Twilight War

07

Vana Empire, Holy Rosary Palace, Council Hall.

Tang Ruowang bowed respectfully and handed over the long wooden box to the queen. The wood used for the long box was ordinary willow, wrapped with rusty iron horns.Compared with the red sandalwood box containing the scarlet cloud brocade clothes, it looked much more shabby.

The young queen opened the iron lock that was simply fastened, her fair fingers were stained with red rust, and she slowly swept away the wood chips in the wooden box.

A Donghuang sword.

The sword body is slender and fit in the ebony sword coat.

There is a jade sword pendant carved with black iron on the sword jacket, and the jade is soaked with blood, it looks like blood is stained on the sword if you don't look closely.

"The sword Your Majesty asked me to go to Donghuang to recast has now been recast." Tang Ruowang bowed his head and said respectfully. The sword was given to him.

To be precise, it was no longer a broken sword, but more like a broken sword.

The maid walked slowly over with the blue velvet cloth, as if holding a fragile treasure or a baby.

And the fragments of the ancient sword were placed on the velvet cloth.

Like a beast that once conquered the world, now only the crushed wreck remains.

But even though there were only wreckage left, he could still feel the chilling sword intent and killing spirit.

It also makes people can't help but think about the person who once held this sword...

He carried the broken sword body to Donghuang in a copper box. Along the way, the fragments of the ancient sword bumped behind him like wind chimes, and the sound was as clear as an ancient bell.

He walked among the dangerous mountains and huge waters of Donghuang, looking for someone who could recast the sword.

Sometimes, he would suddenly feel that the chilling wreckage in the copper box was like a group of noisy children, bumping into the wooden box that sealed them, clamoring to see the world of Donghuang.

So he sometimes opened the copper box when he was resting, and looked at Donghuang together with the wreckage of those ancient swords.

Once when I traveled to an ancient town in the south of the Yangtze River, peach blossoms bloomed.

So he opened the copper box, wanting those wreckage to have a look at the peach blossom.

But when he opened the copper box, the wreckage suddenly clanged together!

Like thousands of thunders and tigers howling!

Concubine-red peach blossoms fell on the broken sword.

Later he opened the copper box several times.

But those broken swords are silent when watching the vast Yellow River rushing across the sky and the earth, and those broken swords are silent when watching thousands of bamboo leaves and pines pouring down like mountains and rivers.

Only on that day, when the peach blossoms fell leisurely, those broken swords clanged together!

He walked in the hinterland of Donghuang for half a year, and the children in the streets and towns saw that his hair and eyes of different colors would follow behind him, they were curious but did not dare to go forward.And those with a little bit of knowledge will proudly tell others that he is from Semu, from the west land.

But every swordsmith would shake his head when he saw the wreckage of the ancient sword, saying that the sword could not be recast.

Broken like this, even a sword is dead.

Later, he found a sword maker at the foot of a temple mountain.

Casting swords under the temple is also interesting.

The swordsmith is blind, and it is said that he was also a swordsman before.

The swordsmith touched the remains of those ancient swords, like a 16-year-old boy touching a girl's hand for the first time, or like a devout monk wiping the dust off a Buddha statue.

"Find me in 49 days." The swordsmith said to him.

After throwing the remains of the ancient sword into the fire, the swordsmith asked him to bring ebony and blood jade to him in a day.

How could it be possible to get these two things in one day.Even if he spends all his money to ask for it, it will be hard to find.

But at night, an old monk came down from the temple halfway up the mountain to look for him.He holds ebony wood and blood jade in his hands.

He took the ebony and blood jade, and the old monk clasped his hands together with a smile, and said to him: Buddhas have bodhicitta.

Then went away.

Halfway through the journey, the old monk's hat was blown up by the mountain wind, so the old monk jumped up and chased the hat all over the mountain.

Like a duck chasing food.

And he was holding ebony and blood jade in his hand, and he didn't understand why an old monk would send him the things he needed to make a sword.

So he had to draw the sign of the cross on his chest.

Lord Amen.

After 49 days, the sword was reforged.

"This sword is hard to recast, it took 49 days." He asked the swordsmith.

"It only takes one day to recast this sword, just throw it into the fire." The swordsmith said, "Other things will turn into ashes in the fire. And the sword will be reborn in the fire."

"Then why let me come to you in 49 days."

"I was casting the scabbard for this sword during those 48 days," said the swordsmith.

"Oh, yes, now that I think about it, the sword did not have a scabbard when it was handed over to me, maybe it was lost," he said.

"This sword doesn't have a scabbard in the first place." The swordsmith said: "The first time this sword was pulled|drawn|was for killing. How could a sword that exists for killing have a scabbard?"

"Then why did you cast the scabbard for this sword again?"

"Because no one who can hold this sword is here," said the swordsmith.

After finishing speaking, the swordsmith hooked over a willow wooden sword box. It may have been unused for a long time, and the pig iron buttons on it were already rusted.

The swordsmith threw the sword into the sword case, stuffed some sawdust, and handed the sword case to him.

Later, Tang Ruowang took the sword to Chang'an, met Emperor Changgeng of Donghuang, and visited many other places.

But he never opened the sword case again, let alone went to see the reforged sword.

Because he knew that the person that the sword was waiting for was not him.

08

The queen lifted the sword, reborn in the fire, from the sawdust.

Her white hands slowly touched the sword jacket made of ebony, and the blood-soaked jade on the sword jacket felt cool to the touch.

She slowly grasped the hilt, as if she wanted to pull the sword out of the scabbard, but in the end she just put the sword back into the pile of sawdust in the willow sword box.

"Don't the queen take a look at this sword?" Tang Ruowang asked.

"Like you, I am not the one who will draw this sword in the end."

The queen turned and stepped onto the carved throne.

Tang Ruowang closed the sword case and placed it on the table in front of the queen.

"Tang Ruowang, you should know why I recalled you from Donghuang." The queen said while sitting on the carved king chair, her face was as delicate as a white porcelain doll.

But Tang Ruowang knows better than anyone else that this delicate doll-like girl has deeper thoughts than anyone else.

When he assisted this girl to take the throne, he knew that this girl would either become a great monarch or a tyrant.

"Yes." Tang Ruowang lowered his head in the huge shadow of the palace, "Because...the war is coming soon."

The devout monk bowed respectfully, but he was talking about the most terrifying thing in the world - war.

Bones and blood, life and death.

"After three months, the Privy Council will select a person who will directly enter the military headquarters and become a major general." The Queen said, "This person must be mine."

This major will be at the forefront of the war against Arthur.The results of the peace talks have not yet come out, but the superiors of this empire have already begun to prepare for the war.

And they need a general who is at the forefront.His status will not be very high, because he is just a pawn of the superior, but he is very important, because he will always charge at the forefront.

"If my news is correct, the Privy Council has already planned to elect Andre, the son of the Marquess of Buckingham, as the major general." Tang Ruowang said looking at the stone bricks carved with dark patterns on the palace floor.

"But Andre is not mine." The queen casually took a red knight from the chessboard next to her and tapped it on the white jade chessboard. "I need someone who is loyal to me to sit there."

"Eliel of the Flamel family must be loyal to the queen." Tang Ruowang said.

"That child is just a boy obsessed with alchemy, he will have his place in Silver City." The queen twirled the chess piece in her hand.

"How about the younger brother of General Raging Waves, the head of the Knights of the Garter—Munduel? There is no one more suitable than him. I have seen that young man, he is excellent, loyal and brave."

"It's too naive, isn't it? He hasn't experienced war, after all, he's just a child." Playing chess pieces, the 19-year-old queen casually handed the word naive to a leader of the Garter Knights who was four years older than her.

"For those who have never experienced war and blood, it will always take a while to adapt to the first war. He is very good, and it will be a sharp knife when it is polished, but now I want a knife that can be directly inserted into Arthur. Knife," said the Queen.

"The queen is not even satisfied with the most suitable candidate in my mind, so there is nothing I can do." Tang Ruowang still looked down at the dark-grained stone brick and said, "But there is a not-so-suitable candidate, would the queen want to hear about it?"

"Say."

"He can't be called brave, nor can he be called a general, and he can't even guarantee his loyalty." Tang Ruowang held his hand tightly, and the light from the window cast on the dark-grained stone bricks in front of him, like a rose Lu Li mottled.

"continue."

"I don't know if Her Majesty the Queen has ever heard a saying--there are birds in Donghuang, and their writings are of five colors. It is not a sycamore tree that does not live in it, and it is not a sweet spring that does not drink. If it flies, the world is a wilderness. There is no one to shoot, boast There is no father to chase. There is no prison in the world..."

Tang Ruowang read slowly, as if there really was such a bird hovering in the vast sky and earth, with colorful characters, as if in a prosperous age.

He slowly raised his head and said to the queen sitting high on the royal chair: "Your Majesty should also want to see how that bird flies."

"I know who you're talking about." Isabel put the clear chess pieces on the board, she turned her head to look at Tang Ruowang under the king's chair, with a little smile on her lips:

"The road to power is paved with bones, but that boy doesn't want to climb up, he just wants to watch the dusk in the corner."

The young man stood at the center of power and conspiracy, but he seemed to be indifferent to everything.

Others live others, but he lives his own.

In that negotiation between the two empires, a casual sentence could determine the rise and fall of the empire.

All the people were wary of each other like beasts fighting, but when they were negotiating, the boy ran to the huge window alone and watched the dusk eating bread.

"But there is a day when he has seen enough of the dusk, right? When he has seen enough of the dusk and wants to climb up, there will be countless people who are willing to sacrifice their lives for that boy, and let that boy... step on their bones climb up."

Tang Ruowang looked up at the queen and said that he was still able to talk calmly without changing his face when he met the shady emperor of Donghuang.But when he said these words, he felt as if he was going to be out of breath, he could only bite each word and tear up the words.

It seems that in this sentence... there are really thousands of skeletons crawling before that boy.

Even Isabel seemed to be overwhelmed by these words, she looked into Tang Ruowang's eyes, and saw the blood in the setting sun in his eyes.

"But if those people offer bones for him, he still doesn't want to climb up?" the queen asked.

"He will." Tang Ruowang said.

"How do you know?"

"Just because he still uses 'Huangxuan' as his surname."

"What can this explain?"

"Your Majesty the Queen is well versed in the past and present, so she naturally knows how honorable this surname is. But Her Majesty the Queen has never been to Donghuang, so she doesn't know how heavy this surname is." Tang Ruowang felt his hands trembling.

He lowered his head and said slowly to the Queen.

The skylight from Corinth shines through the glass windows into the huge royal hall, and a large area of ​​light spreads between Tang Ruowang and the queen.

Towering my Huangxuan, I vow to guard my mountains and rivers.

The word "Huangxuan" refers to the 800-year oath to guard the mountains and rivers, the 36th Street where the bones are piled up, and the countless dead soldiers who died in battle under the blood-stained dusk.

It is the returning soul and the dying hero.

These two words are as heavy as mountains and rivers.

But the young man kept bearing this surname, and then walked forward without saying a word.

"Your Majesty actually thought about it when he asked me to recast that sword, didn't you?" Tang Ruowang asked.

"You know that sword is for him."

"It's just a guess." Tang Ruowang said.

"But if it wasn't for him, wouldn't your hard work be in vain?" the Queen asked.

"Even if there is only a [-]/[-] chance that the sword will be handed over to that young man, it is worth my attention." Tang Ruowang bowed his head respectfully.

The palace hall was so quiet that the sound of dust falling could be heard.

Tang Ruowang bowed and waited quietly.

"Okay, you step back first. I will think about it carefully." The queen said while sitting on the royal chair.

Tang Ruowang bowed slowly and left.

When Tang Ruowang was about to leave, the queen suddenly said to his back: "I have seen the bird you mentioned, but the bird I have seen has lived in the plane tree, but it is more of a homeless one. I have drank from the Liquan, but more of them are scarred and disheveled."

Tang Ruowang stood where he was and didn't speak.

The queen arranged the clear pieces on the chessboard, and the mottled light shone on her hands, "But this makes people look forward to the day when he flies up, doesn't it?"

09

Tang Ruowang walked out of the council hall slowly, still wearing the white robe, but the boy waiting outside felt that there was something different about Tang Ruowang.

"Father, what did you and the queen talk about?" the boy asked as he followed the priest downstairs.

"We talked about a bird." Tang Ruowang said.

"What kind of bird? Are you going to bake it?" The boy licked his teeth greedily.

"It's not to eat, but to watch it fly, and to fly into the sky."

"The bird that was caught with great difficulty has to be locked up if it is not roasted and eaten. Isn't it a waste of time to catch it if it flies away?"

"But some birds belong to the sky after all."

Tang Ruowang said as he walked down the steps.

The boy followed Tang Ruowang to the gate of the Holy Rose Palace, and suddenly saw a person leaning against the carved black iron gate.

"Father, do you think that is Huangxuan Jin? Why are you waiting here?"

Tang Ruowang looked towards the gate.

The young man was still wearing the scarlet embroidered crane brocade robe on his shoulders. When he leaned against the black iron gate, it was as if a fire was about to burn from the black iron carvings.

He held a cigarette between his fingers, lowered his eyes, and the smoke surrounded him, reminding Tang Ruowang of the first time he saw that young man, that young man was also like this, enveloped in the smoke of nine candle lamps and cloud silk curtains .

Alienated and proud.

Seeing him coming, Huang Xuanjin slowly turned his head to look at him.

"Is that Tang Ruowang?"

Tang Ruowang nodded slowly.

"Will you go back to Donghuang again?" Huang Xuanjin asked him as he stood up from the black iron carved gate.

"I will go back in three months, and Nan Huaijin will replace me."

"Oh." Huang Xuanjin nodded, then he was stunned as if in a daze, and suddenly said after a long time:

"There is an old minister in Donghuang named Zhou Fangyan. If you are free, please go to his grave to burn incense for me."

"What Young Master Jin is mainly doing, I will do my best." Tang Ruowang replied respectfully.

Seeing that Tang Ruowang agreed, Huang Xuanjin didn't stay any longer, nodded, and left wearing the brocade robe.

"Master Jin, are you going to bear this surname alone all the time?" Tang Ruowang suddenly looked at the young man's back and asked, his voice was not loud and calm, more like a slow narrative than a question.

Huang Xuanjin froze for a moment, but didn't turn around. He turned his back to Tang Ruowang and smiled, "It's just two words, there's nothing to bear or not to bear."

The boy couldn't understand what the two of them were talking about. He looked at Huangxuan Jin, then looked back at Tang Ruowang. After thinking about it, he should ask himself what he wanted to know first, so he asked Tang Ruowang, "Who is Zhou Fangyan?"

"It's an old friend that Huangxuan Jinsu has never met." Tang Ruowang said slowly.

"How can it be an old friend who has never met before?" The boy frowned and asked.

Tang Ruowang didn't answer.

The young man with the brocade robe on his shoulders suddenly raised his hand slowly.

There was white snow falling on his hands, and he looked up at the sky like a child seeing snow for the first time.

White snow fell on the brocade robe of the scarlet embroidered crane.

Like snow on a burning fire.

And the boy stood in the fall wearing a long robe.

Such as scarlet and snow.

On the day when Huangxuan Jin rebelled against Donghuang, the emperor wanted to add crimes to the previous generations of Huangxuan and seize the 800-year honor of the Huangxuan family.There is an old minister of Humerus who died by grabbing the bell with his head in order to admonish the emperor's order!Blood splattered on the spot, and the bell rang so loudly that even the old vegetable farmers in Dongshi, a hundred miles away, could hear it.

The veteran's name is Zhou Fangyan.