A strong gust of wind swept through the tent, lifting a corner of the curtain. Through this opening, it was discovered that there was indeed a person lying on the large bed inside, covered with a brocade quilt and with their head covered.
Xie Shangguang was certain that his fifth uncle was not inside, so he turned around and rode his horse toward the Yu Palace.
Xie Chong and Xie Fei found him inexplicable; when did he start acting like a child?
The military camp is short one person, but no one has noticed.
Xie Xiu never expected that his repeated moves would be countered, and even Su Ha's family fortune would be dug up. He knew he couldn't stay any longer. He dropped his disguise and tricked two naive Xie soldiers into transporting the books for him, then killed them halfway and threw their bodies into the river.
He deliberately chose the northern route to escape. Last time, when Xie Ji sent people to the north to build a road, he tampered with the route planning, using Xie's soldiers to build a road for him to escape to the lower canal, and then transfer to a ship belonging to the Hun merchants there to escape.
Last time, he fled from Weidu after hearing rumors of something.
Just as Xie Xiu changed into Hu clothing and pretended to be an ordinary Hu person, a warrior's figure galloped along the dark forest path. He held a long spear and suddenly charged at Xie Xiu.
The spearhead narrowly missed his face. Xie Xiu leaped lightly, stepping onto the trunk of a tree about three meters tall. He stood there, coldly staring at Xie Ji.
Upon seeing Xie Ji, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes: "When did the general discover my identity?"
Xie Ji turned his horse around, pressed the horse's head to his feet, placed his feet on the saddle, and skillfully arched his back. As the horse moved at a steady pace in sync with its master, he thrust his spear mercilessly toward the treetop. Xie Xiu immediately leaped to another tree and kindly advised, "General, you don't know how to use light footwork, but I do. Don't waste your energy."
"And you'd better tell me how you found me before I lose patience and leave?"
Xie Ji watched Xie Xiu leaping and bounding around like a monkey, his eyes filled with indescribable grief and deeper hatred. He looked up at Xie Xiu on the high place and shouted, "You're not Xie Xiu?!"
"When did you switch Xie Xiu with someone else?!"
"I didn't expect the general to be so unreasonable. I was the one who asked first." Xie Xiu replied with contempt, "Are you wondering why you didn't recognize me back then? It's simple. There has always been a lot of friction between the upper and lower classes of your Xie family. Xie Xiu is a commoner, while you are a high-ranking general. How could two people with different statuses know each other?"
"Even if I can recognize a few parts of the face from the portrait, as long as the portrait changes a little bit each time, first the eyes, then the nose, then the eyebrows, slowly, slowly, it will naturally become my face."
Xie Ji was immediately stunned. When he asked Xie Xiu to be his advisor, he had indeed checked the portraits repeatedly. There were seven or eight in total. The more he looked at them, the more familiar he felt with the person. When Xie Xiu himself came, he was exactly the same as the last portrait. At that time, he had no doubts.
In just two months, he gained his trust.
But now he can't even be considered a traitor, because he's not a member of the Xie clan at all, but a spy from the Hun.
Xie Ji no longer felt sorry for this kind of person. He reached for his lower back, when Xie Xiu suddenly said, "General, you'd better answer clearly before you take action, or you'll regret it."
Xie Ji stared at him and said, "This general will answer your question. The reason I discovered your flaw was not because I saw through your conspiracy, nor because I found your behavior to be strange."
"Instead, everything seems to go very smoothly once it passes through your hands."
"Especially before the Marshal arrived, you seemed to have a premonition and were always able to make brilliant calculations. But why did such a big mistake happen when I sent you to handle the matter of the redemption money after the Marshal arrived?"
"You can only offer this much in ransom, not just this price." Xie Ji was very greedy; he was eager to raise a large sum of money to recruit a private army, hoping to train one that would be no less capable than Xie Guang's when he returned next year. However, he gave the money to the marshal first, but the marshal refused it, thinking the marshal found it dirty. Later, Su Ha's family property was robbed, and no one knew how much Su Ha's fortune would remain.
But the focus was all on Xie's stronghold. The money he had obtained from Suha had naturally become a hot potato, so he dared not touch it.
It wasn't until the box of gold was discovered on the shore that he understood why the marshal hadn't accepted the money. In the marshal's eyes, it was a small fortune of dubious origin. The marshal was always cautious and would never act against his own will to collect a murky sum. On that day, the marshal had even handed over all military affairs to him, thus absolving himself of any responsibility.
He thought the marshal trusted him, but now he understands... it was a test.
"Atony money?" Xie Xiu thought for a moment, then quickly understood and couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Hahaha, I didn't expect that I would be exposed because I didn't have enough money."
"The general suspected me because I didn't negotiate the price well enough. I'm so wronged."
Xie Ji sneered: "Not really, 20,000 taels is a lot, but that doesn't prevent this general from knowing where this money came from."
"If you say 20,000 taels, and Suha just takes 20,000 taels, wouldn't that be too obedient?"
Xie Xiu found the reason for her exposure increasingly amusing. The second flaw was that Su Ha was too obedient?
Xie Ji said, "Suha is the richest man in the country. He has always been stingy and only squanders money on his own hobbies. He loves gambling and smoking, so he has invested a lot in gambling dens and tobacco businesses. But a year ago, he started investing in the Fushou cake business and recruited so many people as a cover, but he still couldn't hide Suha's true nature. He became addicted to smoking and spent money like crazy. But before he became addicted, why would he spend so much money on a son-in-law he had only been married to for a year? Are your feelings for each other that deep? Also, his daughter is always messing around with other men and doesn't have that deep a relationship with her husband at all."
"Xiaoyao Pill and Fushou Cake are essentially the same thing. Users will have their minds captured and be controlled by others. And you used this to control Suha."
"Since the general discovered me so early, why didn't you arrest me?" Xie Xiu felt that this person was not as foolish as she thought.
Xie Ji said, "I discovered it late. I only understood when I saw the box of gold by the river. So that's what the Marshal meant back then."
Ill-gotten gains of dubious origin are only a sign of malicious intent.
"So the general set fire to the military camp." Xie Xiu thought that his biggest obstacle was Marshal Xie, which was why his series of schemes repeatedly failed. But it was Xie Ji who actually set fire to the camp and forced him to move his plans forward!
When Xie Xiu learned that the main reason for his plan's failure was Xie Ji, he quietly put his hands behind his back. Xie Ji also had his hands behind his back at this moment. Their eyes met again, and the atmosphere became tense and tense, as if a fire had been lit.
The two quickly reached back to grab the item.
The double thud echoed through the shady forest, and the birds scattered.
Xie Ji fell off his horse, his flintlock pistol falling to the ground and treetop. Xie Xiu landed among the intersecting tree roots, clutching his shoulder, his right hand trembling violently, also holding a red flintlock pistol.
He was injured in the shoulder, while Xie Xia was hit directly in the chest by his fireball.
Xie Xia fell to the ground and remained motionless.
Xie Xiu then climbed down from the tree. His face was pale. He raised his flintlock pistol and aimed it at Xie Ji, but found that his right hand, which he was using, was shaking too badly and he was afraid that he would miss. He also didn't have enough flint. He raised the flintlock pistol and approached Xie Ji step by step, wanting to fire one more shot.
"General, Anshan thanks you for your high regard, but unfortunately... we are not on the same path. However, I greatly respect you as a person."
"On the road to the underworld, the real Xie Xiu awaits you."
He pulled the trigger, and with a bang, the flintlock pistol was now pointing towards the air. Then, his finger was pressed down and all the flints were fired in quick succession. The next moment, his right arm was twisted backward uncontrollably, like wringing a towel, and the bones cracked several times before dislocating and hanging down to his leg.
Xie Xiu's gaze trembled as she turned to the right. The man's eyebrows were slanted horizontally, and his two drooping hairs flew into them. His face was filled with a thick, murderous aura, like a black mist that enveloped and spread into her eyes.
"Who doesn't have a gun?" she said in a cold tone. "Even if you have a gun, you can't just point it at people."
Another cracking sound of bones dislocating followed. Xie Xiu lost feeling in his right leg, then his left, before collapsing to the ground. A soft towel was stuffed into his mouth, and then the person struck him on the back of the head, causing him to lose consciousness.
When Xie Lanzhi received Xie Ji's secret letter, she arrived at the scene. In fact, Xie Ji and Xie Xiu had already discussed how to discover the flaws. She had already arrived at the Yinlin Forest and was secretly observing the two of them.
She just didn't expect that Xie Ji's flintlock pistol would still lose by a small margin. Seeing that the guy was taking advantage of the high profit and was about to give Xie Ji a final shot, she took action.
Xie Lanzhi walked over and kicked Xie Ji.
Xie Ji suddenly opened his eyes. He got up from the ground and reached under his armor to pull out a thick stone slab. He saw that Huo Zi was still stuck in the middle, and the stone slab had two large cracks on the left and right.
He was so frightened that he quickly dropped the stone slab: "Marshal, the Hun flintlock muskets are indeed more powerful than ours."
Xie Lanzhi took out her handkerchief, bent down and picked up the red flintlock pistol. She saw that it had aiming lines. After firing a shot, the barrel did not get hot. In fact, this flintlock pistol was more advanced and had a safety catch.
She said coldly, "This thing is more sophisticated than the long firearms we captured in Weidu before. It should be used by the royal family."
But... her gaze fell on Xie Xiu: "He just called himself An Shan, did you hear that?"
Xie Ji nodded: "He thought I was beaten to death, so he essentially revealed his identity."
"Take him back."
When Yelü Lili heard that the enemy had been captured, he wanted to leave the palace to see for himself who this person was, that he could single-handedly cause such a disturbance.
The letter from the Xiongnu envoy Shan Yuhou was personally delivered to him by the Dafan of Luochuan.
After Yelü Lili opened the letter, he found it was a petition for an alliance.
His eyes narrowed instantly: "This letter has only just been delivered to me. The timing is wrong, and it's hard to guarantee that it doesn't harbor hostility and try to sow discord between me and Marshal Xie."
Luo Chuan Da Fan, sweating profusely, reminded him: "This was received by Nobunaga Khan a long time ago. He considered it for a long time before entrusting it to me to deliver to you."
"Father Khan is truly foolish. We have already formed an alliance with Tianjing. Receiving a letter now would be tantamount to admitting defeat." Yelü Lili could not possibly cooperate with the Hu Xiongnu. Cooperating with the Hu Xiongnu would do more harm than good. It would be better to cooperate with the Xie family.
Luochuan Dafan then said, "I think the Khan is willing."
"Nonsense!" Yelü Lili tore up the letter and said without hesitation, "I will never agree to this."
Then Luo Chuan whispered a few words in his ear.
Upon hearing this, Yelü Lili suddenly relaxed his clenched fist.
"The Xiongnu have sent you ten flintlock muskets, ten thousand bushels of grain, and a large treasure ship as a generous invitation. They hope you will come to Ai in Huayin Kingdom to meet with them and discuss the alliance further."
A note from the author:
Thank you to all the little angels who voted for me or watered my plants with nutrient solution between 17:10:18 on January 3, 2022 and 11:21:32 on January 4, 2022!
Thank you to the little angel who threw the rocket: Kyushu Hunter (1);
Thank you to the little angel who threw the grenade: Kyushu Hunter (1);
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution: Ling and Ruyasuihe, 10 bottles;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
Chapter 118 Alliance Treaty of the Nations
Although the other party claimed to be Anshan, who knows if it really is Anshan? Xie Lanzhi handed Anshan over to Xie Ji, who had suffered so much before that he was almost ruthless towards people.
After trying to pry open their mouths for days, they still couldn't get anything out of them; the other party kept their mouths shut.
Meanwhile, news came from Yu Palace, asking Xie Lanzhi to go there.
Under the open-air canopy in front of the Yu Palace, three tables were set up. Yelü Lili sat in the middle, with a familiar figure on either side. It was Shan Yuhou.
When Shan Yuhou saw Xie Lanzhi arrive, he did not utter a sound.
After taking their seats, Yelü Lili brought up the matter of the meeting in Huayin, almost without exchanging pleasantries. Xie Lanzhi had received a notification from him a few days earlier that the Khan of the Northern Luo tribe seemed willing to form an alliance with the Hu Xiongnu.
Yelü Lili could only make decisions for a limited time; he could not command the Northern Regions. Therefore, once the Khan of a tribe actually proposed an alliance, he could not stop it.
Moreover, the person willing to form an alliance with the Xiongnu was Yelü Wen, one of the eight generals of the Northern Regions.
Unfortunately, the most powerful northern state, the Xiongnu, has always only ever annexed other states. Why would they willingly set aside their pride and form an alliance with a smaller state?
It sounds strange and eerie.
"Marshal, this is an envoy from the Xiongnu. You must have met him before."
Xie Lanzhi picked up her wine glass and glanced at Shan Yuhou, who was holding a wine glass and looking her over.
She drank it all in one gulp and replied, "The messenger is truly skilled; he managed to escape safely from Weidu."
Thinking back to his first humiliating departure from the capital, Shan Yuhou harbored resentment that had never subsided. The king had blamed him for losing two firearms and stripped him of his real power. Now, he was merely a messenger, relying solely on the facade of strength he had cultivated over the years of lording it over to maintain his position.
Yelü Lili knew this all too well, so he didn't even bother with formalities and went straight to the point.
"Marshal is joking. This envoy is merely making a normal round trip. What does it have to do with that matter? Rather, let me talk about the alliance letters that my king has been sending out to various places. Not only in the Northern Region, but also in Tianjing and Shiguo Prefecture, my country has sent generous gifts to invite you all to Huayin Kingdom for a meeting."
"Discussing future relations between countries?"
Xie Lanzhi found it amusing: "The relationship between the Xiongnu and other countries is obvious, why wait until later?"
"That's not how it works. Our country has come here with sincerity, to forge alliances with you all. Especially..." Shan Yuhou stared intently at Xie Lanzhi: "...it's you."