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Chapter 264: Gu Tingye, Your Ancestor Calls You for a Chat (3)

Translator: Iris

“Tell me father didn’t discipline you so strictly out of love! Be honest with me, if what has happened to father happens to you today, if you have no choice but to marry another woman to save your family, what will you do?!” Gu Tingyu suddenly raised his voice with his pale face turning red and roared, “Think about your affection toward your wife, then think about our father!”

Gu Tingye, choked up with emotion, still answered calmly thanks to his years of training on self control, “I never think about the things that would never happen. I’m not our father who has so many scruples. He should never leave himself no choice!”

A general should never think if he should charge forward at the cost of losing the front-line troops or sacrifice the troops at back in order to escape. He should never allow to happen the situation where he had to choose which troops to sacrifice.

Gu Yankai, as the eldest son in his family, had had an old father and younger brothers. It was not wrong for him to love his wife dearly, but he should at least consider his family condition. If he had been prepared for danger in times of peace and taken preventive measures, he would still find some excuses to evade the issue even though he was not able to collect that much money. As long as he was able to stall the time for a year or more, after Emperor Wu died and the new emperor ascended the throne, he could submit a written statement to beg for pardon. Then, it was very likely that the crisis would be solved.

Gu Tingye thought of First Madam Qin. He knew that this woman who had died at a young age was very poor, but he still couldn’t help but feel repulsion for her. He understood the love she had for his father, but he thought that as a madam of the Gu’s family, she shouldn’t have only considered the romantic things and known nothing about the hidden trouble in her husband’s family after being married for ten years. Such a delicate and weak woman should never marry the eldest son in a family or become a madam. A wise and responsible woman would never allow herself to become a burden of her husband, like... Minglan.

Gu Tingye’s heart was suddenly softened. Then he looked to his brother with a cruel look on his face and snorted, “I see why you have brought me to the ancestral temple, you want me to reflect on myself in front of the memorial tablets of our father and our ancestors. However, listen, even if I don’t lend a hand in this and let everything happen as it should, Gu’s family wouldn’t decline anyway.”

Gu Tingyu glared at Gu Tingye with a fierce look, but the latter didn’t shrink at all. The two blood brothers were at a stalemate right now, competing with each other with their strategies and schemes. The one who held on to the last minute would be the winner.

At last, Gu Tingyu sighed deeply and sank onto the chair dejectedly. Then he pointed to the incense table and said, “There’s a box over there. You should go have a check.”

Gu Tingye walked over to the table with a chilling look in his eyes.

It was a two-feet long and one-feet high wooden box in deep color, the four corners of which were inlaid with gold. What was more, as Gu Tingye touched the box, he found surprisedly that it was made of the extremely precious Gold Nan wood. Given the huge size of the box, it must be worth more than ten thousand pieces of gold.

The lock catch had already been unfastened. After Gu Tingye lifted the lid, he saw the bright yellow underlayer, on which was a scroll. Judging from the colorful dragon and phoenix threads as well as the auspicious clouds, red-crowned crane and the lion patterns embroidered on the scroll, Gu Tingye realized that what was written on it was the imperial edict. The black object beside the scroll was an arched thick iron plate, on which were carved the words in vertical column. Moreover, the carved words were filled with cinnabar and the top of the scroll was inlaid with gold.

Gu Tingye got dazed because he realized that it was a Red Iron Edict.

Normally, this edict would only be put on the incense table at every festival and at New Year to let the people of the Gu’s family worship. The young members of the family who knelt behind the elders couldn’t even see it. This was also the first time he saw this family heirloom.

“Take the Iron Edict out, check the first four words on it.” Gu Tingyu said that with difficulty.

Red Iron Edict was in hollow cylinder shape. On the day when a family was ennobled, the Edict would be cut in half. The imperial court and the family which had been ennobled would keep each half of the Red Iron Edict. That was why the shape of the heavy iron sheet in Gu Tingye’s hand was more like a tile.

As Gu Tingye turned the iron sheet slowly, he fixed his eyes on the top of the scroll. Then he saw the four words which had been cast by gold: Founder of The State.

Gu Tingyu raised his head and looked at the memorial tablets on the incense table, the shadows of which overlapped each other. The faces of the Gu’s brothers were also enveloped in those shadows, looking very blurred.

“Our Ancestor, Gu Shande, got acquainted with the first emperor of our dynasty when he was just a normal civilian. He died early, leaving his wife and his sons alone in the world. After that, his son, Gu Youshan, made great achievements in war. When the First Emperor conquered the east, the second Emperor suppressed Nu’er Gan on the west, conquered the Miao nationality on the south and guarded the northern border, eleven of the men in our family lost their lives on the battlefield... I don’t need to tell all the stories to you, do I?”

“I know what’s on your mind now.” Gu Tingyu kept panting while touching his chest. Then he continued, “Father only married your mother and gave birth to you to save our family. You have grudges against our family, so you want Marquis Ningyuan’s family to be ruined. You want this family to be deprived of the noble title. You want us to die, to be exiled. Only in this way can you vent out your grievances all the years. Maybe around ten years later when your military merits are enough, His Majesty might ennoble you again. By then, you can consider yourself bringing glory on the Gu’s ancestors! Also, at that time, the people who have bullied you will be either dead or out at the elbows. This is the kind of revenge you want!”

Gu Tingyu said that while laughing, which made him out of breath, “But His Majesty is not able to give my noble title straightly to you. Even though the Gu’s family is accused right now, it would still seem like His Majesty is helping you bully your weak brother and your sister-in-law. His Majesty who values his reputation most would never do it, even for you. You know about that, but you don’t want to swallow your grievance. Thus you decide to take a drastic measure by ruining the whole Marquis Ningyuan’s family! Am I right?”

Gu Tingye looked at his brother who kept laughing like mad and said nothing with a cold look on his face.

“But, but, have you considered...” Gu Tingyu finally stopped laughing with a sad look on his face and said, “After many years, when you receive another Red Iron Edict, will those four words be carved on it?”

“In the past few decades, our first emperor eliminated a lot of meritorious statesmen, our second emperor encountered the Mutiny of the Nine Prince as well as a few rebellions and then set up the imperial prison. By now... how many founders of this country have been deprived of their titles?! Do you know how many noble families have a Red Iron Edict like this?”

Gu Tingyu suddenly got emotional and said, “Let me tell you, only eight! Eight families! Those officials who are so-called statesmen with integrity or meritorious men are nobody when compared with our family! Our bloodline never broke! Even Marquis Xiangyang’s family doesn’t have this. Shen family is very influential now, but without this Iron Edict, that family is still nothing!”