Chapter 543
Chapter 543
After about a month, all the spies had been cleanly eliminated. But was Gudu Huan’s month-long drilling in the single motion of striking truly just a performance for others to see? Of course not. First, though the weapons in their hands looked like wooden swords, they were in fact incredibly heavy, blunted lead swords. Moreover, they were switched out for heavier ones each day. By the last day of the month, the lead sword in each man’s hand weighed two hundred jin, a hundred kilograms, and they would only get heavier. When they marched onto a real battlefield, they would wield hundred-jin horse-slaying sabers forged from the finest steel. They were one-hundred-seventy-centimeter-long Mo Dao swords. Furthermore, every soldier would be clad in heavy steel plate armor.
That’s right. This was the equipment of the elite army from the Tang Dynasty that faced the Turkic cavalry. The Mo Dao troops! For a very long time in ancient Chinese history, cavalry was virtually invincible in battle. But after the emergence of the Mo Dao troops, the dream of crushing cavalry became a reality. In large-scale battles, these Mo Dao troops would display their might. Thousands of men, moving as one, would cleave their enemies in two. Even when pitted against elite cavalry, they would leave the horsemen stunned and terrified. In an age of warfare without gunpowder, the Mo Dao troops were like tanks, a moving great wall of steel.
Furthermore, the elite army under Shen Lang was composed entirely of men whose bloodlines had been modified. Their strength grew day by day, and their endurance became ever greater. They were a disciplined, loyal army with a soul. Compared to the Mo Dao troops of the Tang Dynasty, they were far stronger. Gudu Huan had them practice only a single striking motion, but in swordsmanship, it was always the case that mastering one thing allowed for the application of a hundred. He intended for them to practice this single strike to its absolute pinnacle, pushing the soldiers’ speed, power, and angle to their limits. On the battlefield, this simple method would be more than enough, rendering complex techniques unnecessary. A single swing of the blade would become a fatal art, reaping the lives of their enemies. Shen Lang’s heavily armored, supreme infantry was destined to appear on the battlefield and make the world tremble.
* * *
“I never thought the day would come when I would have to disguise myself as Su Nan.”
King Ning Yuanxian sighed incessantly. His hair, which had only been slightly gray, was now dyed mostly white. Not only that, but for a month, he had eaten only the blandest of foods, losing nearly ten jin, or five kilograms. With the addition of makeup, he looked twenty years older. He was in his fifties, but where he once looked to be in his thirties, he now appeared to be in his seventies.
But it couldn't be helped. The people of the world believed only what they wanted to believe. Whether commoner or courtier, everyone was convinced that Ning Yuanxian had suffered a stroke. Moreover, they believed that since it had happened in a woman’s bed, his days were numbered. A stroke, once it occurred, was highly likely to recur, and a second one was almost certainly fatal. At such a time, it would be useless for Ning Yuanxian to personally declare that he was fine. Since things had come to this, he decided to play the part of an extremely frail man. For the past month, he had not attended the morning court sessions, leaving the Crown Prince to oversee the state’s affairs. However, important matters still required Ning Yuanxian's personal approval.
“Hah!”
Ning Yuanxian set down the memorial in his hand. He no longer grew angry. If he let every little thing anger him, he would soon die of exhaustion. The people of the world, be they commoners or officials, were truly pragmatic. A few months ago, after annihilating Su Nan's rebel army and achieving victory in the Wu-Yue conflict, how majestic had Ning Yuanxian appeared? How his reputation had soared to its zenith!
But when did his reputation begin to fall? It started with the madman Lan and the ten beggars. At the time, Ning Yuanxian’s decision to allow them to participate in the civil and military examinations had caused an uproar throughout the capital. Every day, censors and officials alike had ferociously attacked Shen Lang, believing he was treating the imperial examinations like a child’s game. On the surface, they attacked Shen Lang, but in reality, the tip of their blade was aimed at the king.
And what was the result? The madman Lan passed the provincial exam with the highest honors, and all ten of his brothers passed the military examinations. The truth ultimately proved that the king was not a foolish ruler but possessed a discerning eye for talent. Ning Yuanxian had found it immensely satisfying to see all the others lose face. Yet, at that moment, his reputation had paradoxically worsened.
The civil and military officials, along with countless scholars, had lost face due to their own poor judgment, but they never cared for right or wrong in the first place. Because they had been proven wrong, they harbored even greater resentment toward King Ning Yuanxian in their hearts and came to view him with hostility. Of course, even if the scholars and officials of the realm were hostile toward Ning Yuanxian, they dared not act against him, but they could tarnish his reputation. Just as this was happening, Ning Yuanxian fell ill, and as if on cue, a flood of rumors erupted.
It was rumored that the king had suffered a stroke while on top of a woman, that he dallied with five women a day, draining his vitality until he finally collapsed. An even more outrageous rumor suggested that the king favored Shen Lang because of his handsome looks and that the two shared an unspeakable relationship.
It was an immutable truth through the ages that the sovereign and his subjects were eternal adversaries. If the subjects did not ridicule the sovereign, the sovereign would ridicule the subjects. Of course, it was far more common for them to ridicule each other. During the Ming Dynasty, there was Emperor Jiajing, a master of mocking his officials. He toyed with them to the point where death seemed a better alternative, and countless powerful ministers were ensnared by his schemes and met their end.
However, in his old age, after his hound Yan Song was put to death, it became his turn to be ridiculed by his subjects. Even after death, he did not receive a favorable posthumous title. The title of Emperor Suzong, while better than Emperor Yang, was still not a good one. It implied that he was a man of exceedingly harsh and merciless character, exceedingly cruel.
King Ning Yuanxian was also a master at toying with his officials. In the twenty years of his reign, countless officials had been played by his hand and met their demise. Thus, he was undoubtedly a harsh and merciless ruler. But he had one thing over Emperor Jiajing: he rarely touched the great ministers of the state. No matter how loud the clamor, he never touched the foundations of the country. The pillars of the court in the Department of State Affairs and the Privy Council always stood firm. Su Nan, of course, was an exception, as he had committed treason.
But now, that foundation had loosened slightly. The pillar of the civil officials was Prime Minister Zhu Hongzhu, and the pillar of the military was Grand Marshal Zhong Yao. Two months ago, Zhu Hongzhu had, at least on the surface, sided completely with the king, suppressing the riots of the failed examination candidates and preventing the unrest from escalating into a full-blown crisis. However, Zhu Hongzhu’s voice speaking out sent a signal to the world, like a tiger roaring in the forest. Soon after, the civil officials began to align themselves with him as one.
King Ning Yuanxian sighed and said, “The madman Lan and his ten brothers passing the examinations has only earned me the hatred of these officials. But what’s laughable is that it was clearly their own mistake. How can they pin the blame on me? Are they telling their sovereign not to use talented men even when he sees them? Did you not simply want to control the civil and military examinations for your own ends?”
*They did indeed,* the Grand Eunuch Li Sun thought to himself, but as a eunuch, he could not meddle in state affairs, so he kept the words from leaving his lips. The king sneered.
“I have only fallen ill once, not even collapsed, yet these ministers can’t wait to rush off and pledge allegiance to a new king. Look. In the past, the neutral faction in the court made up at least a third, but what about now? They have all scattered to serve new masters. What have I ever done to them that they resent and curse me so?”
What pained the king’s heart most were the Crown Prince and the Third Prince, Ning Qi. In the past, though they competed, they did so covertly, never letting it escalate into open conflict. It could have been called a healthy rivalry. But what about now? The moment Ning Yuanxian fell ill, their struggle instantly intensified. To install their own man in the post of Central Commander of Tianshu Province, they had imprisoned and exiled countless officials.
This political signal was extremely dangerous. Once a state enters a period of factional strife, it falls into a vicious cycle. It affects everything from the nation's development to its foreign relations, even causing other important matters to be neglected. Intense factionalism is like a black hole, swallowing everything. In such a state, right and wrong cease to exist; only exclusion of those not in one's own faction remains.
With Ning Yuanxian’s illness, factional strife had begun. Not only that, but it was also a form of contempt for King Ning Yuanxian himself. In the past, when the Crown Prince and the Third Prince engaged in a healthy rivalry, constantly showcasing their abilities, Ning Yuanxian was the arbiter, observing who was more outstanding, who was more fit to inherit the throne. But now, both sides had entered into a fierce struggle, effectively casting Ning Yuanxian, the arbiter, aside. They were acting as if the winner of their direct confrontation would inherit the throne.
*You expect your king to just stand by and watch while he is still alive and well?*
Of course, the situation had not yet reached that point, but the signs were there. Both sides had fabricated incidents, accusing the other of reselling military rations and embezzling military funds. This was not just the beginning of factional strife; it was a test to see if Ning Yuanxian could suppress such incidents. If the king chose to intervene, he would have to do so with great authority and crush the conflict thoroughly. Otherwise, he would be seen by all as incompetent and indecisive. This was why Ning Yuanxian felt so desolate. The moment he fell ill, he was met with such coldness, attacked, and ignored, even by his own children.
But now, Ning Yuanxian was the king who had supposedly suffered a stroke in a woman’s bed, who was about to sign a humiliating treaty to curry favor with the King of Chu, preparing to sell off the interests of the State of Yue to Chu in a staged battle. If that wasn't a foolish ruler, what was? At such a time, the king lacked the authority to suppress two young and ambitious princes. If he tried to force them down, he would surely be ridiculed for handling the matter clumsily.
Ning Yuanxian suddenly thought of the King of Wu, who was carrying out a fierce purge in the north, and felt a pang of envy. Youth, he thought, was indeed a fine thing. But Ning Yuanxian was no less fierce than the young King of Wu.
*You all thought I was old, that I had grown weak from illness, did you not? Then I shall thoroughly live up to your expectations and show you an old, weak man. The moment Shen Lang's army rises to prominence in the border battle will be the moment my reputation soars to its zenith once more.*
At that time, Ning Yuanxian would once again appear before the world in all his majesty. Then, showing no signs of illness, he would be young and brilliant, holding a sharply honed sword as he surveyed the four corners of his realm. And at that time, all the doubts the world held about Ning Yuanxian would vanish like smoke, and everyone would once again bow their heads before his cunning authority. In this world, the new power was always overwhelming the old, or the old power was overwhelming the young. It was a ceaseless cycle.