Volu Envoy, the Prince of Qi (1/2)

Volu Envoy, the Prince of Qi

<blockquote class="Quote">

During the sixteenth year of Xiande, the fourth year of the sixty-year cycle, Prince De, Zhao Jue, was given a secret edict to travel to Hengjiang and prepare to raid Moling Before he could co A Yong envoy suddenly arrived in Southern Chu with the offer of the Princess Changle for aof Chu accepted and ordered a cessation of hostilities

On his deathbed, Zhao Sheng called the Crown Prince to his bedside and gave an order: “Our eternal regret is failing to protect Our ancestor’s foundation and beco If you have even a little bit of filial piety, you will do your utmost to restore our e passed away

In the fifth month of the nineteenth year of Xiande, the seventh year of the sixty-year cycle, the Prince of Qi arrived in Southern Chu to pay his respects andwith the King, the Prince of Qi offered heavy inducedo envoy later colluded with the Southern Chu court officials and proceeded to raise theShu Southern Chu was later destroyed due to thisdisaster; none understood the stakes involved Later, eunuchs heard the King sobbing to the Queen, “If We are to restore our e to acknowledge Great Yong as Our parent Today, the Prince of Qi has promised me the title of Emperor I hope that you would inform your father that Southern Chu will never turn Our back upon Yong” This matter was leaked

— Yang of Chu</blockquote>

In the fifthdispatched an envoy to pay its respects at the passing of Southern Chu’s King I heard that the pri Emperor, the Prince of Qi, Li Xian He was spoiled frohty and , and detested learning In the seventy years since the collapse of Eastern Jin, the Central Plains had been torn asunder Li Yuan’s father, Li Shang took the opportunity to rise and declared hi After dozens of years of war, he declared the foundation of the state of Yong When Li Shang passed away, Li Yuan succeeded the throne He was fond of the sensual pleasures, uneager to ed was because of his second son, Li Zhi

Fro, Li Zhi, was known for his virtues Twenty years ago, during the royal feast celebrating the beginning of spring, the nine-year old Li Zhi wore htly that Li Yuan was too conservative Using vehe to fulfill Li Shang’s final wishes, sha afterward, Li Yuan declared hied to Wuwei¹ The state focused all its efforts on training the arriculture In the third year of Wuwei, Li Yuan began to fulfill his new aht before the ar blood as a sacrifice to heaven and earth, vowing to never cease warring until the Central Plains were conquered

At the time, Li Zhi was only twelve years old, but accoh he was a member of the imperial family, Li Zhi endured the same conditions as the co h he was young, he was brave and heroic, constantly leading fro in to destroy formations It is said that on one occasion when the enca his personal guards out of the encircle Emperor After they had escaped, some soldiers were heard to yell, “Don’t leave us behind, Your Majesty!”² Dripping with sweat, Li Zhi spun his horse around and charged back into to the encaht to the death, forcing the ene Eh Li Zhi had been badly wounded, he still personally ca Emperor praised, “This is my family’s thousand li</eeous on the battlefield, but also extreeneral In the ninth year of Wuwei, he defeated the greatest power in the Central Plains, the King of Xia, Yang Laosheng Li Zhi played aconsolidate its position As a result, he was enfeoffed as the Prince of Yong When Li Zhi returned ho’an⁴ at the head of his army, commoners lined the streets and all of officialdom came to welcome him At the tilory and honor was so seldom seen in the annals of history Later, in the tenth year of Wuwei, the ninth year of Southern Chu’s Xiande, Southern Chu vassalized itself Great Yong becaemon of the Central Plains

When Li Xian saw Li Zhi’s glory, he felt a sense of loss, declaring to his attendants, “I will surpass him” At the tied his bad habits, studying hard and diligently training his martial arts Two years later, after his personal request, he joined the ar the northern frontier In the subsequent ten years, Li Xian participated in numerous bloody battles on the northern frontier with Northern Han Although he could not compare to Li Zhi’s brilliance and eneral In the last several years, Great Yong had tightly guarded its northern frontier, resulting in no conflicts in the north Thus, Li Xian was able to return to Chang’an He was close to the Crown Prince, Li An While in Chang’an, he was the head of the aristocratic youths, constantly getting into trouble If he wasn’t leading friends to visit brothels,⁵ he would be spending his days on falconry or hunting His actions caused a great pande’an As he was a beloved son of the Yong Emperor and had numerous military accomplishments, no one dared to cause trouble for him

I read over this information seriously After I had successfully “lobbied” the queen, I began to acco Although I was said to acco, in reality,to consider With the Prince of Qi co to Southern Chu as an envoy, the royal court was a coence report on the Prince of Qi, I realized that the nu was also quite nuh the Prince of Qi was here to s weren’t so si had no need to send such an ie In my view, it was probably because the Prince of Qi had caused too big a ruckus in Chang’an and had been sent out by the Yong Emperor to lie low until the fuss had died down I read in the intelligence report that just a month earlier, the Prince of Qi had forcibly taken a woman from an ordinary family as a concubine and had been i Eated to punish these kinds of actions That the Prince of Qi was only fined a year’s salary clearly showed that he was being shi+elded from punishment To be sent out under these circu told to lay low until the controversy had died down But all the other that for the Prince of Qi to be sent out as an envoymajor needed to be discussed

Currently, however, the circu the properrites, the Prince of Qi requested a private audience with the king The tere currently holed up in the I in the Imperial Study, I waited just outside It wasn’t that I was deliberately eavesdropping, but rather, ood and I was able to hear the majority of their conversation

When he entered the study, Li Xian i wishes to ally with Southern Chu to conquer the Kingdo’s views?”

Zhao Jia froze for sodo shared amicable relations, ould We attack the, Li Xian replied, “Relations between states are dependent upon benefits Although Sichuan has long been friendly with Southern Chu and sees frequent trade between the two states, Southern Chu is reliant upon Sichuan for its weapons and horses I have heard that the Kingdoed your esteeo, when your esteemed state purchased some horses froh Sichuan, but were blocked If the for had not dispatched persons to bribe Shu officials, more likely than not, those horses would not have been acquired In addition, your estee horses from Northern Han, and is instead required to use Shu as an inters not occurred?”

There was no sound within, but I could i’s face was purple I had heard of this incident and was curious why the Kingdohted as to incur the hatred of Southern Chu

I heard Li Xian continue, “My Great Yong and Southern Chu are not only lord and vassal, but also in-laws My sister, Princess Changle, is the beloved daughter of my Imperial Father, and is also now the Queen of Southern Chu Our two states share the sadoraphy that is easily defended and difficult to attack, refusing to be a vassal of Great Yong and treating the friendly Southern Chu so arrogantly Looking at the trade between our nations, over the last few years, the tariffs levied on trade between Great Yong and Southern Chu has far surpassed that of trade with Shu In the eyes of this Prince,⁹ the Kingdo at death’s door¹¹If our two states were to join together and attack Shu,to equally split Shu territories and divide the world along the Yangtze, forever ceasing conflict”

Zhao Jia’s breathing becaitated and it took some time before he was able to respond “To send troops into war, one dom of Shu is easily defended and difficult to attack If ere to attack for a long time without success, it would be a waste of manpower and resources”

Li Xian see, “Before this Prince departed, do’s frontiers and allow , after everything is settled,to tacitly accept Your Majesty's restoration of the title of E to this point, uish In the last several years, the court had long talked about restoring the title of emperor I had even heard fro, on his deathbed, had exhorted the current king to restore the e

Sure enough, the king hesitatingly stated, “This matter is difficult for Us¹² to decide at this time How about this: We will solicit the opinion of Our subjects”

Satisfied, Li Xian affirmed, “Then many thanks to Your Majesty for this audience This Prince will now bid ested, “The Queen and the Prince of Qi are siblings who have notWhen will the Prince of Qi be free?”

S wished to er sister, but had been constrained by my responsibilities, and had to first deal withprivate o meet the Queen”