Chapter 122 Xiqi Conspiracy
Seeing this, Li Qing secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The ancient times were good. Even if a man had three wives and four concubines, as long as the husband, as the head of the family, could reconcile them, everything would be harmonious and there would be no risk of intrigue.
"Ling'er!? Are you okay too!?"
In the distance, Xueqi could see Li Qing, and therefore Xueling. She was overjoyed and called out, but then something felt wrong. How could her granddaughter be involved with that ruthless and incompetent emperor? And even in his arms? How could this be?
For a moment, Xueqi's expression changed, and she no longer looked happy. She just shouted, "Xue Ling! What are you doing?! Hurry up and kill the tyrant!"
Xueqi's screams echoed all around, and Xueling could naturally hear them clearly. Her face suddenly turned pale!
Yes, now that she has returned to the snowfield, she and her tyrant brother have become enemies again. At this moment, her grandmother's cry has been heard. Should she listen to her grandmother and attack and kill her tyrant brother, or ignore it and hurt her grandmother's heart?
"Youngster of the Snow Clan, shut up!"
Xue Ling was silent and struggling in her heart, but the Snow Demon, who had been standing by and had not spoken a word, suddenly shouted!
The snow demon moved and the mist shot straight towards Xueqi.
"Where did this monster come from? Are you looking for death?!"
Xueqi naturally didn't know that this ball of mist was the ancestor of her Snow Clan. When she suddenly saw the mist rushing towards her, she shouted in shock and anger, and slapped the snow monster with one palm: "Great Snow Spirit Seal!"
"You young Snow Clan brat! How dare you use the Snow Seal in front of me? You are so ignorant and fearless!"
When the snow demon saw the snow seal whistling towards it, it immediately sneered, and then the mist did not even try to dodge and crashed directly into the snow seal.
The snow mark was like a snowflake that suddenly met a blazing flame and instantly melted into the snow monster's mist without even a ripple.
"What!?"
Xueqi was completely stunned for a moment. She hurriedly tried to make hand gestures and cast other Snow Clan spells, but the Snow Demon had already arrived in front of her and shouted, "Youngster of the Snow Clan! Even if you are a Golden Immortal, you can't make any waves in front of me! Look carefully! Who am I?"
After he finished speaking, he saw the mist surging and had already enveloped Xueqi.
Then, less than a breath later, the fog returned again and turned into a swaying mist.
Xueqi's aged face was already filled with tears. Her knees gave way as she knelt before the Snow Demon, sobbing loudly, "Unfilial junior, Xueqi, pays homage to the First Ancestor! Unfilial junior! This vast snowfield has been divided up by hundreds of other foreign tribes! Xueqi has no face to see the First Ancestor!"
The Snow Demon replied calmly, "The Snow Plains were lost, and we can take them back. This isn't your fault, but let me ask you! Why are you going against the Celestial Empire? Haven't the ancestral teachings I left behind been passed down to your generation?"
"Ancestor, the Snow Clan has no intention of rebelling. This is simply because the merchants are insatiable and demand huge taxes every year! If the Snow Clan didn't rebel, the taxes alone would have taken up 50% of the tribe's cattle, sheep, and food. Our Snow Clan simply couldn't survive!"
When Xueqi heard this, she immediately looked up, her eyes full of hatred and grievance, and she just shouted loudly.
"Um?"
Upon hearing this, the Snow Demon was stunned. Could it be that what the Human Emperor had said to her earlier was pure deception? Didn't he say that he hadn't collected taxes from the North for hundreds of years?
"What nonsense!"
As expected, Li Qing over there also heard Xue Qi's roar and immediately shouted coldly, "Let's not talk about the past! From the time I can remember, in the past thirty years, when has the Great Shang taken a single cent of tax from you seventy-two tribes in the north? Or a single cattle or sheep? Instead, you seventy-two tribes in the north are constantly greedy, raiding the fields year after year! Hateful! How dare you speak so arrogantly here! Do you really think I can't kill all of you millions of barbarians in the north!?"
"Human Emperor, stop distorting the facts!? Not to mention the ambitions of other foreign races, let's just talk about my Snow Clan. Ever since we made up our minds to rebel thirteen years ago, there hasn't been a single year that we haven't paid taxes!? It's because our Snow Clan sincerely follows our ancestral teachings and wishes to establish friendly relations with the Celestial Empire! But what do we get in return? Taxes that get heavier every year! You, Human Emperor! Are you forcing us to join forces with those seventy-one foreign races in rebellion? My Snow Clan can't be blamed!"
When Xueqi heard Li Qing's shout, her eyes turned bloodshot with anger. She stood up suddenly and pointed at Li Qing and yelled loudly.
"Who comes to collect the taxes?"
Li Qing looked at Xueqi's crazy look, and it seemed that she was not lying. Moreover, since her ancestor was in front of him, it was even more impossible for her to lie. So there was only one possibility, that someone pretended to be the emperor and secretly collected heavy taxes from the Xue clan for decades, until they were forced to rebel.
Therefore, Li Qing's tone was no longer harsh for a moment, and he just asked in confusion.
"What a joke! You sent someone yourself, and you ask who I am? Could it be that the commander of Beibing Pass, Liang Bing, isn't a minister of your Great Shang!?"
Xueqi thought Li Qing was just pretending, and she gritted her teeth and sneered.
"Liang Bing..."
Li Qing really had no impression of Liang Bing, the general of Beibing Pass, but when he thought about it carefully, he immediately found this person from King Zhou's memory.
When Li Qing thought of this person, he frowned. Yes, this person was the general of Beibing Pass appointed by his father, Emperor Yi. Now that he thought about it, the hometown of this Liang soldier was Xiqi!
Thinking of this, Li Qing immediately understood.
This Liang Bing had been in charge of Beibing Pass for nearly a hundred years. It was obvious that he had been using the name of the Great Shang to collect taxes from the Snow Clan until he forced the Snow Clan to rebel and join forces with the other 71 clans to plunder the border.
Likewise, it was his negligence in defense and his deliberate neglect that caused the North to become increasingly corrupt! The people were complaining and suffering unspeakably! He used this to destroy his foundation!
Closing his eyes slightly, Li Qing exhaled slowly.
Then, he opened his eyes and said, "I understand, but even so, your rebellion against the Snow Clan is still unforgivable."
After saying this, Li Qing looked at the Snow Demon and said, "Snow Demon! Since that's the case, I will give your Snow Clan a chance to survive! Now! If your Snow Clan immediately defect and help me wipe out the other seventy-one barbarian tribes in the North Sea, I will issue an edict to make peace with your Snow Clan and grant you the title of prince!"
"good!"
The snow demon was naturally extremely surprised and quickly agreed.
But Xueqi roared fiercely, "It's clearly your fault! And now you're ordering our Snow Clan around like you're giving us alms!? Ancestor! We in the Snow Clan would rather die in glory than live in disgrace!"
"presumptuous!"
As soon as Xueqi said this, the mist of the snow demon began to shake wildly. If she had a physical body at this moment, she would definitely be shocked and angry. She suddenly roared, and the mist suddenly turned into a substance, like a whip, and lashed Xueqi's old face.
Suddenly, Xueqi was whipped and flew back several meters, then fell to the ground with her whole face swollen.
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