Chapter 367: The Tryst

After the last line of cruel and muddle-headed kings of the Land of Fragrance had passed away without leaving any offspring behind, its citizens cut off all ties with the outside world. More than 100 years had since passed, and its people thought that outsiders had already forgotten about them.

It was a vast, isolated and peaceful place which was sparsely populated. Its citizens were free to choose the ideal locations for their homes, and only the royal palace was left untended to. The glory of years past was long gone, and only vast patches of weeds were left. Now, it had become a place for beasts and children to prowl.

The citizens had long since stopped electing a King. Instead they were separated into 10 different tribes and practiced self-autonomy. Each tribe had a leader, and the post was rotated amongst all the members of the tribe.

The sudden arrival of a large army of close to 2000 soldiers from the forest immediately caused immense upheaval in the Land of Fragrance. The 10 tribal leaders, who were usually idle, were now faced with an immense task of handling the visitors. After a long discussion which lasted throughout the night, the 10 of them decided to represent all of the citizens in negotiations with the foreign army, who looked barbaric and hungry.

About three miles from the capital of the Land of Fragrance, Gu Shenwei ordered his troops to set up camp with their back facing a small river. He then received the messengers in the main tent.

They could be considered as the most gentle and cultivated people in the world. All of them were uniformly dressed in long robes of light color which were loose fitting. Other than ornate belts, they did not wear any other accessories but gave off fragrances. Their mannerisms were poised and proper, and their voices soothing and clear. Even though they spoke a foreign language, one could immediately sense their goodwill.

There was a large disparity between the ages of the ten tribal leaders, and the youngest of them was only about 20 something years of age. He was inexperienced and seemed a little nervous. The eldest had white hair and a white beard, and he was holding onto a crutch of about the same color.

There were of similar status, and normally the eldest tribal leader spoke on behalf of the others.

After listening to a few sentences from the tribal leaders, Gu Shenwei could only understand one phrase – that the eldest tribal leader was called Shili Molo. As such, he summoned a machete man who was multi-lingual to act as his interpreter, and after much guessing, some of it wild, compounded with all sorts of complicated hand gestures, both parties came to a rough understanding of what each other’s intentions were.

Shili Molo said that his country was sparsely populated and that its citizens amounted to less than 6000. Over the previous centuries, the country had rarely got in contact with outsiders and had especially never seen warriors and so many kinds of weapons before. As such, they were susceptible to shock, and the tribal leader urged the Dragon King sincerely to control his soldiers. He wanted them to be prohibited from entering the capital, but they could set up camp anywhere outside of the city grounds and were free to stay as long as they wished.

As a token of appreciation for their cooperation, the citizens were glad to provide sufficient food every day.

Gu Shenwei agreed to their terms; it was a mutually beneficial deal – the citizens wanted to be safe, and the soldiers wanted sufficient rest.

Gu Shenwei then asked his interpreter to ask Shili Molo the way toward the Xiaoyao Lake, but the old man knew nothing about it. However, he said that there was an old map passed down from generations of kings past, and he would send his men to bring it over to the Dragon King once he went back into the city.

Just like this, the negotiations were concluded.

There were many soldiers crowding around the outside of the main tent, watching the strange men who were giving off a nice fragrance. After the messengers left, Shangguan Fei, who was watching from a corner, twitched his mouth and laughed. “What a convincing act,” he said.

Gu Shenwei understood what he meant. Out of the 10 messengers, including Shili Molo, at least three of them could understand the Central Plains Chinese language. However, they acted as if they could not, but they overdid it, and naturally, this could not fool the Dragon King and Shangguan Fei, who were embroiled in conspiracies all the time.

Shangguan Hong, who was also standing outside the tent, did not manage to detect any abnormality in the messengers. At a loss, he asked, “What act? Are you saying that they smell as good as women?”

The other two did not bother replying him. Although Gu Shenwei could see that that the people of the Land of Fragrance were not as simple as they portrayed themselves to be, he did not wish to uncover their secret immediately. He thought that perhaps they were only fearful of his army and were trying to use the lack of mutual understanding of each other’s language as a way to not let the visitors know too much about them.

However, the presence of Central Plains Chinese speakers in their population showed that they were not entirely isolated from the rest of the world.

Later during that day, Shili Molo kept to his promise and sent people carrying an old map over to the Dragon King. Pests had bitten many holes in its fabric, but the map was still largely intact. However, it was marked in a strange script that even the translator could not understand.

There was a large lake marked out on it, and it was very possibly the Xiaoyao Lake from its position on the map. However, there were no paths leading from the Land of Fragrance to it, and the other areas of the Western Region were marked extremely inaccurately on the map. As such, it did not have much value.

Gu Shenwei felt that something was not quite right. The citizens of any other nation would definitely be in a hurry to send a foreign army away from their land, but Shili Molo and the other tribal leaders did not seem to be impatient.

He temporarily cast the thought aside and turned his attention to security. Even though he had found an ideal hiding place for his army, as the Golden Roc Fort was busy with its campaign in the Western Region, he still ordered his men to set up a few more sentries both inside and outside of their camp, to prevent sneak attacks.

Both parties lived in peace over the next fortnight. The citizens from the city kept to their promise and sent their visitors huge amounts of fruit and food made from wheat flour every day. Even though there was no meat provided, it was enough to keep all 1600 of the soldiers fully fed.

Gu Shenwei kept his side of the bargain as well. He gave strict orders to his men and forbade them to get near to the capital of the Land of Fragrance. He then sent out dozens of scouts to venture in a northeast direction, hoping to discover a path to the Xiaoyao Lake.

He spent most of his free time training the conscripted savages, who amounted to more than 300 people.

The savages were far from their natural habitat and relatives and found it hard to adapt to their new surroundings. The food did not suit them and they also had difficulty accepting regimentation in the military camp.

That said, very few of them deserted, as they were enticed by the incredibly sharp metal weapons that they were given; they would rather die before giving them up.

Few of them had seen steel before, and when they realized that even the most ordinary steel saber could effortlessly slice their wooden javelins into two, they immediately grew to love their new weapons so much that they could not part with them; they even had to hug the weapons to sleep.

At first, they were repulsed by the idea of protective gear. They were not used to being encumbered by gear and thought that it was cowardly to require protection. It was only until when they witnessed a personal demonstration by the Dragon King, where he put on a breastplate which blocked attacks from wooden and even steel arrows, that they began scrambling to wear armor.

As Tuo Nengya’s wounds were nearly healed, Gu Shenwei directed the old machete man and the chief of Small Sword Peak to teach the savages how to handle sabers and swords. He also had other people to teach them to speak Central Plains Chinese.

The savages were trained in archery from a young age, and after they were given bows and arrows of better quality, their shooting power was greatly increased. Few among the machete men and swordsmen were their equal.

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If it were not for Shangguan Fei, who noticed something peculiar, the Dragon King would be spending a few more months with the savages.

The Ninth Young Master had endured much hardship. Following the Dragon King was much tougher than he had imagined, but if there was a way back for him into the Golden Roc Fort, he would not hesitate to be the first to desert.

He was the happiest to have arrived at the Land of Fragrance and the only thing which he was unhappy about was still his half-brother, Shangguan Hong.

There was some point in time during their journey that their relationship grew slightly better, but as they spent more time together, their mutual hatred grew even faster than weeds in spring. Shangguan Fei could never accept the fact that his slave-like half-brother had an affair with his own mother, and even the thought of it disgusted him.

As such, he took note of Shangguan Hong’s movements at all times, just like how he would monitor an enemy.

“Shangguan Hong has turned against us,” Shangguan Fei revealed to the Dragon King one evening, in an especially mysterious tone.

“Is that so?” asked Gu Shenwei calmly, seeming not to mind.

“It’s true.” Shangguan Fei was getting impatient. “I saw it with my own eyes – he was fooling around with a woman from the city just at the riverside. That kid is in such a beautiful mood now that he would even betray Mother, much less you, Dragon King.”

Gu Shenwei finally took an interest in Shangguan Fei’s information.

“Shili Molo was strongly against the soldiers entering the city, so why would he allow women from the tribes out?” Gu Shenwei thought.

“Come over and let me know the next time he leaves camp,” he said.

Shangguan Fei was delighted to receive and continuously acknowledged the Dragon King’s orders. Before leaving, he even remembered to add, “It’s time to tighten up our military discipline. You can’t be soft again this time, Dragon King.”

The campsite of the soldiers from the Great Snow Mountain was situated near the banks of a river, and the men usually drew their water from upstream. Shangguan Hong and the woman from the city were, however, having their trysts at a location which was downstream; it was closer to the capital.

Getting to and from the tryst seemed to be a walk in the park for Shangguan Hong; he even knew where the potholes concealed by weeds were. However, he did not seem to have realized that he was being followed.

Just as Shangguan Fei said, a foreign woman was awaiting his arrival. She wore a light colored long robe not too different in style from that of the tribal chiefs, but it was made from thinner material. Other than a sash made of cloth on her waist, she did not wear any accessories.

The lovers behaved intimately and very soon they were hidden by a thick bush.

“Now’s the time to catch both of them in the act,” said Shangguan Fei excitedly in a soft voice. The Dragon King got hold of him just as he was about to stand up.

“Let’s return to camp first,” replied Gu Shenwei. He did not believe the entire issue to be as simple as two lovers having a secret rendezvous.

Shangguan Fei was surprised at first but nodded knowingly after a while. He knew that the Dragon King acted more ruthlessly the longer he waited to strike, and it was to his liking.

On the other hand, Gu Shenwei was not thinking of Shangguan Fei. He had noticed many spots where weeds had been trampled upon on their way to observe the two lovers, and it was obvious that Shangguan Hong was not the only one getting intimate with women from the city.

After returning to camp, he circled around the campsite, making idle talk with common soldiers. He was surprised to find that the swordsmen, who had been incredibly homesick, and the machete men, who were gloomy, were now happy and contented.

He was suddenly enlightened. This past month, he had heard few complaints from his men, and they were too few to be normal.

All of a sudden, he found that he could not completely trust even the swordsmen, who were the most loyal to him.

Gu Shenwei gave a task to Shangguan Fei; he knew that this was the only man in his camp who would not succumb to the wiles of the women. “Tomorrow, you shall go to the riverside as well. If any woman waves to you, you are to chat with her properly.”

“Dragon King, you know that I don’t like…”

“I know, therefore I trust you.”

“But I don’t understand the language of this place.”

“You just have to get them to answer a very simple question: how many people are there actually in the city?”

Shili Molo claimed that the population of the Land of Fragrance was lesser than 6000, yet they could provide 1600 soldiers with sufficient food without any difficulty. Gu Shenwei grew increasingly suspicious of the country and its people.

Shangguan Fei was pulling a face; he was not too willing to accept the mission.

The next evening, he came back to debrief the Dragon King. “The woman did not divulge anything. She knew what I meant but kept acting dumb. Unless I grab and interrogate her, I don’t have any other means to get her to talk.”

To make up for his failure, he tried to dig deeper into the issue at hand. Before reporting to the Dragon King, he confirmed his suspicions with a few soldiers whom he was close to. “This Land of Fragrance is practically a huge brothel. As long as it’s not raining, at least dozens of these women will be circling around the perimeter of the camp, solely waiting for men to come. They don’t reject any comers and don’t collect any money; they are literally doing it at a loss. All the men in our camp, with the exception of the savages, have redeemed their ‘privileges’, and only you are not in the know, Dragon King.”

What seemed like a harmless paradise filled with fresh flowers had suddenly become a treacherous place covered with booby traps. Gu Shenwei was still unable to figure out what benefit the Land of Fragrance stood to gain by having a foreign army stay in their land. “We have to enter the city,” he said.

“We?” asked Shangguan Fei. He was never one for adventure but was even more afraid of the consequences of going against the Dragon King’s orders. “Hehe, let’s go then. Let’s see what the old procurers of this country look like.”