The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 1335: pennies count
Chapter 1335: Penny-pinching
“I’m afraid this is inappropriate…” Lu Jin said with a smile, “I’ve already interrogated the person, and the confession is in the hands of the prince. I wonder how the Ninth Prince will investigate in detail? It would be fine if Yan State took the person back and chopped him into pieces, but if he changes his confession, it would be considered that we, the Great Zhou, were tortured into confessing. How unjustified we would be.”
When a Yan court official heard what Lu Jin said, he couldn’t hold back his anger. He bowed to Lu Jin and said, “The man is from our Yan country. Since Lord Lu has already interrogated him, why is he afraid of us taking him back? Our Ninth Prince said that he wants to investigate in detail and will definitely give an explanation to the Great Zhou. Lord Lu is making excuses, which inevitably makes people suspect that the guard was tortured into confessing!”
When Xiao Rongyan heard this, he looked at the stupid idiot with a cold gaze.
Sure enough, when Bai Qingyan heard this, he stood up straight, the smile on his face disappeared, and his voice was cold and stern, raising two tones, but not hurriedly: “Envoy Yan’s words are strange, did we torture him into confessing? Did we torture the guards of Lord Zhong to… assassinate Lord Liu, an important official of our court? Or did our people go to the posthouse and tie up this assassin, and put a knife to his neck to assassinate our own official?”
“Yan State, please don’t forget that our Minister Liu is still lying in bed, his life or death unknown! First he was my brother, and now he is my right-hand man. This is the second time that your Yan State… has harmed my Great Zhou!” Bai Qingyan said in a cold voice, “This is because I have good self-cultivation. If I were a tyrant, I’m afraid that you Yan State officials would not be able to walk out of this hall with your arms held high today!”
Bai Qing spoke slowly and leisurely, which gave him a sense of majesty without even getting angry. Now that his voice was raised and filled with ice, it was even more terrifying.
The envoy from Yan was so scared that he lowered his head quickly, wishing he could bite off his tongue. He was a member of the Queen Mother’s Party, so naturally he had to find a way to clear Zhong Xingxiao of the crime. Even if he was not a member of the Queen Mother’s Party, now that Yan State was in this situation, he also needed to clear Yan State of suspicion before he could discuss the strategy of gambling the country with the Great Zhou.
The Yan State used the four words “people’s words are scary” to force the Great Zhou to negotiate a national gamble with their Yan State. Now such a big handle has been handed to the Great Zhou. The Great Zhou has an excuse to send troops. As a court official of the Yan State, how can he not panic?
“Your Majesty, don’t take the impetuous words of our Yan ministers to heart. As Your Majesty said… it was our Yan guards who went to Lord Liu’s house to assassinate him. There is no excuse for this.” Xiao Rongyan said calmly, “The death of a guard is not a big deal, but… it involves the blood brother of our Yan Queen Mother. This matter… our Yan State still needs to investigate in detail.”
As soon as Xiao Rongyan finished speaking, Wei Zhong came in with small steps, bowed and said to Bai Qing: “Your Majesty, the assassin… Doctor Huang was unable to save him, he is dead!”
Xiao Rongyan’s palms tightened.
“If you try to assassinate an important official of the Great Zhou, even if you die a thousand times, it will not be enough to vent your hatred.” Bai Qing said indifferently, “Death… is a bargain.”
Without giving the Yan courtiers a chance to speak, Bai Qingyan continued, “I can roughly guess what the Queen Mother of Yan’s brother, Lord Zhong, is thinking about this assassination attempt. Either he is afraid of Lord Liu’s words, or he wants to ruin this gambling event. I think… Before, the Ninth Prince of Great Yan came to the court of Great Zhou and said that Yan still has some capital to fight against our Great Zhou. This is true!”
Bai Qing deliberately praised the State of Yan in his words.
“Since Lord Liu has not yet woken up, Lord Zhong should not be present at the negotiation with the gambling country!” Bai Qingyan tapped his fingers on the table and said, “Let’s start the negotiation tomorrow! The sooner the negotiation is over, the sooner your Yan country will leave our capital city.”
Now the handle is in the hands of the Great Zhou, and the Great Zhou is willing to negotiate. This time, I am afraid that the State of Yan must show enough “sincerity” to quell the “assassination attempt”.
The officials of the Yan State had already guessed the intention of the Great Zhou Emperor, which was probably to hint that they, the Yan State, should be prepared to make sacrifices before they could reach an agreement on the gambling deal.
Even if they had some dissatisfaction, once they heard that Bai Qingyan had already set a date and said they could start talking tomorrow, they felt that nothing else mattered.
Xiao Rongyan also saw what Bai Qingyan meant, but from the perspective of Yan State, if they had to haggle over the matter of the “assassin” with the Great Zhou, it would be counterproductive. It would be good news for Yan State if they could decide to discuss the matter tomorrow.
The envoys of Yan State naturally thought so. When they heard that they could discuss the gambling matter tomorrow, their expressions were unexpected, but they also felt that it was reasonable…
After all, the Great Zhou was already strong, and this time it had a firm hold on the State of Yan. If it could make some difficult demands on the State of Yan during tomorrow’s negotiations, the State of Yan would be more likely to agree than before. Even if it was asked to cede a few cities, the State of Yan, which had been caught with a hold, would have to agree. Then, the Great Zhou would have a great chance of conquering the State of Yan without bloodshed.
Such a deal would tempt the Emperor of the Great Zhou if he was a slightly greedy person.
To Xiao Rongyan, even if the assassin, Lu Jin, did not use enough strength, the person would be dead. But he knew Zhong Xingxiao, and he did not have the courage to order his men to assassinate the Shangshu of the Great Zhou court.
But the assassin actually confessed in front of Lu Jin in the end, but died when the courtiers from Yan State came. For a moment, Xiao Rongyan couldn’t guess… Was the assassin’s death a way for Bai Qingyan to take hostages in order to smoothly sign the contract later?
However, what Xiao Rongyan was most worried about was that this assassin had other backgrounds and purposes.
Putting aside personal feelings, the current result is good for the State of Yan, but Xiao Rongyan must find out why this assassin assassinated an important official of the Zhou court and who is behind it.
“Since the assassin is dead, please ask the Emperor of the Great Zhou to hand over the body of this villain to the State of Yan.” Xiao Rongyan said.
“The assassination attempt on my Great Zhou Minister Liu has not yet been concluded. The State of Yan thought… that since I agreed to discuss it tomorrow, the matter would just be covered up like that? They even dared to ask for my corpse?” Bai Qing said with a smile.
Seeing this, Lu Jin smiled and asked, “Could it be that the Regent of Yan wants to take this ‘righteous man’ of Yan back and bury him with honor?”
“What Minister Lu said is really heartbreaking!” The Minister of Finance of Yan State stepped forward and said loudly, “Our regent wants to take the body back, but he just wants to bring the body to Lord Zhong and ask Lord Zhong to give an explanation! After all… this assassin said that Lord Zhong ordered him to do it. Even though the confession has been made, Lord Zhong is still an important official of Yan State. Your Majesty must give us a chance to clear Lord Zhong of suspicion.”