The night wind blew over the palace eaves, and the large red lanterns hanging high up swayed gently with candlelight. Through the paper windows through which the fire shone, above the great hall, Yang Guang issued one decree after another.
"Draft an order for the Secretariat to send people to detain Tuyuhun Prince Murong Shun and prepare food and fodder for the three armies to set out."
"… Let them bypass Duke of Yue Yang Su. If anyone dares to leak even a word in advance, I will execute him!"
"And let the scholars outside spread the word about the power of the Sui Dynasty, stir up public opinion, and help me in my western expedition!"
The bronze lampposts on both sides of the hall flickered with flames. In the flickering light, two figures were kneeling and quietly listening to the divine will from above. When they heard about the Western Expedition to Tuyuhun, the two men trembled.
"That's all for now. Get out." Yang Guang waved away the eunuch who had received the order, stood up and left the dragon case, walked down the imperial steps step by step, came to the two kneeling people, waved his dragon sleeves and said, "King of Gaochang, Envoy of Yiwu, you two get up."
"yes!"
The two men responded in unison, wiped the cold sweat from their faces imperceptibly, and stood up respectfully. Among them, Gaochang King Qu Boya spoke in a low voice.
"Your Majesty, Gaochang has always been bullied by Tuyuhun. If your Majesty wants to attack, Gaochang will respond, but..."
Yang Guang flicked his sleeves, interrupting the King of Gaochang who was speaking with his head bowed, and turned to walk to the imperial steps. After walking up one step, he turned back again, "Tuoyuhun brought the imperial masters of the three kingdoms of Turkic and Yiwu to pay tribute to my Great Sui Dynasty, just to embarrass me. If my imperial master had not returned in time, wouldn't they have succeeded?! How can I swallow this anger?"
The emperor, who was standing on the imperial steps, slammed his hand on the handrail, his beard standing on end, and the sound shook the whole hall.
"When did the Great Sui Dynasty fall to the point where it was bullied by a barbarian country in the west? If I don't fight back, I will be unworthy of being the emperor!"
Below, the Yiwulu envoy standing on the side of the King of Gaochang suddenly knelt on the ground, trembling.
"Your Majesty, I, Yiwu, did not intend to disgrace the Holy Emperor of the Heavenly Dynasty. I was only forced to come here because of the coercion of Tuyuhun. My King Yiwu was worried about angering the Heavenly Dynasty, so he sent an ordinary foreigner to disguise himself as the Imperial Master..."
Hahaha!
Yang Guang laughed at him, walked back to the two of them, and personally helped the Yiwu envoy up. "Don't be afraid, envoy. I know the difficulties of King Yiwu. Look, this time you, I and Gaochang are all united. You can get revenge and I can vent my anger. Why not, right?"
He reached out and straightened the other person's collar, patted his trembling shoulders and said, "Also, even if the one Yiwu sent is your real Imperial Master, he is no match for my Imperial Master Lu."
As he said this, Yang Guang took back his hands and put them behind his back to face the Dragon Court. He said with his back to the two of them, "When you two go back tonight, send someone back to discuss this matter."
The lights flickered, and the emperor raised his arm and pointed a finger: "Remember, I don't have much patience. Regardless of whether your troops arrive as promised, I will send troops to Tuyuhun!"
Yang Guang turned around, a smile appeared on his face again. He put his arms around the two men's shoulders and walked towards the palace gate.
"Are you two scared? I have only been on the throne for two years. My foundation is not stable. I have enemies above and below. I need military achievements. I hope you can lend me a helping hand."
Seeing the Sui emperor changing every moment, Gaochang King Qu Boya and the Yiwulu envoy were terrified. They had no idea of the emperor's temper, and they bowed and nodded repeatedly as they walked out of the palace.
"Your Majesty, rest assured. After returning to the posthouse, we will send an envoy back to the Western Regions overnight to gather troops to assist Your Majesty!"
"With what you two said, I feel relieved."
"Your Majesty, please stay."
The two men bowed and slowly stepped back a few steps before turning around and walking down the stone steps made of white rock. Yang Guang watched them being led away by the guards, the smile on his face gradually cooled, he snorted, walked back to the hall, and continued to deal with the memorials.
Outside the slowly closing palace door, a pair of eyes watched in the dark. Soon, a message quietly flowed out of the imperial city and was transmitted at the fastest speed.
Along the long street of official residences, the most splendid and dazzling mansion has big red lanterns hanging high. Soldiers holding weapons are guarding outside the gate. Inside the lacquered red gate, in the brightly lit front yard and wing rooms, there are lights on, and moths are buzzing against the cardboard lampshades. Under the warm yellow light, an old man is writing a letter of advice and remonstrance with a pen.
There were footsteps outside the door, and the servant's voice came from outside: "Master, there is news from the palace."
"Come in."
Yang Su didn't even raise his head, his eyes fixed on the words written by the pen tip. The door over there creaked open, and the servant who came to report came in, gently closed the door, held a folded paper in both hands, carefully placed it on the corner of the table, and then bowed and retreated outside.
Under the light, the old man at his desk paused and looked at the message lying on the side. "Your Majesty, what is he going to do next?"
With a low murmur, he put down his pen and inkstone, took the paper in his hand and unfolded it. His half-closed eyes suddenly froze, and he crumpled the message in his hand into a ball and threw it on the ground.
With a bang, flames ignited and burned to ashes.
"Your Majesty is imitating the late emperor." Yang Su leaned back in his chair and murmured softly in the slowly rising green smoke. Then he laughed, fanned his hands, and rolled the green smoke away through the open window frame.
"Well, I will turn a blind eye this time and let Your Majesty display his talent. If you can hone it, I will have done my duty to my brother."
After thinking about it, he looked at the memorial of advice on the table and felt there was no need to continue writing. He closed it gently, threw it into the hall, and started a fire.
Walking out of the study, the night sky had unknowingly turned pale. Yang Su was not sleepy at all, so he simply returned to the backyard, changed into his official robe and prepared for today's morning court.
Soon after, the golden morning light pushed away the darkness of the streets and alleys, extending to the west of the city, on the road leading to the Western Regions. In the distance, eight big men could be seen walking side by side among the passing caravans, looking in the direction of the giant city.
Ding ding ding~~~
Behind the eight people, there was an old donkey walking slowly. On the shaking bookshelf, a little tune was humming from time to time. The scholar sitting on the donkey's back was reading with relish several books brought out from Wuse Village. Although they were not magic, they were of obvious benefit to the Confucian Haoran.
"When you have time, go to Wujiang Mountain again and move all the books there back to Wanshou Temple. It would be nice to read some books to kill time when you have nothing to do, right, Master?"
He asked the bookshelf inquiringly, but seeing no response, Lu Liangsheng leaned over and opened the door a little. The Toad Taoist was sleeping soundly wrapped in a quilt. Feeling the wind blowing in from outside, he stretched out his webbed feet, rubbed them twice, and then retracted them into the quilt.
"How can you sleep so deeply when autumn is not even here yet?"
Perhaps he was thinking about the fight with the monkey that day, which took a lot of effort, and he fell asleep all the way out of Wujiang Mountain.
"We are almost in Chang'an, and we should do what we promised the monkey, but I don't know if it will cause any trouble."
Going along the official road, on the swaying donkey's back, Lu Liangsheng looked at the outline of the city wall in front of him which was becoming clearer and clearer. There was a long queue of people entering the city. He felt a little worried when he thought about releasing the Great Sage and whether he would be able to act recklessly without restraint.
However, after entering the city, Lu Liangsheng had not yet come to his senses from his promise to Monkey, but he could vaguely feel a subtle atmosphere in the city.
One or two teams of imperial guards could be seen passing by on the street.