Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Huang Song was not stupid. He could understand the implicit meaning of Feng Jue’s words.
However, he was really unwilling to accept it!
Since childhood, he knew how humble his identity as the descendant of a eunuch was. The people he wanted to make friends with looked down on him. The people he despised wanted to tear him apart instead. The obsessive desire to be recognized had penetrated deep into his bones. How could he make everyone acknowledge and praise him highly?
He could only achieve that by becoming a capable minister at times of peace and prosperity and the pillar of the country.
Huang Song was still working towards his goal. With his efforts in rescuing people’s lives in the earthquake, he was promoted quickly and became the young talent the Emperor valued the most. He was already a colonel at a young age, but the cruel reality did not give him the chance to advance further.
Should he choose to continue to be patriotic and loyal to the throne, or should he choose to protect his life and the lives of his family?
Feng Jue gave him the best advice. It would depend on how Huang Song make his choice.
After a while, holding on to the last trace of hope, Huang Song asked Feng Jue with a hoarse voice, “What if… I write a letter to inform His Majesty in secret and pretend to agree to Prince Changshou’s solicitation and come up with a plan to stab Prince Changshou in the back? What do you think?”
With a look of indifference, Feng Jue dampened Huang Song’s hopes, landing a huge blow.
“First of all, Prince Changshou won’t believe that you’re crossing over to his side sincerely. Even if he believes it, he’ll always guard against you, not to mention that he has many strategists who may even use this as a chance to breach Chenzhou’s line of defense. You won’t be able to explain yourself at that time.”
Feng Jue took a breath and continued. “Furthermore, the Emperor is narrow-minded and suspicious. Do you think that he’ll believe that you’re just pretending to cross over to Prince Changshou’s side? If you tell Him that, He’ll probably be even more suspicious of you having the intention to revolt. Your entire family will be implicated.”
As he finished speaking, he looked at Huang Song calmly, waiting for him to be completely clear-headed.
In the end, no matter who won or lost, the world was already a complete mess. Only saints could turn the tide.
Was Huang Song a saint?
He was not!
Therefore, he could only do what was simplest, which was to protect himself, find ways to make himself stronger and strive to have a place in the troubled times, so as to protect the people and accomplish more good. Huang Song was still too inexperienced and weak now. He had to be more ruthless.
After a while, the look of agony and conflict on Huang Song’s face subsided. Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, he made up his mind.
“I got it. I’ll write a letter to inform the Emperor now. I’ll retreat for the sake of advancing and look for a place to settle down… Thank you, Huaijie.”
Huang Song’s choice was in accordance with Feng Jue’s expectation. Compared to his ambition of bringing peace and stability to the country, Huang Song cherished his own life more.
Being pushed up against the wall by Prince Changshou’s deadly trap, Huang Song had to find a way to escape in the ensuing chaos and look for a chance to get his revenge in the future.
While there was life, there was hope.
After making up his mind, Huang Song wrote a letter and sent it in secret to the palace. It almost arrived at the Emperor’s desk with another secret letter at the same time.
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It was as if the Emperor was schizophrenic. He was gentle and careful towards Guifei Huijun, but He frequently flew into a terrible rage towards the others. He might kill someone with His sword if He was unhappy. Everyone found themselves in danger and the aristocrats did not dare to talk about politics openly.
There were some courtiers who initially criticized Guifei Huijun’s presence in the front hall. Now, they feared that they would be in extreme danger without her presence.
If Guifei Huijun was present, even if the Emperor was furious, He would only hurl something and pull a long face. They would suffer a little, but their lives were not threatened.
If Guifei Huijun was absent, haha. They had to be careful. They were absolutely blessed by their ancestors if they could walk out of the front hall unscathed.
Guifei Huijun said that she was unwell, so she did not accompany the Emperor.
His personal secretary served Him while quivering. After reading one of the secret letters, the Emperor was enraged. He pushed away the booklets that piled up like a mountain on the table. The nerves on His face were vaguely twitching. He looked as if He was in excruciating pain.
The Emperor stroked His head to suppress His splitting headache while gasping for breath at the same time. Everyone else was in great trepidation and did not dare to step forward.
Just when His secretary was contemplating if he should ask someone to go to Guifei Huijun for help, the Emperor picked up another secret letter. He opened the letter in an abnormally rough manner. As He read the letter, His knitted brows relaxed a little. An unusual look flickered in His eyes.
In the first letter, the spy informed against Prince Changshou for secretly soliciting Huang Song and reported on the long conversation that Huang Song had with his trusted aide in the tent.
The second letter was written by Huang Song. He talked about Prince Changshou’s wolfish ambition to sow discord between him and the Emperor through such a dirty move. He displayed his loyalty with sincerity and made an excuse saying that he was not in good health, so he probably could not share the Emperor’s trouble at the front line. He expressed that if the Emperor felt that he was a capable person, it would be better to transfer him to a remote place and let him continue to devote himself to the Emperor.
Had the second secret letter not arrived in time, the Emperor might have already ordered his trusted spy to kill Huang Song.
However, even if the letter came in time, the Emperor had His walls up against Huang Song. He could not help but suspect if Huang Song had accepted Prince Changshou’s generous remuneration and if he was no longer loyal towards Him. He wanted to find a reason to strip Huang Song of all the positions he was holding…
Now that Huang Song knew his place and volunteered to leave the front line, the Emperor was not that disgusted and suspicious instead.
He did not want others to think that He was heartless. Now that Huang Song took the initiative to give Him an out, He would just take it.
After writing this decree, He wrote another appointment letter to appoint Huang Song as the district magistrate of Diyang District in Maode County, Haozhou.
Due to His suspicion and Huang Song’s young age, He did not give Huang Song a rank that was very high. He only gave him the position of a district magistrate of a rather poor, remote and small district. If Huang Song performed well, He would promote him in the future.
Being one of the 21 counties in the six states of Dongqing, Haozhou was the poorest and most vulnerable place among the six states. Maode County was considered to be a relatively prosperous place in Haozhou. Diyang District in Maode County was one of the best places there. It could be regarded as an alternative compensation granted by the Emperor.
All of those were within Feng Jue’s expectations. He helped Huang Song to find a place to settle down by retreating for the sake of advancing.
When the two decrees had reached Huang Song, Jiang Pengji was already itching to begin a fight and preparing to take the troops out for war.
Although Xiangyang District was small, as many as 10,000 soldiers could be dispatched. Each and every one of them was harshly trained. Even though they were far from being the picked troops in Jiang Pengji’s mind, they were far better than the ‘soldiers’ who betrayed their comrades in times of hardship.
Jiang Pengji was dissatisfied, but the others were already perfectly content with it and had great expectations towards the army.
Xiangyang District was Jiang Pengji’s supreme headquarters. It was impossible for her to take everyone and everything with her when she wanted to conquer the entire territory of Fengyi County.
After some discussion, she made Feng Jin, Luo Yue and 4,000 troops and horses to stay behind to keep watch over Xiangyang District. She took everyone else with her.