“Are you planning to insult my Dugu family?”

The two men stood very close together. Yun Ye noticed that Dugu Mou’s pupils involuntarily contracted, his gaze becoming sharp.

Yun Ye nodded and said: “I also think you can’t afford to lose this much face, so it must be your cousin fooling around. As long as it wasn’t your idea, everything’s fine. Whether your younger brother is beheaded by me or beaten to death by you when you return home—it’s all the same.”

“Take a look at what your brother has done—daring to entrust Kaiyuan Gate to Wa people for management. I really want to see how you’ll handle this. I helped you kill sixteen of them. The rest are all locked up in the great prison. Don’t know if anything’s been extracted from them yet. These Wa people all lived near Kaiyuan Gate, every single one of them warriors.”

“You know about the massacre at Zhang Liang’s estate on Mount Li, right? The ones who struck were Wa people. If such a massacre occurred in Chang’an City, even with your Dugu family’s solid footing, you’d probably have to give the people of this world an explanation, wouldn’t you?”

Dugu Mou nodded, looking around. Finally, he took Yun Ye’s precious sword from the weapon rack, drew it partway to examine it, and said to Yun Ye: “This kind of matter must be handled swiftly. Don’t you agree?”

“Naturally. What military strategy emphasizes is precisely the momentum of thunder that gives no time to cover one’s ears.”

“Dugu Qiu’s two legs will be broken by me. Don’t expect him to walk on his own for the rest of his life. Just keep him alive to father sons and daughters. Remember—it’s not because of pressure from you, Yun Ye, but because what he did was too disgraceful.” Dugu Mou pointed in the direction of the Court of Judicial Review and added: “Should be at the Court of Judicial Review, right?” Yun Ye nodded. Then this fellow laughed loudly and pushed the door open to leave…

Yun Ye looked at the empty sword stand, shook his head, and began reviewing documents again. After two busy days, another large pile had accumulated.

When the sun was about to set, Dugu Mou returned and gave Yun Ye back his sword.

This fellow was very clean, but his entire body carried a thick stench of blood. Yun Ye glanced at Di Renjie standing outside the door—how could he not know what had happened?

“Your sword is excellent. After killing over a hundred people, it still shows no sign of having its edge rolled. Do you have any more? Give me one. The swords and sabers at home are awkward to use—they always roll their edges. The Dugu family’s sword technique emphasizes precisely the character for ‘swift.’ After a sword’s edge rolls, the sound of it breaking through the wind is too loud.”

Yun Ye took down that sword and placed it in front of Dugu Mou, saying: “I’ve carried this sword for ten years and never killed a single person. Today it finally tasted blood. If you like it, take it. I’ll find another one to maintain appearances.”

Dugu Mou looked at the setting sun, turned back to Yun Ye and said: “It’s too late now. I won’t return to Hu County either. I hear your household’s food is quite good. What a coincidence today—I’ll go to your home and have a meal.”

Yun Ye found it very difficult to refuse Dugu Mou. He also went off duty. From beside the lotus pond, he found Wang Cai, who was chewing lotus seeds. This idiot only knew how to eat stupidly, not even removing the lotus cores. It was so bitter that he kept drooling, yet still didn’t know to stop eating, continuing to stomp on lotus pods with his hooves, constantly searching for lotus seeds.

He found Wang Cai’s handkerchief on his back and helped wipe his mouth. Seeing him constantly sticking out his tongue, he pried open his mouth and wiped away all the lotus seed residue remaining on his teeth. Only then did he pat Wang Cai’s head, planning to go home.

Dugu Mou watched from the side with great interest, his expression somewhat strange.

“This is my brother. He’s been with me since I came down from the mountain. Now he’s over twenty years old. Although his body is still fairly robust, at the end of the day he’s old. He can’t bear to leave me, so I’ve just kept him with me. Please don’t laugh.”

Coming back to his senses, Dugu Mou shook his head and said: “No laughter. A general cherishing his horse is his duty. Speaking of it, warhorses are all soldiers’ brothers—depending on each other for life and death on the battlefield. Having returned and gained wealth and honor, naturally you cannot let your brother come to a bad end. No matter how callous a general may be, toward his own warhorse he never abandons him, serving him as if he were a second life.”

Dugu Mou was actually a very talkative person, often able to hit the nail on the head. The two men sat in the carriage, discussing from the Turks on the grasslands to the Huihe of the northern desert, from cavalry formation charges and breaking formations, all the way to the fierce invincibility of the camel城.

“I’m always dissatisfied. In terms of ability, Dugu Mou considers himself a cut above others, but on the battlefield I’m far inferior to you. I’ve only fought three great battles at Mayi and Mount Eyang. Although I killed countless enemies, in fact I was forced back to my original position. In the end, Mount Eyang was still captured first by Su Dingfang. Speaking of it, these are all regrets.”

“Li Jing commanded troops his entire life adhering to one principle—upright and proper. This actually inherited Han Qinhu’s mantle. Everyone says the Battle of Mount Eyang was the one time he took a risk. As a result, just this once, it was still ruined by Chai Shao, causing General Li’s strategy to come to nothing. You weren’t at Mayi at the time—General Li’s expression then was truly spectacular. Winning the battle made him even more troubled.”

“Li Ji is about strategy, Cheng Yaojin about courage. Niu Jinda, sticking to the character for ‘steady,’ ultimately obtained the title of Duke of Langye. As for Hou Junji, this man extremely enjoyed taking risks. Although he kept taking risks, the last time he gambled away every chip in hand, losing completely clean. In the end, he even had to forfeit his own life.”

“Actually, the one I understand least is you. When you fight battles, there’s almost nothing spectacular about them. Much of the time your behavior seems extremely foolish—like traveling ten thousand li to rescue Guo Xiaohe. At the time, I演绎ed it countless times on the sand table and found no clue suggesting you could possibly win a great victory. When others said you made a fearless move to rescue friendly forces and praised you profusely, my evaluation had only two characters—foolish! If judging with four characters, it would be: extremely foolish!”

“I won’t hide it from you—at the time in Jinyang, I pointed westward and cursed for an entire day. With few troops, instead of awaiting the exhausted enemy at leisure, you traveled ten thousand li to fight in an unfamiliar place. This is something only a stupid pig could do. Guo Xiaohe was an idiot who exhausted thousands of troops to death. You, Yun Ye, were even more incurably stupid. At the time, I had already determined you would definitely lose, that the western campaign would definitely become completely rotten.”

“For this reason, I rode my warhorse from Jinyang toward Chang’an, planning to persuade His Majesty to immediately abandon the frontier, rebuild the strategic passes of Yumen Gate, and deploy heavy forces in Hexi to guard against possible Tubo invasion.”

“Walking to Houma, I heard you had won a minor victory. My face immediately turned ashen—this was definitely a Turkic trap to lure the enemy. Through the night, with three horses, I traveled day and night without stopping. Just entering Guanzhong, I heard you had already been caught in a pincer attack from both Tubo and the Turks. I cried out ‘Yun Ye is bringing ruin to the nation!’ and fell from my horse, no longer having the heart to continue my journey.”

“Originally thinking that even if you were defeated, you could rally your troops and slowly retreat into Yumen Gate—who could have imagined you would so recklessly choose to fight the Turks to the death at Kucha? If you had been before me at that time, even risking being beheaded by His Majesty, I would have killed you. At the time, I believed you would exhaust thousands of troops to death.”

Dugu Mou spoke with some excitement, glancing at the carriage as if searching for something. Yun Ye understood well—at this moment, this fellow wanted a drink. From the drawer behind him, he retrieved a bottle of wine and handed it to Dugu Mou. Dugu Mou was greatly pleased. His hand twisted the bottle stopper, which popped open with a bang. Tilting back his neck, he gulped down half the bottle in one go. Only then did he exhale comfortably and continue speaking to Yun Ye.

“At the time, because of my frantic journey, my crotch and thighs were completely raw. My household warriors placed me in a carriage heading for Chang’an. On the road, I had already sent orders home, commanding all estate tenants who could wield swords to fully arm themselves, preparing to fight a protracted war in Longxi. As I saw it, the strategic passes of Hexi and Yumen would definitely be lost. Perhaps in the end, we could only rely on the natural defenses of Qin Prefecture to fight a bitter battle with the Turks. The whole world attacking Tang—at that time, it was also Great Tang’s most dangerous moment. If internal strife appeared at this time, the newly established Great Tang would instantly split into pieces, repeating the mistakes of the former Sui.”

“On the road, I even fell damned ill. After resting for ten days, I saw your red-plumed urgent messengers. They were actually shouting the news: ‘Great victory at Kucha, one hundred thousand beheaded in battle!'”

“My first reaction was that you were falsely reporting military intelligence. Just the Turks alone were enough to keep you busy, not to mention that behind them was the Tubo famous general Ludongzan leading the Tubo army. Anyway, on the road at that time, I cursed every profanity I could think of. As for your wife, in my mouth she had already become everyone’s wife.”

“I didn’t believe one team of red-plumed urgent messengers, I didn’t believe two teams of red-plumed urgent messengers. When I encountered the third team of red-plumed urgent messengers sent by Li Jing, I couldn’t disbelieve even if I wanted to, because you were already pursuing the Turks, and Li Jing was also beating the daylights out of that drowned dog Tubo.”

“I kept my damned eyes wide open for two days and two nights! I pulled out my own deductions and plans, reconstructing the battlefield over and over in my mind. No matter what, I couldn’t find how you could, in upright and proper fashion, with a magnificent army, thoroughly defeat the ferocious Tubo people and the Turks who had become desperate troops. There was no method at all!”

“Do you know what I was thinking at that time? I was thinking: This son of a bitch Yun Ye is actually this much stronger than me?”

“Earlier, I thought your camel城 was fanciful thinking. Firearms—I thought they were only effective in specific environments, utterly useless when truly large armies fought. Who knew you would use facts to viciously slap me across the face? This slap made Dugu Mou’s heart ache to the core!”

Although Yun Ye was very dissatisfied that Dugu Mou had cursed his wife as that kind of public woman, having his own glorious battle record narrated so thrillingly, he couldn’t help feeling a little smug in his heart.

“Where is it as easy as you describe? After the great victory, I also ached all over for several days. You don’t know—beside the camel城, corpses were piled everywhere. At the most critical moment, a black storm arose, reducing the effectiveness of the fire-oil bombs to the minimum. If the Tubo people truly couldn’t afford to pay such a tragic price, if they had persisted another ten days, I would have fallen into desperate straits. At that time, I would have had to truly use blades to determine victory or defeat.”

Dugu Mou poured the last drop of wine into his mouth and casually tossed the bottle aside, saying: “Let’s go to your home. I have some new tactical methods for firearms. Please evaluate them. I don’t believe Dugu Mou will be inferior to you!”