Chapter 1 The Princess is Ill

The news delivered by the carrier pigeon, expressed in a single sentence – the princess is ill – filled Ye Tao with worry.

He should be worried. Since his arrival, since he entered Tan Weixin’s life these past few years, perhaps because she was always in a good mood, Tan Weixin's health had been consistently good. Other than being a princess, she was just an ordinary girl, a modern ordinary girl. With music boxes and clocks in her life, with plush toys and board games, with original or copied comic books and picture books, and even animated shorts, she should have been content. Especially with someone who went out of his way to make jerky and meat floss, candies and candied fruit, just to get her to gain a little weight, someone who could talk to her about topics that others couldn't understand, she felt happy. And happiness is always beneficial to health.

It wasn't that the conflicts between the two couldn't be resolved. It was just that as a woman from modern times, she yearned for love more than the ladies of this era who adhered to its dogmas, and she understood its fragility even more.

When she harbored such doubts, and had a conflict with Ye Tao beforehand, while Ye Tao seemed to be working seriously and happily in a distant place, and she herself couldn't put aside all the complicated matters at hand, it was only natural that she would fall ill, given her fragile health.

"Ye Tao really thinks I wouldn't dare deal with him? Who the hell gave this little bastard the guts?" Returning from visiting the princess, the ruler, Tan Xiaopei, rarely lost his temper and swore. Such a thing had only happened a handful of times since he transformed from a military officer into a king ruling a country.

"Don't be angry, you know what's going on," Queen Zhuo Xiu softly comforted him. Although her worries were no less than Tan Xiaopei's, as a woman, she understood her daughter's sensitive mind more clearly. If the ruler's authority could extend to influencing people's emotional lives, there would be no unhappy families.

In fact, after understanding what had happened, Zhuo Xiu also felt that Tan Weixin's actions of sending two Frankish beauties to Ye Tao were abrupt, and that Ye Tao's angry departure seemed understandable, but her daughter's condition was what mattered. Zhuo Xiu was even more worried that if the knot between the two couldn't be untied, it was hard to say what Ye Tao could do even if he came back, and whether it would improve or harm Tan Weixin's health.

"Of course I know what's going on. I've already been very tolerant, knowing that Ye Tao is a romantic young man, keeping twelve dancers, and even having a young wife following him, and I didn't say much, not even hinting that he should clean up his act and wait to marry my daughter. I know Xin'er's health, and I didn't want to mistreat this guy too much. But what about him? Xin'er is, after all, my daughter, the princess of Dongping, not to mention Xin'er's talent and intelligence, which ordinary people can't compare to at all. He's just a small merchant's son, and I'm only asking him to make my daughter happy. Is that too much? Is that mistreating him?" Tan Xiaopei's roar grew louder.

"Quiet down..." Zhuo Xiu smiled slightly, her hand gently stroking her earlobe, as if to cover up her husband's overly loud voice. Tan Xiaopei sighed, and Zhuo Xiu continued, "Are there few people who want to make Xin'er happy? There are many who are aiming for her being a princess, for her control of the internal treasury's finances, and for her helping to raise her younger siblings at such a young age, so that even if Ming'er ascends the throne in the future, she won't lose her power. Ye Tao dares to turn his back... and to do it so decisively, that's really not easy."

"Alas," Tan Xiaopei sighed again, thinking of the inexplicable relationship between the two, and also thinking of the memorial about the completion and grand occasion caused by the Seven Seas Pagoda that was delivered to him today, and could only sigh. He was indeed the ruler, but when faced with his own children's affairs, with the personal emotional problems of a daughter with extraordinary talent, he was as helpless as all enlightened fathers of all eras. "Let them be. Xiu'er, why don't you send a letter to Ye Tao?"

Zhuo Xiu looked slightly surprised, and she responded with a smile, "Is it a family letter or an imperial edict?"

"...A private letter!" Tan Xiaopei, who was too familiar with Zhuo Xiu, immediately saw through his wife, who was still somewhat childish even in middle age, and emphasized, "That kid Ye Tao hasn't even entered my family yet, don't trick me into saying the wrong thing."

After venting his anger, Tan Xiaopei was drenched in sweat, even in the cool palace. Tan Xiaopei quickly ordered the eunuchs to bring two bowls of iced sour plum soup. But before long, a commotion came from outside the main hall.

Tan Xiaopei muttered to himself suspiciously, "It's just two bowls of sour plum soup, why is there such a big commotion?"

At this moment, the chief eunuch Li Sishu personally opened the door and reported, "Your Majesty, urgent military situation. General Nie Rui is waiting outside for instructions."

"Summon him." Tan Xiaopei did not hesitate, and Li Sishu immediately ordered his eunuchs to bring the person in. Only at this time, while waiting for the person, did Li Sishu make up for the etiquette of meeting the ruler and the queen, and apologized. Heavens knew that this time-emphasizing procedure had once been vigorously attacked by the censorate.

Nie Rui now supervised the postal service department of the Ministry of War. His office was located near the city gate of the South Gate. All important information would be summarized by him in the first instance and then decided how to handle it. In this extremely critical position, one could imagine Nie Rui's status in the military, and now, did he actually need to personally report the military situation? "Your Majesty, a military situation just delivered half an hour ago by a fast messenger from the border army: Mount Xun Pass has fallen."

"What?" Everyone in the hall was shocked.

The expensive communication system centered on carrier pigeons did not work? That was enough to illustrate the urgency of the situation. From Mount Xun Pass to Danyang, even the fastest would take five and a half days. What happened in these five and a half days?

Nie Rui did not dare to delay, and immediately presented the original copy of the received intelligence to Tan Xiaopei with both hands. The thin roll of paper was stained with blood, roughly describing what had happened.

Mount Xun Pass was the most important of the four passes on the long border line between Dongping and Xiling, naturally formed by inaccessible mountains. Unlike the other three passes located in dangerous locations that could not allow large armies to pass through and guarantee supplies even if they were captured, both sides of Mount Xun Pass were short valleys, and plains lay beyond the valleys. Before Mount Xun Pass was controlled by Dongping, Xiling took almost every opportunity to send tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of troops into Dongping to harass and plunder, causing Dongping to suffer greatly. It was not until more than twenty years ago that Tan Xiaopei led a surprise attack on Mount Xun Pass, and under the counterattack of the Xiling army, held firmly for four and a half months with less than 50,000 people, finally waiting for Zhuo Mang's army to arrive after ending the northern line's containment operation against Xiling. Helpless, the wealthy Xiling had to implement their consistent strategy for dealing with Dongping's important passes: build a pass. At the Xiling exit of the valley, Xiling spent more than three years building a new pass twice as high as Mount Xun Pass – Copper Xun Pavilion.

Just a few days ago, a Xiling cavalry force of about 5,000 people, which had somehow infiltrated Dongping territory, wearing Dongping military uniforms, carrying a full set of Dongping military equipment, and holding forged mobilization orders from the Dongping Ministry of War, entered Mount Xun Pass. In fact, there was indeed a force ordered to go to Mount Xun Pass, but it was only 2,000 people. According to the mobilization order, if all went well, they would arrive at Mount Xun Pass in a few hours.

But it was this time difference of a few hours that determined the fate of Mount Xun Pass. As soon as the Xiling cavalry entered Mount Xun Pass, they first controlled the stables and the pigeon loft, and used 1,000 people to control the exit of the pass facing Dongping. Then, risking being besieged by nearly 30,000 Dongping soldiers in the pass, they stubbornly guarded the exit, not letting anyone or any animal out of the pass. At this time, the long-awaited Xiling army appeared in the valley and began to attack Mount Xun Pass. Under internal and external attacks, Mount Xun Pass held out for nine hours before falling. When the Xiling soldiers rushed into Mount Xun Pass and met the 5,000 cavalry who had guarded the retreat route and message transmission channels of the Mount Xun Pass garrison, there were less than 400 of the 5,000 elite soldiers left. During these nine hours, Xiling had alternately invested a total of about 80,000 infantry and engineers, plus dozens of trebuchets, in attacking the pass.

The soldier who delivered the message, along with a team of companions, risked climbing the mountain adjacent to Mount Xun Pass, then detoured a large circle, shook off the pursuing Xiling soldiers, and relied on their own two legs to run desperately to a town about 20 miles away from Mount Xun Pass while the Xiling army was clearing the resistance in Mount Xun Pass, found horses and sent the message to Danyang. Eagle stations were only established in key locations, and there was no second one on the way from Mount Xun Pass to Danyang.

So, it was actually more than five and a half days. After roughly estimating the time, the fall of Mount Xun Pass must have occurred at least seven days ago. Perhaps the cavalry that was supposed to replace the garrison at Mount Xun Pass had been eaten. Mount Xun Pass was originally a purely military pass that was supplied once a month and rarely contacted the outside world, so it was understandable if the surrounding towns had not discovered that Mount Xun Pass had changed hands. But was the Xiling army merely satisfied with retaking Mount Xun Pass?

The next few hours made Tan Xiaopei completely understand that this series of actions by Xiling had definitely been planned for a long time. Throughout the next morning, emergency military situations were successively reported from various places. With Mount Xun Pass as the center, Xiling had actually divided several large armies to launch a flower-like attack on the surrounding areas. When Tan Xiaopei listed the timeline in his mind, his face turned green with anger. The Xiling army had only rested in Mount Xun Pass for at most one day, and then began to deploy large forces. Sandao Town held out for two hours, Changhan City didn't even hold out for five hours, as for those towns and villages that originally didn't have many garrisons, the speed of their fall was self-evident.

These were not serious problems. The serious thing was that the Xiling army almost timed their siege of the cities and their success. They had almost calculated that the military situation of the fall of Mount Xun Pass and other military situations would arrive successively within a day. This arrogant aura simply regarded the Dongping military and Tan Xiaopei as nothing.

"How the postal lines and speeds were thoroughly understood by others, investigate it thoroughly for me!"

"How the Xiling cavalry wearing my Dongping military uniforms and carrying my Dongping military equipment entered, investigate it thoroughly for me!"

"How there was no news of such a large-scale mobilization in Xiling, investigate it thoroughly for me!"

After summoning the ministers, Tan Xiaopei issued these three orders. Then, he, along with his old partner Zhuo Mang and the military generals, discussed how to respond to this sudden invasion. How to mobilize enough troops in such an emergency to cope with such a situation. But in any case, it was almost unavoidable to draw garrison and city defense forces from Danyang to participate in the war.