Chapter 01: Horse Bandits

When the carriage traveled across the desolate grasslands, Yun Ye truly felt that spring had arrived. Everywhere, babbling brooks flowed across the prairie. The warm spring sunshine melted the white winter garments from the distant mountains, bringing abundant water sources to the grasslands. This year would be a good year—after the grasslands endured a white disaster, the following year was always prosperous.

Not everyone appreciated beautiful scenery. He Shao was loudly cursing the damned spring on the grasslands. His ox cart had fallen into a swamp again, and the pitiful ox struggled desperately to no avail. Greedy He Shao had loaded his ox cart too high and too full—if possible, he wouldn’t even want to spare the grasshoppers on the prairie. The Guanzhong auxiliary soldiers, covered in mud from head to toe, shouted work chants as they hauled the ox cart out of the mire. Without even resting, they continued onward. Everyone wanted to leave the grasslands as soon as possible. The frozen earth was beginning to thaw, and stepping on the ground felt as soft as walking on thick carpet. They’d heard that every year, cattle and sheep became trapped in swamps, and if luck ran out, people would be in trouble too—in the blink of an eye, a person could vanish. This damned place—the sooner they left, the safer they’d be.

Li Jing’s four-wheeled carriage displayed incomparable superiority. Just for pulling the cart, there were four horses. The rotating axle shaft easily converted forces from all directions into forward momentum, moving both lightly and steadily. Inside the carriage there were no seats, only a bed couch. Li Jing reclined against fur cushions, gazing out the window at the grasslands. The deep furrow between his brows, which had appeared last night, still hadn’t smoothed out. Yun Ye’s reckless move had completely disrupted his arrangements. The conspiracy had ended before it even began.

“The sea accepts all rivers, and tolerance is greatness; a cliff stands a thousand ren tall, and having no desires makes one strong”—this phrase was what Yun Ye had told him before departure. He liked this saying, but he didn’t like Yun Ye’s attitude. That brat had arrogantly used the tone of a sage to console him, causing Li Jing, whose heart had long been as calm as an ancient well, to feel an evil fire rising from his dantian. “Boy, acting like a master in front of this old man—I’ll let you know what a true master really is.”

Yun Ye lay on his back in an ox cart, hands pillowed behind his head. Since arriving in this world, he could never get enough of looking at the blue sky and white clouds here. Whenever he had leisure time, he never passed up an opportunity to appreciate them.

A horse had appeared in the southern sky, raising its head to neigh, as if calling to companions behind it. Yun Ye was just about to wake Cheng Chumo, who was sleeping beside him, to appreciate this steed formed from white clouds together, when suddenly, it seemed a fierce wind was blowing in the high heavens. The robust and powerful stallion instantly transformed into a fat pig—and an ugly, strange-looking fat pig at that. The long pig snout grew longer and longer, finally becoming some kind of monster-like existence. The wind continued blowing, and that monster gradually merged into the large clouds, until its shape could no longer be discerned.

Na Rimu’s singing seemed to still linger in his ears. That foolish woman had treated their parting as a joke, as if Yun Ye wasn’t returning to distant Chang’an, but merely visiting a neighbor’s house, to return when darkness fell.

Yun Ye started with alarm. That foolish woman might truly not know how far Chang’an was from here. If he didn’t return tonight, she would really cry—cry very loudly. Why was he worrying about her instead of worrying about Xinyue, from whom he’d been separated for more than half a year? He touched the silk pouch in his bosom—it was still there. The soft silk pouch was stuffed full with Xinyue’s elastic hair, bulging outward. Pressing it down gently and releasing, it would spring back up. After more than half a year, aside from being somewhat dirty, the shape of this pouch hadn’t changed in the slightest.

Just as the hair’s elasticity hadn’t diminished, when had Yun Ye’s heart ever changed? Xinyue was his wife—keeping her in his heart was enough. What did constantly mentioning her aloud accomplish? The two still had decades together. The more plain the affection, the more enduring it was. Walking hand in hand through decades of ordinariness was more flavorful than momentarily earth-shattering love.

Li Jing in the carriage must be extremely depressed right now. His carefully prepared plan had died in the womb—that wouldn’t feel good for anyone. He didn’t understand—all Han people were not on Yun Ye’s enemy list. Whether good or bad, as long as they didn’t interfere with him, Yun Ye planned to face everyone with a smile. There was no need to insist on destroying anyone. These were all the Han people left. Now even the Emperor was of barbarian blood. If their own people kept killing each other, extinction wouldn’t be far off.

Perhaps the grassland sky had cleansed Yun Ye’s originally not-so-broad heart. Things that could once make his hair stand on end in rage, he had now learned to laugh off. Previously, he couldn’t comprehend the verses of the two monks Hanshan and Shide, but now he understood. Those who slander me, defame me, and curse me—don’t pay them any mind. In a few more years, look at them again. Those bastards who cursed me, kicked me, trampled me—in another thirty years, even if I stick my rear end out, you won’t be able to kick it anymore, will you?

Lost in these rambling thoughts, Yun Ye, accompanied by Cheng Chumo’s snoring in the warm sunlight, also fell asleep.

A loud whistle jolted Yun Ye and Cheng Chumo awake from their slumber. They saw a large group of people surge out from the hill ahead, holding swords and spears. Several burly men on horseback shouted loudly as they charged down from the mountain, their long sabers flashing brilliantly in the sunlight.

Horse bandits? Yun Ye and Cheng Chumo exchanged glances. Were there actually bandits daring enough to rob an army? Couldn’t these people see the thousand cavalrymen up ahead?

“Ye Zi, there’s no cavalry. The cavalry has run off somewhere. Right now we’re nothing but a damned merchant caravan,” Cheng Chumo said to Yun Ye after standing on the ox cart and looking forward.

“Where did those cavalrymen go? You should know they’re the guards escorting the Grand Commander. If anything happens to the Grand Commander, not one of them can expect to live,” Yun Ye also turned back to look for the cavalry, and indeed saw no trace of them. Those horse bandits were still charging toward the convoy. Even without cavalry, these auxiliary soldiers were all men who’d come down from battlefields. They’d spent more than a year or two licking blood from blade edges. Seeing the chaotic bandits, they showed no disorder whatsoever, merely drawing their weapons together and protecting the convoy at their backs.

The familiar buzzing sound rang out. The leading bandit suddenly had a long spear burst through his back, bringing up a great spray of fresh blood. Immediately, the man was lifted up by the powerful impact, while his masterless warhorse continued charging forward.

The remaining bandits cried out loudly, shouting something incomprehensible—seemingly words like “big brother.” Cheng Chumo didn’t even put on armor. Grabbing his long saber, he jumped down from the ox cart, completely ignoring Yun Ye’s curses behind him.

Crossbow bolts continued to shoot forth. With every twang of a bowstring, a life was taken. How could this rabble match the auxiliary soldiers? Cheng Chumo and the head guard from Old Niu’s household, each wielding a long saber, charged left and right through the bandit group, while auxiliary soldiers around them used bows and arrows to shoot down the fleeing bandits one by one.

In just the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, the bandits were slaughtered clean. Among the auxiliary soldiers, only two were wounded—no other losses.

While taking a headcount, someone called out, “Where’s Gou Zi?” Only then did everyone realize that Gou Zi, who had just been eager to fight and kill, had disappeared. The veteran auxiliary soldiers rushed to the pile of corpses to search, thinking Gou Zi had already fallen in battle. They turned over all the bodies but found no trace of him. How could a perfectly fine living person just fly away?

“Maybe he deserted under fire. A coward like that—we shouldn’t bother with him,” someone in the crowd voiced a different opinion.

The veteran auxiliary soldier rolled his eyes—showing more white than black—and glanced at the speaker. The auxiliary troop immediately fell silent as crows. The veteran’s prestige was quite high among these men.

“Send scouts out three li in a circling search for Gou Zi,” the veteran auxiliary ordered the mounted soldiers. Immediately, five riders dispersed in all directions.

Taking advantage of the search, Yun Ye came to Li Jing’s carriage to ask about the whereabouts of those thousand cavalrymen.

Li Jing’s entire body was buried in piles of fur. He said lazily to Yun Ye, “This old man ordered that thousand cavalry to proceed to Yunzhong and await orders. What else do you have to ask?”

“Grand Commander, you’ve sent away all the escort soldiers. How can the convoy’s safety be guaranteed? Moreover, the convoy includes you, Tang Jian, Daoist Sun, Xu Jingzong, and the others. If anything goes wrong, even dying ten thousand times wouldn’t be enough to atone for this boy’s sins.” Yun Ye was nearly mad with frustration. Even if you wanted to dismiss the soldiers, at least tell me first! This time it was fortunately just bandits—if it had been remnants of the Turks, the convoy would have been in danger.

“What damned danger? Yunzhong is what’s dangerous. When this old man campaigned on the grasslands, I emptied Yunzhong of troops. Right now it’s just an empty city. If the Western Turks want to grab territory and accidentally grab Yunzhong, that would be a major incident. How can your little convoy be as important as Yunzhong? This old man has observed that the auxiliary soldiers you hired are all experienced in battle. Small bands of thieves shouldn’t concern you. Coming here to speak inauspicious words to me—scram! Just fell asleep and got woken up. Show some consideration for an old man.” Muttering and grumbling these words, he buried his body back into the pile of furs and continued sleeping.

On the hill, Gou Zi was desperately shouting and waving his hands. Yun Ye and Cheng Chumo mounted horses and galloped toward the hill. Rounding the foot of the mountain, Yun Ye drew in a sharp breath. Behind the hill lay a carpet of corpses. Judging by their dress, they were all Persian merchants, along with several naked Hu dancing girls huddled together trembling.

Under Gou Zi’s foot lay a blood-faced man, his mouth being trampled by Gou Zi’s foot, mumbling something incomprehensible.

Without needing to be told, Yun Ye understood. These bandits had just robbed and slaughtered this Persian merchant caravan, then discovered Yun Ye’s group. With the mindset that herding one sheep or two sheep was the same effort, they’d planned to finish off Yun Ye’s group as well for a good profit. They hadn’t expected to encounter a tough target and were completely annihilated. Gou Zi had discovered this place while chasing a fleeing bandit.

Signaling Gou Zi to move his foot, Yun Ye intended to question this bandit. Gou Zi didn’t remove his foot, saying to Yun Ye, “My lord, this fellow has an extremely foul mouth. If I lift my foot, he’ll insult you. How can you allow a horse bandit to humiliate you?”

“It’s fine, Gou Zi. If he dares utter even one foul word, I’ll skin him alive and pull out his tendons,” Yun Ye said with furrowed brows.

The moment Gou Zi lifted his foot, the man prostrated himself on the ground, kowtowing continuously while begging for his life.