No matter how arrogant foreign tribesmen were, they dared not speak of robbery before the Great Tang border troops. Zhang Baoxiang received orders from Hou Junji to escort Ludongzan to Shuofang, and had already dispatched five hundred cavalry to meet them.
Huan Niang watched as Ludongzan was escorted away from the Yun estate by the large army. Her legs weakened and she collapsed to the ground. Na Rimu rushed out from the back hall and embraced Huan Niang, crying. Yun Mu also cried. Old Sun and Old Liu hung their heads in shame. Yun Jiu sat on the doorframe looking up at the sky. There was no other way—the Yun Family could never possess more than thirty armed men in the pasture lands, otherwise it would violate regulations. Thirty men had absolutely no power to resist before Ludongzan.
“Yun Jiu, pack the luggage and prepare the carriages. We’re heading back inside the pass!” Huan Niang’s chest heaved violently as she gasped for breath. She pulled out a glass vial, carefully drank a little of the liquid inside, then plugged it tightly. Pushing Na Rimu aside, she picked up Yun Mu and sat in a chair, saying: “Only by going back inside the pass to home will it be safe. We can leave this place to Haqi and the others. The young miss isn’t safe here. The time is still early. Once everything is prepared, we depart immediately. Fewer carriages, more horses. Anyone who can ride a horse must not sit in a carriage. We’ll travel day and night racing toward the interior.”
This time Na Rimu was very obedient. She had been eavesdropping from behind earlier and knew the situation was very troublesome. Although Huan Niang hadn’t allowed her to come out, even though they had temporarily bluffed Ludongzan with the asthma medication, one couldn’t be careless in the slightest with that kind of person. Her daughter was her lifeline. She didn’t dare imagine what her husband’s reaction would be if their daughter was snatched away—he might kill everyone in his fury. She knew her husband rarely lost his temper, but once he did, it was truly terrifying.
Yun Jiu, Old Sun, and Old Liu all went outside to help. Na Rimu sat dumbly in the chair holding Yun Mu, whose eyes were darting around alertly, hugging her daughter very tightly, afraid someone would snatch her away.
Huan Niang loosened her collar and extracted from her undergarments a small silver gourd, gripping it tightly in her hand. This was the source of the smallpox contagion. Only if she injected it into herself would it trigger and spread infection. When leaving home back then, she had asked the Marquis what could guarantee Na Rimu and her son’s safety. The Marquis had given her this small gourd. Anyone who dared harm Yun Mu could only die. He didn’t care how many died or who died. Both daughter and wife had been vaccinated. The final result would be that everyone else contracted the disease, leaving only the mother and daughter alive.
In short order, Yun Jiu had arranged everything. Just three carriages, with the rest being warhorses. Na Rimu would also ride a horse. Only Yun Mu and Huan Niang would sit in carriages. Yun Mu’s Wang Cai leaped onto the carriage with one bound and lay beside Yun Mu, ears perked up.
Old Sun took the lead, shouting once before setting out first. The Yun Family’s thirty guards, fully armored in leather, protected the carriages on all sides. Old Liu, sitting on the shaft, flicked the reins and slowly followed. The distant herders didn’t know what had happened and inquired with each other in low voices.
The fair had ended. Along the road, there were always merchants from Guanzhong driving cattle and horses they had traded from the herders, slowly heading toward the interior. This route was very safe because the great army traveled this road. Yet the guards still didn’t dare relax their vigilance. The orders they received were that anyone who dared block the road would be killed without mercy. So their powerful crossbows were already loaded and hung in convenient positions, ready to fire immediately if anything seemed amiss.
Before long they overtook most people. On the vast grassland, no sign of human habitation could be seen anymore. Five horsemen scouted ahead. In the middle, three carriages crushed the newly sprouted green grass on the road, racing forward in utter silence. The Yun Family’s carriages were all reinforced with soft steel and had cushions added inside, so riding in them wasn’t too bumpy. Yun Mu leaned against the window looking at her mother in her tight-fitting outfit and asked Huan Niang: “Where are we going?”
Huan Niang shifted her body and said to Yun Mu: “We’re going to see your father. There are bad people here. Only when we reach your father will we be safe.”
“Are the bad people going to marry me to his son? He’s so ugly. And smelly!” Yun Mu turned her head away indignantly and waved her chubby little hand in front of her nose twice.
“Our little Mu will definitely become a beautiful and intelligent lady of a great family in the future. The savage’s son shouldn’t even dream of it.” When speaking of Yun Mu’s future, Huan Niang’s eyes gleamed. She didn’t know which family’s fine young man would have such fortune to win such a good daughter.
“Is Father handsome? I’ve never seen Father.”
“Your father is also a handsome man. But you know, whether a man is handsome or not doesn’t matter much. What’s important is intelligence. Little Mu’s father is the most intelligent person, and your grandmother can testify to this.”
Hearing Huan Niang’s words, the little girl rested her cheeks in both hands, trying hard to imagine her handsome father. Who knows if she’d be disappointed when she met him.
“Three riders are catching up from behind. They’re Tubo people.” A guard bringing up the rear reported to Old Liu, who was driving the carriage.
“Kill them!” Old Liu didn’t even think before giving the order.
The guard gestured and immediately five men split off, turning their horses around. Holding their powerful crossbows, they raced back. The three Tubo men waved their hands and shouted loudly, as if they had something to say. But the Yun Family guards raised their hands, and the fifteen crossbow bolts from five men shot out. Tossing aside their crossbows, they leveled the lances hanging at their horses’ sides and charged at those three warhorses. A Tubo man with two crossbow bolts in his body struggled to speak but was pierced by three lances through his body and pushed off his horse, dying completely in moments.
The other two guards, regardless of whether the Tubo men on the ground were dead or not, still thrust their lances into their throats, dragging them along the ground for half a circle before letting go. The three Tubo horses neighed in place, kicking continuously. The three returning riders’ sabers swiftly slashed across the horses’ necks. Blood sprayed high into the air. The warhorses kicked a few times then collapsed. The Yun Family guards bent down from their saddles to retrieve their discarded crossbows, loaded them while mounted, and hung them at their sides again, then spurred their horses to chase after the carriages that had already gone far.
When Ludongzan saw the three corpses, it was already the afternoon of the second day. With a dark face, he said to Zhang Baoxiang: “I kindly sent people to explain, and they killed them. What is the meaning of this?”
Zhang Baoxiang removed his water flask and took a gulp: “In the wilderness, three Tubo men suddenly appear—I would have attacked too. Moreover, they have women and children. How could they allow your people to approach?”
“Looking at the corpses pecked by crows into this state, they’ve been gone for a full day and more. You won’t catch up. If you want to explain, go find Marquis Yun inside the pass. Just don’t know if he’ll listen to your explanation.”
“A mere marquis—what can he do to me if I don’t explain?”
Zhang Baoxiang stared at Ludongzan for a long while before saying: “I’m now certain you truly know nothing about the Great Tang. The Great Tang has forty-one dukes and one hundred seventy-seven marquises. Among these two hundred eleven high-ranking nobles, only one is a hereditary marquis. This marquis happens to be Marquis Lantian, Yun Ye. He is Marquis Lantian, his son will also be Marquis Lantian. As long as they don’t rebel, his descendants for generations will all be Marquis Lantian. You haven’t even reached Chang’an yet and you’ve already stirred up trouble for yourself.”
Ludongzan nonchalantly struck the corpses three times with his whip before saying: “So what? I am the Great Minister of Tubo. What can he do to me?”
Zhang Baoxiang chuckled and said no more, thinking: I don’t care if you go die. What kind of person is Yun Ye? Someone who walks sideways through Chang’an City. He’s caused countless disasters that could bring down the heavens, yet still firmly holds his Marquis Lantian title. Want to reason with him? Take your time reasoning.
He watched as the Tubo people cut those three corpses into very small pieces and laid them on an oilcloth. Even the bones were smashed and wrapped in butter, waiting to feed the eagles. Few eagles came, but a dense mass of crows arrived instead. As soon as the people left, they swooped down and began their feast.
The wind and waves on Dongting Lake were diminishing, and there were increasingly more sunny days. These past days, some sneaky people had been spying around Yuezhou. The officials had captured many bandit scouts. Yun Ye showed no mercy whatsoever—all were beheaded, their heads hung on the city walls. Ever since seeing Zhang Liang do this, Yun Ye had been looking forward to trying it himself. No other reason—he felt that city walls covered with grimacing heads had tremendous intimidating power.
Indeed it was so. Scouts had decreased significantly these past two days. But the residents were uneasy. Someone had let slip that there were a hundred thousand water bandits on Dongting Lake preparing to massacre Yuezhou. These days even pedestrians on the streets were few.
“Marquis Yun, do you think those water bandits will capture Yuezhou prefecture city?” A merchant wearing a scholar’s cap asked Yun Ye in a low voice.
“Impossible. A mob of rabble—how could they be a match for our Lingnan naval forces? Master Liang may rest at ease. Just watch my methods of capturing bandits.”
“Indeed, indeed. This old one has long heard of the mighty divine power of the nation’s navy. In one month in Goguryeo, three fortified cities were taken in succession, killing a hundred thousand enemies. Marquis Yun is a young hero—remarkable!”
Yun Ye smiled as he accepted the merchant’s flattery, patting the map of Dongting Lake and saying: “Master Liang, please look. This time this commander will lure all the bandits to this location. Less than twenty thousand bandits dare to claim a hundred thousand? Here I will make them vanish into smoke and dust.”
The merchant stroked his beard and looked at the map. He saw it densely marked with countless small flags. The flying dragon flags representing government troops were on the outside, the black flags representing water bandits on the inside. They were indeed surrounded thoroughly and impenetrably. It looked like annihilating the water bandits would happen within these few days.
Having obtained the most reliable information, the merchant returned to his residence in Yuezhou satisfied. Just as he entered his home, he saw many people sitting in the main hall. He couldn’t help but laugh—all were people whose courage had been frightened away.
“This old one just returned from Marquis Yun’s place. Everyone has gathered at my home—truly exquisite hearts! Don’t panic. The government troops have already surrounded the bandits on Junshan. It won’t be long before they can gather and annihilate them. Do whatever you need to do. This old one’s household cannot afford to feed so many people. Less than twenty thousand water bandits—what’s there to worry about?”
“Master Liang, that’s not right. The number of water bandits truly isn’t as many as a hundred thousand, but there are definitely fifty or sixty thousand. Not to embarrass everyone, but this old one makes his living on the water, so I have some connections with the water bandits. An associate among the bandits said that this time it’s a grand assembly of all the Dongting water bandits. When they mustered for roll call, he was there. Absolutely no fewer than fifty thousand people. If Marquis Yun says less than twenty thousand, he’s deceiving us!”