Sword Snow Stride Book 1 Chapter 54

Book 1 – White Horse Out of Liangzhou
Chapter 54 – Seeing Someone Off In White Clothes

Riding the white horse, with a pair of sabers hanging on his waist, Shizi Dianxia rode out of the city. Behind him was a tall and sturdy military general leading more than a hundred light cavalry, only the carriage in front was ordinary and mediocre. The driver was a delicate and pretty woman. Even Shizi Dianxia was riding a horse, presumably there was no one qualified to ride in the carriage. _{Translated by foxs}

After more than dozen li outside the city, the one-hundred cavalry under the Feng character banner’s crossbowmen deliberately pulled back quite some distance away. The military general in charge rode his horse alone to Xu Fengnian’s side. Immediately he was face to face with one of the four teeth of Beiliang, whose sharp point was the most flourishing in the past ten years, there was no doubt about his loyalty.

Lu Qiantang, Shu Xiu, Yang Qingfeng, the three hunting dogs at Da Zhu Guo’s knees were still on guard, ready to take action at any time. It could clearly be seen that the three people were really afraid of Xu Da Zhu Guo to the core, afraid that the slightest grass stirring in the wind would harm Shizi Dianxia, and thus they would have to atone for their crime with their lives.

Xu Fengnian was asking for guidance from the Jiu Dou Mi [nine dou (bucket) of rice] old Taoist priest Wei Shuyang, about the essence of ‘Liang Yi Shen Tong Qi’ [heaven and earth jointly agree]. Seeing the nervous expressions on Lu Qiantang and the others’ faces, he did not utter a word, waiting until the halberd-wielding general bowed on horseback to ask for instructions, then he laughed and said, “Ning Jiangjun, let your troops and horses follow behind, simply just because this Shizi doesn’t like to eat dust, there is no other meaning. Don’t be nervous, just fall back a li or a half. If there is really a danger, it’s just a matter of sprinting. Ning Jiangjun still distrust the Feng character banner? This is this Shizi personal guard unit, every single one is a valiant and elite man, selected one in a hundred from various Beiliang armies, plus there is Ning Jiangjun in command, it is absolutely safe.” _{foxswuxia.wordpress.com}

This halberd-wielding military general had a poetic name, Ning Emei [lit. peaceful Mount Emei], yet he was tall and thick, fierce-looking from head to toe. The Feng character unit was a light cavalry unit where all of them were armed uniformly with saber and crossbow. Only his armored horse was heavily armored, he wielded an eye-catching hook-shaped [orig. 卜 (bu) character] iron halberd. Furthermore, there was a large bag on his back, filled with dozens of short halberds. In just one glance, one could tell that he was the kind of general who could fight against ten thousand enemies.

Before leaving the city, Xu Fengnian already obtained the summary of Ning Emei’s outstanding military service. He had no choice but to respect deeply and exclaim in admiration a bit. Ning Emei was an orphan on the battlefield. He was picked up by the Gang Du Great General Wang Jian, who then raised him. After Wang Juling died in battle, he inherited his yifu’s [adoptive father] cassock and alms bowl [of a Buddhist master, i.e. legacy]; as long as he had a halberd in his hand, even the magnificent feat of taking the head of a chief general from among the crowd of ten thousand of troops, he had done several times. Every time, Da Zhu Guo used his great merits to compensate for his small crimes. Otherwise, he would not have become the lowest ranked military officer among the four teeth of Beiliang. Only as long as Ning Emei could go into battle and kill people, don’t let him be holed up behind the battle formation and do things like waving flags and shouting battle cries, as he really did not have his heart on these things.

Throughout the ages, those who dared to use a halberd as a handy weapon were definitely a group of tiger and wolf ferocious men who killed people like picking up grass and mustard. _{Translated by foxs}

On the battlefield he was a god of death. When Ning Emei comes off the battlefield, he was not the kind of barbaric general who lashed his soldiers at every turn. On the contrary, he was very gentle and kind, respectful and frugal. His voice was full of energy, which inevitably would be resonant and shook the heavens, but the tone of his voice was always like a Jiangnan woman’s cherry mouth; it was indeed an extremely awkward marvel.

This moment, hearing Shizi Dianxia’s explanation, Ning Emei held the big halberd at an angle, with the tip of the halberd toward the ground. He laughed bashfully and said, “On this trip, Da Zhu Guo ordered subordinate to listen and obey Shizi Dianxia in everything, whatever Dianxia says will be done.”

Xu Fengnian cast a glance at the big iron halberd in Ning Emei’s hand, he asked curiously, “Ning Jiangjun, this Bu Zi [bu character, see above] halberd should weigh seventy or eighty jin [catty, about 500 or 600 grams, depending on where]?”

Astonished, Ning Emei said, “Shizi Dianxia recognize this halberd as a Bu Zi halberd?”

Xu Fengnian laughed involuntarily and said, “Incidentally I heard my Er Jie mention it. I wouldn’t have thought it was the lance halberd used as a fancy ritual instrument.” _{foxswuxia.wordpress.com}

Ning Emei did not notice that the atmosphere around him stopped still, he mumbled to himself, “Shizi Dianxia did not guess incorrectly. This halberd weighs seventy-five jin, ordinary men won’t be able to lift it.”

A pair of sabers hanging on his waist, Xu Fengnian laughed heartily and said, “When we have a chance, I’d like to gain first-hand knowledge of Ning Jiangjun’s flying halberd. I heard from Xu Xiao that your short halberd can do the feat of one halberd, one person knocked off his horse, without fail.”

Ning Emei somewhat blushed with shame, he simply chuckled. In the end he asked to be excused and rode back with his halberd in tow.

Her countenance sweet and charming but her heart no one knows, Shu Xiu pulled the reins, looking on with the cool eyes of a bystander, the corners of her mouth curled up, full of disdain. This Beiliang valiant general, Da Zhu Guo’s trusted aide, really did not understand officialdom’s ways of the world. Since Shizi Dianxia had seen through his weapons, he still did not know what’s what, still like a blind cat knocking against a dead mouse, still did not know how to push the boat with the current and pat the horse’s butts and utter a few flattering words? He even said in front of wielding-saber Shizi Dianxia something about not able to lift the big halberd. Are you mocking Shizi Dianxia’s hands did not have any strength to tie a chicken? You ignorant fool, even if Shizi Dianxia was not a master in using saber, those two peerless good sabers were dense with cold aura that at a casual glance one would be able to tell that they were sabers to kill people steeped with watery blood. Can an ‘ordinary person’ handle them?

The tall and sturdy swordsman Lu Qiantang, whose physique was not inferior to Ning Emei, was just focusing his attention with closed eyes, his thumb clasping the hilt of the giant sword Chixia [lit. scarlet rose-tinted sunrise/sunset clouds] he picked from the armory. _{Translated by foxs}

Yang Qingfeng was shrouded in a spacious black robe, which made his pair of snow-white hands even more dazzling.

Xu Fengnian continued to move forward, he sighed quietly and said, “In the past, Xi Chu claimed that there were a million people armed with halberds within a five-thousand li area, but those hundreds of thousands of invincible halberd warriors were defeated by Xu Xiao’s cavalry just the same. It seems that all the lances under the sun, Beiliang Tieqi [armored horses] are still the sharpest.”

Stroking his beard, the old Taoist Wei Shuyang laughed softly and said, “In Lao Dao’s [old Taoist] early years, I was lucky enough to see the amazing sight of Beiliang’s several thousand Tieqi rushing like thunder into one line. It was like the big tide of the Guangling River, overturning the river and the sea and destroying the mountains. My heart was beating fast in fascination.”

Xu Fengnian winked and said, “Wei Yeye, I’ve seen that a lot.”

The old Taoist priest was stunned for a long time, finally he had a flash of understanding, a happy smile broke out on his face. This left Shu Xiu, who was completely in the dark – pondering a hundred times without gaining any understanding. _{foxswuxia.wordpress.com}

Shu Xiu, three people’s days in the king’s palace, employed as Da Zhu Guo’s hawks and hounds [fig. hired thugs] could not be considered short, but if one said long, it was not long either. The longest was Yang Qingfeng, who was only seven or eight years. At that time, Shizi Dianxia was already a Beiliang’s number one big white silk pants that no medicine could cure, whose reputation outside was in complete disorder.

In Jianghu, there was no such talk about demonic school, heretical cult; there were no sects, schools and gangs that did not know life and death and put on a ‘xie mo’ [heretic/evil demonic] hat on themselves. Even some schools and sects whose conduct vicious, once they were personally touched by these two characters, most would likely rush toward a place bustling with noise and excitement and cry for Die, call for Niang, whine about hardships and cry out a grievance, especially in Jianghu that has been run over by Beiliang‘s armored horses. No one has the guts to take this kind of lateral thinking that was foreordained to be short-lived. About sixty years ago [orig. one jiazi, a cycle of sixty years: twelve zodiacs and five elements] in Jianghu fish and dragons [good and bad] mingled, just like the Nine Kingdoms in the Spring and Autumn Period of the Central Plains, where various nobilities set up an independent regime. Contrary to one might expect, there was one sect that most Jianghu looked up at – called itself a demonic sect. How did they end?

Longhu Mountain effortlessly produced a difficult-to-encounter-once-in-a-century immortal, Qi Xuanzhen. He posted a message to the world, an invitation for a battle on the Zhan Mo Tai [demon-slaying platform] on the Lian Hua Ting [lotus flower peak]. Alone, Qi Da Zhenren [big ‘real person’] slaughtered six thinking-too-much-of-themselves martial art masters of the demonic way. From then on, one stumble, unable to rise [idiom], they already faded out of the field of view for fifty years. Heaven knew how many times the grandchildren-generation of the schools and sects have ridden on their neck and pissed on them. _{Translated by foxs}

Shu Xiu came from a branch of Western Chu Kingdom’s side-door-left-sect. She studied extensively and researched some witchcraft and bewitching method that the orthodox [lit. the right way (Buddhism)] suppressed fiercely, so it did not become a prevailing condition. Even though within the school there were not many female witches, she had a good prospect to inherit the head of the clan’s position, but Shu Xiu had her own ambitions. She looked down on the less-than-a-hundred small-minded people of her sect, so she ran away to go out and live free and unfettered happy life by herself. Relying on her outstanding leather bag and inferior charming technique, by chance she obtained a fragment of upper-class xinfa from a middle-aged Taoist priest from Kongtong Mountain who did not know that he had a jade annulus in his bosom. After training it, her power increased sharply; once it started, there was no way to stop it. After learning that it was only one-third of the ‘Bai Di Bao Pu Jue’ [see Chapter 51], she followed the vine to get to the melon [idiom: to track by following clues], which led her to the Ting Chao Ting armory. She did not die, that was very lucky indeed. She barely entered the king’s mansion, she had not even seen Ting Chao Ting’s shadow, she was already beaten half to death by the hidden martial art masters inside the Wangfu. Afterwards, she seized several successful assassins in exchange for the opportunity to live. This time getting hold of the ‘Bao Pu Jue’, naturally she cherished it very much.

Don’t think that Beiliang Wangfu’s share was only to be the target of assassination. When was the time a group of people come, Beiliang did not immediately go out and take iron and blood [fig. weapons of war] reprisal? When was the time they did not cut the weeds and eliminate the roots? _{foxswuxia.wordpress.com}

This was precisely Da Zhu Guo Xu Xiao’s viciousness. Only with one bloody case after another accumulating together would a fearing-neither-the-heaven-nor-the-earth left-way figure like Shu Xiu turn chicken hearted like this. Even a more unafraid of death strong and courageous [hao han] female, a heroine [nu xia] would not be able to withstand Da Zhu Guo’s hundreds and thousands of ways to make life worse than death.

Xu Fengnian did not have a favorable impression toward Shu Xiu, and he was not required to exchange polite greeting with them even more, hence he simply urged his horse to rise by the carriage’s side. Raising the curtain, he saw Yu Youwei was amusing herself with Wu Meiniang on her lap. She was in a good mood, whether she was the queen of flowers Yu Youwei, or she was the orphan girl of the Emperor of Western Chu’s swordsman Yu Xuanji, she did not care. Wherever she was now, she was a sparrow in a cage. But if she could change to a bigger cage, moving from the king’s mansion to the entire Jianghu, her mood would be a bit better.

Jiang Ni squeezed herself into a corner, instead of sitting, she was squatting, reading a secret book. Her eyebrows were slightly knitted. Whatever she was doing, it looked like she was very serious and she worked very hard on it.

As for the old man in sheepskin fur coat, he occupied most of the carriage. His boots were off, he was rubbing the skin between his smelly toes with his hands, and then brought his fingers to his nose to enjoy the smell.

Xu Fengnian put down the curtain and said helplessly, “It’s hard for Yu Youwei and Xiao Niren [the little clay figurine].” _{Translated by foxs}

Shizi Dianxia muttered to himself, “Shall I get them another one? Forget it, if something goes wrong on the carriage, at least this weird old man will take action, otherwise, if something happens to me, he might not even be able to toil his good self, let alone taking action for two women.”

Xu Fengnian took out the newly drawn ‘Yu Gong Dili Zhi’ [Yu Gong’s Geographical Record (Yu the Great, c. 21^st century BC was the mythical leader who tamed the floods, Gong means work/profession/craft, so I believe it was a title)] map from his bosom. After the Liyang Dynasty unified the Central Plains, the original six prefectures were expanded to the current nineteen prefectures. It is thus clear that during the Spring and Autumn chaotic war, how much the Liyang Dynasty was like a snake swallowing the elephant. Why Xu Xiao became the only Da Zhu Guo [great pillar of the kingdom] in the dynasty, the reason was in this.

Beiliang [northern Liang] was a general term, covering the entire Liangzhou and half of Lingzhou. They, this group of travelers, have just left the city not long ago. The city was located in the southernmost part of Beiliang, from here to the northern border of Yongzhou[1] was still one day journey. Xu Fengnian took the official road, which was precisely the road he took four years ago. At first, this section of the journey was light and easy, could be considered carefree, with fresh clothes and vigorous horses. It was after entering the hinterland of Yongzhou that the journey started to become desolate.

Perhaps because she couldn’t stand the cross-eyed old man in the carriage, Yu Youwei stuck her head out with the white cat in her hands, looking at Xu Fengnian with some pleading in her eyes. _{foxswuxia.wordpress.com}

Xu Fengnian snapped his fingers, and Yang Qingfeng suddenly opened his eyes. Only to hear his whistle, a jujube-red horse without any rider following behind him obediently trotted towards Shizi Dianxia.

It was said that Yang Qingfeng could even raise wilderness ghost and mountain demons, controlling a horse was naturally not difficult.

Yu Youwei, who had good riding skills, just sat on the horse and carefully comforted Wu Meiniang.

In that moment, they saw behind them dust was filling the whole sky over the entire official road, the horses’ hoofs rumbled, and the ground was shaking. Obviously it was not a battle array that a hundred light cavalry could create.

Xu Fengnian turned his horse’s head around, he squinted eyes to look in that direction.

The carriage also stopped, and Jiang Ni, who left the king’s mansion for the first time in her life, stuck her head out.

Xu Fengnian chuckled, he beckoned to Yu Youwei, who looked fearful, and said, “Change horse, come sit here with me.”

In the entire Beiliang, there were only two characters with this kind of imposing attitude and ability. _{Translated by foxs}

His Ol’ Dad Xu Xiao would not dare to steal the spotlight from Shizi Dianxia.

In that case, there was only one that as the water recedes, the rocks appear [idiom: the truth comes to light].

Rumor has it that the Xiao Ren Tu had a hundred thousand Beiliang armored horses see, hear and obey him.

How could Xu Fengnian not know him?

Yu Youwei did not have such a thick skin, but when she saw Xu Fengnian narrowing his long eyes, she had no choice but to get off her horse and then climbed up his horse, to sit in his bosom.

In addition to the Da Ji [great halberd] Ning Emei, of the four Beiliang Four Teeth, three appeared.

Clicking his tongue, Xu Fengnian said, “What a big pomp.”

Amidst the throng of armored horses dense with sabers and spears, a man dressed in white rode out.

Thinking back to the past, it appeared this man in white rode out of the battle with the same air and stabbed the wife and daughter of Ye Wusheng, the world-renowned chief among the famous generals – to death in front of the battle array.

The incomparably handsome and elegant man bowed slightly on horseback, and spoke softly, “Chen Zhibao is here to see Shizi Dianxia off.” _{foxswuxia.wordpress.com}

In the Beiliang three teeth and several dozen generals at the front row’s field of view, they could only see the beauty in Shizi Dianxia‘s arms, and a white cat in the beauty’s arms.

On one side, here was the most outstanding figure of the younger generation who came from family of generals sacrificing their lives for the country, and who had been following Xu Da Zhu Guo since he was a child in the Spring and Autumn military campaign.

On the other side, it was that hometown tender and soft Gongzi Ge who teases cats?

It seemed that in that moment, a verdict was already reached.

Xu Fengnian turned the horse’s head again, he wrapped a finger around the woman’s fine black hair, and spoke slowly, “No need.”

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yong_Province

Yong Province or Yongzhou was the name of various regions and provinces in ancient China, usually around the Wei River or the imperial capital.

In the Book of Documents, Yongzhou is mentioned as one of the legendary Nine Provinces of China’s prehistoric antiquity.