Enemy at the Gates
Gu Jiuqing held the carriage curtain with one hand, his body still bent forward, frozen at the carriage door.
“You two…”
He was somewhat dazed.
A completely unexpected scene had assembled before his eyes.
Tangxi Zhui, who should have died long ago, was lively and energetic before him, his clothes disheveled, his right shoulder half-exposed.
Pei Yanci, who had just been telling him he would stand by his side in the future, had turned around to tear open someone else’s clothing.
Right in the carriage, unable to wait even for the short journey from the tavern to the mansion.
Was this still the Pei Yanci he knew?
Pei Yanci glanced outward, saw it was him, laughed once, curled his index finger, and indifferently used his fingertip to wipe away the moisture at the corner of his lips. He raised an eyebrow, his eyelids lifting lazily with a half-smile.
“What, want to join in?”
A surge of blood rushed straight to Gu Jiuqing’s head, veins bulging on the back of his hand. With a forceful tug, he tore down the entire carriage curtain.
“You… you two… shameless!”
The coachman and several young servants by the carriage had long since stood together with Wushu by the roadside, not daring to speak.
Pei Yanci reached out to block the flying curtain, covering Tangxi Zhui with it, completely turning his body toward the outside, blocking the face of the person behind him.
“What brings Your Highness here? Even if this subject is shameless, it shouldn’t offend Your Highness’s eyes, should it?” Pei Yanci said. “This subject doesn’t have Your Highness’s ice-pure jade purity, self-restraint and abstinence, clean and virtuous conduct. What’s wrong with playing with one or two catamites?”
Gu Jiuqing laughed coldly. “You call the illustrious Nine-Thousand-Years a catamite?”
Tangxi Zhui’s upper body slowly slid down from the inner wall of the carriage, lying on his side hiding in the thin shadow. One hand silently reached out from behind Pei Yanci, hooking around his waist.
Hearing these words, he no longer hid. His long straight black hair sprawled across the ground as a bewitchingly beautiful face emerged from the gap between his narrow waist and the carriage. His large, narrow eyes faintly glowed with purple light.
The corners of his mouth still carried the moisture from Pei Yanci’s earlier sucking. His crimson tongue tip licked across, looking provocatively at the person backlit in the doorway.
Gu Jiuqing trembled with anger throughout his entire body.
“You’re Tangxi Zhui’s person?” He struggled to calm his emotions, asking in a hoarse voice.
Given the current scene, this was a pointless question.
But he was unwilling to accept it.
Who understood his unwillingness?
“When did this start?” His eyes were full of jealous resentment as he looked at the two, wishing he could drag out the fox spirit behind him and flay him alive.
“When Your Highness planned to put me and Wuli to death.” Pei Yanci lazily leaned back, his back pillowed against Tangxi Zhui’s robust body. His porcelain-white fingers tinged with pink picked up the black hair trailing on the ground, winding it around his fingertips to play with slowly.
“You already wanted my life, so what, you won’t allow me to seek another way to survive?”
Gu Jiuqing looked at his innocent expression, his heart filled with bleak desolation. “You said… you said you were worthy of this prince’s trust… that you would help this prince, forever stand behind this prince, and relieve this prince’s worries.”
His voice trembled in the night wind, scattered and discordant.
He felt like a ridiculous clown. How laughable.
“And now, you risk great danger to help a eunuch fake his death and escape, even… even engage in pleasure with him?”
His gaze suddenly turned cold and sharp, mixed with infinite hatred.
“Pei Yanci, how can you be so shameless.”
Tangxi Zhui behind him immediately sat up.
A powerful, suffocating aura pressed down on Gu Jiuqing until his bones ached, making him almost want to instinctively flee.
He was unwilling to accept this.
His hand gripped the edge of the carriage frame like an enraged lion, his gaze fixed intently on them.
Suddenly, a gentle smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
“Yanci, come here, come to my side. I can overlook your crime of harboring a serious criminal.”
Pei Yanci raised his eyes. “And if I don’t?”
“You know that I now know Tangxi Zhui is still alive. You don’t want him to truly die, do you?” He threatened lightly.
“If you’re willing to come to my side, I’ll allow him to continue living wretchedly for a while. As for how long he can live, that depends on your performance.”
Pei Yanci’s hand paused, slowly releasing the wound black hair.
“What if I refuse?”
“This is Anjing, at the feet of the Son of Heaven. This prince is the Crown Prince.” He resumed his commanding presence. “Do you think you can escape? Be obedient, don’t do anything foolish.”
Pale white fingers lightly covered his lips as sinister laughter rang out from the dim darkness.
The red lanterns under the eaves by the street swayed left and right in the wind, the firelight flickering, only vaguely outlining the silhouettes of two people nestled together in the carriage.
“The Crown Prince is as arrogant as ever.”
“You have no say in this.”
“Such great imperial authority, this lord is truly frightened.” Tangxi Zhui smiled seductively, embracing Pei Yanci’s waist from behind, his chin resting on his shoulder. “Your Highness, this lord has yet to settle accounts with you for framing me and sending me to prison.”
“Stop wasting words with him.” Pei Yanci urged.
He had originally planned to keep deceiving Gu Jiuqing for a while longer, but since they were exposed tonight, there was nothing more to say.
He had clearly sent Gu Jiuqing away first, yet they still encountered each other.
How could he have known that after Gu Jiuqing drank the sobering soup in the carriage, his mind cleared. Remembering that Pei Yanci had drunk quite a bit tonight, he worried and came back to find him.
“Your Highness, if you have the ability, arrest us tonight. If not, get out of the way.” They had been arguing here for so long without any action—purely wasting time.
He pulled Tangxi Zhui’s hand, about to exit the carriage.
“Did this prince give you permission to leave?” Gu Jiuqing’s gaze was sinister as he looked at the two, blocking the doorway.
Pei Yanci also lost his temper and pushed him down from the carriage.
“Gu Jiuqing, let me ask you—am I not just a chess piece you can discard at any time? A lowly slave whose life you can take whenever you please?” He stood in the carriage, looking down at him with a mocking smile. “Isn’t that right, Your Highness? If not for our later interactions, this is how you viewed me, how you viewed everyone except yourself. Even your method of winning me over was to bestow the status of a male concubine. You say you like me, but in your heart you look down on me, thinking I’m not worthy. And now you’re putting on this act of being tragically betrayed by your beloved, of misplaced deep affection? Even the puppets in the theater have more feeling than you. Are you trying to disgust me or yourself?”
Gu Jiuqing was pushed until he sat heavily on the ground, his appearance wretched.
“Between you and me, there has always been mostly false sentiment. There has never been any so-called mutual trust. You are heartless and ungrateful—why must others give you genuine sincerity?”
“I…”
He wanted to say something, but before those eyes that could see everything clearly, all his words seemed pale and powerless, as laughable as he was at this moment.
Such a clever person—where did he get the idea that he could toy with his feelings and make him work himself to death?
Seeing the two about to leave, Gu Jiuqing struggled, wanting to get up, but could only watch helplessly as they disappeared into the night.
The Crown Prince stared hatefully at their retreating figures, his eyes filled with jealous resentment.
“Your Highness, Your Highness! Are you alright!”
Yunsheng emerged from the dark alley and helped his master up.
“Where the hell were you just now!” Gu Jiuqing raised his hand and slapped him.
When the Crown Prince traveled, there were proper ceremonies. Because today was a small banquet for a private meeting with subjects, he only brought Yunsheng and seven or eight young servants. Even if the hidden guards didn’t act, he could still take Pei Yanci and the other away.
But from beginning to end, not only were the servants by his carriage nowhere to be seen, the hidden guards also made no movement.
“Your Highness, you wrong this servant. This servant and the others just believed the words of that young servant beside Pei Yanci and went to a dark alley, but only heard a few screams. This servant barely escaped with his life.”
Gu Jiuqing rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Send urgent orders to the Northern Yamen Imperial Army and the Jinwu Guards—martial law throughout the city, surround the Pei residence, don’t let even a castrated fly escape!”
“Your Highness, you know about it?” Yun Sheng said in panic.
Earlier, Yunsheng and the others stood far away. This was an area where high officials and nobles lived, very secluded with dim lighting. Had they also seen Tangxi Zhui in the carriage?
“You knew about the outrageous thing Pei Yanci did?” Gu Jiuqing grew even more furious.
That eunuch was also involved?
Sure enough, eunuchs all collude with each other—not one good thing among them!
“It’s not about Pei Yanci.” Right now, even if there was a great grudge, it could only be set aside. He said urgently, “This servant just heard people shouting that Great Xi’s hundred thousand troops have reached the outskirts of Anjing City!”
Gu Jiuqing froze.
****
Pei Yanci had originally planned to look for Wushu, but the child came running back on his own.
“Where did you go just now? Did the Crown Prince’s people give you any trouble?”
Wushu shook his head. “Big Brother, don’t worry. I made them go far away and didn’t let anyone see that sister-in-law was also in the carriage.”
As for whether they could come back, that was a matter for the Elu Bureau guards.
“Big Brother, the next street over is in chaos. They’re saying enemy troops are attacking!”
“Enemy troops?” Pei Yanci was puzzled and was about to ask more when a commotion rose from the distance on the quiet street.
“Great Xi is attacking! Great Xi is attacking! You all better flee for your lives!”
A group of common people scattered in panic. Several people saw the three standing to the side and said agitatedly.
Pei Yanci frowned. “How could this be so sudden? The Elu Bureau had no intelligence at all?”
“It’s fine. They should still be outside the city, they haven’t attacked yet.” Tangxi Zhui patted the hand on his arm reassuringly.
“Do you know something? Or is it…” He looked suspiciously at the person beside him, feeling a chill.
Tangxi Zhui had deliberately concealed this matter.
Tangxi Zhui shook his head blankly. “Just a guess. If Great Xi had already begun the siege, there would be sounds of fighting from all directions right now. It couldn’t be just a few common people running about in panic.”
“The Elu Bureau also didn’t inform you of this?”
“The secret report was only delivered this afternoon.” Tangxi Zhui said. “More than a dozen guards were lost.”
“Let’s return to the residence first. The palace must have received the news as well.” Pei Yanci said.
Sure enough, just as they reached the gate of the Pei residence, they saw Li Ren’an anxiously pacing in circles. When he saw Pei Yanci arrive, without a word he sent him onto a carriage bound for the palace, not letting Pei Yanci’s feet touch his own home’s ground.
With enemy troops at the city gates, imminent danger at hand, logically Li Ren’an, as an attendant close to the Son of Heaven, should have gone to find the military generals in Anjing. How could he personally come looking for him?
Clearly he had underestimated this mystical emperor’s degree of superstition.
“Pei Qing, please help Zhen divine whether Zhen can turn danger into safety this time?” the Emperor asked anxiously.
Gu Yueqian, seated leisurely to the side, glanced at the two in surprise, then resumed her indifferent and unconcerned expression.
Her left cheek was swollen high, bearing the red mark of a slap in a wretched state.
As soon as news of Great Xi’s troops reaching the outskirts of Anjing City reached the palace, she had been summoned to the palace, questioned and reprimanded, then placed under house arrest.
Pei Yanci ignored her surprised gaze and asked, “How many soldiers and how many military generals are currently in Anjing City?”
The Emperor treated him as the reincarnation of someone from the future who had possessed the present, but he himself was not. How could he divine such a thing?
“Cui Ya! Peng Chulang!” The Emperor called for those waiting outside the hall.
Both Cui Ya and Peng Chulang were very tense.
Cui Ya had never seen such a situation before. His voice trembled slightly, but he still made an effort to overcome it and said, “Your Majesty, the Southern Yamen’s Sixteen Guards total forty-eight thousand men.”
“So few?” The Emperor slammed the table in anger. “Isn’t the quota one hundred thousand!”
Cui Ya hadn’t expected this matter to come to light in such a manner, but at this point he could no longer conceal it. “Those soldiers from the Military Command Offices who came to Anjing for guard duty were all mocked by the Northern Yamen people and other regional troops. Since this subject took charge, the soldiers rotating in for garrison duty have actually been at this number.”
The Southern Yamen Imperial Guards being ostracized was done by the Northern Yamen people. Before he took charge, the one commanding the troops had always been Zheng Qinglai. What did it have to do with him?
“My Northern Yamen Imperial Army has had no contact with your Southern Yamen. Don’t you dare slander us!” Peng Chulang’s eyes widened like saucers. “Why don’t you explain where the salaries for one hundred thousand men went when there are actually only forty-eight thousand people—whose pockets did the remaining fifty-two thousand men’s salaries go into!”
When soldiers from the Military Command Offices entered the capital for garrison duty, their salaries all came from the central court. When their rotation ended and they returned to the Military Command Offices, their salaries came from the Military Command Offices.
The salaries for over five thousand men was no small sum.
Cui Ya swallowed with difficulty, then suddenly erupted in anger. “Is now the time to explain this matter? It can’t be explained clearly in just a few words. Let’s wait until the Great Xi enemy troops have retreated, and I’ll give you whatever explanation you want!”
He turned and bowed. “Your Majesty, what’s urgent now is exactly how many troops we have to resist the foreign enemy, and how long before regional forces can return to aid Anjing.”
Peng Chulang looked at him with disdain and said, “The Northern Yamen has thirty thousand troops. But…”
As he spoke, his face also showed bitterness.
“Most are good-for-nothing sons who have learned nothing useful. If they face the enemy head-on, I’m afraid they’ll be completely useless and will instead damage morale.”
This was also something he couldn’t change. The forebears of the Northern Yamen’s hereditary troops had followed the Taizu Emperor on his southern campaigns and northern expeditions—all of them meritorious subjects. But generation after generation of sons inheriting from fathers, their will had long been worn away, leaving only a bunch of wine sacks and rice bags. Officers from common backgrounds were often ostracized by them instead.
The Emperor’s expression was grave. How could he not know what sort of goods those were?
Pei Yanci said, “Your Majesty, this subject has an idea. We can have General Peng lead the Southern Yamen Imperial Guards out of the city to resist the enemy, while the Northern Yamen Imperial Army guards Your Majesty. If things go badly… they can also protect Your Majesty’s safety and allow Your Majesty to exit the city safely. Your Majesty’s safety is of paramount importance!”