Niao Ni
Chapter 596: The Young Man Who Walked Out of the Royal Tent
That morning, as the large merchant caravan began to leave the city in succession, the Qingzhou cavalry, returning from another rabbit-hunting expedition, happened to be entering the city, and the two groups brushed past each other.
The cavalrymen did not give the merchants a second glance. Although their superiors sometimes dispatched these cavalrymen to escort the merchants for a short distance, the two sides rarely interacted. Without the Qing army escort, these merchants might even be safer.
Ye Ling'er, her face somewhat tired, rode on horseback, several strands of hair escaping from her helmet, sticking to her skin with sweat. She brushed them aside with her fingers, her gaze unconsciously flickering towards the merchant caravan at the city gate.
It was just a glance, but it was as if she was drawn to a magnet. Ye Ling'er frowned, looking doubtfully at a young merchant standing next to a horse in the caravan. The merchant was dressed in ordinary cotton clothes, and did not seem particularly eye-catching, but Ye Ling'er felt that something was strange.
From this angle, she could only see the young merchant's back, but it was this back view that made Ye Ling'er discover the other party's true identity. Her expression changed suddenly, and a few complicated emotions flashed in her eyes.
It was Fan Xian.
Why could Ye Ling'er recognize Fan Xian's figure so easily? Because Fan Xian was her master, who had taught her small tricks for a year, and Ye Ling'er had also selflessly taught him the Ye family's Da Pi Guan (Great Coffin Split). With their palms touching and bodies sparring, they were familiar with each other's movement habits and physical characteristics to a terrifying degree.
Ye Ling'er stared blankly at that back, biting her lip, suppressing her emotions, not riding forward, cracking her whip, calling out "Master!" and bursting into tears.
……
……
Because she knew that since Fan Xian had disguised himself and come to Qingzhou, without coming to see her, then it must not be a personal matter, but a very important task from the imperial court; the Supervisory Council wanted to make some noise on the grasslands.
If it wasn't extremely important, a son of noble birth like Fan Xian would never take such a big risk to venture deep into the grasslands. The current Ye Ling'er was no longer the flamboyant little girl she once was, but had matured a lot. Naturally, she would not reveal Fan Xian's identity in front of everyone. She just took a deep look at that back before silently turning her horse's head and heading towards the state government.
After entering the state government, before she could even rest, she said, "The Dingzhou General's Mansion issued an order for autumn hunting a few days ago. We should also take some action."
A general, listening from the side, felt a chill in his heart, thinking that the young lady was becoming more and more ruthless. They had already been carrying out raids overnight, and the troops were exhausted. He explained, "The General's Mansion's military order is clear; Qingzhou is not within the scope of this autumn hunt."
"Then we'll do it ourselves." Ye Ling'er lowered her head. She was not a little girl here to play, but a female general with a lot of experience. Moreover, given her identity and background, her suggestions had to be taken seriously even by her superiors.
No one knew why Ye Ling'er insisted that the Qingzhou army join the autumn hunt, because no one knew that Supervisory Council Director Fan Xian had come to Qingzhou, left Qingzhou, and entered the grasslands. Ye Ling'er's proposal was just to use the Qingzhou cavalry to attract most of the attention of the Hu people, protecting the safety of that merchant caravan: "There are particularly many merchants coming this year. Who knows if the Hu people will suddenly go crazy."
"Those Hu aristocratic families are counting on merchants to constantly transport goods in. How could they go crazy?" The general thought to himself, frowning and saying, "Don't worry about those merchants. If we send troops, I'm afraid it will only cause them inconvenience."
Ye Ling'er didn't speak, but thought to herself that if the three roads into the grasslands were thrown into chaos, it should make things easier for Fan Xian. Although she had no idea why Fan Xian was risking entering the grasslands, she knew one thing: her master was always best at extracting the greatest benefits from chaos.
……
……
In the past two or three days, many outsiders had suddenly appeared in the Dingzhou base camp behind Qingzhou. Some of these people used the identities of officials from various departments of the imperial court, claiming to be checking on the expenditure situation. Some were merchants from various places, and some were laborers who came to the West to seek their fortune while the war was waning.
These people's identities were very mixed, so they didn't attract much attention, but they were vaguely divided into many small groups, and each group had a leader. Just as Fan Xian and his party left Qingzhou and began to travel towards the grasslands' royal court, looking for the person called Song Zhixian Ling, these leading figures quietly entered the General's Mansion.
Today, there was an important matter in the General's Mansion, and all irrelevant personnel were driven out. Looking at the dozen or so people of different clothing below the hall, General Li Hongcheng couldn't help but smile bitterly and say, "Fan Xian's actions this time are really grand."
These people who entered Dingzhou City were all officials and spies of the Supervisory Council. At this time, the General's Mansion was the headquarters of the various departments, but only one person was qualified to sit in a chair below the hall. This person was middle-aged, his hair had not yet grayed, but his eyes were somewhat tired. It seemed that these three years in a foreign country had indeed been exceptionally difficult.
This person gave a salute to Li Hongcheng and said, "The Council believes that if we want to clear out the spies in Dingzhou City, we must use thunderous measures."
Li Hongcheng looked at this person, frowning, and said, "But we can't let you come in person. Deng Ziyue, if you're not in Shangjing City, what will happen to the imperial court's affairs in the north?"
Li Hongcheng was of noble status, but he spoke to this middle-aged man relatively politely, because he knew that the other party was the chief of the Supervisory Council's secret agents stationed in Northern Qi, and, even more importantly, the head of the Qi Nian Group, one of Fan Xian's most capable confidants.
That's right, the Supervisory Council official in charge of the anti-espionage affairs in Dingzhou was Deng Ziyue, who had been sent to Northern Qi for more than two years by Fan Xian. It was unknown what problems had arisen in this operation that Fan Xian had recalled him.
"If I didn't come back myself, how could I catch those people?" Deng Ziyue thought to himself, but he didn't tell the young lord, because this matter not only involved the war between the Xihu and Daqing, but also another powerful force.
Fan Xian's calling him south meant that he had no intention of letting him return to Shangjing. What he wanted was his infiltration of the Northern Qi Jin Yi Wei ( Embroidered Uniform Guard) in Shangjing City over the past three years, and his familiarity with the Northern Qi.
"After this matter is completed, this official will not return to Shangjing." Deng Ziyue respectfully saluted Li Hongcheng.
Li Hongcheng looked into his eyes and slowly said, "How should the Western Great Camp cooperate?"
……
……
"Deng Ziyue should have entered Dingzhou for three days." Fan Xian, his eyes half-closed, sat on horseback, seemingly not worried about falling off. He yawned and said, "According to the agreed time, we have to hurry, otherwise, if they start fighting in Dingzhou City and anger the people on the grasslands, I'm afraid there will be some problems."
He had been preparing this matter for four months. If the anger in his heart hadn't accumulated to such a strong degree, Fan Xian probably wouldn't have adopted such crude methods. But he also knew clearly that the other party had entered the grasslands long before him, and had been infiltrating Dingzhou City for more than a year. He was already much slower in terms of time. If he couldn't hold back the other party's commander on the grasslands, he was afraid something would go wrong.
Mu Feng'er glanced at the adult, then looked ahead at the long merchant caravan, frowning and saying, "These people are walking too slowly, and they will stop at various tribes along the way. Who knows when they will actually reach the royal court."
Originally, according to the scheduled plan, Fan Xian and his party should have separated from this large merchant group yesterday. There was a fork in the road on the grasslands yesterday, and Hu Ge should have sent his confidants to meet them there, so Fan Xian and his party could have taken a shortcut to reach their destination.
But unexpectedly, no one came to meet them at the fork. Only one of Hu Ge's absolute confidants, taking advantage of an opportunity, secretly entered their tent in the evening to express his apologies and explain the reason.
The other two routes on the grasslands were being invaded by the Qingzhou army, and Hu Ge, as the number one expert under the Zuo Xian Wang (Left Worthy King), happened to be leading his subordinates there, so he was naturally transferred to provide support. He couldn't possibly leave the main group to come and meet the Qing Kingdom Supervisory Council party.
Fan Xian didn't know that this was Ye Ling'er's intention, and didn't expect that his female disciple wanted to share his burden, but had brought him more trouble.
"Since that person has not shown himself, even if we arrive at the royal court, we won't be able to see them." Mu Feng'er looked at Fan Xian, reminding him, "That person won't make such a mistake. Knowing that it is a merchant caravan from Qing Kingdom, they won't reveal their appearance to us."
The horse moved slowly forward, its hooves treading on the autumn grass without fragrance.
"Dingzhou is ready." Mu Feng'er reminded him again, because in his opinion, even if there were so-called experts in the Hu people's royal court, as long as they wiped out the spies in Dingzhou City, the other party wouldn't be able to stir up too much trouble. Why take the risk?
Fan Xian's thumb gently moved on the reins. After a moment, he said, "I must know who that person is. This is a very important point. If the other party is the person I suspect, I have to change my methods. Simply wiping out those in Dingzhou City is not fundamentally effective."
He had never heard of the name Song Zhixian Ling, and didn't know what the name meant in the Hu language, but almost instinctively, he thought that the person with this name was a woman. This was an unreasonable deduction, somewhat mysterious, and he couldn't explain why.
Fan Xian became more convinced of his judgment, and also became more angry.
In the distance, several white birds were flying rapidly over the knee-deep autumn grassland. Fan Xian looked up and could vaguely see a large desert behind the more distant grassland. And what was further beyond the desert?
"East of the desert is the North Sea." Mu Feng'er looked at the adult's slightly frowned eyebrows, knew what he was thinking, and said softly, "Beyond the vast North Sea is Northern Qi."
"I've been to the North Sea." Fan Xian looked over there, seeming to want to see the reeds in the North Sea, and said quietly, "This desert stretches for thousands of miles. It is said that no one can pass through it alive. And that North Sea, although beautiful, is boundless. If you want to cross it, it is even more difficult. I have been thinking about this question... how should one go from Northern Qi to Xihu?"
"First go south into the country, then go northwest from Kyoto straight to Dingzhou, then to Qingzhou and enter the grasslands, and you will arrive where we are now." Mu Feng'er had clearly put in a lot of effort in Kyoto, saying, "It will take a long time, but it is very convenient. Compared to crossing the North Sea by force or traveling through the desert, it is more feasible."
"But the Xihu royal court and those two Xian Wangs (Worthy Kings) will never trust a Central Plains person from Qing Kingdom." Fan Xian said with a cold face, "To gain the trust of seemingly enthusiastic but actually suspicious Hu people is inherently extremely difficult, so I am very curious, how exactly did they do it?"
In the following ten days, the merchant caravan traveled into the depths of the grasslands. Everywhere was a scene of autumn grass. Occasionally, nomadic people were seen, grazing hundreds of cattle and sheep, like朵朵白云 (duǒ duǒ bái yún -朵朵: measure word for flowers, clouds, etc.; 白云: white cloud) floating on the slightly undulating meadows, extremely beautiful and peaceful.
This place was no longer the battleground between Xihu and the Qing army, so it gradually revealed some feeling of a frontier paradise.
They passed through two large tribes along the way. The merchants of Qing Kingdom sold many goods, and the entire caravan became much lighter and faster. But still, no merchant had sold out their goods and returned the way they came, because the most valuable goods were lighter, and if they wanted to sell them for a high price, they could only go to the Hu people's royal court.
Along the way, Fan Xian carefully observed the Hu people's attitude towards his merchant caravan, because it involved a very important matter for the future of the world. He somewhat self-deprecatingly discovered that the Hu people's gaze at the Central Plains merchants was still somewhat unkind, even containing deep-seated hatred.
The blood debt of thousands of years could not be washed away with gems and tea.
But the tribal chiefs, priests, and nobles had a much better attitude towards the Central Plains merchants. After Mu Feng'er's careful inquiry, he learned from the old merchants that this change in attitude had only begun a year and a half ago.
It seemed that the Xihu royal court had finally understood the importance of trade, and had issued orders to the various tribes, strictly prohibiting them from harassing merchant caravans entering the grasslands, and even requiring them to be responsible for dispatching tribal elites to escort these merchant caravans in certain dangerous areas.
A year ago, a poor small tribe could not resist the temptation of the Central Plains merchant caravans, and secretly ambushed, robbing many goods, provoking the royal court to great anger. They directly sent troops to suppress them, or rather, slaughtered them. Not a single person in that small tribe survived.
It was also a bloody example that made everyone on the grasslands clear about the royal court's determination, and fundamentally guaranteed the safety of the Central Plains merchant caravans. From then on, although they could still receive some unkind gazes on the grasslands, the Central Plains merchants no longer faced any dangerous swords.
This was a very long-term arrangement, and Fan Xian admired it secretly. He knew that although the merchant caravans were only selling luxury goods now, 无商不活 (wú shāng bù huó - no business, no life), as long as the trade routes on the grasslands were guaranteed to be smooth, who knew whether the merchants of Qing Kingdom, and even Dongyi and Northern Qi, would secretly ignore the Qing Kingdom's ban because of profit, and secretly import living and military supplies to the grasslands.
Over time, the border prohibitions would loosen, and the Hu people's strength would become stronger day by day.
……
……
That day, the royal court finally arrived. Looking at the crescent lake under the lone mountain, the small desert beside the lake, and the large expanse of green grassland, Fan Xian was also a little dazed by such beautiful scenery. The location of the royal court was indeed different from ordinary places. There was a unique pattern between heaven and earth.
Especially those green grasslands made Fan Xian feel very strange. It was autumn, why was the grass still green?
On the side of the lone mountain, countless cattle and sheep were scattered on the wide grassland.
Hu girls were washing pottery utensils by the crescent lake, preparing to welcome guests from the Central Plains.
It was quiet here. The sky seemed to be much lower than in other places, and even seemed to touch the grassland's surface. The autumn wind blew slightly, and the grass lay low, so refreshing.
Fan Xian dismounted and glanced at an ordinary Supervisory Council official behind him, smiled, turned his head, looked at the beautiful scenery in front of him, and couldn't help but shake his head.
The Xihu lads led the hardworking Central Plains merchants to the tents by the crescent lake, let them rest for a while, and said very sincerely that after some time, the Great Khan would personally host a banquet to entertain these distinguished guests.
This merchant caravan should be considered the largest in the entire autumn, so the royal court's hospitality was very attentive.
But Fan Xian felt something was strange. The Xihu people's attitude seemed to be too good. Could it be that Song Zhixian Ling really had such a profound influence on the royal court?
After eating a little, Fan Xian rubbed his stomach, walked out of the tent, and walked to the meadow by the crescent lake, squinting his eyes and looking around at the scenery. His current identity was a merchant, and except for the area near the royal court, Xihu did not prohibit these Central Plains merchants from strolling around. No one on the grasslands knew him, so his safety was not a concern at all, and his mood naturally lightened.
"天苍苍，野茫茫…" (Tiān cāngcāng, yě mángmáng... - The sky is vast, the wilderness is boundless...)
He only had time to say six characters before being disturbed by a shout of approval from his side. Fan Xian turned around and saw a young man quickly walking to his side, hurriedly calling out his praise.
"I only said six characters, what's good about it?" Fan Xian looked at the young man who looked like he was from the Central Plains with a smile, but his eyes unconsciously glanced at the large tent of the royal court not far away. He had seen this young man on the meadow earlier, coming out of the royal court.