Chapter 198 (1/2)
In the night, it was windless around the border camp. So the red fire flames on a pyre could gently shake. Dozens of the Tang Empire's border army elites dispersed around or fell a sound sleep or vigilantly stood guard. Only Ning Que and that captain sat next to the bonfire.
During the daytime, the captain called Ning Que as Mr. Thirteen, as if not knowing Ning Que's true ident.i.ty. But at this time beside the warm bonfire, he had already changed the appellation in a soft voice. ”Your Excellency, we're really going to Dongsheng Stockaded Village tomorrow? It's too close to the Yans. There may be some troubles there.”
Ning Que took a branch to fiddle with the sweet potatoes in the bonfire and looked up at him upon listening to these words. He could not help shaking his head and looked at the army elites around who did not pay attention to himself before saying, ”I've been at the frontier fortress for over one month and never got into any trouble. In my eyes, this is really troublesome.”
He looked at the captain's seemingly dull and honest face before saying with a sigh, ”Don't you think our luck is too bad? There is only one secret guard in Tuyang City, you. And only you were sent out to follow me. I don't know who to ask when I want to ask the situation of Tuyang City.”
The captain said with a bitter smile, ”When I knew I'd be the one taking a personal protection for Your Excellency, I also feel helpless.”
”Could it be that General's Mansion knew your ident.i.ty as a secret guard and was too embarra.s.sed to deal with you? So they simply drove you away from Tuyang City and ordered you to follow me around... or did they even find out my ident.i.ty?”
The captain shook his head and said, ”Please rest a.s.sured, Your Excellency. They should not know my ident.i.ty. As for Your Excellency, I think neither the army adviser nor the camp couldn't guess you're actually his Majesty's secret guard.”
Ning Que pulled two roasted sweet potatoes out of the bonfire and gave one of them to the captain. Then he slowly torn the skin of another sweet potato with the tips of his fingers and lowered his head eating the white hot pulp with steam. He vaguely said, ”It's great they did not find out our ident.i.ties. I don't want to do anything under someone's secret watch.”
The captain picked up the cooked sweet potatoes that had rolled to the bottom of his feet, watching Ning Que's face under the s.h.i.+ning flames, and did not know what to say.
As for Mr. Thirteen beside, his feelings were complicated. Other soldiers might not yet know who he was, but as a secret guard he certainly knew that Ning Que was a core disciple of the Headmaster of Academy. Why such a n.o.ble bigwig came to the frontier fortress? What made him more puzzled was why Ning Que came here even if it was so troublesome.
This was a deserted wilderness where battlefield white bones were hidden in long gra.s.ses. If General Xia Hou was really enraged, he wouldn't care whether one was a student of the Second floor of the Academy. He would kill and throw Ning Que to the depth of gra.s.sland. Who knew how he died? Even the Headmaster of Academy could not judge it.
A faint noise came from afar, and the cavalryman in charge of night safety stood up and walked to the periphery. The captain glanced there and changed the appellation for a reason of security. He whispered, ”Mr. Thirteen, what kind of thing do you come to check this time? If you let me know, I can make relevant arrangements.”
”I was ordered to come here not for some investigation but to have a look for his Majesty.”
Ning Que threw the sweet potato that was almost bitten off into the bonfire, wiping the cuffs on his face with ends of his sleeves. He said, ”But in terms of current situation, there is no way to see it.”
”You have a special ident.i.ty. General's Mansion is worried about you and doesn't want you to get in any trouble. Of course, they hope you'd better to be far from them. If you want to see... someone in General's Mansion, you can't make it without being in Tuyang City.”
The captain hesitated for a short moment before directly mentioning Tuyang City. He was well aware that if a bigwig as Mr. Thirteen was secretly ordered by his Majesty to come to the frontier fortress, the so-called inspection tour for the Emperor, of course, could only aim at the general. He just dare not directly say the name of General Xia Hou.
The Academy students started from Chang'an City and went out of the border to the frontier fortress of northern Yan Kingdom. When they pa.s.sed by Tuyang City in the trip, an a.s.sistant of General Xia Hou was responsible for the reception on behalf of General's Mansion. Therefore, Ning Que had never seen General Xia Hou.
At this time Ning Que heard the words of ”Tuyang City” and thought of the great general famous for ruthlessness and tyranny in Tuyang City. After a brief moment of silence, he said with a smile, ”I'll always go afterwards.”
On the second day, Ning Que and the dozens of elite troops of Tang who had been protecting him hit the road again and marched eastward along the simple frontier defense line of the northern border of Yan Kingdom. At noon, they arrived at the easternmost point of the western battleline that Tang army was responsible for. When they looked across a willow land, they could clearly see blue mountains and that yellow city not far from the mountains.
More than a dozen army officers waited for their arrival outside Dongsheng Stockaded Village. The general of Dongsheng Stockaded Village did not know who was Mr. Thirteen. However, from the doc.u.ment of Tuyang City General's Mansion and those subordinate officers' excited expressions, he guessed Mr. Thirteen should be a bigwig from Chang'an City and had some relations.h.i.+p with the Academy.
Ning Que looked at the soldiers outside the stockaded village and smiled. Then he jumped down from the big black horse's body and talked to the general first with a few salutations. And then he walked to the right until he stood in front of someone and said with a smile, ”Have you been used to staying here?”
This officer in front of him was a girl who was dressed in arrow clothes and was covered with the dust of the Wilderness. She looked at Ning Que as she said smilingly, ”Although I don't feel as comfortable as you do, I've been used to it.”
Ning Que said with a smile, ”Even if not, you have to get used to it. I told you before, the real battlefield was different with what you guys had imagined in Chang'an City.”
Then he noticed that Linchuan w.a.n.g Ying also stood among the officers. The frontier sandstorm had blown away much shyness of this fifteen-year-old lad, who seemed to be a lot taller.
He watched these Academy students who had better spirits here than in Chang'an in less than one month when they came to the frontier. He said with a praise, ”I'm relieved to know you seem to be very accustomed to the life here.”
The general of Dongsheng Stockaded Village walked behind Ning Que and became a little unhappy when seeing Ning Que did not pay attention to himself. He thought that even if Ning Que was a bigwig from Chang'an City, Ning Que did not have any qualification to keep a high profile since now they were in the barracks.
However, when he heard this dialogue, he immediately understood that Mr. Thirteen was really a powerful bigwig--Anyone who dared to speak to General Yunhui's daughter like this and dared to keep a high profile to the Academy students was a real bigwig.
The Academy students' training goal in the future was to become imperial court officials, who had no relations.h.i.+p with the military system. But the Tang Empire set up the country by force. So frontier practice was an integral part of the training program.
Dongsheng Stockaded Village was in the easternmost Tang military defense line and was close to some tribe in Left-Tent palace, and was also near to the Yan army as well as young aiding experts from Central Plains. So it withstood double pressures and could be said to be the most difficult place for the Yan-aiding troops.
For a thousand years, the Academy's practice principle was where there was the most difficult environment, there were the Academy students. So in this yellow city stationed by 3000 soldiers, there was the largest number of Academy students. In addition to riding troops, there were eleven Academy students in total.
On the journey from Chang'an to the frontier fortress of northern Yan, Ning Que and the Academy students stayed together day and night and became very familiar with each other. Besides, those who partic.i.p.ated in the practice were all Tang students and those disputes in the past have long disappeared. After more than a month, the two sides met again and naturally showed a good and lively enthusiasm.
Only when young people experienced a real battle, a b.l.o.o.d.y fire, life and death, would they become quickly mature. It was also because of maturity, their enthusiasm for Ning Que was inevitably mixed with some admiration and sense of distance. After all, Ning Que was a student of the Second floor of the Academy, whose status was far above theirs.
At the dark blue lake, Situ Yilan took out her handkerchief and made it wet, wiping the dust on her forehead. She looked back at silent Ning Que and asked, ”Not used to being escorted imposingly?”
Ning Que went to the lakeside, watching the shadow of ten-thousand-year wood in the lake, and then said with a smile, ”It has always been the goal of such people like me to be escorted imposingly and respected. Since you grew up in General's Mansion of Chang'an City and was famous for the lady army's dignity. How can you understand the mentality of our common people.”
Situ Yilan stood up and handed her handkerchief to him. Then she said, ”But I saw you smiled reluctantly before.”
Ning Que wiped his face and said, ”In the past these students ignored me, and later made peace with me on the journey. Now they talk to me so respectably. I can't adapt to so many contrasts.”
”So you want to go alone to the lake with me?”
”Yes.”
”The army is a place most emphasizing on cla.s.s. Military orders cannot be disobeyed. As long as it is a superior's order, no matter whether the military order is unreasonable or you think this will make you die, you must ride a horse and rush forward.”
Situ Yilan looked at him and said, ”When they left the Academy and came to the front line partic.i.p.ating in several battles and were beaten hard by the generals for several times, they would naturally understand that strength matters most in the world after all.”
”Speaking of fighting and strength.”
Ning Que looked at her and said with a smile, ”When I first met you, I thought you were nothing more than a rebellious girl who relied on the family. I've never met the legendary women soldiers before and really did not think they could be superb. But I never expected you took the initiative to go to Dongsheng Stockaded Village and did such a great job here.”
After all, those young men were selected from the different prefectures of the Tang Empire. Once they were used to the military camp's strict rules and brutal fightings, those Academy students in the practice soon began to show their abilities. Although they were only low-level officers, they did a great job in the parts that they were separately responsible for.
Situ Yilan was born in a warrior family and dared to bear the responsibility, whose performance was particularly outstanding. Within less than a month to Dongsheng Stockaded Village, she had led the riding troop into the Wilderness for scouting six times, including two encounters with the palace riding troop. She beheaded more than ten enemies. Her military service has been reported to Tuyang City. She was waiting to be awarded and promoted soon.
”Left-Tent palace doesn't have the courage to fully start a war. Those riding troops are not palace elites at all, just a small tribal's cavalries. Just for a good military record, so it was written like this.”
Situ Yilan had a heroic spirit, with no slightest arrogance. She said, ”It's noting to kill some tribal cavalries. If I really encounter with palace cavalries, I'm not sure of wining but only strive to kill more.”
Ning Que rubbed his somewhat stiff wrist. It was nearly two years since he had left City of Wei. His blade had not been dyed with gra.s.sland cavalries' fresh blood for two years. Upon listening to Situ's calm but very pa.s.sionate words, he could not help missing those war time when he rode a horse around Shubi Lake and held a knife to cut enemies.
”In fact, I have been very curious what kind of person on earth you are.”
Situ Yilan turned around at the lake, gently tilting her brows and very interestedly looking at Ning Que's face. She said, ”My father had read your files in Military Ministry, but only told me some gists about you and refused to tell me too many details. When I was anxious to ask, he only said that if the future I had an opportunity to fight with you, I should listen to you on everything. I rarely heard my father had such a high evaluation on others. What exactly have you done in City of Wei?”