When Yun Ye entered the palace, there were eight people. When he left the palace, there were only Yun Ye and his wife. Xiao Ya had been kept in the palace by Yin Fei to keep her company. Yun Shou had somehow coaxed Zhangsun into letting him and his younger siblings stay in the palace for two days, mainly because he heard that Li Tai had developed something called fireworks, which were said to be extraordinarily beautiful when set off at night.

Going to Old Cheng’s house without bringing the children made Old Cheng quite unhappy. He casually tossed five strings of gold ingots to Yun Ye. He had originally wanted to personally hang them around the children’s necks, but he had long lost interest in hanging them around Yun Ye’s neck. Now only soft, fragrant babies were what Old Cheng most liked to see.

When others came to Old Cheng’s house, there would be a few plates of presentable dishes. When the Yun couple came, it was just a big pot of boiled bones—one table for men, one table for women, sitting around the table gnawing on bones. No matter how you looked at it, it resembled a new year’s feast from the savage era. Madam Cheng was used to it, Xinyue was used to it, and Qinghe hadn’t been used to it before, but after marrying into the Cheng family she got used to it. Now she was holding a large bone and eating heartily.

Yun Ye sprinkled salt and pepper on the bones and rubbed two bones against each other, which evenly spread the salt and pepper on both bones. You know what? Although eating this way was rough, it had its own unique flavor.

Cheng Chuliang had already married. His wife was Yuanzhang’s treasured little granddaughter, whom he had ruined. This marriage was forced upon Old Cheng by Yuanzhang. From betrothal to wedding took less than half a month. Yun Ye didn’t even make it to the wedding. This couldn’t be helped—if they didn’t get married, the young lady’s belly would start showing.

This matter had made Old Cheng proud for more than half a year. That a literary master of the generation would grab him by the neck and force the Cheng family to marry his little granddaughter—only the Cheng family had this glory. Over this matter, Teacher Yuanzhang nearly died of anger. Cheng Chuliang had already been severely beaten three times by Teacher Yuanzhang before the new year. After the child was born in the coming year, he would probably get several more beatings.

Cheng Chubi was a good child, refined and cultured, an outstanding graduate from the academy. Now he was training in the Ministry of Revenue. Many prominent families had intentions of forming marriage alliances. Old Cheng heard that the Emperor had intentions of bestowing a princess in marriage, so the Cheng family rejected all the prominent families, saying they would discuss it in a few years. They had to wait for the Emperor to make a response before deciding.

Cheng Chuliang had already begged Yun Ye several times. He wanted to join the Lingnan naval forces, mainly to avoid Teacher Yuanzhang. According to him, those beatings were quite severe. If Teacher Yuanzhang had administered them himself, he wouldn’t have cared at all, but Teacher Yuanzhang had invited Master Wu She to be the executioner, so running away to Lingnan to hide was the best choice.

Yun Ye used chopsticks to poke out the bone marrow bit by bit. After sucking on it with satisfaction twice, he said to Cheng Yaojin, “Uncle, what do you think about Chuliang going to the Lingnan naval forces? He already holds the idle position of Assault Captain. At most he’s just a rank seven official. Your nephew can still make this decision. Let him serve under Yang Yueming for a few years, first get his position raised, and then discuss other arrangements. What do you think of this arrangement, elder?”

Hearing Yun Ye mention his own matter, Cheng Chuliang immediately dropped his bone and sat up straight, staring at his father without blinking. He very much hoped his father would agree. Cheng Chumo also punched his younger brother’s shoulder, expressing congratulations.

Old Cheng took a drink of wine and said slowly, “This old man has nothing to worry about if he serves under you. But not now. We must at least wait until Teacher Yuanzhang has vented all his anger. This bastard did something shameful and has no sense of responsibility, wanting to run far away to hide. This won’t do. The Cheng family doesn’t produce cowards. Since he dared to get Susu pregnant, he must take responsibility. That Teacher Yuanzhang didn’t have them both thrown into the river in a pig basket was already showing mercy.”

Yun Ye nodded. He pretended not to see Cheng Chuliang’s deathly pale face. Old Cheng’s handling was correct. Teacher Yuanzhang’s anger must be resolved. Yun Ye couldn’t even imagine what that upright Teacher Yuanzhang felt when he heard his granddaughter was pregnant before marriage. Being struck by five thunderbolts couldn’t be worse than that.

Even so, the old teacher’s first thought wasn’t to cover it up, but rather to grab Old Cheng by the neck and demand his family immediately come to propose marriage. One could see he truly loved Susu to the bone. For his granddaughter’s future, he cast aside all face. As for afterward inviting Master Wu She to administer punishments like separating tendons and dislocating bones to Cheng Chuliang—that really wasn’t much.

Seeing his fate was sealed, Cheng Chuliang could only sigh and continue gnawing on his bone. Thinking of Master Wu She’s perverted and terrifying methods of tormenting people, even eating dragon liver and phoenix marrow wouldn’t give him an appetite.

“I’m not worried about Chuliang. It’s nothing more than suffering some torment, which isn’t harmful. What Uncle worries about is Chumo. His brain is single-minded. All his life he’s wanted to truly fight on the battlefield once. Unfortunately, his timing has been poor. He didn’t catch His Majesty’s Eastern Expedition. He also didn’t catch your fierce battle in the South Sea. Wu Province is remote and the people are simple—there’s no warfare there, so he doesn’t want to stay. He broke the prefect’s leg and ran back. Originally it was a capital offense, but His Majesty covered it up. This old man says anything and he doesn’t listen. You’re brothers. Your words should be more effective than mine, his father’s. Talk to him more when you have time so he doesn’t make mistakes.”

Yun Ye chuckled and raised his wine cup to toast Old Cheng: “Just watch. Within three years, the Great Tang will definitely have a fierce battle. Keep Chumo in the capital. When that time comes, we might all go to war.”

Old Cheng looked at Yun Ye in astonishment and said, “Explain. What’s going on? How come this old man hasn’t sensed there will be a major war within three years? Who will the opponent be? Goguryeo? Tubo? Impossible!”

Cheng Yaojin saw very accurately. No one around the Great Tang dared say a single word of nonsense. The entire Eastern world lived by reading Li Er’s expression. No one, absolutely no one, dared to act presumptuously.

“After spring begins, our court’s grain supplies supporting the Turks’ western expedition and the replaced weapons will be transferred to the Turks, Uyghurs, and those people of the Nine Surnames of Zhaowu. They want to go on a western expedition, and the court supports it. Giving some grain can empty out the grasslands and deserts, leaving enough strategic buffer space for our Great Tang—it’s very worthwhile. Moreover, the direct consequence of this is that Tubo will be surrounded on three sides by the Great Tang. We can’t go up to the plateau, but they also can’t think of rushing down.”

Old Cheng thought for a moment and said, “This old man knows about this matter. That’s the savages’ business. What do their killings have to do with us? Just watch the excitement without helping either side. Could it be we’d send our own children to help those Turks? Their dying out would be a good thing.”

“Uncle, you can’t say that. Your nephew dares to bet that the Turks can’t defeat the Arabs. They’ll inevitably be blocked on the plateau. When they can neither advance nor retreat, they’ll seek aid from our court. His Majesty will definitely agree to the western expedition. Years of peace are very detrimental to a nation’s military. Whether His Majesty does it for the purpose of training troops or to display the Great Tang’s military might, the western expedition is already unavoidable. The Arab Caliph wants Allah’s glory to shine across the world. For His Majesty, this kind of consequence of occupying people’s hearts is even worse than occupying territory. Once we let it go and allow the Arabs to slaughter all the Turks, the Arabs will become the Great Tang’s new neighbors. If such neighbors appear, with His Majesty’s temperament, what do you think will happen?”

“His Majesty will seize his wife, children, and house to make them his own, then bury this neighbor in the ground before he’ll be at ease. Your meaning is to have Chumo participate in delivering grain supplies to the Turks?” Cheng Yaojin tapped the table and asked Yun Ye.

“That’s right. Get things done ahead of time. When the time comes, Chumo’s participation in the war will be a natural course of events. Your nephew estimates this is almost the Great Tang’s last fierce battle. After this battle, there will be no warfare in the West for a hundred years.”

Cheng Chumo looked at his father beseechingly. If he couldn’t obtain enough military merit in this campaign, he would remain obscure his entire life.

“You’ll go too? If you also go, you brothers will have someone to rely on on the battlefield. This is very important. Looking back on this old man’s life of warfare, only when there were truly reliable brothers by my side would this old man act freely. Otherwise, this old man would definitely hold back thirty percent of strength to prepare for retreat. Only if both of you go will this old man feel at ease letting you go on the western expedition.”

Old Cheng’s expression was very solemn. As a veteran general with long experience in warfare, how could he not know the principle that three hundred li would exhaust a superior general? For this western expedition, the journey alone was a full ten thousand li away. Without even marching, just walking this distance would cause the army to lose more than thirty percent—and that was a conservative estimate. Moreover, they would need to fight the most formidable enemies. Without a reliable partner, Old Cheng would never let Cheng Chumo take such risks. Losing his eldest son for military merit would be the greater disaster.

Yun Ye stood up and opened the window, looking at the flying white snow outside and muttering to himself, “Perhaps my soul was left in the northwest. I want to go look for it. These days I keep dreaming of the Gobi, the desert, speargrass, and tall poplars, so I want to go see. Wang Cai also keeps barking toward the west. It also wants to go west. Back then, Wang Cai and I encouraged each other as we walked out from the wilderness. I always feel I’ve lost something, so I must make a trip to the west. Whether or not I can find my soul, at least I’ll have looked, and I can console myself. Wang Cai is already fourteen years old this year. If we don’t go to the west in the next few years, I’m afraid it won’t be able to walk anymore.”

Heavy snow poured through the window and also fell on Yun Ye’s face. He wiped his face. His face was wet—he didn’t know if it was tears or melted snow. From the beginning of the Turkic western expedition, he had keenly discovered the possibility of a western expedition. Not until recently when the Three Departments agreed to the Turks’ request did he become very certain the western expedition was coming. He very much wanted to make another trip to the Longyou wilderness, wanted to go to that spring to look, to dig down, to see if he could find the way back. He really wanted to go back and look. How exactly did he come from the water pit to the Great Tang back then?

Cheng Chumo patted Yun Ye’s shoulder to comfort him: “No matter what you’ve lost, I’ll help you find it. If we can’t find it, we’ll go rob it. No matter who has it, we’ll rob it back, until we have so much we can’t fit it all!”