The heavy snow fell for seven days in a row, and the cold wind was biting. The snow piled up outside the border town was a full two feet high.
Therefore, the time for the Jin army to set off to attack the Tatars had to be postponed.
On this day, while preparing for the attack on the Tatars, he was on the sand table in the main tent of the military camp, planning how to deal with extreme weather.
The charcoal fire inside the tent was burning brightly, making it warm and cozy.
Lu Qiqi sat on the soft couch in the large tent, with a basket of oranges she had picked in her spatial dimension on the low table next to her.
She held a wolf cub and teased it, "The space is still limited, otherwise I could bring the soldiers into the space directly."
One person crossing the snow is better than a large army being unable to set off.
Upon hearing this, Song Yanqing looked at her seriously and said, "Qiqi, this secret must not be known to others."
Lu Qiqi was well aware of the seriousness of the matter. She had only made an exception once before, bringing Qin Shiyu into the space for treatment.
Fortunately, Qin Shiyu was seriously injured and unconscious at the time, and did not discover the existence of the space.
She playfully rubbed the wolf cub's cheeks, avoiding looking at Song Yanqing, "I was just mentioning it casually, of course I won't let others know the secret."
She didn't want to bring disaster upon herself and her family.
If she truly had such ambitions, she might have been able to use the space to become the empress who unified the Three Kingdoms.
However, she didn't have such ambitions; she only thought about making lots of money, spending her days playing with cats and dogs, and admiring the handsome men in front of her.
Being an emperor must be exhausting!
Diligent every day, yet constrained in every way, his only pleasure outside the palace walls was traveling to the south of the Yangtze River.
He also had to be on guard against his son day and night, lest he usurp the throne and rebel, leaving him all alone.
In her past life, her master was strict, and her junior brothers and sisters both respected and feared her. She had never experienced the care and concern of family.
But things are different now. She has family, friends, and a lover in the Great Jin Dynasty, and she doesn't want to experience the life of a lonely person.
As she was thinking this, the tent flap was suddenly opened, and a gust of cold wind blew in, attracting the attention of the two of them.
An Yi walked in and first bowed to the two of them.
Then he said, "Reporting to the Crown Prince, the Shadow Guards have sent word that a Tatar envoy arrived in the capital three days ago."
Upon hearing this, Lu Qiqi paused in her hand while petting the wolf, quickly looked up at An Yi, and then glanced at Song Yanqing.
Song Yanqing's brows furrowed slightly.
Lu Qiqi released the wolf cub, letting it play with its companion for a while, and asked, "From where do we enter the capital?"
With the border city tightly closed, there was absolutely no way that the Tartar envoys could enter the capital from here.
Even if An Yi didn't say why the Tartars came to the capital, she could guess ninety percent of their purpose.
The Tatars suffered a crushing defeat and no longer possessed the imposing presence of an army of 100,000 attacking a city.
Now, apart from seeking peace, she can't think of anything else that would require her to bypass the border town and secretly travel to the capital.
An Yi's eyes narrowed as he said, "The Tatar envoys and the envoys of the Dayu Kingdom are traveling from Jiayu Pass to the new capital."
An envoy from the Great Yu Kingdom?
This was something Lu Qiqi hadn't expected. "Is the Great Yu Kingdom doing this to mediate the conflict between the two countries?"
Upon hearing this, the voices inside the tent abruptly ceased, with only the sounds of two wolf cubs frolicking on the soft couch remaining.
Lu Qiqi suddenly stood up, her face showing a hint of resentment. "The war between the two countries has lasted for a year, but the Great Yu Kingdom has never stepped forward to mediate."
Now that the Tartars are on the verge of national annihilation, they're suddenly stepping forward to act as peacemakers.
Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind.
A terrifying thought suddenly entered my mind.
The weapons she and Song Yanqing stored in their spatial storage during their time in the Tartar army camp were probably not transported from the Great Jin Dynasty.
Rather, it was a form of cooperation between Tadar and the Great Yu Kingdom.
Thinking this, she heard Song Yanqing tell An Yi to step back first.
After An Yi left, Lu Qiqi walked up to him and said, "The weapons we obtained from the Tatar army were most likely provided to the Tatars by the Dayu Kingdom."
Clearly, Song Yanqing had also guessed this, and his expression showed no surprise whatsoever.
He said, "Sudya is the younger sister of the third prince, Ajitai. The weapons transported from Dajin will not fall into Tadar's hands."
This explains why the envoys from the Dayu Kingdom traveled to the new capital together with the Tatar envoys.
But there was still one thing she couldn't explain. She asked, "We bought grain from the Great Yu Kingdom, and the Crown Prince also sent a ship full of weapons to the Great Jin Kingdom."
Could it be that the eldest prince would secretly provide the Great Jin with food and free weapons behind his father's back?
Lu Qiqi knew that Song Yanqing and the eldest prince of the Dayu Kingdom had a past relationship, but she wouldn't go so far as to disobey the emperor's orders and risk her life to help him.
At least in her view, the relationship between the two was not such that she would risk her life to help them.
Song Yanqing took her hand and pulled her to sit down on the soft couch. He then poured her a cup of tea before saying, "The ruler of the Great Yu Kingdom is old, and the princes each have their own power. This is not only to win over the power of other countries and make them work for them."
Furthermore, it was intended to weaken the military capabilities of both countries.
“No,” Lu Qiqi picked up the teacup and looked at the color of the soup inside, “Da Yu Kingdom showed goodwill to both countries, but when the war broke out, it did not mediate the conflict in time, but instead watched the situation unfold.”
They weren't trying to win them over; it was clearly a ploy to make money by selling grain and weapons.
Perhaps the Tatars attacked the Great Jin not only because of the famine and lack of supplies, but also because they received some promise from the Great Yu Kingdom.
During a year of famine, instead of plundering the grain of the Great Yu Kingdom, they attacked the Great Jin Kingdom.
Even if they guessed the Tartars' purpose at this point, it was too late.
The envoys from the Great Yu Kingdom and the Tatars have already entered the new capital. If the Emperor of the Great Jin really agrees to sue for peace...
Could they still disobey the emperor's orders and continue to lead their troops into the heart of the grasslands to attack the Tatars?
Lu Qiqi looked outside the tent, then looked away and met Song Yanqing's eyes again, saying seriously, "Since we received the news in advance, it is still unknown whether the Great Jin and the Tatars will cease hostilities."
If the emperor truly intends to issue a ceasefire order, we can attack the Tatars before the imperial edict arrives.
"A general in the field may disobey orders; let's fight first and discuss the consequences later. This is an excellent opportunity that cannot be missed."
By then, even the imperial edict delivered by the fastest messenger would be of no use.
Song Yanqing looked at himself reflected in Lu Qiqi's eyes, as if considering the feasibility of what she said.
Undeniably, he was genuinely tempted when Lu Qiqi proposed this plan.
This is an opportunity that will keep the Tartars away from the Great Jin for twenty years; once missed, it will never come again.
However, this still depends on the help of the heavens. If the heavy snow continues as it has been these past few days, making it difficult for the soldiers to advance, the army may suffer losses in the cold snow before even reaching the Tartar camp.
Not to mention traveling several miles through the snow and then having a major battle with the Tartars.
Song Yanqing poured himself a cup of tea, took a sip, and found the cold tea bitter and chilling.
Then, he looked at the tent flap, trying to see the scene outside, and whispered, "Then we'll see if God will help us."
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