Nurse Liu didn’t faint on the spot, which was a credit to her strengthened resolve from recent hardships. The nurse naturally refused to tell the truth at first, but under Li Yuangui’s repeated questioning, when he declared “I’m about to journey thousands of miles into the wilderness, not knowing if I’ll ever return to the Central Plains alive, how can I die without even knowing who I am,” she finally spoke the truth while wiping her tears:
“Young Lord Fourteen… your servant… also doesn’t know…”
What did she mean by “doesn’t know”?
“That year… shortly after Consort Yin De had given birth to the Eighth Lord, while still in confinement, the Emperor Emeritus left the capital on an imperial tour. It wasn’t convenient to bring her along, so he took other concubines, which upset Lady Yin… After the Emperor Emeritus left, one day she invited the Prince of Qi and the Crown Prince… the former Crown Prince… At that time, the Prince of Qi lived in the rear court of Wu De Hall, and the former Crown Prince was in the Eastern Palace, both close to her Ning Yun Hall, with the palace gates open day and night… They drank and made merry all night long… The former Crown Prince still maintained some propriety at first, but after drinking too much, he joined the Prince of Qi in… Since Consort Yin was still in confinement, she had all her young and beautiful maids accompany them… your mother was among them…”
Oh, Li Yuangui thought, Consort Yin De had hosted an orgy in her palace chambers. He had heard rumors of this before but hadn’t known he was a product of it.
“After a few days, Lady Yin realized this wasn’t proper. When the Emperor Emeritus returned to the capital, just five or six days later, she used her skills to arrange the same kind of pleasure for him… After that month, Beauty Zhang discovered she was with child…”
Nurse Liu heaved a long sigh, wiping her tears with a handkerchief. Li Yuangui found his emotions far calmer than expected and could calmly continue asking: “So at least, it had nothing to do with the then-Prince of Qin?”
“Ah… your servant didn’t personally witness anything… only heard later from Consort Yin and others gossiping that Beauty Zhang had been sent to Cheng Qian Hall to deliver something to the Princess of Qin, and stayed overnight as it was late, and the Prince of Qin was home, so there were also suspicions… Consort Yin and others just treated it as a joke, Young Lord Fourteen, don’t take it to heart…”
How wonderful—so his father could have been any one of these four: Li Yuan, Li Jiancheng, Li Shimin, or Li Yuanji, and now only the gods could know for certain. Simply marvelous.
Strangely, after learning this “truth,” he felt much lighter as if a huge stone had been lifted from his heart. His record in the imperial genealogy listed him as the fourteenth son of Emperor Gaozu the Great Martial, and no one could deny that possibility—that was enough. As for the rest, as Wei Shubin had said, who would care?
He felt he truly didn’t care… until the next day when he went to Kang Sabo’s residence in Bu Zheng Ward and drank himself into a stupor, vaguely remembering afterward that he had mentioned the words “my birth father” to Kang Sumi.
He only remembered mentioning those words.
Li Yuangui heaved a long sigh, wishing he could draw the small knife from his belt and cut out his tongue. Though Kang Sumi had never said anything about it, remaining unfailingly polite, Li Yuangui always saw endless cunning and self-satisfaction buried in that smiling expression. Of course, perhaps it was just his guilty conscience…
During this journey, he had thought about discussing this matter with Yang Xinzhi. But Yang Xinzhi had his concerns—he had finally learned that the blonde, blue-eyed Hu maiden Mi Wei was carrying his child, and was quite troubled about what to do.
The two Hu maidens Mi Wei and Fen Dui, being fluent in both Han and Hu languages and having close relationships with Li Yuangui and others, were both in this party traveling to Gaochang. Mi Wei’s belly was now visibly swollen, making travel difficult, but being accustomed to humility, she dared not complain. Yang Xinzhi naturally showed her extra care, and Kang Sumi tacitly allowed the two to be especially close, but never mentioned anything about “giving Mi Wei to Young Lord Yang.” He would joke daily about the couple but kept a firm hold of the slave girl’s contract, unwilling to release her.
Everyone in the party harbored their thoughts and schemes, though on the surface all remained harmonious and happy. From their departure from Chang’an heading west, traveling by day and resting by night, the journey wasn’t too difficult until they reached Long Prefecture. The eight hundred li of the Qin plains were densely populated with frequent market towns, allowing the merchant caravan to trade while traveling. When they occasionally camped outside villages at night, the Hu maidens would play the pipa and perform the Hu whirling dance, drawing large crowds of farmers to watch.
Li Yuangui ordered his guards to take these opportunities to gather local news, though there wasn’t much noteworthy. About twenty years had passed since the Sui dynasty’s chaos, and the Guan Zhong fertile plains were now populous again. Various local affairs like land distribution and rent collection were handled by officials, maintaining relative peace, with people’s main complaints still being “too frequent levies these past few years, and all the able-bodied men being drafted for war.”
Looking at the people in villages and on the roads, there were indeed mostly elderly, children, and women. Though Li Yuangui only sighed and commented about this while still within the passes, once they climbed the Long Mountain and the scenery quickly changed from lush green to desolate vastness, with endless yellow earth ridges and ravines occupying the entire view, he fell silent, losing even the mood to comment.
From Long Prefecture to Qin Prefecture, Wei Prefecture, and Lin Prefecture, this was still a semi-pastoral region primarily focused on farming. By the time they reached Liang Prefecture, Lan Prefecture, Gan Prefecture, Su Prefecture, and Gua Prefecture, farmland, houses, rivers, and trees would become increasingly scarce, and most of what they would see would be grasslands with cattle and sheep, wind-blown deserts, with settlements mainly clustered around official roads and post stations. Missing a rest stop then would become a very troublesome matter, and camping in the wild would be extremely risky—so Kang Sumi told Li Yuangui.
“More than twenty years ago, it wasn’t like this,” the old Hu merchant sighed. “When the Former Sui’s national fortune was prosperous, this road was quite peaceful too, with households visible everywhere. The Yang Emperor’s foolishness, in just a few years, left everyone destitute, and even now they haven’t recovered their vitality, harming our business too. What a sin!”
Though saying, after arriving at the post station in Qin Prefecture’s administrative center, Kang Sumi immediately sought out brokers to inquire about horse prices. It turned out that there were several government horse ranches in this area, and since the Turks had been driven north and peace was restored, the frontier trade in sheep and horses had flourished, with horses breeding prolifically. Besides the fixed quota supplied to the military and presented to the court, there were also matters of culling inferior stock and breeding, from which Hu merchants customarily profited. On this journey, Kang Sumi had specifically brought several merchants skilled in mule and horse-trading, preparing to engage in this business.
His luck was good—upon inquiry, he learned that in two days a large herd of Qinghai horses would be brought down from the He Huang region, war spoils captured by Tang forces from the Tuyuhun. They would be kept here to fatten up first, preparing for the capital’s victory ceremony. Kang Sumi was overjoyed and hurriedly led people out to negotiate business. Li Yuangui didn’t know how he conducted this business and couldn’t be bothered to care, as he had other thoughts.
Northwest of Qin Prefecture was a county named “Cheng Ji”—Long Xi’s Cheng Ji.
The ancestral home that his Tang imperial Li clan claimed to outsiders.
As far as Li Yuangui knew, going back several generations from his father Li Yuan, neither the family founder Great Ancestor Li Hu nor the somewhat more recent ancestor “King Wu Zhao of Liang, Li Gao” had ever lived in this Cheng Ji. The fundamental reason for claiming this place as their ancestral home was to claim the Han dynasty’s “Flying General” Li Guang as an ancestor, as the Records of the Grand Historian clearly stated: “General Li Guang was a native of Cheng Ji in Long Xi.”
So these matters of recognizing fathers and ancestors haphazardly… what was there to be anxious and conflicted about?
He asked the post station commander and learned that Cheng Ji County wasn’t very far from the administrative center—one could ride there and back in a day. The commander also said they had come at an unfortunate time—beside Xian Qin Stream in Cheng Ji was an abandoned Qin-Han era city, reportedly the birthplace of the Flying General, which would normally be worth visiting, but some days ago the Northwestern Army had brought a batch of prisoners and, lacking accommodation facilities, the prefecture officials had temporarily confined those people in the ancient city under guard, now prohibiting approach.
“Prisoners?” Li Yuangui asked, “What prisoners?”
“The prisoners that Commander-in-Chief Li, the Duke of Yao Shi, captured in Tuyuhun,” the commander’s expression became animated when mentioning the “Duke of Yao Shi,” “I heard they have the Khan’s queen! And the royal in-laws and ministers! And princes and princesses! And a whole group of noble chiefs! Tsk tsk tsk, such impressive might, now they’re all like defeated fighting cocks. For how many years they’ve led armies here to burn, kill, and plunder—if it weren’t for the soldiers guarding them, it would be strange if the common people didn’t rush in to tear them apart and eat their flesh!”
Li Yuangui’s heart tightened, then rejoiced.
It seemed he had to make a trip to that Flying General’s birthplace.
Notes:
1. The “theater” of the Tang Dynasty, especially the early Tang, was not like what often appears in “period dramas” of any dynasty today, with a high stage where actors divided into male leads, female leads, painted faces, and clowns put on costumes and makeup to play their roles, singing and acting out stories. This form of “drama” didn’t appear earlier than the Song Dynasty. In the Tang Dynasty, the “theaters” in Buddhist temples and Daoist monasteries mainly featured performances of song and dance, acrobatics, comedy acts, and officer skits, plus the monks’ and priests’ educational “vernacular lectures.”
Among these performance arts focused on “storytelling,” as shown by the Tang Dynasty storytelling figurine exhibited in the Shaanxi History Museum, the storyteller would sing and speak accompanied by music from companions, perhaps an ancestor of later narrative singing arts like “big drum stories.”
2. The route Li Yuangui’s party took to the Kingdom of Gaochang was written based on the research results in Volume 2: He Long Qi Xi District of Mr. Yan Gengwang’s “Study of Tang Dynasty Transportation Maps.”
3. The “gilt filigree silver sphere incense holder” that Li Yuangui gave Wei Shubin as a token of love is familiar to those who know cultural relics—it’s the popular item that recently appeared in the “National Treasure” program. The Shaanxi History Museum developed this as a souvenir product for sale several years ago. Though not cheap, the quality is quite good—I have one hanging on my desk lamp now.