189 – The War Begins

The place Lei Tie took Qin Mian to was not special, but within three days, they went through almost all the places worth visiting in the Capital and various refreshments such as baked rolls, pea flour cakes, sweetened baked wheaten cakes, sweet-filling glutinous rice cakes, fried haws, seasoned millet mush, pear tea, ma doufu, fried sesame egg cakes, kidney bean rolls, honey date wrapped with lotus leaves, toad spit honey¹, yam cakes, glass noodles, and sweet fried-pan desserts…… practically ate everywhere.

Qin Mian felt like he was on honeymoon again.

Every day, Qin Ruiqi and Lei Ruilin came home from school to see a different kind of snacks at home – they knew that their Old Dad bought them from outside with their Dad. They were so fond of good food that they also wanted to go. Unfortunately, Qin Mian could never ask them for leave to take them along. The children were older. He and Lei Tie should have a proper good time in their married life.

Three days later, Lei Tie began to get busy and often went home after dark.

Qin Mian took the time to enter the space. He planned to grab an eagle for Lei Tie and let him take it to West Pass. An eagle had a keen vision, was ferocious, and flew at a fast speed and long duration. It was good even if it was only used to send messages.

It was not difficult to catch an eagle in the space. Qin Mian finally caught a golden eagle on a high mountain – it was 5 chi long and could reach more than 8 chi ² when its wings were spread out. He didn’t dare to catch one with an enormous body because it would be hard to explain to outsiders.

He pretended to take a few armed-servants to the deep mountains to hunt and amuse themselves and brought the golden eagle back two days later. The armed-servants personally saw him “shot down” the golden eagle, so they were not suspicious about it.

The golden eagle was given to Lei Tie and Lei Tie liked it very much. He suppressed the golden eagle with spiritual qi. After fake-training it for several days, he placed a beast-control talisman into the gold eagle’s internal. The golden eagle then recognized him as the master – it was submissive and intelligent.

In recent days, State Defender Duke and his wife had made a public display of affection. The people in the Capital had seen them and became inured to the unusual. Therefore, they were not surprised to see the golden eagle sending Lei Tie to court for the first time.

After that, Qin Mian also put himself into the busy work, refining batch after batch of high-quality effective medicine in the space.

Half a month later, a large number of officers and soldiers left the Capital at night, escorting food and fodder westward. There was a saying in the Art of War: Before the troops and horses move, food and fodder go first. Food and fodder included not only grains and forage, but also salt, spices, herbal medicines, weapons, tents, and other military supplies.

Half a month later, a piece of shocking news came back from the frontier juncture: Princess Yanqing, who volunteered to go to Tuluo in peace marriage for the sake of peace between Great Xia and Tuluo, was brutally killed by the ruthless Tuluo people within the Tuluo border, about 20 li away from the Heroic Duo Stronghold of West Pass, Great Xia!

Emperor Xiaohui was devastated by the news of his daughter’s tragic death. He was seriously ill and did not go to court for three days.

The people were indignant and recalled the scene when Princess Yanqing waved her hand to them on her wedding day – their hatred for Tuluo became stronger. They hoped that the imperial court could teach a heavy lesson to the incorrigible Tuluo people.

Emperor Xiaohui went to court in a bad health and conferred a posthumous title to Princess Yanqing – Yanqing the First Virtuous Princess. He denounced Tuluo for trampling on Great Xia’s sincerity to mend with them. The crime was unforgivable; he issued an order to attack Tuluo. This was not only to seek justice for Princess Yanqing but also to thoroughly crackdown on the arrogance of Tuluo. The past several disputes between Tuluo and Great Xia told them that tolerance to the enemy would only bring more cruel revenge.

Before the dawn of the next day, Defender Grand General of the State, Lei Tianren led 100,000 vanguard soldiers with His Highness the First Prince as the supervisor and moved the army north, followed closely by Grand General of South Order, Yuan Gang with 40,000 soldiers.

Qin Mian stood on the city wall with Qin Ruiqi and Lei Ruilin. He watched Lei Tie disappear at the end of the public road.

As soon as Lei Tie left, his heart felt empty.

“Dad?” Qin Ruiqi was very worried and held his father’s hand.

Qin Mian returned to his senses and said with a smile, “I’m fine. It’s just that this is the first time your Old Dad will be away for so long.” Even if Lei Tie went to the battlefield as soon as he arrived at West Pass, it would take only two days to win the battle and another two months to return home. Besides, the Tuluo people were cruel and insidious. Once the battle between Great Xia and Tuluo began, it was impossible to end too soon.

Lei Ruilin took his father’s other hand and said firmly, “Dad, Old Dad will return with glorious victory!”

“En.” Qin Mian nodded with a smile, “Let’s go home.”

Back at the State Defender Duke Establishment, he asked the servants to send his two sons to Dongyang Academy and sat alone in the study as he pondered. Most of the ancient wars took place in spring, autumn, and winter. One of the important reasons was that the summer was hot. If the corpses on the battlefield couldn’t be disposed of in time, the corpses would rot and lead to a large-scale plague. The plague in ancient times was the most difficult to control. Once it broke out, it would not benefit both warring sides.

Even if Qin Mian was not particularly good at and understood politics, he could infer that the reason why Emperor Xiaohui let the army go immediately after the death of Princess Yanqing was just to show his “passive” position in the war. It was very unlikely that Lei Tie would go to war immediately after he arrived at West Pass and most probably had to wait when the weather was cooler. This meant that the imperial court would have to spend more on military resources.

Since Emperor Xiaohui dared to initiate war on his own initiative, the imperial court must have sufficient military expenditure. However, his man was the commander-in-chief. If Qin Mian wanted him to come back earlier, Qin Mian had to consider all aspects for him. The first thing he considered was to prepare more military expenditure, making provisions against emergencies. However, it was not the time yet.

After arriving at West Pass, Lei Tie immediately found a chance to enter the space and met Qin Mian to exchange information. When the Tuluo people learned that the emperor of Great Xia wanted to avenge Princess Yanqing, they immediately sent troops to the border. Today, nearly 200,000 troops of the two armies confronted each other in West Pass. Lei Tie took the initiative to launch a tentative small-scale battle on the second day when the army was well-rested and won a big victory. Because both sides were worried about the plague, there was no battle later, but confrontation. If nothing happened, as soon as the 9th lunar month came, he would launch a large-scale attack.

Qin Mian told him to be careful because the blades had no eyes.

In the 9th lunar month, the messenger rushed to the Capital; Great Xia and Tuluo officially went to war.

Qin Mian also went into action. His identity as “Mandated Lady” was a bit awkward at this time. Because a mandated lady was not allowed to interfere in politics, he couldn’t directly tell Emperor Xiaohui what he planned; meanwhile, the empress was a woman, he needed to pay attention to restrictions between male and female. After thinking about it, he handed a memorial to the empress. If the empress valued it, the empress would hand it over to Emperor Xiaohui.

The day after the memorial was handed over, the imperial edict came from the palace, praising Qin Mian’s idea of recommending officials and merchants in the Capital to donate money. Less than an hour later, the empress’s oral instruction arrived, which stated that three days later, she invited all the mandated ladies to dinner in the imperial garden.

The theme of the empress’s banquet was fund-raising.

The mandated ladies were reluctant, but after the empress took the lead in donating 1000 taels of silver, they had no choice but to loosen their purses, ranging from 600 to 800 taels. The consorts and concubines were unwilling to be outdone and donated as few as 100 taels and as many as 900 taels – as long as they did not surpass the empress. The empress dowager donated 1000 taels, and even Princess Duanning Gong donated 600 taels of silver.

Qin Mian was the first person to donate 800 taels of silver.

After all the mandated ladies finished donating, the empress said with a smile that how much they donated would be recorded on the gold-plated list and posted at the gate of the city for a proclamation.

This thereupon was a philanthropic act, which not only brought good reputation to one’s husband but also brought benefits to one’s children. The mandated ladies were so happy that they felt that they had not donated enough before, so they quickly added a few hundred more.

When the merchants in the Capital heard about this, one after another donated money.

This time, nearly 5 million taels of silver were raised……

Whenever Lei Tie had a chance, he would go into the space to meet Qin Mian. Qin Mian was not very worried about Lei Tie’s fighting in a place of thousands of li away. However, Qin Ruiqi and Lei Ruilin couldn’t see Lei Tie. Every few days, the father and sons would write a letter to Lei Tie and send them to West Pass by the official relay station.

In West Pass, the war was raging.

Dressed in a combat uniform, Lei Tie stood on the city wall with hands on his back, looking at the enemy camp less than five li away.

Lei-Qin Zhong rushed over, took out a letter from his inner pocket, and handed it to him with both hands.

“My Lord, it’s from my Lady.”

When Lei Tie saw two small handprints on the letter, the cold aura on his whole body scattered, and faint warmth infused in his eyes. The two small handprints were from Ruiqi and Ruilin. On the day of their one-month-old, he made molds for Ruiqi and Ruilin’s small hands and carved them into seals. His wife said they were “commemorative seals”.

When First Prince Chen Chuang came up, he happened to see the change of Lei Tie’s expression and was internally bewildered. Seeing that Lei Tie opened the letter, he didn’t walk over immediately. His sight on Lei Tie’s back was profound and absent-minded.

Lei Tie carefully read the letter. The first page was written by his wife, the second page was written by his eldest son, and the third page was written by his youngest son.

In the letter, besides asking him to take care of himself, there were bed talks and trivial matters. He still read it very seriously.

Over ten years ago, he was also here. He was like a lone wolf fighting with the enemy and could only watch others read letters from home.

After reading the letter three times from beginning to end, he folded it again and put it in his inner pocket in a cherishing manner. Then, he faintly looked at Chen Chuang.

Chen Chuang came to his senses and walked over.

“Your Highness the First Prince,” saluted Lei Tie.

“Don’t stand on ceremony, Grand General.” Chen Chuang stood beside him and said with a smile, “Just now, Grand General must be reading a letter from home, right? Grand General and your wife are very affectionate. Truly enviable.”

Footnotes