TGPSAC – Chapter 119

When an emperor passes away, he is referred to as the late emperor, and it is only right for a new emperor to succeed him.

The Imperial Grandson was supposed to inherit the throne and become the new emperor of Great Zhou, but she was far too young.

An emperor of just over a month old—there were such cases in history, but their endings were never good.

A child so young could not hold the throne steady, yet a nation could not be without a ruler for a single day.

Although Her Highness the Princess was present, her role was different from that of an emperor.

Some officials submitted memorials, pleading with Her Highness the Princess to enthrone the Imperial Grandson at an early date.

Otherwise, if Prince Bao’an were to ascend the throne first, it would have some impact on the legitimacy of the capital, though not a major one.

At worst, Prince Bao’an was a treacherous rebel; even if he became emperor, he would not be recognized.

When dynasties changed and a new one was established, it needed to declare itself the successor of the previous dynasty to prove the legitimacy of its rule.

Chi Wan knew a little about this. According to historical records, Zhu Yuanzhang had recognized the death-exemption plaques of the Tang Dynasty—or perhaps they were called Cinnabar Edicts, but in any case, they granted immunity from death. Was this not a way of announcing to the world that the Ming was the legitimate successor to the Tang and Song?

Legitimacy was crucial in every dynasty throughout history. Even founding emperors had to use it to prove the legality and continuity of their rule.

Prince Bao’an’s actions had pushed him down the path of a treacherous rebel.

Although Great Zhou had shown signs of impending collapse, the appearance of Yu Jiuzhou had brought hope for a revival.

Any dynasty that had ruled for two or three hundred years was bound to have a group of loyal defenders.

In the late Tang, the melody of “The Prince of Qin Smashes the Ranks” was played once more, extending the dynasty’s life by thirty years. In the late Song, Lu Xiufu leaped into the sea with the young emperor, followed by countless loyal officials and righteous men, giving the humiliated Southern Song a dignified exit. The Ming Dynasty was even more of a case in point; after its fall, efforts to restore it never ceased.

Great Zhou was the same. It had a group of people who were absolutely loyal to it.

They did not care who the emperor was, as long as they belonged to the legitimate line of Great Zhou. The prerequisite was legitimacy, a lawful successor. Prince Bao’an’s move had completely destroyed his own legitimacy.

Before the emperor left for Jiangning, Chi Wan and Yu Jiuzhou had considered all possibilities.

It was nothing more than Prince Bao’an wanting to take the opportunity to control Emperor Shengyuan, holding the Son of Heaven hostage to command the nobles. But since he was a regressor, he surely knew that Emperor Shengyuan was on the verge of death. Therefore, he wanted the emperor to issue an edict passing the throne to him just before he died. Then, regardless of whether Yu Jiuzhou’s side agreed, he would be the emperor—at least, the legitimate one.

Even if Yu Jiuzhou claimed his succession edict was fake, it would be her word against his. Besides, his edict would be genuine; he had countless ways to make Emperor Shengyuan write it. If Yu Jiuzhou acknowledged him, all would be well. If she didn’t, the two sides would be locked in a north-south standoff, and who could become the master of Great Zhou and unify it would depend on their respective abilities.

Who could have imagined that Emperor Shengyuan would not bring the Imperial Seal, leaving it with Yu Jiuzhou instead? The Hereditary Seal of Great Zhou. Without the seal, he could not be considered legitimate. The edict was not stamped, making his succession dubious.

Why else would Yu Jiuzhou have held onto the seal? Prince Bao’an was planning to occupy the south at the very least; how could she not make preparations?

And Emperor Shengyuan, under Wang Hai’s persuasion, had even written a succession edict in blood. It was said the blood was Wang Hai’s, but that didn’t matter, as long as others believed it was the emperor’s.

The contents of the edict would only be known once Wang Hai returned. For now, he was being relentlessly pursued by Prince Bao’an’s men and could not yet return to the capital.

Now, Prince Bao’an, like a cornered dog, had impatiently declared himself the succeeding emperor. Only by becoming emperor would he have the authority to command everything in the south.

The local authorities could refuse to listen, but he had the Duke of Xin’s army, as well as some forces he had raised himself.

The first thing Prince Bao’an did upon taking the throne was to continue expanding his army.

It seemed he didn’t fully trust the Duke of Xin either. Prince Bao’an knew that an emperor must have his own army, or he would be nothing but a puppet.

Having been an emperor for so many years in his past life, he certainly knew what he needed.

The Duke of Xin did not yet have the audacity to replace Prince Bao’an. A rebellion by someone with the surname Yu was different from one by an outsider.

When Zhu Laosi rebelled, people cleared the way for him. It wasn’t to say he wasn’t strong, but consider how many men he had versus how many the Jianwen Emperor had. Such was the power of the imperial surname.

It was the same in Great Zhou. As long as one of you surnamed Yu was the emperor, the officials had no major objections.

If the Duke of Xin were to take the throne, he would be besieged by the entire Great Zhou.

The Duke of Xin didn’t dare. For the time being, he only wanted to be a good official, a powerful one. He probably hadn’t even considered becoming emperor himself.

But ambition grows. At first, one only wants glory for their family. Then, they think of becoming a powerful official, second to none. Finally, they start to think that having an emperor is too troublesome, that a puppet emperor would be better. And at the very end, they suddenly think, what will happen to my family after I die? And so, they rebel.

Even if he didn’t rebel, what about his subordinates? A yellow robe being draped over him was not out of the question.

Prince Bao’an was anxiously recruiting soldiers and buying horses, certainly to guard against the Duke of Xin.

Because of Prince Bao’an’s self-proclaimed ascension, Great Zhou, which was already resisting foreign invaders, fell into even greater chaos.

Yu Jiuzhou continuously made decisions from the central government. She had no intention of handing the south over to Prince Bao’an.

Her maternal grandfather and uncle were in the East Sea region. At most, Prince Bao’an could only develop his power around Jiangning; he could forget about expanding towards the East Sea.

Jiangning was not far from Yu Jiuzhou’s fief of Mingzhou, which she had fortified like an iron barrel. It would not be easy for Prince Bao’an to attack it even with a large army.

The East Sea army was closer to Mingzhou than Jiangning was.

Jiangning had too few options for expanding its sphere of influence and was currently unable to contend with the capital.

If the capital wasn’t busy fighting off foreign enemies, it would have dealt with Prince Bao’an long ago.

Therefore, Prince Bao’an needed to seize this opportunity to quickly develop his power. It would be much easier for the capital to deal with him after they had driven out Beining.

The Beining army had penetrated too deep and was gradually growing weary. If not for the Duke of Xin letting them through, how could they have broken through the border defenses so easily?

Ever since Chi Wan took command, she had been constantly harassing the Beining army, driving them to distraction.

She didn’t engage in direct confrontation, instead sending out teams to harass them from time to time. But upon careful calculation, the Beining army had lost over ten thousand men during this period.

Annihilating ten thousand enemies was already a great victory. Great Zhou hadn’t fought a battle with over ten thousand enemy casualties in many years.

Coupled with the great victory at Dongyang County earlier, they had eliminated forty to fifty thousand enemies in just half a month.

The Beining army was already exhausted, and with Chi Wan’s harassment, they hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in days.

Different opinions also emerged among the Beining high command. Some wanted to press on and attack the capital in one fell swoop, while others wanted to retreat.

If they retreated, the army might be able to return to Beining. If they continued like this, the army could suffer heavy losses.

If they didn’t retreat and attacked the capital directly, the premise was that they could even reach the foot of the capital’s walls. These days, all they had seen was the backsides of the Great Zhou soldiers; they hadn’t seen their faces even once.

It was like a child throwing firecrackers into an anthill, one, two, three… slowly blowing the anthill apart.

Chi Wan’s guerrilla warfare followed this principle. She would strike at the edges, eliminating a few enemies was not too little, and eliminating a few hundred or a thousand was not too many.

Never get bogged down in a fight, never engage in a decisive frontal battle. The main goal was to be unpredictable and wear down the enemy.

The Beining army couldn’t rest, but not resting was also not an option. What if the next time Great Zhou came, it wasn’t with a few hundred or a thousand men, but with a hundred thousand?

The Beining army was under immense psychological pressure.

Moreover, the Beining army didn’t have just one commander-in-chief. The three commanders already had disagreements. If they could actually conquer Yanbei, that would be fine; Beining would be prosperous in the future.

But they were fixated on conquering the capital. Now, they hadn’t occupied Yanbei, and the army hadn’t even reached the capital.

If this continued, the army would run out of food. Once the Great Zhou army regrouped, they would be caught between two fronts.

The Beining generals weren’t fools; they could see what Chi Wan was planning.

First, small-scale harassment, and once the main army was assembled, they would annihilate the Beining forces.

A series of maneuvers by Chi Wan had the Beining army cursing her as a demon.

So what if she was a demon? Demons don’t invade other people’s lands.

However, the Beining high command was furious with the Duke of Xin for not keeping his word. They had agreed that if they attacked Great Zhou, and they jointly eliminated An Yizhi’s forces, the land of Yanbei would be ceded to them.

Yet the Duke of Xin had run off with his own men. To say he didn’t keep his word, well, he did let them in. To say he did keep his word, well, they hadn’t gotten Yanbei yet.

The Beining high command was very angry and wanted to report the Duke of Xin, but their correspondence had been encrypted at the time. The Duke of Xin had specifically instructed that for the sake of secrecy, all letters must be destroyed.

As a result, Beining now had no way to report the Duke of Xin.

The Prime Minister of Beining wondered if there was still a chance to occupy Yanbei and gradually swallow the whole of Great Zhou.

A chance? Naturally, there was no chance left.

An Yizhi had returned after recovering from her injuries, and her troops had regrouped. They were now slowly closing in on the Beining army.

The hundred-thousand-strong army led by Xu Chenlu had encountered several small units of the Beining army on their way, winning a few victories. Coupled with her strict military discipline and after executing a few people, this mixed army of one hundred thousand was finally obedient.

Xu Chenlu was also leading her army to close in on the Beining forces.

And Chi Wan had long been prepared. The Capital Camps were lying in ambush along the Beining army’s necessary route.

According to the original plan, the explosion at Yunguandao had already gone off. She was wondering whether the Beining army would retreat or continue to advance.

Whether they advanced or retreated, she was prepared.

The Beining army, already inclined to retreat, began to fall back frantically in the face of the sky full of massive rocks the moment the explosion sounded.

The movement of over a hundred thousand people at once naturally led to stampedes. By the time the Beining army had withdrawn, who knew how many people they had lost.

There were certainly injured soldiers who hadn’t died in Yunguandao, but at this moment, no one dared to go in to rescue them.

The army’s commander shouted at the top of his lungs, “Retreat, everyone retreat.”

Seeing that the Beining army was about to retreat, and this retreat might mean returning to Beining for good.

The Capital Camps, who had been lying in ambush, took advantage of the chaos to pick off many of them. Great Zhou was not a place they could come and go as they pleased.

In this battle, Chi Wan was determined to strike a blow so severe that Beining would not dare to invade for twenty years.

Those who could fight were able-bodied men. In twenty years, a new generation of able-bodied men in Beining would have grown up.

By the time the Beining army regrouped, of the more than two hundred thousand soldiers they had brought, only one hundred and thirty thousand remained.

Having lost a hundred thousand soldiers and gained nothing, the people of Beining were furious and began to blame each other.

In particular, the kings of the other two tribes believed the Prime Minister had sent them to their deaths, so they insisted on separating from the main force and returning to Beining.

An Yizhi and Xu Chenlu would be waiting for them on their necessary route, preparing to kill some and let some go.

They would eliminate as many of the main Beining force as possible, while letting more of the other two tribes escape. When they returned to Beining, they would surely cause trouble for the Prime Minister.

With the main force nearly depleted and more of the other two tribes returning, a civil war was bound to break out in Beining.

Even if it didn’t, the agents Great Zhou had placed in Beining would ensure that conflict erupted among the three parties.

After just finishing a foreign war and then experiencing a civil war, it would be fast if they could recover their strength in twenty years.

This was all part of Chi Wan’s plan. She had always believed that those not of her race were bound to have different hearts. When it was time to be ruthless, one must be ruthless.

Part of Chi Wan’s plan succeeded, and a small part did not, but it did not affect the overall situation.

She led the Capital Camps to drive the Beining army to the center of Yanbei, where Xu Chenlu took over to continue herding the sheep, while An Yizhi occasionally picked off stragglers like a hunter.

The three parties cooperated with great tacit understanding, never even meeting face-to-face, treating the Beining army like sheep to be herded.

By the time Beining left Great Zhou, their numbers had dwindled to less than thirty thousand.

Two hundred and thirty thousand set out, and thirty thousand returned. So many had died on the soil of Great Zhou.

But even more people of Great Zhou had died, especially the defenseless common folk. Yanbei had a population of two million, and nearly a third of them had perished.

Many of Great Zhou’s soldiers had also died; the statistics showed a number close to one hundred thousand.

The garrisons of the border towns and the local garrisons—the foreign invaders didn’t care about any of that. They plundered every city they encountered and killed every person they met.

This was a bloody battle, a war won with the blood of commoners and soldiers.

The culprits behind all this were Prince Bao’an and the Duke of Xin. For their own selfish interests, they had let the foreign invaders in, leading to the disaster in Yanbei.

Chi Wan stood on high ground, looking at the grimy soldiers. Dirty as they were, their spirits were high.

Because they knew they had won. Beining had been driven away, and they could go home.

Chi Wan relayed another message: the remaining matters were all handed over to An Yizhi. The Yanbei border was her home ground. Additionally, Xu Chenlu and her army would remain in Yanbei to assist and await edicts.

She was different. She led the Capital Camps, and they had to return to the capital as soon as possible.

Moreover, her heart was filled with longing for Yu Jiuzhou, wishing she could see her immediately.

Finally, on the first of May.

Chi Wan waved her hand and declared, “Home!!!”

The Capital Camps had set out with one hundred thousand soldiers and returned with less than ninety thousand. Although this loss was much better compared to Beining’s, it was because the Capital Camps had mostly fought guerrilla warfare and had rarely clashed head-on with the Beining army. If they had truly fought head-on, they would have had to wait for An Yizhi and Xu Chenlu to encircle the enemy together.

Even in an encirclement, the number of deaths would not have been limited to just this.

Chi Wan’s guerrilla tactics had reduced the casualties of the Capital Camps. The soldiers, already grateful to her, would now unhesitatingly die for her at a single word.

She had transformed from a Great Demon King into a Heavenly God.

To the common soldiers, whoever could lead them to victory, whoever could bring them home, whoever could keep them alive, would be worshipped by them as a deity.

Chi Wan was the god who brought them home alive. At the same time, they also brought back those who had died.

The bodies on the battlefield were all cremated and buried to prevent plagues.

But every soldier in the Capital Camps had their own steel tag, engraved with their name, date of birth, and military position.

When Chi Wan had first commissioned the production of steel, she had taken nearly half of the first batch to make these steel tags.

These tags would be brought back to the capital. Those with families would have them returned to their families. For those without, she would build a hall for martyrs and hang the steel tags inside.

When she had the money and steel production was sufficient, she would have one made for every soldier in Great Zhou, for them to wear. At least they wouldn’t be left without even a memento. A common soldier’s death was just a death, remembered by no one but their family. But to Chi Wan, the life of a common soldier was also a life.

Chi Wan rode on a tall horse, the wind blowing against her face was very refreshing.

May in the north couldn’t be called hot, just right for single-layered clothing. But in the morning and evening, it was still cool, and the wind brought a certain chill.

Her heart was filled with a desolate sorrow. If not for her longing for Yu Jiuzhou, she might have suffered a mental breakdown.

This was completely different from the feeling of killing twenty assassins back then, and different from watching so many people die at Xuanyang Temple.

The battlefield was a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood. The wind smelled of blood, and everywhere one looked was blood. One was surrounded by blood and bodies, with every imaginable way of dying on display.

If not for being the commander of an army, Chi Wan would have thrown up, but she forced herself to hold it in. Even now, the smell of blood lingered in her nostrils.

There was a psychological condition called post-traumatic stress disorder, which required treatment from a psychologist.

Great Zhou had no psychologists, but for many soldiers, home was the best place to heal psychological trauma.

The closer they got to home, the more smiles appeared on everyone’s faces.

But as they were about to reach the capital, many could no longer smile. Some felt a sense of apprehension as they neared home, while others didn’t know how to face the families of their fallen comrades.

The people in the Capital Camps had been together for too long, and many of their families knew each other.

They were afraid of their comrades’ families asking them:

“Where is my husband?”

“Where is my man?”

“Uncle, where are my father and mother?”

Just thinking about it was enough to dampen everyone’s spirits.

It wasn’t until they returned to the Capital Camps’ garrison and Chi Wan stood on the training grounds to speak that things changed. One part of her speech was, “For the soldiers who sacrificed their lives, their pensions will be tripled. Their children will be able to attend the Capital School for free, and their spouses will be given priority for job arrangements.”

This money would certainly not come from the Ministry of Revenue, but from Chi Wan herself. The Capital School covered everything from elementary to university level. She had originally wanted to name the university Peking or Tsinghua, but Yu Jiuzhou had stopped her.

A school in the capital was better off being called the Capital School.

In the future, there would be Shengjing First Elementary, Second Elementary… First Middle School, Second Middle School, and so on. More and more schools would be established.

The court would not object to a small number of schools, but establishing them on a large scale would surely be met with resistance.

What was that saying? The people can be made to follow a path, but not to understand it.

The more the common people knew, the harder they were to govern.

Chi Wan and Yu Jiuzhou did not think so. If a large number of common people received education, all sorts of talents would emerge, which would be increasingly beneficial for the development of Great Zhou.

But the great clans and powerful families would certainly not be happy. They did not want the common people to receive more education and know more, for fear of shaking their own status.

Most of the officials in the court came from powerful families, but how many of them were there? How many common people were there in the entire world? Even if only one in ten thousand had the chance to become an official, they would no longer be able to monopolize the official positions in the realm.

Those from humble backgrounds were at least from gentry families, whose ancestors had been wealthy but had now fallen on hard times. But no matter how down and out they were, they were still better than those mud-legs.

If the children of mud-legs could also become officials, these people would naturally band together and challenge the great clans and powerful families.

So Chi Wan started establishing schools under the pretext of taking in the children of fallen soldiers, giving the great clans the false impression that she was merely doing charity, not vying for power and profit.

In fact, this served two purposes at once: it could give the children of fallen soldiers a chance at an education, and in many years, it could eliminate the hidden threat of the great clans.

As for the soldiers, they didn’t think that far ahead. They only knew that they could now give an account to the families of their comrades.

After Chi Wan finished speaking at the Capital Camps, many soldiers shouted, “Commander is invincible!”

They wanted to shout “Long Live,” but they didn’t want to bring criticism upon their commander.

After all, the commander’s child was the Imperial Grandson, who by rights should soon be the new emperor. For some reason, two months after the emperor’s death, the new emperor had not yet ascended the throne, causing a wave of unease.

However, there were precedents of a crown prince observing three months of mourning before ascending the throne, so for the time being, many people suppressed certain thoughts in their hearts.

Chi Wan stayed at the Capital Camps for three days. The next morning, she led the Embroidered-Robe Guard of the Imperial City Division and galloped back to the capital.

Upon receiving the news, Yu Jiuzhou dispatched all the court officials to personally welcome her.

The person at the head was naturally Grand Secretary Gao Zheng. This gesture gave Chi Wan immense face and also showed everyone that the relationship between the Princess and the Fuma was genuinely good, not just for show.

The Grand Secretary leading all the court officials to personally welcome someone—apart from welcoming an emperor, this had rarely happened in the history of Great Zhou.

In reality, Yu Jiuzhou had wanted to come herself, but she worried she wouldn’t be able to control her longing and would lose her composure in public, so she sent Gao Zheng instead.

At the same time, she had Gao Zheng bring an imperial edict, stamped with the Imperial Seal.

Gao Zheng first led the officials to bow to Chi Wan. “We ministers welcome the Fuma’s triumphant return.”

Chi Wan nodded and said a few simple words, not saying much more. She was anxious to see Yu Jiuzhou at this moment and was in no mood for pleasantries.

But then Gao Zheng produced an imperial edict. “Fuma Chi Wan, receive the edict.”

Chi Wan was puzzled. What edict needed to be read now? It was just a waste of time. It would have been much better to read it after she and Yu Jiuzhou had had a good, tender reunion. Mainly, she couldn’t imagine what the edict could be about.

She already held high office and great wealth. Could there be any greater reward?

Puzzled as she was, the edict was issued by Yu Jiuzhou. After all, an edict from that false emperor, Prince Bao’an, couldn’t reach here.

Since it was Yu Jiuzhou’s edict, she would certainly obey.

Then Gao Zheng opened the edict. As usual, it began with a long string of praises, then affirmed her merits in repelling the enemy this time, and finally came to the main point: “Chi Wan is ennobled as Prince of Qin Yu.”

Among all princely titles, “Qin” was the most honored. Yu Jiuzhou’s own title was Qin, so she naturally wouldn’t grant “Qin” to someone else. The title granted to Chi Wan was that of a commandery prince. Her previous title was Shangyu, so the two were combined to create the title Prince of Qin Yu.

Wait, even titles had to be couple’s titles?

The corners of Chi Wan’s mouth were harder to suppress than an AK-47. She gladly accepted her ennoblement as a prince.

There was no precedent in Great Zhou for ennobling a living person of a different surname as a prince. There had only been one posthumous ennoblement. One could imagine Yu Jiuzhou fighting tooth and nail in the imperial court to secure this title for her.

Since Yu Jiuzhou had worked so hard for her, she had no reason to refuse. With a high position, she could do more.

If she were to decline at this moment, she would truly be letting down Yu Jiuzhou’s plans for her.

They were partners. Between partners, there should be a certain tacit understanding.

After receiving the edict, Chi Wan mounted her horse and said to Gao Zheng at her side, “Grand Secretary Gao, I am in a hurry to see Her Highness, so I won’t chat any longer. I’ll treat you to a meal another day.”

A meal with the Fuma? Gao Zheng shook his head repeatedly. Who didn’t know that when the Fuma invited Prince Bao’an to a meal, she nearly schemed him to death? The Fuma’s meals were not to be eaten lightly.

While he was shaking his head, Chi Wan had already ridden away from the city gate.

She was in such a hurry, spurring her horse all the way.

Perhaps knowing she would be anxious to see her, Yu Jiuzhou had long cleared a path from the city gate to the Princess’s Residence. The common people had no complaints.

The Fuma had won a great victory, halted the advance of the Beining army, and driven out the foreign enemy, protecting them.

The citizens of the capital stood on both sides, cheering and welcoming the triumphant Fuma. Someone shouted, “A thousand years to the Fuma!”

“A thousand years to the Fuma!!!”

She had just been ennobled as a prince, so she was worthy of being addressed as “Qiansui.” The citizens of the capital shouted in unison, their hearts stirred with excitement, welcoming the great hero’s victorious return.

The shouts reached the Princess’s Residence, and Yu Jiuzhou knew that she was about to see Chi Wan.

The sound of a horse’s neigh rang out, and Yu Jiuzhou shot to her feet. She had been sitting just inside the gate of the Princess’s Residence, which was why she could hear the cheers from outside so clearly.

Her Jinzhao was back…

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Footnotes:

1. Qiansui (千岁): Literally meaning “a thousand years,” this was a traditional honorific used to address or acclaim high-ranking nobles, particularly princes, empresses, or powerful regents in imperial China. It was a step below Wansui (万岁, “ten thousand years”), which was reserved exclusively for the emperor.

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