In the twelfth year of Xianyuan, the second year after Li Qishen arrived in Fengzhou.
Fengzhou is close to the north, and its climate is quite different from that of Chang'an City. In November, the grass on the grassland is all dry and yellow, and the soil underneath is faintly visible. Looking from a high place, it looks a bit like a captain named Tian in the Tiande Army. If you magnify his sparsely hairy head several times and look down from a high place, it is probably the grassland today.
Regardless of the pasture conditions, the snow also fell early in Fengzhou. It started to snow sporadically in October, and in November it was all over the place. It was freezing cold, and the snowflakes were so fine that they were not even as fine as goose feathers. The horses tied outside were covered with white frost, and the clerks in charge of writing the manifesto frowned every day and complained that the inkstones could not be opened.
It was the time when precautions were most needed. Soldiers braved the severe cold and patrolled outside every day. Li Qishen could not escape. He had the title of a prince, but Fengzhou was far away from the emperor. Li Rongjin did not care about this. He let him pick a war horse, gave him a gun, and took him out for a walk every day.
Today was not so bad. Unlike the previous few days, the snow was so strong that he could not open his eyes. Li Qishen slowed down his horse and followed Li Rongjin forward. The fine snow fell on him and naturally accumulated on his cloak. The snow on his hair and eyelashes gradually melted due to his body temperature. Before it melted away, new snow fell again, making him look like a jade sculpture.
"Are you cold?" Li Rongjin looked back at him. "Would you like a drink?"
All they could bring out were strong liquors. After a sip, their bodies naturally warmed up. However, Li Qishen shook his head and said with a smile, "No, I'm afraid of getting drunk. If I fall, I'll have to trouble my uncle to take me back."
"Let you go..." Li Rongjin paused, swallowing the dirty words in the army. He tapped Li Qishen's horse's leg with the tip of his spear. He stopped only after hearing a loud snort. "Don't give me that. The day before yesterday, you sneaked out to drink with Zhebu and the others. Don't think I don't know."
Li Qishen's expression remained unchanged: "Is that true?"
"Stop pretending! You've drunk those bastards. I was wondering why you reeked of alcohol when I saw you that day, and you even lied that someone threw wine on you." Li Rongjin said, "Back then, Agudamu only took a sip of wine, but now I see you're going to drink from the jar."
"Wine jars are so boring," Li Qishen was too lazy to pretend after being exposed. He smiled and said, "Why not just find a wine vat?"
"Go!" Li Rongjin glared at him, then laughed, rode his horse forward a few steps, and lowered his voice, "It's cold, but you can't do anything about it, just endure it. In previous years, people are restless at this time. If you don't patrol, something serious will happen."
Li Qishen rode up and followed: "Turks?"
"The Turks are long gone. These bandits are not Turks at all. At most, they are related to us and are just using the name. But let's just call them that." Li Rongjin walked forward slowly, holding his gun. "You've been here for almost two years. Have you seen the grassland change?"
Li Qishen understood what he meant: "The grass is most lush in summer, okay in spring and autumn, but withered in winter, with lots of wind and snow."
"Yes, that's it. These people don't have land to farm like the Han people in the city, nor do they live on pastures like the herdsmen. They can eat whatever cattle and sheep they can drive to. They can make do with this in the first three seasons, but in winter, it's all over. All the cattle and sheep that can be eaten are killed," Li Rongjin sighed, "If they can't make it, they will openly rob."
"I remember there was extra grain outside the city, left for them?"
"After all, they are human lives. If there is surplus food, it's okay to give them some, just to exchange for peace." Li Rongjin said, "But this year's harvest is not good, there is not much left, I have to focus on my family. If these people are obedient, it's okay. If they are not obedient..."
He didn't say anything else, but Li Qishen understood. He casually made a gun flower, which brought up a whistling sound in the wind. The tip of the gun broke through the wind and snow, and the blade shone coldly.
"Come back to your principles." Li Rongjin said, "You are good in every way except that you are too fierce. It didn't matter when you were young, but when you get to my age, you will suffer."
"Then let's talk about it when I reach my uncle's age." Li Qishen continued with a smile.
Li Rongjin glanced at him, smiled, shook his head, and continued walking forward. Li Qishen hurriedly followed.
The uncle and nephew walked in silence for a while. When they were about to reach the border of the patrol city and it was time to go back, there was a sudden gust of icy wind, which felt like a knife cutting their faces. Fine grains of snow brushed past them. Li Qishen suspected that his face was bleeding and could not help but touch it.
This was of course an illusion. He only felt his hands were cold. Just as he put his hands down, he saw Li Rongjin stopped and asked, "Uncle?"
"Don't talk." Li Rongjin tilted his ear alertly, "Listen."
Li Qishen was slightly startled, and imitated him, listening to the sound from the wind.
The grassland was wide and the wind was particularly loud, whimpering and like crying. Li Qishen listened for a while and heard mixed voices in the wind, distant and desolate, and they seemed to echo each other.
He reined in his horse: "Wolf?"
"Yes, it's a wolf."
Just as Li Rongjin finished speaking, Li Qishen had no time to be surprised when he saw the vague shapes of wolves in the distance. There weren't many of them, but through the snow and wind, he could see at a glance that there were at least six or seven of them.
Li Qishen had known for a long time that there were wolves on the grassland, but he had never encountered one head-on, and only in small groups. Wolves were invincible on the grassland, and herdsmen had to raise a pack of big dogs to deal with them. War horses could carry people and charge, but they were still afraid of wolves in their bones, snorting constantly and tapping their front hooves anxiously on the ground.
Li Qishen did not panic, and quickly calmed down. There was a bow and quiver tied to the side of the saddle, with twelve arrows in it, and a short knife on his body. He estimated that he might not have a chance of winning: "Did we encounter a pack of wolves?"
"Not really. There must be dozens of real wolves in the pack." Li Rongjin was not panicked at all. He stroked the horse's mane from top to bottom. "It's a coincidence that we met the wolf king out hunting."
"Wolf King?"
"Look." Li Rongjin raised his chin to indicate, "The one at the head has a piece missing from his left ear."
Li Qishen looked over and saw the wolf that Li Rongjin had mentioned. The wolf was standing quietly in the front, with a sturdy body and shoulders higher than the wolves behind. It was indeed the leader of the pack, but there was a piece missing from its left ear, as if it had been bitten by some wild beast.
"Why, uncle knows it?" Li Qishen looked at Li Rongjin, "Why don't we talk to it and pretend it didn't see us and go our separate ways?"
"Needless to say, I have encountered it more than once or twice. It is not stupid and will not pounce on me." Li Rongjin pulled the reins and did not turn the horse's head, controlling the warhorse to slowly retreat. "It's not an acquaintance, but we have a fate. When this wolf was a child, it was driven out by its father. It had nothing to eat or drink, so it ran to Agudamu's house to steal a lamb and was almost beaten to death. I felt sorry for it, so I stopped Agudamu, and it has never come again since then."
"Kick him out?"
"You don't know? This is the rule of the wolf pack. He is the alpha wolf, and he keeps the female cubs he gives birth to in the pack, while he drives out the males to prevent them from competing with him in the future."
"I see." Li Qishen imitated Li Rongjin and also made the horse retreat. "I really didn't know that."
They did not turn around, and the wolves over there did not turn around or move forward, allowing the uncle and nephew to slowly distance themselves from each other.
"Later, I saw it again unexpectedly. It seemed that it encountered a pack of wolves and was bitten half to death by its father. Its ears were bitten off at that time. I thought it was fate, so I asked the military doctor to bandage it and feed it a prescription of herbal medicine."
"My uncle is kind."
Li Qishen said it casually, but Li Rongjin continued the topic: "Guess what happened next?"
"how?"
"Didn't I just say that it is the leader of the pack now?" Li Rongjin glanced at Li Qishen, paused, and then continued, "It wandered outside for more than half a year, ran back to the wolf pack, bit its father to death, and became the new wolf king."
Li Qishen's expression froze for a moment, then he smiled again, as if he hadn't heard anything: "Then it's pretty powerful."
"It's hard to say whether this is right or wrong. If its father had let it stay in the wolf pack, perhaps it wouldn't have ended up like this. But it's hard to say, what if it's so wild that it insists on becoming the wolf king." When they had almost retreated, Li Rongjin pulled the reins and turned the horse's head, "Okay, let's go back!"
He whipped the horse with his whip, and the horse felt pain and ran towards the city. Li Qishen also turned around and followed Li Rongjin.
Before pulling the reins, he looked back for some reason, and just happened to see the wolf pack through the snow. The snow gradually became heavier, and the pack of wolves stood in the snow, all behind the wolf king, and none of them took the lead to take a step forward. The wolf king faced the wind and snow solemnly, watching the people and horses here leave, and never took a step forward, almost standing like a sculpture.
Unlike the green eyes of the wolves behind it, its pupils were yellowish, as if two pieces of light amber were inlaid on its face.
**
Chang'an City, mountains, water and pools.
Princess Changning's love of banquets was well known in Chang'an. It was already mid-November, and the weather was so cold that you could feel the wind blowing on your face when you went out, but she still held banquets as usual. This time the banquet was held at the mountain and water pond. This garden was the residence of Empress Jingmu's family. Because Empress Jingmu had no brothers or sisters, it was naturally impossible for the princes and princesses under her knees to come back. As time passed, it became part of the royal garden.
Being able to enter the mountain water pool, and being the host of Princess Changning's banquet, how many aristocratic families and nobles in Chang'an City were eyeing them covetously, just waiting to get in touch with Princess Changning at the banquet. So since the post was sent out, those who received the post were complacent, while those who didn't receive the post were beating their chests and stamping their feet, racking their brains to think of what excuse they could find to get close to her next time.
The banquet was a luncheon. Before the banquet began, the invited distinguished guests from each family who arrived early gathered in the outer courtyard in twos and threes. The men talked about their future, and the women talked about their boudoirs. In the end, they talked about people.
The one that was talked about the most was naturally the Chang'an Xie family, the legitimate daughter of Minister Xie. The current dynasty was open-minded, and the aristocratic and powerful families liked to socialize, but this lady seemed to have disappeared in the past few years. She only showed up this year, and the first time she showed up was at the Changning Princess banquet.
She didn't seem to like meeting people. She ignored everyone except Princess Changning. She sounded like an arrogant person, but everyone who had met her praised her. Regardless of whether it was polite or not, everyone praised Madam Xie for her stunning beauty and gentleness. It wasn't necessary to meet her, but it would definitely be worth it to meet her once.
Chang'an Xie's family background, admirable personality and beauty, no matter whether they are envy, jealousy or curiosity, after all, many people in the courtyard are waiting for this lady Xie.
As they waited and chatted, about a quarter of an hour before the banquet started, the Xie family's carriage finally stopped in front of the wide-open gate of the mountain and water pond.
The author has something to say: What can I say to make this place seem less empty? (scratching my head)