Still Alive
Bai Jingyan calmly lowered her eyes. A maidservant? Heading toward the Jin army's encampment? So Shen Qingzhu's movements had been exposed after all.
She lifted her head again and spoke slowly.
"Prince of Yan, what exactly are you saying? Apart from me, there are no women among those His Highness the Crown Prince brought. A maidservant of Xiliang has fled, and yet this is somehow on our Crown Prince's orders? Might it not be that a maidservant of Xiliang is making her way to where our Great Jin armies are garrisoned, to spy on our forces? Why don't you tell us, Prince of Yan — is that why you deliberately dragged out the peace talks?"
The Crown Prince, having listened to Li Zhijie without grasping his meaning, heard Bai Jingyan's words and concluded that Li Zhijie was simply stalling for time.
"Prince of Yan, what is the meaning of all this? Are you not the thief crying 'thief'? To hurl such slander — do you not wish for talks at all?"
"If she were truly a maidservant sent by the Prince of Yan, why would he raise the matter himself?"
Li Tianfu could hold her tongue no longer.
"Who can say? Xiliang attacked Great Jin and slaughtered its people, and yet every other word out of the Xiliang Princess's mouth was about how General Bai massacred Xiliang's surrendered troops. The Xiliang Princess herself cries 'catch the thief' while being the thief — why would others do any less than that?"
Liu Yushi gave a cold sneer.
"Minister Liu, negotiations are business between men. So do not go dragging our Xiliang Princess into this!"
Li Zhijie's face stiffened slightly.
"Then perhaps the Prince of Yan should rein in his own kingdom's Princess, who keeps picking quarrels in the middle of these talks."
Bai Jingyan's voice was utterly cold.
Because Liu Yushi was a man, Li Zhijie could toss out such shameless excuses to him, invoking the difference between men and women — but faced with Bai Jingyan, a woman, he had no choice but to nod.
"Your Highness the Crown Prince."
Li Zhijie raised a cupped-hand salute toward where the Crown Prince sat.
"Xiliang believes Great Jin sent a maidservant into the peace delegation, while Great Jin believes Xiliang sent a maidservant to spy upon it. Rather than argue the point, let us end today's talks here and resume our discussion tomorrow."
"Ah, so this is what the Prince of Yan truly wanted! Out of nowhere he starts prattling about maidservants — he only laid this trap because he wished to buy time. What is it, Prince of Yan? How do you intend to conduct negotiations tomorrow? Will you march your soldiers across the border?"
Bai Jingyan had to bind Li Zhijie to this place by any means necessary.
Li Zhijie's expression shifted faintly. He had no proof. Judging by Great Jin's momentum, it seemed they intended to pin him here today and force a solemn treaty out of him before letting him go.
"It has grown dark, so resuming the discussion tomorrow would be perfectly acceptable."
Li Zhijie turned to the Crown Prince with a smile.
"What is Your Highness's pleasure?"
The Crown Prince lifted his teacup, blew gently on it, and spoke.
"Was it not the Prince of Yan himself who set the hour for today's banquet? And now it is dark, and you say the hour is late? Prince of Yan — do I look so very idle to you?"
Li Zhijie fell silent.
Fine. Liu Chentuo is keeping watch; if anything goes wrong, he will report it.
Besides, Jin was the victor. Surely they would not disregard the eyes of every nation and slaughter the Prince of Yan and the Xiliang Princess here?
Jin would not do anything so obtuse. And even a cursory glance around the tent showed that not one among the Jin party come to negotiate was a fool.
The talks continued inside the tent.
The peace envoys of Xiliang and Jin raised their voices at each other, battling over advantage, haggling bitterly.
Half a li or so from the negotiation site, where the Great Jin army was garrisoned, bonfires swayed in the night.
Liu Chentuo had shadowed Shen Qingzhu cautiously for a long while, but upon spotting Jin sentries ahead, he gave up the pursuit. Still, the doubt in his chest would not be resolved.
Shen Qingzhu had made contact with Xiao Ruogang without a hitch, and had met Bai Jinchi as well. The moment Bai Jinchi heard that Bai Qingyun was still alive, emotion surged up in her and she wept aloud.
"Really? Ninth Brother is truly still alive?"
Shen Qingzhu nodded.
Bai Qingyun was the illegitimate son of Bai Qiyu, Bai Jinchi's father — her elder half-brother by a different line.
"Fourth Young Miss, first we must get the man out! We need to see General Shen Liangyu right away!"
Xiao Ruogang said.
When Bai Jinchi heard that Shen Qingzhu had orders to lead the Haoying Battalion to Chuishanguan and rescue him, she began to hurry at once. Without another word, she took Shen Qingzhu straight to Shen Liangyu.
Hearing that Bai Qingyun, the young general of the Bai clan, was still alive, Shen Liangyu was so stunned it felt as though even his hair had stood on end.
Shen Qingzhu had been the captain of Xiao Baishu's personal guard, sharing life and death with her through every campaign. He did not doubt a single word she said.
"I come bearing the Eldest Young Miss's orders. We must take the Haoying Battalion and rescue him!"
Shen Qingzhu spoke with a solemn face, her eyes as cold as frost-laden steel.
"But we must take him out without anyone knowing. Even after we rescue the Ninth Young Master, he must never be brought back to the Jin camp. Xiao Ruohai and I will escort him and see him safely settled in Fengcheng. General Shen, you will lead the men back to Youhua Road. Move with the utmost stealth! If you are discovered, tell them you went to Chuishanguan on the Eldest Young Miss's orders to observe the situation. Not a single word about this rescue operation may pass your lips."
Xiao Ruohai and the household agents were at Chuishanguan even now, clinging close to the convoy that would escort Bai Qingyun under Li Zhijie's guard.
Only moments ago, inside the peace tent, Bai Jingyan had confirmed that Li Zhijie had no intention whatsoever of dragging Bai Qingyun into the negotiations — only then had she sent Shen Qingzhu to lead the Haoying Battalion and retrieve him.
The years spent trailing at Bai Jingyan's side had worn their coordination smooth as a blade. Shen Qingzhu understood perfectly why Bai Jingyan had waited until she confirmed Li Zhijie's attitude toward the 'assassin's' life before giving the order. The Ninth Young Master could never be brought back to Youhua Road — because the Crown Prince must never learn he was alive.
Even leading the Haoying Battalion out had to be done without a trace. If the Crown Prince were to learn of the Haoying Battalion's movements even by accident, the Eldest Young Miss would find herself in a difficult position.
Since it was Bai Jingyan who had commanded Shen Qingzhu to take the Haoying Battalion and rescue the man, Shen Liangyu had no choice but to follow Shen Qingzhu's lead. He offered a fist-palm salute, handpicked some twenty elite soldiers of the Haoying Battalion, and slipped away with Shen Qingzhu, skirting every watching eye.
Xiao Ruogang did not accompany Shen Qingzhu. He had to remain behind to cover Shen Liangyu and the others — and there needed to be trusted people left at Bai Jingyan's side as well.
Still, when it came to rescuing a man, the more experts the better. He sent half the household agents under his command to Shen Qingzhu, and dispatched two more to Fengcheng with orders to fetch Physician Hong.
The Ninth Young Master had assassinated the Xiliang Emperor; he had surely been subjected to brutal punishment. A physician was needed.
In all this world, Xiao Ruogang knew of no physician greater than Physician Hong.
Liu Chentuo was alone on the southern side of the Jin army's garrison, and so never saw Shen Qingzhu and Shen Liangyu's party as they skirted the northern mountain path toward Chuishanguan.
Watching the bonfires blaze across the Jin camp, he thought back on the maidservant who had stolen into the Great Jin camp a short while ago.
Every maidservant who had accompanied the peace delegation was someone he himself had handpicked in Xiliang. He had seen that one before. She, too, had been a maidservant of his own choosing.
Could that maidservant have been a spy Jin had planted in Xiliang long ago? Then why had she suddenly surfaced and slipped into the Jin camp — and so carefully, shunning every eye as she went? No matter how he turned it over, he could not make sense of it.
Then, abruptly, Liu Chentuo's pupils contracted. Could it be — to rescue the son of the Bai family, imprisoned alive?
But was that even possible? The Prince of Yan and he had kept the Bai son hidden away. The man had never traveled with the peace delegation. Even if that maidservant were a spy, she could know nothing of the Bai son's existence!
The Bai clansman had carried out his assassination, been gravely wounded, and leapt from the city wall into the protective moat below. Everyone believed the assassin had died without leaving so much as a corpse behind. But Liu Chentuo had recognized the boy — who bore so striking a resemblance to Bai Weiting's third son, Bai Qiyu — and had secretly saved him. To put him to proper use later on.
Aside from himself and Li Zhijie, not a soul alive knew the assassin still breathed.
Liu Chentuo's thoughts tangled into knots. He could not shake the creeping unease, yet he could not name what troubled him.
Should he send word to the Prince of Yan to tighten the defenses further — in case someone might yet come for the Bai clansman?
Hiding behind a tree with the wind on his face, Liu Chentuo closed his eyes and slowly settled his heart.
Think back on the war between Bai Jingyan and Yun Paxing, and one could see just how brilliant her stratagems were. What if this entire affair was a snare Bai Jingyan had laid for the sole purpose of learning where the Bai clansman was held?
Liu Chentuo sank deep into thought. It seemed to him he would have to send men to lay out formations at Chuishanguan and guard the watchposts with far greater severity.
Having decided as much, Liu Chentuo returned to the site of the peace talks. He strode into the tent where the two sides were locked in ferocious verbal combat, leaned close to Li Zhijie's ear, and whispered.
Li Zhijie shook his head at him and gestured for him to sit at his side.
Having entered this tent, the Jin people would never let Liu Chentuo leave again — not until the negotiations had run their course.
Liu Chentuo gave a small start, then nodded and quietly took a seat behind Li Zhijie.
Li Tianfu did not spare him so much as a glance. Head lowered, she toyed endlessly with her handkerchief. She had drained cup after cup of tea in a short while, and listening to the peace envoys of the two nations shrieking until their throats split, her head felt ready to crack open.
The Empress of Xiliang had sent Li Zhijie to these negotiations and granted him sweeping authority. And she had given him one command above all: under no circumstances was war to be ignited again. If he judged Jin's terms acceptable, he was to accept them then and there in her name. Every envoy in the Xiliang delegation knew this.
The envoys of the two nations fought on until the final stretch of the hour of the Ox — past one in the morning — before at last arriving at a conclusion.
Xiliang would cede to Great Jin all twenty cities, including Chuishanguan, Zhongshan Fortress, and Bailong Fortress. From this day forward, the natural bulwark of Chuishanguan would belong wholly to Great Jin.
Xiliang was to pay reparations of roughly twice the military provisions and materiel Jin had expended in this war; to provide comfort money for the Great Jin army, and ten times the sum allotted to an ordinary Jin soldier for the Bai Family Army; and to bear the cost of erecting a mausoleum for the seventeenth son of the Bai family.
By this single treaty, Xiliang had been grievously wounded at the root.
Yet Xiliang had no choice but to end its external crisis in this manner. Only so could it buy the time needed to quell its internal strife — the time to properly settle accounts with those who refused to bow to the Empress, who nursed their grudges in the dark.
The envoys of both nations signed, and pressed their seals.
As the Crown Prince received the two nations' covenant, his face was full to bursting with good cheer.
"From this day on, our two nations end their war and live in peace. Before the Prince and the Princess return to Dadu together, I trust Xiliang will properly partition and hand over these twenty cities. Only then can our two nations truly lay down arms and stand as allies."
Li Zhijie grasped the Crown Prince's meaning precisely. He feared that Xiliang would drag its feet — and sooner or later wriggle out of its promise altogether. The Crown Prince of Jin struck him as excessively, almost absurdly timid. With Xiliang's internal strife not yet settled, where would it find the leisure to quibble over such things?
Were it not for the internal strife, Xiliang would never have needed to sue for peace at all. It would sooner have fought the war to its bitter end.
This thing called negotiation was, in the end, nothing more than the strong coercing the weak — Jin forcing a crippled Xiliang to its knees.
Stars glittered over Youhua Road and the heights of Chuishanguan. The cold night wind was crisp and clean. The moment she stepped out of the tent, a chill swept across her face, and for an instant her mind felt washed clear.
Bai Jingyan lifted her head, unable to help herself, and gazed up at the night sky sewn with stars.
Had Shen Qingzhu gotten him out?