Changning's Imperial Army Chapter 0

The Ning Empire had always held Daoism in high regard, ever since it was established hundreds of years ago.

Daoism promoted benevolence and magnanimity. However, not a single emperor of the Ning Empire throughout hundreds of years was truly benevolent or magnanimous. For example, when the current emperor, Li Chengtang, deployed 120,000 elite troops on the southern border to sweep across the Nanyue Empire, he said……”Do you know why the Great Ning Empire is called the Great Ning Empire? That is because as long as the Great Ning Empire is around, everybody would be free from worry.”

The reason behind wiping out the Nanyue Empire was because a few of their goats crossed the border and nibbled on three cabbages in one of the vegetable farms on Great Ning Empire's side of the border.

Wasn't it absurd?

Whether it was absurd or not, the emperor of the Nanyue Empire knew best. However, there was no medicine for regret.

Three cabbages, 120,000 elite troops. Just like that, an empire with 300 years of history was wiped out.

If only the emperor of the now vanquished Nanyue Empire, Yang Yu, who was currently confined in a small courtyard in the Eighth District Alley of the capital, could foresee his current predicament, he probably would have slaughtered all the goats in the Nanyue Empire, including sheep and cows.

His Majesty displayed the Li imperial family's unreasonable nature without restraint. In the words of a Daoist spiritual master on Mount Dragon Tiger: A circling dragon reveals its dragon claws from time to time, instilling fear that was hard to forget.

The strange thing was that, a couple of years ago, Zen Buddhism from the western regions started flourishing in the Great Ning Empire. The empress became one of the devout believers. She even tried to persuade the emperor, telling him that Zen Buddhism focused on being merciful, and doing good. She also explained to him about karma, convincing him to listen to what the senior monk preached.

Li Chengtang said, “I know for a fact that Daoism belongs to the Great Ning Empire. If I don't protect it, who would? Anything that comes from outside of the Great Ning Empire……I have absolutely no interest in it. If there is really karma, you should get struck by lightning.”

Ever since then, the empress had never stepped foot into the temple; she only burned some joss sticks and candles within her quarters in the palace.

Twelve years ago, for some reason, it was the previous empress' last time stepping into a Daoist temple. Ever since then, she started to become a believer of Zen Buddhism instead.

At that time, Li Chengtang was not the ruler – the person at the throne was his brother Li Chengyuan.

Twelve years ago, on an ordinary day, with nothing peculiar or strange happening, Emperor Li Chengyuan vomited a lot of blood out of the blue. He pa.s.sed away shortly after, and the entire imperial court of the Great Ning Empire was thrown into chaos. That was because the emperor had no sons.

The senior secretary suggested that since the emperor had no sons, they should pick one of the princes to succeed to the throne. However, the oldest prince was only seven or eight years old. It was extremely clear what his intentions were.

Nonetheless, the senior secretary had substantial power and authority. A third of the officials in the imperial court were his allies. Even the empress did not dare to voice her opinions.

n.o.body expected that on the very day that they escorted the selected crown prince from Jiangnan to the capital, the great general Pei Tingshan, who was stationed in Dongjiang, brought 9,000 weapons with him and traversed outside of the capital. This great general, who had been leading the troops for twenty years, and lost count of the number of people he had killed, set up a pavilion outside the city gate. He carried a sword and sat cross-legged. He only said one sentence.

“If Prince Liu is not here, we will not withdraw our weapons.”

Prince Liu is the current emperor, Li Chengtang.

80,000 warriors in the capital did not dare to make a move. Were they really afraid to make a move?

Everyone knew that Prince Liu had made a name for himself in the military when he was younger.

Hence, the crown prince ran away, feeling crestfallen. He did not dare to step foot into the city gate.

Therefore, the secret secretary looked up to the sky and sighed deeply before cursing, “What a brute! So crude at handling matters, not refined at all.”

Was there anything he could do?

No.

Twelve years ago, on the day that Li Chengtang was about to rush to the capital during the night, his wife had entered the Daoist temple. She met a Daoist devotee and did something that made Li Chengtang extremely furious afterwards. Later on, that very incident cost the empress' originally well-regarded and prestigious clan to meet with suppression for twelve years – not a single member of the clan could become a fourth pin official or higher. They were hard-pressed.

However, the empress had no regrets.

She clenched her teeth and persevered. She was not afraid of getting even the most malicious retribution.

That day, her only son turned one.

That year, the Daoist devotee from the Daoist temple sighed and lamented that the heavens was the one who decided his fate, not him. He lost what the empress had given him on a cold snowy night, and decided to leave the Daoist temple to head back home, reproaching himself every day.

A strong and courageous man would be revered by hundreds; a hero would revered by thousands. As for the one and only Great Ning Empire…naturally, it was revered by the entire world.

It was not known when it began, but religious activities to pray for blessings started springing up in the Ning Empire's neighboring countries. The earliest sightings of it could be traced back to its next-door neighbor, the Nanyue Empire – every year, on the ninth day of September, the day where the founding emperor of the Great Ning Empire ascended the throne, the Zhaoli Empire's emperor would personally lead the civil and military officials to pray for Great Ning's blessings. Thereafter, he would secretly throw in one more line in his prayers…that Great Ning would not mobilize their army or wage a war on them.

To put it simply, every year, he would pray for their safety against war…

One might find it ridiculous. However, the reason why the Zhaoli Empire would do such a thing was because of what happened to the Nanyue Empire. The Ning Empire sent 120,000 troops down south, vanquishing and erasing the Nanyue Empire off the map a couple of years ago, all because a few of their goats crossed the border and ate some of the cabbages of the inhabitants who lived there. The Zhaoli Empire was not any stronger than the Nanyue Empire – the two empires had fought for hundreds of years, but were still evenly matched prior to the incident. With the 120,000 troops still stationed there, it was entirely normal for the Zhaoli Empire to be fearful.

Great Ning was able to use a couple of cabbages as an excuse to vanquish Nanyue. For all they knew, they could use a similar absurd excuse as such to vanquish Zhaoli as well.

To the present day, the dethroned emperor of the vanquished Nanyue Empire, who was currently placed under house arrest in the Eighth District Alley in the capital of Great Ning, continued to lament about the fact that he should have killed every single goat, sheep, and similar livestocks in the entire country. He was filled with regrets – regardless of how much he drank his sorrows away, it was not sufficient. The emperor of the Zhaoli Empire had learned from this incident, and started killing every single goat and sheep in his country…

Scapegoat.

Great Ning was adept and powerful in every aspect except for one – their navy.

When it came to their land-based military forces, naturally the strongest would be the elites from the four borders and four depositories – the Northern Border Cavalry, the Western Border Armed Forces, the Southern Border Special Forces, and the Eastern Border Combat Forces. As for the four depositories, they were the Four Borders Military Resources and the Four Depositories Military Repository. Every single year, valiant generals were produced out of these competent talents.

If not for Great Ning's hundreds of years worth of substantial national treasury, even if they had the strongest military power, they would not be worthy of being revered by the entire world.

There were nineteen divisions within Great Ning; each division had nineteen cantons. The most populous and affluent division was Jiangnan. Every year, a fifth of the taxes that went into the national treasury came from Jiangnan. As for the most affluent canton within Jiangnan – it was Anyang, where weaving manufacturing took place within Great Ning.

Great Ning's brocades were considered number one in the entire world; it was hard to fathom the Westerners' obsession with Great Ning's brocades. It was rumored that the emperor of the Chetuo Empire, in the western region, flaunted that all eleven pieces of clothing on his body weighed less than 500 grams. The emperor of the neighboring country, the Tubo Empire, immediately splurged lavishly on better quality textiles. Similarly, he started flaunting his clothes, that all fifteen pieces weighed less than 500 grams.

Naturally, decent clothes were desirable. As for using their weight to determine their quality, it was questionable.

Anyang was situated next to the Nanping River. In the huge Nanping River, there was an endless stream of merchant ships transporting brocades. The taxes coming from the brocade merchants accounted for sixty percent of Jiangnan's total taxes.

The world did not lack of desperate criminals who were willing to take huge risks. The sea bandits had always been a huge curse that had historically plagued Jiangnan. Initially, Great Ning's battle troops were mobilized to deal with them. However, the battle skills possessed by the sea bandits trumped that of the troops, who were specialized in land-based battles. Hence, they were unable to wipe out the sea bandits.

For that reason, His Majesty, Li Chengtang decided to properly establish their own navy. Initially, they were known as the Water Patrol of Jiangnan's weaving prefecture – they dealt with the sea bandits as part of their training. Although it started showing results, getting rid of the sea bandits entirely was a long and arduous process that could not be done overnight.

He was turning twenty this year, and his biggest dream was to be extremely strong and powerful, possessing the ability to kill all the bandits at sea. Leng, who had just finished loading the cargo, sat by the river. He was lost in thought, as he stared at the battleships of the Water Patrol. He was the adopted son of Mr. Meng, the boss of a weaving mill in a small town called Yulin. It was more accurate to describe him as a coolie, rather than an adopted son.

The reason why he was so determined was because he had a feeling that his biological parents were killed by sea bandits, which was the reason why they tossed him, who was an infant back then, into a nearby underbrush in the wintry twelfth lunar month. If Mr. Meng did not pa.s.s by the underbrush and brought him home to ward off evil for his biological son, Meng Changan, he would have died as soon as he was born.

Mr. Shen once said: Take grat.i.tude more to heart, and less hate.

Leng suffered hardship living under the Mengs' roof – he started working for them when he was five or six years old. Other merchants hired coachmen to transport their goods, however, for the Mengs, Leng single handedly transporting everything on his shoulders ever since he turned ten years old. Many people a.s.sumed that Leng would not live a long life. After all, he started work at such a young age. Mr. Meng gave him nothing but two steamed buns every single day. How was it sufficient for him?

Leng was like a weed in the snow-covered ground that should not have sprung up – forcefully prying his way out of the frozen ground and tearing through the layer of snow above it, growing taller and taller towards the sun…When he was twelve years old, he was already 1.7 meters tall. Even though he had a very lean figure, he was strong.

From dusk till late into the night, Leng had been sitting by the river. He could not leave because Mr. Meng ordered him to wait for Meng Changan – the young master who was of the same age as him, but led extremely different lives.

Six years ago, there was an old Daoist devotee who pa.s.sed by the area. When he laid eyes on Meng Changan, his eyes lit up. He said that Meng Changan looked strong and powerful, and that he would grow up to be a very capable person. Hence, he brought him to Changan city's Yanta Academy of Cla.s.sical Learning to study academic books and learn martial arts.

Every year before the mid-autumn festival, Meng Changan would make his way home from Changan city. Every time he came back, Leng would be the one pulling a heavy rickshaw and escorted him home. The Meng family owned chariots that were pulled by horses, however, Mr. Meng said that it was too b.u.mpy and not as comfortable and steady as one that was pulled by a person.

Little fatty, Chen Ran, ran over from afar. He sat next to Leng and handed him two steamed buns that were nice and warm. “Leng'er, why haven't you gone home for the day? I saw that you have finished loading the cargo earlier in the evening.”

“I'm waiting for Meng Changan.”

Leng laughed and continued, “What about you? It's already pretty late, why aren't you going back?”

“I'm accompanying my father. My father said that there's one more cargo to be loaded in a while. He had accepted payment from a customer. No matter how late it is, I still have to wait.”

He gave the slightly bigger steamed bun to Leng. Leng, however, picked the smaller one and bit off half of it at one go.

Chen Ran smiled. He followed suit and took a big bite too. His cheeks were bulging with food but he still wanted to continue talking. “Meng Changan is coming back. That fella has been bullying you since you two were children…Come to think of it, did he really become a great general?”

“Great general?”

Leng shook his head; he was not sure whether or not Meng Changan was going to become a great general. He recalled the day the old Daoist devotee came to take Meng Changan away; when he saw Leng carrying a batch of fabric back, the old Daoist got so scared that his hands trembled. The old man started muttering under his breath – something about a trapped dragon in the deep pool. Leng did not understand a single word he said. He even said that Mr. Meng was incurring the wrath of heaven, and that a catastrophe would befall Yulin town in time to come.

Whatever.

He did not like that old Daoist devotee because he looked secretive and mysterious. He did not seem like a person that others would like. However, Leng liked Mr. Shen. Mr. Shen would make monthly trips to the Mengs' to replenish goods. He seemed like a very warmhearted person. He also appeared to be extra nice towards Leng; every time Leng loaded the cargo, he would give him three copper coins. Three copper coins might not be a lot of money – it was only sufficient for him to buy two steamed buns. Nonetheless, it was the thought that counted.

Every time Mr. Shen visited, he would bring some gifts with him. Even though they did not worth much, they were very special. This time, he gave Leng a stainless steel hunting knife. It was not yet sharpened, nor did it have a scabbard. Leng did not understand why Mr. Shen would give him such an item. Regardless, he really liked it a lot.

Mr. Shen heard about Leng's story, hence he chose to replenish the goods from the Mengs. One day in winter that year, Mr. Meng had a son. He invited a Daoist from a nearby Daoist temple to tell his son's fortune. The Daoist said that Meng Changan was a very blessed person. However, he was unlucky. He instructed Mr. Meng to look for an ill-fated child who was the same age as Meng Changan and adopt him, to help Meng Changan ward off evil. Coincidentally, as he was on his way back from the Daoist temple, Mr. Meng heard an infant crying in an underbrush nearby.

Ill-fated child? What could be worse than being abandoned?

Mr. Meng felt that it was heaven's will and happily took Leng home, naming him Leng'er. He casually named him without giving much thought. In any case, he was not important to him at all. He did not take the last name, Meng, as well – it was not a big deal for him to have no last name.

Leng'er pondered to himself – if it is possible, I want Shen to be my last name. Mr. Shen's last name…Shen Leng.

Mr. Shen mentioned before that grat.i.tude was more important than hatred. For some reason, Mr. Shen always repeated that to him whenever he visited. When he looked at Leng'er, the look in his eyes made it seem as though he was asking for forgiveness. Leng'er was not sure, and neither did he think that Mr. Shen was asking for forgiveness. This was because Mr. Shen did not do anything to let him down.

Mr. Shen also added that a man should not be narrow-minded; he should have magnificent aspirations, and should always remember to be grateful while taking revenge on people who did him wrong. Be it repaying debts of grat.i.tude or taking revenge, it should be done as soon as possible, without delay. In truth, Leng'er did not understand why Mr. Shen gave him a small hunting knife. What Mr. Shen was trying to tell him was that without a scabbard, the sharpness of the knife would not be concealed.

As his thoughts ran wild, Leng'er vaguely heard Chen Ran's voice – he was still rambling on and on as he was sitting next to him. He had finished his steamed bun.

Leng'er abruptly recalled something. “Are the steamed buns your father's dinner? If he gave them to us, how is he going to load the cargo on an empty stomach?”

Leng'er took out three copper coins, “The person selling steamed buns by the river works through the night. Buy another two steamed buns and give them to your father. As a son, you should consider how weary your father would be.”

Chen Ran's nose twitched, “I got it! I'd rather starve than let my father starve.”

He took the three copper coins and ran like a clumsy fat duck.

Leng'er chuckled. Mr. Shen once said before that people should have more compa.s.sion for others and always treat people with kindness…Mr. Shen was truly a strange person. He seemed to know everything, but sometimes his words contradicted themselves.

Leng'er kept the copper coins that Mr. Shen had given him over the years – even if he was cold and hungry, he could not bear to spend them. He heard that the food and drinks in Haohai, an establishment in Yulin town, were the best. However, they were exceptionally expensive. He had to save a lot more, before he could bring Mr. Shen there to treat him.

It was midnight and yet the cargo ship had not arrived. The coachmen waiting by the riverbank started grumbling and expressing their discontentment. Even though their voices were not loud, they were rather piercing to the ear.

Leng'er stood up and stretched. His shoulders still ached from carrying all the heavy things and the marks from the ropes were still there. He had worked the entire day, and pulled the heavy rickshaw all the way there. His muscles and bones had been struggling to endure his heavy workload since a long time ago.

At this moment, b.a.l.l.s of red light appeared upstream. It was a spectacular sight. Everyone a.s.sembled at the loading trestle and looked towards the light. The people with good eyesight suddenly yelled, “The ship is on fire!”

The b.a.l.l.s of red light were in fact cargo ships that were being ignited. Leng'er gasped…sea bandits! They must have been plundering upstream again. Mr. Shen left in the evening. Please be safe.

He stood at the riverbank and tiptoed. A cargo ship that was burning pa.s.sed by before his eyes. The fire was raging – Leng'er managed to catch a glimpse of the ship's logo with the help of the fire…it was Mr. Shen's ship.

Leng'er's head was spinning. It was the first time in his entire life experiencing such sorrow.

Regardless of how miserable his life was, he was not sad. Mr. Shen was such a good man, how could he have died?

Without hesitation, Leng'er took out the small hunting knife and held it in his mouth. He clenched his teeth and looked down. Akin to a calf that did not know the evil nature of human beings, he charged through the fence and jumped into the icy cold river, and started swimming towards the burning cargo ship.

If I were strong and powerful, I will kill all the sea bandits in this world.