Chapter 1455: Gao Xianzhis Situation! (1/2)
Translated by: Hypersheep325
Edited by: Michyrr
Wang Chong had grown up in the capital, and for there to be so many Hu in this place was usually not worth causing a ruckus. But as he looked around, Wang Chong realized that there were even more Hu in the capital now.
Goguryeons, Tibetans, Turks, Arabs… they could all be spotted in the crowd.
Wang Chong had spotted ten-some Hu spies in the crowd, but the ordinary people around them all had kind faces and seemed completely unaware.
”Haha, the world is in harmony, so there's no need to be strangers! Take it!”
Nearby, the owner of a store smiled as he placed a bolt of cloth in the hands of a Hu who had clearly undergone martial arts training.
”Heh, we're all family, so why so distant? I know that you don't have much money, so I'll give this to you at half price!” a nearby store owner said.
”Take care, and remember to come back! Just like the Secretariat Advisor says, everyone in the world is part of the same family. You don't have to be polite around me.”
Enthusiastic voices were ringing in Wang Chong's ears, and everywhere he looked, he saw genial faces completely oblivious to the danger around them.
Wang Chong felt the stabbing pain in his heart only get worse, and he hastened his pace as he pressed forward.
Everywhere he looked, the capital had undergone a thorough transformation in mood. The capital of the Great Tang was like an unguarded city, everyone completely opening themselves up.
As he pressed forward, he suddenly heard a familiar voice. ”Eh? Isn't that the King of Foreign Lands?”
Wang Chong still pressed on for a few moments, but a moment later, he remembered the voice and trembled in shock.
”Cheng Qianli?!”
He had fought alongside Cheng Qianli in the Battle of Talas and could not possibly mistake his voice.
But Wang Chong remembered that Cheng Qianli and the Anxi Protectorate army were standing guard in the Western Regions. They couldn't leave their post without a military decree, so why had he appeared in the faraway capital?
Wang Chong suddenly raised his head, and sure enough, Wang Chong spotted that familiar figure in the crowd.
His posture was straight and his head held high. His body exuded a fierce flame that had been tempered through thousands of battles. It was none other than Vice Protector-General Cheng Qianli of the Anxi Protectorate. And in front of him was yet another unexpected figure.
Gao Xianzhi!
”How?!”
Wang Chong's body trembled in shock, and his mind was in utter disarray.
Cheng Qianli's appearance here was surprising enough, but for him to appear with Gao Xianzhi was abnormal to the extreme.
A Protector-General was a Great General existence. Their movements could set the entire world into motion.
Their prestige and status were linked to the safety of the border regions. In normal circumstances, unless specifically summoned by the sovereign, they would spend thirty to forty years without seeing the capital.
”Protector-General Gao, General Cheng, why are you here?”
Wang Chong rushed over to the pair, and at almost the same time, Gao Xianzhi and Cheng Qianli parted the crowd and walked over to Wang Chong.
”Wang Chong, you're finally awake!”
A sincere look of joy appeared on the faces of the pair when they saw Wang Chong.
”Qianli and I paid a visit to your residence, but you were still unconscious then. We happened to hear that you had gotten better and were on our way to see how you were doing, but to think that we would run into you!”
A thousand cups of wine were not too much when friends met. As a Great General, Gao Xianzhi normally kept up a dignified and steady appearance. It was only in front of Wang Chong, the youngest King of the Great Tang, that Gao Xianzhi would show this sort of warmth.
But Wang Chong was in no mood to chat.
Wang Chong stared at them and asked, ”Lord Gao, General Cheng, what's going on here? Why aren't you garrisoned in Anxi, instead showing up in the capital?”
Buzz!
Their smiles instantly vanished, their expressions turning somber.
”This…” After a few moments of silence, Gao Xianzhi revealed the truth. ”Wang Chong, I won't hide it from you. I'm actually no longer a Protector-General. The Imperial Court stripped me of my military authority. The Anxi Protectorate army is now under the command of several supervisors from the Confucian Sect.”
On the side, Cheng Qianli had become taciturn.
Boom!