The whole court was stopped short too, astonishment on every face.

What does His Majesty mean by that?

Have we read him wrong? Does His Majesty not mean to let Ning Chen go after all?

The Xuan Emperor narrowed his eyes slightly. “Ning Chen. Do you know your fault?”

“Your subject knows his fault.”

“Good, that you know it. You cut down the Empress’s brother. You are spared the death. You are not spared the punishment… But this emperor gives you a chance to earn it back.”

Old General Chen and Geng Jing exchanged a quiet look. This was no part of it when we worked out how to save him.

“Ning Chen. Are you willing to earn it back?”

Ning Chen had nothing whatever to say to that. You put it like that. Can I say no?

“Your subject is willing.”

The Xuan Emperor nodded. “Very good. The Tuoluo Kingdom raids the people on our border again and again. The thing is like a chronic disease and there is no curing it at the root… If you can find a way to bring the people of our border through the winter without trouble, this emperor will not only pardon you everything, he will reward you.”

The whole court stood stunned.

Every year when winter came in, the Tuoluo raided the people of the border. The thing had been a thorn in His Majesty’s heart all along, and there was no drawing it out.

The whole court, civil and military, has found no way to do it. What way is a boy going to find? This is putting the thing beyond him on purpose.

Old General Chen and Geng Jing looked at each other again.

And now at last they understood.

Some time ago Ning Chen had handed over three strategies, and if they had been carried through they would have kept the border people safe for ten years.

But the three strategies had been leaked to the Tuoluo by some thing that ate at its own table and worked for outsiders, and the plan died in the womb.

Ning Chen did not find it beyond him at all. He found it exciting.

It meant he could get onto a battlefield.

He had commanded special forces once. A battlefield was his stage, and nothing else was.

From boyhood Ning Chen had had exactly one hero, and it was Huo Qubing. (TL Note: Huo Qubing was a Han dynasty cavalry general who broke the northern nomads in his early twenties and died at twenty-three. The sacrifice he performed at Mount Langjuxu, the farthest point of his advance, has stood ever since as the highest thing a Chinese general can achieve.)

If I can fight my way to the Tuoluo royal house itself — I won’t claim I’d seal Mount Langjuxu, but at the very least I’d leave a line in the history of the Great Xuan written in heavy ink.

“Your subject takes the order.”

Ning Chen said it loudly.

The court was thunderstruck all over again. A newborn calf has no fear of tigers. The boy cannot know how hard this is.

The Xuan Emperor ran his eye over them and said mildly, “Have you no confidence in Ning Chen?”

“Your Majesty. Old generals with years of campaigning behind them have been able to do nothing about this. How is a boy in his teens to manage it?”

“This old subject begs Your Majesty to withdraw the order and give Ning Chen a post in the Hanlin Academy, to raise the name of the Great Xuan in the world of letters.”

It was Li Hanru, Director of the Hanlin Academy, who had stepped out to say it.

The other civil officials saw it and came out one after another to agree.

Ning Chen is brimming with talent. He should not be knocking about with those coarse fighting men. It is a shameful waste of a fine thing.

Ning Chen was the first one to panic. Christ… I want a battlefield. I don’t want the Hanlin Academy and a career as one of the court’s mouths.

He pictured himself in years to come, standing in court like a shrew, yapping at this one and going at that one… and he shivered where he stood.

The Xuan Emperor said mildly, “You do not know Ning Chen, I think. Besides poetry and song, he is very good at leading troops, and at the art of war and strategy.”

In fact, after Ning Chen himself, the happiest man there was Old General Chen.

He had wanted all along to make a general of him.

Old General Chen said, “Ning Chen stayed at my house for a while. His grasp of military strategy astonished even me… Ning Chen has the making of a great general in him.”

The officials, civil and military, stood with their mouths open.

Ning Chen has Old General Chen’s word on him. Then his military talent must be head and shoulders above the rest. Nobody was going to question the eye of a man who had spent his whole life in the saddle.

The Xuan Emperor spoke slowly. “Ning Chen. The beloved ministers all say you should not go. What do you say yourself?”

“The Tuoluo cavalry have been the great trouble at this emperor’s heart for years… If you will not go, he will not force you. In that case there will be nothing left for him but to take the field in person.”

That very nearly frightened the whole court to death.

His Majesty means to take the field in person? That cannot be allowed.

The corner of Ning Chen’s mouth twitched. A threat. A naked threat. I never said I wouldn’t go. Was there any need?

Ning Chen bowed over his clasped hands and said it aloud, clearly. “Your Majesty, 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… What is the Tuoluo Kingdom? Are they fit to have Your Majesty take the field in person? Would that not be flattering them beyond all reason?”

His Majesty was delighted. He meant to hold the smile in and could not… The trouble was that the boy laid the flattery on in a way that suited him exactly.

The whole court kept glancing sideways at him.

An immortal of poetry born again, and no doubt about it. Look at the way he lays it on. Look at the corner of His Majesty’s mouth that he cannot get under control, and you know how pleased he is… Masterly. Truly masterly.

“Your Majesty. Your subject is willing to go to the border… If your subject does not settle the Tuoluo question, he swears he will not come back to the capital.”

“Good. This emperor will wait for good news of you.”

The Xuan Emperor was in high good humor. He glanced at Eunuch Quan.

Eunuch Quan’s thin, high voice rang through the great hall. “Court is dismissed.”

When the Xuan Emperor had gone, Gao Ziping and the others came straight at Ning Chen and got him in a bear hug.

“He’s alive. He came out alive. Hahaha…”

“You frightened the life out of me, Ning Chen… Good man. Alive is all that matters.”

They were happier about it than he was.

Ning Chen went red in the face and thick in the neck, and got it out in pieces. “Don’t get me around the neck. I can’t breathe… Could somebody get these manacles and leg irons off me first?”

“All right, all right… You’re strangling him.”

Gao Ziping gave Feng Qizheng a hard slap on the arm.

Feng Qizheng let go of him, his big mouth open in a grin and his whole face lit up. “Ning Chen. The courtesans’ quarter tonight. On me.”

Ning Chen thought about it. As a modern man, he was curious about that whole side of the city.

There was no harm in going to look.

He nodded and agreed. “We can go… on me.”

A man who has come out of that alive naturally wants to mark it.

Chen Chong gave a wicked grin. “Excellent. From now on you can sleep with women yourself and we won’t have to do it on your behalf.”

Ning Chen laughed and swore at him. “Get out of here.”

“Ning Chen. Congratulations.”

Old General Chen and Geng Jing had come over.

The others made their bows at once.

Ning Chen put his fist into his palm. “Thank you, General. Thank you, Lord Geng… If it hadn’t been for the two of you, I doubt I’d have gotten clear so easily.”

“General. Ning Chen will come to your gate and thank you properly.”

Old General Chen nodded, laughing.

Geng Jing waited a good while and then could not hold it in. “Why is nobody coming to my gate to thank me?”

Ning Chen laughed. “Lord Geng. You and I see each other every day. Do I need a gate for it?”

Geng Jing rolled his eyes. “Go home and wash. You stink.”

Ning Chen lifted an arm and smelled himself. It was true… days in the cells without a wash, and he was going sour.

Old General Chen and Geng Jing talked a few minutes and then left in a hurry. They still had to see His Majesty.

Gao Ziping said, “Let’s go too.”

They came out of the great hall, and from a good way off they could see a crowd around Ning Ziming.

“Congratulations, Lord Ning. You know how to raise a son. I shall have to come and learn the trick of it one of these days… The dead loss at my house is no good at anything he tries and never full no matter what he eats.”

“A tiger father breeds no dog of a son. Lord Ning’s own writing has real brilliance, and your honored son is brimming with talent on top of it. It is enough to make a man envious.”

“Lord Ning. Come to my house one of these days, and remember to bring your honored son.”

Ning Ziming was rather floating.

A little earlier, in that hall, the fright had nearly killed him and he had been thinking of cutting the tie of father and son.

And in the blink of an eye his son was an immortal of poetry born again, and the emperor thought highly of him.

Other men fell out of heaven into hell. He had flown out of hell into heaven, and the feeling of it was almost too much.

With his colleagues paying him compliments, and Li Hanru himself — Director of the Hanlin Academy, who never touched the factions — coming over to make up to him… it would have been hard not to float.

(End of Chapter 69)