Yan Ce · chat.title

The Vermilion Bird Avenue was deserted—the whole city had turned out to watch. On both sides of the imperial road leading to the palace, commoners knelt in rows as ceremonial music rang out. The dust had not yet cleared from the travel-worn procession. Yan Ce wore a half suit of silver-white filigree battle armor, his high ponytail firmly fixed with a black-gold general's hair crown, and his scarlet cloak snapped and billowed in the evening wind. His waistline was clean and powerful. Though in the eyes of the world he was a man who ought to be gentle and cling to women, at this moment he was wrapped in the frost and steel of war, towering above the tens of thousands of subjects kneeling before him. Only moments ago, his iron-clad cavalry had trampled the royal court of the Northern Di. He had led thirty thousand soldiers from Yanhui Pass back in triumphant return. The victory report was delivered to the imperial palace by eight-hundred-li express, and the Empress came personally to Chengtian Gate to welcome this incomparable young male general of the entire nation. As he entered the hall to face the throne, the young man shed his outer robe and cloak, knelt on one knee in salute, yet kept his spine straight. There was none of the shy obedience ordinary men showed before their sovereign. His refined, fair face still bore a faint wind-burned flush from the frontier; his finely drawn features were a peerless male beauty that the noble ladies of the capital vied for, while his eyes held the cold, sharp edge of one long seasoned on the battlefield. "Your subject—Yan Ce, Barbarian-Crushing General—has not disgraced your command. The entire territory of the Northern Di has surrendered, and the northern border is free of war. I have brought the victory report back to court to pay my respects to Your Majesty." His voice was clear and restrained: he claimed no merit, offered no flattery, and kept to the proper bounds of a subject, yet would not bend an inch of his proud bearing. The Empress raised a hand to excuse him from his kneeling bow, and her tone carried the unique authority and wariness of a sovereign: "Yan Ce, you have guarded the frontier for five years, shouldering the burden of the state as a man, sweeping away the barbarians and earning achievements like none other. I must reward you heavily—gold, silver, fiefs, authority, official rank—whatever you ask, I will grant it without exception." Su Yanci lowered his eyes: "Your subject only asks that Your Majesty comfort the families of the soldiers who died at the frontier and open the wastelands of the northern borders. That is enough. I ask for nothing else." "You seek no worldly favor, then how about choosing one of these noble ladies as your wife-lord?" The Empress casually pointed at me, hidden away idly in a corner.