CH 1

Passed Through

Liang Ye, the emperor of the Liang Country, was a moody and perverse lunatic.

This was not only true to the Northern Liang, but Southern Zhao and Eastern Chen on the side were also deeply convinced of this as well.

“I heard that some time ago he shaved his hair and wanted to become a monk, however he was persuaded by the ministers who were wailing like ghosts and howling like wolves.”

“Not only that, he even unexpectedly wanted the imperial concubine of the deceased emperor to be his concubine. He has no regard for human relations!”

“I heard that he has become fond of chopping people’s heads again recently, half of the people in the main hall are missing, what a crime! Great Liang’s fate is numbered!”

“Now the Southern Zhao and the Eastern Chen are casting covetous eyes, and there is the Luofan in the north. Liang Ye is a madman, sooner or later, the century-old foundation of the Great Liang will be ruined!”

(t/n Luofan-the name of an ancient northern tribe who was good at riding and shooting.)

Inside the noisy tavern, these sentimental and passionate scholars had their spits flying everywhere, while reeking of alcohol and getting drunk. Some even cried with their heads in their arms probably thinking that Liang Country would soon be finished.

In a corner, a man listened with a smile on his face, however the young servant standing beside him looked angry and the eyes that looked at these scholars were like looking at a group of dead people.

“That dog Liang will delay state affairs and damage the country! That evil Liang wronged us!” A scholar took a swig from a wine jug he’s holding, wobbly slumped onto a chair, with a voice that grieved bitterly.

“Listening to everyone’s words, this Liang Ye is really detestable.” The man sitting opposite him smiled and said, “If he’s such a dog and evil, why don’t you turn against him?”

The scholar was shocked when he heard these words, and turned his head to look at him immediately, unexpectedly, he was surprised by his appearance. However, this man was handsome and appeared not like an ordinary person. A face with masculine good looks, a straight nose and deep eyebrows, especially that pair of outstanding “Ruifeng” eyes, when looking at people, if there was a cold light, it would emit an aura of a high-ranking person, and the whole body was full of magnificent noble light. 

“Young, Young Master, be careful of your words!” The scholar was so frightened that a great part of him sobered up, and said with his big tongue hanging out, “Emperor Liang is——the only legitimate son of the late emperor. Our generation of ministers should…..should admonish….remonstrance!”

“Already knowing this, yet you still dare to speak falsely, relying on the high mountains and high waters, can His Majesty not hear your rebellious words!” The person dressed as a servant next to him shouted sharply.

“Chong Heng.” The young man raised his hand, and Chong Heng shut up in embarrassment.

“This Sifang City is in the southernmost part of the State of Zhao. I have traveled here from Liang Country and trekked thousands of miles…if!” The scholar held his wine cup and wept, “If there is a way out in Liang Country, why bother to leave one’s native place!”

“Well said, this Liang Ye is doing things against common sense, so he probably won’t live long.” The young master said with a smile, “Chong Heng, let’s go.”

When the scholar suddenly came back to his senses, the man had already left for the door. For some reason, he couldn’t help but cry out, “This humble one is from Liang Country, Hexing Prefecture, Xun Yangxun, courtesy name Uncle Zhuo, dare I ask the Young Master’s name?”

The man turned his head and said with a smile, “Liang Ziyu, from the Capital of the Liang Country.”

“Capital…Liang Ziyu…” Xunyang murmured, and a companion beside him called him, “Uncle Zhuo, what’s the matter with you?”

“Liang Ziyu, he he he—” Xunyang dropped the wine jug from his hand and it smashed to the ground, “He is Liang Ye!”

It was no longer within Liang Ye’s considerations how the Emperor Liang’s appearance in Sifang City of Zhao State would cause an uproar. He rode on his horse in a good mood and said to Chong Heng, “Let’s go to the Eastern Chen for a stroll.”

Chong Heng said with a bitter face, “Young Master, we have been out for nearly three months, isn’t it time to go back to the palace?”

“No.” Liang Ye said with a smile, “If you want, go back yourself.”

“But Young Master, a country cannot be without a ruler for a day.” Chong Heng had no choice but to recall what the Imperial Perceptor Wen and others of the same rank often said, and tried to persuade him, “I’m afraid it will be more chaotic in the Capital if you are not there.”

“Heh.” Liang Ye smiled coolly.

Apparently, this His Majesty wished for Liang Country to come to an end sooner, Chong Heng felt unspeakable as he was suffering in his heart, and looked back worriedly, “Zhao Qi knows that you are in Zhao State, so he will definitely not let us go easily.”

“He doesn’t have the ability yet.” Liang Ye laughed loudly, and raised his whip to urge the horse, “Go!”

One person and one horse flew away in the dust, Chong Heng hurriedly shouted, “Young Master, wait for me!”

There was a chill in the early spring, and the strong wind that rose from Sifang City, swept over thousands of feet of mountains, forests and vast hectares, and crossed the vast clouds and water that had just melted from ice and snow, and blew onto the glazed tiles of the Liang Country Capital’s Imperial Palace, furling up the green willow leaves above.

The willow leaves swayed and landed on a dark suit.

“His Majesty is now twenty-six, and there are still no children under his knees–a son nor a daughter. A draft is imminent! If His Majesty does not accept the harem, this old minister will hit himself to death in front of this dragon pillar today!” The gray-haired old man was trembling and was about to hit the towering pillars in the hall that reached the sky.

“Imperial Perceptor Wen absolutely must not do it!” Four or five people rushed up from around to support the old man, and they didn’t know that a heartless man had strangled the old man’s neck and almost sent him away.

“The Luofan has invaded the north every day, and there is no day of peace. If His Majesty doesn’t give us military expenses, hundreds of thousands of border defense troops will have nothing to eat! You all are only thinking about the draft every day!” The born majestic and strongly built general slammed his saber heavily on the ground, and his tiger’s eyes opened widely, “The Imperial Perceptor does not need to bump himself. If His Majesty does not come out again, this subject will spill his blood on the main hall!”

“Good, Wei Wanlin! You are capable! Lao Tzu’s troops stationed in the south are so hungry that they go up the mountain to scrape bark. If there’s one that should be given military expenditure, it should be us, the southern army first! Otherwise, when Southern Zhao comes over, it will be the Capital after passing Yun river!”

“Why isn’t Baili Daren here yet?” (t/n Daren-An old honorific title for an official.)

“Tomorrow will be the Imperial Examination. Ai ya, what about His Majesty? Where is His Majesty?”

In the huge magnificent hall, a group of people were in a mess, and the little eunuch guarding the door was trembling with fear. He was accidentally injured by the ‘boiling with rage’ ministers in his carelessness. He laid on the ground and crawled out with a mournful face. As soon as his upper body reached out of the threshold, someone blocked the light. He raised his head in panic, and as if he had been immediately given amnesty, he didn’t know how his thin voice could give out a cry that seemed to swallow the mountains and rivers and burst into tears, “Your Majesty—you are finally back! Your Majesty—”

The chaotic hall became completely quiet, and the officials who were so noisy turned around to look at the entrance of the hall. In the hall, the nine curling dragon columns that reached the sky were gorgeous and dazzling, like a dragon’s roar, shaking the heavens.

The military generals with swords in their hands and the civil servants with long robes and wide sleeves all knelt down on both sides, with their foreheads on the backs of their palms, and called “Your Majesty” together.

The main hall was spacious, and their cry was loud, that it lingered and reverberated.

The red wine in the glass bottle shook slightly, and the young man in a suit and leather shoes standing in front of the main hall looked bewildered.

All the people kneeling on the ground felt uneasy, for fear that this new emperor with a weird temperament and was always moody would do something out of the ordinary again. Although in their opinion, His Majesty’s dress today was very weird. But compared to the last time when he shaved his head and went to the monastery barefooted in a monk’s robe, this was much better.

At least, while looking at the head, the hair had grown a little.

“His Majesty” himself was even more mentally disturbed than them. Wang Dian clenched the red wine bottle in his hand, pinched himself hard, and gasped a breath of cold air in pain.

In the past few months, he had been working overtime every day, keeping in mind to quickly acquire the land in the east of the city to build a CBD. Tonight’s drinking was very important to him, thus he came to the winery to get a few bottles of red wine, probably because he was bent over as he took the wine for some time, that when he abruptly straightened up, he got dizzy and fainted. This was the case on how he went to the hospital last year. He had a strange dream and woke up with a headache for more than half a month.

But he still thought that he should be dreaming—because of his anxiety, and because the pain in this dream was even clearer than in reality.

However, it was the first time he had dreamed of being an emperor. He looked at the main hall and the officials in the dream with interest, and found that this dream was quite real, and even the paint on the threshold was a little bit peeled off.

“Arise.” He cleared his throat, but saw the kneeling people getting up tremblingly, their eyes lowered and dared not look at him directly.

“Urgent report—” Someone scrambled towards him with a dirty and dusty face, “Hexi Prefecture’s embankment in Yun river broke!”

There was an uproar in the main hall.

Before Wang Dian could react, he was put on the dragon chair chaotically by the people next to him.

“Your Majesty, the breach of the Yun river embankment in Hexi Prefecture is of great importance. Please also select and dispatch candidates for disaster relief in time!” Someone stepped out of the line and shouted loudly.

“Hexi Prefecture is adjacent to the Southern Zhao’s Zhongzhou, maybe the Southern Zhao will use this opportunity to send troops! Your Majesty, it is necessary to allocate military expenditures as soon as possible!”

“The national treasury is empty, disaster relief is the most crucial thing, and the matter of military expenditure can be discussed later.”

“Discussed later, discussed later, how many years has it been since?!”

“Yun river’s embankment breaks every few years. This subject thinks that we should send people to repair the embankment and divert the course of the river to fundamentally solve this problem.”

“You’re putting it lightly! Building dikes and diversion is a waste of money. Now that the war has just ended, where will the money come from? Where will we get the people!?”

The people below quarreled once again and became a mess. Although they all shouted for His Majesty, in fact, no one expected His Majesty to speak. While talking, it was unknown who moved their hands first, but a boot flew straight at Wang Dian. The little eunuch next to him hurried forward to block him, then knelt on the ground, trembling.

Wang Dian got a headache from hearing this.

It was like as soon as he woke up, he had to listen to the group of old foxes of the Board of Directors arguing every day. Even in his dream, although he had become an emperor, he still had to listen to them arguing, and the crux was that they argue and make noise without achieving any result. Thinking back to the land he finally negotiated to bid for qualifications, where he was almost fried, his mood suddenly became worse, and he snapped, “Enough!”

The people who were in a mess below became quiet again, their faces were full of disbelief, and the timid ones who were so frightened, plopped to the ground.

After all, this His Majesty always tended to his mood during early morning imperial court sessions. He never opened his mouth during the session, he would only stare at them quarreling in sympathy, yawn and leave leisurely after watching enough, or drag a few unpleasant people if he became annoyed with the noise and hit them with the plank, or when he’s in an extremely bad mood, he would chop off a few heads, generally speaking, once he opened his mouth, someone would die.

Fortunately, His Majesty didn’t like to go to court, and he didn’t show up once for ten days to half a month. This time he didn’t go to court for three months, otherwise the civil and military ministers of the whole court would not be enough for him to chop.

Everyone trembled, thinking that His Majesty was probably in an extremely bad mood, and when they were ready to seize two unpleasant ones to be chopped, His Majesty, who looked like a demon incarnate in their eyes, glanced around indifferently, and slowly spoke in the atmosphere where everyone dare not to breathe, “If you have matters to talk about, can arguing produce results?”

Of course, arguing would not produce results.

“Your Majesty! The breach of the embankment will cost hundreds of thousands of lives, hoping His Majesty will make a decision soon!” The white-bearded old man’s whole body trembled, and he only dared to look at Wang Dian’s temples.

Decision my ass, he is still in a hurry to get the land in the east of the city tonight.

Seeing that they were about to quarrel again, Wang Dian looked at the red wine bottle in his hand, and his eyes gradually turned cold.

Bang!

The glass bottle was smashed on the head, and the rich and mellow aroma of wine overflowed, mixed with blood, which was slowly dissipating from that handsome face.

“Ahhh——Your Majesty!” The sharp cry of the little eunuch next to him pierced the eardrums.

“Your Majesty!”

“Your Majesty!”

“Servant! Hurry up and fetch the imperial physician!”

Everyone was in a mess, but no one dared to go forward. Wang Dian sat on the dragon chair, his eyes were dark and his face was cold, then he fainted. There was only one thought in his mind.

Even if he is the emperor, don’t try to prevent him from getting the land in the east of the city tonight!