Taiheiki

Chapter 260 Convergence
Dong Zhong took a sip of wine and remained silent. Even with his not-so-bright mind, he knew that imperial edicts weren't always foolproof. Otherwise, Liu Hong wouldn't have gone through such a roundabout way, trying to unite with external forces to deal with the Dou clan; he could have simply sent a few eunuchs with the edict to the Northern Army camp to launch a campaign against the Dou clan. This was especially true for high-ranking officials like Feng Kun. Based on his previous impression of Feng Kun, the old man was like a rock in a latrine—stinky and hard; trying to persuade him would be easier than simply smashing his skull.

Seeing that Dong Zhong remained silent, Wei Cong smiled and said, "If you don't believe me, young master, that's fine too. You can wait behind the screen for a while!"

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This is a prison cell.

Yes, the room was spacious and dry, with a south-facing window. Inside, there was a bed, a small table, and fine reed mats on the floor. Candlesticks sat on the table, and the burning white candles even emitted a pleasant fragrance. The food was also quite delicious. But it was still a prison cell. Fully armed guards stood in the corridor, and more stood outside the gate. All his belongings had been taken when he was imprisoned, and even his clothes had been replaced with a plain linen outfit. Every day, servants who came to deliver food or collect chamber pots were searched to prevent them from smuggling anything. Most importantly, he was forbidden from communicating with the outside. No matter how much he shouted, cursed, or pleaded, only a dark brown-skinned, curly-haired barbarian jailer would appear, staring at him through the window, expressionless and silent, with a cold, sinister gaze, as if he were looking at an inanimate object rather than a living person. This was the first time in Ying Feng's life he had been treated this way. He began to understand what "each day felt like a year" meant.

"How long will Wei Cong keep me locked up? Does he no longer want his adopted son?" Ying Feng wondered to himself, his mind racing with uncontrollable wild thoughts: Has Nie Sheng escaped? Has Wei Cong ambushed Feng Kun? Has Feng Kun betrayed him? As he pondered these thoughts, he looked at the little birds in the locust tree in the courtyard outside the window, wondering if he should strangle himself with his belt, which would be better than being a neglected prisoner here.

That night, as Ying Feng lay in bed lost in thought, he suddenly heard footsteps coming from outside. He looked up and saw the brown-skinned guard standing there through the window bars, the torchlight illuminating his face as he coldly stared at him.

"Open the door!"

This was the first time Ying Feng had heard him speak. He had always thought that this barbarian jailer was mute, or that he couldn't speak Chinese at all! He got up from the bed and heard the sound of the door lock being turned. The door was pushed open, and the barbarian jailer stood in the doorway: "Get up, Marquis Wei wants to see you!"

"Wei Cong wants to see me?" Ying Feng let out a long breath, suddenly feeling like he had come back to life, and puffed out his chest: "What does he want to see me for?"

The barbarian jailer didn't speak, but simply made a gesture. Two guards with skin the same as his walked in. Ying Feng realized that the other party might use violence, so he immediately said, "Alright, I'll go now. Who will lead the way?"

Ying Feng followed the barbarian jailer through a long corridor and alleyway, arriving at a secluded courtyard. The barbarian guard whispered a few words to the guard at the gate, who nodded and stepped forward to Ying Feng: "Lord Wei is waiting for you. Please follow me!"

Upon entering the courtyard, Ying Feng saw light shining from the window of the wing room on his right. He was led to the doorway and saw Wei Cong sitting behind a small table with wine cups and a container of dried fruit on it. Behind him was a screen with a map hanging on it. Beside him stood a beautiful female Taoist priest, who was pouring wine for Wei Cong. A gilded bronze incense burner was placed on the other side of the table, with wisps of smoke flowing from its opening, emitting a captivating fragrance.

"Lord Wei, Ying Feng has been brought here!" the guard reported.

"I understand!" Wei Cong, dressed in a Shu brocade robe with an official seal and a long-handled dagger hanging from his leather belt, smiled slightly as he saw Ying Feng. "Mr. Ying, please forgive my neglect these past few days!"

"This humble servant pays his respects to Marquis Wei!" Ying Feng wasn't foolish enough to indulge in empty words at this moment: "Such generous treatment makes me feel unworthy!"

“We’re all old acquaintances, sir, there’s no need for you to be so polite!” Wei Cong smiled and pointed to the brocade cushion opposite the table: “Come, sit down and let’s talk. Ah Ping, pour Mr. Ying a glass of wine too!”

Following Wei Cong's advice, Ying Feng walked to the table and sat down, picking up a wine cup filled with wine: "I suppose you and Commander Feng have reconciled!"

"Make peace? Of course!" Wei Cong laughed, picked up his wine cup, clinked it against Ying Feng's cup, and then drank it all in one gulp. "What irreconcilable hatred could there be between me and General Feng? We are both subjects of the Han Dynasty, fighting together against the Moth Rebels. I am only twenty-eight this year, and given General Feng's age, even if he were to become one of the Three Dukes this time, how long could he hold the position? I really don't understand what there is to fight over between us?"

Ying Feng picked up his wine glass, took a sip, and found the sweet liquid bitter on the palate. Wei Cong was right; Feng Kun was over sixty, practically buried up to his chin, and his grandson was about the same age as Wei Cong. Normally, these two shouldn't have any direct conflict of interest. But the problem was, if Feng Kun didn't fight for it, he wouldn't be rewarded after the war; he might even be imprisoned and punished.

"Actually, I support Feng Cheqi becoming one of the Three Dukes!"

"Huh?" Ying Feng thought he had misheard. He stared at Wei Cong with wide eyes, and after a moment he laughed: "Lord Wei, are you joking? Putting everything else aside, only the court can decide who becomes one of the Three Dukes. Although you have made great contributions this time, it is still presumptuous of you to say such things!"

"Is that so?" Wei Cong smiled and asked, "Then let me ask you, Mr. Ying, who is the imperial court you are referring to?"

"Who is the imperial court?" Ying Feng laughed and said, "Naturally, it's the emperor, the empress dowager, the general, and the ministers of Luoyang!"

"So ultimately it all comes down to the emperor, doesn't it?" Wei Cong asked.

Ying Feng frowned. As a scholar-official with a good classical education, he did not like to give overly simplistic answers to such important questions. However, Wei Cong was clearly not a good person to discuss classical studies with. He nodded and said, "You are right to say that, but the emperor has not yet assumed personal rule. To be precise, it should be the Empress Dowager and the Grand General who rule!"

"Mr. Ying means the Dou family, right?"

“That’s right, at least before the emperor assumes full power!” Ying Feng replied cautiously.

"Alright, then I have a suggestion!" Wei Cong picked up his wine cup and pointed at Ying Feng: "In this campaign to quell the rebellion of the Moth Rebels, rewards will be distributed according to merit. Feng, the Charioteer, will be made one of the Three Dukes and enfeoffed as a Marquis; Zhang, the Grand Minister of Agriculture, will also be made one of the Three Dukes and enfeoffed as a Marquis; as for me, I'll just be given the position of Commander of the Imperial Guard or Commandant of the Capital Region. What do you think?" "Hehehehe!" Ying Feng remained silent for a long time, then suddenly laughed. It was no wonder he laughed. A guy who wasn't even thirty years old, and who was a fugitive who had abandoned his army just over two years ago, was openly assigning high-ranking positions like the Three Dukes, Commander of the Imperial Guard, and Commandant of the Capital Region right in front of him. It was like a butcher asking a customer which piece of pork they wanted. Was there anything ridiculous in the world?
Faced with Ying Feng's laughter, Wei Cong was not annoyed. He simply waited quietly until Ying Feng's laughter stopped and Ying Feng said in a breathless voice, "Wei, Wei Cong, what do you take the official position of the court for? Your vegetable garden in your backyard? To be divided up however you want? It's good that you're only talking to me now. If you had told Zhang Huan and Feng Cheqi, I'm afraid they would have drawn their swords and killed you right away!"

"Kill me?" Wei Cong smiled, pulled out a silk scroll from his sleeve, and handed it to Ying Feng, saying, "Mr. Ying, take a look first!"

"What is this?" Ying Feng took the silk scroll and laughed, "Wei Cong, you actually dared to forge an imperial edict! I must say, it's quite convincing. This is a crime punishable by the extermination of your entire clan! Huh? This, this is real? Where did you get it?"

Wei Cong did not answer Ying Feng's question. Instead, he picked up the wine pot, filled Ying Feng's wine cup, and said with a smile, "Mr. Ying, are you sure it's true?"

"Of course!" Ying Feng's smile had completely vanished: "Look, this, this, and here, there's absolutely no mistake, where did you get this imperial edict from?"

"Where else could an imperial edict come from?" Wei Cong laughed. "What's wrong? Is Mr. Ying no longer going to question me about the crime of exterminating my clan?"

At this moment, Ying Feng also realized what was happening: "I understand now. It was brought by that Dong Yilang from Luoyang? Wei Cong, how dare you interfere in the dispute between the Emperor and the Dou family!"

"Hehe! Don't you know how brave I am, Mr. Ying?" Wei Cong laughed. "Besides, I've fought countless battles, faced blades and arrows, and been on the verge of death countless times. What's one more time?"

Ying Feng remained silent for a long while. He knew Wei Cong was telling the truth. Unlike those who rose to high positions through bloodline, learning, and virtue, the only reason Wei Cong was able to stand here was his martial arts skills—his repeated victories on the battlefield, using the enemy's corpses to build the ladder of victory, climbing higher step by step. For such a person, danger was as commonplace as air and water; he had long forgotten what fear was.

"You intend to obey the imperial decree?"

"It's not me, it's us!" Wei Cong pointed to himself, then to Ying Feng: "Me, General Feng, and Grand Minister Zhang. The combined strength of the three of us is enough to shake the empire and defeat the Dou clan. As long as we can support the emperor to rule in his own right, our previous problems will no longer be problems!"

Ying Feng lowered his head, knowing full well what Wei Cong meant by "the original problem." Indeed, Feng Kun's original actions were precisely to seize the credit for suppressing the Moth Rebellion and escape punishment after the war. If this plan succeeded, the merit would be far greater than serving the emperor; just for eliminating the Dou family and supporting the emperor's personal rule, being ennobled as a marquis with ten thousand households would be a piece of cake. What did the previous failure to suppress the rebels matter? But the question was, was there any chance of success?
"The Emperor has not yet assumed personal rule; the real power is in the hands of General Dou and the Empress Dowager, and most of the gentry in the land support the court. This imperial edict alone is probably nothing," Ying Feng asked.

“I don’t just have this imperial edict!” Wei Cong laughed. “Do you know how many men I have right now?”

"Twenty or thirty thousand?" Ying Feng said uncertainly, "It's not just about the number of troops; it also depends on the righteous cause and justification. If you raise an army, Dou Wu might very well depose the emperor or even kill him. What will you do then?"

"You're wrong!" Wei Cong waved his hand. "As long as we raise the banner of 'purging the emperor's corrupt advisors' from the start, if Dou Wu is smart enough, he will take the initiative to let the emperor rule in his own right, or at least pretend to. If he deposes or kills the emperor, then he's utterly stupid!"

"That's right!" Ying Feng realized this as well. Just as Wei Cong had said, in ancient times, deposing and installing emperors was a high-cost, high-return affair. If Dou Wu really killed or deposed the emperor, it would only confirm the accusations against him by the rebels. On the contrary, if Dou Wu, after Wei Cong's uprising, used a feigned retreat to advance and staged a grand reversal of power, the rebels would find themselves in a dilemma.

"Then why did Marquis Wei come to me instead of directly consulting with General Feng and Zhang Huan?" Ying Feng asked.

"It's very simple. Convincing you is much easier than convincing Feng!" Wei Cong said. "Since you were able to come up with the idea of ​​detaining Asheng and using Feng's official position to pressure me, you must be someone who clearly understands the stakes. Someone like you should easily realize that this matter is very beneficial to you. The rest is for you to persuade Feng, which shouldn't be difficult, right? As for Zhang Huan, once you've persuaded Feng, persuading him won't be difficult either. Don't you agree?"

Ying Feng nodded. He could smell the blood in Wei Cong's words. Of the three men, Wei, Feng, and Zhang, Wei and Feng had significantly more troops than Zhang. If Wei and Feng had already made their agreement, then Zhang Huan only had two options: either become an accomplice or be eliminated by Wei and Feng. For Wei Cong and Feng Kun, the difference was actually minimal.

“I understand!” Ying Feng nodded. “I will try to persuade Feng Cheqi when I get back, but before that, I must meet with Dong Yilang in person!”

“That’s easy!” Wei Cong said with a smile. “Please, young master!”

No sooner had he finished speaking than Ying Feng saw a young man in a scarlet robe walk out from behind the screen. Wei Cong smiled and said, "Young Master Dong, this is Military Advisor Ying. If you want to persuade General Feng, there is no one else but him!"

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"Please get in, sir! Time is of the essence, please do not delay!" Wei Cong stood on the steps, below which was a black carriage with twenty knights on either side, their armor and weapons gleaming coldly in the moonlight.

"Lord Wei, please rest assured!" Ying Feng cupped his hands in greeting. "I understand the implications better than anyone else. I will give you a reply before noon tomorrow!"

(End of this chapter)