Old Master Min Qianqiu shook his head with a smile and lowered his eyes to write.

On the sixth day of the eleventh month of Xuanjia’s sixteenth year, a great plague struck Huayang City. The Crown Prince ordered the city sealed. Three imperial physicians from the Imperial Medical Academy, led by Imperial Physician Huang, volunteered to enter Huayang City and summoned civilian doctors to go to Huayang City to treat the epidemic.

On the eighth day of the eleventh month of Xuanjia’s sixteenth year, Great Liang and Wei State launched a pincer attack from north and south against Yan. In just five days, Wei State consecutively captured Great Yan’s Mingdu and Yufeng cities, while Great Liang subsequently attacked Great Yan’s Huyi.

On the thirteenth day of the eleventh month of Xuanjia’s sixteenth year, large numbers of refugees who had fled Huayang City early were ambushed and killed by Imperial Guards sent by the Crown Prince before they could approach the capital. All corpses were buried in mass graves. Those who escaped by chance all fled to Shouyang and were settled in treatment centers outside the city. Upon hearing this news, refugees flocked to Shouyang. On the twentieth of that month, thousands of disaster victims were settled in temporary treatment centers.

On the twenty-sixth day of the eleventh month of Xuanjia’s sixteenth year, Jin’s envoy Liu Rushi arrived in Great Liang, demanding that Great Liang return the territories previously promised to be ceded to Jin. In Great Liang’s court… the Emperor of Great Liang refused to acknowledge having promised any territorial cessions and also refused to recall the army attacking Yan, claiming that Great Liang’s attack on Yan was Great Liang’s internal affair and would not tolerate foreign interference. Jin’s envoy Liu Rushi left in anger.

On the twenty-seventh day of the eleventh month of Xuanjia’s sixteenth year, Jin delivered a declaration of war to Great Liang. On the twenty-ninth of the same month, Jin’s General Liu Hong led troops to attack Great Liang, consecutively capturing Fen Pass and Hong Que City. After Great Liang lost six cities consecutively, on the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, they recalled the Liang forces from Yan to resist Jin, recapturing two cities. Jin’s forces were outnumbered and, overnight, transferred the garrison from Anping Camp to rush reinforcements to Hong Que City.

On the seventh day of the twelfth month of Xuanjia’s sixteenth year, Princess Gaoyi Bai Jinzhi led two thousand soldiers in a forced march day and night, striking Guandu City with lightning speed in a night assault, recapturing Guandu in one night.

At the same time, Great Yan recaptured the lost territories of Mingdu, Yufeng, and other cities, launching a counterattack against the Wei State. They divided forces into two routes: one led by the fierce general Xie Xun, who swept forward unstoppably, capturing Wei’s Pingxi and Lan’an cities; the other led by Great Yan’s Second Prince Murong Ping, advancing from Kuangping straight toward Wei’s Beiguan City. All nations were shocked.

Bai Qingyan sat before the flickering candlelight by the window reading the military report, her expression calm as she lit the paper and threw it into the brazier at her feet, her eyes peaceful and indifferent.

Great Yan, once a weak nation that had been beaten by the Wei State until it lost cities and territories, all nations thought that this time Yan would surely have no room for counterattack. Yet unexpectedly… while Jin was attacking Great Liang, Great Yan suddenly rose in counterattack, beating Wei State until it had no power to resist.

Beyond shock, the nations felt more fear.

Great Yan, that nation which had once dominated a region as a great power, had been poor and weak for so many years. In recent years, it had nearly been destroyed several times. After lying dormant for so many years, this was the first time it had drawn its blade. Facing the Wei State, which could be considered a strong, great nation, it beat Wei until it couldn’t resist.

If the nations still couldn’t realize that Yan’s previous pretense of being unable to fight back was to drag Jin and Liang into the war, then the court ministers of all nations… would all have wooden heads.

Great Yan, which had hidden its true strength for years, finally showed its blade this time, revealing such a chilling edge that how could it not make all nations tremble with fear?

When Jin’s Crown Prince heard this news, he beat his chest in regret for having let Murong Li escape. Now, there was nothing that could restrain Great Yan.

Beirong, which already had Great Yan garrison troops, felt even more uneasy, planning whether to take advantage of Great Yan being locked in fierce battle with Wei State to eliminate the Great Yan garrison. But they feared that eliminating the Great Yan garrison would leave them helpless against the watchful Nanrong. The King of Beirong was also caught in a dilemma.

At this time in Yunjing, the capital of Western Liang, another major event occurred.

The Empress of Western Liang issued an edict to greatly promote scholars from humble backgrounds. This was opposed by the aristocratic families. Prince Yan Li Zhijie and General Yun Poxing managed this affair, with Yun Poxing stationing troops in Yunjing to intimidate Western Liang’s six great families.

Within Western Liang’s court, the power networks of the six great surname families were deeply entrenched. Though the Yunjing turmoil began with an assassin’s attack, the reason it escalated until it nearly tore the imperial court apart was fundamentally due to the power struggles and conflicts of interest among these six great surnames.

The Empress of Western Liang saw this. If these six great surnames truly united, overthrowing imperial power would be effortless. If she wanted to consolidate imperial power and truly have the final say in government affairs, she must promote people from humble backgrounds. These people had no family power to depend on and could only depend on the emperor, and depend on imperial power. The Empress of Western Liang wanted to support and rely on these scholars from humble origins to contend with the aristocratic families, gradually consolidating all power into her hands alone.

Bai Qingyan dared assert that if the nations didn’t interfere with Western Liang, in the years to come… aside from Yan, Western Liang would surely become another formidable enemy of Jin.

On the twenty-third day of the twelfth month, Little New Year, Shouyang welcomed this year’s first heavy snow.

The white snowflakes covered the ancient blue bricks, green tiles, flying eaves, and carved beasts.

In the Bai mansion’s plum garden, the red plums were in full bloom. Along both sides of the bluestone path, few plum branches remained budded, while red plums bloomed freely amid the falling snow. When the cold wind passed, it scattered snowflakes pattering down from the branches, revealing clusters of flame-like red.

Meixiang Pavilion was brightly lit. In the center of the floor spread with sandalwood-colored carpet embroidered with five bats stood a bronze cloud-patterned mountain incense burner over three feet tall, slowly emitting blue-white smoke.

The underground heating system burned vigorously. In the brazier covered by a copper carved screen… silver frost charcoal burned fire-red, occasionally making crackling sounds as sparks burst.

Chun Tao received medicine from a maid and passed through the hanging curtains from the outer chamber. She saw her eldest miss with a white fur blanket on her legs, leaning against cushions on the soft couch by the window, reading a book. The golden candlelight illuminated the beauty with skin like ice and bones like jade—magnificent, serene, and beautiful.

Chun Tao placed the bowl of medicine that was still slightly warm at the bottom on the side, used a cloth to grip the handles on both sides of the copper screen, moved the copper cover aside, added several pieces of charcoal to the brazier, replaced the copper cover, cleaned her hands, then carried the medicine to Bai Qingyan’s side, saying softly: “Eldest Miss, the medicine isn’t hot anymore, you can drink it now.”

Bai Qingyan put down her book and rubbed her temples, asking: “Uncle Ping went early this morning to check on the disaster victims outside the city. I wonder how things are?”

Today was Little New Year. Lu Ping represented the Bai family in delivering vegetables and meat to the people now living in the treatment centers, so those refugees could properly celebrate the Little New Year.

“He hasn’t returned yet!” Chun Tao replied.

Refugees from Huayang City who had been examined by doctors, found not infected, and willing to join the army had already been sent to the military camp. But there were also those infected with the epidemic. Currently, there is no good method to treat them—they could only rely on medicine to sustain them while waiting to recover on their own, or if they died, they would be cremated.

The method Aunt Bai Suqiu had used to treat the epidemic previously hadn’t been very effective. Physician Hong was now working day and night to find new methods.

Bai Jinxiu had sent word that one of the three imperial physicians accompanying Imperial Physician Huang had also contracted the epidemic. Court ministers were already suggesting that if the epidemic couldn’t be controlled, they should kill all infected people in Huayang City to eliminate future troubles.