DLWAV CH40

Emperor Yuanxi asked, “What exactly happened?”

The messenger hurriedly explained the sequence of events in detail.

According to the rules of the previous dynasty, vassal states were required to send envoys to Great Yang to pay tribute every three years. Whenever it was the Emperor’s birthday, vassal states had to send special envoys to offer congratulations. If a king of a vassal state passed away, the new king had to be invested by a Great Yang envoy before he could inherit the throne.

After the Great Yang was established, it inherited these vassal states intact from the previous dynasty, along with these rules.

Unfortunately, a hundred years had passed, and while Great Yang was marching in place, the vassal states—untouched by the flames of war and developing over a century—had grown significantly in strength.

The result was that, gradually, these vassal states began to harbor disloyal thoughts.

At first, they only dared to fabricate various excuses to reduce the tribute they were supposed to pay. Later, the value of the tribute they offered was even lower than the value of the gifts the Imperial Court bestowed upon them in return. In the last decade or so, they had simply unilaterally cut off tribute altogether.

Among these vassal states, the most powerful was the Oirat (Wala). It was the Oirat who had taken the lead in cutting off tribute to Great Yang.

For some unknown reason, they came again this year.

But that was no longer important. What was important was that the envoy sent by the Oirat this year was the youngest son most favored by the Oirat Khan—the Little Prince.

They ran into Prince An’s entourage in Yunzhou.

Yunzhou was holding a grand spring festival at the time. At the request of the princesses, Prince An had ordered the carriage procession to stay in Yunzhou for a few extra days.

As a result, when the princesses went out for an excursion, they bumped right into the Oirat delegation.

The Oirat Little Prince took a fancy to the Fifth Princess, who had been separated from the others, at first glance. He repeatedly made lewd remarks to her and even openly attempted to abduct her back to the relay station.

Fortunately, the others arrived in time and rescued the Fifth Princess.

When Prince An learned of this, he immediately led troops to surround the relay station, captured the Oirat Little Prince, and right in front of the people of Yunzhou, punished him with thirty heavy strokes of the plank. He also executed all the Oirat soldiers who attempted to resist.

Before the messenger’s voice had even faded, the Fourth Prince impatiently spoke up: “Imperial Father, if the Oirat Khan learns that his most beloved son was killed by Old Eight, he will certainly not let this matter rest.”

“The Oirat claims to have two hundred thousand iron cavalry. If they use this as an excuse to collude with other vassal states to attack Great Yang together, Great Yang will stand no chance against them.”

“Imperial Father, this son proposes that we immediately dispatch envoys to the Oirat to appease the Khan and bestow heavy amounts of gold upon them. If necessary, perhaps we can send Prince An to the Oirat to plead guilty to the Khan, so they cannot use this incident to make trouble for Great Yang—”

Hearing this, Emperor Yuanxi’s face turned green.

The expressions of the officials present weren’t much better.

Setting aside the fact that Great Yang was the suzerain state and Oirat was the vassal; in this matter, it was clearly the Oirat Little Prince who offended the Fifth Princess first. Why should Great Yang apologize to the Oirat?

If they did that, where would Great Yang’s face be? Where was the dignity of the Imperial Court?

Most importantly, send Prince An personally to the Oirat to plead guilty?

Wasn’t that sending a sheep into a tiger’s mouth?

The Fourth Prince’s malicious intent to borrow a knife to kill a rival was self-evident.

However, they couldn’t openly condemn the Fourth Prince, because they had to admit there was some logic to his words.

Great Yang hadn’t fought a major war in sixty or seventy years. The current Great Yang might really not be a match for the Oirat and other nations.

Even if Great Yang won in the end, it would likely be a pyrrhic victory.

Could the Imperial Court bear such consequences?

But what if they sent Prince An away and the Oirat still refused to let it go?

So, what should they do now?

For a moment, the entire civil and military court was in a panic.

It was Emperor Yuanxi who calmed down first. “No. Prince An must not come to any harm!”

Leaving aside the fact that Prince An hadn’t done anything wrong in this matter, the most critical point was that Prince An’s existence concerned the future of Great Yang. He would never hand Prince An over to the Oirat.

The Fourth Prince looked incredulous. “Imperial Father—”

But soon, they no longer needed to argue about this matter.

Because at that very moment, another official rushed in. “Your Majesty! Your Majesty, terrible news—”

He was out of breath. “Prince An… Prince An left a letter saying that after learning of the Oirat Little Prince’s death, he was filled with regret and fear. In order not to implicate the Imperial Court or Great Yang, he has gone to the Oirat on his own accord to plead guilty to the Khan…”

What—

A gleam of excitement immediately shot from the Fourth Prince’s eyes.

He had thought that with Emperor Yuanxi’s support, taking down Prince An and the First Prince was impossible.

He didn’t expect that in the end, Prince An would play himself to death.

Success comes without any effort at all!

The First Prince’s face changed drastically.

Although he had begun to suspect Prince An of having dual loyalties, if Prince An really met with mishap, it would be absolutely detrimental to him right now. After all, Emperor Yuanxi’s current value of him was entirely built on the foundation of his value of Prince An.

Emperor Yuanxi’s eyes instantly turned red with anxiety. “Foolish! Isn’t he usually quite shrewd? How could he do something so muddled this time!”

The key ministers reacted immediately. “Your Majesty, the urgent task is to send people to chase Prince An back before he gets too far.”

Emperor Yuanxi snapped out of it. “Guards! Guards…”

Just then, the official finally managed to squeeze out the rest of his words: “Prince An didn’t leave Yunzhou alone. He left with thirty thousand soldiers from the Five Military Camps and fifty thousand prefecture troops from Yunzhou. And before leaving Yunzhou, he personally led the troops to slaughter every surviving Oirat envoy and soldier in the relay station.”

Emperor Yuanxi: “…”

The First Prince and Fourth Prince: “…”

The civil and military officials, who hadn’t yet had time to lament Prince An’s great benevolence and righteousness: “…”

You call that going to the Oirat to plead guilty?

But the surprises were far from over.

On the 20th of the 4th Month, Yuanxi Year 25:

Prince An cited the Oirat’s disrespect for the Great Yang Court and the Emperor—noting that over thirty years, they had reduced tribute twice, substituted inferior goods three times, and deliberately delayed tribute five times. Furthermore, the Oirat Prince had molested the Fifth Princess in the street and subsequently died of a sudden illness without the Court’s permission. With these grievances filed, he led an army of 80,000 to attack the Oirat.

On the 23rd of the 4th Month:

Prince An divided his 80,000 troops into two parts. One part, consisting of 70,000 men commanded by the Duke of Wei, Xia Jingyao, stationed itself at the Great Yang border.

The other part, 10,000 light cavalry commanded by Prince An, disguised themselves as a funeral procession. Feigning that the Oirat Little Prince had unfortunately died of illness within Great Yang territory and that the Court had ordered them to escort the body back, they demanded entry into Oirat territory.

Because the Oirat had not yet learned the truth, they allowed them to enter.

By the time the Oirat realized what was happening, Prince An had already led his army to approach the Oirat Royal Court.

On the 30th of the 4th Month:

The Oirat Royal Court was breached by Prince An’s forces. The Oirat Khan and all the princes stripped off their shirts (in a sign of submission) and surrendered.

That very night, the tent imprisoning the Oirat Khan and the nobility suddenly caught fire. The Khan and all the princes unfortunately perished in the flames.

On the 2nd of the 5th Month:

The Duke of Wei, Xia Jingyao, brought along 40,000 troops from the Divine Machine Battalion (Shenjiying) and 50,000 border troops from Zhaozhou—ostensibly to “support” but officially to “dissuade”—and coordinated with Prince An from the inside and outside. At the shores of Changyang Lake, they annihilated 100,000 of the Oirat’s main cavalry forces in one fell swoop and shot dead the Oirat “God of War,” Hebieqi.

With this, the Oirat nation was destroyed.

On the 10th of the 5th Month:

Prince An claimed that the Chongnan Kingdom and the Neimati Tribe had clearly received his transfer orders but refused to send troops to support Great Yang. Using this as a pretext, he launched attacks on both.

The Chongnan Kingdom swore not to surrender.

On the 15th of the 5th Month:

The Chongnan capital was breached. The King of Chongnan was captured alive. Prince An subsequently ordered him to be torn apart by five horses and his body abandoned in the wilderness.

On the 25th of the 5th Month:

The Khan of the Neimati Tribe passed his title to his younger brother and then burned himself to death in his royal court as an apology to Great Yang.

Upon learning this, Prince An finally withdrew his troops.

Receiving this news, the civil and military officials: “…”

Emperor Yuanxi: “…”

While they were still worrying that the Oirat would attack Great Yang upon learning of the Little Prince’s death, Prince An had decisively attacked first.

While they were worrying about what Great Yang would do if Prince An was defeated, Prince An had already breached the Oirat Royal Court.

While they were worrying about how to appease the other vassal states, Prince An had conveniently beaten two other restless vassals into submission.

Capable people really are arrogant. They really are amazing!!!

But who wouldn’t love this kind of arrogance!

For a time, the entire Great Yang was ecstatic. The streets and alleys of the capital were filled with tens of thousands of people praising Prince An’s achievements.

However, compared to Great Yang, the reaction of the other vassal states upon hearing this news could be described as mourning their own parents.

Especially when they learned that Prince An was leading his grand army toward them.

“Quick! Quickly dispatch envoys to welcome Prince An! Bring all the treasures from the treasury! Tell him we had a bountiful harvest this year, so we are prepared to pay double to make up for the tribute shortages of previous years.”

…

“Send the Crown Prince to Great Yang! Say that our country admires Great Yang’s culture and has resolved to send the Crown Prince to study there.”

Perhaps they hadn’t taken Great Yang seriously before, but now, they had no choice but to fear it.

After all, just two months ago, they were discussing with the Oirat how to force Great Yang to give up the grasslands for their horses—which was the main reason the Oirat had sent their Little Prince to pay tribute this time.

The result? In less than two months, the Oirat, the strongest among them, had been wiped out by Great Yang. The King of Chongnan had no bones left to bury, and the Khan of Neimati was forced to burn himself to death.

One had to realize that the strength of their nations wasn’t even up to par with Chongnan!

They didn’t want to follow in the footsteps of the Oirat, and certainly not Chongnan and Neimati—who were accused of disobeying an order they never received and then annihilated the next day.

Upon receiving these messages, Prince An happily ordered a withdrawal and returned to the court on the 15th of the 6th Month, Yuanxi Year 25.

“Good!”

It was unknown how many times Emperor Yuanxi had clapped and cheered during the grand court session.

“He is indeed worthy of being Prince An! Hahahahaha!”

“We originally thought that comparing Prince An to Sun Zhongmou* was an exaggeration.” (*Note: Sun Quan, a famous warlord/emperor of the Three Kingdoms period.)

“Now it seems, compared to Sun Zhongmou, my son is clearly stronger, not weaker.”

Hearing Emperor Yuanxi’s praise, a portion of the civil and military officials laughed along instantly.

“Prince An has great talent; we cannot even catch up to his dust.”

One can imagine how terrible the Fourth Prince’s face looked hearing this.

But it didn’t matter. Since Prince An liked the limelight so much, he would let him taste the feeling of cooking oil over a raging fire.

Thinking of this, he shot a glance at several of his confidants.

They immediately stepped forward and said, “Your Majesty, although Prince An has achieved great merit in this war, he deployed troops to attack the Oirat without asking the Court for instructions first. And the Yunzhou prefecture troops actually obeyed his deployment…”

“Your Majesty, to put it bluntly, if Prince An were to raise an army in rebellion in the future, would they also support him without hesitation?”

“Your Majesty, this trend must not be encouraged.”

“Your Majesty, Prince An now holds a full fifteen thousand troops in his hand. He is so unruly and arrogant—Your Majesty, the Capital must guard against this!”

…

Listening to them say sentence after sentence of “Prince An is treasonous” and “Beware of Prince An rebelling,” the First Prince and Emperor Yuanxi fell silent.

The First Prince was silent because he also felt Prince An’s reputation was too great, not to mention that Yunzhou and the other three prefectures now practically followed his lead alone.

Especially Yunzhou—he raised his arm, and fifty thousand militia moved just like that.

—He wanted an assistant, not a constraint.

Emperor Yuanxi just looked at them deeply, and then, in front of the entire civil and military court, simply said, “What you say seems to make sense.”

The eyes of the Fourth Prince and his group lit up instantly.

In their view, Emperor Yuanxi was clearly moved by their words and had developed a fear of Prince An.

This way, Emperor Yuanxi would certainly not trust Prince An as he did before. Would he still value the First Prince as he did before?

Absolutely not!

Emperor Yuanxi simply said, “Pass down Our decree: Strip Prince An of his princely rank (Wang) and order the Duke of Wei to escort him back to the capital.”

With that, he stood up directly and left.

It worked!

Seeing this, the surprise and joy in the Fourth Prince’s eyes could barely be concealed.

The First Prince was also very happy. In his view, if he could use this incident to beat Prince An into submission, that would be the best possible outcome.

Watching the high-spirited backs of the Fourth and First Princes, the key ministers of the court, walking behind the crowd after the session adjourned, sighed in unison.

“Do you think the First Prince and Fourth Prince have guessed the Emperor’s true intention?”

“Looking at them… they probably haven’t.”

Hearing this, the rest of them couldn’t help but shake their heads.

Although they didn’t approve of Emperor Yuanxi’s decision, they were powerless to refute it.

There was no helping it; the First Prince and Fourth Prince were simply too stupid!

Stupid beyond belief!

—According to Great Yang law, except for the Crown Prince, all other princes are titled as ‘Wang’ (Prince/King) upon reaching adulthood.

In other words, a prince who holds the title of ‘Wang’ has, by default, lost the right to become the Crown Prince.

But now, Prince An… no, the Eighth Prince, was no longer a ‘Wang’.

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