I. The Trapped Royal
Within the deep recesses of the Qi Royal Palace, King Liu Cheng of Qi paced back and forth, as anxious as an ant stranded on a red-hot pan. The mere thought of that inhuman, iron-blooded Governor made his royal bones tremble with a visceral terror.
Last year, when the scouting reports confirmed that Zhang Xin had broken off his western campaign to return to Pingyuan, Liu Cheng had been gripped by a profound, sleepless dread. After all, when the local gentry had risen to oust Taishi Ci from the capital city of Linzi, he had personally affixed his royal seal to the decrees. He had been an active accomplice.
The last time that barbarian came to Linzi, I treated him with every courtesy, Liu Cheng thought bitterly, his chest tightening. Yet he still ruthlessly emptied the Qi State's treasury to feed his peasant dregs, and he even slaughtered every tiger, leopard, and exotic beast in my royal menagerie just to feed his army. Now that I have actively aided Yuan Shao's cause, if he returns, won't he chop off my head without a second thought?
Yet, as the months bled away, Zhang Xin had neither marched his legions on Linzi nor sent a single formal letter of denunciation.
This prolonged silence had gradually allowed the King of Qi to breathe a shallow sigh of relief. He had rationalized the situation to comfort his failing courage. That's right... no matter how rabid he is, I am still a King of the Feudal Lords, a direct, consecrated descendant of the sacred Liu imperial line. The Governor may wield absolute military dominance over the administrative province, but he lacks the legal authority to execute a royal peer. He has no hand to play against me.
If Zhang Xin wished to strip him of his titles, he would have to submit a formal memorial to the throne to reduce his royal households. But the Emperor was currently a gagged puppet in Dong Zhuo's hands; such bureaucracy was meaningless. If Zhang Xin tried to levy a punitive fine...
I have no money anyway, Liu Cheng had comforted himself with a grim smile. The vast wealth accumulated over generations by the Qi royal house had already been extorted by Zhang Xin during his first transit to pacify the local Yellow Turban remnants. Where would he find a single coin?
Convinced of his own safety, the King of Qi had temporarily settled back into his luxurious, stagnant routine, filling his days with fine wine and rich delicacies. But the moment the horrifying reports from the neighboring states reached Linzi—detailing how Zhang Xin had unceremoniously slaughtered over twenty thousand aristocratic clan members without a shred of hesitation—Liu Cheng's fragile confidence shattered into dust.
More than twenty thousand noble souls! He butchered them like cattle! What if... what if his blade doesn't stop for a royal title?
By the time the vanguard announced that the Governor's grand inspection tour was tracking directly toward Qi State, the King was entirely distraught. Protocol dictated that when a provincial Governor performed a state circuit, he would inevitably occupy the capital. Furthermore, by ancient etiquette, Zhang Xin was technically required to pay a formal visit to the local feudal lord.
The sheer terror of that impending meeting had robbed Liu Cheng of his sleep and appetite. By the previous evening, he had abandoned his table, leaving four consecutive meals untouched.
"Yuan Shao is a thoroughly useless piece of aristocratic trash!" the King cursed under his breath, his eyes wild with fury. "A supposed paragon of noble virtue, a man of the prestigious Yuan lineage, yet he doesn't live up to his name! A flawless strategic advantage across the entire province, turned completely upside down and shattered by a single peasant brat!"
"Hey... can you please stop your mindless pacing? You are making my eyes spin," a sharp, melodious voice cut through his panic.
II. Domestic Discord
A beautiful woman, roughly thirty years of age, sat serenely upon a raised silk tatami mat, cradling a pampered white cat in her arms. As her slender fingers gently stroked the beast's fur, her dark eyes flicked toward her husband with unfiltered disdain.
"You are a consecrated descendant of Emperor Taizu Gao," she sneered softly. "He is, at the end of the day, a minister of the Han Dynasty. How could he possibly dare to spill royal blood?"
This elegant woman was the Queen Consort of Qi.
Hearing her naive declaration, Liu Cheng halted his pacing. He stared at his wife for a long, agonizing moment, his lips trembling before he managed to spit out three hollow words: "It's hard to say."
"You didn't see him the last time he breached these gates..." The King began to pour out his past humiliations, his voice cracking with lingering trauma, before summarizing the Governor into a single, vitriolic curse: "He is a beast! A ruthless, low-born beast!"
"Oh?" The Queen Consort let out a cold, mocking laugh. "Since you harbor such an absolute, paralyzing terror of the man, why did you choose to align yourself with Yuan Shao in the first place? Were you not deliberately begging for your own destruction?"
She leaned forward, her voice dropping its playful edge. "Whether Qingzhou is ruled by the banner of Zhang Xin or the house of Yuan Shao, what earthly difference does it make to you? Even if Yuan Shao had won this campaign, what grand reward would he have brought to your door? You would still be nothing more than a lazy, powerless, good-for-nothing feudal puppet trapped in this courtyard."
Her eyes narrowed to thin slits. "Or did Yuan Shao truly promise to place the imperial crown upon your pathetic head?"
"Hush! Silence!"
In an absolute panic, Liu Cheng lunged across the tatami mat, frantically slamming his palm over the Queen Consort's mouth. His eyes darted toward the shadows of the hall. "You cannot utter such treasonous madness aloud!"
"Why? Did I speak a single falsehood?" The Queen Consort violently pried his sweaty hand away from her face, rolling her eyes with absolute contempt. "Even if Yuan Shao intended to depose the current puppet and establish a new sovereign, the entire empire knows his choice is Liu Yu of Youzhou. How could the crown ever fall to a creature like you? You risked your life to aid his rebellion... for what? What was the purpose?"
The accusation struck a raw nerve. Liu Cheng's face flushed an ugly, mottled purple as he exploded in a defensive fury. "The immense wealth accumulated over generations by the sovereigns of this palace was stripped away by that brat Zhang Xin with a single, arrogant sentence! Am I not even permitted to harbor wrath? Today I shall tell you the absolute truth: if that peasant does not die, I will never know a single day of peace!"
"Is he dead?" The Queen Consort's sharp question cut through his roaring like an icy blade, leaving the King instantly speechless.
"Can you kill him?" she pressed, delivering a ruthless, fatal strike to his ego.
Liu Cheng's breathing turned ragged, his chest heaving like a blacksmith's bellows.
"Even if Yuan Shao had emerged victorious, do you truly believe a man of his legendary greed would have returned a single coin to your treasury?" The Queen Consort went all out, her voice dripping with cold reality.
The King's eyes turned entirely bloodshot, his fists clenching until his knuckles popped.
"Furthermore, Zhang Xin didn't even strip you completely bare last time," she continued, looking down at the cat in her lap. "Didn't he leave more than enough funds to ensure our family could eat luxury rations every single day?"
"That was my money! My ancestral gold!" Liu Cheng roared, his mind fracturing under the weight of his helplessness. "He plundered everything I owned and left me with a miserable one million coins as charity! Am I supposed to offer him hymns of thanksgiving for his benevolence? You are my queen, the consort of my flesh! Why do you constantly side with that monster?"
"Should I instead raise my voice to praise your staggering stupidity?"
The Queen Consort violently threw the white cat to the floorboards. She rose to her full height, her silk robes rustling as she sneered directly into his face. "Look at the absolute, ruinous mess your political genius has brought upon our house! Now that the entire province of Qingzhou has fallen back into Zhang Xin's iron grip, what can a powerless, army-less feudal lord like you possibly do to resist him?"
She cast a dark, lingering glance at the cat scurrying away into the corners. "The last time he came, he left you a million coins out of pity. But this time? By the time he is finished with us, our lives might not even equal the worth of that beast on the floor."
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"
Suddenly, the heavy silk curtains were torn open as an old Eunuch came sprinting into the inner chambers, his face completely pale, his breath catching in his throat as he tripped over his own robes.
"He... he has arrived in Linzi!"
The King of Qi, unable to sustain his argument with his wife for another second, felt the last vestige of his royal posture instantly wilt away. His knees buckled slightly. "The... the Governor... where... where is he right now?"
"The moment I received the scout's word, his vanguard had already breached the outer palace gates!" the Eunuch gasped out.
"Have him wait in the Grand Audience Hall!" Liu Cheng cried out, his voice rising to a frantic, undignified shriek. "Use every protocol! Deploy the attendants! Try to stall his advance for as long as humanly possible!"
"This servant obeys!" The Eunuch nodded frantically, turning on his heel to rush back out.
"Oh gods, oh gods... what do I do..." Liu Cheng immediately resumed his frantic pacing, spinning in tight, chaotic circles on the floorboards. "My beloved concubine... my clever queen, do you possess a strategy? A plan to save us?"
Now you remember to call me your beloved concubine? The Queen Consort let out a long, heavy sigh of pure exhaustion. "Why don't you simply surrender your remaining..."
"Augh!"
A violent, choked scream cut her words short.
III. The Sovereign's Reckoning
Liu Cheng jerked his head toward the entrance. His heart leaped into his throat.
Zhang Xin, clad in massive, blood-stained war armor, his hand resting casually on the pommel of his heavy sword, had already breached the inner palace threshold. Behind his towering frame, a wall of black-armored Xuanjia soldiers stood like silent demons. The choked sound from a moment ago had been the old Eunuch, who had tried to block the path and had been violently hurled into a structural pillar by Dian Wei.
As the warlord strode into the private quarters, his iron boots crunching heavily against the polished wood, the Queen Consort let out a sharp, horrified shriek, retreating into the shadows.
"Zhang... Zhang Qingzhou..." Liu Cheng's voice trembled like a dry leaf in a gale, his hands shaking as he held them out defensively. "This... this is the private inner sanctum of my royal palace..."
"I know exactly what palace this is."
Zhang Xin closed the distance in a single, terrifying stride. Without a word of warning, he whipped his arm forward, delivering a devastating, open-handed slap squarely across the King of Qi's face.
Smack!
The crisp, echoing impact reverberated through the rafters. The sheer force of the blow sent Liu Cheng spinning, his royal crown twisting sideways on his head as he stumbled against a decorative screen, completely dumbfounded.
"I... I am the consecrated King of Qi—"
"I know you're the King of Qi."
Smack!
Zhang Xin backhanded him across the opposite cheek before the King could even reorient his vision.
Liu Cheng slid to the floor, desperately covering his bleeding face with both hands, his eyes wide with an absolute, paralyzed disbelief. "You... you dare to strike my royal person?"
I am hitting you precisely because of who you are.
Zhang Xin was a veteran of a hundred brutal melees, a man who lived his life under the crushing weight of iron armor and wielded heavy spears for sport. How immense was his physical strength? After a rapid succession of three brutal, targeted strikes, the King of Qi was left entirely dizzy, the world spinning around him as blood trickled from his lip.
"I am a sacred branch of the imperial bloodline—"
"A branch of the imperial bloodline."
"Stop hitting me! Spare me! Stop!" Liu Cheng completely abandoned any semblance of royal dignity, interlocking his fingers behind his head as he curled into a tight, pathetic ball on the floorboards.
"You miserable, treacherous piece of trash!"
Zhang Xin stepped over him, ruthlessly raining down a barrage of heavy punches and iron-toed kicks directly into the King's ribs and back.
Of course, the Governor controlled his immense force with meticulous precision. He was careful to strike only flesh and muscle, avoiding vital organs or shattering bones. At the end of the day, this man was a recognized feudal lord of the sacred Liu name; Zhang Xin had no intention of generating an unfixable political crisis by leaving a royal corpse in the capital. He merely wanted to inflict an unforgettable, agonizing lesson.
The Queen Consort and the surrounding palace Eunuchs stood frozen in absolute, petrified horror.
Is this actually happening? Is a provincial minister... literally enacting a common street beating upon the Great King within his own ancestral halls?
The palace echoed with Liu Cheng's pathetic, high-pitched shrieks of agony.
Hearing her husband's voice grow weaker and more choked with every passing second, the Queen Consort finally broke through her paralysis. She tried to lung forward to shield him, but a solid wall of Xuanjia spears instantly dropped before her chest, the cold iron tips stopping mere inches from her throat.
"Zhang Qingzhou!" she screamed, her voice cracking with terror and rage as she was pinned in place. "As a minister of the court, how dare you defy the cosmic order? How dare you commit gross treason by assaulting a consecrated King of the realm?"
"A minister committing an offense? I'll show you an offense." Zhang Xin ignored her entirely, his boots continuing to strike the groaning form beneath him with rhythmic precision.
Only when Liu Cheng's cries degenerated into a faint, pathetic whimpering, his body sprawling limply across the wood, did the Governor finally halt his assault, stepping back with a long, satisfied breath.
"Phew... by the gods, that felt magnificent!"
Zhang Xin shook out his aching knuckles, feeling an immense sense of mental clarity and refreshment wash over him. The pent-up fury of his disrupted western campaign seemed to leave his body with every drop of the King's blood.
"Now... let us have a civilized dialogue," Zhang Xin muttered, wiping a speck of dust from his iron gauntlet as he glared down at the shivering royal mass on the floor. "Tell me, Your Majesty... what exactly was your grand intention in launching a rebellion against the righteous path?"
IV. The Verdict of Treason
At that moment, King Liu Cheng of Qi was entirely incapable of formulating a coherent sentence. He lay curled in the slush of his own spilled wine, his face twisted in agonizing grimaces, his lungs wheezing violently as he fought for a single breath of air.
"Qing... Governor Zhang..."
An elderly Eunuch, summoning a desperate fragment of courage, stepped forward with trembling hands. "How dare you, a mere subject of the province, inflict such brutal violence upon a royal king without a single shred of cause?"
"Yes! Exactly!" The Queen Consort seized upon the point, her eyes flashing with desperate indignation. "Is this the proper conduct of a minister? Is this the path of a righteous subject?"
"The path of a minister?"
Zhang Xin slowly turned his towering frame toward her. Sweeping his gaze over her lavish, tear-stained silk robes, he let out a cold, venomous sneer. "Let one thing be etched into your mind, woman: I am the loyal subject of His Imperial Majesty, the Son of Heaven in the capital. I have never been, nor will I ever be, a minister to the petty house of the King of Qi."
His gaze shifted back to the trembling Eunuch, his voice dropping into a register that made the air in the hall turn to ice. "An unprovoked beating? You claim I strike him without cause? The entire population of Linzi knows exactly what your pathetic master enacted while my back was turned! Do you dare to claim ignorance before my face?"
Zhang Xin took a step forward, his voice rising until it shook the heavy curtains. "I traveled two thousand bitter li across the wastes of the empire! I bled my legions dry in the mountain passes of Chang'an, locked in a savage, year-long death match against the tyrant Dong Zhuo! I was on the very precipice of executing the arch-traitor and rescuing the Son of Heaven from his chains!"
His finger whipped down, pointing like an iron spear at the groaning King. "But what did the glorious King of Qi choose to execute in my rear? He colluded with the rebel factions of Jizhou! He plotted a treacherous coup to cut my supply lines and seize my territory! His pathetic greed forced me to abandon my campaign and withdraw my victorious legions, leaving His Imperial Majesty trapped in the hands of brutal captors, enduring daily humiliation!"
"Tell me!" Zhang Xin roared, his fury rekindling as he lunged forward, delivering two more brutal kicks directly into Liu Cheng's stomach. "Is this his proper conduct as a subject of the Han Dynasty?"
"Awooo—Augh! Mercy!" The King let out another series of shrill, broken wails, rolling across the floorboards.
"Even if... even if his actions were flawed," the Queen Consort gasped, her chest heaving as she forced herself to meet his terrifying glare. "Setting that political matter aside... you are a minister, and the King of Qi is of the imperial blood. Even if he stumbled into error, how can a low-born subject legally raise a hand to strike his sovereign ruler?"
"If it weren't for the single reality that he carries the surname of Liu, his rotting corpse would already be hanging from the city gates of Linzi!" Zhang Xin roared, violently drawing his heavy sword from its scabbard, the cold steel flashing under the palace lanterns. "Why do you think his pathetic life still lingers in his chest?"
He slammed the flat of the blade against an imperial structural pillar, the metal ringing like a war gong. "I, Zhang Xin, hail from the Yellow Turban remnants! By the laws of the realm, I am a reformed rebel, yet I received the profound grace and recognition of the Late Emperor! Even a peasant like me understands the sacred duty of risking my life to repay that imperial benevolence!"
His eyes burned with absolute, righteous fury. "But look at the line of the King of Qi! Your ancestors do not even trace their lineage to the divine Emperor Guangwu! Emperor Guangwu, out of pure, fraternal compassion and love for his extended brotherhood, granted your house this rich, hereditary kingdom! For one hundred and fifty unbroken years, the State of Qi has feasted upon the fat of the land, receiving the absolute favor of the nation for generations! Is this how your current King chooses to repay the profound grace of the Han Dynasty?"
The thunderous words echoed through the cavernous palace, striking the attendants like physical blows.
Hearing his unassailable logic, the Queen Consort felt her last defensive arguments crumble into dust. She knew then that no legal shield or royal privilege could save them from this man's wrath. After a long, suffocating silence, she lowered her head, her voice trembling. "I only pray to know... how exactly does the Governor intend to dispose of the Prince of Qi?"
Zhang Xin sheathed his blade with a sharp click, looking down at the shivering heap that was Liu Cheng. "The King of Qi has orchestrated an active rebellion against the administration of the realm. By the iron laws of the Han Dynasty, his crime demands the absolute execution of his person."
The Queen Consort's heart stopped, her breath catching in her throat. Is he truly going to butcher us here?
"However," Zhang Xin continued, his tone turning clinical and cold, "as a provincial Governor, I acknowledge that I lack the legal authority to spill royal blood without an imperial decree."
The Queen Consort let out a ragged, desperate breath. Alive... he's leaving us alive. As long as there is breath, there is a chance for a reversal.
"Men!" Zhang Xin barked.
"Present!" The Xuanjia guards responded in a single, deafening roar.
Zhang Xin pointed a single, calloused finger at the broken King. "Drag the Prince of Qi out of this palace. Locate the most isolated, ruined, freezing courtyard within the outer walls. Bar the doors with iron bands, station a permanent guard, and seal him inside. Cut a single, small slot through the wood—just large enough to slide a bowl of coarse rations inside every dawn."
His eyes flashed with a dark, terrifying promise. "On the day I finally march back into Chang'an and rescue the Son of Heaven from his chains, I will present a formal report of his treason to the imperial throne, and allow His Imperial Majesty to dictate his ultimate execution."
"We obey!" Two massive Xuanjia soldiers strode forward, ruthlessly grabbing the King of Qi by his tattered royal robes and dragging him across the floor like a sack of grain.
"Wait! Hold your hands!" the Queen Consort shrieked, making one final, desperate attempt to intervene. "The Governor possesses only the authority to supervise and monitor the conduct of the regional princes! You possess absolutely zero legal power to enforce punitive imprisonment or physical punishment upon a royal peer!"
She stepped into Zhang Xin's path, her eyes wild. "Even if a prince of the realm has stumbled into a crime, he must remain unmolested until the Emperor himself hands down a formal verdict! For you to imprison His Majesty without even submitting a preliminary memorial to the capital... is this not a gross violation of imperial protocol?"
"A violation of protocol?"
Zhang Xin slowly closed the distance, looming over the Queen Consort until his shadow completely swallowed her form. He leaned down, his eyes boring into hers with a predatory focus.
The Queen Consort felt a cold sweat break out across her neck under his intense gaze, her natural aristocratic arrogance melting away as her head subconsciously dropped down.
"According to the ancient, unyielding statutes of the Han code," Zhang Xin whispered, his voice dangerously soft, "the crime of active treason demands the absolute extermination of three entire familial generations."
He paused, ensuring every syllable left a mark. "The three clans are explicitly defined as: the clan of the father, the clan of the mother, and the clan of the wife."
He reached out, gently flicking a stray strand of silk from her shoulder. "My lady... I presume you do not wish to see every single member of your maternal clan lined up against the executioner's block, do you?"
The warning was flawless, clear, and utterly terrifying.
Keep your mouth shut, and I will treat this as the isolated crime of the King, leaving your family unmolested. Utter one more word of legalistic nonsense, and I will wipe your entire bloodline off the face of the earth.
The Queen Consort shuddered violently, her lips turning pale as she sank to her knees, unable to offer another word of resistance.
Seeing that the last obstacle had been thoroughly broken, Zhang Xin turned away, waving his hand carelessly. "Get that trash out of my sight."
The Xuanjia guards hoisted Liu Cheng into the air. By now, the King had partially recovered his senses, and the reality of his grim fate broke through his pain. He began to thrash frantically in their iron grip, weeping aloud. "Governor Zhang! Governor! I know my error! I swear by my ancestors I will never dare to step out of line again! Have mercy! Show royal clemency! Spare me..."
"Governor Zhang," the elderly Eunuch who had previously spoken up stepped forward once more, his face full of cautious, obsequious terror. "The Great King's constitution is naturally frail and delicate; he cannot possibly survive the brutal hardships of an unheated, isolated cold palace. This servant begs the Governor to display grand mercy... perhaps allow His Majesty to remain under house arrest within his own private chambers..."
"You are stepping forward to plead his case?" Zhang Xin stopped, his cold eyes landing on the servant's face. "Tell me... were you also an active accomplice in his midnight rebellion?"
"No! Absolutely not! May the heavens strike me dead!" The Eunuch frantically fell to his knees, banging his forehead against the floorboards until they cracked. "This servant had absolutely zero knowledge of the King's treasonous correspondence with the north!"
These inner-palace Eunuchs were unique; after the Han court had systematically stripped the feudal states of their independent military powers, these attendants were dispatched directly from the capital. Their stipends and positions were paid for by the central imperial treasury, not by the local King. They were bureaucrats, not loyal retainers. How could he possibly risk the total extermination of his own three clans for a disgraced, broken puppet like Liu Cheng?
"It is well that you were not involved," Zhang Xin nodded, his tone dropping back into a calm indifference. "Because if my investigators find a single line of your script on those letters to Yuan Shao... your entire family line will be scrubbed from the earth."
"This servant understands! This servant understands!" The Eunuch forced a terrified, sycophantic smile, completely abandoning any thought of securing better accommodations for his former master.
Behind them, the Queen Consort collapsed onto the polished floor with a dull thud, her spirit entirely broken. Zhang Xin didn't offer her a secondary glance; he turned on his heel and strode out of the palace gates.
V. The Historian's Pen
As they walked through the grand outer courtyard of the palace complex, Dian Wei leaned his massive head closer to Zhang Xin, his voice a low, gravelly whisper. "My Lord... that fellow tucked away in the eastern corner over there... do you require me to go over and quietly take care of him?"
Zhang Xin followed the giant's gaze.
In the deep shadow of an imperial pillar stood a slender man dressed in the drab, functional robes of a low-ranking court official. A heavy bronze inkwell hung from his leather belt, and his hands firmly gripped a iron stylus and a fresh bundle of blank bamboo slips.
He was the official Grand Historian of the Qi State.
The moment the scribe realized the warlord's terrifying gaze had locked onto his position, his entire body went rigid with anxiety. His knuckles turned white against his writing tools.
Is he going to draw that blood-stained blade? the historian thought, his heart hammering against his ribs. Is he going to force me at swordpoint to rewrite the truth of this day?
Instead, Zhang Xin merely stood in the center of the courtyard, his voice ringed with an absolute, casual authority that echoed across the stone walls. "My grand merits and my deep demerits, my absolute rights and my catastrophic wrongs... all of it will be weighed and judged by the generations of the future. The duty of a true historian is to record the unvarnished reality of the world without altering a single brushstroke. There is no need for my army to make life difficult for a man of the pen."
Hearing those words, the historian let out a massive breath he felt he had been holding for an eternity. He looked down at the fresh, raw characters he had just scratched into the surface of his bamboo slip:
[In the second month of spring, in the third year of the Chuping era, on the day of Renyin, the Governor of Qing Province, Zhang Xin, violently stormed the royal chambers and personally enacted a brutal physical assault upon the sovereign King. The Queen Consort and the palace eunuchs wept and begged for royal mercy, but Zhang Xin remained entirely unmoved, dragooning the King into solitary confinement within the cold palace.]
The historian stared at the text for a long, quiet minute. Then, with a sudden, deliberate movement of his fingers, he unthreaded the leather binding of the scroll, pulled out the specific bamboo slips, and cleanly snapped them in half, stuffing the broken fragments deep into his wide sleeve.
He took up his iron stylus, dipped it into the bronze inkwell, and began to write anew upon a fresh, clean slat of wood:
Historical Record: State of Qi[In the second year of the Chuping era, King Cheng of Qi abandoned the righteous path and entered into active rebellion against the realm. In the second month of the third year of the Chuping era, on the day of Renyin, the Governor of Qing Province, Zhang Xin, personally entered the royal chambers to question the King regarding his treachery.][The King, overcome with immense shame and entirely unable to articulate a defense before the law, voluntarily requested to be stripped of his comforts and escorted to the cold palace to await the ultimate judgment of the Son of Heaven. The Governor graciously granted his royal petition.]
Yes... this is the correct execution of history, the scribe thought, nodding to himself with deep professional satisfaction.
In truth, within the secret depths of his own heart, the historian harbored an immense, unspoken admiration for Zhang Xin.
Here was a man who had risen from the absolute dregs of the earth—a literal Yellow Turban rebel—yet he was currently spilling his own blood and exhausting his treasury to fight valiantly for the preservation of the dying empire. Meanwhile, the grand lineage of the King of Qi, a house that had suckled upon the wealth and peace of the nation for a century and a half, had chosen to stab that lone loyalist in the back at the most critical hour of the imperial restoration.
A true historian must always record the final outcome truthfully, and the physical reality of the imprisonment could not be erased. However, the descriptive language used to bridge those facts—the subtle, elegant use of Chunqiu Bifa (the Spring and Autumn spring-and-pen style)—could easily be deployed to ensure the righteous were remembered with honor, and the wicked were remembered with shame.
VI. An Unexpected Visitor
With the reckoning of King Liu Cheng concluded, Zhang Xin returned to the luxurious municipal inn that the terrified Qi State Chancellor had frantically prepared for his personal lodging.
As the winter night fell over Linzi, enveloping the capital city in a quiet, icy darkness, the heavy oak doors to Zhang Xin's private quarters were softly knocked upon.
Dian Wei slipped through the curtains, his massive face tight with a strange, unreadable expression as he leaned over the Governor's low desk.
"My Lord," the giant whispered, checking the corridor behind him. "The Queen Consort of Qi... she has quietly slipped out of the palace gates. She is standing in the outer courtyard right now, desperately requesting a private audience with your person."