The Eastern Capital plain was ringed by mountains on three sides. As long as the great river could be held and the mountain passes remained unbroken, with the million-strong population of several commanderies and the grain and taxes yielded by this fertile land, it should be possible to hold the capital in a prolonged standoff.
Tianshuo Year Three — naturally this was the reign title used by the capital’s side. For the Eastern Capital, which had rebelled the previous year and established its own court, it was Zhengyuan Year Two.
In the fifth month of this year, only a few days after the battle at Tao Lin had ended, Li Xuandu saw through Shen Yang’s plan and gave him no breathing room. After Shen Yang retreated in defeat across the river to Luqiao Station, faced with the reality that all the boats and ferries had been seized or destroyed by the rebel forces, Li Xuandu completely abandoned his heavy supply wagons. He handpicked ten thousand men, ordering each to carry only enough rations for three days, and with the help of local villagers and a few hundred makeshift civilian boats hastily lashed together, his forces crossed the river through the night. Pushing forward at a rapid advance, they covered a hundred li in two consecutive days, finally caught up with Shen Yang’s army, split into two columns, and made a sudden assault on both flanks of the main camp, striking from the north and the south simultaneously.
It was deep in the night at the time. Let alone the rebel soldiers — even Shen Yang himself had not thought Li Xuandu could have caught up so quickly. In the darkness it was impossible even to determine how many soldiers had come, and with attacks pouring in from both sides at once, there was simply no way to organize a defense. Almost half the soldiers surrendered without a fight. In the end it was only a contingent of his own personal guards that cut a way through, and fighting all the while as they fell back, he led the remnant of barely ten thousand soldiers and retreated overnight into the Eastern Capital.
The long night would not give way to light.
His eyes were red as blood, his brilliantly decorated armor shattered to pieces, his face smeared with traces of blood not yet wiped away. One hand gripped tightly the hilt of the blade at his waist — a blade that had killed more men than he could count — and he stood alone atop the Zhangtai, a platform a hundred feet high beside the Regency Hall in the imperial palace, overlooking the boundless void.
Above him was the pitch-black sky without a single star in sight. Beneath his feet was a chasm as deep as eternity.
A howling gale swept over the platform, rocking his body and threatening to send it tumbling. He tilted his face upward, nearly letting out a wild roar.
One step forward — one small step — and every last humiliation would be completely gone from him.
A palace attendant rushed up to relay word that the assembled officials, having learned of his return in the dead of night, had all come and were gathered below in the Regency Hall waiting to see him.
Shen Yang drew a long, slow breath. He turned, stepped down from the platform, and walked toward that vast and magnificent hall.
Inside the hall the lights blazed as bright as day.
He had not yet reached it when he heard from within the sound of fierce quarreling. As before, it was the endless bickering over who should fill the vacant position of Grand Minister of Agriculture. One faction was led by Li Lihua, who had since been enfeoffed as Grand Princess Imperial after coming to this side; the other, by the young Emperor’s maternal uncle Lord Liu and his associates. The two sides were locked in a heated argument, so loud and contentious that they had not even noticed Shen Yang’s approach.
He paused at the entrance of the hall. He watched this group of people — who put him in mind of hyenas baring their teeth and endlessly tearing at one another — and after watching for a moment, walked in.
The assembled officials saw him appear. The quarreling stopped. They all snapped their eyes to him. Seeing his bedraggled appearance and thinking of the news they had just heard about his defeat in battle, they felt uneasy at first — but then they told themselves that this side not only had the natural barrier of the great river to guard, but also the backing of the northern desert. Even if they had suffered a setback, it was surely only temporary. They reassured themselves and collectively bowed in greeting.
Lord Liu finished his greeting to Shen Yang and, not daring to rashly ask about the state of the battle, could only defend himself against the quarrel that had just taken place. He accused Li Lihua of being arrogant and overbearing — claiming that in recent days, in order to push her own candidate into the position of Grand Minister of Agriculture, she had actually used the pretext of protecting the young Emperor’s safety to march into the great hall in front of the Eastern Capital’s civil and military officials with armed guards, making open threats. He said he had been powerless to resist and had no choice but to yield. He went on to say that the Grand Minister of Agriculture controlled taxes, revenues, land rents, the salt and iron monopoly, canal transport, and the minting of currency, and that since they had established themselves here, she had always been greedy for wealth and profit, and pushing this particular person into the position was plainly a scheme to enrich herself through the office. He then said that at this moment the Regent needed someone truly trustworthy in this post —
Li Lihua was not about to show weakness, and immediately stepped forward with a furious retort: “Slander and lies! If we’re speaking of those who harbor ulterior motives, you are the number one man in this entire Eastern Capital! Don’t think I don’t know your calculations! If you keep this up — wielding the young Emperor as a shield, hiding behind him to work your schemes — sooner or later even the Regent will be at your mercy!”
Both sides traded barbs back and forth in a heated exchange for a little longer. Lord Liu, who at bottom feared Li Lihua’s relationship with Shen Yang, was the first to stop.
Li Lihua’s expression showed a trace of satisfaction, and she grew even more contemptuous of Lord Liu. She turned to Shen Yang: “Regent! The position of Grand Minister of Agriculture — I am acting entirely out of the public good. I nominate the worthy regardless of any personal connection, yet I am slandered like this. I ask the Regent to clear my name. Do not let petty men prevail and chill the hearts of the loyal!”
Shen Yang still said nothing. He only rose from his seat and, with his hand pressing the hilt of his sword, walked slowly toward the assembled officials.
His complexion was dark, and his whole person seemed to carry a sinister, murderous aura — utterly chilling.
As he rose and advanced, the atmosphere inside the hall suddenly grew oppressive.
All present fell silent, holding their breath.
He drew closer to Lord Liu. Lord Liu suddenly felt his courage desert him, and he wanted to back away but dared not move. He hardened himself and was just preparing for Shen Yang to come at him, when he realized Shen Yang had not stopped — had in fact passed right by him and seemed to be walking toward Li Lihua on the opposite side. He quietly exhaled in relief.
In that brief moment, he had broken out into a cold sweat on his forehead as well.
He quietly and quickly wiped his brow, then fixed his eyes on Shen Yang’s back, watching as he slowly walked up to Li Lihua and stopped.
The atmosphere grew even more oppressive. The assembled officials, puzzled yet uneasy, all stared at him.
Li Lihua’s complexion had also grown unpleasant. She frowned with displeasure: “What does the Regent mean by this? Can it be that you’d rather trust the other side than trust me?”
Shen Yang continued to look at her, his expression cold and indifferent, as though he had not heard a word.
A flicker of unease suddenly rose in Li Lihua’s heart. She forced herself to stay calm and laughed coldly: “Shen Yang! Without my assistance, how could you be where you are today? You feel no gratitude, and instead treat me with such an attitude…”
She was speaking when she saw the hand that had been pressing the sword hilt slowly tighten its grip, as though about to act. Her complexion abruptly changed.
“Shen Yang, you dare—”
She wheeled around suddenly and bolted for the door, shouting at the top of her voice: “Someone come! Kill this traitor Shen for me—”
That Shen Yang could not be relied upon, that the two of them were simply using each other — this she had known perfectly well all along. After fleeing to the Eastern Capital, during the half year when he had been attacking the capital, she had quietly laid her groundwork on this side.
In her original plan, it was only a matter of time before Shen Yang took the capital. Once it was done, she would wait for her chance and strike while his guard was down to kill him.
Once he was dead, the young Emperor would be truly under her own control, and her position would rival that of Empress Dowager Jiang in her day.
She had not expected that Li Xuandu would then emerge and overturn the situation so entirely. She could only wait and endure for now.
Seeing Shen Yang like this, her instincts told her something was very wrong, and so she spun around and ran, but her cry had barely left her lips when there was a soft thud of impact. Those watching saw a flash of sword light, and then Li Lihua let out a shriek. When they looked clearly, she had already collapsed to the ground.
A gush of blood followed, spraying up from her body.
Shen Yang sheathed the sword.
On the blade, the blood slowly flowed and gathered, until at last it ran down along the tip of the sword and dripped, dripped, dripped onto the floor.
“Shen Yang…you…heartless and faithless…may you die without a good death…”
Li Lihua lay face down on the ground, convulsed several times, and breathed her last. Her eyes remained wide open, filled to the last with unwillingness and fury.
The spray of blood had shot high and splattered onto Lord Liu’s face across from her. He was horror-struck.
Not only him — every single person in the hall was stunned by what they had just witnessed. When they came back to their senses, they saw Shen Yang’s expression — the look of a man who had tasted blood — his gaze seeming to sweep across their faces, and every one of them felt a secret chill of terror.
Even Li Lihua’s own people, overawed by Shen Yang’s murderous presence in this moment, did not dare make a sound.
Shen Yang then turned to Lord Liu and said coldly: “Well then — are you satisfied?”
Lord Liu had hated Li Lihua to the core, had spent his days and nights plotting how to kill her before she could kill him. But now, watching her die so suddenly and without warning at Shen Yang’s blade, he felt something oddly akin to the grief of the rabbit mourning the dead fox. He gathered himself, forced out some flattery: “The Regent sees clearly and acts on my behalf, and I am deeply grateful…”
Shen Yang cut him off: “If you’re grateful, then along with Chen Zhude, hold this city to the death for me! I am going to the northern desert in person!”
Lord Liu assumed he was going to bring back Dongdi reinforcements, and believed this completely. The others in the hall also relaxed somewhat.
Lord Liu hesitated for a moment and said: “But if… if we can’t hold on, and you haven’t yet returned, what should we do?”
“If you can’t hold on…”
Shen Yang’s cold gaze swept over Li Lihua’s corpse on the ground.
“This will be your fate. You betrayed the capital, and on top of that colluded with the Dongdi. Every one of you — do you think Li Xuandu will spare you lightly?”
Everyone fell silent at this one sentence from him, their faces gray and ashen.
“Understood! Understood!”
Lord Liu thought it over, steeled himself, and said through gritted teeth: “If Li Xuandu dares to attack by force, I’ll massacre a batch of the city’s civilians! He restrains his army and proclaims to the realm that his troops won’t trample so much as a single blade of grass — with a city full of common people in front of him, let’s see how he attacks! Regent, rest easy and go — just make sure you return quickly!”
Shen Yang’s expression remained blank as he stepped past the corpse on the floor and walked out.