Human affairs cannot be sorted out. No matter whose affairs they are, as long as you try to sort them from the beginning, you’ll discover they’re a tangled mess. The saying “impossible to cut apart, impossible to sort out” refers precisely to this principle.
There are no pure victors in this world. Even someone like Yun Ye, who’d already had one lifetime of experience, still managed to live his life as a tangled mess. Gratitude, resentment, love, and hatred mixed together were like piling various seasonings together, becoming an even more terrible flavor. Swallowing it was bitter, the aftertaste sour, it upset the stomach, yet one still had to say stubbornly: “The taste is excellent.”
Li Tai and Yun Ye were sitting together savoring this taste. This time the savoring was somewhat special. The cause was Li Tai’s question of whom to give the money he’d earned to. Giving it to his emperor father meant completely abandoning his older brother. Giving it to his crown prince brother meant he planned to rebel against his father together with his brother. After calculating everything, he discovered that earning money had no meaning whatsoever.
“Just give it to your mother. She likes money and wealth anyway. Hand the difficult problem to her to handle. This way, all the things that wrong others are done by your mother and have nothing to do with you.” Yun Ye offered Li Tai a suggestion.
“If it were your mother, would you be willing to scheme against her? I feel terrible, so my mother wouldn’t feel terrible? You should be dragged out and fed to dogs for having such treasonous thoughts.” Li Tai was unhappy. He slammed the pancake in his hand onto the plate and lost his temper.
“Then how about you give your share to me? I don’t mind feeling terrible. Putting money in my family’s storehouse to look at occasionally would be nice too. When we return from this trip, my family’s treasury will probably need expanding again.” Yun Ye placed bean sprouts, meat slices, and bean paste on the pancake, rolled it into a long strip, carefully folded it over, and bit down hard. He was so comfortable he nearly moaned.
Li Tai laughed instead. He picked up his pancake again and rolled it like Yun Ye, eating heartily. After finishing one pancake, he said happily, “I’ll just keep the money at your house and give it to no one. Whether my older brother wins or my father the emperor wins, the one who loses will surely need money. I’ll keep all this money for them. If I just struggle for two more years, the money I earn should be enough for them to live on.”
“Qingque, are you sure the two people you want to support are an emperor and a crown prince? Listening to your words, you sound just like those old men at Yun Family Manor, lamenting that their two sons don’t amount to anything, but as elders there’s nothing they can do except earn more money so that even if the two children become wastrels in the future, they can squander for a few more years. These are words a loving father would say, not words that should come from you as a son and younger brother.”
“It’s all the same. One is my father, one is my older brother. Since the two of them like to argue, then it can only be me, the younger brother and son, who considers things for them. A family always needs someone like this.”
It seemed Li Tai was moved by his own words. His eyes reddened slightly. He lowered his head to eat without saying more. Yun Ye didn’t want to disturb his enjoyment of this beautiful sentiment. He just kept helping him with food. As long as the heart was kind, who cared if it was childish? Yun Ye would rather be surrounded by such childishness every day than face overly rational thinking.
“We’ve been in the strait for three days now. You’ve also killed all the Arabs. When exactly are we going out? The pirates opposite are extremely detestable. We should still hang all the pirates.”
“Soon. We’ll move out tomorrow at dawn. Three ships will engage in a great battle with them at the strait entrance. We still don’t know who the opponents are, but it seems we’ve attracted all the pirates. This is precisely the time for me to proclaim maritime rights. However, scouts have spotted Koreans and Japanese through telescopes, and it seems Qiu Ranke’s fleet is there too. That fellow has regressed more and more—now he’s even partnering with the Japanese. So this time I don’t plan to show mercy.”
“People who want power are all the same. To achieve their goals, they don’t hesitate to make deals with devils. When such power slaves die, it saves the common people. Tomorrow I’ll return to the Qingque and experience firsthand what combat is like.”
“That’s good too. With Master Wushe accompanying you, I’m also at ease. Remember, your life is most precious. If they can just eliminate you, they’ve completely won.”
“Shut your crow’s mouth. Can’t you wish me well?” Taking advantage of the sky not yet completely darkening, Li Tai went directly back to the Qingque to prepare for tomorrow’s battle.
After Li Tai left, Yun Ye pulled out a letter from his documents and wrote down exactly what Li Tai had just said. This was a letter to Li Er. Yun Ye didn’t plan to write a memorial to the emperor—a letter was more prudent. He begged the emperor to consider Qingque’s feelings and not be too harsh when dealing with Li Chengqian, not to extinguish his imperial ambitions. Deposing the crown prince would be the beginning of disaster in the Great Tang’s inner palace.
Many people favored Li Chengqian, believing he should be able to wield power. Yun Ye didn’t see it that way. As long as Li Er pushed lightly, Li Chengqian’s castle built on sand would collapse with a crash. Another wave would leave not even dregs remaining. Li Er was the most terrifying person in this land—there was absolutely no “one of” in that statement.
Everything that could be done had been done. He’d even predicted the catastrophic scene two years hence. What he could do now was quietly observe the changes. This savior-like feeling made Yun Ye feel both painful and afraid. He discovered Han Zhe was right—unknowingly, Yun Ye had placed himself in the position of the Great Tang’s nursemaid, carefully watching over this powerful yet fragile newborn empire.
Yun Ye awoke to the sounds of shouting as anchors were raised. With no time to wash up, he hurriedly went on deck. The deck was already in organized chaos. Small houses slowly rose up. Thorn nets protecting the ship’s bottom from damage had already been lowered into the water. If any pirates dared to dive down to bore through the hull, they would be caught in these nets like fish. Countless fishhooks hung on the nets. Every time the nets were hauled up, there were always many strange creatures on them.
Old Feng and the others stood on the cargo ship deck respectfully seeing off the warriors to battle. The ceremony was simple yet solemn. The horn players blew the horns with all their might. The deep sound echoed through the canyon. Great Tang warships didn’t need to sneak into battle—a righteous army was sufficient to destroy all opponents.
Yun Ye deliberately put on armor. Li Tai on the opposite ship did the same. With a long sword hanging at his waist, he actually looked quite imposing. His hands rested on the ship’s railing as he watched the massive ship cleave through waves. For an opponent like Gaoshan Yangzi, unless he hurt her badly, she wouldn’t learn her lesson. As for whether she could survive this war, Yun Ye hadn’t considered it.
The massive ship advanced under full sail. The entire ship reached maximum speed. Embraced by the current, the Princess was first to charge out of the strait. The black skull flag on the mast flapped desperately. The white bones on it seemed to come alive, ready to devour lives.
Gaoshan Yangzi had long known Yun Ye’s movements from scouts. She’d placed all the mixed-quality warships directly facing the strait, not deploying a single one on either flank. She already knew how Zamuli had failed, so she immediately prepared to close in on the massive ships for hand-to-hand combat after boarding.
Many sailors holding large fish bladders silently slipped into the sea, waiting on the Princess’s inevitable path. The hammers and chisels at their waists were prepared. They were the pirates with the best swimming skills. Their leader was the old sea thief Hu Tonghai. As a family of sea thieves, boring through ship bottoms was already routine. Treading water, seeing the Princess charging toward him, he wasn’t worried. With a whistle, the pirates floating on the sea surface all dove down. As long as the hooks at their waists firmly caught the ship, they could attach themselves to it and begin their work.
The thunderous sound transmitted from the sea surface into the water startled him, but the old thief still followed previous practice and prepared to feel his way to the bottom of the hull. He knew all ships’ weaknesses. In some places, as long as one spot was damaged, the planks would collapse over a large area in an instant under pressure, with no possibility of rescue.
His back hurt. Hu Tonghai was suddenly alarmed. What was this? After his eyes adjusted to the underwater dimness, he finally discovered there was a row of hooked nets beneath the Princess’s hull. Knowing he’d met his match, Hu Tonghai didn’t hesitate to cut away the flesh that had been hooked with his knife. If he dared to struggle even once, more fishhooks would catch on his body.
The seawater stung the wound with burning pain, nearly causing Hu Tonghai to pass out. Drawing in all the air from the fish bladder, the old thief quietly swam toward the stern. If he couldn’t attack the hull, he’d attack the rudder. He carefully avoided those subordinates waving their arms for help. He couldn’t rescue them now. If any of those fellows lost his wits and grabbed onto him, it would only cost him his own life as well.
Now, disabling this large ship was the proper business. The price Gaoshan Yangzi had offered was very tempting. She only wanted the three massive ships—all other merchant vessels would belong to him and the Mai family brothers. His only task was to stop these three ships from advancing.
The rudder was rapidly turning left and right, indicating the ship was performing S-shaped maneuvers. Such a large ship could perform movements only small sampans could do? Hu Tonghai somewhat regretted agreeing to Gaoshan Yangzi’s conditions. With such a massive ship, what treasures couldn’t one have?
The massive ship’s rudder was very large. Hu Tonghai measured it and discovered the rudder was bigger than a person. Taking advantage of the rudder leaning to the left, he pressed the chisel against the central shaft covered with shells and seaweed and laboriously struck one blow with the hammer. The chisel didn’t embed itself in the wooden shaft as he’d wished but bounced back instead. Hu Tonghai refused to believe it. It was just a piece of ironwood—he’d chiseled through such things before. It wasn’t too difficult. Lifting the hammer to strike again, his palm went numb from the shock. Looking carefully, he discovered that this calf-thick central shaft wasn’t made of ironwood at all, but pure bronze.
Seeing this, Hu Tonghai swam far away, hiding his head behind a broken crate to secretly observe the sea surface. On the sea surface, arrows flew like locusts. Countless fire arrows fell on the massive ship. Smoke rose everywhere, but the massive ship seemed to suffer little damage. As long as crossbow bolts shot out from those wooden houses, ships on his side would either catch fire or shatter with a thunderous sound.
What kind of massive ship was this? Hu Tonghai discovered many planks on the hull being quietly opened, with sharp crossbow bolts protruding from those windows.
Good heavens! Not only those small houses could shoot crossbow bolts—the hull could too. Hu Tonghai took a deep breath and dove into the sea once more. But this time he didn’t approach the Princess. Instead, he swam toward a small island at the strait’s edge. There was still a small boat there. With it, he’d have enough to return to his hometown.