Though no one said it openly, everyone in Youzhou vaguely sensed that a great war was coming.
The Son of Heaven in Chang'an commanded a hundred and fifty thousand troops of the Divine Strategy Army, the central Forbidden Army that guarded the capital region. His son Li Yuanying, Prince Shao, whom he had exiled to the border, commanded a hundred thousand. With the ten thousand troops of the Jade Comb Army the princess had brought, the two sides now had the strength to face each other on the battlefield.
Of course, certain barriers of propriety remained almost impossible to surmount: filial piety was the foundation of the state, the guiding principle of ritual, righteousness, integrity, and shame throughout the realm. A son openly taking up arms against his father was an act of monstrous treason. Even if the son somehow won, no subject with any sense of shame would support such an unfilial rebel.
Another possibility was that the emperor, advanced in years and unable to deal with this son on the distant frontier, would turn a blind eye. Yet whoever inherited the throne would never tolerate a brother who relied on his own army to defy imperial authority. If the court sent troops against him, Prince Shao could hardly sit waiting for death.
A battle between them was inevitable.
Ruan Ziming, Youzhou's Military Commissioner, decided to stake his hopes on Prince Shao. After all, he was in Youzhou and had no other imperial prince to choose. He had witnessed Li Yuanying turn back the raging tide, defeat the former Military Governor Liu Kun, and conquer Youzhou. Then Princess Wanshou, Li Baozhu, had miraculously returned from the dead and led a great force of cavalry to join her elder brother. Ruan Ziming could not help believing that the Mandate of