Free Web NovelChapter 1054: Chapter 253: Poetry and Wine, Returning to the Inner Court (2)
Mr. Chen worried that Zheng Fan wouldn’t be able to hold it together, and was also thinking about what he himself should do.
Zheng Fan pressed his lips together and let out a breath,
and recited:
"My hair bristles in anger and lifts my cap, I stand by the railing...
...
The shame of Jiahe is yet unavenged. The hatred of us ministers, when will it be erased? Let us drive our long chariots and crush the breaks in Skybreak Mountain. With lofty ambition, we’ll eat the flesh of the northern barbarians when hungry, and in idle talk drink the blood of Yan slaves to quench our thirst.
When we start over and reclaim our former rivers and mountains, we’ll face the sky!"
After finishing the whole lyric from memory,
Lord Zheng silently closed his eyes.
He felt that this lyric was enough to pass the test, and in its grand momentum it was even more magnificent than the hunting-song the Yao Zizhan had composed earlier for the Commander-in-Chief.
Poetry and song—on the minor level, they’re an art of diction and ornament; on the greater level, they’re the revealing of the rivers and valleys in one’s chest.
For example, the lyrics of Yue Wumu and of Mao Tzedong might not pursue exquisite refinement in word choice, but in momentum and scope, they truly are "viewing all the mountains at a single glance from the summit."
Of course, this stuff has nothing to do with Lord Zheng; he’s just a copycat.
What did make Lord Zheng fairly satisfied was that he managed to very quickly change a few places in "The River All Red" to suit the current situation—one could say it was brilliantly timely.
After a long while, the Regent let out a long sigh, slapped his palm onto his own knee, then, very solemnly, cupped his hands in salute to Zheng Fan.
Lord Zheng immediately returned the salute.
Because they were sitting in a carriage and couldn’t stand up, it looked slightly constrained, but Lord Zheng’s face still wore just the right touch of shyness and bashfulness.
The swordsmith, too, leaned his body slightly back against the carriage wall, and shouted to the old man driving outside:
"Bring wine!"
The old driver unfastened the wine gourd at his own waist and directly tossed it in.
The wine gourd flew in at great speed, but the swordsmith showed no intention of reaching out to catch it.
Mr. Chen hadn’t said he wanted to drink, so he didn’t catch it.
Then,
the wine gourd flew straight toward the Regent sitting in the chief seat.
After that,
a scene that shocked Zheng Fan appeared.
The Regent just flicked his fingertips, sending a surge of inner force blasting out to strike the wine gourd; the gourd spun in midair, then landed steadily in the Regent’s hand.
"......" Lord Zheng.
The hell, you bastard!
Lord Zheng was now a Sixth Rank Martial Cultivator. To be honest, that really wasn’t low; if he took off his official robe and went onto the street, he could pull together a gang, or find a small city and open a martial hall to take in disciples.
A Sixth Rank Martial Cultivator might vanish without a trace charging on the battlefield, not even kicking up a splash, but on the street or in some small place, in one-on-one duels, he already had more than enough status.
But Lord Zheng knew very well that although this was just catching a wine gourd, he himself absolutely could not achieve such free control of his inner force.
Just earlier he’d still been plotting in his heart whether he might gamble on a desperate strike.
And now, well,
he’d only calculated for that swordsmith, and had never considered that this Regent of Chu himself was also a martial artist. He didn’t know what rank, but it was definitely higher than his own.
Generally speaking, it was rare for someone whose position was that high to also have such a high cultivation base at the same time—after all, human energy is limited.
So among the Four Great Swordsmen, Li Liangshen was a general in the army; of the other three, the swordsmith came from an aristocratic clan and didn’t really handle mundane affairs, while the Sword Saint and Baili Sword were purely from the street.
But nothing is absolute. Take Lord Jingnan, for example: his personal martial strength had reached the pinnacle, and at the same time he held the highest ministerial rank, commanded heavy troops, and used troops like a god.
So there’s no reason that your Yan could produce a Tian Wujing, but our Chu couldn’t produce a Regent like this.
Moreover, for royal or aristocratic offspring, if they truly have good talent from childhood and are also willing to be ruthless to themselves and suffer in cultivation, then in climbing to heights of cultivation they have a much greater advantage than ordinary people.
Lord Zheng gave a slight sigh in his heart.
Now,
he completely gave up his thought of staking his life on a desperate sneak attack.
On the other side, both the Regent and the swordsmith were still immersed, unable to extricate themselves, in the artistic realm of Lord Zheng’s "The River All Red" from before.
The Regent pulled out the stopper, took a sip of wine, then handed it to the swordsmith beside him.
The swordsmith took it and drank a mouthful as well.
The Regent looked at Zheng Fan and said with emotion, "Qian truly is a land where culture converges. Master Yao has taken a good disciple, a very good disciple!"
The swordsmith added:
"’With lofty ambition, we’ll eat the flesh of the northern barbarians when hungry, and in idle talk drink the blood of Yan slaves to quench our thirst’—tut tut, that scene, that boldness, that scope... admirable, admirable. This lyric can truly be said to have voiced the real smoke and fire of the battlefield."
The Regent nodded and asked, "The ’Shame of Jiahe’—that’s writing about when the Yan people marched south into Qian, isn’t it?"
"Yes. At the time, this junior was in the imperial capital; the hoofbeats of the Yan people once came right up to the outside of our Qian capital. This junior couldn’t sleep at night, only hating that he was a good-for-nothing bookworm.
Thus I hoped that in future our Qian’s army and people could strive hard, achieve a successful northern expedition as soon as possible, and wash away our former humiliation."
"It’s indeed full of heroic spirit."
The Regent let out a sigh; clearly, he was thinking of Chu State.
In recent years, Qian and Chu State shared a common point: they had both taken losses in front of the Yan people.
Qian’s lands had been run all the way to the capital by the Yan Army’s cavalry, while at Jade Plate City the Chu people had left forty thousand Blue Luan troops’ corpses, and a Zhuguai as well.
So this lyric was truly very fitting to the scene, and it would also be very easy for the Chu people to project themselves into it.
The Regent said, "I hope our Chu people and Qian people can both rouse themselves, and bring down the arrogance of the Yan people as soon as possible."
Lord Zheng immediately chimed in, "That is precisely the wish of our Qian emperor, precisely the wish of my master, also the wish of this junior, and even more so the wish of the common people of our Qian and Chu."
