The Imperial Capital Star.
Qin Ming had only just come to the outside of his younger brother's courtyard when he could already hear, from within, the sound of things being smashed.
"Your Highness the Second Prince… the Third Prince, he…" An attendant-maid knelt timorously upon the ground, her eyes gazing in terror toward the courtyard within.
"You may all withdraw," Qin Ming said.
"Yes."
The whole crowd of servants in the courtyard withdrew.
Qin Ming walked into the courtyard, and saw a scene of utter wreckage — objects of every kind flung about everywhere.
He could hear, besides, a woman's screams: those of a woman whose two arms were bound to a tree in the courtyard, her garments in disarray, blood-marks and wounds everywhere upon her.
"Bastard! Scum! I'll kill you! I'll kill you!" Qin Hu held a wine-pot in one hand and a leather whip in the other, his two eyes gone bloodshot.
When the wine within the pot was drunk dry, he flung the wine-pot straight to the ground and smashed it to bits.
"Bring me more wine! Did you not hear this prince — wine!"
As Qin Hu spoke, to vent the fire of his rage he gave the whip in his hand another crack.
"Ah Hu, that's enough." Qin Ming came forward and, in one motion, seized Qin Hu's arm, staying the motion he was about to make.
Qin Hu's bloodshot eyes lit upon Qin Ming; he said with a sneering laugh, "Brother, have you come to mock me too? Like those people out there, saying I, Qin Hu, am good-for-nothing — that I stood watching as someone carried off my betrothed before my very face! And that Su family's no fine thing either — looked coldly on from the side, and then, all hypocrisy, sent me over some Su family woman!"
As Qin Hu said this, he pointed in fury at that bound, pitiful woman.
This woman was, precisely, the Su family woman who'd earlier taken Su Lan's place and wed Qin Hu.
When the Su family had gone about choosing anew the woman for the marriage-alliance, she'd offered herself to his bed; a while back she'd still been lording it in triumph at the wedding, and her parents' standing within the Su family had risen as the tide lifts the boat.
And just as this woman had thought she was to rise meteorically to fortune — who could ever have imagined she'd now be in such a plight as this?
"Ah Hu, this is you debasing your own self! If you're a man, then you ought to go and defeat that Zhao Chen — not humiliate your own wife here!" Qin Ming rebuked in anger.
Qin Hu roared, his two eyes bloodthirsty, "Of course I'll kill that Zhao Chen. And not only will I kill him — I'll destroy that so-called Owl Dragon Legion of his, and slay their whole Zhao clan! He has sisters, doesn't he — well, this prince will humiliate his sisters, too, right before his very face!"
Qin Ming stared at Qin Hu.
"If it's this drunk-sodden you as you are now, then I hold that you're not fit to be the fleet commander of this expedition against the Owl Dragon Star System."
Qin Hu was taken aback; he looked at his elder brother.
"Brother… you… you mean the fleet is readied?"
"Five legion fleets — 15,000 interstellar warships, built to a super-second-line imperial standard — are readied, equipped besides with five T4-grade interstellar warships and 1,000 T3-grade interstellar warships. Beyond that, including some lord fleets contacted within the North Wind Star Region, another 5,000 interstellar warships will assemble to help you. When the time comes, you'll have in hand a total of 20,000 interstellar warships!" Having said so much, Qin Ming's tone gave a pause.
"But — as you are now, I can't set my mind at ease to hand this fleet over to you."
Qin Hu, all at once, sobered thoroughly; the wine went half out of his head.
"Brother! Let me go! I promise — so long as you let me go, I'll not touch a drop of wine my whole life long! If I can't cut down that scum Zhao Chen with my own hand, I'll never get over this hurdle in my heart, not in all my life."
Qin Ming clapped his younger brother on the shoulder, and then cast a glance at that bound Su family woman.
"That is, after all, your own wife — treat her well."
"I know, I know," Qin Hu said with a grin.
"Mother very much wants a grandchild; if you can father a child with this Su family woman, then it'll strengthen the bond with the Su family." Qin Ming looked at Qin Hu.
Qin Hu understood at once; he came forward and, in one motion, unbound the Su family woman.
"Brother, I'll go make a child right now!"
And with that, paying no mind to the objections of this woman wounded from head to foot, he dragged her into the room.
"Your Highness the Second Prince… save me… save me…" the Su family woman cried and wailed; and after the door had closed, the crying and wailing turned, little by little, into curses, and then there remained only pleas for mercy, sounding faint and fitful by turns.
To this, Qin Ming paid no mind; without so much as a backward glance, he made ready to walk out the door.
When he reached the gateway, he paused a moment, and called out behind him, "The whole fleet sets out tomorrow; it can reach the North Wind Star Region by the twentieth of June, and cross the interstellar edge-space into the Owl Dragon Star System at month's end."
"Understood, brother!" Qin Hu's voice, mingled with certain other sounds, came from within the room.
…
Galactic Star Calendar, year 3033, the twentieth of June.
The Third Prince Qin Hu led five legion fleets, 15,000 interstellar warships, in person, setting out from the Imperial Capital's star system, crossing star gate after star gate in an unbroken run toward the North Wind Star Region.
During this while, the various lords, besides, privately contacted Qin Hu, expressing their willingness to contribute a share of their own strength for His Highness the Third Prince.
The Azure Governor dispatched 500 private interstellar warships to aid the Third Prince; Marshal Huang Zhixiong dispatched 500 private interstellar warships to aid the Third Prince…
So much so that, after entering the North Wind Star Region, there was, besides, an unbroken stream of lord fleets and private fleets joining the Third Prince's expeditionary fleet.
The number surpassed 20,000 outright!
And as for this matter of the Third Prince's fleet entering the North Wind Star Region, everyone was fixing their eyes on the Chu River Star Region and the North Wind Star Region — above all on the movements of the North Wind Star Region's governor's side.
To this, the Third Prince's fleet, after entering the North Wind Star Region, made no further show of itself; cautiously, it used the star gates of the confidant-lord territories it had planted within the North Wind Star Region for its passage, and kept close watch on the movements of the fleets under the North Wind Governor's command.
For the first few days, the North Wind Governor made no movement at all.
And thereafter, the North Wind Governor went still further, declaring to the outside world that he'd taken ill — announcing that he was handing over all affairs to a trusted nephew of his own, that he must first rest and recuperate a while, and that he'd decline all visits from outsiders.
The moment this news came out, the direction of the winds of public opinion shifted in an instant.
Everyone held that the North Wind Governor had lost his nerve!
That he didn't dare match himself against the Third Prince's fleet, which represented the Prince Faction — that he could only watch, wide-eyed, as the Third Prince's fleet flaunted its might within his own territory, ranging about wherever it pleased with none to bar it.
Even the Chu family, which had some connection to Zhao Chen, this time abnormally showed no movement whatever.
This set everyone to speculating: could it be that this time both the Chu family and the North Wind Governor had lost their nerve?
That the Owl Dragon lord would come to be called the chess-piece that had been cast aside?
Whether so or not — in truth, one need only watch what came to pass after the Third Prince's fleet entered the Owl Dragon Star System.
This time the Third Prince's fleet was, in name, investigating the Owl Dragon lord's suspected connection to the little Princess's disappearance; but everyone knew that Qin Hu would, this time, assuredly take his revenge on Zhao Chen.
Whether or not Zhao Chen had hidden the little Princess away, so long as the Third Prince's fleet entered the Owl Dragon Star System, a grand piece of theater was bound to be kicked up.
But at the end of June, the Third Prince's fleet crossed a star gate and reached the Red Forest Star System, neighboring the Owl Dragon Star System.
The Owl Dragon lord publicly issued an announcement:
The Owl Dragon Star System is to conduct a military exercise of indefinite duration. During this period, any foreign interstellar fleet whatsoever that approaches the Owl Dragon Star System without having obtained authorization will be driven off; should the eviction be disregarded, every counter-measure will be taken, and any and all consequences arising therefrom shall be borne by the intruder alone.
—— The Owl Dragon Star System · Imperial Marquis · Zhao Chen
The meaning beneath the words was this: Trespass on the Owl Dragon Star System, and die!