Volu Everywhere (1/2)

Volu Everywhere

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— Records Volume Three</eraphy of Jiang Suiyun</e’s Longsheng era, the eleventh year of Southern Chu’s Tongtai era, on the second day of the tenth xia Barracks in Southern Chu, soldiers were practicing mounted archery Applause thundered from time to time

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh</e out again on the drill grounds The one loosing the arroasn’t tall and wore silver armor He sat on a buckskin horse, a rare and fine steed Galloping and shooting, every arrow hit the bullseye Archery this skilled orthy of the applause of the soldiers, especially as the rider was their beloved lord’s eldest son

After every arrow in the quiver had been shot, the rider finally stopped Twenty-four arrows riddled the bullseye with not a single gap between them He re He wiped soe of the drill grounds July rubbed it for a moment Then he said with a smile to the soldiers who had co off a quiver of arrows relaxed un to discuss hed and said, “Young General, your archery just getsthe wee hours, so no discussion will be held today, probably”

The young ether “Movement from over there has become more frequent recently Does the Grand General know the situation now that he’s gone to Jianye?”

“Young General, you should ask Adjunct Yang in private, as the Grand General definitely won’t tell you,” said one of the soldiers “Perhaps Adjunct Yang will drop sodropped hints that easily, the Grand General would never trust him as he does”

“By the way, Master Wei’s party just arrived They already went to see the Grand General,” one of the other soldiers re man furrowed his brows oes anywhere without reason</es to the soldiers and ran toward his father’s tent, not caring that he was drenched with sweat and covered in dirt

Soon, he arrived at his father’s tent Outside were bodyguards who began to greet hied one of them to the side and asked in a whisper, “Are the Grand General and Master Wei talking inside?”

The bodyguard nodded “Yes, he’s been here for a long time The Grand General acted the sa lared at him and said, “What do you know? If this man wasn’t here to mediate, the Grand General and that old fox would’ve fallen out with each other long ago What’sIf not for his help, you’d have to wait for the Ministry of War to send intelligence Hu arence still wouldn’t have arrived”

The bodyguardeneral, he had alwayshis h the youngrumbled a little After all, in his opinion, Master Wei was an immoral, insubordinate man He was himself a coarse fellow, but he just couldn’t look down on Master Wei

The youngtime but didn’t see his father come out Eventually, he couldn’t hold hi to hear the conversation The bodyguards looked at each other and smiled They winked at each other and turned a blind eye to hinored them He tried his hardest to eavesdrop on the faint voices cos in the tent were simple and plain The room was bare and empty except for a spartan cot and a square table with two chairs Besides the few books on top of the table, the tent was no different froeneral’s quarters

A man in his early thirties stood in the center of the tent, his hands clasped behind his back He was looking at a map suspended on a wall of the tent with heavy eyes He had a ure, though he was greying at the temples and his face had been weathered by time If he had not been clad in armor, it would have been difficult to believe he was Southern Chu’s forenified and elegant He didn’t look a day over thirty His face showed a touch of sarcas, nobody would think he was already thirty-five years of age Furthermore, the armored man was three years his junior but already looked ht, the dignifiedar, who in the world doesn’t know that Great Yong is looking to pick a fight? They’re ready to graze their horses south Northern Han has been destroyed for a whole seven years, and Great Yong has incorporated theiranymore either Do you think he doesn’t want to see all the land united in his lifetime? How can he let others sleep soundly in his own bed?¹ Even if Southern Chu doesn’t disobey orwon’t abandon their southern a General returned fro even had a prince of the second rank who looked forward to killing on the field of battle? The plan of southern invasion is as clear as day²

“Will you not wake up to reality? Seven years ago, you had the courage to carry the Southern ChuPass by surprise If I had not seen that you still had a bit of spirit, how could I have done wu Hall and Head Ji of the Yihuang Hall, as well as Shang Weijun, the old fox, have an even better understanding Although they aren’t brazenly³ trying to take over the court, they have gradually consolidated power If not for Shang Weijun retaining a hint of vigilance, and without for you, I’m afraid you, Grand General, would’ve had a hard tiood friend,” sighed the armored man “I, Lu Can, know at heart that without you around, I couldn’t have coexisted with those people in the court Those days, whenever I rejected the woe, Pri would deliberately delay the provisions and wages for the troops Without brother Wei’s support, I don’t think I could have passed this challenge”

The dignifiedto do with me You control over seventy percent of the troops of Southern Chu Priave the Generalin Great Yong; not even I could bear it It looked like a h internal strife and fell apart You said I supported you, but if I didn’t have your backing,since been stifled by those women After all, they controlled the economic authority So us twoto rise up in revolt to cleanse the court, I’ll lend you a hand”

“Brother Wei, I’, I’ll have to see you out” The arnified ree If you had half the ruthlessness of Jiang Zhe, you wouldn’t have been forced out of Jianye by Shang Weijun”

The arave the barest of sreatly over the years When he is brought up, you don’t gnash your teeth any is doonifiedmay enjoy numerical superiority, with Li Xian’s heroics and Li Zhi beloved by the people, but without that , it wouldn’t be that easy I personally know I’ainst hi, whereas I cast my lot with Southern Chu? Did he not want to help Li Zhi unify the land, whereas I wanted to divide the lands into two halves? Even if I could not take his life by my own hand, I had to ensure he wouldn’t find peace If this were not the case, ould I ith you? With your relationshi+p to his difficult for you However, nobody in Southern Chu can replace you, so I ave a weak sh to place the man before hioal, this man was trustworthy For the sake of Southern Chu, he didn’t s of this nifiedhas sent a denunciation,” he added, “saying that Southern Chu has gone three years without paying tribute I looked over the records, and it’s so very ridiculous Fu Yulun was truly audacious In the ninth year of Tongtai, he received orders to travel to Yong to pay tribute He was robbed en route by bandits The bandits seized the tribute but gave him a fake reply letter and half of their spoils He feared being blaot aith it Once he had a taste, he couldn’t get enough,⁴ and for the following two years, he colluded with the bandits They split the tribute and forged credentials Meanwhile, Great Yong’s clerks and official docuht up this matter for the past three years, until this year’s rebellion They want the King to go to the Yong capital to apologize for this offense If you told me there’s not a conspiracy afoot, I wouldn’t believe it”

“Fu Yulun is talented but corrupt, weak, and greedy,” the ar’s power to run aed him on, he’d be too scared to do a deed like this Once he was on the pirate shi+p, he had no way to go back Presu wracked their brains to coement They raised money for three years just to air this dirty laundry, then sent a punitive expedition to denounce our crihed “Who can say? Fu Yulun is clearly shi+elded by Priave half of the tribute he stopped fro and one-tenth to Head Ji If I hadn’t been hindered by Heads Ji and Yan, how could I have just found out about this? I also wouldn’t have been completely unprepared The ancients were indeed honest when they said that women jeopardize the state For these petty little benefits, they ignored the big picture Were they proud of being able to har would turn a blind eye to this?

“I’ve learned no foolish it is to be blinded by hatred and desire If I had had this insight in the past, maybe I wouldn’t be where I a I’m all alone, with just my shadow for company”

The armored man furrowed his brows and said, “I went to Jianye to see Pri hasn’t held court into behead Fu Yulun and present hi refused to agree, instead de Fu Yulun This will have to be justified in tiave a look of scorn He was silent for a long ti, “Killed or not, it’s too late This is a rare opportunity, and Great Yong won’t let it slip fro has already dispatched an apology letter, but I don’t see it being of ht now”