Madam Liu didn’t faint on the spot, which showed how much hardship she had endured recently had toughened her. Naturally, the nursemaid was unwilling to speak the truth, but unable to withstand Li Yuangui’s relentless questioning—especially when he insisted, “I’m about to be exiled thousands of miles away, unsure if I’ll ever return to the Central Plains alive. I can’t die without even knowing who I am”—she finally broke down in tears and revealed the truth:
“Fourteenth Young Master… this servant… doesn’t know either…”
What did she mean by “doesn’t know”?
“That year… Consort Yin had just given birth to the Eighth Prince and was still in confinement. The Supreme Emperor left the capital on an inspection tour and couldn’t take her along, so he brought other beauties instead. Consort Yin was unhappy… After the Supreme Emperor departed, one day she invited Prince Qi and the Crown Prince… the former Crown Prince… At that time, Prince Qi lived in the rear courtyard of Martial Virtue Hall, and the former Crown Prince was in the Crown Prince’s Palace, both close to her Ningyun Hall. The palace gates were open day and night… They drank and reveled all night long… The former Crown Prince initially behaved somewhat decently, but after drinking too much, he joined Prince Qi in… Since Consort Yin was still in confinement, she had the young and attractive maids in her service accompany them… Your mother was among them…”
Ah, Li Yuangui thought. Consort Yin had hosted an unrestrained orgy in her own palace. He had heard rumors of this before but never imagined he was a product of it.
“A few days after the revelry, Consort Yin realized this was improper. When the Supreme Emperor returned to the capital—about five or six days later—she used her wiles to arrange a similar entertainment for him… By the end of that month, Lady Zhang discovered she was with child…”
Madam Liu sighed deeply, wiping her tears with a handkerchief. Li Yuangui found himself far calmer than he had expected, able to continue asking composedly, “So at the very least, it had nothing to do with Prince Qin at the time?”
“Ah… This servant never witnessed anything… Only later did I hear Consort Yin and the others gossip, saying Lady Zhang had been sent to Inheriting Heaven Hall to deliver something to Princess Qin. It grew late, and she stayed overnight. Prince Qin was also home, so suspicion arose… Consort Yin and the others spread this as a joke, Fourteenth Young Master. Don’t take it to heart…”
Splendid. So his biological father could be any one of the four—Li Yuan, Li Jian-cheng, Li Shimin, or Li Yuan-ji. Only the gods knew for certain now. Perfect.
Strangely, after learning this “truth,” he felt much lighter, as if a great weight had been lifted from his heart. His official record in the imperial genealogy listed him as the fourteenth son of Emperor Gaozu. No one could deny that he might not be, and that was enough. As for the rest, as Wei Shufen had once said, who cared?
He truly believed he could stop caring… until the next day, when he went to Kang Sabao’s residence in Buzheng Ward and drank himself into a stupor. Upon waking the following morning, he vaguely recalled mentioning the words “my biological father” to Kang Su-mi.
He only remembered uttering those three words.
Li Yuangui exhaled deeply, wishing he could draw the small knife from his belt and cut out his own tongue. Kang Su-mi, for his part, had remained courteous throughout, never bringing it up. Yet Li Yuangui couldn’t shake the feeling that behind his ever-smiling expression lay boundless shrewdness and satisfaction. Or perhaps it was just his own guilt playing tricks on him…
During his journey, he had also considered discussing this with Yang Xinzhi. But Yang Xinzhi had his own troubles—he had finally learned that the foreign girl Mi Wei, with her yellow hair and green eyes, was carrying his child. This left him deeply distressed, unsure of what to do.The two foreign girls, Mi Wei and Fen Dui, who were fluent in both Chinese and foreign languages and had close ties with Li Yuangui and the others, were also part of the group heading to Gaochang this time. Mi Wei’s belly was noticeably swollen, making the journey difficult, but she was accustomed to hardship and dared not complain. Yang Xinzhi naturally showed her extra care, and Kang Su-mi tacitly allowed their unusually intimate behavior, though he never mentioned "giving Mi Wei to Yang Dalang." Every day, he jovially teased the couple while firmly holding onto the slave contract, unwilling to let go.
Each member of the group harbored their own thoughts and motives, but on the surface, the journey remained harmonious and pleasant. Departing from Chang'an westward, they traveled by day and rested by night. The journey wasn’t particularly arduous until they left Longzhou behind. The eight-hundred-li Qin Plain was densely populated with bustling market towns, allowing the caravan to sell goods along the way. Occasionally, when they camped in the wilderness at night, the foreign girls played the pipa and danced foreign-style dances, drawing large crowds of curious villagers.
Li Yuangui ordered his guards to take the opportunity to gather local customs and news, though there wasn’t much worth noting. It had been about twenty years since the chaos of the Sui Dynasty. The fertile lands of Guanzhong had seen a resurgence in population, and matters like land distribution and tax collection were handled by officials, maintaining relative peace. The common people’s main grievances were still about "the frequent conscriptions in recent years, with able-bodied men being drafted for war."
Looking at the villages and the roads, it was clear that the elderly, women, and children made up the majority. However, within Guanzhong, Li Yuangui could only sigh and comment. But once they ascended the Longshan Mountains, the scenery swiftly transformed from lush greenery to desolate expanses. Endless ridges, gullies, and loess plateaus stretched before them, dominating the entire view. He fell silent, no longer in the mood for discussion.
From Longzhou to Qinzhou, Weizhou, and Linzhou, this was still a semi-pastoral region primarily focused on farming. But once they reached Liangzhou, Lanzhou, Ganzhou, Suzhou, and Guazhou, farmland, houses, rivers, and trees would become increasingly scarce. Most of what they would see were grasslands, herds of sheep and cattle, and vast stretches of desert. Settlements would mainly cluster around official roads and post stations. Missing a stop by then would become a serious problem, as camping in the wilderness posed great risks—or so Kang Su-mi told Li Yuangui.
"Truth be told, it wasn’t like this over twenty years ago," the old foreign merchant sighed. "During the prosperous days of the Sui Dynasty, this road was peaceful, with households everywhere. But the Yang family emperor messed things up, and within a few years, families were ruined, and the land still hasn’t recovered. It’s ruined our business too. What a sin!"
Despite his words, once they lodged at the post station in Qinzhou’s administrative center, Kang Su-mi immediately sought out a broker to inquire about horse prices. It turned out there were several imperial horse pastures in the area. Since the Turks had been driven north and peace had been restored, border trade in sheep and horses had flourished. Foals and steeds multiplied, and aside from supplying the military and the court, there were also matters like culling inferior stock and breeding. Foreign merchants were accustomed to profiting from these transactions. Kang Su-mi had specifically brought along several traders skilled in horse and mule trade for this very purpose.
He was in luck. Upon inquiry, he learned that a large batch of Qinghai horses would soon be driven down from the Hehuang region—spoils captured by Tang forces from Tuyuhun. They were being fattened here before being sent to the capital for the victory ceremony. Overjoyed, Kang Su-mi hurried out with his men to negotiate the deal. Li Yuangui didn’t know how this business worked, nor did he care to find out. His mind was elsewhere.
Northwest of Qinzhou lay a county called "Chengji"—Longxi Chengji.
The ancestral home claimed by the Tang imperial Li family.According to Li Yuangui's knowledge, neither his father Li Yuan nor their ancestors for several generations back—whether it was the founding patriarch Li Hu or the more recent ancestor "Liang Wuzhao King Li Hao"—had ever lived in Chengji. The fundamental reason his family claimed this place as their ancestral home was to trace their lineage back to the Han Dynasty's "Flying General" Li Guang, as the Records of the Grand Historian clearly states: "General Li Guang was a man of Chengji in Longxi."
So when it came to haphazardly acknowledging fathers and ancestors... what was there to be anxious or conflicted about?
He inquired with the stationmaster and learned that Chengji County wasn't too far from the prefectural seat—a round trip could be made within a day on horseback. The stationmaster added that their timing was unfortunate. Near Chengji's Xianqin River stood the ruins of an ancient city from the Qin and Han dynasties, said to be the birthplace of the Flying General. It would have been worth a special visit, but recently, the northwestern army had escorted a batch of prisoners there. Due to a lack of proper holding facilities, the local officials had temporarily confined them within the old city under guard, and the area was now off-limits.
"Prisoners?" Li Yuangui asked. "What prisoners?"
"Prisoners captured by Grand Commander Duke Yaoshi in Tuyuhun!" The stationmaster's face lit up with excitement at the mention of Duke Yaoshi. "I heard they've got the khan's queen! And the chancellor, the khan's brother-in-law! And princes and princesses! A whole crowd of nobles and tribal chiefs! Tsk tsk, what a mighty and fearsome sight—now they're all like defeated roosters. For years, those people led troops here to burn and kill. If it weren't for the soldiers guarding them, the common folk would have rushed in to tear them apart and eat them alive!"
Li Yuangui's heart chilled, then surged with excitement.
It seemed he had no choice but to visit the birthplace of the Flying General.
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