Chapter 418 Peace Talks Between the Two Countries, Demanding Princess Marry

Zhao Furou sensed that the other person wanted her dead, so she gave up struggling, let go, and let her hands hang down.

It's better to die, so I won't have to live my whole life feeling guilty towards my child.

Just when she thought she was going to be strangled to death, the hand that was choking her neck suddenly jerked away forcefully.

Zhao Furou lay face down on the bed, coughing as she covered her neck, which was bruised and purple from being choked, "cough cough..."

"Who are you? Why don't you kill me?"

If you kill her, she can be free to go find her child.

"Killing you would be too easy for you."

Upon hearing the familiar voice, Zhao Furou's eyes widened as she looked at the dark figure. "Wanyan Zonglie? What are you doing here?"

The bedding beneath him felt familiar, confirming that he was inside the palace. How could he have entered the palace?

"How did I get here? Of course I'm here to ask you for my child. Where is my child?" Wanyan Zonglie's hand touched her flat belly, where his child had once been.

Zhao Furou said, "She's dead. She's a daughter, not the son you longed for. You should leave. With your status and position, you can have as many women as you want to have children with. Our child is unacceptable to people from both countries. Living would only bring her suffering."

That child shouldn't have come.

Wanyan Zonglie: "Shut up! You are not allowed to curse my child. It is your Great Zhou people who are narrow-minded and cannot tolerate her. In Great Jing, I would like to see who dares not tolerate my daughter."

Zhao Furou moved over to the side, pulling the blanket over herself, while the dark figure sitting next to her remained motionless.

"Get out of here right now, or I'll call for help."

There are no guards in your yard. Even if you shout until you're hoarse, no one will come. You can shout slowly in a while.

Wanyan Zonglie pulled off her bedding.

"What are you doing? You bastard, don't touch me, ouch..." Zhao Furou struggled, pulling at the wound on her abdomen.

Wanyan Zonglie took out a tinderbox, lit the candle, and went to pull at her clothes again, seeing that her abdomen was wrapped in a thick layer of gauze.

According to the scouts, she had a difficult childbirth and her abdomen was cut open to remove the baby.

Zhao Furou slapped the man's hand away from her stomach and pulled the blanket over herself. "Don't touch me. Get out of here and don't ever come looking for me again."

"No one can bully you in Dajing, but anyone can bully you in Dazhou. Do you regret running away from me?"

“I have no regrets! If it weren’t for the invasion of the Great Zhou by your Great Jing, if you hadn’t forcibly taken my innocence, I wouldn’t have suffered like this.”

Wanyan Zonglie sneered, "In this world, the strong prey on the weak, and the capable rule. Didn't your Great Zhou's empire also come from plundering others?"

Zhao Furou was speechless.

"As the two countries are negotiating peace, in order to show that the two countries are bound together by a lasting alliance, I, the Crown Prince, will have someone add a condition: you must go to Dajing for a marriage alliance."

"A marriage alliance? Are you crazy? Our Great Zhou and your Great Jing are sworn enemies. If you want to form a marriage alliance, you'll have to release my father and brothers."

"Releasing them isn't out of the question, but do you think your dear brother would be willing? He'd love for our Great Jing to imprison your father for the rest of his life."

Zhao Furou cried even harder. She knew, she knew everything, but being exposed by her enemy still made her furious.

"I will not go to a marriage alliance. You people of Dajing are all beasts, harming Dazhou and torturing women. I would rather die than marry you!"

She finally escaped back, only to be defiled by them again; that would be a disgrace to the Great Zhou.

"You are already my concubine. If you don't marry me, who else can you marry? What man in the Great Zhou would be willing to marry you? Besides, the men of your Great Zhou are all weaklings who can't even kill a chicken. After experiencing a powerful man like me, can they satisfy you?"

Wanyan Zonglie grabbed her chin, stroked her lips with his thumb, and kissed her. Her lips were still so soft, but the words she spoke were barbed, making one want to twist her neck.

Zhao Furou felt humiliated and raised her hand to slap him, but he intercepted her wrist and twisted it behind her back, rendering her unable to move her hand. "Marshal Xiao is much more powerful than you."

Wanyan Zonglie's eyes narrowed, and he grabbed her neck with his large hand, pulling her close. "He saved you, and you've fallen for him?"

"So what if he is? He's a thousand times, ten thousand times better than you!" Zhao Furou looked up and met his gaze.

She won't marry him; it would be better if he killed her in a fit of anger.

After the peace talks between the two countries failed, Marshal Xiao led his troops north again, recovered the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun, and then marched to Stone City to welcome back the Emperor.

"You..." The man's hand covered her chest, his large hand tightening as if he wanted to grasp her heart.

"Ah!" Zhao Furou had just given birth and was still breastfeeding when a sharp pain shot through her chest, bringing tears to her eyes. She shook her head and said, "Don't touch me, just kill me."

Wanyan Zonglie threw her back onto the bed, covered her, and said in a deep voice, "Want to die? Not so easy. I'm going to make you give my child back."

He wanted Zhao Furou to have several more children to compensate for the pain of losing his daughter.

"The imperial physician said I can't have children anymore, I can't have any more. If you want a child, find someone else to have it." Tears streamed down Zhao Furou's face.

It's better that she can't have children; she's an incompetent mother who can't protect her own child, and she doesn't deserve to be a mother.

When Wanyan Zonglie saw her pained expression, all the blame, sarcasm, and resentment he had prepared in his heart turned into heartache.

“Those imperial physicians are all quacks. Come back to Dajing with me, and I will definitely find the best doctors to treat you.”

"I don't want to, I won't get treatment, I'd rather die than have another child with you, let me go, get out..." Zhao Furou pushed and hit him but couldn't push him away.

Worried that she would aggravate the wound on her abdomen, Wanyan Zonglie struck her on the back of the neck with a palm strike.

This hypocritical woman cried so bitterly in her sleep over her child's death, yet she remained defiant. She appeared weak on the outside, but was inwardly resilient and stubborn, and fearless of death.

He lowered his head and kissed away the tears on her cheeks. As long as she married him, they could have children.

The following day, the Dajing delegation formally entered the palace for peace talks.

The peace talks mainly covered territorial division, relations between the two countries, tribute terms, and additional conditions.

The Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun were divided into eight prefectures, with the Yanshan Mountains as the boundary. The eight prefectures south of the mountains—You, Ji, Zhuo, Tan, Shun, Ying, Mo, and Gui—belonged to the Great Zhou.

The area north of the mountain range belongs to Dajing.

The Great Zhou lost the eight prefectures of Yan and Yun for decades. Before this, it had only briefly recovered them before they were occupied by enemy states.

Since the founding of the Great Zhou Dynasty by Emperor Taizu, the Great Zhou's greatest wish has been to reclaim the Sixteen Prefectures of Yan and Yun, so that the Great Zhou could have a barrier against the nomadic cavalry from the north.

Now that Zhao Xuan has recovered eight prefectures, his achievements rank after those of Emperor Taizu and Emperor Taizong among all the emperors of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Zhao Xuan was very satisfied.

The two countries signed a ten-year non-aggression pact, opened trade routes, and became brotherly nations.

The additional condition was that the Great Zhou and the Great Jing would form a marriage alliance, with Wanyan Zonglie demanding to marry the Seventh Princess, thus establishing a fraternal bond between the two countries.

Zhao Xuan and his ministers were very satisfied with the result.

They do not want war.

First, war is expensive.

Secondly, they did not want Xiao Xuance to lead troops into battle again, as his achievements would overshadow the emperor and threaten the throne. From the ministers' perspective, if he did not rebel and won battles one after another, the status of military generals would be elevated, while the voice of civil officials in the court would be reduced, which was something they did not want to see.

Zhao Xuan had a guess in his mind: Could it be that the child Zhao Furou was carrying was Wanyan Zonglie's?

Oh well, that child is gone anyway.

Zhao Xuan was in a great mood and went to Su Wan'er's place.

He ordered a news blackout, forbidding anyone from telling her about the Su family's affairs, and told her to take good care of her health.

Despite experiencing so many bad things, Su Wan'er remains strong, optimistic, and carefree. Zhao Xuan, preoccupied with trivial matters every day, likes to relax at her place when he has nothing to do.

As soon as I arrived at Chang Le Palace, I heard sobbing coming from inside.

Su Wan'er buried her face in her arms on the table and sobbed uncontrollably, "Waaaaah..."

Zhao Xuan: "Wan'er, what happened?"

When Su Wan'er saw him coming, she grabbed his arm and anxiously asked him for confirmation, "Your Majesty, Consort Liu said that the entire Su family was burned to death, and she suspects that it was the Imperial Concubine who did it."

"Your Majesty, I think there's some truth to that. The Imperial Concubine sent someone to deliver a white silk ribbon to me, but I didn't die. Then she turned around and targeted the Su family. That must be it. Why is she so ruthless, determined to wipe out my Su family?"

I want to leave the palace to find my parents, sob sob…

Su Wan'er pushed him away and staggered out.

Zhao Xuan hugged her, "Wan'er, calm down, the dead cannot be brought back to life."

"So it's true? My uncle's entire family of over a hundred people, all burned to death? The Su family gave up their entire fortune to fill the national treasury, and this is what happened? Not even a trace of their remains! Hahaha!!!"

Su Wan'er laughed and cried at the same time, laughing until tears streamed down her face. Then, overwhelmed with anger, she coughed up blood. "Pfft!"

Zhao Xuan was greatly alarmed, "Wan'er, Wan'er, someone, fetch the imperial physician..."

"Your Majesty, I have been married to you for five years, and the Su family has fully supported you. If they die under mysterious circumstances, it may chill the hearts of those loyal ministers. Personally, I beg you to give the Su family justice."

Zhao Xuan knew who did it. He had already warned Yun Jiaoyue that the person was dead and could not be brought back to life.

If this gets out, he will have to deal with Yun Jiaoyue.

He still had uses for Yun Jiaoyue, so he didn't want to touch her for the time being and chose to protect her.

It was Liu Yiyi who shattered all of this. Why did she do that?

He felt even more dissatisfied with her.

"Your Majesty, I'm begging you..."

"Everything must be based on evidence. It is not possible to conclude that Consort Yun was responsible based on just a few words from Consort Liu. I promise you that I will send people to investigate thoroughly."

Consort Su was deeply moved. "Thank you, Your Majesty. With these words from Your Majesty, I can die in peace."

Zhao Xuan comforted her, saying, "Don't think too much about it, your health is the most important thing."

Before the imperial physician arrived, a palace maid from Yun Jiaoyue's palace came to announce the good news: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, the Imperial Concubine is pregnant!"

"Are you pregnant?"

"This morning, Consort Yun suddenly felt dizzy and vomited. The imperial physician just took her pulse. He is still in Consort Yun's palace."

"I'll go see her now, Wan'er. The imperial physician will be here soon. I'll come see you again later."

After he left, Su Wan'er sat up and spat a mouthful of blood on the ground, "Pah!"

The blood was from a blood pack she had put in her mouth beforehand. After she bit it open, the mouthful of blood tasted disgusting.

Yun Jiaoyue is pregnant? She must be so happy, but it's all fake.