Chuyue
…….Chuyue Sijin City
……………….Yusuo Mountain
.
.
………Jiaohe……………Yizhou
……Tianshan…………Xizhou
………………Liu Zhong
………Dahai Village
.
.
………………Shazhou
After a bloody battle, Huan She had no time to rest, traveling to various prefectures and counties to direct the replenishment of weapons and equipment. Only when he arrived at Liuzhong County, formerly Tiandi County of Gaochang, did he remove his blood-stained military uniform, change into civilian clothes, and go straight to the military workshop for inspection. It was early winter, and the outside was bitterly cold, but inside the workshop, the furnaces were blazing red, bustling and noisy. He had barely stepped inside when a burly man beside the furnace grabbed him, "You've finally arrived!" Without further ado, he threw him a leather skirt, "Hurry up, hurry up, the Protectorate is urging us." Huan She smiled amiably, took off his shirt, revealing his bare torso, wrapped the leather skirt around his waist, and began hammering away. Soon, he was sweating profusely. "The person Qi Lao Er recommended is really good, a skilled craftsman!" the other blacksmiths praised, seeing his expert technique. Huan She swung his sledgehammer and brought it down heavily, the clanging sounds echoing in his ears from the workshops at the foot of Tanhan Mountain.
“Not yet full! — Huan Lang”
Are you tired? -- Not really.
"When will you come to see me? -- I'll come as soon as I'm done with this."
Lost in thought, Huan She suddenly heard a loud voice: "It's you!" He wiped a bead of sweat from his brow and examined the burly man before him. "Uncle, do you recognize me?" the man asked. "I don't know you, but I recognize your things," he said, pointing to the necklace around Huan She's neck. Huan She hesitated. "Uncle, have you seen my jade?" the man chuckled. "I can't quite recall the jade, but this necklace is definitely made by me, Qi Lao Er. It's unmistakable." He continued enthusiastically, "Look at this iron, top-quality tempered iron, more than twice the price of ordinary hoebe mortar. If it weren't for me, Qi Lao Er, who would be willing to use such fine material? Look at the pattern, the style of the pre-Qin era. If it weren't for me, Qi Lao Er, who would have the patience to put in such meticulous work on such a necklace? If it weren't for that young lady's beauty…"
He was still rambling on, but Huan She was already breathing heavily. "You said it was a young lady who bought it?" Qi Lao Er thought for a moment, "Yes, yes, no, she asked me to make it. In Dahai Village, there was a young man who was about to die. He asked me to remove his shackles. Cough, that young lady was crying her eyes out. She gave me five pieces of agate and begged me to make those bloodstained shackles into a chain to match her jade. Alas, poor thing. Hmm, could it be that you have come back to life again..." Huan She felt as if all the smoke and fire in the workshop were rushing towards him, threatening to burn him to ashes. His chest felt tight and he was coughing and panting desperately.
Qi Lao Er reached out to grab Huan She's chain, and Huan She angrily retorted, "What are you doing?" Qi Lao Er replied, "Why are you holding the broken chain up with hemp thread? Here, I'll remake it for you." Huan She protected the chain, determined not to let him take it off. Qi Lao Er's temper flared up as well, "You're wearing this broken chain all over the streets, it'll ruin my reputation. Give it back to me!" Huan She said, "No." Qi Lao Er coaxed, "I'll make it exactly the same as the original, even your young lady won't recognize it. That way, I'll consider you a regular customer and won't charge you."
Huan She struck the gleaming, white-hot iron blade and shouted, "No!" Sparks flew from his dark eyes, and his broad, sweat-drenched chest heaved, reflecting the raging flames.
"The lord is indeed here!" Two military officers from the Protectorate General's Office, one a military clerk and the other a registrar, stepped past the astonished Iron Army soldiers and handed Huan She a letter. "Urgent from the capital!" Huan She glanced at it and saw seven large, bold black characters: "Qin'er's marriage to Xueyantuo!"
"No!" A ferocious roar overturned the surging molten iron in the furnace.
***
Princess Li Mingda of Jinyang was only nine years old. She was intelligent and quick-witted and loved calligraphy and painting. After her fourth brother, Prince Wei Tai, finished writing the book "Kuodi Zhi", she selected some chapters to illustrate and asked her older sister for guidance.
Princess Xianyang glanced at her younger sister's childish paintings and smiled, "Sizi paints very well. The greens and blues are vibrant, the composition is balanced, and the perspective is harmonious, quite reminiscent of Zhan Ziqian of the Sui Dynasty." Princess Jinyang said happily, "If you think they're good, then Sizi will give them to you. When you arrive in Xueyantuo..." She stopped abruptly. Li Weiying said calmly, "When I was at the foot of Yudu Mountain in the northern desert, looking at your paintings of the eight rivers flowing and the Qinling Mountains shrouded in mist, it felt as if I had returned to Chang'an." Princess Jinyang said sadly, "Sister, are you really going to marry so far away?"
Li Weiying didn't answer, but unfolded another scroll and asked, "Mount Shiroman? Sizi, you've started painting the Western Regions?" Princess Jinyang felt guilty. "Sister, you've been to the Western Regions, don't you think it doesn't look like it?" Li Weiying said, "It does look very similar, only the rocks of the Western Regions are different from the verdant Zhongnan Mountains and the emerald peaks of Mount Li. If you could use small axe-cut strokes and change the three shades of green and four shades of blue to rougher shades of green, it would better show the ruggedness and strength of the snow-capped mountains of the Western Regions." Princess Jinyang suddenly realized, "Sister is right. I was only thinking about painting snow..." "Whether to use lead powder or clam powder, I didn't pay attention to why I used green." Li Weiying stroked her sister's soft hair. "Lead powder easily fades and turns lead-like when damp or over time, so clam powder is the only way to retain the brushstrokes of the rhinoceros." Princess Jinyang pouted, "But clam powder always smudges the brush, and it's too stiff and white." Li Weiying nodded and smiled, "You can also mix it with some pearl powder. Pearl powder is a bit dark, but snow-capped mountains also have shadows, so the interplay of light and shadow makes it more vivid. Or you can get some giant clam powder from the South China Sea; it works quite well too."
Princess Jinyang went to receive instruction, and two days later returned with a new work. The silk scroll depicted majestic peaks, their summits covered in silver snow; it was none other than Mount Tanhan. Li Weiying felt tears welling up in her eyes, and the words annotated in flying white ink on the painting became blurred: "Mount Tanhan, with three peaks rising abruptly from the ground, majestic and steep, perpetually covered in snow and ice, known as the Sea of Snow. Wildflowers bloom in profusion, and snow chickens and snow leopards are often seen." She suddenly froze, this passage so familiar? -- *The Records of Strange Tales of the Western Regions*! *The Records of Strange Tales of the Western Regions* also mentioned this!
“Sister?” Princess Jinyang asked, noticing the look of surprise and uncertainty on her face. Li Weiying ignored her and only said, “Bring me the *Kuodi Zhi*.” The eunuch quickly presented it. Li Weiying’s heart was pounding. After a long while, she turned to the chapter on Tanhan Mountain in the Western Regions and continued reading on the words “snow chicken and snow leopard”: “In the Western Regions, eight hundred li from Gaochang, there is Qiemi Mountain, and two hundred li north of Kucha, there is Baishan Mountain. Both produce stone flow yellow, which physicians also call yellow ammoniac. It enters the liver, spleen, and stomach meridians and can soften hardness, reduce swelling, and dissipate accumulations. The stone produced in Tanhan Mountain is especially white, pure, and lustrous. The northern barbarians also use it to smelt iron. The mining area is filled with smoke during the day and burns like lamps at night. In spring, summer, and autumn, the mines are always on fire, so hot that it is impossible to approach. The locals can only enter the mines naked when it is extremely cold in winter and the fire is extinguished by heavy snow.”
Seeing Li Weiying's stunned silence, Princess Jinyang said, "Sister, is it because the colors of the snow-capped peaks I painted are a bit peculiar?" She smiled and placed a bright white stone in Li Weiying's hand. "The other day, when I went to the Imperial Medical Bureau, I not only picked out the finest pearls from the East China Sea and giant clams from the South China Sea, but I also found this. The stone that Fourth Brother mentioned in his book is called 'Stone Flowing Yellow' from Tanhan Mountain. Hehe, let's call it 'Stone Flowing White'. I had the eunuch grind it into powder and mix it into the paint. The result is truly different."
With a "crack," Li Weiying smashed Shi Liuhuang to the ground as if it were on fire.
"Summon Cao Ling, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works, and Cao Yang, Assistant Minister of the Ministry of War, to come see me immediately!" she cried out in anguish.
***
"boom!"
The dozen or so high-ranking households in Chongrenfang were all shaken. "Minister Cao is playing with fire again!" someone lazily called out from behind the high wall. The neighbors, unfazed by the commotion at the Huan residence, kept their doors tightly locked.
A rider on a green horse led a carriage through the dust and stopped outside the Huan residence. Cao Yang jumped off his horse, called for the gate to be opened, and turned to the carriage, saying, "I will call my elder brother to come out and apologize to His Highness."
Li Weiying stepped out of the carriage and looked at the billowing black smoke and the many people running around carrying buckets inside the gate. She said softly, "No need." Cao Yang was still uneasy. "Back then, my elder brother adapted my book on the geography of the Western Regions into a collection of strange tales, just to make the princess smile."
"A smile?" Li Weiying sighed inwardly. "Cao Ling, do you know that you almost risked Huan Lang's life just to make me smile?"
*
*
*
P.S.: The book *Kuodi Zhi* has been lost, so I had to make up my own description of Tanhan Mountain based on the actual geographical situation. Hehe, don't blame Cao Ling! The Ministry of War's subordinate office, Zhifang, manages map-related affairs. The position of Yuanwailang is a sixth-rank official, which is quite suitable for a newly appointed scholar like Cao Yang who loves geography.
Chapter 42
42. [Getting married]
Huan She asked Protector-General Guo Xiaoke for leave, and despite everyone's objections, he insisted on abandoning the easy route through Yiwu and instead rode alone through the extremely dangerous Great Sea Road, which could save him half the distance.
As dusk fell and the sky darkened, Huan She, exhausted from ten days of arduous travel through the Great Sea Road, suffering from hunger and cold, was about to lift his leather water bag to moisten his throat when he caught a glimpse of flames shooting into the sky one after another on a shallow ridge of Devil Mountain at the exit of the Great Sea Road. The faint figure standing on that mountain was none other than the woman he had been longing for day and night.
Huan She roared, throwing his water pouch off his horse with a splash. He whipped his horse and galloped desperately towards Devil's Mountain. The guards at the foot of the mountain, seeing him from afar, cheered loudly. Huan She scrambled to the top, grabbing Li Weiying tightly from behind, tears streaming down his face. "Weiying! Qingqing!" He could no longer hear the words escaping his hoarse throat; he only knew that her name was echoing repeatedly in his heart and mind.
The person in his arms trembled slightly. "General, please have some self-respect and don't get in my way." Huan She said, "Wei Ying is me." She said softly, "General, you're hurting me." Huan She released her grip, and she broke free from his embrace. She straightened her snow-covered black fox fur coat and walked straight to the side. From the brocade pouch tied at her waist, she took out a gleaming white stone, struck a flint, and threw the blazing red stone high into the swirling snow. "Wei Ying, what are you doing?" Huan She's face turned pale when he saw a large basket of stone piled up beside her.
She turned around, a hazy reverie in her eyes. "I'm waiting for someone." Huan She's voice trembled. "Who are you waiting for?" She smiled sweetly, striking another flint to ignite a stone, and said leisurely, "Do you see the Great Sea Road below?" Huan She swatted away the flint that was about to burn her fingers. "Wei Ying, you?" A sudden fear gripped his heart. Wei Ying's expression was so strange; had she gone mad with grief? He pulled her into a tight embrace. "Wei Ying, Wei Ying, don't scare me!" She nestled on his shoulder and continued, "The Great Sea Road is my favorite place. There once lived a great hero there, a handsome young man who called me 'Li De Hasni Witt' openly and secretly during the day, and held me as we slept every night. I've burned so many spirit stones, why hasn't he come back?"
Huan She cupped her face in his hands, looking into her eyes, "Wei Ying, look, it really is me, I've come!" Li Wei Ying frowned, "Don't say anything, I wasn't waiting for you." Huan She quickly ran to the edge of the cliff and shouted down the mountain, "Is Princess Xianyang waiting for me?" The guards below replied in unison, "It is indeed the General!"
Li Weiying calmly watched Huan She run back, saying nothing. Huan She felt flustered by her gaze, and his voice softened: "Look, I am Huan She. I always call you that, Lide Hasniweit, Lide Hasniweit." Li Weiying thought for a moment, "Then who has abandoned me time and time again? Fine, so be it. I won't argue with you anymore. Anyway, I'm going to marry the Khan of Xueyantuo next year. What does it matter who you are or not?" Huan She said anxiously, "Weiying, you hate me and resent me, why do you want to marry that old man from Xueyantuo?" She smiled, "Khan Zhenzhu Biga sent his uncle, Shabolo Nishusijin, to request marriage. Father said that Xueyantuo is still powerful, and unless we send troops to annihilate them, we should appease them through marriage. Minister Fang Xuanling said that war is dangerous and that I think a marriage alliance is more appropriate." Huan She gritted his teeth in anger, "That old scoundrel Fang Qiao, I'll chop him up!"
“My father betrothed my younger sister, Princess Xinxing, to the Khan. She cried her eyes out, so I told her, ‘I’ll go in your place, since nobody wants me anyway.’ General,” she sighed, “I’m already twenty years old, and if I don’t get married soon, I’ll never get married.” She gestured to stop Huan She from speaking, then hesitated, pausing on the thin snow on the mountaintop. “And I want to know, why did you change your mind after fighting the Xueyantuo? I want to see what kind of demons those barbarians are possessed by.”
Huan She punched a lone, dark brown pine tree, shaking the snow off its needles. "Wei Ying," he said, "a soldier's duty is to endure bloodshed. I was a bachelor, with no ties, and on the battlefield, I only knew how to fight bravely. But now that I have you, what will you do if I end up like Cui Yan, buried on the frontier? I don't want you to be a widow!" Li Wei Ying was stunned. Huan She continued, "Cui Yan died in battle just a month after his marriage, and his wife threw herself into the Luo River upon hearing the news. We are Jivajivakas. If I die, I fear you will follow me in death."
Li Weiying walked to his side, took his hand and rubbed it to relieve his pain, and said softly, "Huan Lang, so many young men in the Tang Dynasty have abandoned their studies to join the army. I've never heard of anyone who wouldn't marry for fear of their beloved woman becoming a widow. My grandfather, father, uncles, and many other members of the imperial family, as well as several uncles-in-law, all went to the battlefield. Being a military officer is no more dangerous than being a civil official, and besides, you are so skilled, what do I have to be afraid of!"
Huan She slowly said, "Wei Ying, if it were only these things, it would be fine. At most, I would be careful in everything I do, fight if I can, and run if I can't. But..." He gazed longingly at her clear face, "Wei Ying, I have suffered severe torture in the past, and I have suffered many more injuries in recent years. The injuries I sustained when fighting Xueyantuo were the most severe, affecting my bones, liver, and lungs. The doctor said that I would not live past forty."
Li Weiying was stunned and stood there for a long time before angrily saying, "Which muddle-headed physician said this? If it were Master Fei, he would have said you would live to be a hundred, as long as Peng Zu!" Huan She smiled bitterly, "It was Master Fei who said it." Hearing this, tears streamed down her face, and she threw herself into Huan She's arms. "He couldn't even cure my father's illness, how could he presume to judge your life or death? How could Huan Lang believe him!" Huan She hugged her tightly, "Weiying, I know my own body. All the way back from the northern desert, whenever it was cloudy or rainy, I..." "The pain was excruciating, and only in this arid place like Xizhou did it feel slightly better." Li Weiying stroked the scars on Huan She's face. "I'll go to Xizhou with you." Huan She kissed her tearful eyes. "My dear, the weather in Xizhou is so harsh, and there's always the danger of fighting the Northern Di. We've fought the Western Turks here, and the Yanqi are stirring up trouble there. How can I bear to let you suffer and risk your life for me? Besides, even if we get married, how many happy days can I give you?"
Li Weiying caught a snowflake, silently watching it melt into a tear in her palm. "Huan Lang, you're twenty-five, aren't you?" Huan She nodded. "Born in the first year of Wude." She said softly, "Then perhaps there are still fifteen years." Looking up at Huan She, she asked, "How long have we known each other?" Huan She calculated for a moment, "Five years." "And the number of years we've actually been together?" she pressed, saying before Huan She could answer, "Not even a year." She wrapped her arms around Huan She's neck, trying to snuggle into his embrace. "But I feel it's longer than ten years. One year for us is equivalent to ten years for couples who are sleeping in the same bed but dreaming different dreams. We still have fifteen years, plus the five years we've known each other before, that's a total of twenty years of fate. Even if we each take the place of five, that's still a hundred years. Huan Lang, are you willing to be with me for a hundred years?"
The north wind howled, and a bright voice ripped open a burning chest: "I've been thinking about this for a hundred years!"
She chuckled, "But I don't want to." Huan She's face flushed crimson with anxiety. "Why don't you want to?" She hummed in agreement. "Do you prefer strong, robust women? I'm weak; I often fall off horses." Huan She quickly said, "We can ride camels, your favorite white camels. I can even carry you on my back." He turned around, bent down, and hoisted her onto his back, slowly walking along, taking in the desolate ancient road and undulating mountains. "See, this is much safer." Li Weiying nestled on his broad back, whispering in his ear, "But I don't know how to boil water or cook. I burned the copper kettle on the Great Sea Road, and you scolded me until I cried." Huan She bounced her back, coaxing her like a child, "How can I let you do something as dangerous as starting a fire?"
She hugged his neck and kissed him contentedly. "And also, I can't sew clothes."
"I can. I've been sewing since I was little, and my needlework is better than yours."