88Chapter 88 How can I have a home if the Huns are not yet destroyed?
Huo Qubing simply smiled ingratiatingly, served tea to his aunt, and then said cautiously, "My Lady, I simply don't want to be a playboy who only eats and waits for death at home."
There was a hint of confidence in his brow.
Huo Qubing puffed out his chest, with an exaggerated and unbridled smile on his face: "Besides, I have the blood of the Wei family flowing in my veins. The blood of the Wei family is the blood of a military family. No man in the Wei family will willingly wait for death at home."
"Our mission is to gallop across the battlefield, mount our horses and kill the enemy!"
"Just promise me!"
Wei Zifu looked at the young man in front of her, whose face was full of flattery but whose eyes were filled with firm belief, and she couldn't help but sigh deeply. She saw the same cruelty and determination in Huo Qubing's eyes as in her brother's.
On the surface, these two people have completely opposite personalities, one calm and the other lively, but in fact they have the same brand in their bones, and there is absolutely no difference between the two.
Once something is decided, even ten oxen cannot pull it back.
Wei Zifu could only press her forehead and say, "Yes, I can promise you that I will go to His Majesty to plead for you, but I need you to do three things."
Her expression was stern. Seeing Wei Zifu like this, Huo Qubing sat up straight. He understood that since Wei Zifu said so, she would definitely not agree to let him leave Chang'an and ride on horseback to kill the enemy before completing those three things, so he just listened seriously.
Wei Zifu only heard: "First, you must wait until five years later."
Seeing Huo Qubing's expression as if he wanted to refute, Wei Zifu simply stretched out her hand to signal Huo Qubing that she would never back down on this matter.
"You are only twelve years old now. Even in five years you will only be seventeen, and you still haven't been crowned yet."
Wei Zifu's expression was very formal. "Throughout history, no general, not even a lieutenant, has ever led an army without a crown. Allowing you to leave at seventeen is the result of my plea to His Majesty."
"You don't have to say you can act as an ordinary soldier. You know, your identity means that such a thing cannot happen."
Wei Zifu's expression was cold at this moment. "You are not an ordinary person. Once you join the army, whether you like it or not, you will not be able to hide your identity. Everyone will know your identity. Do you want to disguise yourself as an ordinary person because you want fairness, or do you want to satisfy your vanity and think you are treating them fairly?"
"Pretending to be an ordinary person and making them worry about your safety when killing the enemy, is this how you use your troops?"
Huo Qubing opened his mouth, but finally fell silent.
Regardless of his identity as the queen's nephew or the nephew of a captain and general, it was impossible for him to be an ordinary soldier in the army as he wished.
Throughout history, except for one person's offspring, no other second-generation people of status have worked their way up from the bottom. What they call the bottom is nothing more than the "gilded" bottom.
Unfortunately, he died on the battlefield.
In war, the victims are always the lowest class of people, always the sons of farmers. This is the most normal statement, but there is always a qualifier after that person - except for that person's descendants.
Wei Zifu looked at Huo Qubing who had stopped talking and immediately breathed a sigh of relief. She and the emperor had discussed for a long time the decision of sending Huo Qubing to the battlefield when he was of the right age.
"Second, you must go to the Imperial College and become Chen Yi's disciple."
Become Chen Yi's disciple?
Huo Qubing frowned. "Is it that Confucian scholar so favored by His Majesty? I heard that he and his brother developed their own unique philosophy and promoted it in the Imperial Academy. They even had the great Confucian leader Dong Zhongshu travel thousands of miles from various kingdoms to Chang'an to debate with him. In the end, they ended in a draw. Or was it because Dong Zhongshu argued so stubbornly that he refused to admit defeat? That Chen Yi?"
He was bewildered. "My Lady," he said, "I'm preparing to go to the battlefield. What's the point of studying his classics? Do I have to use them to fight on the battlefield?"
Wei Zifu looked at him sarcastically and laughed: "You only know one thing, not the other."
"Do you know the Marquis of Guandu?"
Huo Qubing lowered his head in thought. The Marquis of Guandu that Wei Zifu was referring to was definitely not the current Marquis of Guandu. Then... "Are you talking about the first Marquis of Guandu, Chen Xigong?"
Wei Zifu nodded: "Not bad."
"In the past, Emperor Gaozu boasted that Xi was a brave and valiant man, unrivaled throughout the ages. But in reality, his strategic planning even made the great strategist Zhang Zifang sigh in admiration. When Zhang Zifang retired to the mountains, he left the Yellow Stone Heavenly Book to the Marquis of Guandu before leaving, asking him to find a suitable successor."
"And it left behind a prophecy that cannot be passed on except to those of exceptional talent."
"And before his death, the Military Immortal Han Xin did not pass on his lifelong military tactics to his descendants. Instead, he left them to the then-Marquis of Guandu and also begged him to pass them on to him."
"The prophecies left behind are the same."
Wei Zifu's eyes sparkled: "Chen Yi is from the Chen family. If you can become his disciple and gain his trust and show your talents, he will most likely ask the Marquis of Guandu to teach you the military manual!"
"By then, you will no longer be a wild person without any inheritance!"
"What's more, even if you don't learn the military manual, if you can successfully become Chen Yi's disciple, you will be able to obtain the protection of the Chen family!"
"The Chen family's disciples and former officials are spread all over the world, and there are many of their disciples in the army. You will be safer on the battlefield!"
Huo Qubing frowned and said, "Then why can't I just take Guandu Hou as my teacher?"
Wei Zifu glanced at him and rolled her eyes. "Who are you to take Guandu Hou as your teacher? The inherited Guandu Hou has always only accepted the emperor's instructions and accepted the prince as his disciple."
"Even if you take a branch of the Chen family as your master, it may not succeed."
Huo Qubing smiled awkwardly and scratched his head: "What about the third one?"
Wei Zifu was silent for a moment, then sighed deeply: "Before you go to war, get married. It will be like leaving a family for your family."
Huo Qubing frowned slightly, his eyebrows almost twisted together. He looked at Wei Zifu and said, "How can we have a family if the Xiongnu is not yet destroyed? I don't want to get married!"
Wei Zifu fell silent again. She saw the determination in Huo Qubing's eyes.
After a long silence, she compromised, "If you don't want to marry a wife, you can always take a concubine, right? At least leave a family line... Otherwise, how can I be worthy of my sister who passed away so young