As the sun rose, the lamps that had burned all night were extinguished. Huaiyu cradled her two children in her arms and went to the door to see someone off. Qingxian and Bai’ai, clad in armor, silently followed behind her.
“Did you both decide to go to the capital with him voluntarily?” Huaiyu asked as they walked.
Of course, it wasn’t voluntary. Who wouldn’t want to stay by His Highness’s side a little longer? During the confinement period, Ziyang Jun had slyly used Qi Jin’s words to forbid them from visiting frequently. Now that the confinement was over, he shamelessly wanted to take them all to the front lines. How could anyone live like this?!
But His Highness was also someone who cared about the world. As men, how could they say they were unwilling to defend their country at this time? So, no matter how annoyed or resentful they felt, they both smiled and replied, “Voluntarily.”
Huaiyu was pleased. “It’s time for you to show your skills. Heroes emerge in troubled times. You two must not disgrace Feiyun Palace.”
“Yes!” Qingxian and Bai’ai responded in unison.
Jiang Xuanjin was already waiting at the door.
Dressed in silver armor, his dark hair was tied high. He held the hilt of his sword at his waist and looked back, his handsome features softening slightly when he saw the two people behind Li Huaiyu.
Huaiyu smiled and handed him one of the little ones. “Look, as soon as we said we were sending Daddy off, she hasn’t slept and has been wide awake.”
The little ones were best at crying at night and sleeping during the day, but the sister was more sensible than the brother. After hearing her mother talk about sending Daddy off, her little eyes, like black grapes, stayed open.
Taking his daughter into his arms, Jiang Xuanjin’s expression softened. “Aren’t you going to name them yet?”
“No rush, let’s stick with their nicknames for now,” Huaiyu laughed. “They sound pretty good.”
Jiang Xuanjin’s brow twitched. “Pretty good?”
“Don’t you think so?” Huaiyu looked down at her son in the swaddle and affectionately called out, “Little Rascal~”
Jiang Xuanjin: “…”
He didn’t mind his son’s nickname being “Rascal,” but naming their daughter “Trouble” seemed a bit much. What kind of mother would do that to her child?
“Hey, don’t be picky,” Huaiyu glared. “There’s a folk belief that the worse the nickname, the easier the child is to raise. Look at our Little Rascal and Little Trouble; they haven’t given me much trouble since they were born, have they?”
Indeed, they hadn’t. After all, once she fell asleep, she was dead to the world, and it was he and the wet nurse who was woken up in the middle of the night.
Taking a deep breath, Jiang Xuanjin kissed Little Trouble and then handed her back to the wet nurse.
“I want one too,” Huaiyu pointed to her face with her index finger.
With the troops ready to depart and many people watching, Jiang Xuanjin coughed twice. “Don’t be silly.”
Huaiyu pouted, her lips jutting out, but seeing so many people around and the heavy armor he wore, she thought better of it and stepped back.
However, before she could complete her step, he leaned down, wrapped his arm around her neck, and quickly brushed his lips against hers.
“Let’s go,” Jiang Xuanjin commanded as he mounted his horse.
The people around them began to move, organizing the troops and marching out. Qingxian and Bai’ai bowed to Huaiyu before blending into the crowd.
The pale purple banners fluttered in the wind, and the people under them sat tall on their horses.
Li Huaiyu stood there, watching him, watching that familiar back grow smaller and smaller until it became a dot in the dim morning light.
“Don’t be sad, he’ll be back soon,” Xu Chuniang softly comforted her.
Huaiyu nodded. “I know, I’m not sad.”
Xu Chuniang, with a complex expression, dabbed at the tears on Huaiyu’s face with a handkerchief and gently said, “Yes, Your Highness is the strongest.”
Her heart ached, and Huaiyu squatted down, holding Little Rascal. She looked at the hoofprints on the road in front of the door, choking up.
She wasn’t sad, just a little scared. She had grown accustomed to being with him every day. Without him, she might not sleep well.
Somehow, before marrying him, she had lived alone for over twenty years, but now, being alone again made her feel anxious.
It would get better gradually, she thought. She had many things to do herself and would soon be too busy to think about him.
In the ninth year of Daxing, in early May, Ziyang Jun personally led fifty thousand troops to confront Western Liang. Marching from the frontline city to Huaidong, he absorbed thirty thousand scattered soldiers. By the time of the official confrontation, Ziyang’s forces numbered nearly a hundred thousand.
“That’s a bit shameless!” Liu Yunlie cursed as he read the battle report. “Did he recruit soldiers with his face?!”
A subordinate nervously reported, “Many patriots among the people have joined Ziyang Jun, saying that in these troubled times, only Ziyang is willing to resist foreign invaders.”
Jiang Xuanjin’s good reputation over the years hadn’t been tarnished by a single rebellion. Instead, it had deepened during this battle against Western Liang.
Liu Yunlie was a bit panicked. Although he didn’t have to go to the battlefield, just thinking about Jiang Xuanjin made him uneasy.
“What about the Emperor?” he asked. “I need an imperial edict to execute Jiang Xuanjin to rally the feudal lords here to help.”
The subordinate trembled and vaguely replied, “The Left Deputy General has been watching over him. I don’t know.”
Hearing this, Liu Yunlie felt something was wrong and hurried to the palace to check.
The quiet palace looked the same from the outside, but inside, palace servants lay scattered on the ground, and the palace housing Li Huailin and Consort Ning were empty.
“What happened?!” Liu Yunlie roared.
The Left Deputy General, pale-faced, said, “I was just about to report… His Majesty… is missing.”
Missing?! Liu Yunlie turned and shouted, “Then send people to find him!”
“We’re already… already searching,” the Left Deputy General bowed his head. “But His Majesty seemed to have prepared for this, deceiving the guards outside into lowering their guard. I… I am truly powerless.”
Liu Yunlie was furious. At this critical moment, Li Huailin had run away. How was he supposed to explain this to Western Liang?
In the vast palace, with such meticulously arranged guards, how did he manage to escape?!
Li Huailin, with Ning Wanwei, escaped to Yongzhou Fengyi under the cover of Feng Yijun. Knowing Liu Yunlie’s treacherous intentions, he issued an edict upon arrival, grandly declaring two main points:
1. The chaos in the world was due to the rebellion of Ziyang Jun, Liu Yunlie, and others.
2. He called on all feudal lords to resist the Western Liang army together.
With only a few thousand loyal soldiers left, he could only issue such empty words. However, issuing them was better than not, and everyone collectively ignored the “Ziyang Jun’s rebellion” part, branding Liu Yunlie as a traitor.
Thus, Northern Wei entered its most chaotic year in history, with heroes rising everywhere and war raging. Jiang Xuanjin, with fierce momentum, entered the battle circle, strategizing and decisively pushing back the Western Liang army by three hundred miles, then confronting Liu Yunlie.
“In the past, when we met, we were both going to support the king. I saved him once, and he saved me, so we became life-and-death friends,” Liu Yunlie sat in the tent, holding a wine cup and laughing. “This time, when we meet again, we’re both rebels. It’s either him or me.”
The qin player strummed a mournful tune, but Liu Yunlie laughed heartily, downed his wine, donned his armor, and stepped out.
Meeting an old friend in a foreign land, he couldn’t afford to lose this battle, no matter what.