Chapter 7: 7

Hearing his nanny’s words, Yi Yin curved his mouth disdainfully and sneered while the nanny couldn’t see.

How could Helian Zhuo come here because of what happened during the day? As long as no one was killed, he wouldn’t care about such trivial matters. He probably came to see Wei Zhao today because he had no place to vent his anger again.

Yi Yin’s guess was half right: Helian Zhuo didn’t come to see Wei Zhao because of the Great Yan-zhi troubling him, nor did he come to see him because he had no place to vent his anger. But he had “good news” to announce.

When Helian Zhuo entered the house, Wei Zhao was sitting cross-legged on the kang in a homely coat, with an indifferent expression, and didn’t look up at Helian Zhuo, as if he didn’t exist.

Helian Zhuo was used to Wei Zhao’s rude attitude towards him and didn’t take it personally. Instead, he chuckled and said, “Ah Zhao, I have good news for you. I think you will be happy to hear it.”

Wei Zhao raised his head, casting a sidelong glance at Helian Zhuo, but didn’t say a word. The so-called “good news” of Helian Zhuo was likely “bad news” to him, so it didn’t matter whether he heard it or not.

“Can you give me some reaction?” It seemed that Helian Zhuo was not satisfied with Wei Zhao’s calm performance, so he walked to the front of the kang and stood there, clutching Wei Zhao’s chin with one hand, forcing him to look up at him, “Ah Zhao, seeing you like this, I suddenly don’t want to say anything.”

Helian Zhuo’s grip was very strong, and there were already dark-blue traces on Wei Zhao’s face. He struggled twice and could not break free, so he coldly spat out, “Say what you like or not.”

At these words, Helian Zhuo laughed out loud, “Ah Zhao, you’re so cute!” He let go of Wei Zhao’s chin and pushed hard on his shoulder, pushing him down onto the kang and pressing against him.

The wounds that had not healed yet hit the hard kang heavily. Even though two thick mattresses had been laid on the kang, Wei Zhao still felt that the wounds had cracked open again. He bit his lower lip tightly, with a look of pain on his face.

Helian Zhuo didn’t even notice Wei Zhao’s abnormality, but he was unhappy with his resistance. He pried open Wei Zhao’s closed teeth and kissed him fiercely, as if he wanted to eat him up.

Wei Zhao was unable to resist; he could only stiffen his body and let Helian Zhuo do what he wanted. He could feel that the wounds on his back were bleeding again.

After the kiss, Helian Zhuo rolled over and lay down beside Wei Zhao, saying softly after a while: “Ah Zhao, do you know? Li Kang is dead!”

“What did you say?” At the sound of Li Kang’s name, Wei Zhao’s expression that had always been cold became much more vivid, surprised and flustered.

Helian Zhuo was very pleased with Wei Zhao’s reaction, so he repeated, “I said that Li Kang is dead, killed by Herong Ling’s sword. Ah Zhao, are you happy?”

“Impossible! This can’t be!” Wei Zhao sat up violently and shook his head desperately, as if trying to reject the news he had just heard. He didn’t believe it. He didn’t believe that Li Kang was dead.

Li Kang was dead, he was really dead, and he had died at the hands of the Fuyu people…

In that case, who else would he have to seek revenge from later on? Wei Zhao fell into a daze, not even realising that Helian Zhuo had taken him into his arms.

After the great battle in the north of the desert in the 22nd year of Yongjia, the Tiele people retreated to the north of the desert and posed no further threat to the Great Yan’s northern borders. Wei Su’s strategic target also changed from Tiele in the north to Fuyu in the northeast.

In terms of national and military strength, Fuyu was not as powerful as Tiele, and unlike Tiele, they didn’t cause trouble on the northern border of the Great Yan, so for a long time there was no war between the two countries. It could be said they were getting along quite well.

However, during the decades of war at the end of the previous dynasty, it was an indisputable fact that Fuyu took the opportunity to occupy the eight northern counties of Youzhou, Yunzhou and the two northeastern counties of Yanzhou that once belonged to the Shenchuan dynasty.

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During the reign of Emperor Gaozong, Prince Jing Wei Fu marched north to Fuyu to recover the eight northern counties of Yunzhou for the Great Yan and died in that battle. Wei Fu had no sons, and his hereditary prince title was thus removed from the country.

It was the legacy of Emperor Taizu and the ambition of successive emperors of the Great Yan to recover their homeland, but for various reasons, the two northern counties of Youzhou and Yanzhou were still in the hands of the Fuyu people until Wei Su’s accession to the throne.

In the 25th year of Yongjia, Wei Su sent Jun Lin, Hou Zhaoyang, and Ji Yu, the son of Wang Changning, to attack Fuyu and recover the two counties in the north-eastern part of Yanzhou. At that time, the king of Fuyu was the father of Helian Zhuo.

However, in the following year, the brilliant Hou Zhaoyang, who had never lost a battle in his life, died at the age of twenty-four, casting a heavy shadow over Wei Su’s plans for the northern expedition.

In the 29th year of Yongjia, Wei Su conquered Fuyu again with Ji Yu as his chief general and recovered the two southern counties of Youzhou. Although the battle was won, the 22-year-old son of Wang Changning was killed in battle, leaving the Great Yan without another star general.

In just three years, the Great Yan lost two young generals on whom the emperor had placed great hopes. Since then, the war against Fuyu had to be put to a temporary end as the flames on the southern borders and in the Western Regions rose again.

In the 37th year of Yongjia, Wei Su made a comeback, sending Li Kang, Hou Pingnan, and Lu Ziqian, Hou Dingyuan, to attack Fuyu in Youzhou, but to no avail.

Not only that; because Li Kang was eager to make quick gains, not only did he fail to recover the land, but he almost lost the two southern counties of Youzhou that Ji Yu had fought so hard to regain. Fortunately, Lu Ziqian turned the tide and held the fort, ensuring that the Great Yan didn’t lose an inch of land.

The war in the north-east was stalemated, with the Great Yan losing soldiers and generals, and the calls for a truce grew at court, especially from the Crown Prince Wei Ming, who had a standoff with Wei Su several times.

Unfortunately, the emperor’s determination was unstoppable. In the 39th year of Yongjia, he once again sent Li Kang on a campaign, accompanied by the Fourth Prince, Wei Zhao.

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Having learnt his lesson two years earlier, Li Kang played it cleverly and cautiously this time; if nothing else, he would be able to recapture Youzhou in full.

However, Wei Zhao, Wang Qin, who carried the legacy of Hou Zhaoyang, seemed to have gained too much popularity. Even Wei Su, after reading the battle report, said that the name of the Fourth Prince was chosen right, and the character “Zhao” of Hou Zhaoyang’s name was borrowed well.

Li Kang was not afraid that Wei Zhao would rob him of his military merits. He was the commander of the whole army. No matter how beautifully Wei Zhao fought, as long as he got back Youzhou, the greatest credit was his.

What he was worried about was Wei Su’s love for Wei Ming and his renewed goodwill towards him.

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The emperor was belligerent and the Crown Prince was a peacemaker; the contradictions between the two sides were naturally irreconcilable, and no one else was needed to provoke them.

In the early years, the Crown Prince’s maternal uncles had distinguished themselves in battle, so, not for the monk’s sake but for the Buddha’s sake(1), the emperor naturally had a high regard for the Ji family. The empress was the daughter of the Ji family, so the Crown Prince’s position was as stable as Mount Tai, and no one else dared to think about it. 

Now that Ji Qing had passed away from illness, Jun Lin and Ji Yu had died young, and the current Wang Changning and Hou Zhaoyang were both young children, the Ji family’s influence in the army was not as strong as it once had been, so it is a good opportunity to take down the Eastern Palace(2).

But at this time, Wei Zhao appeared. He and the Crown Prince were full brothers. If he gained power in the army, who else could shake the Crown Prince’s position?

Li Kang had a beloved younger sister, Concubine Yun, and a beloved nephew, the Fifth Prince Wei Shi, so he naturally didn’t want to see such a situation.

Fortunately, on the battlefield, swords have no eyes. The enemy would never spare you because you were a nobleman, but some would be more eager to kill you and take the credit.

So, Li Kang set Wei Zhao up.

The young prince, who had his heart set on regaining his homeland, would never have dreamed that his own commander would backstab him on such an important battlefield. By the time he realised what had happened, he was already in Helian Zhuo’s tent.

After that, Li Kang started the all-out attack on Youzhou. He was best at crowd tactics. The so-called “killing a thousand enemy soldiers and losing eight hundred of your own” was exactly about him.

But no matter how heavy the cost, as long as the whole of Youzhou was recovered, Li Kang was the hero of the Great Yan, and the truth of Wei Zhao’s capture was buried in the dust with all those deaths.

Compared to the loss of the four counties of Youzhou, the capture of the prince of the Great Yan was not good news for Helian Zhuo, who wanted to kill Wei Zhao with a thousand cuts to vent his hatred.

However, when he saw Wei Zhao, Helian Zhuo changed his mind. So what if he killed Wei Zhao? Death might be a relief for him. He wanted to make his life worse than his death, to ruin his reputation, to vent his anger at the loss of Youzhou.

Helian Zhuo hated to admit that when he first saw Wei Zhao, he was so amazed by his good looks that he could not bring himself to kill him.

In fact, this was not an unexpected result. The Great Yan had been established for more than two hundred years, and the throne had been passed down for more than a dozen generations. Not to mention the fact that the founding emperor was already a graceful son of a noble family, even if he was an ordinary countryman, after more than a dozen generations of optimised combinations of various beauties, the emperor’s children and grandchildren were bound to have good looks. In addition, Wei Zhao’s mother’s family, the Ji family of Wang Changning, was renowned for its beauty. Including the current empress, the Ji family had produced three empresses in total, all of whom were famously beautiful.

Wei Zhao was a young man. His appearance combined the advantages of both parents. When he went on the expedition with Li Kang, someone even joked that Wang Qin was so beautiful that he should have followed the example of Wang Lanling of the previous dynasty and wear a mask when going to the battlefield.

Wei Zhao didn’t care and only scolded the soldier, but didn’t take it personally. On the battlefield, military merit was the first priority. Let them talk about his appearance or something, could someone really take it seriously?

But at that moment, seeing the strange glint in Helian Zhuo’s eyes, Wei Zhao regretted it. Had he known that today would come, he would have drawn a knife across his face a few times. If Helian Zhuo wanted to insult him, he would have to look at that face, and let’s see how he would go on.

Wei Zhao was not an ignorant child. There were male concubines in Wei Su’s palace, and he had been in the army for years, so he had seen a lot of things. He had already guessed what Helian Zhuo wanted to do to him.

However, having seen Wei Zhao’s bravery on the battlefield, Helian Zhuo had already drugged him and sealed his martial arts skills, leaving him powerless to fight back. As a result, he could only let Helian Zhuo take him and toss and turn as he wished.

Helian Zhuo was not interested in men, and Wei Zhao didn’t know how to please him and was not going to. Although his appearance was gorgeous, his body was hard, not as delicate and charming as a woman’s. After a few times, Helian Zhuo lost interest in Wei Zhao and sent him to work with the other prisoners of war.

Two months later, the person in charge of guarding the prisoners of war sent a message to Helian Zhuo saying that Wei Zhao had recently lost his appetite, was nauseous and vomited from time to time, and had fainted twice while working.

Helian Zhuo didn’t want Wei Zhao to be tortured to death too early, so he sent a shaman doctor to take a look at him. Who could have imagined that the shaman doctor would come back and say that Wei Zhao was not sick, but pregnant, and that the foetus was unstable due to overwork, so the shaman doctor wanted to know what Helian Zhuo’s plans in this regard were.

Helian Zhuo was stunned by the news. He had never thought that Wei Zhao could get pregnant.

Translator’s note: Wow, the author really went heavily on infodump here  Should I try to add more infodump to make it more clear (or not)?  Anyway, there is some information not just from this chapter but from the later ones. I hope I haven’t made any mistakes.

Generation 1: Wei Su, the current emperor. Ji Wan, the empress. Ji Qing (Wang Changning),  her elder brother, died young of illness, leaving no children. Wang Changning’s title passed to Ji Wu(?), Ji Qing and Ji Wan’s brother.

Generation 2: Wei Ming, the Crown Prince. Wei Zhao, the Fourth Prince (both the children of Wei Su and Ji Wan). Ji Yu, the son of Ji Wu, died in a battle while his father was still alive. Jun Lin (Hou Zhaoyang), a mega super talented general, died young in a battle.

Generation 3: Yi Yin  Ji Xin (the current Wang Changning), the son of Ji Yu. Jun Qing (the current Hou Zhaoyang), the son of Jun Lin. The generation is the same but Yi Yin is three years old while Ji Xin and Jun Qing are Wei Zhao’s peers.

An idiom meaning to do something for somebody out of deference to somebody else The place where the Crown Prince lives, so also means the Crown Prince directly

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