“The mighty warship’s power is actually this great?” Li Ji put down the telescope in his hand and looked at Yun Ye with puzzlement. He didn’t believe that a dozen or so crossbow bolts could destroy a huge vessel without a trace in an instant.
“It shouldn’t have such great power. In order to let Your Majesty intuitively see naval warfare, this official loaded some fierce fire oil onto the target ship. That final explosion was the reaction after the fierce fire oil burst open. However, a dozen or so crossbow bolts are already sufficient to destroy a huge warship. You also know that fierce fire oil cannot be extinguished with water. No matter what, this ship was definitely destroyed.”
After hearing Yun Ye’s explanation, the various old generals finally nodded. Li Er stroked the Chengqian, this sharp weapon of the sea, praising it endlessly. He had been on many ships, but only the Chengqian could maintain such stability in wind and waves. Looking at the Princess and Qingque sailing on both sides as escorts, he said to Yun Ye:
“Build the Great Emperor according to your vision. It was originally meant to be a dragon of the sea—how can it hide in inland rivers and become a plaything? If you build a fleet with the Great Emperor as the flagship according to your vision, I will personally go to Yuezhou’s Yunmeng Lake to inspect it.”
Yun Ye was overjoyed. As long as Li Er agreed to let him use Lingnan’s funds and provisions, he could also concentrate the shipbuilding craftsmen from Quanzhou and Hangzhou. Combined with Yongzhou having countless seasoned timbers, two years would be enough for him to build a small fleet of one large and six small ships. This should be the Great Tang’s most powerful fleet. At that time it would probably be personally controlled by Li Er, but no matter who was controlling these warships, they would be the Great Tang’s hard power at sea.
Refilling wine and relighting lamps to resume the feast, the Chengqian continued cruising at sea. In the huge cabin, cups were already crossing, ministers feasting. Naturally there was no shortage of pitch-pot games.
Yun Ye was extremely terrible at playing this kind of game. Previously when playing he’d been force-fed wine until he didn’t know east from west, but today he was surprisingly divine. The arrow shafts with white feathers were always obediently tossed by him into the bronze pot.
Pitch-pot master Xu Jingzong cried injustice loudly, saying the swaying ship deck always affected his performance. This game was just like that—the more skilled you were, the less accurate you’d be on a swaying ship. As a result, crying injustice was useless. Cheng Yaojin held down his head and force-fed him a whole pot.
Yun Ye and Li Chengqian both smiled wickedly watching Yan Song eat a very large pig leg. Just now the emperor had just praised this fellow as his Fan Kuai. Since he was Fan Kuai, how could he not be given a pig leg with blood threads to gnaw on? This wouldn’t match Fan Kuai’s performance at the Hongmen Banquet at all. So at Yun Ye’s instruction, the kitchen found a pig leg, casually swished it through boiling water, found a shield to put it on, and sent it over to Yan Song, saying this was treatment only fierce warriors received.
Yan Song had seasickness—Yun Ye had discovered this long ago. This fellow might be a true fierce warrior on land, but once on a ship, although the surroundings were all controlled by the Imperial Guard, Yun Ye could still create some trouble for Yan Song on the ship without any problem.
Duan Hong held a plate eating a bite of the huge prawns in his hand, then glanced at Yan Song struggling to eat the pig leg, feeling how wise he’d been to push away that task. Two despicable villains! Duan Hong muttered, continuing to look for prawns to eat. This thing dipped in ginger vinegar water was absolutely an unforgettable delicacy.
Yan Song ate more than half the pig leg, his face deathly pale. He suddenly pounded his chest twice with his fists. The veins on his neck bulged. He looked like he was about to vomit. Yun Ye and Li Chengqian eagerly waited for this fellow to embarrass himself, but unexpectedly this fellow pulled out a small knife from his bosom. With two swishes, he carved off the remaining pig leg meat. Opening his mouth, he sang loudly:
“Valiant old Qin, recover our rivers and mountains! Blood not flowing dry, death will not cease war! Valiant old Qin, recover our rivers and mountains! Blood not flowing dry, death will not cease war! In the west there is Great Qin, like the rising sun! A hundred years of national hatred, the vast sea hard to calm! The world in turmoil, how can there be peace? Qin has elite warriors—who dares compete for supremacy?” This fellow sang one line, then ate a big bite of meat. Sang another line, then drank a large bowl of wine. By the time the war song finished, one pig leg had been eaten clean.
Yan Song placed the pig leg bone with blood threads on Yun Ye’s table. With red eyes he said: “Receiving Marquis Yun’s generous gift, the pig shoulder has been completely consumed. How can there be meat without wine? This subordinate toasts Marquis Yun with a bowl.”
Xu Jingzong laughed and interjected: “How can one bowl satisfy? There are many wine jars over there. You two each take one jar and drink it all at once to show heroic spirit. What does General Yan think?”
Yan Song laughed heartily, walked to the pile of wine jars, casually grabbed two jars of wine and placed them on the table with a thud, gesturing for Yun Ye to choose first, also indicating he wasn’t cheating.
One wine jar had a huge “60” written on it, the other had “18.” Even if Yun Ye were an idiot, he’d know which to choose. When Old Cheng and the others saw that Yan Song actually let Yun Ye choose wine first, they all covered their faces and sighed. Drinking at the Yun family—they didn’t know how many times they’d suffered this loss. The damned Yun family servants habitually placed a jar of light wine next to a jar of strong liquor to conveniently help their master trick people. From the way the wine was stacked, you could tell the cook definitely came from the Yun family’s own household. Xu Jingzong, oozing wickedness from every pore, had long ago become inseparable from Yun Ye. If his suggestions were reliable, pigs could climb trees!
Yun Ye also laughed heartily and heroically grabbed the jar marked “18.” Three or four bottles of beer couldn’t knock him down. With one slap he broke the mud seal and shouted: “A fierce warrior toasts—how can one not drink? Yun will drink first to show respect.”
Having said this, he raised the wine jar and drank deeply. The Yun family’s low-alcohol wine was most fragrant and rich, all blended with choice wine. It smelled strongly of wine, but when drunk had almost no alcoholic taste. This thing was originally prepared for the womenfolk, specially with honey added, very sweet and fragrant.
Yan Song smelled the wine fragrance. Seeing Yun Ye drinking so heroically, he extended his thumb and loudly praised: “Good!” He felt that although Yun Ye was despicable, from his drinking capacity he was still a good fellow.
He also broke the mud seal, tilted his head back and poured. Yun Ye had already drunk a jar of wine without leaving a drop. Exaggeratedly turning the wine jar upside down, he let the last drop of wine also fall into his mouth—extremely heroic.
Yan Song, drinking sixty-proof strong liquor, only drank a few mouthfuls before starting to sway. But seeing Yun Ye finish a whole jar of wine while still sitting steadily, his heart was greatly unconvinced. Gritting his teeth, closing his eyes, he gulped down the strong liquor. Truly worthy of being a fierce warrior—swaying, he ultimately finished drinking a jar of strong liquor and could still shout out: “Good wine!”
Yun Ye laughed strangely, taking a small fan and waving it twice at Yan Song. Dizzy and seeing stars, Yan Song could no longer stand. He fell flat on his back onto the deck with a loud sound. Wine and meat debris spewed from his mouth like water columns spouted by whales in the sea.
The Yun family guards who had been on alert all along saw that Yan Song had finished embarrassing himself and dragged him outside to rinse off. The filth on the deck was also cleaned up in an instant. Before leaving, they even lit incense.
Li Er couldn’t understand—Yan Song was an absolute expert by his side, always proud of his massive drinking capacity. How could he possibly not out-drink Yun Ye? There must be something fishy here. Actually, no need to guess—just look and you’d know something was wrong, because Yun Ye was currently clinking cups with Li Chengqian in celebration. Xu Jingzong also wore a treacherous smile, whispering with the two of them. So he called over Duan Hong, who was hiding in a corner eating prawns, pointed at the wine jars on the table that hadn’t been cleared away, and gave an instruction.
Duan Hong came to the table edge, extended his finger to wipe inside the wine jar Yun Ye had drunk from, then put his finger in his mouth to suck. He didn’t taste wine, but instead tasted the sweet fragrance of honey.
He wiped his finger in the jar Yan Song had drunk from and continued sucking. Duan Hong, who didn’t particularly like drinking, had his mouth twisted by the spicy alcohol taste. He hurriedly ran back to Li Er’s side and told Li Er about the two jars of wine. Li Er could only respond with a bitter smile, because the wine had been personally selected by Yan Song. Yun Ye choosing wine from between the two jars absolutely followed the rules. Even if Yan Song had grievances, he had nowhere to complain. This secret loss was definitely suffered.
Cheng Yaojin had never eaten fresh sea cucumber. After being stir-fried with scallion oil extracted from large scallions, that taste absolutely exceeded his imagination. Tonight he specifically didn’t drink much wine—he alone ate four plates of scallion-fried sea cucumber. Seeing there was still some on Li Ji’s table nearby, he took it over to continue eating. Li Ji looked down on this blackish dish. Seeing Cheng Yaojin liked it, he let it be, not realizing that the delicacy he should have been tasting was slipping away from his mouth.
Liu Hongji, when drunk, liked to strip naked and dance. Yun family wine had always been violent. Fortunately, he still knew this was before the emperor and kept on a pair of underpants. Previously when dancing in brothels, Liu Hongji never wore clothes.
How good could it look when a large man with a chest full of dark chest hair danced naked on tables? Yet Li Er applauded and cheered. Before opening the feast today, he’d said that today his identity was that of a victorious returning commander, not emperor. Since that was so, these former subordinates of his would naturally play without restraint.
Liu Hongji’s big foot accidentally kicked over Old Cheng’s scallion-fried sea cucumber, so the whirling dance turned into sumo wrestling. Tables overturned, plates flew everywhere, mixed with cursing in various accents. The entire cabin was thrown into chaos. Duan Hong was busy helping Li Er block the plates and vegetable soup flying over. Seeing his face calm and unhurried, you knew this kind of scene hadn’t appeared just once or twice. Li Er’s subordinates had originally come from very mixed backgrounds—either bandits or scoundrels. Unrestrained celebration after great victory always ended in brawling. Fortunately, this was on a ship—everyone had no weapons. When in the palace, there were quite a few who rode horses naked for night battles.
Yun Ye led Li Chengqian and Xu Jingzong crawling out from the edge of the cabin. Xu Jingzong had just been stepped on once at the waist by some unknown big foot. Carefully pushing aside the shattered porcelain, he finally crawled out the cabin door. The two dragged the groaning and wailing Xu Jingzong up to the forward deck. Only then did they discover that the sky was already growing light.
This dim and unclear time was the most beautiful moment on the great sea. As soon as that red orb in the seawater jumped above the surface, the entire scene on the great sea would become magnificent to the extreme.
The sea breeze still carried a bit of cold. Having been fumigated by wine stench for an entire night, taking in fresh air at this moment brought indescribable comfort. Li Chengqian gazed at the half-round red sun rising from the sea surface and muttered to himself: “Truly so beautiful!”