The journey stretched on endlessly.
Chen Yan had estimated that traveling from that frontier town in northern Liaolong to the Mei River crossing would take at least ten days, but in reality it took even longer.
Because of Little Su’s injuries.
If it had been ordinary walking, Su Hongzhen’s body could have handled it. But vigorous movement—jumping or running—was still out of the question. That included galloping on horseback.
So the speed at which Chen Yan and Su Hongzhen were heading for the Mei River crossing was much slower than expected.
"Brother, did you go to Yunxi to escape the war?" Two horses walked side by side on the road. Su Hongzhen asked Chen Yan in that direction.
"Yes." Chen Yan nodded.
"Then why?" Little Su looked puzzled. "I always hear people say chaos produces heroes... Brother, though you’re not much older than me, with your skills, whether in Liaolong or Great Yu, you should have a place to stand."
Chen Yan smiled faintly at that. It truly was a chaotic time. The flames of war in Great Yu were growing fiercer. Li Chengyuan’s army had advanced rapidly. Now the Wei Protectorate’s two hundred thousand troops were encamped only about a hundred li from Ningjing. The thirty thousand border garrison in the Southern Court were not under Li Chengyuan’s command. At the war’s outset, the Southern Court’s captain had firmly sided with the Great Yu emperor, but after being besieged month after month by the one hundred and fifty thousand elite soldiers of the Eastern Protectorate, they ultimately chose to lay down their arms and surrender.
Compared to the domestic situation, Li Chengyuan had also focused attention on Liaolong behind him. Liaolong had made many small moves along the border. Combining its original border troops and the elite soldiers recently transferred to the frontier, there were now nearly sixty thousand men. Li Chengyuan was preparing to use Hezhou’s elite troops to pin down the Northern Court’s main force, while the Wei Protectorate would launch a decisive battle at Ningjing, aiming to seize the capital in one push and stabilize the situation. That way, the neighboring states around Great Yu would be less likely to act rashly.
The sound of hooves striking the ground continued.
"Whether Liaolong or Great Yu, I have a place there?" Chen Yan smiled.
"Of course," Su Hongzhen said. "With the things you did back in Matou Village to save me, if you joined the army, you’d be bowing to generals in no time!"
"Better not. Not interested." Chen Yan shook his head.
"Not interested in being a general? Brother, what else do you want to do—become emperor—" The words had just left his mouth when Su Hongzhen immediately fell silent, scanning around to see if anyone else was nearby. They were in a desolate mountain area; only Chen Yan and Su Hongzhen were present.
"Afraid of what?" Chen Yan found Su Hongzhen’s reaction amusing. "What can the Liaolong Emperor do?"
Su Hongzhen paused at that, then asked, "Brother, are you saying you want to unify the world?"
In truth, Little Su’s understanding of the concept of "the world" was hazy. He only knew his current country was Liaolong, Great Yu lay to the north, Yunxi lay across the Mei River to the west, and to Great Yu’s north were numerous united nomadic tribes known to people as Shanrong.
"Those are all mundane matters, none of my concern, nor yours." Chen Yan shook his head.
"Mundane..." Su Hongzhen muttered Chen Yan’s two words quietly.
Chen Yan said nothing more. He merely glanced with the corner of his eye at the crooked, awkward boy riding beside him. The thirteen-year-old had no idea how tumultuous and magnificent the life ahead of him would be.
...
Travel time was both tedious and swift.
After another ten days, Chen Yan finally arrived with Su Hongzhen at the crossing where one could cross the Mei River from Liaolong.
What lay before them was not as orderly as they had imagined. News of the slaughter at Matou Village in Liaolong’s northern border—over seventy households, about four hundred people butchered by bandits—had spread thoroughly throughout Liaolong. Four hundred lives was a tremendous event for Liaolong, which had seen no war for decades.
And it was not only Matou Village; many other villages had been harried by bandits, though none as brutally as Matou Village. Moreover, those bandits prowling Liaolong’s border might be connected to deserters from the Great Yu war, which had thrown Liaolong’s populace into panic. Great Yu had already fallen into chaos; would Liaolong be next?
For this reason, many frantic Liaolong people had gathered at this crossing, all hoping to board boats to Yunxi. But traveling to Yunxi was not as simple as deciding to go. Some tried to sneak across; if caught, the lucky ones would be sent back, the unlucky ones might be thrown into Mei River Prefecture’s foul prison and never emerge.
Though they said "never emerge," typically those thrown into the Mei River Prefecture’s stinking prison would die within three months. There was another route: buying a trade permit from the Yunxi officials at the crossing. Under normal circumstances, such a permit granting entry to Yunxi would sell for about five taels of silver at Liaolong’s crossings. But this was no normal time. The price of a trade permit had been speculated up to three hundred taels of silver.
That was a price Chen Yan could not accept, especially with Su Hongzhen at his side. Chen Yan needed a stable environment in which he could calmly train back to the Qi Circulation Realm. The Liaolong emperor’s repeated troop deployments to the border with Great Yu were not merely to exterminated bandits as he publicly claimed. He had his own designs. That meant Liaolong could erupt into chaos at any moment.
If that was the case...
"Yo." A stranger’s middle-aged voice came from nearby. Chen Yan turned toward the sound and saw a middle-aged man in fine clothes standing there, curiously inspecting the splints and bandages on Su Hongzhen, and said, "What happened to this young one? How did someone beat him to such a state?"