Chapter 306: They’re All Sore Loser Trash

Jiang Zhou heard the Empress was sending troops to war and hurried over to see. He was just thinking her words were a bit unrefined when he turned his head and saw Zhang Zan, the Assistant Minister of Rites, writing furiously.

’The Emperor commands: The rebels of Yue Country issued a provocation. When they could not match our army, they were crushed. We, in Our mercy, spared their lives, but they did not reflect on Our benevolence... Today, We once again take up arms to punish these ungrateful fools and demonstrate the divine might of Longsheng...’

Jiang Zhou was stunned. ’Wait, did the Empress actually say that? Which one of those sentences did she even say? Sir, aren’t you technically altering an imperial edict?’

Zhang Zan shot him a look of supreme disdain. ’What do you know? I am the guardian of the Empress’s majesty!’

No matter what the Empress said, he could transform it into imposing, eloquent, official language.

The officials of the Ministry of Rites were responsible for maintaining decorum, literary standards, and public image—their job was more than just organizing banquets.

Then, Jiang Zhou turned his head and saw a court historian whose pen flew across the paper as if divinely guided, a dizzying blur of motion. The man’s face was flushed, and he had a somewhat sleazy look about him.

He leaned in for a look, and a passage that completely shattered his worldview leaped off the page.

’The Empress has finally made her move against Yue Country. Its new king, Murong Yu, still has no idea what he is about to face. Will the face that once mesmerized Her Majesty and won her exclusive favor be able to move the Empress’s heart once more?’

’The Empress said, "I want him alive," which shows she still can’t bear to part with him. Is this an old flame being rekindled, or the beginning of a new, deeply angsty romance?’

’A battle between the monarchs of two nations. The victor reigns supreme, the vanquished warms the bed...’

Jiang Zhou’s worldview was on the verge of collapse. "Seriously? This history book the court historian is writing is way too scandalous, isn’t it? Can this really be passed down to future generations?"

The historian looked up at him, and only then did Jiang Zhou realize he’d spoken his thoughts aloud. Just as he was trying to backtrack, the historian replied with unabated excitement, "What do you know? Her Majesty herself permitted me to write this. The facts aren’t important, but I must portray Her Majesty as sufficiently cool and domineering. Then, we adorn the books with gold foil silver flowers and sell them in the Capital City for twenty taels of silver a copy."

As he spoke, the historian cupped his face in a dreamy, self-satisfied daze. "My last book about Her Majesty and the Prime Minister, *Lord’s Heart Like Jade*, sold over thirty thousand copies. Now that it’s out of print, a single copy is being auctioned off for as high as three hundred taels of silver. Her Majesty even gave me a reward when she heard about it."

With that, he carefully pulled a jade-carved pen from inside his robes as if it were a priceless treasure, his pride impossible to conceal. "This is the reward Her Majesty gave me. Beautiful, isn’t it?"

Jiang Zhou: "Uh..."

’Alright, I’m the ignorant frog in the well. My mistake, my mistake!’

For the expedition against Yue Country, Xiao Li dispatched three generals. Aside from Wu Lie, who had been with Xiao Li from the very beginning, the other two, Li Zhu and Liang Hu, had been promoted from the ranks of the military camp.

With eight hundred Silver Armor Guards and several cannons, it would be more than enough to conquer the half of Yue Country that remained.

Naturally, Xiao Li made sure to send Chu Yungui along as well. Generals, after all, are forged on the battlefield.

Although she had teased him before, Chu Yungui knew Her Majesty had just been playing a drunken prank and didn’t take it to heart. For this expedition, he was no longer as bewildered as he had been when the Empress first ordered him to kill. Now, his heart was set on one firm goal: to achieve meritorious deeds and become a general.

----

On the third day after Xiao Li had dispatched her troops against Yue Country, news arrived from the Capital City.

Song Junzhan wasn’t dead, but a chronic ailment of his had flared up, and he had fallen into a coma.

Xiao Li strongly suspected this was just another one of their tricks, all for the sake of luring her back.

This time, however, Xiao Li had truly wronged Them. Song Junzhan wasn’t dying, but his health was genuinely poor, and the coma was due entirely to his own condition.

Xiao Li had already sent Ziyue and his men to escort Cen An on a swift return to the Capital City. Now, Song Junzhan’s survival was up to fate.

Meanwhile, in Yue Country, a torrential downpour began just as the two armies were about to clash. The rain continued unabated for three days straight, eventually causing a flood that washed away half of Xiao Li’s cannons. The effectiveness of the remaining ones was greatly reduced from the water damage, and some were rendered completely useless.

Xiao Li laughed in sheer exasperation.

’This so-called world consciousness is nothing but a sore loser.’

"If the cannons are useless, then they’re useless. Let them witness the might of my Silver Armor Guards for themselves!"

With cannons, the work would have been twice as easy. But without them, the Silver Armor Army was still not to be trifled with.

The cannons had earned the Silver Armor Army its formidable reputation, but the soldiers didn’t rely on them in their day-to-day training. They depended on their own skills.

Battle reports arrived one after another, and supply carts were dispatched in long trains.

Without the cannons, capturing cities was certainly not as easy, but the dispatches that arrived were still one victory report after another.

Within half a month, they had taken three cities in succession.

The flames of war once again spread to the Yue Kingdom Capital.

The rain continued to fall. The floods caused by the downpour destroyed countless villages and wiped out all the peasants’ crops, which had been on the verge of harvest.

Eventually, the flooding grew so severe that it completely cut off communication between Yanping State and the front lines. They could no longer even receive battle reports.

Xiao Li stood atop the city wall’s gate tower. Above her was the ceaseless, torrential rain; below were the floodwaters, held back only by the city gates.

"Are you worried about the war, Imperial Sister?"

Xiao Jingyi, who had mostly recovered from his injuries, approached Xiao Li.

Xiao Li glanced at him before her gaze returned to the sky. "I was just wondering who is more brutal: I, who started this war, or the heavens above, who so unfeelingly drown the mortal world in rain."

’She had conquered the world, and though her path had been paved with blood and bone, she had truly governed well after taking the throne.’

’Murong Yu may have reclaimed half of Yue Country’s territory, but he had no funds. To support his army, he levied taxes on the people at three to four times the normal rate and forcibly conscripted their sons.’

’The people in his half of Yue Country were groaning under the burden, and popular resentment was seething.’

’Murong Yu retook Yue Country for the sake of the Royal Family of Yue and for his own lust for power. The people were nothing more than his tools.’

’In contrast, the people of Longsheng hadn’t paid taxes in two years. Military service was voluntary, with the compensation clearly stated. Families with sons were practically breaking down the doors to enlist them.’

’And now, just to stop her from taking that broken-down half of Yue Country, They had sent torrential rains and massive floods, destroying countless lives—claiming even more than the war itself.’

’Did Xu Nianqing absolutely have to be the Emperor? Was conforming to the world’s trajectory that They had laid out the only correct path?’

Xiao Jingyi watched Xiao Li. His Imperial Sister was just as she had always been, her back ramrod straight, her bearing proud and imperious.

"Heaven and Earth are not benevolent; they treat all of creation as straw dogs. Your Majesty, however, cares for the realm and is deeply loved by the people. How could you be called unfeeling or brutal?"

Xiao Li gave a faint laugh. "It’s been a few years, and your flattery has certainly become more sophisticated."

Xiao Jingyi replied, "My original intentions have never wavered, Your Majesty. I am always at your command."

Xiao Li gave him a long, searching look. She knew Xiao Jingyi’s ambition, and she also understood his loyalty.

Yet Xiao Li just couldn’t bring herself to treat him as a true confidant.

Xiao Li had no plans to take a consort. She could not have a husband, and likewise, she would not bear children.

’Under these circumstances, a younger brother who was obedient, sensible, capable, and not entirely disliked by the reigning monarch was practically born for the role of imperial heir.’

’Sometimes, you dislike a person not because they’re bad, but because they’re too good—flawlessly so. So good it’s as if they were meticulously sculpted to perfection.’