The woman emperor set down the sheets of paper in her hand, looked at Ning Chen, and said with a smile:
“General Ning is the true one — in letters you can take up a brush and settle the empire, and in arms you can mount a horse and set heaven and earth in order.“
Ning Chen gave a short laugh. “And I know women before I know shoes.”
“It seems the Wu Kingdom has no shortage of spies in my Great Xuan, even inside the royal family. That flake poem was one I wrote to tease the Ninth Princess. I never expected you to know even that.”
The woman emperor smiled evenly. “And doesn’t the Great Xuan keep plenty of spies in my Wu Kingdom?”
Once I’m back in the capital, I’ll have to see about clearing out the Wu Kingdom’s spies, Ning Chen thought.
The woman emperor looked at the young man in front of her, admiration in her eyes, and something else besides that could not easily be named.
“Ning Chen. Come to my Wu Kingdom.”
“Hm?”
The woman emperor said with a smile, “Come to the Wu Kingdom, and whatever you want, this emperor can give you. In the Great Xuan you’re only a minor silver coat. Now, in an emergency, you’ve been made a general — but you have no tiger tally.”
Ning Chen smiled easily. “That doesn’t matter. It’s enough that the men listen to me.”
The woman emperor waved a hand. “It isn’t the same. A general with a tiger tally, appointed by imperial edict — even if the Great Xuan’s emperor wanted to move against him, he’d have to go through the proper channels.”
“But you — one word from the Xuan Emperor and you’d have nothing at all.”
“The Great Xuan’s emperor looks as though he favors you, but he’s guarding against you at every turn. Putting you in the Inspectorate is the best proof of it — the Inspectorate has nothing to do with court politics. He doesn’t want you holding power at court.”
Ning Chen smiled. “You’re wrong. My emperor isn’t guarding against me. He understands me. He knows my ambitions don’t lie at court. The battlefield is my stage.”
The woman emperor gave a small, scornful laugh. “If that’s so, why hasn’t he given you a tiger tally?”
Ning Chen narrowed his eyes. “You seem to know a great deal about me.”
The woman emperor did not hide it. “Your affairs, one after another, every one of them — this emperor knows them inside out. Even the small things in your daily life. This emperor even knows how many times you’ve been to the courtesans’ quarter.”
The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched.
“Are you some kind of pervert? You investigate who I sleep with too?”
The woman emperor laughed lightly. “A young talent like you is bound to become a great enemy of my Wu Kingdom. How could this emperor not know you well?”
“Ning Chen, the better this emperor knows you, the more this emperor admires you. Come to my Wu Kingdom. Whatever the Great Xuan’s emperor can give you, this emperor can give you — and what he can’t give you, this emperor can give you too.”
“Didn’t you boast that you wanted this emperor for a concubine? If you came to the Wu Kingdom, that isn’t something that couldn’t be discussed.”
Ning Chen was startled. He had said that line about taking her as a concubine to Pang Yun — and in this bitter cold, with Pang Yun short of food and clothing, the man could not possibly have made it out of the Great Xuan’s territory yet. How did the woman emperor know?
“How did you find out?”
Ning Chen did not bother hiding it and asked outright.
The woman emperor smiled faintly. “It seems General Ning doesn’t know my Wu Kingdom very well. A hawk carried the message, that’s all.”
Ning Chen let out an “Oh.” So that was it.
Hawks are wild things and hard to tame, but the Wu Kingdom had gone deep into the art of taming them.
“What does General Ning think of the proposal I just made?”
“What proposal?”
“Come to my Wu Kingdom.”
“No.”
The woman emperor’s brow creased. “Won’t you think it over a little more?”
Ning Chen shook his head. “No need.”
“Very well. Every man has his own calling. This emperor won’t press you.” As she spoke, the woman emperor reached out and touched the wine jug warming on the table. “Just the right temperature.”
So saying, she poured two cups of wine.
She pushed one cup across to Ning Chen.
Ning Chen glanced at it and did not move.
The woman emperor smiled, picked up her own cup and drained it in one go, then turned it upside down to show Ning Chen.
Ning Chen still did not touch the cup in front of him.
The woman emperor did not press the point either. She set down her cup, poured herself another, and said, “Since General Ning has no wish to come to my Wu Kingdom, this emperor won’t insist. Then let’s talk about something else.”
Ning Chen looked at her.
The woman emperor said, “The other matter. Pang Yun must have spoken to you about it.”
Ning Chen laughed shortly. “Ceding land and paying tribute?”
The woman emperor nodded. “If you agree, this emperor can promise you — no war against the Great Xuan for ten years.”
Ning Chen could not hold back a laugh.
The woman emperor asked, “Why does General Ning laugh?”
“I’m laughing at what a fine plan you’ve worked out — the beads are practically bouncing off your abacus and into my face.”
The woman emperor looked at him with interest. “How do you mean?”
Ning Chen said, “Your Wu Kingdom is fighting the Tuoluo Kingdom on one side and the Great Xuan on the other. You must be running low on strength and short of troops by now.”
“Give us land and tribute, and you’ll use our silver to raise troops and train them, rest and rebuild for ten years — and once your army is strong again, come at the Great Xuan once more. It really is a fine idea.”
The woman emperor burst out laughing.
“Just tell me — do you agree or not?”
Ning Chen shook his head. “Of the Great Xuan, not an inch is given up. Cede land, pay tribute — that’s a fantasy.”
The woman emperor’s face darkened at once. “Aren’t you afraid this emperor will keep you in this tent forever?”
Ning Chen smiled easily, picked up the cup in front of him, drained it in one go, and said with insolent pride:
“If I’m not back inside six hours, more than two hundred thousand Great Xuan troops will come down on you.”
The woman emperor laughed again suddenly. “Do you think this emperor’s hundred and fifty thousand men don’t exist?”
Ning Chen said with a smile, “The Wu Kingdom’s soldiers fight well, but the Great Xuan’s aren’t weak either. A hundred and fifty thousand against more than two hundred thousand — what odds do you give yourselves?”
“Our Great Xuan has men and troops to spare. We can afford to lose them. Can your Wu Kingdom say the same? If you leave this hundred and fifty thousand here, what will you use against the Tuoluo Kingdom?”
The woman emperor filled Ning Chen’s cup again, filled her own to the brim, drained it in one go, and said with a smile:
“When this emperor was sixteen, my father the emperor died without warning. I have a great many brothers and sisters. Can you guess how this emperor came to sit on the throne?”
Ning Chen had heard something of this. The story went that the old Wu emperor had died suddenly, without leaving any edict naming an heir, and the whole Wu Kingdom had boiled over — brother turning against brother for the throne.
And in the end, the one who fought her way through and came out on top was the Sixth Princess, a girl nobody had ever heard of — the very woman now sitting before him as the woman emperor.
This woman in front of him was no ordinary person.
Once on the throne, she had struck down whoever needed striking and crushed whoever needed crushing, and inside a single month she had steadied the whole Wu Kingdom with an iron hand.
After that, she had taken the field herself and driven back the Tuoluo Kingdom’s army when it tried to strike the Wu Kingdom while it was still unsteady, and made her name at a stroke.
In the years since, under her rule, the Wu Kingdom had grown steadily stronger, and both the common people and the court held her in deep regard.
Ning Chen said lightly, “For Your Majesty to have come to the throne, I’d guess there was someone of real ability behind you, on top of your own skill.”
However formidable her own methods, a girl of sixteen could never have fought her way through that on her own strength alone. There had to have been someone of ability guiding her from behind.
Something flickered briefly in the woman emperor’s eyes.
She plainly did not want to go any further into it, and changed the subject. “What this emperor means to say is: from the moment I took the throne, I have known that things go the way men make them go, that human will can overcome heaven itself. So there is nothing this emperor wants that cannot be had.”
“So — the Great Xuan agrees to cede land and pay tribute, and both sides stay at peace. If you refuse, this emperor will come and take it herself.”
Ning Chen looked at the woman emperor, her face faintly flushed from the wine, which only added to her looks, and gave a great laugh. “Your Majesty has real spirit. Then Ning here will wait for you on the battlefield!”
The woman emperor’s smile was radiant. “In that case, in ten hours, this emperor will lead the army herself, and we’ll be at your walls.”
Ning Chen smiled easily. “I’ll be waiting.”
“Is General Ning sure he won’t think again about coming to my Wu Kingdom? This emperor came to the throne at sixteen and has held it eight years, and few men have ever caught my eye. Fewer still have won my admiration. You are the only one.”
Ning Chen laughed out loud. “My thanks for Your Majesty’s regard. Ning Chen takes his leave!”
The woman emperor watched him with a look that was almost a smile and almost not.
“Wait. General Ning, remember well what this emperor is about to say. Head to tail, and the last becomes seven — after that, multiples of seven, and so on.”
Ning Chen’s forehead filled with question marks.
“What does that mean?”
The woman emperor smiled mysteriously. “General Ning will know in time.”
She’s out of her mind, Ning Chen said inwardly, and said aloud, “Farewell!”
With that he made to get up and go, but all at once his head swam, and he felt a rush of heat surge up from low in his belly and spread through his whole body, an unbearable heat he could not fight off.
His body went slack, and he sank to the floor.
Fuck!
Something was wrong with the wine.
Before he could think it through, his mind was overrun by raw desire, and nothing was left in him but the most primal urge.
(End of Chapter 280)