No matter how unwilling or reluctant Xinyue was, the day of departure still arrived on an ordinary dawn. As the lady in charge of the household, she had many things to do this day.
Early in the morning, she went to pay respects to the old grandmother with a smile on her face, then the whole family sat together to eat breakfast. During the meal, she had already conveyed spring arrangements to Old Qian. With her husband absent, the household’s defenses also needed to be strengthened, so the old retainers from the wine workshop moved into the house.
Yun Shou would go to the academy to study as soon as spring opened. Young Master Yun Huan’s temperamental nature also needed her personal discipline. Yun Mu had also become somewhat tyrannical—yesterday she actually threw an inkstone at her maid. These things were not permitted in the Yun household.
The little grandson of the Earl of Nan’an’s family would have his first birthday celebration tomorrow. She needed to prepare gifts in advance. The Yun family still had many matters in Goguryeo that required entrusting to others—the gifts could not be light.
Xinyue brought the reluctant Yun Mu to the accounting office to examine accounts. Incidentally, she needed to collect a batch of silver coins that had arrived at the money house. After Xiao Wu calculated the profit situation, they could redecide where this money would go.
“Madam, the Western Region merchant caravan has suffered great losses this year. Not only have they failed to remit a single copper coin to the household, they’ve actually disbursed sixty thousand silver coins. Moreover, the accounts have not been submitted. Since it was the Marquis who gave the order, this old slave did not obstruct or inquire. Now they are still reaching out for money—this time it’s twenty thousand silver coins. How should this be decided? Please instruct, Madam.”
Head Accountant Old Sun, like Old Qian, was one of the household’s old hands. Some things could still be said to them, lest over time estrangement develop. Now that matters beyond the frontier had all been arranged, she should tell him.
“Master Sun, this matter isn’t about concealing anything from you. When our Marquis makes decisions about military affairs, he never tells anyone in the household. The Western Region caravan is currently purchasing camels and mares on a large scale. I also don’t know what the Marquis wants with so many camels and mares. As it concerns military affairs, this is all I know. Don’t blame the Western Region caravan—this is an order the Marquis personally gave. Since they need money, allocate it in full. It must take priority and cannot be delayed.”
Old Sun nodded and said, “This old slave spoke out of turn. I’ll handle it right away. Military affairs cannot be delayed.”
After Old Sun left, Xinyue sat on the heated kang examining account books. Yun Mu squirmed uncomfortably but still pouted her lips, refusing to apologize. Thinking about it, she felt somewhat wronged. As soon as Father and Mother left, Big Mother kept watching her. That maid was just annoying. She was painting, and the maid stood beside her cracking melon seeds—the sound was so unpleasant. When her temper flared, she didn’t look at what object it was and threw it out casually. She didn’t even hit her—why must they insist on saying she was wrong?
After looking at the account books for a while, Xinyue began to stare blankly. Previously, examining account books was a kind of enjoyment for her. Today, not only was it bland and tasteless, it was also obscure and difficult to understand. Those numbers on the page also seemed to be causing her trouble—she’d calculated several times and couldn’t make the numbers match.
Husband should have reached Xinfeng Market by now, right? Last night she heard her husband say he wouldn’t stop along this route. The great army would swiftly reach Longyou and only then would they be garrisoned in Lanzhou for ten days of rest and reorganization.
This expedition, her husband seemed worried and anxious. Previously when going on campaigns, he hadn’t been this sorrowful. Whenever Longyou and Kunlun Mountain were mentioned, he seemed full of sadness. No matter how she asked, her husband didn’t reveal a single word, only saying the matter was strange and womenfolk wouldn’t understand. Since he said this, it must be related to Patriarch Grandfather. Oh Heavens, how could she forget to offer incense to Patriarch Grandfather today? Xinyue was startled with alarm and hurriedly dragged the reluctant Yun Mu quickly to the room where Patriarch Grandfather was enshrined. She offered three sticks of incense in succession before stopping. After sincerely praying to Patriarch Grandfather, she also offered a stick of incense to the skull in the plate—this was her husband’s life-saving benefactor and could not be neglected.
Since he was leading troops, Yun Ye had no right to ride in a carriage. This was the way of commanding troops he had learned in earlier years from Old Cheng and Old Niu. Lai Chuanfeng opened the way ahead, he himself commanded the central army, and Fifth Marquis Assistant Commander Fan Hongyi held the rear—this was the standard march formation. As for the supply train, it had already departed five days earlier.
The great army advanced in a winding line. Just after leaving Chang’an territory, Yun Ye ordered them to roll forward in combat formation. The vanguard contracted, the rear guard advanced, taking turns serving as vanguard. The march speed immediately picked up. Scouts on the left and right flanks appeared from time to time on the mountain ridges and barren slopes on both sides.
Passing through prefectures and counties without entering, at night they could only camp outside cities. Yun Ye declined all hospitality. The military camp did not permit outsiders to enter. From now on, a habit must be cultivated in the soldiers—that is, striving for self-sufficiency.
Upon reaching the Northern Court, it would be impossible to obtain endless supplies as in Guanzhong. In the Northern Court, under the blue sky, there would only be yourself. When that time came, on whom did you plan to rely?
Traveling and stopping, before they knew it they had reached the old land of Chencang. Camping in the wilderness at night, Yun Ye patrolled the camp and arrived at the rear camp, where he saw Yuan Shoucheng, Wu She, and Na Rimu—the three of them brewing tea and conversing. He sat down with them to listen to Yuan Shoucheng tell ancient stories.
“During the Pre-Qin period, a Chencang person hunted a strange beast that resembled both a sheep and a pig, intending to present it to the ruler. But two children advised him he must not do so. Because this strange beast was named ‘Wei’—as soon as it was born, it opened its mouth to eat its mother. When grown, it sucked human brain matter. Upon hearing this, the Chencang person quickly struck it hard on the head, wanting to kill it.”
“Suddenly, the Wei spoke: Don’t kill me! Quickly release me and go catch these two children. They are dragon-phoenix twins, both called Chen Bao. Whoever gets the male will achieve hegemony, whoever gets the female will become king.”
“Hearing these words, the Chencang person thought it spiritually extraordinary, put down the Wei and went to catch the children. But the two children suddenly transformed into two divine chickens. One flew to Nanyang in Henan—a thousand years later it was reborn as Han Emperor Guangwu, Liu Xiu. The other flew straight to the top of Mount Chencang and transformed into a stone chicken, its body as large as a sheep, smooth and lustrous as jade. Look—doesn’t that Mount Chencang resemble a rooster? In my view, rather than calling this place Chencang, it might as well be called Baoji. That name would sound much better than Chencang.”
Hearing this, Yun Ye couldn’t help but groan. Was this old charlatan a real immortal or a charlatan? According to his knowledge, after Emperor Xuanzong of Tang fled, Chencang was indeed renamed Baoji.
After the old charlatan finished his story, he poured Yun Ye a cup of tea and asked, “Young man, you’ve driven the great army like chasing dogs, reaching Chencang so quickly, yet you plan to rest and reorganize for ten days in Lanzhou. Why is this? Why not choose a major metropolitan city for reorganization, but instead choose a small place like Lanzhou? Actually, upon reaching Qinzhou, you should have reorganized.”
Yun Ye took a sip of tea and smiled, saying, “This is a bit of personal sentiment on this youngster’s part. I intend to go to the wilderness to pay respects to my late teacher, so I chose to reorganize upon reaching Lanzhou. I’ve made you laugh, Elder.”
Yuan Shoucheng’s eyes suddenly became bright and shining. He laughed heartily and patted Yun Ye’s armor, saying, “Well done! Having filial piety means you’re doing well. I’ve heard your teacher had a semi-immortal body. Is this rumor true?”
Yun Ye shook his head and said, “I don’t know. My teacher also needed to drink water and eat food. When walking, he didn’t ride clouds or mist either. I washed his elderly person’s clothes myself. He would also catch colds. I don’t believe his elderly person was an immortal.”
“That’s right. Shakyamuni could also be ambushed and could sprain his ankle. (This comes from Buddhist scriptures.) When Laozi departed through the pass, he also needed to accept food and drink. Immortals don’t necessarily have to ride clouds and mist or command wind and rain. Apart from Zhang Daoling jumping into a cliff and not dying, I haven’t heard of other semi-immortals having such legends.”
“The most recent divine miracle was Bodhidharma’s crossing the river on a reed. This old man personally went to see—pure rumor and exaggeration. Zhang Daoling’s deeds were also exaggerated by his disciples and descendants. This old man deliberately searched through ancient texts at Longhu Mountain to verify, and discovered that in Zhang Daoling’s own handwriting, there was also nothing about the various miraculous ways he selected disciples. Most likely, later generation disciples deliberately fabricated them for missionary purposes. Young man, you also know—ignorant men and women in the countryside believe in this.”
“Just like this old man’s infallible divine judgments—most are also exaggerated boasts. Metaphysics is a discipline of learning, not divine power. The so-called ‘controlling spirit calculation to measure the impermanent’ means using known conditions according to the general laws of how things develop to calculate and measure. Young man, many things in this world can be traced. It’s like when you roll a stone down from a mountain—as long as it doesn’t encounter special obstructions, it will keep rolling to the bottom of the slope.”
“The Empress’s body is weak. She has a respiratory ailment. Add to that she is someone capable of childbearing—hehe. So this old man measured her lifespan according to general laws. It should have been largely correct. Only your and Sun Simiao’s appearance disrupted this process. It’s like a stone that’s rolling down suddenly being blocked by a large tree—this is an accident.”
Yun Ye’s mind was ringing loudly. This was the true face of infallible divine judgment. If you could deduce a person’s fate this way, it would be better to have Sun Simiao do it—he would definitely be more accurate than this old charlatan.
Good Heavens! If you’re going to tell fortunes, tell fortunes—what are you dragging scholarship into it for? There was a saying in later generations that went well: when fortune-tellers are armed with science, even immortals can’t withstand it. Only now did he realize that those little tricks of later generations were all leftovers from what old fellows had played with. Chaos theory said that when a butterfly flaps its wings, storms will appear in distant places.
Setting aside whether this theory was accurate or not, from the literal meaning alone, you could tell that when a stone rolls down from a mountaintop, it definitely isn’t simply rolling down and that’s the end of it. It will certainly cause some kind of domino effect. In the end, no one can control where it lands. Wasn’t the old fellow being too self-assured?
“Young man, when you pay respects to the ancient sage, can this old man be permitted to observe the ceremony?”
“Naturally. My teacher was most hospitable. When guests come from afar, naturally he would be overjoyed. This youngster thanks you for your noble spirit on behalf of my teacher.” Yun Ye deliberately rose to thank Yuan Shoucheng.
“Allow this old man to go together.” Wu She also had a solemn expression. Yun Ye nodded.
“This concubine must certainly go pay respects to our family’s old ancestor. When the time comes, I’ll properly kowtow several times to the old ancestor, thanking him for delivering husband to us completely intact.” Na Rimu stood up, clasped her hands together, and prayed toward the sky.
“Let’s all go together. Paying respects to my late teacher is one aspect. There’s also a strange place I must understand clearly. When the time comes, I’ll bring soldiers along. There’s a spring there—very miraculous. I want to dig it open and see what exactly is inside.” When Yun Ye spoke to this point, he was already somewhat grinding his teeth.