Chapter 282: Clean From The Very Start
Having a wise and powerful elder in the family is actually not a good thing either.
They often act under the banner of doing it for your own good, without explaining their many strange and incomprehensible behaviors.
Liu Changsheng is just such a person.
Even though E Ji used the most vicious guesses, hoping to force Liu Changsheng to tell some things they should know, in the end, she was still ignored by him.
After Liu Changsheng left, E Ji ended her performance, held her son, and glared oppressively at that black feathered eagle.
The black feathered eagle’s senses were very sharp. It was originally squatting on the wall sunning its newly grown feathers, but after being stared at by E Ji, it obediently jumped down from the wall, drooped its head, and squatted beside E Ji.
Zhang Min came out of the house and tied a sturdy metal tube to the black feathered eagle’s neck.
E Ji said to the black feathered eagle: “Stop pretending. I know you’ve become a spirit long ago and should be able to understand my words. Now, go find husband immediately and give him this tube.”
The black feathered eagle croaked once, had already hopped onto the wall, but turned back to see E Ji’s unkind gaze, then immediately jumped down again and squatted in front of E Ji once more.
E Ji took out a bulging sachet from her bosom, tied it together on the eagle’s neck, then waved her hand, signaling it could go.
1 The black feathered eagle immediately leaped swiftly onto the high wall, then spread its wings and took off. After flying halfway like an arrow into the sky, it circled around Chang’an City. After two circles, it flew off toward the northeast.
1 Until the eagle’s shadow could no longer be seen in the sky, E Ji lowered her head and said to Zhang Min: “After the palace banquet is done, we’ll return to Yun Clan Villa. This Changsha King’s Mansion is good, but it’s not a place for us to stay long.”
1 Zhang Min said: “Liang Kun has been at Lantian Manor for four days already, has procured sixteen hundred carts of materials. Once the goods are shipped, he will sell off Lantian Manor and come to Chang’an to meet up with us.”
1 It will probably take another five days. We’ll hold the palace banquet, and it won’t do without him.
1 E Ji said: “The things husband instructed us to do are actually already done. We should go back early. With no master at home, that’s not good.”
1 As for the palace banquet, it’s just a bowl of noodles matter, won’t delay much time. Tell Liang Kun he should return to Xiangcheng with the caravan, no need to come to Chang’an to meet up with us.
1 “Wu Tong’s carrier pigeon came, saying he has words for you tonight.”
1 E Ji smiled: “As a woman, it’s inconvenient for me to speak with an outsider man like him, especially at night.”
1 Zhang Min looked puzzled at E Ji, who never took womanly rules seriously, and said softly: “Wu Tong should count as our friend.”
1 “From the old master’s performance, Wu Tong doesn’t seem that intimate with us. The world is chaotic now, people’s hearts are full of holes everywhere, better to have less contact.”
2 Zhang Min hesitated and said: “If it’s inconvenient for you, I’ll go see him.”
2 E Ji sighed: “You still can’t let go of that bit of old affection after all. Then go see him, but think carefully about the few words the old master said to me before leaving today. I always feel he meant something by it.”
2 Zhang Min focused and said: “You say.”
2 E Ji held Yun Shuo tightly in her arms and said softly: “The greatness of heaven lies in its profundity, the vastness of earth lies in its boundlessness, the might of man lies in the silent flow of the abyss.”
2 The old guy clearly had something to say, but wouldn’t say it straightforwardly, forcing us to guess. I can’t figure it out for now, you think about it too.
2 Zhang Min nodded: “I remember. But why not tell husband these words in a letter?”
2 E Ji sighed: “These are harmful news, as husband often says, probably something Liu Changsheng uses to disturb husband’s mind. We’ll tell husband after we get back.”
2 Zhang Min said softly: “Why did husband leak the family’s unique secret techniques?”
2 E Ji smiled: “Perhaps husband wants to give the Great Han’s various vassal lords an opportunity to sit down and negotiate.”
2 Zhang Min frowned: “Is it really like that?”
3 E Ji smiled: “It is exactly like that.”
3 Chang’an is only two thousand four hundred li from Liang City. The black feathered eagle set off from Chang’an in the early morning and arrived in Liang City by noon, without the slightest intention of detouring, diving straight into the forest where Yun Ce was staying.
3 It didn’t land on the ground but on the back of the red date horse that was drinking water, clamping its steel hook-like talons on the red date horse’s back to steady itself.
3 Yun Ce, who was standing in the small river teaching the Tiger Guards to bathe, lifted a water bucket and poured a full bucket of ice-cold river water over his head. The river water cascaded like a waterfall down his robust body. Then, more Tiger Guards poured river water over their own heads, and everyone felt great.
3 Yun Ce wiped the water droplets from his body with a cloth while walking to the red date horse’s side. He took the ugly and bulging sachet from the black feathered eagle’s neck, opened it to look, and couldn’t help laughing.
3 Inside was a letter from E Ji in her usual accounting style, detailing everything from leaving Yun Clan Villa until yesterday, including drawings of those six priestesses who weren’t wearing tops but had two flowers stuck on their chests.
3 E Ji couldn’t draw, so from her drawings, one couldn’t tell if the priestesses were beautiful or ugly. But just looking at the exaggerated breasts and the indescribably plump buttocks she drew proved they were indeed beauties.
3 Sometimes, between husband and wife, they say some rogue words and exchange some hard-to-mention issues. This is a manifestation of intimacy in the marital relationship. E Ji loved exchanging these things with Yun Ce.
3 After reading the letter E Ji sent, Yun Ce put it back into the ugly sachet, placed it into the dragon pearl, then opened the metal tube the eagle brought.
3 There were many letters in the metal tube: from Zhang Min, from Lei Ming and the others. Each described from their own perspective the gains and losses from coming to Chang’an.
4 After reading these letters, Yun Ce could already roughly simulate scene after scene. Once he connected these scenes, E Ji and the others’ Chang’an trip was clearly imprinted in Yun Ce’s mind.
4 Yun Ce raised his hand and patted the black feathered eagle’s talon. The eagle released its talons and, losing balance, plunged headfirst into the water.
4 Yun Ce smoothed the red date horse’s ruffled mane and said to it: “Don’t be afraid, it’s just a useless eagle.”
4 The red date horse seemed not to understand Yun Ce’s words. Instead, it walked into the water, let the eagle grab its mane, and rescued it from the water. After landing, it bumped heads with the eagle, who knows what they were exchanging.
4 The Tiger Guards who had just bathed were practicing putting on clothes under Doggy’s command. Though not dressed very well, at least their buttocks weren’t exposed.
4 The rest was to form deeper muscle memory. It wouldn’t take long for them to learn bathing, dressing, armoring, and a series of complex actions.
4 Unknowingly, Yun Ce had stayed in the forest outside Liang City for sixteen days. Just yesterday, the last albatross circling in the sky finally disappeared.
4 If in the next two days, no more albatrosses or other large birds appeared in the sky, Yun Ce planned to lead this group of Tiger Guards to leave Liang City at night and rest by day, heading home.
4 These people would garrison at Yun Clan Villa, becoming the Yun Clan’s most loyal guards.
4 In these sixteen days, Doggy smelted some gold and made a shiny gold whistle. This whistle could only produce twelve high-frequency sound waves, basically covering all aspects of commanding the Tiger Guards. Though not as precise as Doggy commanding itself, it was very suitable for E Ji’s simple brain.
5 “The Tiger Guards still lack military officers now.”
5 Hearing Doggy’s suggestion, Yun Ce thought for a moment: “You mean capture some hundred-man generals and thousand-man generals and turn them into Tiger Guards like this?”
5 Doggy said: “Don’t discuss humanity with me. I’m just giving the best suggestion. If the Tiger Guards have ten hundred-man generals, this army’s combat power can overall increase by ten percent.”
5 If there are a hundred hundred-man generals and ten thousand-man generals, this army’s strength will skyrocket tenfold.
5 If you are willing to turn yourself into this too, combat power, well, multiply by over twenty times.”
5 Yun Ce shook his head: “I don’t plan to keep such a zombie-like army forever. On the contrary, I won’t concentrate them but plan to disperse them into various small units to carry out some suicidal military tasks. Um, once Lei Ming and the others return, I plan to do just that.”
5 Doggy calculated for a moment: “Doing so will seriously weaken the Tiger Guards’ combat power.”
5 Yun Ce still shook his head: “Unless you can summon an undead army for me, otherwise, this Tiger Guards will be the last batch of Tiger Guards in this world.”
5 Doggy said: “Alright, you call the shots.”
5 In the following three days, large groups of scavenger birds reappeared in the gray sky over Liang City, growing more numerous in the sky, eventually returning to the scale when Yun Ce first arrived in Liang City.
6 Seeing the scavenger birds return, Yun Ce confirmed that those giant albatrosses had truly left.
6 On the full moon night, Yun Ce prepared to set off. He rode the red date horse, with an eagle standing on its rump. Countless Tiger Guards formed a long line behind him, still with Doggy at the rear. Under the full moon’s illumination, the group silently left the forest where they had hidden for over half a month.
6 The red date horse moved quickly, and the Tiger Guards’ actions were also swift. Their movements already extremely close to human instinct, unlike before when they were somewhat clumsy.
6 Yun Ce didn’t speak, and no one in this army spoke. This always made Yun Ce feel like he had become the famous corpse driver from the ancestral land.
6 Walking one hundred fifty li every night—this was the distance Doggy planned. For this, the black feathered eagle had scouted each night’s campsite in the past few days. In actual execution, various troubles always arose.
6 The most frequent trouble was always encountering some people.
6 For an army, this actually isn’t trouble. To ensure military secrecy, many armies use the strategy of leaving no grass or chickens and dogs in their path.
6 Yun Ce didn’t. From the start, he never planned to let his army stain itself with innocent souls.
