The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 1016: Xiang Jun
Chapter 1016 Elephant Army
Bai Qingyan nodded. Ayu’s consideration was extremely prudent. Now… it should be time for Ayu to return to Rongdi to make preparations.
On that day, Xiao Rongyan left the Dadu Palace and returned to the posthouse. The Ninth Prince of Yan and the Yan envoys packed up and returned to their country.
The Yan State, which came to propose marriage this time, returned empty-handed, which made more people in Yan State more wary of the Ninth Prince Murong Yan. They secretly speculated in their hearts… It must be that the Ninth Prince did not allow the new Yan Emperor Murong Li to get the support of the Great Zhou, so he deliberately ruined the marriage.
On the sixth day of September in the early Yuanhe period, Bai Jintong arrived in Dadu.
Bai Jintong rushed back day and night and had no time to send someone to deliver the letter in advance.
Holding the token Bai Qingqi gave her, she entered the palace without any problems…
Bai Qingyan was having lunch and discussing state affairs with General Lu, Minister Shen, Minister Dong, and the six ministers when they saw Wei Zhong coming in hurriedly.
Wei Zhong walked to Bai Qingyan’s side with small steps, covered his lips and whispered to Bai Qingyan: “The third lady is back and is outside the palace.”
Bai Qingyan tightened his grip on the chopsticks, quickly put down the bowl and chopsticks, wiped the corners of his mouth with a handkerchief, and said to the adults, “You guys discuss it first, I’ll be back soon.”
General Lu hurriedly brought several important officials to pay their respects to Bai Qingyan.
Seeing Bai Qingyan hurriedly leave, Dong Qingping was nervous: “What happened?”
“You are His Majesty’s uncle. If you don’t know, we have no way of knowing.” Shen Sikong said with a smile.
“Let’s eat first, then discuss and come up with some countermeasures, which Your Majesty will be able to choose from later…” said General Lu as he sat down first, picked up the bowl and chopsticks to eat.
Zhang Duanning, the current Minister of War, held his bowl and chopsticks and couldn’t help but sigh: “Our empress is really unconventional. This is the first time I’ve seen her discuss state affairs with court officials while eating.”
Hearing that Zhang Duanning was not dissatisfied but just felt strange, the Minister of Justice Lu Jin said: “When your majesty was young, he went to war with his elders. Time was tight on the battlefield and fighting was a physical job. The King of Zhenguo, the Duke of Zhenguo and the generals did this. They discussed the battle plan while eating! Our majesty does not put on airs and eats with us courtiers. This shows that your majesty has not forgotten his original intention.”
Zhang Duanning nodded: “When my cousin was still alive, every time I heard him mention His Majesty, he was full of praise and admiration.”
Bai Jintong was in the side hall, looking solemn and restless. He had not even had time to wash up, and came to see his elder sister dressed in men’s clothes, looking exhausted.
Seeing the elder sister step into the side hall, Bai Jintong’s eyes suddenly turned red for some reason, and he rushed towards the elder sister: “Elder sister!”
Bai Qingyan also took two steps forward and saw that Bai Jintong’s eyes were black and blue, he had lost a lot of weight, and his eye contours and cheeks were sunken. She felt so distressed that she hugged Bai Jintong tightly in her arms.
Chuntao followed beside him and watched with fear, fearing that something might happen to Bai Qingyan. After all, Bai Qingyan was now a double.
“Eldest sister…” Bai Jintong hugged her elder sister tightly with a strong nasal voice. She almost thought that she would never see her elder sister again in this life.
“I’m sorry for making you suffer! It’s good that you’re back! It’s good that you’re back!” Bai Qingyan gently stroked Bai Jintong’s back and soothed him softly.
“Third Miss!” Chuntao smiled with tears in her eyes and bowed to Bai Jintong.
Bai Jintong smiled and nodded at Chuntao: “Chuntao…your cousin asked me to bring you a letter. Third brother asked your cousin to do something very important, so he couldn’t come back with me this time.”
Chun Tao’s ears turned red, and she said hurriedly: “It is my cousin’s duty to serve the Third Miss and the Third Young Master. Chun Tao knows the importance of this!”
Bai Jintong nodded.
“Eldest sister, I met them in southern Xinjiang… They are still alive… There are still sons of our Bai family alive!” Bai Jintong’s tears were like beads falling off a string.
Bai Qingyan let go of Bai Jintong, took her hand and walked to the couch, and told Chuntao to get Bai Jintong some hot tea and snacks: “Have you met Third Aunt?”
“I haven’t seen mother yet! I was in a hurry to come back because I had something important to tell me…” Bai Jintong wiped away her tears as she remembered the important matter and said, “Sister, when I came back, the Queen of Xiliang had already sent people to the Tianfeng Kingdom to ask for help.”
Bai Qingyan motioned Bai Jintong to sit down. She had heard about the Tianfeng Kingdom from Bai Jintong’s letters before, and later she made a special trip to find a map.
There are many things in Tianfeng Kingdom that interest Bai Qingyan, such as ink powder that can make weapons sharper, tougher and indestructible.
“I remember you said in your letter… Tianfeng Country is behind the snowy mountain where Rongdi and Xiliang meet and no one can cross it?”
Chuntao came up with some snacks. After serving the tea, she led people out of the side hall and waited outside.
Bai Jintong nodded, dipped his fingers in the tea, and roughly drew the locations of Rongdi, Xiliang, the snow-capped mountain, and Tianfeng Kingdom on the agarwood table.
“The Tianfeng Kingdom is right here. It has a unique location. It was isolated by the snow-capped mountains in the past… To Xiliang and Rongdi, the snow-capped mountains are sacred and inviolable. They feel that the snow-capped mountains are the end of the sky! The Tianfeng Kingdom on the other side of the snow-capped mountains also thinks so, and they don’t know that there are other countries behind the snow-capped mountains!”
Bai Jintong circled another spot next to the snow-capped mountain and pointed with his finger: “The end of the snow-capped mountain to the south is the desert, which is in Xiliang. No one dares to go to the desert Gobi! I was lucky… I found a road that can travel between Tianfeng Kingdom and Xiliang, and then from Xiliang, I can send the goods of Tianfeng Kingdom to Dazhou and Dayan, as well as Dawei and Daliang before! I made a lot of profit from this, but… the bad thing is that when I was in Xiliang, in order to get the support of the eight major families of Xiliang as soon as possible, I had to tell them about this road. This road is steep, but not extremely cold, so people can pass through it.”
Bai Qingyan suddenly became alert: “Tell me about this Tianfeng Kingdom in detail.”
“When I first arrived at Tianfeng, I found many things incredible. Giant animals like elephants were rare in Liang, but elephants in Tianfeng… could be seen everywhere, and their size was even larger than that of Daliang. Tianfeng called elephants “da ke” and “da shou”. The population of this country was not as large as that of Da Zhou and Da Yan, so their army was not large in number, but they could use elephants as their army.”
“They train the huge elephants to become elephant soldiers, just like our cavalry. Compared with cavalry… the elephant soldiers can travel through mountains and rivers as if they were walking on flat ground. The elephants are equipped with iron armor, and the soldiers ride on the elephants’ backs to command the battle. During the march… the elephant soldiers can also be used to transport food and supplies. I have been in Tianfeng Kingdom for too short a time, and I have not had the honor of seeing the elephant soldiers participating in the war. But in Tianfeng Kingdom… the people’s daily lives cannot be separated from elephants.”
The third update… continue to ask for monthly votes!