Volume 2
Chapter 1 Military treatise
It was another morning with the golden sun shining down on the earth. The diligent Winged Clan members had already got up early and started practicing their skills, cooking, farming, etc. After I got up and had just finished eating, the two clan leaders invited me over.
“Your Highness, are you comfortable here?” Tarozi asked politely when he saw me arrive.
I knew that they actually wanted me to pass on their special skills, so I didn’t respond but asked directly, ‘Where do you practice? It would be best if it was a quiet place.’
The two of them, overjoyed, led me to a valley. ‘Your Highness, this is where we usually practice. There is also a cave inside, which is extremely quiet and where we usually go to meditate,’ Tarozi told me.
“You can find twenty more people, and it won’t be a problem to teach twenty-two people at a time.“
”Okay, I’ll get right on it,“ said Lintorn, and he entered the valley.
”Let’s go in too, Your Highness, this way please.” Tarozi led the three of us into a cave in the valley, which was on the top of the mountain wall, extremely high above the ground. Only the Eagles could find this kind of cave. The cave was extremely flat and had obviously been repaired by the Eagles. There were a few illuminated magic stones on the walls that gave off a soft light. There were a total of three branch caves in this cave, each not small, and it looked like they could barely hold more than a hundred people. There were about twenty straw mats on the stone floor of each cave, which was probably for people to sit on.
Soon, Chief Lintern led twenty people in, all of whom sat in front of me. They were all warriors from the two tribes.
“Everyone is here, Your Highness, you can begin,” said Lintern.
I passed on the Battle Eagle Qigong, Eagle Whirl Spear, Angry Eagle Whirl, and Eagle Strike (for fists, palms, and fingers) to the Eagles, the Great Falcon Qigong, Startling Falcon Finger, Piercing Strong Spear, and Seventeen Falcon Break to the Falcons, and the Heart Refining Art to them as well, as well as the techniques of Tian Xing Jian and Dividing the Mind into Two. “I will set up three Gathering Yuan arrays here. Your Eagle Clan belongs to the Earth attribute, the Falcon Clan to the Wood attribute, and both clans have the Wind attribute (Wind is not one of the five elements). Practicing in the arrays will be twice as effective.” (Why only set up three arrays? Each array takes a lot of effort to set up, and you can’t just set them up whenever you want. If you make one mistake, all your previous efforts will be wasted.) After passing on the exercises, I said,
“Your Highness has indeed passed on a rare and extraordinary art, one that is no less than the secret arts of our two clans,“ Tarozi exclaimed.
”In three years, the strength of our two clans will have increased twofold,“ Lintorn said joyfully.
”These are two military manuals, which also contain the study of battle formations. When you have time, you should study them more, as this is the art of survival on the battlefield,” I said to them solemnly.
“We know that our ancestors suffered greatly from your so-called military tactics back then. But we really don’t understand it,“ Lin Tian said with a bitter smile.
”As long as you practice the Heart Refining Technique more diligently, you will be able to understand it when you reach a certain level. Besides, I can also guide you at any time.”
If another four-year-old had said this, the two clan leaders would not even have bothered to respond, but the two clan leaders were also shocked by the extraordinary skills I had passed on, so naturally they believed that I was capable of guiding them in military tactics.
Tarozi couldn’t wait to ask me questions about military strategy, all of which had been encountered by the Eagles during their more than a thousand years of research. Even the warriors from the two tribes next to us ended up asking a lot of questions, and I answered them all. It seems that these two tribes are really very courageous and resourceful, and they even studied military strategy (which they believed to be used by petty people), which they previously despised the most.
…
I’ve been really busy these past few days, running back and forth between the training camp, the Winged Clan, the palace, and the Orcs. Later, I simply moved the training camp into the Winged Clan’s territory, since they had somewhere to live (they just lacked arable land). I have already negotiated with the winged tribe to send an additional 3,000 orcs to mine gold, which will increase the annual gold production to 120,000 gold coins. However, it took quite a lot of effort to figure out how to teleport these 3,000 orcs. The six-star magic circle can only teleport ten people at a time (not including me), and it can only teleport a hundred people per day. To transport these 3,000 people, I need to make ten round trips every day for 30 days, which is really annoying.
I did some calculations and realized that the seven-day appointment with the Fu sisters would be over tomorrow, so I packed up (of course, it was Yuli who did the work) and returned to the palace.
The next day, I called four people to the Fu family. From the alley, you could hear them practicing singing and dancing. This time, I ran to the door and knocked.
The door was opened and a woman appeared at the door, Fu Yufeng. She immediately hugged me, “Little brother, you’re here. I’ve been thinking about you for days. I’ll have something delicious for you later.” Then she said to Zhang Laodao, “Good morning everyone, Zhang Laodao, please come in.” But somehow there was an unmistakable look of anxiety and worry in her eyes.
After sitting down inside, Zhang Laodao said directly, “Miss Fu, what happened, where are the other girls?”
Fu Yufeng’s face suddenly grew worried. “Two days ago, Xiao Fuxing sent someone to say that there were still some formalities to complete for the account, and asked my sister to go over there. My sister thought that since she was a descendant of a meritorious official, she would not be afraid of her tricks, so she went. But she didn’t come back for a whole day. Third sister said that we could not go ourselves to ask for her, otherwise he would still hold her back, so we asked someone else to go and ask for her, but the people from the Xiao family said that my sister had volunteered to stay in the house, and they also wanted us to go over there. Third sister said that we could only rely on the power of the empire now, so she filed a report with the Military Affairs Office and the Office of the Nine Gate Admirals, but there has been no news yet. Third and fourth sister went out to see what the situation was and to urge the Military Affairs Office and the Office of the Nine Gate Admirals.” As she spoke, her voice began to crack with tears.
Old Zhang was furious when he heard this. ”This scum really has some nerve, daring to touch the descendants of an imperial meritorious official.”
“Third sister said that we are protected by the Golden Plate for Immunity, so Xiao Fuxing dares not really take action, nor does he dare to really do anything to the eldest sister. Right now, he just wants to make us submit.“
”Young master, what do you think should be done? Do we need to go in and rescue them directly?” After venting his anger, Zhang Lao calmly asked me.
Hearing Zhang Lao call me young master, Fu Yufeng was taken aback. She didn’t expect me to be the leader of the group.
I frowned tightly. Do I really have to use the power of the imperial family to solve this? I shook my head and did not answer Zhang Lao’s question: “Have you passed the certification of the Military Affairs Department?”
“We have. It took three days. The Military Affairs Department believes that we are the descendants of Lin Rumei based on our family tree and the words on the death-exempt gold tablet.
Lin Rumei, female, was the commander of the Fire Phoenix Legion at the time of the founding of the country and one of the most capable assistants of the founding emperor.
“You are the descendant of Commander Lin Rumei.” A smile appeared on my face. ”Don’t worry, you can tell your two sisters to come back. I don’t think it will take long before your eldest sister comes back.”
“Really,“ Fu Yufeng looked at me in surprise
”Wait and see, let’s go back. By the way, don’t tell anyone about us, not even the people closest to us.”
I went to the Military Affairs Office specifically and said to Liu, who managed the archives, ‘Who else’s descendants showed up today.’ The Archives of Meritorious Military Personnel at the Military Affairs Office was my favorite place to come in the past. Children? They admire heroes the most. I used to come here all the time, so it’s not surprising that I’m here now.
“Your Highness, you haven’t been here in a while, and just the other day, there was another descendant of one of the founding heroes in the past few months. You know who it is, it’s the descendant of Lin Rumei, the commander of the Fire Phoenix Legion,“ Xiao Liu told me.
”Really? I admire her very much.“
”Really, if you don’t believe me, just look, here’s the form.“
I looked at the form carefully.
”But…” Xiao Liu paused.
“What’s wrong? Is there something wrong?“ I pretended to be curious.
”I heard that there are four sisters in total who are the descendants of Commander Lin Rumei. As a result, someone reported to the police yesterday that their eldest sister had been arrested.“ Xiao Liu said with a little sympathy and anger.
”Who is it? How dare they arrest the descendants of Commander Lin Rumei, a meritorious person who helped establish the country and my idol?” I said angrily.
“Keep your voice down, Your Highness, it’s not good if someone hears you.“ Liu observed the area carefully (in fact, there were few people in the Archives of Meritorious Services, and Liu was the only one guarding the archives), and when he saw that there was no one else around, he whispered to me, ‘It’s Minister Xiao Fuxing, a Second Rank Minister. I heard that he wants to take the four sisters as concubines.’
”Hmph, can he do whatever he wants with the descendants of my idol? Let’s see how I fix him.” I pretended to be angry and turned around and walked away
Looking at my departing figure, Xiaoliu’s face revealed a delighted smile. Spending every day here with the heroes and martyrs has naturally cultivated Xiaoliu’s chivalrous heart. He couldn’t stand by and watch what Xiao Fu was doing, so naturally he wanted to help the four sisters. But he was no match for the other guy, so he deliberately leaked it to me, so that I could think of a way to rescue them. Of course, I also deliberately listened to what he said, so that when someone came looking, it wouldn’t arouse the suspicions of anyone with an axe to grind.
After leaving the Military Affairs Office, I went straight to the residence of Grandpa Lin Yiquan, the Eastern Military Governor.
Lin Yiquan, the Eastern Military Governor, was one of the six pillars of the Empire, and one-third of the Empire’s generals were his disciples. He had extremely high prestige in the military.
“Grandpa Lin, I’ve come to see you.” After entering the gates of Lin’s residence, I dashed to the backyard.
Lin Yiquan was drinking tea in the rockery in the backyard when he heard my cry. He nearly dropped the teacup when his hand trembled.
“Little Thunder, why have you come again? Last time you plucked quite a few of Grandpa Lin’s whiskers. This time you’ve come again, do you really want to tear my old bones apart!” Lin Yiquan said with a bitter smile as he picked me up. (The imperial prince could not be addressed as Your Highness before the coming-of-age ceremony. There were two coming-of-age ceremonies, one at the age of ten and one at the age of eighteen.
“Grandpa Lin, I have brought you good news this time, and you will definitely be happy to hear it. Do you want to hear it or not?“
”Yes, of course. How dare I not?“
”Then you have to let Grandma Lin make me a jade cake as a reward.“
”Okay, I will definitely let my old wife make it for you. Just tell me.“
”I have discovered the descendants of Lin Rumei, the commander of the Fire Phoenix Legion.”
Grandpa Lin’s breathing suddenly quickened, and his eyes widened so much that his wife, Yuli, next to him, couldn’t help but laugh.
Lin Rumei was Grandpa Lin’s idol. Since they both shared the same surname, Lin, among the founding heroes, Grandpa Lin most admired Lin Rumei, a woman who led the Fire Phoenix Army to sweep across the world and never suffered a single defeat. Legend has it that Lin Rumei’s peerless martial arts were also the object of Grandpa Lin’s admiration. Lin Yiquan once discovered the secret of the Phoenix Fire Pill by chance, bought it at a high price, and practiced according to the book, but he could not reach the realm of the legendary Phoenix Fire Rising from the sky (which Lin Rumi is said to have achieved). He often lamented that he could not witness Commander Lin personally display the Phoenix Fire Spear Technique, and now that he heard that there was a descendant of Lin Rumi, how could he not be excited?
“Xiao Lei, is this true? Where does he/she live?”
“I don’t remember that, but you can ask at the Military Affairs Office.“
”Lin Fu, prepare the horse, I’m going to the Military Affairs Office.“ Grandpa Lin shouted
”Yes, sir, I’m coming.“
”Grandpa Lin, I won’t accompany you, I still want to eat the jade cakes,“ I said.
”Good boy Lei, I’ll let you eat your fill every day from now on,” Grandpa Lin kissed me happily, ”then you wait here, I’ll be right back.”
Grandpa Lin got on his horse, took a few dozen men with him, and galloped off to the Archives of Meritorious Officials of the Military Affairs Office.
Once inside, Lin Yiquan told Xiao Liu to show him the information on the Fu sisters. Seeing how happy Lin Yiquan looked, Xiao Liu couldn’t help but repeat what he had told me to Lin Yiquan.
As Xiao Liu spoke, Lin Yiquan’s face slowly grew gloomy. After listening, he gave a heavy grunt and said, “Ma Rong, pass on my orders: assign a team of men to protect the Fu family and another team to follow me.”
Ma Rong left to carry out the orders.
“Let’s go to the Fu family first to find out the details.”
The three Fu sisters were anxiously waiting at the door, hoping that their eldest sister would really be back soon. The sound of galloping horses came, and the three sisters couldn’t help but feel a little surprised.
“All dismount,“ said an old voice. The group led the horses and hurried to the Fu family door. Looking at the people in front of them, the three sisters didn’t know whether to close the door or not.
”Excuse me, is this the Fu family?“ an old man asked.
”This is the Fu family, may I ask who you are…“ said the third sister, Fu Wanxin.
”This is General Lin Yiquan, the Eastern Commander,” said a soldier.
The three Fu sisters were first surprised and then puzzled. They were surprised that General Lin Yiquan had come despite his status, and puzzled as to what the General wanted with them.
“Greetings, General Lin,” the three sisters said.
“No need for formalities. May I ask who you are…”
“I am Fu Yufeng.”
“I am Fu Wanshen.”
“I am Fu Bing.”
Lin Yiquan was overjoyed. “Can we go inside and talk?”
“Of course, General Lin, please come in.”
After everyone was seated, Lin Yiquan asked, “I heard that you are the descendants of Lin Rumei, the founder of the country, and Lin Jun, the commander of the army?”
“That’s right. The people at the Military Affairs Office made a prediction and they determined that it was true.”
“Hahaha,” Lin Yiquan laughed heartily, stroking his beard, ‘Commander Lin Rumei is the person I admire most. Today I heard that her descendants have appeared, so I came to take a look. I wonder if I could take a look at your family tree and the gold plaque of immunity.’ The old man wanted to make sure for himself.
The three sisters frowned, and after a while, Fu Yufeng stood up and gave Lin Yiquan the family tree and the gold plaque of immunity. (Family trees are generally not easily shown to others.)
After looking through the family tree, Lin Yiquan was sure that the Fu family was indeed the descendants of Lin Rumei, Lin Jun’s commander. He was overjoyed, his face full of smiles, and couldn’t help but chat with the three sisters about their family lives. It was only during this chat that the three sisters understood why this Lin Jun was so excited, and also understood that this old man truly liked them (the kind of like a father has for his daughters).
At this time, a soldier came in and said to Lin Yiquan, “General, the people have already arrived, and three sedan chairs are ready.”
Lin Yiquan’s face no longer wore a smile: “My dear niece, I heard that Ye Ran was abducted. Is that true?”
“It was Xiao Fuxing who did it,” Yu Feng said.
“My dear niece, I have an idea. I have no daughters, and your aunt is still depressed about this matter. I wonder…”
The three sisters heard what Lin Yiquan meant, and almost simultaneously, they knelt down: “Daughter greets adoptive father.”
“Good, good, daughters, please rise. I never thought I would suddenly get four daughters today. Your godmother will be overjoyed.“
”Daughters will go visit godmother in person.“
”Of course we will go, but before we go, of course we must find my eldest daughter. Prepare the sedan chair, let’s go to Xiao Fuxing’s house.”
The three sedan chairs stopped in front of Xiao Fuxing’s house. Lin Yiquan was still sitting on the horse. ”Ma Rong, knock on the door.”
“Open the door, open the door,“ Ma Rong knocked on the door.
”Coming, coming, who is it,“ a young man said, and the door was opened.
”My master is here to see your master, tell him to come out,“ Ma Rong was not at all polite.
The doorman was suddenly confused, no one who came to see their master had ever spoken like this before.
”May I ask who your master is…”
“My master is General Lin Yiquan.“
The doorman was shocked. Who didn’t know General Lin Yiquan? ‘Please wait a moment, I’ll go and get our master.’
”Hurry.”
After a while, there was a rush of footsteps from inside the gate. Xiao Fuxing walked out. To be honest, Xiao Fuxing wasn’t bad-looking, but he was a bit fat, with a big mouth, small eyes, long ears and a crooked nose.
“I didn’t expect General Lin to have time to come to my humble abode. Please, please, come in and sit.“ Xiao Fuxing laughed.
”No, I’ll be leaving after I’m done.“
”I wonder what General Lin is doing here.“
”Nothing much. I heard that my daughter is a guest here, and my wife wants to see her, so I’ve come to take her home.”
“General Lin’s daughter?“ Xiao Fuxing thought to himself, ‘The old fool doesn’t have a daughter. The general must have heard wrong. We don’t have a general’s daughter here.’
”There is no mistake. Daughters, come out and greet Lord Xiao.”
The three Fu sisters stepped out of the sedan chair and reluctantly greeted Xiao Fuxing.
Xiao Fuxing’s face changed, and he smiled weakly, ”I don’t know how these Fu sisters became the general’s daughters.”
“I only adopted her a few days ago,” Lin Yiquan said with a relaxed smile. ‘Lord Xiao, please take Ye Ran back with you. She has been out for quite some time, and my wife is a bit anxious.’
Lin Yiquan’s appearance took Xiao Fuxing by surprise. He had originally planned to detain Fu Ye Ran and then lure the other three sisters into the mansion, threatening and cajoling them into marrying him. Lin Yiquan’s appearance disrupted all of his plans. Xiao Fuxing of course knew that Lin Yiquan was a powerful figure in the military. If he really offended him, he was afraid that he would have a hard time. Xiao Fuxing couldn’t help but be glad that he hadn’t done anything to Fu Yiran yet, otherwise if this old man reported a book in front of the emperor, saying that he had oppressed the loyal and talented, and coupled with this old man’s power, he was afraid that he would really be ruined.
“Go, tell them to bring Fu Yiran out, be polite,” Xiao Fuxing said to the person behind him.
The person behind him immediately ran in.
“It turns out that Miss Fu is General Lin’s daughter. I admire Miss Fu’s singing and dancing, so I invited her into the mansion. I was just about to let Miss Fu go home when General Lin arrived.“
In a short while, three people came out of the door, one of whom was Fu Yeran. The three sisters hurriedly went up to greet their eldest sister and whispered about what had happened.
”Godfather, thank you for your trouble,” Fu Yeran said to General Lin.
“It’s nothing. Let’s go, your godmother is waiting.” Lin Lao smiled and said, turning his face and saying to Xiao Fuxing, ‘Lord Xiao, I still have things to do, so I’ll leave now. I heard that someone in the city has evil intentions towards the descendants of the loyal and good, so I have to keep an eye on things.’ (The city guard also had law and order functions)
Xiao Fuxing’s face was extremely unpleasant, but he forced a smile and said, ”General Lin still has things to do, so please go well, I won’t see you off.”
“Let’s go.” A group of people rushed towards the Lin residence.
…
The news of Lin Laoye’s visit to Xiao Mansion slowly spread, and I also knew about it long ago. However, I never went to look for them. First, they were still at Lin Mansion, and second, I was busy with my clothing shop. I named it Milan Capital (Milan, everyone should know it, the fashion capital, alongside Paris), chose a location, and bought an existing shop. It was run by three middle-aged people and a few apprentices, all of whom were quite skilled, but the business was not doing well. The reason for buying one instead of opening a new one was naturally because of the other party’s craftsmanship. After all, if you train a clothing maker yourself, it takes too much time.
I first taught them a lot of clothing making techniques, which completely impressed these three middle-aged men. I also drew the patterns of several types of clothing and asked them to make a few samples to see if they would sell well. After sitting in Milan Capital for four days, my master and apprentice Zhang Zhengli and the Yuri siblings prepared to secretly infiltrate the Fu family.
At this time, we were standing on the house across the alley from the Fu family. After carefully observing the soldiers guarding the Fu family, Yuri and Zhang Zhengli sighed. Zhang Zhengli said to me, “Young master, it’s impossible to get in. They’re too well guarded.”
I said unhappily, “These people are a problem for you? You’re not one of the best masters in the world.”
“Yes, I’m just one of the best masters in the world. If I add the strength of the army, it’ll be different,” Zhang Zhengli said with a wry smile
“Young master, General Lin’s men are all seasoned soldiers who have been on the battlefield and have been on the brink of life and death. Each of these people is a fearsome master, and while one can be dealt with easily, a group of them is a different matter.“
”Yes, young master, we just want to infiltrate, but these people have been on the battlefield for a long time, so they will not give us any room for manoeuvre,“ said Sister Yuli.
”That’s not necessarily so?” I had a sly smile on my face.
“Lu Weixian,“ I said to him unceremoniously, ‘can you get in?’
After thinking for a while, Lu Weixian said with certainty, ‘Yes.’
Everyone except me looked at him in amazement.
”You really can get in?“ Zhang Zhengli couldn’t believe it, (meaning that if I can’t get in, how can you?)
”Yes,” Lu Weixian said firmly again, ”the young master has taught me a lot of skills, one of which is how to get past enemy blockades and sneak into the enemy’s interior.”
I laughed a few times, “Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey