In May, the grasshoppers rub their legs; in June, the katydids flutter their wings; by July, they are in the fields, and the filial son embarks on a distant journey to join the army.
On the vast and desolate post road of Longxi Province, Li Yuangui rode alongside the old Hu merchant Kang Su-mi. Ahead and behind them were the large escort troops specially assigned to him by the Northern Military Camp—ten Rotating Guards—as well as the household servants and slaves he had brought from Prince Wu’s residence. At first glance, the entourage appeared impressively large, but it was best not to look too closely...
The caravan of Hu merchants led by Kang Su-mi was even larger than his own retinue. With over twenty tall and sturdy camels, donkeys, horses, and bundles of silk goods, the combined procession made for a formidable sight on the trade route to the Western Regions. Such a sizable group, accompanied by the Faith Banner of the government and armed soldiers in soft armor carrying long spears, was unlikely to attract trouble from small bands of bandits—at least within the stable territories controlled by the Tang court south of Ganzhou.
Li Yuangui was well aware of the journey ahead. Before setting out, he had specifically sent someone to the Ministry of War to obtain a detailed map of the route from Chang’an to the Western Regions, which he had studied repeatedly and committed to memory. They would take the relatively prosperous Guanzhong Road, passing through Xingping, Wugong, Fufeng, Longzhou, Qinzhou, Weizhou, Linzhou, Liangzhou, Lanzhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou, and Guazhou, then exit through the Yumen Pass, cross the Moheyan Sands (modern-day Hami Desert) and the Great Haunted Sands (modern-day Kumtag Desert), before heading southwest to the royal city of Gaochang. If all went smoothly without hindrance, the journey would likely take... three months?
Their departure had been too early and too hasty, leaving many preparations incomplete. He could only hope they wouldn’t get lost and starve, freeze to death at night, perish from the midday heat, be mauled by wild beasts on the plains, hacked to death by bandits outside the frontier checkpoints, or burned alive by foreign kings and khans...
He wasn’t just scaring himself—these were the very warnings Kang Su-mi had repeated to him hundreds of times, though the old Hu merchant always wore a cheerful smile that belied his grim words. According to Kang Sabao himself, he had been traveling these trade routes with his family since childhood and had personally experienced every one of these misfortunes, surviving each time only by sheer luck.
And if luck had failed him even once? Well, it wouldn’t have mattered much—just another set of bleached bones half-buried in the desert. There would always be others with better fortune—An Sabao, He Sabao, Shi Sabao—who would rise to prominence, amass great wealth, and wield influence across the trade routes between the Central Plains, the Western Regions, and the lands beyond the Pamirs. Life and death were fated, and riches came only through peril. There was no use dwelling on it.
Despite such reassurances, Li Yuangui’s gloom remained unshaken. He knew that by the customs of these Hu merchants, his current status was closer to... a slave of Kang Su-mi.
The handwritten promissory note for fifty thousand bolts of silk, complete with his fingerprint, was still in Kang Su-mi’s possession. Such an enormous debt, even in the Han territories of the Central Plains, would give the creditor the right to sue in court, leaving the debtor with little choice but to sell himself into servitude to settle the debt. And among the Hu merchants, debt contracts and master-slave relations were treated with even greater severity. Were it not for Kang Su-mi’s caution regarding Li Yuangui’s status as a royal prince, he might already be marching with an iron collar around his neck, dragged along like a captive.In fact, if he had delayed his departure by just one or two more months, he might have been able to redeem that promissory note. Another month or two, and the "Tuyuhun Prince Murong Nuohebo" he had selected and trained would have been ready to graduate. He could have taken him to the imperial court to thank the Heavenly Khan for his benevolence, while also expressing gratitude to his elder brother, the Emperor, for the generous gift of thirty thousand bolts of silk.
Through the mediation of Duke of Qi, Zhangsun Wu-ji, he arranged another meeting with Murong Shun’s envoy to discuss the details of creating the "fake prince." This part wasn’t difficult. Though neither of them explicitly stated it, they understood each other perfectly. The envoy was also aware of the political and military changes in Tuyuhun and was even more eager than Li Yuangui to bring "Murong Shun’s legitimate heir" back to inherit the throne as the next khan. They merely discussed what this Prince Nuozhebo should look like, what knowledge he needed to possess, what demeanor he should adopt, and what tokens would convince the Tuyuhun people to accept him. The conversation went smoothly, and they parted on good terms.
Selecting the fake prince from the garrison troops, however, proved far more challenging. Most of the time before departure was spent on this ordeal. In the end, upon Yang Xinzhi’s recommendation, they settled on a poor and orphaned youth from the Yuan Cong forces in northern Wei, named Zhou Shi-er. He was the right age, physically robust, and had a rugged appearance. After some persuasion, he was also willing to venture beyond the frontier to become a prince. The only issue was that the boy wasn’t very bright—he learned new things slowly and was forgetful, which drove Li Yuangui and the others to frustration daily.
After the forty-nine-day mourning period for the Supreme Emperor, the state funeral affairs gradually relaxed. The Son of Heaven, citing urgent military matters in the northwest, ordered Li Yuangui to set off for Gaochang immediately, with the official imperial decree to follow later. Left with no choice, Li Yuangui entrusted the training of the Tuyuhun prince to his third brother-in-law, Chai Shao—Prince Consort Chai was on good terms with Kang Su-mi, familiar with foreign affairs, and had a son and daughter who could assist in the task. There was no one more suitable to entrust with this responsibility. Still grateful to Li Yuangui for facilitating the "Nine Princes' Mourning Visit," Chai Shao readily agreed, assuring him not to worry.
Thus, on the eve of his departure, only one wish remained unfulfilled.
He had visited Wei Zheng’s residence in Yongxingfang several times—whether to congratulate the Imperial Secretariat on the birth of his son or to seek Wei Zheng’s advice on northwestern affairs—but never once was he allowed past the gate. The Wei household’s gatekeepers had clearly received strict orders from their master, turning away Prince Wu’s esteemed presence each time without even bothering to announce him.
Li Yuangui discussed with Yang Xinzhi whether they could pull off another midnight wall-climbing stunt to sneak into the Wei residence and see the daughter, but in the end, the Kuzhen Guard persuaded him to abandon this scandalous idea. He still hadn’t entirely given up hope and clung to the fantasy of properly marrying Wei Shufen one day, so it wouldn’t do to further worsen her father’s opinion of him. Helpless, he penned a long, earnest letter filled with vows of undying love, attached a keepsake, and entrusted Chai Yingluo to deliver it to Wei Shufen.
But it was that very keepsake that had led to... Now, not only did Kang Su-mi hold Li Yuangui’s fifty-thousand-bolt promissory note, but he also harbored a secret that could cost the Tang Prince Wu his life. This weighed heavily on Li Yuangui, making him even more cautious in his actions. His gaze toward the old Hu merchant was filled with bitterness.The love letter he sent to Wei Shufen came with a token—an exquisite gilded silver pomander ball adorned with intertwining vine patterns. It could be hung at the waist or from a bed curtain, and its inner incense tray was ingeniously designed with a mechanism that kept it upright no matter how it turned, preventing the burning incense from spilling and causing a fire. The pomander was naturally a precious item for imperial use, originally a prize he had won for taking first place in the grand archery competition during the previous Double Ninth Festival. But what he valued even more was the small box of incense pellets sent along with the silver ball.
It was the last box of palace incense his mother had personally blended.
He divided the box into two portions—one half for the one he loved, and the other half, along with other valuable and presentable items, set aside as a dowry for his younger sister from the same mother, the seventeenth princess. His sister’s formal marriage to Pei Lvshi was to take place in three years, and he couldn’t be certain whether he would be back in Chang’an by then, so it was better to prepare in advance.
For the sake of this dowry, he sent word asking Nurse Liu, who had stayed behind in the rear courtyard of the Hall of Established Governance to accompany his sister, to come to the Great Peace Palace. After Nurse Liu received permission and arrived at the Seventeenth Prince's Residence, they exchanged tearful reminiscences. He then had his attendants explain each of the prepared items to her in detail. As it was already late, Nurse Liu had to stay overnight at Prince Wu’s residence and return to the Hall of Established Governance the next day… and then he asked.
After dismissing everyone else and ensuring no third pair of ears could overhear, Li Yuangui asked his nurse, Liu, who had served alongside his mother, Lady Zhang, in Consort Yin’s household even before he was born:
“Who is my real father?”
OpenNovel