Leaning against the carriage, Fang Jie swung his legs, resting with his eyes closed, appearing quite relaxed. Big Dog sat beside him, driving, occasionally taking a piece of stewed, but still frozen, dog meat from a nearby oil-paper package. This large package of stewed dog meat, along with dozens of dog meat buns wrapped in the carriage, were specially made by Du Hongxian, the proprietress of Yunji. She had carried these with her that night, intending to give them to Fang Jie as provisions for the journey, but Fang Jie was too badly injured to travel and had to rest for several days.
However, in this cold weather, one couldn't expect the food to spoil; heating it in a heater made it instantly fragrant.
Fang Jie's carriage was at the very back of the caravan. The seven carriages ahead of it carried beautiful girls from Hongxiuzhao. The first carriage was for Hongxiuzhao's guards, the second carriage for Aunt Xi and Xi Zhuxin, and the driver was the old cripple.
"At this speed, it'll take about four months to reach Chang'an."
Fang Jie, who was pretending to sleep with his eyes closed, suddenly said, his tone somewhat helpless.
"It won't interfere with your exam."
Da Quan chewed on his dog meat, which was cold and difficult to chew. "The Martial Arts Academy's exam is at the end of June. It's only the end of January now. Even if it takes five months, it won't be late. The Sui Dynasty's Martial Arts Academy holds its exam every three years, and selections begin a year in advance. Because the Sui Dynasty is so vast, candidates from Yong County in the south have to set off before the new year, which takes at least six or seven months."
"I'm always worried about being late. I have to run to the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of Personnel. I wonder if I'll be harassed."
Fang Jie said with some concern, "I've heard that the officials in the capital are all arrogant and look down on people from outside the capital. It's as if the Sui Dynasty is divided into two parts: one called the capital, unattainable, and the other called other places, equally inferior."
Da Quan advised, "You're a candidate in the military..." "The Ministry of War naturally wouldn't make things difficult. The Martial Arts Academy admits 50% military personnel and 50% civilians. The Ministry of War would love for the military personnel to do well in the exams; if civilian candidates steal the spotlight, they'll lose face. Besides, Fan Gu City has only produced one like you in decades. Are we going to eliminate you without even taking the exam? Furthermore, we have silver on hand; we can just slip a hundred-tael bribe to each government office."
"Pah!"
Fang Jie spat and laughed, "Do you think the officials in the capital are uncultured bumpkins? You think you can bribe them with a hundred taels of silver?"
"How much more silver would that cost?"
Fang Jie pondered for a moment and said, "At least three hundred taels, right?"
The big dog was suddenly shocked and couldn't help but curse, "Are you going to drink human blood?!"
The two bumpkins, who had never seen the prosperity of the Sui Dynasty's capital, argued heatedly over whether it was three hundred taels or one hundred taels. Mu Xiaoyao, who was sleeping in the carriage, impatiently rolled over, thinking, "It's just silver, I can just stuff it all in. Why bother stealing it back tonight?"
"Just as naive as me..."
"Big Dog, from now on in the capital, you have to call me Young Master."
Fang Jie opened his eyes, looked at the floating clouds in the sky, and said seriously, "I also need to think of a more meaningful courtesy name. Juexiao, Juexiao... the one I thought of before was too common. I need to think of something more elegant. Big Dog, can you help me think of one... Never mind, I know from your name that you can't be of much help."
Big Dog chuckled and simply didn't answer.
After thinking for a while, Fang Jie couldn't come up with a good name either, so he lifted the curtain and climbed into the carriage. Seeing Mu Xiaoyao asleep, he sat down next to her and shook her arm, asking, "Sister Xiaoyao, I want a courtesy name."
Mu Xiaoyao suddenly woke up and sat up straight, staring intently at Fang Jie, saying, "...You want a prostitute? I told you...you can't go with the people from Hongxiuzhao!"
"What does it have to do with that?"
Fang Jie was puzzled.
"If you want a prostitute, why don't you go ask one on the carriage up ahead? What are you telling me? You have at least tens of thousands of taels of silver in your bag. Even if the women of Hongxiuzhao are noble, tens of thousands of taels can't buy a prostitute, right? Don't bother me! I want to sleep!"
Fang Jie asked in surprise, "I just want a courtesy name, why are you so angry?"
"Go ask where you want to go! Don't bother me!"
"Let me spend money to buy a courtesy name...how vulgar!"
Fang Jie muttered to himself, then turned and crawled out again. Behind him, Mu Xiaoyao angrily retorted, "You think prostitutes don't charge money? You expect to get it for free?!"
Fang Jie's mind was preoccupied with choosing a courtesy name and title; he hadn't considered that Mu Xiaoyao had misunderstood. He realized that he couldn't appear too shabby in the capital, so his courtesy name and title needed to be more refined. Although he possessed memories of two lifetimes, he knew nothing about this unfamiliar world. He didn't even know that courtesy names in this world differed from those in the history he was familiar with. In this world, only the father could give his child a courtesy name; even teachers didn't have that privilege.
"Forget it, my courtesy name, Juexiao, is already in the military register; I can't change it even if I wanted to."
He sighed, then asked the large dog beside him, "How about I call myself Xipo Jushi?"
"Why Xipo?"
"Because there's a very famous person named Dongpo. Besides, we really did come from the west. The Wolf Milk Mountain range west of Fangu City, to me, is just a dirt slope. Coming from the dirt slopes west of the Sui Dynasty, calling myself Xipo Jushi is fitting."
"You're plagiarizing!"
"Plagiarizing… He's Dongpo, so I'm Xipo plagiarizing?"
"What else is it?"
...
...
Fangu.
Four days after Fang Jie left, a troop of about two hundred elite cavalrymen charged along the official road to the east gate of Fangu. Although the armor on these cavalrymen was covered in a layer of dust, it was still clear that it was exceptionally well-made. It wasn't leather armor, but solid chainmail. Not only were they chainmailed, but underneath lay a layer of iron armor, not particularly thick but extremely sturdy. This entire suit of armor weighed at least sixty or seventy pounds.
The knights on horseback were all robust and burly men, indicating that their warhorses were no ordinary beasts. These knights were strong and tall, each weighing no less than one hundred and fifty pounds. Add to that the heavy armor, weapons, baggage, and clothing, and it would be impossible for them to run without truly fine horses!
Heavy armor, long-handled sabers, iron helmets, and red cloaks.
Furthermore, with the golden embroidered dragon banners of the Sui Dynasty gleaming in the sunlight, this cavalry unit appeared exceptionally imposing and solemn. Although their numbers were small, they possessed the grandeur of a thousand troops.
Seeing a pure cavalry unit in the Sui Dynasty was already rare; seeing such an elite heavy cavalry force was even more difficult. Because of the Mongol Empire's blockade, not only were the tribes on the grasslands forbidden from selling warhorses to the Sui Dynasty, but even the small kingdoms of the Western Regions were prohibited from sending a single warhorse to the Sui. Although the Sui Dynasty was vast and rich in resources, it was so desperately short of horses that its emperors cursed it to death.
Therefore, since the founding of the Sui Dynasty, cavalry had always been the dream of every general.
The Sui Dynasty's sixteen guards each maintained a force of approximately 50,000 men. Even now, among the more than 300,000 elite troops transferred to garrison Chang'an—the Left Guard, Right Guard, Left Martial Guard, Right Martial Guard, Left Commander Guard, and Right Commander Guard—it would be impossible to muster 20,000 cavalry.
If light cavalry was so scarce, the extremely difficult-to-build heavy cavalry was even more so.
Throughout the entire Sui Dynasty, only the Right Valiant Guard, outside of the Six Armies of the Emperor, possessed a heavy cavalry force of 500 men. Even this meager number of 500 was the result of nearly five years of work by General Li Yuanshan, the commander of the Right Valiant Guard. The Sui Dynasty had no shortage of money and provisions; forging heavy armor was not difficult. The real challenge lay in finding five hundred warhorses capable of carrying heavy cavalry in battle.
The Right Valiant Guard, after years of managing the Northwest, had finally managed to gather these five hundred fine warhorses through various channels. They even risked the court's wrath and war four years prior by intercepting the envoys from the Western Regions' Tusi Kingdom who were coming to pay homage to the Sui Emperor. The Right Valiant Guard's elite soldiers, disguised as bandits, bound the envoys and left them by the roadside, dragging away all the hundreds of horses—not a single hair was left.
This was done by Li Yuanshan, and he knew he couldn't hide it from the Emperor. In fact, the Emperor understood what had happened after hearing the Tusi prince's tearful account. He comforted the prince and even bestowed upon him many silks and porcelains. Then, the Emperor wrote a personal letter scolding Emperor Xiaozong, who, instead of being alarmed, laughed heartily after reading it.
"Idiot! I finally managed to trick a few envoys from small Western Region kingdoms into coming to pay homage, and you intercepted the very first one to enter! How are the others supposed to dare come in? You idiot, couldn't you have waited until they left before intercepting them?!"
These five hundred heavy cavalrymen were the personal guards of Li Yuanshan, the Right Valiant Guard General.
Therefore, when the garrison of Fangu City recognized these heavy cavalrymen, they immediately opened the city gates and let them pass, without even needing to look at the token the leading captain produced. The Mongol Empire lacked iron and was unwilling to manufacture heavy cavalry. Besides, the steppe people always believed that cavalry was all about speed; while heavily armored cavalrymen were incredibly powerful, they couldn't match the speed of light cavalry.
The leading cavalry captain didn't even bother to speak to the garrison and went straight into the city towards the General's Mansion.
Upon arriving at the gate of Li Xiaozong's General's Mansion, the guards immediately stepped forward to stop him. The captain, too lazy to answer, casually tossed his waist token to the guard, dismounted, and strode into the General's Mansion. A mere heavy cavalry captain was already this arrogant and domineering; it seemed the rumors about the Right Valiant Guard being all unruly were true.
Emperor Li Xiaozong, hearing the commotion from his study, gave the captain a cold look: "Even if you are a captain under the Grand General, have you forgotten the military laws of the Sui Dynasty? Why don't you salute me? Until the court's punishment is handed down, I remain the commander of Fangu City."
The captain hesitated for a moment, then gave a casual snort and gave a perfunctory salute: "Dismiss your attendants, the Grand General has come in person."
Emperor Li Xiaozong was greatly alarmed, his heart tightening.
...
...
The stove in the study was removed, because Grand General Li Yuanshan disliked the rising charcoal ash the most. He had a nasal problem; the smell made him uncomfortable. This problem wasn't frequent in the capital, but it became more and more common in the colder weather of the Northwest. Yet, he couldn't stand the smell of charcoal ash, leaving him in a dilemma.
Dressed in ordinary heavy cavalry attire, Li Yuanshan surveyed the study's furnishings, a hint of displeasure in his expression.
As the Right Valiant Guard General, leaving the camp without authorization was a matter for the court to address. Although he was arrogant, he was not reckless.
"Do you know why I've come?"
He looked at a painting of a tiger descending a mountain hanging on the wall and asked calmly.
"Because Wu Peisheng is dead."
Li Xiaozong, kneeling on the ground, answered simply, but this one sentence encapsulated all the trouble. Embezzlement, military-run gambling dens—these matters were utterly insignificant compared to Wu Peisheng's death.
"No."
Li Yuanshan turned to look at Li Xiaozong, his tone now tinged with anger: "It's because you didn't act cleanly enough! Since Wu Peisheng must die, he must die a thorough death! So many in the army knew about this, why didn't you kill them? And that Fang Jie, why didn't you eliminate such a scourge?"
Li Xiaozong smiled bitterly: "I've already lost the hearts of the army."
"The hearts of eight hundred men mean nothing!"
Li Yuanshan snorted and asked: "Do the people in the city know the truth?"
"No."
"That's good... a massacre would still be troublesome."