Chapter 5

With Huyan Ronger and me both working on him,

Huyan Rongchong, who had long coveted Great Zhou, took the intelligence I brought back and resolved to invade.

He had hesitated at first. But the intelligence Huyan Ronger obtained from spies in Great Zhou at the same time matched mine exactly.

Some senior Huijue officials objected, but a single night was enough for someone to silence them.

If they still failed to learn silence, the grasslands would simply gain another corpse.

Within three months, the Huijue took up arms against Great Zhou.

When Zhou Xiyue heard, she even wrote to scold me.

She said war had broken out again because I had failed to stop the king.

“That sister of yours really is amusing.”

“Three years ago, you told me Zhou Xiyue had the makings of a sovereign and would most likely be Great Zhou’s second reigning empress. In less than three years, she abandoned her position as Crown Princess for love. What devotion she has for Gu Yuan.”

On the eve of war, Huyan Ronger still had the leisure to come to my tent for tea. He happened to see her letter. I threw it into the brazier in front of him.

I watched the sparks devour it bit by bit.

Then I turned back to him. “A slave to love. Utterly stupid.”

This war was inevitable. Even without Huyan Rongchong and me driving it forward, the Huijue king would have launched a full invasion of Great Zhou within three years.

It had always been his ambition.

All I could do was magnify that ambition until he made his decision sooner.

But I was, after all, a princess of Great Zhou. Even as Queen of the Huijue, I had to be kept out of this war.

Huyan Rongchong coaxed me, sending people to buy me fine gold hairpins and jade ornaments.

“Ah Yu, stay in the tent for now. If you need anything, have someone buy it. Be good and wait for me to return.”

His words were gentle, but plenty of his trusted men watched me outside.

I was a princess of Great Zhou, and Great Zhou was his enemy in this war. I could not be trusted.

So he left his confidants to guard me, lest I send intelligence outside.

I bowed slightly, the picture of obedience. “I shall do as you command.”

Having settled my situation, Huyan Rongchong led his army to the front.

I was in no hurry. Hardly had he left before Huyan Ronger brought troops to seize the main camp.

I had trained trusted followers and subordinates of my own, leaving most of them there.

“Do you really intend to go to the front?”

He asked me many times along the way. In the end, he still thought a woman ought to remain in the rear.

“Great Zhou was founded by an empress. With a silver spear, she built the dynasty, magnificent on the battlefield. Why shouldn’t I do the same?”

I raised the sword in my hand, my eyes eager.

I too wanted to earn distinction on the battlefield.

He said no more.

He took me to the front as quickly as possible.

The war could not be avoided, but both sides had prepared. Gu Yuan himself led the Gu army in defense of the pass. A vast army pressed upon the border; however brave the Huijue soldiers were, the fighting proved exceptionally difficult.

On the seventeenth day, Huyan Rongchong returned to camp exhausted. Before he could rest, another military dispatch arrived. He had to put his armor back on and hurry to battle again.

“My king, drink the tea I brewed for you before you go.”

His concubine Ah Ru held out a cup, her eyes languidly seductive.

She was Huijue. Under these circumstances, Huyan Rongchong plainly trusted her far more than he trusted me.

Even going to war, he had not forgotten to bring this newly acquired beauty.

One look at her face softened his temper. He stroked her cheek, then drained the cup.

“When I return victorious, I’ll make you my secondary consort, lovely one.”

Ah Ru hastened to thank him and saw him out of the tent herself. Only then did she cautiously lift the rear curtain and usher me out.

“Your Highness, everything is ready.”

I looked down at the cup, the one Huyan Rongchong had drunk from.

A little tea remained inside.

I took it, then suddenly let go.

“Then send word.”

She was indeed Huijue, and loyal to her people.

Unfortunately for him, the only master Ah Ru acknowledged was Huyan Ronger.