Chapter 1611: The White-Tasseled General, Guo Ziyi!
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
“What? Ishbara Khagan is withdrawing his soldiers?”
Deep within the Imperial Palace, First Prince Li Ying was dumbfounded by the news from the steppe and could barely speak for quite some time. Ishbara Khagan’s letter had stirred up a tempest in the court and had left Li Ying greatly vexed. With the dissolution of the prefectural armies, the Great Tang did not have the strength of the past. A sudden border conflict with the Western Turks at this time would have unpredictable consequences.
As the regent, the First Prince did not wish for such a mishap, but now, this border incident had vanished without a trace, the crisis dispelled. All levels of the Great Tang could breathe a sigh of relief.
But for some reason, upon receiving the news, the First Prince felt only immense discomfort and bitterness rather than joy.
“Damn it! Wang Chong, Wang Chong! It’s Wang Chong again!”
The First Prince gnashed his teeth in anger. It would have been one thing if this brat had adapted to the circumstances, but he insisted on supporting Li Heng. The stronger and more outstanding he was, the less the First Prince was able to tolerate him.
“Your Highness, there’s a letter from the western border signed by more than one hundred soldiers of all ranks requesting for Your Highness to heavily reward the King of Foreign Lands. This is the twenty-seventh such petition!” an elderly voice rang out, and Eunuch Yin used a withered hand to lightly place the letter in front of the First Prince.
By now, the border incident and Wang Chong’s short letter that had made Ishbara Khagan retreat had triggered immense shock and clamor from all the generals of the Great Tang. In the militarist-Confucian conflict, the militarists had been in a complete rout, with even Wang Chong’s post as Advisor-in-Waiting having been removed.
The military had immediately seized this rare opportunity.
The Imperial Court was now the domain of the First Prince and the Confucian Sect, but the numerous letters from the generals stationed elsewhere were coming in like a snowstorm. Not even the First Prince and the Confucian Sect could continue to ignore them.
“Bastard things—what are they trying to do? In the Great Tang, is it me who is greater or the King of Foreign Lands? Are they plotting rebellion?”
As anger flowed through the First Prince, his face twisted.
He knew the intention of these officers. Wang Chong had been stripped of his political authority and his post as Advisor-in-Waiting, and what these people clearly wanted was for Wang Chong to be let back into the court to represent the militarists against the Confucian Sect and the First Prince.
The First Prince could not permit this!
In the Eastern Palace, the First Prince continued to fume, and not even Eunuch Yin dared to speak. As time went on in this fashion…
“Reporting!”
A resounding voice broke the silence, and then one of the First Prince’s guards came in and got down on one knee.
“The Lord Prime Minister seeks an audience!”
A few moments later, a figure hastily rushed in.
“Your Highness!”
“Lord Prime Minister!”
The First Prince’s eyes gleamed upon seeing Li Linfu.
“Heh, is Your Highness concerned about the King of Foreign Lands?”
Li Linfu bowed and then grinned.
“Does Lord Prime Minister have a view on this matter?”
The First Prince slightly frowned.
“There is no need for Your Highness to concern yourself. Are not the members of the Bureau of Military Personnel asking for the King of Foreign Lands to be rewarded? The First Prince should simply comply and reward him. These lowly subjects have already thought of a plan for Your Highness!”
Li Linfu smiled as he took a letter from his sleeve and handed it over.
The First Prince dubiously took the letter, and after looking over it, he breathed a sigh and relaxed.
“We’ll do as you propose!”
……
“King of Foreign Lands, receive the decree! In the border incident, the four hundred cavalry of the King of Foreign Lands defeated the Turkic vanguard of ten thousand and seized the true culprits, raising the prestige of my Great Tang and bringing justice to the four hundred Tang subjects massacred on the border. For this deed, the King of Foreign Lands is rewarded one thousand taels of gold, three thousand rolls of silk, an imperial gift of Jinjunmei tea… In addition, he is granted a civil post of rank seven…”
In the Wang Family Residence, a eunuch had opened up a decree and was reading it aloud.
“Wang Chong receives the decree. My deepest gratitude to the First Prince and to Lord Eunuch!”
Wang Chong bowed and took the decree from the eunuch. Once the eunuch was gone, the estate exploded with cheers.
“Haha, a civil post of the seventh rank! The First Prince has never liked Your Highness, but he actually granted Your Highness a rank seven civil post. It seems like the First Prince was forced to lower his head this time.”
“Hahaha, His Highness is a Great General of the militarists, the Protector-General of Qixi, and the King of Foreign Lands crowned by the Sage Emperor. Now, His Highness is also a civil official. Those officials in court probably want to die right now.”
“Ha, the most important thing is that Ishbara Khagan. Didn’t he swear an oath that he was going to lead a million-man army to attack the Great Tang? But now there’s nothing. The entire Western Turkic Khaganate and all the other countries are playing deaf and dumb. What a joke!”
“You have to look at who forced them into this. Besides His Highness, who else could do this?! In the capital, it’s now said that one letter from His Highness is the same as one million soldiers. Everyone in the capital is asking for His Highness’s calligraphy; there have even been a few book thieves trying to get into the residence lately.”
Laughter resounded in the Wang Family Residence. The matter of Wang Chong’s short letter causing the enraged Ishbara Khagan to call back his soldiers and lower his head had already spread throughout the entire capital. Most importantly, it had not been Wang Chong, but the Western Turks themselves who had revealed the matter of the letter.
While the talk in the capital of people using Wang Chong’s handwriting as talismans against evil and treasures to be passed down through generations were just jokes, they were also proof of this matter’s influence.
With the First Prince as regent, for them to say such words was truthfully a great taboo, but Wang Chong did not stop them. They had been oppressed for too long and needed some good news to energize them. And with all of them happy, Wang Chong couldn’t help but feel a little happy with them.
“This is only a minor victory!”
Once they had all laughed enough and began to quiet down, Wang Chong placed his hands behind his back and surveyed them.
“It will be a long road to defeat the Confucian Sect and put everything on the right track. But this incident has probably blunted the Confucian Sect’s sharpness, and they will probably be more restrained for a while and not try any tricks. As for the other countries, who were colluding with the Confucian Sect and trying to take advantage of the situation, this incident was probably a good lesson for them. We won’t necessarily take action, but once we do, they will have to carefully consider the consequences. At the very least, I hope that such a border incident won’t happen again.”
“Hahaha, with Your Highness here, how could they dare to act so arrogantly?!”
Everyone chuckled. To repay debts and avenge offenses, using their lives to fulfill their oaths and protect the empire, was one of the primary reasons they all unswervingly followed Wang Chong. No matter what predicament they were in, they would never betray or leave him.
Wang Chong scanned the room again and added, “Right, the register for the border operation is done. We can start distributing awards based on achievement.”
Four hundred of the best cavalry of the Great Tang had gone to the Turkic steppe in this operation, creating a miracle where four hundred defeated twelve thousand and even brought captives back to the capital.
Such achievements should have been rewarded long ago, but the Imperial Court had yet to make a decision, so there was a concern that if the name register were leaked, the Imperial Court might choose to arrest these people out of revenge.
After all, the First Prince was the regent.
In order to protect the four hundred cavalry, Wang Chong had never publicly announced their names or released the register.
But now that everything was over and the First Prince had even given him a rank seven civil post, he could settle this matter.
In this border operation, they had made no errors and rendered great feats!
By rewarding them, he would be letting the entire world know of their feats, ensuring that the Imperial Court would not dare to touch them. Secondly, he could also bolster the morale of the army and the people.
“Right, who was the commander of this raid?” Wang Chong asked.
The overall tactics and strategy displayed in this operation had left a very deep impression on Wang Chong. Wang Chong had ordered Li Siye and Su Hanshan at the triangular gap to pick the best of the best, and Wang Chong had actually intended for them to go to the steppe on this operation.
But Li Siye and Su Hanshan had recommended someone else, even saying that this man was more than capable of completing the mission. Based on the trust Li Siye and Su Hanshan had shown in this man, and also following the principle of ‘don’t use people you doubt and don’t doubt people you use’, Wang Chong had decided to comply.
But this man had been even more outstanding than Wang Chong had imagined.
His plan for marching through the steppe had been seamlessly executed, and he had also struck Ashide’s army at the right time and with great resolve, breaking the Turks again and again before they could get a steady footing and shattering their morale.
He had also been very flexible on the journey back, adapting as the circumstances changed. The command ability of this man had left a deep impression on Wang Chong.
Xu Keyi lowered his head and reported, “Milord, this is a new man to our force who was discovered by Sirs Su Hanshan and Li Siye during the training at the triangular gap. His name is Guo Ziyi!”
He had been in constant contact with Li Siye and Su Hanshan, so he naturally knew who this person was.
Boom!
Wang Chong had only asked out of curiosity, but when he heard this name, he trembled all over in shock.
“What did you say? What is his name?”