Chapter 321
"Forbidding the title of son of heaven? What absolute nonsense...!"
Forgetting his position as an envoy, Wu Ying raised his voice.
It was a blatant diplomatic breach, but he lacked the composure to care.
Even his interpreter panicked, gesturing frantically for him to calm down, but Sophia remained perfectly relaxed.
"Why is it nonsense?" Sophia asked. "I think it is a perfectly reasonable condition."
"Do you not realize that demanding we discard the title of son of heaven is an insult tantamount to a declaration of war?"
"I see. But if you take such pride in being the center of the world and a nation ruled by the son of heaven, shouldn't you consider borrowing another country's military strength a disgrace?"
"...The moon waxes only to wane, and wanes only to wax again. A nation is not exempt from the principles of yin and yang. Even the empire of the son of heaven can suffer a temporary disadvantage."
"Well said. Then since this is merely a temporary phenomenon, you should have no trouble enduring it on your own. If the Emperor of Han is truly the son of heaven, would the dynasty fall? Not unless heaven is a callous parent willing to watch its child die."
Though it sounded like blatant mockery, Wu Ying could not muster a proper rebuttal.
His own words had trapped him.
"Are other conditions absolutely out of the question?"
"Think about it. Do you truly believe a nation begging for aid, having admitted its inferiority, can stand on equal footing with its savior? If Han possessed the strength to back up its claims, perhaps. But as it stands, the sole center of the world is Rome. The only true Emperor reigning over kings is the King of Kings, the Imperator of Rome, Augustus. You claimed earlier that forbidding the title of son of heaven was a grave insult? To us, it is a provocation that you continue to hold your heads high and style yourselves the son of heaven out of hollow pride. If you have any conscience at all, you will drop that unmerited name in exchange for our military might."
There was no room for negotiation.
Overwhelmed by the humiliation, Wu Ying bit his lip and trembled, fists clenched tight.
He could find no reason to remain here and endure further indignities.
Surely, this deranged Crown Princess of Rome did not actually believe her words would force Han to its knees.
It sounded like nothing more than a convenient excuse to avoid dispatching troops.
It was an incredibly petty tactic.
Having suffered heavy losses in their past war with the Xiongnu, they were likely reluctant to take the field themselves.
Their intent was obvious: let Han and the Xiongnu tear each other apart until both were weakened.
Only by privately mocking Rome's narrow-mindedness could Wu Ying barely steady his shaken composure.
"I suppose this means our negotiations have broken down."
"Is that so? What a pity. If you had just accepted my condition, I could have sent the Xiongnu scrambling back to the grasslands this very day."
"Our own strength is more than enough to punish those barbarians. We will make sure to show you the true potential of the Central Plains."
"I will gladly await the report."
Sophia flashed her brightest smile of the entire meeting and withdrew her gaze from Wu Ying.
It was a beautiful smile that could tug at any man's heartstrings, but to Wu Ying, she no longer looked merely beautiful.
"Then I shall take my leave. It is simply a shame that we could not reach an agreement acceptable to both nations."
"Have a safe journey. Ah, but it would go against courtesy to send you away empty-handed after you traveled all this way. I have prepared some gifts, so take them with you."
"...I am honored, but I lack the means to carry a heavy load. I believe I can only take the items meant for the son of heaven and the Grand Tutor."
It was obvious how it would look if he returned with a mountain of personal gifts after failing to achieve anything in the negotiations.
In peacetime, it might not have caused much controversy, but this was a time of war.
If Wang Mang decided to find fault with him, this would provide more than enough ammunition to ensnare him.
"Is that so? That is a pity, but it cannot be helped. If you ever change your mind, send another envoy. Our doors are always open."
"...I apologize, but unless the conditions change, we will forever remain on parallel lines."
Sophia simply watched with amusement as Wu Ying suppressed his anger.
By this point, he even suspected she was deliberately provoking him just to get a reaction.
Staying any longer would achieve nothing but making his blood boil.
As Wu Ying offered a polite bow and turned to leave, Sophia's final parting words struck his back.
"In consideration of the effort you took to come all this way, I will promise you one thing. The Xiongnu will never seize the Silk Road, so you may put your mind at ease."
Was that at least a silver lining?
If they could eliminate one of the possibilities they feared most, it was not a bad outcome for the Han Dynasty.
'No. I cannot take her words at face value. I shouldn't expect anything from these people.'
Without wasting another day, Wu Ying left Marcopolis and embarked on the journey home.
In the end, they might pretend to be a civilized nation, but the Western barbarians were still just barbarians.
He would never forget the humiliation he suffered today. He would repay it in full.
Gritting his teeth, Wu Ying reminded himself once again that the only civilized nation worthy of being the center of the world was the Han Dynasty.
...
Having ravaged the three northern provinces, the Xiongnu did not display any further aggressive maneuvers, contrary to Wang Mang's expectations.
Their movements seemed to say, 'Come and get us if you dare,' a stark contrast to the Xiongnu of the past.
Even among the Shanyus of the Xiongnu, few fully grasped the true intentions of the Grand Chanyu.
Yet, none harbored any doubts.
"You ask why we don't continue our assault from here? Even a cornered rat will bite a cat. How much more so for a nation with the latent power of the Han Dynasty? Even now, the number of soldiers they have scraped together has surpassed 300,000."
"Yes. But if we commit our full strength, we can still defeat them, can we not?"
"If we summoned every warrior scattered across the grasslands and waged an all-out decisive battle, we would win, of course. But that is not a good strategy. No matter what, our own losses would be too great."
If Han truly resolved to mobilize their entire military strength, they could muster far more than 300,000 men.
Even if the Xiongnu fought and defeated those 300,000, another 100,000 to 200,000 reinforcements could easily be brought up.
Naturally, the Han Dynasty would be ruined beyond recovery if they did so, but the Xiongnu's casualties would also be disastrously high.
Furthermore, if the enemy locked their gates and holed up inside their fortresses, the war would drag on endlessly.
Winning itself was not the issue; how they won was a crucial matter for the victor.
"I see. You intend to apply constant pressure and wait for them to collapse on their own. Shall we continue to pressure the Central Plains from the northeast while the rest of our warriors maintain their assault in the western regions?"
"If they grow anxious and march out first, we could ask for nothing more. But even if they don't, we just need to wear them out until they break. A normal country would not be shaken by something like this, but the current Han can hardly be called a normal country."
For a dying nation, simply setting the right conditions would accelerate its demise.
The important thing was that Han was merely a dying nation, not one that had already fallen.
There was no need to invite losses by forcing a battle; they simply had to take their time and harvest the fruits of victory when they were ripe.
'Besides, it is about time for them to make their move.'
Achilles, the Grand Chanyu of the Xiongnu, clearly remembered the advice his father had passed down along with the weapons.
You may do whatever you please. However, even if you conquer the Central Plains, you must never take the title of son of heaven.
Nor must you ever allow yourself to be culturally assimilated into the Central Plains.
As long as he strictly adhered to those two rules, he was free to pursue all his desires.
From Marcus's letter alone, Achilles could roughly guess his intentions.
Since then, Achilles had exchanged several letters with his older sister, Sophia.
Thanks to that, he had been able to devise this strategy to conquer the Central Plains while keeping casualties to an absolute minimum.
With their consecutive victories, the morale of his subordinates continued to soar.
His formula for victory was already steadily coming to fruition.
He could easily picture the enemy, ignorant of their doom, scurrying about in panic while holed up in the south.
"Summon the Shanyus stationed in Jizhou and Qingzhou. It is time I briefed them on the next phase of the operation."
They had just finished wiping out the last remnants of Han's forces scattered across Bingzhou.
Hearing that the time to move out was finally approaching, the faces of his subordinates lit up with anticipation.
The time for harvest was drawing near.
...
"...These sons of bitches!"
The moment Wang Mang read the barrage of letters, he tore them to shreds and threw them to the floor.
"Trash with nothing but liquor and women on their minds! Do they really think they will be safe when the nation falls?!"
Having failed to secure Rome's aid, they now truly had to subjugate the Xiongnu using only the strength of Han.
However, relying solely on an army of 300,000 left him deeply uneasy.
Rightfully so, as the movements of nomadic barbarians were constantly being detected in the west and north.
Perhaps the forces that marched into the northeast were just bait.
If he led the entire army into Bingzhou and the enemy pushed in from the west, there would be no way to stop them.
Therefore, to maintain a stable defense, he needed at least 100,000 more troops.
But the various lords and prominent figures were reluctant to hand over any more of their wealth and private forces.
Wang Mang rubbed his aching head, frustrated by their total failure to grasp the severity of the situation.
Did they really not comprehend the massive threat posed by the Xiongnu occupying three whole provinces?
Or were they under the delusion that the enemy would go home satisfied after gorging themselves on those three provinces?
Either way, it was an utterly hopeless situation.
To make matters worse, that man they called the son of heaven was taking it even further.
The moment the Emperor heard Rome's demand to abandon the title of son of heaven and step down to the status of a mere king, he had thrown a violent tantrum.
He even spouted the deranged idea of making peace with the Xiongnu to declare war on Rome.
Wang Mang had worked up a heavy sweat trying to suppress that lunacy.
Even now, it seemed the Emperor hadn't fully abandoned the thought, constantly trying to test the waters for an armistice with the Xiongnu.
'Should I just replace him...?'
Lately, every time Wang Mang had an audience with the son of heaven, he felt like he was going crazy from the urge to do exactly that.
He could acutely feel that the end of the Han Dynasty was near.
Just then, a letter arrived—one that would be the finishing stroke on the son of heaven's increasingly unstable mental state.
Shockingly, it was a personal letter from the Crown Princess of Rome.
Committing an act of supreme insolence, Wang Mang inspected the letter meant for the son of heaven first.
It was an unforgivable capital offense, but who cared?
If the son of heaven flew into a rage over this, Wang Mang would simply dethrone him.
"Let's see what kind of drivel you've spouted."
Surprisingly, the contents were not long.
It was incredibly brief, not even taking up a full sheet of paper.
But the message was shocking.
"This lunatic...!"
Wang Mang almost ripped this letter to pieces as well, but relaxed his grip when he remembered it had to be delivered to the son of heaven.
"These pieces of trash... When she said she would keep the Xiongnu from taking the Silk Road, is this what she meant?!"
What was this if not a declaration that Rome was swallowing the Silk Road for themselves and telling Han to butt out?
He didn't even have to look to guess how exorbitant the tolls charged by whatever proxies Rome put in charge would be.
It was an absolutely shameless act, a technicality amounting to 'I didn't lie.'
The most terrifying part was how easily he could predict the son of heaven's reaction if he handed this over.
He wanted to just burn the letter and lie that nothing had arrived.
Clutching the crumpled letter, Wang Mang's footsteps were heavier than ever as he went to seek an audience with the son of heaven.