Chang'an is good

Chapter 627: It seems like the family is being destroyed

"Don't sleep!" Li Suining was overjoyed. She rested one hand on the edge of the couch, looked at the person who came, and listened to his words "ineffective". She said, "It's okay, it will be done, as long as you are safe."

Tang Xing stood up, glanced at Cui Jing, and then gave her a generous smile, and bowed: "I came here to invite Your Highness to move to the Beidi King's Court!"

Li Suining was stunned for a moment, then he realized something, his eyes suddenly lit up with joy, and the next moment he looked at Cui Jing, subconsciously thinking and asking: "But yesterday our army..."

Cui Jing's expression remained unchanged: "The Northern Di have not yet surrendered, and our army does not know the details. Yesterday's battle was just to rescue the besieged soldiers."

Li Suining had come back to his senses, with an admiring smile in his eyes, and nodded in agreement: "That's exactly what is going on, there's nothing wrong with that."

The battle yesterday was extremely fierce and tragic for the Northern Di Army. Tang Xing had obviously heard about it on the way. At this moment, he said with a smile: "Yesterday's battle was a good thing! Beating them so hard that they dared not fight back and had no strength to fight again was more conducive to the subsequent negotiations!"

The party that advocates war and aggression will never be qualified to use casualties on the battlefield to gain any moral sympathy and compassion.

After Tang Xing finished speaking, he took out a document from under his large fur coat and presented it with both hands: "This is presented by the Queen of Beidi, and I would like to invite Her Royal Highness the Crown Princess of our dynasty to come to the royal court!"

A Dian hurriedly took it, walked two or three steps back to the couch and sat down, unfolded the document with both hands, held it in front of Li Suining, and asked her to look at it.

Li Suining was about to turn her head when Cui Jing, who was standing next to her, silently stretched out a hand, rotated the document half a circle in Adian's hand, and straightened it up and down.

Shepherd's Purse poured a bowl of hot tea and handed it to Tang Xing with one hand: "Brother Xing, this trip has not been easy. Have a cup of tea to warm yourself up!"

"Thank you, big sister." Tang Xing took it with a smile, the tea soup was misty and hot steam was rising.

By the time Tang Xing finished drinking the cup of tea, Li Suining had also finished reading the document. Tang Xing held the empty tea bowl and then told him about his experiences along the way and the whole process of what happened.

It has been more than half a year since he was ordered to leave.

At that time, he received a mission from his master: [Go to Beidi and kill a man.]

The road deep into Beidi is difficult to travel, and because they have to sneak in as quietly as possible, the route is mostly through remote and desolate places, and they are always fighting against the terrain and weather. Even Tang Xing, who is known as the wanderer of Mount Wutai and has seen the scenery of various places, thought many times that he would not be able to get out.

After passing through uninhabited areas and escaping death several times, he ran into a group of hunters armed with knives and bows. In order not to reveal his identity, Tang Xing dressed himself as a merchant. He lied that he was from Qiuci in the Western Regions, which was under the jurisdiction of Longyou. Although it was also the territory of Dasheng, compared with the Central Plains, its relationship with Beidi was not as hostile, and they occasionally traded with each other.

Tang Xing spoke authentic Kucha language and dressed in Western style, and barely gained the trust of those people. But even so, they were still robbed by the group of nomads.

But for Tang Xing and others, being able to keep their lives and identities secret is already the best outcome.

But problems soon arose. As the weather grew colder, there were fewer and fewer prey. Their food and thin clothes became a problem. When they were really hungry and cold, they would surely die.

At this time, Tang Xing decided to change his route slightly and ventured closer to a tribe.

They had traveled all the way here in a miserable state, like savages, with a strong sense of exile.

Population is also a resource, so it is reasonable for them to be tied up and abducted as slaves.

Half a month later, the tribal herdsmen were so angry that they almost fainted.

They could not understand how it was possible that those slaves, who were docile and timid, very capable at both herding sheep and collecting manure, often got into fights over a piece or two of moldy cakes, and whose fighting techniques were extremely primitive and clumsy, and who had no other shortcomings except that they ate a little too much, could have escaped?

They also took away more than a hundred of their horses. The dried meat that had just been dried out for the winter was swept away, and even some of everyone's fur coats were stolen!
With horses, they could travel faster, and the horses they rode and their clothes were completely integrated into the Northern Di people. Their specific features could not be seen because of the sheepskin coats and fur hats. As long as they did not get close to communicate, there was basically no obstacle to passing through.

After Tang Xing contacted the spies in Beidi, he continued to travel as a fur trader and got to know the people of the Ashide tribe, that is, the members of the Queen's tribe.

Tang Xing had no way to get close to the Northern Di Khan for the time being, but he waited for the opportunity to meet the queen in the Ashide tribe.

That night, the queen seemed frightened by his proposal and decisively rejected him.

But Tang Xing felt that there was still hope, because the other party had no intention of exposing him, although her excuse was that she did not want to implicate her tribe members and make them suspected of collaborating with the enemy.

Afterwards, Tang Xing wrote several letters to lobby, but received no response.

But Tang Xing did not put all his hopes on the Queen. He was also trying to get close to the Northern Di Khan, but the latter required time and was very luck-intensive.

Tang Xing was not lacking in patience, but he knew very well that the longer he delayed, the greater the casualties in the rear would be.

Just when he made up his mind to make a desperate attempt to assassinate the Khan, he suddenly received a piece of news - the Khan suddenly sent out half of the royal court's troops, led by Ashina Tilie, and left the tent.

Soon after, Tang Xing learned that a powerful army had invaded Beidi and captured several tribes in succession, and the leader... was actually his lord.

Her Highness actually came to Beidi in person!
Knowing that Ashina Tilie was difficult to deal with, Tang Xing became anxious, and at the same time he realized that the real opportunity had come.

On that day, he sent a message to the Queen of Beidi for the last time. This time it was no longer to lobby, but to inform her that he needed her to give a reply within two days as to whether she would cooperate. Otherwise, all the conditions he had previously offered would be invalid, and there would be no need or possibility for them to cooperate with each other.

That night, Tang Xing finally received a reply from the queen.

The Khan of Beidi, who was always suspicious, never imagined until his death that the one who took his life was the cowardly and useless person beside him.

The Khan was poisoned to death. The poison was colorless and odorless, and would kill a person within a quarter of an hour after taking effect.

Late at night, the queen closed her eyes and lay quietly, listening to her husband struggling and falling off the bed. She wanted to call for help but could only make a very weak sound. There seemed to be anger in that weak voice, anger that she, the queen, was useless and slept so deeply that she didn't even notice her husband's cry for help.

Only after the noise died down did the queen slowly stand up and call her trusted maidservant outside to come in. Together they carried her husband back to the couch and carefully wiped the blood from his mouth and nose over and over again until no more blood flowed out.

Afterwards, the queen continued to lie beside her husband with her eyes closed and rested until dawn. The servants came in to serve her and found the king who was already stiff. They suddenly burst into screams.

The queen was awakened, and then she screamed, her face turned pale, she staggered and fell off the bed, and asked someone to call a doctor in a trembling voice.

A maid cried and said that the king's body was already stiff and it was useless to ask a doctor.

The queen said in a trembling voice, then go and ask the high priest to cast a spell to save him.

The useless queen looked nervous, confused and at a loss. Of course, the powerful high priest also failed to save the Khan.

The death of the Khan is bound to affect the war situation.

According to tradition, officials in the royal court quickly summoned people from all over the place to return and hold a funeral for the king.

At first, Ashina Tilie led a large army to search for Sheng's army, but their whereabouts were difficult to determine. Heavy snow blocked the way, so the first messenger failed to find Ashina Tilie. It was not until Ashina Tilie led his army to set up camp that the second messenger finally brought the news of the king's death.

Tang Xing's original idea was to recall Ashina Tilie as soon as possible to help his master out of his predicament, but he failed to do so. Therefore, when he entered the account, the first thing he said was that he "did not do his job well."

Li Suining didn't think so. When she heard this, she said, "Ashina Tilie's will to fight is even stronger than his brother. Even if he learns of the Khan's death, he will definitely not be willing to retreat."

"It's better this way." She said, "If he really returns to the royal court, it will be difficult to find an opportunity and a pretext to kill him later. If he is alive, with his ambition and ability, he is the most likely person to succeed the throne. With such a person, it is difficult to stop the war. Even if our army tries hard to repel the Northern Di this time, I am afraid they will come back in two or three years at most. Killing such an ambitious person as soon as possible will prevent future troubles for Dasheng."

Li Suining has always advocated that every battle must play its greatest role. From the very beginning, she wanted not only to repel the Northern Di, but also to ensure that the northern border would achieve stability for as long as possible after this battle.

Anyone who stands in the way of this plan must die.

The death of the Khan is the most important part of this plan.

Li Suining looked at Tang Xing and said, "We were able to eliminate the Northern Di Khan at the lowest cost this time. Xiu Kun has made a great contribution."

"How dare I say that!" Tang Xing said, "Since I arrived, there has been no progress. This achievement is only yours... If your Highness had not personally led the troops into the Beidi territory and captured the Beidi tribes along the way, scaring the Khan to death, he would not have dispatched half of the royal court's troops and asked Ashina Tilie to lead the troops to stop and kill your Highness. If not for this, the Queen of Beidi would never have dared to make up her mind to agree to the cooperation."

After the contact, Tang Xing knew very well that the queen was a smart person.

She was very afraid of Ashina Tilie. If Ashina Tilie stayed in the royal court, even if she killed the Khan, it would only be making things easier for Tilie, and if she was not careful, she would lose her life.

For her, since she took such a big risk, she should get an equal reward - and why should she take the risk if it would only put herself from one predicament to another?
Those lofty words of "truce and peace" were too far away for her and were not enough to move her.

Li Suining had learned about the queen's experience and situation in advance and considered making a breakthrough from this person for two reasons.

When it comes to murder, it is always easier to kill someone with your bedside.
Secondly, with an "accomplice" of such an identity, subsequent events can be concluded more easily.

But convincing a queen to kill her husband is not an easy task after all, and it requires lobbying and negotiation. Li Suining does not think that Tang Xing’s previous lobbying was useless, and the credit belongs entirely to her.

If it weren't for the foundation laid by Tang Xing, no matter how she tried to lure Tilie away or kill Tilie, she would not be able to make the queen suddenly make the decision to kill her husband and the king.

Her actions and Tang Xing's actions were complementary to each other. Tang Xing's contribution was unquestionable. In this way, countless casualties of soldiers were avoided.

Li Suining was not stingy with his affirmation and praise for Tang Xing. The fact that he brought so many people alive and reached their destination was already an extraordinary achievement - among the people he brought, five soldiers died because of illness, and the rest were all taken care of by him.

Li Suining knew from the beginning that Tang Xing was the most suitable person to do this, but he did not expect that he was so suitable.

The reason why Tang Xing was asked to take the risk and come here instead of letting the spy in Beidi send a message to the queen directly was because this cooperation was destined to be difficult to achieve and required long-term and repeated negotiations and lobbying. All possible changes in the process would inevitably require the confidants to flexibly control and act expediently. Moreover, the enemy's spies should only exist in the dark. Once they come forward to negotiate with others directly, they may be completely eliminated, and years of hard work will be wasted overnight.

Speaking of negotiations, Li Suining asked Tang Xing: "What conditions did the queen propose?"

"She only asked her subordinates to help her kill two people and ensure the safety of her and the princess." Tang Xing: "As for the rest, she wants to discuss it with you in person."

Li Suining: "Who were the two people killed?"

"One was the commander of the royal guards, who died three days after the Khan's death." Tang Xing said, "The other was the little Khan of Beidi, who died on the eve of my departure."

The death of the Khan caused chaos in the royal court. In the chaos, with the queen acting as his accomplice, it was easy for him to take the lives of these two people.

Tang Xing had no mercy. Even though the little Khan was just a teenager, fighting was always cruel. Everyone had their own destiny and it was just a matter of success or failure.

"The reason she gave to her subordinates for killing people was that these two people suspected the Khan's death and advocated a thorough investigation, which really scared her." Speaking of the queen's words, Tang Xing smiled.

Li Suining also understood it tacitly.

At this point, the Khan was dead, his only son, the Little Khan, was dead, and Ashina Tilie was also dead... This trip seemed like an attempt to wipe out the entire family.

The situation in the Northern Di royal court must have changed drastically.

Li Suining immediately asked Cui Jing: "According to this, Ashide Yuanli should be on his way back now?"

Cui Jing nodded: "He will lead 10,000 cavalrymen back and should be able to reach the Northern Di royal court within three days."

Li Suining raised his eyebrows slightly: "Only 10,000 troops?"

Cui Jing: "Yuan Li is a very smart man."

Tang Xing also nodded in agreement, but then he felt something was wrong: "According to legend, Ashide Yuanli should have returned to Beidi earlier than General Cui..."

Long before the news of the Khan's death was sent out of the royal court, the queen had already asked him to send a secret letter to her brother by express horse - how early was it? So early that she had just agreed to cooperate with him and had not yet started to carry out the poisoning, but she asked him to send the letter as soon as possible.

Her husband had not yet started killing, but she had already started reporting the death.

As for how Tang Xing knew the contents of the letter, it was because he had read it before. What if the other party cheated? He had to read it first.

This made him unable to help but marvel. The queen told her brother directly in the letter that she had killed the Khan and was in danger. She asked her brother to return quickly and protect them.

As far as Tang Xing knew, the brother and sister were half-sisters. Yuan Li was not liked by the clan because he was half Han Chinese, but his sister trusted him very much and seemed to be able to control him - compared to the death of the Khan, the queen firmly believed that her "dangerous situation" would urge her brother to return.

However, her brother's return seemed to be slower than expected, even much slower than that of General Cui.

"Yes." Li Suining also looked up at Cui Jing: "Why did you come so quickly?"

4300 words, the first day of August, I wish you all happiness, success and health~
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