Zhangsun put down her embroidery and was helped up by a maid. She said to Yun Ye, “Accompany me for a walk in the garden. His Majesty will see you shortly.”
“Your subject came to pay respects to Your Majesty, not to see His Majesty. His Majesty handles ten thousand affairs daily. A small person like your subject should not disturb him.” Yun Ye was now thoroughly fed up with Li Er. With so many famous ministers and brave generals at court, he refused to use them, instead pushing a nobody like himself to the forefront. If this matter went even slightly wrong, the Yun family faced the danger of complete ruin.
“You’re dissatisfied with His Majesty?” Zhangsun was always like this, constantly misinterpreting the meaning in others’ words.
“How would your subject dare? Thunder and rain alike are Heaven’s grace. Your subject, being His Majesty’s hands, feet, and claws, naturally should charge into battle for His Majesty. From the first day of donning official robes, your subject has had this awareness. Your Majesty worries too much.” He hastily explained—harboring resentment was a great taboo for subjects.
“‘Thunder and rain alike are Heaven’s grace’? That’s a fresh phrase. It complements perfectly with your drunken wild words, ‘Heaven bore my talents for a purpose; a thousand gold pieces scattered will return again.’ One shows loyal devotion, the other unrestrained wildness. Yun Ye, which one is really you?” Zhangsun admired the bare garden. With no flowers to pick, she could only pluck a holly leaf, pretended to smell it, then casually tossed it aside and continued questioning Yun Ye.
“You believe drunken ramblings? Your subject has always been loyally devoted. For the Great Tang’s realm, even facing axes and blades, I would die nine times without regret.” Say what’s appropriate for each occasion, and from time to time express one’s loyalty to the Great Tang—this was a required course for subjects. Those in power loved hearing this. Having been educated by Li Gang for so long, Yun Ye had long since learned it.
“Loyalty is a good thing. It allows one to live long, the family to prosper for generations, descendants to extend for ten thousand generations. Yun Ye, when other subjects say such things, I only feel joy. Why is it that when you say them, no matter how I listen, it sounds wrong?”
Zhangsun’s elegant eyebrows were nearly standing upright, her teeth grinding audibly. This was a sign of Zhangsun’s fury about to erupt. She never concealed her temperament before Yun Ye. If it were other subjects, maintaining an impassive expression would pose not the slightest difficulty for her. One must know that after the Xuanwu Gate Incident, the order for the palace’s great purge came from that rosy little mouth of hers. Hundreds and thousands of heads fell, yet her expression never changed. Could a few of Yun Ye’s words make her lose composure?
He had no choice but to produce some real goods. Yun Ye bowed deeply.
“Your subject lives as a person of the Great Tang, dies as a ghost of the Great Tang. Even if reincarnated, I hope to still be a Tang person. On the grasslands, when your subject saw fallen soldiers, my heart ached to its core. I deeply hated my own incompetence for having no way to save their lives. When the Grand Commander braved extreme cold to raid Xie Li below the Yin Mountains, during those days waiting for news, your subject couldn’t swallow food or sleep peacefully. The sound of the watchman’s clappers at the camp stockade made your subject think many times that it was news of the army’s return. I’d dress and rise, come outside the tent ready to cheer for them—who knew the army still had no news? Only the bright moon overhead had shifted slightly eastward.”
“Does Your Majesty know? At that time, your subject wished I could grow wings and fly to the Yin Mountains. The torment of waiting seemed far more painful to your subject than fierce battlefield combat. Your subject inspected the sentry posts over and over again. This wasn’t your subject’s duty, yet your subject did it for ten full days. Zhang Gongjin said if I dared steal his work again, he’d order me killed, saying that I, an idle person, was more diligent than him, the great general—truly intolerable. Your subject knew this wasn’t good, but when the clappers sounded, I would still dress and sit up, continuing my inspections.”
“Later, when the army returned victorious, your subject happily rolled in the snow and piled up a huge snowman wearing a red hat to celebrate for the soldiers. Who knew—the people came back, but the procession that stretched three miles going out had shortened considerably on return. I went forward and asked where the others were—were they still behind, not yet returned? I planned to cook lots of mutton to welcome them.”
“The squad leader at the front looked at me like I was an idiot. After a long while, he said one sentence: ‘They’re gone. The brothers are all here. Those who didn’t return—they can’t return.’ Your subject sat in the snow and wept bitterly. The wild joy from moments before vanished instantly. We had won, but many people had also died. At that moment, I wished I could devour Xie Li alive.”
“Daoist Sun kicked me several times, forbidding me to cry, telling me to put away my worthless tears. The soldiers who returned still needed us to treat their wounds.”
“Your Majesty, you couldn’t imagine—the first thing the soldiers did upon returning to camp wasn’t to celebrate, but to lie in the warm tents and sleep soundly. Your subject held sharp knives and saws, examining their bodies. Seeing frostbitten parts, I could only cut them off with knives and saws. Laughably, while I was amputating their fingers and toes, they continued sleeping.”
Speaking to this point, Yun Ye choked up and couldn’t continue. Tears streamed down his face. Zhangsun was also crying. The eunuchs and palace maids nearby also wept uncontrollably. Clearing his throat, Yun Ye continued: “I walked from tent to tent, feeling like a butcher—not coming to treat their illnesses and injuries, but to carve meat from their bodies. This work, your subject did for a full day and night. Daoist Sun also worked for a full day and night. Over a hundred auxiliary soldiers also worked for a full day and night. Even Grand Commander Li Jing had quite a large piece of flesh cut off by your subject. His ankle was almost visible to the bone.”
Having finished speaking—why was there no response? Looking again at Zhangsun and the others, they were crying in complete disarray. Zhangsun sat in a chair moved over by a eunuch, sobbing convulsively.
Emotional expression was both physically and mentally draining. Yun Ye plopped down on the ground, drawing circles while waiting for Zhangsun to emerge from her sorrow. These people deep in the palace should also know what kind of cruel existence the battlefield was, lest they get excited whenever they heard about war.
“Only those who can eat plain food may taste delicacies; only those who can dwell in noisy markets may tour famous mountains; only those who can endure torment may handle meritorious fame. These soldiers risked their lives, crawled on ice and lay in snow. The court naturally won’t treat them poorly. Those with merit receive rewards, those with faults receive punishment. This is the Great Tang’s rule.”
Zhangsun actually imitated Li Er by clasping her hands behind her back and pacing back and forth. With her four or five month pregnant belly protruding, she indeed had several parts of Li Er’s bearing.
“The soldiers earned merit through countless battles and are naturally grateful. Your subject also has some small merit—I wonder what kind of reward there will be?”
Yun Ye looked expectantly at Zhangsun. This couple discriminated extremely against Yun Ye. When others achieved merit the size of a needle’s eye, they never stinted on rewards. The merit Yun Ye achieved, they would always purse their lips and forget completely in the blink of an eye. He had to ask clearly. Even if he couldn’t increase his rank, issuing a few taels of silver would be good. Li Yuan had pursued the debt all the way to the battlefield—he was waiting to repay it.
Sure enough, Zhangsun took out her handkerchief and gently wiped the corner of her eye. Looking down at Yun Ye sitting on the ground, her reddened eyes began radiating resentment again. She said to Yun Ye: “Of course there will be rewards for merit. But first you must explain to this Empress about the moon business.”
“What moon business? Your subject doesn’t understand!” One sentence left Yun Ye stunned.
“Playing dumb, are you? This Empress asks you—Grand Commander Li Jing set out at the beginning of the month. Where did a bright moon hanging in the sky come from then? When the army launched their raid, instead of choosing a dark and windy night, they picked a full moon night—was Li Jing foolish, or is this Empress easier to deceive? The military report clearly has the characters ‘second day’ written on it. Do you think this Empress hasn’t read the military reports?”
“Your Majesty’s discernment is clear! Your subject merely wanted to enhance the atmosphere a bit, apply rhetorical techniques with slightly more force, express my worry for the country and people. Your Majesty must not hold it against your subject. How about your subject changes it to ‘stars filling the sky’?”
He’d forgotten that before him was a monster-level figure. Crying her heart out yet still having the mood to parse words—with this, the grasslands trip was wasted.
“You made a huge fortune on the grasslands. I hear you had so much money it fell from your wagons. The auxiliary soldiers accompanying you each carried dozens of strings of cash on their backs. And you still have the nerve to ask for rewards? While soldiers fought desperately at the front, you, this profiteer, made money in the rear. You bought the soldiers’ spoils of war for a few wen each, hoarded everything, then hauled it to Chang’an and resold it for tens or hundreds of times the profit. You even used the banner of sending money home for the soldiers while earning their money. Do you have any conscience at all?”
Yun Ye could confirm that the Great Tang’s Empress was suffering from pink eye disease. Look how her two eyeballs were red—absolutely unrelated to her earlier crying. It was all driven by silver. Needless to say, the Great Tang’s treasury could now starve mice to death. There were disasters to relieve, wars to fight, and Li Er was also considering building palaces. Under such circumstances, if a money-making business forgot the great Empress, no matter how profitable, she would make you lose even your pants. Though the Yun family didn’t care, He Shao was also a good person. He couldn’t be allowed to go bankrupt and then come to the Yun family to freeload.
He pulled out a document from his chest and presented it to Zhangsun with both hands. Two-tenths would be extracted from Yun Ye’s share, two-tenths from He Shao’s share. Originally, He Shao wanted to compress his own share to two-tenths, letting the imperial family exclusively occupy five-tenths, but Yun Ye strictly forbade it. Control must remain in the hands of the Yun and He families. If control was in imperial hands, one ignorant steward would completely ruin the business.
“Why does this person called Huang Shi only occupy four-tenths while you two families occupy six-tenths? This isn’t fair.” For someone who wouldn’t even let go of the small profits from silver shops, the enormous numbers on the document made her eyes blur. Huang Shi was the imperial house. When the document was drafted, it was written this way. Though not using the real name, Zhangsun didn’t worry someone would embezzle her silver—she was just dissatisfied with the division.
“Your Majesty, such division is precisely to ensure this person called Huang Shi always makes money. His expenses are large—the profits can be divided more, this is inevitable. But this person called Huang Shi absolutely cannot participate in the business, or everyone will make no money.”
“You’re certain that if Huang Shi doesn’t participate in the business, your business will be better? Not worse?” Zhangsun was somewhat puzzled.
“Originally, your subject had full confidence in Huang Shi. Later, after having someone study several businesses Huang Shi manages, I concluded that those stewards managing business for Huang Shi—if they were in the Yun family, they’d have long since been chopped into mincemeat and fed to dogs. With such a group of wastrel stewards, that Huang Shi’s family hasn’t gone begging—as for his family’s profound foundation, your subject admires it immensely.”
Zhangsun’s chest heaved violently, her face flushed red. With one swipe, she overturned the cheese a maid had just brought up, making the distant eunuchs and palace maids tremble in fear, not knowing why the usually peaceful Empress was now in such a terrible temper.
“You believe those stewards, aside from occupying a position, are completely useless?” Zhangsun asked Yun Ye in a shrill voice.
“Your Majesty, you could find one shop and replace the steward with a dog. Just let it sit quietly in the room while the shop assistants do everything else. Two months later, Your Majesty will discover this dog has earned you quite a bit of money.”