It seemed that after being caught in the wind by the lake that night, combined with how Wen Yu had been exhausting herself with governmental affairs during this period, she fell ill after returning. Her high fever came and went repeatedly, and it took a full half month of recuperation before she finally showed signs of recovery.

During this time, the governmental affairs below were handled by Li Xun and Chen Wei. When they truly couldn’t make a decision, Li Yao would make the final judgment, so nothing went amiss.

Once Wen Yu’s spirits improved slightly, she had Zhao Bai bring over a stack of reviewed memorials for her to look through, so she could understand the major and minor affairs of Pingzhou and Tao Commandery during this period.

Zhao Bai brought the memorials to Wen Yu. After briefly summarizing their contents, she placed several unreviewed memorials on top and said, “Both Southern Chen and Wei Qishan have replied. Wei Qishan is willing to cede Xin and Yi prefectures, and proposes to add an additional one million taels of gold as betrothal gifts. Southern Chen has no objections to the ownership of Xin and Yi prefectures, but regarding the three million shi of grain you requested, they cannot produce it at present. They say their military provisions are only enough to last until after autumn, and ask if they could first send eight hundred thousand shi of grain, then make up the remainder after the autumn harvest when grain is collected. Lord Li and the others dare not make decisions on their own and await your judgment.”

Wen Yu’s cold hadn’t fully recovered. Wearing a plain brocade outer robe, her long hair loose, she sat by the window reading the already-reviewed memorials. Hearing this, she only said, “Southern Chen is as good at calculating accounts as always.”

Zhao Bai couldn’t quite grasp the meaning in Wen Yu’s words and asked, “Should we send a reply refusing Southern Chen’s proposal?”

A fresh breeze blew in through the wide-open latticed window, causing Wen Yu’s clothes and hair to flutter, along with the paper pages on the desk. The incense smoke overflowing from the Boshan censer was also dispersed somewhat.

Her slender white fingers pressed down on the fluttering pages as she said, “Southern Chen is shrewd. They know they can take Xin and Yi prefectures at the earliest by autumn, and that I only want their grain to restrain them before capturing these two prefectures, so they’ve reduced the grain to eight hundred thousand shi. What they can actually produce is certainly more than this amount. Have Li Xun send a reply. If they can’t gather three million shi, then the grain sent in advance must be no less than one million five hundred thousand shi.”

Zhao Bai made note of this with her brush and couldn’t help saying, “In comparison, Wei Qishan is quite generous.”

One million taels of gold would convert to ten million taels of silver.

In peacetime, one shi of grain cost only seven or eight hundred wen, but with war now raging everywhere, civilian grain prices had multiplied several times over. One shi of grain now cost at least three guan to purchase.

It seemed Wei Qishan must have heard that Wen Yu had additionally requested three million shi of grain from Southern Chen, so to show sincerity, he directly offered the condition of one million taels of gold, which, calculated precisely, was no different from directly providing three million shi of grain.

Wen Yu, having been caught in the wind, felt an itch in her throat again. She coughed twice softly and said, “One million taels of gold sounds tempting, but with war now raging everywhere and farmland lying waste, it’s not just salt and iron that are strictly controlled by various forces—there’s also rice and grain.”

With Wen Yu’s explanation, Zhao Bai fully understood.

Three million shi of grain was no small amount. Even the largest grain merchant couldn’t possibly hoard this much grain during wartime, and even if there were merchant dealers, in this chaotic situation they would certainly have to depend on local government offices to do business.

They couldn’t possibly bypass local government forces to purchase large quantities of grain in prefectures not under their jurisdiction, since in this day and age, having grain meant being able to support armies.

The government offices in those prefectures wouldn’t be foolish enough to give up life-sustaining resources in exchange for a pile of gold and silver that couldn’t be eaten or drunk at present. If they were going to trade, they’d trade for weapons and armor, or salt and iron.

The reason the Xu family had been able to do that deal with Wen Yu earlier was because she had timed it well. At that time, Fengyang and Yong City hadn’t yet fallen, prices hadn’t risen to such terrifying levels, the profit Wen Yu offered was high, and the Xu family wanted to use her to establish connections with the Zhou family—naturally there was no reason to refuse.

Later, though Pei Song’s power grew day by day, the Xu family, because of that deal, was already on the same boat as Wen Yu. They didn’t dare gamble on what kind of family-destroying disaster they would face from Pei Song if Wen Yu exposed their past cooperation, so they could only continue to secretly work for Wen Yu while concealing it from Pei Song.

Because of this leverage, the Xu family was still a nail Wen Yu had planted in Yong Prefecture.

Zhao Bai said, “Indeed, the Princess Imperial thinks further ahead.”

Wen Yu didn’t respond, only lowered her eyes to continue reading the memorial in her hand.

Her sister-in-law and A Yin, along with Grand Tutor Yu and a group of old ministers, were all still in Pei Song’s hands. Pingzhou and Tao Commandery were currently surviving in the cracks, bearing responsibility for the lives and deaths of all their subjects—she couldn’t help but think ahead in all matters.

Suddenly, Xiao Li’s question from that night echoed in her ears:

“If there had been no calamity befalling the realm, and I had become a general and came to the Prince’s Manor to propose marriage, would you have married me?”

If there had been no national calamity?

Then Father and Mother Consort would still be alive, and Elder Brother too. That hypothetical was far too beautiful—so beautiful that just hearing it made Wen Yu feel that even appearing in a dream would be an incredibly extravagant dream.

She couldn’t give Xiao Li an answer and could only ask him in return: since it was hypothetical, what need was there to answer?

That night when she returned, Zhao Bai hadn’t noticed anything unusual about her, but the next day she developed a high fever and fell ill.

During this half month she had been bedridden recuperating, seeing no officials, and didn’t know how Xiao Li was doing. She could only hope he would think it through completely.

Thinking this in her heart, she didn’t realize her five fingers clutching the memorial had tensed until they turned slightly pale. When the wind rose again, she even began coughing softly behind her hand. Seeing this, Zhao Bai wanted to close the window, but Wen Yu stopped her: “I’ve been cooped up for too long these past days. It’s good to open the window and let in some air.”

Though Zhao Bai worried about Wen Yu’s health, she always did as Wen Yu instructed. At this moment, she simply stepped back again.

Wen Yu rallied her spirits to finish reading the memorial in her hand. When she picked up the next one, she saw it was a sealed letter. There was no signature on the letter, only the Prince’s Manor’s secret seal imprinted at the closure. She couldn’t help asking Zhao Bai, “What is this?”

Zhao Bai glanced at it and quickly said, “It’s a letter sent by the Crown Prince Consort. This servant originally intended to tell you about it after reporting Southern Chen and Northern Wei’s replies, but forgot for a moment.”

Wen Yu hadn’t received a letter from Jiang Yichu for quite some time. After discovering that Yan Que was a traitor, she had been worried that Pei Song’s side had already discovered her sister-in-law’s correspondence with her.

Though she had dispatched another shadow guard to her sister-in-law’s side, she still hadn’t received a reply and didn’t know how things were with Jiang Yichu.

She worried that Yan Que had already leaked the Prince’s Manor’s secret seal to Pei Song. After executing Yan Que, she had changed the Prince’s Manor’s communication seal and had the shadow guard sent to Jiang Yichu inform her of this matter.

But the letter Jiang Yichu had now sent still used the Prince’s Manor’s former secret seal.

Wen Yu’s brow furrowed slightly. She opened the letter and took out the paper inside, her expression easing somewhat. It was indeed her sister-in-law’s handwriting, though written with a charcoal pencil on extremely crude straw paper. There were only seven characters on it: Pei Song is the son of Qin Yi.

Though she didn’t know how her sister-in-law had investigated all this, the result was not much different from what Wen Yu had her people investigate. It seemed Pei Song probably hadn’t yet discovered her sister-in-law’s secret correspondence with her.

Then this letter should have been sent before she dispatched the shadow guard.

Since there was no date on the letter, Wen Yu couldn’t deduce how long it had taken to reach her hands. But since her sister-in-law had written the letter on straw paper with charcoal, her circumstances there must be quite difficult. Wen Yu’s chest couldn’t help but sink slightly.

She asked Zhao Bai, “How goes the war in the north?”

Just looking at that letter paper, Zhao Bai knew Jiang Yichu must be suffering under Pei Song, and understood Wen Yu’s state of mind at this moment. She said, “Without the foreign tribes beyond the passes restraining him, Wei Qishan’s main forces have been bearing down on Pei Song with fierce momentum. In just two short months, he has recaptured several cities, severely blunting Pei Song’s previous aggressive edge.”

Actually, given the current situation, choosing to ally with Wei Qishan seemed to have quite a few benefits.

But the one difference between Northern Wei and Southern Chen was that once Northern Wei completely defeated Pei Song, they would no longer need Wen Yu’s assistance.

Northern Wei’s iron cavalry could even directly head south, seize the four prefectures in Wen Yu’s hands, then rely on the strategic advantage of Bairen Pass to slowly fight Southern Chen.

Whereas after Southern Chen advanced into the Central Plains, their royal court would still remain beyond the passes. As long as they showed any异心, Wen Yu could use the four prefectures led by Pingzhou to form a gate, completely cutting off the connection between Southern Chen’s armies within the passes and their royal court. With a bit more instigation of the small nations surrounding Southern Chen’s borders, the Southern Chen royal court would be too preoccupied to spare attention elsewhere.

In the passes filled with Liang subjects and citizens, once Wen Yu and Southern Chen broke relations—no need to even think about it—those subjects and citizens would support Wen Yu. Out of this wariness, for the next several decades, Southern Chen absolutely wouldn’t dare mistreat the Liang subjects and citizens.

This was also why Wen Yu was determined to ally with Southern Chen.

Hearing this, Wen Yu pondered briefly and said, “It’s as Teacher predicted. Have Li Xun draft a letter to Wei Qishan as well. Though marriage is impossible, with the great enemy Pei Song present, perhaps the matter of an alliance can still be discussed.”

As she spoke to this point, she seemed to feel it wasn’t quite right and stood up, saying, “Forget it. Help me change clothes. I’ll personally go see Teacher and discuss this matter with him in detail.”

Zhao Bai attended to Wen Yu as she changed into clothing suitable for receiving guests. When she was hanging accessories at Wen Yu’s waist, Wen Yu noticed Zhao Bai take a carved and openwork begonia ring from the jewelry box on the dressing table and said, “Just get the sachet I usually wear.”

Zhao Bai searched both the dressing table and around the canopy bed but couldn’t find the sachet Wen Yu mentioned. She said, “I can’t find it. Perhaps it’s been lost. Princess Imperial, why don’t you make do with this begonia ring for now, and this servant will look for it carefully later?”

Wen Yu’s expression changed slightly, as if she greatly valued that sachet. She instructed, “I also wore it at the banquet that day. If you don’t find it in the room, send someone to search along the lake to see if it was dropped there.”

Though Zhao Bai didn’t think the sachet was particularly valuable, considering it was the Princess Imperial’s personal item and wouldn’t be good in someone else’s hands, and since the Princess Imperial wore it regularly, the sachet must hold unusual significance for her, she immediately agreed.

—

Mo Prefecture.

The weather was growing increasingly hot, and ice鉴 had already been set up in the central military tent.

Pei Song loosened his front collar, baring one shoulder. His shoulder was wrapped in gauze, and he held the latest battle report in his hand, reading with lowered eyes without saying a word. It was difficult to discern anything from his expression.

He actually didn’t look like a military commander. That refined, scholarly face made him appear more like a young master from an aristocratic family who practiced literature and swordsmanship. But everyone who had seen him knew that beneath that refined face lurked a demon.

Having lost several consecutive battles, the military commanders in the tent had been summoned long ago but hadn’t heard him speak. The sweat on their backs—whether from heat or cold sweat—had already soaked through the garments beneath their armor.

Unable to bear the suffocating pressure any longer, like being submerged in water with nose and mouth covered, someone suddenly dropped to his knees with a thud: “This lowly general and the others are incompetent. Please punish us, Grand Commandant!”

With his kneeling, the other military commanders in the tent followed suit one after another.

Only then did Pei Song lift his eyes to glance over his subordinate generals kneeling on the ground. Rarely, he didn’t fly into a rage, his tone even fairly relaxed: “What is this about?”

The military commanders below didn’t dare rise, only pleading guilty again: “Please punish us, Grand Commandant!”

Pei Song finally smiled slightly. In the military commanders’ eyes, this still seemed no different from the King of Hell marking the Book of Life and Death. In an instant, everyone was drenched in sweat.

Pei Song looked down at them for a while. This feeling of being feared by everyone had once delighted him, but lately he had gradually come to feel a thread of disgust. His smile carried several parts mockery as he withdrew his gaze and said, “Get up. How many years has Wei Qishan been famous? Losing a few battles to him and learning something from it isn’t really a loss.”

Hearing him say this, the commanders kneeling on the ground all breathed sighs of relief.

Gongsun Chou, sitting to one side, praised: “With such composure, my lord, the day when our army soundly defeats Northern Wei surely cannot be far off.”

Pei Song clearly didn’t care for Gongsun Chou’s words of praise. He set down the battle report and said, “The main cavalry force in Wei Qishan’s hands was trained through how many years of fighting the barbarian tribes beyond the passes. If we want to win using direct confrontation, that would be like throwing eggs against rocks. We need to think of a way to break through that iron shield their cavalry forms on the battlefield.”

Gongsun Chou’s face showed worry as he said, “The marriage between the Former Liang remnants and Southern Chen is imminent, which is also quite troublesome. The two prefectures Wei Qishan left in the south probably won’t be able to withstand Southern Chen and the Former Liang old guard for long. When they attack my lord from north and south, that will be truly dire.”

Pei Song, however, didn’t seem to take it to heart and said, “Before there was Bairen Pass, Yi Prefecture and Xin Prefecture were both gateways to Former Liang’s south. Their city defenses are solid. For Southern Chen and the Former Liang old guard to capture these two prefectures, even at the earliest it will be after autumn. When they then head north, it will be approaching winter. Southern Chen’s troops may not withstand the cold as well as ours. When the barbarian tribes beyond the passes enter to seize grain, Wei Qishan will have to recall his cavalry to You Prefecture. This Grand Commandant has plenty of ways to slowly wear them down.”

His body suddenly leaned forward slightly, looking at the tent full of strategists and military commanders, and smiled: “However, speaking of the Former Liang remnants reminds this Grand Commandant of another matter. The nail this Grand Commandant planted beside the Former Liang remnants actually discovered that there are also their spies beside this Grand Commandant. What do you beloved ministers think of this?”

The tent full of strategists and military commanders exchanged glances, then hurriedly knelt back down in panic: “Our loyalty to the Grand Commandant can be verified by sun and moon. We hope the Grand Commandant will investigate clearly!”

Pei Song still just looked at them and smiled: “Why kneel? This Grand Commandant naturally believes you are all people of utter loyalty. Stand up and speak.”

Only then did the tent full of ministers stand up again, trembling.

After discussing other military affairs, Pei Song dismissed them. Only then did Gongsun Chou frown and say, “Why did my lord speak openly in front of everyone? If it’s truly as Yan Que’s letter said, with spies mixed among these people, this action is alerting the enemy.”

Pei Song, however, said, “Since Hanyang has already discovered Yan Que’s betrayal and defection to me, Teacher, do you think there’s a possibility that the information Yan Que sent back is false?”

Gongsun Chou was momentarily at a loss for words. He was more skilled in politics and not as good at cunning schemes as Pei Song.

Now, reminded by Pei Song, he realized it was so. That Former Liang Princess Imperial, though a woman, had caused my lord to suffer several setbacks in the southern territory by falling into her traps.

As he felt secretly alarmed, Pei Song had already picked up a memorial reporting on movements in the southern territory to read carefully, a thin smile pressed at the corners of his lips: “This woman is indeed skilled at scheming. I sent a genuine spy to her side, and she immediately returned such a grand gift, making me unable to fully trust it, yet unable not to guard against it. Right now, in these troubled times, only by exposing this matter—even if there really is a spy—can I make that spy feel endangered, not daring to cause trouble in the short term, thus not ruining my grand plans.”

Only then did Gongsun Chou understand Pei Song’s earlier intentions. He bowed and said, “My lord’s considerations are thorough. However, if that Former Liang remnant has such calculating ability, if she truly marries into Southern Chen, I fear she will also be a calamity for my lord.”

At the bottom of Pei Song’s smiling eyes, all that poured forth was cold light like knife edges: “Does she really think this Grand Commandant abandoned Yi Prefecture to benefit Former Liang? Don’t worry, she won’t make it alive to Southern Chen. Pingzhou may be an iron fortress, but once out of Bairen Pass it won’t be. Moreover, this Grand Commandant has by his side someone she will never suspect. Before her death, this Grand Commandant will borrow her hand to sever one of Pingzhou’s arms—that would also repay the grudge of being toyed with by her before.”

Those worthy of being called an arm of Pingzhou, besides Chen Wei, Fan Yuan, Li Yao and their ilk, Gongsun Chou couldn’t think of other candidates for the moment. He said, puzzled, “Any important Pingzhou minister whom Hanyang would employ heavily, she probably wouldn’t easily become suspicious.”

Pei Song, however, said, “Those few she employs heavily—this Grand Commandant doesn’t even regard them as worthy opponents.”

Gongsun Chou, having followed Pei Song for many years, could somewhat fathom his thoughts. Recalling how he had previously sent assassins several times to kill Wen Yu and the guard by her side, at this moment an answer suddenly formed in his mind: “Does my lord want to eliminate that young commander surnamed Xiao who escorted Hanyang to Pingzhou and achieved first merit in attacking Meng Commandery?”