269: Chapter 170: Your Majesty, Don’t Be Capricious 269: Chapter 170: Your Majesty, Don’t Be Capricious Gradually, Xiao Song began to reveal so clues – from the onset of the chess ga, he had silently laid down a complex trap.
His sudden ferocity and sly, despicable enticents left everyone dumbfounded.
Yet Sang Chen held his own, both in offense and defense; the chessboard was a battleground of relentless action, vibrantly intense.
The ga lasted a long ti, from morning well into the afternoon.
During this, Ran Yan ate porridge twice, yet the outco of the battle wavered, never settling on a result.
“You might not know,” Xiao Song suddenly turned and spoke to Ran Yan, a faint smile leaking from his eyes, “Sang Suiyuan and I both once served as imperial chess attendants.”
Being an imperial chess attendant essentially ant being a player who would accompany the emperor in his leisurely chess gas.
It was said that Emperor Taizong loved chess and that, far from being upset by losing, he would only grow more determined after each defeat, thus dragging the ga on until he won.
“Sang Suiyuan was the only person whom His Majesty dared not ask to play chess.” Xiao Song glanced at Sang Chen, who seed oblivious to the world around him and spoke with a tone mixed with admiration and disdain.
Emperor Taizong dared not challenge Sang Chen to chess not because of his superior skill, but because once Sang Chen was imrsed in the world of chess, he would never be distracted.
Not only did he dare to beat the emperor, but he would also win every ti and never seed tired, no matter how long the ga went on.
This not only greatly wounded the emperor’s pride but also tested his patience.
Taizong, busy with the affairs of state, played chess rely for entertainnt.
Playing chess with Sang Chen felt like holding one’s breath, uncomfortable whether he let go or kept it in.
Thus, after their third overnight ga, Emperor Taizong could no longer contain himself and threw down the chess pieces, raging, “Can’t you just lose once to appease !?”
At the ti, Sang Chen was still deep in the ga and hadn’t snapped out of it.
He hurriedly rearranged the pieces as they were from mory and replied absently, “Your Majesty, don’t be stubborn, let’s finish this ga.”
As you can imagine, Emperor Taizong roared back, “Do you still know I am your emperor?!” Then he stord off, venting his frustration to Fang Xuanling, “Stubborn?
I’m stubborn?
It’s been decades since anyone called that!”
Xiao Song’s vivid storytelling made it all co alive, and Ran Yan laughed breathlessly.
Sang Chen had been only about fifteen or sixteen years old at the ti, imagining a youth telling a man in his forties, “Don’t be stubborn,” especially when the latter was an emperor who ruled over all.
Indeed, had Fang Xuanling not been there to diate, Sang Chen might have ended up beheaded.
In a fit of frustration, Emperor Taizong had even burst out, “Xuanling, go and drag him out and behead him!
With calm, Fang Xuanling asked, “What cri shall Your Majesty decree?
Spreading the word that he defeated you at chess will tarnish your reputation, and his comnt about ‘stubbornness’ must be kept under wraps, as it angered the imperial countenance…
Sang Suiyuan, a prodigious young talent, would be widely plea-bargained for by scholars like Yu Shixian once word got out, and then it would not be easy for you to justify killing him.
Why not fabricate a cri of treason?”
Though Emperor Taizong occasionally acted out of anger, he was not a senseless ruler.
Hearing this, he cooled down sowhat, “Enough, I am not a sore loser!”
Fang Xuanling quickly flattered, “Your Majesty’s magnanimity is beyond compare…”
With that flurry of complints, a crisis was averted, but from then on, Emperor Taizong never played chess with Sang Chen again.
“How about you?” Ran Yan had almost forgotten Xiao Song was still playing.
Xiao Song casually made a move and continued, “It was easy for Sang Suiyuan to win, but I found it hard to lose.
His Majesty is a skilled player, and losing without making it obvious took a lot of effort.
Governnt officials, either for fa or under the weight of their responsibilities, couldn’t dare act as naïvely as Sang Chen.
I was no exception among them.”
Ran Yan indeed believed this; the Great Tang had many renowned ministers, and though Xiao Song was outstanding, he was not the most brilliant among them.
Ran Yan could tell that as Xiao Song talked about Sang Chen, he sotis revealed a longing look.
“Why?” Ran Yan wanted to know why, despite his admiration for a carefree and unrestrained deanor, he chose to confine himself.
Xiao Song watched the chessboard as he waited for Sang Chen to make his move, then said, “If Sang Suiyuan’s family had not undergone changes, and he had remained the legitimate heir of the Chu family, he would now be just like .”
The glory of a family was built on countless endeavors; everyone knew that the Xiao family had produced thirty Pri Ministers during the Southern Dynasty period, but who exactly they were could probably only be clearly rembered in the family records.
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