Married to the Emperor's Fiercest General, Who Is Terrified of Me novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Hanlu Pass

Hanlu Pass was two mountains and a wind.

Wenxuan saw it first from the saddle in front of his husband, wrapped in a fur-lined coat that smelled of cedar.

The old grey mare plodded behind on a lead.

The wall ran along the ridge, grey and old, with snow in every seam.

Below it, in the white valley, hundreds of men in army coats stood in rows, as still as pine trees.

As the riders came into sight, the sound that rose from them was a single enormous word.

"Marshal!"

"Young Master!" said the veterans in the front row.

"Young Master!"

Wenxuan, who had been called a good many things in his time, did not know where to look.

"They're yelling at you," said the general in his ear.

"They are not. They're yelling at you."

"I heard Young Master," said the general.

"Cui wrote them letters."

"Cui wrote them poems."

They rode down between the rows.

Every man they passed bowed, and then looked up with a grin from ear to ear.

The old sergeants wiped their eyes on their sleeves.

A boy with a drum struck a note and was cuffed for being early.

The garrison ate that night in the long hall, at tables of rough planks.

There were steaming pots of millet and mutton and a heap of pickled turnips.

Wenxuan was put at the head, on a bench with a cushion, and fed until he begged.

Every soldier took a turn coming up with a bowl and a clumsy compliment.

Each of them glanced at the general to see how he was taking it.

"He's said nine hundred words since you came, Young Master."

"It's a record."

"We've lost the bet," said a gap-toothed corporal sadly.

"Which one?"

"That he'd shut up. I put my pay on silence."

Zhenyuan put his chopsticks down, and everyone in the hall held their breath.

"I have a husband," he said, in the voice that moved ten thousand men. "I am allowed to say nine hundred words."

The hall exploded.

He did not go red.

Wenxuan noticed it only after a while, with a small shock.

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