“Do you know there’s a type of fish in the sea that, when encountering danger, inflates itself to appear large, looking extremely fierce and terrifying? With this trick, it has frightened away many ferocious fish much more powerful than itself. Your master now plans to inflate himself. I’ve heard some not-so-good news—the Emperor is committing chronic suicide. I don’t know how long he can hold on—perhaps one or two years, perhaps three to five years, or even ten to twenty years are all possible.”
“Because of the uncertainty of time, Master has no choice but to make his own goals uncertain as well. We have no grand ambitions—we just plan to protect our own people and endure through these years. Believe in Master—these years will be very difficult to endure. If we don’t use all our strength, the outcome will be very miserable.”
Xiao Wu said worriedly: “What if our power is swallowed up in one gulp by others?”
“There’s no fish that big—even a flood dragon couldn’t do it.”
Yun Ye smiled, patted Xiao Wu’s head, then patted Di Renjie’s head, and humming a tune, left the tunnel. Although it was somewhat cooler down there in the height of summer, the air didn’t circulate well and still felt stuffy.
After resting for a full half month, he could finally go to the Ministry of War to work. As soon as he entered the Ministry of War, the originally noisy ministry immediately became silent as death.
Yun Ye happily returned to the main hall. Yun Shou brought out a large stack of documents from behind and placed them on his father’s desk, then went to his own office. Yun Shou now held a position at the Ministry of War, serving as Director of the Bureau of Operations, a position of the fifth rank lower grade. He had obtained it from the Emperor through Zhangsun connections, and the position was solid as a rock.
The Bureau of Personnel Selection, the Bureau of Equipage, the Bureau of Operations, and the Bureau of Armaments—these were the four pillars under Yun Ye. They were all people Yun Ye had personally trained. When he first took office, the first thing he did was replace all the personnel. However, he didn’t do things absolutely—he left the positions of the left and right vice ministers for the Emperor to insert his own people. This was done openly and honestly. The national army was now gradually evolving toward firearms, and only people from the Western Expedition Army were most familiar with firearms, so the Emperor had to hold his nose and accept this arrangement.
Zhangsun Chong sat alone bored in his office. His desk was empty and spotless. Aside from servants bringing tea and water, very few people came to his door. The right vice minister Gao Jifu opposite him was so busy his feet didn’t touch the ground. He alone managed the Bureau of Personnel Selection, the Bureau of Equipage, and the Bureau of Armaments, so naturally he was extremely busy. Clerks constantly emerged from his office carrying documents. When Yun Ye wasn’t present, the one whose word counted at the Ministry of War was Gao Jifu, not Zhangsun Chong.
Thinking about how he, the dignified left vice minister of the Ministry of War, couldn’t even enter the Ministry of War prison, Zhangsun Chong felt waves of despair. Yun Ye, who used to be very easy to talk to, had now become very difficult to communicate with. Could it be he truly wanted to drive him out of the Ministry of War?
Zhangsun Chong actually didn’t agree with part of what his father said—that was about the iron smelting secret formula. If that was a trap Yun Ye had arranged long ago, Zhangsun Chong would never admit it no matter what. At that time, there was nothing wrong between him and Yun Ye.
While Zhangsun Chong was passing his days in the office like years, Yun Ye had already finished handling his official business. Many encrypted documents that arrived today brought news that greatly comforted him. Through half a year of effort, the firearms workshop had finally achieved fifty percent of its original production.
The weapons supply to Hebei and Shuofang should be further compressed, while what needed to be increased was the weapons supply to the Sixteen Guards. Under such arrangements, even if Zhangsun Wuji clearly knew Yun Ye was punishing the troops in these two places, he had nothing to say. Strengthening the trunk while weakening the branches was originally the Great Tang’s military arrangement.
Since they had already torn off the pretense of civility, showing mercy now would absolutely be pushing himself toward a dead end.
When he saw Li Er, he was appreciating song and dance. Summer was hot, so the dancers wore very few clothes. Lady Gongsun, whom he had seen years ago, was now an aged woman. Unable to dance with sword implements, she held a small hand bell in her hand, gently shaking it. Her eyes had also lost the spirit of those years and had become wooden.
“Why don’t you watch the song and dance, but instead stare at an old maidservant? What’s the reason?” Li Er half-reclined on a soft couch, his clothes half-undone, revealing his fair chest. In his hand he held a large cup of grape wine, the ice cubes inside clinking against the glass cup making crisp sounds.
“I saw an old acquaintance. Years ago when Lady Gongsun danced with swords, this subject was entranced for a long time. That was such a soul-stirring magnificent beauty. Now seeing her shaking arm bells, without the slightest trace of her former heroic spirit, this subject can’t help but sigh—the passing is like this indeed.”
Li Er took a sip of fine wine and waved his arm: “What’s with all this sighing? Beautiful women grow old, generals’ hair turns white—I lament the latter even more. So I’ve commanded the Yan clan to paint, preparing to build a Lingyan Pavilion to commemorate my past glorious years. What do you think?”
“Lingyan Pavilion! What an honored place that should be. I wonder how many paintings Your Majesty plans to have the Yan clan make? If he’s too busy, this subject can also help. You know, this subject is also a master of painting.”
“Ha ha ha ha, you paint? Would you paint a row of tortoises of various sizes to hang there?” Li Er was in a good mood today and even knew how to joke.
Yun Ye drank a sip of grape wine to suppress his irritation and spoke: “Your Majesty, at the beginning of the year, this subject made a military pledge to you. Now, the firearms workshop has gradually recovered its vitality. This month’s production has reached half of last year’s production at this time. This shows it has gradually gotten on track. What needs to be done in the future is simply training personnel and expanding the workshop’s scale. At the latest by this time next year, it can match previous years’ production.”
As Yun Ye spoke, he showed Li Er the charts he had brought. After Li Er carefully analyzed them, he said to Yun Ye: “Only when you handle these matters can they have such results. Without earth-shattering actions, everything completed quietly. How laughable—Wuji still questions your ability. However, I heard you forcibly reduced the weapons allocation to Hebei and Shuofang by forty percent. This isn’t good. Even if you have resentment in your heart, you can’t do this. These officers and soldiers don’t belong to any one person—they’re all Great Tang’s military personnel. Punishing them this way will cause division in the army.”
Yun Ye drained the grape wine in his cup and said bitterly to Li Er: “This subject knows, but sometimes I just can’t control my temper. Like the Wang Xiaojie matter—I wasn’t angry about his arrogance, nor was I angry about his disrespect toward me. I just think about the Jinyang incident, and the fury in my heart can’t be suppressed no matter what. This subject’s heart is also extremely angry toward Pheasant Slave—I wish I could dismember him. But, but once others mistreat him, this subject discovers he actually becomes even more angry.”
Li Er painfully closed his eyes. After quite a while he opened them and waved his hand. Those dancing girls all withdrew. When only the ruler and subject remained in the great hall, Li Er said: “This is the feeling of being family. When Pheasant Slave makes mistakes, we can kill him, we can execute him—we just can’t let others do it. Although it’s painful, we still must slowly endure through it.”
“Do you feel you can no longer control your fury, so you’re preparing to hand over the firearms workshop that’s about to show results? Feel this way won’t damage the overall situation?”
Yun Ye nodded and said: “This subject’s temperament has been extremely irritable recently, extremely irritable. If not for Rong’er and Shou’er rushing back, I don’t even know what I would have done.”
Li Er chuckled: “What do you most want to do? Tell me and let me hear. I’ve been the same recently.”
“This subject very much wants to stuff Zhangsun Wuji in a sack and beat him soundly!”
“Ha ha ha, that won’t do. If the Left Grand Councilor is beaten by you, the court order will be in chaos. You dislike Zhangsun Chong’s betrayal—actually I don’t like it either. But what they did benefits the Great Tang and benefits me. Do you know, if Zhangsun Chong hadn’t reminded me, I would have lost my life! So, toward the Zhangsun clan, for the Empress’s sake, you should endure.”
This was the first time Li Er had actively talked about what happened during that period. Sun Simiao said Li Er had been unconscious—he didn’t say more than necessary. The Emperor probably placed a gag order on him. Couldn’t make things difficult for Sun Simiao. Now hearing the Emperor speak of it, Yun Ye had no interest in probing further. After all, reality was already laid out here—Li Zhi had failed.
Seeing Yun Ye just focusing on drinking without asking him what exactly had happened, Li Er was somewhat puzzled and asked: “Why don’t you ask me what ordeal I went through?”
Yun Ye used his hand to fish out the ice from his cup, crunching it loudly. After swallowing a mouthful of cold ice he said: “Don’t want to hear it, truly don’t want to hear it. This story would definitely make people uncomfortable after hearing it. This subject just showed some signs of improvement—I don’t want to sink back in again. Hearing it would certainly make people sad. Since Your Majesty is fine now, better not to hear it.”
Li Er smiled bitterly: “You’re clever indeed—you know that the more you know, the more sorrow, the more grief. It’s truly so—my heart is already broken.”
“I heard when you were convalescing in the Yushan valley, you, the Empress, and Qing Que fought crickets together for a full half month. Why don’t we change this year’s gambling event to crickets? It’ll soon be late autumn. Zhaoyang Palace has been restored—how about we go in and gamble wildly for three days?”
“This subject naturally will accompany you. It’s just that this year’s guests will be hard to find. Many interesting old gentlemen have already passed away.” Yun Ye found it strange that at this time, Li Er actually wanted to cast aside state affairs to fight crickets.
“This year hasn’t been good—there are too many things that make people sad. Since you and I are both sorrowful people, then we’ll just find two more sorrowful people. I wonder though, under this heaven, who could be more sorrowful than us ruler and subject?”
Zhangsun lifted the curtain and walked out, saying: “Count me as one—I’m also a sorrowful person.”
Li Er nodded: “That’s right. You and I are husband and wife, one body. When one person is sorrowful, the other must empathize. Good, you count as one. Where should we find the other one?”
Yun Ye’s thoughts stirred. He took out a letter from his breast and showed it to Zhangsun and Li Er. After Li Er and Zhangsun finished reading it, they laughed until they bent forward and backward, clapping together and saying: “Indeed, this one also counts as a sorrowful person.”