Examining One’s Conscience

Pei Song said calmly: “She already carries my flesh and blood.”

Hearing this, Gongsun Chou’s expression changed several times, finally saying heavily: “My lord… how have you been bewitched by that evil woman to this extent?”

But Pei Song said: “She doesn’t have the ability to bewitch people. It’s I who want to take back what rightfully belongs to me.”

On his refined and elegant face there wasn’t the slightest trace of partiality or protection. Between his words, he discussed her as if she were some object.

The worry in Gongsun Chou’s heart eased slightly. He knew that Pei Song had somewhat excessive obsession with everything that the identity of Qin Huan represented.

Only Jiang Yichu was the former Liang Crown Prince’s consort—her status was truly special. If Pei Song only kept her at his side as a concubine that would be one thing, but he currently still had no heir. If Jiang Yichu gave birth to his eldest son, it would truly cause people’s hearts to waver below.

He advised: “The Great Liang remnant is skilled in methods. After the Majialiang and Wayaobao battles, she could still regroup the Liang and Chen armies to launch a counteroffensive in the southern border. Though Wei Qishan has withdrawn to the background due to injury, the current Northern Wei is still like a hundred-legged insect—dead but not stiff. My lord is at a difficult juncture and needs to stabilize the generals under your command even more. None of the daughters of the several generals have announced good news, yet if this woman of the Jiang clan gives birth to an eldest heir, I fear the generals below will have complaints…”

Pei Song coldly raised his eyes: “General Zheng’s beloved daughter is also pregnant. What complaints could there be?”

Only then did Gongsun Chou’s expression ease somewhat. Bowing with clasped hands he said: “My lord has his own calculations. This old minister can rest assured. Only if that woman of the Jiang clan alone gives birth to a male heir, my lord should first foster the child under the care of a trustworthy general. After the other several madams all have heirs, in the future you can find some pretext to recognize that child back in the capacity of adopted son.”

Pei Song lazily lowered his eyelids: “It’s far too early to discuss these matters now.”

Gongsun Chou opened his mouth, seeming to want to advise further, but Pei Song had already walked toward the main seat and spread out a map on the long table: “What are Mister’s views on these several battles in the northern border?”

The words on the tip of Gongsun Chou’s tongue were swallowed back. Knowing that saying more now would be useless, and their plans in the northern border were indeed not progressing smoothly, he walked to the long table and said: “When my lord initially wanted to form an alliance with the barbarians outside the pass, this old minister advised against it, only my lord’s mind was already made up…”

Pei Song seemed very displeased that Gongsun Chou mentioned this matter again, saying: “What Mister fears is nothing more than people of the world knowing we colluded with the Rong and Di tribes and gave away the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun. But the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun were lost to foreign tribes in Wei Qishan’s hands—what does that have to do with my Pei clan?”

After a while, Gongsun Chou said with somewhat complex expression: “The Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun, since ancient times, have been our Central Plains territory, and many common people farm within its borders. To simply hand it over to foreign tribes…”

Pei Song’s brow and eyes held complete coldness: “Wouldn’t recovering territory lost in Wei Qishan’s hands in the future gain me more support from the common people below than directly seizing the entire northern border from Wei Qishan’s hands?”

Gongsun Chou was speechless. After looking at the map for a long time he finally asked: “Is my lord so certain that after the barbarians seize the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun, they won’t continue south?”

Pei Song sat down in the main seat, his handsome face holding a slight smile as if manipulating the entire world in the palm of his hand: “Doesn’t Mister feel that those barbarians outside the pass are just like this tiger and wolf army I’ve raised?”

“The ferocity stimulated by poverty and greed is their greatest weapon for destroying cities. Once you let them become satisfied, their fighting spirit disperses. The Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun are enough to feed the barbarians who entered the pass. When they want to move south again, they’ll have already softened their bones soaking in the land of riches. Only full greed will remain, no longer possessing the ferocity of having nothing when they entered the pass. How could those tiger and wolf warriors under my command fail to block them?”

He picked up a cup of clear tea from the table, his fingertip rubbing the pattern on the teacup as he asked: “Or does Mister also feel that I’m now constrained on two sides, my situation truly dangerous?”

Gongsun Chou said: “My lord’s overthrow of that unrighteous former Liang accords with the mandate of heaven and must receive heaven’s protection.”

Pei Song smiled, saying lightly: “I once helped Ao Qing train vicious dogs for interrogating criminals.”

“To keep them ferocious, you normally have to keep them hungry. When it’s time for them to bite people, you release them. Even living people can have a piece of flesh and skin torn off by them to be eaten raw and swallowed. Not a single prisoner in the Ministry of Justice jail could withstand this dog punishment.”

Gongsun Chou gripped his cane tightly, uttering not a word.

His fingertip lightly tapped the rim of the teacup. His expression remained relaxed, only his voice had become cold, heavy and gloomy: “Raising tiger and wolf soldiers is the same. When necessary, you have to let them ‘go hungry,’ then they can remain fierce. ‘Dogs’ that have lost their ferocity and only want to eat until their brains are fat—if they die, they die. The world is like this. Among the common people there are plenty of ‘hungry dogs.’ Is Mister still afraid my tiger and wolf army will lack successors?”

Gongsun Chou sighed: “Those who scheme for power in this world, when they strive to the end, it’s nothing more than the two words ‘examining one’s conscience.’ To be able to compete for position in a proper and justified manner, Wei Qishan produced a former Jin princess of unknown authenticity. As the son of a minister wronged by Great Liang, my lord also could have rebelled with just cause. Why must you stubbornly persist to reach today’s situation?”

He seemed both pained and confused: “Former Liang was corrupt, the Wen clan unrighteous. When my lord raised the banner of rebellion, that accorded with heaven’s will. This old minister has remonstrated with my lord many times, hoping my lord would treat former Liang old ministers with courtesy and treat the common people below well. The reputation that both Wen Hanyang and Wei Qishan desperately compete for—why does my lord place so little importance on it?”

Pei Song laughed mockingly: “This minister truly disdains such hypocritical gestures.”

Gongsun Chou’s face was full of worry: “My lord…”

Pei Song drained the tea in his hand in one gulp. After setting down the teacup, he asked: “Does Mister know why I initially chose to take Pei as my surname and Song as my given name?”

Gongsun Chou’s words of remonstration were interrupted. For a moment he had nothing to say.

Pei Song raised a pair of sharp eyes: “What I want is not just Great Liang, not just the Wen clan, but for all the foolish people in this world to repay the Qin family all the praise we deserve!”

“That stubbornly loyal military man Qin Yi—what did he get in exchange for guarding the pass for ten years? The emperor was suspicious of him, treacherous ministers deceived him, and those self-proclaimed pillars of society and pure ministers—which one didn’t just watch from the sidelines, only caring for themselves? Mister always says the common people are innocent, but those foolish people whom Qin Yi protected at the western pass for ten years—when they learned he was imprisoned for treason and large sums of ’embezzled’ money were confiscated from his residence, who stood up to question it, to speak a fair word for him? Where Qin Yi’s prison cart passed, all that was thrown at him was slop and filth covering his head and face!”

The more Pei Song spoke the more furious he became, blood vessels bursting in his eyes: “Had Qin Yi ever treated the common people under his governance poorly? Those foolish people are nothing but summer insects and short-lived cicadas—they can only hear and only see what the government officials want them to know!”

Gongsun Chou’s face was full of complexity: “My lord must not let hatred blind your eyes.”

But Pei Song sneered, his tone full of loathing: “Blinded? No, I simply saw clearly from that time the faces of those insects crawling all over this land. They are cowardly, they are ignorant, they are foolish, and they cannot be killed completely, cannot be exterminated! No matter how harsh the corvée labor and taxes become, they can still mindlessly produce more small insects. Whenever someone raises a banner in revolt, it’s only because someone no longer wants to be the insect at the very bottom and wants to climb to the top to become a powerful person who can also command those insects. The insects at the very bottom remain a herd of penned pigs and sheep.”

Pei Song laughed mockingly: “That’s right—the barbarians outside the pass raise cattle and sheep as livestock, and we raise such a herd of livestock. Would Mister consider a tribe outside the pass cruel because they didn’t build pens for the livestock or feed them enough fodder?”

Gongsun Chou was shocked speechless by Pei Song’s theory.

Pei Song continued: “The tribes outside the pass also won’t be naive enough to think that by treating cattle and sheep well, the cattle and sheep of other tribes will voluntarily submit to them. Cattle and sheep are seized through fighting, so isn’t it enough to just point the blade at another tribe that possesses these cattle and sheep?”

“Mister thinks benevolence and virtue are useful—look at Wen Hanyang. She painstakingly managed the reputation of her Prince Changlian lineage. After the Majialiang battle, I merely had people provide a little guidance among the common people, and the people were already full of curses toward her Liang Battalion. Why should I bind my own hands and feet with the two words benevolence and kindness for such a group of insects?”

Gongsun Chou closed his eyes in grief for a long time, finally sighing heavily: “It is the people of this world who owed General Qin Yi, and they also owe my lord… Throughout history, emperors who truly had the world at heart rather than pursuing grand hegemonic ambitions—counting them carefully, there were actually fewer than those great generals who withdrew into seclusion. This old minister knows my lord harbors resentment, but with the great enterprise not yet accomplished, my lord cannot directly make enemies of the entire world…”

Pei Song said: “Those currently inciting scholars in the major academies of the southern border to build momentum for the Liang Battalion—that’s the young Zhou who escaped from Yongzhou, correct?”

Gongsun Chou fell silent for a moment, finally only responding with an extremely complex “Yes.”

Pei Song’s eyes held cold sharp killing intent: “I said long ago to eliminate this person, but Mister repeatedly advised me against it.”

In Gongsun Chou’s silence, he said coldly: “Killing him now is still not too late.”

With Zhou Sui eliminated, they could immediately intimidate the scholars of the southern border, and the scholars’ denunciations of them would no longer be so vigorous.

Among those aristocratic great clans, those with backbone had already made their choices. Those still remaining aloof now were either claiming high integrity and not asking about power struggles, or were still observing and waiting for the final decision on which side to stand.

The more cautiously they chose, the more they would restrain their clan’s young people, not lightly attacking any faction’s forces to avoid being settled with after autumn.

With the trouble Zhou Sui had stirred up at the major southern border academies after escaping Yongzhou, Gongsun Chou couldn’t say much about Pei Song’s decision this time, essentially acquiescing.

But Pei Song stood up and walked toward Gongsun Chou, personally helping him sit down before saying: “I tell Mister these things not because I don’t recognize Mister’s reasoning, nor to blame Mister.”

His long eyes lowered slightly, his expression cold and hard: “I only want more to use my own method to compete for that position, to prove that everything is inherently like this, with no need to pull up any hypocritical pretenses!”

Gongsun Chou sighed and asked: “My lord has examined your own conscience, but can this principle support those who follow my lord without their hearts growing thoughts of retreat? My lord has one point correct—the common people are indeed ignorant, but precisely because of their ignorance, they’ve drawn the clearest possible boundaries between right and wrong, good and evil. Even the most wicked evildoers don’t tell the world that their actions are evil. Does my lord understand this old minister’s worry now?”

After two breaths of silence, Pei Song said: “After killing that young Zhou, I’ll trouble Mister to organize the documents and issue a proclamation denouncing former Liang, announcing to the world all of former Liang’s evil deeds in wrongfully executing loyal ministers!”

Seeing that Pei Song had finally listened to his advice, Gongsun Chou was filled with emotion, nearly moved to tears, saying: “This old minister… will certainly not fail this mission.”

After another round of heartfelt words between lord and minister, Gongsun Chou finally asked: “Regarding Hanyang’s matter in the northern border, has there been any new progress?”

Pei Song said: “Several days ago the nail I planted in Wei Battalion sent back news. Wei Qishan has already grown suspicious of Hanyang’s identity. Using the pretext of envoys from both Liang and Chen coming to demand her, he sent people to the righteous army garrison to take her away. Pei Fifteen was ordered to go assassinate her, but to this day has still not sent back any news.”

After hearing this, Gongsun Chou frowned and said: “We need to prepare for the worst.”

But Pei Song said: “Even if Hanyang’s life is truly so charmed that she escapes alive, it doesn’t matter. That Northern Wei has been able to linger on until now should be blamed on that young man surnamed Xiao ruining things. Previously I already had people expose that he was once a Liang general. Wei Qishan was quite calm about it—not only did he not suppress this person, he even took him as an adopted son, showing he truly wants to win him over. But during all the time Hanyang fell into his hands, he never truthfully reported it to Wei Qishan, which truly surprised me. However, it also helped me greatly. Without needing me to arrange another scheme, as long as I let Wei Qishan know of this matter, I can have Wei Qishan personally eliminate this person!”

Gongsun Chou seemed slightly hesitant: “Could it be that this person never saw Hanyang when he was in Liang Battalion?”

Pei Song’s eyes held mocking hatred: “Pei Thirteen died by this person’s hand. At that time it was he who escorted Hanyang south all the way. How could he not know Hanyang’s appearance?”

Gongsun Chou knew that Pei Song had once used a divisive stratagem to induce Hanyang to kill this person. He couldn’t help but feel puzzled: “Our people learned that Liang Battalion once sent out the Azure Cloud Guard to assassinate this person with poisoned arrows. Since he’s already left Liang Battalion, yet this time helped Hanyang—it’s truly somewhat strange. Could it be they already know that past matter was a scheme?”

Pei Song sneered coldly: “Regardless of whether they know or not, whether they’ve reconciled or not, the fact that Hanyang believed he was a spy and had people try to kill him cannot be faked. He’s already left Liang Battalion and entered Wei Battalion. Helping Hanyang this time is disloyalty to Wei Qishan. Wei Qishan, a former dynasty surrendered general who could still firmly hold the northern border when Emperor Wen killed all the military officials holding troops in court during his later years—he’s no benevolent sort!”

Gongsun Chou said: “But Liang Battalion announced to the outside that Hanyang has been in Pingzhou all along, and that what fell into Wei army hands was only a pregnant concubine of a Chen general. Setting aside other things, just the point that the woman is pregnant can dispel most suspicion that she is Hanyang. How can we make Wei Qishan believe that woman is Hanyang?”

Pei Song kept them in suspense: “I have my own methods.”