THE EMPEROR OF TIME

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5 - A HISTORIAN’S FIRST BATTLE

The bronze token trembled in Chen Tianyu’s palm.

Its surface bore the mark of Prince Li Chenghao, but beneath the symbol, almost invisible lines formed nine characters. Tianyu recognized the pattern immediately.

It was the same inscription engraved on the jade pendant that had brought him from modern Beijing to the collapsing Sui Dynasty.

Nine lines.

Nine symbols.

Nine doors through time.

But this time, the inscription was different.

THE FIRST EMPEROR HAS ALREADY BEEN REPLACED.

Tianyu stared at the words.

“What does that mean?” Princess Li Xueyan whispered.

Before he could answer, a bell rang somewhere inside the palace.

Once.

Twice.

Then a third time.

Zhao Wuchen had explained the meaning of the palace bells earlier that evening. One bell summoned officials. Two warned of danger.

Three meant the capital was under attack.

Tianyu turned toward the narrow window. Beyond the palace walls, smoke climbed into the night sky. The sound of horses thundered through the streets, followed by the screams of frightened citizens.

Then came the drums.

War drums.

“They are already inside the outer city,” Xueyan said.

Tianyu slipped the token into his robe. “Who?”

“Anyone who wants the throne badly enough.”

A pounding shook the door.

“Open in the name of the imperial court!”

Zhao Wuchen entered before the guards finished unbarring it. His armor was streaked with blood, and his expression had hardened into something Tianyu had not seen before.

The general looked at the two fugitives.

“We have a problem.”

“Only one?” Tianyu asked.

Zhao ignored the remark.

“The emperor has ordered every gate in Chang’an sealed. No one leaves the city. Every soldier who refuses to swear loyalty to him is to be executed.”

Xueyan frowned. “That sounds like something an impostor would do.”

“Be careful what you say, Princess.”

“Why? Are you afraid the walls have ears?”

“I am afraid that the wrong person might hear you.”

Zhao lowered his voice.

“The emperor has also ordered the arrest of Chen Tianyu. He is accused of murdering Master Shen, conspiring with Prince Li Chenghao, and attempting to steal the imperial seal.”

Tianyu stared at him.

“I did none of those things.”

“I know.”

“Then tell me why you look as though you are preparing to put a sword through my heart.”

“Because I have received another order.” Zhao drew a folded piece of silk from his armor. “I am to bring you before the emperor alive. If I fail, my family will be executed.”

For a moment, no one spoke.

The general who had protected Tianyu since his arrival in this strange century was now being threatened through the people he loved.

Tianyu understood the message.

The false emperor was not merely trying to control the throne.

He was trying to control everyone around it.

“What will you do?” Tianyu asked.

Zhao’s hand tightened around the silk.

“What I should have done years ago.”

He tore the imperial order in half.

“I will fight.”

They left the palace through a servants’ passage shortly before midnight.

The underground corridor smelled of damp stone and old incense. Xueyan led the way, carrying a small lamp. Zhao followed with six soldiers he trusted.

Tianyu brought up the rear, holding the jade pendant beneath his clothing.

It had remained strangely cold since the message appeared.

They emerged behind a storehouse in the western district.

Chang’an was burning.

Not the entire city, but enough to turn the night orange. Soldiers ran through the streets. Families dragged their children toward the southern gates, only to find them barred. Merchants abandoned their stalls as mounted men swept through the market.

A banner bearing the imperial dragon fluttered above the main avenue.

Beneath it marched thousands of soldiers.

Their armor was identical to that worn by the imperial army, but Tianyu noticed something troubling.

The men carried black cords tied around their left wrists.

He had seen those cords before.

One had been wrapped around the wrist of the mysterious man in white inside the forbidden library.

“Those soldiers,” Tianyu said. “Who commands them?”

Zhao followed his gaze.

“General Duan Shiming. He served the emperor for twenty years.”

“Did you trust him?”

“I trusted him with my life.”

“And now?”

Zhao’s jaw tightened.

“Now I suspect I was a fool.”

A horn sounded from the eastern road.

A rider galloped toward them, nearly falling from his horse. He wore the insignia of the western garrison.

“General Zhao!”

Zhao caught the man’s arm.

“Report!”

“The western gate has fallen. Duan Shiming’s troops have taken the armory. The city guards are retreating toward the river district.”

“How many men do we have?”

“Perhaps eight hundred still loyal to the old command. Many more are hiding among the citizens.”

Zhao swore under his breath.

Eight hundred soldiers against an army that appeared to number several thousand.

They could not win a conventional battle.

Tianyu looked toward the distant river.

“What is beyond those warehouses?”

“Granaries,” Zhao answered. “And the old canal.”

“How deep is the canal?”

“Deep enough to drown a horse.”

“Are there sluice gates?”

The general studied him.

“Yes. Why?”

Tianyu turned toward the city map painted on the wall of the nearby storehouse.

Because he had spent years studying Chinese history, Tianyu knew that the collapse of the Sui Dynasty was not simply a story of wicked rulers and heroic rebels. It was a story of exhausted people, ruined harvests, forced labor, rebellion, and a government that could no longer protect those it ruled.

He also knew that the armies of this era depended heavily on supply lines.

A larger army was not necessarily an unbeatable army.

Sometimes it was simply a hungrier army.

“If we cannot defeat their soldiers,” Tianyu said, “we must make it impossible for them to fight.”

Zhao examined the map.

“You want to destroy the granaries?”

“No. We protect them. The people need that grain. But the canal runs behind the warehouses, and the western road passes through a narrow embankment. If we open the sluice gates at the right moment, we can flood the road and cut their cavalry off from the main force.”

“And what happens to the people living near the canal?”

Tianyu paused.

He had almost made the mistake of treating the city like a board in a strategy game.

These were not pieces.

They were human beings.

“We evacuate them first,” he said. “Every family. Every child. If we cannot protect them, we do not use the plan.”

Zhao studied him for several seconds.

Then he nodded.

“Perhaps you are not entirely useless, historian.”

The next hour became a desperate race against time.

Xueyan gathered residents from the western district and led them toward the old temple quarter. She moved with authority, her sword drawn but lowered, refusing to let frightened citizens panic.

When a group of soldiers attempted to seize a family of grain merchants, she stood between them and the merchants.

“The emperor ordered this grain reserved for the city,” she declared. “Touch it, and you answer to the imperial princess.”

The soldiers hesitated.

One recognized her face.

“Princess Xueyan?”

“Unless you have met another princess willing to stand in a burning street, yes.”

The soldiers lowered their weapons.

Xueyan ordered them to help evacuate the district.

Meanwhile, Tianyu and Zhao reached the canal sluice with the remaining loyal guards.

The mechanism was older than the palace itself. Thick wooden beams held back the water, and rusted chains controlled the gates.

Tianyu examined the structure.

“We need to raise the western gate halfway and release the water gradually. A sudden flood could destroy the houses.”

Zhao motioned to his men.

“Do as he says.”

They worked under torchlight, pulling chains and levering wooden beams into position.

Then a whistle cut through the darkness.

An arrow struck the man standing beside Tianyu.

The soldier fell without a sound.

“AMBUSH!” Zhao roared.

Black-corded troops poured from the warehouses.

Their commander rode at the front, his helmet decorated with a silver hawk.

General Duan Shiming.

“Zhao Wuchen!” Duan called. “You have chosen the wrong side!”

Zhao drew his sword.

“I chose the side that does not slaughter innocent people.”

Duan laughed.

“Innocence is a luxury for those who possess power.”

He raised his arm.

Archers appeared along the rooftops.

Tianyu’s stomach tightened.

They had been expected.

Someone had known their plan.

Duan’s gaze settled on him.

“And there he is. The man who believes knowledge makes him a king.”

Tianyu stepped forward.

“Who told you we were coming?”

Duan smiled.

“You already know the answer.”

The jade pendant burned against Tianyu’s chest.

For an instant, the world slowed.

An arrow hung motionless in the air.

A drop of water remained suspended above the canal.

The flames of a nearby torch stretched into thin golden threads.

Then Tianyu heard a voice inside his mind.

Not his own.

You cannot save them all.

The voice belonged to the other Tianyu—the emperor he had seen in the vision.

Choose the gate, or choose the woman. You will lose one before sunrise.

The world snapped back into motion.

Tianyu stumbled.

The arrow struck the wooden post beside his head.

“Chen!” Zhao shouted.

Tianyu forced himself upright.

He could not understand how the second traveler had reached him, but the warning was clear.

Something terrible was about to happen.

And it involved Xueyan.

“Open the gate!” Tianyu shouted.

The soldiers pulled the chains.

Wood groaned.

Water burst through the opening, surging into the canal channel. The current rushed beneath the embankment, soaking the road and turning the ground into a treacherous river of mud.

Duan’s cavalry charged.

The leading horses lost their footing.

Men screamed as their formation collapsed. Riders collided with one another, and the narrow road became impassable.

“NOW!” Zhao roared.

His soldiers charged from behind the warehouses.

For a brief moment, the defenders had the advantage.

Tianyu seized a fallen spear and joined them.

He was no warrior. He had never killed a man. His first strike missed its target, and the recoil nearly tore the weapon from his hands.

The soldier in front of him swung a blade.

Tianyu ducked clumsily.

Zhao appeared from the side and drove the attacker back.

“Keep your eyes open!” the general shouted. “History will not forgive you for staring at the ground!”

Despite the terror, Tianyu almost laughed.

Then he saw a young guard lying beside the canal, blood spreading across his tunic.

The guard could not have been more than eighteen.

Tianyu dropped beside him.

“Stay with me.”

The young man gripped his sleeve.

“Did we win?”

Tianyu looked at the fighting men, the rising water, and the burning city.

“Not yet.”

The guard tried to smile.

“Then don’t let them take the city.”

His fingers went limp.

Tianyu remained beside him for one terrible second.

He had read about wars. He had studied casualty figures and examined the decisions of emperors who sent thousands of men to their deaths.

He had never understood the weight of a single death.

Now he did.

And he knew that every decision he made from this moment onward would have a human cost.

By dawn, Duan Shiming’s forces had retreated from the western district.

The canal remained flooded, the road impassable. The loyal soldiers had captured dozens of enemy troops and recovered enough weapons to defend the surrounding streets.

It was a victory.

But the city was still surrounded.

Zhao found Tianyu standing beside the dead young guard. The body had been covered with a plain cloak.

“How many?” Tianyu asked.

“Forty-three of ours are dead. More than a hundred wounded. We have lost the eastern district, and Duan still controls the armory.”

“And the civilians?”

“Most escaped before the water rose. Some buildings were damaged, but the evacuation prevented a greater disaster.”

Tianyu closed his eyes.

Forty-three people.

He had wanted to save the city. Instead, he had learned how expensive survival could be.

Zhao rested a hand on his shoulder.

“You saved hundreds today.”

“I also failed to save forty-three.”

“If you intend to lead men, you must learn the difference between responsibility and omnipotence. You can be responsible for your choices. You cannot control every consequence.”

Tianyu looked at him.

“Is that what you tell yourself after every battle?”

“No.” Zhao’s expression darkened. “Sometimes I remember every face.”

Before Tianyu could respond, a messenger arrived from the temple quarter.

His face was pale.

“General! The princess has disappeared.”

Tianyu’s blood turned cold.

“What?”

“She was escorting the last group of civilians when the eastern road was attacked. Her guards found blood beside the temple steps. There was no body.”

Tianyu grabbed the messenger’s arm.

“Where did you last see her?”

“Near the old bell tower.”

The pendant burned again.

Golden letters appeared across its surface.

THE FIRST PRICE HAS BEEN PAID.

Beneath them, a second message emerged.

THE GATE WAS NEVER THE TRAP.

SHE WAS.

Tianyu felt the world tilt.

The warning from his other self returned.

Choose the gate, or choose the woman.

He had chosen the gate.

He had flooded the road, stopped the cavalry, and saved hundreds of citizens.

But while he had been fighting, someone had taken Xueyan.

“Seal every street,” Tianyu ordered. “Search every house, every stable, every temple. I want the gates watched and the river examined.”

Zhao nodded and began issuing commands.

Tianyu turned toward the rising sun.

A voice spoke behind him.

“You are learning quickly, Chen Tianyu.”

He spun around.

A man in white stood beneath the ruined archway.

His face was pale and ageless. His sleeves were untouched by the mud and blood covering the street.

The mysterious man from the forbidden library.

Tianyu raised the spear.

“Where is Xueyan?”

The man regarded him with an expression that might have been pity.

“Alive. For now.”

Tianyu advanced.

“If you hurt her—”

“You will do what?” the man asked softly. “Kill me? You have not even learned why you were brought here.”

“Then tell me.”

The man’s gaze shifted toward the jade pendant.

“Your father tried to prevent this day. He failed. Your other self tried to prevent it too. He failed as well.”

Tianyu tightened his grip on the spear.

“What do you want?”

“To see whether you are different.”

“Different from whom?”

“From the emperor who destroyed the first timeline.”

The man’s eyes seemed to reflect a distant, burning city.

“Your war has only begun, Tianyu. The army outside Chang’an is not your greatest enemy. Neither is the man who wears the emperor’s face.”

He stepped backward into the shadow of the archway.

“Your greatest enemy is the future you believe you are trying to save.”

Tianyu lunged.

The spear passed through the man’s body as though it were smoke.

The white figure vanished.

Only a small strip of silk remained on the ground.

Tianyu picked it up.

Five characters had been written in red ink:

ASK ZHAO ABOUT HER FATHER.

He turned toward the general.

Zhao had returned to the archway and was staring at the message.

For the first time since Tianyu had met him, the general looked genuinely afraid.

“You know something,” Tianyu said.

Zhao did not answer.

“Zhao Wuchen. What happened to Xueyan’s father?”

The general looked toward the eastern horizon.

Then he said the words that shattered the little trust Tianyu had left.

“Princess Xueyan’s father did not disappear twelve years ago.”

Tianyu felt his fingers go numb.

“Where is he?”

Zhao swallowed.

“He was executed.”

“By whom?”

The general closed his eyes.

“By me.”

Silence fell between them.

Far beyond the city walls, the imperial war drums began to sound again.

And from somewhere deep inside the jade pendant came a whisper.

THE FIRST TIMELINE HAS FAILED.

THE SECOND EMPEROR IS COMING.

END OF CHAPTER 5