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Empress of Khitan - Empress Dowager of Khitan Chapter Ninety-Nine: Wild Banquet

Updated: 2008-09-23 16:38:43 Word Count: 2618

Looking at Longxu, Yang Ye nodded slightly and said, "She has a good son, and I believe you will be a good emperor in the future."

Upon hearing this, Longxu bowed slightly to Yang Ye and said, "General Yang, please rest now. I will not disturb you any longer."

Seeing that Longxu was about to leave, Yang Ye hesitated for a moment and asked, "She hasn't come yet."

Longxu turned to look at Yang Ye and said, "General Yang, are you talking about my mother? She will come to see you tomorrow. She is currently sending people to prepare food for you, saying that she will personally cook for you tomorrow."

"oh?"

“My mother said that you don’t eat our Khitan food, so even if we bring you some Song Dynasty food, you might not be satisfied. My mother has already sent elite troops to hunt in the former Han lands, saying that she wants to bring some food from your homeland for you to eat.”

His beard trembled slightly, his throat was very sore, and his trembling voice could only utter two words: "Good!" "Good!" Yang Ye could not speak again. He did not believe that there was anyone in this world who understood his heart. He closed his eyes and remained silent, lost in his memories of the past.

Seeing this, Longxu glanced at Xiuge, then at Xiezhen, and walked out of the room where Yang Ye was imprisoned. He didn't return to his mother's side, but chose to stay and listen to Xiuge tell stories with Xiezhen. "These past two days, Mother hasn't said a word except to give orders to others. Longxu, you deserve to die! How could you make Mother so heartbroken!" he sighed, then walked aside with Xiuge and Xiezhen, and sat down to listen to Xiuge tell them the story of the woman who escorted Jingniang a thousand miles.

Han Derang sat in the room, watching Xiao Xuan drink heartily from the wine bag. Unable to bear it any longer, he walked over and snatched the wine bag from her hands. He said, "Stop drinking. What's the use of drinking more? You'll just remember it again when you sober up tomorrow, won't you?" Seeing him take the wine bag, Xiao Xuan ignored him. She stumbled to the bed, collapsed onto it, and closed her eyes.

Helplessly putting down the wine pouch, Han Derang went to the bedside and removed her clothes so she could sleep more comfortably. He stroked her silvery-white hair at her temples. His heart ached. He had been trying to persuade her for the past two days, but she wouldn't listen. If he said too much, she would even kick him out of the room. Sigh, what should he do? Han Derang lay down beside her, but couldn't fall asleep, tossing and turning until late into the night before finally drifting off.

When Han Derang woke up in the early morning, she was still asleep. He didn't disturb her. He wanted her to sleep a little longer, but unexpectedly, she slept for a long time because of her drunkenness. She didn't gradually wake up until evening. After waking up, she glanced outside and was shocked. It must be very late. She quickly got up and dressed. After washing up, she quickly sat down at the table to apply makeup.

"You're up? Why didn't you wake me?" she asked, looking at Han Derang standing behind her in the mirror.

“You haven’t slept much these past few days, I want you to get a good night’s sleep.” Seeing that Xiaoxuan’s face was painted so exquisitely, Han Derang was taken aback for a moment, and then answered softly.

Xiao Xuan didn't answer, continuing to sketch in the bronze mirror. After a moment, she smiled slightly and asked, "That way, you won't be able to tell my eyes are swollen, will you?"

"Mm," Han Derang replied softly.

“We’re going to see Yang Ye.” Xiao Xuan said, standing up and walking towards the door. Looking at her straight back, Han Derang could hardly believe it. She had been so pained and helpless last night, and now, after just one night’s sleep, she was so radiant? Impossible, Yan Yan, you must have something on your mind, right?

Following behind Xiao Xuan, and with the wild game brought back by the elite cavalry who had traveled day and night, Xiao Xuan and Han Derang arrived at the place where Yang Ye was imprisoned.

Entering the courtyard, Xiao Xuan and Han Derang saw Long Xu, Xiu Ge, and Xie Zhen waiting there. Xiao Xuan nodded slightly to Long Xu and the others, then looked towards the room where Yang Ye was locked. The door was already open; she wondered if Yang Ye was still asleep. Xiao Xuan called out to the small room, "General, I'm here."

"Haha!" A loud laugh echoed from inside the room, and a familiar figure stood at the cell door.

Xiu Ge and Xie Zhen looked at Yang Ye with surprise, then glanced at Xiao Xuan, a great question swirling in their minds. Yang Ye hadn't eaten or drunk for two days; what was wrong with him today? He seemed completely unaffected by his captivity, full of energy. And the Empress Dowager? Yesterday, her eyes were red and swollen from crying, and she was listless; how could she be so radiant and spirited today? Filled with these questions, the two moved closer to Xiao Xuan, only to hear her command, "You all step back. The old general and I are old friends; today we'll have a good reunion."

Yang Ye smiled and strolled over to the person carrying a plate of wild game in the courtyard. Picking up a pheasant, Yang Ye asked, "Xiao Xuan'er, you're not trying to fool me, are you? These are indeed wild game from my Han lands?"

"Of course. We don't do things that fool people."

"Great!" Yang Ye laughed heartily and said, "Let's make roast chicken."

"That's right!" Xiaoxuan replied with a smile. Then she continued, "But I've figured out another good way to eat it these past two days."

"No matter how good the cooking method is, I still want to eat that Huazi chicken." Yang Ye said, his eyes filled with deep affection.

“Of course it’s roasted chicken! It’s different from last time,” Xiaoxuan said. “This time, we’ll roast it with wine and mud.”

"Alcohol?" Yang Ye asked, puzzled.

Xiao Xuan smiled slightly, "Let's try it for now, the taste should be much better." After saying that, she and Yang Ye each took a pheasant, plucked its feathers, gutted it, and washed it clean. Xiao Xuan took the wine bag handed to her by a soldier, poured it onto the soil in the courtyard, and then she and Yang Ye mixed the wine with mud, and evenly smeared the mud onto the roast chicken that had already been wrapped in leaves. After smearing the mud, the two of them placed the roast chicken in the fire that the soldiers had already lit.

They repeated this process several times until they had prepared the last wild animal and placed it in the fire. Only then did the two wash their hands and sit down around the fire.

The sky was already dark, making the campfire in the courtyard stand out even more.

“When we first met, there was only one hamster, but now there are so many,” Yang Ye said, looking at the mud-brick chickens roasting over the campfire.

“Hmm,” Xiaoxuan nodded, then said, “You came here because you didn’t like things in Song? I don’t believe you didn’t have any thoughts in your heart. I’m giving you freedom, and I won’t make you fight for me. I just want us to never meet on the battlefield again.”

"I may have some thoughts, but I can't leave again. A person lives for their reputation, a tree lives for its bark. The first surrender was a mistake, which led to this situation. If I were to surrender again, how could I, Yang Ye, have the face to live in this world?" Yang Ye said with a sigh, his words filled with bitterness.

"If I let you go, will you still risk your life for him?" Xiao Xuan asked Yang Ye.

Yang Ye nodded and said, "It's not easy to find a talented general, and it's even harder to find a wise ruler. Zhao Guangyi has been very good to my Yang family, how could I betray him?" "Can you tell me how he treated your Yang family?" Xiao Xuan asked softly.

Yang Ye smiled faintly and said, "As a monarch, what I fear most is that we surrendered generals will raise an army and rebel. Although there are ministers in my Great Song Dynasty who will keep slandering me, my lord has never believed them. He even had someone specially send me those false accusations to see. Isn't it good that an emperor can treat his ministers like this?"

"Is that all you have to say about him? Is that all you have to say about him? Is that your reason for wanting to die for him?" Xiaoxuan suddenly asked angrily.

"Xiao Xuan'er, you should know that I am now a subject of the Song Dynasty!" Yang Ye said coldly to Xiao Xuan.

Empress of Khitan - Empress Dowager of Khitan Chapter 100: A Plea

Updated: 2008-09-23 16:39:58 Word Count: 2840

"I know! Of course I know, but I want you to calm down and think about this: is it worth fighting, dying, and risking your life for him? When your Han Dynasty was destroyed, you became surrendered officials and returned to Dongjing Prefecture with him. So let me ask you, what about your Jinyang City? The Han Dynasty had already surrendered, yet he still set fire to the city, disregarding how many women, children, and elderly people were trapped inside. That fire not only destroyed a city, but also claimed the blood of innocent people in Jinyang! Don't you know that? Zhao Guangyi prides himself on being a military genius, emphasizing troop deployment..." He's controlling the war from a remote perspective, but he doesn't understand anything! I won't mention the Battle of Nanjing for now, but this time, you were clearly able to retreat in time, so why were you caught up with halfway and ended up in this predicament? I really wonder what Zhao Guangyi was thinking. He had the heart to flood and burn Jinyang City and its people, so why did he ask you to escort the people of several nearby prefectures to safety this time? I'm not saying that people's lives don't matter or shouldn't be saved, but compared to the people of Jinyang City, the people of these other prefectures are much luckier.

I really don't know what he was thinking. Has he forgotten that this is a war? I think if he had the chance to lead troops into battle himself, he certainly wouldn't care about those civilians. Speaking of which, he underestimates me too much. Since I can support the people within the Liao territory, I can support the troops of those few prefectures. He started this war; he thought I, a widow and orphans, were easy to bully, so he attacked us. The person I'm looking for is him. Those civilians have no grudge against me; what can I do to them? Yet he insists on displaying his commanding talent at this crucial moment, making me carry this enormous burden.

Furthermore, how did he become emperor? He knows best! General, having stayed on Song Dynasty territory, you must have heard something, right?

“Those are matters for the imperial family; I’ve never cared about them,” Yang Ye said, looking at the campfire.

"He's capable of even seizing a subject's wife; how can you still consider him a wise ruler? This pearl around my neck was given to me by Zhao Kuangyin, the founding emperor of the Song Dynasty, Zhao Guangyi's elder brother. Do you know how suspicious he was back then? To find out what I, Zhao Kuangyin, and Hua Rui had discussed at Luoxia Nunnery, he chased me all the way to Han Dynasty territory. If it weren't for Xiu Ge saving me that day, I would have died under his arrows long ago. How could such a narrow-minded person be a wise ruler? If he didn't harbor treacherous intentions, why was he so obsessed with knowing what we had said in the nunnery? After his brother died, he became emperor; why did he go to such lengths to force his brother's son to his death, and even harm his own brother?"

“Those people were at fault, not him!” Yang Ye said in a low voice. “You’re still defending him. Were they really at fault? You know in your heart, don’t you? Those who died because of him were the people closest to the right to inherit the throne. If he hadn’t fabricated the lie of the Golden Chest Covenant to make his ascension to the throne more legitimate, these people wouldn’t have died. With the Golden Chest Covenant, he had to deal with his own relatives first before he could smoothly pass the throne to his son, didn’t he?”

Seeing Yang Ye gently resting his hand on his forehead, Xiao Xuan continued, "General, I know you don't want to hear this. So I'll only talk about the last thing about him. It's that letter you mentioned that slandered you. He's the emperor. He has to handle the affairs of the Song Dynasty, and I'm in the Liao Dynasty, also acting as regent. The difference between us is that he would send you the letter of false accusation to make you grateful and prove to you that he trusts you completely. I wouldn't do that. If I received a letter of false accusation, I would investigate those I don't trust. For those I trust, I would destroy the letter directly. Would a truly trustworthy emperor need to send letters of false accusation to his ministers to prove his magnanimity and trustworthiness?"

Yang Ye shook his head painfully and said, "Xiao Xuan'er, let's not talk about these things today. We'll just eat wild game." Seeing Yang Ye's pained expression, Xiao Xuan didn't want to hurt him any further, so she said softly, "After we finish eating the wild game, I'll let you go."

Yang Ye smiled faintly and said, "Where else can we go?"

Xiao Xuan hurriedly said, "It's up to you. Go back if you want, go wherever you want. The world is so big, there's bound to be a place for you. But I must advise you to be careful if you go back to the Song Dynasty. It's not that I'm petty, but Zhao Guangyi is too suspicious. If you go back, I'm afraid he will be wary of you at every turn, and life will be difficult for you."

"Xiao Xuan'er, what do you plan to do with Yan Yu's body?" Yang Ye didn't answer Xiao Xuan's question, but asked another question that had nothing to do with his future.

"I want to bring his ashes back to my Liao Kingdom and place them under a Buddhist pagoda," Xiao Xuan answered softly. Her answer startled Xiu Ge, Xie Zhen, and Long Xu.

Yang Ye's expression turned serious, and he said, "Could you please not take him to Khitan? He didn't like the Khitan people when he was alive, and I hope that he won't remain on Khitan soil after he dies."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Xuan stood up from the campfire and walked aside, gazing up at the low-hanging night sky. After a long while, she said, "General, I understand. I'll escort him back to Jinyang!"

Yang Ye smiled and said, "On behalf of Yan Yu, I thank you. You are now the Empress Dowager of Liao, and your word is law. I believe you will not go back on your word. Our chicken is almost cooked and we should be able to eat it now."

Nodding, Xiaoxuan and Yang Ye pulled the red-hot mud out of the campfire and set it aside to dry. Looking back at Xiu Ge, Xie Zhen, Han Derang, and Long Xu, Yang Ye said, "Since you're all here, come and eat with us." Hearing this, Xiaoxuan said to Xiu Ge and the others, "Come on over, let's eat chicken together."

Xiao Xuan gestured for Longxu to sit beside her, then pointed to the bright red mud on the ground and said, "A long time ago, Mother also ate like this with the General under the moon."

"Mother, General Yanyu was also there at that time, right?"

Xiaoxuan nodded, looked up at the low-hanging night sky again, and said, "Yes, back then we got so into talking about a story that we almost became sworn brothers."

Upon hearing this, Longxu nodded slightly.

“He’s good, a good kid,” Yang Ye said, looking at Longxu.

A moment of silence fell as everyone stared at the campfire. Xiao Xuan's thoughts seemed to drift back to a few years ago. She rose and went to the now-cooled mud blocks, carefully knocking off the mud covering the chickens. A faint aroma of wine wafted into everyone's nostrils. Xiao Xuan handed the roast chicken to Yang Ye, then continued knocking off the mud coverings of other roast chickens, handing them to the others.

Everyone was holding chicken and eating it with great relish.

"Mother, this chicken is so tender," Longxu said, looking at his mother as he ate. "It's really delicious."

Seeing Longxu enjoying his meal, Xiaoxuan smiled and said, "Have you remembered how Mother made it? If you have, you can make it yourself whenever you want to eat it in the future."

"Mm." Longxu nodded with a smile.

Yang Ye ate the roast chicken in his hand with great excitement on his face. After finishing the whole roast chicken, he drank it all in one gulp, then looked at the dark night sky and revealed a meaningful smile.

After everyone finished eating, Xiao Xuan and Long Xu bid farewell to Yang Ye and prepared to leave. Just then, Yang Ye said, "Xiao Xuan'er, I never expected that the last thing I would eat from Han territory would be something you sent me."

Looking at Yang Ye, Xiao Xuan didn't know what to say. Caught off guard, Yang Ye suddenly crashed headfirst into a stone tablet in the courtyard.

"General!" Xiao Xuan cried out as she ran to Yang Ye, who was lying on the ground with his face covered in blood.

"Take me back to Jinyang too."

Seeing Xiao Xuan nodding repeatedly while she was crying, Yang Ye finally closed his eyes.

Xie Zhen, Xiu Ge, and Long Xu were all stunned. He was perfectly fine just now, so why did he suddenly commit suicide? It seemed he truly didn't want to continue living. Han Derang walked to Xiao Xuan's side, looking at her clutching Yang Ye's clothes, unsure how to comfort her.

It was a night like this when we met, and we were eating roast chicken. Little did I know that years later, this shared meal would become our final farewell. Liu Yanyu, Liu Jiye, or perhaps I should call you Yang Yanyu and Yang Ye, in this vast sea of people, we met, yet we are now forever separated. For the sake of the territories we each must protect, we will never be able to stand under the same roof, drink heartily, and drink until we are drunk.

Empress of Khitan - Empress Dowager of Khitan Chapter 101 Reform

Updated: 2008-09-23 16:40:17 Word Count: 2856

Looking at Yang Ye's corpse, a faint smile appeared on Xiao Xuan's lips. You had planned this all along. From your smile the moment we met, to your cheerful eating of chicken, it was all part of your final preparations for suicide. Just like me, coming to see you this time, I was prepared too, putting on makeup to hide the fear and sorrow in my heart. We are so alike, so helpless.

That night, the campfire in the courtyard never went out. Wiping away her tears, Xiaoxuan sat by the fire all night. She didn't get up until dawn.

"Guards," Xiao Xuan said, "cut off the head of Song general Yang Ye, clean it thoroughly, and send it to the border for the soldiers to circulate. Keep Yang Ye's body safe for me. After his head has been circulated, sew it back onto the body, cremate it into ashes, and send it to me."

"yes!"

I will never cry, never again. My tears will stop here. I have come this far, there is no turning back. I can only move forward, no matter what lies ahead. Now, I can only advance, not retreat. Yang Ye, forgive me. I want to end this battle as soon as possible, and you, Yang Wudi's head, can undoubtedly help me achieve that. I once wanted to let you go far away, to live in anonymity, but you chose death. You made me understand, made me understand, the so-called loyalty of this era, is so desolate and tragic. I strode out of the courtyard; there was nothing left in that courtyard to cherish.

Yang Ye's head was sent to various border regions for display, and countless soldiers saw it clearly. The head of this man, once known as "Invincible Yang," was no longer on the battlefield. The Liao soldiers' morale soared, while the Song army's morale plummeted. Under these circumstances, the Liao Kingdom successfully recovered all the lost cities and territories.