Feng Yu Jiu Tian vol. 23 ch. 1/2

Translator: churnie

There is significant decrease in the number of pedestrians on the road, and even if someone passing by, the footsteps are also in a hurry, and everyone bows their heads and goes on their way, as if driven by great anxiety.

The crowded market in the past, is now 80% to 90% empty, with only a few vegetable stalls standing apart, few shoppers, and vendors leaning listlessly against the dirty stone walls, not even in the mood to talk and laugh.

Every each of their faces has an uncomfortable stillness.

Rong Tian is about to walk over and ask the vendor a few words when a group of soldiers suddenly burst in from another entrance of the market.

As soon as the leader appeared, he shouted loudly: “Get up! Get up! The great king has order to search for spies, stand up one by one and take out the household registration papers!”

Immediately break the peace of the market.

All the vendors stand up in fright, their faces white as snow, and some subconsciously stretch out their hands to protect their melon and fruit stalls.

“I told you to stand up! Are you deaf?” He kicks the stall with a rude kick.

Huala!

The melons and fruits are kicked into the air with the basket and fall, and scattered all over the ground.

The vendor feels distressed for the goods and wants to squat down to pick them up, but he’s immediately threatened by the other party drawing his sword, “Stand up!”

The vendors are forced to stand in a row and take out household registration papers for these arrogant bullies to check their identities.

Looking at the goods to be used for selling, by means of inspecting whether there’s a stash, it’s all stabbed with swords indiscriminately by this group of men.

There’s a look of fear and anger on everyone’s faces.

“What a bunch of lowly people, stupid!”

When they appeared, Rong Tian dodged behind the wall very agilely and watched with discernment.

The clothes of this group of people are very similar to Xirei soldiers, but they are not exactly the same, the colors are slightly brighter than ordinary military uniforms, and the materials of the clothes are very different, it should be more expensive fabrics.

Everyone has swords and copper accessories of different shapes on their shoulders, which seem to be divided into upper and lower levels.

Rong Tian thinks to himself, is this a new army that Tong Er built up to deal with him?

But what’s the use of such a domineering and arrogant new army with no military discipline other than disturbing the people?

Alone in the city, Rong Tian can’t act recklessly, although he despises the actions of this group of people, he can only watch them bullying innocent people.

He holds back his breath and turns around calmly into the deserted alley.

With the news Guan Long has left for him, Rong Tian quickly find the hut at the end of the quiet alley, he knocks on the wooden door several times with a coded signal, and the wooden door is opened with a creaky sound.

“Who?” A man watches cautiously through the crack in the door.

Rong Tian recognizes the other person when he heard the voice, and asks in a low voice with a smile, “Yun Ze, you don’t even recognize This King.” 

Yun Ze gasps and can hardly believe his eyes,after being stupefied for a moment, he hurriedly opens the wooden door, “Great King, you are finally back!”

Looking at the returned King of Xirei, the tall and strong man’s eyes are reddening, he closes the wooden door, turns around and kneel down and salute Rong Tian in the courtyard.

Rong Tian pulls him up from the ground, “Now is not the time to salute, where’s the Empress Dowager?”

“Yes, yes. The Empress Dowager is in the back, I will take the Great King over there.”

The house in this alley is inconspicuous from the outside, but it’s not small inside, apart from the open space in the front yard, there are several side rooms and courtyards.

Yun Ze leads Rong Tian to the room, and as soon as he stepped into the door, Rong Tian saw the Empress Dowager wearing a bluish-grey cloth.

With her back to the door, she’s sitting on a wooden chair by the window, holding a letter and reading it carefully.

Just as Yun Ze was about to speak, Rong Tian waved his hand gently, asking him to keep silent. He walks gently behind his mother, lowers his head and whispers in her ear, “The Empress Dowager, I’m back.”

The Empress Dowager is shocked.

“Great King!” The Empress Dowager turns her head and sees her son’s handsome and gentle smile, she’s surprised and delighted, stands up abruptly: “I received the news that you were coming from Tongze, but I didn’t expect you to arrive so soon.”

(T/n: The Queen Mother/Empress Dowager used 哀家/AiJia as I/Me, a self-referring by a widowed empress etc)

Like all mothers, when she saw her son returning home from a long trip, she couldn’t help pulling Rong Tian, looking at him carefully up and down, speaking softly with loving eyes, “Great King has lost weight and has turned black.”

Rong Tian stands generously and allows the Empress Dowager to see enough, and says in a deep and guilty voice, “The Empress Dowager has also been thinner.”

A doting smile appears on the Empress Dowager’s face, “For the sake of the Great King and Xirei, what’s with me getting a bit thinner? Now that the Great King is back, that’s the most important thing.”

Rong Tian is moved in his heart and doesn’t need to express it in words, he only grabs his mother’s hand with his thick palm and clenches it tightly, he makes up his mind that, no matter what, he will make his mother honorable and comfortable for the rest of her life.

“Great King has just returned, so he still doesn’t know the current situation of Xiqin.” After the excitement of being reunited after a long separation, the Empress Dowager soon regains her composure.

“I am going to ask the Empress Dowager, how is the current situation?”

(T/n: And here Rong Tian call himself Zhen as I/Me, a self-referring used by a King/Emperor)

The Empress Dowager gestures Rong Tian to sit down, and she herself sits down opposite him, turns her head to say, “Yun Ze, come here too.”

Yun Ze agrees and walks over.

The Empress Dowager closes her eyes slightly, makes a thoughtful look, and soon opens her eyes again, “During this period of time, the situation of Xirei’s government has changed rapidly, and things are full of twists and turns…”

It turned out that after the news that Rong Tian was stationed in Yuezhong City was leaked, Tong Er was greatly shocked and immediately asked Tong Jian Min to lead the troops to attack Yuezhong, but Tong Jian Min claimed refusing on the grounds that the news had not been confirmed, and the more important was in Yong Yin.

Tong Er was greatly displeased by this matter, although he didn’t directly fall out with Tong Jian Min, who held military power, but the relationship between uncle and nephew had been so tense, causing the struggle between the old and the new factions to intensify.

“As for the things in Xiqin City,” the Empress Dowager says briefly for a while, then points to Yun Ze who is standing with a smile, in which no lack of appreciation in her tone, “Most of it was done by Yun Ze, he knew more details than me. Yun Ze, come and explain to the Great King.”

“Yes, Empress Dowager.” Yun Ze bows to take the order, straightens up, and with a trace of excitement in his eyes because of the return of the Great King, he speaks in an orderly manner: “After receiving the order of the Great King to spread rumors, this subordinate wrote dozens of words — “The Great King is in Yuezhong, the loyal people of Xirei will follow him to the death” overnight, and pasted on the walls of Xiqin streets and alleys. This move hit the nail on the head. The next day, the whole Xiqin was a sensation, the people secretly passing it on one after another, and the rumors became more and more popular, and some people even said that the Great King brought a large army, with Yuezhong as the station, and would attack Xiqin soon.”

“How does Tong Er’s reaction?”

Speaking of him, Yun Ze’s eyes revealed a trace of contempt in his eyes, “This little usurper must had been terrified, according to the source in the palace, he urgently summoned his uncle to the palace that day, and once again asked his uncle to lead 200,000 troops to attack Yuezhong, made sure that Yuezhong was attacked. However, Tong Jian Min still refused to send troops on the ground that with the shrewdness of the Great King, he would never risk staying in a place that was easy to be besieged, instead he persuaded the little usurper to govern the capital carefully, treat the people kindly, and avoid rumors from happening again.”

The Empress Dowager can’t help but smile at the corner of her lips, and sighs: “Tong Jian Min was trained by the previous king after all. Although he is guilty, he is not completely disregarding what’s good and bad. In response to this sentence “treat the people kindly”, I want to ask the Great King to show a little affection when he deals with him in the future, is it all right?”

Rong Tian has a lenient attitude, “The Empress Dowager rest assured, if This King wants to kill him, he won’t let him go last time.”

The Empress Dowager smiles and nods.

Rong Tian gently says to Yun Ze, “Go on. Tong Jian Min refused to send troops twice, and blatantly disobeyed The King’s order, which made Tong Er’s face disgrace, he would never put up with this as he did last time.”

Yun Ze looks at Rong Tian with admiration in his eyes, “Great King really knows that little usurper very well. Seeing that Tong Jian Min refused to lead the army, the little usurper issued a king’s order in front of Tong Jian Min, asking Tong Jian Min to immediately hand over an army of 200,000 people, commanded by the general chosen by the little usurper, and set off to attack Yuezhong City on the same day.”

Rong Tian sneers, “Tong Er is really angry that he lose his mind, the most taboo thing for a general is to be deprived of military power, he has not yet settled down as Great King, he wants to take the military power of the 200,000 army in Tong Jian Min’s hands at once. As soon as the words “hand over the army” were spoken, the uncle and nephew were bound to turn against each other.”

Yun Ze says with surprise: “The Great King was in Tongze, it was as if he saw what happened with his own eyes. The two of them fell out at that time, it was said that the quarrel was so loud that the whole palace could hear it, it was even rumored that the little usurper even drew his sword against his uncle, but unfortunately he dared not stab him seriously, otherwise Xirei’s army would have mutinied immediately. Later, Tong Jian Min left the palace angrily and locked himself in his residence, not even going to the court.”

“And Tong Jian Min didn’t give Tong Er face just like that.”

Yun Ze snorts, “The little thief was originally brought up by his uncle, so he had no face to be able to command the army, in a fit of anger, he ordered to mobilize the imperial guards in the palace and Xiqin city defense army, and even the guards of the warehouse were transferred, anyway, he summoned all the men he could summon as a fake king, and then hurriedly bestowed Su Jin Sheng as General Zheng Yue, leading the troops to attack Yuezhong”

“Su Jin Sheng” Su Jin Chao’s kin brother, this dandy boy’s face flash in Rong Tian’s mind, he can’t help shaking his head, “Stupid. Scattered soldiers and weak generals, without the spirit of war, they have already lost this battle without a fight.”

Thinking that no matter who wins or loses in this battle, it’s his Xirei people who will die, his heart sinks slightly, his face shows a trace of sadness, and he asks in a deep voice, “This battle, no need to ask, Qian Lin must be win, how many people were killed and injured by Su Jin Sheng’s leading?”

_______________________”

The difficulty of translating Colossal Story like Chinese Kingdoms is the difference in using the ‘speaking language’.

For example: the higher level people refer themselves with different kinds of term of I/Me, such as King, Queen, Empress Dowager, Lord/Master, Teacher. And the lower level people often refer themselves as the third person, can’t directly speaking “i and you” because it’s considered rude/impolite. Sometimes i have difficulty when Feng Ming talk to his maids/subordinates (imperial bodyguards or Xiao family master) because sometimes they refer themselves as third person but also use I and You directly, since Feng Ming is coming from the future so he’s more open minded and not too strict with honorable speech that people of his level learnt.

So i hope the readers also can understand this little knowledge and not confused with how i translate, because i try to translate more literally, according to the words used by the author, and not taking liberty to change words as i pleased. The same as i keep the idioms, to show the readers how rich Chinese literature.