Every One of Them a General
"The whole purpose of preparing such fine wine and delicious food today was to earn the goodwill of Great Jin. It seems an unpleasant incident has arisen despite my intentions!"
Li Zhijie was a man who knew how to bend his attitude to suit the moment. He took his seat and tapped his iron-ribbed fan lightly against his palm, then called for an attendant.
"Hurry! Reset General Bai's table and bring fresh wine and dishes! With a heart of apology, allow me to raise a cup to you all myself!"
Perhaps it was Li Zhijie's handsome looks and extraordinary presence — whatever the reason, when he changed his tune, the faces of the Jin envoys visibly brightened.
But Liu Yushi was not the sort to let things slide so easily. Seizing the opportunity to press the matter to the very end, he opened his mouth at once.
"An apology is enough! Bring out Xiliang's treaty of peace and alliance, and let us finish this business quickly!"
Since Xiliang was the one petitioning for peace, it was only right that Xiliang put forward the terms.
Peace negotiations were, by their nature, a bargaining table where each nation sought to gain even a little more or lose a little less — and the final decision was never an easy one. Still, the sooner the talks began, the sooner the war in the Southern Border could end.
Li Zhijie gave a nod and handed one bamboo slip each to the Crown Prince and to Liu Yushi, Vice Minister of the Court of Judicial Review.
"Xiliang will compensate Great Jin for its military expenditures with eight cities! The beauties, pearls, and jewels are already on their way — once the treaty of alliance is signed, they will be transported to Jin immediately."
Li Zhijie slowly summarized the contents of the peace accord aloud.
"Twenty-three cities. Not a single one fewer!"
Liu Yushi read the bamboo slip through in one breath, folded it, and set it aside — then drew an exquisitely made goatskin map from his sleeve.
The guard standing behind Liu Yushi produced brush and ink at once, and Liu Yushi raised the brush and marked every territory north of Xiliang's Donggu Mountain as Jin land. The guard presented the marked parchment to Li Zhijie.
"With Donggu Mountain as the boundary, all lands to the north — including Chuishanguan, Bailong City, Zhongshan City, and the rest — twenty-three cities in all — must be ceded to our Great Jin! Beyond the costs our great army has sunk into this campaign, Xiliang will also compensate the families of our fallen soldiers!"
Liu Yushi sat up with his back ramrod straight, his face contorting as he raised his voice.
"Furthermore, the several hundred thousand soldiers of the Bai Family Army are brave warriors in whom Great Jin takes pride. Their compensation must be ten times that of ordinary soldiers — and there is nothing further to discuss! And as General Bai has demanded, Xiliang will send twenty-three men across three generations of the Yun Paxing household, so that General Bai may behead and disembowel them as she pleases, in vengeance."
The demand to hand over twenty-three men across three generations of Yun Paxing's line was, in truth, merely an oblique way of telling Xiliang to offer up even more. Yun Paxing was Xiliang's Pillar State General. If Xiliang truly surrendered three generations of its men to be executed at Bai Jingyan's whim, the nation's dignity itself would collapse.
Besides, even if Xiliang actually sent them, Bai Jingyan could not truly put them to death. To do so would drag the Bai family's name through the mud.
As for Liu Yushi demanding tenfold compensation on behalf of the Bai Family Army — that was a point even Bai Jingyan had not thought of.
Li Zhijie lowered his eyes and stared at the map. The hand gripping his iron-ribbed fan had gone white with pressure. Yet he answered without losing his gentle smile.
"Don't you think Jin's demands are rather excessive?"
"Remember, Prince of Yan — have you forgotten who invaded Great Jin first? And now you claim our demands are too much? Did it not seem excessive when you invaded our lands and drove into Great Jin's borders?"
As the negotiating envoy of the victorious nation, Liu Yushi was riding high on momentum, his attitude thoroughly imperious.
"The Empress of Xiliang has only just ascended the throne — she has not even had time to warm her seat, and by all accounts, Xiliang's own territory is unstable at present! That Jin receives Xiliang's plea for peace at all is because our Emperor and Crown Prince possess merciful hearts. It is a chance for the Empress of Xiliang to catch her breath. If Xiliang cannot accept these terms, then our Great Jin would have no qualms whatsoever about stepping into the muddy waters of Xiliang ourselves."
Liu Yushi was a wily old scholar, but he knew Xiliang's internal affairs down to the last detail. Li Zhijie rapped his own hand lightly with his fan. His face still wore a mild smile, but fury was surging beneath it.
Jin had left Xiliang no room to maneuver at all. And yet not a single word Lord Liu had said was wrong. Xiliang had struck first at Jin, and now Xiliang was in such turmoil within that it could barely put out the fires in its own house.
Li Zhijie sank into deliberation. Should he offer up the surviving man of the Bai family as a condition? The only male left of the Bai line.
Li Zhijie thought of Liu Chentuo. He had once vowed to use the Bai family's man as bait to kill Bai Jingyan — and with that, to avenge Liu Chentuo's adoptive father, General Fang Pingguo.
He had made that pact with Liu Chentuo not merely out of the bond between them. He had believed Bai Jingyan would grow into an even greater threat than Bai Weiting had been.
And after seeing Bai Jingyan with his own eyes today, that conviction had only hardened. The killing aura she carried, and that formidable temper besides. Even General Yun Paxing had called her a commander — a nemesis — whose strategy left not a single flaw to exploit. If Xiliang and Great Jin went to war again in the future, Bai Jingyan would undoubtedly become Xiliang's greatest headache and most formidable foe.
Li Zhijie began to waver.
If he dragged the Bai family's man to the negotiating table as a condition, Xiliang would gain room to bargain with Great Jin — but would lose its chance to kill Bai Jingyan. If he refused to bring it to the table, Great Jin would certainly demand this thing and that, and more besides.
"To make demands this outrageous — are you not afraid that Xiliang will simply take its gold and jewels and go seek out the Rong and Di tribes, or the state of Liang, east of Great Jin? If the Rong and Di joined hands with Liang and marched on Jin together, Jin would gain nothing from it at all! And besides — as Lord Liu himself says, Jin must rely on General Bai. It's not as though the general knows the arts of self-division!"
Li Zhijie continued with a smile.
"Would it not be better for each side to take a single step back? Finish the peace talks, and let each of us live in peace?"
"You needn't worry yourself over Great Jin. Before we even came to these talks, our Emperor had already sent envoys to Liang and to the Rong and Di, sealing a pact of non-aggression with each of them — and that pact is still warm to the touch! Besides, Great Jin does not have only one General Bai!"
Smiling, Liu Yushi raised a hand and slowly turned his gaze so that Li Zhijie could see Zhang Danyue.
"This man is General Zhang Danyue — the one who turned a hundred and fifty thousand Xiliang troops into a porcupine at the Battle of Wengshan! Great Jin's great army also boasts the valiant Generals Zhen Zeping and Shi Panshan! And the Bai Family Army's General Cheng Yuanzhi, General Shen Kunyang, General Wei Zhaonian! You in Xiliang have surely heard those names until your ears grew calluses?"
A cold sneer of contempt curled at the corners of Liu Yushi's mouth.
"The Bai family alone proves it, does it not? In Great Jin's Bai family, besides General Bai Jingyan, the Fourth Young Miss Bai took the field alongside her and drove Xiliang's great army back in a rout! Ah — and the Bai family's Second and Third Young Misses, who have already seen the battlefield! Every one of them a master of strategy! They have inherited the iron spine of Bai Weiting, King of Zhenguo — living for their people, laying down their lives for their country, warriors who would not remove their armor even in death!
Prince of Yan. Did you truly believe that because Xiliang slaughtered the men of the Bai family, nothing would remain of it? You need only look at our General Bai to know otherwise! The women of the Bai family are all brilliant talents. Every last one of them is fit to be a general! And yet you worry that Great Jin will run out of people to send to war?"
Every time Liu Yushi spoke of the Bai Family Army and Bai Weiting, his expression and his voice were steeped in reverence.
Li Zhijie knew the Bai family of Great Jin's Zhenguo Duke Estate well. Sons and daughters alike — from the age of ten, every one of them had to take the field and earn their experience.
Liu Yushi's words might have been embellished, but the facts beneath them were facts.
He had heard that the Second Young Miss was already married off and could no longer take the field. But if he killed Bai Jingyan, he might instead provoke the Bai family of Jin all the more. What if several more figures like Bai Jingyan burst forth from the Bai household and fought Xiliang with the desperation of the doomed? Xiliang in its present state truly could not endure another war.
Li Zhijie looked at Bai Jingyan, her gaze cold as frost.
"General Yun is the Pillar State General of our Xiliang. Sending twenty-three men across three generations of the Yun household to General Bai is utterly impossible — so I ask General Bai for her understanding! However — as General Bai herself said, the means by which General Yun killed the seventeenth man of the Bai family were not without excess. Xiliang will pay compensation in silver so that a proper tomb may be raised for the young general. What say you, General Bai?"
Liu Yushi looked toward General Bai. It seemed he was asking for Bai Jingyan's will.
The men of the Bai family were all dead, and Bai Jingyan was the rightful eldest daughter of the house. This was the family's affair — her permission was required.
Bai Jingyan gave a single nod.
Only then did Liu Yushi speak again.
"Very well. Have the true cost of raising the tomb calculated properly, and Xiliang will compensate the Bai family in a single payment."
"Of course."
Li Zhijie nodded.
At those words, Li Tianfu felt a blaze of fury rise within her — but she swallowed it down, made no sound, and regarded Liu Yushi with a stony face. Then she lowered her head once more and stared at the blue bamboo leaves embroidered on her handkerchief.
Li Zhijie was right. Xiliang could no longer afford a war. She had blocked Li Zhijie's scheming to send her off to the Crown Prince's residence of Jin, and so her purpose had been achieved. It was time to strike and withdraw. If, heaven forbid, the talks between the two nations collapsed on her account, then while there might be no need for friendship, the Empress Mother would never forgive her.
What Li Tianfu had pursued her whole life was very simple: to avoid becoming the patronage of some prince or noble, to keep clear of the palace's poisonous games. She wanted nothing more than to live out her days in leisure and wealth — and to spend that life at Liu Chentuo's side. That was all.
The duty of a princess? Making Xiliang's bloodline into the rulers of another land? To Li Tianfu, none of it had anything to do with her.
While the discussion carried on at length, a Xiliang soldier came striding quickly into the barracks from outside. Covering his mouth with his hand, he leaned close to Li Zhijie's ear and murmured. Li Zhijie's eyes narrowed to slits; he waved the soldier aside, then spread the iron-ribbed fan in his hand and laughed softly.
"Crown Prince. We are holding peace talks here at this very moment, yet Your Highness saw fit to send a single maidservant into our negotiating tent. I am told she killed one of our Xiliang soldiers and fled in the direction where the Jin army is garrisoned. Might you explain the reason?"
The Xiliang soldier was a man Liu Chentuo had sent. The reason Liu Chentuo had not appeared at the talks himself was that he had been watching every move of Great Jin's great army from the high ground — lying in wait, prepared to kill Bai Jingyan.
But half an incense stick's time before, he had seen Shen Qingzhu slip out of the barracks, strip off a Xiliang maidservant's clothing, change into dark garments, and flee. Liu Chentuo had set a man on her to find out what was going on — and Shen Qingzhu had killed that soldier and made straight for the place where Great Jin's army was encamped.
Liu Chentuo, hidden where no eye could find him, could barely contain his astonishment. He had never known that a Jin agent was lurking within Xiliang's peace delegation.
She had been nothing more than an inconspicuous maidservant — yet her martial skill was superb, and at the crucial moment, when it came to taking a life, she had not hesitated for an instant.
Liu Chentuo had sent word to the Prince of Yan, told him to improvise his way through the talks, and ridden out alone in pursuit. He had to find out what, exactly, Jin was scheming.