Having experienced Feng Zhi Wei’s art of negotiation firsthand, Bai Deshan kept thinking he should learn from Marquis Wei so he could use it for future negotiations even as he started to give out orders according to Feng Zhi Wei’s instructions– Other than the men who are in charge of exploring the road ahead, the rest of a thousand guards in the welcoming procession will be split in half. Half in the front, half in the flank, and Marquis Wei’s own personal two thousand guards will help protect the Tiansheng envoy team that will be in the middle.
When the caravan reached a fork in the road, Bai Deshan hesitated for a moment before pointing to a road on the left. The guard who received the order looked at the road with a cold smile on the corner of his lips and rode away immediately.
The curtain of the carriage lifted, revealing Feng Zhi Wei’s face. She was looking at the back of the guard leader riding away with a thoughtful look in her eyes. When this guard leader had come forward to greet them previously, his attitude was one of indifference and arrogance. However, the officials on the Xiliang side were all very polite to this guard leader whose rank was not particularly high. It is not difficult to guess that this person must be a confidant of the Prince Regent.
The caravan traveled for a bit more and gradually reached the mountainous area. Xiliang, like Minnan, is mountainous, especially along the border. The caravan had planned on going around the mountain. The road was rugged and uneven so everyone had abandoned the carriages and was riding on horses. Feng Zhi Wei squinted her eyes, looked at the road ahead, and made small talk with Bai Deshan, “This mountain looks steep and rugged. Are there villages in the mountain?”
Bai Deshan was a smart man and immediately said with a smile, “This is Teng Mountain, the first mountain on the western border of Xiliang. There are some hunters living in the mountains but there are no villages. It’s usually very peaceful.”
“Marquis Wei, are you asking if there are any bandits in the mountain?” The chief guard to the side of them suddenly replied coldly, “Lord Bai must have forgotten to tell you that there are there. However, those bandits…” He suddenly snickered, and his eyes which were mostly white with a little black, turned and glared at Feng Zhi Wei coldly, “They are deserters from the war between your country and my country. In the Battle of Huyepo, your country’s fleeing soldiers spread for dozens of miles, and there were countless deserters. Many people have since drifted to the border of Xiliang, unable to make a living, so they tore some fabric to make a flag and became bandits. These bandits have been harassing the people of Xiliang every year— now that Marquis Wei has come here with great difficulty, shouldn’t you take these stray dogs back?”
When those vicious and provocative words were spoken, all the sounds on all sides were instantly cut off. It was so quiet that one could hear the crisp crunching sound of fallen leaves in the distance. Bai Deshan froze in stunned silence for a long time before he snapped, “Commander Qiu! Be careful with your words!” His voice was so sharp and out of control that even he himself was startled.
Commander Qiu looked up at the sky, and sneered arrogantly– conveying the obvious meaning of “I said it, so what can you do about it.”
Seeing his expression, Bai Deshan rolled his eyes in anger, venting inwardly that this guy really was a piece of work. The guy is a good fighter but he is incapable of talking like a decent human being. Why did Prince Regent had to send a guy who has a grudge against Tiansheng to guard the envoy? Stealing a look at the angry expression on the Tiansheng guards, Bai Deshan couldn’t help but swallow hard– and started to wonder if this really angered the envoys, and they started fighting, what would be the chance of winning with one thousand against two thousand?
However, although the Tiansheng guards were furious, none of them opened their mouths to scold or make a move. All of their eyes were on the center of the caravan– Feng Zhi Wei.
Feng Zhi Wei gathered her sleeves and looked at the distant mountains with a smile, not raising even a single eyebrow. When everything around them had fallen into silence, it was only then did she slowly lowered her gaze to Commander Qiu and looked him up and down with great interest.
Her gaze of “what an entertaining clown-like character” sort of gaze made Commander Qiu feel uncomfortable all over. Just when he was about to get angry, he heard Feng Zhi Wei say slowly, “I was deeply touched when I saw this Teng Mountain.”
She said this suddenly, taking everyone by surprise, unsure what she meant by her words. Bai Deshan wanted to smooth things over, so he quickly said, “Marquis Wei, what about it touched you?”
Feng Zhi Wei slowly glanced over at him and pointed at Teng Mountain with her whip. “I suddenly remembered a legendary story. Twenty years ago, there was an emperor who had a general who was his right-hand man. The general guarded a large area that included the entire southern border at that time. Bestowed with such a heavy reliance by the emperor, this particular general was grateful to the point of tears and he once swore an oath to the emperor that he and his posterity were willing to guard the border forever, and to safeguard the fertile land in the south for the emperor. Unfortunately, the oath remained but people’s hearts have long changed. The general defected on a certain day, causing his master to be caught off guard and suffer heavy losses. In most cases, the story should’ve ended here, but what goes around comes around. This supposedly high and lofty general who was always victorious in battles was defeated again and again by a female general who was only in her teens. He fled for hundreds of miles to a certain mountain, retreating once, twice, and a third time, until finally retreating to the most barren and desolate southern borders. From then on, he drifted around, unable to make a living, so he eventually raised a flag and established a country. He even still remembers to invade and bother his master’s country every year, trying to grab back some of the land he had vomited out before— I was just thinking, this general went through difficulty to turn against his master once, but he couldn’t finish what he started. Shouldn’t he make some time to take back the territories he had vomited out all those years ago?”
“………….”
Feng Zhi Wei’s words were almost a verbatim reply to Commander Qiu’s provocation and were even more vicious than his words. She neither specified which dynasty nor what person it was, making it impossible to pinpoint exactly who it was. Yet, every word pointed to Yin Zhiliang’s betrayal in the past and the immorality of what he did. Every word struck at the sore spot of Xiliang empire—Yin Zhiliang won great victories at the time but was then defeated by a young girl general, and was forced to establish his own country in the wild and barren Xiliang. This was his lifelong sore spot. When he was alive, anyone who mentioned it would die. And now, the officials of Xiliang had brought this disgrace upon themselves and were forced to listen to it. The last sentence was the most vicious. Yin Zhiliang was already dead and had long become a ghost but she is still asking him “When are you going to find time to take those land back?”
All the officials from Xiliang turned as pale as ghosts and were rendered speechless after being ridiculed, mocked, and threatened. They wanted to get angry but could not find a good reason to stand on. It was so frustrating to know clearly someone is cursing you but you can only listen. Everyone glared at Commander Qiu furiously, secretly cursing him for bringing shame upon himself.
Qiu Commander’s face had long turned bright red from anger. With a *CLANK* sound, his sword is already half out of its sheath. Shocked once again, the Xiliang Official was about to stop the commander when a green shadow floated straight over, and said with a flat voice, “Sword very pretty, bring it to see”
Feng Zhi Wei smiled slightly, thinking inwardly that even Young Master Gu had learned to talk in a roundabout manner. However, Commander Qiu didn’t know who he was up against. Seeing Master Gu coming over, Commander Qiu sneered coldly and said, “You want to see it, don’t you? Sure…”
He casually handed the sword forward. The half-unsheathed sword would fall with just the slightest vibration from him. He figured once this person reached out to take it, he was going to teach this guy a small lesson. On account of Prince Regent’s instruction to not be too harsh, he figured taking one hand from this guy would be enough!
All text copyright @ www.Ninja-Reflection.com
Commander Qiu is very brave to take on GNY. Only if he knew what would happen. Thank you, Ninja.