Huo Guang said helplessly, "If Your Highness is worried, then don't go near that child."

Liu Tan almost blurted out: What if that child is full of bombs, and he wants to kill us all?

But he soon realized that bombs didn't come from anywhere in this day and age.

He coughed lightly and said, "I was just joking. In that case, let Li Ling and Wei Buyi lead the elite troops to protect the main hall. The Prime Minister and the Chief Justice can go back and wait for news. Please ask Marquis Bowang to bring them here."

Liu Tan arranged everything in an instant. First, he asked the elite group to protect him in order to avoid a sudden assassination attack.

But even so, he still felt unsafe, so after much deliberation he decided to let Huo Guang and Jiang Chong leave first. That way, if anything happened to him, at least there would be someone who could step forward in time to stabilize the situation.

This arrangement cannot be said to be incomplete.

However, in the eyes of Zhang Qian, Marquis of Bowang, all the decisions made by His Royal Highness the King of the Northern Territory revealed one word: cowardice.

Zhang Qian was a little confused on the way back to the posthouse. How could great courage and great cowardice be combined in one person?

The reason why everyone was shocked by the fact that Liu Tan ran out and stabbed Wu Shilu to death was that if this matter was not handled properly, he would die there.

But from beginning to end, Wu Shilu seemed to be following his arrangements, and he succeeded, so in the eyes of others he was brave and resourceful.

But now why does he look... not brave at all?

Huo Guang and Jiang Chong were both quite amused and helpless, so they said, "Your Highness, let's stay and see what that Qiemo car is up to!"

Liu Tan glanced at Huo Guang and found that the other party was very determined. After thinking about it, he simply agreed. By the way, he asked the elite regiment to arrange more people around the two of them. He could ignore everything else, but the safety of the prime minister and the court judge must be guaranteed!

Huo Guang and Jiang Man looked at themselves surrounded by elite troops in three layers, their heads filled with rage. They couldn't help but slam the table and said, "Your Highness, what's the point of us staying here?"

I couldn't see anything. There was just a wall of people in front of me. Is this how you receive foreign guests?

Liu Tan reluctantly ordered them to retreat. Before he could say anything, Huo Guang stopped him and said, "Your Highness, just protect yourself. That Qiemo chariot may not be able to defeat us."

Liu Tan: ...

Well, he forgot that both Huo Guang and Jiang Chong were quite skilled in martial arts.

So it seems that he is the only real weakling in this hall.

Just as Liu Tan was busy with these things, Zhang Qian arrived with the Qiemo chariot.

What surprised Liu Tan was that the Qiemo car did not bring the child with it.

He was worried that someone would use the child to assassinate someone, but in fact, Qiemo Che was also worried that Liu Tan would kill Wu Shilu's child as soon as they met.

Even if the child stayed in the inn, he would still be in the Northern King's territory and would not be safe, but this was the only solution he had, at least to prevent the Northern King from killing people impulsively.

Qiemo Che's action made Liu Tan feel much more at ease. It seemed that the child was not really meant to be assassinated.

Liu Tan looked at Qiemo Che and said, "I think you know very well how your master died. How dare you bring his child to me?"

Qiemo Che gave Liu Tan an ambiguous look and spoke a string of Xiongnu words.

The smile on Liu Tan's face froze immediately - good, after he became the only weakling in the entire hall, he had another achievement, he was the only one in the entire hall who could not understand the Xiongnu language.

His gaze shifted to Li Ling and Wei Buyi. Li Ling and Wei Buyi didn't react at first, but fortunately, Liu Tan had Yan Xingsheng by his side.

Yan Xingsheng usually knelt behind Liu Tan on such occasions. At this moment, he leaned forward slightly and said, "Your Highness, the truth of what Qiemo Che said will become clear after you read the letter."

The truth? Was there another reason for Wu Shilu's death?

Liu Tan was somewhat confused. No matter what, it was true that he stabbed Wu Shilu. Even if Wu Shilu died at the hands of his own people in the end, the cause was still this stabbing.

He said, "Where's the letter?"

Since Wu Shilu left him a letter, it wouldn't hurt for him to take a look at it. He was very tolerant of the dead anyway - except for people like Li Guangli.

Qiemo Che took out a crumpled letter from his arms. Miao Rui had already put a piece of cloth in his hand, and he stepped forward to take the letter.

Qiemo Che looked at the cloth with a trace of contempt on his face, and said a lot of gibberish.

Yan Xingsheng hesitated for a moment: "Qiemo Che said..."

Liu Tan raised his hand and said, "No need to translate. It's not a good thing anyway. I don't want to hear it."

Yan Xingsheng: ...

Okay, his Highness is still so willful.

Miao Rui didn't care whether Qiemo Che looked down on him or not. He was just a eunuch anyway, and he was looked down upon many times. Only their prince treated them as normal people and never made things difficult for them.

Even for this matter, Miao Rui would be cautious about anything that might hurt Liu Tan.

After checking to make sure there was no poison, Miao Rui took out the letter and unfolded the cloth inside.

White paper can now basically be considered a special supply to Chang'an and the Northern Border Country. It is also available in other places to some extent, but the promotion of this kind of thing has always been slow.

This was the case even within the territory of the Han Dynasty, let alone the Xiongnu. However, the Xiongnu originally had no written language, but I didn't expect that Wu Shilu actually learned Chinese characters.

The font above is crooked, and it is exactly the same as the font in the letter written by Wu Shilu before. The only difference is that although the handwriting of the previous letter is not beautiful, it reveals a sharpness as a whole, while this letter shows at a glance that the person who wrote it is not strong enough.

When Liu Tan thought about how Wu Shilu was still writing to him when he was injured and dying, he suddenly didn't know what to feel.

He lowered his head to glance at the letter. Because each word was written in large size, Wu Shilu's letter took up a lot of cloth, and it was quite large when unfolded.

Liu Tan took a long time to understand what Wu Shilu wrote.

Then he sat there for a long time without saying a word.

Huo Guang and Jiang Chong, who were sitting below, were both a little anxious. What on earth did this mean? What on earth had Wu Shilu written?

Not to mention them, even Marquis Bowang looked very curious.

Liu Tan paused for a moment before asking, "So, Wu Shilu already knew he had an incurable disease before he went south to plunder?"

Everyone was shocked: What's going on? Is Wu Shilu suffering from an incurable disease?

Qiemo Che's eyes darkened and he said, "That's right."

Liu Tan reached out to hold onto the table and said, "I already know what's going on. You...you can stay here for now. I need to think about it before giving you an answer. But don't worry, since you saved Marquis Bowang before, I won't make things difficult for you."

Well, he wouldn't make things difficult for Qiemo Che, but as for the child... no, he needed to sort out his thoughts.

Qiemo Che didn't seem to be in a hurry. When he heard what Liu Tan said, he bowed and turned away.

After he left, Zhang Qian was in a daze about whether to stay or not. After thinking it over, he decided to leave too.

Anyway, if he could really find out, he could just go and ask Qiemo Che. If he couldn't find out, he would be driven away if he stayed.

After Qiemo Che and Zhang Qian had both left, Jiang Chong could no longer contain his excitement and asked, "Your Highness, what exactly is going on?"

Liu Tan looked up at them and said, "Wu Shilu...he has a brain disease!"

Huo Guang looked at Liu Tan quietly. Although Liu Tan tried his best to hide it just now, he could see that Liu Tan was completely confused, otherwise he would not have driven away the Qiemo car so quickly.

Liu Tan paused for a moment, took a deep breath, and said, "Wu Shilu said in the letter that he was already ill and would not live long. So the last time he came, he wanted to use Zhang Qian, Su Wu, and a thousand Han people in exchange for a favor I owed him. He hoped that after his death, I would take in his son."

Huo Guang and Jiang Chong: ????

Even the two of them couldn't figure out Wu Shilu's train of thought.

Li Ling, standing by, couldn't help but say, "He went to Yan to massacre Han civilians, then went to the Northern Border to provoke them again and again, and he still said it was... a favor?"

Liu Tan's mouth twitched. "Wu Shilu said he wasn't like this originally, but he just couldn't control himself."

In fact, what Wu Shilu said was that when he thought about being in the same city with Liu Tan, he couldn't help but want to tease Liu Tan.

Unexpectedly, the King of the North was so amused by him that he got furious.

Rather than being a letter of entrustment, this letter was more like Wu Shilu's answer to the question raised by Liu Tan during their previous night meeting.

In fact, Liu Tan asked that question during the night meeting just to paralyze Wu Shilu. He never thought of getting an answer from Wu Shilu.

No matter why Wu Shilu came here, he only saw the result, so he just stabbed him and that was it.

But if you think about it, it's not surprising that Wu Shilu got sick. Liu Tan remembered that in history, Wu Shilu died suddenly three years after he ascended the throne. If you calculate the time... it's about this time.

However, the timelines of most important characters were a mess. Liu Tan originally thought that Wu Shilu was not there, or that Wu Shilu was lost by his butterfly.

It now seems that even if he hadn't stabbed him, Wu Shilu would still have died.

But this also explains why there was no hatred in Qiemo Che's eyes when he looked at him. Perhaps in Qiemo Che's eyes, Liu Tan should feel guilty because of this knife?

Liu Tan said: Guilt is bullshit! He even feels regretful. If only he really was the one who killed Wu Shilu!

But he still didn't understand: "Why would Wu Shilu entrust his son to me? Is there no one in the Xiongnu he can trust?"

If this is true, then Wu Shilu... this lonely man is too thorough.

Huo Guang thought for a moment and said, "Actually, this kind of thing is very common among the Xiongnu."

Liu Tan: "Ah?"

Huo Guang explained, "It means adopting the children of the defeated. For example, the former Wusun Kunmi Liejiaomi's enemies were the Xiongnu. Although his father was killed by the Yuezhi, the Yuezhi were forced to surrender by the Xiongnu. It can be said that the Xiongnu indirectly caused the destruction of the Wusun. Later, the Xiongnu Chanyu Maodun adopted him, raised him to adulthood, and revived the Wusun."

Liu Tan: ...Okay, I feel that the love, hate, and vengeance of these people from the Western Regions are too frivolous.

Huo Guang said, "Wusilu sent his son to us to see if you are willing to deal with the Xiongnu. If the Han adopts his son, we can support him to become the Xiongnu Chanyu again if we have the chance. By then, the Han will have controlled the Xiongnu, and his son will have grown up."

Jiang Chong was obviously stunned by what he heard: "Then... Your Highness, do you want to adopt her?"

Liu Tan glared: "I am sick, adopting the son of my enemy."

Huo Guang said, "If you don't adopt him, then kill him."

Liu Tan said, "No, no, no, don't be so hasty."

Jiang Chong asked, "Then what does Your Highness mean..."

Liu Tan tore off a piece of paper and said, "It's okay. If you have any questions, ask my dad."

Huo Guang and Jiang Chong: ...

Not to mention, Liu Che actually gave him a solution: Zhang Qian took them to Chang'an.