Chapter 1 The Jingguan

The Yan people built a jingguan (a mound of enemy dead) outside the barbarian royal city.

Each head, belonging to a barbarian noble, was piled together, some with eyes closed, some with ferocious expressions. Ordinary people would suffer nightmares just from a single glance, even falling ill wouldn't be surprising.

But these Yan soldiers wore smiles, as if returning to their childhood days, playing a game of stacking stones.

Li Fei also helped to move the heads. No one asked him to, but he knew he should go.

The Zhenbei Army (Army of the North) soldiers around him showed extra respect for this lame Shizi (son of a noble).

Soldiers value sentiment, especially the sentiment of brotherhood.

To a certain extent, Shizi went to the royal court alone this time, putting his personal life and death aside, adding bricks and tiles to the great victory, which was enough to gain the recognition of the soldiers.

The Zhenbei Army soldiers were not afraid that their future prince would be a bad seed. Frankly speaking, no matter how bad he was, how bad could he be to his own family?

What they feared,

was that their prince was a coward.

Luckily,

Shizi was not a coward.

Fortunately, with the bloody foundation laid last night, there were no mishaps when building the jingguan today.

Li Fei remembered Chen Xianba often saying in the village that after winning the war, he would build a jingguan to show off his military exploits.

Who would have thought,

he would be the first to do it.

Yigu Xie was taken into custody.

Yiguna was allowed to be free.

Her husband was here, and her younger brother was also here. In this situation, she was actually the most pitiful.

But there was really no right or wrong to talk about.

Back then, when the barbarians were strong, there were countless pitiful Yan women.

Between ethnic groups, between countries, this kind of struggle, this kind of duel, often doesn't look at morality or reason, it only recognizes where you stand.

Li Fei didn't go to comfort her. As a new husband, he didn't know what to do now.

However, after taking her back, his mother and elder sister should know how to comfort her.

The altar,

was rebuilt, relying on this jingguan.

The black dragon flag of Great Yan was neatly erected from the low city wall, extending down on both sides.

At this moment,

everyone quieted down.

Few people in this world could have such keen premonitions as Marquis Zheng. An era ended, and an era was about to begin.

But the soldiers present all had a feeling, a feeling of parting.

Li Liangting gave his armor to Tian Wujing. He was still wrapped in the barbarian noble's clothes, slowly walking onto the altar.

Beside him, Jingnan Prince, wearing the Zhenbei Wang (Prince of the North) armor, ascended the steps together.

The sacrifices on the altar were all readily available, taken from the barbarian sacrifices last night.

Nothing was inappropriate.

Before this jingguan,

other sacrifices were just scraps. Ancestors would not care about these.

Li Liangting took out an imperial decree from his arms and placed it on the offering table.

Beside him, a soldier presented wine.

One cup for Zhenbei Wang, one cup for Jingnan Wang.

"Another cup," Li Liangting said.

"Yes, Wangye."

The third cup,

was placed by Li Liangting on the imperial decree.

Three cups of wine,

three people,

stood together again.

"Hoo…"

Li Liangting breathed a sigh of relief,

pointed to the imperial decree in front of him,

and said:

"Wujing, guess what Hao'er Ge (older brother) will write in this imperial decree?"

Tian Wujing shook his head and said:

"I don't know what he wrote. I only know that there will be a lot of words."

Before the emperor died, his body was already failing, so there were not many public speaking occasions.

Others,

speak less and less as they approach death, feeling that there is nothing to say;

But Emperor Yan was different.

This emperor, calculated his life and considered his death,

so,

there must be a lot of words.

Especially today's scene, was something the three of them had envisioned long ago.

There would be today, there would be this day, everyone was preparing, and the emperor must also be preparing.

In fact,

a long, long time ago, when the emperor was not yet the emperor, the three of them had already made a decision.

Li Liangting, acted as a vassal in the Zhenbei Hou (Marquis of the North) mansion, pretending to secede and even rebel against Yanjing, even Xu Wenzu was deceived, thinking about how to open the city gate of Hutou City and welcome the Marquis's army;

Tian Wujing, spent ten years training the Jingnan Army's main force, so that Great Yan could have a field cavalry group no less than the Zhenbei Army in the subsequent foreign conquests.

Emperor Yan,

while acting with Li Liangting, began to arrange the subsequent court affairs.

Trampling the aristocratic families was the first step.

This was the simplest step,

simply because when Great Yan's two strongest field armies, Great Yan's two most powerful Marquis, chose to stand behind Great Yan's emperor, the so-called aristocratic families could not make any waves at all.

The power possessed by the emperor was enough to plow the entire Great Yan from top to bottom.

Who dared to resist? Who could resist?

But,

this was also the most difficult step.

Jingnan Hou destroying his entire family was difficult;

Li Liangting almost cut off the possibility of the Zhenbei Hou mansion, a century-old vassal, from evolving into a true dragon in the future. It should be known that his father often wore dragon robes at home to satisfy his addiction, which was difficult;

Emperor Yan smashed the aristocratic families and reshuffled the central government. In those years, the emperor's authority actually completely rested on the unconditional support of the two Marquis. Since ancient times, only emperors suspected their ministers and killed them with trumped-up charges. It had never been seen that an emperor trusted his ministers so much, which was difficult.

After trampling the aristocratic families, was swallowing Jin.

In fact, even without Yu Ciming opening the Nanmenguan (South Gate Pass), swallowing Jin was not difficult for Great Yan. How could the Jin State, divided into three families, resist the united Great Yan?

However, Yu Ciming's "opening the door to welcome the thieves" accelerated the process.

This second step was actually well taken, much better than expected.

But in this third step,

there was a problem.

In the original plan of the three, the third step should have been attacking Qian.

Qian was rich, Qian was dense, Qian was weak, because of the Qian court, but Qian's foundation was the strongest among the four countries!

To fight it, one had to at least cripple it. Simply hurting it would easily awaken it, leading to endless troubles.

The original idea was that Great Yan would use the power of the whole country to attack Qian to the south, at least to completely incorporate Qian's northern border into its territory and push the Qian government and court south of the Qian River.

For this reason,

Emperor Yan was willing to let the Dachen Kingdom of the Situ family become a vassal of Great Yan, and Tian Wujing also led his army through Shengle and the Tianduan Mountains to the snowy plains to strike the wildlings in order to help the Situ family alleviate the pressure.

It can only be said that there are no gods in this world, and no one can be foolproof.

The defeat of the Dachen Kingdom and the entry of the wildlings were situations that Emperor Yan was unwilling to see, forcing Great Yan to suspend its attack on Qian. In the end, after fighting twice, the wildlings were defeated and the Dachen Kingdom was subdued.

And the troubles caused by this were that Zhennanguan (South Suppression Pass) fell into the hands of the Chu people, and the emperor of Chu was directly defined by Emperor Yan as a major future threat.

In fact, it was no longer the future, but the present threat.

In order to consolidate the land of the Three Jins, Great Yan had to launch another attack on Chu with the power of the whole country. Destroying Yingdu was only one step, the real goal was to take Zhennanguan into its hands and completely protect the land of the Three Jins.

Just imagine,

how much force was used to fight the wildlings and attack Chu, and how many laborers were mobilized. All these manpower, material resources, and military power should have been used to deal with the Qian people.

Could the Qian people at that time have resisted such an offensive from Great Yan?

The plan was disrupted.

After that, Emperor Yan's body could not hold on any longer.

Therefore, only the last goal remained, which was the barbarians.

Destroy the barbarian royal court and ensure a hundred years of peace in the west.

Now,

Emperor Yan had passed away.

Although the original ideas had been changed, Great Yan's current situation could really be said to be the best since its founding.

Occupying the north and suppressing Qian and Chu, the trend of unification had been formed!

The three of them,

had done as much as they could, and had done their best. Now, it was time to come to an end.

Li Liangting took the wine glass off the imperial decree, picked up the imperial decree, untied the seal, and opened it.

Then,

he smiled,

and said:

"Hao'er Ge is worthy of being Hao'er Ge."

Tian Wujing said that there must be thousands of words in Emperor Yan's imperial decree.

The words of an emperor who had reached his position would surely be passed down through the ages.

Future emperors of the Ji family would surely single him out and show their respect when mentioning their ancestors.

Li Liangting originally thought so too.

He felt that Hao'er Ge, facing this jingguan, facing the head of the old barbarian king at the top of the jingguan,

should have a lot to say.

However,

on the imperial decree,

there was not a single word.

Emperor Yan was silent.

He had already done what he should do, and he had already done it well.

Emperor Ji Runhao of Great Yan,

above, was worthy of his ancestors;

below, was free of guilt towards his descendants;

in the middle, was worthy of the Yan Kingdom's mission to defend against the barbarians for the Xia.

Since he had already done his best,

what else was there to say?

Li Liangting placed the imperial decree in front of the torch and watched it burn.

"Wujing, in fact, after my father helped the late emperor seize the throne, he once told me about his plan. He said that after my Zhenbei Hou mansion helped the prince seize the throne this time, the shackles on my body would be further loosened.

He would pave the way for me and prepare for me.

When I took the position of Zhenbei Hou,

with strong soldiers and horses,

I would first appease the barbarians, and then lead the army eastward, allowing my Li family to replace the Ji family and achieve the throne."

These were the words that the old Zhenbei Hou had said.

Yes,

who would believe that someone who could wear a dragon robe at home had never thought about sitting on the dragon chair?

Therefore, one could not blame those aristocratic families for being deceived before trampling them, because the Zhenbei Hou mansion was indeed coming with the intention of rebelling.

Perhaps they had already communicated privately with some aristocratic families.

"But, I admire Hao'er Ge.

To be honest,

if it wasn't Hao Ge sitting on the dragon chair, but another emperor, I would have rebelled long ago, and I would have tried to wear a dragon robe and sit on the dragon chair in an upright manner in this life.

Alas,

I have failed my father's expectations. Before he died, he even thought about the temple name he would be posthumously granted so that I could add it to him in the future, hahahahaha."

Li Liangting laughed loudly.

When a new emperor ascended the throne, he would posthumously grant titles to his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather according to custom.

Even if the new emperor was of commoner origin, even if his father and grandfather were just cart drivers and horse feeders, they would be posthumously granted titles, and then they would fabricate an ancient sage with the same surname as themselves as their ancestor to decorate their family.

"You said, if my father suddenly came back to life from his coffin today and saw this scene, what would he think?"

Tian Wujing replied: "He would be so angry that he would die again."

"I think so too, alas, what a great opportunity, what a great opportunity to rebel and become emperor, but I destroyed it with my own hands.

After I leave,

Li Fusheng, Li Liangshen, and the son and son-in-law of Li Bao will no longer recognize themselves as Zhenbei Army soldiers.

The few adopted sons left behind will no longer be truly devoted.

It will really be just a vassal, just a vassal."

Li Liangting took a deep breath,

clenched his fists,

and continued:

"But I think it's worth it. I think, looking at this jingguan in front of me, I think it's very worth it. After a while, when I go down, even if my father chases me and scolds me in the underworld, I can smile and take it.

If it doesn't work,

I can still go to my ancestor. I don't believe that my ancestor would have thought about rebelling when he made great contributions and established the Hou mansion to guard against the barbarians.

My father may not have been so pure, but my ancestor must have been a loyal person.

Okay,

that's it,

after I go down, if my father keeps nagging me, I'll find someone bigger to reason with him."

Tian Wujing asked: "Do you regret it?"

"Wujing, I should be asking you that."

"You can ask now."

"No, I won't ask, because I still want to live a few more days and go back to explain my affairs. If I don't make it home, do you believe that your old sister-in-law will curse endlessly, year after year, at the grave during festivals, calling you an old beast, old beast."

This question,

even the closest Marquis Pingxi did not dare to ask.

For no other reason than fear of being beaten.

"However, Wujing, whether you regret it or not, it doesn't really matter, because where is there time to think about regretting or not?

There's no time for that.

Alas,

it's also thanks to the three of us not having this time, that we were able to keep going forward in one breath, and finally, we managed to make something of it.

Now,

I only hope that future generations can live up to expectations.

Hopefully, they can unify the world within three generations.

I have confidence in that little Sixth, such a child like Hao'er Ge, he will not be worse than Hao'er Ge when he becomes emperor in time.

My son has also stayed, he is obedient, not enough for Little Sixth to play with, even if you add your old sister-in-law and my daughter.

Alas, don't think my daughter is so powerful, but at that time, Little Sixth was not the emperor, now, he is the emperor, the means are different.

My Zhenbei Hou mansion's family fortune will sooner or later be schemed away by that Sixth to a large extent. Being able to keep the framework of a vassal state will be enough to give his Uncle Li face."

In itself,

destroying the royal court and cutting off the barbarian's chance to rise, relatively speaking, reduced the Li family's status and role.

"I'm just worried about that Zheng Fan. Wujing, have you ever thought about it? Hao'er Ge passed away early, I'm also close to death, and you also plan to leave.

The three of us are all gone,

hehe,

won't that Zheng be going wild?"

"He promised."

"Promised what?"

Tian Wujing pointed to the black dragon flag fluttering in the wind in front of him,

and said:

"This flag will not fall."

"Tsk tsk tsk, tsk tsk tsk, Wujing, after I go back, I have to stay up for a few more days, I must stay up until the news comes from the capital, if Zhao Jiulang really dies.

I will be so jealous of you.

Zheng Fan is from my Beifeng County!"

Standing at the height of Zhenbei Wang,

talented people are nothing.

Having great ability and still maintaining a childlike innocence is truly rare.

If a family can support such a person to rise, it will be the guarantee of the family's longevity.

Otherwise, if you support a politician or bureaucrat, and they sell you for a good price after they take office, what's the point?

Tian Wujing looked at Li Liangting,

and said:

"Regret?"

"Regret, Qian'er also regrets it. Hehe, damn it, if I had known, I would have grabbed that Zheng Fan to be my son-in-law earlier. In fact, I had the opportunity, didn't I?

Tsk, actually I have always regretted one thing, that is sending Qian'er to the capital.

At that time, I thought, maybe Ji Laoer (second son of Ji) would have a chance.

I thought, I would do nothing, I would say nothing, and you, Tian Wujing, would support him, wouldn't his position as the prince be completely secure?"

"You are still his father-in-law, didn't you also say nothing and do nothing?"

"I was embarrassed, really embarrassed. Alas, mainly because I believed in Hao'er Ge, believed in His Majesty, and could choose an emperor who was best for the future of Great Yan.

Otherwise, wouldn't the three of us have worked so hard for most of our lives for nothing if there was no one to take over?"

If either of them had a little selfishness,

Ji Chenglang's position as the crown prince would have been as stable as a rock!

This, in fact, was the fundamental reason for the prince's ultimate failure. He possessed everything, and the dragon chair was also within easy reach, but the support he should have had, not one of them really reached out to help him.

That's right, the Min family's inheritance was indeed rich, and Ji Laoliu (sixth son of Ji) was also close to being a demon in intelligence, but in front of the two Wangye (princes), he was still a quail.

"Let's pay our respects, delaying too long will make it difficult to chase Zhidou."

"Why didn't you say so earlier? I wanted to delay a little longer so that the poor little prince could run further away, hehe."

Li Liangting raised his hand,

and shouted:

"Kneel!"

"Shua!"

"Shua!"

Below the altar,

all the Zhenbei Army soldiers knelt on one knee.

There was no master of ceremonies to announce the etiquette,

no eunuch to announce the imperial decree,

no impassioned speeches,

only the wind on this desert,

blowing through the gaps between the heads of the jingguan, playing the sound of true wailing and howling.

But,

it was enough.

The sacrifice ended,

Tian Wujing walked down the altar,

Pixiu, took the initiative to come over.

It knew where it was going with its master, it had some regrets, regretting that it did not get the same beautiful armor as the Pixiu under Marquis Pingxi.

Tian Wujing jumped on,

then,

eight hundred Zhenbei Army knights came out.

They were all carefree men who had no old or young at home, commonly known as those who were full when one person was full, and the whole family was not hungry.

Sitting on the Pixiu, Tian Wujing waved his hand, facing away from Li Liangting behind him.

Then,

the Pixiu galloped away, and eight hundred riders followed closely behind, heading west.

Li Liangting's face had no sadness of parting, only a smile.

He was really happy,

because he knew that if Tian Wujing went back east, either he would continue to lock himself in the depths of the Hou mansion and endure loneliness, or he would commit suicide.

Death was not terrible, Li Liangting believed that Tian Wujing would never be afraid of death, but that kind of life worse than death was the true torture in the world.

Now, it was the best situation, and it was the most suitable time to leave;

what should end, should end, what should be over, should be over, and those who should leave can also leave freely.

From today onwards, Great Yan would no longer have Jingnan Wang!

Zhenbei Wangye put his hands into his sleeves,

like a wealthy old man from Beifeng County,

leaning on the black dragon flag pole,

looking at the flying dust in the west that was constantly moving away,

in a low voice,

he softly shouted:

"Wujing, farewell."