Just as Li Chi had anticipated, after the Black Martial people’s plot to assassinate him fell through, they indeed began shifting troops toward the Outer Steppes.
All of this was a course of events Li Chi had foreseen long in advance — and of course, the outcome was something Li Chi had likewise mapped out long before.
Borte Chino was making extraordinarily forceful demands on the Outer Steppes, requiring all tribes to participate in the campaign and even setting specific troop quotas for each.
This was something Li Chi had arranged through his envoys directly — so Borte Chino carried it out without the slightest hesitation.
Li Chi’s thinking was that whether in the Central Plains or the Outer Steppes, internal troubles were still everywhere at this point. Rather than waiting for these troubles to inevitably erupt before dealing with them, it was better to flush out these hidden dangers in advance.
Once the Black Martial people moved, these hidden dangers would naturally surface on their own.
So in his handwritten letter to Borte Chino, Li Chi had made it explicitly clear: do not fear that there are those on the steppe who harbor treacherous intentions. The moment anyone secretly conspires with the Black Martial people, they must be crushed by force.
The war with the Western Regions hadn’t even begun yet, and the Grand Marshal Tang Pidi was stationed at Borte Chino’s back, ready to provide support at any moment.
Li Chi’s meaning was plain: if there are Black Martial collaborators, strike the collaborators — and if the Black Martial people come, strike the Black Martial people.
Having already lost the Outer Steppes, and then suffering the loss of massive cavalry forces in the battle on the Northern Desert, Li Chi was certain the Black Martial people had no genuine appetite for another war. It all came down to how Borte Chino would respond.
If Borte Chino showed timidity and retreated step by step, then naturally the Black Martial people would press their advance step by step. But as long as Borte Chino displayed the resolve to fight to the last, the Black Martial people would inevitably withdraw.
In the second year’s spring, Borte Chino personally led his forces to eliminate three tribes that had been secretly colluding with the Black Martial people, one after another.
He then positioned his army right along the border. After a standoff of two months, the Black Martial people turned and withdrew.
This perhaps couldn’t even be called a battle against the Black Martial people — yet without this confrontation, the hidden threats of the Outer Steppes would have lingered on indefinitely.
Through his forceful style and swift, decisive methods, Borte Chino’s footing in the Outer Steppes grew ever more secure.
And by this time, it was also the moment to bring things to a conclusion with the Western Region peoples.
In early spring of the fourth month, Grand Marshal Tang Pidi led his forces westward toward the frontier. Though what he brought was only one hundred thousand newly recruited soldiers, to the Western Region peoples, his presence was nothing short of a nightmare.
Indeed, just as Li Chi had said — this campaign held nothing worth worrying about. Tang Pidi, having weathered the great Central Plains wars and defeated countless powerful enemies, going up against the Western Region peoples was nothing short of an overwhelming superiority in every dimension.
The Black Martial people, even with forces three times Tang Pidi’s numbers, had still been unable to defeat him — let alone the Western Region peoples, who couldn’t even muster the million-strong army they had hoped to assemble.
When Great Ning’s border forces along every front began applying pressure on the Western Frontier, the Western Region coalition had already long since fragmented into utter chaos from within. How many were truly willing to fight?
In mid-spring of the fifth month, with the assistance of the Tingwei Bureau, Prince Mu Yan and Mu Di — who had secretly slipped back into the Jialou Kingdom — launched a coup.
The former King Lao Ku Xin, having suffered defeat and been captured alive, hanged himself in his cell after half a month of imprisonment.
As for the exact manner of this hanging — by this point, there was no longer any need to investigate too deeply. With agents of the Tingwei Bureau covertly assisting Mu Yan and Mu Di, even if Mu Yan Mu Di could not bring himself to strike against his own elder brother, would the Tingwei Bureau’s people be so soft-hearted?
This campaign likewise held not the slightest suspense, for Mu Yan Mu Di’s prestige within the Jialou Kingdom’s military was simply too great. Nearly every battle-capable force had been trained personally under his command — he needed only to raise his voice from a height and followers would come in droves.
The forces that Lao Ku Xin could rally to fight and die for him numbered only the several tens of thousands garrisoning the royal capital. He had intended to hold the city walls and await the reinforcements he had summoned — but who would have thought that when Mu Yan Mu Di led his forces to the gates, there was no battle at all, and the defending troops simply opened the gates and surrendered?
In the end, Lao Ku Xin had only a few thousand loyalist imperial guards protecting him, fighting to the death both inside and outside the palace. But even they held out for only a single day and night.
Mu Yan Mu Di became the new king of the Jialou Kingdom, and the very first act after ascending the throne was to honor his agreement with Dong Qianyuan — dispatching troops to attack the Xiaoyueshi Kingdom.
Simultaneously, Ning forces continued their western push, and the majority of the smaller Western Region states did not even dare fight, surrendering directly.
Dantai Yajing personally led his forces and drove all the way to the eastern front of the Xiaoyueshi Kingdom, while the western front saw Mu Yan Mu Di mounting a fierce assault.
At the same time, within the Xiaoyueshi Kingdom, the followers and disciples of the late National Preceptor Man Lai Ya Man continuously sowed disruption among the Xiaoyueshi army.
Caught in a pincer attack from both sides, the Xiaoyueshi Kingdom held out for less than a month before King Bao Long Hua had no choice but to emerge from the city and surrender to the Great Ning forces.
This too had all been according to plan.
Mu Yan Mu Di had military support, so replacing Lao Ku Xin as king of the Jialou Kingdom was no difficult matter. But Dong Qianyuan was different — even with the support that Man Lai Ya Man had arranged, it was nowhere near as overwhelming as Mu Yan Mu Di’s. So the correct sequence was to first help Mu Yan Mu Di claim the throne, then have the Jialou Kingdom send troops to help Dong Qianyuan claim his — that way it would be easiest.
Outside the capital of the Xiaoyueshi Kingdom, Bao Long Hua declared his abdication.
Dong Qianyuan ordered him placed onto a small boat and rowed out into the small lake that had drowned his third and fourth brothers.
Dong Qianyuan had over a hundred catties of stone bound to Bao Long Hua’s body before having him pushed into the water.
With that, the two most powerful kingdoms of the Western Regions both became vassal states of Great Ning.
After Dong Qianyuan became king of the Xiaoyueshi Kingdom, he immediately declared a severance of relations with the Jialou Kingdom, proclaiming the two nations sworn enemies.
On the surface this looked like Dong Qianyuan’s ungrateful betrayal — Mu Yan Mu Di had just helped him seize the throne, and he immediately turned against him. But in reality, this was something Mu Yan Mu Di and Dong Qianyuan had privately arranged between themselves in advance.
Because both of them understood perfectly: as the two largest kingdoms in the Western Regions, if they were fast allies, they would become a source of concern for Great Ning. The Emperor of Great Ning would not wish to see them as close as brothers — so this posture had to be performed.
Whether to please His Majesty the Emperor of Great Ning, or for their own self-preservation, this was the correct choice in every regard. Dong Qianyuan was willing to bear a reputation for ingratitude rather than become the next target of Great Ning’s conquest.
Yet both kingdoms almost simultaneously declared submission to His Majesty the Emperor of Great Ning, and immediately selected new envoy delegations to travel to Great Ning and pay court.
With these two great powers setting the example, which of the remaining Western Region states would dare step forward to resist Great Ning?
In truth, this campaign had never really amounted to a pitched battle — yet for Great Ning, the significance of this victory was nearly equal to the great battle against the Black Martial people on the Northern Desert.
With the Western Regions stabilized, all four frontiers of Great Ning could be considered at peace. Even the Black Martial people would be incapable of raising another southward invasion in the near term.
The plan Li Chi had personally devised — waging war for Great Ning’s hundred years of stability — had its opening moves executed with exceptional solidity.
With no foreign threats remaining, the focus could now turn fully to resolving the internal troubles that weighed more heavily on Li Chi’s mind.
By the ninth month, the Great Ning western expedition forces returned in triumph, one after another. This campaign had seen almost no casualties, yet the gains were extraordinary. The tribute offerings from the various Western Region kingdoms were loaded onto wagon after wagon and hauled back, the procession stretching so long it seemed to have no end.
Also in the ninth month, Li Chi dispatched a messenger to the Western Frontier with an imperial decree ordering Grand Marshal Tang Pidi to return to Chang’an.
In mid-autumn of the tenth month, the imperial messenger reached the Western Frontier. This person was none other than Zhen Gen, junior disciple of the Hanging Sword Sect.
Upon seeing Tang Pidi, Zhen Gen read aloud the imperial decree. After Tang Pidi received it, he had no intention of returning to Chang’an.
“Please go back and inform His Majesty that there are many pressing military affairs here on the Western Frontier, and a great deal of work at the new recruits’ camp remains unfinished. So I’ll return to Chang’an a little later.”
Zhen Gen let out a sigh. “His Majesty anticipated that you would say exactly this. So he asked me to convey to the Grand Marshal — the military affairs of the Western Frontier have nothing that must be handled by you personally. Come back to Chang’an. I miss you.”
Upon hearing these words, Tang Pidi fell into a long silence, then shook his head once more.
“Do you know why I won’t go back?”
Tang Pidi said, “You are a brother who has walked through life and death alongside His Majesty. So I won’t hide anything from you.”
He handed Zhen Gen a cup of tea and continued: “Before this Western Expedition, I requested multiple times that His Majesty relieve me of my princely title and rank — but His Majesty refused.”
“Not only did he refuse, he sent me here to the Western Frontier. The truth is, the battles on the Western Frontier had absolutely no need for me to fight. You saw it yourself — I merely led the new recruits’ camp and pressed forward a little to the west. From beginning to end, it was Dantai who did all the fighting.”
“But as long as I am here, His Majesty will certainly record merit in my name. His Majesty’s whole approach is to make sure I never have grounds to request the removal of my princely title.”
Zhen Gen sighed. “But Grand Marshal, why put yourself through this? You must know that no one in court dares speak ill of you, and His Majesty could not possibly harbor any misgivings about you. You are truly overthinking.”
“My concern is not that His Majesty might doubt me — it is precisely because His Majesty trusts me implicitly.”
Tang Pidi said, “In order to silence the court officials, His Majesty periodically finds occasions to credit me with merit. As long as this continues, those officials never have grounds to say anything against me…”
“But have you ever considered this? Great Ning has only one prince of a different surname — me. His Majesty’s grace toward me runs deep, yet His Majesty is making a mistake in doing so.”
“This hereditary princely title will become a source of trouble for Great Ning in the future. Great Ning can have one prince of a foreign surname in this generation — but it absolutely cannot continue to have one forever.”
“His Majesty will also not strip me of military command. If this goes on indefinitely…”
Tang Pidi looked at Zhen Gen. “What happens after I am gone?”
Zhen Gen was stunned, momentarily at a loss for how to respond.
Tang Pidi’s meaning was this: he himself was loyal to His Majesty with all his heart. But he could not guarantee that his descendants, generation after generation, would remain equally loyal to Great Ning.
Perhaps decades from now, Tang Pidi’s descendants would begin to feel that the world was unjust — that their ancestor Tang Pidi had won the better part of this empire, yet it was the Li family who sat upon the throne. By then, the Tang family’s influence within the military would still be alive, yet both His Majesty and old Tang might no longer be in the world.
Tang Pidi was not only anxious about his own descendants — he was equally anxious about His Majesty’s descendants.
The bond between him and His Majesty was beyond question; no one could ever drive a wedge between them to the point of turning them against each other. But when His Majesty’s children ascended the throne in the future and looked upon a prince of a foreign surname holding military power — would there truly not be even the faintest shadow of doubt in their hearts?
“His Majesty has said he intends to resolve every hidden danger in this generation. His Majesty goes to resolve the hidden dangers he must resolve. And as his subject, I too must resolve the hidden danger I must resolve — and that hidden danger is myself. I am not His Majesty’s hidden danger, but I am Great Ning’s.”
Tang Pidi clapped Zhen Gen on the shoulder. “Rest a few days, then head back. Tell His Majesty: Tang Pidi has defied the imperial decree.”
Zhen Gen: “I won’t say it!”
Tang Pidi said, “Only if I commit more mistakes will the lords of the Censorate have grounds to pursue me relentlessly. And only through that means could this princely title on me possibly be stripped away.”
Zhen Gen said, “His Majesty will absolutely never do that.”
Tang Pidi shook his head. “His Majesty may not act — but I cannot stop thinking about it.”
Zhen Gen said urgently, “But Grand Marshal, if you truly refuse to return, it won’t only be the lords of the Censorate hounding you — they will say you have defied the imperial decree and are hoarding military power! Grand Marshal, do you understand what magnitude of crime that would be?!”
Tang Pidi smiled. “If such a heavy charge were truly to come down upon me, I would actually feel at peace.”
He walked to the window and gazed outside. “Zhen Gen — if you were in my position, you would do exactly as I am doing.”
Zhen Gen was silent for a long while.
—