noffsinger Chapter 1164 - 1105. A Day Before The Celebration
Chapter 1164 - 1105. A Day Before The Celebration
If you want to read 20 Chapters ahead and more, be sure to check out my P-Tang12!!!
______________________________
(A/N: Don’t forget to give those power stones to Skyrim everyone!)
...
"The cut on Prince Muchen’s ceremonial robes is entirely too loose around the shoulders!" Ying Yue instructed a terrified master tailor, pointing sharply at a magnificent piece of black and gold silk. "He is the Crown Prince. He will be standing at his father’s side during the military review. He must not look like a boy swimming in his father’s clothes, he must look like a young dragon! Take it in by two inches and reinforce the collar with heavier gold threading!"
"At once, Your Imperial Majesty!" the tailor bowed furiously, scrambling away with the fabric.
Fortunately, Ying Yue did not have to wage this logistical war alone. The other consorts, the mothers of the imperial children, had rallied to her side, utilizing their own unique talents to ensure the family presented a perfectly united, breathtaking front.
Diao Chan, whose legendary beauty and flawless understanding of courtly elegance were unmatched, was moving gracefully among the older princesses. She was carefully, meticulously selecting their jewelry, ensuring that the jade pendants and the gold filigree hairpins perfectly complemented the specific hue of their silk dresses without appearing overly ostentatious.
"No, my sweet," Diao Chan murmured gently, removing a heavy ruby necklace from the neck of a pouting nine year old Xuanxuan and replacing it with a delicate, intricately carved string of white pearls. "The rubies are too heavy for your delicate features. True elegance whispers, it does not shout. You wish to look like a flower of the court, not a merchant’s display case."
Nearby, Cai Wenji was utilizing her profound, unparalleled knowledge of history and culture. She was inspecting the specific embroidery patterns on the hems of the children’s robes, ensuring that the depictions of mythical beasts, clouds, and lotuses strictly adhered to the traditional, auspicious rites required for a unification ceremony.
She corrected the seamstresses when a thread color deviated from the ancient texts, ensuring that the imperial family’s attire was not just beautiful, but deeply, historically legitimate.
Lu Lingqi, however, was pacing the room with her arms crossed, looking entirely frustrated by the restrictive nature of formal court wear. The fierce, martial daughter of Lu Bu was eyeing the heavy, multi layered silk robes being prepared for the younger sons.
"Sister Ying Yue, this is ridiculous," Lu Lingqi complained, tugging at a heavy, stiff ceremonial sash. "How are the boys supposed to walk, let alone ride a horse, wrapped in this much silk? They look like bound prisoners! If there is an assassin, they won’t even be able to draw a ceremonial dagger!"
Ying Yue looked up from her ledgers, offering Lu Lingqi a patient, entirely unimpressed smile. "Lingqi, there will be fifty thousand elite guards lining the streets, and the entirety of the Yellow Ghost Bodyguards standing a foot away from the dais. The children do not need to fight assassins, they need to sit still, wave to the vassals, and look majestic. They will wear the heavy silk, and you will ensure they do not tear it playing with wooden swords before the banquet."
Lu Lingqi let out a dramatic, long suffering huff, though she smiled slightly. "Fine. But if they trip over these ridiculous hems on the stairs, I am blaming the tailors."
Meanwhile, Zhen Ji, was utilizing her flawless, ethereal aesthetic eye to arrange the attire for the infants and toddlers. She moved quietly, adjusting the incredibly soft, breathable silks for the babies, ensuring they would be comfortable enough not to scream during the long ceremonies, while still looking like tiny, perfect deities wrapped in gold and white.
The Harem Palace was a symphony of crying babies, laughing toddlers running away from maids wielding measuring tape, and the warm, sisterly banter of the empire’s most powerful women.
It was a chaotic, beautiful, intensely humanizing contrast to the cold, lethal politics of the outer court. They were not just dressing a dynasty, they were preparing their family to inherit the world.
While the city roared with celebration and the inner palace drowned in silk and pearls, the absolute center of the empire’s power remained cloistered in the quiet, pragmatic focus of the imperial study.
The celebration was merely the stage. Emperor Lie Fan was finalizing the props.
He sat behind his mahogany desk, reviewing a series of thick, heavily encoded bamboo ledgers. Standing before him, looking exhausted but radiating an aura of immense, predatory triumph, were Minister of Revenue Mi Zhu and Chancellor Jia Xu.
The deadline had been met. The secret project was complete.
"Report," Lie Fan commanded, setting his writing brush down.
Mi Zhu stepped forward, his mercantile heart practically singing as he recited the numbers. "Your Imperial Majesty, the workshop in the southern valley have operated flawlessly, day and night, for the past forty five days. The output has drastically exceeded our most optimistic projections."
Mi Zhu opened a leather-bound ledger, pointing to the staggering columns of inventory. "We have produced, cured, and packaged over twenty thousand bars of the base, unscented lye soap for the initial public rollout. But more importantly for the impending celebration... the luxury variants are finished."
He looked up, his eyes shining with the promise of infinite wealth. "We have two thousand bars of the Jasmine, Sandalwood, and Lotus infused soaps, alongside ten thousand ceramic vials of the herbal, mint infused liquid shampoos. They have been meticulously packaged in han carved cedar boxes, resting on velvet, stamped with the imperial seal. The stock has been secretly transported into the capital under the cover of darkness. The storehouses beneath the Ministry of Revenue are packed to the absolute ceiling."
Lie Fan turned his sharp gaze to the spymaster. "And the security, Wenhe? Has there been any breach? Any whispers in the merchant guilds?"
Jia Xu offered a thin, chilling smile that promised violence to anyone who dared cross his perimeter. "The cage remains entirely unbroken, Your Majesty. Two merchant spies from the Wu territory attempted to bribe a timber hauler to get close to the valley. The Orioles intercepted them. They are currently resting at the bottom of the Si River. The laborers inside the compound remain entirely ignorant of the final product. The secret of the chemical synthesis belongs exclusively to the throne."
Lie Fan leaned back in his high backed chair, a profound, deeply satisfied smirk spreading across his face.
The trap was fully armed.
When the kings of Goguryeo, the tribal lords of the south, and the wealthy, arrogant nobles of the old provinces arrived in Xiapi, they would be housed in the lavish guest quarters of the diplomatic sectors. They would arrive exhausted, dusty, and smelling of the long road. And waiting for them in their washrooms would be these cedar boxes.
They would experience a level of physical cleanliness and aromatic luxury that simply did not exist anywhere else on the planet. They would bathe in the scent of jasmine and lotus. They would emerge feeling like newborn deities.
They would become instantly, irrevocably addicted to the status and the physical sensation of the Emperor’s secret creation.
And then, when they begged to know how they could bring this miracle back to their own palaces, Lie Fan would open the state monopolies, and he would begin to legally, effortlessly drain the wealth of the known world into the Hengyuan treasury.
"Perfect," Lie Fan murmured, his voice a low, rumbling purr of absolute triumph. "Have the cedar boxes distributed to the diplomatic guest quarters immediately. Place them alongside the finest wines and the freshest fruits."
He looked out the window of his study, listening to the faint, distant, and joyous cheers of his capital city preparing for the festival.
The warlords had been crushed by iron, the mountains had been conquered by discipline, and now, the absolute economic subjugation of the world would be achieved with the scent of blooming flowers. "Let the guests arrive," Emperor Lie Fan smiled, closing the ledger with a definitive, echoing snap. "The Hengyuan Dynasty is ready to receive the world."
Jia Xu and Mi Zhu listened to the sheer, unadulterated mercantile ruthlessness of their Emperor’s plan, and as the brilliance of the trap fully settled into their minds, a synchronized, almost identical expression crept across their faces.
It was a mirror of the exact same predatory, knowing smile that currently rested upon Lie Fan’s lips. It was the smile of men who understood that while armies could conquer a territory, it was commerce, luxury, and debt that truly conquered a man’s soul.
They brought their hands together, cupping them in a gesture of profound, deeply admiring reverence, bowing their heads toward the sovereign who had just engineered an economic miracle out of hardwood ash and flower petals.
"We understand Your Imperial Majesty’s vision perfectly," Mi Zhu replied, his voice practically vibrating with the thrilling anticipation of overflowing treasury vaults. "I shall personally ensure that the distribution is handled with the utmost discretion and immaculate presentation. The cedar boxes will be waiting in their chambers, fully stocked, so that the trap is primed and ready to be unveiled the moment they arrive."
"And I shall see to it that our agents monitor their reactions closely, Your Majesty," Jia Xu added, his raspy voice dropping to a conspiratorial murmur. "We will compile ledgers not just of their joy, but of their inevitable demands for more. The entertainment of these guests will be a multifaceted operation, and the banquet tomorrow will serve as the perfect stage to observe them."
With their final, covert directives firmly established, the two ministers took a step back, preparing to take their leave. The logistical mountain required to entertain the entire known world was staggering, and they had a grand unification banquet to finalize.
But as they moved toward the heavy rosewood doors of the study, Lie Fan stood up from behind his massive mahogany desk, the heavy silk of his dark robes rustling softly in the quiet room.
"Hold a moment. I will accompany the both of you on your way out," Lie Fan announced, his tone shifting from the intense, calculating cadence of the imperial strategist back to the calm, grounded voice of a man seeking the warmth of his home. "The work of the shadows is concluded for the day. I am planning to go to the Harem Palace to see my family before the madness of tomorrow consumes us all."
Both Jia Xu and Mi Zhu nodded their heads respectfully, stepping aside to allow their Emperor to lead the way.
Lie Fan walked out of the study, crossing the threshold into the expansive, sunlit corridors of the central administrative wing.
The moment he stepped into the hall, the quiet, terrifyingly disciplined phalanx of the Yellow Ghost Bodyguards materialized from the perimeter. They fell into a perfect, diamond shaped formation, their heavy boots striking the polished stone floors in a synchronized, intimidating rhythm as they flanked their Emperor and his two highest ministers.
As they walked together through the magnificent, sprawling architecture of the imperial palace, the late afternoon sun cast long, golden shadows across the intricately carved wooden pillars. The air was already humming with the distant, frantic energy of the thousands of servants finalizing the decorations for the grand celebration.
Lie Fan turned his head slightly, his gaze resting on his Chancellor.
"Tell me of our guests, Wenhe," Lie Fan inquired, his mind naturally pivoting to the massive influx of foreign and domestic power currently flooding his capital. "How fare the arrivals? Have they found their designated accommodations adequate for their respective stations? How many of the invited lords have officially entered the city gates, and, given the sheer scale of the continent we now rule, will there be late guests?"
Jia Xu smoothly fell into step just a half pace behind his Emperor’s right shoulder, his mind instantly pulling up the incredibly detailed, microscopic ledgers compiled by the Oriole network over the past seventy two hours.
"I can assure you, Your Majesty, that all of our guests have found the prepared accommodations to be more than adequate. In fact, many of the minor tributary lords have been entirely overwhelmed by the sheer opulence of your hospitality," Jia Xu responded, his voice a calm, steady stream of flawless intelligence.
"As for the logistics of their housing, those high ranking nobles and former provincial governors who already possess their own private mansions here in the capital, whether located within the heavily guarded inner city or the sprawling, prosperous outer city rings, have been directed to stay in their own estates. They are comfortable, and more importantly, they are contained. All of the domestic lords holding estates within Xiapi have already arrived and registered their presence with the Ministry of Rites."
Jia Xu paused as they navigated a wide, sweeping turn in the corridor, acknowledging a group of passing imperial censors who immediately dropped to their knees until the Emperor had passed.
"As for those who do not possess estates within the capital, we have requisitioned the finest diplomatic quarters and luxury inns across the central districts," Jia Xu continued. "However, the arrivals are currently staggered. The emissaries and vassal lords hailing from the far south, from the sweltering jungles of Jiaozhi, Linyi, and the newly established protectorates, have faced incredibly arduous journeys against the river currents."
"Similarly, the kings and nobles traveling from the far east, specifically from the mountainous terrains of Goguryeo on the Korean peninsula, are heavily delayed by the unpredictable autumn storms on the Yellow Sea. Some of their vanguard ships have docked and their representatives have arrived, but many of the primary monarchs and their massive retinues are still en route due to just how incredibly vast the distance is from where they rule to the center of your empire."
Lie Fan listened to the report, his expression remaining perfectly calm and understanding. He did not frown at the prospect of delayed vassals. The logistical realities of the ancient world were bound by the speed of a horse and the direction of the wind.
He nodded his head slowly, waving a hand in a gesture of magnanimous dismissal.
"It is perfectly acceptable for them to arrive late, Wenhe. Do not penalize their tardiness or view it as a slight against the throne," Lie Fan instructed, his tone incredibly reasonable and grounded in geographic reality. "After all, the physical distance of the earth is not something that can be changed by mere imperial decree. To travel thousands of miles through treacherous mountain passes and stormy seas requires an immense toll on the human body. They need rest during their travel here to the capital, and we must afford them the grace of safe passage."
Lie Fan’s eyes, however, suddenly gleamed with the visionary, transformative fire that defined his entire reign. He looked down the long, gilded corridor, seeing past the stone and the silk, envisioning the future he was actively forging in the dirt outside the city walls.
______________________________
Name: Lie Fan
Title: Founding Emperor Of Hengyuan Dynasty
Age: 36 (203 AD)
Level: 16
Next Level: 462,000
Renown: 2325
Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 11)
SP: 1,121,700
ATTRIBUTE POINTS
STR: 1,010 (+20)
VIT: 659 (+20)
AGI: 653 (+10)
INT: 691
CHR: 98
WIS: 569
WILL: 436
ATR Points: 0