One Lifetime Is Never Enough

1.79 Father to Son

Ji SongLi knocked on the sturdy wooden door to alert his father. Then there was a familiar voice from inside,

"Come in!"

Ji ChanFang followed his son's movement with his eyes, himself sitting behind a wooden study desk. There were rows of cabinets located to each of the desk's sides, filled with various scrolls and books, all lined up tidily against the cabinets' wooden frames.

Initially Ji ChanFang wanted Ji SongLi to inherit the study, as well as all military secrets contained in the various documents. However SongLi urged his father to keep his study room and authority on all military secrets, under the pretext that Ji ChanFang should not be idle even though he was already retired. Although Ji ChanFang was no longer the General, he could always be the Ji Clan's military advisor.

Ji ChanFang had to admit that he was pleased at his son's suggestion. He knew that at first, he was slightly bitter of the possibility to be cut off completely from military matters.

But his keen observation told him that there was an entirely another matter, that caused Ji SongLi to suggest for him to always be involved in Ji clan's military matters.

Ji SongLi had been away from the estate for way too often, that the young man hardly ever had the time to go through the documents. There was one time after he was made the General, that SongLi was away for almost two weeks. Then after he returned from that long trip, and old Zhen made his only son the General of the wolf clan, both young men had been running around like they were afraid tomorrow would never come.

In fact, the new batch of troops - the collaboration between both families - was the brainchild of both Ji SongLi and Zhen BuFeng. Ji ChanFang and Zhen YongWen could only watch their sons from the background, especially when the new troops perfectly represented both families' martial arts in harmony.

The newly formed military division, as well as the new military vocational school for orphans, were under both Generals' jurisdiction, but there was another power that had authority over it.

Second Prince Zhang JunLi.

Initially, the proposal was made by Ji SongLi and Zhen BuFeng to the Emperor, suggesting that one of the Imperial Princes was to also be involved in the project.

They had tactfully proposed the idea for an Imperial control over their newly formed military power, because they were aware that sooner or later, the Imperial Family would become wary of the new force.

The Crown Prince was the first choice, given his wealth of experience in governance. However after a certain point of time, the Crown Prince decided to withdraw from the project and suggested for the Second Prince to take over.

Obviously the Second Prince was lacking in experience, as Prince JunLi was always more interested in martial arts than state matters. However after spending some months under the Crown Prince's guidance and the Emperor's urge, he could finally properly be the third authoritative power in the Dragon troops.

The three young men always carried a jade seal to represent their authority over the black/red/blue uniformed soldiers. The black jade seals - only three in number in the whole dynasty - were engraved in the form of a dragon.