Chapter 841

Five days later, Huile City, the seat of Lingzhou.

Late autumn yellow sand rolled over from the wilderness in the northwest, wrapping the entire city in a layer of turbid, earthy yellow.

On the official road thirty li outside the city gate, flags blocked the sun, and men and horses were like a dragon.

Yuwen Ze wore purple official robes, his waist bound with a jade belt, riding that pure white divine steed. Behind him were Lingzhou Chief Clerk Dou Lu Ling, Lingzhou Governor Helian Shi, and more than twenty civil and military officials of Lingzhou.

The welcoming procession stretched for nearly a li, with a banner of the Lingzhou Inspector's Office planted every ten paces along the way, the banner faces snapping in the wind and sand.

Yuwen Ze gripped the reins with one hand, the other hand cupped over his brow bone to shield against the wind and sand, his gaze fixed tightly on the horizon at the end of the official road, which had been mostly swallowed by the yellow sand.

Dou Lu Ling rode his horse behind him on the right, his voice raspy from being worn down by the wind and sand.

"Prince, the scouts report that the Pillar of State's carriage and horses have already passed the post station thirty li away; they will arrive in at most half an hour."

The corners of Yuwen Ze's mouth twitched, and a smile mostly obscured by wind and sand squeezed out from his gentle face.

"Half an hour is too long; this Prince has already waited five days."

Helian Shi rode a chestnut warhorse, clad in black armor, his hand resting on his horizontal blade, his face, polished rough by the northwest wind and sand, filled with irrepressible excitement.

"Prince, since we parted years ago, this subordinate hasn't seen the Pillar of State for a long time. My heart is itching as if scratched by a cat's claws."

Yuwen Ze glanced at him and laughed with a scold.

"You, a big, burly man, talking about cat's claws—aren't you afraid the brothers in the army will laugh at you, the Governor of Lingzhou, if this gets out?"

Helian Shi laughed foolishly and scratched the back of his head with a large palm.

"In this subordinate's heart, the Pillar of State is Heaven. Who cares if they laugh at me for feeling like I'm seeing Heaven?"

Dou Lu Ling couldn't help but cough lightly beside them.

Just then, the earth began to tremble.

That tremor came from the end of the official road, first a faint, buzzing sound, then rapidly changing into a clear, drum-like rhythm, striking every person's chest one beat at a time.

Yuwen Ze's eyes brightened.

"They're here!"

At the end of the horizon, the yellow sand was torn open by a terrifying force.

Five hundred Beiwei Death Guards clad in black armor rolled over like a black iron torrent, crushing forward with the momentum of a collapsing mountain and a surging sea. The sand and dust kicked up by the horses' hooves formed an earthy-yellow curtain several zhang high behind them.

The person in the lead wore purple robes and a gold belt, riding a black horse, the hilt of the horizontal blade at his waist reflecting a cold light in the sunlight.

Yuwen Ze couldn't wait any longer.

He threw the reins to the personal guard beside him, jumped off the white horse, stumbled as his boot soles hit the yellow sand, and sprinted wildly toward that purple-robed figure ahead.

"Brother!"

Chen Yan saw that staggering figure rushing over from the horse's back, the arc of his mouth widening by two degrees.

He reined in his horse, the black horse let out a long neigh, its front hooves digging two deep furrows in the yellow sand, the entire horse stopping sideways, the mane flicked by the horse's head sweeping into the wind.

Chen Yan dismounted and walked forward with long strides.

Two purple robes collided in the sky-filling yellow sand; Yuwen Ze's arms clamped tightly around Chen Yan's back, the force so great that even Chen Yan's shoulder armor emitted a slight creaking sound.

"Brother, you finally came!"

Yuwen Ze's voice carried three parts excitement, three parts grievance, and four parts of a fragility he refused to show in front of outsiders even if it killed him.

Chen Yan patted his back heavily twice.

"You've lost weight."

Yuwen Ze stepped back half a step, grabbed Chen Yan's arms with both hands, and looked him up and down twice, his mouth opening and closing, opening and closing, until he finally squeezed out a sentence.

"Brother, you haven't lost weight; you look even sturdier than when you were in Xia Prefecture."

Chen Yan laughed.

"The roast lamb in Xia Prefecture is fatter than in Lingzhou."

Yuwen Ze was amused by this sentence and slapped Chen Yan's shoulder armor.

Liu Biao knocked his head even faster.

Helian Shi behind him had already dismounted, rushing to Chen Yan in two or three steps, kneeling heavily on one knee in the yellow sand, the sound of armor plates colliding exploding in the wind.

"Pillar of State! This subordinate Helian Shi pays respects to the Pillar of State!"

Dou Lu Ling followed closely, kneeling on Helian Shi's right, holding his fists together and raising them above his head.

"This subordinate Dou Lu Ling respectfully welcomes the Pillar of State!"

Chen Yan bent over and pulled them up one by one, slapping Helian Shi's shoulder armor heavily with his palm.

"Helian, no need to kneel; we are all brothers."

Helian Shi's eyes reddened, his mouth splitting into a smile larger than his face.

"Pillar of State, this subordinate has hoped for your arrival day and night in Lingzhou, hoping until a few hairs on my head turned white."

Chen Yan glanced at the few hairs at his temples that had indeed turned white, his voice carrying a trace of imperceptible heartache.

"The burden of Lingzhou is indeed not light; you have worked hard."

His gaze moved from Helian Shi's face to Dou Lu Ling's face.

"A-Ling, what about the government affairs?"

Dou Lu Ling's voice was steady, but a trace of bitterness that could not be dissolved was hidden in the depths of his eyes.

"Pillar of State, I will report the government affairs in detail when we return to the mansion; it is hard to explain in a few words."

Chen Yan's brows moved slightly, but he did not pursue the question.

Yuwen Ze pulled Chen Yan's sleeve beside him, his face filled with excitement once again.

"Brother, let's not talk about these disappointing things first. Let's go, let's go, we'll talk after we enter the city. I've had them prepare the best roast lamb and mare's milk wine in Lingzhou; it's no worse than Xia Prefecture's!"

The group mounted their horses and galloped toward Huile City in a grand procession.

On both sides of the official road entering the city, the originally barren fields were already planted with winter wheat, the tender green wheat seedlings stubbornly poking their heads out in the yellow sand, blown wave after wave by the wind.

Yuwen Ze rode on Chen Yan's left, pointing his horsewhip toward those wheat fields, an irrepressible pride hanging on his face.

"Brother, look, these fields were all distributed according to the method you taught me. More than six thousand qing of ownerless land, all registered and distributed to refugees and retired veterans. A stone tablet is carved for every household, in black and white, and no one can snatch it away."

Chen Yan's gaze swept across those wheat fields, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.

"Well done."

Yuwen Ze became more enthusiastic as he spoke, his horsewhip pointing toward a cluster of earth houses under construction beside the official road.

"That over there is the newly built resettlement ward. More than three hundred refugee households have already moved in. Every household was issued farming tools and seeds. Dou Lu Ling also opened porridge sheds in the city; for any refugees who just arrived in Lingzhou, food and lodging are provided for the first three days."

There were indeed many commoners working in the fields on both sides of the official road. Seeing Yuwen Ze's procession pass by, they stopped their work one after another and knelt on the field ridges from afar to kowtow.

"Great kindness of the Prince! Ten thousand blessings to the Prince!"

Yuwen Ze waved at those commoners, the smile on his face as gentle as the spring breeze in March.

Chen Yan rode his horse, his gaze slowly moving away from those kneeling commoners.

His eyeballs turned half a circle in their sockets and landed at the entrance of a residence surrounded by a low wall on the right side of the official road.

Two burly men dressed in brocade stood at the entrance of the residence, the muscles on their arms stretching the brocade until it was bulging, each with a short blade tucked at their waists, their eyes sweeping over the pedestrians on the official road with a dark, hawk-like gaze.

At their feet, three ragged old farmers were being shoved aside to make way for the road; one of the old farmers fell onto the muddy ground, a bloody cut appearing on his knee, and those two brocade-clad burly men didn't even glance at them.

On the other side of the official road, two Lingzhou provincial soldiers happened to pass by on patrol.

Their gaze rested on those two brocade-clad burly men for half a breath, then they turned their heads in unison and quickened their pace as they walked past.

Chen Yan's hand tightened slightly on the reins.

He did not speak, but withdrew his gaze from the entrance of that residence and turned his head to look at Dou Lu Ling.

The time of that glance was very short, less than one breath.

But the moment Dou Lu Ling came into contact with that gaze, his entire spine felt as if an icy iron rod had been stabbed in along the back of his neck, and the color on his face faded completely within two breaths.

He opened his mouth, the words in his throat churning twice, but in the end, he did not speak them.

Yuwen Ze was still enthusiastically introducing the achievements of the new policies along the way, not noticing the confrontation that had happened behind him in that instant.

Chen Yan withdrew his gaze from Dou Lu Ling's face and slowly loosened his fingers on the reins.

He rode to Yuwen Ze's side, reached out and patted his shoulder, his voice flat.

"A Ze, the land has been distributed."

Yuwen Ze turned his head, smiling as he waited for him to say the second half of the sentence.

Chen Yan's gaze crossed Yuwen Ze's shoulder and fell on the city wall of Huile City, the silhouette of which could already be seen in the distance, the temperature in his voice dropping by three degrees.

"But the sky of this Lingzhou doesn't seem to have changed completely yet."

The smile on Yuwen Ze's face froze there.

His Adam's apple bobbed, and the proud light in his eyes was mostly extinguished by Chen Yan's words, replaced by a mass of haze that had been suppressed for a long time.

He opened his mouth and finally just nodded bitterly.

"Brother, let's talk after we return to the mansion."

The city gate of Huile City opened wide in the afternoon sunlight, the huge gate tunnel swallowing the procession of vehicles and horses entering the city; the stone plaque above the gate tunnel engraved with the two characters "Huile" had its characters worn blurry by the wind and sand.

Inside the Lingzhou Inspector's Office, the scale of the welcoming banquet was indeed not small.

The charcoal fire in the center of the main hall burned brightly, three whole lambs roasted golden and dripping with oil were placed on iron forks, the grease dripping onto the charcoal fire and emitting a sizzling sound, the rich aroma of meat mixed with the mellow scent of mare's milk wine permeating the entire hall.

Yuwen Ze yielded the main seat to Chen Yan, sitting on the left himself, with Dou Lu Ling and Helian Shi sitting on both sides, while Gao Jiong, Hongye, and Ye Zhuxi stood behind Chen Yan.

Yuwen Ze picked up a silver goblet filled with mare's milk wine, stood up, and raised it with both hands to the level of his brow.

"Brother, this cup, your younger brother toasts you!"

His voice surged with three parts warmth once again.

"Toasting you for rushing to Lingzhou from thousands of li away, toasting you for the unprecedented merit you created in Xia Prefecture, and even more toasting you..."

He hadn't finished his words.

A neigh of a warhorse, shrill to the extreme, suddenly exploded from outside the hall. That neigh carried a kind of despair and pain that would only be emitted before death, shattering the aroma of meat and the scent of wine inside the main hall together.

Immediately following were chaotic footsteps, the sound of armor plates colliding, and shouts all mixed into one.

The hall door was pushed open from the outside, and a Lingzhou scout covered in blood stumbled in, his knees striking the threshold first, and then his whole body collapsed onto the blue brick floor, dragging a dark red bloodstain from the entrance to the position where he lay prone.

"Prince! Pillar of State!"

The scout's voice was hoarse to the point of breaking, his face covered in a mixture of blood and mud, his eyeballs churning with something that made everyone's heart tighten.

"Something happened! A sudden fire at the Changping Granary in the west of the city; the thirty brothers guarding the granary were all had their throats slit!"

His fingers clawed three bloody marks into the blue bricks.

"Thirty thousand shi of winter military grain, all burned to nothing!"

Clang.

The silver goblet in Yuwen Ze's hand slipped from between his fingers, striking the blue bricks. Mare's milk wine splashed all over the ground, the white liquid and the bloodstain the scout had dragged in merging together, turning into a nauseating pink.

The air in the hall congealed into an iron plate.

Chen Yan sat in the main seat, playing with a porcelain wine cup in his hand, his eyes falling on the scout without even lifting his eyelids.

His fingers slowly closed.

The porcelain cup emitted an extremely subtle cracking sound in his palm, the cracks spreading from the rim of the cup to the bottom, the wine seeping out from the cracks, dripping one by one onto the desk along his fingers.