Changning’s Imperial Army - Chapter 93

Chapter 93 – Path

Li Xiaoran looked on as his men helped Yuan Zhidong get out of the blanket. The words on the blanket were akin to a knife that cut his pride. The wound that he had been hiding for so many years was cut open again just like that. It was so painful that it made his heart twitch.

There were only two words on the blanket – ‘Xuan Ting’.

Changan city had sixteen gates in total. That year, he was about to enter the city via Xuan Ting gate in the north, but was being stopped by Pei Tingshan and his troops right outside of it.

“Capture them.”

Li Xiaoran only said those four words in a cold voice. After that, he quickly walked back to his room. When he sat down, his hands and legs were still trembling uncontrollably.

All the experts in his manor were dispatched. It would not be long before they scoured through the entire Dongchi county.

The two words ‘Xuan Ting’ were Li Xiaoran’s sore spot. Even though he was very young then, young people still knew what honor and disgrace were.

“Where’s Chu Jianlian?” He asked in a loud voice.

Xun Zhi pushed the door open and entered. He saw the look on Li Xiaoran’s face. He picked up the books and other items on the floor and placed them tidily on the shelves.

“Mr. Chu went out last night. When he left, he said that you ordered him to do something.”

Xun Zhi poured a cup of cooling tea and placed it before Li Xiaoran. “Back then, before Great Chu was vanquished, Chang Ledi died a sudden death, throwing the entire Chu into chaos. The person who was most capable of taking over as the new emperor was Chang Ledi’s eldest son. He was also the crown prince. After him, the next in line was the ninth son, Prince Cheng. The crown prince was in charge of the eastern palace (Note: where princes resided in). After the demise of the emperor, naturally, he was next in line to the throne. Prince Cheng’s fief was far away, in Jiangnan. Even though he was not weaker than the crown prince, nonetheless, he had no choice.

“On the day of the crown prince’s ascension to the throne, Prince Cheng went insane. Some people said that it was because he was so furious that he went insane, while others said that it was because the death of his father caused him too much grief. But regardless of what the reason was, he was still insane after all. However, the crown prince did not believe that. He sent his trusted aide to Jiangnan to investigate. His trusted aide was responsible and diligent – he spent three years in Jiangnan, following Prince Cheng closely. He frequently glared into Prince Cheng’s eyes…the crown prince instructed him that if Prince Cheng was putting on an act, he would have to kill him immediately. After three years of observation, he came to the conclusion that Prince Cheng was truly insane – because he even ate feces.”

“The new reign title was Da Zheng. In the beginning of the fourth year of Da Zheng, the emperor finally lowered his guard against Prince Cheng. He felt that he did not have to worry about an insane person who ate feces. Besides, his position as the emperor had already been stable over the last three years. Nobody would help a crazy person rebel against him…The reason why he did not kill Prince Cheng was because he did not want to earn himself a bad name. His biological brother had already gone insane and if he were to kill him, he would not be benevolent and righteous.”

“In the beginning of the fourteenth year of Da Zheng, Prince Cheng, who had allegedly gone insane over the last thirteen years, started an army and spread the word, claiming that the previous emperor had been poisoned by the current emperor. He wanted to avenge his father, and hence he tolerated in secret for thirteen years. He pretended to be insane for three years to deceive his enemy, and spent ten years raising a large army. In the sixteenth year of Da Zheng, Prince Cheng invaded the capital and assassinated Da Zheng’s emperor.”

Xun Zhi continued, “This is an example of how one should bide his time and wait for the right opportunity to seek revenge.”

Li Xiaoran exhaled a long breath. “Of course I understand the logic behind it, but when a wound like that gets cut open, how is it possible for it to not hurt?”

Xun Zhi sat down across from Li Xiaoran. “The tolerance of a gentleman is what makes him achieve great things.”

Li Xiaoren grunted. “What you are trying to tell me is that being humiliated right outside the entrance of my home is something that I should not let slide. Even if I’m not furious, I still have to capture those people.”

Xun Zhi nodded. “Yes, if you want to achieve big things, you have to first practice tolerance.”

At this moment, someone yelled from the outside, “The secondary manor is on fire!”

Li Xiaoran quickly pushed the door open and went out. The fire in the secondary manor on the opposite side of the lotus pond had already reached its roof. Almost everyone in his manor rushed over to extinguish the fire with buckets of water.

As his men were flustered while trying to extinguish the fire in his secondary manor, the rooms that were dozens of meters away from Li Xiaoran had already caught on fire. It was uncertain why the fire was so intense and traveled so quickly. Very soon, flames started spitting out from the windows.

His entire manor was on fire. It was too much for his men to deal with.

Li Xiaoran saw red immediately. He was so furious that his shoulders trembled violently.

At this moment, someone nearby suddenly yelled, “Kill the traitor!”

Thereafter, an arrow came flying over, piercing through Li Xiaoran’s ear before nailing to the door frame, creating a small hole in Li Xiaoran’s ear. He was stunned at first, but immediately after, he cried out in fear and returned to the room.

It was uncertain as to how many assassins there were in the yard. There were people yelling ‘kill the traitor’ everywhere. Xun Zhi supported Li Xiaoran as they lowered their bodies and returned to the room before shutting the door tight.

The remaining guards in the main manor quickly guarded his room, while some of them went to look for the assassins.

Someone set off some fireworks into the sky to signal that there was an emergency. Shortly after the fireworks were heard, near the pavilion on the hilltop, a thick green smoke soared to the skies.

Shen Leng, who was hiding near the lotus pond, looked up. He laughed coldly to himself…the crown prince was indeed not honest – he actually set up a fire beacon on the hilltop.

He whistled and everyone started to leave the manor. They went to the woods outside of it and waited. An hour later, the guards returned to the manor. Shen Leng gestured to his men and all of them got onto their horses and left the woods. They headed straight for the interconnecting road. They continued on their journey without stopping. From the east to the west of Dongchi, it spanned slightly more than 90 miles. Shen Leng and his men covered that distance at one go. They only stopped when it was nightfall.

“Get ready to camp here,” Shen Leng got off his horse and instructed his men.

He looked at Chen Ran, who had laughed continuously for more than half of their journey. “Your stomach should be full of wind right now and yet you still can laugh?”

Chen Ran leapt off his horse. “Everybody says I’m a forthright person. (Note: literal translation would be: straight intestines)

“What do you mean?”

“Straight intestines would mean wind passes through fast. Laughing is no big deal, I have a lot of gas to pass.”

Shen Leng replied, “Next time I will not praise a person by calling them forthright ever again.”

The more Chen Ran thought about what happened, the more he could not contain his laughter. “Initially when you said that you wanted to make crown prince furious till he exploded, I thought for a long time about what we should do. After that, I heard that all you did was beat up that Mr. Yuan. But how would that make him furious? After we went back to burn the manor, I finally understood why. Military officer, your intestines are definitely not straight. They are all zigzagged.”

Shen Leng mimicked Mr. Shen’s way of speaking, “Please respect me as much as possible. After all, I am a military officer.”

Chen Ran saluted. “Yes, military officer!”

After that, he laughed out loud.

He split his men up and made them take turns to be on night duty. He took the felt blanket from the back of his horse and spread them on the grass before laying down. The farther they traveled in the northwest direction, the colder it got. Even when he wrapped himself up in the felt blanket at night, it was not enough for him to withstand the night winds. Shen Leng started to reflect. There were a lot of things that could not be prepared properly ahead of time. He neglected the obvious fact that it would be colder in the northwestern region.

Wang Kuohai and Yang Qibao brought their men with them and started the first round of night duty. Chen Ran and Gu Le sat down next to Shen Leng. Gu Le could not help but ask, “Military officer, did we go overboard? By burning the crown prince’s manor, if they were to investigate and pursue the matter, I’m afraid it’ll be hard for the commander to cover up for us.”

Shen Leng laughed and answered with a question, “Where is the quick wit you had when you were interrogating Mr. Yuan earlier on? Let me ask you, who is going to pursue this matter?”

Gu Le thought about it carefully before bursting out into laughter. “Yeah, who is going to pursue the matter.”

Even if the crown prince Li Xiaoran wanted to pursue the matter, if his father were to find out about about the whole sequence of events, would he allow him to continue acting willfully? Moreover, Li Xiaoran was not that stupid.

The local feudal officials would definitely go over to express sympathy shortly after, and they would ask them how the fire started. They would most likely tell them it was an accident instead of the truth.

When Shen Leng and his men started the fire, they yelled ‘kill the traitor’ – the words that Li Xiaoran was most afraid of letting others hear.

Li Xiaoran did not dare to let the imperial court know about this incident. The manor occupied too big of a land. Even though it was the fief of a prince, if they looked into thoroughly, it would be disobeying the system. It was also a serious crime.

Besides, how could it be that for so many years, the emperor did not show any interest in Li Xiaoran? There were definitely an unspecified number of people within Dongchi who were keeping an eye on him on behalf of the emperor. If Li Xiaoran let this matter slide, it would be alright. But if he were to blow it up, the emperor would have a reason to deal with him.

After Gu Le thought about all these, he had a peace of mind. “As it turns out, big figures have many weak points and restrictions too. Nobody can do as he pleases.”

Shen Leng nodded. “This matter is as good as over. Li Xiaoran will not pursue it. If he really does, we have the evidence proving that the great scholar sent someone over. Do you think that the great scholar really did not think about this? Also, the Yuan Zhidong that he sent over is in the manor. He would definitely be a lot more anxious than Li Xiaoran.”

“Go to sleep. We have to continue on our journey tomorrow morning. We have already delayed for too long.”

Shen Leng closed his eyes. He thought about Master Cha and Meng Changan. He did not whether or not he would be delayed. They had not even reached the halfway point in their journey to Feng Yan Tai. If something happened to Meng Changan because he was late, what could he do?

The more occupied his mind was, the less sleepy he got. Shen Leng waited for Chen Ran and the rest to fall asleep before he got up and switched shifts with Wang Kuhai and Yang Qibao to allow them to rest. He leaned against the large tree and looked at how the darkness enshrouded everything. Shen Leng started to think about things that were more deep-seated.

There were two things that Shen Leng did not understand till now.

The first thing was, why did the first-in-command of Liu Yun Sect give him such a huge gift. More than ten thousand taels of silver. In Great Ning, it was considered a huge amount of money. It was enough to allow a person to spend the rest of his life in comfort and luxury, without worrying about food and clothes.

The second thing was, why did the head of Yanta Academy notify him to go to Feng Yan Tai? If it was merely because he knew the close relationship that he had with Meng Changan, it was not the best choice. Based on the academy head’s connections and seniority, it was easy for him to casually look for a lot of people who could get to Feng Yan Tai a lot faster than Shen Leng could.

These two things seemed to involve someone at a higher level.

The current emperor.

However, Shen Leng did not have sufficient information. Hence, he was unable to speculate much.

At the same time, in the bitter cold northern border, a reconnaissance squad consisting of dozens of men entered the harsh snow and winds once again. They quietly crossed the border separating Great Ning and Heiwu. Those people had a thick white overcoat draped over them; their horses were also covered in a padded armor. Very quickly, they vanished in the snow.

Within the main military camp, Pei Xiao who had gotten wind of the news laughed coldly. “This must be their final exploration before the map is completed. After this trip, the map will be completed. Meng Changan, I will not give you the chance to do that.”

He turned around and looked at the map Great Ning’s territories on the wall. At least, his gaze was fixated at a specific location. “This time, they are exiting near Feng Yan Tai. This is the best opportunity handed on a silver platter. After the big battle, that area has been deserted. For several years, nobody dared to go near that area without caution…”

“Gui Si.” He yelled.

The squad leader of his soldiers, who was also his trusted aide back in the Pei residence, immediately went over to him. “General, is there anything I can do for you?”

“Make a trip there personally and think of a way to leak Meng Changan’s location to Heiwu’s men. Gather all my trusted aides to follow me to Feng Yan Tai. It’s the only place he can go to hide from danger within hundreds of miles. If the Heiwu people chase him fast enough, Meng Changan would have no choice but to enter Feng Yan Tai.”

He exhaled a long sigh. “Make sure nobody even thinks about stopping me. I am the only person who’s worthy of being the great general in the eastern border. It must be me! Anybody who tries to stop me in my path shall die.”