Li Yuangui had originally gone to Liangyi Hall to deliver a message to Prime Minister Wei Zheng but instead encountered his imperial brother, Emperor Li Shimin.
It was his fault for being young and playful—after entering through the west gate with his credentials, he noticed an exceptionally magnificent horse with a golden saddle and silver bridle among the ceremonial guard waiting to escort the Emperor after court. He couldn’t help but stop to take a closer look. In the light falling snow, the stallion raised its neck and gave a long neigh toward him, drawing the attention of the nearby palace servants.
The imperial mount’s tail was bound according to regulations, its mane groomed into an orderly three-flower pattern, and it stood by the hall led by a groom, appearing noble and dignified. But that clear neigh made Li Yuangui envision its wild, unfettered nature, with flowing mane racing across the grasslands like wind and lightning.
The guard standing by the horse was Li Zhen, eldest son of Duke of Ying, Li Shiji, and a familiar face from their days studying together at the Eastern Palace Academy. Having made eye contact, Li Yuangui had to go over and exchange greetings. He learned that this stallion was a new tribute from the Tuyuhun, “Actually not yet fully trained, still quite wild. But His Majesty insists on using it now—what can we do?”
Li Yuangui deeply understood and sympathized with Li Zhen’s bitter smile and hesitant expression—he had seen that look too many times on the faces of those who served the Emperor. As they continued talking, the sound of gongs and announcements came from the hall—the Emperor was dismissing the court.
The snow was falling harder now, and the yellow silk parasol swayed as it approached, barely keeping up with the Emperor’s pace. Li Yuangui knelt with the others, intending to wait until the Emperor’s departure before seeking Wei Zheng, but the Emperor spotted him and called out:
“Fourteenth Brother, I heard Ganye Temple caught fire this morning. Have you been to see it? What exactly happened?”
Li Yuangui rose and reported briefly about the temple buildings burning down, Prince Xi’s consort and eight princesses being unharmed, and Princess Hailing and her two daughters missing. As he spoke, he secretly glanced up through lowered lashes, his tone growing increasingly cautious.
The Emperor, wearing a dark yellow casual robe, stood beside his mount, absently stroking its neck with furrowed brows, appearing to be in a poor mood. In just two days since they’d last met, his half-brother in his thirties looked much more tired and haggard, with pronounced dark circles under his eyes, as if he hadn’t slept all night.
The Tuyuhun campaign seemed to be going poorly… As Li Yuangui pondered this, he reached the part about “The Empress commanded me to inform Lord Wei that Princess Linfen’s death case should be concluded as suicide,” and the Emperor’s expression changed drastically:
“What did you say? This is absurd!”
Announcing that the former Crown Prince’s eldest daughter had died by hanging herself was tantamount to indirectly admitting she had taken her life in desperate protest after being threatened and pressured by Empress Changsen—extremely damaging to the Empress’s reputation. Li Yuangui had never understood why the Empress would make such a decision, and neither did her imperial husband.
The Emperor mounted his horse, telling his younger brother to “mount up and follow me” and ordering someone to “summon Wuji to Lizheng Hall,” then shook the reins and charged into the wind and snow.
Such galloping within the palace was strictly forbidden, but… no guard dared stop His Majesty Li Shimin.
Li Yuangui also grabbed a spare horse from the ceremonial guard and mounted up, following behind the Emperor as they burst through the courtyard gates. Liangyi Hall wasn’t far from Lizheng Hall, and before the ceremonial procession could catch up, the brothers had already ridden through Liangyi Hall’s gate. A rotund figure seemed to emerge from the ground, coming forward to take the Emperor’s horse’s reins:
“Your subject Wuji pays respects to Your Majesty…”
The Emperor didn’t give his brother-in-law, Duke of Qi Changsen Wuji, time for formal greetings, dismounting and immediately grabbing him to ask: “How’s that matter going?”
Changsen Wuji shook his round, plump face: “No leads yet, too little time…”
The Emperor sighed in frustration, striding up the steps to the main hall while complaining:
“Finally scraped together over a hundred thousand men to advance on Western Sea, yet Li Daoyan is robbing the Dangxiang Qiang’s cattle and sheep at Kuo River, blocking the path forward—has that food-stealing bandit gone mad with poverty! And that fool Gao Shengsheng, leading thirty thousand men, who know which mud pit they’re stuck in, all communication lost! Three army routes and two missed their timing, half the forces couldn’t reach the battlefield, and the encirclement couldn’t even be formed, allowing them to defeat us piece by piece—how can we fight a war like this? Outrageous!”
With his height and long legs, his strides were large, forcing Li Yuangui and Changsen Wuji to jog to keep up on either side. As they entered the hall, Changsen Wuji replied slightly out of breath:
“Your Majesty, please calm your anger. Campaign Commander-in-Chief Li Jing is a veteran of many battles, he’s encountered such situations before and will surely handle it properly…”
The Emperor seemed not to be listening, striding directly into the main hall amid announcements and approaching the large living quarters screen, calling out beyond it:
“Empress, Fourteenth Brother came to say you’ve ordered a stop to Yiniang’s case? How can that be? This case must be investigated thoroughly! Whoever’s behind it must come forward and take responsibility!”
There was rustling behind the screen, and after a moment, Empress Changsen’s voice came through:
“This humble one has private matters to report to Your Majesty in person.”
Several women emerged from both sides of the screen as the Empress dismissed her attending palace maids and servants. Li Yuangui spotted Chai Yinglo and Wei Shubin among them, all walking out with lowered eyes and small steps. The Emperor sighed helplessly and gestured for those around him to leave as well, telling Changsen Wuji and Li Yuangui to “wait in my study.”
The Emperor’s private study was in the eastern wing of this courtyard. Li Yuangui and Changsen Wuji politely yielded to each other before entering, their attention immediately drawn to the large sand table on the desk. The layout of mountains, rivers, and terrain looked familiar, with southeastern highlands and northwestern deserts easily recognizable.
“Duke Qi, is this sand table showing the Tuyuhun situation?”
“Indeed. Prince Wu has keen eyes.”
Li Yuangui was greatly interested and slowly circled the sand table.
In one corner, a small wooden city bore a banner reading “Chang’an,” while a city by a blue-painted lake to the northwest was marked “Fushi,” and further north, beyond the desert’s edge, stood “Gaochang City.” Small flags were stuck into the deliberately white-painted mountain peaks, the lakes on the plateau surrounded by mountains, and the flat, soft great desert to the northwest. He guessed the red flags represented the current positions of various Tang army units, yellow flags marked military objectives, and blue-green flags showed enemy force concentrations.
The imperial decree appointing Campaign Commander-in-Chief Duke of Wei Li Jing to lead the expedition against Tuyuhun had been officially issued at the end of last winter. Preparations for the campaign had begun in earnest the previous spring and summer, with diplomatic exchanges between the two countries starting even earlier. This was another major campaign led by Li Jing with heavy Tang forces following the great victory over and destruction of the Turks in the fourth year of Zhenguan. Li Yuangui, passionate about horsemanship and archery, naturally took great interest.
In fact… he wasn’t merely “interested.”
He had desperately begged the Emperor to let him join the front lines. The result was being kicked back to Da’an Palace by his half-brother to “copy the Classic of Filial Piety twenty times and properly attend to the Retired Emperor.”
“Our army has been in the field for nearly two months now, how goes the battle?” Li Yuangui asked Changsen Wuji from beside the sand table. “I’ve heard that the Dangxiang and various Qiang and Hu tribes of the Southern Mountains have all rallied to Tuyuhun, and even the Liao barbarians killed our Tang prefecture chief and defected to that false king Murong Fuyun—is this true?”
“This humble one holds only the honorary position of Minister of Works and is not in charge of military affairs, so I don’t know the details,” Duke Uncle Changsen’s round face smiled cordially but distantly. “The Dangxiang Qiang are of the same tribe as the Tuyuhun, with similar language and customs, so it’s natural they might rebel against the court. Campaign difficulties beyond our borders are many, and slow progress at the start of hostilities is quite normal. The army is full of veteran commanders—Prince Wu need not worry.”
The meaning of “adults are handling serious business, children shouldn’t meddle” was quite clear.
Li Yuangui paced glumly to the window. The imperial study had more than one brazier, and the charcoal fumes stung his eyes. Through the gap in the paper windows propped open to the outside, he suddenly spotted two women wearing long gauze veils and hats standing in the falling snow, speaking in low voices in the courtyard.
The tall, graceful one was Chai Yinglo, and the more slender figure facing her must be Wei Zheng’s eldest daughter Shufen.
The black gauze connected to their hat brims hung down to their knees, and the distance made it impossible to see their expressions, but this only made their postures and movements more telling—Chai Yinglo had one hand on Wei Shubin’s shoulder, seeming to counsel her. Wei Shubin first kept her head down, then lifted her face to say something, her whole body trembling violently, radiating an air of despair on the verge of collapse.
What had happened?
Below Wei’s veil showed a section of Shu brocade with a green background and floral patterns—the very shawl Li Yuangui had personally returned to her last night. Thinking of how that shawl had once wrapped around his sister’s slender shoulders, his heart ached.
His seventeenth sister seemed to have matured during her time with Consort Yin De. In the warm bedroom of Lizheng Hall’s back courtyard, upon learning her brother of the same mother still couldn’t stay to keep her company, the young girl had cried but wiped away her own tears, removing the green shawl from her arms to give to her brother, telling him to “return it to Sister Yingniang’s friend, the weather is so cold.”
The snowy weather last night had indeed been very cold. This morning the snow finally began to fall, gradually painting the late winter landscape in silver-white. The two women stood in the falling snow speaking privately, their black-veiled figures silent and desolate.
Li Yuangui turned and pushed open the imperial study door, walking into the courtyard.
A thin layer of snow had accumulated on the blue brick ground, silently crushing under his boots. As his figure approached, both women looked up. Li Yuangui had practiced archery since childhood and had excellent eyesight—even through the thin gauze, he could see tears rolling down Wei Shubin’s face.
“What’s happened?”
Li Yuangui asked. Chai Yinglo answered, the female Taoist shaking her head sadly:
“The Empress wants me to send Zhenniang back to the Wei residence.”
“Why?” Li Yuangui asked in alarm. Wei Shubin had fled her marriage—that matter wasn’t yet resolved, so sending her home now meant she would certainly be sold to Cheng Yaojin by her father!
Wei Shubin’s body trembled, seeming to suppress a sob. Chai Yinglo sighed:
“Fourteenth Uncle, can’t you guess… You can’t help with this matter, just let it be.”
Li Yuangui thought deeply for a moment, then suddenly understood—the Empress wanted to conclude Princess Linfen’s case, which required the cooperation of case investigator Wei Zheng. Quietly sending the Prime Minister’s runaway daughter home was no small favor; Lord Wei would surely gladly accept this bargain to close the case.
So the Empress’s tacit approval of Chai Yinglo sheltering Wei Shubin these past few days had such deep calculations behind it…
He stared at the tearful young woman under the veil, remembering how she had volunteered to accompany Chai Yinglo to Da’an Palace to save his sister yesterday. His chest warmed, and he said softly: “That won’t do. Just sending Lady Wei home like this is pushing her into a fire pit! Yingniang, can’t you think of something?”
“What can I do? The Empress gave the order in person…” Chai Yinglo shook her head bitterly. “I dare not defy an imperial command—do you, Fourteenth Uncle? Seventeenth Aunt is still in Lizheng Hall’s back courtyard.”
Thinking of his sister of the same mother, now adopted by the Empress, Li Yuangui’s heart also darkened. At this moment, there was a commotion inside and outside the main hall, some palace maids standing in the corridor were summoned inside, then quickly emerged to relay:
“His Majesty commands Yingniang… Supreme Truth Master to enter and attend.”
It seemed the Empress’s illness had flared up again. Chai Yinglo couldn’t attend to anything else, hurriedly ascending the steps, removing her veiled hat, and tossing it to a servant before bowing to enter through the main hall’s warm curtain.
Wei Shubin and Li Yuangui were left standing facing each other in the courtyard. The light snow was blown about, endlessly gathering frost on the brim of the young woman’s hat, with many snowflakes also clinging to her hanging black gauze, trembling gently in the wind.
A slender female body hanging from a ceiling beam, swaying in the gusting wind as the door burst open…
Li Yuangui jumped at the sudden vision, stepping back half a pace. Wei Shubin was already gracefully bowing to him, choking out four words:
“Take care, Prince Wu.”
After one curtsy and rising, the young woman gathered her shawl and lifted her head, walking toward Lizheng Hall’s gate. Li Yuangui urgently asked: “Where are you going?”
Wei Shubin didn’t stop or look back at him, her voice low but clear:
“In cold winter’s long night, desolate winds blow, wild geese take wing for their journey, as grass and trees wither yellow…”
The wanderer shall leave this temporary lodging, returning forever to his original home… Li Yuangui grew more alarmed, rushed forward two steps, and grabbed the young woman’s veil and sleeve.
He knew this action was extremely rude and improper, and knew many pairs of eyes from the corridor and windows were fixed on him, but he didn’t care anymore.
All his years of studying literature and martial arts were useless; he couldn’t even see his ailing father; he couldn’t protect his birth mother; the eldest daughter she left behind had died before his eyes; his younger sister of the same mother had endured endless torment and still could not be called safe and secure; he could not allow this poor brave young woman to seek her death; he had to do something, at least something…
“Zhenniang, I will inform your father and General Cheng,” Li Yuangui gritted his teeth, “that you are to be invested as my Princess of Wu.”