1114

Chapter 1114

If The Sky Falls, This Prince Will Hold It Up

The matter at the east city gate became a huge matter and practically everyone in the capital knew about it, including those in the imperial palace. It was to the point that during morning court, the officials mentioned this matter, with praises and criticism. The positive feedback naturally came from the people on the Ninth Prince’s side, they definitely supported doing this wholeheartedly. And the negative voices pointed out that this would harm the relations between the two countries, after all it was Zong Sui’s princess who was being hung up there. This action would easily lead to a war between the two countries. And the ones harmed the most were the innocent citizens, regardless of which country, this was not a good thing.

But the ones in agreement had a response to that, the Right Prime Minister Feng Qing told everyone: “Zong Sui’s new ruler has ascended the throne, but this was done via forced abdication, the first thing done once ascending the throne was to declare that they were unwilling to be subordinate to our Da Shun, with a vassal nation like this, why should we still speak of the relations between two countries?”

“But Zong Sui has not deployed any troops!”

“Could it be that we need to wait for the other party to deploy troops before Da Shun would consider striking back passively?” Xuan Tianming said coldly: “Qian Zhou was like this, Gu Shu was like this, if Zong Sui is like this as well, will Da Shun still have any face left?”

“What Your Highness the Ninth Prince means, is for Da Shun to actively wage war against Zong Sui?” Some officials were frantic, “Peace has come after much effort, if another battle is fought, besides labouring the citizens and damaging finances, it will mess up the hearts of the citizens! If that Zong Sui does not want to be a subordinate nation, then let them be independent, our Da Shun does not need their little bit of yearly tribute. It’s good as long as the nation is peaceful, the nation should just be peaceful!”

Xuan Tianming stared at these elderly people, disdain and contempt on his face, “Has this peaceful kingdom benefited your lives too much? To the point that when you encounter the betrayal and provocation of a subordinate nation, you do not even have the courage to activate the authority of the ruling nation?” He shook his head in frustration as he spoke, “As a nation, it does not fear someone rebelling, it is afraid of such depressing and negative emotions appearing in court. You people, are not worthy of being ministers for our Da Shun.”

Once he said this, those old ministers started to become nervous, guessing the meaning behind the Ninth Prince’s words. But without waiting for them to understand, at the main hall, that Sixth Prince with the important role of regent spoke: “Prince Yu is correct, rebellion is not scary, forced abdication and ascending the throne is even less scary, the scary thing is the officials’ and ministers’ hearts being shaken by all of you, the people’s hearts turning negative due to all of you. When taking a broad look at Da Shun one day, no one has the courage to resist against external threats, everyone simply defends the nation by the skin of their teeth, allowing the external enemies to betray and cut away the territory, that Da Shun, the nation will die.” He had an expression of regret on his face, looking towards old ministers who voiced their opposing opinion. After being silent for half a beat, he finally spoke again: “Our Da Shun would never back down to protect our lands, our Da Shun would never lower our heads to anyone, all of you oppose the principles of our Da Shun, causing our officials’ hearts to waver, all of you are not suitable to appear in court anymore.”

With these words, the positions of these ministers were removed directly. Therefore everyone understood, Da Shun attacking Zong Sui was something set in stone, no one could change it with just a few sentences.

Following this, Xuan Tianming took the initiative to request for a military assignment, after the Mid-Autumn festival, which would be 16th August, the troops would be deployed early morning, heading to the eastern border to settle the trouble in Zong Sui, no one raised any objections.

At this moment, Feng Yuheng was at Chun Palace chatting with her Imperial Concubine Mother. Ever since Xiangrong disappeared, Imperial Concubine Yun was in low spirits, she especially blamed herself because she was the one who pushed Xiangrong to go stroll on the streets and cheer herself up, she felt that she was involved in Xiangrong encountering this misfortune.

Feng Yuheng advised her: “Imperial Concubine Mother, you are not to blame for this, what comes will come eventually, that Zong Sui princess has pined for Seventh Brother for a long time. Let’s think about it from another angle, Zong Sui is in the shadows, we are in the light, if not for the fact of this happening to Xiangrong now, they might not appear at all. With one more day when we cannot find them, it is another day of hidden danger. With the snake out of the lair now, it would be easier to attack them compared to when they were in the shadows.”

She might have said this, but Imperial Concubine Yun’s self-blame did not decrease at all, Feng Yuheng did not know how to counsel her and should only keep her company quietly, occasionally talking to her about matters in the imperial palace, talking about the Emperor. But Imperial Concubine Yun was not interested in the maters about the Emperor, only listening and not expressing her views.

Leaving Chun Palace, she went to the east of the city, looking at Yu Qianyin from the foot of the city walls for a while, then she dismounted her horse and went up to the top of the city walls.

Today, Wang Zhou was on duty here. Seeing that she had come, he quickly approached and said: “Princess, when feeding water to that Princess, she used all her effort with her croaking throat to say that she wanted to see you and had something important to say.”

Yu Qianyin wanted to say something to her, Feng Yuheng did not feel that this was strange. She had been hung up for two and a half days, if she did not say anything, she might not have the chance to do so anymore. Feng Yuheng did not believe that the people of Zong Sui would not care about this princess, it was just that they did not want to let the people go until it was the critical period. No longer than after one and a half days, the other party would definitely act, she already had people keep watch over any movements in the city, this was the best chance to attack the other party’s lair.

Of course, other than this, there was still another matter stored in her heart. When Xiangrong encountered trouble, of all times, she was abducted when she followed Feng Fendai outside, she did not believe it was a coincidence, and had reservations of that Feng Fendai suddenly coming to look for Xiangrong. For children of the Feng family, when would they still remember the deep relationship between sisters?

She walked to the middle of the city walls, facing the area where Yu Qianyin was hanging, she propped both elbows on the city wall, smiling at Yu Qianyin, raising her voice to speak: “Your Highness the Princess, have you thought of telling us where your base is?”

Yu Qianyin glared at her, that half rotten face making her look like a demon, this relied on the fact that Feng Yuheng was a physician and saw all kinds of injuries, if it were a normal woman, they would be so disgusted that they would throw up. Yu Qianyin hated Feng Yuheng, hated her a few years ago and hated her even more now. Currently, she was hoping with all her heart that her own people would appear quickly to save her, she had waited for more than two days. Sometimes, under the sunlight of the autumn daytime, she felt some despair, thinking that her own people had abandoned her. But when night came and the temperatures cooled, her head cleared and she felt that they would not. She was a princess after all, if something happened to her, those people would not be able to answer when they returned to Zong Sui.

Seeing that Feng Yuheng was in front of her, she really wanted to approach and tear Feng Yuheng’s face off, unfortunately, she could not reach. Even if she could reach, she did not have the ability. Feng Yuheng was too amazing, she could not defeat her, so she could only say harshly: “In your dreams! I will definitely not tell you where they are, unless they appear themselves, otherwise, when I die, your younger sister will be buried with me!”

“Oh!” Feng Yuheng nodded, “A commoner girl, giving her a burial together with a princess, it is her fortune as well.”

One sentence pushed Yu Qianyin back, to the point that the person being hung asked on reflex: “You really do not care about your younger sister’s life and death?”

Feng Yuheng shook her head, “It’s not that I do not care, but I know that she will definitely not die. Yu Qianyin, reign in your thoughts of surviving by luck, why don’t we have a bet, tonight, your people will definitely bring the people I want and appear at the foot of this wall, then they will hold a knife at their neck and ask me to free you?”

Yu Qianyin’s eyes shone, but seeing Feng Yuheng’s unconcerned appearance, she asked in confusion: “Placing a knife on their neck, why do I not sense any anxiousness from you?”

“Why should I be anxious?” Feng Yuheng chuckled, “Yu Qianyin, believe it or not, only long as I can see them, I can rescue them. No matter how fast their knife is, they will not match the speed of my actions, regardless of how far away I am.”

Her words caused Yu Qianyin to think of one thing. When she was in Zong Sui, she heard that when Xuan Tianming and Feng Yuheng attacked Gu Shu, they used something called Heavenly Thunder and a long ranged shooting object, it was much better to use compared to shooting arrows, it was said to be known as guns, they could shoot people’s heads from far away, their speed hundred times faster than shooting arrows.

Her body trembled, and she suddenly realised that she could not be saved, this person was only using her to attract the people and had never considered any exchange, only waiting for those people to appear. And she, was still here dreaming that she could be saved. Da Shun had such weapons with them, who would they be afraid of?

Yu Qianyin was frustrated, she looked at Feng Yuheng, telling her harshly: “I cannot win against you, you are amazing. But Feng Yuheng, you also have areas where you failed. Do you know, the fact that I could capture Feng Xiangrong, who did I depend on?”

“You depended on Feng Fendai.” Feng Yuheng answered neatly and even had her own analysis, “You wanted to say that my area of failure is that I isolated myself from my family, my sister from the past Feng family are not on my side and even proactively harmed her own family member, right?” She shook her head as she spoke, “Yu Qianyin, there is no need for you to cause trouble with this, ignoring the fact that I do not have much sisterly feelings towards Feng Fendai, even if I did, with the pretext that you used Xiao Bao as a threat, how can I get angry at her because of that? For any matter, find the right person to take responsibility, I, Feng Yuheng, am not an idiot, I do not have the leisure to be led around by you. Let me tell you this honestly, you do not have any hope of living on, just continue to hang here, until your people appear, I will give you a quick death, if your people do not appear at all, I will cut off your water and food and you will just hang there until you die.”

Feng Yuheng’s words caused Yu Qianyin to feel a wave of despair, the absolute guarantee of death repeated in her mind endlessly, to the point that when day just turned to night, her mental state was not that clear anymore, she would cry for a while and laugh for a while, begging Feng Yuheng for a while, then scolding her for a while.

Feng Yuheng ignored all of this only sitting on the city walls and chatting with the soldiers, Wang Chuan and Huang Quan even went to the tea house in the city to get good tea and when it was dinner, they specially set up a table on the wall, eating in front of that Yu Qianyin, making her watch until she broke down some more.

Xuan Tianming went to the military camp after court ended today. Since he agreed to have the troops deployed on 16th August, there needed to be arrangements at the military camp. Someone had already told him about Feng Yuheng’s exaggerated actions on the east city wall, he only smiled slightly, with a pampering expression on his face, saying the same words as Xuan Tianhua: “Alright! Even if that girl pierces a hole in the sky, This Prince will help her patch it up later. If it cannot be patched and the sky falls, This Prince will hold it up for her. It is fine, let her play!”

When it turned completely dark, Xuan Tianhua came to the top of the east city tower to accompany her. Reality showed that Feng Yuheng’s guess was not wrong at all. Tonight, 45 minutes after Chou hour, a group of people appeared below the east city wall. And there were three people restrained by that group of people, when Feng Yuheng looked downwards, she first saw Feng Xiangrong and Xiao Bao, then another one, she could not help but grin after seeing that person.

(Translator’s note: Chou Hour is 1am to 3am in GMT+8)

Chapter 1114

If The Sky Falls, This Prince Will Hold It Up

The matter at the east city gate became a huge matter and practically everyone in the capital knew about it, including those in the imperial palace. It was to the point that during morning court, the officials mentioned this matter, with praises and criticism. The positive feedback naturally came from the people on the Ninth Prince’s side, they definitely supported doing this wholeheartedly. And the negative voices pointed out that this would harm the relations between the two countries, after all it was Zong Sui’s princess who was being hung up there. This action would easily lead to a war between the two countries. And the ones harmed the most were the innocent citizens, regardless of which country, this was not a good thing.

But the ones in agreement had a response to that, the Right Prime Minister Feng Qing told everyone: “Zong Sui’s new ruler has ascended the throne, but this was done via forced abdication, the first thing done once ascending the throne was to declare that they were unwilling to be subordinate to our Da Shun, with a vassal nation like this, why should we still speak of the relations between two countries?”

“But Zong Sui has not deployed any troops!”

“Could it be that we need to wait for the other party to deploy troops before Da Shun would consider striking back passively?” Xuan Tianming said coldly: “Qian Zhou was like this, Gu Shu was like this, if Zong Sui is like this as well, will Da Shun still have any face left?”

“What Your Highness the Ninth Prince means, is for Da Shun to actively wage war against Zong Sui?” Some officials were frantic, “Peace has come after much effort, if another battle is fought, besides labouring the citizens and damaging finances, it will mess up the hearts of the citizens! If that Zong Sui does not want to be a subordinate nation, then let them be independent, our Da Shun does not need their little bit of yearly tribute. It’s good as long as the nation is peaceful, the nation should just be peaceful!”

Xuan Tianming stared at these elderly people, disdain and contempt on his face, “Has this peaceful kingdom benefited your lives too much? To the point that when you encounter the betrayal and provocation of a subordinate nation, you do not even have the courage to activate the authority of the ruling nation?” He shook his head in frustration as he spoke, “As a nation, it does not fear someone rebelling, it is afraid of such depressing and negative emotions appearing in court. You people, are not worthy of being ministers for our Da Shun.”

Once he said this, those old ministers started to become nervous, guessing the meaning behind the Ninth Prince’s words. But without waiting for them to understand, at the main hall, that Sixth Prince with the important role of regent spoke: “Prince Yu is correct, rebellion is not scary, forced abdication and ascending the throne is even less scary, the scary thing is the officials’ and ministers’ hearts being shaken by all of you, the people’s hearts turning negative due to all of you. When taking a broad look at Da Shun one day, no one has the courage to resist against external threats, everyone simply defends the nation by the skin of their teeth, allowing the external enemies to betray and cut away the territory, that Da Shun, the nation will die.” He had an expression of regret on his face, looking towards old ministers who voiced their opposing opinion. After being silent for half a beat, he finally spoke again: “Our Da Shun would never back down to protect our lands, our Da Shun would never lower our heads to anyone, all of you oppose the principles of our Da Shun, causing our officials’ hearts to waver, all of you are not suitable to appear in court anymore.”

With these words, the positions of these ministers were removed directly. Therefore everyone understood, Da Shun attacking Zong Sui was something set in stone, no one could change it with just a few sentences.

Following this, Xuan Tianming took the initiative to request for a military assignment, after the Mid-Autumn festival, which would be 16th August, the troops would be deployed early morning, heading to the eastern border to settle the trouble in Zong Sui, no one raised any objections.

At this moment, Feng Yuheng was at Chun Palace chatting with her Imperial Concubine Mother. Ever since Xiangrong disappeared, Imperial Concubine Yun was in low spirits, she especially blamed herself because she was the one who pushed Xiangrong to go stroll on the streets and cheer herself up, she felt that she was involved in Xiangrong encountering this misfortune.

Feng Yuheng advised her: “Imperial Concubine Mother, you are not to blame for this, what comes will come eventually, that Zong Sui princess has pined for Seventh Brother for a long time. Let’s think about it from another angle, Zong Sui is in the shadows, we are in the light, if not for the fact of this happening to Xiangrong now, they might not appear at all. With one more day when we cannot find them, it is another day of hidden danger. With the snake out of the lair now, it would be easier to attack them compared to when they were in the shadows.”

She might have said this, but Imperial Concubine Yun’s self-blame did not decrease at all, Feng Yuheng did not know how to counsel her and should only keep her company quietly, occasionally talking to her about matters in the imperial palace, talking about the Emperor. But Imperial Concubine Yun was not interested in the maters about the Emperor, only listening and not expressing her views.

Leaving Chun Palace, she went to the east of the city, looking at Yu Qianyin from the foot of the city walls for a while, then she dismounted her horse and went up to the top of the city walls.

Today, Wang Zhou was on duty here. Seeing that she had come, he quickly approached and said: “Princess, when feeding water to that Princess, she used all her effort with her croaking throat to say that she wanted to see you and had something important to say.”

Yu Qianyin wanted to say something to her, Feng Yuheng did not feel that this was strange. She had been hung up for two and a half days, if she did not say anything, she might not have the chance to do so anymore. Feng Yuheng did not believe that the people of Zong Sui would not care about this princess, it was just that they did not want to let the people go until it was the critical period. No longer than after one and a half days, the other party would definitely act, she already had people keep watch over any movements in the city, this was the best chance to attack the other party’s lair.

Of course, other than this, there was still another matter stored in her heart. When Xiangrong encountered trouble, of all times, she was abducted when she followed Feng Fendai outside, she did not believe it was a coincidence, and had reservations of that Feng Fendai suddenly coming to look for Xiangrong. For children of the Feng family, when would they still remember the deep relationship between sisters?

She walked to the middle of the city walls, facing the area where Yu Qianyin was hanging, she propped both elbows on the city wall, smiling at Yu Qianyin, raising her voice to speak: “Your Highness the Princess, have you thought of telling us where your base is?”

Yu Qianyin glared at her, that half rotten face making her look like a demon, this relied on the fact that Feng Yuheng was a physician and saw all kinds of injuries, if it were a normal woman, they would be so disgusted that they would throw up. Yu Qianyin hated Feng Yuheng, hated her a few years ago and hated her even more now. Currently, she was hoping with all her heart that her own people would appear quickly to save her, she had waited for more than two days. Sometimes, under the sunlight of the autumn daytime, she felt some despair, thinking that her own people had abandoned her. But when night came and the temperatures cooled, her head cleared and she felt that they would not. She was a princess after all, if something happened to her, those people would not be able to answer when they returned to Zong Sui.

Seeing that Feng Yuheng was in front of her, she really wanted to approach and tear Feng Yuheng’s face off, unfortunately, she could not reach. Even if she could reach, she did not have the ability. Feng Yuheng was too amazing, she could not defeat her, so she could only say harshly: “In your dreams! I will definitely not tell you where they are, unless they appear themselves, otherwise, when I die, your younger sister will be buried with me!”

“Oh!” Feng Yuheng nodded, “A commoner girl, giving her a burial together with a princess, it is her fortune as well.”

One sentence pushed Yu Qianyin back, to the point that the person being hung asked on reflex: “You really do not care about your younger sister’s life and death?”

Feng Yuheng shook her head, “It’s not that I do not care, but I know that she will definitely not die. Yu Qianyin, reign in your thoughts of surviving by luck, why don’t we have a bet, tonight, your people will definitely bring the people I want and appear at the foot of this wall, then they will hold a knife at their neck and ask me to free you?”

Yu Qianyin’s eyes shone, but seeing Feng Yuheng’s unconcerned appearance, she asked in confusion: “Placing a knife on their neck, why do I not sense any anxiousness from you?”

“Why should I be anxious?” Feng Yuheng chuckled, “Yu Qianyin, believe it or not, only long as I can see them, I can rescue them. No matter how fast their knife is, they will not match the speed of my actions, regardless of how far away I am.”

Her words caused Yu Qianyin to think of one thing. When she was in Zong Sui, she heard that when Xuan Tianming and Feng Yuheng attacked Gu Shu, they used something called Heavenly Thunder and a long ranged shooting object, it was much better to use compared to shooting arrows, it was said to be known as guns, they could shoot people’s heads from far away, their speed hundred times faster than shooting arrows.

Her body trembled, and she suddenly realised that she could not be saved, this person was only using her to attract the people and had never considered any exchange, only waiting for those people to appear. And she, was still here dreaming that she could be saved. Da Shun had such weapons with them, who would they be afraid of?

Yu Qianyin was frustrated, she looked at Feng Yuheng, telling her harshly: “I cannot win against you, you are amazing. But Feng Yuheng, you also have areas where you failed. Do you know, the fact that I could capture Feng Xiangrong, who did I depend on?”

“You depended on Feng Fendai.” Feng Yuheng answered neatly and even had her own analysis, “You wanted to say that my area of failure is that I isolated myself from my family, my sister from the past Feng family are not on my side and even proactively harmed her own family member, right?” She shook her head as she spoke, “Yu Qianyin, there is no need for you to cause trouble with this, ignoring the fact that I do not have much sisterly feelings towards Feng Fendai, even if I did, with the pretext that you used Xiao Bao as a threat, how can I get angry at her because of that? For any matter, find the right person to take responsibility, I, Feng Yuheng, am not an idiot, I do not have the leisure to be led around by you. Let me tell you this honestly, you do not have any hope of living on, just continue to hang here, until your people appear, I will give you a quick death, if your people do not appear at all, I will cut off your water and food and you will just hang there until you die.”

Feng Yuheng’s words caused Yu Qianyin to feel a wave of despair, the absolute guarantee of death repeated in her mind endlessly, to the point that when day just turned to night, her mental state was not that clear anymore, she would cry for a while and laugh for a while, begging Feng Yuheng for a while, then scolding her for a while.

Feng Yuheng ignored all of this only sitting on the city walls and chatting with the soldiers, Wang Chuan and Huang Quan even went to the tea house in the city to get good tea and when it was dinner, they specially set up a table on the wall, eating in front of that Yu Qianyin, making her watch until she broke down some more.

Xuan Tianming went to the military camp after court ended today. Since he agreed to have the troops deployed on 16th August, there needed to be arrangements at the military camp. Someone had already told him about Feng Yuheng’s exaggerated actions on the east city wall, he only smiled slightly, with a pampering expression on his face, saying the same words as Xuan Tianhua: “Alright! Even if that girl pierces a hole in the sky, This Prince will help her patch it up later. If it cannot be patched and the sky falls, This Prince will hold it up for her. It is fine, let her play!”

When it turned completely dark, Xuan Tianhua came to the top of the east city tower to accompany her. Reality showed that Feng Yuheng’s guess was not wrong at all. Tonight, 45 minutes after Chou hour, a group of people appeared below the east city wall. And there were three people restrained by that group of people, when Feng Yuheng looked downwards, she first saw Feng Xiangrong and Xiao Bao, then another one, she could not help but grin after seeing that person.

(Translator’s note: Chou Hour is 1am to 3am in GMT+8)