Da Qi border
In the General's Mansion in Mingzhou City, Mo Qiyuan sat in the hall with a gloomy face. He looked down at the child in his arms who was pouting and blowing bubbles, but his eyes were filled with endless regret and sadness.
When Lin Dingyao hurried back from the military camp, he saw the emperor's expression.
"Your Majesty, I, Lin Dingyao, pay my respects to you."
Seeing the newcomer, Mo Qiyuan put away his expression and looked at him: "General Lin, please stand up. Is there any news about the Queen at the border?"
Lin Dingyao looked solemn when he heard this:
"Your Majesty, my sons Qingyan and Qingfeng have been leading a forceful search along the border for days, sparing no one and nothing, but to no avail. I believe the Northern Rong spy may have bypassed our defenses and returned to the Northern Rong."
Mo Qiyuan frowned. After he found Lin'er that day, they slowed down on the road because they had to take care of him. However, he had ordered people to chase after him as fast as they could. In the end, they only found the abandoned carriage in a forest not far from Mingzhou City.
Bai Ruoli and her group, along with Yun'er, have disappeared. Now Lin Dingyao says that he didn't find them at the heavily guarded border. Could it be that they grew wings and flew away with others?
Thinking of this, Mo Qiyuan was about to ask him to search house by house again when he saw Lin Dingyao's eldest son rushing in with an anxious look on his face.
"Your Majesty, I have urgent news."
"explain."
Lin Qingtang's elder brother Lin Qingyan walked from the courtyard into the hall, bowed to Mo Qiyuan, and stepped forward to present the things in his hand.
"Our soldiers stationed in the Xiangcheng military camp reported that they captured a spy who had sneaked into the city from the Northern Rong yesterday, but the spy claimed that he was there to help Helian Rongxia pass on a message.
He said that the Queen of Great Qi was now in his hands, and asked us to return the cities we had captured and cede the territory outside Qingzhou in exchange.
In addition, the man also presented these two things, saying that the emperor would be able to tell whether what he said was true after seeing them.
Hearing this, Mo Qiyuan handed the child to Lin Qingtang who was standing beside him and took the things in his hand.
One is a scroll, and the other is placed in a brocade box.
Mo Qiyuan unfolded the scroll, and a portrait of a woman came into view. The woman in the painting was the person he cared about day and night. Mo Qiyuan pursed his lips, looked at the person in the painting for a while, then put the scroll away and reached out to open the brocade box. A phoenix-patterned warm jade lay quietly in the brocade box.
Looking at these two things, Mo Qiyuan's face suddenly turned ashen: "Helian Rongxia!"
"Your Majesty, has the Empress really been controlled by Helian Rongxia?" Everyone in the room asked anxiously. When they saw Mo Qiyuan's expression, they guessed something.
Mo Qiyuan held the phoenix-patterned warm jade tightly in his hand and nodded:
"I personally tied this phoenix-patterned warm jade around Yun'er's waist. It's a token of my status as the Queen of Daqi. If Bai Ruoli hadn't taken her back to Beirong, it wouldn't have fallen into Helian Rongxia's hands.
Furthermore, Yun'er's previous appearance was disguised, and those who hadn't seen her in person wouldn't know what she really looked like. But in this scroll, Helian Rongxia painted her appearance so vividly, proving that Yun'er is truly in his hands."
After these words were spoken, everyone in the room fell silent. The thing they were most worried about had happened.
They knew from the beginning that if Bai Ruoli successfully brought Ye Jinyun back to Beirong, Helian Rongxia would definitely threaten the emperor with her life, and the emperor would then be faced with a dilemma.
Mo Qiyuan looked at the scroll in his hand and was silent for a long time.
"Have that man pass a message back to Helian Rongxia. If he doesn't hand over my queen, all the people in the cities including Xiangcheng will be massacred. As long as he doesn't hand her over, our army will capture each city and massacre its inhabitants."
Using Yun'er to threaten him, right? Then he would give him a Shura Field-like Beirong.
Everyone in the room couldn't help but look solemn when they heard Mo Qiyuan say this. They had never seen the emperor issue such an order before. Even when he was at war with the Northern Rong in the past, he would not implicate ordinary people. But now he wanted to use massacre to negotiate with Helian Rongxia, which showed that he was indeed angry.
"Yes! We will obey the emperor's command." Everyone knelt on one knee and said in unison.
"Buu...buu...", a voice that was completely different from the one in this room sounded.
The baby in Lin Qingtang's arms had his eyes wide open, sucking his little hands, and was curiously looking at the adults kneeling on the ground, not knowing what was going on.
Mo Qiyuan looked back at his son who made the sound. His little face had just gained some flesh in the past two days. It was obvious how much Yun'er had suffered during this period. She didn't know how much she felt sorry for the child who was so thin.
Now she is in the hands of Helian Rongxia, and who knows what kind of life she will have. No, he can't bet on Helian Rongxia, he has to rescue her as soon as possible.
"General Lin, select a few highly skilled warriors from the army and secretly infiltrate Beirong. Cooperate with Daqi's spies in the Beirong capital to enter the Beirong palace and rescue Yun'er."
Lin Dingyao was puzzled. The emperor had already planned to use the massacre of the city as an exchange with Helian Rongxia, so why did he send people to the palace to rescue the queen?
Mo Qiyuan knew what he meant and took the initiative to explain:
"Helian Rongxia is a man of treacherous thoughts and ruthless methods. I've made a bet with him by massacring the city. He may not necessarily care about the lives of the people of Beirong, so we'd better make plans for both scenarios."
Lin Dingyao nodded. It was true. Helian Rongxia was a man of deep thoughts and great ambitions. He proposed that Da Qi cede the city in exchange for the queen. Even if the emperor compromised and ceded the city to him for the sake of the queen's life, he would definitely take advantage of this opportunity to attack Da Qi and swallow it up.
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