Pacify the Barbarians

Zhongliang is a land of abundance, surrounded by hungry wolves. In the more than three hundred years since its founding, every emperor but the dynasty’s founder has followed the path of preserving what was already built. They feared that the century-old legacy of their ancestors might be ruined in their hands, making them sinners for all time. Each sat on the throne as if on pins and needles. But in this generation, along came the troublemaker Xie Dingyi. At eight, she brazenly forged an imperial decree, strode into the ancestral temple’s main hall, and changed the name recorded in the imperial genealogy from “Xie Dingyi” to “Xie Dingyi,” declaring that the whole world would bow down and submit to her. She studied political maneuvering and the art of war. At fourteen, she went to the battlefield, where she spent years drinking blood on the frontier without returning. At thirty, she ascended the throne. After years of warfare, fortifying cities and clearing the land, she won one contest of nations after another. From then on, she held firm on the throne, ushered in a golden age, and welcomed the nations as tribute bearers. Every year at the start of spring, local officials brought their families to the capital to report on their work, then celebrated alongside the ruler at the New Year’s Eve banquet. Xie Dingyi delivered the same formal pleasantries every year and watched much the same songs and dances. Bored out of her mind, she thought even the frontier’s bonfires and parting songs were far more carefree and satisfying. Until one year, in a corner buzzing with voices, she spotted a beauty with a face like a goddess. … On the third New Year’s Eve after following his wife to the capital, Shen Congmian was resting at the official guesthouse when an unexpected visitor arrived in the middle of the night. The emperor, who usually sat high above all in the great hall, was now dressed in black, lounging casually by his window as she smiled and asked, “How come you and your wife sleep in separate rooms, Sir Shen?” Defying all moral codes and the proper bounds between ruler and subject, she summoned him to the capital with his wife several times a year. He was also repeatedly forced to enter the emperor’s bedchamber and serve her with his body, to protect the lives of his whole family. Yet even so, one cold, rainy night, he lay naked at the emperor’s side. With lowered eyes, he asked softly, full of hope, “The wind is cold and the rain is heavy tonight. Could I stay here instead of going back?” [Reading Guide] 1. The heroine is the emperor, so she has a harem and will also favor other people while she is involved with the hero. The heroine is not sexually exclusive; the hero is. 2. The hero is trying to secure a place for himself from the very beginning. If I had to describe him, he is an obsessive, aloof beauty, but his personality is too complicated to sum up or pin down with a fixed character profile. 3. The heroine is taller than the hero: 188 x 186. Please stop saying she seems like a man. Aside from liking powerful heroines and thinking it fits her character, I made her this way because she trained in martial arts and fought wars from childhood, so she is healthy, tall, and strong. 4. Gender-equal GB. This means gender equality, not that everyone has equal status. If you can’t tell men and women apart from their names, that’s the point: if a character can use a name with one character, so can someone of another gender. Even the cannon fodder who appear just once will have names and surnames. 5. If you feel sorry for the hero, go back and read the first five words of point one. That’s all the warnings for now. I’ll add more if people keep complaining. Theme: The world is vast, so wander freely.