SEHE Extra 1.2

Unification of the Realm (2)

Qi Lan’s prestige in Great Xi had crumbled entirely in the wake of the Fall of the Capital Incident and was impossible to rebuild. There was no returning to Great Xi. The previous dynasty’s Grand Princess had been manipulated by the vassal princes into becoming empress, then later dragged from the throne by those same vassal princes, and had been driven mad by the shock — she also needed Qi Lan to care for her.

Becoming a subject of Great Tao was his best possible future.

“Since Your Majesty places such trust in me, I will certainly not fail your expectations,” Qi Lan said sincerely.

Now was truly the time to make use of him.

“Zhen intends to dispatch a small squad to the capital to scout the surrounding area. You know the roads well — Zhen would like you to lead the squad,” Pei Yanci said.

“Very well.”

Several days later they arrived at Linhu City, and Qi Lan set off with a small contingent of soldiers.

On the evening of the third day, they successfully returned.

The next day, Pei Yanci ordered Jiang Yi to have the troops surrounding the capital make ready for battle.

“You want to go onto the battlefield yourself? Absolutely not.” Jiang Yi flatly refused. “Do you know what your position is right now — Emperor! If anything happens to you, can I still keep this head of mine? I have a wife at home waiting for me! I cannot let the old Jiang line die out!”

Pei Yanci watched him slap the table, and slapped the table himself. “You know very well that Zhen is the Emperor — and you still have no sense of decorum! When you address yourself, you say ‘this subject’!”

Jiang Yi’s bluster immediately deflated somewhat.

He had forgotten that this man was already emperor.

“This subject is only concerned for Your Majesty’s sacred person,” he said, stiffening his neck.

“If Zhen does not come, how long will you all drag this out? Your wife will remarry and run off with someone else!”

“That’s not something to say carelessly,” Jiang Yi cried out.

“That cannot be said carelessly,” Pei Yanci said with a cold laugh, “but one can slap the table and shout in front of the reigning emperor?”

Jiang Yi’s spirit wilted further.

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

Outside the tent, the deputy generals heard the voices inside rising higher and higher in anger, and their hearts clenched.

“Our Grand General won’t be in trouble, will he?”

“He dared shout back at the emperor — that takes nerve.”

“We won’t really have to let someone who doesn’t know how to fight give us orders, will we? If something goes wrong, won’t we be the ones held accountable?”

“This emperor is far too young,” another deputy general said, shaking his head.

The others also felt a sense of unreality and began to question Pei Yanci’s ability to command in battle.

“Do you think there’s any chance he’s a puppet put in place by the Elu Bureau eunuchs?”

Come to think of it, that really did seem possible.

“Cough.” Jiang Yi walked up to them and gave each one a punch in the arm.

“Rashly discussing the Emperor’s rights and wrongs is a capital offense.”

“Yes, yes — we won’t say another word.”

“Watch yourselves — the two monitoring officers are still in the camp,” Jiang Yi warned.

The group was immediately seized with fear. Those eunuchs were absolutely everywhere.

The battle for the capital finally erupted.

On the evening of the eighth day of the eleventh month of Tangan’s first year, the Great Tao army that had maintained the siege for over two months launched its fourth assault on the city.

The imperial guards and garrison troops inside the capital had long been on guard, and had grown accustomed to these back-and-forth skirmishes great and small.

They assumed this time would be the same as before — a harassing rotation attack meant to give them no rest and exhaust their capacity to respond.

But very soon they heard a world-shaking, thunderous roar.

“An earthquake? Is this an earthquake?” The garrison commander panicked. There were no records in the capital’s history of earthquakes spanning hundreds of years.

Then more rumbling blasts like muffled thunder sounded — from the north gate, the east gate, the west gate — as though the entire city wall was on the verge of collapse.

“General, it’s bad! Holes large enough for a man to walk through have appeared at the base of the city walls, and a massive stream of enemy troops is pouring through!”

“Report — a great breach has appeared in the northern city wall! The north gate is about to fall!”

“Report — the east gate as well!”

“What divine power is this, to breach such thick and mighty walls?!” the commander murmured to himself, almost unable to believe it.

The soldiers who had been resisting for two months straight felt the conviction in their minds crumble in an instant, and their morale plummeted.

In sharp contrast, the Great Tao soldiers, who had been feinting and retreating, now swiftly and orderly regrouped.

At their head was Pei Yanci, clad in golden armor, raising his sword and calling out with a sweeping gesture:

“All soldiers of Great Tao, hear Zhen’s command — follow Zhen into the Great Xi capital! Unify the realm! Build your glory and merit!”

“CHARGE!”

The explosives squad led by Yu Sucheng slipped away from the main battlefield under the cover of the Great Tao army and Qi Lan, and sought shelter among the households inside the city.

The vanguard infantry had already used knives, shovels, and chisels to clear the breaches in the walls into larger openings. Two thousand cavalry poured in through the breaches on all four sides, followed closely by the musket corps.

Before the Great Xi soldiers could even make out what was happening, they heard one deafening report after another, and the men around them fell to the ground without an arrow having struck them, their breath forever stilled.

None of them had ever seen such a thing.

The vanguard infantry turned the wheels, and the ancient, heavy capital city gates let out a creaking groan — aged and reluctant — and swung open on either side.

On the plain beyond, tens of thousands of infantry poured into the capital in a dense mass, the battle cries endless and deafening.

By the time dawn broke in the small hours of morning, the Great Tao army had successfully taken the capital.

Pei Yanci stood atop the city wall as the very first ray of morning light illuminated his face, tracing the outline of a resolute and sharp-edged golden profile.

Behind him, the new emperor of Great Xi, along with all his ministers, imperial family, and royal clan, were bound and brought down one after another.

Before him, below the city on the open plain, his subjects cheered for him.

“Long live Great Tao! Long live the Emperor!”

In the spring of Tangan’s second year, the territory of Great Xi in its entirety was incorporated into Great Tao.

Since the final years of Great Wu, the realm that had been fragmented for over two hundred years was, at last, unified under the hands of this young sovereign. The realm returned to one heart, and ten thousand people submitted.

Never again would anyone dare question the ability and mettle of this emperor who had not yet reached his twentieth year.

On the day Great Xi surrendered, the entire nation erupted in celebration, and the streets were thronged with people.

Pei Yanci granted three days of imperial holiday leave, and every household hung red lanterns. Shrines bearing Pei’s likeness were set up on the family altars.

Xuanwei Palace and the entire imperial city were also decorated with lanterns and festive colors. The sound of phoenix flutes filled the air, jade cups glowed in the turning light, and through the night, fish and dragon lantern dancers performed without end.

When evening came at the first watch, Pei Yanci appeared atop the imperial city walls in his dragon robe, and the subjects below immediately erupted in cheers.

“Long live the Emperor!”

Qi Lan stood among the common people, watching the fireworks rise into the night sky, bursting into brilliant flowers of light that illuminated the face of the most exalted person in all the realm, standing atop the city gate.

Just as it had been that night in the capital.

The same fireworks. The same person.

Others saw only that gunpowder could make fireworks and be used to refine elixirs.

Only he had been able to turn everything to his own use — even something this beautiful.

He could not deny it.

He was always drawn to dangerous people and dangerous things.

Perhaps it had begun on the polo field, or in the shaded grounds beneath the green trees of the Imperial Academy, in the treacherous unknown when someone under his command had overturned a carriage and the man had spoken a word of concern, in the silence of their distant gazes across a throne stained with blood.

Or in this very moment.

Without knowing when it had happened, he had long since fallen in love with Pei Yanci — his heart set racing by him.

What a pity that beside Pei Yanci, there was no longer any place for himself.

Behind Pei Yanci, a sturdy figure silently drew close — standing a full half-head taller than him.

A hand sinuous and supple as though it held no bones gripped a thin cloak and, from behind, draped it over Pei Yanci’s shoulders.

Pei Yanci turned and looked back, meeting a pair of dark eyes filled with sullen reproach, and the corners of his mouth could not help but curl upward.

The fireworks bursting in the night sky lit up Tangxi Zhui’s beast-like dark eyes, and their reflected light shone in Pei Yanci’s gaze as well.

Beneath the cloak, Pei Yanci hooked his fingers around Tangxi Zhui’s cold ones, until their fingers were interlaced.