Jiuxi

Chapter 373 Chapter 371 [June Snow]

After being reminded by the guards, the woman in red stopped in the center of the hall and stood in the middle of the vast space.

This distance ensured that she could clearly hear the emperor's questions above her without posing a threat.

To be honest, if Jing Guogong's eldest son had not come forward personally and brought Jing Guogong's guarantee and promise, the palace guards would never have allowed this mysterious assassin to enter the Wende Palace.

Even though the six guards surrounding her at this moment are all extremely skilled, and they are enough to establish a sect in the wilderness, but no one can be sure that everything is infallible, and they can only stare at this person with a hundred thousand spirits at the moment.

The woman in red didn't seem to sense the alertness of the people around her. She just looked at this magnificent palace and the powerful Qi officials in the palace with some curiosity.

When her eyes glanced at Lu Chen not far away on the right, she couldn't help but pause for a moment.

This small detail will naturally fall into the eyes of some caring people.

At this time, the emperor's majestic voice sounded from the dragon throne: "Who are you?"

The woman in red was not a barbarian. Although she was not familiar with the etiquette system of Qi, she saluted in a decent manner and said: "Your Majesty the State of Qi, I am a member of the Yalong tribe in Shazhou, and my name is Luo Jiujiu."

Li Duan coughed lightly and asked Luo Jiujiu: "Since your assassination failed, why didn't you find a place to hide and instead ran to the Duke of Jing's Mansion?"

If so, Li Duan had no choice but to give up appeasing him. After all, the court had to save face.

They just didn't quite understand, how could this Shazhou woman dare to appear openly in the Daqi Palace?

Li Duan narrowed his eyes slightly and asked, "Did you intend to assassinate General Hou Yu last night?"

An angry scolding followed.

Guo Congyi shook his head, flicked his sleeves, turned around and said no more to her.

The middle-aged military attache replied solemnly: "I am the Privy Councilor Guo Congyi. Although His Majesty allows you to enter the palace to report, it does not mean that you can talk nonsense. I hope you understand your identity and put away your barbaric manner!"

Luo Jiujiu looked around and saw the middle-aged military attache standing at the front on the right, so he raised his eyebrows and asked, "Who are you?"

For the Da Qi court, Shazhou Qibu was a very helpless and taboo name.

Her voice was very clear, but her words were not very particular.

To be fair, no one in Da Qi's court was willing to regard the Seven Shazhou tribes as enemies. Even regardless of the contribution of Shazhou native soldiers in the early days of Da Qi's founding, they never betrayed Da Qi in the following hundred years.

What followed was that local soldiers from Shazhou often crossed the border to disturb the people, and the Chengzhou Governor's Office grew step by step.

"presumptuous!"

Everyone knows that Da Qi is ashamed of the seven tribes of Shazhou. Therefore, after Li Duan ascended the throne, he repeatedly sent envoys to Shazhou to offer soft policies. However, each time the envoys were knocked unconscious and stripped naked. The clothes were thrown back into Chengzhou.

Luo Jiujiu seemed not to have heard what he said behind him, and sneered: "It turns out that he is the Privy Councilor in charge of the military. You are also responsible for the murder of our people!"

After Luo Jiujiu revealed her identity, almost all the courtiers believed that she was the real murderer of Hou Yu. After all, Hou Yu had stayed in the Chengzhou Dudu Mansion for thirteen years and had killed countless Shazhou people.

Luo Jiujiu raised his head and replied: "Yes, it's me, but it's a pity that I didn't kill him with a sword!"

Li Duan naturally didn't care about these details. On the contrary, when the ministers heard the words Shazhou Yalongbu, there was another commotion.

However, the late emperor's absurd actions when Heluo was first besieged nineteen years ago not only lost several important towns in the northern Jinghe defense line, but also caused the death of 8,000 Shazhou native soldiers in Yanziling, the northern suburb of Heluo. From then on, Shazhou was The Qibu regarded Daqi as their mortal enemy.

Luo Jiujiu put away his coldness and replied crisply: "Your Majesty, I know what kind of person Hou Yu is. If the assassination failed last night, it will be difficult to find another chance. During this time, I will stay in your capital. , I heard that Jing Guo Gong Han Lingfu and Shanyang Hou Lu Chen are the few good people in the Qi army, and Jing Guo Gong has a higher official position, so I went to find him, hoping that he could make the decision for us Shazhou people!"

These words are not entirely true, and naturally the people in the court will not believe them all.

Li Duan resisted the urge to look at Lu Chen and asked: "Since you think Mr. Han is a good person, why don't you go to him directly and take the risk of assassination?" Luo Jiujiu said calmly: "If you can kill Hou Yu directly , of course I don’t want to ask anyone else. I unfortunately failed last night. Not only will I have no chance to kill Hou Yu, but I will also be constantly hunted by His Majesty’s people. Instead of hiding in Tibet and still unable to get revenge, I might as well try the last resort."

Li Duan reluctantly accepted her explanation and said thoughtfully: "You just said that Hou Yu was plotting to kill your people, and you also said that you hope that Mr. Han can make the decision for you Shazhou people. I don't quite understand what you said."

Luo Jiujiu frowned slightly and said, "Why doesn't your Majesty understand?"

Li Duandao said: "Since the beginning of my accession to the throne, I have sent envoys to Shazhou one after another and expressed goodwill to your people several times. Instead of accepting it, you have continued to do things that are degrading to gentlemen."

This is an era where sons do not speak up about their father's faults. Even if Li Duangui is the emperor, it is impossible for him to complain bitterly about the late emperor's ridiculous behavior in front of all the ministers. Therefore, he can only use this euphemistic way to remind the woman in red below.

Luo Jiujiu understood what he meant, and then said with a little disbelief: "Your Majesty, back then our Shazhou Seventh Division sent eight thousand sons, Prince Qin, to rescue him. As a result, more than seven thousand people were tricked to death, and only less than four were killed. Hundreds of people fled back to Shazhou. This matter has not been properly handled until now. You asked the envoys to bring a few good words and several carts of gold and silver to make us Shazhou people put down their hatred. We just beat those envoys. Is it too much to just come back in a coma?"

Li Duandeng was speechless. At this moment, he suddenly doubted whether his decision to allow this woman to enter the palace was a mistake.

Luo Jiujiu's words were too direct, and he unreservedly exposed the bad things the late emperor had done back then, which made it difficult for Li Duan to take over.

Right Minister Xue Nanting saw this and interrupted: "Miss Luo, what does this have to do with what you said before?"

Luo Jiujiu reacted quickly and immediately replied: "Of course it does matter! My lord, the death of the eight thousand local soldiers in Shazhou is your Qi country's responsibility. It's nothing for us Shazhou people to knock out a few envoys." ?If we want to calculate this account carefully, we can kill all those envoys! But we just knocked them out, because we know that no matter how weak Qi is, it is still stronger than Shazhou, and we don’t want to kill more people. Clan!"

Xue Nanting was so scheming about the city. When he noticed the problem, he frowned slightly and said, "What is Miss Luo's identity?"

Luo Jiujiu said: "I am the daughter of Yalong's leader. I should be qualified to stand here and tell the whole story clearly."

Xue Nanting didn't wait for others to interrupt, and continued to ask: "You said you don't want to lose more people, but since thirteen years ago, the seven tribes of you Shazhou have been constantly harassing our border to the west, and you often cross the border to kill people. This Isn’t it your responsibility?”

When Luo Jiujiu heard this, a heavy look of sadness appeared on his face, and he said slowly: "What is our responsibility?"

Li Duan spoke again: "Miss Luo, what happened at the border these years?"

Luo Jiujiu looked up at the emperor on the dragon throne, bit his lips gently, then exhaled a long breath and said sadly: "Your Majesty, Qi State, actually we also want to know why your Qi State army wants to kill Kill them all, why don’t you let us Shazhou Seven Tribes go, why do you try every means to massacre our people year after year!”

Li Duan was stunned.

All the important officials in the dynasty changed their colors.

Luo Jiujiu continued: "Since I can remember, my parents have always told me not to take my brothers close to Yunling, because to the east of Yunling is your Qi State's Chengzhou, and the soldiers there will be there every now and then. Appeared near Yunling. As long as we let them see us, even children aged seven or eight, they will not hesitate to raise their butcher knives and kill everyone they see!"

A miserable look appeared on her face, and she said slowly: "Yes, our Shazhou Seven Divisions used to be very powerful. A hundred years ago, our ancestors helped your Emperor Taizu of Qi to conquer the world, so many people think that Shazhou The local soldiers in Shazhou are particularly powerful. But have you ever thought about the tragedy nineteen years ago, in which more than 7,000 strong men were killed in Shazhou? Do you know that the seven tribes of Shazhou, which originally had a small population, were Tell me, what do those more than 7,000 people mean?"

"In the past ten years, the Seven Tribes of Shazhou have not recovered at all. Many of the seven tribes are old, weak, women and children. It is only in the past two years that things have gradually improved. We, the Seven Tribes of Shazhou, have almost done everything for your Qi State. We have been reduced to the point of destruction, but what have your Qi State's frontier troops done in the past ten years? They exchanged the heads of our people for rewards. Have you, the big shots, never seen how many young people are among those heads? People, how many of them are old people and children!”

The whole hall was filled with dead silence.

For Da Qi, face is the most important thing in both the government and the public.

The grudges between Daqi and the Seven Tribes of Shazhou were caused by Daqi's fault in the first place. Now Luo Jiujiu exposed the truth about the so-called war in the western border in the past ten years in front of the Manchu ministers. Some mature and prudent people The minister almost hid his face in shame and wished he could find a hole in the ground to crawl into.

Luo Jiujiu's body was shaking slightly uncontrollably. She took a deep breath and said in a trembling voice: "Hou Yu has been wandering around with his soldiers since he appeared near Yunling more than ten years ago. As long as he sees We Shazhou people will kill people without saying a word. I don’t know what he did next, but he must have taken the heads of our people in exchange for credit. Maybe he even said that this was us Shazhou people invading your Qi State border. He He kills people to protect the people."

"His official position is getting higher and higher, and the number of soldiers under his command is also increasing, and more and more Shazhou people are dying in his hands. When I was just born, people from my tribe could still cross Yunling to come to your Qi country. Purchase goods, but now the area around Yunling has become a restricted area for Shazhou people, and no one dares to set foot there."

Luo Jiujiu paused for a moment, looked up at the emperor on the dragon throne, and said word by word: "Your Majesty Qi, shouldn't a beast like Hou Yu, who became a high official by killing innocent Shazhou people, die?" ?!"

(End of this chapter)