Chapter 307: Insight

The men of Li Fa have no choice but to follow Bai Lang, but Bai Lang didn't intend to lock them in his own residence—he is now a guest commander, and since Yang Guang died and Yang Tong has not yet ascended, there truly is no new appointment for him. If the name is not proper, words won't flow, so Bai Lang decided to hand Li Fa's captives to Wang Shichong—those Wang Shichong actually tacitly allow Li Fa's subordinates to wander around his territory.

Now everyone is a subject of Great Sui, at least Li Yuan hasn't rebelled yet. After handing them over to Wang Shichong, Bai Lang could easily guess that Wang Shichong would feast them and then look for a chance to release them and be done. However Bai Lang's original purpose was to strike at Li Fa, to display his status as a "loyal and capable general" of Great Sui. Another reason is that he's bored; idle time is idle time, so frightening the future Emperor Tang Taizong is also rather fun.

He escorted them to the front of Wang Shichong's residence, and Wang Shichong, who had been warned in advance, rushed out in panic, not knowing what to do. So Bai Lang gave him an explanation, bringing up the nunnery's great treason, and that Li Fa's second son had also received the rites of a minister without a sovereign, and thus was accepted. It seemed Wang Shichong was also displeased; this Cihang Quiet Nunnery was causing such trouble on his turf, effectively showing he didn't consider Li Fa a candidate for ruler of the world—but that could only be kept in his heart, as it was hard to voice.

He could only echo Bai Lang with shared hostility, harshly berating the nuns of the Cihang Quiet Nunnery, and also reproaching Li Fa for being too coarse, saying that was not how a minister should respond. Then they jointly paid tribute to the Great Xing Emperor, expressing their utmost hatred toward the rebel Yu Wenhua and vows to crush him to bone and ash. Afterwards Bai Lang mentioned that the Jing Nian Zen Monastery had cast a bronze Buddhist Hall, but there was no law prohibiting it, and Wang Shichong, likely wary of the Buddhist Sect's power, brushed it off.

Bai Lang smiled and took his leave, and Wang Shichong escorted him out the door, also handing over the gifts meant for Bai Lang—much like in Romance of the Three Kingdoms, where Lord Cao gave Guan some gold on horseback and silver on foot… and Bai Lang's bravery perhaps even surpasses that of Guan and Zhang. Wang Shichong also entertained the thought of recruiting Bai Lang; many under his command had witnessed Bai Lang's battlefield courage, truly worthy of the saying "bravery that crowns the three armies and charges straight forward."

A cultured observer would say Bai Lang possesses the ferocious courage of a tiger and a wolf; his battlefield slaying of Wang Bo and Dan Xiongxin proves it—these were all cut down in the heat of battle. Wang Shichong now surely wants to vie for supremacy with Li Mi—because after Li Mi occupies Henan he will surely attack Luoyang, and after taking Luoyang he'll strike Chang'an; once the two capitals are secured, the world will essentially be settled. Moreover, Li Mi has just driven Bai Lang away, by whatever means.

In short, he has already seized the Luokou Warehouse of Great Sui, gaining grain to recruit soldiers and win the people's hearts, so expanding his territory and occupying Guanzhong before anyone else is inevitable—otherwise he shouldn't be called Li Mi. Facing Li Mi's Wagang Army, Wang Shichong truly lacks confidence, because Li Mi has too many battle‑hardened generals in his hand—especially the fierce commanders who once followed Zhang Xutu in the campaign against Henan, most of whom have now defected to Li Mi under Pei Renji.

Therefore, the fierce general Bai Lang, who also served under Zhang Xutu and is famed for overwhelming a whole county, is deemed very important by Wang Shichong; using Bai Lang as the vanguard of a trap, Wang Shichong feels it's not impossible to confront the Wagang Army. So he does his best to win Bai Lang over; many beauties have been placed in Bai Lang's residence, and even Wang Shichong's "niece" Dong Shuni occasionally comes to see Bai Lang—always under the pretense of looking for Wei Zhenzhen.

Bai Lang hasn't enjoyed any of those beauties; during this period he has been honing his martial arts and occasionally strolling through the late Sui capital Luoyang—something later generations scarcely witness. Yet Luoyang's splendor would not be fully realized for several more decades; only then could it be called the Divine Capital, and the Japanese later, when they became Sengoku‑era overlords, would call the ceremony of ascending it "Shangluo".

Compared to that, no woman can match Bai Lang's current blend of martial cultivation and nostalgic yearning for the past—especially since in the end he fulfilled Wei Zhenzhen's wish and ended up making love with that beautiful maid… As for the debt? It's just a joke. In this age, a woman's chastity, especially among lower‑class women, is not highly valued; Wei Zhenzhen has been a concubine before, so she's certainly not a virgin, and making love with the master is considered normal in her view.

It might be better to say that it's a strange thing Bai Lang only met her now… She initially thought Bai Lang was the type who shunned women. Bai Lang's martial training hasn't turned him into a homosexual; he knows nothing about changing rooms or wrestling, nor anything about kings or van. The martial arts Bai Lang practices are mostly striking techniques; he hasn't specifically studied grappling or bedroom techniques.

The beauties that Wang Shichong stuffed into his residence fluttered about like sparrows, and Bai Lang found them a bit annoying, so he rarely went to the back garden. In his residence he only enclosed a side courtyard and turned that area into a training ground, which was enough; on ordinary days he only let Wei Zhenzhen attend to him. The beauties, however, lived in the front and rear mansions of the residence and could wander the back garden, and they didn't mind when he went out to play.

He let Wei Zhenzhen handle the placement of these women, but Wei Zhenzhen's abilities are limited, and now the authority has almost been taken from her—these women have begun to encroach on Wei Zhenzhen's last sphere of power, which is the authority to serve Bai Lang. Bai Lang doesn't mind, and this woman cannot stand on her own; she has neither the will nor the ability to consolidate power—making pastries, cooking dishes, and serving Bai Lang is all she cares about.

Dong Shuni holds a high position, so she can always come to disturb Bai Lang, but she is rather obedient and knows that Bai Lang never makes a sound while training. Bai Lang never minds others watching his training; whether they can withstand the aura he emits during cultivation is another matter. From this we see that Dong Shuni indeed has some skill—people of status in this era generally possess some martial ability.

Bai Lang now intends to go out; although he cannot compel Wang Shichong to seize the Jing Nian Zen Monastery, Wang Shichong cannot stop Bai Lang from "seeing" the Jing Nian Zen Monastery. What puzzles Bai Lang is that the Buddhist Sect later managed to broadcast the so‑called Imperial Jade Seal to the whole world as being in their hands—do they think no one dares to move against them? Let them claim any enlightened ruler and hand over the jade seal? In any normal era of chaos or a feudal dynasty, such a move would invite a purge of the family.

Since he hasn't figured it out, he wants to go and see for himself—whether the bald donkey is truly as hard‑headed as said, or whether the world's causes and effects are that simply shallow.