The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 1361: hostage
Chapter 1361 Hostage
After that, Liu Rushi said to the officials who were recording the talks between the two countries: “What are you standing there for? Write it down. The Regent of Yan is equivalent to the Emperor of Yan. If we in the Great Zhou want to discuss state affairs with Yan, we can go directly to the Regent’s Palace of Yan!”
Wang Hanbing narrowed his eyes and smiled, “Lord Liu, why bother to misinterpret my meaning? Although our Yan State’s Majesty is wise and decisive, if the two countries really gamble, His Majesty will make the decision… and how to implement it will need our Regent to control it. This is something that everyone in our Yan court knows, just like this time… Our Majesty made the decision to gamble the country, and even if the Regent disagreed, he still brought the Yan State envoys to the Great Zhou to lead us to discuss the gambling with Yan State.”
Liu Rushi looked at Wang Hanbing’s expression but didn’t insist on harassing him. He just said, “Your Yan’s Regent, Second Prince Murong Ping, and General Xie Xun, all three of them must be held hostage in the Great Zhou! First of all… these three are all capable and skilled generals of your Yan. If we keep them in Yan… we in the Great Zhou are worried! General Xie Xun is a foreigner from the Yan State. If your Yan State breaks the alliance again, the Yan royal family will definitely not hesitate to sacrifice General Xie!”
“Let’s talk about the Second Prince Murong Li. Your Emperor of Yan has been on the throne, but he has not yet been crowned a king. This shows that the Second Prince, who was born out of wedlock by the previous Emperor of Yan, is not favored by the Empress Dowager and the Emperor. Naturally, your Yan Kingdom will not care about breaking the alliance!”
“So, only if your Yan Kingdom’s regent is held hostage in the Great Zhou, can we, the Great Zhou, feel at ease to gamble with your Yan Kingdom!”
Liu Rushi spoke quickly and steadily, leaving no room for the Yan envoy to interrupt. After he finished speaking, he picked up the teacup in front of him, but before he could bring it to his mouth, he added, “After all, gambling with the country is not worth it for our Great Zhou. Almost all the officials in our Great Zhou disagreed. It was only because Your Majesty cared about the soldiers and the people that he agreed to talk. If we can’t reach an agreement, it won’t be a big loss for our Great Zhou. It’s just a few days later.”
After saying that, Liu Rushi picked up the teacup and took a sip of tea slowly, as if he didn’t care and didn’t particularly want to make this gambling deal happen.
The Yan envoys, on the other hand, were anxious and whispered to each other, but Liu Rushi pretended not to hear them.
Wang Hanbing understood that General Lu had been sitting here hesitantly before, and seeing that gentle talks were not working, he took a tough approach as soon as Liu Rushi arrived. Indeed, the Great Zhou had nothing to worry about, and whether they fought or not… it was the Yan State that suffered.
Soon, Wang Hanbing responded. He tightened his hands in his sleeves slightly. “Lord Liu said that the Second Prince is not liked by the Queen Mother and His Majesty. I disagree with this statement. Although the Second Prince has not been crowned as a king yet… he is a capable warrior of our Yan State. How can our Queen Mother and His Majesty not like him? Besides… the First Prince, who is a brother of our Majesty, has not been crowned as a king yet. Could it be that the Queen Mother and His Majesty also dislike the First Prince?”
“As for General Xie, his father is the Marquis of Wenjuan in Yan State. How can we sacrifice General Xie so easily when we are holding him hostage in Da Zhou?”
While Wang Hanbing was speaking, Liu Rushi raised his head and closed the lid of the teacup in his hand, as if he was eager to compete with Wang Hanbing.
Wang Hanbing made a bold decision at this time. He looked up at Liu Rushi and said, “The regent must not be held hostage in the Great Zhou. But… as Lord Liu said, the Great Zhou now has all the advantages and wants our Yan country to show sincerity. Then… our Yan country must show this sincerity. In this way, we can hold the Second Prince and General Xie hostage in the Great Zhou colleagues, and hold the First Prince, who is the biological son of our Yan Queen Mother and the same mother as our Yan Emperor, hostage in the Great Zhou. Can it show our Yan country’s sincerity?”
Wang Hanbing did not discuss this matter with others, but he had already thought about it in his mind. His Majesty also said in the letter… No matter what, the Regent cannot be held hostage by the Great Zhou.
In this case, it would be better to push forward the Empress Dowager’s own son and the Emperor’s own brother than to hold the Regent hostage in the Great Zhou.
Liu Rushi raised his eyebrows, tightened the teacup in his hand, and looked at Wang Hanbing.
Not only Liu Rushi, even the envoys from the State of Yan were shocked. Wang Hanbing did not discuss this with anyone and directly pushed the eldest prince out. If the empress dowager blamed him, who would be held responsible?
However, when Wang Hanbing said this, the envoys from Yan State did not dare to refute.
After all, sitting here at the negotiation table, the two countries were bargaining for benefits with each other, and the people themselves had already spoken out, so the envoys of the Yan State naturally could not sabotage it. What’s more, before they came, they knew that this time the peace talks would be decided by Wang Hanbing.
“What the Great Zhou is worried about is that our Yan State’s bet is a delaying tactic. They are worried that once the bet is finalized, the Great Zhou will withdraw its troops… and the main force of Yan will return to Yan, and Yan will break the agreement. In this case… instead of holding our regent hostage to the Great Zhou, it is better to hold our Queen Mother’s own son, Your Majesty’s brother, hostage to the Great Zhou. Compared with the regent… the uncle of our Yan State Emperor, it is more convincing.” Wang Hanbing raised his eyes and looked at Liu Rushi, “Does the Great Zhou think this sincerity is… sufficient?”
In fact, Liu Rushi knew clearly in his heart that no matter what, Yan State would never hostage the Regent to Zhou State. However, he did not expect that Yan State would eventually push forward the eldest prince born to the Queen Mother of Yan State.
Liu Rushi nodded: “This… is Yan’s sincerity, but there is still one person that I, the Great Zhou, must keep…”
“Don’t worry, Lord Liu. Lord Zhong, the king’s uncle… will definitely stay in Da Zhou to cooperate with Da Zhou in the investigation until the case of the guards’ assassination of Lord Liu is fully investigated. We in Yan State are well aware of this!” Wang Hanbing spoke slowly.
“This is strange…” Liu Rushi turned his head to look at Fan Yugan, then at Lu Fenglang, and swept his eyes over other colleagues, “This Yan State envoy group is very easy to talk to! Why can’t you guys come to an agreement…”
“This… this is our fault! We are just too soft-hearted. We still have to rely on Lord Liu at the critical moment!” Fan Yugan said with a smile. His flattering attitude was so bad that Lu Fenglang couldn’t see it.
Liu Rushi rolled his eyes at Fan Yugan and continued, “Since Yan is so sincere, let’s talk about the details of the gambling between the two countries. If we add up all the cities, land and people in the two countries, it will probably take half a year or a year to complete the calculation. So, we can select a dozen connected cities from the two countries and mark them out. How about that?”
Before Liu Rushi came, the negotiations between the two countries had been stuck. Both sides had been discussing the issue of hostages for such a long time but could not come to an agreement. Now that Liu Rushi has come, things have gone smoothly and they have discussed about allocating more than a dozen cities to gamble with the country.