Chapter 115 I dreamed that I was going back to Yunjing to ask her.
The wind and snow in the northern frontier are as sharp as knives.
On the twenty-sixth day of the Jia month, it was an auspicious day for Prince Jin to finally marry his wife, but it was a doomed day for Xie Xuanlan to escape death.
Ever since he murdered Wang Zhaoshen and Guzha, the northwest had been thrown into turmoil. The Western Tartars quickly dispatched new generals to take over border defense, leaving the Western Province garrison leaderless. Xie Xuanlan seized the opportunity to join forces with Zhao Mingchuan and others, and with drastic measures, they suppressed Wang's former forces and temporarily took control of the 10,000 cavalry and 50,000 infantry stationed outside Zhanzhou.
However, he lacked imperial appointments and popular support. While others were momentarily intimidated by his power, they were generally unconvinced. Wang Zhaoshen's former subordinates, not to mention Xuan Zhiyuan's own, all felt that the Four Vajras, including Zhao Mingchuan, should be elected as leaders, rather than Xie Xuanlan, a traitor with no foundation in the imperial court.
Moreover, there were more than one garrison in the northwest. There were also military defenses in the other three cities and the neighboring Huzhou. Upon hearing the mutiny in Xizhou, they sent military envoys to investigate one after another. At the same time, they secretly prepared their troops and horses, ready to attack the enemy as soon as they received any news of rebellion.
Xie Xuanlan felt like he was standing on the edge of a knife, with wolves in front and tigers behind. If he was not careful, he would fall into an abyss of doom.
Zhao Mingchuan genuinely admired him, but he was also genuinely worried about him. "The envoy sent by General He of Huzhou is on his way. He used to have a good relationship with Wang Zhaoshen. Have you figured out how to deal with him?"
Xie Xuanlan was fiddling with a sand table in front of a map. Hearing this, he said without even looking up, "Don't deal with it. Get out of the way."
"How to avoid it? Escape?"
"Escape?" Xie Xuanlan was very amused and pointed his finger at a certain spot on the sand table: "I'm going to kill someone, I don't have time to serve him."
Zhao Mingchuan took a breath and said, "Are you crazy?"
He hadn't even put out the fire in his own home, but he was already planning to go to someone else's house to fan the stove.
Zhao Mingchuan was promoted through military merit in a conventional way. He could not understand Xie Xuanlan, a gambler who lived on the edge of a knife. However, extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. He had seen Xie Xuanlan's abilities, so he had no choice but to follow him in his evil ways.
So on the night of the 24th, Xie Xuanlan led a thousand elite cavalrymen, crossed the barren hills, crossed the icy river, and went to set fire to the newly discovered granary of the Western Tatar border army.
God was also merciful to him. That night, a strong north wind blew, and flames leaped from the ground, startling a group of drunken Tatar soldiers into fleeing, clutching their buttocks. Xie Xuanlan should have called it a day, but he keenly sensed the enemy force at the granary tonight was exceptionally large, and judging by their fine clothing and armor, he declared, "Big fish!" and selected two hundred vanguard warriors to follow him into the enemy camp to capture them.
Xie Xuanlan was a man of courage who could stand up to a hundred men at a time. Sparks flew as he swung his sword on horseback. In order to save his soldiers, he used himself as bait and rode into the encirclement alone. He remained calm even after being shot in the leg by an arrow.
His imposing manner greatly inspired his subordinates, and they all charged forward with him regardless of their lives. They launched a surprise attack with a desperate attitude, and flew straight into the main tent like an unstoppable flaming arrow.
Xie Xuanlan immediately saw through the commander's attempt to disguise himself as an ordinary soldier to escape. He tied up his tendons in his hands and feet, and rode out of the fire on a new horse.
The raging fire licked the horse's tail and rose up. The wound on Xie Xuanlan's leg was burned by the flames, and blood bubbles came out with a sizzling sound.
Seeing that his teeth were chattering so badly that he could barely hold the knife, his subordinates suggested stopping their horses to bandage him. However, Xie Xuanlan shook his head and said, "Protect the injured comrades. The uninjured will stay behind. Be careful of the pursuers. We should run back in one breath."
After galloping day and night, they finally saw the gate of the Zhanzhou garrison after two days. More than two hundred horses died in the process of setting the fire.
Xie Xuanlan almost fell in front of the gate. Zhao Mingchuan helped him up and kept calling for a military doctor.
Joining Zhao Mingchuan was a military envoy from the Huzhou garrison, surnamed Sun, who had been lingering around. When Sun heard they had burned down an entire granary, he said sourly, "How could this be such a coincidence? It seems like they've agreed to something beforehand. Besides, with so many casualties, these few hundred horses aren't necessarily a win."
Xie Xuanlan weakly pointed at the captive and said to Zhao Mingchuan, "Keep an eye on him... I want to interrogate him myself."
He was in so much pain that he was unconscious for a long time. When the military doctor was cleaning and stitching his wounds, he developed a high fever again.
Military envoy Sun said that he wanted to take Xie Xuanlan to the Huzhou garrison camp to await General He's decision. Zhao Mingchuan refused and started arguing with him. They parted on bad terms, so Zhao Mingchuan had to come to the tent to check on Xie Xuanlan.
The military doctor said, "Young General Xie is relying on his good health to act so recklessly. He's not seriously injured, but his mind is hazy and he's lost in thought."
Xie Xuanlan, who was in a trance, was dreaming at this time.
I dreamed that he was wearing a groom's wedding suit, riding a horse through the streets, and going to Jisuyuan to marry Jiang Congying.
The firefly, dressed up brightly, hid behind the fan and looked at him. Her smile was as gentle as a swallow's tail skimming across the spring lake.
She said she was willing to go with him, and that her son would marry and become a good wife and family. She took his arm, thanked the friends who came to congratulate her, invited Madam Xie to sit with her, and together they bid farewell to their parents, and with tears in their eyes they boarded the carriage.
I also dreamed that she chased me into the courtyard with her hair loose and barefoot, and I dreamed that she took the initiative to give me a passionate kiss, filling my heart with sweet fragrance.
Dragon and phoenix candles shone brightly, and they lingered in the red tent all night long. Such beautiful dreams had often occurred to her before, but she had never been so proactive, so tender, and so compassionate. Xie Xuanlan was like a thirsty person holding a bowl full of nectar, wanting to drink it all in one gulp, but also cautiously afraid to spill it.
The whole dream seemed silent, but at this moment I suddenly heard her call out, "Your Highness."
The sound was like a golden needle suddenly piercing his soul, and Xie Xuanlan's head was buzzing. He wanted to grab Congying's wrist, but he could hardly move. Then he realized that he was not controlling the dream, but was just following what the person in the dream saw and heard.
He panicked and became angry, and began to struggle violently.
The pain spread from the top of his head downwards, and his stomach was in a terrible cramp. As the pain grew more intense, his consciousness became clearer and clearer. Finally, he suddenly turned over and sat up, vomiting something.
He leaned on the edge of the couch, his vision gradually becoming clearer, and he saw bright bloodstains on the ground.
I heard the military doctor's rather proud voice: "Look, it works just as I said it would. This method is dangerous, but it works."
Zhao Mingchuan pushed him away repeatedly: "Okay, okay, I'll give you a great credit - quickly remove the long needle on his head, it looks creepy."
He walked over to the couch and patted Xie Xuanlan on the shoulder. Seeing that he was still in a daze, he shouted, "Hey, come back to your senses! Something terrible has happened!"
Xie Xuanlan's eyes slowly moved towards him: "Bring me a mirror..."
Zhao Mingchuan was puzzled, but he obeyed anyway. He took out his treasured half-bronze mirror and held it before him, shouting, "Look, you're just as handsome as ever. There are no young ladies in the camp, so who are you looking in the mirror for?"
Xie Xuanlan breathed a sigh of relief, but his eyes were still gloomy, and he did not show any joy at all for waking up from a serious injury and escaping death.
Zhao Mingchuan quickly told him what had happened in the past few hours: "Who on earth is that man you captured? General Sun said he'd take him with him, even if he didn't take you. His attitude was very firm. He secretly returned to Huzhou to report the news. I don't know what he'll say. Do you think General He of Huzhou will think you're a traitor and send troops to encircle and suppress you?"
"He wants to take credit for it," Xie Xuanlan said calmly, "because the prisoner is the newly appointed Grand Marshal of the Western Tartars, the consort of the Western Tartar princess, Akolo."
"What?!"
Zhao Mingchuan jumped up. "Is this true? You're too capable. This person is worth ten cities. This is such a great treasure, and you dare to ask for it from someone named Sun?!"
The Western Tartars had just lost General Guzha, the former Grand Marshal having resigned, and the new commander, the Khan's nephew and most cherished son-in-law, was reportedly extremely popular among the people, almost surpassing the Crown Prince. He had only been in office for a month, but while inspecting a new granary, he was captured alive by a night raiding cavalry!
If anyone achieved such great military achievements, it would not be an exaggeration to be promoted directly from an unknown soldier to the first-rank Duke of Protectorate. Zhao Mingchuan felt his scalp tingling just thinking about it.
"What should we do now? I'm afraid the Huzhou army will find out his identity and come to rob him under the pretext of redressing his wrongdoing."
"That's fine, let him come." Xie Xuanlan gently closed his eyes and asked Zhao Mingchuan, "Has there been any news about Xuan Zhiyuan in the past two days?"
Zhao Mingchuan: "Oh, yes, I brought it last night. I almost forgot about it."
He handed the letter sent by Xuan Zhiyuan from Yunjing to Xie Xuanlan. Xie Xuanlan opened it tremblingly, scanned the ten lines at a glance, and only saw two sentences.
One line reads: "My nephew Xuan Xiangling has learned of past events and it seems the Prince of Jin is a descendant of Prime Minister Xie. Judging from his recent actions, he seems to be plotting against the Crown Prince."
Another sentence reads: "The Imperial Edict grants the Prince of Jin a marriage with Lady Jiang. The wedding date is set for the 26th day of the Jia month."
The twenty-sixth day of the Jia month is today.
Xie Xuanlan glanced at the moonlight outside the tent and thought it was just after midnight. Could that be... the dream he had just had?
All of a sudden, he felt the blood rushing back all over his body and accumulating in his chest, as if pierced by thousands of arrows and hit by heavy hammers. He suddenly vomited blood from his heart, which scared everyone.
His blood was hot, but his body was covered in cold sweat. His eyes were extremely gloomy, but suddenly he burst into ridiculous laughter.
He said three good words in a row: "In the end, I lost my wife and my army, and I was actually making wedding clothes for others. Tell me, why am I working so hard and risking my life?"
Zhao Mingchuan was confused: "For the country and the people?"
Xie Xuanlan sneered, burned the letter with a candle, and immediately stood up and put on his clothes: "Go get me some food and order five hundred elite cavalry. I want to rush back to Yunjing tonight."
Zhao Mingchuan glared: "Are you crazy?"
Xuan Zhiyuan said in the letter to him that the court's attitude towards Xie Xuanlan was ambiguous and asked him to stop Xie Xuanlan from returning to the capital and stay in Xizhou to find a way to settle down. The more military power he held, the less likely the court would dare to touch him easily.
Xie Xuanlan calmly put on his clothes and armor: "Yes, I'm crazy, I want to go back to Yunjing and kill someone——"
As soon as he finished speaking, he felt a sudden pain at the back of his neck, and his vision went dark before he fell down.
Zhao Mingchuan swung his arms. "Even I can knock you down, and you're so weak, I'm afraid you'll be killed along the way and handed over to the Tartars for credit. Quick, quick, help him back and tie up his arms and legs!"
Xie Xuanlan didn't wake up until the next morning. He saw Zhao Mingchuan wandering around outside, apparently having not slept all night.
He moved his hands and feet and said, "If you tie me up like this, whether the Huzhou army or the Tartar cavalry arrives first, we will both die."
"I think you don't want to live anymore." Zhao Mingchuan rolled his eyes at him and pulled out a letter from his pocket and threw it to him: "A letter from home, just delivered early this morning. Think about your parents and don't do anything stupid."
Xie Xuanlan freed one hand and held the letter for a long time without saying a word.
Not only is his father someone else's father, but his mother is soon to become someone else's mother too.
He gave up and wanted to burn the letter directly, but in the end... he couldn't bear it and slowly opened it.
An envelope contained two letters, one page from his mother, Mrs. Xie, and one page from Jiang Congying.
Mrs. Xie said in the letter that no matter what news came from Yunjing, there would be a huge secret in it, so please be patient and don't listen to one side blindly. She is always thinking about you in her heart.
Jiang Congying's handwriting on the paper was frozen, as if he had been hesitating for a long time, racking his brains. But in fact, there were only three words:
Hope you are well.
Xie Xuanlan couldn't understand what their difficulties were.
If he only relied on Xuan Zhiyuan's secret letter, he would think that it was Prince Jin who forced Jiang Congying to marry him. However, what he saw in his dream was like his own experience. She was clearly very happy and proactive, and treated Prince Jin with even more tenderness and compassion than on their wedding day.
He also wanted to excuse her, but he couldn't find any excuse.
Could it be that the teeth marks on her wrist that he had dreamed of her tending to the King of Jin were fake?
Could it be that her sweet words and tenderness in the golden gauze tent last night when she tried to persuade Prince Jin to stay were fake?
He smiled, stretched out his hand to hand the letter to the candle, his eyes sinister and absent-minded, and he did not let go until the flame licked his hand.
The letter paper burned to ashes and fell to the ground.
"Untie me, I'm not going back to Yunjing."
Going back would only mean exchanging my remaining life for a few perfunctory lies.
He wanted to find a way to force her to come see him, and he wanted to listen to her explanation word by word.
"Pass me the pen and ink. I want to write a letter home."
The weather was extremely cold, and the ink in the inkstone had clumped together. Xie Xuanlan wrote the letter in one go, with only one sentence:
"May Princess Jin live in peace and happiness. I will see you soon."
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