Chapter 288 Exchange
Unlike the Great Zhou, as a country with vast and fertile grasslands, royal nobles like Wu Ye all owned large private horse farms. The 700 war horses came from his own horse farm, so there was no need to wait too long and the two sides completed the handover smoothly.
After that, there was an exchange of prisoners.
The place for exchanging prisoners was set ten miles outside the city. It was snowing heavily that day and the wind was howling. Both sides sent out more than a hundred people as agreed. Everyone wore soft armor and rode war horses. The atmosphere was very tense.
On the Qi army side, there were four Zhou generals who were tied up. Because they were captured before the capture of Wuli, each of them looked bad and had obviously suffered a lot at the hands of the Qi people.
The young man on Zhou's side who was being controlled by the left and right looked much better. He was General Wuye's nephew, Wuli.
Wu Ye did not show up today, and Prince Jing and General Xu from the Great Zhou were not present either. The deputy generals on both sides were in charge of this matter.
Seeing that Wuli was doing well, the Northern Qi deputy general breathed a sigh of relief and shouted, "Zhou thief, quickly release our General Wuli!"
The deputy general of the Great Zhou Dynasty refused to give in and cursed, "Qi dog, let my brothers go!"
What followed was a completely unskilled verbal battle, or simply swearing. When they were tired of swearing, they finally started exchanging prisoners.
Wuli was pushed to the middle of the distance between the two armies. The deputy general of the Great Zhou shouted, "Send two of our men over first!"
"Why? We have to put them together!"
The deputy general of the Great Zhou sneered: "We have four people in your hands. If we release them all at once, what will happen if you take any one of them?"
The Northern Qi deputy general jumped up and down: "Do you think we are like you Zhou people who like to use underhanded tactics?"
The deputy general of the Great Zhou Dynasty was also furious. "Bah, who is behind this? It's you who have repeatedly invaded the border, burning, killing and looting. You are the thieves! If you don't want to, it's fine. At worst, we won't exchange them. Anyway, we have already obtained the 700 war horses."
"You--" The deputy general of Northern Qi was so angry that his face turned black, but he could do nothing about the other party's shameless behavior.
Yes, all seven hundred war horses fell into the hands of the Zhou bandits. If we didn’t exchange them for General Wuli, wouldn’t it be a huge loss?
I heard that they only needed 500 horses at the beginning...
The deputy general of Northern Qi gritted his teeth and waved his hand.
The two Zhou generals pushed and immediately ran towards their own camp. Because their hands were tied, their balance was poor, and one of them even fell, which made the people on the Great Zhou side tremble with fear and break out in cold sweats.
As soon as they ran back, their comrades immediately untied the ropes and pulled them behind them.
Halfway along that stretch of road, only Wuli and two Zhou generals were left.
After another tug of war, both sides unanimously decided to release the man after counting to three.
"one two three--"
The two sides stared at each other, no one moved, and the scene was extremely awkward.
"I just said that you Zhou thieves are cunning!"
"You are shameless dogs!"
Finally, it was only after Wuli roared that both sides finally loosened their grip on the hostages and stared at them without blinking.
Wuli, also known as Qi Shuo in a changed appearance, passed by two Zhou generals, walking very cautiously step by step, but later he loosened his pace and ran towards the Qi army.
As soon as he was supported by someone, his legs gave out and he nearly fell. His face turned pale as he squeezed out two words: "Return to camp..."
The deputy general of Northern Qi originally wanted to do some tricks during the hostage exchange, but seeing Qi Shuo's expression, he had to give up his plan and quickly return to the camp.
After all, the most important thing is to bring General Karasuno back safely. We cannot lose the big picture for the sake of small gains.
The Great Zhou was the one that made huge profits. It was on guard against the Qi people causing trouble and had no intention of taking the initiative to cause trouble. When it saw that the Qi army was about to retreat, it was happy to take the four Zhou generals it had exchanged back to the city.
General Xu paced back and forth in the hall, his mind preoccupied with the exchange of prisoners.
"General Xu, could you please sit down? You're making me dizzy."
Looking at the dark-faced Prince Jing, General Xu smiled bitterly, "Your Highness is indeed patient. I was always worried that the other party would cheat during the hostage exchange."
According to the agreement, both sides sent about the same number of troops. However, it had to be admitted that the Qi people were much stronger than the Zhou people in terms of individual combat capability, and if a real fight broke out, their side would definitely suffer.
"Don't worry, nothing will happen." Prince Jing said unhappily.
Wuli was impersonated by Shuoer. It would be a miracle if he brought harm to Da Zhou with such a favorable identity.
General Xu laughed dryly and thought to himself that Prince Jing was strange. He always had a sullen face these days, as if something was bothering him.
Hiss—are you still thinking that seven hundred war horses are not enough?
This... is greedy!
Only after the four Zhou generals were brought into the hall did General Xu feel completely relieved. He kept saying, "It's good that you're back, it's good that you're back."
Prince Jing couldn't help but ask, "Has that Wuli... returned to the Qi army?"
The deputy general who brought four people back to report said with a disdainful smile: "We went back. That bastard was so scared that he couldn't even stand. What a coward."
The others also laughed when they heard it.
Prince Jing's face darkened: "How can you say that!"
Who are you calling a bastard!
Facing the surprised looks of the crowd, Prince Jing coughed lightly and said, "That's the lucky star who brought us 700 war horses. Please be polite."
"Seven, seven hundred horses?" The four Zhou generals who were brought back were shocked and forgot the torture they had suffered in recent days.
The others laughed: "Your Highness is right, we should be more polite."
"You four have suffered a lot, go and rest soon." Prince Jing sighed in his heart and walked out with his hands behind his back.
General Xu looked at Prince Jing's back thoughtfully.
Why does Prince Jing look a little lonely?
Compared to General Xu's anxiety while waiting, Wu Ye was more anxious. When he heard that the people who went to exchange prisoners of war had returned, he walked out of the tent directly.
"Wuli!" As soon as Wu Ye saw his nephew, he strode over and hugged him tightly.
Qi Shuo's whole body tensed up for a moment, but he called out "Uncle" without showing any strange expression.
Wu Ye spoke the language of the Northern Qi nobility, as did Qi Shuo. The lower-ranking soldiers, who spoke the language of the Great Zhou, simply couldn't understand them. It could be said that proficiency in this language was a hallmark of Northern Qi nobility.
"Your hand—" Wu Ye grabbed one of Qi Shuo's hands, seeing that all five fingers were intact, and then grabbed the other hand. After a brief moment of surprise, his face flushed with anger, "Damn Zhou people, they actually cheated!"
In fact, this threat method is not very clever, and Karasuno knows it in his heart, but he is just worried.
After his anger subsided, he noticed something unusual in his nephew's voice: "Did they torture you?"
Qi Shuo's voice was hoarse, and he sounded very uncomfortable: "I haven't slept much in the past few days, and this happened..."
Wu Ye patted his shoulder and said, "You've suffered so much. Tomorrow, your uncle will settle the score with them and give you a proper vengeance!"
Qi Shuo's heart skipped a beat.
Is the war going to start tomorrow?
Qi Shuo was soon urged by Wu Ye to rest, and he did not dare to go out at night to avoid arousing suspicion. After all, a person who had been in the hands of the enemy for some time should not have the energy to wander around after returning.
He simply had a good sleep, dressed up early in the morning, and went to the Karasuno tent.
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