A Single Tie Of Long Hair Seals A Lifelong Commitment - Chapter 73

Dingbei City in Suzhou, Qiliandao in Youzhou, and the Shuofang Trade Route in Wuzhou are the three strategic passes of the Northern Provinces. Approximately twenty li from the city gate of Dingbei, Suzhou, at the border between Suzhou and Youzhou, lies a continuous, more towering mountain range than the range around Boxing Ridge. It is named Qiliandao.

The mountains are broken apart in the middle, forming a massive gorge. Shaped like a horse’s hoof, it is therefore named Mati Valley (Horse-hoof Valley).

Mati Valley is the gateway to Qiliandao.

In the valley stands a stone forest. The steles are carved from local mountain rock, the stones varying in height, angle, and straightness, all heavily weathered and mottled by years of wind and rain. Grass does not grow here, lacking the sight of desolation, but there is wind, the sound of it filling the ears.

Chen Liangyu, carrying several wine pots, dismounted at the mountain pass and proceeded on foot. After the time it takes an incense stick to burn halfway, she reached the stone forest. The native place and name on each stele were almost impossible to distinguish. She skillfully walked to one stone stele.

“I’ve come to see you.”

She said, placing the wine pots in front of the stele. “Fruit wine, it’s sweet.”

There were already many wine jars in front of the stele, ceramic and porcelain, big and small, tipped over everywhere. Chen Liangyu took a pot in her hand, uncorked it, and slowly poured the wine over the stele forest. She sat down, leaning against Jingrong’s stele.

She wanted to drink a whole pot alone but only drank half.

“I’ll come again sometime. I’ll bring someone. I think I should bring her to meet you, and you should meet her too.”

Xie Wenjun was still in Wuzhou. After one night of passion, Xie Wenjun, dressed and composed, fully demonstrated her heartlessness, ruthlessness, and the act of denying all knowledge!

She claimed Chen Liangyu was distracting her and hindering her work on Wuzhou’s agriculture, then waved her hand, “Daiqing, Rongjun, see the guest out.”

After being expelled from Qunfangyuan, Chen Liangyu called Jingming and circled the central axis of Yaocheng and the Shuofang Trade Route to rearrange the military defenses. She then returned home to Dingbei City.

The land survey began in Wuzhou, then moved to Suzhou and Youzhou. The three Northern Provinces don’t have much arable land, but they are vast. Some fields are scattered in small plots, and some stretch for dozens of li, out of sight. To measure every chi and li accurately would take a long time. Xie Wenjun, needing to complete the land tax survey and settlement for the three provinces, would surely have to stay in the North for a few months. If the subordinates were sluggish, she might even spend a financially tight New Year’s in Dingbei City. New Year’s in Dingbei City was incomparable to the palace.

Chen Liangyu was in an exceptionally good mood. Humming a tune, she recalled all the scouts on the southern border of Wuzhou and rewarded them with a round of military flogging.

“The Princess Royal has already arrived in Wuzhou, and no one came to report it! Since when did the Northern Province’s defenses become a sieve?”

The scouts pleaded, “Great General, we wrote secret notes long ago and delivered them to the Feimeng (Flying Vanguard).”

The usual methods for military intelligence were post relays and beacon towers. Secret messages from local spies sent via post relays could be easily intercepted. Chen Liangyu had organized the Feimeng, weaving a spy network across the North, with Dingbei City as the terminus, covering the three provinces and sixteen cities like a spider web. Messages were delivered through nodes directly to the Suzhou military camp and the Marquis of Xuanping’s Residence in Dingbei City.

Jinghe suddenly remembered something, “Miss, there was a message.”

Chen Liangyu looked at the vast crowd of scouts, pressed onto benches and wailing to the heavens. After only two strokes of the rod, most were already struggling like lambs awaiting slaughter.

“Stop, don’t hit them anymore.”

As the restraints on their hands and feet loosened, the scouts scattered like birds released from a cage, profusely thanking her and bowing.

Chen Liangyu said, “Jinghe, what’s wrong with you lately? You never made such mistakes before.”

Jinghe lowered his head, his large head drooping as if pulling down his whole body’s tendons. He bent his knee and knelt before Chen Liangyu.

Chen Liangyu said, “Stand up and speak. Don’t kneel at the drop of a hat.”

Jinghe patted the dust off and stood up again, “Feimeng did have a message, but when your subordinate was about to report it, you were ordering the back kitchen to fetch water, saying the Princess Royal would arrive at the residence soon. I thought you had already received the news, so I didn’t say anything more.”

The sound of the wind in Mati Valley did not stop. Chen Liangyu was still sitting in the valley, leaning against Jingrong’s stele.

She spoke to the forest of scars and weathered steles, “Jinghe has never gotten over Big Brother’s death. Jingrong, how should I tell him that Big Sister-in-law and I truly don’t blame him, no one blames him. That large brain of his always overthinks things.”

“We have academies now. Yongdu has them, and the Northern Provinces have them too.”

“The Cloud Banner Army is still led by Ping’er. Lin Yin’s talent for breaking formations is remarkable, though her physical strength is a bit lacking. If she can charge out of the thirty formations in the Cloud Fir Forest this time, I will make an exception and give her the Eagle Cloud Pattern Saber.”

The half-drunk fruit wine pot stood tilted on the stele.

It is called a stele stone because it is both a carved tombstone and a rock. The stele forest was not carved laboriously by artisans; if a piece of stone looked like a stele, it was carried over and used directly.

The sound of horse hooves echoed in the valley. A bright red figure, riding a fierce horse and cracking a long whip, galloped away.

Xie Wenjun could not fulfill Chen Liangyu’s wish to spend the New Year’s in the Northern Provinces. With most of Wuzhou’s agricultural affairs still unfinished, Xie Wenjun hurriedly organized her carriage and horses and rushed back to Yongdu, traveling day and night.

Chen Liangyu galloped on horseback, catching up with the Changning Guard at the border of Wuzhou to intercept Xie Wenjun’s carriage.

She climbed onto the carriage pole and slipped into the cabin, handing Xie Wenjun a piece of fine silk painted with a map. “Your Highness, Nan Province, though small, is rich, and its forces, though few, are elite. If pushed too hard, they might seek aid from Dongyin. We must not allow Hengmiao to attack recklessly. Before the Rebellion of the Five Princes during the Yingtong reign, there was something called the Wanhe Festival.”

The carriage continued its journey forward without stopping, leaving long ruts on the endless yellow earth.

Chen Liangyu did not ask. Court reports arrived in the first ten days of every month. She knew why Xie Wenjun was so anxious, abandoning most of Wuzhou’s agricultural affairs to return.

The mention of the “Guest Star” and the issue of women’s studies had made them the target of public criticism. The officials’ memorials aimed to ban the Lingjiu Academy and expel the female disciples of the Imperial College.

“Wives and daughters are crucial for the task of procreation. Studying and seeking official posts are not their proper duties. Historical texts and classics mostly concern national affairs and men’s ambitions. If women study them, it will only increase their futile ambitions, inevitably disrupt the court, disturb the social order, and violate the natural order of heaven and earth. We urge Your Majesty to consider this carefully and make a swift decision.”

“Governing is the task of the Qian (Heavenly/Male) principle. Women’s involvement causes imbalance between Yin and Yang, and the collapse of the social hierarchy. It is feared that this will lead to a chaotic court and a declining moral standard. This is a great fallacy and must not be done!”

Xie Yuan delayed issuing a decree, even suspending morning court under the pretext of poor health.

The civil officials, not getting their way, naturally refused to give up.

In the third month, Xie Yuan ordered the Ministry of Works to repair the Yanzhishan temporary palace, which, as expected, stirred up another uproar among the officials.

Seven days after Xie Yuan suspended court, the officials in red and green robes in Yongdu agreed to cluster together in the square in front of the Chongzheng Hall.

This literary turmoil, unilaterally initiated by the civil officials, eventually evolved into a confrontation over propriety and the relationship between the ruler and the subject. Cheng Lingdian, the Prefect of Yongan, became the conspicuous target at the center of the storm.

“Your Majesty, there are wicked ministers in the court who slander and flatter the Emperor, misleading the sacred hearing. The realm is newly settled, and we should focus on agriculture, promote water conservancy, and cultivate talents. These are the crucial elements for strengthening the foundation. Those who incite Your Majesty to waste labor and resources on building palaces—Cheng Lingdian’s intentions are punishable! He should be dismissed and decapitated!”

The cautiousness of the civil officials was that when they offered criticism to the ruler, they would not list specific grievances; they would only cleverly invoke moral causes and blame themselves.

“Great construction projects consume countless civilian resources and are not the actions of an enlightened ruler. Since we cannot persuade the Son of Heaven, nor can we save the common people from distress, we are incompetent as officials and might as well go home and farm.”

“If the ‘Guest Star’ is not driven out, how can the ruler be stable? Your subordinates are incompetent, we beg the Emperor to grant us leave to return to our hometowns.”

This unequal confrontation lasted for many days, and eventually, Xie Yuan lost.

After the beginning of summer, a great drought hit the south.

Even Huzepo, the place with the most abundant rainfall, could not escape the drought. Most of the land in the south cracked, and there was no harvest.

Xie Yuan issued decrees for disaster relief, but none of the six ministries obeyed. No one was working, the decrees could not reach the local authorities, and the relief funds and food could not be delivered to the people.

The Emperor was furious.

But it only incited a more stubborn resistance from the officials.

The disaster was urgent. One day’s delay would mean the deaths of countless citizens.

In the sixth month of the current year, when Xie Wenjun set foot in Wuzhou, a decree was issued across the land from Yongdu, ordering the female students of the Imperial College to cease their studies and forbidding them from taking the imperial examinations and entering officialdom.

This large-scale literary turmoil did not end with this edict.

The civil officials were still not satisfied. The next step was a power struggle of factionalism and eliminating dissidents. The conservative faction occupied the moral high ground, demanding the closure of all women’s academies in the realm and the investigation and punishment of those who had supported their establishment.

Chen Luan was reprimanded. The literary turmoil even affected Grand Tutor Gu Changxue, who had retired in Cangnan years ago.

Subsequently, someone pointed out that Gu Changxue’s granddaughter, Gu Xie, was married to Qi Xiu, the eldest son of the Yao family, Yao Jifeng. He was the former Deputy Director of the Imperial College and the author of the forbidden book Theories on Women. He was Yao Jifeng, who should have been executed during the mass execution of the Yao family in the sixteenth year of Xuanyuan.

Xie Wenjun’s lips were tightly pressed, her face dark as water.

“If they are tired of living, they should go die! Do they really think the court has no one to use without them? If the ruler is unwilling, there is no shortage of those who are willing!”

Chen Liangyu clasped her hand, held it for a while, and then skillfully intertwined her fingers with hers, their hands locked.

The carriage swayed.

She could only accompany her for this part of the journey.

Chen Liangyu said, “Your Highness, do you have the iron-sheathed message tube with you?”

“I have it.”

“Border defense generals cannot return to Yongdu without a report of duty or a summons. My reach is limited over there. If there’s danger, send a Feimeng message to me early.”

Chen Liangyu lifted the carriage curtain. As far as her eyes could see, the sky was clear and vast.

Long tracks of horse hooves and carriage wheels extended through the yellow sand.

Xie Wenjun grabbed her lapel, pulling her closer. Their tongues entwined and ground together for a long time before they separated, breathing heavily.

Chen Liangyu pressed her against the carriage wall, her hand exploring under the fabric.

“Court turmoil over literature. That’s all the skill they have.”

Xie Wenjun grabbed her restless hand. “The move may be old, but it’s the most effective way to threaten a sovereign, especially a sovereign like Third Brother, who lacks a deep foundation and enough ruthlessness. If it were Imperial Brother, he would surely let these ministers know what the ruler-subject relationship truly means! Not here, another day.”

The Imperial Brother Xie Wenjun referred to was Crown Prince Yizhang.

Chen Liangyu composed herself and kissed her cheek. “You’ve seen the literary turmoil. If you and the Emperor have trouble handling the affairs in Yongdu, should we let those eloquent civil officials see something else?”

“What do you intend?”

“If absolutely necessary, a military coup.”

A giant stone stood on the desolate plain—the boundary marker for Wuzhou. Any further, and Chen Liangyu would be considered absent without leave.

The carriage wheels slowly braked, deepening the ruts.

Amidst the swirling wind and sand, Chen Liangyu stood beneath the vast, clear sky, her shadow stretching long from the short figure. She stood exactly on a mound, on high ground. In her sight, the Changning Guard, clad in dark-colored riding attire and fine scale armor, traveled south, gradually disappearing into the horizon.