Wen Yu’s slender pale hand half-lifted the carriage curtain. Beneath the gold-embroidered brocade fabric, her cool profile was like a cold crescent moon atop a snow-capped mountain peak. She also saw Xiao Li in the distance, lowering her eyes and nodding slightly to Li Xun: “I understand. We’ll discuss everything after entering Ping Province City.”
Li Xun clasped his hands and withdrew. As he passed by Xiao Li, he bowed his head in courtesy.
Xiao Li was vexed and distracted, even forgetting to return the gesture. After Li Xun departed, he strode toward the carriage, yet momentarily forgot clean even his purpose for coming here.
He had many questions he wanted to ask Wen Yu, but since Wen Yu was distancing herself from him because of the Buddhist temple incident, he dared not be too forward. All manner of emotions rolled through his heart, but in the end, all that came out was: “The Southern Chen envoys are coming?”
Wen Yu gazed at his sharp, handsome brows and eyes. Her five fingers hidden in her sleeves tightened somewhat, yet not the slightest change appeared on her face. She lightly hummed in acknowledgment.
Xiao Li lowered his eyes and fell silent for a moment. The sun cast a shadow on the side of his high, straight nose. His slightly pressed thin lips carried a touch of cold, resolute wildness. His throat rolled as he asked hoarsely: “Have you met the Chen King?”
“What is he… like?”
Wen Yu recalled two years ago when she had just come of age, when the Chen King—then still Crown Prince of Southern Chen—had come bearing lavish gifts to propose marriage. Her eyes were like a deep ancient well; even with spring sunlight breaking into them, no warmth could be detected. She said: “I’ve met him. Father King once praised his gentle temperament, honest and courteous nature.”
Xiao Li nodded, suddenly seeming not to know how to remain there any longer. He said: “That’s good then…”
His feet retreated half a step, somewhat awkwardly wanting to leave, but Wen Yu asked again: “You came over—was there something you wanted to tell me?”
Xiao Li forced himself to extract from those chaotic, sour emotions the information Zhao Youcai had told him, saying: “Zhao Youcai and the others learned that Ping Province isn’t very peaceful either. Those aristocratic families control the financial networks, with tangled power backing them. The Ping Province government can only suppress them on the surface, but friction is inevitable beneath.”
Wen Yu said: “Minister Li has already told me about the situation in the city. Governor Chen and General Fan are both officials dispatched here from elsewhere. Without the Great Liang court supporting them from behind, once those local powers are instigated by various forces, they inevitably become restless. Those people all follow the wind. Once Ping Province’s alliance with Southern Chen is established, they’ll settle down.”
She looked at Xiao Li: “Following General Fan on this Tong City mission, you seem to have learned quite a lot.”
Xiao Li pulled at the corner of his mouth as if wanting to smile, but couldn’t. In the end, he only nodded and said: “As long as you already know.”
He turned and walked back—still that upright figure with broad shoulders and long legs, yet somehow carrying an indescribable desolation and dejection.
Actually, it had always been like this.
What required him to exert all his abilities to learn, the people around her could do effortlessly, and better than him.
Besides risking his life to protect her a few times when she had no one else to rely on, what else did he have that was worth her stopping for?
That indescribable bitterness wrapped around Xiao Li’s throat once more, making his heart ache and his voice hoarse.
He was born into mud. He’d already emptied himself out, yet what he could offer her still didn’t compare to even a fraction of what she possessed.
He too wanted power and influence. He too wanted to become like the Chen King or Wei Qishan—princes who could contend with Pei Song. But the time left for him to grow was truly too little.
Throughout Xiao Li’s walk back, his expression was so terrible that soldiers along the way instinctively avoided him from afar, not even daring to greet him.
Xiao Li walked with his head down deep into the forest, stopping before a tree as thick as half an arm’s width. He punched the trunk forcefully and heavily closed his eyes tinged with bloodlust.
Only after a long while did he lightly roll his throat, swallowing down all the pain and bitterness.
—
Wen Yu watched Xiao Li’s receding figure, her hand lifting the carriage curtain not letting go for a long time, obscure emotions churning in her eyes.
For an instant, she too instinctively wanted to call Xiao Li back.
But if she called him back, what could she say to him?
Tell him that actually, her alliance marriage with Southern Chen was merely a stopgap measure her father king had devised back then to protect her?
But having already decided to let him stay in Ping Province, telling him these things would only give him illusory hope and draw him into this game.
Wen Yu silently watched his figure disappear into the forest, finally lowering the hand holding the curtain. Her elbow rested by the carriage window, slender fingers supporting her temple, eyes dimming slightly as she recalled the origins of this marriage arrangement.
The root still lay with the Ao family.
At that time, the struggle between her father king and Grand Commandant Ao’s faction had intensified. The Ao family had many children. Seeing her father king’s growing power, rather than fight to mutual destruction, Grand Commandant Ao considered instead having a daughter marry into Prince Changlian’s manor to continue being imperial relatives afterward.
But her elder brother was already married then. Before her father king ascended to the throne, if the Ao family’s daughter became her brother’s concubine, it wouldn’t sound good if word got out.
The Ao family devised a compromise: have Grand Commandant Ao’s son propose to the manor to marry her, having her marry into the Ao family to temporarily ease relations between the two factions.
Her father king naturally refused. Grand Commandant Ao’s son was cruel and debauched, his reputation in tatters both in court and beyond. For her to marry him would undoubtedly be leaping into a fire pit.
But the Ao faction united with the Empress Dowager and the Late Emperor’s side to pressure her father king. Even if her father king and mother consort wanted to refuse this marriage, it was difficult to do so for a time.
Southern Chen came knocking at this moment.
At that time, the old Chen King had claimed illness for long, and Southern Chen had always suffered from invasions by surrounding tribes. Moreover, the old Chen King had many offspring, all eyeing the throne covetously. The Southern Chen Crown Prince wasn’t in an advantageous position in the succession struggle.
To let her son take the throne, the old Chen Queen Mother made a desperate gamble, deciding to have her son seek marriage to Wen Yu.
As long as Great Liang didn’t fall into chaos, the next two Great Liang emperors would be Wen Yu’s father king and her elder brother. As Prince Changlian’s only daughter, her political position far exceeded those princesses in the imperial palace with titles.
To show sincerity, Southern Chen brought engagement gifts so lavish they’re still talked about by common folk today. Among them, that man-height jade-carved screen of the “Ode to the Goddess” had the highest circulation among the people.
Marrying their daughter far away—the Prince Changlian couple naturally didn’t wish it either, but retreating one step meant the Ao family’s fire pit.
After repeated deliberation, they ultimately chose the lesser of two evils, first agreeing to Wen Yu’s marriage alliance with Southern Chen. Using the interests of the two nations as justification, they successfully blocked the Ao faction and Empress Dowager’s attacks.
And the Southern Chen Crown Prince personally making that trip that year had another purpose—to borrow troops.
Southern Chen faced internal troubles and external threats. He needed to borrow Great Liang’s military strength to help him secure the throne.
Prince Changlian also conceived the intention to recover Southern Chen at that time. On the surface, he allocated twenty thousand troops to aid Southern Chen, but actually it was thirty thousand, including ten thousand of Prince Changlian Manor’s private soldiers.
But those ten thousand private soldiers wouldn’t ultimately withdraw back to Great Liang. Under the banner of being part of Wen Yu’s dowry, they would remain in Southern Chen.
The old Queen Mother and Crown Prince both understood what this meant. If Prince Changlian secured the throne in the future and wanted to conquer Southern Chen, those ten thousand private soldiers positioned in Southern Chen’s heartland would undoubtedly be a knife thrust from Southern Chen’s belly.
But they had no choice then. Without Great Liang’s support, if they lost the succession struggle, they—mother and son—would immediately lose their heads.
Ultimately this transaction was completed. The Southern Chen Crown Prince successfully won the throne, becoming the new Chen King.
Great Liang women didn’t favor early marriage like previous dynasties. Some families kept their daughters until their twentieth year before marrying them off. The Prince Changlian couple, using the reasons that Wen Yu was still young and Southern Chen was distant and wanting to keep her by their side a few more years, delayed sending her to marry in Southern Chen.
Over these two years, Southern Chen and Great Liang appeared harmonious on the surface, but undercurrents surged beneath.
No one anticipated that Pei Song would become the knife thrust toward Great Liang first, while Southern Chen instead became a force from which the manor could seek aid.
Before Fengyang fell initially, who would win between Pei Song and her father king remained unclear. After all, Great Liang was a centipede—dead but not stiff. Southern Chen dared not easily take sides.
Her going to Southern Chen for the alliance marriage then was actively showing weakness. After all, no one dared bet that Great Liang would certainly lose. Southern Chen would also consider Great Liang’s desperate struggle after recovering its strength. The safest method naturally was to propose conditions favorable to themselves, then send troops to help Prince Changlian Manor through this crisis.
Now Great Liang had fallen. Ping Province, the old subordinates loyal to Great Liang, and the lingering prestige of the Wen clan’s century-plus rule over the Central Plains—these were her only remaining bargaining chips.
If Southern Chen also harbored intentions toward the Central Plains, then after completing the marriage contract with her and combining the forces in her hands, sending troops under the legitimate banner of subjugating Pei Song would undoubtedly be the best choice.
With everything she had, what Wen Yu wanted to leverage was precisely Southern Chen’s military power.
This alliance marriage, from the very beginning, was merely a calculation of mutual interests.
—
The carriage resumed its journey. Wen Yu, full of worries, pondered for half a day in the carriage before finally arriving at Ping Province’s main city.
Half an hour earlier, Fan Yuan had already dispatched a messenger to enter the city ahead to inform them.
By the time Wen Yu’s party of several hundred people and carriages arrived, Governor Chen Wei of Ping Province had already led Ping Province’s officials large and small, along with the old ministers who had come to pledge allegiance, waiting outside the city gate for some time.
The setting sun slanted across, wind sweeping from the mountain ranges at the end of the official road. Flags on the city tower snapped fiercely.
Wen Yu stepped down from the carriage, treading on a ground covered in sunset’s radiance. The brocade skirt she wore, with the outer golden-orange gauze robe seemingly gathering all the remaining glow from the sky’s edge, shimmered with flowing light, making her a second red sun in this heaven and earth.
Chen Wei hastily led everyone to bow down: “We subjects respectfully welcome the Wengzhu’s esteemed arrival!”
Wen Yu stood before the carriage. The long skirt trailing behind her outlined her inherent bearing. Her voice, carried to everyone’s ears by the light breeze, was gentle yet dignified: “All you ministers must have waited here long. Please rise quickly.”
Only then did Chen Wei lead everyone to stand.
Wen Yu called him “Uncle Chen.” Chen Wei’s eyes already showed faint tears. He quickly said: “Wengzhu has endured the hardships of travel all this way and must be exhausted. Please first enter the city to settle and rest.”
Wen Yu nodded and re-entered the carriage.
Li Xun, having previously served as an aide to the manor, naturally had more twists in his thinking than others and handled matters steadily and appropriately.
He assumed that Wen Yu not having Xiao Li accompany her closely throughout this journey was to appear evenhanded, demonstrating that she trusted them equally and wouldn’t rely solely on confidants who had braved life and death with her in the future.
But while the master was willing to ease their minds was one thing, they couldn’t truly usurp the positions of the Wengzhu’s confidants. Otherwise, if they fell into discord with the Wengzhu’s confidants, working together in the future with heads raised and lowered together, friction would be inevitable.
Therefore, when arranging the carriages and horses entering the city, Li Xun had Xiao Li ride his horse close beside Wen Yu’s carriage to enter together. This way, when the other old ministers in the city saw, they would all know Xiao Li’s identity.
Snatching the Tong City magistrate from Pei’s army and seizing back all the treasures and official silver he’d taken could absolutely be counted as a slap to Pei Song’s face, naturally requiring great publicity.
Firstly, it could let Great Liang’s old ministers see Wen Yu’s capabilities, greatly boosting confidence. Secondly, it could also intimidate those ghosts and demons in the city who already had dealings with Pei Song or Wei Qishan.
Without Wen Yu needing to deliberately instruct, Li Xun had already discussed with Fan Yuan to open the lids of the silver chests on the carriages, ostentatiously entering the city all the way, causing the city’s common people to scramble to watch.
The old ministers who had come to pledge allegiance, seeing Wen Yu possessed such boldness, many were already weeping with joy.
Among the officials of Ping Province’s local government offices, quite a few were disciples cultivated by various local aristocratic families. Seeing this, their hearts were greatly shaken, increasingly feeling they couldn’t be instigated to rashly take sides.
Xiao Li rode his horse beside Wen Yu’s carriage. Hearing the praising calls of the people lining the streets, with a side glance he could take in all the expressions of the accompanying officials. His well-defined fingers suddenly tightened on the reins.
In this moment, he suddenly felt that Wen Yu’s initial stratagem was like an arrow shot with swift wind. When he thought the endpoint was that unreachable extreme distance, it came whistling back wrapped in swift wind.
Only now should be the final link in her purpose for conscripting troops in Xin Province and seizing Tong City’s official silver, right?