A kindred spirit

Wei Yuan's words drew everyone's attention to Xu Qi'an.

Officials from Lin'an and Huaiqing on the city walls, both civil and military. Below the city walls, the troops setting out for war, and the common people on the streets.

Xu Qi'an stopped the drumming, remained silent for a moment, and without turning around, laughed loudly, "Duke Wei, since 'Who in the world does not know you,' no farewell poem has surpassed yours."

He paused, then declared, "How about I compose a poem?"

The two spoke loudly in front of thousands of people.

Wei Yuan hesitated for a moment, but his smile remained unchanged, "Agreed!"

All eyes immediately fell on Xu Qi'an, and the students below and the civil officials on the city wall perked up.

In such a setting, how could there be no poetry to enhance the ambiance? With the Great Feng Dynasty present, the literati will surely have another masterpiece to be passed down through generations.

Thinking of this, the scholars became quite excited and eagerly anticipated Xu Qi'an's lyrics.

Xu Qi'an did not stop beating the drum; on the contrary, he beat it even more intensely, the drumbeats echoing loudly.

He did indeed have a poem he wanted to send to Wei Yuan.

After returning from Chuzhou, he had a heart-to-heart talk with Wei Yuan and learned of Wei Yuan's plans for the Prince of Zhenbei and his intention to regain control of the military.

It was on that occasion that Xu Qi'an realized that this high-ranking official, who stood against multiple factions in the imperial court, had always wanted to regain command of the army and realize his ambitions, but had been unable to do so.

After Wei Yuan fought the Battle of Shanhai Pass, he was stripped of his military power and kept in the court for twenty years.

Duke Wei, twenty years have passed. Have you ever dreamt of returning to the battlefield, pointing out the future of the land?

He took a deep breath, focused his energy in his Dantian, and said loudly:

"Drunk, I pick up my sword by lamplight; in my dreams, I hear bugles echoing through the camps! Eight hundred miles of roasted meat are distributed among my troops; fifty strings of music resound beyond the border; autumn review of troops on the battlefield."

Wei Yuan was stunned, staring in astonishment at the young man on the city wall.

Great words!

The civil officials' eyes lit up suddenly. This sentence referred to the act of examining one's sword by lamplight in a drunken dream, as if they had returned to their military career.

In the context of the present moment, they seemed to have returned to the battlefield twenty years ago, to the autumn review of troops, to the figure in blue robes leading the army into battle.

This poem was written for Wei Yuan.

Thump thump thump, thump thump thump!

Xu Qi'an beat the drums fiercely and shouted, "My horse gallops like the wind, my bowstring twangs like thunder. I will accomplish the affairs of the king and the world, and win fame both before and after my death!"

You devoted yourself wholeheartedly to the court, you protected the empire for the royal family, and what did you get in return?

The imperial court has covered up your achievements, exaggerated the publicity surrounding the Prince of Zhenbei, and gradually transferred the glory that should have belonged to you to that beast who committed the atrocity of massacring the city for his own selfish gain.

Civil officials and scholars attacked you with words and writings, labeling you as the leader of the eunuch faction, as if they had forgotten who won the Battle of Shanhai Pass and who brought twenty years of peace to the Great Feng Dynasty.

What did you get in return?

He stopped, and the drumming ceased.

Xu Qi'an's voice was loud, but his tone was tinged with deep melancholy as he said, word by word, "What a pity for his white hair!"

On the city wall, the atmosphere suddenly froze. Wang Zhenwen and other civil officials stared blankly at Xu Qi'an, pondering the last part.

An indescribable sense of sorrow welled up in my heart.

What moves writers most are always poems and lyrics.

In fact, the civil officials present all knew what kind of person Wei Yuan was. Even though they were fighting fiercely, they still recognized Wei Yuan's character.

It's just a difference in perspective.

"Poor white hair, poor white hair!" At this moment, even the civil officials who had fought with Wei Yuan for half their lives couldn't help but feel frustrated.

Biao Biao bit her lip, her brows slightly furrowed. At first, she didn't feel anything, but when he read the last paragraph, a feeling of sorrow suddenly surged up like a tidal wave, overwhelming her.

Huaiqing stared at him intently, her eyes welling up with tears.

"Damn it, what kind of rubbish is this? It makes my nose sting." Jiang Luzhong rubbed his face and muttered.

Among the departing troops, the veterans who had participated in the Battle of Shanhai Pass all had tears in their eyes at this moment.

"Hahaha"

Wei Yuan laughed, a hearty laugh that brought tears to his eyes.

Xu Qi'an, do you know why I didn't adopt you as my godson?

Because in my heart, you are my confidant!

Clear Cloud Mountain, Cloud Deer Academy.

Zhao Shou stood atop the mountain, his scholar's robe and gray hair fluttering in the wind. His gaze seemed to pierce through the distance, seeing the army setting off on their campaign.

"The academies rose to prominence because of the Great Feng, but Confucian School declined because of Great Feng."

His gaze was calm, his tone steady, and his eyes showed neither joy nor sorrow.

With Vast Righteous Qi, he proclaimed loudly, "Wei Yuan, triumphant return!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the Confucian School power of Law Follows Speech becoming law vanished into nothingness.

The next second, the backlash of the Law Technique struck. The Vast Righteous Qi surrounding Zhao Shou collapsed, and a crack appeared between his brows, which quickly extended and expanded, like a broken eggshell.

Inside the Temple of the Second Saint, a beam of clear light shone directly on Zhao Shou, and his chapped body slowly healed.

"You can't make grand pronouncements lightly, especially when it involves someone beyond your rank. Wei Yuan, Wei Yuan, this is all I can do for you. More than two thousand years ago there was the Confucian Sage, and now, only you among the human race can carry this banner."

After Zhao Shou finished speaking, he bowed towards the Temple of the Second Saint: "Thank you for saving me, Second Saint."

Since the stone tablet of the Sage Cheng was cracked, the power of the Temple of the Second Sage has been revived.

The military camp had a total of 70,000 troops. Apart from 10,000 imperial guards, the other 60,000 were troops from the capital and other prefectures.

The remaining troops were stationed in the three northeastern provinces: Xiangzhou, Yuzhou, and Jingzhou.

The 70,000 troops in the capital were to be divided into four routes to the three northeastern prefectures, with 20,000 of them traveling by water to Chu Prefecture in the north.

Xu Erlang was among these 20,000 soldiers.

The more people involved in a military campaign, the more complicated it becomes. Therefore, when launching a large-scale expedition, troops are usually divided into smaller groups and then regrouped at a certain location.

What does it mean to send 70,000 people into battle?

The endless crowd stretched as far as the eye could see.

The army set off along the official road. Wei Yuan looked back at the capital one last time and inexplicably thought of that boy's poem.

Having accomplished the affairs of the emperor and the world, and won fame both before and after death, what a pity for his white-haired body! Wei Yuan smiled and muttered to himself:

"There's no need to plead for me. My loyalty is to the country and its people; you should understand me."

The army moved forward slowly, the 70,000 men silent, with only the rumble of wheels, the neighing of warhorses, and the clanging of armor.

Amidst this cacophony of sounds, the soldiers suddenly heard a song drifting from the horizon.

"Smoke rises from the battlefield, the land stretches northward, dragons rise and horses neigh, Sword Qi like frost, the heart flows like the vast Yellow River; in twenty years of turmoil, who can stand against me?"

Some people turned around blankly, while others were immersed in the song.

"With a maddening rage, my long sword points, how many loyal souls of my brothers are buried in foreign lands? I would gladly die a hundred times to repay my country, yet I can only sigh in despair, speechless, my eyes brimming with tears of blood."

"Horses gallop south, people gaze north; northward they gaze, grass turns green, dust flies; I wish to defend our land and expand our territory, so that the mighty Central Plains may be celebrated by all directions."

On a distant hillside, a lone rider stands, singing incessantly like a madman.

Who can rival us after twenty years of dominance?

We must return victorious!

Duke Wei Gong!

The Bureau of Astronomy, the Eight Trigrams Platform.

The supervisor, dressed in white as snow, did not sit at his desk this time, but stood at the edge, expressionless, gazing at the expeditionary force heading out of the capital.

"The curtain has been raised," the supervisor whispered.

"Has the curtain been raised?"

A deep voice came from behind, slowly saying, "If that's the case, how could we leave out the protagonist, right, teacher?"

The supervisor ignored him and sighed, "Looking across the Great Feng, the only one capable of leading troops to 'Jingshan City' is Wei Yuan; there is no one else who can do it."

Yang Qianhuan opened her mouth, but was unable to refute it.

The supervisor withdrew his gaze and said, "How can you be promoted if your mind is not at peace?"

Yang Qianhuan was silent for a moment, then said, "Teacher, I haven't left the Bureau of Astronomy for many days. People outside probably don't know my reputation, or that there is a Yang Qianhuan in the Bureau of Astronomy. I'm not happy about this."

Where did your reputation come from?

The supervisor almost pinched the bridge of his nose, and said in a deep voice, "Xu Qi'an did not go to war."

Yang Qianhuan was taken aback. "What does this have to do with me?"

The supervisor continued, to himself, "But he beat the drums and composed lyrics on the city wall, attracting the attention of everyone."

Drumming on the city wall and composing lyrics, all under the spotlight, Yang Qianhuan trembled with envy.

After a long pause, he gritted his teeth and said, "Teacher, I want to be promoted to the third rank!"

The supervisor smiled. Just then, Chu Caiwei ran up and shouted, "Teacher, teacher! Senior Brother Song Qing and the other senior brothers are causing trouble!"

"Um?"

"Brother Song said that creation requires passion, and they refuse to do monotonous, repetitive work. They refuse to forge standardized magical Law Artifact."

The supervisor finally rubbed his temples, his tone calm. "Tell them that Yang Qianhuan has been imprisoned on the third underground level for disobeying his master, and will be punished with lightning strikes and fire."

Chu Caiwei nodded. "Okay, that way the senior brothers will work obediently. Teacher is so smart, to come up with such a brilliant plan."

This has nothing to do with intelligence, Yang Qianhuan thought to herself.

The supervisor sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

Chu Caiwei was oblivious to Senior Brother Yang's sarcastic remarks about her intelligence, nor did she notice the Supervisor's gesture of pinching her brow. She scurried over to the Supervisor, glanced at the table, and seeing only wine and no food, disappointedly looked away. She then said mysteriously:

"Teacher, I have a question for you."

The supervisor suddenly felt a sense of relief.

"I found some strange incantations in a rare book. Could you take a look at them for me?"

As Chu Caiwei spoke, she pulled a neatly folded piece of paper from her bosom.

"It's been three days since Erlang left. I miss him, I miss him, I miss him so much."

Xu Qi'an wrote the following in his diary.

I was busy with household affairs and immersed in cultivation the past two days. Until today, I took some time to look at the late emperor's daily records, but I couldn't understand them, so I started to miss Erlang.

Before leaving, Xu Erlang wrote down the entire daily records of the late emperor from memory, of course, in cursive script.

The piece was too long, so using cursive script would save time. However, he was about to go to war with the army and had no time to write properly.

However, this thing has a fixed way of being written, and it's difficult for non-educated people to understand.

Besides Erlang, the only other person in the family who had received an education was Lingyue. However, Lingyue's education was superficial, and she had not studied cursive script, so she could not understand it.

"Such an important document as the late emperor's daily records cannot be shown to just anyone; we must find a new copy."

Xu Qi'an's mind raced, and he realized that he knew very few scholars. There was only one Chu Yuanzhen in the Heaven and Earth Society, but he had gone to war with the army.

In the family, only Erlang was a scholar, so it was impossible to expect his second uncle and aunt to translate for him.

I can trust Nightwatchers, Ting Feng, and Guangxiao, the three men in the night watchman's office, but their level of education is about the same as mine.

The scholars at the Cloud Deer Academy are alright, but the two-hour round trip is far too long. Hmm, let Li Miaozhen take me to the heavens and fly there directly.

Huaiqing was too clever; he simply pulled out a record of the late emperor's daily life and asked her to translate it. She was sure to ask all sorts of questions.

By the way, Lin'an is a good option.

Although this girl is a bit slow-witted, you can't underestimate her level of education. After all, she's a royal princess, so basic skills like calligraphy are no problem for her.

Xu Qi'an thought about it for a while and finally chose Lin'an.

He immediately took a thick stack of papers, stuffed them into his pocket, mounted his little mare, and rode off to the Nightwatchers's office.

After Erlang went to war, he could no longer disguise himself as Xu Erlang and use his official pass to freely enter and leave the capital. But that didn't matter, he still had a wide network of connections.

The night Nightwatchers's gong allowed him free access to the imperial city, and patrolling the imperial city was always one of his duties.

Xu Qi'an borrowed Chun Ge's waist token, put on his old police uniform, disguised himself as Li Yuchun, and rode Chun Ge's mount to successfully enter the imperial city.

Lin'an Prefecture.

Xu Qi'an, mimicking Chun Ge's mannerisms, arrived at the gate of the mansion and said to the guards, "I am Li Yuchun, Xu Qi'an's former superior and also a close friend. I have business with Princess Lin'an."

He said this so that he could see Lin'an smoothly; otherwise, His Highness the Princess wouldn't be someone he could meet with just a silver gong.

The name "Xu Qi'an" and the silver gong itself were enough to earn the respect of the gatekeepers, who didn't ask any questions but simply said, "Please wait a moment."

He then hurriedly went to the mansion to report.

Sure enough, upon hearing that he was Xu Qi'an's close friend, Lin'an immediately summoned him, choosing the reception room as the venue.

With alluring, captivating eyes, brimming with inner charm, she unconsciously evoked images of a nightclub queen. Seated behind a large table, she adopted an air of haughtiness incongruous with her demeanor, speaking in a flat tone:

"What business does Li Yinluo have with me?"

"Lin'an, it's me. It's not convenient to talk here, let's find a quieter place," Xu Qi'an transmitted his voice.

The woman's feigned air of arrogance immediately crumbled, and an uncontrollable smile spread across her face. She quickly suppressed it, turned to the palace maids, and gave the order:

"I have important matters to discuss with Li Yinluo, and none of you are allowed to disturb us."

In the study, where there were no palace maids or eunuchs, Lin'an said with a mixture of surprise and quiet:

"Oh, what brings you here? I was just thinking that after Xu Cijiu went to war, you wouldn't be able to disguise yourself as him and come to play with me anymore."

"It's easy for me to just come and play with you. Prince Huaiqing will help me. "Xu Qi'an walked to the desk and said:

"I've come to see Your Highness about something important. Hmm, does Your Highness understand cursive script? I have a piece of cursive script here that I'd like Your Highness to read to me."

Upon hearing this, Biao Biao was overjoyed and nodded repeatedly like a chick pecking at rice. "Yes, yes!"

She finally had the chance to display her amazing talent in front of her lackey.

Sure enough, even if someone is a poor student, that's only relative. As a princess, how could she not be knowledgeable? Xu Qi'an stood by the table, happily reaching for the papers in his pocket.

Suddenly, his expression froze, and his pupils instantly solidified.

On the desk lay a book titled "Dragon Vein Geomancy Map".