The Eldest Legitimate Daughter is Both Beautiful and Valiant (ELDBBV) - Chapter 93

The Princess Dowager, who had been on edge in the side hall, finally let out a long breath of relief when she heard these words. Her rigid back softened against the brocade cushion, and even with her eyes closed, two streams of hot tears still could not be held back.

Just now, when Bai Qingyan’s fierce and impassioned words rang through the hall, the emperor had indeed felt the urge to kill more than once.

But with these last words, her eldest granddaughter’s life was, at last, preserved.

Fortunately, Bai Qingyan had not been completely blinded by hatred. She still understood how to leave herself a way out.

The emperor gazed at the woman kneeling in mourning attire at the centre of the grand hall, calm yet unyielding. It was so very much like Bai Suqiu’s own proud and upright bearing.

That softest, most hidden thread of affection in his heart was stirred and the emperor stared straight at the girl before him, almost as if he were a monk entering deep meditation.

In this world, loyal subjects were not hard to find, but loyal, righteous, and capable ministers were rare indeed. Yet it was often those very capable ministers who were the easiest targets for slander… and the ones emperors most readily feared.

After quite some time, the emperor straightened his back, finally opening his mouth in a voice tinged with fatigue, “Prince Xin… I shall strip him of his title, demote him to commoner status, and confine him within Prince Xin’s palace! As for Liu Huanzhang… All nine generations of his family will be executed! Are you satisfied with this outcome?”

“Father the Emperor?! Father the Emperor!” Prince Xin looked up in disbelief, crawling forward and crying out, “Father, I am your legitimate son!”

The emperor clenched his teeth, disappointment and fury mixing in his heart, his voice cutting sharp as a blade, “Drag Prince Xin out! All this weeping and wailing, what kind of behaviour is this?!”

Still, he could not bring himself to kill his own legitimate son!

That was fine. If the emperor would not kill him, then she would do it herself. It merely meant that Prince Xin would live a little longer, and suffer a little more.

She bowed respectfully to the emperor, “May Your Majesty also thoroughly investigate what the bamboo scrolls record… About the supplies and provisions that failed to reach Fengcheng, and return justice to the fallen Bai family spirits!”

As the girl bowed, her long hair slipped from her shoulders like dark silk. The emperor closed his eyes, finally suppressing the last of his murderous intent.

Enough. A girl with the same proud, unbending spirit as Suqiu… let her live on in Suqiu’s place.

“The matter of the supplies implicates Zhongyong Marquis Qin Dezhao. Your second younger sister only just married into the Zhongyong Marquis’ family…”

“Your Majesty, Qin Lang has already stepped down from his position as heir to the marquisate and has moved out of the Zhongyong Marquis’ residence. He’s also someone Your Majesty once praised as a model among the aristocracy. The Bai family only asks for justice. We do not wish to implicate others.”

“I shall personally see to the investigation of the supplies!” The emperor walked around the imperial table and took his seat on the dragon throne with dignity. After studying Bai Qingyan for a moment, he spoke again: “Just now you said… if Great Jin seeks peace with Nanyan and Western Liang, then Rongdi and Daliang would immediately pounce to share the spoils. This point is well observed and insightful. If we do not seek peace… Western Liang and Nanyan’s armies press at our borders. In seeking peace… Rongdi and Daliang watch like hungry wolves.”

The emperor pursed his lips, waiting silently for Bai Qingyan to speak further.

She was a rising star once praised by the Zhenguo Duke Bai Weiting himself. The emperor too wanted to see what she was truly capable of.

To go to Nanjiang, she had not expected the emperor would deliver this opportunity right into her hands.

She needed to go to Nanjiang, not only to search for and gather any surviving members of the Bai family… but most importantly because the Bai family’s true foundation lay in the army!

Even a centipede, though dead, does not stiffen at once. It was the army that the Bai family must continue to cultivate. When she raised her arm and rallied them, there would still be those who would respond, something no other family in Great Jin could hope to achieve.

After a brief pause, she bowed low and spoke, “The war in Nanjiang must not be avoided and must not be delayed! Ceding land, paying compensation, seeking peace, these may temporarily make Western Liang and Nanyan withdraw their troops, but Rongdi and Daliang would immediately press forward, and they are no less formidable! Yet if, even after such a disastrous defeat, Great Jin still manages to triumph in this war… Then all the kingdoms will see that Great Jin’s might remains untouchable.”

“These words, do you truly… have confidence in victory?”
After asking this, the emperor lightly clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. At the celebration feast upon the conquest of Shu, Zhenguo Duke Bai Weiting had once declared that his granddaughter was born a natural commander. Back then, the emperor had merely smiled silently, thinking Bai Weiting had exaggerated. As a young girl from the inner chambers, though she might have the fame of having cut down Shu’s great general Pang Pingguo, she must surely have been aided by others.
And yet now, here he was, discussing matters of the frontier and strategies of war with this very girl he had once so thoroughly dismissed.
For some reason, the emperor thought of the general again… Bai Qingyan said that the Zhenguo Duke Bai Weiting said that he had great ambitions.
He also could not help but remember what he had once said to the Zhenguo Duke… For all my life, I will entrust military power to Uncle, and shall never doubt you
A sudden pang of guilt welled in the emperor’s chest, and he closed his eyes.
Regret… For losing loyal and brave ministers, yes, he did regret it!
But he did not regret… finally breaking the power of generations of overmighty subjects, leaving no one to threaten his imperial rule. In that, he did not regret.
The faint, bitter ache that lingered in his heart was merely that inevitable sense of emptiness and loss.
“That depends on who goes to fight,” Bai Qingyan heard the unspoken meaning in the emperor’s words and lifted her gaze to meet that of the man seated above. “To find the courage of a single soldier is as easy as turning the hand, but a general’s talent, among a hundred thousand, there may not be even one.”
Against the gold-backed cushion, the emperor’s fingers clenched.
“Matters of war must not be avoided. To cast aside mourning, to devote oneself to loyalty! If Your Majesty can still bring yourself to trust the Bai family, then I, Bai Qingyan, swear on the honour built by the Bai family over a century. So long as even one enemy remains who has dared to violate our Great Jin, I shall not rest! But if Your Majesty no longer wishes to trust the Bai family…”
The emperor’s gaze turned sharp as a blade. “And if I do not?”
“Then I beg Your Majesty… For the sake of the people of Jin, endure a little and send a prince with the army. The Bai family does not desire military merit! Should we win this battle even after such a disaster, the other kingdoms will fear the Jin kingdom more than ever. Then the Jin kingdom will have ample time to cultivate new generals. As for me… I will return to my ancestral home in Shuoyang, to mourn my grandfather, father, uncles, and brothers.”
The emperor’s fingers, which had been idly tracing the embroidered edge of the cushion, stilled. The meaning of Bai Qingyan’s words… was to offer the military achievements freely to the accompanying prince?
The emperor pressed his lips together. “Offer the military merit freely to the prince? Are you willing?”
“Your Majesty, on the night of the palace banquet… This civilian daughter had thought I had already made myself quite clear. The Bai family has never sought military glory. For generations, we have offered up our lives to protect nothing more than the peace and prosperity of Great Jin, the safety of the people! The true spirit of the Bai family’s army… is to never rest until every last enemy who violates our Jin people has been destroyed!”
The emperor’s palm tightened involuntarily.
Never rest until every last enemy who violates our Jin people has been destroyed!
If it had been merely about ability, after all the Bai family’s men had perished, the emperor might still have felt sorrow, yet no regret. But now, his heart felt completely different.
It felt as if he had been stung by a venomous scorpion.
Once, he had promised never to doubt the Zhenguo Duke, but in the end, he had doubted him after all.
Yet he could not regret it. The Zhenguo Duke’s power had grown far too great. The Jin dynasty’s realm belonged to the Lin family. There could be no upheaval in his reign, or he would have failed the ancestors of the Lin family.
Better to wrongfully kill than to let one escape, he had been right! He was the emperor, and therefore, he must be right!
His fingers trembled faintly. After a long silence, his voice came out hoarsely, “Go now to the side hall, help your grandmother back to her quarters. Let me think on this…”
Bai Qingyan kowtowed and withdrew from the main hall. Outside, she saw her grandmother already waiting by the doors.
Their tear-reddened eyes met. Grandmother and granddaughter supported each other, saying nothing as they walked out of the palace.
“You… wanted to force His Majesty to execute Prince Xin by advocating so hard for war and volunteering to go to Nanjiang?” The Princess Dowager’s fingertips were icy cold.
“It’s not that I’m advocating for war, Grandmother, but that there is no avoiding this war. What I told His Majesty just now… was no exaggeration.