Chapter 104
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This ambush, which turned the tide of events, brought unexpected honors to Han Jiao, and the court awarded him the rank of Deputy General for his meritorial service.
In the Emperor’s view, without Han Jiao’s fearless remonstrance, this momentous glory showcasing the nation’s power would not have occurred.
Because Han Jiao personally participated in the battle, all of the Emperor’s doubts were dispelled. He was convinced that Han Jiao had pledged loyalty to Prince Ling both openly and secretly.
The day after the victory celebration banquet, Han Jiao received an imperial decree at the morning court, formally taking on the role of an assistant in the Ministry of Rites. This marked his formal entry into the ranks of the top officials of the Six Ministries and Nine Boards.
The entire family was overjoyed. Even the usually frugal Master Han wrote letters back to their hometown, inviting all their relatives to come to the capital and join the celebration.
Of course, he wasn’t happy just because his son entered the Ministry of Rites, but because his son had irreplaceable contributions in this crucial battle to save the country.
Mrs. Han seemed happier than Master Han because the rewards from the court were exceptionally generous. The rewards, equivalent to the rank of a Deputy General, amount to a whopping five hundred taels of silver.
This reward alone was enough for the family to enjoy a comfortable life for a lifetime. They still had the reward money from Han Jiao’s previous solving of a major case. There was no need to painstakingly save money anymore, and there was no pressure for the dowry when their son would get married.
So, Mrs. Han’s expectations had also risen. The potential in-laws she was considering were all starting at the fourth rank. She’d made a list of the ones she was interested in and had asked her son for his opinion.
This greatly alarmed Han Jiao. He earnestly requested his mother not to act as a matchmaker for him. He was not ready to start a family.
Han Jiao was nineteen, and in this era, he could indeed marry. However, marrying first and then falling in love was a marriage model he could not accept. He needed to understand who the other person was before considering a lifelong commitment.
Fortunately, Mrs. Han wasn’t in a rush to arrange her son’s marriage. She brought it up because she was worried that her son might be thinking about marriage now that he had grown up. Seeing how strongly he opposed it, she had temporarily put the matter aside.
But this matter became a concern for Han Jiao.
Before this, he had never seriously contemplated what kind of person he would spend his life with. Now, as he pondered it earnestly, he found himself in deep confusion.
What kind of wife was his ideal?
As a bookish nerd who had been immersed in studies for over a decade, Han Jiao had never been in love before.
The girls he liked during middle school and high school were mostly members of idol groups. Furthermore, he admired the male protagonists from the books he read more than celebrities.
He had always wanted to be someone like the male protagonists in the books or achieve great things alongside them.
Yes, this was the future he often daydreamed about. In his future plans, there was no ideal girl, only ideal male protagonists.
In high school, he admired Prince Yan for a long time. Now, it was almost like a dream come true as he became an advisor to Prince Yan. However, Prince Yan didn’t possess the depth of experience he had imagined from the novel.
Although Han Jiao deeply appreciated Prince Yan’s trust, there seemed to be a wild plan lurking in his mind that he was afraid to think about too closely.
Perhaps the shrewd Emperor, who saw everything, had already seen through him.
Yes, the person Han Jiao wanted to assist was Xie Duo.
Knowing that Xie Duo would eventually become the Crown Prince, Han Jiao hadn’t paved the way for Xie Duo in this regard.
But he’d been quietly clearing obstacles from Xie Duo’s path.
Spent nearly half a year getting close to and healing Prince Duan, it might seem like he was doing it to pave the way for Prince Yan.
As someone who knew the novel’s ending, Han Jiao was doing this to ensure that Prince Duan and Prince Yan put their past behind them. He wanted to prevent Xie Duo from becoming an obstacle due to revenge. As long as Xie Duo didn’t push Prince Yan into a corner, it was unlikely they would become rivals for the throne.
Han Jiao didn’t know when he started harboring such a wild idea.
Prince Yan was the male lead, but Han Jiao was tirelessly working to secure a chance for Xie Duo to survive, even if doing so might put his own future in jeopardy.
He didn’t do it intentionally.
He had been avoiding thinking about it because once he clarified his purpose, reason would obstruct his confrontation with the inevitable outcome.
When his mother brought up the topic of marriage, it unexpectedly pushed him to confess the hidden thoughts he had kept deep within himself.
He once believed he was an absolutely rational person, but unconsciously, the big boss had somehow eroded him.
So infuriating!
Even stranger was that ever since he returned from the war, Han Jiao often dreamt of the big boss at night.
That day, he watched Xie Duo infiltrate the Tatar army, and after returning to the capital, he constantly dreamt of the big boss returning wounded, waking him up startled in the middle of the night.
More than nightmares, what Han Jiao worried about was his unusual behavior.
In front of the big boss, he was becoming increasingly bashful. In the past, he would only blush when the big boss stared at him with that kind of look. Now, just being within a meter of Xie Duo made Han Jiao’s ears turn as red as signal lights.
The wicked big boss might have already discovered his embarrassing secret. Thus, after returning to the capital, he often approached him, testing his boundaries.
As long as Han Jiao didn’t run away, the stinky little brother would get closer and, especially vexing, observe Han Jiao’s reactions.
Moreover, ever since witnessing Xie Duo’s decisive assault and capture of the leader, Han Jiao couldn’t help but feel that Xie Duo was looking more and more handsome.
Even though this guy’s looks had always been rather strange, Han Jiao initially felt some envy, but now he couldn’t help but want to steal a few glances.
This put Han Jiao in a painful, conflicting cycle.
When they were together, Xie Duo often calmly observed him, so Han Jiao couldn’t find a chance to sneak a peek. Once he did, he’d get caught in the act.
It seemed like Xie Duo regarded his gaze as an invitation. When their eyes met, he would tentatively approach him, eventually making him run away.
Han Jiao was going crazy.
He didn’t know why he blushed when he got near Xie Duo.
He also didn’t know why he couldn’t resist wanting to sneak a peek at Xie Duo.
Just looking at the surface, he felt like he was acting like a gay guy!
This surface conclusion had kept him up at night for several days.
But upon closer analysis, Han Jiao realized he didn’t want to do anything with the big boss in that way. He simply found him good-looking.
So, this should be a form of appreciation between friends.
Han Jiao firmly held this view.
•••
Several days later, garrisons from various regions began to arrive in the capital.
Fifteen days later, Prince Yan, leading forty thousand light cavalry, was the first to return to the capital for reinforcement. Behind him, there were over a hundred thousand troops on their way to reinforce.
Half a month ago, upon receiving an urgent report about the dire situation in the capital, Prince Yan, in shock, ordered more than twenty thousand elite soldiers to immediately withdraw from Luozhou and rush back to the capital for reinforcement.
According to the original plan of attack, the two fortresses in Luozhou were on the brink of being captured at this time.
In other words, the two fortresses in Luozhou, which the Chu army was about to capture at the cost of thousands of casualties, were handed over without a fight because the capital was in danger.
Since the main force had to return to the capital and there was a lack of logistical support, the remaining garrisons couldn’t possibly hold onto these two fortresses. It would only result in greater losses, so they all withdrew.
Prince Yan’s decision was a last resort.
With the loss of the smaller details, how could the bigger picture be sustained? Prince Yan couldn’t have known that the capital was on the verge of peril, so continuing the attack on Luozhou was simply not an option.
The issue was that a precious gem was left behind — Xie Duo led twenty-four thousand garrison troops and annihilated twenty thousand Tatar elite soldiers.
Prince Yan, with his twenty-two thousand elite troops, had attacked four thousand rebel forces in Luozhou but suffered losses of thousands before retreating.
Moreover, at the core of this issue was Senior Minister Xu’s erroneous decision. He had shifted a significant portion of the elite northwest garrisons to engage in the campaign in Luozhou, which gave the Tatars an opportunity.
Naturally, Senior Minister Xu’s fault had to be shared by Prince Yan.
Adding to the comparisons with the ambush battle, the losses incurred in the attack on Luozhou were excessive. After returning to the capital, Prince Yan became the target of blame from all directions. The citizens in the city couldn’t help but draw comparisons between him and the War God, Prince Ling.
What was originally a campaign representing the Emperor became a humiliation to the Emperor himself.
After Prince Yan returned to the capital and met with Father Emperor, he stayed within his royal palace and refused to see anyone.
Shortly after that, the more than twenty thousand troops were gradually withdrawn from the capital, and the northwest cavalry returned entirely to their defense posts in the northwest.
The Emperor reassigned Senior Minister Li to be in charge of the campaign in Luozhou. Senior Minister Li immediately put his preconceived plan into action, instructing the Governor-General of Sichuan-Guizhou region to block the passes leading to Luozhou and prepare for a protracted war.
The Emperor, on the surface, changed the strategy to deal with the rebellion in Luozhou but didn’t point fingers at any individuals. However, in reality, two members of the court were replaced that day.
The Emperor removed Senior Minister Xu’s two followers from the court and replaced them with two officials whose backgrounds were unclear.
It was said that when Senior Minister Xu received the imperial decree, his face turned ashen, and he couldn’t get up for a long time. It was Senior Minister Li standing beside him who helped him stand and receive the decree for replacing the court members, although he did so with trembling hands.
Clearly, this incident was going to further hit Prince Yan hard.
For the following five full days, not even the Third Prince could gain entry to Prince Yan’s residence.
The younger princes were all very concerned about their Sixth Brother’s condition.
The one under the most pressure was Xie Duo. His decisive victory in the ambush battle was constantly being compared to the events in Luozhou, making Prince Yan the subject of ridicule in everyone’s conversations.
In the afternoon following that, Prince Yan’s residence was eerily quiet, filled with the heavy scent of alcohol.
After a sharp shattering of ceramics, from the pavilion came Prince Yan’s slurred command, “Bring me two more barrels.”
One of his attendants couldn’t help but shed a tear and supported the heavily intoxicated Prince Yan. “Your Highness can’t keep drinking. Please take a break.”
“Fetch the wine quickly…”
“Don’t drink anymore, Big Brother.”
Upon hearing the familiar voice from behind, Prince Yan seemed to sober up all at once. He abruptly turned his head and indeed saw his Ninth Brother standing just outside the gazebo.
After consuming too much alcohol, Prince Yan shook his head to clear it, still unable to discern whether it was an illusion or a real person.
It wasn’t until that agile figure leaped into the pavilion and bent down to lift him up and take him back inside, that Prince Yan stumbled backward.
“Who let him in?” Prince Yan drunkenly questioned the attendants around him.
The eunuchs immediately knelt down.
“I came in on my own,” Xie Duo confessed.
Prince Yan slowly turned his head, gazing at his Ninth Brother, and smiled. “You came in on your own? Ah, indeed, how could a mere royal residence block the steps of the War God? Get up, it’s not your fault.”
Xie Duo took a step closer, hands hanging at his sides, looking at his Sixth Brother in confusion. “Don’t drink any more, Big Brother. Father Emperor has only changed the strategy of the campaign. He hasn’t pardoned the rebels in Luozhou. You need to pull yourself together, and the military achievements in the end will be yours.”
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