Yun Ye didn’t know any magic arts like shrinking the ground into inches, nor could he learn from the Monkey King to somersault one hundred and eight thousand li at a time, much less did he have the divine power of the Cloud-Treading Golden-Winged Great Peng Bird that could flap its wings once and travel ninety thousand li. So he still needed to honestly let the wind blow his great ship forward to travel across the sea.
He asked himself if he had been lazy—from discovering the problem to sensing the crisis, he hadn’t wasted a single moment. When leaving, he didn’t even have time to comfort his wife and concubines. If this still couldn’t save the Lingnan Navy, Yun Ye felt he could face his conscience without guilt.
Feng Ang had also discovered the problem. After he urgently transmitted the news that Gao Sanyang had split her fleet to Lu Chengqing, he led three thousand troops rushing overland toward Quanzhou at top speed. The old general sensed danger from this small anomaly.
Quanzhou was also under his jurisdiction. The two places were separated by more than fifteen hundred li, mostly mountain roads. He couldn’t worry about much else—one scout with three horses urgently relayed the warning to Quanzhou. At this time, Gao Sanyang had already left Guangzhou three days ago.
After Li Anlan learned this news, three ships immediately set sail toward Java. At this time, it was necessary to remind Hou Jie to respond carefully. When the three ships had just passed Crab Island, they didn’t know that behind this island was moored a great ship, and moreover it was a five-toothed great warship that the military had long since discarded. However, those useless striking poles had been removed by him. Fighting at sea and waiting for people to bring their ships close so you could drop giant stones to smash and overturn the ships—what kind of stupid opponent would you need to encounter for such combat methods to work!
Qiu Ran Ke never believed there were fools at sea. Yun Ye would become a monkey if given any advantage. Gao Sanyang was both seductive and troublesome—a true femme fatale. The only ones who were a bit stupid were those Tianzhu and Arab people, standing at the bow shaking the knives in their hands and shouting at you, then getting shot down by strong crossbows with a single volley. Even these idiots now knew to install simple catapults on their ships, with decent accuracy, just a bit short in range. This time, Qiu Ran Ke had obtained three genuine Eight-Ox Crossbows through Li Jing—this was finding real treasure. What’s more, his sworn brother had risked great danger to get him some gunpowder from the Zhechong Prefecture, and the monks of Daming Temple had also somehow obtained for him shipbuilding blueprints—blueprints of the Lingnan Navy’s active warships at that. This trip back to the capital, Qiu Ran Ke could be said to have returned fully loaded.
“Zhongjian, this time the Lingnan Navy is going to meet disaster. That woman Gao Sanyang is boundlessly arrogant, always clamoring to become the ruler of the great ocean. This old man doesn’t believe she can put down her airs and surrender. We ourselves have no intention of surrendering—would Gao Sanyang, who’s been thriving and prospering on the outer seas, surrender?”
“I don’t believe it either, Old Hu. We’re not much different from Gao Sanyang. We’re used to being free and unfettered—who can stand being controlled? My elder brother tried to persuade me this time too, wanting me to join the Great Tang’s navy. I think my elder brother’s sincerity is more believable than those of unrelated people, right? Would Gao Sanyang hand over her lifeline to the Tang people? Dream on. If she didn’t come this time to take advantage of Yun Ye being transferred away to give the Lingnan Navy a nasty surprise, that would be strange.”
Hu Tonghai looked at the three departing ships and said to Qiu Ran Ke, “Should we report this to the Lingnan Navy? That way we can be on good terms with them in the future. With this favor, even if Yun Ye comes back, he’ll need to return this favor to us, right?”
Qiu Ran Ke looked at Hu Tonghai strangely and said, “You haven’t suffered enough losses from that little bastard Yun Ye? He’ll only arrest us and send us to an even more remote deserted island. Believe it or not, even then, he’ll still say this is returning the favor, that not killing us is already a tremendous grace. Damn it, this old man stayed on a deserted island for almost a year, ate so much fish I wanted to vomit. I absolutely don’t want to be sent there again. Not attacking those three ships just now was already for my elder brother’s sake.”
“The Lingnan Navy meeting disaster is a great thing for us! Let them fight with Gao Sanyang until both sides are badly hurt. Even if Yun Ye wants to rebuild the Lingnan Navy, he’ll need at least three to five years. During this time, Gao Sanyang will definitely be plundering extensively to recover her vitality. Hahaha, during these three to five years, won’t this ocean be under our brothers’ control?”
“We won’t participate in this muddy water—just stand by and watch. If we can take the opportunity to finish off Gao Sanyang, our good days will arrive. This old man wants to establish a nation, and the Great Tang will have to hold its nose and accept it.”
“What a pity that our brothers aren’t in these waters. If they were here, we could definitely maximize the battle results.” After hearing Qiu Ran Ke’s ideas, Hu Tonghai regretfully pounded the rocks.
“Having us is enough. Only this way can we act without anyone knowing. Old Hu, look at this island—it’s been turned into the underworld by Yun Ye. Over these years, quite a few of our brothers have been impaled on poles by this fellow and left here. This shows that Yun Ye never gives anyone face. He believes these waters belong to the Great Tang, and whoever comes in, he’ll finish them off. His methods are extremely vicious. This time, Gao Sanyang is probably going to have bad luck. The Lingnan Navy is famously formidable. If she wants to win this battle, the difficulty is not small. When necessary, we’ll even have to help this woman. We won’t return to the outer seas—we’ll just wait around here. No matter what, Gao Sanyang will have to retreat. Otherwise, once the three giant warships—Princess, Qing Que, and Chengqian—arrive, it will be her doomsday.”
Everyone had their eyes on Quanzhou, but the Great Tang’s Chang’an was incomparably quiet. Li Er was in the imperial palace holding a brush, continuously marking landmarks on a map. The nine Protectorates—Andong, Anxi, Annan, Anbei, Beiting, Dongyi, Shanyu, Mengchi, and Kunling—he focused particularly on the two Protectorates of Anxi and Beiting, circling them with a red brush.
This was a huge folding screen. There were no other decorations on it—just a map of the beautiful rivers and mountains. Li Er’s brush tapped on the position of the Annan Protectorate as he muttered to himself, “Actually, the most suitable place for him to stay is here. But I don’t have many talented people left. There’s no help for it. Young fellow, you still have to go to Beiting. Chebi Khan doesn’t seem willing to accept defeat, and Anxi isn’t stable either. Although Guo Xiaoke is brave, he doesn’t have Yun Ye’s grasp of the big picture. This really gives me a headache.”
Yang Fei walked in carrying a food basket filled with fresh melons and fruits. Li Er plucked a grape from the basket and said with mock reproach, “You’re not young anymore either. You should take good care of yourself. But now look—you’ve planted a whole greenhouse of melons, fruits, and vegetables. I heard you want to continue expanding your greenhouse? At this rate, you might as well take charge of all the melons, fruits, and vegetables in the palace.”
Yang Fei said with a smile, “I don’t have Elder Sister Zhangsun’s abilities. I can only manage these melons, fruits, and vegetables. You don’t know—since I started managing these melons, fruits, and vegetables, my health has improved a lot compared to before. Now Elder Sister Zhangsun also likes to wander around the greenhouse when she has nothing to do. This grapevine was dug up from the Yun family by Elder Sister Zhangsun. It really is excellent. Look at these fruits—they’re much larger than other grapes.”
Li Er examined Yang Fei carefully and found that her health really had improved considerably. Her complexion was also ruddy, unlike before when she would pant after walking a few steps. Since he had begun to appreciate the beauty, Li Er put down the grape in his hand and roughly pulled Yang Fei into his embrace. His two hands kneaded her body, but Yang Fei irritably slapped them away and said with a laugh, “I’m already old and faded. You’re still this way—won’t those young concubines laugh at me?”
“Who would laugh? Who dares to laugh? I’ll tear her mouth apart.” Zhangsun walked out from the inner chamber with a smile, her arms holding a stack of documents. She placed them on the desk and teasingly joked with Yang Fei.
Yang Fei patted the basket on the desk and said to Zhangsun, “You’re also domineering. You’ve joined forces to bully me. Fine then, I’ll just stay far away. Inside here are the kiwi fruits you especially like. And I was still thinking of you.” Having said this, she made to leave. She had always avoided court affairs whenever possible.
“Guanyin Handmaiden, what are all these? I’ve already handled today’s court affairs. Where did all this come from?” Li Er held Yang Fei back and asked Zhangsun curiously.
“These aren’t your court affairs. They’re letters Yun Ye wrote to me. I thought you should also see them, so I brought them over. This young fellow either has no news for a long time, or else he sends many letters at once. Only after I finished reading did I realize he’s planning to rebuild the Lingnan Navy again. It looks like he believes the Lingnan Navy meeting disaster is already inevitable.”
The Lingnan Navy’s affairs were family matters, so Yang Fei had no reason to avoid them. She was just very curious—enemies all over the world had either been killed by her imperial husband or driven away. How could there still be someone so blind as to come looking for death?
Li Er stood up, took two steps, and looked at the lower half of the screen, saying, “Is this woman really so bold? If she truly dares to raid the Lingnan Navy, that’s absolutely seeking her own death. I believe Lu Chengqing would collude with her to make money, but to say Lu Chengqing would betray the Great Tang and betray me—that’s absolutely impossible. He’s also a general who came up through the waterways. Could he really have no way to deal with a female pirate? To actually make Yun Ye conceive the idea of rebuilding the Lingnan Navy—could Lu Chengqing really be so incompetent?”
Zhangsun frowned and said, “Yun Ye doesn’t engage in empty words. If he says this, he must have his reasons. You only need to look at his marching speed to understand. On the fourth he was still in Nanzheng, on the sixth he reached Xiakou, on the ninth he was already at Hezhou, and on the twelfth he had reached Yangzhou. One letter was written in four separate parts before being finished—you can see how rushed his journey was. Such marching speed is unprecedented, isn’t it?”
Li Er took the letters from Zhangsun’s hand. After flipping through a few pages, he put them on the desk and scratched his head, saying strangely, “Lu Chengqing’s memorial doesn’t say this at all. He said he was very well prepared and guaranteed to me that everything was foolproof. Where did Yun Ye’s worries come from? Could it be that woman is really formidable to such a degree?”
Li Er’s questions were destined to find no answers with Zhangsun and Yang Fei. Lu Chengqing was eagerly hoping for darkness to fall. As soon as it grew dark, Gao Sanyang would come to the banquet. His steward had already delivered the invitation and returned to report that Gao Sanyang was very pleased and promised to definitely come to the banquet on time. She would bring her maidservant, and if there was no song and dance at the wine feast, she planned to have her maidservant personally perform, presenting a newly rehearsed Heavenly Demon Dance for the Grand General. Upon hearing news of the Heavenly Demon Dance, Lu Chengqing’s body became unbearably hot.