Chapter 92 Who Allies with Whom?

Chapter 92: Who Joins Forces with Whom

He was Tuoba Gui, the ruler of Wei.

...

"You shouldn't be here."

Yao Xing and Tuoba Gui, each accompanied by a few attendants, advanced to meet. Yao Xing was the first to speak, uttering these words.

Tuoba Gui's gaze swept over Yao Xing's sickly appearance. "Then where should I be? Restarting my coronation ceremony in Pingcheng, declaring that I will never compromise with Yong'an? Emulating Yong'an on this northern land by initiating an imperial examination to select talents, only to gain a group of useless subordinates? Or perhaps, like those restless factions within my state, simply leading troops south to surrender to Yong'an?"

"You only hold this besieged Guanzhong, yet you have no intention of bowing in surrender. How can you still judge my whereabouts with such words?"

Yao Xing: "...Silence never hurt anyone."

He could ponder all he liked, but why did he have to say, "You only hold this besieged Guanzhong"? Was it to show that in this meeting, Tuoba Gui firmly held the upper hand?

"You can't deny it." Tuoba Gui's face was weathered from the journey, but his tone was one of steely certainty.

Yao Xing gritted his teeth. "If you insist on this attitude, then this alliance is moot."

"Hahaha, true enough." Tuoba Gui chuckled. "Even without me, you could have killed Lü Shao. That Lü Guang of Liang, back when he served as the Qin Emperor's lackey, could still be called a peerless warrior. He chose the perfect time to seize Liangzhou, but by the time he declared himself the Heavenly King, he was already a spent force, like a setting sun. Once Lü Shao dies, Lü Guang and Liang will inevitably become your prize as the King of Qin. Am I wrong?"

"So what?" Yao Xing shot an icy look at the Wei State soldiers behind him and asked Tuoba Gui, "Why did you cross the Ziwu Ridge, march from Pingcheng to this place, and kill Lü Shao before I could?"

Tuoba Gui replied, "To prove to the fence-sitters in my Wei State that I can kill Lü Shao—and I can kill them too! In fact, dealing with them would be even easier. And to prove to you that the failure of our previous alliance doesn’t mean we can’t join forces again. Now is the opportune moment."

"The opportune moment..." Yao Xing lowered his eyes and spoke bitterly, "Also a time teetering on ruin's edge."

He wasn’t afraid to show vulnerability in front of Tuoba Gui! Because he could clearly see that when these words were spoken, Tuoba Gui’s expression showed empathy—not pity or sympathy!

"I admire Yong'an’s resolve and vision. I admire how she ascended from that position to the throne. But I still refuse to admit that I would lose to someone less than half my age. We, the so-called 'Qiang barbarians' by the Han people, saw the incompetence of the Han dynasty and finally had the chance to enter the Central Plains—only to become her stepping stones to her glory!"

"So your top priority now is to stabilize your hinterlands!" Tuoba Gui responded decisively. "And I can give you aid first. Otherwise, our alliance would be nothing more than a paper alliance, ready to break at any moment."

Yao Xing’s gaze sharpened. "You want to join forces with me to crush Western Liang, Chouchi, and the rest... But what about your own rear?"

Tuoba Gui answered calmly, "I’m not like you. In my Wei State, there are people who aren’t particularly useful but are even more unwilling to surrender than I am. They once pledged allegiance to me while secretly cursing me as a barbarian behind my back. But now, they have no choice but to stake their fortunes and manpower into betting on my victory. The heavenly portents said that Shelun, the outstanding leader of the Rouran, would conquer the Chile tribes, unify the northern grasslands, and formally establish the Rouran Khanate. But now, he won’t have that chance."

Yao Xing immediately understood. "Like the envoy you sent to Guanzhong last time—they were such people."

"Exactly!" Tuoba Gui made no secret of it, answering firmly.

The northern aristocratic families, represented by the Cui of Qinghe and the Lu of Fanyang, had recently provided him with a king's ransom in military resources. It made Tuoba Gui suddenly realize just how much Yong'an must have gained when she raised her blade against the southern aristocratic families.

No wonder Yong'an wanted to kill them. Some people only needed to let a little slip through their fingers for others to see the riches beneath the surface.

But unfortunately, his situation was different from Yong'an’s.

Yong'an could proclaim to the world that though she came from an aristocratic family, she would never collude with them. She could execute the aristocratic heirs on charges of treason and replace them with talents selected through the imperial examinations. But he had to first show these people a friendly attitude, even delegating vital duties and the mission of stabilizing his rear to them.

Only after winning this north-south confrontation and accumulating power for another twenty years would he have the chance to turn against them.

For now, as he had told Yao Xing, they were the most useful—and the most desperate—tools.

"So..." Yao Xing’s tone turned all business. "You join forces with me to secure my rear. What do you want in return?"

Tuoba Gui folded his arms behind him and gazed at the slowly rising sun behind the mountains, replying solemnly, "The State of Qin itself is the best reward. But don’t worry—"

Hearing Yao Xing’s sharp intake of breath, he knew what he was thinking and quickly clarified, "I’m not asking you to surrender directly and merge Qin into Wei. I’d love to make that happen, but you’d never agree, and it would only shatter our alliance. I didn’t come all this way for such a fool's bargain."

"What I mean is, when Qin itself becomes the vulnerability on this chessboard, it’s also the key to our counterattack."

Yao Xing: "...Go on."

"My words may sound blunt, but don’t rush to deny them." Tuoba Gui said, "Forgive me for asking, but isn’t Qin currently facing more enemies than just Chouchi and Liang?"

Yao Xing hesitated for a moment before nodding heavily. "Yes. Even that Qiao Zong from Shu presumes to march against me."

"Exactly!" Tuoba Gui clapped his hands. "Then tell me, would Yong'an stand idly by and let you counterattack one by one, giving you a chance to patch up this weakness?"

"...No."

Liu Yu’s attack from the Hangu Pass was merely a diversion. Yong'an’s true killing blow was surely yet to come!

Besieged on all sides, Qin was full of holes, likely to face even more threats.

Tuoba Gui reasoned coolly, "Last time, choosing Luoyang as the battlefield was indeed a mistake. The hearts of Luoyang’s people still leaned south, and both of us were interlopers, lacking Yong'an’s boldness. That’s why we ended up with that result. But if Guanzhong becomes the fulcrum of change, the necessary battleground where all forces converge—would you lose again as you did before?"

Yao Xing’s expression shifted repeatedly. The answer seemed ground out between clenched teeth, yet it rang with conviction: "No!"

He understood Tuoba Gui’s meaning now.

Tuoba Gui’s support for Qin didn’t have to mean annexing it—but ensuring that this best battlefield, this perfect lure, wasn’t eroded by chaos in the rear.

With their rear secured, Wei’s elite troops could also be deployed north of Guanzhong, ready to support Qin at any time.

But this also meant...

Though Tuoba Gui claimed he didn’t want Qin for himself, once Yao Xing agreed to this plan, a sword of Damocles would hang over Qin, ready to plunge into its heart at any moment.

This Wei King Tuoba Gui before him, though much younger, spoke of such schemes with a steadier mind than anyone else!

"What does the King of Qin think?" Tuoba Gui asked, interrupting Yao Xing’s thoughts.

His inscrutable countenance was like a smothering shroud, tightening around him.

"I really only have two choices."

"One is to keep pretending I’m fighting back, refusing to be underestimated, while in reality, my struggles are nothing but pitiful rear-guard actions! In the end, my meager territory will still be swallowed by Yong'an’s inexorable tide."

"The other is, as you said, to stake all on a death-or-glory strike—to turn Guanzhong, through our alliance, into both a weakness and a trap! But I’d also have to bet on your conscience, Tuoba Gui, and whether Qin can survive this confrontation with its lifeblood intact."

Yao Xing closed his eyes, feeling the wan spring sun on his eyelids—yet it brought no warmth.

He took a deep breath and answered, "I choose the second. I refuse to believe in fate."

Tuoba Gui smacked his palms together. "Good. A wise decision. Now we can move to the next stage."

He glanced at the corpses of the Liang State soldiers in the distance and exchanged a look with Yao Xing.

"Before the spring plowing, eliminate one threat. Of the warhorses we seize, I take seven-tenths."

"Fine," Yao Xing replied. "But I expect these warhorses to ensure your troops guard the Yellow River fiercely—no repeat of the disgrace at Yecheng!"

He finally saw a crack appear on Tuoba Gui's normally composed face.

A sharp retort came back: "If you don't speak, no one will mistake you for a mute."

Tuoba Gui hadn’t forgotten that his cousin Tuoba Yi was still in Yong'an’s hands, and the one who had attacked Yecheng and dealt him a heavy blow was a little-known junior officer.

The only thing that comforted him was that, so far, Yong'an had not sent him any messages—such as demanding ransom for Tuoba Yi—so he could tentatively assume he was already dead.

After all, he had already lost one blood brother; losing a cousin would hardly matter.

From Yao Xing, he also received two other noteworthy reports.

One was that Yao Xing had chosen his younger brother Yao Chong as his heir, ensuring that Qin would have an heir. This greatly stabilized the people's morale in Guanzhong to some extent, making the plan to use Guanzhong as the core of the chessboard even more feasible.

The other was that the heavenly portents had repeatedly mentioned a renegade who had broken away from Yao Xing’s ranks and seized his chance to establish his own state—a man named Helian Bobo. But as early as the first time the heavenly portents mentioned that this man would kill his father-in-law, Yao Xing’s general had already launched a pursuit, though unfortunately, he escaped.

His current whereabouts were unknown, and it was very likely he was now under Yong'an’s command.

Perhaps they could use this to their advantage.

But in the end, defeating Yong'an would still depend on true capability.

...

Due to the isolation between the western frontier and the Central Plains, two critical pieces of news were almost impossible to reach Jiankang.

Lü Shao’s head was delivered to his ally Yang Sheng.

Yang Sheng was temporarily panicked and chose to retreat to Wudu.

But during the retreat, he was ambushed by Yao Shuode.

Fortunately, Yang Sheng was more skilled in warfare than Lü Shao and managed to escape, but the Chouchi Qiang tribesmen under his command suffered heavy losses.

He never expected that his attempt to align with Yong'an for benefits would first bring him such a devastating blow. Faced with immediate death or delaying the inevitable, he decisively chose the latter, proving himself a perfect fence-sitter by sending a letter of surrender to Yao Xing.

This was not only because the losses had drawn criticism upon his return but also because, at that very moment, he received alarming tidings from the north.

Yao Xing had not only marched against Chouchi but also sent troops to attack Liang.

Lü Guang had just dispatched Lü Shao to join forces with Yang Sheng. Though he hadn’t expected them to actually break through to Guanzhong, he never imagined they would lose so quickly and so easily, with Lü Shao even losing his life.

The alliance between Yao Xing and Tuoba Gui also made this offensive army particularly fierce.

If Lü Guang were still the commanding warlord who once carved out his own domain, it might have been different. But for a man over sixty, his improvised defense was far too feeble.

Liang fell, Lü Guang died, and the venerable monk Kumarajiva, who had been detained in Liang, was released by Yao Xing and allowed to return to India. This act was also meant to prove to the world that he had heeded the mistakes mentioned by the heavenly portents and would never repeat them.

The fall of Liang also meant his rear was temporarily stabilized.

Though Guanzhong, due to its geographical position, still seemed precarious, when Yang Sheng’s letter of surrender reached Chang’an, Yao Chong finally saw a faint smile appear on Yao Xing’s face.

But like a lighthouse at sea, the smile was soon swallowed by the fog.

"Any news from Jiankang?"

Yao Chong, wary of upsetting Yao Xing’s newfound composure, carefully chose his words: "The imperial examinations there have been quite successful, and Yong'an is also overseeing the spring planting..."

...

But what Guanzhong didn’t know was that Yong'an was planning far more than just spring planting—there was another important matter.

She had Huan Xuan brought before her: "I have a very important task to entrust to the Marquis of Chu. I wonder if you..."

"Your Majesty has but to command," Huan Xuan quickly replied.

Whatever Her Majesty said, he would agree.

Gods knew what kind of trouble he had recently encountered.

Ever since some candidates in the imperial examinations learned that a set of examination scrolls had been graded by Huan Xuan, a rumor spread in Jiankang that these candidates were Huan Xuan’s favorites and should be given special consideration.

Whether these people were cautious or not, he didn’t know. All he knew was that some regarded him oddly, as if they might ask at any moment, "Marquis of Chu, did you grade my paper?"

By the gods—it was all the heavenly portents’ fault. He didn’t want to answer such foolish, taunting queries either.

He added, "If the task isn’t in Jiankang, that would be even better!"

Wang Shenai chuckled. "Then you’ve guessed right. The place I’m sending you is quite a journey."

...

Huan Xuan lowered his head and saw Wang Shenai’s finger tap on the map before them.

It pointed to Liaodong.

"I want you to visit Murong Hui, the surviving heir of Murong Bao and the Crown Prince defending Longcheng. I’ve also selected gifts for you to take with you."

"Tuoba Yi, who was taken prisoner by Helian Bobo, will be your offering for this mission."