Li Tai left, and Yun Ye returned to his room to begin work. His large desk was piled high with various documents and reports. In fact, not a single one among them was an official document—they were all sea charts drawn by the South Seas Navy, along with conditions of lands along their routes. Because they lacked a comprehensive understanding of those places, this work could only be completed by Yun Ye himself.
Without doing this work, one simply could not imagine the difficulty involved. Finding a clear thread through the vast ocean of documents was extremely arduous. Some things clearly bore the shadow of myths and legends, some were fleeting glimpses by sailors or soldiers, and when combined with their individual differences in knowledge, this led to vastly different accounts.
Thus appeared pythons that could swallow an entire ship, phantom islands that floated indefinitely on the sea, demon islands where devils howled nightly, and some people firmly claimed they had seen the legendary Kunpeng. What left Yun Ye most speechless was that everyone on one ship insisted they had accidentally sailed their vessel onto the back of a giant turtle. At first, the large ship was sailing normally, when suddenly they discovered the ship had run aground. The entire earth was trembling, then the seawater gradually receded, and their ship was completely exposed on the seafloor. In their terror, they begged heaven to forgive their transgressions and offered their most precious treasures to the heavens. Only then did the earth stop trembling, the seawater returned, and they fled in panic from that terrifying sea region…
Coincidentally, when the Academy was translating texts from the Arabian lands, they discovered similar legends. This was originally a story passed orally among sailors about a sailor named Sinbad…
Sailing on the great sea was lonely and desolate. Many people would fabricate beautiful, terrifying, or bizarre stories to enrich their lives. After circulating for a period of time, these stories would slowly be processed and embellished by one oral narrator after another, adding their own understanding, until they became what they were now.
So rather than saying Yun Ye was reading documentary materials, it was more accurate to say he was reading bizarre stories. Although he was already intimately familiar with many of these stories—such as the story of Sinbad and the story of Ali Baba—what he knew was far more exciting and complete than what was described in the documents.
Although some stories were absurd, Yun Ye still read them with great interest. To excavate the truth from these most primitive documents required thoroughly understanding these stories.
Over these past two years, Yun Lei had grown up listening to these little stories. Whenever Yun Ye had free time, he would tell his son these strange and peculiar tales.
Initially, everyone regarded it as one of Yun Ye’s perverse pleasures. But the stories were really quite captivating. Thus, the first to join the story-listening group were Yun Ye’s wives and concubines. When Yun Mu brought her sisters to visit their parents, they too became entranced. Yan Maoshi also frequently came to listen to stories. However, this lad, being the heir of a historian family, always had the habit of recording others’ words and deeds—such as these stories Yun Ye told.
Before long, a book was wildly circulating throughout Chang’an, titled “Arabian Nights.” This book was still being updated, and it was said the fellow selling the book had made quite a bit of money. However, when Yun Ye saw the three large characters “Written by Yun Mu” on the book cover, he shut his mouth. Yan Maoshi was indeed different from the rigid character of the old Yan family—he actually knew to use this matter to flatter Yun Mu. When Yun Ye saw his daughter accepting wave after wave of compliments without the slightest embarrassment, he didn’t even have the interest to ask about it. When a daughter steals from her father, can that be called stealing? Moreover, these things were also what Yun Ye had stolen from elsewhere. As a family of thieves, there was no need to mention the word “theft.”
When Wang Cai heard that the king had grown donkey ears, he happily called out twice and kept perking up his two ears to show that his ears were smaller than donkey ears. He disturbed Yun Mu’s writing interest and was disdainfully slapped by her, as if he could actually understand.
“The king grew donkey ears? That bastard is using the story to mock me!” The weakened Li Er lay on a soft couch. Ever since Zhangsun Wuji had passed away last year, his health had suddenly collapsed. Even when a heavenly dragon was near its end, its dragon’s might still enveloped the vast empire. As long as his breath remained, every blade of grass and tree in the empire was under his control.
White-clad, white-armored warriors crisscrossed the empire’s frontiers. At the slightest disturbance anywhere in the realm, they would deliver the most terrifying strikes, and these strikes had become indiscriminate of people, time, or place. Lianzhou Prefect Zhang Hengtian had clearly been sent by the emperor to monitor the Yun and Feng families, yet he was the first to meet disaster.
The Yun and Feng families deeply understood how terrifying the emperor was. But the Zhang family, as a major local clan in Lianzhou with no experience serving in the capital, had a very shallow understanding of the emperor. When their military forces extended to the twelve settlements of the southern border, and incited by some ignorant local kings, they foolishly harbored thoughts of rebellion.
Yun Ye naturally knew what role his wife and son, along with the Feng family, had secretly played. Added to this, Zhang Hengtian took the lead in all matters in Lingnan, appearing respectful on the surface, which caused his ambition to grow like wild grass.
Thinking himself far from the emperor, he believed that if he raised the banner high, the indigenous people of Lingnan would flock to him, the Yun and Feng families would align with him, and then he could become a King of Southern Yue and establish a Southern Yue Kingdom without any problem.
Thus, at the Moon-Jumping Festival, this fellow and a group of savage cave chiefs roasted the Five Li Commandant and supervisory officials sent by the court over fires and ate them. Then he issued his “Proclamation Denouncing Li” to the Yun family in Yongzhou, the Feng family in Guangzhou, the Ji family in Gaozhou, and the Luo family in Baizhou, claiming he would establish a Southern Yue Kingdom. He ordered these families to surrender immediately, or his army would leave not a blade of grass alive wherever it went.
He himself had already led a hundred thousand allied troops and ferociously attacked Chunzhou, planning to eliminate Chunzhou Prefect Feng Zhidai to intimidate all the great clans of Lingnan. He felt that as long as he defeated the most powerful Feng Zhidai, everyone in Lingnan would obediently surrender. Chunzhou Prefect Zhidai was Li Rong’s father-in-law, so naturally Li Rong would not stand by idly. On one hand, he joined forces with Donghezhou Prefect Feng Zhiyu to rescue Chunzhou, and on the other hand, he submitted an eight-hundred-li urgent dispatch to the court requesting reinforcements.
When Li Er received the request for rescue, he nearly fainted from rage. The “Proclamation Denouncing Li” enclosed in the document painted him as an even more muddled tyrant than Emperor Yang of Sui. According to Li Rong’s account, Zhang Hengtian had contacted the Liao Zi tribe and the He Man tribe—savages totaling no fewer than one hundred thousand who were attacking Chunzhou day and night. The situation was extremely perilous. With his small force and few generals, he didn’t know how long he could hold out.
A bow and arrow is most terrifying when drawn but not released. The Xuanjia Army stationed in Yizhou was an arrow that had not been shot. Now that it had been provided with a target, once this arrow was shot, it would no longer pose a threat.
Upon learning this news, Duan Meng, the Grand Commander of the Xuanjia Army, was beside himself with joy. Every day he stood at the military camp entrance waiting for orders from the Ministry of War. Peace was a soldier’s mortal enemy. Daily drills without end—days without battles were simply hell for Duan Meng.
When the Ministry of War’s orders and the emperor’s decree arrived, Duan Meng, laughing toward heaven, grasped his appointment as Grand Commander of the Lianzhou Campaign. Without a moment’s delay, he mounted his warhorse and headed straight for Lianzhou. Along the way, he issued over a dozen orders requiring the Lingnan fleet to ensure his army encountered no obstacles when crossing rivers. Those who violated orders would be executed!
The Lingnan Navy had long trained for this. Dividing into seven routes, they constructed pontoon bridges over all rivers the army would cross. Thus, the newly appointed Campaign Commander Duan Meng led his army to reach the Chunzhou battlefield at maximum speed.
Seeing Chunzhou city in the midst of fierce battle, Duan Meng was supremely contemptuous. Li Rong and his men had actually been forced into bitter combat by a group of savages. Without the help of his family’s generals, Chunzhou city would have long been breached. With such military capability in Lingnan, was it really worth His Majesty dispatching a fierce tiger like himself to guard it? A dog would have sufficed.
Zhang Hengtian never dreamed he would be blocked by Chunzhou city for a full three months. Unable to adjust his forces, Yongzhou’s Yun family, Guangzhou’s Feng family, Gaozhou’s Ji family, and Baizhou’s Luo family were all frantically counterattacking toward Lianzhou. Only by completely defeating Feng Zhidai would he have a chance to return and clean up those scattered remnants.
When the Xuanjia Army’s fire arrows flew over like a blanket covering the sky, his heart turned to dead ashes. Chunzhou city was already on the verge of collapse, and the court army he most feared had finally arrived. Without a word, he wheeled his horse around and fled toward Lianzhou with his trusted family generals, no longer able to care about the savages still engaged in battle.
Li Rong and his father-in-law, who were eating, exchanged smiles. They donned their armor still bearing mottled bloodstains and exited the city to meet Duan Meng. After the proud Duan Meng produced and announced the court’s commendation order, without even speaking to them, he immediately led his army in pursuit. By that time, not a single living savage remained on the battlefield. The Xuanjia Army leaving not a blade of grass alive wherever they went was already customary.
Li Rong cheerfully led his own soldiers leisurely toward Yongzhou, because the court had issued a death order: each return to their own stronghold! That is, they were to return to their fiefs and not venture out, lest incidents arise.
The twelve thousand Xuanjia Army troops were practically like a flood of fierce beasts. Along the way they broke through passes and cut down generals, swift as wind and thunder. Wherever Zhang Hengtian fled, the Xuanjia Army pursued. Though they could have captured Zhang Hengtian alive long ago, Duan Meng didn’t do so. Instead, he followed behind Zhang Hengtian killing people and breaking fortifications. Not until the rainy season arrived did he capture Zhang Hengtian and the Liao tribal chiefs in one net at Hepu, sending them to the capital. He himself remained in Hepu planning to fish for some pearls before returning.
When Zhang Hengtian arrived in the capital, Li Er merely sent Duan Hong to verify his identity, then ordered that he be treated as he had treated others. That very day, outside Xuanwu Gate, forty large fires burned with Zhang Hengtian and over forty accomplices bound to them, being roasted by charcoal fires. The spectators were the nobles of the Great Tang who remained in the capital. Except for Yun Ye observing mourning, not one was absent.
“Summon that bastard Yun Ye to the palace. I want to properly ask him what these donkey ears mean!” Li Er said viciously to Duan Hong. Zhangsun’s face was full of worry, but after hearing Li Er’s order, she smiled for once.