Chapter 885: The Heavens Have Changed

The atmosphere in Jingcheng was different from that of the great army.

The whole city was draped in white mourning cloth, sorrow and solemnity on every face.

The triumphant army returning to court immediately wiped the ease and joy from their faces; recalling the grievous losses of this campaign, the gladness of victory and of coming back alive was greatly dimmed.

Thinking of their comrades who would forever remain beyond the Great Wall, the men fell silent.

If even battle-hardened soldiers felt this way, there was no need to mention the civil officials.

Within the ranks, civil officials who thought of their colleagues could not help bowing their heads to wipe away tears; then one passed it to another, and as their sorrow deepened, they simply broke down and wept aloud.

When the Emperor led the campaign in person, he brought a small court with him, among which the mid- and lower-ranking officials of the Six Ministries who did most of the actual work were the most numerous.

Their losses were also the heaviest.

These men had no soldiers guarding them at their side, since every capable one had rushed off to protect the Emperor.

The civil officials with no combat ability simply ran for their lives — the lucky ones escaped, the unlucky ones were cut down; while those who could fight picked up blades and swords to strike back, and nearly all of them died, and died horribly at that.

When Chen Huai went to find the Emperor, he had the officials' remains collected; some could not even be pieced into a whole corpse, and they could only judge their rank and identity by the scraps of clothing still clinging to the mangled limbs.

It did not come to two people's hands and feet appearing on the same corpse.

Zhu Qiyu led the ministers and a portion of the Imperial Guard into the imperial city; the rest remained in the outer city, and another portion of soldiers was left outside the city walls — they would later return each to their own camp, each to their own post.

Among the commoners lining the road to welcome them, Pan Yue supported Pan Hong and rose on tiptoe to look; when he caught sight of the banners from the camp before Pan Yu set out, he immediately widened his eyes and kept searching, and only after the very last man had passed did his face go deathly pale in an instant.

He had not found Pan Yu.

Pan Hong's eyesight was not very good, so he had to rely on Pan Yue to look; sensing Pan Yue's fingers tighten slightly, he knew the result without needing to be told.

Pan Hong's face also went white, but he steadied himself and said: "On the battlefield the situation changes in an instant; he may have been reassigned to another camp, or another army. Don't rush, don't rush — once the procession has finished passing, go with me to the Five Armies' Commander Office."

Before Pan Yue could speak, he shook his head again: "No, the Five Armies' Commander Office is too slow. Did you see anyone familiar just now? We'll go straight to the inner city gate and wait; once they disperse, we'll ask the comrades who were close with your second brother directly — they'll surely know."

Pan Yue nodded rapidly, his thoughts elsewhere.

Pan Hong gave him a pat: "What are you thinking about?"

Pan Yue said uncertainly: "I didn't find my second brother just now, but when the procession first entered the city, I vaguely saw Tao Yanbai in a carriage behind the Prince of Cheng; the carriage curtain was lifted a sliver, and I thought I saw our little sister."

Pan Hong's eyes widened: "How could she be in the procession?"

Pan Yue shook his head: "I don't know."

Pan Hong: "Perhaps you saw wrong…"

Pan Yue had originally thought he had seen wrong too, which was why he had kept his eyes fixed searching for Pan Yu.

But since Pan Yu could not be found, that fleeting glimpse earlier stood out all the more.

Pan Yue said uneasily: "Father, if little sister… second brother may really have met with something. You go home first — perhaps little sister will come home. I'll go to the inner city gate to find people."

Pan Hong nodded in a daze and shuffled back, his back bent.

Pan Yu was not in the procession because he had been wounded.

With over a hundred thousand troops returning to the capital, of course they could not all crowd into Jingcheng; those who could follow Zhu Qiyu into the city and receive the gaze of the commoners were those selected by each army and each camp.

Merit and rank…

Pan Yu more than qualified, but he had been wounded, so he was screened out.

Although their losses had been heavy, they had after all defeated the Oirats and defended the realm.

With the Emperor fallen, it was precisely when his subjects' spirits were low; this was the moment to display their positive, uplifting, vigorous side. So the tall, long-legged, whole-limbed, and good-looking men were the first picked to enter.

Even the civil officials who had to enter the city had several wounded, mobility-impaired ones screened out.

Pan Yue searched within it, and of course could not find him.

Because of the Emperor's precedent, their management on the march back to the capital had been extremely strict; even now that they had reached Jingcheng, the soldiers could not disperse at will — each army to its own army, each camp to its own camp, and the regional garrison troops were distributed among the various armies to support one another while awaiting orders to leave the capital.

During this period, control was extremely strict; soldiers could not go out without orders.

So when Pan Yue reached the inner city gate, he was stopped at once; only when the Imperial Guard once again departed in good order was the lockdown on the inner city gate lifted.

Pan Yue looked at the empty streets and finally sensed something was different.

"Such perfect order…"

Completely unlike the chaos when the great army had departed the capital.

Pan Yue hurried home; with no news of Pan Yu and no word from his little sister either, he said to Pan Hong with a grave face: "Father, the times are about to change."

Pan Hong: "The times changed long ago — even the Emperor is about to be replaced."

"No, I mean the very spirit of the age has changed."

Changing the Emperor was a change, but if the new Emperor on the throne did not alter the old ways, it was merely a brief shift in the weather; only when the spirit of the age itself changed was it a true transformation of the heavens.

After a pause, Pan Hong said: "The commander this time was the newly appointed Minister of War, Yu Qian. He is a man who dares to take responsibility, upright and incorrupt, and far-sighted; he is more forceful than the Three Yangs, and may well be able to help the new Emperor found a golden age."

The key was that the new Emperor had to listen to counsel.

Pan Yue kept feeling something was not quite right, yet could not for the life of him recall what, and was uneasy at heart. He said: "I couldn't find anyone to ask today. Tomorrow I'll go to the Yu household to inquire — Yu Rui was also among those who accompanied the march; the Yu family may have a way to find out news."

Pan Yu was currently looking after Yu Rui.

Although he had been slashed across the back and his arm was in a sling, his injuries were not very serious.

Yu Rui was in worse shape — he had been assigned to the wounded soldiers' camp and carried back the whole way.

Originally, wounded soldiers like these, as long as their rank was not above Vice-Colonel, would be arranged on the spot and temporarily left at the frontier; later, once the Ministry of War had drawn up a roster, they would either be discharged and sent home or given other arrangements.

But…

That was all just an excuse.

Everyone knew that once these wounded men were left behind, the day of their return would be indefinitely delayed.

They would be abandoned.

Fortunately, both Yu Qian and Pan Yun had insisted on bringing the wounded back.

Yu Qian said: "They all gave their lives for the nation; to abandon them to their fate — would that not chill the hearts of every soldier under heaven?"

A number of ministers argued back: "Who says we are abandoning them? They are wounded; traveling would cost them their lives. Leaving them behind lets them recover better. Once the new Emperor ascends the throne and the Ministry of Revenue provides the funds, the Ministry of War will naturally arrange their compensation and care."

Yu Qian said in a deep voice, "I am the Minister of War myself—how could I not know? Once we leave them here and arrange things, it would take another two or three years. The border passes have scarce and precious medicinal herbs; to go without medicine for two or three years would be worse than taking a gamble and bringing them back to the capital with us!"

The ministers' faces darkened. Where had anyone like Yu Qian ever torn the facade wide open and laid bare the inner workings like this? Yet he was the Minister of War, and this matter had to go through their arrangements, leaving them no room to wriggle out—because with Yu Qian's temper, he would surely throw out a mountain of figures to refute them.

To say nothing of distant matters, just look at the arrangements for the wounded soldiers from the Luchuan campaign…

In front of Zhu Qiyu's face, they did not want to earn a reputation for failing to care for the wounded.

But bringing the wounded along would indeed slow their march.

In the end it was Pan Yun who said, "Your Highness, this imperial expedition has already wounded the hearts of the subjects and the soldiers. To abandon them now would lose us even more of the people's loyalty—before border strategy is even set, we would have already lost half. This vast realm is defended by these soldiers, one by one. And he who wins the hearts of the people wins the realm!"

The moment Zhu Qiyu heard this, he decided at once to bring along all the wounded soldiers who had set out from the capital, and even picked out from the border army quite a number of wounded and veteran soldiers who ought to have been discharged and sent home.

Their returning army to the capital was enormous, with four men to care for one—more than enough.

So, although bringing the wounded delayed their march by three days, they still returned to the capital smoothly.

Moreover, with Pan Yun's calculations of the weather, the precise computations of the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of War, and the Ministry of Works, and Yu Qian's deployment, when they returned to the capital everything was in perfect order. Though the wounded were many, they managed to guarantee to the lowest possible degree each person's medicine and cold-weather supplies.

Their losses were even smaller than when they had set out from the capital.

Pan Yu and Yu Rui were eyewitnesses; they too felt that the heavens were about to change—and change utterly.

Yu Rui lay on the bed and asked in a low voice, "Tell me—is this because of Lord Yu, or because of your sister?"