The Deer and The Cauldron

[crazee]

Phew.... finally on CNY 1st day ...I am able to configure the internet connection here to access the world.
I'st scorching hot here...with the rooms like oven. I'm just hoping the ice cream man will come around soon...

Happy Dragon Year everybody.

Thanks Foxs... I had a good journey but as predicted the Highway was constantly in full attendance. Lucky there were no terrible mishaps along the journey that Malaysia is so famous for.

There are illegal fire crackers being let off...even way into the morning....fire works and so on. Knowing that elections is coming soon the people are more daring to defy the law...

Every one here is busy either gambling or chit chatting....but I spent the last couple of hrs trying to configure an antique modem to work....and it works.

Thanks folks.....

As usual XB is at his best again...and imagine walking into the tiger's liar and still having his fun poking and making fun of the tiger.....only XB is good enough....

[foxs]

Tweety, Sablemagi, Wandering, Smurf, Sky, Crazee, thanks for dropping by. It is still New Year in north America, I wonder if you guys have to work like me. Crazee, enjoy the rest of your holiday. Be safe. Here is the end of Chapter 30, the end of Book 3. Two more books to go. Sigh ....

---

Wei Xiaobao pointed to a rifle hanging on the wall. “Wangye,” he said, “Is that a westerners’ firearm?”

“Exactly,” Wu Sangui said, “That is Luocha Country’s firearm. It was obtained during the battle our Great Qing and the Luocha Country had outside the Pass, it is indeed a very sharp weapon.”

“I have never had any firearms before,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Can you let me borrow it for a moment?”

Wu Sangui smiled and said, “Naturally you can! This kind of firearm is used during the battle; although it can reach far, it is rather inconvenient to use. Luocha people have some other short gun.” Walking toward a wooden cabinet, he pulled open the drawer, and took a red wood case out.

Wei Xiaobao was standing right by the desk. As soon as he saw Wu Sangui turning around, he also turned around, lifted the front piece of the yellow magua he was wearing, took out a copy of ‘Forty-two-chapter Sutra’ from the pocket of the magua, put it on the table, took the copy of sutra that was originally on the table, and put it into the pocket of his magua. This swapping was done in an extremely fast and nimble manner; even if Wu Sangui was watching helplessly, his vision would be blocked by Wei Xiaobao’s back and it would be hard for him to know what’s going on, much less Wu Sangui was also turning his back to fetch the gun. All eight copies of the sutra had exactly the same appearance, only the book jackets had different colors. The previous night Wei Xiaobao took the Bordered Blue Banner’s copy, tore off the red border, and swapped it off with the Plain Blue Banner’s copy.

He saw Wu Sangui opened the wooden case and took out two short guns, about a chi long each. From the muzzle he stuffed some gunpowder, and packed it using an iron rod. He also put three iron bullets inside the muzzle. And then he took a fire knife and ignited a piece of paper, and handed the gun and the paper to Wei Xiaobao and said, “Light the fuse, the iron bullet will shoot out.”

Wei Xiaobao received the gun, and aimed the muzzle at the rockery outside the window. He blew the lighted paper to ignite the fuse. There was a loud explosion, a burst of hot air hit his face, his arm was violently jolted, the gun fell to the floor, smoke arose before his eyes; he could not help but to retreat two steps backward.

Wu Sangui laughed aloud and said, “This gun’s power is very formidable, isn’t it?”

Wei Xiaobao’s arm was numb from the shock. “Damn it,” he cursed, “Western people’s toy is indeed demonical.”

Wu Sangui laughed and said, “Look at the rockery!”

Wu Sangui focused his eyes and saw the a small corner of the rockery had been exploded, there were fragments of rocks scattered on the ground; he could not help but sticking out his tongue, and did not pull it back for half a day. “If this gun explode on someone,” he said, “Even if you have copper muscle and iron bone, you won’t be able to withstand it.” Stooping down, he picked up the short gun and put it back into the wooden case.

When the mansion’s guards heard the explosion, they all came to the window and looked inside. After seeing their Wangye was safe and sound, and was talking to Wei Xiaobao, they felt relieved.

Wu Sangui held the wooden case with both hands and said with a laugh, “Wei Xiongdi, please take it so you can play with it.”

Wei Xiaobao shook his head and said, “This is an effective weapon to protect yourself, Wangye’s generous gift, I do not dare to accept.”

Wu Sangui pushed the box into his hand, and said with a laugh, “We are brothers, why differentiate between you and I? What’s mine is yours.”

Wei Xiaobao said, “This is Luocha people’s treasure, you might not necessarily get another one in the future. Xiao Jiang absolutely cannot accept it.” But in his heart he was thinking, “You are colluding with Luocha people, you can have any number of guns you want, naturally it is not a rare object at all.”

Wu Sangui laughed and said, “Exactly because it is rare that I dare to give it to Xiongdi. If it is a common object, Wei Xiongdi would not even look at it. Ha ha …”

Thereupon Wei Xiaobao thanked him and accepted; he said with a laugh, “Hereafter if I come across people who want to harm me, I will take out the gun, ‘bang!’ I will shoot him, and explode him till his body torn and his bones crushed. Xiao Jiang’s life is actually bestowed by Wangye.”

Wu Sangui patted Wei Xiaobao’s shoulder and said with a laugh, “You don’t need to be that polite. Guns are indeed very formidable, but putting the gunpowder, loading the bullets, lighting the flint, igniting the fuse, the procedure is really bothersome, unlike our bow and arrow, which we can shoot in rapid succession, continuously.”

“That’s right,” Wei Xiaobao said, “If the westerners’ guns are like bow and arrow, can be shot in succession, will we, Chinese, still have our lives? The Great Qing’s beautiful rivers and mountains will be difficult to protect.” Speaking to this point, he giggled and said, “Actually, there is a benefit to me to have these two guns; now I do not need to train martial art. All those martial art experts or martial art masters are not match anymore.”

After some idle talks, took his leave and returned to Anfu Garden, where he closed the door, and opened up the sutra’s outer skin. As expected, he found a lot of sheepskin pieces inside. He mused, “I have obtained all the pieces of map hidden in the eight copies of sutra. Laozi only needs to focus my attention and slowly assemble the map together, the Tatars’ buried treasure and dragon’s vein will fall into my hand.” However, the thought of focusing his attention to put together these several thousand pieces of sheepskin into a complete picture already gave him a headache; he thought, “No need to rush, we have plenty of time.”

Immediately he stitched back the cover and put the sheepskin pieces into the pouch with the rest of the pieces, which he hid in his innermost pocket, next to his skin. Thinking about the great success of his mission, he could not help but feeling happy and contented. “The young Emperor, the old wh0re, the old turtle, Hong Jiaozhu, the big traitor, and also my Shifu, the not-old, not-young, middle-aged nun, everybody wanted to obtain these eight copies of sutra, in the end it is still I, Wei Xiaobao, who gets it. Ha ha … if they knew, one will pull my hand, the other will pull my leg, and pull me in four directions, I will be torn away from limb to limb.” He was very excited, too bad that he could not tell anybody about it. Unable to flaunt his achievement, unavoidably he felt everything was fine except for one small defect.

Crossing his legs, he hummed the little tune he learned in Yangzhou brothel, “A cup of wine, slowly being poured, I ask Qing Gege [beloved older brother], where did he come from? In that place, Yangzhou, there are twenty-four bridges, at the end of each bridge, there is a beautiful woman, Qing Gege …” While he was singing happily, suddenly he heard someone knocking his door lightly. Three knocks, stopped, two knocks, stopped, three knocks. It was precisely Tian Di Hui’s secret signal.

Wei Xiaobao stood up and opened the door, Xu Tianchuan and Gao Yanchao entered. Seeing the two people’s serious expression, he asked, “What is it?”

Xu Tianchuan said, “I heard from the Imperial Bodyguards that the Mansion’s bodyguards are searching to the east and inquiring to the west, to find a Mongolian; I am sure they are looking for Hantiemo. From what I heard, they seem to be highly suspicious of us, but they do not dare to ask us openly. Wei Xiangzhu, what do you think?”

Wei Xiaobao said, “Go fetch that fellow, bind him and hide him underneath my bed; I don’t think Wu Sangui’s subordinates will dare to search my room.”

Xu Tianchuan said, “I am afraid that when Wei Xiangzhu is out, the big traitor’s guards will use whatever excuse they can find to force their way in to search.”

Wei Xiaobao said, “No matter what we won’t allow them to come in; if we really reach a stalemate in discussion, we will fight them. Could they be brazen enough to resort to violence and kill us?” Xu Tianchuan and Gao Yanchao nodded in agreement.

Suddenly Qian Laoben rushed in and said, “The big traitor is going to set this place on fire.”

The three of them were shocked. “What?” they asked in chorus.

Qian Laoben said, “These past few days I patrolled the Anfu Garden all around, to guard against the big traitor playing tricks on us. Just now I saw some people sneaked into the woods to our west. I secretly followed them, and saw more than a dozen people hiding in the woods, carrying quite a lot of kerosene, saltpeter, sulfur, and other materials to light a fire.”

“Damn it,” Wei Xiaobao cursed, “The big traitor has the guts to burn the Princess to death?”

“I don’t think so,” Qian Laoben said, “They suspect we kidnapped Hantiemo, but do not dare to enter the Garden to search. When the fire breaks, they will swarm in to fight the fire, while seizing that opportunity to search.”

Wei Xiaobao nodded. “Right,” he said, “That must be it. Dage, what is your wise opinion?”

Xu Tianchuan gestured by running his hand across his neck; he said, “Kill him to close his mouth, destroy his body to leave no trace!”

When Wei Xiaobao heard ‘destroy his body to leave no trace’, he thought, “That is one trick I am an expert at, nothing can be easier, I guarantee that in just a short time that big beard Mongolian will turn into a pool of yellow liquid. But this fellow has the inside information on the collusion between the big traitor and the Luocha Country, I must send him to the young Emperor so that he can personally interrogate him.” He said, “This big beard Mongolian is the biggest proof of the big traitor’s rebellion conspiracy. We must send him to Beijing; even if the big traitor does not rebel, he will be forced to rebel. This Hantie somebody is the magic weapon to guarantee that the Mu Family will obey our Tian Di Hui’s orders.”

How to force Wu Sangui to revolt, and how to force the Mu Family to obey Tian Di Hui’s orders, were precisely the two important matters that were always in the Tian Di Hui warriors’ mind. As soon as the three men heard this, their countenance changed greatly; they chorused their agreement. Xu Tianchuan said, “If not for Wei Xiangzhu’s reminding us, we nearly harm this important matter.” In their hearts their admiration toward this glib-tongued teenager grew.

Qian Laoben said, “The problems at hand are: how to deal with the big traitor’s subordinates in setting this place on fire to do their searching, and how to get this Hantiemo out of the big traitor’s territory. The borders of Yunnan and Guizhou, two provinces are tightly guarded; leaving Kunming is even more difficult.”

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “Boss Qian [Qian Laoban, see Chapter 13], you can smuggle a Huadiao Fuling pork into the Palace, can’t you smuggle another big fat pig out of Kunming?”

Qian Laoben laughed and said, “To get a big, fat pig out of town, I am afraid we can’t go pass the gate; we must think of some other method. Hiding a corpse inside the coffin is also an old trick, I am afraid it will be difficult to conceal the truth.”

Wei Xiaobao said with a laugh, “If faking a dead person is not good, let him pretend to be a live person. Boss Qian, you shave his big beard, put some kind of flour, plaster or whatever on his face, to change his appearance, let him wear the Valiant Cavalry Brigade hat and coat. I am going to select a squad of Valiant Cavalry Brigade sergeants and send them back to Beijing, saying that the Princess is sending her respect to His Majesty, reporting the wedding date to the Empress Dowager and the Emperor. Let this big beard without the beard mingled among the Valiant Cavalry Brigade troop, seal his mute acupoint so he can’t shout. Would the guards, Wu Sangui’s subordinates ask the Emperor’s personal guards to announce their names one by one before letting them pass?” The three people cheered and praised his ingenuity, they all agreed that it was a brilliant plan.

“Is there any brothel in Kunming?” Wei Xiaobao suddenly asked.

Qian Laoben and the others, three people, looked at each other; they thought, “Wei Xiangzhu wants to visit a prostitute?” Qian Laoben laughed and said, “Naturally there are some.”

Wei Xiaobao laughed. “If we invite Priest Xuanzhen to take a stroll in a brothel, will he be willing to go?” he asked.

Qian Laoben shook his head and said, “Daozhang has left home, I am sure he won’t want to go. If Wei Xiangzhu has an interest, subordinate may keep you company.”

“You will definitely go,” Wei Xiaobao said, “But Xuanzhen Daozhang is big and tall; among our brothers, he is the only one with similar built as that big beard.”

As soon as the three people heard it, they understood that Priest Xuanzhen was to impersonate Hantiemo. Gao Yanchao laughed and said, “For the sake of our Society’s important matter, I am sure Xuanzhen Daozhang will follow orders to visit a brothel.” The four of them burst into laughter.

Wei Xiaobao said, “Please ask Daozhang to wear the big beard’s clothes and take the big beard’s belongings, paste the ‘genuine goods at fair prices’ yellow beard shaved from the big beard’s face on his chin. The rest of the brothers, keep the Ping Xi Wang Mansion guards’ uniform you are wearing now; pick a big brothel, go and drink and make trouble there. Everybody grabs a prostitute [orig. good-looking powder head], in the fight that ensues, Qian Laoben stabs Daozhang to death …”

Qian Laoben was startled, but he understood immediately; naturally he would not kill people for real. He laughed and said, “Wei Xiangzhu’s idea is great. Xuanzhen Daozhang and I will fight over a beauty, we will mumble something, speaking in Mongolian tongue … But we must have another corpse ready.”

Wei Xiaobao nodded, “Right,” he said, “Go look around, find a criminal in Kunming whose stature is more or less the same as the big beard, catch him and kill him, hide his body by the brothel. After Boss Qian kills Daozhang, shoo the prostitutes out. Daozhang will turn back to life, and put the big beard’s clothes on the dead body.”

Gao Yanchao laughed and said, “The dead man’s face must be chopped into pulp, and throw the clump of yellow beard under the bed, let Wu Sangui’s subordinate find it, and then they will think that the murderer intends to conceal the fact that Hantiemo is dead.”

Wei Xiaobao laughed and said, “Gao Dage’s thought is more thorough than mine. Everybody, take some money, go visit the brothel! This is so much fun, too bad I cannot go with you.”

[smurf120]

brothel wins again!

[muliono]

Hahaha... awesome! WXB stirring up trouble at the brothel yet again... Thank you Foxs! Gong Xi Fa Cai !!

[wandering]

thanks for the update..and yes I have to work here in North America.
Normally New year fall on President Day and I get it off..but not this year

[Anh Nam]

Thanks Foxs. I also had to work. All weekend in fact. I may get to read your last 2 updates in a couple of days.

[KChill]

Kong Xi Fa Chai everyone! Thanks again Foxs!

Crazee, when I used to work in Singapore, I remember that it was a lot of
fun being there around Lunar New Year. How are things around there now?

Re: the story....It looked at first like Wu Sangui (I keep wanting to call him "The Satrap" whatever that means,
thanks Minford), is trying to get WXB on his side, but I guess not. WXB really makes the perfect diplomat, he kind of makes everyone feel like he is only concerned about their own interests...that's a good skill to have.

[pannonian]

Kong Xi Fa Chai everyone! Thanks again Foxs!

Crazee, when I used to work in Singapore, I remember that it was a lot of
fun being there around Lunar New Year. How are things around there now?

Re: the story....It looked at first like Wu Sangui (I keep wanting to call him "The Satrap" whatever that means,
thanks Minford), is trying to get WXB on his side, but I guess not. WXB really makes the perfect diplomat, he kind of makes everyone feel like he is only concerned about their own interests...that's a good skill to have.

The Persian empire was divided into satrapies, or provinces. A satrap was the governor of one of these provinces. Wu Sangui, as the semi0-autonomous ruler of Yunnan, would be the equivalent of a particularly powerful satrap. The Anabasis resulted from the attempt by one of these satraps to seize the throne. After the failure of the expedition, one of the Greek leaders took the Greek contingent home, writing a book about his exploits. Philip and Alexander of Macedon were probably inspired by that adventure into making their own attempt on the Persian empire.

[crazee]

Kong Xi Fa Chai everyone! Thanks again Foxs!

Crazee, when I used to work in Singapore, I remember that it was a lot of
fun being there around Lunar New Year. How are things around there now?

Re: the story....It looked at first like Wu Sangui (I keep wanting to call him "The Satrap" whatever that means,
thanks Minford), is trying to get WXB on his side, but I guess not. WXB really makes the perfect diplomat, he kind of makes everyone feel like he is only concerned about their own interests...that's a good skill to have.

No I never celebrated CNY in Singapore before. I understand from my friends the preclebrations are a lot merrier than the actual days....most companies and hawker stalls are closed...only the higher end establishments are open and they normally charge a premium during the duration of CNY. This happens even in the smaller towns as well... Pre celebrations, lots of ppl shopping for goodies, gifts and decorations.
Most residents in Singapore and the major towns go back to their home towns...making the highways and smaller places filled up and at times jammed with extra traffic.....
Even the non chinese migrate to take a holiday with their family out of town.

Phew ...as predicted it's hot hot hot ...even under the fan it's hot blowing hot air. Smurf..anyway to dhl your ice cream ???

Thanks Foxs....you did it well ....at a steady pace chapter after chapter....book after book and we are all enjoying every post you did.....
Again XB is a master planner with his quick witted ideas....and he managed to get the real secret..the treasure map ???

I'ts the third day of CNY already...time flies really.....

[aliderhamy]

The Persian empire was divided into satrapies, or provinces. A satrap was the governor of one of these provinces. Wu Sangui, as the semi0-autonomous ruler of Yunnan, would be the equivalent of a particularly powerful satrap. The Anabasis resulted from the attempt by one of these satraps to seize the throne. After the failure of the expedition, one of the Greek leaders took the Greek contingent home, writing a book about his exploits. Philip and Alexander of Macedon were probably inspired by that adventure into making their own attempt on the Persian empire.

and i did not know this about my own history :P

thanks for the education

[foxs]

Smurf, . Muliono, you are welcome. Wandering, Anh, at least I am not alone. KChill, you are dealing with politicians quite a bit, aren't you? Pannonian, I echo Ali, thanks for the info. If Minford wanted to westernize everything, why not plain ol' 'Governor'? Ali, funny that you say 'Iranian' and not 'Persian' ... my ex-coworker always called himself 'Persian'. Crazee, when are you back to work? The entire week?

---

Chapter 31 – Massive army of Luodian formed a deep barrier, great waves boiled in thousand-qing Dianchi[1]
(Translated by Foxs)

After dinner, Wei Xiaobao waited for more than an hour before strolling toward Princess Jianning’s room. The Princess had been waiting anxiously; seeing Wei Xiaobao, she angrily said, “Where have you been? I have been waiting for you.”

Wei Xiaobao angrily responded, “Your Gonggong [father-in-law] held me up to talk to him, he spoke treason and heresy, I argued with him for half a day. If I wasn’t anxious to see you, I would still be arguing with him right now.”

“What did he say?” the Princess asked.

Wei Xiaobao said, “He said that His Majesty always suspected him as a treacherous court official, he is very upset about it. I said if His Majesty suspected him, how could he send the Princess down here to marry your son? He said that it must be that His Majesty did not like you, he intentionally sent you down the pit to harm you.”

The Princess was enraged; she slapped the table heavily and shouted, “The old turtle is talking nonsense, I’ll tear off his beard. Tell him to see me quickly.”

Wei Xiaobao also put an angry look on his face. “His granny,” he cursed, “I was ready to risk my life against him. I said: the Princess is His Majesty’s favorite, she is good-looking, and intelligent too; which of your son’s quality can surpass her? I also said: you dare to speak such thing, the Princess won’t want to get married, we will return to Beijing tomorrow. Based on the Princess’ status, I don’t know how many men in the world who would fight to have her as his wife. There is something in my heart that I did not speak it out. I really wanted to tell the old turtle: I, Wei Xiaobao, am dying to marry the Princess myself.”

The Princess immediately beamed with joy. “Right, right!” she said, “Why didn’t you tell him that? Xiaobao, let us go back to Beijing tomorrow. I will tell Huangdi Gege: I must marry you.”

Wei Xiaobao shook his head, “When the old turtle heard me, he calmed down immediately, saying that just now he was babbling nonsense, he was merely cracking jokes, and that I must not take him seriously; what’s more, I must not let the Princess hear anything he had just said. I said: nobody is more loyal to His Majesty and the Princess than I, the one surnamed Wei, I have never dared to speak even half a word of lie to His Majesty and the Princess.”

The Princess held her arms around his neck, and gently kissed his face. “I always knew you are very loyal to me,” she said.

Wei Xiaobao kissed her back and said, “The old turtle was so frightened that he almost kneeled down to ask for my help. He also gave me a pair of Luocha people’s guns, he wanted me to do my best to cover up for him.” Finished speaking, he took out the gun, put some gunpowder and an iron bullet, and let the Princess shot toward the garden.

The Princess opened fire. There was a loud explosion, followed by a large tree branch broke and fell down. She stuck out her tongue and said, “How fierce!”

Wei Xiaobao said, “You take one, I take the other, the two guns were originally a pair.”

The Princess sighed and said, “Two guns, one female one male, sleeping side by side inside this wooden case, how intimate is that? As soon as you separate them, both will be alone and very desolate. I don’t want it, you keep them together.” When saying that, she recalled that in the end, the Emperor’s decree could not be altered. Her desire to marry Wei Xiaobao was eventually an empty word.

Wei Xiaobao held her in his arms and gently comforted her, he whispered some frivolous words into her ears. Listening to the intense emotion, the Princess could not stop her cheeks from blushing red, and she giggled happily. Wei Xiaobao gently undressed her and pulled the brocade quilt over her naked body. He thought, “Why haven’t the big traitor’s subordinate lighted the fire yet? It would be best if when they rush in here to search, they found the Princess to be stark naked. Then the Princess would break out in anger.”

He sat on the bed, caressing the Princess’ cheeks gently, while raising up his ears to listen to the activity outside. The Princess was breathing heavily, she said in an intimate voice, “I … I want to sleep. You … you …”

They heard the gong from the garden announcing the first watch of the night. Wei Xiaobao was waiting impatiently. Suddenly the gong changed to a series of loud ‘tang, tang’, followed by a dozen people shouted, “Fire! Fire!” [Orig. ‘water flow’ or ‘flood’, see note 19 of Chapter 14, also the next occurrences in this Chapter.]

The Princess sat up with a start; she grabbed Wei Xiaobao’s neck and said with a trembling voice, “Fire?”

“Damn it,” Wei Xiaobao angrily said, “The old turtle must be setting up the fire, he wants to burn you and I, two people to death to shut our mouths, to prevent us from divulging his ridiculous talk today.”

The Princess was frightened even more. “What … what should we do?” she asked.

“Don’t be afraid,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Wei Xiaobao has a red-bellied devotion to you; even if I cannot protect my own life, I still have to protect my beloved Princess to ensure your complete safety.” He gently pried her arms from his neck, walked toward the door. As soon as he saw people rushing in, he would get out of the Princess’ bedroom first.

But heard the noise outside was like ‘a boiling cauldron of voices’, all around people were shouting, yelling and screaming, “Fire! Fire! Quickly protect the Princess!” Wei Xiaobao looked out the window, and saw a dozen or so people rushing in from the flower garden outside. He mused, “The big traitor’s subordinates came this quick. They must have entered Anfu Garden early on, and hid themselves around here; they rushed over as soon as they heard the fire alarm.” Turning his head toward the Princess he said, “Princess, it is not such a big fire, you don’t have to be afraid. The old turtle is here to catch some adultery.”

“Catch … catch what?” the Princess said with a trembling voice.

Wei Xiaobao said, “He must have suspected that you are good to me, hence he is hoping that he could catch us committing adultery.” Finished speaking, he pushed the door open and said, “Just lie on the bed, don’t get up, I am going to stand outside your door. If there is real fire, I will carry you out to safety.”

The Princess was very grateful. “Xiaobao,” she said, “You … you are very good to me.”

Wei Xiaobao stood outside the door for a moment, and then he raised his voice, “Everybody, protecting the Princess is most important.”

Amidst the hubbub, a captain of Ping Xi Wang Mansion guards rushed over. “Wei Jueye,” he called out, “The Garden is on fire, Shizi [Heir Apparent] has come here personally to protect the Princess.”

He saw from the northeast corner came two rows of lanterns, a group of people were coming his way. They arrived quickly; he saw that the one in the front was precisely Wu Yingxiong. Wei Xiaobao thought, “To search for that big beard Mongolian, unexpectedly the little traitor himself is leading the effort; obviously they consider the big beard to be very important. The conspiracy with Mongolia and Luocha Country, as well as the rebellion plot must be true.”

While he was still some distance away, Wu Yingxiong called out, “Is Her Highness the Princess alright?”

A guard responded, “Wei Jueye is already here to protect her.”

“That’s wonderful!” Wu Yingxiong said, “Wei Jueye, sorry for bothering you; Xiongdi can’t thank you enough.”

“Why am I bothered?” Wei Xiaobao said in his heart, “Princess and I are embracing each other intimately, was that a bother? Are you thanking me for this? In that case, you are welcome.”

In the meantime, the Imperial Bodyguards, the Valiant Cavalry Brigade chiefs under Wei Xiaobao’s command had also rushed in one after another. They were awakened from their slumber, their clothes were in disarray, some were even barefooted, some had not put on their jacket, they all looked pathetic. When they heard the fire-alarm, their first thought was: “If the Princess is burned to death, I will lose my head.” Therefore, they all rushed over.

Wei Xiaobao ordered his men to guard the perimeter of the Garden. Zhang Kangnian tugged Wei Xiaobao’s sleeve; Wei Xiaobao went with him several steps away from the crowd. “Wei Fu Zongguan [deputy chief],” Zhang Kangnian said in a low voice, “There’s something fishy here.”

“What is it?” Wei Xiaobao asked.

Zhang Kangnian replied, “As soon as there was fire-alarm, Ping Xi Wang Mansion guards jumped in over the wall from all directions [orig. four sides, eight directions]; obviously they were already prepared. With their mouths they cry out to fight the fire, but they entered every room searching for something. Our brothers shouted and scolded them to stop, but it was useless; several of us had already fought with them.”

Wei Xiaobao nodded. “Wu Sangui suspected that we know his plan,” he said, “I think he is going to rebel!”

Zhang Kangnian was shocked; he cast a glance toward Wu Yingxiong, and then with a low voice said, “Is it true?”

“Let them search,” Wei Xiaobao said, “Don’t stop them.” Zhang Kangnian nodded; quietly he passed on the order to the officers and soldiers who came from Beijing.

By this time they could see a faint blaze of the fire on the southwest and southeast corners of the Garden. A dozen or more fire hoses had already spurting water, but the water was directed to the sky; columns of water swayed in the air, it looked like a large water fountain.

Wei Xiaobao went over to Wu Yingxiong and said, “Xiao Wangye, your divine ability to predict the future is indeed very admirable. Zhuge Liang and Liu Bowen[2] of the past are definitely inferior to you.”

Wu Yingxiong was startled. “Wei Jueye is making fun of me,” he said.

“Not at all,” Wei Xiaobao said, “It is obvious that you have already predicted that tonight, at the second watch of the night, Anfu Garden was going to catch fire, and may burn the Princess to death. You decided it was not going to be fun; therefore, you have prepared everything well in advance, and kept watch outside the Garden, waiting patiently for the fire. As soon as the fire broke, you gave your command, everybody immediately jumped in to fight the fire. Ha ha … good skill, good skill.”

Wu Yingxiong’s face reddened; he said, “I did not prepare it beforehand, it was a pure coincidence. Tonight my Jiefu [older sister’s husband] Xia Guo invited me to dinner; Xiongdi was on my way home after eating and drinking, accompanied by my family bodyguards, passing by this place. We happened to see the Garden is on fire.”

Wei Xiaobao nodded. “So that’s what happened,” he said, “I remember a storyteller said: ‘In all his life, Zhuge had always been cautious’; I said: Wangye actually surpasses Zhuge Liang. I was not wrong at all. Xiao Wangye went to your Jiefu’s home to drink wine; bringing along a team of fire fighters is definitely a big plus. Were you thinking of using it here?”

Wu Yingxiong knew that Wei Xiaobao had seen through his ploy; his face turned red again as he sheepishly said, “This time of the year the wind is strong the weather is dry, it is so easy to catch fire. We’d better be a bit more careful; this is called ‘preparedness averts peril’.”

“Absolutely,” Wei Xiaobao replied, “Too bad there is one thing Xiao Wangye did not prepare.”

“Please advise,” Wu Yingxiong said.

“Next time Xiao Wangye go to your Jiefu’s home to drink wine, it would be best if you also bring a team of bricklayers and carpenters, as well as tiles and bricks, lumber, lime and nails.”

“I wonder what for?” Wu Yingxiong asked.

Wei Xiaobao said, “There might be a one in ten thousand chance that your Jiefu’s home will catch fire. The fire fighters only spurting water upwards, they are unwilling to put out the fire, unavoidably your Jiefu’s house will be burned down to the ground. Xiao Wangye can issue an order immediately to have the bricklayers rebuild your Jiefu’s multi-story home. Now that, I’ll say, is called ‘preparedness averts peril’.”

“Hey, hey, hey,” Wu Yingxiong let out several hollow laughs. He turned to a guard by his side and said, “Wei Jueye thinks the fire-fighters are not doing their best in putting out the fire. Go grab the captain and his deputy, and break their dog’s legs.” The guard complied and left.

“Xiao Wangye,” Wei Xiaobao asked, “After breaking the fire-fighter team’s captain and his deputy’s dog’s legs, which official post are you going to promote them to?”

Wu Yingxiong was startled. “Wei Jueye,” he said, “I am afraid I don’t understand your words.”

“I don’t understand either,” Wei Xiaobao said, “I thought, ‘Hey, Xiao Wangye will have to build two more big prisons, so that he can promote these two, the captain and his deputy, to be the wardens’.”

Wu Yingxiong’s countenance changed; he thought, “This kid is indeed formidable. Lu Yifeng became the Hei Kanzi prison’s warden, unexpectedly you also knew.” Pretending to be oblivious of this matter, he laughed and said, “Wei Jueye is indeed very good in making jokes, no wonder His Majesty is very fond of you.” While in his heart he made up his mind, “As soon as I am back, I will send someone to get rid of Lu Yifeng; let this kid finds that the dead cannot testify.”

Soon afterwards, one after another the Ping Xi Wang Mansion guards returned to report that the fire did not spread too far, and that gradually the fire was dying down. Wei Xiaobao listened carefully as these people were giving their report, but he could not detect any code word. He noticed that as Wu Yingxiong listened to each person’s report, he did not seem pleased; apparently he knew that Hantiemo had not been found yet. He was wondering if there is a secret signal. Looking at these people’s expression as they gave their report, he did not see anything out of ordinary either.

---

[1] Book note: Luodian (county) is located in central Guizhou (province), it was where Wu Sangui stationed a massive military force. [Translator’s note: Actually, the book note is located at the end of the Chapter.] Dianchi is a lake in Yunnan. Qing is a unit area, approximately 6.67 hectares (16.5 acres).

[2] Zhuge Liang (181-234), military leader and prime minister of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period, the main hero of the fictional Romance of Three Kingdoms, where he is portrayed as a sage and military genius. Liu Bowen (1311-1375), general under the first Ming emperor Zu Yuanzhang, also has a reputation as a military genius.

[pannonian]

Satrap is probably a better description than governor. Governor implies a highly centralised government than sends out civil servants to rule a province. Persian satrapies were highly independent, some of them client kingdoms that submitted to the Persian empire, hence their virtual status as local kings, who were subject to the Great King. "Wang" in "Ping Xi Wang" implies some of that status, which the term governor doesn't have.

Notable satrapies include Lydia, whose king Croesus's legendary wealth led to the saying "as rich as Croesus". He lost his kingdom after he took on the Cyrus the Great and lost, and had his kingdom absorbed into the Persian empire. After Alexander's death, Ptolemy took over the satrapy of Egypt, and like some other Macedonian generals, called his province a kingdom and himself a king. Ptolemaic Egypt lasted until the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra and its incorporation into the Roman empire by Octavian (Augustus). If you've seen Oliver Stone's Alexander, you'll have seen the battle of Hydaspes in India. After that battle and the submission of the enemy king Porus, Alexander named Porus's kingdom as one of the satrapies of his empire, with Porus as the satrap.

[Anh Nam]

Thanks Foxs I shouldn't complain about working 7 days a week during Chinese New Year. I had 4 months vacation last summer in Vietnam.

[Gubrak]

The only place hasn't been searched yet is Princess Jian Ning's room, what WYX will do to search this only room left?

Thanks Foxs

祝你们新年快乐！龙年大吉！ 身体健康！ 万事如意！

[SkyWalker]

Thanks foxs.

[Han Solo]

Satrap is probably a better description than governor. Governor implies a highly centralised government than sends out civil servants to rule a province. Persian satrapies were highly independent, some of them client kingdoms that submitted to the Persian empire, hence their virtual status as local kings, who were subject to the Great King. "Wang" in "Ping Xi Wang" implies some of that status, which the term governor doesn't have.

Notable satrapies include Lydia, whose king Croesus's legendary wealth led to the saying "as rich as Croesus". He lost his kingdom after he took on the Cyrus the Great and lost, and had his kingdom absorbed into the Persian empire. After Alexander's death, Ptolemy took over the satrapy of Egypt, and like some other Macedonian generals, called his province a kingdom and himself a king. Ptolemaic Egypt lasted until the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra and its incorporation into the Roman empire by Octavian (Augustus). If you've seen Oliver Stone's Alexander, you'll have seen the battle of Hydaspes in India. After that battle and the submission of the enemy king Porus, Alexander named Porus's kingdom as one of the satrapies of his empire, with Porus as the satrap.

Satrap was the name used in the official translation.

Han Solo

[athlonkmf]

Dunno if anybody will see this, but it seems the domain name of spcnet has expired. I'm now visiting through 3G which luckily still has the old DNS-settings.

[crazee]

Officially my company being a chinese - China based company declared 2 days of shutdown meaning we have to start work on Friday....but I took a day off to enjoy a whole week to have sauna here....

Thanks a lot for the update foxs...it's boring here and the translation is a relief.

I'll be joining the migration back to my place of residence....anyway I don't know how to explain anymore....
I do not say my home town as my parent have departed from earth....and the current place I stay....well I am normally not in on major festive season.....like christmas and CNY....

Well It is not important....is it ??

[KChill]

Thanks, Foxs....yeah I have to deal with some , which is the least fav part of what I do,
begging politicians for money. LOL! So I'm the exact opposite of WXB, he's never had
to beg.

[smurf120]

So I have to admit, I freaked out yesterday when I couldn't get on the site. I almost starting trolling Jaynestars to see if anybody knew what happened to spcnet.

Then WXB came back at about 11 PM ~ whewwww!