Chapter 119 Stubborn
The bone necklace around the priest's neck rustled, and he held up a wine cup in each hand and handed it to Yelu Duhan and the prince of Bohai.
"Prince." Yelu Duhan took the wine jug, not caring about the blood on his face. Bloody fingerprints were left on the jug. He stared intently at Prince Bohai and said slowly, "Please."
Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, with the diplomatic relations between the two countries and the authority of the Northern Liao emperor at stake, the Bohai prince had originally intended to test Northern Liao's attitude towards Bohai on Yelu Duhan, a half-brother of the imperial family, but now he had suffered a severe loss. His face contorted as he took the wine jug, holding his breath and gulping down the wine, before placing it heavily on a tray held by a servant.
Thick smoke billowed up from the altar, quickly engulfing the man, and the air was filled with the smell of burnt meat.
Yelu Duhan suddenly tilted his head slightly, as if aware of something, looking in the direction of Wen Yao. Wen Yao's arms suddenly loosened, his expression darkening as if something was wrong. Sure enough, Yelu Duhan dropped the wine bottle in his hand and strode towards them as if no one was around. The people around him, confused, stepped aside, making way for Wen Yao.
Ah Si bowed her head in a tense gesture. Wen Yao, a young woman serving as a concubine to the Bohai Crown Prince, had just finished vomiting the last of her stomach acid when she suddenly felt the surroundings become quiet. She looked up, bewildered, at Xianyinsi, who had unknowingly stood before Han Zhao's concubine, her demeanor natural and approachable.
Yelu Duhan: "Why are you here? Have you finished your meal?"
Wen Yao suddenly became the focus of everyone's attention.
She said calmly: "No, I haven't eaten yet. Have you finished eating?"
The girl was stunned and looked up at Yelu Duhan blankly.
Yelu Duhan noticed her, or rather, he noticed the group of women gathered around Wen Yao. Someone brought clean water to him and asked him to wash up. He stirred the water in the basin and said in a gentle tone, "Are you going to watch the singing and dancing? If you want to watch, call them to the tent to watch. It won't delay your meal."
When Ah Si heard this, he suddenly bit his lower lip and lowered his head without saying a word.
Wen Yao responded nonchalantly, then tilted his head and glanced past Yelu Duhan at the prince of Bohai standing in the distance. The prince was surrounded by several attendants, and his eyes met Wen Yao's.
Yelu Duhan wiped his hands and looked at Han Zhao. Han Zhao had been standing by silently, but now he stepped forward and shouted, "The white horse and blue ox are our witness! The friendship between Northern Liao and Bohai will last forever! Bring out the mutton, beef, and milk wine! Warriors, continue to eat and drink, and don't leave until you are drunk!"
He shouted at the top of his lungs, his voice sounded powerful, but his face looked pale and his lips were pale.
Wen Yao couldn't help but look at him, his eyes full of concern, and asked gently, "What's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
"It's okay, I just feel a little dizzy." Han Zhao didn't notice anything wrong and exhaled: "Just sit down for a while."
The concubine of the Prince of Bohai looked at Han Zhao, then at Wen Yao, and then at Yelu Duhan, her eyes becoming more and more strange.
Yelu Duhan didn't know that Wen Yao had been chatting nonsense with others before. He was just a little dissatisfied with Wen Yao's ignoring him, and said with a sour face: "Then go back to your own tent and sit down. Why are you standing here if you haven't eaten? Go and eat." After that, he pulled Wen Yao over and walked quickly towards a tent next to the main camp.
The tent was just as large, furnished with a bed, an incense burner, and a table. On one side, a screen hung clothes, on the other, a target stood upright, and bows and arrows hung at the door. It was so familiar that Wen Yao couldn't help but feel dazed for a moment, as if he had returned to the old Qiongyu Tower.
She walked over, took out the longbow, put the arrow on the string, aimed the tip of the arrow at Yelu Duhan, and slowly pulled the bow to full length.
Yelu Duhan didn't even look at her. He walked to the side screen to change his clothes. He took off his outer clothes in front of Wen Yao without any scruples, revealing the straight and neat lines of his shoulders and back. He said, "Sit down and eat, and then go riding."
As soon as he finished speaking, the curtain beside the door was lifted, and several Northern Liao warriors came in carrying trays filled with sliced meat and fresh fruit. As soon as they looked up, they saw Wen Yao pointing a bow and arrow at the shirtless Yelu Duhan. They were so shocked that they almost dropped their weapons and drew their swords.
Yelu Duhan was dissatisfied and said in a cold tone of Northern Liao dialect: "What are you standing there for? Put your things down and get out."
The Northern Liao warriors looked at each other, and finally put down their things and left.
Wen Yao narrowed one eye, her hair falling to the side of her face. Without moving, she asked, "Before attacking Tianshui, did Northern Liao plan to take down Bohai first?"
Yelu Duhan pushed his long hair out from his collar, looked at Wen Yao and chuckled, his brows becoming more and more narrow, neither admitting nor denying.
What the hell is this? It's so funny.
Wen Yao understood, dropped her longbow, and sat down to eat. The Northern Liao army had plenty of beef and mutton, but what was rare was fruit and vegetables. But Yelu Duhan had everything: fresh fruit, yogurt, and a wide variety of vegetable soups. Initially, neither of them had much to say, until Wen Yao opened a bowl of soup and saw the round fruit floating inside. She paused, took a sip, and praised, "Delicious."
Yelu Duhan raised an eyebrow and took a look at the soup. It was vegetarian, without any minced meat, only a few round fruits and a few chrysanthemum petals. Wen Yao, however, scooped up the fruits with a spoon and held them in his mouth, his expression showing no sign of feigning delight.
"Go." Yelu Duhan turned to the person beside him and said, "Transfer the chef who made this dish to my house."
Wen Yao smiled at him and chewed all the fruit in her mouth.
After dinner, Yelu Duhan took her to choose a horse. The Northern Liao Iron Cavalry's fame was inseparable from the unparalleled wild warhorses raised on the Northern Liao grasslands. Wen Yao took one look at the sturdy physiques of the horses in the stables and could imagine the sheer force of the Northern Liao Iron Cavalry as they charged.
Horses understand human nature, and she quite likes them. Wen Yao locked eyes with a tall black horse that looked up at her for a moment, then reached out and led it out of the stable. The horse was obedient in her hands, but when it saw Yelu Duhan outside, it started to huff and puff, becoming slightly agitated.
Wen Yao was surprised: "How come even horses hate you?"
"This is the first horse I've brought back from the grassland." Yelu Duhan hadn't expected Wen Yao to choose this one: "It still doesn't obey me."
It's interesting that Yelu Duhan, who was unwilling to bring it back from the grassland, actually liked Wen Yao very much.
Wen Yao said nothing, grabbed the reins, and climbed onto the horse, sitting firmly on its back. Yelu Duhan also mounted his horse, leading the way. Soon, the two incredibly handsome horses burst out of the camp and galloped towards the vast grassland in the dark night.
The moon over the grassland was large, full, and pure white. The grass swayed silently in the moonlight, and wolves howled.
"We're not going to hunt wolves today." Yelu Duhan's emerald eyes sparkled. "Let's go see the flowers."
Hot springs buoyed the grasslands, their bubbling waters bringing boundless vitality. Even as autumn neared, the vibrant wildflowers still flourished in profusion, blanketing the landscape in vibrant colors. Two horses arrived at the flower fields and began nibbling on the blossoms, unable to stop even Wen Yaozhi.
"It likes it. This flower is sweet." Yelu Duhan leaned over, stretched out his long arms, picked up a handful of flowers, and threw them into Wen Yao's arms: "Flowers grown from hot spring water are all sweet."
Wen Yao's nose was tickled by the rich floral scent, and she almost sneezed. She touched her nose, bent down to pick up the flowers scattered on the horse's mane, and said, "You know it very well."
"My mother loved hunting horses. She used to take me horseback riding outside the capital. One year, for my birthday, she gave me a very beautiful colt." Yelu Duhan smiled slightly, his sharp temperament suddenly piercing the watery moonlight. "I loved it very much. Unfortunately, we had no meat to eat when we fled south, so we killed it and ate its meat."
Wen Yao paused while feeding the flowers to the horse.
It wasn't just the horse that was killed. Northern Liao's descendants were the most powerful. During Duoyueli's campaign against the Wanyans, Yelu Duhan's maternal clan was almost completely wiped out, and the rest of the clan was merged into the other tribes. There was no Wanyan clan left in Northern Liao.
Yelu Duhan relaxed his shoulders, raised his head, and gazed at the misty, sandy clouds stretching out towards the silver moon. His expression was rare, his eyes wide and his whole demeanor calm.
"You saw what happened in Xijin Prefecture last night," he suddenly said. "I have governed Xijin very well. The Liao people and the Tianshui people live together without conflict."
"What do you want to say?"
Yelu Duhan smiled faintly, very confident: "I think that when I become the common ruler of the world in the future, the Liao people and the Tianshui people will be able to get along well."
Wen Yao gave him a thumbs-up: "Great ambition."
Yelu Duhan stared at Wen Yao and said, "You said before that my return to Northern Liao for revenge and the war between Northern Liao and Tianshui had nothing to do with you. Apart from these two points, the only one left is Zhao Xuanxu. He is the prince of Tianshui. If Northern Liao attacks Tianshui, I will be his enemy. Wen Yao, I ask you, I knew you first, why did you choose him? How is he better than me?" Whether in appearance, power or wealth, he is clearly no worse than Zhao Xuanxu.
"First of all." Wen Yao shook his head: "I chose him because I like him; I don't like you, so I didn't choose you. There is no reason, and there is no need to compare."
Yelu Duhan's jaw moved slightly and his shoulders and back tensed.
Wen Yao continued, "I'm surprised too. It sounds like you still don't know why I treated you like this."
Yelu Duhan frowned: "Why?"
"Because you killed Ning'er."
"Ning'er?" Yelu Duhan seemed to have heard something unbelievable, and he emphasized, "Why kill her? I've already told you the reason. You said it was because she was my slave, working for me. How many times did you meet her? Now that she's dead, are you angry with me for her?"
"Even if we don't talk about Zhao Xuanxu, let's just talk about Jiang Qiaosheng. She's taken as many lives as I have. If you care about lives, why do you still keep her with you?"
"I know neither you nor Jiang Qiaosheng are good people, and I don't expect you to become good people. I've also been involved in human deaths. We're all people who have been through the martial arts world. To put it bluntly, none of us are clean." Wen Yao's brows darkened, and he said coldly, "Do you know the difference between you and Jiang Qiaosheng? The difference is that she would never kill Xue Ke, who had been with her for many years, but you killed Ning'er without hesitation."
Yelu Duhan pursed his lips. He knew who Xue Ke was, a loyal servant of Jiang Qiaosheng. He still didn't understand and stubbornly said, "Ning'er is just a servant."
The atmosphere between the two grew cold and tense. The two horses, not understanding human language, remained undisturbed and focused on nibbling the flowers.
Wen Yao sighed suddenly and waved his hand, saying, "Forget it. I really can't just sit there and watch Tianshui get caught up in the war. Just think of me as standing on Tianshui's side and opposing you."
That night, the Northern Liao military camp was brightly lit. The Northern Liao Xianyinsi took Wen Yao out on a whim, only to return in anger.
Yelu Duhan rushed into the tent and woke everyone up late to discuss military matters. Han Zhao, frightened and having gone to bed early, was dragged from his bed to the main tent, unbelievably ungentlemanly, his hair in a haphazard bun.
A map unfolded before the tent screen. It showed the three kingdoms of Northern Liao, Tianshui, and Xichao, each balancing the other. Bohai lay to the east of Liaodong, while Dali lay to the southwest. While Northern Liao and Tianshui had been in constant conflict for years, Bohai, on the other hand, had remained relatively unaffected, safe from conflict.
Judging from the test conducted by Prince Bohai today, they are living a good life and their ambitions are growing.
The candlelight flickered, Yelu Duhan's profile was tense, and his wolf-like eyes were fixed on the territory of Bohai Kingdom without blinking.
"Sir, the Shangjing has mobilized troops to the Bohai border and can be dispatched at any time." A burly man with a prominent belly said in a deep voice, "As long as you hold the border, once His Majesty the Third Prince has conquered Bohai and eliminated all worries, our Northern Liao cavalry can march south without worry and capture cities and territories."
Han Zhao's eyes were sullen, and his expression was extremely calm. "The Prince of Tianshui, Yong, and the Prince of Qin are at a stalemate, neither daring to accept the challenge. We must quickly defeat Bohai, and now is the best time. Your Highness, this battle must be fought swiftly and fiercely."
The conflict between great powers presents numerous uncertainties. Yelu Duhan traveled to the Western Dynasty to negotiate a border demarcation with Li Fubai, willingly ceding the Hexi Corridor to this end. Yelu Duhan saw Li Fubai's unwavering ambition, unlike the previous Western Dynasty emperor's timidity. As the new emperor, he refused to ally with Tianshui even with the offer of a marriage alliance with the Princess of Tianshui, and the court at large consistently sought to advance southward and seize Hexi.
The Bohai Kingdom has become increasingly arrogant in recent years. How can anyone sleep peacefully on a couch lying on my side? Once Bohai is pacified, it will be the day when Northern Liao will march across the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.
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