The Child Emperor

Over one hundred and twenty years ago, the State of Qi suffered attacks from both Chu and Zhao, suffering defeat after defeat. King Chen Lun of Qi refused to flee and committed suicide within Linzi City. Nearly a thousand people died with him, and the last group of voluntary martyrs, following the king’s final edict, set a fire that burned the corpses to prevent posthumous humiliation, while also burning the palaces and treasures.

Chen Lun intended to take the State of Qi, left to him by his ancestors, to heaven. Find the newest release on novel·fiɾe·net

A small portion of Chen clan descendants and servants had different ideas. They felt that while heaven was good, a branch of the Chen bloodline should remain on earth. So several hundred people protected a Chen descendant and escaped from Linzi City, traveling eastward. They could never shake off the enemy forces pursuing them, and finally had to board ships and put out to sea, leaving some people on shore to protect a false Chen descendant and fight the pursuers to the death on the beach.

The fugitives found a desolate island in the vast ocean. They originally intended only to rest there temporarily, but ended up staying for over a hundred years. The island was named “Righteous Heroes Island,” and the Qi survivors recuperated there, establishing relations with small overseas nations, seafaring bandits, and reclusive hermits. No matter how greatly the outside world changed, the dream of restoring their nation never disappeared from the islanders’ hearts.

Fuyu was a small state located in Liaodong that maintained close relations with Righteous Heroes Island. Its king even married a “princess” from the island, though this proved useless. Righteous Heroes Island, desperate for help, wanted to borrow troops to restore their nation, while the King of Fuyu only wanted to fish in troubled waters. When they discovered that neither side had actual strength, their grand plans came to nothing.

During the Martial Emperor’s reign, Righteous Heroes Island nearly despaired. They never imagined that once the Martial Emperor died, Great Chu would fall into chaos—and increasingly severe chaos at that.

The opportunity for restoration had finally come.

Righteous Heroes Island gathered numerous pirates, using their ships to transport several thousand Fuyu soldiers from Liaodong to Donghai, driving tens of thousands of hastily assembled refugees and sailors to form the great army that Righteous Heroes Island had long dreamed of.

In fact, Righteous Heroes Island often engaged in piracy to survive, but the islanders never admitted to being pirates. In their view, robbery was merely an expedient measure. Unlike those desperadoes who acted only for money, they had grander goals.

This goal was about to be realized. Pengcheng bordered Donghai and was a crucial location for stopping the rebel army’s westward advance. The northern Chu army, personally led by the Emperor, was stationed there.

Grand General Cui Hong proved he was not incompetent. In just over ten days, the soldiers he had summoned from various places already numbered twenty thousand. Meanwhile, Chai Yue’s central force had expanded to thirty thousand, and Fang Daye’s southern force had increased to ten thousand, surrounding the rebel army between mountains and sea.

The rebel army occupied the entirety of Donghai and most of the former State of Qi. With their momentum greatly diminished, they shifted from offense to defense, beginning to hold their cities in preparation for battle against the three-pronged Chu army.

After over a hundred years of waiting, the Qi survivors on Righteous Heroes Island had lost some of their arrogance. They did not immediately raise their own banner, but instead honored the Shangguan clan in Donghai as leaders and Prince Ying as emperor, claiming to restore the Martial Emperor’s legitimate line. They then gradually spread news of the Chen clan’s King of Qi.

This was all the intelligence Chai Yue could gather. He knew nothing about the relationship between Chen Qi and the Meng siblings.

Han Ruzi knew, which was why he was so shocked. He immediately sent someone back to the Capital with a letter for Yang Feng, asking him to clarify the truth—the Meng siblings had been introduced to the Empress Dowager as guards by Yang Feng, who had promised to help them capture a small foreign state. Instead, both siblings had fled eastward simultaneously, Righteous Heroes Island had launched their offensive early, and their target was not a small foreign state but the former territory of Qi.

Yang Feng’s reply had not yet arrived, but Han Ruzi did not wait idly. In Pengcheng, he discussed plans for suppressing the rebellion with his generals.

Cui Hong had already formulated a plan during the march. “General Fang of the southern route has fought two battles with the rebel army and won both. According to his observations, the rebel army is little more than a rabble, with many forced to join. They collapse at the first strike and can only defend cities, not daring to come out and fight.

The State of Fuyu is but a tiny nation. According to generals in Liaodong, while Fuyu soldiers are fierce, they lack armor and weapons, often fighting unarmored, and are most afraid of long-range bow and crossbow fire. Now that they are all within Linzi City, they pose no threat.

The troublesome ones are those pirates, who don’t form a single army but split into dozens of bands, avoiding the Chu forces and specifically raiding supply lines and towns in the rear. When Chu forces concentrate to strike, they can hardly find traces of the pirates, but when they disperse to garrison, they face threats from the rebel army. This is probably the rebels’ strategy.”

I believe it would be better to catch the big fish and release the small ones: the central route should strike directly at Linzi, the northern route should thrust into Donghai, occupy the coast, and block the Fuyu barbarian soldiers’ retreat, forcing the rebel army to flee south, whereupon General Fang can intercept them. As for the pirates, once the general situation is settled, we can plan their extermination.”

Cui Hong’s plan was very complete, with great chances of victory. Han Ruzi could not raise further objections and only asked, “Are the Chu forces sufficient?”

“If we seek victory, the three-route Chu forces are sufficient. If we seek to catch them all in one fell swoop, the central and southern routes are still somewhat lacking. Fortunately, reinforcements from various places are already on their way. Within ten days, the central route can reach forty thousand men, the southern route can reach twenty-five thousand, and the northern route can also increase by several thousand, creating a certain victory.”

“Are there any movements from the Xiongnu?”

“No news yet.”

“The northern frontier garrison must not be moved.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. The northern frontier garrison was already small to begin with, and my deployment plans do not use a single soldier from the northern frontier.”

Han Ruzi felt somewhat relieved. Fighting would begin after ten days, and at most another ten days later, the rebel army could be destroyed, and Great Chu could eliminate a major internal threat.

He only regretted that the Meng siblings had so quickly become enemies of Great Chu, especially Meng E. She had made an agreement with the Emperor, yet betrayed him without a word. However, she had returned the extremely important imperial seal, making her unfathomable.

After meeting with the military generals, Han Ruzi summoned the accompanying civil officials, asking them to come up with a plan that could bring long-term stability to Qi after quelling the rebellion.

In just three short years, Qi had rebelled twice, and precautions must be taken.

The ministers came up with many ideas: first, divide the Qi into several prefectures and fiefdoms; second, enfeoff mature and steady imperial clan descendants as princes; third, have the court appoint officials; fourth, reduce the power of the feudal lords; fifth, levy heavier taxes; sixth, relocate powerful families; seventh, impose a sea ban to eliminate pirates; eighth, station heavy troops for surveillance for several years; ninth, abolish the title of Princedom of Qi; tenth, severely punish rebellious officials and traitors as a warning to others.

The Ten-Step Plan to Pacify Qi emerged just like that. There was considerable overlap, but in the ministers’ descriptions, these were ten completely different strategies. Even executing just half of them would guarantee that the Qi region would not rebel for decades.

Han Ruzi accepted these ten plans and praised his ministers, though he was still not entirely satisfied.

At dusk, Han Ruzi climbed the city wall and looked eastward, seeing only layer upon layer of mountain ranges, with no cities or signs of human habitation visible.

“That is your Princedom of Donghai,” Han Ruzi said, pointing at the mountains.

“Under Heaven, all land belongs to the Emperor,” Prince Donghai replied humbly, also gazing toward the mountains. As the sun set in the west, the eastern mountains were reduced to a vague mass. “The scenery is quite nice, though.”

Cui Teng also followed beside the Emperor, saying excitedly, “Your Majesty and Prince Donghai were both born in Donghai, weren’t you? This is the place where dragons arose. Does Your Majesty remember anything?”

Han Ruzi shook his head. He had no impression of Donghai whatsoever.

Prince Donghai remembered even less. He turned to look around, and seeing that there were only eunuchs and guards nearby with no ministers present, he said quietly, “Your Majesty, the Princedom of Qi cannot be preserved. It must be dissolved. If you ask me, the Princedom of Donghai cannot be preserved either.”

“The Princedom of Donghai is already quite small… you don’t mind if your fief becomes even smaller?” Han Ruzi was somewhat surprised.

“I would rather have no fief at all. Turn the Princedom of Donghai into a prefecture. I am willing to always attend Your Majesty, or just live within Donghai Prefecture and spend the rest of my life as a commoner.”

Han Ruzi smiled and shook his head. Though Prince Donghai spoke pitifully, he actually wanted to return to the Capital with the Emperor.

As night fell and nothing more could be seen, Han Ruzi still did not want to go back and ordered someone to fetch Qiao Wanfu.

Qiao Wanfu was no longer the Magistrate of Ao Granary but had been promoted to Cavalier Attendant-in-Ordinary, able to follow the Emperor around, though he actually had no power whatsoever.

But this was an opportunity. As long as he caught the Emperor’s eye, he might rise to great heights in a single step.

Qiao Wanfu was short and did not dare speak much. He knelt behind the Emperor for a while before being noticed. Cui Teng laughed, “What a short official.”

Han Ruzi told Qiao Wanfu to rise and asked, “The ships of Qi and Lu go west full and return east empty. Does the Capital truly have nothing available for exchange?”

Having met the Emperor several times, Qiao Wanfu knew that His Majesty disliked flowery words and empty phrases, so he said concisely, “It does.”

Han Ruzi, Prince Donghai, and Cui Teng all looked toward this “short official.” Only then did Qiao Wanfu understand that he needed to explain, and he hurriedly said, “The Capital is the source of official positions. Qi and Lu have goods, while the Capital has official positions—they can be exchanged.”

Han Ruzi’s brow furrowed slightly. Cui Teng didn’t understand at all. Prince Donghai laughed and said, “What a truly strange and bold idea. Qi has rebelled twice—are we to appoint even more Qi people as officials?”

Qiao Wanfu knelt down again. “I have spoken nonsense. I humbly beg Your Majesty’s forgiveness.”

Han Ruzi raised his hand, signaling for Qiao Wanfu to rise. After thinking for a moment, he said, “The people of Qi and Lu are wealthy and love learning. I remember that among the graduate scholars over the years, quite a few have been from Qi.”

“There are indeed many graduate scholars from Qi, but they find it difficult to obtain high office. They often find ways to return home and live in retirement. The reason Qi people value the civil examinations is mostly to exempt their families from taxes, not to become officials. It’s said that taxes are heavy in Qi and Lu, but in reality, it’s the common people’s taxes that are heavy.”

The ministers’ suggestions were too conventional, while Qiao Wanfu’s ideas were too bold. Han Ruzi found it difficult to decide for the moment.

Faint zither music drifted from the other side of the city wall.

Han Ruzi set aside his concerns and listened intently. Cui Teng was more interested in the person playing the zither, but didn’t dare walk over. He said quietly to Prince Donghai, “I truly admire this father and daughter pair. They can play music anywhere, and no matter when or where, they can always win His Majesty’s favor.”

Prince Donghai gave a soft grunt, showing no interest in either the music or the people.

The zither piece lasted only a short while before suddenly ending. Han Ruzi was caught off guard and felt annoyed. Just as he was about to order the Zhang father and daughter to continue playing, a guard on the perimeter shouted loudly, “Who goes there? Watch out—there’s an assassin!”

Although assassination attempts were uncommon, the Emperor’s guards and attendants were always prepared. Four attendants immediately rushed to the Emperor’s side, pushing aside Prince Donghai and the others, followed by a large number of guards who surrounded the Emperor in layers. This time, no one was excluded from the protective circle.

The other attendants and guards dispersed to search for the assassin’s whereabouts.

Han Ruzi was in no hurry to descend from the city wall. Instead, he remained where he stood and said to the panicked people around him, “It has only just turned dark—what reason would there be for an assassination at this hour? This is likely just a false alarm.”

The commotion on the perimeter quickly ended. The head attendant Wang He came running over and said, “We caught the person. It’s not an assassin. The person claims to be Your Majesty’s attendant, surnamed Meng.”

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