In the seventh year of the Taiyuan era, Dong Si, the Marquis of Zhenbei, rebelled and led an army of two hundred thousand straight for the imperial capital! That same year, General Xu Mu, the General of the Agile Cavalry, personally led his eighty thousand Panlong troops to rescue the emperor!
The two armies fought for over a month before Xu Mu finally cut down the traitor Dong Si. More than half of the two hundred thousand Zhenbei troops were killed or wounded, and countless others fled. The rebellion was finally put down!
For this, General Xu’s achievements surpassed all others. He is hereby granted the title of Marquis of Zhenbei and the fiefdom of Liangzhou. He is to take up his post at once. So decrees the emperor!
When the announcement ended, the entire court fell silent.
Every official present was stunned.
Since the founding of the Great Yin Dynasty, no subject had ever been made a marquis!
Even the traitor Dong Si was a distant cousin of the emperor by marriage.
Xu Mu was the first subject in the Great Yin Dynasty to be made a marquis. He had risen to the highest position a subject could attain!
But to grant him the title of Marquis of Zhenbei and a fiefdom in Liangzhou...?
The Great Yin Dynasty’s territory was vast, spanning thirteen provinces and tens of millions of square kilometers. Liangzhou alone covered more than five hundred thousand square kilometers, at the far northern edge of the empire.
If the emperor truly meant to reward him, there were plenty of places to choose from. Why send him to the bitterly cold northern frontier of Great Yin?
How was this any different from exile?
