Wang Xiaojie was also a fierce general who had emerged from the battlefield. When suddenly ambushed, he was about to curse when his nose took another heavy punch. Tears, snot, and gushing nosebleed streamed down together. Beaten into humiliated fury, before his horizontal blade could be drawn out, another burly man viciously hammered his fist into his kidney. All the strength in his body was scattered by this punch, and he collapsed limply to the ground. Immediately, a rain of big feet trampled down upon him.

Wang Xiaojie could clearly feel all the bones in his body groaning. After a horse’s hoof stomped on his thigh bone twice, it pitifully bent, yet that horse neighed loudly, seeming extremely pleased.

Not knowing how long he had been beaten, when Wang Xiaojie regained consciousness from the storm-like beating, without thinking he roared at his subordinates: “Kill them!” But no one moved—his subordinates were all kneeling on the ground trembling.

“Attempting to assassinate a superior officer—on this charge alone, I can have you beheaded immediately. Someone, take this criminal who attempted to assassinate his commanding officer to the Ministry of War prison. Tell Zhangsun Chong that whoever dares to privately release this prisoner, I will deal with them according to military law.”

Yun Ye only had Liu Jinbao by his side, but immediately a large group of farmers loudly responded “Yes!” Within a radius of twenty li, there was no commoner who didn’t recognize the Minister of War, Marquis Yun. Many were garrison soldiers who had gone on campaigns with Yun Ye numerous times. When the Marquis gave an order, how dare they not comply?

“Oh, confiscate the weapons of these soldiers who commit crimes, and send them all to the Ministry of War prison to await judgment.” After Yun Ye finished giving orders, he walked to Wang Xiaojie’s head, looked at his furious eyes and said: “Want wealth and glory? Wait until you have the life to get out of the Ministry of War prison, then we’ll talk.”

“Even if this subordinate was disrespectful to the Marquis, this subordinate is still a meritorious official. You wouldn’t go so far as to take this subordinate’s head. Mountains and rivers meet again—isn’t the Marquis afraid of doing things too absolutely and suffering retribution?”

“You expect Zhangsun Chong to save you? Without my orders, let’s see if you can get out of prison. A meritorious official? Before me, you’re qualified to speak of merit? When grandfather was roaming the Western Regions and fighting bloody battles in Liaodong, you were merely a garrison general in Shuofang. Your only fate is to rot in prison! If I didn’t need to make an example of you, your head would have been chopped off long ago.”

Yun Ye nudged Wang Xiaojie’s head with his foot, waved his hand, and the surrounding farmers swarmed forward, capturing all these people. A captain struggled and shouted: “Commander, this humble officer is Zhang Tianming! This humble officer once followed the Commander on the expedition to Goguryeo, and just now it was this humble officer who controlled these soldiers and prevented them from advancing. Commander, spare my life!”

Yun Ye squinted at that captain. He did look familiar, apparently one of his subordinates. He pointed at the captain and said: “Pick out your own people, they’ll receive thirty military strikes. Send all the rest to prison.”

Zhang Tianming quickly picked out the soldiers he was close to on ordinary days—only about ten men. It seemed this fellow wasn’t doing very well. Liu Jinbao supervised the punishment, crackling with his lance shaft, giving each person thirty military strikes. Then they came before Yun Ye bent over to apologize.

“Commander, Wang Xiaojie still has a large amount of goods behind him being transported over. I don’t know how to handle it. Please give your orders, Commander.”

“Are these spoils of war being submitted to the treasury?”

The captain shook his head with a strange expression. Yun Ye chuckled and said to Yun Shou and Li Rong: “Today this sunbathing was worthwhile.” Liu Jinbao laughed joyfully, mounted a horse, turned and headed to the naval camp…

Yun Shou escorted these people to the Ministry of War prison. Yun Ye and Li Rong, surrounded by the country folk, returned to Yun Family Manor. The Marquis had been frightened by a group of assassins—if not for the protection of the farmers, he might have suffered disaster.

Leave of absence! This matter definitely required leave. After the Marquis suffered such a fright, he needed to rest and recuperate for at least half a month.

Memorials impeaching Yun Ye fell like snowflakes onto Chu Suiliang’s desk. Old Chu chuckled and added many other charges to them. The memorials left the Department of State Affairs and reached Fang Xuanling’s hands. The old man expressionlessly packaged all the documents and sent them to the Emperor’s desk without even looking at them himself.

Li Er was reading Yun Ye’s memorial. After finishing it, he casually flipped through those impeachment memorials, smiled bitterly, and returned them all. For a Minister of War to deal with a general, regardless of the reason, the Emperor couldn’t review it at a higher level unless he first removed Yun Ye’s position as Minister of War—and right now Li Er had no such intention.

Fang Xuanling, who seemed to have known this would be the result, expressionlessly returned the memorials to the Department of State Affairs. Chu Suiliang’s expression was uncertain, but finally he threw these memorials into the brazier and stopped discussing the matter, as if Wang Xiaojie never existed in this world.

Xiao Wu, who climbed up from the Yun Family tunnel, sat on a swing to cool off once she reached the surface. Di Renjie gently pushed her. Xiao Wu’s smile was radiant as a flower, her eyes curved as she turned to Di Renjie and said: “Master finally counterattacked. I thought Master planned to let it pass this time. Unexpectedly, once he counterattacked, it was so sharp. Wang Xiaojie isn’t important—what’s important is those goods. I wonder how Zhangsun Wuji will explain to His Majesty. Will he say his family earned them?”

Di Renjie smiled: “All entered the treasury—our family didn’t get a single coin.”

“Entering the treasury is what makes it absolute. If it entered our family, it might be demanded back. Master apparently truly hates the Zhangsun family this time. Otherwise he wouldn’t do this, and do it so brazenly, clearly not giving the Zhangsun family any face.”

Di Renjie sat on another swing and shook his head at Xiao Wu: “I think there’s more than one layer of meaning. More importantly, it’s for His Majesty to see. The Zhangsun family growing too powerful is probably not something His Majesty likes to see, especially since they’re relatives by marriage. Since the Han dynasties, imperial power’s suppression of relatives by marriage has never ceased. When Emperor Wu of Han was dying, he still had to take Consort Gou Yi with him—this is clear evidence. His Majesty can’t possibly not know what to do. Haven’t you seen Master now so imposing that no one dares to challenge him? After two days of shouting in court, there was no more movement. Instead, Master’s memorial requesting to resign as Minister of War is what makes people think deeply. I heard that a while ago Zhangsun Wuji sought this position for Zhangsun Chong. As long as Master steps down, the only one to take over would be Zhangsun Chong, because no one dares compete with him. Duan Hu only hesitated a few times, and now he’s already eating grass with the army on the grasslands.”

“What are you two babbling about? Where are all these conspiracies and schemes? I just can’t stand Wang Xiaojie’s arrogant attitude and dislike his actions in Jinyang, so I struck.”

Yun Ye, who had just come from the back courtyard, couldn’t help but laugh and cry upon hearing his two disciples’ analysis.

“Then how did you so coincidentally appear on that road at that time, and so coincidentally sleep in that willow grove? How did you know Wang Xiaojie would enter the grove to escape the heat? And know he would clash with the country folk?”

Xiao Wu blinked her big eyes staring at her master.

“Who knows? My luck was too good, Wang Xiaojie’s luck wasn’t good, that’s all. Don’t think wildly.” After Yun Ye finished speaking, he left the courtyard with his hands behind his back. Today he promised Sun Simiao he would go suffer abuse. Playing chess with Old Sun was suffering—half a day without placing a piece, always needing long contemplation. Most unbearable was that he was a terrible player, with chess skills on par with Yun Ye’s.

Xiao Wu looked at her master’s back, brought her head close to Di Renjie’s ear and asked: “Do you think this was coincidence?”

Di Renjie shook his head like a rattle drum. He wouldn’t believe such a coincidence even if beaten to death.

Sun Simiao came to the Yun Family to stay for one day every half month, enjoying Wu She’s fragrant tea and the Yun Family cook’s delicious pastries. Only on this day would he not touch any medicinal materials, purely enjoying some beautiful things in life.

Wu She and Liu Fang, holding their teapots, absolutely wouldn’t approach those two people. Watching them play chess was actually torture. Wu She now seemed completely transformed, truly becoming crane-haired with a youthful face. Sun Simiao had examined his pulse and believed the old immortal could live past a hundred without worry. He also said if one day Wu She accidentally broke his leg, he must remember to tell him—he planned to personally treat it and examine whether Wu She’s bone marrow was pink as Daji had said.

“Placing your piece on the corner edge is already poor chess. Today you’ll probably fare badly at this old Daoist’s hands.”

“Your first piece on the heavenly origin isn’t necessarily brilliant either. Clearly a Daoist, yet you insist on placing yourself in a position of four-sided conflict. Before smoke rises and flames ignite, you’ve already fallen to an inferior position, yet you dare say my chess is poor.” Yun Ye fought for every inch.

“I’m guarding the heart, you’re seizing intention—the two cannot be compared.”

“I’m a military strategist. I emphasize aggression like fire, withdrawal like wind. I always need a solid rear base, otherwise it’s water without a source, wood without roots—cannot last long!”

Sun Simiao, not knowing what he thought of, dejectedly threw his chess piece into the jar, muttering to himself: “Clearly the path to death, why won’t he listen to advice? Once the great fire spreads and the momentum forms, wind and fire aiding each other, there will be no more room for redemption. Such a wise person—how can he not understand this principle?”

Hearing Sun Simiao’s words, the chess piece in Yun Ye’s hand also fell to the ground. He knew very well whom Sun Simiao was talking about.

Sun Simiao had no mood to play chess anymore. He picked up a bowl of vegetarian meatballs specially fried for him and began crunching and munching. He always loved radish meatballs and could eat them endlessly…

After returning from Sun Simiao’s place, Yun Ye went down into the tunnel and squatted on the ground looking at the red threads on the wall. He untied many red strings from the post at Yuezhou and tied them all to the empty post at Chang’an. He also tied the three red threads for Li You, Li Hei, and Li Ke to the Chang’an post. He even pulled over a string from the distant islands, and dragged out a black string from the desert to hang on the Chang’an post…

When all this was done, he stared blankly at the map.

Xiao Wu softly asked from behind: “Master, are you really going to bet everything on one throw?”