The fleet traveled westward along the canal. The people on the ships gradually increased while the cargo gradually decreased. At each major port, some merchants in green clothes and small caps would take away goods. Especially in Luoyang, all the cargo vanished without a trace. The Great Tang Dynasty’s policy of tacitly permitting merchant expansion in recent years was gradually showing results. Such large quantities of goods thrown into the market disappeared silently without even raising a ripple.
Many high officials and nobles came aboard the ships, all uniformly fourth-rank officials. However, many brought their families and shrank into their cabins without showing their faces. Leading them was Left Vice Minister of Rites Cen Wenben. Each official only greeted Yun Ye before hastily taking their leave, as if Yun Ye had contracted leprosy. Not one was willing to say an extra word.
Yun Ye didn’t care. He had people arrange things for them, then paid them no further attention, while the fleet continued drifting slowly along the canal.
The naval soldiers all had their own accounts at the money house. Though they didn’t see bright shining coins to show off in their hands, workers from the Luoyang money house brought a large box of flimsy paper slips to distribute to each soldier.
“Big Brother Zhang, this is my eighty guan?” A young soldier lying in a hammock asked the veteran beside him who was preparing his pack. He could not in any way connect this paper slip with the hundred-some pounds of copper coins it represented.
“Er’nao, put away your deposit slip carefully. Don’t lose it. This thing is your proof for withdrawing money. Although if you lose it, others won’t know your number and can’t withdraw the money, wouldn’t it still be troublesome for you to go to the adjutant to have documents drawn up? Remember your number well. Don’t you dare forget it. If you forget, you won’t be able to withdraw the money. Don’t worry—if the commander says he’ll give you eighty guan, it’s eighty guan. Although when withdrawing money there’ll be a few hundred wen less, that’s also the fee for them helping you store the copper coins. Stop dawdling. Get up and pack. The ship is about to reach the Wei River. We’re home.”
“I won’t forget my own birth date and time! Big Brother Zhang, this time returning home, Shuanzi is gone. How do we explain to Shuanzi’s father? Three of us went out together, only the two of us are coming back. No matter how I think about it, it doesn’t feel right.”
“What’s so hard to explain? We went to fight a war, not take a leisurely trip. In war, people die. Shuanzi had bad luck—the ash bottles burned his whole body. Even if he’d lived, it would have been suffering. Death was better. Didn’t this still earn merit for his family? There’s also thirty guan. Only our Lingnan Navy people’s lives are worth thirty guan. In other military units, a life is worth just the price of a donkey. Shuanzi still has four younger siblings. The old folks won’t lack someone to care for them in their old age.”
The young soldier irritably shook his head, jumped down from the hammock, and also began packing his belongings. The commander had said that after returning this time, everyone would have fifteen days of leave.
Yun Ye was absolutely not the only one who, returning from brutal battle, felt timid about approaching home. If no one had died, Yun Ye would have arrogantly entered Chang’an to show off. Now, looking at the mountain of ash jars piled on the deck, he had no inclination whatsoever to show off. He had even instructed Liu Renyuan to lower the “Yun” character command flag from the bow, fold it neatly, wrap it up, and have Liu Jinbao pack it in his bag. This flag had been embroidered stitch by stitch by Xinyue. Now it had been somewhat faded by the sun and had two or three large holes in it—shot by the eight-ox crossbows on Daewang Castle.
The Goryeo people were strange. They didn’t shoot at the dense masses of people below the city walls, but instead had their few precious eight-ox crossbows endlessly chase and shoot at his command flag.
Yun Ye wasn’t with his command flag. The one holding the flag had always been Liu Jinbao. The Lingnan Navy all knew their commander wasn’t under the flag—the orders they heard all came from Liu Fang behind them. The soldiers all knew their commander couldn’t fight battles. This was crystal clear to everyone from officers to common soldiers. Each of their actions was implemented only after all the captains plus Old Master Liu discussed it together. So it wasn’t strange for the commander’s flag to appear anywhere. Although it was surprising that the command flag was actually together with the府兵 at the very front, there was nothing to worry about. The flag bearer was an expert who could still dodge the eight-ox crossbow bolts shot from a distance.
The Lingnan Navy was different from all other armies of the Great Tang. The squad leaders were the ones who truly controlled the army’s charges and assaults. Often the captains wouldn’t be on the front lines—their advisory role was greater than their assault role. Of course, Lai Chuanfeng and his three companions were exceptions. Unaccustomed to and unwilling to shrink back like cowardly turtles, in this campaign the four of them suffered the most serious injuries. Of course, their rewards were also the heaviest.
Yun Ye had always wanted to gather all the Lingnan Navy’s squad leaders for the most systematic military education. He had even selected the teacher—Liu Fang. But things turned out contrary to his wishes. Liu Fang was unwilling to teach, and the squad leaders were unwilling to learn.
One felt his knowledge couldn’t be spread until everyone in the world knew it—if one or two scourges appeared in the future, he would be implicated. If they weren’t from prominent families, he would die before teaching them. The others felt they were just knife-wielding fighters—couldn’t recognize a bushel of characters. Study military tactics? They’d be laughed at.
Damn it, one self-importantly aloof, the others willingly degenerate. Yun Ye had no solution at all. Walking to the bow, seeing those squad leaders who avoided him when walking, he went up and kicked them. This was no longer about loving to kick people—really, without kicking them a few times, he couldn’t do justice to his painstaking efforts.
Lady Ronghua stood by the ship’s rail, gazing at the black wall on the horizon and asking Yun Ye: “Marquis Yun, is that Chang’an City? I’ve only heard people mention it countless times. I never imagined I’d have the day to see it with my own eyes.”
“Yes, that’s Chang’an. But there’s nothing to envy. Don’t you Goryeo people also have a Chang’an City? I heard that city is big enough to pen several thousand sheep.”
Lady Ronghua had long grown accustomed to Yun Ye’s cold mockery and sarcasm. She looked obsessively at the approaching city walls without speaking.
From ancient times to the present, super cities have always left deep impressions on people, let alone someone like Lady Ronghua, a barbarian from the wilderness. Facing the endless white sails on the canal and the densely packed crowds at the docks, she was already too astonished to speak. Not to mention those towering high city walls that had already pressed heavily on her heart.
“Throughout the city flowers fly, blown by wind to whose home? Autumn and winter chase spring and summer, Chang’an is my home.” Seeing country bumpkin Lady Ronghua gazing obsessively at Chang’an, Yun Ye’s poetic inspiration surged, and he casually composed a five-character verse.
Cen Wenben, who had hitched a ride from Luoyang, sighed and said to Yun Ye: “Marquis Yun, can you not properly polish your diction a bit more? This poem’s artistic conception and momentum are both very good. Why can’t you refine it more carefully? This old man believes that if you just pondered it a bit more, this ‘Ancient Thoughts of Chang’an’ would be another masterpiece.”
“Old Cen, since you boarded the ship, I’ve been wanting to ask you—why don’t you take your own official ships instead of crowding onto a troop transport? Besides, you’re not old. ‘This old man’ on the left, ‘this old man’ on the right—isn’t that uncomfortable?”
“Marquis Yun, haven’t you heard of the saying about borrowing fortune? If you hadn’t returned victorious this time, who would be in the mood to bring their families onto your troop transport?”
“Borrowing fortune? Borrowing what fortune?” Yun Ye scratched his head, asking Cen Wenben in puzzlement.
“This time in my Goryeo, Marquis Yun burned, killed, plundered, and committed every evil, yet suffered little loss yourself. So everyone believes you were blessed with great fortune this time, enabling you to escape unscathed. This is a kind of blessing. These people boarding the ship all want to borrow some good fortune. Some want to use the ship’s boundless aura of slaughter to dispel their own bad luck. This is called borrowing fortune. But who pities the grief of my Goryeo people? Beisha City turned to scorched earth, Daewang Castle became a realm of ghosts. Marquis Yun is covered in fresh blood, so naturally ghosts and spirits keep their distance. This subject here wishes Marquis Yun nobility for ten thousand generations, prosperity for all ages.”
Cen Wenben was furious. Though he himself disliked Yun Ye’s atrocities, such matters were only suitable for criticism behind closed doors at home. Now a Goryeo captive woman dared to make veiled accusations—this truly violated decorum. Could it be that Yun Ye had taken a fancy to this woman’s beauty and thus was showing excessive forbearance? Thinking of this, he frowned at Yun Ye without speaking.
“Old Cen, you’re thinking wrong. I haven’t laid a finger on this woman, but I also can’t release her. Her lover is very formidable. I must use her as a hostage, otherwise her lover will go mad.”
Cen Wenben looked at Lady Ronghua with contempt, then looked at Yun Ye with disgust. He had no interest in dealing with their complicated relationship. Shaking his sleeves, he returned to his own cabin.
Yun Ye forcibly suppressed his urge to give this woman a beating and said to Lady Ronghua: “Hurry into the cabin and don’t come out again. I’m afraid I won’t be able to resist throwing you into the river.”
The army returned and entered the military camp silently. Those high officials and nobles had disembarked at the Chang’an docks. The military camp was cold and deserted, with only their subordinates who had stayed behind jumping and cheering at the docks to welcome the army’s return.
No flowers thrown before horses, no fine wine and delicious food, no enchanting glances from charming women, no shrill voice of the Chief Minister announcing imperial edicts. This time Yun Ye returned silently, like a wanderer who had been away for many years, with no one knowing he had returned.
Lifting the tarpaulin at the bow, Yun Ye caressed those ash jars, tears streaming as he said: “I’m sorry for not letting you enjoy the glory you deserved. The fault is mine.”
“Commander, you don’t owe the brothers anything. This job of ours was always a narrow escape from death. You brought everyone back, didn’t you? The brothers who died in battle didn’t lose out either. In these years, many triumphant armies have returned gloriously—imposing, yes, but whose pockets are stuffed with silver like ours? Don’t you all agree, brothers?” Lai Chuanfeng’s words instantly lifted the spirits of the downcast soldiers.
“No one congratulates us, so we’ll congratulate ourselves. Brothers, today whoever doesn’t get drunk is a turtle bastard!” Yang Yueming also shouted from the middle.