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Chapter 37: The heroic seventh brother
“Li Dequan, what’s the time?” Kangxi put down the memorial in his hand and glanced outside the door.
“Back to the emperor, it’s already Wei Shi1,” Li Dequan held a cup of hot tea and followed the emperor’s gaze.
“Wei Shi already, ah!” Kangxi looked at the steaming hot tea in Li Dequan’s hands, “The troops heading to the border should have set off around this time.”
Li Dequan replied, “Just about this time. Afraid the Crown Prince that saw them off will be back to the palace soon.”
Eventually, Kangxi picked up the tea bowl and lifted the lid but did not drink the tea. After a while, he put it down, and sighed, “Will that child blame me?”
Li Dequan knew who the emperor was thinking of, but this was a question nobody here could answer, and the emperor himself didn’t want to know. He simply buried his head lower, and finally, the entire imperial study room fell into silence.
Kangxi wasn’t expecting an answer either. He rubbed his aching brow and slowly leaned on the back of the chair. For a long time, he deliberately ignored that child. As an Ama, he couldn’t bear to see his child disabled. As an emperor, he didn’t want to admit that he had a lame son. It made him think that he was not doing well enough and God was punishing him, so he rarely went to see that child and only saw him at palace banquets, even his E’Niang was seldom favoured by him.
Regardless, this child behaved well and until now, in this harem, he had continued to live on well. Although he was a bit simple, he never made a mistake. He thought he could allow this child to live a life of idleness, and in a hundred years, his status could be raised as a Prince of the Third Rank, perhaps of the Second Rank2. But he never anticipated that the kid would want to be a general.
“It’s all done,” he sighed, and put down his hand, at this time, his face no longer looked fatigued and he was still the wise emperor, “Consort Cheng will serve the bed tonight.”
“Aye,” Li Dequan bowed and quickly retreated.
He only slightly raised his head when he reached the door. What he saw was the tall emperor sitting on the chair carved with flying dragons with his back straight, his expression cold and unmovable.
Under the setting sun, Yinzhen stood on the palace road of the Forbidden Palace that was dyed red, and slowly closed his eyes, reminiscing how the seventh brother, who was still a child, used to hold his hand just a few years ago3.
“Let’s go back,” opening his eyes, he spoke out with a hoarse voice. The evening breeze blew his robe as he looked up at the sunset, “The days are quite long.”
Xiao Luzi glanced bewilderingly at the burning clouds in the sky and followed behind his Master’s footsteps, step by step, they walked out of the Forbidden City.
Nearby, Yinsi looked indifferently at Yinzhen’s departing back, his light-coloured robe dyed red by the setting sun.
Most of the 10,000 soldiers brought by Feiyanggu this time were children of the Manchurian Eight Banners, and so, most of them had trained arduously in the barracks together and didn’t really welcome this seventh brother who hadn’t even grown hair4.
Yinyou was not stupid, he naturally understood the attitude of these people, but fortunately, he was also a person who had suffered hardships in his previous life, and did not find it difficult to eat, live and walk with these people. He didn’t put on airs, he did what he should do without delay and didn’t even say a word when he shouldn’t speak. Slowly he let these soldiers treat him like a prince who had no real power and over time, their attitude relaxed and they stopped excluding him.
Seeing this situation, Feiyanggu, who was still a little worried that the seventh brother would not be able to integrate into the army, let go of his worries with confidence. When they arrived at the border the army was to guard, the seventh brother, who he had thought was useless, already got along very well with some of the soldiers around him.
Although Yinyou said that he came to learn from Feiyanggu, no one dared to really let the prince do the work of an ordinary soldier, so Yinyou was arranged an independent camp and even dispatched two small soldiers to take care of him. Yinyou didn’t refuse as it was a necessity considering his royalty. Still, he didn’t ask anyone to wait on him when he got up early every morning, and he didn’t need anyone to come to get him, he consciously went and practised with other soldiers.
He knew in his heart that in the army, strength sometimes had more say than the so-called status. If he wanted to get along well, he had to let these soldiers accept him first.
In the teaching field, most of the soldiers didn’t know Yinyou, and the two sides sometimes fought each other, without showing any mercy. Some people even joked about his lameness, but Yinyou didn’t care. He followed these people to crawl in the water and roll in the mud. After a few days, he gradually became acquainted with some lower-level soldiers and was nicknamed the “lame boy”.
On this day, Feiyanggu came to Yinyou’s army tent but couldn’t find him. He asked the soldier guarding the tent, “Where is the seventh brother?”
“His Highness ordered no one to follow him, so this subordinate doesn’t know”. As small soldiers, how dare they disobey the prince’s order, since he told them not to follow, they naturally stayed there obediently.
Feiyanggu frowned. He thought the seventh brother would not cause him trouble and be peaceful, but he didn’t imagine that in just a few days, he would do this. No matter how dissatisfied he was, it was not easy for him to flare up, so he could only order the soldiers to stick to their posts, turn around and leave.
Seeing his expression, Ma Sika5, who was next to Feiyanggu, smiled and said, “General Ula Nara, have you heard that there’s a soldier who is good at riding and shooting beside the seventh brother?”
Feiyanggu was stunned, “A soldier beside the seventh brother?” Why didn’t he know of such a person?
Ma Sika smiled but did not answer, and instead brought Feiyanggu to a training ground where soldiers used to practise freely. Before they approached, they heard continuous applause.
“Seventh boy, show him!”
“Arhan, can you do it? Won’t you just be beaten down by the lame boy?”
Hearing “seventh boy”, Feiyanggu couldn’t help but twitch his mouth, but when he heard “ lame boy”, his originally serious face changed colour. Ma Sika beside him smiled and pointed at the small ring of soldiers, “General, why don’t we take a closer look?”
Yinyou didn’t know that two famous generals of the Qing Dynasty were walking towards him. At this time, he was being punched in the face by his opponent, and his face was distorted in pain. He wiped the place where he was beaten and exerted force with his feet, his tall opponent tripped over and fell to the ground by himself.
Yinyou turned him over and pressed him down, proudly looking at Arhan, who was so overwhelmed by himself that he couldn’t move, “How about it, the little master won, since you’re willing to bet on me losing, you go and run ten laps around the training ground!”
The soldiers all around shouted, “Run, run!”
“Run and run,” Arhan lay on the ground panting, “Then you gotta let me go first.”
Yinyou let him go, turned over and lay on the ground with a smug smile. A few soldiers behind him pulled him up from the ground, not helping, but dragging him. Such was the insolence and rudeness of the men in the army.
“Bah,” Arhan spat out the sand in his mouth, stretched out his hand to pat Yinyou’s shoulder, and smiled sincerely, “I can’t tell that this kid is lame, it’s no wonder he can be the seventh brother’s attendant! I, Arhan, am convinced!” Saying this he got up and began to run laps.
Hearing these soldiers saying “lame” on the left and “boy” on the right, Feiyanggu’s complexion was contorted, but when he saw the lame seventh brother’s grinning face, he silently turned his face away and coughed dryly, “Lord Ma Sika, let’s go back to the camp.”
“General!” A soldier saw the two of them and immediately stood up in a decent manner. All of them formed so fast that they left Yinyou a chance to react.
Yinyou looked at the neat formation next to him, then looked at the empty surroundings, patted the dust off his body, and offered a bow to Feiyanggu and Ma Sika, “General Ula Nara, General Ma Sika.”
Logically speaking, Yinyou didn’t need to salute the two generals, but this was a military camp, and he was here to let the generals teach him their knowledge, so the two of them could take the salute.
Feiyanggu and Ma Sika were not fools either, seeing this, they returned a bow.
Ma Sika said, “The seventh brother is very skilled.” Secretly, he already had a high opinion of Yinyou, after all, people who respected others will often also be respected.
“Pa-ta!” The knives in the hands of several soldiers who had called Yinyou a lame boy fell to the ground, and their hearts felt utterly cold. Calling a prince by such a nickname was the serious crime of disrespecting the royal family.
“General Ma Sika is admirable,” Yinyou looked at the orderly army behind him, “every soldier brother present worked harder than Yinyou, Yinyou only took advantage of his skill and agility, if he went to the battlefield, he might be more difficult.” In his mind, these people were fighting for their lives, eating the simplest food, but rushing to the forefront when they went to the battlefield. He, as a royal prince, hid in the rear protected by them. They couldn’t be compared.
Just like those people’s soldiers in the previous life, they used their bodies to stop floods and gambled their lives to rescue people from natural disasters, from wind to water, nothing could stop them. They may not be the most educated and qualified people, but they were indeed worthy of his respect.
Yinyou clasped his fists at the officers and men and said, “Yinyou hasn’t told the brothers about his identity in the past few days, I apologise to you, brothers. Everyone here is a good son of our Qing Dynasty. I am a prince, but I’m also a soldier. We are good brothers guarding the border. Yinyou is young and inexperienced, I ask the brothers to not be merciful when we’re practising, and please forgive Yinyou for the crime of concealing.”
These words made the soldiers who were originally worried that they were guilty of disrespect let go of the anxiety in their hearts. In fact, they also had a lot of affection for the seventh brother.
At this moment, Feiyanggu, who was standing by the side, vaguely understood why the Holy Majesty sent the seventh prince to the border and why the fourth prince was close to his brother. This nonentity6 prince was really fond of these soldiers, and even humbly put himself in the position of a younger generation, this could not be done by everybody.
In the next few days, the soldiers got along with Yinyou a bit cautiously but as time passed, although these people still politely called Yinyou “seventh brother”, they were merciless in the training field. After the fight was over, and both sides were badly beaten, they all had big grins on their faces.
Yinyou gradually adapted to life in the military camp. Although it was much harder than life in the palace, he felt a sense of pride, which was probably the feeling brought by the army.
And the biggest general, General Feiyanggu, didn’t express any dissatisfaction with the seventh brother’s behaviour, so Yinyou’s life in the army continued so beautifully and harmoniously.
In the Qianqing Palace, Kangxi opened a booklet that came from the border, and a smile gradually appeared on his face, “Okay, very good.”
It was Feiyanggu’s report. He’d sent back the words and deeds of the seventh brother in his booklet, and as he read, Kangxi became extremely pleased.
Yinzhen, who was sitting at the bottom, glanced at the happy expression on Kangxi’s face but didn’t dare inquire.
“Old fourth brother, it seems that Yinyou has decided to work hard.” Kangxi handed the booklet to Li Dequan, gesturing for him to hand it over to Yinzhen, “Zhen knows you have a deep relationship with little seventh. You look at the sloppy work he has been doing lately.” Although he was scolding Yinyou, the smile on his face and the appreciation in his eyes was not concealed.
Yinzhen took the booklet with both hands. Although he was anxious, he didn’t dare to look at it carefully and just glanced at it.
There, he read that Yinyou and the soldiers quarrelled over who ate more rice since everyone ate from the same pot; and when they were practising in the training field, because he lost a bet, he had to run a dozen laps. This and other little funny and distressing anecdotes were written down clearly. After roughly reading it, Yinzhen returned the booklet to Li Dequan.
To Kangxi he said, “The seventh brother shares weal and woe with the soldiers, erchen is not as good as the younger brother, erchen is ashamed.”
“You didn’t go to the barracks, why should you be ashamed?” Kangxi was in a good mood, and took a sip of tea, “Okay, okay, retreat. I heard that little seventh sent someone to bring you a letter, you go back and have a look.”
“Erchen will leave,” when Yinzhen heard this, he said his goodbyes..
Out of Qianqing Palace, he hastened his steps back home.
Kangxi took out an ordinary letter from under the booklet, put down the teacup in his hand, and began reading this letter, he smiled as he said, “After two months in the army, old seventh’s handwriting has become more vigorous, this is very good.”
Li Dequan took advantage of this moment to exchange Kangxi’s tea for hot tea. He glanced at the smile on Kangxi’s face and realised that the performance of the seventh brother in the army probably made the emperor delighted.
1
æœȘ时 wĂšishĂ­. 1-3 pm (in the system of two-hour subdivisions used in former times.
2
In a hundred years implies that because the child lived a life of idleness, in his lifetime he couldn’t gain such a big title but posthumously was a different story. As the Qianlong did for Yinsi and the others, in Yongzheng’s reign, they lost their nobility title but in his reign, he gave them a higher rank. (I think it also has to do with filial piety such as respecting elders?)
3
He’s remembering chapter 10.
4
Refers to the hair that sprouts when reaching maturity, thus becoming of age to marry and work. When people say this, they mean that the other party is a child: young, immature and inexperienced.
5
éŠŹæ€ć–€ / Ma Sika (—1704) belonged to the Bordered Yellow Flag family, the Fuca (Fucha) clan, and was a military officer of the Qing Dynasty. He was the younger brother of Maci (1652–1739), “a member of the Grand Secretariat during Kangxi Emperor’s reign, and an important supporter of the 8th Prince Yinsi.” (
) In 1708, Maci along with others proposed to make Yinsi the Crown Prince thus angering the Kangxi emperor. He was stripped of his official position and forced into house arrest. When the Yongzheng emperor rose to the throne, Maci became one of the members of the emperor’s top advisory board. Empress Xiaoxianchun (Emperor Qianlong’s Fu Jin) was his niece. [So overall, this Ma Sika is mostly important because of his clan and elder brother.]
6
默默无闻 mĂČmĂČwĂșwĂ©n. Obscure and unknown (idiom); an outsider without any reputation / a nobody / an unknown quantity.