My name is Wei Qing, and I want to fight the Xiongnu.

My name is Wei Qing, and I want to fight the Xiongnu. (Author: Doukou)

"Everyone, please introduce your background, name, and so on!" "Start with you!"

Wei Qing stood up: "Yes, my name is Wei Qing, and I come from Pingyang County."

"No power! I can't hear you! I can't hear you at all! Say it again! Start over!" "You think you can fight the Xiongnu so softly?"

Wei Qing took a deep breath: "I am Wei Qing, the husband of Princess Yangxin, the only confidante of the daughter of the White Emperor, the successor of the unparalleled strategist Han Xin, the half-brother of the Crown Prince, born as a slave, who defeated countless Xiongnu barbarians, a hero sung throughout the world, a legend praised by the seven kingdoms!"

"Ah...good...good, very energetic, very energetic!"

Volume One: First Arrival in Chang'an

Chapter One: Young Aqing

"This machete already has five or six chips, is it even necessary to keep sharpening it?"

The bright sunlight filtered through the dense foliage, leaving dappled spots of light on Aqing's not-so-broad back.

This also added a touch of naivety to the already somewhat childish young man.

Aqing had no surname; for slaves, surnames were indeed meaningless.

The person asking the question was a young and beautiful lady, wearing a long emerald green silk dress, with her hair styled in a cloud-like bun, a hairstyle that young girls would only wear after marriage.

This elegant and noble lady is not from this county; judging from her accent, she should be from Guanzhong.

The two were meeting for the first time, but Aqing knew her name: Liu Yangxin.

I found out from a dream. Aqing dreams often, and each dream is different and varied. The key is that many parts of these dreams are contradictory.

Even the same person can appear in different dreams, with different identities, races, and actions.

The only thing that's certain is the name.

"Sharpening your spear at the last minute may not be quick, but it will still shine."

"Then why not switch to another one?"

Aqing frowned when Liu Yangxin pressed her for an answer. This young lady was quite pretty, but why was her IQ a bit lacking? If I could switch, would I not?

Is this pretty face something you get by sacrificing your intelligence?

"I don't have money. A wood-chopping knife is very expensive; it requires hardware."

Liu Yangxin took a white jade pendant from his waist and handed it to Aqing, saying, "This jade pendant is worth five thousand gold coins, enough to buy a thousand woodcutting knives. I'm giving it to you."

Without a second thought, Aqing took the jade pendant and hid it in her bosom.

Liu Yangxin was somewhat taken aback by Aqing's reaction: "You're not planning to refuse?"

She didn't care about a mere jade pendant, but she still hoped that Aqing would refuse it.

This proves that the young man before me at least knows the principle that one should not accept rewards without merit, or that a common man is innocent but possessing a treasure is a crime.

Why refuse?

"Aren't you worried someone might steal it? This jade pendant is very valuable."

"Don't be afraid, I have a knife."

"Aren't you worried that my giving you the jade pendant is out of ill intent?"

"Don't be afraid, I have a knife if you tell me."

Aqing seemed very confident in her knife, but Liu Yangxin didn't say anything more, just nodded as a farewell to Aqing.

We were just strangers who met by chance; there's no need to delve too deeply into it.

Leaving the shade of the trees, we arrived at the foot of the mountain and walked towards a simple mud-brick house.

Without knocking, she respectfully bowed to the mud-brick house and said, "Great-granddaughter-in-law Yangxin greets great-grandfather."

The door of the adobe house creaked open, and a middle-aged man walked out.

He looked to be only in his forties, but those who knew him knew that he was over four hundred years old.

Upon seeing Liu Yangxin, the man sighed softly and said, "What a wonderful great-granddaughter-in-law. It's a pity my great-grandson doesn't have that blessing. My Cao family has also let you down."

Liu Yangxin remained calm, as if she had already seen through all of this: "It is Yangxin who brings misfortune to her husband. Last year, when she was of marriageable age, my father arranged another marriage for her, but before she could even get married, the other party died suddenly."

At the beginning of the year, the fortune teller Xu came to Chang'an, and Yang Xin took the opportunity to ask her to tell her fortune. Xu said that Yang Xin was destined to be widowed, or she should never marry, and if she did, she could only marry the lowest of slaves.

"Marry a slave?"

The middle-aged man looked up at the young man still sharpening his knife on the hilltop and laughed, "Perhaps marrying a slave is not a bad choice."

Upon hearing this, Liu Yangxin was not angry. Instead, he followed the middle-aged man's gaze to the mountain peak and asked, "Is he a slave?"

"Yes, or I am your slave."

"mine?"

“From Pingyang Prefecture.”

Theoretically, Liu Yangxin is still the master of Pingyang Prefecture, and the slaves of Pingyang Prefecture are Liu Yangxin's slaves; that is correct.

"The master seems to value him highly?"

"Indeed, he is much stronger than me."

These words instantly stirred up a huge wave in Liu Yangxin's heart. Others might not know about the person in front of them, but how could she, as the great-granddaughter-in-law, not know?

When the Han Dynasty was established, Cao Shen was rewarded for his merits. He ranked second in merit and was granted the title of Marquis of Pingyang!

Later, after Prime Minister Xiao resigned from his position to establish the Imperial Academy, he was succeeded by the old man.

Seventy years later, due to disagreements with Xiao He regarding the Imperial Academy, he resolutely resigned from his position as prime minister and went into seclusion in Pingyang County.

When Cao Shen left the capital Chang'an, he was just one step away from immortality. Now, more than four hundred years have passed, and it is unknown whether he has taken that step.

Cao Shen said that the young man was actually stronger than him?

Is this really possible?

Cao Shen guessed whether Liu Yangxin believed him or not, and he said quietly, "This kid is very strange. There are many passages connecting Pingyang County to the Xiongnu barbarian territory. The Xiongnu barbarians often use these passages to harass the people in the county."

When he was seven years old, a group of Xiongnu barbarians tried to enter the human realm. However, during their retreat, this kid secretly killed a ram-headed shaman without me even noticing what method he used.

Did you see the knife he sharpened? The notch wasn't left from chopping wood; it was made from beheading Xiongnu barbarians.

This kid seems to have a natural grudge against the Xiongnu barbarians. In just a few years, he has beheaded hundreds of Xiongnu barbarians.

If it weren't for the policy of appeasement through marriage, and the extensive tolerance shown towards the Xiongnu barbarians over the years, his merit in slaying the enemy would have been more than enough to warrant the rank of centurion.

What level of cultivation is he at?

"mortal."

"A mortal? How could a mere mortal kill a goat-headed shaman?"

Cao Can glanced at Liu Yangxin and said, "Why not? Those useless students trained by the Imperial Academy kneel down before they even draw their swords when they see gods, demons, monsters, or barbarians. If they can't do it, why should others be expected to be unable to do it?"

Four hundred years ago, during the Chu-Han Contention in the human realm, that sinner who stirred up the world and helped Your Majesty ascend to the throne once used the body of the sun, moon, and stars to assist Your Majesty in defeating the Eternal Overlord. Even if this story isn't sealed away, and I were to tell it to you younger generations, how many would dare to believe it? How many would actually believe it?

Liu Yangxin knew who the criminal Cao Can was referring to was, and he also knew that such a history did indeed exist.

A destitute nobleman who was so poor in his youth that he couldn't even afford to eat, a man who was publicly humiliated by a butcher but chose to endure the humiliation of crawling between someone's legs to survive, yet in the end, he was able to use his mortal body to overshadow the brilliance of the sun, moon, and stars, forcing the arrogant overlord to commit suicide at the Wujiang River.

But precisely because this history is so legendary, when it is told to future generations, no one is willing to believe it is true.

Liu Yangxin looked up at the mountain peak, and the slave named Aqing did indeed give her a different feeling.

Otherwise, she, a member of the royal family, would not have taken the initiative to speak to a lowly young man in this rural village.

"Is he okay?"

Cao Shen shook his head: "I don't know, but some things have to be done by someone."

In the past, the human realm was exhausted by internal strife. Faced with the powerful Xiongnu barbarians, they chose to avoid their sharp edge and recuperate. Although I don't approve of it, I have to admit that it was indeed a helpless move.

The human realm is no longer what it used to be. It has long since gained the strength to contend with the Xiongnu barbarians, but the imperial court still chooses to compromise and seek peace, claiming that sacrificing a woman for a marriage alliance will bring about the prosperity of the human race today. Why not do it?

In reality, they were nothing more than nobles of Chang'an who, after enjoying four hundred years of comfort, had their kneecaps completely rotted by a life of extravagance and debauchery.

People who kneel for too long often find it difficult to stand up. At this point, someone needs to come and remind them: "Walking on two legs makes you a human; crawling on four legs makes you an animal!"

Chapter Two: I Want to Go to Chang'an

Four hundred years ago, Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang fought a fierce battle with Xiang Yu, the Hegemon-King, and suffered severe injuries. Later, he fought against the Great Chanyu of the Xiongnu barbarians, which aggravated his injuries. He had no choice but to seal himself in a small world.

From then on, power fell into the wrong hands, and now the wicked Empress Lü Zhi holds power. In the following hundred years, she enfeoffed more than a dozen members of the Lü family as kings and marquises.

He violated the oath that Emperor Gaozu and his ministers had made together, which stipulated that "no one without the surname Liu shall be king."

Liu Yangxin came to see Cao Can on his grandfather's orders to invite the old man to come out of seclusion and counterbalance the Lü clan.

However, Cao Shen decisively rejected Liu Yangxin's request. Pingyang County was too close to the Xiongnu barbarians and was the gateway to the human world. Someone had to be stationed there to guard it.

If no one takes over after Cao Can leaves, the Xiongnu barbarians will take the opportunity to launch a large-scale invasion, and the lives of the people of Pingyang County will have to be paid for.

Cao Shen not only lived in seclusion in Pingyang County, but also protected the people of the human world from the invasion of the Xiongnu barbarian army.

Upon learning of this, Liu Yangxin stopped trying to persuade him, since he hadn't come with much hope anyway.

However, the boy's youthful face and confident, cheerful smile lingered in Liu Yangxin's mind.

Is he the slave she is destined to marry?

"Great-grandfather, Yangxin has another request."

Cao Can seemed to have guessed Liu Yangxin's thoughts: "You want to take him to Chang'an?"

Liu Yangxin smiled faintly and said, "Although Pingyang County is located in the area where the human and barbarian realms intersect, it is ultimately sparsely populated and resource-poor. If you want better development, the capital Chang'an is definitely the best choice."

Cao Shen did not give Liu Yangxin a clear answer, saying that he would have to ask A Qing for her opinion.