Green Mountain

The death of Chen Ji quickly spread throughout the Imperial Capital, becoming a widely discussed topic in just half a day.

Civilians rushed to share the news; the sound of the waking wood echoed in teahouses. That young man who fought fiercely outside Chongli Pass, that madman who squandered a fortune at the Imperial Music Bureau, that man cursed as an Eunuch Party member, Li Changge, perished in a fire raging in the Qi family’s mourning hall.

In front of the City God Temple at Chongnan Fang, hundreds of women spontaneously gathered, though no one knew who started it.

They cut paper flowers, placing them one by one at the foot of the stone steps, and lit paper money. The curling blue smoke mixed with the sound of weeping as they recited the name of Li Changge.

Zhang Li listened to the weeping, sitting on the stone steps, with the Wordless Heavenly Scripture spread across his knees, watching as the text slowly emerged.

The Wordless Heavenly Scripture had just written: "Bai Yu once flaunted the jade bridle, never knowing the dust of the border on a silver saddle. Drunk, picking flying flowers to mock the tiger general, sober, throwing away a fortune for a wine cup, dreaming in the Capital. Sudden is the shock of waking from a steep slumber, shed the silk robes to join the army. As Anding Gate opens, wind and snow darken, new bones lie beneath Guyuan City, the song weeps for old friends."

Zhang Li scratched his head in frustration, muttering to himself, "You’ve been writing this for ages, and you’re still making judgments for the Yulin Army. When will I know if Chen Ji is dead or not? If he’s dead, won’t my new script be a waste?"

At that moment, a Jiefan Guard rode up, tore down the sea arrest warrant posted in front of the City God Temple, and replaced it with a new one.

Someone looked at it, only to be shocked by the portrait of a middle-aged man: "The traitor Yao An, associated with Shuntian Prefecture..."

This was precisely the sea arrest warrant issued by the Spy Department after Treasure Monkey reported to Bai Long, to be dispatched across the Ning Dynasty with utmost urgency within half a month.

The crowd began to discuss: "Who is this person, and why post his sea arrest warrant? Could it be he who killed Li Changge?"

Zhang Li had no heart to listen to the discussions, his eyes fixed solely on the Wordless Heavenly Scripture. He lost track of time until the book flipped page by page, revealing a line of text: "And there stood Chen Ji at the bow of the ship, a hurried voice sounded from afar, it was..."

Seeing the text shocked Zhang Li, prompting him to stand up: "Damn it!"

The women mourning for Chen Ji anxiously asked, "Daoist, what’s the matter?"

Zhang Li hurriedly explained, "It’s nothing, nothing."

He folded the Wordless Heavenly Scripture and tucked it into his sleeve, turning to leave.

The women were about to inquire further when several riders swiftly galloped past. These Jiefan Guards all carried black lacquer tubes, delivering urgent messages in all directions.

...

...

A day later.

On the city gate tower of Xuanhua Prefecture, a flag-bearing infantryman gazed into the distance, spotting a column of over a hundred riders slowly emerging on the horizon.

This group of over a hundred riders all carried weapons, some with iron bows on their backs, and even a few had lances measuring up to sixteen feet long hanging beside their saddles.

In the army, those who wield lances must be people in perfect harmony with their horses. If a family passes down the lance, it surely had a renowned ancestor three generations back.

As the group neared, the flag-bearing infantryman squinted carefully, seeing that every man on a horse wore blood-stained clothes, with heads of the dead hanging on the side of each horse saddle, numbering one, two, or several.

The heads swayed like strings of dried fruits as they jolted up and down.

Even as these riders traveled slowly with the heads as companions, they engaged in conversation and laughter as if indifferent to the bloody heads.

The infantryman took a sharp breath and began waving the command flag.

From the drum tower, the sound of drums suddenly boomed.

The guards atop the city walls rapidly climbed to the parapet and strung their bows.

This group of over a hundred riders was not moving fast, and when they reached the base of the city walls, the Commander of the Xuanhua Guard Station had arrived upon hearing the news. He stood atop the city walls and asked loudly, "Who goes there?"

The leading man below the city raised a Ministry of War Fire Ticket aloft, and announced, "Governor Li Xuan of the Yulin Army in the Capital, dispatched by Ministry of War orders to join the army at Guyuan!"

The Commander of Xuanhua Prefecture focused intently, "Bring it up for a look."

The guards used a rope to lower a basket and brought the Fire Ticket up. The Commander waved his hand, "Fetch the Shadow Map."

The Vice General fetched the Shadow Map, and everyone compared the three seals on the Fire Ticket, finding them to be without discrepancy.

The Commander muttered in a low voice, "Wasn’t the Ministry of War Fire Ticket issued long ago? Why did they only arrive at Xuanhua Prefecture today?"

He looked below the city again, "Where did you get the heads on your saddles?"

Li Xuan patted the heads next to his thigh, "Black Eagle, the Big Leader of the Straw Hat Mountain bandit lair; Grass Rush, the Second Leader...The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Leaders are all here."

After Li Xuan finished, Qi Zhenzhuo pointed to the heads beside his saddle and said, "Big Leader Wang Lei of Wofo Mountain; Nine Elders, the Second Leader..."

The Yulin Army reported the names of the heads one by one, and they were indeed all mountain bandits, besieged and exterminated by the Yulin Army as they launched attacks on their fortresses from all sides.

The Commander’s suspicions were aroused, as these bandit strongholds were all nestled in deep mountains and dense forests, highly defensible and hard to conquer. The official army of Xuanhua Prefecture had repeatedly tried and failed, either the bandits fled, or the army couldn’t advance up the mountain. How these Yulin Army managed to kill their way through was a mystery.

At this moment, Li Xuan said loudly, "This bandit extermination is firstly to rid the people of harm, secondly to train the troops, and thirdly for... claiming bounty."

Only then did the Commander remember that these notorious bandits were criminals for whom the court had issued reward silver, ranging from fifty taels to five hundred taels. Just by looking at the heads hung on the Yulin Army saddles, they could probably claim several thousand taels of reward silver.

But aren’t the Yulin Army all capital dandies, why would they need to earn money by arduous bandit extermination?

The Commander came to his senses, "Open the city gates, welcome the Yulin Army!"

He descended from the tower, signaling the infantry to remove and count the heads, "My esteemed colleagues, come with me to the inn to rest for now... While I report to Lord Magistrate, to get the Ministry of War fire tickets signed for you all."

Holding the Ministry of War fire ticket, one must travel along the path set by the court, signing the magistrate’s seal at every city along the way, without changing the route arbitrarily.

Qi Zhenzhuo watched the infantry take the heads away, anxiously said, "Wait, our reward silver..."

The Commander quickly explained, "Please be patient, the claiming of the reward silver cannot be rushed. We must first find the villagers from those bandits’ hometowns to identify them, and only after confirmation can the silver taels be drawn from the public treasury."

Li Xuan and the others breathed a collective sigh of relief.

The purpose of their bandit extermination was indeed for military practice, but their precarious financial status was also real. Their impulse led them to form an honor guard for Chen Ji’s wedding without even packing their belongings before being forced out of the Imperial Capital by an Imperial Decree.

If they didn’t earn some money soon, life at Guyuan would only be tougher, and they wouldn’t have money to marry or settle down.

The team arrived in front of the inn and dismounted. At the rear of the team, a Yulin soldier carefully helped a woman off the horse.

The woman wore a half-old cyan cloth cotton jacket, without hairpins, only a wooden hair stick holding her hair. She dismounted and stood timidly behind the Yulin soldier, with her head lowered and fingers clutching her sleeve.

The Yulin soldier spoke softly with concern, and not far away, Qi Zhenzhuo jeered, "Wang Peng, can’t you stop flaunting?"

Back then, Chen Ji scraped together silver to redeem Princess Bai Li from the Imperial Music Bureau. The Yulin soldiers pooled their resources, Wang Peng couldn’t produce any silver, was anxiously circling, and in the end, bit the bullet and borrowed 670 taels from an official at the Eight Great Hutongs.

That was the redemption money the lady had saved for three years.

After Chen Ji succeeded, the silver was returned, Wang Peng also handed the silver back to the lady. He placed the silver on the table and turned to leave, but at the doorway, the lady with tearful eyes asked him, "Isn’t this redemption money enough to express my feelings?"

Wang Peng didn’t dare to look back and fled as if escaping.

Afterwards, the Imperial Decree forced them out of the Imperial Capital, and Wang Peng kept looking towards the direction of the Eight Great Hutongs.

Almost out of the city gates, someone jeered and shouted, "You still owe her an explanation!" Taking advantage of the liquor courage, he charged through five streets and stopped his horse in front of that Qingyin Small Building.

The lady stood inside the door watching him, he struggled for a long time, only to squeeze out a sentence, "Guyuan is windy and sandy, are you... are you afraid?"

The lady only raised her head and asked him, "Is there wine at Guyuan?"

Wang Peng hurriedly replied, "Yes, yes."

The lady turned and went into Qingyin Small Building, before coming out again holding a light parcel in her left hand and an indenture contract in her right, saying, "Let’s go."

...

...

Just as the Yulin Army was about to enter the inn, they saw a sea arrest warrant posted at the inn doorway. Li Xuan hadn’t seen anything else first but noticed the reward of ten thousand taels.

Once he saw clearly who the person on the drawing was, he abruptly turned to the Commander of Xuanhua Prefecture and asked, "What’s going on here, what crime did he commit?"

The Commander paused, "I don’t know either. This arrived three days ago by a four hundred-mile express, it’s said he committed a major crime of rebellion, reward ten thousand taels."

The Yulin soldiers looked at each other, Qi Zhenzhuo was stepping forward to tear down the sea arrest warrant, Li Xuan held his wrist and said solemnly, "This sea arrest warrant has already been sent to various prefectures, just tearing this one piece, what good would it do?"

Qi Zhenzhuo reluctantly withdrew his hand, "But we can’t just watch our master being wanted by the court, surely there’s some misunderstanding."

At this moment, the Magistrate hurried over upon hearing the news, Li Xuan cupped his fists and said, "Didn’t expect to alarm Lord Magistrate."

The Magistrate held his arm, smiling as he welcomed him into the inn, "You gentlemen have rid my Xuanhua Prefecture of bandit troubles, how can I not come to meet you all? You might not know, my Xuanhua Prefecture has suffered from bandit troubles for long. Last spring, the Zhao family married off a daughter in the southern city, with music and festivities sending her to her husband’s home. But the bridal sedan was intercepted by villains at the foot of Wofo Mountain, who kidnapped the bride and took her up the mountain. The Zhao family reported to the authorities, Xuanhua Prefecture dispatched troops three times, but none could successfully reach the mountain. That Wofo Mountain terrain is such that it takes one to hold against a thousand, the official army couldn’t get halfway up the mountain before being hit by logs and stones rolling down."

"Thirty miles north of Xuanhua Prefecture, there’s Liu Family Castle, a large manor with about two hundred households, living fairly prosperous lives. Last winter, bandits from Straw Hat Mountain snuck into the manor, killing hundreds of people."

The Magistrate rambled on, "Gentlemen, not only am I here, the local gentry and wealthy landlords of Xuanhua Prefecture will all come later. Besides the court’s reward silver, they also intend to present you with gifts."

Li Xuan responded lightly, unable to refuse their kindness, and had no choice but to enter the inn and take seats.

The Magistrate suddenly changed topics, "May I ask which gentleman is the esteemed poet of Daning, Mr. Chen Chong?"

The eyes of the Yulin soldiers all turned to Brother Pao, who scratched his head with his pinky finger, "I am Chen Chong, Lord Magistrate, do you know of me?"

The Magistrate rubbed his hands eagerly, "As you gentlemen were delayed in the mountains, Mr. Chen’s poem ’Red River’ arrived at Xuanhua Prefecture even before him... Could I please request Mr. Chen to leave a calligraphy piece, to compose another poem?"