"Your Majesty."
Yan Xiang's voice trembled with an excitement that nearly choked him. Raising both hands high, he presented a letter sealed with wax.
"Early this morning, just as the city gates opened, a messenger claiming to be from Yizhou begged for an audience at the risk of his life."
"This is a personal letter jointly written to Your Majesty by Fa Zheng, Yizhou's assistant governor, and General Li Yan."
Yang Feng's eyebrows shot up.
Fa Zheng?
Li Yan?
Why have they written to me already today?
Could they have watched the Heavenly Screen yesterday and killed Liu Zhang today?
And now they've come to join me?
Isn't that a little too efficient?
Far from lowering his guard, he raised it to its highest level.
Could this be... a self-injury ruse?
They put on a show for the Heavenly Screen yesterday to win my sympathy, and now they're writing to trick me?
Are they trying to lure me into sending troops to Yizhou so they can besiege a stronghold, ambush the reinforcements, and wipe out all my men in one fell swoop?
These ancients' schemes run deeper than the Mariana Trench.
Yang Feng grumbled inwardly, but his expression remained unchanged as he took the letter and broke the wax seal.
The handwriting danced across the page like soaring dragons and flying phoenixes, its sharp vigor leaping out at him.
Yet its contents were so blunt and straightforward that they caught him off guard.
The letter stated only two things.
First, just last night, the two of them had led troops into the provincial governor's residence and cut off the head of Liu Zhang, Governor of Yizhou.
Second, from this day onward, all of Yizhou acknowledged the Great Yang Empire as its sovereign. The two of them would temporarily serve as grand commanders, awaiting only his arrival at the head of a great army as the "Emperor of Great Yang."
When that time came, they would open the gates in surrender and respectfully welcome His Majesty.
Holding the letter, Yang Feng froze on the spot.
He read it three times. He recognized every word, but put together, they made him wonder whether he was still half asleep.
What the hell?
They cut his head off?
Liu Zhang was just gone like that?
And then Yizhou just... just became mine?
What kind of god-tier start is this?
I'm still worrying about how to "flee" to the Land of Shu, and you've already one-shotted the final boss and express-shipped me the neatly packaged completion rewards?
Wait.
Something's wrong.
Something is definitely wrong.
The first thought that surfaced in Yang Feng's mind was those three words.
"Could this be... a feigned surrender?"
He looked up, staring with extreme suspicion at Yan Xiang, who was still kneeling on the ground.
Seeming to see through Yang Feng's doubts, Yan Xiang hurriedly kowtowed and spoke with absolute certainty.
"Your Majesty, this is entirely true."
"As soon as I received the letter, I sent every spy we have in the city to investigate and verify it."
"The news has already spread. Every citizen in Chengdu is cheering and rushing about to tell the others. They've even raised our Great Yang banners bearing the character 'Yang' atop the walls."
"There is no falsehood in this, none whatsoever, Your Majesty!"
Boom.
Yan Xiang's words landed like one final hammer blow, utterly shattering the last shred of wishful hope in Yang Feng's heart.
His vision darkened, and the whole world began spinning around him.
It's over.
Ah, ah, ah, my heavens.
Now it's completely over.
The retirement I've dreamed of, my salted-fish dream of "turtling" in Huainan and watching the storms rise across the realm, was buried this morning by the very hands of these two "loyal ministers" I've never even met.
I'd barely declared independence before Yizhou followed me into independence.
What do you call this?
You call this a chain reaction.
You call this open rebellion, dragging an entire great province along with you.
Wonderful. I've gone straight from a petty warlord holding one corner of the land to public enemy number one in the eyes of every lord under heaven.
Yang Feng could even imagine how the various big shots would react when the news spread across the realm.
Would Emperor Xian of Han, far away in Xu Capital, cry himself to death on his dragon throne?
After all, whatever else Liu Zhang was, he was a genuine member of the imperial clan. His surname was Liu.
Now he's been killed by the "lackeys" of a "rebel" like me, and his territory's been swallowed up too. How is that any different from pointing at the emperor's nose and cursing him?
And Boss Cao-would he get so furious he'd suffer a brain hemorrhage on the spot?
He's worked so hard holding the emperor hostage to command the lords, spending all that time on his "great undertaking of unification," only for me to quietly swallow up that rich Land of Abundance. Could he stomach that?
He'd probably muster troops overnight. Even scattering my ashes wouldn't be enough to quell his hatred.
Oh, right. There's Liu Bei too.
That imperial uncle probably dreams of taking over Western Sichuan. Now that I've snatched it out from under him, wouldn't he be stabbing a little effigy of me beneath his covers?
Yan Xiang could not appreciate the collapse and wailing deep within Yang Feng's heart.
He only thought this was an auspicious blessing from heaven: his emperor's kingly aura had spilled forth, and with one tremor of his mighty frame, powerful ministers had offered their lands in surrender.
Trembling all over with excitement, the old minister once again struck his forehead heavily against the floor and cried out with all his strength.
"Your Majesty holds the mandate of heaven! Long live Your Majesty! Ten thousand years, ten thousand years, ten thousand times ten thousand years!"
As Yang Feng listened to that cry of "ten thousand years," his heart bled.
Stop wishing me ten thousand years.
If you keep shouting like this, I'm afraid I won't even survive one.
Once this news gets out, I really will be completely at loggerheads with the Great Han Dynasty and every lord under heaven.
My leisurely, comfortable retirement!
Meanwhile, in Yan Province.
Within the palace, the court assembly had just begun.
The civil and military officials stood in two rows, the atmosphere solemn.
Dressed in court robes, Cao Cao sat beside the emperor, Liu Xie, with a hand resting on his sword. His expression was imposing, commanding awe without anger.
Just as discussion began, footsteps suddenly sounded outside the hall, so hurried that their rhythm had gone awry.
"Report-!"
"Urgent military intelligence!"
"Eight-hundred-li express dispatch!"
A military courier stumbled and scrambled inside. Sweat soaked his entire body, and his face was utterly bloodless; he had clearly endured extreme exhaustion and fright.
Before he could even complete his salute, he dropped to his knees with a thud, panting so hard that his words shook.
"R-reporting to the Minister of Works, Your Majesty."
"Yi... Yizhou... something terrible has happened in Yizhou."
Cao Cao frowned slightly.
Yizhou?
What major trouble could come from Liu Zhang, that watchdog guarding his own gate?
"Speak."
He spat out the single word coldly.
The messenger swallowed, then delivered the news that could shake the entire realm in a trembling voice.
"Last night, Fa Zheng, Yizhou's assistant governor, and General Li Yan staged a mutiny and k-killed Liu Zhang, Governor of Yizhou."
"Early this morning, they r-raised the banners of that rebel Yang from Huainan atop Chengdu's walls and declared... declared that all of Yizhou had submitted to Yang Feng."
As the messenger's words fell, the entire court sank into deathly silence.
A falling pin could have been heard.
Every civil and military official, including Xun Yu, Guo Jia, and Cheng Yu, froze on the spot, disbelief written across their faces.
Cao Cao was even more dumbfounded.
For an instant, his mind practically crashed.
What?
Fa Zheng and Li Yan?
Those two who appeared on the Heavenly Screen yesterday?
Just because Yang Feng casually said a few words on the Heavenly Screen, they killed their own lord, Liu Zhang, today?
And then surrendered to Yang Feng?
Have those two gone mad?
Could anything this absurd really happen under heaven?
Do these people make decisions without using their brains, relying entirely on livestreams?
Cao Cao's face bore a bewildered expression worthy of someone who had seen a ghost.
He could not understand the way those two minds worked at all.
Yet amid that eerie silence, an ill-timed sound abruptly rang out.
"Waaah-!"
On the youthful face of Emperor Xian of Han, Liu Xie, sitting beside Cao Cao, bewilderment first appeared, then terror, before finally turning into boundless grievance, grief, and indignation.
He could no longer hold it in.
"Imperial Uncle!"
"My Imperial Uncle!"
Bean-sized tears rolled from his eyes. Before the assembled civil and military officials, the emperor of Great Han once again began bawling.