Chapter 025 – His Majesty acquires an Akhal-Teke horse

Going up the mountain was easy, but going down was difficult. On their way down, Xue Yuan was very respectful, actively protecting Gu Yuanbai. On occasion, when the ground was uneven, he’d directly hold Gu Yuanbai’s hand to guide him down to safety.

Although Xue Yuan was injured, he was still very strong and familiar with the mountain and the forests. The guard captain kept an eye on him, but, since Xue Yuan was acting so proper, he resigned himself to staying behind the Emperor just in case.

As a matter of fact, Xue Yuan’s mood was rapidly getting better.

He didn’t like men, but it wasn’t as if he didn’t know how to appreciate the good things in life either. The young Emperor’s hands were soft and white. In that April weather, Xue Yuan’s entire body felt warm, and the shade in the forest was not cool enough for comfort. However, the young Emperor’s hands were as cold as a piece of jade, and he could hold onto them to cool off.

When he held the Emperor’s hand, his skin was soft enough to slip between his fingers, and he felt that he could become addicted to those hands.

Most of the evil ideas and hostility that had been in his heart dissipated. Sure enough, the young Emperor was the one that had upset him, and in the end he was the one that made him feel comfortable again.

Gu Yuanbai was really an inflexible straight man and didn’t notice any issue. It was only after getting down from the mountain and into the carriage that he noticed his hand was red.

Gu Yuanbai sighed. After just getting helped out a bit his hand was like that, it really wasn’t very masculine at all.

The palace attendant washed Gu Yuanbai’s hands, and the layers of soft cushions in the carriage had been changed. With the swaying of the carriage, Gu Yuanbai started to feel a bit drowsy.

When he woke up, the carriage had reached the palace.

Unhurried, Gu Yuanbai closed his eyes, and he heard Tian Fusheng’s question coming from outside the carriage. “Is the Emperor asleep?”

The person who replied also spoke in a low voice, saying, “He’s asleep, it was a tiring day.”

After some rustling, no other noise came from the outside for a while. Gu Yuanbai, still feeling sleepy, rested his head on his palm. The scent of the incense in his nose was heavy and intense, and it made him feel languid and tired. He breathed out slowly and, as he was about to doze off for a while more, the curtain in front of him was raised.

Gu Yuanbai asked lazily, “Who is it?”

Carefully, Tian Fusheng replied, “Your Highness, the people from the Engineering Department have come to present the improved crossbows and farming tools they’ve newly developed.”

Gu Yuanbai opened his eyes suddenly and, with a wide smile, he said, “Take Us to see them!”

The Emperor walked towards the palace energetically, followed by a group of people. When he reached the outside of the building, Gu Yuanbai spotted Chu Wei and the official historian waiting at the side. Only then had he remembered that the vacation time for the new imperial scholars had just ended and that they were now supposed to be on duty.

Chu Wei, as the highest scoring scholar, had received a posting at the Xiuzhuan academy.1 The Xiuzhuan academy was a 6th rank posting, and the main responsibilities it held was to keep track of the history of the country, record the words and deeds of the Emperor, register events and draft ceremonial texts.

It was not a surprise for Chu Wei to be there, but it was a surprise for him to go to Gu Yuanbai as soon as he took office.

Gu Yuanbai glanced at him briefly and paid it no mind, instead looking at the two officials from the Engineering Department. Xu Ning was one of them. When they saw the Emperor walk in, they hurriedly went to salute him with a bow.

Gu Yuanbai helped the two of them up and said with a smile, “We heard that the Engineering Department came up with some new things.”

Xu Ning smiled and said, “Your Majesty, they are military weapons and farming implements.”

In just a dozen days or so, Xu Ning seemed to have changed a lot. He looked a little fatter. The food in the Engineering Department seemed to be very nourishing. In addition to the flesh on his face, the biggest change in Xu Ning was the radiant expression on his face. He looked very energetic, very motivated, and his spirit appeared cheerful. Seeing that change made Gu Yuanbai feel extremely satisfied and relieved.

“Very well.” Gu Yuanbai smiled. “Hurry and let Us see what they are.”

The official handed him a crossbow, and Gu Yuanbai placed it in his hand and took a closer look. Bows and arrows had to be shot by humans, but crossbows worked through a mechanism. The user only needed to aim, and the range depended on the way they were constructed. The advantage of the crossbow was that it had a long range, great shooting strength, and it didn’t strain people’s physical strength, but having to wind up the small pieces was troublesome and time-consuming, so it wasn’t practical on the battlefield.

The most powerful crossbow —the king of crossbows in the Northern and Southern Dynasties— the ballista, was extremely big. It was also known as the bolt thrower. The ballista was very powerful and it had a long range, capable of firing large scale projectiles. Gu Yuanbai remembered that it was a good tool for a siege. During the Song Dynasty, the technology reached its peak, and its range seemed to have gone over 1.5 kilometers.

However, while the ballista was great, sometimes it couldn’t beat the small hand crossbow.

The crossbow, now improved by the Engineering Department, was not the same as the one that had been trampled on before. The materials had been changed and improved. There were three short and thick bolts on the top. Gu Yuanbai checked the thickness and found that the bolt was only 6 to 8 centimeters long.

Although the bolts were small, it didn’t mean that this weapon wasn’t lethal. In the short range, a bolt like that was more powerful than a long arrow.

There was something else hard to spot at the bottom of the crossbow. Xu Ning stepped forward and split it apart, showing that there were more short, neatly placed bolts on the inside.

Xu Ning smiled, somewhat embarrassed. “Us officials tried to make a lot of different designs, and this was the most convenient one. However, it can only fit fifty bolts.”

“Fifty?” One of the civil officials at the side gasped. “If the fifty bolts hit, won’t that mean fifty lives?”

“How could it be that accurate?” Another official from the Engineering Department replied. “But even if only five out of the fifty hit, it’s still a useful portable crossbow.”

Gu Yuanbai looked at it for a while, and the more he looked, the more he liked it. He turned his head and told a palace attendant, “Go to the Government Office and ask the Minister and the Deputy Minister of the Ministry of War to come over.”

The palace attendant hurried away and, just a moment later, the Minister of War and his Deputy Minister, as well as the Minister of Industry rushed over, their feet barely touching the ground.

Gu Yuanbai looked at the Minister of Industry and laughed. “Why did you come all the way here?”

The Ministry of Industry bowed to salute and, with a shy expression, he said, “This official heard that the Engineering Department had invented something good, so I came over to take a look.”

When the Engineering Department was first founded, the Minister of Industry was actually extremely troubled. Wasn’t the Ministry of Industry the one in charge of engineering? Did the Emperor intend to establish two engineering departments?

During those days, the Minister of Industry wasn’t able to eat well or rest properly. Then, the Emperor took the Minister of Industry to look around the Engineering Department, and then the Minister of Industry understood.

The Ministry of Industry was very different from the Engineering Department. One was broad and complex, focusing on developing specific things, while the second was focused on brainstorming and creating new things, without dealing with official affairs or social events. It was strictly a research department, and it didn’t diminish the powers of the Ministry of Industry. After that, whenever the Minister of Industry was free, he went to take a look, getting excited every time.

Seeing that everyone was coming, Gu Yuanbai passed the crossbow to the guard by his side. The guard stepped forward and pulled the crossbow, shooting towards the open space far ahead. With only a swishing sound, three bolts flew towards the distance.

The crossbow allowed one to fire the three bolts all at once or one by one. When the bolts hit the ground, Gu Yuanbai couldn’t resist taking a step forward, and, next to him, the Minister of War was already shocked. “That was over two hundred steps!”

Just eyeballing it, Gu Yuanbai guessed it to be about a hundred meters away.

The Minister of War looked as a man went ahead to measure the distance, muttering, “Back in the day, the repeating crossbow was able to fire ten bolts in a row with a lot of power, but sadly, since it was too heavy, it was restricted to being used for defense. Our dynasty has ballistas, the only thing that was missing was a crossbow like this that could be picked up easily.”

The Deputy Minister added, “This crossbow has such a long range, and it shoots three bolts at once! It looks very powerful!”

Everyone was very happy, especially the people from the Ministry of War, who had already begun to question the people of the Engineering Department about whether the crossbow could be mass-produced.

The smile on Gu Yuanbai’s face couldn’t be concealed. Usually, he was already radiant without a smile, but now he couldn’t suppress it. Chu Wei was recording the words and deeds of the Emperor, staring at him intently, and as he watched the brush in his hand couldn’t help but stop.

Next to him, the official historian was also thinking of the crossbow, and he said, “If such a powerful weapon can be developed, the one to do so will become famous through history.”

Chu Wei came back to his senses and replied with a low hum. He hated having such a reaction. He disliked when other people stared at him the most, and now, he was the one staring at the Emperor in a daze.

He didn’t like men and he was no Longyang.2 Even if the Emperor was good looking, it was just a superficial appearance. If the reason he wasn’t able to look away was the Emperor’s face, well, Chu Wei was equally good looking, and he had never been spellbound by a bronze mirror before.

Chu Wei’s mind was busy with a thousand thoughts, but he couldn’t stop himself from glancing towards the Emperor. However, when he looked up again, he saw the unpleasant man who had been sitting next to Chang Yuyan the day the Imperial Examination results were published.

Chu Wei frowned slightly.

Xue Yuan had been looking at the crossbow casually at first, but his distracted mind slowly became more serious. He had seen out of the corner of his eye that the young Emperor was holding the hands of the two officials from the Engineering Department and was now showering them in praise.

Xue Yuan’s smile froze, and his eyes were cold.

He was able to fight and lead soldiers, and he didn’t shy away from killing or from blood. If discussing military achievements, his merits were stacked high enough to make anyone’s jaw fall slack. It was precisely due to him being excessively popular and having such high military achievements that General Xue now wanted to push him down, fearing that at his young age his military merits would make the Emperor wary of them.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call him a prodigy, but, despite all of this, the young Emperor had never treated him kindly. Instead, he was now being nice to these two scholars that weren’t strong enough to tie down a chicken.

He was punished so harshly that he had to go out of his way to be able to touch the young Emperor’s hand comfortably. But with these two people, the Emperor even took the initiative to hold theirs.

Ha ha.

After seeing the farming implements, Gu Yuanbai happily gave out rewards. The Engineering Department had even figured out the rice seedling horse.3 It was too late to use it on a large scale for that year’s spring planting, but, once the rice was mature, it should be ready for use.

Gu Yuanbai handed the farm tools to the Minister of Industry and asked him to take people to contact the Department of Engineering. The two military officials went directly to Xu Ning, wanting to ask more questions.

As soon as he returned to the palace, he had received such a big gift. Gu Yuanbai felt that it was even more enjoyable than climbing a mountain and feeling the wind blowing in his hair. He smiled all the way back to the Xuanzheng Hall. Even when dealing with government affairs, he felt as if the wind was the one pushing his brush. Chu Wei stood to the side, carelessly looking at the Emperor, and then, without thinking about it, with a wave of his brush the words ‘full of nonsense’ appeared in big letters on the palace memorial.

Chu Wei felt a bit startled, and then amused.

He guessed that, if the officials that were approved to look into the memorial took a look at the words ‘full of nonsense’ in it, they’d practically fall to the ground in fright.

Chu Wei dutifully recorded the words and deeds of the Emperor. There were also rules when doing that work. The officials needed to know clearly what could and could not be remembered. The best aspects of the Emperor should be praised, and there would be no proof left of the rest.

Since he was in a good mood, Gu Yuanbai was able to go through the memorials very quickly. Once he finished reviewing the government affairs in one sitting, it was not yet time for dinner.

Then, Gu Yuanbai asked Chu Wei, “Official Chu, has your father sent word from home?”

Taken aback, Chu Wei closed the document he had in his hand, and bowed respectfully towards Gu Yuanbai. “My father didn’t send a single word.”

Gu Yuanbai sighed and said, “Seems like there are enough issues at the Yellow River region to keep him very busy.”

Chu Wei opened his mouth, and, at last, he managed to push out, “My father is fortunate to have the Emperor share his worries.”

Gu Yuanbai smiled slightly and said jokingly, “It’s good that you don’t mind that We haven’t let you see your family for two months, Official Chu.”

When Chu Wei heard those words, the corners of his lips twitched, and a small smile appeared on his peerlessly handsome face.

His appearance was that of a man in his prime. When he wasn’t smiling, it was radiant like the sun and the moon, and when he smiled he was similar to Pan An and Wei Jie. Gu Yuanbai observed this, then glanced at Xue Yuan. Xue Yuan was equally sharp and handsome, and perverse beyond words. If the two of them stood together, regardless of their gender, they looked like a heavenly pair.

Xue Yuan saw that the Emperor was looking at him and he was about to smile, but, before it could come out, the Emperor looked away again.

Xue Yuan: “…”

He frowned and, suddenly, he smiled coldly.

So he didn’t want to look at him?

Someone outside suddenly announced, “Your Highness, Prince He has sent some people to bring an Akhal-Teke horse.”4

“Oh?” Gu Yuanbai stood up with interest, and walked outside the building. “Where is it? We will go and see.”

In the ancient times, with few entertainment opportunities, Akhal-Teke horses were sought after by the rich and powerful just like modern luxury cars. There were many good horses in the Imperial palace, but, because Gu Yuanbai had never shown a particular interest in horses, there wasn’t any of the legendary Akhal-Teke breed.

Outside the building, there were a few people struggling to lead a handsome martial horse with its head up tall. The horse had a beautiful body, slender limbs, a tall head and a thin neck. It was very pleasing to the eye.

Before Gu Yuanbai could walk closer to it, other people stopped him, telling him anxiously, “Your Majesty, this horse is wild and unruly. It starts fighting whenever anyone approaches it. Don’t get close!”

Gu Yuanbai stopped and looked at the good horse from the distance, with a sorrowful expression.

It was said that the Akhal-Teke horses had very thin skin, and the blood flowing under the skin could be seen when it galloped. And, since it had many sweat glands, the sweat from the galloping would soak its red-brown fur, producing a color similar to blood.5

Gu Yuanbai really wanted to get on top of that horse and ride it, since he had an adventurous personality. If he were healthy, he would try to conquer the horse even if he was thrown off its saddle. However, the young Emperor’s body was too weak, so he could only stay a safe distance away and look at the horse.

The newly crowned Emperor’s expression had some of the energy of his youth.

Suddenly, someone next to him walked past Gu Yuanbai, approaching the surrounded horse. Gu Yuanbai looked at him again and realized that it was Xue Yuan.

Xue Yuan pushed away the people that were blocking him from approaching the horse. Taking a few more steps, he got to the side of the horse. The horse seemed to sense danger and brayed at him multiple times.

Xue Yuan slowly rolled up his sleeves. There were still wounds on his arms from being dragged by the Emperor that morning. However, his strong muscles flexing made the wounds seem of no consequence.

Once he was ready, Xue Yuan threw his sword aside, took a few steps back and blew a loud whistle towards the horse. The horse’s eyes were fixed on him, and he was staring at Xue Yuan intently.

Xue Yuan grinned and then he ran aggressively, getting to the side of the horse in a few steps, and then suddenly he jumped over the horse.

Gu Yuanbai stared firmly at Xue Yuan, who was now lying on top of the struggling horse.

The man’s arms were very powerful and he encircled the horse’s neck, his legs tightly holding onto its back. A wild and untamed horse versus a wild and untamed man that couldn’t be reasoned with, each more ruthless than the other.

Pushing strength against strength, the horse fought energetically, constantly rearing at a terrifying angle. No one had dared to approach it, but Xue Yuan just had.

He put the reins over the steed’s head, but the horse broke free and ran forward, making Xue Yuan fall to the ground and dragging him for a while. Xue Yuan smiled darkly and pulled from the reins, getting onto the horse’s back once more.

“If I6 don’t tame you today,” Xue Yuan yanked from the reins so violently that the horse’s front hooves left the ground, “I won’t fucking go to the battlefield!”