Omnia Mutantur, Nihil Interit (everything changes, nothing perishes)
He couldn't help but feel a slight pang of pride as he emerged from his command tent that had seen him through many a campaign during the winter (well, it probably wasn't the exact same one, since the cloth would have thinned and rotted away by now, but it was so similar as wouldn't make a difference). The repairs to the defenses of the fortress were coming along apace by the small unit of soldiers he was going to leave behind to man the defenses so that no-one else could come up behind him this way. The Imperial Flag with the dragon on a purple background snapped in the breeze, signalling that the rightful king held this fort. It was the first thing to go up after the surrender.
His plan had been not to linger in Kaitou fortress for very long but the scouts he sent out into the surrounding countryside came back to him with reports that the army had supplied itself by denuding the local rikke of the food they needed to survive the winter. He could not leave the situation the way it was and still call himself a king (well he could, but that would only be after he'd lost the Mandate of Heaven). Even worse, aside of the food and animals they needed to survive, the provincial army had conscripted every man and woman (and child in some cases) of even a possible fighting age to join their ranks. They didn't have many left who could grow food, making an already difficult situation with regard to their provisions completely untenable.
The next afternoon he had called a general council of the local elders of the rikke to talk about possibly consolidating several of the remaining civilians into one rikke for the winter and letting the others go fallow until the population was back up to a point where they could be refilled again. A messenger on a kijuu bearing the red and gold "pheonix flag" that the Royal Consort had taken as her own standard for official communique swooped down to make a report and Gyousou politely excused himself from the men who were bowed over in the presence of their king. He eft the newly appointed provincial officials to hammer out the details about the population consolidation and rose to hear the report, fearing bad news from the capitol province.
:Asen's troops couldn't possibly be there at the city gate already,: he worried. :Even with clear snowless days, it will still take an army time to sleigh and march through that much snow. Even if they come at the capitol from the flatlands of Jou Province, it will still be a week-long slog at best.:
He had kept covert scouts monitoring the armies gathering along the northern border, thy had reported that the army that Asen had gathered to take the capitol was quite sizeable. This was good news and bad at once; bad obviously for the size of the army, but good in that It would take much longer to move a troop that size especially over frozen terrain. From the flat farmlands of Jou Province it was a relatively easy march down to the capitol, even with the clear terrain it still took time to move a sizable army through the snow.
"Your Majesty," the messenger bowed over to his leige. "I come with a message from Her Grace, the Royal Consort."
Gyousou permitted him to rise as he unrolled the message tube sealed with red wax. It was stamped in gold leaf in a Pheonix in flight motif.
'Your majesty,' it read. 'I have kept an eye on affairs within the lost provinces even if I could do little to affect those lands that were not under Crown Authority, and since you have, by the grace of Tentei, freed these lands from their tyrants, i have sent you aid and succor for the people. Later this day a flotilla of ships from the kingdom of En will sail under the Phoenix Flag into the harbor at Kaitou to deliver much needed food, medicine and basic supplies such as blankets and boots. These have been prearranged and paid for, then graciously set aside for the day that those lands should be freed. Distribute them generously please, and godspeed to you on your further campaign.'
Gyousou smiled at this.
Such a useful one to have about, he thought in satisfaction. If she isn't careful i may find and excuse to keep her just for that reason.
The man Gyousou had appointed as the new count of this county and his hand picked team of government officials and the members of the military Gyousou had appointed to aid them was busily working through the long list of matters to see to with regards to the fortress and all of the rikke and towns nearby when another messenger came in from the sea. This messenger reported that the supply ships were nearly at the harbor and that his Majesty really should come down with a contingent of officials.
With a slightly puzzled look Gyousou went to the sea-ward overlook, now mostly either burnt down or bashed in from the attack the previous day, and held up his spy glass. The ships sailing toward the harbor could easily be seen with the naked eye but the messenger, clearly agitated by something, advised a a closer look. To the Royal Tai's shock the boat in the lead of the flotilla was flying the imperial standard of the kingdom of En! That meant that rather than merely sending on the grain and supplies as requested, the ruler of en had decided to tag along and stick his nose in.
When Gyousou trained his spyglass on the the man at the helm of the ship, sure enough, he recognized the face of Shouryuu, the ruler of the kingdom of En. He was grinning like a mad thing, looking terribly pleased with himself. Gyousou had met the man more than once and on both occassions had come away with a feeeling that the man had incredible talent for rule but...it was carefully hidden.
:I suppose such a situation as this would appeal to a man like him. I know if I were to go and visit his court and meet with his ministers they would probably echo my confusion as to how such a person could rule so successfully for so long. He's a strange one.:
But as they said in the army, "if it's stupid and it works, it's not stupid!" That seemed to be the way the Royal En ran his kingdom. A style of leadership that specialized in the absurd and the unexpected.
:Tai has been inundated with foreign kings lately,: Gyousou thought. :I'm almost surprised that the wandering King of En took this long to show up.:
So the Royal Tai was waiting on the shore wearing his best battle attire, with his finest cape worn in place of the black Imperial Robes he would have ordinarily worn to receive a foreign ruler during a State Visit. He probably needn't have bothered donning even a rough sort of finery to receive his guest, for the king of En was not wearing anything near formal wear (rather the opposite being the truth). He was wearing clothes that were better suited to a well-off sea captain or a wandering merchant rater than a ruler.
:But I suppose that does suit him. Not a terribly formal fellow, the Royal En.:
The look of shocked surprise as the king of En stepped off his ship and onto the dock at the harbor was gratifying. It quickly spread into a wide grin as he stepped forward to greet his fellow ruler.
"I think I owe Her Majesty the Queen of Kei fifty golds," were his first hearty words as he cheerfully greeted Gyusou and his impromptu court of military officials. "I had bet that the Royal Consort had decided to stop beating about the bush and just bring the whole kingdom under Golden Rule. She placed her money on you having finally woken up."
"As you see," he said, with a more contained cheer. "And a good thing too. It seems we suffer from a sudden influx of other Heads of State showing up in Tai without an invitation. The Emperor of Han was here not just two weeks ago. He showed up disguised as an envoy."
Shouryuu gave a loud bark of laughter.
"Go Ranjou did? Ha! I've got to hear this!"
The two of them started walking back to the fortress while Gyousou's military officials set up a supply train of off-load the foraign aid and Gyousou related the rather amusing story of Han-ou's visit.
"I see my trip to come and offer my military expertise to he Royal Consort was a waste," Shouryuu said when he looked in on the fortress Kaitou and saw that it was being quickly and efficiently repaired, the civilians were being handled and there were already preparations underway to distribute the foreighn aid.
"Ah, is that why you came here?" Gyousou said, with a look out of the corner of his eye.
"I got the little missy's reply to my new years gift and thought I'd irritate her furher by showing up and making a nuisance of myself," Shouryuu said unabashedly. "But since you're awake I guess I'll steal her away from you. She's an astute politician. Balanced a bad situation on a knife point for years and got style points while doing it. I could use a few more like her in my own court. I'd be able to slip out even more often than i do now. I'm sure I can entice the girl over to the dark side with promises of milk and cookies."
"I wouldn't recommend that," Gyousou said stiffly.
"Take a liking to her yourself did you?" En-ou said with an interested look in his eye.
:I never can tell when this fellow is being serious. I get the feeling that at least half of what he says is just to see what he can do to get a rise out of people. It always feels like he's baiting me for some reason.:
"I currently have need of her right where she is," Gyousou replied. "In the capitol."
The king of En actually sobered for a moment.
"Are you sure that's wise?" he asked next, actually sounding concerned. "You have to know that your enemy will seek her out first."
Gyousou nodded, seriously.
"She is the one who imprisoned and exiled Asen," he replied. "Naturally she would be just as much a target for him as I am myself. We have already taken what precautions we can take, the rest depends on how quickly I can reconquer the rebellious provinces."
"A decoy..." En frowned. "I have to say I sort of object to the strategy."
"She volunteered," Gyousou countered. "I need a strong presence there to control the capitol while I retake the rebel provinces. It is inevitable that Asen will strike there anyway, he is already massing what forces he can gather up along the northern border in Jou Province along the easy march to the capitol."
"Then why did you choose now to deplete your capitol's defenses?" En demanded.
"The defenses of the other provinces would be weaker with Asen running a major campaign in the central province and easier to defeat with a smaller mobile force. the capitol is well-prepared to weather a long winter siege, and unless the weather turns drastically, those forces have only what supplies they bring with them to last out the siege."
Gyousou showed him to his sand table.
"I plan to march inland, taking these two walled defenses on my way, then occupy the province capitol long enough to make certain that my new appointment for governor is firmly in place. Then I will march directly north to Bun Province."
"Bun Province?" En-ou said, sounding surprised by his choice. "But that is the middle of the three north-most provinces, what about Ie Province, the corner one directly to the north?"
"It would be a logical choice to march on it next," Gyousou agreed with him. "But time and speed is of the essence in this winter war. I would have to turn north and west to take the provincial capitol and that would take me a greater distance out of my way. Besides that, I have a fair portion of my army in the mountains on the northeast border of Ba Province delaying the army right now. Once I'm finished here in Ba and march north on to Bun, I will command General Risai and her forces to join me. Bun is broken terrain, difficult to wage war in no matter what season it is, I'm going to need the extra troops."
"By that point your capitol will be besieged. There's a possibility that your opponent will even occupy the imperial Palace. Again."
Gyousou had to supress a flash of annoyance for the king of En pointing out an irritating truth to him. He didn't like the situation either.
"Once Bun is under crown authority again, I will of course leave loyal imperial troops behind to safeguard the borders before I travel south through Jou to meet Asen's forces in Kouki."
"Ah, I see. You're going to cut them off from the support of the allies and the rest of the kingdom. Once you take Ba and Bun, Ie will be isolated."
"And there's the navy to contend with. Granted it won't be much of a presence until the iceflow retreats back to the far north in the spring, but nonetheless, it will give the isolated shuukou something to think about should he take the notion to march his troops over and harry my flank."
Well you've taken one heavily guarded fort in a single day and a night and I would probably have needed a week at least, so I guess I'll have to accept that you know what you're doing."
"Thank you," Gyousou said with a dry note of irony in his voice.
"Are you sure you don't want me to drop by your palace just to keep your pretty little consort company while she waits for you to rescue her from the mess she volunteered you to put her in.."
The man had the very temerity to waggle his eyebrows suggestively on his use of the word company. Gyousou looked sharply at him and Shouryuu was smiling widely in anticipation, just waiting to see how he would react. After a moment the Royal Tai felt a small twinge of amusement at the very rare opportunity to deliver the infamously clever king a witty set-down.
"I would personally advise against it," he said, keeping his face carefully blank. "Lady Yuka is already preparing to greet visitors, and if she gets any more company at her table she may greet you the same way as the company who intends to knock upon Hakkei Palace's door."
Meaning Asen, and so his greeting would be a hail of arrows.
"I, of course, have complete confidence in my Royal Consort to treat any guests precisely how she sees fit."
The King of En laughed heartily at that.
"Look's like the girl's rubbed off on you," he said. "Well my congratulations of a felicitous marriage then. I knew that sticking her as Tai's Royal Consort was a brilliant idea!"
"But we're not..." he protested automatically.
"There's worse things to wake up to, am I right?" Shouryuu said with a wink.
Gyousou was actually dumbstruck and uncertain how to respond to that. He got the feeling that the other ruler was teasing him about the whole affair. He really wished he wouldn't, it was all still very awkward. He and the girl had handled it by keeping things professional.
"We're practically strangers," Gyousou pointed out.
"You have a lot in common I'm sure, Taiki for one," Shouryuu replied in an avant garde manner.
Gyousou hadn't quite worked out for himself how he felt toward the young woman who had stepped into the place he was supposed to occupy and propped up his throne to save his life. If the situation had been what they had told everyone else it was, if she had been his rightful wife who had stepped in out of loyalty to her husband and his kirin to protect his interests, Yuka would then have been the most spoiled and adored wife in the history of the twelve kingdoms. Unfortunately, it was a rather different and far more awkward situation that was the reality. He would have appreciated a little more time and privacy to get the strange matter sorted in his own head before he was expected to answer questions about it to someone who knew what was really going on.
It is not as though I find her unappealing, but we've known each other so briefly, surely there has not been enough time for a true attachment to form.
He admired her spirit and tenacity. He found her wit charming, and, while not not a conventional beauty as Isana had been, Yuka's force of personality gave her features a character and life that defied conventional standards and claimed a beauty uniquely its own. Still, there was very, very little evidence of his unexpected admiration of her being at all returned. Thus, it was perhaps more prudent not to form too great an attachment, as he knew she had every intention of leaving and he could do nothing honorable but let her go.
"I don't have time to worry about inconsequential matters," Gyousou replied, closing the issue. "The Royal Consort will defend the capitol ably because that is what will keep Tai in a good position. I have many matters facing me, so it would be best for this kingdom if I got to doing them."
"How boring," the Ever-King scoffed.
"I am afraid that the entertainment of guests, be they ever so welcome or noble, is not a matter of high priority at present," Gyousou replied dryly.
"As serious as ever," the King of En replied with a smile. "And you look as eagre as ever to start attacking your kingdoms problems so I suppose I'll have to leave you to it. It's good to see you back on your feet, the youma are a nuisance."
"Not for much longer," Tai promised, looking fierce.
The Court had gone from the end of ecstasy at the news of their beloved king restored, to grudging, grumbling, sulking acceptance of the fact that the Royal Consort was still managing affairs, if only temporarily.
:In some ways, I'm not a whole lot happier than they are about the matter,: Yuka thought with a small feeling of irony.
She could be lounging around in bed eating cake and reading manga, but she was still stuck doing her job for the time being.
:I suppose there is a bright spot in this,: Yuka thought a little cheerfully. :All those politicians who've lagged with their plots and schemes, thinking they had all the time in the world to enact them, have now begun to be very very interesting indeed.:
She tried never to let her dear, sweet Kaname guess how much she sometimes actually loved her job for all that she complained about it. There was nothing more interesting to her than picking apart a tangle of politics, business, and romantic intrigue and then finding a way to use it to her own advantage. The precious blackmail material that she had collected over the years about the members of court, and the peoples and groups attached to them, could fill a small library. She had built up a spy-network that could make even that shifty king of En weep with jealousy.
:Some rulers... they just don't get it, :Yuka thought shaking her head a bit. :They just don't see how much fun it can be to have everyones secrets neatly locked away in the palm of your hand, to know what your enemy's move will likely be three steps before he makes it. And to take those moves and use them to move everything else to your advantage.:
When Sui Province had nearly rebelled in Year thirty-seven of the Era of Vast Virtue over the gem trade being cut off, Yuka had been waiting for it. The merchant-prince who'd controlled the three main ports in the south of Sui had controlled the a very small part of the gem-trade into surrounding nations across the Void Sea, and Yuka'd had her eye on thse ports with the thought of making a few changes to Tai's trade. He'd been wealthy, but reluctant to try new things, and had scuttled a few of Yuka's plns for economic expansion early and, and thus had landed himself on her list of "people who needed to be handled." That man (not a sage, but a capable administer despite the corruption and graft) had held the post of Undersecretary to the Trade Minister's Vice Minister and had been angling for the next rung up. By bribery he had managed to gain enough votes within the Ministry to oust his superior and take his rank. However, Yuka had been watching the flow of money with interest and had enough of her own agents in place both looking into the account books of the bribed ministers and a few double agents pretending to take the bribes that she had him well and truly caught.
Of course she wasn't about to let such a prize escape her! Why go to all the trouble of getting rid of a corrupt official, when she could use all that corruption (and money, power and influence!) to Tai's advantage? Thus Sui Province had gone from a minor exporter of gems to a few select kingdoms with the wealth to afford luxury goods (Sui only had a very, very few gem-springs when compared to provinces like Bun and Ba and Ie) to being the worlds number one exporter of the finest dyes. It was not a lie to say that a truly fine, saturated, long-lasting dye was worth its weight in gold, so Sui quickly became quite wealthy when she used her dear reluctant merchant prince's influence to change the face of trade in Sui.
:I can think of easily a dozen similar examples over the years,: she thought with an inward preen.
The combined power of kirin and Consort managed to hold the most power in the imperial court by a margin, but it was not a very great margin. There were a number of places and positions where their power did not extend fully, mainly because they lacked the ability to hire and fire ministers of the court, but also for some other reasons. Often times Yuka was forced to resort to subterfuge, blackmail, the occasional bit of bribery and the very skillful management of social groups. There was an obvious schism between the Imperial Court with Tai's Kirin and Roya Consort of one side and the war-lords of the north on the other side. What many were not aware of was that even the Imperial Court that was supposedly on her and Taiki's side was hardly a harmonious union of power; there were varied and dangerous undercurrents even among their allies. Yuka had mentally divided them into three groups.
There were the conservative faction that was (or had been) headed by Rou Hakudai who wanted the court to be run by the tenets laid down by the rightful king, Gyousou Saku. Out of the three factions they were probably the ones that Yuka felt were the most harmless. She often felt tat they were also the most annoying because they often interferred when Yuka wanted to try new things to keep matters running smoothly. They were all mostly conservatives, traditionalists, militants and ascetics who strongly favored taking the wars out of the proxy arena and straight down the throats of the northern shuukou. many of the members were essentially good and virtuous men, but as was always the case whenever there was power involved, there were more who acted for their own interests; i.e. they wished to divide up the spoils that would be left after the battle was won and consistently jockeyed within their number for the best position.
Another group was what Yuka privately thought of as the "glittering throng." They were mostly made up of those who leaned entirely in the opposite direction of the first. Many of them were ministers who had served under Gyousou Saku's predecessor the extravagant and hedonistic Kyou-ou. They were artists, poets, merchants and thinkers, but sadly of the manipulative rather than the harmless intellectual sort. They all wanted to wildly support the kirin and Consort... but only do it for their own reasons, and by graft and thievery squeeze every last bit of profit they could for themselves and their own interests. Out of the three of them, Yuka found them the easiest to deal with because, while they were quite clever, they were also very predictable.
The third loose little group was the most erstwhile of the three. They were a group that favored a watch and see approach, they liked to be the fresh dog in the fight. The ones that, after the first two dogs had wore each other out fighting over the meat, nipped in and made off with the prize; as such they could be found manipulating the other two groups on either side to whatever advantage they were after. Their ideology did not revolve around a central core like the other two, and the "pieces" that made up their number were all master players on the board. However, they were all so jealous of their own position and desirous of getting as much of anyone else's power as they could manipulate circumstances into handing over to them, that it made them easier rather than more difficult to manage.
:Sometimes, that is.:
One of the most tricky things with the third group was that unless she knew the motivations of the players beforehand it could make it very very difficult to predict where and to what cause they would throw their influence next. In any maneuvering Yuka had to keep very careful track of a myriad of details from purely monetary concerns to social alliances to relative positions on the imperial ladder. She had to know who had shipping concerns where, what sort of resources the financial backers of one family or another possessed and where they invested it, what family had connections with what family and all of their relatives major and minor that might have influence in key positions, current alliances between certain sub-sects within each group, rumors being spread about the court and the possible source of them, marriage-alliances, bad blood between houses, ministers being promoted and demoted and for what reasons. It was a marvelously tangled web!
Yuka had over the years built up an entire cohort of intelligent, perceptive, manipulative spies and informants within the court and spread out into the countryside beyond. She had pulled her agents from as many different walks of life as she could get valid blackmail material (or on occasion genuine loyalty) on. She had minstrels wandering the kingdom listening to rumors and investigating leads, scribes and administrators in every major port who reported who shipped what where as well as any anomaly they might come across, she had servants in the Royal Palace perfectly willing to listen at door cracks, and at least one in the household of every major family to report what movements they could to her (who entertained whom as a possible opening volley on some new scheme or ploy). She had several merchant princes under her thumb to influence trade and the flow of money when she really needed to. The flow of information was probably the main, if not the only, reason that Yuka had managed to stabilize the throne the way she had. In fact, she had known within the hour of Gyousou defeating the forces at Kaitou Fortress and had just as quickly sent on the relief forces that she and Taiki had bargained for earlier in preparation for this day. Her information network was as precious to her as her lifes-blood.
:I worry about this king's political acumen,: Yuka thought with a pang of worry for her precious information network. :Being a brilliant military strategist is one thing, and after last night I cannot deny his skill in that arena, but it takes a different sort of strategist to handle information and political machinations. What if he fails to see the use of my precious information network? What if he dismisses them all and then doesn't have the information he needs when he needs it and therefore fails to foresee a political attack that affects his throne and kingdom?:
That was the only thing she was really actually worried about for the time when she gave up her position as the Royal Consort and descended the mountain to start a life of her own with a real husband and possible eventual children. She feared that a man who was accustomed to dealing with the relative straightforwardness of the military would not be able to appreciate the value of her sneaky, but still very effective, tactics.
:After all, allowing one power to gain over any other power within the court can be a disaster. If one faction believes that it has gained Imperial favor and the other factions feel the same way then it can become a desperate scramble where false information and perceptions run rampant and chaos ensues. That means inflated prices for rice and bread on the streets, stupid mandates being made into local laws for the sake of the power of one noble family or another, and that means that the people I'm supposed to be watching out for will suffer by it!:
Where Yuka had kept a balance and relative peace within her court by playing the three factions off against one another, she had the definite feeling that King Gyousou would seek to unify them. Yuka honestly couldn't imagine such a thing coming to pass, it was the nature of the body politic to separate out and for each group to war for dominance over the others. A unified court would be too homogenous and would likely miss something very important by having only one major perspective in power.
"His Majesty wants his court, from highest to lowest, to be a well-oiled machine," Yuka muttered to herself as she examined the newest knot in what she had come to call "the web."
In a very private, highly locked and guarded corner of her suite Yuka had a single room bare of furnishings except for a long divider screen made of clear sap-glass panels. The walls of the room were entirely papered in notes. he notes contained information either about persons, or families or wealth or shipping lanes. Every peice on the board had an entry and they were all in her private code. Each of these notes was tied to some other note by strings of various colors denoting a type of connection whether it be familiy loyalty, monetary concern or patronage. It was a vast, colorful spiderweb of the interconnectivity of all of the players and thier supporters in the imperial court. She had fashioned it much after the web-like patterns that police detectives used to solve crimes... only much much bigger.
"I just don't think that's going to happen, not unless he can overturn human nature itself. Power will always seek more power, alliances will always form and die in that pursuit. The trick is understanding that and being able to anticipate and/or manipulate what means those people will use to get what they want."
Even with official Royal backing, Yuka knew she would not be able to unite the Imperial Court...
:But with a hostile army on the march set to besiege the Capitol one would hope that they'd set aside their most petty squabbles and focus on the matter at hand,: Yuka thought.
Sadly, harsh experience had told her that she couldn't really count on that one either. It was unfortunate, but common sense and politics were never close bedfellows. She knew precisely what they Royal Court would do; they'd roll their eyes at her for being an alarmist, continue with whatever petty plans they had to grasp what power they could before their rightful king returned to his palace, and then, when the enemy was at the gates, yell at Yuka for not having prepared better for an enemy attack.
:I might not be able to unify the court the way the true king would, but I will get those squabbling idiots to see past the ends of their noses if it kills them all!:
This was going to be her last great engagement after all, and she wanted to pull out all the stops. Yuka possessed a great many "cards" that she had held in abeyance against some future need for them.
:As my father used to say, smoke 'em if ya got 'em!:
Yuka placed herself in the center of the room, multi-colored threads criss-crossing around her like threads in a spiderweb. Each of them was anchored at a different piece in a massive tangled puzzle. Power and wealth flowed along its lines; greed, self-interest, family ties, and faction loyalties flowed along its lines. Yuka had one chance to make it all work and save the capitol fro being razed by Asen and his army. Taking a deep breath she closed her eyes to clear her mind... and began to plan.