Chapter 327

Barbarian camp, wooden house.

Mysterious white gas in the house, lingering and flowing, overflowing and spreading out.

Wang Yang sat at the door, his whole body shrouded in white gas, as if sitting in a sea of clouds.

The twilight was like gold, and the setting sun shone on the rising white gas, refracting a hazy halo, plating Wang Yang's figure with an illusory outline.

The barbarians who were queuing up to beg for the Divine Envoy's blessing saw this scene, all held their breath, knelt down and kowtowed, as if kowtowing to a heavenly monarch!

The barbarians standing on the left and right rows with swords were full of pride, feeling honored.

Wang Yang smiled lightly and raised his eyes, reflecting the snow, and where his sleeves brushed, he was as bright as a god.

In the corner of the house, bamboo joints were piled up. Xiao Baoyue frowned and puffed her cheeks, her cheeks stained with black ash, while gnawing on a coarse cake, while fiddling with the bamboo joints in the fire, looking just like a bullied little servant. Every now and then she would glare at Wang Yang, her eyes extremely resentful.

Small holes were made in the bamboo joints, one end was inserted into the fire, and the other end was buried in wet mud. The air in the bamboo joints expanded when heated, evaporating the water in the wet mud to produce steam, which was squeezed out through the small holes, becoming Wang Yang's "immortal energy."

So there is no such thing as quiet years, it's just that someone is carrying the burden for Wang Yang...

"Don't say 'I hope', say 'I definitely will'."

Wang Yang looked at the thin and small barbarian boy kneeling five steps away, his voice becoming severe.

The boy was even more afraid, his thin shoulders shrank, his whole body prostrate on the ground, whispering:

"I... I really hope..."

"Don't say hope!" Wang Yang's voice became even more severe.

The boy was so scared that he shook like chaff, tears gushed out, but he didn't dare to cry out, and could only bite his lower lip hard, swallowing the sobbing sound back into his throat.

"You look up." Wang Yang's voice softened slightly, but still carried an irresistible majesty.

The boy stiffened, looked up, and in his teary eyes, saw Wang Yang bathed in the sunset, like a god and a saint.

"Since the Pan King has ordained you to come and kowtow to me, he will not abandon you because you are thin and small. Because what the Pan King values has never been strength, but courage. I can see that you have great courage hidden in your heart, but it is temporarily wrapped in timidity, like a fire seed buried underground, clearly burning fiercely, but covered by the soil layer, so that everyone forgets its heat, including yourself! If you want the Pan King's blessing, then let the fire in your heart break through the soil! You must restate your wish in front of everyone! Don't say 'I hope', say 'I definitely will'!"

The boy looked at Wang Yang with teary eyes, summoned his courage, his lips trembling as he said:

"I must practice my sword well!"

Wang Yang frowned:

"The voice is too small."

The boy sniffed and raised his voice:

"I must practice my sword well!!"

Wang Yang was displeased:

"Can't hear, say it again!"

The boy raised his hand to wipe the tears from his face and shouted:

"I must practice my sword well!!!"

Wang Yang sneered, his tone contemptuous:

"Can't hear, can't hear, do you really want to practice your sword well? I think you don't want to at all."

The boy's chest heaved violently, and he shouted loudly:

"I must practice my sword well!!!!"

Wang Yang scolded sternly:

"Are you perfunctory to yourself or perfunctory to the Pan King? You must let the Pan King see the purity of your faith! Shout your heart out, let the Pan King see how true it is!!"

The boy clenched his fists, raised his head, the veins on his neck bulging, and roared with all his strength:

"I must practice my sword well!!!!! Must practice my sword well!!!!!"

Wang Yang began to give positive feedback, nodding with satisfaction:

"Very good. Continue. What else do you want?"

The boy was like he had been injected with chicken blood, his eyes red as he continued to hiss and roar:

"I must hunt a lot of prey!!!!"

"What else?"

"I must eat a lot of meat!!!!"

"Keep talking!"

"I must become a Holy Guard!!!!"

"I must make people look up to me!!!!"

"I must revive the Yidu Tribe!!!!"

The boy's roar was like an exploding thunder, echoing under the sky again and again. Many barbarians were stunned, never imagining that the thin and weak boy who usually shrank behind others and didn't dare to speak loudly could shout such heart-shaking power!

Even the few strong barbarians who looked down on the boy the most were not unmoved at this moment, the mocking look on their faces gradually faded, replaced by a complex expression mixed with many emotions.

Wang Yang's tone suddenly sank a bit:

"If someone blocks the revival of the Yidu Tribe, what will you do?"

The boy's eyes were blood-red, as if crazy, and he roared:

"I will fight him to the death!!!"

"If someone wants to harm the Divine Envoy, what will you do?"

The boy's hoarse voice continued to erupt with roars, and at the same time, a ruthlessness that had never appeared on him erupted:

"Whoever dares to harm the Divine Envoy, I will kill his whole family!!!"

"What is your name?"

"My name is Wen Daoqi!!!!"

Wang Yang formed a seal with one hand, silently recited this person's name in his heart, paused for a while, and said solemnly:

"The Pan King has heard your words and agreed to bless you.

Now, in the name of the Pan King, I bless you and appoint you as a Holy Guard—"

Wang Yang stretched out his palm.

The barbarians were stirred and exclaimed!

The boy was even more trembling with excitement!

His eyes burned with crazy piety and joy, he crawled through the passage between the Holy Guards on both sides with his hands and feet, crawled to Wang Yang, and tremblingly brought his head close to that sacred palm, feeling that everyone's eyes were gathered on him!

Wang Yang's expression was serious, his voice solemn:

"You are the sharp blade I have hammered with my own hands, and the loyal shield of the Pan King!

Death cannot make you sink, darkness cannot imprison you!

You will use iron and blood as armor, and glory as your ring!

Protect my Dao, clear the disloyal!

I am the Divine Envoy, my soul is eternal.

You are the Holy Guard, your name will last forever!"

Wang Yang announced loudly:

"Wen Daoqi! From today on, you are the seventy-third Holy Guard under my seat!"

Wen Daoqi's eyes were overflowing with tears and ecstasy, trembling as he raised his arm and shouted the words he had recited many times in his heart:

"Follow the Divine Envoy's order, act on the Pan King's will!!!"

The Holy Guards standing in the two rows on the left and right raised their arms at the same time and shouted in unison:

"Follow the Divine Envoy's order, act on the Pan King's will!!!"

The barbarians' faces were all surging with fanaticism. They looked at the Holy Guards, their eyes filled with both awe and ignited desire, and followed by raising their arms and shouting:

"The Divine Envoy is immortal, the Holy Guards will flourish forever!!!"

Crackle.

The bamboo joints burst, and Baoyue coughed.

Deduct five points.

Wang Yang turned his head and looked at Baoyue with dissatisfaction.

Baoyue glared back resentfully, then pulled out a new bamboo joint and stuffed it into the mud, muttering in a low voice:

"The Divine Envoy is immortal, the disaster lasts long..."

"... Life is short, heaven and earth are long—"

"Lord Le, don't recite poetry at this time. Give a firm word on whether to accept the edict or not! There is no point in dragging it out any longer."

Kong Zhangyu really lost his patience. Le Zhan kept popping words out of his mouth, but just wouldn't say whether to accept the edict or not. At first, he thought it was expressing ambition with poetry, and there was going to be a big wave, so he listened carefully, but the result was that this old thief recited Ji Kang's group poem "Giving to the Scholar Entering the Army," one after another, endlessly! (This poem has a total of eighteen)

Le Zhan said slowly:

"This poem is not finished, Attendant, listen quietly."

"I listen quietly to you—"

Kong Zhangyu almost cursed, suppressed his anger and said:

"Good, since Lord Le has such elegant interest, then let your son accompany you to chant."

Le Zhan laughed loudly:

"Why does the Attendant deceive me! My dog son is not in Jingzhou at all! I have been in the officialdom for a long time and have seen countless things. Since I am ashamed to be a senior assistant and have reached the position of Bie Jia, how can I have no means? Since I dare to come, it must be—"

"Dad."

Le Zhan was stunned.

Le Xiao Pang followed a team of soldiers and swaggered in. His treatment was not comparable to Yin Xiao Wu's just now.

Le Zhan looked like he had seen a ghost:

"You you you you how..."

Le Xiao Pang preempted:

"Thanks to the Prince taking care of the gentry, my son was escorted back by the garrison this time, it's quite face-saving..."

Although the situation was already terrible, there were still gentry officials who almost laughed out loud. Thinking to themselves: Everyone says the Le family son is not making progress, now it seems this is not not making progress, but stupid to the extreme...

Le Zhan was so angry he wanted to vomit blood, and cursed:

"I think you were—"

Just as he cursed, he saw his son winking at him desperately:

"Dad, you have heart disease, you must not get angry!"

Le Zhan understood, and pretended to be angry:

"I won't beat you to death today, I will—ah!"

Le Zhan suddenly clutched his chest and staggered to the ground.

Le Xiao Pang wailed and threw himself on him:

"Dad! Wake up, Dad! Hurry! Hurry and invite a physician! Dad, hold on! I'll go back and get the medicine immediately!"

Le Xiao Pang turned around and left, but was stopped by soldiers before taking two steps.

Le Xiao Pang was furious and shouted sternly:

"My dad has heart disease! He must be saved by the secret medicine 'Warm Jade Soul-Melting Pill' in my house! Whoever dares to delay me from getting the medicine is the culprit who killed my dad! It is the enemy of the Yuyang Le family and the Taiyuan Sun family! Must die without a burial place! Also, the Prince respects the gentry the most! If something happens to my dad, do you think the Prince will let you go?"

The soldiers looked at Kong Zhangyu, and Kong Zhangyu sneered:

"Among the five punishments, there are three thousand, and there is no crime greater than unfilial piety. Young Master Le fainted his elder, and should be beaten. Come! Catch him! Drag him outside and beat him until Lord Le wakes up!"

The soldiers swarmed up and held Le Xiao Pang down.

Le Xiao Pang struggled and shouted:

"Kong Zhangyu! You dog-fucker! You are using public office for private revenge! Beating the noble with the humble! I know! You have always hated the gentry, so you used the Prince's name to do this! By the way, you are provoking the relationship between the Prince and the gentry, making the gentry alienate the Prince, and letting the cold people take charge! This move is ruthless! You despicable villain, for your own selfish desires, you ruined the Prince's great cause..."

Everyone thought, this Le family son has something, no wonder he can get close to Wang Yang...

Although Kong Zhangyu knew that this was clearly a false accusation, and no one would believe it, he still couldn't completely ignore these words. Perhaps he felt that Le Xiao Pang was really too noisy, or perhaps he had a hidden worry in his heart, worrying that one day the Prince would face a choice and might throw himself out to appease the gentry's anger. He ordered anxiously:

"Plug his mouth! Drag him down and beat him!"

——————

Note: ① Whether to use cold people or gentry is a struggle of routes that lurked during the Yongming period and even the entire Song, Qi, and Liang eras, affecting not only the Prince of Badong, but many struggles behind the scenes have the shadow of this dark line. The later volumes will reveal it more clearly.

② Chapter 217 "Hot Spring Holiday": "Wang Yang still closed his eyes, with a smile on the corner of his mouth, and said slowly: 'Buddhism has the Vajra Lion's Roar, and what I practice is called the Warm Jade Soul-Melting Chant'..."

③ "Book of Zhou, Biography of Heba Sheng": "Also sent people to lure the barbarian king Wen Daoqi to lead his tribe to submit. Liang Yongzhou Inspector Xiao Xu attacked Daoqi unsuccessfully, and Hannan was greatly shocked."

"Book of Chen, Biography of Chunyu Liang": "At the border of Jing and Yong, the barbarian left rebelled several times, and the mountain commander Wen Daoqi was a border scourge. The central soldier Wang Sengbian conquered him, and fought unsuccessfully several times."

The barbarian rebellion has never been a heart-and-belly scourge of the Southern Dynasties, but those who make a big fuss can be called an elbow-and-arm scourge, especially in the mid-to-late period, when the Northern Dynasties began to provoke the barbarian tribes to rebel, connecting inside and outside, responding to each other, and even calling themselves kings and marquises, even cutting off the Three Gorges waterway, consuming the national power of the Southern Dynasties. Wen Daoqi, who appeared in this chapter, was one of those lured to rebel by the Northern Dynasties in the original timeline.

And the reason why his surname is Wen and his name is Daoqi, unlike Le Luo Luo and Le Ma who sound like barbarian style, is because the Yidu Tribe has been Sinicized for the longest and deepest time (this is also the reason why Tian Dadao uses the tiger tally to mobilize troops, whereas now the Han court doesn't even use tiger tallies), big surnames like Wen, Tian, Cheng, Mei, Xiang, Huan, etc., are no different from Han surnames, and names are also Han names, not only using Han language and characters, but even using Han language as their mother tongue (Pan King's true language) and despising barbarian language, so Ang Ta once complained about the Yidu barbarians saying "that group of crazy barbarians who can't even speak barbarian language." However, Ang Ta is an exaggerated statement. Previously, spies had used "Wenyang barbarian language to answer" to catch Wang Yang, so it's not that they can't speak it at all, it's just that they don't have their own barbarian language.