Jing Yan's brows furrowed slightly, his deep pupils gleaming with a chilling light. He chuckled before even speaking.
“Doesn’t Your Highness find this ridiculous? Back then, I personally brought Yue Jiang to see you because you couldn’t give up the city and its gold and silver, preferring your family fortune to your life. I respected your choice and never forced you in the slightest.”
“Now Yue Jiang is my wife. We have a son together. We have been married for more than six years and our love is deep. How can you use the word ‘transaction’ to humiliate me?”
"An Chenghuan, do you regret it?"
Jing Yan casually reached into his waistband and picked up the love knot that Yue Jiang had given him before he left, with tassels made of the hair of the three of them.
He hooked one end of the rope and admired it to himself, his words secretly piercing his heart.
"Oh, speaking of which, His Highness Anguo has been married for several years now, but still has no children. Is it because he and the Crown Princess are not getting along?"
An Chenghuan immediately noticed the love knot in Jing Yan's hand. If it wasn't a gift from a woman, why would Jing Yan carry it close to his body?
The woman he gifted must have been Yue Jiang, otherwise Jing Yan wouldn't have brought her all the way to the battlefield.
An Chenghuan had no intention of pursuing the deep affection between them; he only raised the question to see if Jing Yan could remain calm and collected in the face of this dilemma.
To his surprise, Jing Yan's reaction was a complete surprise. It was obvious that he and Yue Jiang had developed genuine feelings for each other, which meant that Jing Yan had not cared about Yue Jiang's background at all over the years.
An Chenghuan's nonchalant expression vanished, and his tone became more serious. He leaned forward slightly and said with a hint of anger.
"Jingyan, you know perfectly well that she should be my wife. What were you thinking when you brought Yuejiang to see me that day?"
"You concealed Yue Jiang's amnesia, tricked her into marrying into the Jing Kingdom, and drove a wedge between us as engaged couples, making her believe that you were the one she could entrust her life to. Can you honestly say that you have a clear conscience after all those actions?"
Jing Yan was not afraid of An Chenghuan's questioning and sarcasm at all. As the saying goes, "The Crown Prince Yi is as pure as jade and as upright as pine, while the Crown Prince Huan is not a vessel for a gentleman."
The reputations of the two crown princes had spread throughout the country, but when Jing Yanzhen visited them one by one, he found that they were nothing special.
One is hypocritical and pretentious, the other is full of cunning.
Jing Yan suddenly smiled and said indifferently, "I took your wife. If Yue Jiang hadn't married into Anguo, I wouldn't have abducted her."
"She happened to lose her memory after I robbed her, and she mistook me for her husband, which means she shouldn't have been your wife, An Chenghuan."
Jing Yan slowly noticed something else and asked with a smile.
"So that's why you sent troops to hunt them down. You admit to planting spies in my Jing Kingdom?"
Having witnessed Jing Yan's arrogance on several occasions, An Chenghuan guessed that he would no longer exchange Yue Jiang for grain. Regarding the matter of spies, he did not deny it, but deliberately remained vague.
"His Highness Jing is exceptionally intelligent; you can guess for yourself."
He sat up straight again, looking directly at Jing Yan, still wanting to see how much backbone he had.
"You should be more concerned about the provisions of your Jing Kingdom soldiers. It seems that His Highness of Jing Kingdom values beauties over the lives of his soldiers."
“His Highness Prince Li of Jing has already gone to Jinghui. He will definitely return to the city before His Highness of Jing. He has committed the serious crime of deserting from the military camp. If he does not want to die, he must make his own decisions.”
"I'm thinking about what kind of things His Highness Jing's younger brother is capable of. If Jing falls into chaos, His Highness will lose both the country and his people."
"If it's a matter of choosing grain, Your Highness of Jing Kingdom can at least secure one thing. Don't you really want to reconsider my deal?"
Jing Yan smiled sadly: "Of course, the lives of my soldiers are important, but wives are absolutely irreplaceable. If more than 200,000 people sacrifice a woman for a single grain of food, then that grain will be hard to swallow."
He had prepared for the worst; at present, only the grain and fodder had been burned, not a natural disaster or famine that would kill everyone.
The food supplies can last for another half month. The soldiers are all battle-hardened men, and as long as they have something to eat, they won't starve to death for a while.
He could also send people to the Moon Kingdom to buy provisions so that they could hunt after the winter.
Whether you call Jing Yan blindly confident or selfishly sentimental, if he were to hand over Yue Jiang, Jing Guo's morale would plummet even if they were to go to war with An Guo in the future.
Who told them to humiliate Anguo again more than forty years later?
Most importantly, perhaps Ahn Seung-hwan cannot wait until the future.
If he can wear himself down for half a month, the Jing Kingdom soldiers will run out of food, and An Chenghuan will definitely lead the An Kingdom soldiers to counterattack him.
It would have been easy to wipe them out then.
If you ask him to choose between the two options right now, he's just trying to make fun of him.
Jing Yan's fingers landed on the table as he sized up An Chenghuan, and he said indifferently, "Jing Lu only had ten thousand men. How could he have rebelled and invaded Jing Kingdom? Could it be that His Highness An Kingdom helped him?"
"Did His Highness give Jinglu grain or Jinglu people? It would be difficult for Anguo's soldiers to enter Jinglu, so I guess His Highness probably gave them neither."
“My brother isn’t stupid. I suspect that His Highness Anguo has some brilliant plan that would make him risk going back in such a daze!”
“He led his troops back to the city without permission. He would need my written order to pass through the checkpoints. Otherwise, the city guards would be able to judge him as a deserter. Does Jing Lu have some kind of get-out-of-jail-free card?”
Jing Yan paused, pointing to the two thousand elite cavalrymen that Jing Lu had brought with him before his arrival. Those men had already been sacrificed by Jing Lu while he was fighting for military merit.
Empress Dowager Zheng has always regarded Jinglu as her lifeblood, and the Emperor also dotes on Jinglu. Could it be that he really has a get-out-of-jail-free card? If so, passing through the checkpoints would be much easier.
An Chenghuan was secretly surprised by Jing Yan's reaction; his guesses were pretty much correct.
He did not give Jing Lu anything, but he did grant him the two cities of Jing that An Guo still held.
He was simply asked to burn the provisions of the Jing Kingdom's soldiers and keep Jing Yan here.
If he could stall until Jing Yan's soldiers ran out of food, he could then kill Jing Yan and eliminate this major threat.
As for Yue Jiang, An Chenghuan can certainly ask Jingguo to return her.
Jing Lu was also shrewd, wary of me, fearing that I might cause him and Jing Yan to perish together.
An Chenghuan suspected that the man who dared to lead his mere 10,000 soldiers back to Jing Kingdom alone must possess something that would allow him to enter Jing Kingdom safely.
However, it wouldn't hurt to let Jing Lu go back; An Chenghuan had his own ways of dealing with him.
He relaxed this time, leaning back in his armchair, and chuckled, "Why has Your Highness Jing's expression changed? Did you miscalculate?"
"If His Highness Jingguo miscalculates, we might as well wait for news at the border between Chenqi and see what His Highness Li of your country is capable of."
“If you don’t return Yue Jiang, I will wait until His Highness Prince Li has accomplished his great undertaking before personally sending her over. After all, a former Crown Princess sister-in-law is of little use to him.”
"At that time, I may also give Prince Jing a chance to see Yue Jiang one last time."
Jing Yan clenched his fist under his sleeve: "Arrogance is a recipe for defeat. Your Highness Anguo, don't let your joy turn to sorrow."
An Chenghuan didn't take it to heart: "My situation is better than His Highness Jing's for the time being."
Just as the two were locked in a stalemate, Rong Ying's voice rang out from outside the tent.
"Your Highness, if there is nothing left to discuss, then please return. I have something to report."
Jing Yan stood up and waved his sleeve, saying, "Your Highness Anguo, please excuse me."
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