Chapter 108 – Troublesome
After the two Navy Xiongniu battleships remained in Changan city for another four days, they finally embarked on their journey home. When the nobles within the palace were selecting the goods, they made others understand what exactly meticulous and conscientious meant. Even if there was a greater variety of embroidered textiles, the Navy people felt that taking ten days to pick would be enough. However, they did not expect the nobles to follow that many standards and rules when it came to selecting the items.

The late emperor died a sudden death, but the queen was still alive. After the current emperor ascended to the throne, the empress, Zun Yuancheng, became Empress Bao Su, and she resided in the west palace.

The emperor was very respectful towards this sister-in-law of his. Even Empress Yang, who was not on good terms with the emperor, never disrespected Empress Bao Su. Every year, when gifts were sent to the palace, they were taken to the west palace for Empress Bao Su to take her pick first, before the empress took her pick.

After the empress was done taking her pick, all the imperial concubines were next. The person that was second to the empress was Concubine Zhen Gui. Within the chambers of imperial concubines, on the whole, the empress was not the one managing the affairs – Concubine Zhen Gui acted on her behalf. If the emperor stayed overnight in the chambers, six out of ten times, he was staying at Concubine Zhen Gui’s.

The nobles took their pick according to their sequence, and took more than a month. As for the Navy soldiers, under the command of Du Weiming, they trained the entire day without slacking off. After they got to Changan city, Du Weiming quickly removed the military officer uniform he was wearing and told the troops that the military officer was being summoned to Yanta Academy by the academy head. The time Shen Leng spent away from them was about the same duration as the nobles took to select their textiles…

After they completed their assignment, the Navy started to return home. Actually, this assignment originally did not require them to utilize the two Xiongniu battleships. However, in lieu of the northern border matter, they deliberately picked Shen Leng. Hence, Shen Leng guessed that in the emperor’s eyes, Zhuang Yong might not be as important as Cen Zheng.

Presently, Zhuang Yong was already a Class A Third pin Weiyang general – he was of the same rank as all the garrison generals. As for Cen Zheng, because of his credit in their mission to go south, he was being promoted to a Class B Fourth pin. There was a huge disparity between their ranks, but why did the emperor trust Cen Zheng more? Or perhaps, he trusted them in different ways?

Shen Leng guessed that Cen Zheng was one of the emperor’s counselors at his residence, back when he was still Prince Liu, and that his position was higher than that of Zhuang Yong’s. But there was something he could not figure out – if he was of a higher rank compared to Zhuang Yong from the start, why was Zhuang Yong the current commander of the Navy? And why did Zhuang Yong not recognize him? And did not know that they shared the same background?

Shen Leng could not help but think about another issue – each individual’s abilities.

Zhuang Yong’s ability was that he could command troops. He was one of Great Ning’s ten great generals. Even though he was known as a scholarly general, it took more than books and words to rise above others in the all-military competition.

As for Cen Zheng?

Shen Leng shut his eyes. He started to recall what happened when he and Cen Zheng headed down south together. Without a doubt, Cen Zheng was good at concealing himself. At the very start, Shen Leng’s judgment was thoroughly misguided by Cen Zheng’s performance, to the point he assumed that Cen Zheng was the person who was working for Mu Xiaofeng.

After that, when Cen Zheng killed Bai Xiu in the coastal border region, he did not show even the slightest bit of apprehension. Up until now, Shen Leng was still unable to comprehend how he was able to kill a Class B Fifth pin general without restraint.

Until this moment, after Shen Leng compared Zhuang Yong to Cen Zheng, he finally realized what was fishy.

Each individual’s abilities. Just those three words.

Zhuang Yong was good at commanding an army of troops, but Cen Zheng was good at concealing himself, as well as his loyalty towards the emperor. Hence… Shen Leng suddenly widened his eyes. Hence, there was a person like Cen Zheng in all the military forces, including Great Ning’s twenty divisions. They had a special power…to supervise more than a hundred officials and higher authorities!

Shen Leng exhaled a long breath. He thought to himself: the emperor’s control over the entire empire is so high that it is unprecedented in history.

Zhuang Yong should be aware of Cen Zheng’s identity. Even If he was unaware in the past, after Bai Xiu’s death, and after he was being sent to the northern border by Cen Zheng, how would it be possible for a meticulous person like Zhuang Yong to not suspect a thing?

After Shen Leng had understood that, he realized how shallow and childish he was; hoping that His Majesty would hear the things he said in the academy head’s residence. However, every single action within the Navy was actually within the emperor’s control, and Cen Zheng was the emperor’s eyes within the Navy.

Master Cha saw how Shen Leng was furrowing his brows hard, and her heart ached a little.

Ever since Leng enlisted in the military, he furrowed his brows more and more frequently.

“I’m fine. I am only thinking about something. Did I make you worry by furrowing my brows?”

Shen Leng smiled at Master Cha. “In that case, I’m not going to think about those trivial things. I’ll think about something else…we are arriving home in a few days’ time. In the end, I was unable to accompany you to stroll around Changan city.”

Master Cha suddenly turned around and grabbed Shen Leng’s collar before pulling him towards her. Both of them were facing each other; the distance between their eyes was very little, let alone their noses.

She looked into Shen Leng’s eyes and said earnestly. “I’m guessing affairs of the heart and whatnot truly delayed your proper business.”

After Master Cha said that, she suddenly pouted her lips before pecking Shen Leng on the lips. Thereafter, she pushed Shen Leng away. “I guess in the future, I need to set some rules for you. If you focus entirely on me, what will happen to your military affairs? You behaving this way disappoints me a lot…You should be more focused, otherwise, when will you ever get to Fifth pin!”

Shen Leng responded, “Huh? Hehe…hahahaha.”

Master Cha hit Shen Leng in the head. “What are you laughing at? I guess I should seriously think about our relationship. Why don’t you acknowledge me as a big sister first before you become a Class A Fifth pin official?”

Shen Leng was speechless.

He looked at Master Cha and smiled. “But the affairs of the heart is my proper business.”

Master Cha glared at her. “Say that again?”

“The affairs of the heart is my proper business.”

“Say that again?!”

“The affairs of the heart is my proper business.”

“Oh~”

Master Cha turned around, with her hands behind her back, and flung her ponytail to the back before walking off. “In that case, be a good military officer, train your troops well, and work hard to fight for more meritorious deeds. Don’t delay your proper business. In the future, apart from your special vacation days, we have to meet less. Starting from next month, until two months later.”

Shen Leng’s chest tightened. “No! You must still deliver vegetables to the camp every morning!”

Master Cha snorted. “Idiot. Next month is February.”

Shen Leng was speechless.

During their journey back, the fleet did not run into anything unusual. If they did not pass by Dongchi, the crown prince naturally would not look for the Navy’s Xiongniu ships on his own accord to look for trouble. As for Guan Tang Kou, after Zhao Feng and his men were completely ambushed and eradicated by Shen Leng, the Guan Tang Kou assassins had not appeared ever since. Evidently, by leaving behind headless corpses and taking away their repeating crossbows and weapons, it posed a huge threat towards Guan Tang Kou.

Even if they still wanted to kill Shen Leng, Mu Zhaotong would have no choice but to be restless at a time as such, as he could not do anything about it.

In truth, on the second day after Shen Leng left Changan city, the emperor’s decrees had been enacted – both Shen Leng and Meng Changan had been promoted to a Class A Fifth pin Yongyi general. Shen Leng’s merit rank was Qizhuan Qingche Commandant, while Meng Changan was Bazhuan Shang Qingche Commandant. It was estimated that upon Shen Leng’s arrival at the Navy’s camp, the decree would arrive shortly after.

Under such a circumstance, how would Mu Zhaotong allow Guan Tang Kou’s men to continue allowing his son to stir up trouble…if they were to get rid of Shen Leng, under His Majesty’s nose, the emperor might turn the entire Anyang upside down to investigate out of anger. If he could not find out anything within Anyang, he would turn the entire Great Ning upside down.

The Commandant of Justice and the fellas of the Ministry of Justice were people who carried out tasks without any apprehension. They would not care about whether or not Guan Tang Kou belonged to the great scholar. As long as they had a target, they would pursue to the end.

If Shen Leng was murdered during this period of time, that was akin to slapping His Majesty in the face.

His Majesty just sent an imperial decree to promote a person, and in the next person, that person got killed off. How was it possible that Mu Zhaotong was that foolish?

Hence, the people who were sent out from Changan city were not only His Majesty’s men carrying the decrees, heading for Anyang and the northern border, but also Mu Zhaotong’s man, who went to look for Mu Liu’er, ordering her to stop acting blindly without thinking for the time being.

Du Weiming went to look for Shen Leng and reported everything that happened while he was not around. In truth, he was trying to see Shen Leng’s attitude towards him.

This time, Shen Leng did not bring him along on the mission. Admittedly, it was true that he needed someone to pass off as him, but was it truly unrelated to the fact that Shen Leng might have known that he was working for Zhuang Yong? Du Weiming had been pondering over it over the past couple of days. If the truth had been revealed, causing Shen Leng to start distancing himself from him, all he could do was to appeal to Zhuang Yong and ask to leave Shen Leng’s battalion. But what would happen after that? He would feel more relaxed, since he no longer had to keep an eye on Shen Leng, but at the same time, Zhuang Yong would no longer care about him. And neither would Shen Leng. His future prospects in the Navy would come to a spontaneous end.

“Don’t think so much.”

Shen Leng seemed to be able to read Du Weiming’s thoughts. He patted him on the shoulder. “I just started leading a new regiment, and before I got to familiarize myself with the troops, I was given two missions – heading down to the south, and heading to the north of Changan. Hence, I did not have enough time to make arrangements for several things. After I head back, I will tell the general to make you a battalion commander, leading one of the three battalions in this regiment. Chen Ran will be your deputy.”

Du Weiming was overwhelmed. Immediately, his eyes became watery. “Military officer!”

“You don’t have to thank me.”

Shen Leng looked at the waves within the river. “You should know that the reason why I promoted you is because of your ability. When there is no need to doubt your ability, the next thing that would be taken into account is loyalty.”

Du Weiming nodded with all his might. “I will remember this!”

“There are some things that are hard to bring up to the general, how should I tell him? Yang Qibao and Gu Le are unwilling to go back to the garrison. All of a sudden, half of the garrison troops have decided not to return. The general is definitely going to be very unhappy…”

Actually, Du Weiming did not hear Shen Leng’s words clearly. He was extremely moved and shocked at the same time. Who was Chen Ran? Chen Ran was the military officer’s brother. Chen Ran and his father gave the military officer a helping hand in his toughest moment, and yet he made Chen Ran his deputy!

Shen Leng said, “Three battalions – you lead one of them, Yang Qibao will lead the other, and Wang Kuohai will lead the last one…If Gu Le can stay behind, he will be by my side as a squad leader. It’s time to pick a few soldiers who are directly under me.

Du Weiming quickly calmed himself down and kept his emotions in check. Thereafter, he realized that the military officer was trying to increase his control over the troops in his regiment. Most of the people in this regiment used to work for Mu Xiaofeng. It was not good to keep having hidden danger in their midst.

“I will investigate.” He suddenly said that.

Shen Leng shook his head. “You specialize in training soldiers. Help me train the troops well. I will get Gu Le to investigate.”

Gu Le?

Du Weiming remembered that name with all his effort. That person seemed to be able to affect the military officer’s judgment.

“Understood.”

“Don’t think too much. I was never a complicated person.”

Shen Leng laughed. “Capability, loyalty.

He held out two fingers. “Having those two qualities is enough.”

Du Weiming inhaled a deep breath. He did a military salute. “I will not disappoint you, military officer.”

Shen Leng grunted. “We are heading back. After we get back, it seems like there will be more things to deal with.”

When he thought about how he had to face Zhuang Yong and Cen Zheng, Shen Leng could not rest assured at all. He was sandwiched between Zhuang Yong and Cen Zheng; this matter was way too troublesome.