Sha Po Lang

This was perhaps the most unforgettable pain in his life. As Gu Yun got here, he did not to go on talking. However, it might be that those words have been piling up in his mind for many years, and for a moment, he could not hold back.

“The Northern Frontier is very poor, just after the war, there are wounded soldiers everywhere. Every day, when the sun sets in the golden sands, even the princess’s underling can not drink a cup of hot tea. How could it be as good as being a young master in the capital? At first I threw a tantrum, wanting to go back at all cost. The old Marquis did not agree. Annoyed by me, he took me to the army. Every day the soldiers of the Black Iron Camp would trained, and I had to accompany them at the side to practice martial arts. If I slacked off for even a little, he would hit me in front of those iron giants.”

The old Marquis reckoned his son’s personality, even if he hid away, even if he was weak, but in front of everyone, this little thing that was not as tall as someone’s thighs, it would never cry and humiliate itself.

Chang Geng glued to him, placing his chin on Gu Yun’s shoulder, leaned towards his ear and said, “If I were born twenty years earlier, I would pick you up and steal you away, and raise you in beautiful silk and brocade.”

Gu Yun imagined the scene for a moment and wanted to vomit on the spot, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

In fact, when thinking about it, a family with an extravagant lifestyle declining from the third generations was very usual. Gu Yun, a child of this origin, who was also an only child, if he really was allowed to lawlessly grow up in the capital city, who knew how terrible he would turn out to be. Only a cruel father like the old Marquis could have the heart to bend him so that the Black Iron Camp would have a successor.

But nobody expected that the cost for success was too high.

“Uncle Wang said that when you came back from the Northern Frontier, your temperament changed. You did not like to see anyone, and did not care for anyone either” Chang Geng paused, took his hand and wrote, “Do you despise the former Emperor?”

Gu Yu unconsciously tried to reach for the wine bottle at his waist, but as he reached out, he remembered that he had decided to quit drinking. The bottle had not been on his body for a long time.

Gu Yun pursed his lips: “I don’t... Pour me a cup of tea.”

Chang Geng almost thought he had heard wrong.

Just after the siege of the capital was over, Gu Yun was wounded to the point of being unable to climb up, yet as soon as he opened his mouth, he immediately asked for a drink regardless. How come after one battle at the Northern Frontier, he now knew how to watch out for his health?

Although Chang Geng had always secretly complained about this drunkard, but not only was he not happy to see his sudden change of temperament, he instead felt terrified. He stood up and brewed Gu Yun a cup of spring tea. Once again, concerned and suspicious, he held Gu Yun’s wrist quietly, hating that he had not learned properly and was not able to come to a result with his check.

Although his eyes and ears were inconvenient, Gu Yun could still feel his nervousness and immediately realized he had left an opening. Chang Geng was too sensitive. If a person had been badly behaved all the time, he might as well continue to be worse. The people who followed him to clean up after were already used to it. On the contrary, his sudden change of temperament without warning would make people feel at a loss.

Gu Yun then drank the tea and licked his lips as if nothing had happened. “I don’t know where my wine bottle had fallen off to. Is there any self-brewed wine from Old Shen left from last time?”

This sentence sounded more like Gu Yun’s style. Turned out that he was thirsty after talking for a long time, Chang Geng was relieved and outright refused, “They are all out, drink tea instead.”

Gu Yun half-truthfully and half-falsely made a ‘tch’ sound, then something was pushed into his mouth, a sticky, sweet and greasy taste of glutinous rice filled his nose, Gu Yun leaned back: “What is it? I don’t want to eat... Uh...”

Chang Geng fed it to him by his mouth.

Gu Yun’s eyebrows crumpled. He was naturally born not fond of sweetness. The sweetness of tea and cake and Chang Geng caused him to choked up, but he did not spit it out. Like the egg noodles with eggshells many years ago, he ate them all and could feel the bitter taste from the too sweet bean paste filling.

Suddenly he was little uneasy, he felt that Chang Geng’s tiresome clinginess was quite unusual. The suspicion when hearing he did not drink wine was also unusual.

Due to the exhaustion of mentality, joy and sorrow often did not last long, usually only sparked for a short time, then either turning to numbness, or the parties themselves divert their attention, diluting these emotions instinctively in order to protect themselves.

Gu Yun said, “Chang Geng, give me the liuli glass.”

“No,” Chang Geng surrounded him similar to caging, asking relentlessly, “Why do you not despise him?”

His last question was both eager and indifferent. He was eager to get a ‘hate’ and ‘do not hate’ answer. It was as if as long as Gu Yun admitted to ‘hate’, he would then decide what actions he would take next.

The indifference was that he seemed to forget that the ‘former Emperor’ he spoke of was his father, casually mentioning it, as careless as mentioning a cat or a dog on the roadside.

Gu Yun was silent for a moment and asked, “What about you? Do you still hate Hu Ge Er?”

Chang Geng did not expect that he would throw back his own question at him. He blinked a little unexpectedly. If Gu Yun could see clearly at this time, he would find that although his eyes were not red, but he still faintly had double pupils.

Chang Geng righteously replied: “If she is still in front of me, I will definitely skin her. But she had died with no place to be buried. Even if I were to dig up her corpse and whipped it, it will still be in vain. No matter how much I hate her, there is no way to eliminate it. But instead, I will speed up the poisoning as she wished, right?”

These were by no means his sincere words. Even if Gu Yun was any more deaf, he could still realize this.

Gu Yun was about to speak when he suddenly felt the the person clinging to him jolted – the shock of sudden interruption and fright when he was absorbed in something.

Behind him came a gust wind, as if someone had knocked on the door of the study.

Gu Yun turned over and asked, “Is it Uncle Wang or Old Huo?”

The old housekeeper at the door raised his voice and shouted, “Marquis, it’s me. There are people from Ling Shu Institute looking for His Highness Yan Wang!”

Chang Geng’s double pupils shrank back. At first glance, they seemed to be stimulated by the strong light. He unconsciously let go of Gu Yun and showed the usual restraint, as if he just thought of something, a hint of bewilderment flashing on his face.

Gu Yun pretended not to notice: “If you are busy then go handle it, I haven’t had a proper meal for several days, I will go find something to eat, I don’t know what the hell you just stuffed into my mouth... making the acid water in my stomach raising up.”

Chang Geng was stunned at first. Then patted his forehead severely and rubbed his eyebrows with regret: “I... That... I am really...”

He stood up and said, “I will ask the kitchen to make something easy to digest for you first.”

Uncle Wang quickly said, “Yes, your servant will go now.”

As Chang Geng came to the door of his study, he seemed to remember something and searched himself. He found Gu Yun’s glass and returned it to him. The metal chain and the outer frame were warmed up by him. Chang Geng wiped the lens carefully and put it on Gu Yun’s nose. His eyes lingered on his face for a long time. Suddenly, he whispered, “Zi Xi, just...just now, I feel like I was dreaming.”

This was why he had acted that way.

Gu Yun was tossed about by him and his chatter for the entire noon. He was very angry as he heard this, wanting to bite back, “Let me give you a slap to see if you get hurt or not”.

Unexpectedly, before he could say it, Chang Geng had paused and stood up straight, he let out a bitter laugh ridiculing himself: “Even after growing so big, I have never had such a good dream, it would be nice if I do not have to wake up.”

Gu Yun: “...”

He had returned normal, Gu Yun could not bear to be scold him harshly. He felt that if this several more times, he will become just like the other. He had to put on an indistinguishable look and waved his hand shooing him away.

In the early summer of the eighth year of Long An, though General Gu repeatedly went against the Tai Sui* star, the national situation of Great Liang began to recover slowly after falling to the bottom of the valley. Like a long winter had passed by, fragments of buds began to emerge under the endless snow.

*it is believed that multiple disaster would befall someone if they went against the Tai Sui star, an imaginary star that is opposite of Jupiter

In the summer, the first thing was to settle the turmoil of the Western countries and sign the New Silk Road Treaty. The Black Iron Camp escorted the Ziliujin tribute from the Western Regions, to the capital.

At this point, Great Liang that was surrounded in all directions, finally broke out an opening.

Shen Yi and others had just arrived at the front foot, Ling Shu Institute had delivered good news.

Gu Yun’s large iron bow, which had never been promoted in the army, finally made a new breakthrough. Ge Chen, the rising star from a butcher’s family, was indeed a genius. He designed a new gold box, extremely portable and convenient. It could be mounted on the bow, perfectly controllable by human strength.

The bow which ordinary people could not pull had its string’s weight reduced by more than half. The iron bow could be shot effortlessly by human hands. The precision was very high, the iron arrow was thick and not easily affected by the wind. Once these bows were made on a large scale, the baihong will disappear in the Great Liang Army. The iron arrow could be added with the firearm system, after shot put, it could be accelerated for a second time, it could even explode in the enemy line with great power.

At the end of June, when the contradiction between Black Iron Camp’s covetousness of tigers and the Western countries became more and more prominent, the war situation on both sides of the North and the South was temporarily stabilized, and Great Liang was given a chance to breathe. As the whole court knew, the most urgent task at this time was to reassure the people, especially to settle the refugees in various parts due to the war.

But how should they rest and settle down?

It was impossible to distribute farm property to these refugees. No man would be so generous and righteous as to give his own land to others.

The Grand Council organized several meetings to summon the ministers to discuss, but never came to a conclusion, only collecting a bunch of bad ideas, such as sending the refugees to go open up the wasteland and so on. The Emperor of Long An was furious, scolding the bunches of ministers only sitting around: “Why don’t you round up the refugees and exile them to the Eastern Sea to imitate Jingwei*?”

*Jingwei is a bird from Chinese mythology who rounds up pebbles or twigs from the land and throws them to the Eastern Sea

Suddenly, Yan Wang of the Grand Council took the lead in silence and did not make a statement. Six ministries and local officials took the blame on each other and made quarrel in court. At this moment, Du Wan Quan and his thirteen giant merchants from all over the country sent their request, claiming that they were willing to follow the example of Westerners, setting up private factories everywhere, and gather refugees from all directions for work.

This did not require much land. At that time, Chang Geng’s money confiscated from the corrupt officials along the canal who did not make arrangement for the refugees would be enough. They also planned to use the farming puppets in Jiangnan as a model and assemble a group of non-governmental Mechanics to create a series machines for civil use.

With the distribution of the second batch of Feng Huo tickets, a force resembling an undercurrent gradually gathered in the court. When they were still dormant, at first glance, there was no faction at all. At this time, they began to promote this matter in secret: first giving some concessions to the first group of merchants who volunteered to come out to carry the Feng Huo tickets, for example, they could directly send their request to the Grand Council, with special approval granted by the Emperor, allowing them to purchase a certain amount of Ziliujin every year under the condition of guaranteeing military use.

This discount was first presented from the Ministry of Industry – Meng Juan, a humble scholar of Han Lin origin, stated in the discount that this was a plan of killing three birds with one arrow — this would not only solve the riots of refugees everywhere, but also showed that the court would not mistreat who had made merits, and that the money earned from selling Ziliujin at high price to these giants merchants could also be put into extra military and war supplies.

This stone stirred up a thousand waves. This time, some people in noble families with a keen sense of smell finally came back to their senses.

Gu Yun, who had not been in court for a long time, was lucky enough to get to listen in to the grand scene of how the court went against each other with swords and arrows. He was stunned, feeling that this place was more dangerous than the frontline.

Thirteen giant merchants wrote a paper, causing the contradiction between the scholar clan and the talented young ones who started from Han Lin to sharply intensify. At this time, the smart people have found the secret trade between the officials and businessmen. Some were even more sensitive. They have realized that the irresistible future of this new force would shake the essence of the scholar clan, and a sense of crisis arose quietly.

In the court, the supporters of the merchant groups sent accusations to the noble families – ‘forming into factions for selfish purposes, harming the country and the people’, ‘easier said than done’. What’s more, they even pointed at the other’s nose and scolded, “If you gentlemen have an idea, then let the refugees to go to your house to settle down”.

Several big noble families were red with anger and debated fiercely: “How can the merchants and businessmen ascend the hall of elegance”, “how can the most important thing of the nation like Ziliujin flow into private hands”. Finally, they simply said, “I don’t know how much bribes you gentlemen had accepted to act like family with those businessmen.”

Afterwards, the Marquis of Order who had not said a word causing the row of generals to looked at each other in silence, stood on the side watching the argument. At the end, the Grand Council had to step out to ease them up.

Gu Yun looked up at Emperor Long An and realized that Li Feng truly had grown old. He was only his thirties, yet there were already grey hairs all over, his expression ferocious and gloomy. For a moment, Gu Yun suddenly thought, “Perhaps that time when the capital was on the verge of being lost, if Li Feng on the red kite was struck down by a stray arrow, would that have been a better fate for him?”

Li Feng seemed to feel something. He happened to look up and met Gu Yun’s line of sight.

After the court was dismissed that day, Gu Yun was kept in the palace. Before the war, the two had fallen out to the point of turning away from another. After that, Gu Yun had been running everywhere to battle, his horse had never stopped. There was hardly any chance to meet in private.

Right now, they stood in the place they grew up together to have a few chat about the old days, feeling like it was separated by a lifetime.

Li Feng keeping Gu Yun behind was due to his momentary impulse. Only until they walked side by side in the flower garden did he discover there were no words he could say, it was undoubtedly embarrassing.

Just then, the Crown Prince came to greet them after school had been done.

Li Feng was not one to immerse in the inner palace, he did not have many children. The prince had just reached the age of eight. He had not yet begun to hit his growth spurt and still appeared very childish. He had a bit of restraint when meeting Li Feng, formally and obediently saying, “Royal Father.”

He then looked at Gu Yun carefully and hesitantly, he was a little eager to talk, but did not know who the man was.

Gu Yun smiled at him: “Your subject Gu Yun, greetings to Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince.”

The prince was shocked. There was no little boy who did not love to hear the story of grand heroes. Right now as he got to meet one in the flesh, on one hand, he was very excited, but on the other, he had to maintain the dignity of a prince in front of his father. His face blushed red, tumbling through his words: “General...General Gu! No... That... Grand Uncle does not have to be polite. I... I’ve also practiced my handwriting using Grand Uncle’s sample.”

Gu Yun’s expression was a little strange: “... Your Highness is very kind.”

The word ‘Grand Uncle’ had delivered an invisible blow on him, making him feel like he had grown a two foot long beard.

Li Feng waved back all the servants, leaving only the prince to accompany him. Nobody knew what he had talked with Gu Yun. The palace people only knew that the little prince seemed to have great affinity with the Marquis of Order, clinging to him and would not leave. Finally, he even fell asleep on Gu Yun’s shoulder and was sent back to the East Palace by the Marquis himself.

Before leaving, Emperor Long An had specifically asked Gu Yun to come to the palace, giving some advices to the prince if he had time.

The monarch and the subject had a pleasant conversation, the matter of the Emperor and the Marquis turning against each other, the centrifuge between military and political affairs seemed to be only a small ripple deliberately forgotten.

At this time, at an elegant private room in Wangnan Tower, Jiang Chong rushed in and took out a secret letter from his sleeve and handed it to Chang Geng: “Take a look at this, His Highness, our foundation in the court was not yet stable. This time, it seemed we are a little too hasty.”

It was a copy of a report. Jiang Chong said in a low voice: “This came from inside the palace. After the court was dismissed, several big families had gone through with Imperial Uncle, joining forces to send this report directly to the Emperor. I’m afraid they have planned this for a long time.”

Chang Geng took over the paper with an unchanged look: “Imperial Uncle Wang? Was his own bottom clean yet? During this period of war and turmoil, General Tan died in the capital. Does he feel that there is no one left to investigate him?”

Jiang Chong pressed his voice even lower: “Your Highness, Imperial Uncle Wang is from the mother side of the Empress Dowager, as long as there is no scheme for rebellion, the Emperor will not touch him... And who would dare to mention the incident that year? If using this as the reason to overthrow the Imperial Uncle, would the former Emperor not fall into the reputation of an incompetent ruler who was deceived by the villains and witches, killing loyal subjects? The Emperor would not deal with him because of this.”

Chang Geng quickly swept over the copied paper with a blank expression. Suddenly, he let out an ‘oh’.

Jiang Chong: “What is it?”

Chang Geng: “This does not seem like something that could come from Wang Guo. Whose creation is this?”

Jiang Chong: “Oh, this man has a very close relationship with Wang Ye. Didn’t Fang family use to intend to marry Wang Ye? The man who hid the knife behind his back is Miss Fang’s uncle, the current Minister of Household, was originally the first Zhangyuan* who was selected by the former Emperor in the eighteenth year of Yuan He. The only one who came first in all three examinations at the provincial capital, national capital, and the palace from the former dynasty, he truly was outstanding since childhood.

*top scorer in the Imperial examination

Since Fang Qin took over the position of the Minister of Household, everything was well-organized, well-coordinated with the Grand Council, there was never any hindrance. He could be said to be a capable minister. Unfortunately, the bottom decides the head. He was born in Fang’s family and was a representative for the Fang’s family. He was doomed to be a stumbling block for outstanding talent.

“The examiner for more than half of the court, unrivalled reputation.” Chang Geng tapped on the table gently. “Beneath the eaves of their lordships, swallows used to nest. It seems that it’s time for them to fly to the homes of ordinary people.*”

*Chang Geng was quoting/referencing the poem by Liu Yuxi, “Lane of Black-Gown Mansions”

Jiang Chong’s heart jumped when he was able make out the killing intent in what he had just said.

_____

Sorry for the delayed updates than usual ;_; I’ve been busy on my side with consecutive field works in far flung places, an upcoming conference, another field work next week, and lots of laboratory time. I’m on my thesis period in grad school, too ;_; Please hold on for a while, sorry again OTL

-Shy

To be Continued...

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