Taiheiki

Chapter 342 Strategy
"Really? But I heard you returned on a large ship! And with soldiers guarding you! What's going on?" the Queen pressed.

“Your Majesty, I was on a ship belonging to Han Chinese envoys, and the soldiers guarding me were also Han Chinese envoys! At that time, I had no one with me except a few servants, and I was powerless to help Your Majesty!” Samba hurriedly explained.

"Liar! According to you, the fire was so big at the time, so why were the ships and guards of the Han Chinese envoys completely undamaged? Did the fire have eyes and only burn the Funan people and not the Han Chinese?"

"Your Majesty, you don't know. When the Han people built their camps, they would clear away the vegetation around them to prevent fire attacks. That's why they were unharmed. After they discovered the fire, they sent men to wait for me at a stream near the camp. After I escaped the fire, I was parched and came to the stream, where Han soldiers found me and I was able to escape. The Han envoys waited by the stream until dawn the next day, but they didn't receive any news from Your Majesty. If they had delayed any longer, they feared they would have been harmed by the Ju-ting people, so they had no choice but to board the ship and leave. That's exactly what happened. If you don't believe me, you can ask the others who returned on the same ship, and they can all confirm it!"

The Queen listened to Samba's explanation with skepticism, but lacked sufficient evidence to prove that Samba had abandoned her husband. She could only sigh, "Very well, I am but a woman, and suddenly my husband is gone, his fate unknown. In my panic, I spoke incoherently. Prime Minister, you are my elder, please do not take offense!" With that, the Queen rose and gracefully bowed, hands clasped together. Samba, hardly accepting her deep bow, quickly rose to avoid it, and said with a wry smile, "You are the King's widow, and everything you say is right. How could I dare to blame you? However, the situation is critical; please accept my condolences and prioritize the affairs of state!"

The Queen frowned and asked, "What does the Prime Minister mean by 'accepting the loss and prioritizing state affairs'?"

"A house cannot be without a master, and an elephant herd cannot be without a leader. The same is true for a country. Now that the king is missing and the pursuers of the Gou-ting people may arrive at any time, we need someone to take charge of the affairs of the country, lead the nobles and the people to defend the capital, and resist the attack of the Gou-ting people!"

"The Prime Minister is right!" The Queen had completely calmed down by now: "Are you referring to yourself?"

“No, no, no!” Samba shook his head repeatedly. “Of course not. I am old and a Brahmin. I am better at praying to the gods and presiding over sacrificial ceremonies than taking up a bow and arrow to kill enemies. What I mean is, let’s choose the one most favored by the gods among the king’s sons to inherit the throne and lead the nobles and people to defend the capital?”

"I see!" The Queen breathed a sigh of relief. "But my husband is currently missing, not confirmed dead. How can we allow someone else to replace him as king? Besides, his eldest son is only nine years old, still at the age of playing. How could he possibly be capable of being king?"

"Your Majesty, under normal circumstances, it is certainly not appropriate to allow a nine-year-old child to replace his father as king. But now is a time of extreme crisis. Think about it, if the King were already dead, that would be obvious. Even if he were still alive, he would not be able to return to the capital in the short term, and the enemy could arrive at any moment. If the capital falls and we lose the ancestral treasury and the sacred site of Vishnu, even if he were still alive, he probably wouldn't be considered the king of Funan anymore. As long as we can repel the enemy's invasion, even if we establish the King's son as king, we can later have him return the throne to the King. As for his ability to be king, as his mother, you can use your experience and wisdom to help him govern the country! What the people need now is not so much a king as a banner. A nine-year-old king is still a king, which is better than an empty throne!"

Hearing Samba's words, the Queen was even more pleased. Her eyes gleamed with satisfaction, but she said, "But the Gochō people are so powerful that even the King was defeated. How can I, a woman, possibly withstand their attack?"

"Please rest assured, Your Majesty!" Samba replied, "Your Majesty has already achieved victory in the previous battle against the Gou-ting people. The Gou-ting people used a fire attack trick to win. But a fire attack trick can only be used once, not twice. As long as we are prepared, it will be useless. There are at least tens of thousands of men in the villages around the capital who are capable of taking up arms, and the warehouses are piled high with weapons and food. If we use those weapons and food to recruit soldiers and request reinforcements from the surrounding city-states, we can quickly assemble a large army!"

"Things are probably not as simple as you make them out to be!" The Queen shook her head. "We certainly have plenty of infantrymen with spears and bows, but what about war elephants? His Majesty took all the war elephants with him when he went to war. Now the capital only has a few riding elephants. It will take a long time to capture and train them. Without war elephants, it will be very difficult to win!"

"You need not worry about that!" the prime minister said with a smile. "The Han reinforcements are already on their way. As long as we can hold out for a few more days, the Han reinforcements will arrive soon and help us defeat the Ju-ting people!"

"Are you sure the Han people are on our side? But I heard that the people of Gou Town have received official positions from the Han emperor!" the queen asked doubtfully.

“I can vouch for that!” Samba replied confidently. “The guards of the Han envoy participated in our battle against the Gou-ting people. Nothing proves this better than that. The so-called official titles of the Han emperor are nothing but rumors spread by the Gou-ting people!”

"Is that so?" The Queen looked at Samba with some skepticism, then sighed, "Well, at this point we have no other choice but to hope that the gods will have mercy on the Funan people!"

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There is no moon.

The sky was as dark as ink, even the stars were stingy with their light, only a few blurry points of light, like the frozen lights of a distant village. There was a breeze, sweeping across the ground, swirling up withered grass and fallen leaves, making a rustling sound as they hit my trouser legs. This sound, however, only accentuated the silence of the surrounding fields.

The procession is a silent, flowing river.

You can't make out people's faces, only blurry silhouettes flickering before your eyes. Their scarlet robes almost blend into the boundless night. Occasionally, the plates of their armor and the tips of their spears reflect a faint glimmer of light, which then vanishes into the darkness, like the closed eyes of a lurking beast. Footsteps tread on the hard, dry earth, heavy and muffled, one after another, forming a continuous rhythm, the only heartbeat in the night.

"We shouldn't be discovered by the Funan people tonight, right?" Yu Wen murmured, watching the soldiers file out of the camp, as if asking himself, or perhaps asking someone else.

"My lord, you are overthinking it!" Xu Wen said in a low voice, "In this darkness, not only can you not see people, but you can't even see wild animals!"

"Let's hope so!" Yu Wen sighed. "We only have four hundred men right now. Even if everyone is made of iron, four hundred men won't amount to much. So, to appease the Southerners, we must use a scheme to make them believe we have more men! Do you understand what I mean?"

"Please rest assured, my lord!" Xu Wen laughed, "What do these barbarians know? How could they possibly see through your strategy of increasing the number of cooking fires and decreasing the number of soldiers!"

"That would be for the best!" Yu Wen smiled, then his face turned cold: "We are in a foreign land, thousands of miles from Chang'an. If we are not careful, we will be reduced to ashes. We must be cautious in everything we do!"

"Yes!" Xu Wen said solemnly.

The queen did not sleep well that night.

Nightmares plagued her, haunting her and leaving her in a state between sleep and wakefulness. She could neither enjoy peaceful sleep nor remain awake. It wasn't until dawn that she finally awoke, feeling sticky and uncomfortable all over.

"I want to take a bath!" the queen said to her female slave as she turned over.

The servants immediately sprang into action, bringing over a large wooden tub and pouring in heated water, then adding cold water to adjust the temperature. When it was just right, the Queen, supported by her maids, stepped into the tub. The hot water washed over her body, reaching her chin, giving her a comforting feeling akin to returning to her mother's amniotic fluid. She closed her eyes, stretched out her limbs, and lay on her back, letting the hot water engulf her face. Her dark hair floated on the surface, resembling a blooming black lotus.

As a wife, the queen had little affection for her husband. Born into a prominent noble family with generations of marriage alliances with the royal family, she had long accepted her fate as one of the king's many wives. But acceptance is not the same as love, and the queen was indeed incapable of feeling any affection for her arrogant, self-important husband who was always immersed in material pleasures and didn't value himself.

So when the Queen learned that her husband might never return, she felt more shock and fear than grief. Ultimately, no matter how extravagant and dissolute the King of Funan was, lacking royal decorum, as long as he hadn't deposed the Queen, their interests were aligned. The Queen wasn't foolish enough to confuse her personal likes and dislikes with her own interests. This was also the real reason she hadn't harmed Prime Minister Samba earlier—with the King's fate uncertain, she needed a skilled assistant to help her control the country.

But were the Han Chinese troops really on their side?

The Queen was certainly not foolish enough to believe everything the Prime Minister said. With her innate instincts, she could deduce that the Han envoy was behind it all. The reason was simple: the tens of thousands of troops led by the King of Funan were completely annihilated, while his few hundred men were unharmed and had even brought the Prime Minister back safely. Clearly, the Han envoy and Samba had formed some kind of alliance; otherwise, Samba would never have returned alive. But Samba was right about one thing: the Han people were indeed the foreign aid Funan needed right now. The question, however, was: at what cost?
Thinking of this, the Queen suddenly felt a rush of breath and quickly surfaced to catch her breath.

"Send someone to invite the Han envoy!" the Queen said in a deep voice. "Tell him that I will host a banquet at noon to thank him for saving the prime minister!"

"Yes, Your Majesty!"

The queen's maid returned quickly, while her mistress was still drying her hair. This surprised the queen, and before she could ask anything, the maid knelt down, her face full of panic, and said, "The Han people, the Han reinforcements have arrived!"

"What?" the queen asked, "Where are they, and how many are there?"

"The Han people's boats are on the lake..."

Before the maid could finish her report, the queen shoved aside the female servant who was drying her hair and rushed out of the bedroom. She climbed to the top of the palace tower, where she could clearly see more than ten boats of varying sizes moored at the dock near the Han Chinese camp, with soldiers disembarking one after another via gangplanks. The queen instinctively clenched her fists, her nails digging deep into her palms.

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"Please, Your Excellency, drink this cup to the brim!" The Queen raised her cup, her beautiful face beaming with a fawning smile. "The Prime Minister has served two generations of our kings and is truly a pillar of our nation. Your Excellency's ability to rescue him is an immeasurable debt of gratitude!"

"I dare not!" Yu Wen raised his wine cup but did not drink it. "It was only by chance that I was able to save the Prime Minister at that time, and I was unable to bring the King back. How could I dare to accept such gratitude from Her Majesty the Queen!"

"Alas!" The Queen sighed, her eyes lowered, and a weak and sorrowful expression appeared on her beautiful face. "I was just a woman, hoping to serve the king in the palace and raise my children. But I never expected to encounter such a devastating calamity. My husband is missing, there are powerful enemies outside, and I only have young children under my knees. I really don't know what to do!" As she said this, she couldn't help but cry bitterly.

Yu Wen was taken aback when he saw this. He subconsciously glanced at Samba next to him and saw that the other man's eyes were slightly lowered and his right hand was gently moving his beard. He immediately understood and thought to himself that this woman looked weak, but she was quite shrewd and should not be underestimated.

Having gained a better understanding, Yu Wen said, "Your Majesty, there's no need for such concern. Your husband is merely missing for now; he may not necessarily have fallen into the hands of thieves. We only need to safeguard our family property and wait patiently!"

"Then thank you for your kind words, Your Excellency!" The Queen sobbed twice and said, "The Prime Minister advised me to establish my son as king at this critical juncture. What do you think, Your Excellency?"

“A country cannot be without a ruler for a day, and what the prime minister said is certainly true!” Yu Wen said, “Moreover, there is another benefit to this.”

"Other benefits? What benefits?"

"Your Majesty's whereabouts are unknown, and there are essentially three possibilities: First, he is already dead, which goes without saying; it's just a matter of a few days earlier or later to establish a new monarch. Second, he has fled but hasn't returned yet, which is also easy to handle; we can simply reinstate the old monarch when the time comes. Only the third possibility is very troublesome!"

(End of this chapter)