Holding the Emperor Hostage : Chapter 72: Victory Celebration

When Shentu Yang woke again, daylight had already filled the room. Beams of morning sunlight poured in through the window lattices made of seashells, tiny dust particles dancing and floating in the shafts of light. Gauze curtains drifted gently in the hall, light and shadow shifting and flowing, as if in a dream.

Shentu Yang instinctively rolled over, but his outstretched arm landed on empty space.

As if suddenly losing his footing in a dream and plummeting into a bottomless abyss, Shentu Yang’s eyes flew open. At once he saw the intricate and exquisite carved ceiling of the bedchamber above him.

The damp, gentle misty rains of Jiangnan, the towering tower ships riding the wind and waves, and the dust-choked day and night race all seemed like things from a previous life. Shentu Yang blinked in a daze and discovered that the quilt beside him had already been thrown open, its warmth still lingering, yet the person who had shared his pillow was nowhere to be found.

For an instant, Shentu Yang felt disoriented, and the intimate closeness of the previous night immediately came to mind.

The bright moon hung high, yet it came into my embrace.

Shentu Yang smiled with deep satisfaction, got up, and drew back the bed curtains.

Sunlight filled the hall, making one squint slightly. The palace maids and eunuchs waiting outside the hall, hearing movement within, immediately filed in carrying washbasins and towels to attend to the Duke of Yan’s morning ablutions. Shentu Yang let them serve him, but could not help asking: “Where is His Majesty?”

“Practicing swordplay in the Imperial Garden,” a young eunuch said with a slight bow.

Shentu Yang understood. After washing up, he too took his sword and hurried to the Imperial Garden.

It was the Mid-Autumn season, and the Imperial Garden was ablaze with every color of flower. The Son of Heaven, having already completed a set of sword forms, stood with hands behind his back before a crabapple tree, admiring the autumn scenery. Hearing the hurried footsteps approaching, the Son of Heaven turned his head in the golden backlight of late autumn and asked with a smile: “Why are you up so early?”

The autumn sunlight was truly too dazzling. Shentu Yang could barely make out Yin Shuhuai’s expression. Shifting streams of light cast halos all around the Son of Heaven, and as a clear breeze passed, petals rustled down.

Shentu Yang suddenly stopped in his tracks, gazing with rapt admiration at the person standing before the flowers.

Yin Shuhuai did not know why Shentu Yang had suddenly halted mid-stride. But he knew that Shentu Yang had left the army behind and raced day and night to get back. When he entered the palace last night, he had still been utterly exhausted, yet this morning he was full of energy.

Shentu Yang walked straight up to His Majesty, and it was hard to tell whether he was complaining or acting spoiled: “I woke up, and you weren’t beside me.”

Shentu Yang was indeed very tired, but he would rather stay with His Majesty.

Quite the clingy one!

Yin Shuhuai laughed despite himself. Looking at Shentu Yang, whose dark circles nearly hung down to the corners of his mouth, he indulged him: “My dear minister should still go back and take a nap.”

The current situation was favorable, and the court had many places where it needed to rely on Shentu Yang. Yin Shuhuai did not want his workhorse of a great meritorious minister to drop dead from the exhaustion of rushing back day and night.

Shentu Yang also knew that he had toiled hard and achieved great merit, so he pushed his luck: “I want Your Majesty to accompany me.”

The palace maids and eunuchs attending at the side kept their eyes lowered and their expressions restrained, like wooden stakes.

Yin Shuhuai could not help himself and reached out to pat Shentu Yang’s lowered head. “Once you’ve slept well, then leave the capital.”

Shentu Yang’s brows furrowed tightly. He was about to speak when he saw Yin Shuhuai wave his hand at him and say: “Leave the capital to rendezvous with your hundred-thousand-strong army.”

On the day Shentu Yang returned to the capital, Yin Shuhuai had originally planned to personally lead the civil and military officials thirty li outside the city, to clear the palace roads and set up music and drink, in order to reward the triumphant army.

He had never expected that Shentu Yang would actually leave the hundred-thousand-strong army behind, leading only twenty-eight riders day and night, and arrive in Ji County half a month early.

Yin Shuhuai knew that the only reason Shentu Yang had rushed so hard was to spend the Mid-Autumn Festival with him. That plate of mooncakes made from Jiangnan rice flour was indeed quite delicious. Yin Shuhuai was happy to indulge him, but the glory that rightfully belonged to Shentu Yang was not something he would overlook.

And so, the Duke of Yan, who had rushed back to the capital covered in dust, was driven away by His Majesty on the very next day. He left looking pitiful, but when he returned to the capital again, a hundred-thousand-strong army followed behind him.

The messenger soldiers responsible for relaying reports ran back and forth between the army and Ji County every day, reporting the army’s progress once daily. Yao Wenruo, who had long made preparations, ordered men to build a high platform thirty li outside the city. The court musicians and the dancers and performers who would entertain the triumphant army had rehearsed for a long time, waiting only for the day the army returned to celebrate with the soldiers.

On that day, the sky was clear and the sun was bright, the autumn wind blew fierce. When Shentu Yang’s hundred-thousand-strong army reached the outskirts of the city, the Son of Heaven, dressed in ceremonial robes, sat high upon the imperial carriage. Behind him were the civil and military officials and three thousand imperial guards. The banners representing the imperial procession swayed in the wind, and the drums and music celebrating the soldiers’ triumphant return shook the heavens.

Shentu Yang and the various generals, guided by officials from the Honglu Temple, dismounted and paid respects to the Emperor. Yin Shuhuai personally helped Shentu Yang and the various generals to their feet. The eunuchs attending at the side brought out the palace’s collection of imperial wine, and Yin Shuhuai personally filled the bowls for Shentu Yang and the various generals, raising his wine bowl high to celebrate the merits of the triumphant soldiers.

The generals, who had never imagined that the lofty Son of Heaven would actually pour wine for them, and the soldiers, who had even less expected that the Son of Heaven would toast them, all went completely blank in the head. When they came back to their senses, the hundred-thousand soldiers, utterly unprepared, were instantly moved to tears. Hands that steadily gripped long swords nearly trembled so much they could not hold their wine bowls. Stunned into speechlessness, they could not even string together a complete sentence. In the end, only a single cry of “Long live Your Majesty” broke through the clouds, and the wave of sound, like mountains roaring and seas surging, even drowned out the court musicians’ celebratory music.

Everyone knew that this was His Majesty’s move to win over the soldiers and buy their loyalty, but no one cared. They only knew that they had fought on the battlefield, spent half their lives in military service, risked their lives, and bled in battle, all for this moment of glory.

The Son of Heaven personally poured wine for them and toasted their achievements. This was an honor that could be written into the family genealogy.

A man will die for one who truly understands him.

At this moment, this was the only thought in everyone’s mind.

Sensing the psychological shift in the hundred-thousand-strong army, the civil and military officials following behind His Majesty were overcome with mixed emotions.

Ever since the court moved its capital to Ji County, His Majesty’s control over the court had grown deeper and deeper. First he introduced the imperial examination system to influence the appointment and selection of officials. Then he used the tower ship navy to control Jiangnan and Shuzhong by sea. By implementing new policies in Jiangnan and Shuzhong, he further weakened the great clans’ and powerful families’ control over the court. And now he was winning over the army’s loyalty…

Before anyone realized it, Yin Shuhuai seemed to have quietly transformed into an emperor with real power. But the problem was that after His Majesty grasped real power, the only ones he favored were the Huo family line and Shentu Yang’s direct subordinates. If this continued, how were they, the great clans and meritorious nobles, supposed to position themselves?

Thinking of this, Wang Su, Chen Yong, and the others imperceptibly glanced toward Huo Quan and Zhao Bushi, who stood at the head of the officials.

On the Jiangnan campaign, Zhou Tai had been appointed Governor of Jingzhou, Dong Wan had been appointed Governor of Yangzhou, and Zhao Bushi, the clan head of the Zhao family of Xuzhou, had been promoted by His Majesty to Governor of Yizhou. It could be said that the Three Excellencies of the court had all reaped enormous political gains from the development of Jiangnan. As one side waxed, the other waned, and the power of the court’s great clans and meritorious nobles grew ever weaker.

This was also something none of the court’s civil and military officials had expected when Shentu Yang marched south.

The situation had changed far too quickly. By the time the civil and military officials left behind in Ji County reacted, the reforms in Jiangnan were already in full swing. The court’s great clans and meritorious nobles, having never paid attention to outlying regions before, had failed to participate in these new policies in time.

It was not until news that Shentu Yang had widely opened the imperial examinations in Jiangnan and selected officials reached the capital that the various great clans and meritorious nobles woke up as if from a dream and urgently began to pay attention to the reforms in Jiangnan. However, due to various reasons, they had not sent the most outstanding young men of their clans to Jiangnan to take the examinations. Although His Majesty and Shentu Yang had both promised that those with excellent examination results could be directly selected as prefects and county magistrates of Yizhou, for the great clans and meritorious nobles who had lived for generations in the Henan Commandery and the heartland of Guanzhong, and who could effortlessly become Filial and Incorrupt or Flourishing Talent candidates upon reaching adulthood, going to Yizhou to be an official held no appeal.

Even though everyone praised Jiangnan as becoming a land of fish and rice, and Shuzhong as becoming the Land of Abundance, an outlying region was still an outlying region. For the sons of great clans and meritorious nobles to run off to such a distant place to be officials, what difference was there from exile?

Would great clans and meritorious nobles accustomed to delicacies from mountains and seas bother to travel a thousand li for a mouthful of wild vegetables, fighting tooth and nail?

It was only when the Son of Heaven and Shentu Yang promoted large numbers of commoner-born scholars in this examination, and transferred many officials from the various commanderies of Jiangnan and Shuzhong to the capital, that many great clans and meritorious nobles belatedly realized that officials of commoner birth seemed to be gradually squeezing the political space of the great clans and powerful families.

Of course, many great clans and meritorious nobles had long foreseen this scene but did not care, or rather, out of certain considerations, did not stop Yin Shuhuai and Shentu Yang’s plans. Some even actively dispatched their own merchant caravans to trade in the various commanderies of Jiangnan after the court established the Salt Transport Commission and issued policies encouraging the commanderies of Jiangnan to develop commerce.

They did this partly because, in business matters, they wanted to earn more. Partly, of course, it was to show goodwill to His Majesty and prepare to fight for greater benefits going forward. But exactly how to plan and cooperate still required long-term deliberation.

The victory banquet to welcome and celebrate the hundred-thousand soldiers concluded successfully amid the silence of the great clans and meritorious nobles, each harboring their own thoughts. Shentu Yang, relying on his status as one whose “merits overshadow the ruler,” still refused to leave the palace and return to his residence.

After three rounds of wine, just as people were growing slightly tipsy, the Duke of Yan, pretending to be drunk, wrapped his arms around His Majesty and would not let go, utterly refusing to leave the palace.

Yin Shuhuai had no choice but to send Shentu Yang off to the side hall to wash up. He absolutely would not allow Shentu Yang to climb into the dragon bed stinking of wine and reeking of sweat.

Shentu Yang lowered his head and laughed into his chest, a triumphant, mischievous grin spreading across his face, and went off to bathe with immense satisfaction.

As for the Duke of Yan’s brazen habit of frequently spending the night in the imperial palace, the great clans and meritorious nobles had originally been indifferent. In the past, they had only privately mocked Yin Shuhuai, this young emperor, for shuttling back and forth among a crowd of powerful ministers, either being a puppet emperor or a kept emperor. Sure enough, being good-looking had its perks. Even a fool could be pushed onto the throne.

It was not until today, when they witnessed with their own eyes the hundred-thousand-strong army’s sworn loyalty to the Son of Heaven, that the crowd of noble officials, who had been soaking in warm water for too long, suddenly woke with a start. They finally realized that Shentu Yang’s long-term residence in the imperial palace was perhaps not merely taking advantage of proximity to satisfy lust, but rather a carefully laid trap by the Son of Heaven to lure the enemy in.

While Shentu Yang believed he had the Emperor firmly under his control, holding the Son of Heaven to command the officials, was not the Son of Heaven also borrowing Shentu Yang’s fearsome might, using Shentu Yang as a sharp and unmatched blade, to gradually nibble away at the power on the court? By now, even if Shentu Yang himself wanted to murder the ruler and seize the throne, his subordinate soldiers and officials might not be willing!

As for exactly when Yin Shuhuai had evolved from a puppet kept emperor into an emperor wielding real power, the great clans and meritorious nobles pondered for a long time, yet could not pinpoint when or how he had accomplished it.

It seemed that before anyone knew it, the situation had simply become what it was now.