Chapter 13: Inseparable
Zhang Qing had been spending a lot of time with her recently and understood his adopted sister better than ever before. He exposed her intentions with one sentence: "While investigating the fake young lady, are you also trying to find out why the Tang army generals in the capital were transferred from the northern border in the name of rotation since last autumn, why the military pay, food, fodder, and weapons were delayed and withheld for no reason, and why the reinforcements were delayed in arriving after Baicheng was trapped?"
As the long-time attendant of Tang Jue, the Major General of the Tang family, Zhang Qing knew a lot of inside information.
"You guessed it?" His words successfully changed Tang Ying's expression: "At that time, the battle in Baicheng was urgent and I had no time to care about other things, but in the past few months, I couldn't help but think about this matter again and again. If many generals in the northern border had not been transferred, the subsequent food and weapons would not have been supplied, and my father and brother would not have..." She choked with sobs, but she forced herself to suppress her sadness and said seriously: "I am a girl, and it is difficult for me to enter the court as an official. But if I want to know these things, I have to sharpen my head and climb up."
She asked back: "Brother, do you think I can enter the palace to accompany the emperor with my looks?"
Zhang Qing was amused by her: "Forget it, if you take the path of a favored concubine, I'm afraid you'll get upset one day and cause a big disaster." She certainly didn't understand how to survive in the harem, and she disdained to compete for favor with a group of women. She was just afraid that others would come up and step on her, and get beaten up by her instead.
——The young ladies of the Tang family hate quarreling with people verbally. Stumbling and setting traps in secret are all considered intimate behaviors. For example, Yu An is the biggest victim in this regard. He has been bullied by her countless times since he was a child. But in fact, what Miss Tang likes to do most is to crush him with force and beat him up without any recognition.
Tang Jue loves his sister very much. He grew up in the Tang Mansion and witnessed Miss Tang's growth from a pink and tender little girl to the little bully of Baicheng. This was also due to the contribution of their master and servant. The frequent sparring with her made Tang Ying's current high martial arts level.
"Brother, what you said makes sense." Tang Ying looked at him sincerely and said, "In that case, why don't we spend the next two days trying to find out how to enter the Forbidden Cavalry Division?"
Then...the brother and sister were dumbfounded.
The Forbidden Cavalry Division’s ability to gather information is first-rate, and their means of revenge are also first-rate.
Two days later, Tang Ying was blocked at the door of the inn again. When the inn waiter exclaimed, "What are the people from the Forbidden Cavalry Division doing here?" Tang Ying turned her head blankly: "They... are from the Forbidden Cavalry Division?" Aren't they said to be very powerful?
The innkeeper nodded frantically, retreated in fear, and kindly reminded the girl: "If you are fine, please return to your room immediately. If you hinder the investigation of the Cavalry Bureau, the consequences will be serious."
Tang Ying said with difficulty: "What if...what if someone from the Forbidden Cavalry Division was beaten?"
The innkeeper looked at her incredulously and said, "You would only fight with the people from the Forbidden Cavalry Division if you don't want to live anymore, right?"
Tang Ying wanted to scream to the sky: ...What kind of crappy luck is this?
She has already considered practicing some feudal superstition to change her luck, as she has been so unlucky lately!
Ah Rong held up the horse whip and motioned to her, "You, come out."
Tang Ying gritted her teeth and took a step forward. All the people who were originally very close to her in the lobby suddenly moved away, wishing they could stay eight feet away from her to show that they had nothing to do with her.
The innkeeper looked at her in surprise, and stepped back while explaining to Arong: "Sir, she has nothing to do with us. She is just a guest passing by."
Ah Rong was riding on the horse. This time, he had another helper, and the number of helpers doubled. He didn't even look at the waiter, and called her out by name: "Miss Zhang, do you want to come out by yourself or do you want me to ask someone to go in and drag you out?"
Tang Ying cursed inwardly. She didn't expect that the Imperial Cavalry Division, with its reputation, would be so domineering and arrogant. However, thinking back to the style of the Jinyiwei during the Zhu Yuanzhang era, it was not difficult to understand.
Tang Yao loved his soldiers like his own sons and enforced strict military discipline. His officers and men never bullied the common people. Tang Ying had been influenced by this since childhood and could not help but feel somewhat disgusted with the actions of the Forbidden Cavalry Division.
"I wonder what the young lady wants to see me for?" She walked out of the lobby of the inn with her hands behind her back and stood five steps away from Arongma, looking completely innocent.
Ah Rong had suffered two serious losses at her hands in a row, and she didn't expect that she would be fine when she came to her door again. She was so angry that she couldn't help shaking her whip: "You... Last time I fought with you, I was unprepared. Do you have the courage to fight me today?"
Tang Ying chuckled: "Miss, you should make it clear. Are we going to fight you or the helpers you brought? There is a difference between a one-on-one fight and a group fight."
A Rong also knew that he was no match for her. Wouldn't it be humiliating for himself if he fought her in a one-on-one fight?
She pretended not to understand Tang Ying's words and said in a dishonest tone: "Since you have the guts to fight me, let's find a place." She suffered a great loss in the last street fighting. When she went back to sum up her experience, she found that the narrow terrain of the alley was beneficial to the enemy and was also a reason for her defeat.
Tang Ying was not a timid person and gladly accepted the challenge.
This time, A Rong chose the place for the fight at the end of Sixian Lane in the city, which was the residence of King Cheng, one of the three kings who rebelled during the previous emperor's reign. After King Cheng was executed, the previous emperor ordered his residence to be demolished, so the royal guards fully demonstrated their demolition capabilities. In three days, they demolished a magnificent palace until not even a single floor tile was left. They also filled in the ponds and swamps in the backyard of the palace. Looking around, it seemed as if there had never been a palace here.
The venue was wide and the personnel were complete. At A Rong's command, the dozen girls he brought surrounded Tang Ying in the middle and got ready to start fighting.
※※※
The place adjacent to Prince Cheng’s residence in Sixians Alley was originally the Marquis Weibei’s residence.
The first generation of Weibei Marquis followed Taizu to conquer the world and won the title of Marquis, but unfortunately his descendants enjoyed themselves under the blessing of their ancestors and did not make any progress. However, during the time of the previous emperor, the then Weibei Marquis built a Moon-Lan Tower in the backyard to enjoy the autumn, which caused a sensation in the capital and became a grand sight at the time.
When the three princes rebelled, the late emperor secretly requisitioned the Lanyue Tower as a lookout tower, from which he observed what was happening in Prince Cheng's mansion, rendered great service, and even received a personal letter from the emperor. Everyone in the mansion was very proud of this.
Today, Marquis Weibei hosted a dinner party at Lanyue Tower, and the guest invited was none other than Fu Chen, the commander of the Imperial Cavalry Division, his childhood playmate.
The newly appointed Marquis of Weibei, Shen Qian, held a banquet in his mansion half a month ago to celebrate his succession to the title of Marquis. Unfortunately, Fu Chen had left the capital to investigate a case and had no chance to come. Therefore, as soon as Fu Chen returned to the capital and made a report in front of the emperor, he was dragged away from the palace gate by him, and even the reward from the emperor was dragged away with him.
During this time, Fu Chen went out to handle the case and successfully solved a major case of collusion between officials and bandits. He wiped out the bandits in Erlangzhai, wiped out hundreds of bandits, and escorted local corrupt officials to Beijing for trial. He was rewarded by the emperor with a fine horse and some bounty.
Speaking of this horse, Shen Qian held the beauty in his arms and drooled: "...I heard that His Majesty gave you the wild horse in the enemy horse sanctuary that no one can subdue. Why don't you give it to me, your brother, to enjoy for a few days."
The wild horse he was talking about was a tribute presented by the Northwest Huihe tribe to His Majesty the Emperor five years ago. It was said that this was the Tianshan horse king, born and raised naturally, and the Huihe tribe spent three years capturing it from a herd of wild horses. After being captured, it could not be tamed, so it was sent to the capital as a tribute and presented to His Majesty the Emperor of Southern Qi.
None of the people in the Imperial Horse Administration could subdue the Horse King, and they had to worship it like an ancestor. During the past five years, the young eunuchs who wanted to tame it had been kicked and injured many times. As time went by, it was neither possible to kill it nor to let it go. The Emperor took this opportunity to reward it to Fu Chen, who loved horses.
It was somewhat difficult to ask the mighty marquis to train the horse, but Shen Qian was a man who loved elegance, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and even more so, beautiful women. He wanted to keep the horse in the marquis' mansion for real enjoyment, and just paint a few pictures of the horse.
But Fu Chen also liked the horse Wang Shenjun, and now that he had it in his pocket, he didn't want to wait any longer and just wanted to take it home to tame it. But his childhood friend shamelessly dragged him here to drink, and kept winking at the beauty to rub against his arms, which made him want to beat up Shen Qian.
"You'd better give up this idea." Fu Chen turned the amber-colored wine in his hand and glanced at the beauty next to him. The beauty felt that Commander Fu's eyes were as cold as a basin of cold water poured over her head. In addition, she was only wearing a thin gauze dress, so she shivering and dared not rub against Fu Chen in a seductive way.
Seeing this, Shen Qian sent the beauty away, and did not forget to complain about him: "I thought you were kind when I was little, but why do you become colder as you grow older? Look at you, you don't even know how to be gentle with women. To be honest, even if you let the beauty warm your bed, she might freeze to death in your arms. Don't waste my beauty."
Fu Chen drank the wine in the cup, stood up and bowed to him deliberately: "Thank you for your kindness, Lord Marquis. If there is nothing else, I will take my leave now."
He now holds power and is a close minister to the emperor. Not many people dare to accept his courtesy. Shen Qian stared at him angrily, not even trying to get up and return the greeting: "Go, go, wait for me to pack my luggage and I'll stay at your house later."
Lord Shen was actually capable of building a shed and living next to Fu Chen's stable to get close to the horse king.
He was a very casual person and had no intention of pursuing a career in politics. He would do anything ridiculous when he was happy, but he would always stay within the line and not violate the royal laws, living the most comfortable life within the permitted scope.
Fu Chen knew his childhood friend's temper very well, so he said helplessly, "It's up to you." Turning to leave, he casually glanced down from the upstairs window, and suddenly froze, with a look of surprise.
"That is……"
In the open space of the former Prince Cheng's mansion, a group of young girls were fighting at this moment.
In short, a dozen subordinates from the Forbidden Cavalry Division surrounded a woman with the intention of fighting her in a group. However, the woman was extremely agile and ruthless, and was more than capable of protecting herself, so the fight was difficult to determine.
Shen Qian followed his gaze and was immediately amused: "Hey, a group of rouge tigers are fighting." The woman in the middle looked quite interesting.
Both of them had excellent eyesight and were high above, so they could see the entire fight below.
Fu Chen chuckled: "Why is it her again?" If he saw correctly, the girl surrounded by the women of the Forbidden Cavalry Division was none other than Miss Zhang, the robber at the entrance of Erlangzhai Valley.
Shen Qian seemed to have discovered something big and important: "Which one are you talking about?" He had to take a good look at the woman who could attract the attention of Fu Chen, a cold man.
