Chapter 14: An Old Friend Long Awaits

The heavy snow had just stopped, and the roads had not yet thawed, but in order not to miss the deadline or break faith, the three Gongsun brothers discussed it and decided it was best to set out immediately — at the very least, they should first reach the Lu family residence in Fanyang, Zhuo Commandery.

After all, once they arrived there, however the Lu family arranged the journey to Luoyang would no longer be their own responsibility.

But traveling in this day and age was no simple matter, let alone traveling all the way from Liaoxi to Luoyang.

For one thing, the roads were hardly peaceful — did you think there would be no tigers, bears, or wolf packs? Bandits, roving thieves, and local rich landlords and strongmen tempted by wealth were also unavoidable, were they not? And although the three brothers were all skilled in archery and horsemanship — by Lady Gongsun's estimate, their martial prowess was already above seventy — they still couldn't be expected to personally fight their way through the entire journey, could they?

So experienced travelers, household servants, retainers, and guards with some martial courage were naturally indispensable.

But that was not the end of it. A group of grown men — although there were post stations along the way to rest and lodge, who would wash their clothes? Who would cook their meals?

Therefore, they also needed serving women, maids, and cooks.

And, if one thought more carefully, with epidemics so severe in this age, a great plague could suddenly sweep through several provinces — could they really trust the pots, bowls, ladles, and spoons that anyone might use at a post station?

Thus, in addition to a large amount of valuables, a change of clothes, books, weapons, dry rations, and gifts, they could not even do without pots, bowls, ladles, and spoons!

Of course, if a poor family were traveling, a single person in straw sandals, carrying dry rations, one change of clothes, and a robe or bedding for warmth could still walk several thousand li. The key was, wasn't our Lady Gongsun wealthy? And when it came down to it, hadn't she grown tender-hearted over this only son of hers?

Moreover, over on Gongsun Zan's side, he was newly married and deeply in love, and with the Grand Administrator's dowry so generous, the Marquis's wife was naturally full of reluctance and full of fussing.

"A pity, a pity!" Lady Gongsun had originally wanted to grumble that she was a useless liberal arts student, but then remembered that her son was also going off to be a liberal arts student, so the words reached her lips and had to be changed. "Why wasn't I an engineering dog back then? At the very least I could have built a four-wheeled carriage... that would have been much more comfortable."

Gongsun Xun lowered his head and said nothing. His mother — whenever she failed at anything, she would invariably blame it on some so-called engineering student, even cursing them as engineering dogs! She cursed them when she couldn't dig out coal, cursed them when her research into efficient looms failed, cursed them when she burned cement and glass into sludge, and now that the carriage was unsuitable, she cursed them just the same — as if those engineering dogs were supposed to know all this... He truly wondered just how deep her grudge against these so-called engineering students ran?

From what he had gathered by asking, weren't these so-called engineering students, liberal arts students, and science students just like the distinctions among Confucian scholars today between the New Text and Old Text schools? How could it warrant such resentment?

Of course, the difference in their moods at this moment actually had its reasons.

After all, the natural bond between mother and child, plus the gap in age and experience, was laid bare here. At this time, Lady Gongsun was simply a mother, worrying endlessly about this and that, while Gongsun Xun was a young man leaving home for the first time, his heart actually full of anticipation for the future and distant places... the so-called "poetry and distant lands and dogs"! This fellow had previously only wandered around Beiping to the right of Liaoxi Commandery and the Liaodong vassal state, and the farthest he had ever gone was just touching the border of Yuyang Commandery.

And Luoyang — that was the center of all under heaven!

"Aren't there too many carriages?" Next, Gongsun Xun indeed began to get more and more of a headache, just like a university freshman in later ages. "And the roads are so difficult."

"No one's asking you to drive them!"

"Could we have fewer maidservants?"

"For clothing, food, shelter, and travel, it's uncomfortable without people you're used to."

"But they can't all be maidservants from Samhan and Goguryeo, can they? Mother seems to have always liked using female slaves from those places?"

"Samhan and Goguryeo maidservants are loyal and devoted, and in my experience... with Samhan slave women attending you, you needn't fear even reciting the table of dynastic changes in your sleep."

"Why does Aunt Jin have to go with me to Luoyang too?!"

"Your mother has to plant an informant by your side, doesn't she?" Lady Gongsun looked utterly matter-of-fact. "When you come back, am I supposed to rely on those little slip of a girls who can barely speak clearly to report your every move?"

"But Aunt Jin is your right-hand woman, Mother..." Gongsun Xun pleaded weakly.

"Of course." Lady Gongsun sighed mournfully at these words. "Back then, including the nine from Girls' Generation, I bought forty or fifty Eastern Yi slave women from Goguryeo and Samhan in one go and trained them personally. From Girls' Generation to the Crown Troupe to the Function Troupe, not one was missing. I had originally intended never to abandon them, for us all to be a happy family, and to take them with me into the grave as burial companions. And what happened? Some died of illness, some betrayed and fled, and the most tragic were the two who went to the foreign trading post in Liucheng to check the accounts — who could have imagined they would encounter the Xianbei, vanished without a trace, neither seen alive nor dead! It's just that Girls' Generation had a bit of fortune, with eight of the nine surviving. I have always treated them as my own sisters..."

"Then all the more reason they should stay?" By now, Gongsun Xun could no longer be bothered to mock his own mother's skill at naming her trusted account-managing teams, though he had mocked it countless times since childhood.

And to digress a little further, the reason eight of Girls' Generation survived was entirely because they were trusted members of the main accounts office, constantly at their mistress's side, and thus naturally had an extremely high survival rate; the ones who vanished without a trace, neither seen alive nor dead, were originally tasked with secret inspections and audits, and thus naturally encountered all kinds of dangers; as for those who betrayed and fled, they were from various groups stationed permanently at branch offices. Back when Anli Trading was still in its infancy, although it had the Gongsun name to shelter it, its prestige was ultimately weak, and these Samhan maidservants had only learned accounting and did not understand the meaning of loyalty. It was inevitable that a few were easily seduced by strong men. Fortunately, his own mother was ruthless and merciless — she directly called back to the clan for several dozen Lingzhi wanderers, who rode over openly with torches and blades, and hacked those scoundrels to pieces in their beds along with the women... In short, all these incidents had their reasons. What nonsense talk of fortune was this?!

"No!" Lady Gongsun, utterly disregarding the nearly hundred family members and retainers around her, actually began to weep. "Let me tell you, I know I'm being a bit unreasonable. But, my son, once you leave, it will likely be at least two years, maybe three. And in this age, even a letter may not arrive on time. How can I set my mind at ease? Just let your mother be willful this once!"

With words spoken to this point, what more could Gongsun Xun do? He could only half-reluctantly, half-moved, half-helplessly close his mouth.

And so, Gongsun Xun himself had over a dozen carts, several dozen animals, plus seventeen or eighteen mounted companions of high martial skill, each man with three horses — already quite intimidating. And although Gongsun Yue's family was poor, they could not withstand Lady Gongsun's prior preparations, and she had simply arranged things and personnel at half scale. When Gongsun Zan's seven or eight carts and ten-odd companions, each with two horses, joined them... well, it was clearly a small migration party escorted by an army!

It was not that no elder could bear the sight. There was indeed an elderly senior in the clan who wanted to come forward and say a few words, but as soon as he opened his mouth, Lady Gongsun blasted him back:

"What is this?! The year before last, the Mi family of Xuzhou went to Luoyang seeking office, taking to the road with several hundred carts and over two thousand servants! The cream of our Gongsun clan's next generation are these three, going to Luoyang to study, and taking only a hundred or so people — we've already lost the prestige of the Gongsun clan's generations of two-thousand-bushel officials, all right?! If your son also had promise and could go to Luoyang to study the classics under a great Confucian, I would provide for you at the same standard! Do you? Do you?!"

This elder, both shocked and shamed, was so frightened he ran straight home, and after that, no one dared to say another word.

The consequence of no one saying another word, however, was that the packing became even more efficient. By noon, they had bid farewell one by one to the local officials, clan brothers, and city friends who had come to see the three off. Our Lady Gongsun, sorrowful and wistful, wished to say more, but finally steeled her heart and let her only son go to that chaotic political center of the Great Han dynasty... while she herself, supported by a group of trusted maids, went back to touch up her makeup and incidentally clean her precious black-rimmed glasses, blurred by her tears.

On the other side, the three brothers also let out a long breath. They bowed deeply in the direction Lady Gongsun had departed, then led the procession, like a long dragon, straight out of Lingzhi City.

At dusk, as the sky gradually darkened, before a river whose channel appeared extremely steep, the caravan began cautiously crossing a pontoon bridge.

Taking advantage of this moment, a well-dressed elderly household servant jumped down from his cart, stepped through the creaking snow, and walked over to the three young masters, who had reined in their horses by the riverbank. He gave a rough introduction to the local geography — this was an old shopkeeper from Anli Trading who frequently traveled between Yecheng and Lingzhi, specially assigned by Lady Gongsun to accompany them as far as the Yellow River before returning.

"The three young masters need not worry." The old shopkeeper pointed to the swift-flowing river before them and explained, "This Fengda River — the boundary between Youbeiping Commandery and our Liaoxi Commandery — is one everyone is accustomed to traveling. Although the current is swift, the channel is narrow, and the pontoon bridge is frequently repaired. There will absolutely be no problem."

"The pontoon bridge may be without problem." Gongsun Zan, riding a white horse, slightly furrowed his brows and secretly gripped his double-headed lance, which was placed behind his saddle. "But is there no other problem in this place?"

"What does the eldest young master... mean?" The old shopkeeper tucked his hands into his sleeves, completely puzzled.

"Eldest brother means, are there many bandits nearby?" Gongsun Xun also pressed his hand on his black-carved bow. Not only that, but some of the mounted companions and retainers around them also began to gaze sensitively and nervously toward a dense forest on the opposite bank, slightly to the north.

Just as the caravan had begun crossing the river, a large flock of sparrows had suddenly flown up from that black-and-white mottled forest over there, clearly indicating sudden movement within the woods.

"How could that be?" Although the old shopkeeper had not seen the sparrows, he understood everyone's meaning, yet he still shook his head repeatedly. "There have never been bandits in this place! Young masters, do you not know? Cross the river, round that forest, and travel less than five li upstream, and you will reach Tuyin City, the seat of Youbeiping Commandery — where we will rest tonight. And thirty li behind us is our own Lingzhi City. To the south is the sea, to the north is the impregnable Lulong Fortress. If one speaks of bandits, bandits can exist anywhere under heaven, and I have seen quite a few, but only in this place — I have done business following the mistress for nearly twenty years, and I have truly never seen bandits here... Even that forest is where the people of Tuyin City daily gather firewood and burn charcoal."

The three brothers, as well as the retainers who had reined in their horses and gripped their blades, all breathed a sigh of relief at these words. Then Gongsun Yue called out, and leading seven or eight retainers, he bypassed the carts and crossed the Fengda River first, riding directly toward that dense forest.

And in less than the time it takes to burn half a stick of incense, Gongsun Yue returned with his men — and two extra riders.

Gongsun Xun's eyesight was extremely sharp, and he recognized at a glance that the leader of those two riders was an old acquaintance with a thin beard and hawk-like eyes. This made him both somewhat uneasy and somewhat expectant... So, without waiting for that group to approach, Gongsun Xun also bypassed the carts, rode onto the pontoon bridge, and went to meet them.

"Young master!" Seeing Gongsun Xun personally come to greet him, that man directly dismounted, knelt in the snow holding his saber, and paid homage. "Han Dang has long awaited you here. I am a man of no talent, with only a single blade to offer, barely fit to serve as a claw and fang. Now that the army cannot use me, after much thought, I would rather follow an enlightened lord and depart. Would the young master be willing to take me in?"

Gongsun Xun was overjoyed beyond measure.

"Dang in youth served in the army at Lulong Fortress, repeatedly failing to achieve his ambitions. Hearing that the Grand Ancestor was going to Luoyang to study, he set out ahead and waited by the roadside, joining him along the journey." — Old Book of Yan, Volume 69, Biography 19

PS: Thanks to Yexue Piaoling and Manshu for the red rewards... Also, rare sleet in Beijing... so cold.

(End of Chapter)