In Daxing City, the excitement of Daxing City's complete ownership of Beichen has not yet faded, and the people are still talking about it with relish. They even celebrate because Pingxing City has also belonged to Beichen like them.
Rong Chengxuan and Yun Wanwan had just entered Daxing City. The moment the city gates closed, Yun Wanwan saw that Daxing City was gradually getting back on track. Before she could sigh, a soldier behind her came with a message: "Prince! Princess! A letter has been delivered from the capital of Western Zhou!"
The letter arrived, a request for peace from the Western Zhou Dynasty, stamped with the emperor's jade seal. After reading it, Rong Chengxuan casually handed it to Yun Wanwan, saying, "That's within expectations. However, if peace talks truly are to take place, the terms will need to be further discussed. Judging from the current terms alone, I still don't see the Western Zhou Dynasty's sincerity in seeking peace."
Yun Wanwan took the letter Rong Chengxuan handed her. It stated that the Western Zhou voluntarily sought peace and expressed deep regret for their offensive against Beichen. As compensation, they offered no recourse to the three cities taken by Beichen, and a large sum of gold and silver, expressing their willingness to return to Beichen's vassalage. From then on, the Western Zhou would obey Beichen exclusively. If Beichen said to go east, they would not move a single step west.
After reading the letter, Yun Wanwan raised her eyebrows: "Those three cities were originally captured by us. They are really generous to use our things as compensation. Moreover, they are asking for peace so quickly. I wonder if they will do something to hinder us behind our backs." Obviously, Yun Wanwan still had some doubts about the sudden change in attitude of Xi Zhou to ask for peace.
"So we need to discuss the conditions again." Rong Chengxuan pondered. He actually didn't believe that Xi Zhou's attitude could change so quickly, but since the letter of peace had been sent, he might as well try to trick Xi Zhou again. Anyway, it would be better to make preparations for both situations. In the end, Xi Zhou would definitely be the one to suffer.
"Why don't we take the capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty as the standard? I don't want too much of it. All the cities north of the capital will belong to Beichen. If you agree, Beichen will agree to peace talks. If you don't agree, the army will march directly into their capital. Not a single city will be left for them, and they will completely become Beichen's territory."
After saying this, Rong Chengxuan half-turned his head and said to Xiao Song beside him, "It's settled. Have someone draft a memorial and send it back to the capital for those old men to review. If there are conditions, add them. If there are no conditions, tell them to shut up. Don't just think about the friendship between the two countries and make concessions to that ungrateful wolf in Western Zhou."
Xiao Song happily accepted the assignment. His own prince's ability to cheat people was still as good as ever, but he always felt that after his master and the princess's wedding, his ability to cheat people had improved, and it was even better than before! In the past, he might have listened to their opinions, but now he directly asked those old men in the capital to join him in finding ways to cheat people.
But he was still a little puzzled: "Your Highness, we've already fought, so why do we have to accept peace talks? Can't we just destroy the Western Zhou Dynasty?"
Xiao Song didn't have many opportunities to go to the battlefield, but he did throw a few bombs. He felt that the bombs made by the princess were really useful. Not to mention the Western Zhou Dynasty, even if it was blown to pieces by the entire world, it would be effortless. This was also the first time he had the idea of swallowing up the Western Zhou Dynasty in one fell swoop. If it were before, he would never have dared to think about it.
Yun Wanwan understood why Cheng Xuan accepted the peace proposal. She told Xiao Song, "The closer we get to the capital of Western Zhou, the hotter the weather becomes. When we reached Pingxing City, the soldiers were suffering from heatstroke even more severely than in the first two cities. You can see that almost half of them had collapsed from vomiting and diarrhea."
"If this continues, if the entire Western Zhou falls under Beichen's control, not to mention the heatstroke, just managing it will be enough of a headache for us. According to your own judgment, the people of Beichen can only withstand the heat north of the capital. Going south is too much of a burden. It's better to leave it to Western Zhou to govern. After all, we've gained so many cities for free, which is enough to make up for our losses. We won't lose anything."
"Let them pay tribute every year for the rest. We only have a few cities left. Even if they want to revolt, they don't have the strength. If they do the same thing again next time, we will just attack them and leave them with no city. We will force them to completely change the name of the Western Zhou Dynasty to Beichen."
Rong Chengxuan nodded. This was exactly what he was thinking. In the end, it wasn't Beichen who would suffer, but that ungrateful Xizhou. He hoped that after this, Xizhou would tuck its tail between its legs and behave properly, and stop dreaming about such unrealistic things.
Xiao Song also admired Yun Wanwan very much, and quickly arranged to write a memorial according to Rong Chengxuan's wishes.
A month after Rong Chengxuan's letter was delivered by Flying Eagle, a reply from the capital also reached the border, delivered to Rong Chengxuan by Xiao Song. The old men in the capital were very supportive of his decision to seize all the cities north of the Western Zhou capital. Perhaps because of Rong Chengxuan's lingering influence, not a single one expressed opposition.
The letter Zimmer wrote was nothing but a bunch of nonsense. Apart from agreeing with Rong Chengxuan's suggestion, he also praised him for his thoughtful consideration. To put it bluntly, he was just flattering Rong Chengxuan.
The unique climate of the desert makes it very difficult for Beichen to govern the entire Western Zhou Dynasty. The area north of Beichen's capital can barely be maintained, but this also requires a lot of investment. If you really want to take over the entire Western Zhou Dynasty, then the investment may be more than a little.
After receiving the reply from the capital, Rong Chengxuan immediately sent people to negotiate with the Western Zhou. The Western Zhou monarch seemed to realize that compensating the enemy with only three cities, cities they had already seized, was simply not feasible. When Rong Chengxuan's envoys arrived, he agreed without much hesitation.
The speed at which the agreement was reached made Rong Chengxuan a little suspicious. According to the envoys who had returned from the capital of Western Zhou, the king of Western Zhou agreed to Beichen's proposal without much thought.
Rong Chengxuan felt that there must be some hidden secret in this, but he didn't know it yet, so he sent a lot of secret guards to the capital of Western Zhou to help him investigate what had happened in the capital of Western Zhou.
For the Western Zhou, giving up the area north of the capital meant that the capital had to move further south. Born and raised in the desert, they weren't afraid of the heat, but they felt deeply saddened by the cities they had surrendered. It wasn't just one or two cities; Beichen had simply demanded all of the Western Zhou cities.
The King of Western Zhou hated Jiang Younan's family so much that when he agreed to Beichen's conditions, he gave an order to execute all nine members of the Jiang family!
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