Having most of its host on the battlefield had left the Camelia echoingly empty. Henri had been on the frontlines of the last war and had been away from the estate for years at a time as it had gone on. He'd never seen it this empty before, and he was almost disappointed at the lack of work for him to do while he looked after things for Lord Ye.
There was still work, of course, the estate had to run smoothly even when the Crimson Army was away, and they needed to continue generating supplies and shipping them out to the forces, but three hundred thousand fewer soldiers, who got dangerous when they got bored, to manage meant the place could catch on fire, and Henri still wouldn't feel stressed.
He even had time to meet his cousin for lunch, and Marian had brought the little princling to give his nursemaid her day off. She was still dressed in black, the way she had been since her husband, his blood cousin, died, even though no one in the family would blame her if she decided to finally stop.
"How is he doing?" The littlest Soliel, or was it Ye now? Seemed calmer today than most children his age, peering around from Marian's lap with wide, bright eyes.
Marian smiled and brushed a hand over his pale hair. "He's adapting well. We had a busy morning, so he'll nap after this." She looked fond and happy, though she and his cousin had never had children of their own. Henri didn't know the full circumstances, but they'd never seemed unhappy while they were together, and Marian had never spoken of regrets, besides not having more time together.
Henri had only married the year before, and they still didn't have children of their own and probably wouldn't until this new conflict was over, but there were plenty of other Colfax children running around, so he wasn't in a rush.
"How is the court?" Marian, despite her respectable rank in the family, had avoided having much to do with the court after her husband's death.
Henri frowned, poking at the plump glazed fish on his plate. The drama of the court took away his appetite some days. "They're the court, even when we're at war, they at least manage that." At Marian's questioning look, he continued. "Lord Ye is not going to be pleased, but there has been some talk about Lord Zhao."
Surprise flashed across her face. "Lord Zhao is one of the most respected members of the court."
"He is. Or he was." Henri grimaced. "No other commander in the history of the Camelia has lost so many of his men in a situation like this."
"It looks bad," Marian realized.
"It looks suspicious." Henri corrected, and she paled.
"They can't possibly think…"
"This has never happened before, and the fact that it's happened to someone as experienced and skilled as Lord Zhao is…" Henri shook his head. Logically, he could see the conclusion some of them had drawn, and at the end of the day, the commander answered for anything and everything that happened to his men, but he didn't understand it.
The idea that Lord Zhao had walked his own men into an ambush was the worst thing they were saying. A few more moderate voices thought he might have ignored intelligence warnings of what was going to happen and simply misjudged its accuracy. Most didn't fault him at all, attributing the success, luck, and everything else to Beng Shai.
But those few voices could be deadly in the world of politics and power, especially when Mingzhe wasn't there to defend himself. His closest allies, Chenzhou and Eirian, weren't there to defend him either, though Mingzhe's younger brother was putting up an ardent defense whenever the subject came up.
It didn't bode well for the future, which was where most of Henri's concerns lay. A fractured court was a fractured army.
***
Taking the northern territory put Chenzhou on a path to a head-on collision with Beng Shai and the Bandri.
It was a not so insignificant reason why he chose to arrange things that way. Eirian and Mingzhe may have also been fooled by the tribal leader, but Chenzhou is Lord of the Camelia. Responsible for every single one of the three hundred thousand soldiers he's ordered out onto the battlefield.
Including the three thousand the Bandri already killed.
Fox had caught up with them on the third day of their march north, and they still had two more before they reached the sight Chenzhou had chosen as their base during the campaign.
According to the spy, the tribes knew the Crimson Army was on the move, but nothing had come up to suggest they suspected anything out of the ordinary.
He didn't….
It was very obvious that Fox didn't trust or like the tribes, and the realization of just how much surprised Chenzhou. In his experience, albeit limited in its own way, most spies didn't feel that strongly about their targets or anyone they encountered in their line of work. They believed in who or what they followed, but their targets were work and nothing more.
He hadn't known Fox for very long or even very well, but there was no doubt the spy hated the tribes of the borderlands.
A brief flare of curiosity almost tempted him into asking why, but that was a line Chenzhou knew most people didn't like to cross.
Yuze probably knew, and Chenzhou needed to write him for an update anyway, so he could just ask if it was something he needed to be concerned about now that they were actively at war or not.
Probably not. Fox was one of Yuze's best, and he'd been a spy just as long as Yuze, too. Yuze had gained plenty of reasons to hate the tribes during his years as a spy, so it shouldn't be surprising that Fox did as well. Yuze was just better at keeping it compartmentalized.
~ tbc