ChangNing’s Imperial Army - Chapter 120

Chapter 120 – Must Not Disappoint
Shen Leng got Chen Ran to send Uncle An home. He leaned against the wall and gasped for breath for quite a while. He did not know the name of that assassin, but he knew for a fact that he was close to getting killed off just like that, just like the water in Nanping River. It looked calm on the surface, but nobody knew about the impending danger lurking around the corner.

After that he came to realize one thing – he was no longer the Shen Leng who just joined the military, and neither was he the Shen Leng who just started learning from Mr. Shen. He was all the more not the Shen Leng who worked as a coolie carrying heavy loads of things to the river bank. He was now a Shen Leng who made others jealous and envious of him.

Hence, even if something like that did not happen today, it would happen more frequently in the future.

“You really don’t want to go back to take a rest?”

After sending Uncle An back, Chen Ran returned and saw that Shen Leng was still gasping for air. It made his heart ache a little. “How can you go back to the military camp in your current condition?”

“I’m fine.”

Shen Leng lowered his head and looked at his finger that he bit on earlier. He flicked off the blood on it. “Help me with something – bury that corpse. Regardless of what his name was, putting enmity aside, he was a loyal and righteous person. He came all the way here from the northern border to kill me…something like that is hard to come by.”

Chen Ran grunted. He picked up Gui Si’s hengdao from the ground and dug a pit in the ground by the river bank and buried his corpse. He thought about cutting down a small tree and carve a small block of wood to place there. Both he and Shen Leng were not considered underworld assassins, but they had some underworld spirit of loyalty and brotherhood within them. He felt that the assassin should have a gravestone at the very least.

Coincidentally, it was the same site which Gui Si felt was a pretty good spot last night.

The river reflected the fiery red sunrise.

Shen Leng squatted by the river bank and washed his face and hands with the icy cold water from the river. The rain and clouds came quickly, and left quickly as well. After a quick shower, the wind blew the clouds far, far away. The red reflection of the sky in the river made one’s heart feel a slight warmth.

When they got to the Navy’s camp, it was already rather late. After he got into his own tent to change into a fresh set of clothes, he heard someone calling out to him. Shen Leng turned around and saw one of Zhuang Yong’s soldiers pushing the door open. Zhuang Yong entered from behind.

“Huh?”

Zhuang Yong saw that Shen Leng was injured. “Who?”

Shen Leng answered in a lowered voice. “Someone from the northern border.”

Zhuang Yong had a serious look on his face. “Northern border or the eastern border?”

“Just one person. He said that he’s from the northern border. He should be one of Pei Xiao’s soldiers.”

“Just one person, huh.”

Zhang Yong suddenly turned around and ordered, “Assign a fleet to travel along Nanping River towards the east. Intercept and inspect cargo ships, merchant ships and ferries within 155 miles without exception. Actually, forget about the distance. Pursue every single ship that left the harbor last night till this morning and inspect thoroughly.”

Shen Leng asked, “General, are you suspecting that he had an accomplice?”

“Perhaps.”

Zhuang Yong looked at Shen Leng’s injuries. “Go home and rest up.”

Shen Leng shook his head. “I don’t want Cha’er to see.”

Zhuang Yong shook his head helplessly. “Make the proper arrangements will do. It’s just preparations for the drills, you don’t have to go as far as to doing everything yourself. You should start to give a bit of power and authority to your subordinates when appropriate. Not only will they be happy, they will be deeply grateful to you as well.”

Shen Leng wondered if this was the way to go when it came to managing his men. Hence, he nodded. “Alright, I will get Du Weiming, Yang Qibao and Wang Kuohai to make the arrangements.”

“Oh right, speaking of Du Weiming.”

Zhuang Yong sat on the stool. “I arranged for Du Weiming’s family to be in Huaiyuan city. Previously, I was worried that he might be bribed over by Mu Xiaofeng again, so I did not tell him where his family’s residing at. Now, I can see that there is absolutely no need to worry about or suspect him. When you see him later, give him the address. He will become more loyal to you in the future.”

Zhuang Yong said the Huaiyuan address once. Shen Leng lowered his head and said, “General, you know about me sending someone to investigate?”

“There aren’t a lot of things within the Navy that can be hidden from me.”

Zhuang Yong said, “You did not do anything wrong. Having a person like Du Weiming be loyal to you will ultimately only do you a lot of good in the future.”

Shen Leng lifted his head and looked at Zhuang Yong. “General, you should be lecturing me instead.”

“Lecture you?”

Zhuang Yong laughed, “You are even more thick-skinned than your teacher, Shen Xiaosong. If I lecture you, do you think it’ll serve any purpose?”

Shen Leng laughed, feeling a little embarrassed.

In truth, he had been thinking about one thing – something extremely important…Cen Zheng had given him the inside intelligence box. Was Zhuang Yong aware of it or not? If he did not tell Zhuang Yong about it and if Zhuang Yong knew, in the future, it would inevitably lead to them appearing to be getting along with one another harmoniously but were in fact divided at heart. If Zhuang Yong did not know about it but he revealed it to him, would Zhuang Yong’s attitude towards His Majesty change and even feel resentful towards him?

“What are you thinking about?”

Zhuang Yong looked at Shen Leng. Shen Leng took a deep breath. “I have the inside intelligence box.”

Zhuang Yong was extremely taken aback. He stood up and shut the door tightly. “Do you want to die?”

Shen Leng shrugged; he did not say anything.

“The inside intelligence box is a top secret. You should not have told me about it. If His Majesty knows about the fact that you callously revealed this matter to another person, he will behead you! Because of this, Shen Xiaosong and Cha’er will most likely be implicated as well!”

“If I don’t tell you about it, I’m afraid I might suffocate to death.”

After Shen Leng was done talking, his entire body felt relaxed. “General, you know that His Majesty was not targeting you by placing an inside intelligence box within the Navy. It’s because your every action is being scrutinized by those people. Regardless of who you interact with, they would keep a close eye on you. If the inside intelligence box is in your hands, it would be very dangerous. Hence, he arranged it to be given to other people like Cen Zheng and I.”

Shen Leng said, “Since he was not targeting you and I’m afraid I may be too young to shoulder the responsibility of such a significant thing, why don’t…”

He looked at Zhuang Yong.

Zhuang Yong asked, “What are you thinking?”

“I need to send three reports every month via the inside intelligence box. If there is nothing big, I’ll have to report minor things. When Cen Zheng passed it to me, he said that for things that are beneficial to the Navy, I don’t have to report the minor things, but I must report the major ones. However, as for things that are harmful towards the Navy, regardless of their scale and importance, I have to report every single one of them…what a headache.”

Shen Leng replied, “Why don’t you write it instead?”

Zhuang Yong asked, “Shen Leng, when did you start becoming so calculating?”

Shen Leng stared blankly for a bit. “What?”

Zhuang Yong replied with a solemn face. “You told me about the inside intelligence box not because you want me to value you more or trust you even more?”

Shen Leng could not help but burst into laughter, except that it was somewhat forced. “General…don’t you think it’s better for me to curry favor with His Majesty instead of you?”

After a moment, Zhuang Yong heaved a sigh of relief. “I’m just worried that you’re putting in a lot of thoughts into scheming and coming up with elaborate plans…forget it. I know what kind of person you are and what your nature is, just that I’m worried you rose the ranks too quickly and end up losing yourself. Also, as a result of that, you have a lot more leeway compared to the others in the future, so there is no need to be like them, trying to analyze people’s thoughts and come up with schemes.”

Shen Leng replied, “There is truly no need for me to scheme and come up with strategies at this point to attain anything.”

After he changed his clothes, he moved his four limbs around. He wrapped some gauze around his wounded little finger. “At that time, when Mr. Shen was teaching me, this was the only thing I did not like to listen to. However, if I wanted to do it, I wouldn’t be bad at it. I don’t have to wait till now.”

Zhuang Yong nodded. “Let’s not talk about this for now. You cannot tell other people at all. I know that you and Chen Ran are as close as brothers, but you cannot tell him.”

Shen Leng grunted, and did not say anything else.

“I came here to ask you something.”

Zhuang Yong breathed and said, “You have three platoons under your command. Wang Kuohai, Du Weiming and Yang Qibao each lead one. However, you’re lacking an assistant, a second-in-command. This morning, Wang Gendong came to look for me saying he wants to follow you…”

Shen Leng said, “How embarrassing.”

Zhuang Yong said, “I know. Previously, you were his subordinate, and now he’s going to be working under you, and he’s even at a lower rank compared to you…After you came back from your mission in the south, he got promoted to Class B Fifth pin. Based on your ranks, it’s perfect for him to be your second-in-command.

Shen Leng replied, “General, you’ve misunderstood. It’s not that I’m afraid Wang Gendong feels embarrassed, I am saying that I am embarrassed. If this continues, your more capable subordinates are going to be taken away by me…”

Zhuang Yong said, “From your tone, I can vaguely sense some shamelessness.”

Shen Leng laughed, “You really know me well, general…I don’t have my own squad of soldiers yet. I intend to select a few people from my regiment. General, perhaps you can transfer a few people from your squad over to me?”

Zhuang Yong was stumped for words. Suddenly, he understood what Shen Leng was thinking. Hence, he glared at him. “What else do you want?”

Shen Leng said, “How did you know that there is something else that I want…I want to pick out ten more black cord swords from the arsenal.”

“What do you want, spill everything.”

“I want to train a reconnaissance squad.”

“Select the people yourself.”

“There is one more thing…perhaps, the people who are following me will be exposed to greater danger compared to if they were working under someone else. Hence, when it comes to giving rewards, I might have to be more extravagant.”

Zhuang Yong replied, “I will get the official registrar to allocate more to you.”

Shen Leng laughed and said, “General, you’re so nice to me. Is it because you want me to be your godson?”

Zhuang Yong got up and walked out. “Crazy…”

Shen Leng said, “Take care.”

Zhuang Yong suddenly turned his head around. “So you’re willing?”

Shen Leng shook his head like a drum-shaped rattle. “I can’t, I can’t, I can’t…”

Zhuang Yong did think of that possibility. Even if Shen Xiaosong did not tell him anything, how was it possible for him not to make a guess? If that possibility was truly possible…then in that case, him taking Shen Leng as his adopted son would be extremely disrespectful. Hence, he smiled and did not say anything else.

After waiting for Zhuang Yong to leave, Shen Leng slumped back in his chair. He could not help but force a laugh…as it turns out, it was this exhausting to serve in the military. What was exhausting was not the combat on the battlefield, nor was it the harsh training they had to go through. It was emotionally exhausting.

He wanted to allow Zhuang Yong to rest assured, hence, he asked Zhuang Yong to transfer some of his men over. Also, for the sake of making it more convenient to talk about the inside intelligence box. He suddenly thought of something Mr. Shen said before when he was learning from him in the Daoist temple by the river bank…the most complicated thing in this world is the human heart. Hence, interacting with people was also the most exhausting and arduous thing. The higher one’s rank was, the harder they would be to deal with. The logic of being nice to others, and be treated the same way, and vice versa, was never included within trickeries.

Thereafter, Shen Leng thought of the same question once more; the question that he had been asking himself all those years but he had not gotten an answer yet…who am I?

Shen Leng walked out of the tent and looked at the sunny and cloudless sky outside. The clouds were moving rapidly towards the north. He wondered whether or not they would be blown all the way to Meng Changan’s area in the northern border. He must be having a hard time in the northern border too, right?

Perhaps, even harder.

Class B Fifth pin Guoyi general, Wang Gendong walked over towards him, taking large strides. One could see from the face of this veteran, who had been through several changes, that he was gratified and satisfied. Everybody wanted to work under Shen Leng not because of Shen Leng and Zhuang Yong’s good relationship, and it was not because Shen Leng was favored by His Majesty. It was because Shen Leng was a fair person.

Shen Leng once asked Gu Le why he wanted to follow him. Gu Le said it was because of hope.

In Wang Gendong’s eyes, Shen Leng saw his hope for the future flickered in his eyes.

Must not disappoint.

Shen Leng took a deep breath. “Let’s go. I’ll take you to meet with our soldiers!”