Liu Tan's first reaction after hearing that Wu Shilu had been found was: "Kill him!"
Huo Guang was just drinking water after breathing a sigh of relief when he heard Liu Tan's words. He almost jumped up and said hurriedly, "Wait!"
Liu Tan said with some dissatisfaction: "What are you waiting for? Kill Wu Shilu and the world will be at peace."
Huo Guang took a deep breath and said, "Wu Shilu showed up on his own initiative. He must have something to rely on to do so."
Liu Tan raised an eyebrow. "Whatever he relies on, it's useless when he's dead. His son is still young, and he's killed off most of the people who were in power before. The remaining ones are his new appointees. With Wu Shilu's death, the group is leaderless, and they'll have to fight for the position of Chanyu for a while. Isn't that perfect?"
Huo Guang thought about it and realized that this was what he meant. He turned to look at Wei Buzhi and asked, "Where is Wu Shilu now?"
Wei Buyi whispered, "I've arranged for him to stay at the post station."
Liu Tan's eyes widened immediately. "He's been playing us around like crazy, and you let him stay at the inn? Do you even want to provide him with good food and drink?"
Huo Guang finally couldn't help but stood up and walked to Liu Tan and put his hand on his shoulder, fearing that their prince would be impulsive and rush out with a sword to chop Wu Shilu.
He said in a deep voice, "Your Highness, calm down. The captain must have his reasons for doing this. Let's ask him first."
After he finished speaking, he looked up at Wei Buyi and said, "Why don't you just speak now? Do you really have to wait for His Highness to urge you?"
Wei Buzhi hesitated and said, "Wu Shilu said that he used the lives of the Han people in exchange for his return to the Xiongnu."
Liu Tan: ...
When Huo Guang saw Liu Tan speechless, he knew that Wu Shilu had found his prince's weakness.
If it was gold, silver, treasures or land that was exchanged, Liu Tan would definitely not exchange it, as he did not lack these things.
But if it involves human lives, Liu Tan will consider it.
Liu Tan took a deep breath and asked, "How many people are there? What are their identities?"
Wei Buyi said, "There are the young ladies we robbed before, and the prisoners we captured in the battle. He said he could exchange them for the lives of a thousand people."
Huo Guang withdrew his hand and slowly sat back in his seat. Suddenly, the side hall was filled with anxiety and fear.
Jiang Chong looked at Liu Tan who was thinking with his head down and couldn't help but wanted to persuade him, but Huo Guang stopped him.
Jiang Chong couldn't help but whisper to Huo Guang, "You can't change it!"
Huo Guang said firmly: "Let Your Highness choose for himself!"
If this kind of thing happens once, it may happen again. They have countless reasons to persuade Liu Tan to ignore Wu Shilu's proposal and kill him directly, but they also know that Liu Tan must think it through himself. Others' suggestions make sense, and he makes this decision, but that decision goes against his original intention.
Later on, he will regret it more and more. This regret will always accompany him and may make him become indecisive and unwilling to make decisions.
It will only work if his own thinking changes.
Liu Tan tightly grasped the white jade paperweight in his hand and turned to look out the window. At this time, the Northern Border Country had gradually begun to enter winter. The wind blew dead leaves everywhere, and even if the sun was very hot, people still felt a little bad.
After a while, Liu Tan gritted his teeth and said, "No!"
After saying these two words, he seemed to be deflated, leaning back on the table and stopped talking.
He knew the decision he had made. If he traded Wu Shilu for those thousand or so men, some would praise his righteousness, but what good would that do? If he released Wu Shilu, tens of thousands of Han people might die in the future. Forget about anything else, Wu Shilu had already killed more than a thousand people during his raids south. Yan's defenses were weak, and the Xiongnu had seen their opportunity. If they had done it the first time, they would have done it the second time!
It is not realistic to destroy the Xiongnu by killing Wu Shilu and then attacking them during their civil strife, but it can at least ensure peace on the border of the Han Dynasty for five years.
What's more, even if Wu Shilu died, the Huns might not really kill all those people. By that time, everyone would be eager to fight for power and profit, so how could they have the mind to kill those people?
Wei Buyi hesitated for a moment after hearing this, then glanced at Liu Tan. Liu Tan looked up and said in a deep voice, "See me? Take your men to the posthouse right now to arrest Wu Shilu and put him in the Heavenly Prison. Oh, don't tell him you're going to kill him yet. Ask him about the Xiongnu, and tell him that if he tells you everything, you might as well spare his life."
Wei Buyi was stunned for a moment: "Huh?"
Huo Guang couldn't bear it any longer and said, "Your Highness is lying to him! Wu Shilu must die no matter what. Let's see if we can squeeze something out of him."
Wei Buyi then understood Liu Tan's meaning and immediately went to capture Wu Shilu.
The others looked at each other and decided to leave first. At this time, they might need to let their prince calm down.
Liu Tan suddenly said, "Prime Minister, please stay for a moment."
Huo Guang sat steadily and glanced at Liu Tan: "Ah!
After the others left, Liu Tancai leaned over the desk and said to Qiao Fen, "I feel like this decision isn't that difficult to make."
The lives of a thousand people did sound very valuable, but Liu Tan had a feeling of... unreality, as if the decision he had just made was not relevant. After all, he didn't know those thousand people, and their abduction had nothing to do with him.
Huo Guang said, "Kindness does not make a good army. Although Your Highness does not need to lead troops, the Northern Border Kingdom will inevitably face wars in the future. This is also a good thing."
Liu Tan was silent for a while, then said somewhat listlessly, "That's it."
Although Liu Tan consciously believed that Huo Guang was following his orders, he actually had some influence on him.
At least that night Liu Tan had some insomnia, which was rare for him.
He was very tired, but couldn't sleep. His mind was in a mess and he didn't know what he was thinking about.
Occasionally, a thought would pop up in my mind: I wonder if I can use Wu Shilu's body to exchange those people back.
But after this thought came to his mind, he laughed. This was obviously impossible.
The Huns did not treat death as life as the Han people did. They probably did not even care about Wu Shilu's life or death, let alone his corpse.
He turned over and sighed, wishing A Xuan was here.
Because of insomnia, Liu Tan attended the small court meeting the next day with dark circles under his eyes. Fortunately, it was a small court meeting, otherwise he might not be in good condition.
The Northern Border Kingdom was also very busy. After dealing with a lot of things early in the morning, Liu Tan was just about to go back to sleep when he heard Wei Buyi say, "Your Highness, Wu Shilu..."
Liu Tan was just about to wave everyone off when he heard these three words and felt a headache coming on: "What happened to him?"
Wei Buyi said, "He confessed."
Liu Tan was stunned for a moment: "He actually believed it?"
Wei Buyi smiled bitterly: "But this is not about the Xiongnu, but about the 360 ​​countries in the Western Regions."
Liu Tan was stunned after hearing this: "Three hundred and sixty countries? Who is he trying to fool?"
It is a common knowledge that there are numerous countries in the Western Regions, but three hundred and sixty countries is an exaggeration!
Wei Buyi said, "The key to his confession is that he said those small countries could not pose a threat to Your Highness, so he only talked about the main points."
As Wei Buyi spoke, he presented a stack of confession papers, which contained all of Wu Shilu's confession.
Liu Tan looked at the offerings with some impatience: "Kill him! It seems he still has feelings for the Xiongnu. If he doesn't want to talk about it, then don't keep him. Oh, right? Just behead him and throw him in the market. By the way, tell everyone that this is the Xiongnu Chanyu. I'm sure everyone will be very happy."
Wei Buyi responded. Liu Tan looked at the confessions, thought for a moment, and said, "Make two copies. Send one to Li Xi and the other to the King of Wusun."
Li Xi should be in greater need of this information. After all, he is still guarding the city outside the Great Wall and needs to deal with those Western Regions countries from time to time.
As for Lu Xuan, Liu Tan didn't know if there was something he didn't know about, so he decided to give it to him first.
Huo Guang said, "It would be best to send a copy to Chang'an as well, so that it can be kept on file."
The Han Dynasty did not know much about the countries in the Western Regions, so there was very little information. Although it was about the situation in other countries, it was still needed when compiling historical records.
Liu Tan nodded in agreement with Huo Guang's opinion, then waved his hand and told everyone to go home. He then waited for news in the palace, and at the same time he was struggling over whether to launch a surprise attack on the Huns or attack the Cheshi Kingdom as originally planned.
After much thought, he felt that it would be better to attack the Huns, force them away, and then turn around to attack the Cheshi Kingdom.
Anyway, the reason why Cheshi State could not be conquered before was not because it was so powerful, but because the Xiongnu were obstructing it. As long as the Xiongnu were defeated, wouldn't he have the final say on how to deal with Cheshi State?
The only thing that needed to be done was to explain to Liu Che why he said he was going to attack the Cheshi Kingdom but then turned around and attacked the Huns.
By the way, we also need to call Huo Guang to re-formulate the plan. Even if the Xiongnu is strong, the original plan of sending troops to attack the Cheshi Kingdom may not be enough, so the corresponding armaments must also be increased.
Huo Guang was quite happy about this. It was obviously more profitable to fight the Huns.
He calculated and said, "We can fight. We can afford it!"
Liu Tan looked at him and smiled, "The Prime Minister is now very confident."
Back then, what Huo Guang was most worried about was that he would get into a fight with the Huns or the Western Regions if they had a disagreement, because they didn't have enough people and supplies. But now Huo Guang seems much more calm.
Huo Guang smiled slightly and said, "With a good harvest, we are naturally confident. However, this is just for this time. We can't fight again in the short term."
Liu Tan was just about to say something when he heard the notification that Wei Buyi wanted to see him. He was silent for a moment and then said, "I have a feeling...something might go wrong."
Huo Guang was silent for a moment and said, "Let's listen."
After Wei Buyi came in, he bowed to Liu Tan and said, "Your Highness, Wu Shilu said that if a thousand men are not enough, he will add two more."
Liu Tan sneered and said, "Is he bargaining like it's a market? He's got even smaller amounts? No change, no change! If he says he won't change, then no change!"
Wei Buyi said, "But he said the two people he added were Zhang Qian, Marquis of Bowang, and Su Wu, the General of the Central Army who was sent as an envoy to the Xiongnu ten years ago."
Liu Tan: Damn!
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