It was after ten days that an assault on Zhangfei City was mounted. The commander of the troops garrisoned in Zhangfei City had come to know that the royal household had been exterminated, and that more than half of the courtiers had capitulated, so there was little resistance against the army of the Great Wen, who took Zhangfei City without breaking a sweat.
After that, the army pushed straight north and then launched a two-pronged attack on Zhangzhou. The enemies there hardly put up any resistance; some of them even opened the city gates on their own account and welcomed the army of the Great Wen into the city.
Thus, before long they engaged the Wan forces stationed at the northern border, who had joined hands with some tribes to the north of the Wan Kingdom with the intention to defend against the army of the Great Wen. However, most crack troops of the border forces had died in the south. Though having some northern tribes at their back, they were still no match for Yuwen Tong’s army and, after a couple of fights, having lost over seventy percent of their men, fled north out of the country helter-skelter.
Yuwen Tong garrisoned a number of soldiers led by He Xiao in this border city in case those surviving enemies came back after the main force left.
For the moment Yuwen Tong could not spare any time to have his army pursue them, but he would find time to finish them off after reunifying the three countries.
It took them over a month to take the Wan capital and Zhangzhou and establish interim prefectural governments in the many prefectures.
After Zhangzhou was occupied, Yuwen Tong’s army covertly transferred to the east.
…
In the Luohai Kingdom.
Over half a month ago.
After the city gates of the capital were battered open, Nian Feng and his troops stormed into the city.
The Yuexi garrison had not been defeated but suddenly turned renegade and switched to Nian Feng’s side.
Mu Rongfeng had trusted the Yuexi garrison very much and even more so after the Yuexi garrison held the city against attacks from Nian Feng’s army for weeks, so it had never crossed his mind that the Yuexi garrison would turn traitor. He was utterly unprepared when Nian Feng’s men flooded into the royal palace. He took some guards and tried to make his escape but was caught by Nian Feng, who then tried to force him to write a royal edict of abdication.
By doing this, Nian Feng believed that he was taking his cue from what Yuwen Tong had done five years ago, heedless of the fact that he had directly laid siege to the capital city to take the throne, that he had some time ago become a usurper, which meant a royal edict of abdication wouldn’t do him any good whatsoever.
Mu Rongfeng refused. Why would he do the enemy’s bidding when his death was certain?
Nian Feng, beside himself with rage, killed Mu Rongfeng. A lot of Luohai courtiers hated Nian Feng’s guts after that.
Everybody believed that Nian Feng was going to accede to the throne, but unexpectedly, things took yet another drastic turn.
The Yuexi garrison, shortly after transferring allegiance to Nian Feng, turned traitor once again.
They shut the gates, locking Nian Feng’s main force out of the city, and at the same time surrounded the royal palace, trapping Nian Feng in it, putting him in the same position that Mu Rongfeng had once been in.
No one could have foreseen that the Yuexi garrison would change allegiance once again. When the whole royal court was in panic, Dugu Shan made his appearance, to whom the commander of the Yuexi garrison was very deferential.
“Nian Feng is a traitor who attempted to usurp the throne. According to the law, the punishment for that crime is extermination of his whole family,” said Dugu Shan after entering the royal palace.
Nian Feng, who was under the protection of some guards, was reduced to vomiting blood from fury as he came to realize that the Yuexi garrison had switched allegiance to Dugu Shan. Face contorting with rage, gnashing his teeth, he huffed, “Dugu Shan, you bastard have been in collusion with the Yuexi garrison all this time!”
“The Yuexi garrison just saw the error of their ways and decided to right their wrongs by joining me in assisting the Seventh Prince to ascend the throne and protecting the royal lineage.”
Beside Dugu Shan stood the seventh son of Mu Hengtian’s. He was fourteen or fifteen and appeared thin and weak, having little royal air about him. As Nian Feng cast a fierce glance at him, his legs started quivering.
Dugu Shan rested a reassuring hand against the young prince’s back and said, “Don’t be afraid, Your Highness. The throne belongs to the Mu family, as it always has. You’re His Majesty’s son, a man of the purest royal blood. Nian Feng is but a traitor and would-be usurper. You don’t have to be scared of him. Besides, he’s trapped in this place, and there’s nothing he could do to harm you.”
Naturally, Nian Feng was unreconciled to the situation and, along with his guards, crossed swords with the Yuexi garrison ringing the royal palace, attempting to fight their way out of the palace.
As the supreme commander of armed forces of the Luohai Kingdom, Nian Feng was no mean fighter. Several times he was within an inch of breaking out of the palace, but because he and his men were vastly outnumbered, they were defeated by the Yuexi garrison eventually. Dugu Shan gave the order for Nian Feng, grievously wounded, to be thrown into prison.
At that time, Lian Hai, standing right behind the courtiers, furrowed his brows as he saw Dugu Shan have Nian Feng restrained instead of killing him right away.
Dugu Shan, after throwing Nian Feng into prison, moved into the palace with the young prince and held a funeral for Mu Rongfeng. The young prince, not daring disobey Dugu Shan, stayed with him and trusted him very much, seeing him as someone he could rely on.
All courtiers were shocked by Dugu Shan’s strategies. When Mu Hengtian had still been alive, there had been a balance of power between Dugu Shan, Mu Rongfeng and Nian Feng; afterwards, with Mu Rongfeng being the new monarch and Nian Feng commanding a strong army, everybody had believed that Dugu Shan had been kicked out of the game, that he was bound to come to grief, considering both Mu Rongfeng and Nian Feng had wanted him dead.
But it had never crossed their minds that Dugu Shan, instead of struggling for his life, would actually counter-attack when the odds seemed to be heavily against him. He had first used Nian Feng to kill Mu Rongfeng, and then used the Yuexi garrison to eliminate Nian Feng!
The most unexpected part was the Yuexi garrison cooperating with Dugu Shan, which astounded everybody.
In fact Dugu Shan himself had also been amazed, but what had amazed him was the fact that Lian Hai, a chairman of a chamber of commerce, had actually managed to convince the Yuexi garrison to cooperate with the Dugu family. Outsiders did not know about it, but the inner circle of the Dugu family were aware that it had been Lian Hai who had made it happen.
Dugu Shan, who had always relied heavily on Lian Hai’s intelligence network, trusted Lian Hai even more after that.
As a result, when holding Mu Rongfeng’s funeral, he secretly summoned Lian Hai to consult with him.
He asked Lian Hai whether he should enthrone the prince and make him a puppet monarch or take the throne himself.
Of course, Dugu Shan did not put it explicitly. He just asked Lian Hai his opinion about it in a roundabout way.
Lian Hai immediately caught on to what Dugu Shan meant. Dugu Shan was no longer inclined to help the Seventh Prince succeed to the throne, and the idea of being a regent no longer struck him as appealing. He wanted to be the one sitting on the throne.
It was possible that Dugu Shan had been inspired by Nian Feng’s deeds. After all, in the beginning, Nian Feng, like him, had been a supporter of a prince. No one had bargained on Nian Feng abandoning the prince and trying to usurp the throne.
The difference was that Nian Feng had failed, but Dugu Shan had no rivals.
At this time, news of the fall of the Wan capital had spread to the Luohai Kingdom. Lian Hai had received a message saying that the northern prefecture of Zhangzhou would soon be taken as well, that the army would then push towards the Luohai Kingdom, but it would be some time before the army arrived. He had also received a secret instruction from Ling Zhang that he was to play for time and make sure Dugu Shan was too busy to muster an army.
As a result, Dugu Shan’s implication was virtually a godsend for Lian Hai, who immediately advised Dugu Shan, “I’m afraid I’m too short-sighted to be able to offer any constructive suggestions, but it strikes me that the Seventh Prince is weak and he doesn’t have what it takes to be a ruler.”
Dugu Shan narrowed his eyes at these words. Naturally, he was not really here to seek advice from Lian Hai, because after all Lian Hai was merely a chairman of a chamber of commerce, one of his servants, but Dugu Shan found Lian Hai’s words very pleasant to the ear.
“The Seventh Prince is just young. He’ll be ready for the responsibilities of a ruler when he grows up,” demurred Dugu Shan, hypocritically defending the Seventh Prince.
Lian Hai inwardly sneered, but his face wore an even more reverent look and he said, “I believe you’ve come to know what happened in the Wan Kingdom – their capital was nearly flattened by the army of the Great Wen. Shan Congli was a ruthless and cunning man, but he was still defeated by Yuwen Tong. From now on, Luohai is the only opponent of the Great Wen, and … if our new monarch is not strong enough, I’m afraid the Great Wen will run roughshod over us.”
Lian Hai skirted the subject of the prince’s age and gave Dugu Shan a cast-iron excuse to do what he wanted.
Unsurprisingly, Dugu Shan’s countenance changed somewhat at these words. “You’re right. The Great Wen has now annexed the Wan Kingdom, and there’s no guarantee Luohai won’t be their next target. If our monarch is too weak, we’ll sure as hell be at a serious disadvantage in future conflicts, and our people will suffer greatly.”
On hearing this, Lian Hai came to know that Dugu Shan had “taken” his advice, so he said no more.
Now that Dugu Shan had come up with the idea of enthroning himself, on no account would he be satisfied with continuing to be a regent, but he was faced with quite some obstacles to becoming the monarch, and the biggest one was that the reason why the Yuexi garrison was supporting him was because they wanted the Seventh Prince to be the monarch, not because they wanted Dugu Shan to be crowned. If by any chance the Yuexi garrison were angered by his attempt to take the throne and changed allegiance again, all Dugu Shan’s efforts might come to nought.
Therefore, Dugu Shan wanted Lian Hai to convince the Yuexi garrison. “Seeing as you convinced the Yuexi garrison to help me deal with Nian Feng, I believe you’ll have no problem making this happen.”
He was putting pressure on Lian Hai.
Lian Hai, fully aware of the situation, said, “Rest assured, Your Lordship, I’ll do whatever I can to get the job done.”
Dugu Shan squinted fixedly at Lian Hai, mistakenly believing that Lian Hai was unable to perceive the murderousness hidden in the depths of his eyes.
But Lian Hai pretended not to notice. After all, what he needed to do was play for time, and Dugu Shan was not his real master. Dugu Shan wanted to kill him, but there was no telling which one of them would end up being the victim.
The next day, Dugu Shan suddenly declared that he would keep vigil beside Mu Rongfeng’s coffin for another few days. Thus, the Seventh Prince’s enthronement ceremony was postponed, and the date for it had not been fixed yet.
…
When the Luohai Kingdom was mired in political turbulence, Ling Zhang and Yuwen Tong had arrived at the border between the Wan Kingdom and the Luohai Kingdom with their army. Dugu Shan was still daydreaming about ascending the throne when the army of the Great Wen launched an offensive on a Luohai border city!
At the same time, the gates of Youzhou Pass opened and the Youzhou garrison sallied forth in full strength.
…
The Luohai Kingdom was caught off guard by the two-pronged attack and two border cities were taken in succession before the court of the Luohai Kingdom knew it. The army of the Great Wen, with unstoppable momentum, occupied several border cities before the Luohai Kingdom reacted, and now they were advancing east.
Yuwen Tong’s army and the Youzhou garrison had taken two prefectures near the border when Dugu Shan received the message.
The Luohai courtiers panicked. All of them suggested Dugu Shan enthrone the Seventh Prince immediately and then muster an army to stop the invaders.
What with the previous civil strife, the Yuexi garrison which was the most important force defending the northern border and Nian Feng’s army had both been dispatched to the capital. Without the monarch’s order, neither armies could go anywhere.
Dugu Shan, naturally, was aware that the current situation was dire, but how could he give up when he was only one step away from kingship?!
