Igniting a War
Bai Jingyan bowed respectfully before the Emperor.
"Your Majesty, I beg you to investigate the contents of the bamboo slip thoroughly. The military rations and supply carts never reached Fengcheng. For the sake of the honored spirits of the Bai family, I ask you to seek justice!"
As he watched the woman lower her body, her long hair spilling over her shoulders, the Emperor slowly closed his eyes. He had thoroughly buried any thought of killing Bai Jingyan.
*Yes. A woman as unyielding as Xiao Zhou... Let her live on in Xiao Zhou's stead.*
"The grain incident is connected to Marquis Zhongyong, Jin Deshao. Your second younger sister was married into the Marquis Zhongyong household not long ago..."
"Your Majesty, Jin Lang has already stepped down from his position as Crown Prince and left the Marquis Zhongyong estate. You yourself praised him as a model for the sons of noble families. The Bai family seeks only justice—we do not wish for our kin to be dragged into this as well."
"I will see the grain incident investigated in full detail."
The Emperor circled around the table, settled onto the throne with all his majesty, and gazed at Bai Jingyan for a long while before speaking.
"About what you said earlier. You claimed that if Great Jin demanded peace from Nanyan and Xiliang, the Rong and Di tribes and the state of Yang would pounce and try to seize whatever they could. It was a very important statement. I see discernment in you. If we refuse peace, the great armies of Xiliang and Nanyan will trample our borders; if we accept it, the Rong, Di, and Yang will lie in wait, watching for their moment..."
The Emperor fell silent and quietly waited for Bai Jingyan's answer.
Duke of Zhenguo Bai Weiting had never stinted in his praise of Bai Jingyan as a marvel among generals. The Emperor wanted to see her abilities for himself.
Bai Jingyan had originally intended to go to the Southern Border only after every matter was settled. And now, was the Emperor not placing that very opportunity right before her?
Her reasons for going to the Southern Border went beyond searching for the Bai family's survivors—above all, the root of the Bai family lay in the army.
A centipede may be cut to pieces, yet it does not topple without a final twitch. The army was the one thing the Bai family had most devoted itself to cultivating. A force that moved with utter devotion at a single command—no other household in Great Jin could achieve it.
After a moment's deliberation, Bai Jingyan bowed and answered.
"In the coming battle at the Southern Border, Great Jin must never retreat. We must not move according to the enemy's designs. If we cede land, pay reparations in gold and silver, and request peace while groveling in a lowly posture, Xiliang and Nanyan may withdraw for the moment. But if the Rong, Di, and Yang seize that opening and strike, we would find them just as difficult to shake off. However, if we achieve victory even in the wake of devastating loss, the world will learn that Great Jin's dignity remains beyond trespass."
"So what you are saying... is that you are confident we can win this war?"
Having thrown out the question, the Emperor lightly bit the tip of his tongue.
At the banquet held after Duke of Zhenguo Bai Weiting had crushed the state of Shu and returned in triumph, he had declared his granddaughter a born military prodigy. Back then, the Emperor had only smiled and made no reply. He had thought the old duke's words were an exaggeration. He had believed that while it was remarkable that a woman had beheaded Fang Pingguo, the great general of Shu, she must have owed far more to the help of others.
But now, recalling those words about a military prodigy, the Emperor remembered something else Bai Jingyan had once said—that Duke of Zhenguo Bai Weiting had called him an emperor of great ambition.
And then he remembered what he himself had once said to the Duke—that until the day his life ended, he would never again doubt him, even as he surrendered military power.
For a moment, regret flooded over him, and he slowly closed his eyes.
Regret... Having lost a loyal and capable minister, how could he not regret it?
The only thing he did not regret was the collapse of a minister's family that had amassed merit upon merit across generations, swelling to rival the throne itself. Nothing would ever again threaten his imperial authority. On that point, he refused to regret anything.
The ache that lightly scratched at his chest was nothing more than emptiness.
"Naturally, what matters is who marches out to fight this war."
Bai Jingyan, having read the Emperor's intent, lifted her head and gazed up at him upon that great height.
"It is easy enough to gain one brave soldier, but a general of true talent cannot be traded for a hundred thousand men."
The Emperor, reclining against a yellow cushion, clenched his fist.
"To devote our strength for the realm is only right. I will willingly set aside filial piety and give my whole heart in loyalty. If Your Majesty still trusts our Bai family, then I, Bai Jingyan, swear upon a hundred years of the Bai family's honor: if we cannot destroy those who have invaded our Great Jin, we will not give up until death takes us. But if Your Majesty cannot bring himself to trust our Bai family..."
The Emperor's eyes blazed as if lit by fire.
"And if I cannot trust you, what then?"
"Then Your Majesty... for the sake of Great Jin's people, please bear it—even if it means sending a prince along to oversee the campaign. The Bai family does not seek military glory. If we win this war, the rival states will fear Great Jin all the more, and that will grant Great Jin ample time to raise generals who can carry on. Your servant will return to the ancestral estate at Suyang and mourn for my grandfather, my father and uncles, and my brothers."
The Emperor's hand, which had been toying with the edge of the cushion, went still. Was she saying she would hand a general's military glory to the overseeing prince with her own two hands?
The Emperor pressed his lips together, then spoke again.
"You would surrender the glory? Would that truly sit easy with you?"
"Your Majesty, I believe I made myself perfectly clear at the palace banquet. The Bai family has never once sought military glory. What the Bai family has protected, generation after generation, at the cost of our very lives, is the peace of Great Jin and the safety of its people. The Bai Family Army cannot return alive until the foreign invaders who trespassed against our Great Jin are destroyed!"
The Emperor clenched his fist.
*They will never return until the invaders are destroyed.*
Even having lost a capable general, even having watched every man of the Bai family die, the Emperor had felt only sorrow, never regret. But now, his heart had shifted considerably.
It felt as though a scorpion had sunk its fangs into his heart.
In the past, the Emperor had promised never to doubt the Duke again. And yet he had doubted him.
But regret was a luxury he could not afford. The Duke's merit had been too great, and the Emperor could never permit the realm of Great Jin—the realm of the Li family—to crumble in his hands. Only then could he face the ancestors of the Li clan without shame.
Even a wrongful death must leave no thread of possibility behind. His judgment had been right. Once he sat upon the throne, his judgment *had* to be right.
The Emperor's fingers seemed to tremble faintly. After a long silence, a subdued voice came.
"Go to the side hall and bring your grandmother home. I require time to think."
Bai Jingyan bowed and withdrew from the great hall. Her grandmother was waiting for her at the doors.
The two looked at each other with reddened eyes, then, supporting one another, walked out of the palace in silence.
"You... did you press His Majesty so that you could start a war with all your strength, to force him to kill King Xin? And that is why you offered to go to the Southern Border yourself?"
The Grand Princess's fingers were cold as ice.
"It is not that I want a war. This is a war that cannot be avoided. I did not say those things to frighten His Majesty. Every word was true."
"To protect the realm of Great Jin, and to guard the peace of its people."
The Grand Princess murmured the words softly, gripping Bai Jingyan's hand tight.
"You and your grandfather... how very much alike you are!"
Bai Jingyan lowered her head and stared at the ground. She felt a dull, weightless hollowness.
No—she was different from her grandfather.
Her grandfather had been a true gentleman. She was not.
Ever since her rebirth, she had become a petty soul—crying out righteousness and virtue with her lips while her marrow brimmed with nothing but self-interest.
Her reason for going to the Southern Border was not solely for the people of the realm and the nation. It was true that the suffering of the border folk pained her. But the deeper reasons were to find siblings who might still be alive, and to gather the scattered strength of the Bai Family Army.
Having marched to war since childhood, Bai Jingyan understood better than anyone what military power truly meant.
In the past, her grandfather had held the military authority of Great Jin, yet had always bowed and obeyed the Emperor's every command.
Others had laughed at him for being stiff and old-fashioned, but Bai Jingyan knew well that her grandfather possessed the rarest spirit of honor this era had ever seen.
But she was no gentleman.
In chaotic times, it was the strong who commanded the most respect.
Let her be base if she must; let her posture as a moral paragon and play the hypocrite if she must. Even if it meant wielding the cunning tricks of a petty man, if she could protect the Bai family's peace and the people's safety—if she could seat a capable ruler upon the throne of Great Jin—she would gladly become that petty man!
After a long while, the Grand Princess asked in a trembling voice.
"Your grandfather... did he truly say His Majesty was an emperor of great ambition?"
Bai Jingyan replied with a cold smile.
"Do you think, Grandmother, that today's Emperor is such a man?"
At the start, she had let those harsh words fly—but when she had recovered her composure, she had deliberately added a little more to her grandfather's words, just so the Emperor would feel the sting of his own vanity.
If the Emperor had any sense of shame, if he was capable of self-reflection, then he would know perfectly well whether he was truly a man who harbored great ambition in his chest.
The Grand Princess slowly closed her eyes. Only then did her heart settle. She no longer worried for her granddaughter.
*The student surpasses the master.* The granddaughter she had taught and raised had grown greater than herself. She judged the moment and the tide of circumstance with precision, steering every situation to her advantage. Truth and falsehood, illusion and reality—she handled them all exquisitely. She had done so very, very well!
The Grand Princess clasped her granddaughter's hand. A smile touched her lips, but she could not hide the desolation and sorrow beneath it.
"Aiyan, you have grown up. You have grown far beyond what this old woman dared hope. Now I can go to the temple in peace to devote myself to contemplation. You will keep the mourning rites for your grandfather, and for the honored spirits of the Bai family."
She hoped that somehow, it might make amends—a little—for the debts she owed her husband, her son, and her grandsons.
As the Grand Princess of Great Jin, she had fulfilled her duty.
But as a wife, as a mother and grandmother, she had always been forced to leave a thread of regret behind.
That she had been able to pour her whole heart only into Xiao Zhou and Aiyan was, perhaps, precisely because they were women. Believing that women could never threaten the dynasty and ancestral altars of the Li clan, she had lavished every ounce of her love upon this daughter and granddaughter.
Was it the caprice of fate? When Xiao Zhou died, Bai Weiting made a great resolve and took his granddaughter to the battlefield so she might gain experience. Yet that very decision was what gave his most beloved granddaughter the strength to stand against the imperial house.
To serve the realm is an unavoidable duty; even at the cost of forsaking filial piety, one must give one's all in loyalty.
The Grand Princess, recalling the proud words her granddaughter had flung down in the great hall, guessed the reason Bai Jingyan wished to go to the Southern Border. She understood that the army was the very root of the Bai family.
All she could do now was pray in silence—that her granddaughter's hunger for power was not meant to topple the Li dynasty, but only to protect the Bai family.
By the time they emerged from Wude Gate, the Bai household servants were already waiting at the entrance with the carriages.
Bai Jingyan bowed to the people who had come with her, telling them that the Emperor had promised to restore justice for the Bai family. Outside Wude Gate, cheers rose without end.
"Thank you, all of you. I will carve this kindness deep into my heart."
Bai Jingyan bowed once more to the people who had stepped forward, offering to take the flogging in her stead.
As Bai Jingyan helped the Grand Princess into the carriage, her eye caught Zhen Xiangzhi standing at the far edge of the crowd, a bundle on his back. He raised a cupped-hand salute to Bai Jingyan, then departed into the distance.
"Big sister, who are you looking at?"
Bai Jindong, steadying Bai Jingyan's arm, followed her gaze toward the far road, a faint shadow of wondering crossing her face.
"It's nothing."
Bai Jingyan bent down and stepped into the carriage.