The Eldest Daughter Is Beautiful and Saucy
Chapter 982: be the first to strike first
Chapter 982: Strike First
“Your Highness, do you want to take advantage of the fact that the Ghost-faced Prince is in Dadu to send someone back to deliver a message to Your Majesty, asking Your Majesty to send troops to attack Rongdi?”
“This plan is feasible! Although Rongdi has many brave generals, none of them follow the art of war to deploy their troops. This ghost-faced prince… is also a rare person in Rongdi in the past hundred years. It is rumored that… this Rongdi ghost-faced prince’s mother is from Yan. He lived in Yan for a period of time when he was young, and later came to Jin. He learned the art of war in Jin, so he is so powerful…”
“So, Your Majesty, as long as this Ghost-faced Prince is not in Rongdi, what does Rongdi have to fear? While Da Zhou is helping us stabilize Rongdi, we should strike first!”
Li Zhijie opened his fan with an irritated look and fanned the air: “If the Great Zhou can stabilize the Ghost-faced Prince in the capital, and Xiliang attacks Rongdi, the Great Zhou will immediately join Rongdi in attacking Xiliang.”
“Your Highness, I thought… the Queen of the Great Zhou just wanted benefits for the Great Zhou, and we in Xiliang would give them. As long as the benefits are big enough, would the Queen of the Great Zhou refuse them?” said an envoy.
Li Zhijie listened to the noisy and chattering envoys, but his mind was filled with the words that he had heard Bai Qing say in the Imperial Academy. If the Great Zhou… wanted to unify the world, it would have to destroy Xiliang… and destroy the Rongdi!
Li Zhijie closed his eyes and fell into a dilemma.
Both the Great Zhou and the Yan Kingdom wanted to unify the world, so logically, Rongdi and Xiliang should work together to resist the strong. Then, are Rongdi crazy? Why do they keep biting Xiliang? There is no deep hatred between them.
But for Xiliang, only by destroying Rongdi… can it form a situation of three kingdoms together with Dayan and Dayan, and only then can it fight for a place in the future, and even compete with Dayan and Dayan for the Central Plains.
but……
As powerful countries today, Great Zhou and Great Yan will never watch Xiliang grow stronger!
How to save Xiliang?
Li Zhijie was having a headache because of the noise from his own delegation. He stood up and walked straight out the door, ignoring the shouts from the delegation behind him. He scratched his head in annoyance and looked at the scorching sun in the capital city. He wished it would rain at this moment to sober him up.
Li Zhijie had just walked downstairs and took a walk in the garden when he heard the sound of a piano. Following the sound, he saw the Ninth Prince of Dayan enjoying the flowers and playing the piano in the pavilion beside the lotus pond.
The octagonal pavilion with double eaves was laid with ivory mats, with a small ebony table in the middle. On the table stood a bronze incense burner with auspicious beasts, from which curls of white smoke were rising. Thin white cloud-mist gauze curtains hung from the eight beams to block flying insects. When the wind blew… the cloud-mist gauze curtains swayed gently, and the copper hooks and silver bells hanging on both sides of the gauze curtains made crisp sounds, which echoed the piano playing by the Ninth Prince of Dayan and were extremely elegant.
Li Zhijie paused, stood under the swaying sweet-scented osmanthus tree, and listened quietly to the piano playing by the Ninth Prince of Dayan. The wind blew… and he was unaware that the sweet sweet-scented osmanthus flowers fell on his shoulders.
As the song came to an end, Li Zhijie looked at the Ninth Prince of Dayan who was sitting cross-legged on an ivory mat playing the piano. He then looked at the teapot on the small red clay stove, and then at the mask of the Ninth Prince of Dayan. He lowered his eyes as if he suddenly realized something and chuckled. At the moment when the music of the piano stopped abruptly, he walked towards the octagonal pavilion.
“Your Highness the Ninth Prince is in such a refined mood.” Li Zhijie smiled and bowed to the Ninth Prince of Dayan.
The guards who were serving the Ninth Prince of Dayan lifted the mist curtain for Li Zhijie. Li Zhijie stared at the Ninth Prince of Dayan, took off his deerskin boots, stepped on the ivory mat, and sat opposite the Ninth Prince of Dayan: “Li Zhijie is so lucky that I can hear the Ninth Prince’s piano music.”
The Ninth Prince of Dayan placed the guqin on the small table in front of him, looked up at Li Zhijie, and said with a smile: “I thought the King of Yan must be in a state of panic at this moment, but I didn’t expect that he would still be in the mood to appreciate the music of my guqin.”
“The Ninth Prince of Dayan is playing the zither here…” Li Zhijie looked at the teapot on the small stove again, smiled and unfolded his folding fan and fanned it slowly, “It’s time to make tea. Isn’t he waiting for me to help Xiliang solve his problems?”
Li Zhijie is not stupid. The Ninth Prince wears a mask and never reveals his true face to the outside world. How can he drink tea in public?
She must have known that he was out, so she was just playing the piano to lure him over.
Behind the mask, the low laughter of the Ninth Prince of Dayan could be heard. He signaled the servant to take away the guqin on the small table, picked up the teapot with a handkerchief covering the handle, poured a cup of tea for Li Zhijie and pushed it in front of him: “Prince Yan is right.”
Li Zhijie picked up the teacup, blew a breath of hot air into it, and asked: “Dayan has signed an alliance with Rongdi. I wonder how Dayan can help Xiliang out of danger, and what price Xiliang will have to pay?”
The Ninth Prince of Dayan slowly placed the teapot back on the small stove. The tea in the pot boiled again and some of it was poured out.
“King Yan, do you know that the ghost-faced prince of Rongdi… has a close relationship with the Queen of Great Zhou? It can even be said that Rongdi is already in the hands of Great Zhou, so… King Yan, do you think that Great Zhou will really make an alliance with Xiliang?”
Li Zhijie tightened his grip on the teacup, but did not look up. After a brief thought, he smiled and said, “I’m afraid you must be joking, Ninth Prince. If the Ghost-faced Prince of Rongdi has a close relationship with the Empress of Great Zhou, then the Empress of Great Zhou should have attacked Xiliang together with Rongdi while the three-year agreement between Rongdi and Dayan was still within the deadline. Why… waste time here in vain?”
“This is exactly what I can’t figure out!” The Ninth Prince of Dayan seemed to be a little confused in his voice, “However, according to the news we got in Dayan, the third son of the Bai family, Bai Qingqi, who just returned to the Bai family, has left Dadu and is heading to southern Xinjiang. Maybe he is already preparing for war.”
Li Zhijie pretended to be calm and looked up at the Ninth Prince of Dayan: “This prince just went to the palace to meet the Queen of Great Zhou today. The Queen of Great Zhou hopes that we in Xiliang will show greater sincerity before signing the treaty.”
“Why doesn’t King Yan think this is an excuse for delaying?” The Ninth Prince of Dayan leaned casually on the hidden bag beside him, “King Yan, think carefully about the Ghost-faced Prince who suddenly appeared in Rongdi. It happened to be after the battle in the southern border of the Bai family. The way he marched and fought, arranged the troops and used the troops was quite similar to the style of the Bai family. And the Ghost-faced Prince’s style of doing things…”
The Ninth Prince of Dayan chuckled and looked at Li Zhijie: “According to common sense, weak countries should unite to resist strong countries. Why did Rongdi sign such an alliance with Dayan and insist on attacking Xiliang? Isn’t Rongdi afraid that the neighboring Great Zhou will not sit idly by and watch it grow stronger, and swallow Rongdi after Rongdi has mobilized the whole country to fight against Xiliang? Or does Rongdi really believe that Great Zhou will not do that? Where does this trust come from?”
Li Zhijie’s grip on the teacup tightened constantly, and he suddenly felt panicked.