The things in this world are not fearsome for being difficult—they’re fearsome when you actually do them. After doing them, you’ll discover truth after truth. For instance, when two armies clash, strength is strength—this is a fact. You can’t circumvent it, can’t avoid it. At such times, there are always people who think of using clever tricks and maneuvering, believing this will provide a glimmer of survival. In real life, such successful examples are too few. Only those who face hardship fearlessly and forge ahead can achieve great success.
This speech full of holes was not spoken by Yun Ye, but by Liu Fang. He scoffed at those examples Yun Ye cited of succeeding through stratagems. Zhou Yu burning Red Cliff? The sounds of wind and crane cries on Mount Bagong where every tree and blade of grass seemed like soldiers? Even Lord Mengchang’s tricks of cock-crowing and dog-thieving?
He spat directly in Yun Ye’s face: “Look at how many such examples there are across several thousand years! Why are these things recounted through the ages? Isn’t it precisely because they’re rare? Two thousand years of military campaigns—remove the years won through tricks, and count the remaining one thousand nine hundred years. Who wasn’t fighting battles properly and dutifully? Why should you achieve victory through surprise?”
Yun Ye wiped his face—it still had the taste of fish congee on it. That jar of congee, the old man had finished completely without leaving a drop. Knowing that Liu Fang was sharing experience with him, not debating principles, and was being somewhat overbearing and somewhat embarrassed into anger, he didn’t hold it against him. Who would quibble with a seventy-year-old man!
Great Tang was currently this world’s superpower. When great nations did things, they did them magnificently. If they wanted to destroy you, then they would destroy you. Even if you stole one pig from my family, it could become a reason to start war, and it wouldn’t end until I had led all your family’s pigs back to my own home. If you dared to squeak twice, they might even destroy your pigsty.
Therefore, the Turks’ Golden Wolf King now made his living in Chang’an by performing for audiences. To properly serve Li Er, his only customer, he had reportedly developed creative forms like tying golden bells around his waist. Gaochang’s Ju Wentai had died, and his son was now diligently studying dance techniques, preparing to shine brilliantly in the future dance troupe of various nations’ leaders.
Watching Dongyu kick a Guanzhong man into the sea with one foot, Yun Ye’s heart twitched. If you’re tying a rope, at least tie it around the waist—what’s the meaning of tying it around the neck? The Guanzhong man sank like a weight. Seeing he had already gone under, Dongyu tugged the rope. The man had swallowed who knows how much seawater, his hands and feet thrashing desperately with all his might, splashing water all the way up to the ship. The Guanzhong men behind him all had faces like earth and bodies shaking like sieves.
One person would have been enough, but after all those men who couldn’t swim had been kicked into the great sea, the entire sea surface was like a boiling pot, with wailing sounds deafening the ears.
Someone shouted “Shark!” and Yun Ye jumped up, preparing to have the sailors pull all the Guanzhong landlubbers up. If one or two got bitten to death by sharks, the trouble would be huge. Liu Fang impatiently pressed Yun Ye back down: “Sit down. Where are there sharks? Those are other navy men wearing shark fins in the sea to frighten people. Today, let’s have a good talk about the way of being a general. Listen well—the way of being a general is to first govern the heart. Mount Tai can collapse before you without changing expression, deer can rise on your left without making you blink, and only then can you control advantage and harm, and await the enemy.”
“Whenever troops move, know the enemy’s ruler, know the enemy’s general, and only then can you move through danger. Wei General Deng Ai led troops to attack Shu Han, traveling from Yinping’s small path through uninhabited land for over seven hundred li, using ropes to lower soldiers from mountains into deep valleys. If not for Shu Han’s last ruler Liu Chan being incompetent and muddled, then a million-strong army could have sat and captured him bound. Deng Ai originally treated Liu Chan with contempt, which is why he deployed troops in dangerous territory. Therefore, ancient good generals could use large armies to probe the enemy’s strength and weakness, reality and illusion, while also using the enemy’s reactions to measure themselves. This way they could determine their course of action.”
“That’s wrong. The Liu Chan this junior knows was no incompetent ruler. On the contrary, he was an emperor of outstanding wisdom. After Shu experienced many years of warfare, the population was exhausted, all industries were in decline, and everyone in Shu had become weary of war to the extreme. Yet Zhuge Liang wouldn’t give up—six expeditions from Qishan, nine campaigns to the Central Plains, each time returning without success, each time exhausting the people and draining resources. Shu’s population had only one hundred thousand households left, the army also only one hundred thousand—this was the limit for that nation.”
“Defeat was inevitable, so he allowed Deng Ai to enter Shu directly and surrendered himself to avoid war scorching the people again. This was a sage who didn’t care about power and position at all! Actually, I admire to the point of prostrating myself in admiration what he said to Sima Zhao: ‘I am happy here and do not think of Shu.’ Not only did he preserve his own life, he could continue to enjoy wealth and glory. How wonderful! What a clever person! Look at Sun Hao of Wu who was captured at the same time—he died so miserably, while Liu Chan enjoyed wealth and honor to the end of his life. From this point alone, we must admit that Liu Chan was a clever man.”
Liu Fang, trembling, pointed his finger at Yun Ye and asked: “You think Liu Chan was very clever? Surrendering was for the sake of Shu’s common people? For his own momentary security, abandoning his ancestral foundation, that was right?”
“Yes, that’s right. The foundation was the Liu family’s—what business was it of others? As long as it benefited the common people and didn’t greatly harm himself, if he didn’t want it, then he didn’t want it. What’s the big deal? As for being cursed in the historical records for all these years.”
“Truly rotten wood cannot be carved, summer insects cannot discuss ice with. From today forward, if this old man ever again teaches you the way of battle formations, this old man swears he’s not human.” Having said this, he stood up and kicked over the clay jar, storming off toward the rear cabin in a huff.
“My lord, what if Old Man Liu won’t teach you learning anymore?” Liu Jinbao asked Yun Ye with a worried expression.
“Your lord here doesn’t like learning that stuff anyway. The more you know, the more troublesome it is. Do you like your lord here leading this group of soldiers running all over the world fighting with others? Nothing better to do. As long as Old Man Liu can fight battles, that’s enough.”
“But my lord, Old Man Liu is already seventy years old. You’re only twenty-one this year. He can’t help you for many more years.”
“Jinbao, this world never lacks talented people—it only lacks people who discover talent. Your lord here is someone very good at discovering talent. When Old Man Liu can’t fight battles anymore and can’t lead troops, we’ll just find another one. Have him continue working for our family while we live peacefully and steadily. Isn’t that good?”
“My lord’s brilliant insight! In the future, this humble one will also help you watch out. We’ll get a few who can fight battles to help at our family. Just give them more silver. Our family members are all precious—no need to foolishly go to the battlefield risking our lives.”
Yun Ye nodded, greatly agreeing with Liu Jinbao’s words. Nobles—weren’t they precisely that group of people who specialized in enjoying life? Why make oneself run around more enthusiastically than a dog?
Dongyu and the others were too harsh in their methods. Yun Ye naturally needed to comfort these pitiful Guanzhong men. In their whole lives, at most they had splashed around bare-bottomed in small streams with dirty water, and even that hadn’t spared them many beatings from their parents. Now being kicked with one foot into the bottomless great sea, drinking a few mouthfuls of saltwater could be accepted, but there were always sharks circling behind—this was truly life-threatening. These men who dared to face tigers with knives and fight them, ever since seeing that terrifying great mouth of the shark, the creature had become an indispensable element in their nightmares.
They barely endured until lunch time. Seeing the marquis personally carrying a large wooden bucket filled with fatty meat, using a wooden ladle to continuously add food for them, the grievances in their hearts all erupted at once.
“My lord, please let this humble one go ashore. This humble one has never feared thousands of troops and ten thousand horses, but I just can’t learn to swim. We Guanzhong people just aren’t the material for swimming.”
Looking at the burly man crying while hugging his leg, the other men couldn’t help but feel sorrow rise from their hearts. They put down the large bowls in their hands and pleaded together—they would rather go be suicide troops as soon as they reached shore than go in the water again.
“Bullshit! We Guanzhong men can capture tigers on mountains and catch dragons in seas. It’s just swimming—a small matter. This afternoon, your lord here will also go in the water. I don’t believe it—we who have practiced blade techniques well can’t handle swimming. These sea bastards—don’t they just know how to swim? If they’ve got guts, let them mount horses and fight us for seven or eight rounds, and see who’s more formidable than whom. You’re all excellent, you know? There’s nothing unusual about tigers that can climb mountains, but a tiger that can swim and also climb mountains—tell me, is that formidable or not?”
The soldiers surrounding them, upon hearing this, naturally thought such a tiger was very formidable. But hearing that the marquis would also descend into the icy sea, they couldn’t help but feel secretly ashamed. In the military, when great generals spoke words, none didn’t count. If the marquis said he’d go in the water this afternoon, he absolutely wouldn’t wait until tomorrow.
Such a precious person was preparing to thrash about in the sea—so what if they, with their paper bodies and grass lives, accompanied him for a round? The man hugging Yun Ye’s leg also stopped crying, picked up his bowl, and swallowed in great mouthfuls. Red-braised pork always suited his appetite.
“You’re going in the sea?” Old Man Liu heard the news from someone and came to Yun Ye’s cabin. Seeing Yun Ye wearing only shorts doing stretching exercises, he couldn’t help but ask.
“Yes, this is necessary. Great Tang’s generals haven’t yet had anyone who breaks his word for personal gain. If I say I’ll go in the water, I’ll go in the water. No delay.” Yun Ye twisted his waist, answering while exercising.
“You’re going in the water truly to encourage the soldiers? To set an example by taking the lead?” Uneasy, Liu Fang asked another question.
“No. During this period I’ve eaten too much seafood, and my body has actually become chubby. This won’t do. As soon as a person gets fat, they easily get sick. I must lose the excess fat. Swimming is the best method.”
Regarding Yun Ye’s shamelessness, Liu Fang was already accustomed to it. He nodded and returned to his own cabin. Regardless of whether Yun Ye was doing it to encourage the soldiers, he had done what a commander should do. There was nothing worth criticizing.
Coming out of the cabin naked, Yun Ye immediately regretted it. His words at noon had been too big. In March in Dengzhou, one still needed to wear fur robes. Yet he was about to jump naked into the icy seawater. This wasn’t a Lingnan beach—this was Liaodong where spring had just arrived. With words spoken, there was no room for change. A rope tied around his waist, steeling his heart and closing his eyes, he jumped from the ship’s bow into the great sea.