CH 3

Ten days later, when the news of An Le zhai's submission to the court reached the world, the Minister of Rites, Fan Wen Chao, came towards An Le zhai with a decree from the Emperor Jia Ning and a reward full of sincerity.

Surrounded on two sides by mountains, the terrain of An Le zhai is treacherous, and on the back side by the sea is where the 30,000 sailors train their troops. The only access is a sheep's intestine path, and there is only a plain of 100 metres near the main gate. If it were not for this strange terrain, this den of thieves would not have survived the court's siege several times a year.

Even before the imperial court's reward procession entered the territory of An Le zhai, soldiers clad in armour with long swords could be seen from afar, with a fierce and ferocious banditry at every five or ten steps. The soldiers in formation did not stop or greet the imperial troops, but merely watched them coldly as they walked into the boundaries of the fortress, looking away as if they were lambs balking at the prospect of entering a wolf's den.

The Ministry of Rites[1] Fan Wen Chao is a real weak literary man, who entered the civil service with the imperial examinations, and is good at poetry and songs, but has never seen such a battle.

[1] 礼部(lǐ bù) - Ministry of (Confucian) Rites (in imperial China) 

If she hadn't failed in her quest for the position of Crown Prince Consort of the Eastern Palace, a military general would have been enough to invite her to surrender, and there would have been no need for him, the Minister of Rites, to come and console her personally!

The deputy general, Zhao, who had followed him, was afraid that this fancy servant would spoil the matter, so he whispered, " Fan dà ren [2], Ren Anle is very strong in nature, so don't ignite her fiery temperament later. If the surrender fails, His Majesty's power will be unpredictable, and we will be in trouble!"

[2]大人( dà ren) - adult; grownup; title of respect toward superiors

Thinking of the reward that stretched for miles behind him, Fan Wen Chao's heart fluttered and he nodded, "Don't worry, General Zhao, I will not bother with a woman."

Seeing that shi lang Fan was not impressed, Deputy General Zhao blinked and retreated to the side in silence. In this part of Jinan, if General Ji, the commander of Zunan's battalion, was the emperor of the land, then Ren Anle was the snake at the head of the land, and the strong dragon did not dare to press it, so what use could a mere embroidered pillow be.

When he saw that  Fan shi lang [3] did not think so, Deputy General Zhao blinked and retreated to the side without making a sound. In this part of Jinan, If the general who will command the battalion, General Ji Lao, is the emperor of the land[4], then Ren Anle is the earth snake[5]. The strongest dragon is still afraid to be pressed[6]. What use is a mere embroidered pillow?.[7]

[3]  侍郎 (shì láng )- ancient official title; assistant minister

[4][5][6], and [7] - at the end of the chapter.

Near a hundred meters away, the looming Anle Village finally appeared in front of everyone. Watching the scene in front of them, Fan Wenzhao pulled the reins hard and his face turned white. Only then did he realise why the surrender of Anle Fortress was so important to Commander-in-chief Ji Chuan, who was in charge of Sounan, and that the reward given by Emperor Jia Ning was worth a fortune.  

The majestic thing before him, encompassing a hundred miles, was not a small mountain fortress, this damning division is clearly an indestructible city!    

The city walls were several feet high, the halberds were cold and hard, the soldiers were powerful and rugged, and the wooden plaque hanging at the top of the city had the words 'An Le zhai' written on it in a stern and heavy manner.   

The Anle Fortress is deep in the southeastern mountain range of Great Jing, and has grown and developed over the past thirty years, with naval divisions sweeping across the South China Sea. He can't imagine that it would be so powerful that it is not necessary to wait for the future. This city is now enough to become a major threat to the heart of Great Jing.    

Fortunately...the current owner of the village is a woman and fortunately...she has taken a fancy to Great Jing's prince.

He had forgotten his disdain for a female bandit who wanted to be the Crown Prince's Consort of the Eastern Palace in the courtroom a few days ago. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and suddenly felt a sense of mission. He had to invite this Anle master into the imperial capital no matter what. If he ruined His Majesty's invitation to surrender, I'm afraid the Fan clan's career would be over!　　

As he took a few steps closer with his horse, Fan shi lang was suddenly struck by the redness of the city in front of him. The whole city was hung with red silks, and the joyous atmosphere was soaring. As he sent his soldiers forward to report the news, he turned his head towards Deputy Zhao and gave him a puzzled look. Zhao shook his head, obviously not knowing what An Le zhai was up to.

As the two men wondered, the imposing gate of the city were slowly opened and an ear-splitting rumble erupted as a line of horsemen galloped from the city with the sound of drums under the obsidian sun.

The dust from the clamour nearly drowned the crowd. Fan Wen Chao was so choked that he grabbed the reins and took several steps back. When he squinted, he saw a woman in purple at the head of the group. His heart burst and he did not care about the dust in the sky, but looked at her intently, for she was at least the brave man who had asked for the hand of the Crown Prince of Dajing in front of all the civil and military servants, so he had to look carefully.　

The woman on the horse was dressed in a short purple cloth outfit, with high eyebrows and wide eyes, her short hair tied back, and her appearance was very rough and sharp. When his eyes fell on the cold, sharp sword on her slightly thick back, Fan daren gulped in fear, for this was exactly the same as the female bandit he had in mind.

Poor prince ah ......　　

The woman at the head of the group raised her eyebrows and said with a big smile, "General Zhao, the brothers in the cottage look forward to the stars looking forward to the moon[8], but it is to look forward to you. How is it? When is your prince going to marry our great master?"

[8]    盼星星盼月亮 Hoping for the stars hoping for the moon - It should be said that they look forward to it day and night

The woman was obviously used to shouting, and her question was as loud as a thunderclap, and  Fan shi lang was thinking, 'Rude, rude', when he suddenly looked back and asked, "Aren't you Ren Xiao...?" His face hardened in the middle of his sentence, and his tone hardened, "could it be that you're not the Lord Ren of this village?"

Preposterous. His Majesty's imperial decree has been bestowed upon her and the one who had come to greet him was not Ren Anle!

The woman in purple looked towards Shi lang Fan, "General Zhao, this lord is...?"   

Deputy General Zhao snorted and hurriedly introduced , "This is His Majesty's imperial envoy,  Fan daren of the Ministry of Rites, who reads out the decree for the invocation of peace." After saying this, he passed a wink towards shi lang Fan: " Fan daren, this is the Lord of Village's right-hand man, Yuan Shu young lady."

Fan shi lang gave a slight arch of his hand and grunted. Such a female bandit had actually taken a good name of a scholarly girl.[9]

[9]书 (shū) book; letter; document; Classifiers: 本 ; to write

"Don't call me 'young lady'. It sounds awkward. Just call me Second master." Yuan Shu crossed her eyebrows and said boldly.

"Second Master." Deputy-General Zhao was a little embarrassed, and changed the subject quickly: "As for Lord Ren, Your Majesty has issued the imperial decree, let her come out to receive the decree." 

"General Zhao, our Lord is afraid that the welcome gift from the court is too generous, and the fortress cannot afford to return the gift, so he took her brothers out to sea a few days ago to search for treasures!" Yuan Shu scratched her head and rubbed her hands, and a look of embarrassment spread across her cheerful face: "General Zhao, we are not the only ones who know how delicate His Highness is. We coarse people know that His Highness is pampered and accustomed to enjoying the blessings. Don't worry, the Lord has always been good-tempered and will treat His Highness well when she gets married.

Looking at the five big and three rough [10]Yuan Shu's dainty festive face, the two suddenly understood where the great red of An Le zhai came from; this female bandit who had emerged from the nooks and crannies had no idea what the Prince Consort of the Eastern Palace represented, and thought that their marriage to the Prince was nailed down.

[10]   五大三粗 [wǔ dà sān cū] a Chinese idiom, describes a person who is tall, stout and burly. From "Blowing Fire". In ancient times, the "big five" refer to: "big hands, big feet, big ears, shoulder width, and hip fat", and the "three thick" are: "thick waist, thick legs, and thick neck".

"Second Master Yuan Shu." Fan shouted with a frown, glancing at the silver glowing sword behind Yuan Shu's back, suppressing the chill in his heart and speaking with a straight face, "His Majesty has said that the Crown Prince's consortship has a bearing on the throne of the country, so it is difficult to make a decision now. Since Lord Ren does not wish to be a side concubine in the Eastern Palace, His Majesty will not force her to do so, and will certainly compensate her."

He was very clever in using the position of side concubine to promote Ren Anle, but even if he had the guts to do so, he wouldn't have dared to say what the Old Shang Shu had said in the courtroom about giving Ren Anle the position of a ru ren in the Eastern Palace.

"Oh? Rejected?"

Shi lang Fan almost stared wide-eyed at the fierce female bandit across from him as she uttered those words, and when he saw her carelessly fumbling for the large sword on her back, his pupils narrowed fiercely.

"That doesn't matter. His Majesty must have made our great master an official, with our master's talent and looks, it is only a matter of time before she joins the Eastern Palace." Yuan Shu laughed and casually flicked her greatsword with a clear, crisp sound as she cupped her fist towards shi lang Fan and said. "Lord Fan, our master has not yet returned from her long journey, but His Majesty has bestowed an imperial decree on her, so we barbarians must not be neglected. Why don't I accept the decree? Someone, set the table and burn incense!

Without waiting for Fan Wenzhao's reply, she waved her hand behind her and immediately a few men appeared between the two sides carrying a wooden table. Yuan Shu and the men from An Le zhai leapt down from their horses and knelt respectfully on the ground, smiling at Fan Wen Chao and Zhao Zhuan, who were a little distracted, and said, "Your two lordships, declare the decree."

The two men, who were completely led by Yuan Shu's brutal attitude, looked at each other and secretly exchanged glances, forgetting that it was a joke to argue with this bandit leader about manners. As long as Ren Anle was willing to go to the capital and willingly hand over 30,000 sailors, it would not be a big deal to tolerate the rest.

Fan Wenzhao coughed lightly, took out the imperial decree and read it aloud.

At the top of the inner-city pavilion, under the vines that creep hidden all over the walls, a woman reclines on a cool ink-and-stone chair, her legs crossed, her face covered with a book of opera, a tiny snore coming shallowly from beneath the book.

The breeze blew the book to the ground and the scorching sun swept lazily over her body, and the woman did not move, but slept soundly.

After a long time, the noise of the drums outside ceased and the silence was broken by a cacophony of voices. The woman, who was in the middle of a good dream, frowned slightly. Following the sound of approaching footsteps, she closed her eyes and picked up the playbook on the floor and threw it violently towards the veranda.

"Ouch!" Yuan Shu pretended to exclaim and slapped her heart, "Master, I received the imperial decree on your behalf for the crime of treason? Can't you be a little more gentle? Besides, don't use that force on your own family, the Crown Prince in the capital is still waiting for you!"

Yuan Shu said 'you' in a very smooth manner. She was clearly still the same simple face that she had just given to Fan Wen Chao, but a completely different and cunning look came over her eyes.

"No good, if you want to give imperial orders in the land of An Le zhai, you have to follow my rules. These literary scholars are the most daunting, and I am too lazy to deal with them."

The woman on the stone chair rose abruptly and crossed her legs, raising her hand and dragging her chin: "Yuan Shu, what goodies has the old emperor sent?"

The person who said this was dressed in a sharp navy robe, with sleeves rolled back and hem open and closed, and just by looking at this outfit, one could tell that she was a man of unpretentiousness. She has a lazy eyebrow and a vaguely stern look under her eyes, but her face is awe-inspiring and dignified. This kind of temperament should be strange in a woman, but the person in front of her has been through a hundred battles and has been in charge of Anle Village for many years, so it is not unusual for her to have developed this kind of temperament.

"Fifty thousand taels of gold, one hundred thousand taels of silver, five buckets of South Sea pearls, three thousand-year-old ginseng ......," Yuan Shu took out the decree given by Emperor Jia Ning and opened it to read aloud with joy, her eyebrows tipped with a look of triumph.

Ren Anle narrowed her eyes and tapped her hand on the stone table, until Yuan Shu finished reading the last reward, then she sighed with a grimace. "I regret this... why didn't I take a fancy to that white-skinned prince years ago? It was a waste of time, and it took half the world to get these treasures into my hands."

The corners of Yuan Shu's mouth twitched as she looked at her sorrowful leader, and only after a long time did she say, " Master, you are only eighteen this year, which is the right age, really. But if you don't go to welcome the imperial decree, aren't you afraid that the Old Emperor will give us trouble when we enter the capital?"

Ren Anle looked up and grunted. "Receive the decree? The old emperor thinks that because I live far away in the South China Sea, I don't know that the court has given me a position as a child, so why should I stoop low to accept the decree? Where else in the world could they can find a daughter-in-law as rich as this one. Who could give him 30,000 sailors and a city for marrying his son?"　

The more Ren Anle spoke, the louder her voice became, and only when she had finished breathing did she shake her legs and narrow her eyes slowly, "The good thing is that my family is still a deputy general, so when I have enough military achievements in the future I will go into the imperial city and talk to him. It is their royal fortune that I have taken a fancy with his son, and to miss me is a great loss to Da Jing."　　

I don't think it's necessarily a blessing, the prince probably thinks it's a disaster from heaven!

Yuan Shu looked at her young lady and sighed. When the old master was alive, he was determined to find a good husband for this young lady. He had searched all over Jinan, but no one had caught her eye. But now she has taken a fancy with the prince of Dajing. The Anle Village can could call the wind and rain in southern Jin, but it's hard to say when she enters the imperial capital.

In the light of this, Yuan Shu felt that the royal family was not a good match for her and was prepared to make one last attempt to persuade her, "Miss, do you really want to give An Le Village to the court as a bride price?"　　

In her eyes, her young lady was outstanding military and unrivalled to the crown prince of the dynasty.  

"I have written clearly in the surrender letter that the entire An Le Village does not need to be pacified; It is true that I am going to the capital, but naturally the rest of the people in the cottage have to make a living in this mu of land."

She could hand over the 30,000 sailors, but the city of An Le zhai could not be easily handed over to the court. It was because Emperor Jia Ning had heard the deeper meaning in the letter of surrender that he recruited her to the imperial capital to take up a false position, instead of putting her in the Sounan general camp to let her sit in the army. The reward given to her this time was clearly a gift from heaven, but in fact it was only to pacify her.

At the age of fourteen, Ren Anle has been at the helm of a city and has seen a hundred battles. She is a natural general, but it would be a joke to say that she is a honest person who does not think for herself.

"The emperor will agree?"　　

"Don't worry, the 30,000 sailors will reassure him, and he will treat us as his guests for the sake of the stability of the southern border of Jin."　　

"Grand Master, we are bandits, will people of heaven and nobility put us in their eyes?" Yuan Shu was not convinced. The royal family was used to being honoured, so it was very likely that they would not look at bandits like them.

"Yuan Shu, you don't understand." Ren Anle raised his eyes to look at the bustling city below the pavilion, and there was a clear penetration and certainty in her pupils: "The old man said before he died that the emperor was obsessed with this part of Jinan, and as long as he could get him to recruit Anle Village in the eyes of the world, we would naturally have no worries for the rest of our lives."　　

Otherwise, it would not ...... have grown to this point, and very few people in the northern Central Plains would have known that the Anle Village hidden in the South China Sea was far more than a bandit den, but an indestructible city.

Seeing Yuan Shu nod, Ren Anle quickly put this aside and asked, "What did you tell the imperial court when they were settled?"

"Don't worry, I told them that you would not return until tomorrow and that you would leave for the capital the day after tomorrow. The moment that Envoy Fan heard that we were willing to go to the capital, he was overjoyed. He kept praising me for my understanding and said..." Yuan Shu narrowed her eyes and rubbed her chin, "He said he would keep an eye out for good boys in the capital for me."　　

When she saw Yuan Shu's appearance, Ren Anle became angry: "Look at your appearance, what's so good about those sick boys in the capital, they can't lift their hands or carry their shoulders ......"　

"Lord, isn't that what the Crown Prince of the capital is like!" Yuan Shu indignantly interrupted Ren Anle's words and poured cold water straight.　

Ren Anle's appearance was so serious that Yuan Shu was stunned in her place, seeing Ren Anle slowly get up and walk to the parapet, and half a second later, looking back, the words clear as day.

"Even if he's a useless one, he's the most honourable one of all the useless ones!Who said I was going to marry him as a person, my bride price for Ren Anle is a city, his dowry is the whole of Great Jing!"　

"Grand Master, I send you six words, a long way to go, take care."  

Yuan Shu took a half-hearted look at Ren Anle, who was so proud of herself and pointing out the world, before closing her jaw, rolling her eyes and turning away.

The corners of Ren Anle's mouth were slightly hooked, and a faint fluctuation and interest surfaced under her eyes.　　　　

Prince Han Ye, the Crown prince of Dajing, who is the most wise and farsighted in the world, I hope... your reputation is worthy of this traveling thousands of miles.

[4]   土皇帝(tǔ huáng dì)- emperor of the land - Refers to the warlords or local tyrants and evil gentry occupying one side. It also refers to the bad guys who dominate one side.

[5] 地头蛇(dì tóu shé) - Earth snake, a Chinese word, refers to a local bully who is influential and oppresses the people. It is also used as a metaphor for a local person with a certain ability. 

[6] 强龙不压地头蛇 (qiáng lóng bù yā dì tóu shé)-  The strongest dragon is still afraid to be pressed - Although the metaphor is a powerful person, it can't suppress the forces entrenched in the local area. 

[7] 区区一个绣花枕头又顶得上什么用。What use is a mere embroidered pillow? It is a metaphor for a person with appearance but no intellectual ability.