Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 429 - 250: Changing Situation

Chapter 429: Chapter 250: Changing Situation

At this time, in the historical slice where Fan Cun resided, five years had passed in the blink of an eye.

Within this period, several key major events flashed before his eyes like scenes on a spinning lantern, allowing him to quickly grasp the life trajectory of Prince Yun after the annihilation of Xixia.

After returning to the capital, the people lined the streets to welcome him, and even throughout the entire territory of Great Qi, there was an atmosphere of jubilation as everyone eagerly spread the tales of Prince Yun’s achievements in pacifying the northwest.

Fan Cun, of course, felt the enthusiasm of the people, but at the moment, it was of no use to him.

What he was more concerned about was the changes within the imperial court.

Long before he had returned to the capital, rumors were already circulating that some civil officials were impeaching him for recklessly provoking border disputes.

After all, when the Western Army campaigned against Xixia, completely annihilating the country wasn’t the ultimate goal. Prince Yun’s relentless pursuit, although resulting in the rare accomplishment of territorial expansion since the establishment of the Qi dynasty, was seen by some civil officials as fruitless – as occupying Xixia’s territory brought no benefits but instead wasted vast resources annually to maintain it, which would increase the nation’s burden.

That this view existed was not surprising, given that prior to this, there had been an official named Wen Jun who had been able to completely rescind the outcome of expanding the borders into Hehuang territory.

That these civil officials shared the same perspective as Wen Jun wasn’t surprising either.

However, none of these impeachments reached Fan Cun’s ears, because at the time, the Left Minister was still Li Boxi.

Li Boxi had forcefully suppressed these impeachments and was even so angry he wanted to directly attack these officials. It wasn’t until Emperor Qihui pacified them that no physical confrontation occurred.

Emperor Qihui’s stance was clear: The annihilation of Xixia was obviously a good thing, what’s more, it was a major accomplishment established by my dearest son, so if you officials want to impeach him, at least consider my feelings!

Thus, the discordant voices within the court were gradually suppressed.

But Fan Cun perceived more than just the noisy cawing of a few civil officials as a political storm.

His greatest source of hostility was obviously the Crown Prince.

The Crown Prince, who would later become Emperor Yingzong of Qi, naturally felt very insecure.

He could sense that his father favored him less and his younger brother more, and he could also see that ever since his younger brother had made great achievements, whether it was the court officials or the common people, everyone looked at the Third Prince with new respect.

And his position as the heir apparent was becoming increasingly shaky.

Consequently, many ministers who supported the Crown Prince started to move, perhaps among them were some embedded within the officials who had previously impeached Prince Yun for provoking border disputes.

Following this, numerous important topics concerning Prince Yun began to unfold.

Among them, the most pressing issue was: How to govern Xixia after its annihilation?

In addition, how should the Third Prince, who had achieved such extraordinary feats, be settled?

How should Tong Guan, this person, be rewarded?

Within the imperial court, several political forces began to stir beneath the surface, collectively driving these issues towards a direction unpredictable to the people.

Of course, the largest influence in this matter was still the thoughts of Emperor Qihui himself.

Although Xixia had been destroyed, the forces seeking to restore the kingdom were still present.

In order to display clemency, the Qi dynasty did not exterminate the Xixia royal family but merely "invited" the Emperor of Xixia to the capital under the pretext of hospitable treatment, which in reality amounted to house arrest.

This approach was, of course, quite reasonable.

Exterminating the Xixia royal family wasn’t out of the question; for instance, in actual history, the Northern Barbarians had exterminated the royal family upon destroying Xixia, but that was something only the Northern Barbarians would do. Doing so would unnecessarily increase the cost of maintaining stability.

Eventually, the entire territory of Xixia might frequently erupt in rebellion, forcing the Qi dynasty to expend considerable effort to maintain local governance, yet unable to reap enough benefits from it, and thus unsustainable in the long run.

So, the final decision was to still require a part of the Western Army to be stationed there, while incorporating the various counties of Xixia into the Qi dynasty, appointing officials to take over, and gradually assimilate the area.

The unsettled situation also implied that without a sufficiently powerful and capable person to manage, it was impossible to suppress.

On this matter, the court once again debated at length.

Many opposing civil officials made mutual recommendations – nominally recommending, but in reality, they intended to send each other far away to the northwest, hence distancing themselves from the power struggles of the court and removing a rival.

At that time in the Qi dynasty, the capital was the absolute center of power. Once an official departed from this center of power, it meant information would be cut off and influence would rapidly decline.

Therefore, almost no one in a high position was willing to take on this task.

The question of how to settle the Third Prince was also one of the points of contention.

Although the military reports had roughly restored the details of the battlefield, there was still a large number of civil officials who wouldn’t believe that the Third Prince truly had the ability to personally fight and crush the Iron Yàozi, instead favoring the idea that it was mere flattery by Tong Guan and the generals.

As for how the victory at Tong’an City had been achieved, there were even more varied opinions.

Some said that it was Tong Guan’s deliberate ploy to give the credit to the Third Prince and support him in ascending to power, others said that it was the Third Prince stealing the merits of the generals...

Of course, there were also those who believed that the Third Prince was truly a prodigy. After all, he had passed the highest imperial examination, which proved his extraordinary talents. It didn’t seem unusual that he also happened to know some military strategies.

However, regardless, the Third Prince was ultimately royal, and conventional rewards were meaningless to him. Yet, if the rewards were too great... that might actually harm him.

As for Tong Guan, he already held great sway over the court and even in the original historical trajectory, he was ennobled due to his "achievements" in redeeming the Yan and Yun regions, so now it was merely a matter of advancing the timeline of his ennoblement a bit.

In the end, after much discussion, it was still Emperor Qihui who had the final say.

Prince Yun was appointed as the High Marshal of the Northwestern Armies, taking charge of all the military forces in the northwest and defending Xingqing Prefecture, temporarily overseeing the former territories of Xixia.

For all parties involved, this was the most acceptable outcome.

Especially for Emperor Yingzong of Qi, who was still the Crown Prince at this time, having the Third Prince sent far off to the northwest meant he would be distanced from the political center of the court, rendering it impossible for him to secretly gather support from the scholars and inspire Emperor Qihui to change the heir apparent—a decidedly good thing.

As for whether the Third Prince, wielding military power in the northwest, might stir some upheaval...

In the Qi Dynasty, such a possibility was extremely unlikely.

After all, even if the Third Prince really were to plot a rebellion, the Western Army might not follow his commands; and even if they did, the idea of using the Western Army to confront all the imperial guards throughout the country was preposterous.

Most importantly, there was no justifiable cause for rebellion, and rashly plunging the realm into war would not win the hearts of the people.

For the Crown Prince, he just needed to patiently endure a few years, and upon his ascension to the throne, there would be plenty of ways to slowly deal with this younger brother.

Of course, it was reasonable for the Crown Prince to think this way, but he had not anticipated a series of unforeseen events that might occur in the future.

...

Thus, not long after Prince Yun returned to the capital, and after receiving visits and congratulations from various personnel, he was again dispatched from the capital to Xingqing Prefecture.

In fact, Fan Cun also tried to submit a memorial to Emperor Qihui, suggesting that they continue military campaigns against Tibet and other nations, but these proposals were, without a doubt, rejected.

For the Qi Dynasty at this time, conquering Xixia was already the limit in terms of expansion.

To campaign further, it wasn’t that the army lacked support or provisions; the problem was the strong opposition in the court.

After all, the Qi Dynasty was ultimately ruled by scholar-officials, and even those among the literati who supported warfare faced much discrimination, let alone the warriors. Under these circumstances, continuing to fight elsewhere was virtually impossible.

Emperor Qihui himself was not a ruler of great talent and vision, and undertaking such risky actions was not likely, especially against the pressure of his ministers.

Hence, Fan Cun ceased submitting memorials.

He hadn’t held much hope in the first place and thought to try his luck with the memorials. If it didn’t work, then so be it.

According to the suggestions of Emperor Taizu of Sheng, not being able to continue campaigns did not mean there was nothing left to do.

After the fall of Xixia, the Western Army, which had been fighting against Xixia, naturally had no battle to fight for a short period.

Some of these Western Army troops were transferred to Taiyuan to defend this crucial city in the west, while most remained stationed with Prince Yun in the various prefectures of Xixia, maintaining the Qi Dynasty’s rule there.

During this period, Fan Cun, following Emperor Taizu of Sheng’s advice, attempted to integrate the military forces of Xixia and put generals such as Liu Fa and Zhong Pingyuan back to use, intensifying their training.

Because Fan Cun was well aware that in just a few years, the Jingping incident would arise.

...

As the fog before his eyes dispersed once more, intelligence reports on the Jingping incident flew in like snowflakes.

Accompanying these were orders summoning the Western Army to the capital in defense of the emperor.

The military reports laid out the course of the Jingping incident in painstaking detail.

In November, the Jin army split into two divisions, with the Western Army fiercely attacking Taiyuan and the Eastern Army easily crossing the Yellow River before aggressively moving to assault the capital.

Emperor Qihui had already fled ahead of time, passing on the throne to Emperor Yingzong. Li Boxi organized the capital’s defense, and the battle gradually intensified.

During the first call for the Western Army to defend the emperor’s rule, Fan Cun still used the pretext of needing to stand guard in the northwest, allowing only a portion of the troops to return with Zhong Pingyuan. Subsequently, as history had traced before, under Emperor Yingzong’s urging, the Western Army’s surprise attack failed, with a loss of over ten thousand men.

Afterwards, the Jin troops retreated, with both routes converging and surrounding Taiyuan.

In the months leading up to the second Jin invasion and the true onset of the Jingping incident, a prolonged squabbling began in the court. After continuous mutual impeachments, Emperor Qihui started considering returning to the capital, and Emperor Yingzong also shifted his focus to the struggle against his own father.

During this process, Fan Cun, playing the role of Prince Yun, remained still, patiently waiting in his Xingqing Prefecture.

Because he knew the time was not yet ripe.

There wasn’t much the Prince Yun he played could do at this time. Not to mention whether Xixia would erupt in rebellion after his departure, even if everything remained stable, he could not go back to defend the emperor.

Because once he did, it would be difficult to retain absolute command; so even with the support of Emperor Taizu of Sheng and his own military prowess, the outcome would not be much different than if a renowned general like Zhong Pingyuan went back. The Jin would still retreat, and the forced Western Army would suffer heavy losses in their hasty assault.

He had to wait for a chance that could truly change the course of the situation.

Finally, that opportunity arrived.

After the Jin’s Eastern Army retreated from the capital and joined with the Western Army, they launched a fierce assault on Taiyuan.

In the original timeline, the Qi Dynasty organized forces to relieve Taiyuan, but for various frustrating reasons, all these efforts failed.

Consequently, the staunch city Taiyuan fell after a strenuous defense.

With the Jin’s second invasion and no Taiyuan to buffer them, their advance was even more overwhelming, hence generating the Jingping incident.

Therefore, having now substantial autonomy, Fan Cun ultimately decided to lead a faction of the Western Army to relieve Taiyuan, join forces with the original commanding officer who died while reinforcing Taiyuan, Zhong Pingyuan, and defend this strong city!