Chapter One: The Villain Has a Vicious Scheme

The emperor was met with a chorus of urgent pleas.

“Your Majesty, this must not be done. For the sake of the common people, for the fate of Great Chu, we cannot recklessly wage war.”

“Yes, Your Majesty. If we win, it may still be bearable. But if we lose, the northern barbarians’ cavalry will sweep straight in, and Great Chu will know no peace again. Worse still... the dynasty itself may be in peril, Your Majesty.”

“The strength of Great Chu cannot sustain a great war.”

“Your Majesty...”

A few days earlier, an envoy from the northern barbarians had come to the capital demanding that Great Chu double its annual tribute and offer Princess Changping in marriage.

Not only that, but the barbarian king also demanded that the Great Chu emperor acknowledge him as suzerain.

If Great Chu refused every condition, the barbarian army would be at the gates.

Emperor Qin Yong of Great Chu had been on the throne for little more than a year. Though he labored to govern with diligence, every step had been fraught with difficulty.

In the court, civil and military officials knelt in a vast swath, not one among them willing to advocate war.

If they yielded to the barbarian king’s demands, the balance of power would shift further against them. Before long, Great Chu would perish without the barbarians ever crossing the border.

Qin Yong looked over the gathered ministers, fury blazing in his chest, and wished he could cut them down one by one.

“Three years ago, the barbarian king took away Princess Changshuo, and the annual tribute was increased by fifty percent. At that time, you also counseled my father in just this way: endure a moment of humiliation in exchange for decades of peace.”

“Yet only three years have passed, and the barbarian king has opened his bloodied maw once more. His wolfish ambition knows no bounds.”

“Are you truly my ministers, or the barbarians’ hounds?”

The ministers lay prostrate on the ground, their rear ends raised high.

The Minister of Revenue held up a memorial and said, “Your Majesty, the treasury holds less than one hundred thousand taels in silver. The entire court, all civil and military officials, have not received their stipends for four months.”

The Minister of War also presented a memorial. “Your Majesty, plague is ravaging the army. Fewer than fifty thousand troops remain fit for use...”

The Minister of Works added, “The dikes along the Yellow River are in urgent need of reinforcement, or a single heavy rain will bring a breach. Once the Yellow River breaks, there will be flooding for a thousand miles and famine everywhere. To build and strengthen the dikes, the court must requisition eighty thousand laborers and spend two hundred thousand taels of silver...”

Qin Yong had never imagined the treasury had been drained to such an extent. He had no troops to call upon.

And many matters of state had been concealed from him entirely?

Imperial authority had already been hollowed out.

In Great Chu, who, then, was the emperor?

Qin Yong stared hard at the grand chancellor, Huai Zhong.

Good. Very good. This was the chief minister left to him by his late father, the grand chancellor.

Now, in this court, Huai Zhong seemed more like the emperor, and everyone was watching his expression before moving.

When the time was ripe, the grand chancellor finally said, slowly, “Your Majesty, the barbarian envoy, Wanyan Zhengyu, is an old acquaintance of this old servant. Last night, he came to my humble residence to reminisce. Naturally, I would spare no effort for Great Chu’s sake. After much reasoned argument, Wanyan Zhengyu agreed to withdraw one demand: he will forgo the requirement that Your Majesty become his vassal.”

Qin Yong slowly closed his eyes, utterly despairing.

Was Great Chu to be destroyed at his hands?

At this point, though he was emperor, he had no choice but to swallow humiliation and disgrace.

“If that is so, then let it be—”

“Your Majesty!”

A sudden shout rang through the court.

All turned toward the voice. Beside the doors of the hall, the halberd bearer Xiao Zhi strode to the center and bowed deeply to Qin Yong.

“What is the matter?” Qin Yong asked, puzzled.

“This servant has a plan that may relieve Your Majesty’s worry.”

“Oh?” Qin Yong’s eyes brightened. In his present plight, he would seize even a straw.

“Court deliberations concern the great affairs of the state. What does a mere halberd bearer like you understand? Withdraw at once.”

“Such insolence. I think there is no need for you to remain a halberd bearer any longer.”

“Guards, throw him out!”

Several ministers rebuked him in anger.

To put it kindly, a halberd bearer was part of the imperial retinue and a palace guard. To put it bluntly, he was nothing more than a watchdog holding ceremonial implements. How could such a person be fit to speak in court?

Xiao Zhi sneered. “In Great Chu, is it you who call the shots, or His Majesty? Is this realm yours, or the emperor’s?”

At that, the crowd had no answer. Even if they harbored such overreaching thoughts, they could not speak them aloud.

“Sharp-tongued indeed,” Huai Zhong said. “Your Majesty, though this man was once Your Majesty’s companion in the Eastern Palace, it is common knowledge that he is ignorant and unlearned. What scheme could he possibly offer? More importantly, the court is a place where ruler and ministers deliberate together; not just anyone may interfere in state affairs. For a halberd bearer to present a plan is both improper and contrary to protocol.”

Yet Qin Yong said, “Grand Chancellor, let me ask you: are tribute to the northern barbarians and acknowledgment of vassalage part of our ancestral law?”

“This...”

Huai Zhong lowered his brows, and the muscles in his face twitched.

With the emperor having said as much, for Huai Zhong to object further would seem disrespectful. No matter what he thought inwardly, he had to preserve appearances.

He glanced at Xiao Zhi out of the corner of his eye. Just a pup with no beard yet, acting on a moment’s impulse. What could he possibly know?

Seeing Huai Zhong silenced, Xiao Zhi said, “Your Majesty, this servant’s plan is a poisonous one.”

“No matter. Let us hear it.” Qin Yong straightened in his seat again, his heart in his throat.

He looked at Xiao Zhi and thought to himself: Though I know you are ignorant and unlearned, do not make a laughingstock of yourself this time.

Xiao Zhi smiled. “So long as the state monopoly on salt is sold to the great clans and local aristocratic houses, the silver will naturally be there. They may sell it freely, or purchase the monopoly rights outright for ten or twenty years at a time.”

“What?” Qin Yong, who had only just sat down, sprang to his feet.

He had expected Xiao Zhi to make a fool of himself, but never had he imagined such a fool’s proposal.

Salt, iron, households, and land — the functioning of the state depended on these tax revenues. Salt, in particular, was heavily taxed, for people could leave the land, but wherever they went they still had to eat, and to eat one needed salt. Without salt, people grew weak and sick.

If Great Chu lost the salt tax, the already depleted treasury would have no money at all.

Salt merchants would raise prices to the heavens; the common people, unable to afford salt, would not survive. When that day came, Great Chu would be covered in banners of rebellion, and uprisings would spring up everywhere.

The court erupted in laughter, and many ministers laughed until they nearly doubled over.

To rise step by step to their positions, they had all cultivated excellent composure. There was scarcely anything that could make them lose control and laugh uproariously in court.

But this time, they could not help it. They truly could not help themselves.

Huai Zhong stroked his white beard, his face wrinkled with mirth, and a childish impulse suddenly seized him. He wanted to toy with this foolish halberd bearer.

“Then tell us, how exactly would you sell the salt monopoly to the local noble families?”

Xiao Zhi drew out the draft regulations he had prepared and signaled for a eunuch to deliver them to the emperor.

“Your Majesty will understand at a glance,” Xiao Zhi said. “I have said it before: this is a poisonous plan.”

The laughter rose again.

Indeed, it was a poisonous plan — a dose of poison that could bring Great Chu’s destiny crashing down.

“Ignorant child, do you even know that taxation is the foundation of the state? Once the salt tax is lost, the treasury will have no silver to use.”

“Why bother explaining to him? If he understood such principles, how could he have spoken such absurd nonsense?”

“Today’s court session has truly broadened my horizons.”

Xiao Zhi was unfazed. With a cold smile, he said, “Since it is a poisonous plan, a few side effects are only natural. I believe that after reading my detailed arrangement, His Majesty will certainly agree.”

He said it was a plan, not a strategy.

A plan was something devised to scheme against others.

Xiao Zhi thought to himself: you old fossils, why not guess who exactly this scheme is aimed at?

Laugh. Laugh all you want today. In the future, you will cry just as hard.