plumnovel Chapter 103 The Alliance of the Yangtze River
Chapter 103 The Alliance of the Yangtze River
Chapter 103 The Alliance of the Yangtze River (Part Two)
However, when the cabin curtain was lifted, it was not Zhao Kuangyin, whom the two had expected, who entered the cabin, but only Zhao Dezhao himself.
However, he was holding a lustrous jade axe with both hands.
Upon entering the cabin, Zhao Dezhao stared intently at the main seat ahead, his expression solemn. After bowing deeply, he turned and glared angrily at Li Congjia and his companion, shouting sternly, "His Majesty has decreed that seeing the Jade Axe is as if seeing the Emperor himself! Why did you two not bow?"
This angry shout startled Li Congjia, causing him to tremble slightly.
He instantly recalled that night, amidst the blazing firelight, the image of Zhao Dezhao, covered in blood, riding his horse and laughing wildly.
The two scenes overlapped. Looking at the murderous Zhao Dezhao before him, Li Congjia's legs went weak, and he involuntarily knelt before the jade axe: "Greetings, Your Majesty!"
Xu Xuan looked helpless but could only kneel and bow. As he rose, he suddenly cried out in a mournful voice, "The Tang Dynasty is innocent! Why has the Song envoy humiliated my prince like this!"
"Innocent?" Upon hearing this, Lu Duoxun laughed in anger. Before Zhao Dezhao could speak, he rebuked him, "The whole world knows that you from Jiangnan intend to help Li Chongjin rebel against our Great Song Dynasty. How dare you claim to be innocent?"
"The heavens and the sun are clear! When has our Great Tang ever aided the rebels? Does the Song envoy have even a shred of evidence?" Xu Xuan's expression was one of grief and indignation; anyone who didn't know better would think he had suffered a great injustice.
"Evidence?" Ludoson sneered. "If you're not going to help the enemy, why send troops?"
"Heaven is my witness! The troops were dispatched solely to assist the Central Plains in quelling the Yangzhou rebellion!"
Xu Xuan, feigning deep sorrow, continued, "It's pitiful that my king's sincere heart has brought trouble upon himself, only to be subjected to gossip and criticism. It's truly disheartening!"
"Ha, no matter how eloquent you are, you can't hide the truth! If it weren't for my prince leading the army to stop you, you would have already joined forces with Li Chongjin!" Lu Duoxun sneered.
"Everything I said is true!"
Xu Xuan declared with righteous indignation, "If our Great Tang truly intended to aid the rebels, why did we remain inactive even after our troops reached Yangzhou?"
"As for the confrontation with the Martial King that night, it was simply because it was dark and windy, and visibility was poor. We mistook him for an approaching general and thus accidentally injured our own troops. How could the Song envoy use this to accuse our Great Tang of having disloyal intentions?"
'
Lu Duoxun was speechless. He could see that Xu Xuan wanted to occupy a high position on the moral high ground in order to take the initiative in the next negotiation. But the facts were clear, and he could not be allowed to distort the truth.
"Let me ask you this: if the Southern Tang truly had no intention of rebellion, why did they repeatedly besiege my prince?"
"Heaven have mercy! When has our Great Tang ever besieged or annihilated Your Highness!"
Xu Xuan cried out that he was wronged and began to sob on the spot: "Our Great Tang was only trying to protect itself! Your Highness went deep into the heart of our Great Tang without saying a word. Everyone in our Great Tang thought that Your Highness wanted to use the prestige of destroying Yangzhou to plot against our dynasty. Who knew that this was all a misunderstanding!"
With a single, casual remark, he intended to erase all past entanglements with the word "misunderstanding."
These words stunned Lu Duoxun. After a long pause, a look of alarm appeared in his eyes, and he rolled up his sleeves with a solemn expression.
Come on, let's have a big battle!
Both sides quoted extensively from classical texts, spoke eloquently and wittily, leaving Li Congjia, who was standing to the side, dumbfounded and inwardly proclaiming that he had not misjudged them.
Xu Xuan truly lives up to his reputation as the most eloquent speaker in the Tang Dynasty!
"Pfft—"
Zhao Dezhao watched from the side and couldn't help but laugh.
In ancient times, when negotiating, people were always obsessed with seizing the moral high ground, as if having this word "righteousness" would give them a legitimate reason to do anything.
This applies to everything from petty squabbles in the marketplace to major changes in dynasties.
"That's enough!"
Having listened enough, Zhao Dezhao stopped the two, turned around, picked up the jade axe, weighed it in his hand, and looked at Li Congjia with a half-smile, saying, "Don't waste any more words. I only have three conditions. As long as your Southern Tang agrees, this matter will be over."
"Otherwise, the two countries will go to war, a war to the death!"
Li Congjia was taken aback by his directness and was momentarily speechless. He turned his face away and said firmly, "Please speak, King of Martial Arts."
Zhao Dezhao's smile gradually faded, and he stated point by point: "First, the Southern Tang shall relinquish its imperial title, submit to our Great Song, and shall not invade."
Secondly, the Southern Tang Dynasty paid an annual tribute of 50 strings of cash!
Thirdly, Li Congjia's eldest son, Li Zhongyu, was sent to Kaifeng as a hostage!
"Impossible!" Li Congjia and Xu Xuan exclaimed in unison.
"King Wugong is making outrageous demands!" Xu Xuan cried out in indignation. "Our Great Tang's annual revenue is only two million strings of cash, and Your Highness is asking for a quarter of it! Such a request is utterly unreasonable!"
"Furthermore, the Crown Prince's eldest son is the future heir apparent of our Great Tang Dynasty. How can he be sent to the capital as a hostage? This is absolutely unacceptable!"
"So there's no room for negotiation?" Zhao Dezhao didn't look at Xu Xuan, but instead, holding the jade axe, smiled and walked towards Li Congjia: "Chongguang, what do you say?"
When Li Congjia suddenly heard Zhao Dezhao call his courtesy name, he was still a little uncomfortable. When he saw Zhao Dezhao walking towards him with a smile, holding a jade axe, he felt as if he was being stared at by a tiger, and the hairs on his body stood on end.
"There's no room for negotiation!" Xu Xuan preemptively spoke, his voice sharp. "If the Martial Arts King were truly sincere about making peace, he wouldn't have made such an excessive demand!"
"Is that too much?"
Zhao Dezhao raised an eyebrow and said lightly, "Since there's nothing to talk about, then we're enemies."
"Since we're enemies—" Zhao Dezhao grinned, suddenly gripping his jade axe tightly. He strode forward to Li Congjia, then brought it down on his head with murderous intent, shouting, "Die!!"
"We can talk!!!"
Seeing the jade axe coming down on him, Li Congjia was suddenly transported back to the night the Cuiping was burned. He was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground, scrambling back two steps, his voice trembling with tears: "A gentleman uses words, not fists. Everything can be discussed—"
"Your Highness!" Xu Xuan urgently tried to dissuade him, "Our Great Tang Navy is only two miles away; they'll arrive in no time. He wouldn't dare harm you!"
"Oh? Is that so?" Zhao Dezhao put away his jade axe, his eyes suddenly turning cold. He leaned down and stared at Li Congjia, saying grimly, "Then Your Highness might as well guess whether I dare—or not?"
Li Congjia shrank back twice, using both hands and feet, then turned to Xu Xuan and shouted angrily, "Xu Xuan, you—you shut up! Are you trying to kill me?!"
The psychological trauma Zhao Dezhao left on him was too great.
If this god of death is capable of such a mad thing as 800 men charging into a battle of 30,000, what else wouldn't he dare to do?
Looking at Zhao Dezhao's icy gaze, Li Congjia was on the verge of tears, repeatedly saying in a sob-filled voice, "I promise you, I promise you—"
"Very good." Zhao Dezhao waved to the dumbfounded Lu Duoxun: "Bring me a brush, ink, paper and inkstone. I've been wanting to see Chongguang's calligraphy."
Seeing this, Xu Xuan sighed helplessly.
He finally understood why the other party had specifically requested His Highness to come and negotiate peace.
Even with his silver tongue, it was all in vain. The other party's mere threat was enough to overwhelm His Highness.
The Crown Prince was already terrified of Zhao Dezhao, so how could they possibly negotiate?
"Oh, right," Zhao Dezhao suddenly remembered something, and smiled with narrowed eyes, "these conditions are only a prerequisite for the Song Dynasty not to attack the Tang Dynasty. If you want to redeem Crown Princess Zhou Ehuang, you need to add another 500,000 strings of cash."
Li Congjia's face suddenly turned a deep shade of liver, a sense of humiliation welling up inside him. But thinking of his affection for Zhou Ehuang, he gritted his teeth and finally agreed.
"Also, Zhou Nüying is not included in the redemption list," Zhao Dezhao added, smiling like a cunning businessman. "If you want to redeem her as well, you'll need to add another 500,000 strings of cash."
The Southern Tang Dynasty was wealthy; how could we not take advantage of it?
He had calculated it carefully. The Southern Tang Dynasty had an annual income of two million strings of cash. After deducting expenses, there were still six or seven hundred thousand strings of cash left. After many years of accumulation, although it would be difficult to come up with one million strings of cash, it was by no means impossible.
"good----"
Just as Li Congjia was about to agree, Xu Xuan couldn't help but tug at Li Congjia's sleeve, his eyes almost pleading with him not to agree.
A full 500,000 strings of cash! That could support so many soldiers, and they just redeemed a woman for nothing?
The key point is that since Zhou Zong's death, the Zhou clan has long since declined.
What benefit would it bring to redeem Zhou Nüying?
Furthermore, agreeing so easily would expose the wealth of Jiangnan, and it's hard to guarantee that the Central Plains won't have other ideas.
Li Congjia immediately understood Xu Xuan's thoughts. After hesitating for a moment, he gritted his teeth and said, "The Jiangnan treasury is currently empty. Could the Martial King possibly grant us some leeway?"
"Five hundred thousand strings of cash, not a penny less."
Zhao Dezhao's tone was resolute, leaving no room for negotiation.
Li Congjia stopped mentioning Zhou Nuying's matter and instead focused on writing down the agreement reached by both parties.
Zhao Dezhao understood Li Congjia's thoughts and sneered inwardly. After both parties had stamped the official document, he ordered, "Bring the Crown Princess here."
"Here you are."
Before long, Zhou Ehuang, looking haggard, was led in.
Upon seeing the person he had been longing for day and night, Li Congjia thought he would excitedly step forward and embrace the beauty, but when the moment actually arrived, he was completely stunned.
Deep down, he felt a sense of inferiority and shame, as if seeing Zhou Ehuang was like seeing his own unbearable past.
This change in mindset caused Li Congjia to subconsciously recognize the face behind him, a hint of murderous intent and disgust flashing in his eyes.
Zhou Ehuang saw this hint of disgust and murderous intent clearly.
Her body stiffened slightly, and a bitter smile appeared on her lips.
"Now that the alliance has been established, we hope that the Great Song Dynasty will keep its word."
After saying this, Li Congjia turned around abruptly and rushed out of the cabin as if fleeing in panic, as if staying any longer would be torture.
But what he couldn't see was...
After he turned around, Zhou Ehuang looked at his back, sighed sadly, and then exchanged a glance with Zhao Dezhao without making a sound.
Zhao Dezhao smiled broadly and nodded: "Don't worry."
It's unclear whether this "Don't worry" was actually addressed to Li Congjia.
It was still said to Zhou Ehuang —