Jinghe Year Sixteen, Fifth Month, Tenth Day.
The waters of Taiyuan's Fen River had risen, flowing around the city like a turbid yellow ribbon.
The city's sophora blossoms were in their fullest bloom.
Wherever the wind passed, sweetness filled the city.
The high walls of Prince Jin's residence enclosed a garden of deep green.
The deeper the green, the more oppressive it became; the greater the oppression, the deeper the stillness.
Prince Jin, Jiang Xuan, stood amid that deep green, with no heart to admire the flowers or the water.
"Has Master Pei still not arrived?!"
"Your Highness, we have already sent two groups of men..."
Jiang Xuan snapped off the green branch before him and growled at the servant outside the gate, "Hurry him again!"
"A pack of useless fools!" Jiang Xuan paced back and forth through the garden.
A secret report from the Capital lay spread on the stone table. It concerned the matter of the "New and Full Moon Court Audience, Wei Zi's Commander's Axe."
"In days past, the King of Han bestowed the Yellow Axe upon Han Xin, saying, 'Heaven has no two suns; the people have no two kings. You shall command the armies and fight a decisive battle against Chu.'
And now a mere Confucian lad from the Wei Family has received the Commander’s Axe, with overall command of the Three Garrisons, authority over civil and military officials, and Royal Command Banners and Tablets?!
These are the powers of a great general marching to war, nothing an ordinary imperial envoy could compare with. Have the Court and my imperial elder brother become so utterly muddleheaded?!
Damn it!! My fief is Jin, and its lands fall within the Three Garrisons.
Wherever Wei Zi's Commander's Axe reaches, even I fall beneath those words, 'subject to his