The Yun family and the Lu family had fallen out, breaking relations completely and thoroughly. The Yun family’s matriarch not only returned the Lu family’s gifts but also severed all contact with the Lu family, even cutting off business dealings entirely.

The Yun family acted ruthlessly, but the Lu family was even more ruthless. The Lingnan Navy underwent a complete purge. Dongyu and Ren Xiong were both expelled from the Lingnan fleet. The Marine Corps, because they had been independently recruited by Yun Ye, were swept out the door by Lu Chengqing. Fortunately, Mingzhou Governor Niu Jianhu took them in; otherwise, they could only return to the Ministry of War to await reassignment. Lu Chengqing never received any petty harassment from the Ministry of War. The supplies and provisions the Ministry of War gave to the Lingnan Navy had never been short by even half a measure, achieving almost complete responsiveness to all requests.

Li Er greatly praised Yun Ye’s magnanimous heart. To compensate for the Yun family’s losses, the title of Senior Grand Master of the Palace with Silver Seal and Blue Ribbon was bestowed upon Yun Ye, making the capital’s nobility extremely envious. Now civil honorary titles were worth more than military honorary titles.

The Goguryeo people were finally entering the capital. They were currently arranged by the Court of State Ceremonial at the Xinfeng County postal station, awaiting the court’s arrangements. This was an extremely grand celebration—with Goguryeo’s destruction, the dynasty had no more worries.

“My lord, shouldn’t our Ministry of War participate in this grand ceremony? This is the result of our formidable military might forcing their surrender. The other five ministries have all sent representatives. If our Ministry of War doesn’t go, it won’t look right. The Central Secretariat has already urged us three times.” Ministry of War Bureau Director Wu Yuanyi circled around Yun Ye, who was signing documents. He was responsible for all the ministry’s ceremonial preparations.

“What’s worth watching? They surrendered halfway through the battle, showing no military integrity whatsoever. Just a bunch of pitiful creatures—what’s worth seeing? Haven’t you noticed Zhang Liang isn’t going to watch either? We won’t go either. The merit that should be ours won’t run away. Tonight the Ministry of War will have a banquet at the Eight Delicacies Pavilion, with good food, good drink, and good song and dance to serve us. That’s better than watching pitiful creatures in this scorching heat.”

“My dear lord! Zhang Liang didn’t come back to the capital to watch the Goguryeo surrender because he wants to eliminate the Goguryeo people. Right now he’s under house arrest by His Majesty, forbidden to leave without orders. If our Ministry of War doesn’t go, there’ll be a big gap in the formation that will look very bad. Chancellor Fang absolutely won’t permit any flaws in the ceremony. If you find it tiresome, let’s just make an appearance and head straight to the Eight Delicacies Pavilion. That would be more prudent.”

Yun Ye put down his writing brush and lazily raised his head to look at Wu Yuanyi, saying, “Do I, your lord, currently look like a pushover? Everyone’s stepping on my head now. What does Fang Xuanling mean by holding back our ‘Maritime Defense Strategy Memorial’ without forwarding it? It should have been distributed to the garrison commands in all coastal prefectures and counties ten days ago. Go ask what this means.”

Seeing Yun Ye refused to go line up at Vermilion Bird Street, Wu Yuanyi sighed and went to find Fang Xuanling to ask about the document’s whereabouts.

The Emperor had gone to Five Phoenix Tower. The Three Departments and Five Ministries had all gone to Vermilion Bird Gate. The censors of the Two Offices stood impressively with clasped hands at the roadside. The ceremonial troops of the Sixteen Guards in bright helmets and shining armor lined up in formation. In this scorching heat, they still wore crimson cloaks, not afraid of breaking out in heat rash. Fervent Chang’an citizens surrounded Vermilion Bird Avenue so tightly not even water could trickle through. On the tall buildings along both sides of the street, singing girls occasionally sang inspiring military music. The usual oily-faced dandies all donned military uniforms, pretentiously strumming swords and singing loudly, looking as if they couldn’t wait to immediately cast aside their writing brushes and join the army. Of course, this was all to create an atmosphere befitting a great nation. If they were really conscripted to garrison the borders, these bastards would run faster than anyone.

Inside the imperial palace, it was extremely quiet. The Empress, consorts, princes, and princesses had all followed the Emperor to Five Phoenix Tower. In the outer palace’s administrative offices, only the Ministry of War still had people coming and going, but there weren’t many working either. Yun Ye himself lay sleeping deep in the flower beds. His subordinates naturally had no mind for office work and gathered in the tree shade drinking tea and chatting.

“Old Zhou, you’re familiar with the lord. Tell us—why won’t the lord let us go to Vermilion Bird Gate to watch the surrender of prisoners? I heard this ceremony is quite large in scale. The Court of State Ceremonial took great pains—just making clothes for these surrendering nobles used a thousand bolts of silk. That Goguryeo King Gao Jianwu’s golden crown was even reforged, supposedly using treasures from the imperial storehouse. It’s a shame not to go watch.”

“The lord’s military achievements are more than half built on the Goguryeo people’s heads, you know? The lord originally planned to gain more merit from the Goguryeo people to change his hereditary marquisate to a hereditary dukedom. Who could have thought the Goguryeo people would surrender, making the lord’s plans fall through? Now it’s over—there’s nowhere to gain military merit. You have to know, our Great Tang revised the system again in the ninth year of Zhenguan—without military merit, one cannot be enfeoffed. Now where in the world do we still have enemies? His title stops here. Think about it—our lord is someone with high aspirations and pride. Can he stand this?”

“Right, right, right—that’s exactly it. Why couldn’t those damned Goguryeo people have mustered the courage to fight us one more time? Even just for show! That way everyone could gain some military merit. Even their surrender makes people hate them—they don’t know how to conduct themselves properly.”

Yun Ye had no interest in listening to this idle talk. Last night he’d been pestered by Na Rimu all evening. That woman wanted a son so badly she’d gone mad. Heaven knows where she found the formula—she insisted her husband follow it precisely, saying that doing it this way would conceive a boy. If he didn’t do as she said, she would cry loudly. Helplessly, he accompanied her in performing rituals in every corner. Now was the time to catch up on sleep.

On Vermilion Bird Avenue, mountain-shaking, sea-roaring cries of “long live” rang out. Huge bells and drums sounded simultaneously, disturbing peaceful dreams. Yun Ye had long since prepared—his ears were stuffed full of cotton, truly achieving complete obliviousness to external affairs.

Li Er had just awakened from his intoxication with the people’s cheering of “long live” when he saw the officials below the tower gate—no matter how he looked at them, something seemed off. The Three Departments and Six Ministries should form the auspicious number nine, but now a piece was clearly missing. It looked much less imposing.

“What is Yun Ye doing? Not even attending such a grand ceremony?” Li Er turned to ask the beaming Duan Hong.

“In response to Your Majesty, the Ministry of War is working intensively on formulating the ‘Maritime Defense Strategy Memorial,’ so they didn’t come.” Before Duan Hong could answer, Du Ruhui, attending at the Emperor’s side, hastily spoke up for Yun Ye.

“Hmph. I think he’s doing it deliberately. What strategy is he formulating at a time like this? Even if it were urgent official business, it’s not urgent to this degree. He’s deliberately making me lose face.”

“Your Majesty, that’s not how to put it. According to reports from the Lingnan Navy, Gao Shan Yang Zi’s fleet is extremely massive. Warships alone number no fewer than four hundred. When passing through the strait, it took a full two days for them all to pass. Your Majesty, this old minister believes Yun Ye’s concerns are not unfounded. A force of tens of thousands entering Great Tang waters with unclear friend-or-foe status—the Ministry of War making an appropriate response is absolutely correct.”

Li Er paused momentarily and asked Du Ruhui again, “Tens of thousands? How can there be so many? Where did all these people come from?”

“Your Majesty, her fleet contains not only Goguryeo people and Japanese, but also Tang criminal prisoners, disgraced officials, and even more Indians and Arabs. This old minister worries about such a fleet entering our inland seas. No wonder Marquis Yun is determined to eliminate Gao Shan Yang Zi.”

Li Er turned his gaze toward below the tower, looking at the Goguryeo King, Yuan Gae Suwen, and the vast procession of Goguryeo nobles with their hands bound behind them slowly approaching from the distance. The expression on his face was uncertain.

“Send an emergency dispatch at eight hundred li speed. Command Lu Chengqing to respond carefully. If any mistakes occur, he is to bring his head to see me.” Li Er finally began to worry. At this point, whatever was said was too late. He could only place his hopes on Lu Chengqing.

The grand ceremony continued. Li Er accepted Goguryeo King Gao Jianwu’s request to surrender, recovering various seals. A hat bearing the title Duke of Anle was placed on his head, and from then on he would be kept in captivity.

Yuan Gae Suwen’s face was wooden, following behind Gao Jianwu like a walking corpse. Only the woman Ronghua accompanying Yuan Gae Suwen was all smiles. She hadn’t been bound and occasionally waved her hands in greeting to people on both sides. Behind her, those Goguryeo women even danced with light steps, singing and dancing. This move immediately won the favor of the Great Tang common people.

Indeed, what was there to be nostalgic about in such a miserable country? Now that they’d merged into the Great Tang with no more warfare—how wonderful! For common people, who was emperor didn’t matter, especially since their own emperor was so wise and mighty.

Gao Jianwu’s title had changed. Previously they’d heard it was a princely rank, but now it had become the lighter-sounding ducal title. Gao Jianwu seemed quite indifferent and even knew to perform three prostrations and nine kowtows to Li Er.

The entire ceremony was tedious. Supposedly tomorrow there would also be offerings at the Imperial Ancestral Temple—making Gao Jianwu kneel in the temple for a while and recite the surrender edict once more. Since his head wasn’t cut off and placed on a platter to offer to the ancestors, Yun Ye believed this was deceiving the ancestors.

He still came after all. At the supervising censor’s command, a group of Ministry of War officials quickly took their positions. When Ronghua saw Yun Ye’s ice-cold eyes, she couldn’t help but shiver.

When Yuan Gae Suwen passed by Yun Ye, his eyes shifted slightly and he cupped his hands, saying, “Brother Yun, have you been well?”

“Why didn’t you go die? If you had died, I would constantly remember you during the four seasons and eight festivals. With you alive, I’m truly disappointed.” Yun Ye looked at the clouds in the sky, not seeming to speak to Yuan Gae Suwen but more like conversing with a ghost.

“Throughout the ages, death alone is difficult. I’ve made Brother Yun laugh at me.”

“Forget it. Go receive your rewards. The Yuan Gae Suwen I knew has already died. Tonight I’ll prepare a spirit tablet for him—I need to properly offer sacrifices. It would be best if we don’t meet again from now on.”

Yuan Gae Suwen forced out a slight smile and said, “That’s for the best. If Brother Yun could burn an extra stick of incense for that Yuan Gae Suwen, this Yuan Gae Suwen would be endlessly grateful.”

Yun Ye nodded. Yuan Gae Suwen cupped his fists and then trudged up to Five Phoenix Tower step by step. Once he ascended this tower, a lifetime of heroic ambitions would turn to flying ash. The Tang state would not give him the slightest chance for a resurgence.

Ronghua performed a deep bow toward Yun Ye and said, “Goguryeo has become yesterday’s clouds and mist. I only ask that Marquis Yun show mercy.”

“I don’t know how much control you still have over Gao Shan Yang Zi. You’d better pray she doesn’t go mad. If she causes harm to the Great Tang, I will personally lead troops to slaughter you all clean.”

“Gao Shan Yang Zi has never been a Goguryeo person. Not in the past, not now, and not in the future. I’ve already reported this clearly to His Majesty. Whatever she does has nothing to do with us. Only if mistakes occur in Goguryeo’s homeland will they be related to us.”

“Sigh, I’ll have to don armor for battle again!” Yun Ye sighed, turned, and entered the palace gate.