Chapter 42: World Three [2] Part 1

Before General Zhang’s good news arrived, Li Jianwei first encountered the so-called imperial envoy proclaiming the edict.

“The daughter of the criminal minister Li Jianwei, kneel and receive the edict!” The eunuch dispatched to proclaim the decree stood arrogantly at the entrance to the General’s Mansion, with more than a dozen imperial guards behind him, each holding a saber at their waist.

“Criminal minister? Who is the criminal minister?” Li Jianwei, clad in light armor, stood opposite him with an expressionless face as she placed her left hand on the hilt of her sword.

“The former Loyal and Brave Marquis and Northern Pacifying Grand General Li Liang intended to collude with the Xiongnu in rebellion and even boldly offended the imperial consorts. After being exposed, he cowardly took his own life out of guilt. Your Majesty, in consideration of his thirty-plus years guarding the Northern Border and his contributions to the state, specially pardons his family. Li Jianwei, why haven’t you accepted the decree and given thanks!”

The eunuch’s shrill voice carried far. He had two tasks on this trip to the Northern Border: one was to publicize Li Liang’s crimes, and the other was to bring Li Jianwei back to the capital.

“Ridiculous! If my father truly intended to rebel, he would surely lead the army back to the capital. How could he go alone to the capital!”

“Your Majesty is wise and mighty. How could he believe such absurd claims? You must be a Xiongnu-bribed spy intent on disrupting Great Jin’s Northern Border!”

“The Li family has always been mortal enemies with the Xiongnu. If we surrendered to the enemy, heaven would have struck me down with lightning long ago!” Li Jianwei’s strong voice carried much farther than that of a eunuch.

The surrounding soldiers and civilians, who had started with quiet murmurs, grew louder. Someone led the way, and soon they shouted loudly.

“Exactly! The Grand General has always been loyal to the court. Not only did he leave his wife, children, and family in the capital, but whenever summoned from the capital, he set out the next day to report back. How could he possibly rebel!”

“The Grand General has slain countless Xiongnu! The Young General has even killed numerous Xiongnu princes and generals. How could they collude with the Xiongnu? Utter nonsense!”

“It must be fake news! The Grand General is so upright and incorruptible. How could he cowardly take his own life! It must be rumors! The Xiongnu want to invade our Northern Border!”

“Spy! Spy! This man is definitely a spy!”

“Please, General, execute the spy! Kill them! Kill these sowers of discord!”

Hearing the increasingly loud discussions from the surrounding soldiers and civilians, the eunuch, who had brought only a dozen or so imperial guards, began to panic.

“Do you dare question the imperial envoy and offend Your Majesty? I bear Your Majesty’s decree!” The eunuch raised the imperial edict high, trying to use imperial authority to force them to submit.

Such tactics might work around the capital, but this was the Northern Border—a place where most people only knew the Li family’s Grand General and Young General. Why would they fear an emperor they had never seen?

It was the general who protected their peaceful lives, the general who helped them farm the land, and the general who gave them food when their harvests fell short. Why wouldn’t they side with the general instead of some unknown figure plotting to harm him?

“How bold! To dare impersonate an imperial envoy and forge an imperial edict!” Li Jianwei appropriately revealed an angry expression, then swiftly drew her long sword and cleanly severed the head of the eunuch, who was half a head shorter than her.

Her personal guards followed suit. In merely three breaths, the dozen or so imperial guards who had come along also stopped breathing.

One quick-eyed guard swiftly pried open an imperial guard’s armor and pulled out an unopened letter from inside.

“General, this is a letter meant for the Xiongnu Khan!” The guard shouted, then presented the letter.

The surrounding soldiers and civilians became even more convinced of their suspicions, believing that this group who had been killed was either disguised Xiongnu or spies bought off by them. Their claim that the Grand General had cowardly taken his own life must be fake news.

Li Jianwei shook the blood from her sword, then sheathed it. She tore open the envelope and took out the letter inside.

After scanning it at a glance, Li Jianwei’s face showed clear anger. “Absurd! The letter is from a court official to the Xiongnu Khan! It says they’ve already used a scheme to sow discord, making Your Majesty convict my father and brother on trumped-up charges. It even urges the Xiongnu to prepare to invade southward and seize our Northern Border territory!”

“Everyone, before my father left for the capital to report, he specifically told me to guard the Northern Border and never allow the Xiongnu to harass our people.” Li Jianwei spoke solemnly, while having her guard pass the letter to an elderly village head in the crowd who could read and write.

“Though I don’t know why there’s been no news from my father after a month in the capital, as long as I’m in the Northern Border, I absolutely won’t let the Xiongnu’s schemes succeed! Nor do I believe a wise sovereign would heed such outrageous rumors and think the Grand General who guarded the Northern Border for thirty years would collude with the Xiongnu!”

“Please, everyone, stay vigilant in your daily lives. If you spot anyone suspicious, report it immediately to the patrolling troops so they can be captured!”

“I will write a letter back to the capital, warning my father to guard against the true traitors in the court who collude with the Xiongnu and betray the country!”

Li Jianwei’s image among the Northern Border’s people was excellent. Her words had barely fallen when the soldiers and civilians responded in agreement, declaring they only trusted the general and would never be fooled by spies.

After pacifying the people, Li Jianwei deliberately did not retrieve the letter, letting it circulate through the crowd.

She merely ordered the dozen or so corpses hacked to pieces and fed to the dogs as a warning to others.

However, the unopened imperial edict was kept by Li Jianwei and taken to the study for careful examination.

Forging an imperial edict from scratch was no easy task, especially in the resource-scarce Northern Border, where finding the right materials and an embroiderer for the patterns was difficult.

But modifying the content on an existing one was not hard—just find someone who could imitate handwriting and repair paintings.

–

Five days later, when the spies’ bones were no longer intact, General Zhang returned with dozens of cavalrymen. He had left in black armor but came back draped in a white robe, tears in his eyes before the General’s Mansion.

“General, the Grand General and the Heir Apparent were framed by treacherous ministers. To protect the Northern Border troops from implication, he died together with the Heir Apparent at the Imperial Palace gates to prove his innocence! Yet Your Majesty still believed the treacherous ministers’ slander, convinced that the Grand General and Heir Apparent colluded with the Xiongnu. He even intends to exterminate the Grand General’s wife and the second young miss, who is not yet fifteen!”

“Thanks to the Grand General’s personal guards protecting them with their lives, the wife and second young miss escaped! Unfortunately, this subordinate arrived too late. The other guards were all killed by assassins, and only the wife and second young miss were saved!”

As General Zhang spoke, two lines of clear tears flowed down. He tremblingly pulled out the blood letter that had been delivered by a personal guard earlier.

“General! This is the blood letter the wife risked her life to bring out! The Grand General and Heir Apparent died unjustly! Please, General, seek justice for the Grand General and clear his name! Don’t let him die with eyes unclosed!”

Li Jianwei’s face paled instantly. She tremblingly took the blood letter from General Zhang, her expression seven parts genuine and three parts feigned.

“How could this be? My father told me he and Your Majesty were of one heart and mind as sovereign and minister. Your Majesty often wrote to him, urging him to take care of his health. How could Your Majesty force my father and brother to die to prove their innocence!”

“Where are my father and brother’s bodies? Are my mother and little sister safe?” Li Jianwei staggered, nearly collapsing if not for her personal guard supporting her.

“This subordinate is incompetent. I only know the Grand General and Heir Apparent’s bodies are detained in the capital and have not been buried. The wife and second young miss are too frightened for a hasty journey and can only arrive safely in the Northern Border in three days.”

Li Jianwei said nothing, only telling General Zhang to go back and rest well. But when she appeared before her personal guards again, she had tied white cloth around her head and waist.

Li Jianwei said nothing, but the soldiers and civilians had eyes and brains.

Combining recent rumors with their general’s demeanor, they all understood that the Grand General had likely been framed by treacherous ministers and chose to die to prove his innocence so as not to implicate the Northern Border troops.

Unfortunately, with treacherous ministers in power, even so, the sovereign refused to spare the Grand General and sought to exterminate his family! Did such a sovereign deserve loyalty?

Perhaps those bought-off spies earlier were sent by the treacherous ministers in the court to lure their general away from the Northern Border and repeat the trick.

–

“General, the soldiers and civilians have spontaneously tied white cloth on their arms to mourn the Grand General and Heir Apparent,” a personal guard reported.

“The common folk in the streets and alleys are growing increasingly resentful toward the court, especially after you held your mother and wept. The women’s voices have grown louder too—they’ve even begun setting up spirit tablets for the Grand General and offering incense.”

Li Jianwei slowly exhaled. When she saw the wounds covering her mother and little sister, she had wanted to raise the flag in revolt and march straight to the capital to confront the tyrant emperor on the dragon throne face-to-face about why he did this.

Why murder her father, who had been utterly loyal to Great Jin? Why force her brother, who had abandoned martial pursuits for civil ones, to die alongside him! Was his tolerance so petty? As sovereign, he couldn’t even tolerate loyal ministers.

But Li Jianwei held back. The 350,000-strong army was indeed enough to march on the capital. But the cost would be abandoning the Northern Border’s people and lands to Xiongnu plunder.

She could not bring herself to cut off her own retreat like that, especially since she had guarded the Northern Border’s people with her life for a full thirteen years.

If she could not act on impulse alone, then she must plan carefully before moving.

“Continue gathering intelligence, and pay extra attention to anyone coming from the capital. Don’t let spies slip in,” Li Jianwei calmly instructed, then lit the secret report with a candle and burned it. “Have the generals I summoned all arrived?”

Personal guard: “General Zhang and General Han arrived a quarter of an hour ago. Of the other eight generals, seven have arrived. The last one is on border patrol and will arrive later.”

Li Jianwei nodded, then rose from the study and strode toward the meeting hall.

“Greetings, General!” Everyone stood and saluted.

Li Jianwei nodded and took her seat at the head position. “Everyone, secret reports from the capital say treacherous ministers have bewitched Your Majesty into pinning the crime of colluding with the Xiongnu on my father and brother. They even intend to transfer the troops stationed in the Northern Border to the south to suppress a rebellion.”

“How can this be allowed! News of the Grand General’s death has reached the Xiongnu, and they’re watching us like tigers. Reducing Northern Border troops now would completely disregard the lives of our people!”

“The court wants to discard us after using us up and disband the Northern Border Army! They care nothing for the lives of our soldiers and civilians.”

“Your Majesty has been bewitched by treacherous ministers. We should march south to Purge the King’s Side! Eliminate the ministers misleading Your Majesty! Lest they ruin the country!”