but softly heave a sigh, feeling a faint melancholy in this wind.

Chen Chengbi also sighed wistfully.

Then he said: "Truly, I want to have a bout with him!"

Chen Qingyan: "…………"

Chen Chengbi rolled up his sleeves and rubbed his fists together, eager as could be: "Eldest niece, tell me — if I were to sneak off to find him tonight, and challenge him to a fight in the name of the Chen royal house, do you think he'd agree? Or should I just go beg him?"

The sword in Chen Qingyan's hand swept down, the pommel-end cracking against the top of the old man's head, drawing an "Ai-ya!" from old man Chen Chengbi, who stumbled two steps forward, clutching the back of his head, then turned around to stare wide-eyed at Chen Qingyan.

"Eldest niece, why are you hitting me?"

Chen Qingyan said flatly: "My hand slipped."

Chen Chengbi rubbed the back of his head, all earnest and grumbling: "That sword of yours is quite slippery, just slid right off on its own — you really ought to keep the thing better secured."

Chen Qingyan no longer wished to answer this martial-arts-obsessed elder.

Xue Changqing had also arrived by now; he leaned over the city wall, gazing at the thousand armies and ten thousand horses, the banners like clouds, his eyes nearly popping out of his head, and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Qin Wang, Your Highness Qin Wang, it's me, Xue Changqing — do you still remember me?!"

"You even gave me things back then, taught me arithmetic."

He shouted loudly, lifting the pendant at his waist and waving it vigorously — it was a feather, a stiff eagle feather, produced from the steepest cliffs of the mountain ranges between the two nations, gathered back when the wandering legion had passed through there with nothing to their name.

A haul from when the all-capable Old Lei had been scrambling up the mountain feeling for eagles.

Later, when Li Guanyi reached a place of safety and sent a letter to the Young Lady, he had also given this eagle feather as a gift to Xue Changqing — not the sort of terribly expensive present, but the weight it carried was something else entirely.

Xue Changqing had a good heart; he had kept the thing as a pendant, worn close to his body, for years.

He was thrilled, wanting to acknowledge the Qin Wang at once, yet worried that the Qin Wang's present station meant he would no longer remember him — but he saw only that sovereign, clad in armor with civil-and-martial-sleeved battle robes, burst into laughter: "Does your arithmetic still need a guest retainer?"

Xue Changqing's face flushed red: "I'm doing very well!"

The Qin Wang laughed heartily; as his laughter faded, his gaze settled calmly on Xue Shuangtao over there. She seemed to know what was meant, exhaled a breath, and gave a slight nod — and so no words were needed.

After a moment's thought, he said: "Be careful."

"Mm."

The Qin Wang nodded, then swept his gaze across the old friends upon the city wall, and laughed aloud:

"Although I too would like to enter Yicheng at once and catch up with all of you, to reminisce about old times — right now there are still some matters I haven't dealt with, and there's still a big brother out there lending a hand."

"Let me settle these trifling things first, then I'll come back."

"Bu Yi, Liu Ying."

Ye Buyi and Zhou Liuying stepped forward half a pace and said solemnly: "Your subordinate is here."

The Qin Wang said: "Take five thousand troops, take over this city, protect the people — I shall return within days."

"If you encounter anything hard to resolve, you may consult Xue Lao."

The two generals replied in unison, solemn: "Yes, sir!"

The Qin Wang's gaze turned to the Young Lady, then to the burly old man beside her who had shot out from the Xue residence like a bouncing star-bullet and now stood upon the city wall; the Qin Wang smiled and inclined his head.

Xue Daoyong's gaze burned bright; looking at the Qin Wang amid his thousand armies and ten thousand horses, he felt the urge to burst into laughter.

He barely managed to hold himself in check as an elder should, pinching his own arm hard to stop the corners of his mouth from uncontrollably curling upward.

The corners of his lips pressed down, solemn and dignified, and he merely nodded.

"Opportunity knocks but once."

"Qin Wang, just go and do what you intend to do."

"This old man will protect this city."

"Thank you for your trouble, Xue Lao."

Qin Wang inclined his head, then flicked the reins and declared in a clear voice: "Move out!"

Xue Changqing stood there dumbfounded: "Huh? Ahhh?"

"That's it, he's just leaving?!"

With one hand tugging at his elder sister's sleeve and the other pointing at Qin Wang, who had already spurred his warhorse, for a moment he looked just like he had seven years ago, when that retainer and the 'tigress' had ditched him and gone off to play, leaving him standing there foolishly watching his sister being carried back.

For no reason at all, he felt a sense of being left behind.

Huh?

You two understand? An unspoken understanding?

Damn it, what exactly do you two understand!

Tell me too!

Don't leave me out!

He watched helplessly as the Qin Wang's royal banner wheeled about, as that vast army of ten thousand troops parted like a flood splitting to form a ravine, with Qin Wang taking the lead and the armies on either flank thundering like thunder as they moved in his wake.

Such momentum, such grandeur.

Xue Changqing could not help but feel his blood surge, wishing he could leap down right then, mount a horse, and follow behind—even if it were only as a common foot soldier.

At the same time, he still did not understand what Qin Wang meant to do.

Though he did not understand, it did not diminish his admiration and devotion toward Qin Wang. From a very young age he had been running around with that retainer of those days, and had long treated the latter like a 'ringleader of children'; this affection and longing had never faded, even to this day.

Just watching Qin Wang ride away, he tugged at his sister's sleeve and said: "Sister, where is His Majesty Qin Wang going? Why, why has he left just like that? He only just got back, and he won't even come home for a bite to eat?"

"The city has just been taken—why the hurry?"

Xue Shuangtao looked at him and said: "My little brother truly only has the talent for a single city and a single army. What you see is one city; what he sees is a kingdom, the whole world."

"He will come back, but not now."

Xue Changqing was puzzled, but then suddenly understood.

The joy and excitement on his face froze little by little, and in his eyes there was a tremor and a sense of shock as he gazed in the direction Qin Wang's army had departed, watching that crimson royal banner emblazoned with the Fire Qilin cloud pattern billow like blazing flames.

Xue Changqing's body trembled uncontrollably as he said:

"Jiangzhou City…"

"His Majesty Qin Wang intends to take the capital of Chen Kingdom."

"Today…"

Xue Changqing's voice seemed to lose all support, as if he were standing in some ethereal, insubstantial place, and he murmured: "Is he going to annihilate a kingdom?"

【Annihilate a Kingdom】.

Just these two words—countless men would stake their lives for them, countless strategists would exhaust their wits for this purpose, and countless brave generals would gladly die on the battlefield for such supreme merit.

Was this feat, which ought to exist only in the annals of history and in tales passed from mouth to mouth—earth-shattering, heaven-rending, remaking the very order of the world—about to unfold before his very eyes?

He suddenly recalled what Qin Wang had said and grasped its meaning, and that meaning caused Xue Changqing's thoughts to freeze.

He had said he would come back after taking care of some trivial matters…

Did he mean that Qin Wang would come to see his sister only after annihilating a kingdom?

Entering the city with the might of having destroyed a kingdom?!

The sixteen-year-old Xue Changqing could not help but conjure up that scene in his mind, and was lost in thought for a long time.

Qin Wang!

So domineering! So formidable! So exhilarating!

Such a promise, such grandeur and boldness…

It makes one yearn for it.

And Xue Daoyong, watching that departing army, merely murmured: "What a windfall."

"What a windfall…"

"In all my life, over a hundred years, I have gambled countless times, won many, lost many, but never once have I made such a killing!"

"Truly, exhilarating!"

"Rare goods to be hoarded, a small stake yielding ten thousandfold returns."

"To gamble out a bright, clear world, to gamble out a peaceful realm!"

………………

Zhou Liu Ying was already a general at the peak of the Fifth Heaven.

And Ye Buyi, during the Western Regions campaign, had already been at the Fifth Heaven; now, after long campaigns and cultivation, he had long since broken through the barrier in Jiangnan and become a general of the Sixth Heaven.

For one in his early twenties, he could already be considered the very pinnacle of his generation.

One day, breaking through the barrier to Grandmaster and growing into a great general capable of holding a region would only be a matter of time; the top ten was impossible, but a place in the top thirty of the Divine General Rankings was not entirely out of reach.

Fierce and solemn, calm and resolute, his bearing sufficient to command an army.

With the two of them leading five thousand Fire Qilin troops to take over this city, and with figures of the Grandmaster realm such as Xue Daoyong and Chen Chengbi present—among whom Xue Daoyong could still be considered the Left Chancellor, and Chen Chengbi was a member of the imperial clan—

That old man brazenly shouted: "This old man is the Emperor's uncle, and I've already surrendered—what are you lot still resisting for?"

This sort of psychological attack instantly shattered the last dregs of resistance.

Yicheng was soon taken over, but Zhou Liu Ying, regarding the fact that he and Ye Buyi had been left behind by Qin Wang to garrison this place, still felt some regret deep in his heart.

The assault on the city was already a considerable feat of merit.

But no matter what, it could not be compared to a battle of the level that destroys a nation.

But he also knew Li Guanyi's reason for not letting the two of them participate in the attack on Jiangzhou City — they were, after all, born into military families of Chen Country, had run through the streets and alleys as children, fought in the martial arena in their youth, and gone to taverns to drink.

Every corner of that city carried their past memories and feelings; looking over, one could still see the youths and children who had run past laughing a dozen or so years ago.

As the days passed, things changed but people were gone; some of the friends who had once frolicked and joked together with abandon were now completely opposed to one another.

Chen Country's Jiangzhou City was still that Jiangzhou City, but the youths of those days, who had nothing weighing on their hearts and woke each day to a brand-new morning, had all grown up.

Even in this chaotic age, with the world churning, to ask the two of them to attack a place they had once lived in and grown up in—

Li Guanyi still could not bear it in his heart.

Zhou Liu Ying gazed at the distant sky and said: "Qin Wang, the boss is still too soft-hearted. Isn't this exactly the time we should be leading the charge, making a name-offering pledge, and putting everyone's mind completely at ease?"

"Why the hell did he leave the two of us stuck here?"

Ye Buyi said: "If he did that, he wouldn't be Li Guanyi."

Zhou Liu Ying said: "Haha, true enough!"

"Still, if you told me to attack Jiangzhou City, I'd feel stifled and miserable inside; but staying here, I still feel stifled and miserable inside. Hey, Lao Ye, how can a person be this pathetic?"

Ye Buyi shot him a sideways glance: "It's you who's pathetic."

Zhou Liu Ying flared up in great anger, sweeping his hooked-sickle spear in his hand, but Ye Buyi, arms folded, lifted a foot and pinned it down. Zhou Liu Ying tried to pull it free but couldn't budge it, and instead grew even more melancholy.

Sorrow, oh sorrow, sorrow, oh sorrow.

That feeling, to tell the truth, truly could not be put into a word or two. He sat atop the city wall, the ancestral hooked-sickle war-spear laid across his knees, watching the layered clouds drift away, and gradually fell quiet.

The eyesight of one at the peak of the Fifth Heaven could trace the flow of rosy clouds and discern the trajectory of arrows, but the eyes of a youth pushed to their very limit could no longer find a single trace of home.

Ye Buyi stood with arms folded before him, expression calm and composed.

Zhou Liu Ying sighed with deep feeling: "Truly envious of General Yue Qianfeng and the others, who can take part in a battle like this. One imagines that in the annals of later ages, this battle will be enough to make those Shi Guan write at great length, recording many pages of text. A pity, a pity, that we have no fate to witness it."

"Just don't know how much blood General Yue is going to cough up this time, going up against our Chen Country Wu Di's grandson in a fight like this?"

"You'd think General Yue is clearly that strong — among the countless armies under heaven, with fierce generals like clouds and strong fighters like rain, among all those great generals, the number who can reliably beat him is no more than can be counted on two hands. He's absolutely a top-tier war general of our age. So why is it that General Yue always ends up the most badly wounded?"

Ye Buyi said: "Because he only fights opponents of those two-hands' number."

Zhou Liu Ying laughed heartily: "That counts as impressive too!"

When he laughed, he was, as always, free and easy, Mu Zi Yi.

If he hadn't been born into the Zhou family of Dacheng, wielders of the hooked-sickle spear, and if this were still an age of peace and prosperity, his nature would surely have made him a fine wandering knight-errant — riding a white horse, traveling all across the Central Plains, showing off a fine swordsmanship, having many friends, and being much beloved by the lady knights-errant of the jianghu.

The laughter gradually faded. Gazing into the distance, Zhou Liu Ying's face finally showed a complex emotion that was hard to put into words, and in the end he only said:

"Is Dacheng truly going to perish?"

Ye Buyi said: "I don't know…"

Zhou Liu Ying murmured: "Dacheng, ah, Dacheng."

"This Dacheng had the sounds of qin and flute, the schools of Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Mohism, each flourishing; its culture at its peak, the finest under heaven; its arms so strong that all four directions feared it; its people living in peace and contentment — even the street vendors hawking their wares could discourse on poetry."

"Dacheng, ah — such a brilliant name, such a magnificent past."

"How did it come to this?"

Ye Buyi said: "I don't know."

Zhou Liu Ying was so exasperated he laughed: "Do you know any answer besides 'I don't know'?"

Ye Buyi said: "I know."

His expression was calm and composed, and he went on: "My answer both says that I know; and also says that this is what I know — that, apart from 'I don't know,' the other answer employs the rhetorical devices of parallel prose and palindromic phrasing. 'Know' and 'don't know' is a well-known punchline from a collection of common street jokes."

"You may laugh."

Zhou Liu Ying: "…………"

He looked at Ye Buyi, who was growing more and more like a block of ice, twitched his mouth, felt a bit cold, and finally cursed "damn it," though he didn't know why he had to curse like that, nor who exactly he was cursing.

But he just felt stifled, just felt miserable.

Then he spread his hands and fell backward, gazing up at the leisurely sky, his eyes vacant, and said: "Forget it, I'm tired…"

"War generals attacking their own homeland, having to fight the place they grew up in."

"We did nothing wrong, but it still hurts."

"Truly makes one miserable."

"This world, this damn world!"

Zhou Liu Ying finally knew whom he was cursing.

He shouted at the top of his lungs: "Grass!"

Ye Buyi said: "It's a kind of plant."

Zhou Liu Ying: "…………"

He really wanted to, like when they were young, give this guy a good beating.

He rolled up his sleeves and went straight at him.

Damn it, fight!

Fight first, talk later!

………………

Chen Country's Jiangzhou City was a great city, a Zhenxi Xiongcheng, but as a Ducheng, its defensive strength was, without question, not to be compared with those true border fortresses and strongholds. Once several vital areas of the great city were locked down, it began to struggle and could not move.

Right Chancellor Feng Yuning woke up from a nap, and the sky had already fallen in.

At this point he went to investigate his three stratagems — those three fine stratagems. But, the less said the better; the moment he asked, it nearly made Feng Yuning's eyes go red. Of the three stratagems, not a single one had succeeded.

The land deeds and the indentures had both been withheld by his nephew.

Those common folk had only received a subsidy of ten wen each. As for the colored banners reading 【Joyfully Welcoming the Royal Army】, they had indeed been embroidered, but with such shoddy, crude materials — how could they possibly be brought out to receive a sovereign like Qin Wang?

As for the three million taels of silver.

He traced the matter back layer by layer.

Everything had been squeezed out of them; not even a single tael of silver had been sent out.

Not a single tael!

Feng Yuning's eyes were nearly bloodshot. The moment she learned of this situation, she took the trusted confidant who had followed her since childhood — the head steward — and whipped him to death with a horsewhip. Even after he was dead, her anger was not appeased, so she had his wife whipped to death as well.

Seeing the two people lying in a pool of blood, Feng Yuning gasped heavily, feeling she had at last vented a little of the rancor and murderous fury in her heart. Her nephew knelt at the side, trembling all over, his face white as paper.

"Un-uncle…"

He shuffled forward on his knees, threw his arms around Feng Yuning's leg, his voice quivering: "Nephew, nephew knows he was wrong. You, you are so greatly merciful, so greatly virtuous, my lord, please, please forgive nephew just this once more."

Feng Yuning looked at this nephew, feeling a strong sense of bitter disappointment — iron that would not become steel.

She kicked him over.

"You ungrateful beast!"

"If you were usually just a little greedy, that would be the end of it. For your mother's sake, I would have turned a blind eye. But do you know what time it is now? That Qin Wang has already come to kill!"

Her nephew, tears and snot streaming down his face, said: "Nephew, nephew, if I had known he was coming, I absolutely wouldn't have dared do this. I absolutely wouldn't have dared. It's all because, because of that Qin Wang. If he had come slowly, we would have had everything prepared."

"Why would we need to be like this now, in a panic?"

"It's all Qin Wang's fault, suddenly appearing at this moment!"

Feng Yuning no longer wished to say anything more.

In her heart there truly did arise a sliver of grievance and resentment toward Qin Wang's sudden appearance here, as if she were resenting Qin Wang — she had clearly already prepared many stratagems, so why did he not act according to common sense?

Feng Yuning said: "Regardless, it's too late to change anything. Fortunately, fortunately, those people have already embroidered the colored cloth. Hurry and bring those bolts of colored cloth here, and bring out the land deeds and everything else, and the gold and silver — bring out everything."

Her nephew said: "Everything?"

Feng Yuning said furiously: "Don't play any more tricks. Everything. All of it!"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Feng Yuning gasped violently, her expression calm: "Make a great show of it. Mobilize the common folk, let them protect us. They only know how to bow their heads and work; it's very easy to stir up their emotions."

"Using the common folk's reputation to protect you and me — that is the first."

"Then use gold and silver to buy our lives — that is the second."

"Finally, go to Qin Wang and say: we know that His Highness Qin Wang is magnanimous and merciful, that he would distribute the land to the common folk. We, as scholars, would not dare to take his place and do it ourselves, so we have prepared these land deeds and contracts of sale in advance, to present to Qin Wang."

Feng Yuning's nephew's eyes lit up at once, and he said: "Brilliant, brilliant!"

"Truly worthy of Uncle, the greatest talent under heaven!"

This was aimed at Qin Wang's temperament, his conduct, his reputation — seeking a path to survival.

Not hoping for a smooth landing, but at least not being among the first to be purged.

To be able to see this path to survival in such a short time — Feng Yuning was, in any case, worthy of these several decades of ups and downs in the official sea. Only now did she finally set her mind at ease. She brewed tea and settled down, ordering her attendants to dispose of the two corpses lying there.

As the two corpses were being dragged away, Feng Yuning said casually: "Don't bury them in the ground, and don't sink them in water. If they're discovered it will be hard to explain. I recall there are a few fierce hounds from the Western Regions in the residence — feed them to the dogs."

"Make it clean."

"Yes."

But when these servants were carrying the two corpses out, a burst of chaotic, noisy sounds arose. When the Right Chancellor came out, she saw the great doors thrown open, and those servants, along with her nephew, all beaten until their cheeks were flushed red, sprawled on the ground.

Feng Yuning slowly raised her head and looked at the newcomer.

The newcomer was also in his forties, with a fair, beardless face, wearing a crimson round-collared robe. He habitually stooped, and in his hand he carried a lantern; the candlelight shone through the blue lantern paper, seeping out a faint, cold, eerie air.

Silence, deathly stillness, for a long while.

The Director of Ceremonies eunuch looked at Feng Yuning and revealed a smile: "Right Chancellor."

"Your Majesty requests your presence."

?? Begging for monthly tickets, friends~

? Darn it, my sleep schedule, my sleep schedule!