“Empress, important intelligence from the borders!”
In the Imperial Study, a dark shadow rippled into the open, like a person who materialized out of thin air. Dressed in all black and wearing a mask on its face, this was the leader of the Anbu Black Ops returning from a mission.
Secretly, in the memory of Qianhe Liyou, this man was a rare talent. But the most remarkable point was that he was a man. Here, court officials, civil servants, military generals, merchants, tycoons, celebrities, and Jianghu bigshots, from the highest to the lowest positions were all occupied by women. There were almost no men in those positions. There were some men who occupied positions in the Jianghu sector, but they were likely to have little influence and power. Even at the bottom of society, the commoners, some men were forced to work to support their families, but would only do trivial work. But the Anbu Black Ops were different. From the perspective of Qianhe Liyou, except for Luo Yu, this Anbu should be regarded as the most powerful man in the Qianhe Dynasty. He was in charge of the entire Anbu Black Ops’ operations, extremely admired by his numerous subordinates.
As Qianhe Liyou received the intelligence collected and obtained by the Anbu Black Ops, the more she looked at it, the more interesting it became.
In addition to the Qianhe Dynasty located in the East, there were four other countries on this continent. The Nan Dynasty of the Nan Empire resided in the South, the Zhongli Dynasty of the Zhongli Empire was in the middle, the Sang Dynasty of the Sang Empire was located in the North, and Yinjia Dynasty of the Yingjia Empire lay to the west. Other than the Zhongli Empire who bordered all four other countries respectively, the other four countries only bordered three other countries. This kind of geographical structure had been going on for more than three hundred years. The Sang Empire enacted a new policy, the New Deal. The newly ascended Emperor had decided to engage in wars of aggression, exhausting all resources to build up one’s military power and adopting a militaristic policy for their administration. The continuous mobilization of domestic conscription and the levying of taxes for rice and textiles seemed to be a precursor, an omen of an erupting war. The three countries bordering the Sang Empire (Qianhe, Zhongli, Yingjia) had all taken precautionary measures. In the Qianhe Dynasty in the Qianhe Empire, 200,000 troops were deployed to the Yuling Pass, which bordered the Sang Empire. This was guarded by General Jiang Hanyang.
This piece of intelligence was from the Sang Empire. It reported that the Sang Empire had secretly deployed 300,000 troops and split into five battalions, heading towards one of Sang Empire’s remote, border towns, Wuzhu, which was directly opposite from the Yuling Pass. In addition, these soldier’s weapons and army provisions were mobilized on the same course for the entire operation.
“Anhui, based on your understanding of the Sang Empire and my Qianhe Dynasty, do you think that if war were to break out, who would lose or win?” Putting down the secret intelligence report in her hand, Qianhe Liyou asked the person on stand-by in front of her. Anhui was large in stature, much taller than the average man, and wore a mask that covered his entire face, hiding his appearance. Originally, he had no need to wear a mask, but during an extremely dangerous mission, Anhui injured his face, the injury leaving a large scar. At that time, the previous Empress had caught sight of the scar and ordered him to wear a mask when reporting to her. Otherwise, to her, it was too ugly to look at and it made her uncomfortable. As such, Anhui started wearing a mask since then, and as for his original appearance, it seemed to be ordinary in Qianhe Liyou’s memory.
“The Sang empire will lose!” Anhui returned with an unusually low voice, sounding extremely confident. He directed the Anbu Black Ops, and had his subordinates scattered in all five major countries. As such, he knew the domestic situation of each of the five countries very well. Although the Qianhe Dynasty’s internal affairs were not stable at the moment, there were the Anbu Black Ops, the commercial organization Yin Long, and millions of troops at their disposal. As long as these resources were to be used properly, they would not lose….
Qianhe Liyou liked Anhui’s confident demeanor and nodded gently to Yun Tailing who had been waiting on the side, grinding black sticks against an inkstone to make ink. Within a quarter of an hour, she finished writing a sealed, confidential decree, “Anhui, order the Anbu Black Ops to send this classified secret order to the Gatekeeper of the Yuling Pass, Jiang Hanyang. No mishaps or slip-ups are to happen whatsoever.”
“Yes!” Anhui withdrew to carry out his new orders, leaving Qianhe Liyou and the Yun Tailing who had been waiting on the side behind.
Yun Tailing had been serving for four days. At this point, Qianhe Liyou had become accustomed to the scent of medicinal herbs emanating from him and she also liked the herbal teas he made. Moreover, Yun Tailing was quiet and intelligent, and she had kept him here for four days without knowing it.
“War between the two countries, what do you think is the most important?”
“This concubine is a member of the imperial harem and naturally cannot comment on political or military affairs.” Yun Tailing was very startled. He had been waiting on her for the past few days, and he hadn’t heard the Empress say a single word to him. The two of them had always been silent together. The Empress suddenly talking to him was a big deal, how could he not be surprised?
“Zhen is asking you, you can speak naturally.”
“…Anything is fine?” He did not know what the Empress wanted to hear. Did he want to hear justifications or his personal thoughts?
“Just say what you are thinking.” People who were too smart easily thought too much, she only wanted to hear his thoughts.
“This consort feels that the most important thing is to live. Human life is priceless. Although it is glorious and a great honor to die for one’s country, it is equally important to live. Everyone has relatives and friends, people who care and love them. If one were to die, someone would grieve for him….”
Of course, for a doctor, the most important thing was life.
Qianhe Liyou heard something that was not out of her expectation. She knew that his man had a doctor’s humanity and kindness. Suddenly, Qianhe Liyou had an idea, “Compared with your mother, what is the discrepancy between your medical expertise?” Yun Tailing’s mother was the Imperial Doctor Yun Yangrong, a physician with superb medical skills. The Yun family was also a medical family, and medical skills and techniques were hereditarily passed down from generation to generation.
“This concubine is still young and does not dare to compare to my mother’s medical expertise.” Yun Tailing replied lightly and modestly. He did not know what the Empress’ intentions were, so he naturally did not dare to say more.
“Zhen wants to hear the truth and only the truth. No perfunctory words, no hypocritical or polite words, not even sleek or polite words. You are intelligent, but do not use that cleverness to guess what my intentions are. Do you understand?” While she appreciated Yun Tailing’s intelligence, he belonged to her, so she would not allow him to use his intellect to probe and guard against her.
“Empress, forgive this concubine. This concubine is still young. I have only learned 80% of my mother’s medical skills, but I lack practice and a lot of medical knowledge is still unlearned. This concubine must personally experience it to learn it. This concubine only knows some superficial knowledge, so naturally, this concubine is not as good as Mother.” Yun Tailing had been alarmed and he did not dare to probe any further and so said this quite bluntly.
“80%? Then do you want to have the opportunity to practice in person?” Qianhe Liyou felt that 80% was already quite impressive. He had been a close companion since childhood and entered the palace when he was very young. Naturally, he could walk into the Imperial Hospital and witness the Imperial Doctors diagnosing or treating the Empress and various other consorts. Yun Tailing had good medical skills. Sometimes, Imperial guards and palace attendants would come to him when they got sick. Many people in the Imperial palace respected him for this reason.
“Empress, what does Your Majesty mean…Ah, this concubine of course would want to! If the Empress could grant this opportunity to this concubine, this concubine would be willing to pay the price!” After hearing the Empress’ words, Yun Tailing was stupefied and doubtful, intuitively questioning. But after witnessing the Empress’ displeased expression, he responded quickly and chose to honestly answer.
Qianhe Liyou did not speak and the room turned deathly quiet. Yun Tailing nervously waited, feeling his heartbeat was a little abnormal. He was expectant, he knew…but, he didn’t dare to expect too much. To have hope was to have disappointment.
“You said that the most important thing for a war between two countries is the will to live. On the battlefield, military doctors are such an important presence. Perhaps, as long as there is a good doctor, there will be dozens or even hundreds of soldiers who can survive. Is zhen right?”
“Your Majesty is correct!” Yun Tailing replied very cleverly this time around.
Nodding with satisfaction, Qianhe Liyou continued: “Then are you willing to become this important existence? You must understand that on the front line, the military doctors themselves are also in a precarious situation. The frontier’s environment is extremely harsh and one could face the trial of death at any moment. Are you still willing to go?”
She was giving him a chance, a chance for this man to display his true potential. But she did not know if he would grasp onto this chance…However, looking at the light in the man’s eyes, she thought she already knew his choice.
“This concubine is willing. This concubine is not afraid of anything. As long as I can revive and heal the wounded, as long as this concubine can be a real doctor, this concubine can endure any suffering and bear any tiredness. Even if this concubine were to die, this concubine is still willing to try!”
“Good, very good. Since you have said that, zhen will send you to the front line. However, zhen allows you to choose to come back at any time. But there is only this one chance when you come back, this essentially means that you have given up, do you understand?”
“This concubine understands, this concubine will never give up!”
“Empress, important intelligence from the borders!”
In the Imperial Study, a dark shadow rippled into the open, like a person who materialized out of thin air. Dressed in all black and wearing a mask on its face, this was the leader of the Anbu Black Ops returning from a mission.
Secretly, in the memory of Qianhe Liyou, this man was a rare talent. But the most remarkable point was that he was a man. Here, court officials, civil servants, military generals, merchants, tycoons, celebrities, and Jianghu bigshots, from the highest to the lowest positions were all occupied by women. There were almost no men in those positions. There were some men who occupied positions in the Jianghu sector, but they were likely to have little influence and power. Even at the bottom of society, the commoners, some men were forced to work to support their families, but would only do trivial work. But the Anbu Black Ops were different. From the perspective of Qianhe Liyou, except for Luo Yu, this Anbu should be regarded as the most powerful man in the Qianhe Dynasty. He was in charge of the entire Anbu Black Ops’ operations, extremely admired by his numerous subordinates.
As Qianhe Liyou received the intelligence collected and obtained by the Anbu Black Ops, the more she looked at it, the more interesting it became.
In addition to the Qianhe Dynasty located in the East, there were four other countries on this continent. The Nan Dynasty of the Nan Empire resided in the South, the Zhongli Dynasty of the Zhongli Empire was in the middle, the Sang Dynasty of the Sang Empire was located in the North, and Yinjia Dynasty of the Yingjia Empire lay to the west. Other than the Zhongli Empire who bordered all four other countries respectively, the other four countries only bordered three other countries. This kind of geographical structure had been going on for more than three hundred years. The Sang Empire enacted a new policy, the New Deal. The newly ascended Emperor had decided to engage in wars of aggression, exhausting all resources to build up one’s military power and adopting a militaristic policy for their administration. The continuous mobilization of domestic conscription and the levying of taxes for rice and textiles seemed to be a precursor, an omen of an erupting war. The three countries bordering the Sang Empire (Qianhe, Zhongli, Yingjia) had all taken precautionary measures. In the Qianhe Dynasty in the Qianhe Empire, 200,000 troops were deployed to the Yuling Pass, which bordered the Sang Empire. This was guarded by General Jiang Hanyang.
This piece of intelligence was from the Sang Empire. It reported that the Sang Empire had secretly deployed 300,000 troops and split into five battalions, heading towards one of Sang Empire’s remote, border towns, Wuzhu, which was directly opposite from the Yuling Pass. In addition, these soldier’s weapons and army provisions were mobilized on the same course for the entire operation.
“Anhui, based on your understanding of the Sang Empire and my Qianhe Dynasty, do you think that if war were to break out, who would lose or win?” Putting down the secret intelligence report in her hand, Qianhe Liyou asked the person on stand-by in front of her. Anhui was large in stature, much taller than the average man, and wore a mask that covered his entire face, hiding his appearance. Originally, he had no need to wear a mask, but during an extremely dangerous mission, Anhui injured his face, the injury leaving a large scar. At that time, the previous Empress had caught sight of the scar and ordered him to wear a mask when reporting to her. Otherwise, to her, it was too ugly to look at and it made her uncomfortable. As such, Anhui started wearing a mask since then, and as for his original appearance, it seemed to be ordinary in Qianhe Liyou’s memory.
“The Sang empire will lose!” Anhui returned with an unusually low voice, sounding extremely confident. He directed the Anbu Black Ops, and had his subordinates scattered in all five major countries. As such, he knew the domestic situation of each of the five countries very well. Although the Qianhe Dynasty’s internal affairs were not stable at the moment, there were the Anbu Black Ops, the commercial organization Yin Long, and millions of troops at their disposal. As long as these resources were to be used properly, they would not lose….
Qianhe Liyou liked Anhui’s confident demeanor and nodded gently to Yun Tailing who had been waiting on the side, grinding black sticks against an inkstone to make ink. Within a quarter of an hour, she finished writing a sealed, confidential decree, “Anhui, order the Anbu Black Ops to send this classified secret order to the Gatekeeper of the Yuling Pass, Jiang Hanyang. No mishaps or slip-ups are to happen whatsoever.”
“Yes!” Anhui withdrew to carry out his new orders, leaving Qianhe Liyou and the Yun Tailing who had been waiting on the side behind.
Yun Tailing had been serving for four days. At this point, Qianhe Liyou had become accustomed to the scent of medicinal herbs emanating from him and she also liked the herbal teas he made. Moreover, Yun Tailing was quiet and intelligent, and she had kept him here for four days without knowing it.
“War between the two countries, what do you think is the most important?”
“This concubine is a member of the imperial harem and naturally cannot comment on political or military affairs.” Yun Tailing was very startled. He had been waiting on her for the past few days, and he hadn’t heard the Empress say a single word to him. The two of them had always been silent together. The Empress suddenly talking to him was a big deal, how could he not be surprised?
“Zhen is asking you, you can speak naturally.”
“…Anything is fine?” He did not know what the Empress wanted to hear. Did he want to hear justifications or his personal thoughts?
“Just say what you are thinking.” People who were too smart easily thought too much, she only wanted to hear his thoughts.
“This consort feels that the most important thing is to live. Human life is priceless. Although it is glorious and a great honor to die for one’s country, it is equally important to live. Everyone has relatives and friends, people who care and love them. If one were to die, someone would grieve for him….”
Of course, for a doctor, the most important thing was life.
Qianhe Liyou heard something that was not out of her expectation. She knew that his man had a doctor’s humanity and kindness. Suddenly, Qianhe Liyou had an idea, “Compared with your mother, what is the discrepancy between your medical expertise?” Yun Tailing’s mother was the Imperial Doctor Yun Yangrong, a physician with superb medical skills. The Yun family was also a medical family, and medical skills and techniques were hereditarily passed down from generation to generation.
“This concubine is still young and does not dare to compare to my mother’s medical expertise.” Yun Tailing replied lightly and modestly. He did not know what the Empress’ intentions were, so he naturally did not dare to say more.
“Zhen wants to hear the truth and only the truth. No perfunctory words, no hypocritical or polite words, not even sleek or polite words. You are intelligent, but do not use that cleverness to guess what my intentions are. Do you understand?” While she appreciated Yun Tailing’s intelligence, he belonged to her, so she would not allow him to use his intellect to probe and guard against her.
“Empress, forgive this concubine. This concubine is still young. I have only learned 80% of my mother’s medical skills, but I lack practice and a lot of medical knowledge is still unlearned. This concubine must personally experience it to learn it. This concubine only knows some superficial knowledge, so naturally, this concubine is not as good as Mother.” Yun Tailing had been alarmed and he did not dare to probe any further and so said this quite bluntly.
“80%? Then do you want to have the opportunity to practice in person?” Qianhe Liyou felt that 80% was already quite impressive. He had been a close companion since childhood and entered the palace when he was very young. Naturally, he could walk into the Imperial Hospital and witness the Imperial Doctors diagnosing or treating the Empress and various other consorts. Yun Tailing had good medical skills. Sometimes, Imperial guards and palace attendants would come to him when they got sick. Many people in the Imperial palace respected him for this reason.
“Empress, what does Your Majesty mean…Ah, this concubine of course would want to! If the Empress could grant this opportunity to this concubine, this concubine would be willing to pay the price!” After hearing the Empress’ words, Yun Tailing was stupefied and doubtful, intuitively questioning. But after witnessing the Empress’ displeased expression, he responded quickly and chose to honestly answer.
Qianhe Liyou did not speak and the room turned deathly quiet. Yun Tailing nervously waited, feeling his heartbeat was a little abnormal. He was expectant, he knew…but, he didn’t dare to expect too much. To have hope was to have disappointment.
“You said that the most important thing for a war between two countries is the will to live. On the battlefield, military doctors are such an important presence. Perhaps, as long as there is a good doctor, there will be dozens or even hundreds of soldiers who can survive. Is zhen right?”
“Your Majesty is correct!” Yun Tailing replied very cleverly this time around.
Nodding with satisfaction, Qianhe Liyou continued: “Then are you willing to become this important existence? You must understand that on the front line, the military doctors themselves are also in a precarious situation. The frontier’s environment is extremely harsh and one could face the trial of death at any moment. Are you still willing to go?”
She was giving him a chance, a chance for this man to display his true potential. But she did not know if he would grasp onto this chance…However, looking at the light in the man’s eyes, she thought she already knew his choice.
“This concubine is willing. This concubine is not afraid of anything. As long as I can revive and heal the wounded, as long as this concubine can be a real doctor, this concubine can endure any suffering and bear any tiredness. Even if this concubine were to die, this concubine is still willing to try!”
“Good, very good. Since you have said that, zhen will send you to the front line. However, zhen allows you to choose to come back at any time. But there is only this one chance when you come back, this essentially means that you have given up, do you understand?”
“This concubine understands, this concubine will never give up!”
