The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 1082: defenseless
Chapter 1082 Unprepared
The candlelight flickered, and the light in Bai Qingyan’s dark eyes also flickered. After a while, she raised her eyelids and said, “In this case, Xiliang should show your sincerity first!”
“Your Majesty, please draft a treaty of alliance. You can write that after driving away the Tianfeng Kingdom, Xiliang will become a vassal and pay tribute to the Great Zhou. I will stamp and sign it now.”
“King Yan signed?” Bai Qingyan raised the corner of his lips.
Li Zhijie raised his eyes and looked at Bai Qingyan: “Our Majesty said that as long as the Great Zhou can join forces with Xiliang, I, Li Zhijie, will be responsible for everything. Xiliang… will not care about any cost! Your Majesty once beat us Xiliang without any chance to fight back. Everyone in Xiliang knows that the Queen of the Great Zhou is brave. If we become your Majesty’s subjects, everyone in Xiliang will submit.”
Bai Qingyan’s smile remained unchanged. He looked at Li Zhijie, walked around him for a half circle, and stopped in front of the red-hot charcoal-burning copper stove with auspicious beasts. His slender white hands, as white as scallions, stretched out from his wide sleeves, warmed himself in front of the copper stove with auspicious beasts, and stared at the faint light of lanterns under the corridor outside the partition. He asked, “Does Xiliang have any spies in the Great Zhou?”
Li Zhijie clenched his fists, knelt on his knees, pressed his forehead against the ground, and said in a muffled voice: “Your Majesty, Xiliang has never had any spies or secret agents in the Great Zhou. Please understand your majesty!”
To be honest, Li Zhijie still had some expectations for Guan Zhangning’s hidden move, but… he was definitely not truly willing to submit to him.
Bai Qingyan narrowed his eyes. Guan Zhangning had infiltrated the Bai family army for quite some time. Li Zhijie and Yun Poxing were both close ministers of the Queen of Xiliang. Bai Qingyan didn’t believe Li Zhijie who said he knew nothing.
It seems… Xiliang has his own little plans in mind.
Perhaps, the Queen of Xiliang and Li Zhijie wanted to use the submission to trick the Great Zhou into taking action, and then use the Great Zhou to drive the Tianfeng Kingdom out of Xiliang and consolidate Li Tianjiao’s throne… Whether they can truly submit to the Great Zhou in the end depends on how Xiliang will use the pseudonym Guan Zhangning… and how they will use him as a hidden chess piece in the Bai family army for many years.
Zhang Yi, the prime minister of Qin, had already fooled King Huai of Chu with a fief of six li. Not to mention that Li Zhijie was originally a member of the royal family of Xiliang, so what did it matter if he ruined his personal reputation for Xiliang?
But King Huai of Chu was fooled by Zhang Yi because he thought Chu was too powerful and the Qin people would not dare to fight, and also because of greed… He wanted to get the 600-li Shangyu land from the fierce Qin people without bloodshed. Bai Qingyan did not dare to be arrogant and think that the people of Xiliang were really defeated by her and willing to surrender in the battle in southern Xinjiang as Li Zhijie said.
But…it’s true that winter is the best time to fight against the elephant army.
Xiliang wanted to use Da Zhou, so couldn’t Da Zhou use Xiliang?
After all, the Huoyun Army was trained using the methods of the Tiger Eagle Battalion of the Bai Family Army, so it is only natural to let the Huoyun Army work for the Great Zhou.
She spoke clearly and in a clear voice, “Get up, and let Wei Zhong take you to see Lord Liu Rushi… to discuss how this alliance should be established.”
Bai Qingyan did not point out Guan Zhangning, and let Xiliang think that they had not discovered him yet, so that Guan Zhangning could be used by their Great Zhou.
Hearing this, Li Zhijie closed his sore eyes and felt relieved. He finally achieved the purpose of coming to Pingyang City.
After Li Zhijie kowtowed to Bai Qingyan, he stood up and looked at the calm and reserved woman in front of him. When he first met Bai Qingyan, he never thought that one day… he would kneel in front of her like this. In this world… it is really hard to say how it will change.
“Wei Zhong!” Bai Qingyan called out.
Wei Zhong came in and Bai Qingyan told him what he meant and asked him to take Li Zhijie to see Liu Rushi.
Seeing that Wei Zhong had already taken Li Zhijie away, Bai Qingyu walked to Bai Qingyan’s side and whispered, “If Sister decides to cooperate with the Xiliang people, I’m afraid she will have to find a way to control the Xiliang people.”
“I’m afraid the people from Xiliang will think… that someone among them is controlling our Bai family army!” Bai Qingyan, holding up the hem of her dress, stepped out of the door with Bai Qingyu.
Chunzhi and the others stood ten steps away from Bai Qingyan and Bai Qingyu so as not to disturb the conversation between the two siblings.
“I haven’t had the chance to tell you yet. General Guan Zhangning under Fifth Uncle’s command has been found, but… Guan Zhangning was a hidden chess piece planted by the Yun family of Xiliang into our Bai family’s army many years ago. His original name should be Yunlan.” Bai Qingyan lowered his voice and said to Bai Qingyu, “Qingzhu has already gone to Xiliang to investigate this matter. Although I’m not 100% sure, I’m 90% sure…”
Bai Qingyu paused, stood under the red lights in the corridor, looked at Bai Qingyan, and asked in a low voice: “Is the battle in Southern Xinjiang related to Guan Zhangning?”
Seeing Bai Qingyu clenching his fists and looking murderous, she felt heartbroken. She walked to Bai Qingyu and gently held her brother’s clenched hand.
“No matter if it has anything to do with Yun Lan from Xiliang or not, our Bai family must avenge Yun Poxing! Ah Yu, the battle in Southern Xinjiang is over. The reason why the Bai family ended up like that is not only because of one or two traitors in the Bai family army, but also because of the thoughts of the Jin emperor, the turmoil in the Jin court, and my grandfather’s unreserved loyalty and wholehearted planning for the future of Jin, and the enemy’s fear of the Bai family army!”
“Now, keeping Guan Zhangning alive is more valuable than letting him die. It is the most beneficial for us to have him as a spy… when he is unaware that he has been discovered!” She gently loosened Bai Qingyu’s tightly clenched hand and said with lowered eyes, “What’s more… we in the Bai family army never doubt our comrades and always trust them with our backs. This way, Guan Zhangning will be more defenseless and can be better used by us.”
Bai Qingyu nodded: “I understand what Sister means.”
“Now that the Great Zhou has been established, what we can do… is to prevent the next Bai family from appearing in the Great Zhou!” Bai Qingyan raised the corners of his lips and smiled at his younger brother.
The Great Zhou court could not let its loyal subjects endure the same suffering that the Bai family had gone through.
The Bai family had suffered the same hardship before, and the Great Zhou Dynasty could not allow the soldiers who sacrificed their lives for the country to experience the same hardship again.
Bai Qingyu’s eyes were slightly red, and he nodded. If it was his elder sister… he believed that his elder sister would never let the tragedy of the Bai family happen to the officials of the Zhou Dynasty. He also believed that his elder sister could have absolute trust in the officials. That’s why his elder sister dared to take the initiative to weaken the emperor’s power and delegate power to officials as described in the bamboo slips left by Queen Ji.
Apart from his elder sister, there is probably no other emperor in the world who has such courage and determination, not even the descendants of Queen Ji.
Bai Jinzhi was covered in snow and had a thin cotton cloth slightly soaked with blood wrapped around his neck. He had a wound on his face and covered his arm as he ran towards the inner courtyard. He saw Bai Qingyan and Bai Qingyu standing under the red-lit corridor from afar. Bai Jinzhi jumped out of the corridor and walked towards him in the snow and wind…
The third update will be a little late, so my dear friends, go to sleep first and come back to read it in the morning!