Chapter 273: Fishing Plan

That Mu Tu was slammed against the south wall by the Great King in one blow, he panted for a while, and the Great King still thought he would have to come down and fight Ling Yin to the death. The other side then started persuading him, '... I can't just do nothing. Please give me a chance.'

The Great King laughed; this person is either a shrewd calculator or just a silly fool.

'As I said, I won't do a losing deal; if Ling Yin wins, what do you, a defeated general, have left to lose to me?'

'Mu Tu's head.'

The Great King disliked it, saying, 'If you want someone to bury you, just say so—I won't do it!'

Mu Tu thought for a moment and said, 'I am the first warrior of the grasslands; I can swear to the Heavenly God that if I lose, I will serve you as your horse attendant for ten years; if I win, let me bring my remaining people back to the grasslands.'

Oh my, even the Heavenly God has been mobilized.

The Great King knew that the grasslands now devoutly followed Shamanism.

Shamans are servants of the gods who communicate with their so‑called Heavenly God; in their view, the world is ruled by the Heavenly God, and below there are wind gods, fire gods, etc., which are not part of the same system as the Great Jin.

But the Heavenly God has reached its limit, and this oath has cost a fortune.

The Great King has no shortage of horse attendants, but…

'Alright, I will give you one chance. Remember your words!'

The Great King again reminded Ling Yin, 'Finish it within three moves; don't give him too much face.'

Wei Shen hurried over to take a look, not really understanding what game this was—has the Great King gone idle? Or is he wasting time with this northern barbarian?

He gave a look, asking, 'What are you doing? Are you really keeping Xianbei people around as some miscellaneous horse attendant?'

The Great King was extremely pleased, saying, 'You don't understand; I look forward to the day I lead the Western Xianbei's first warrior to attack the Western Xianbei.'

Wei Shen: ……

He again innocently said, 'Hahaha, I was just joking.'

Wei Shen actually couldn't tell which of his words were true.

'My father and grandfather's misunderstanding of you is truly enormous!'

'Not at all!'

They exchanged a few words, and Ling Yin, without drawing his sword, already knocked Mu Tu down with two bare‑handed strikes.

'Isn't your so‑called first warrior a bit weak?'

Mu Tu's face flushed red with embarrassment, and he began to swear on his own that within ten years he would willingly serve the Great King as a horse attendant and never betray.

The Great King nodded, saying, 'I will trust you this once. As long as you do well, I will also spare the lives of your people. However, death may be waived, but punishment cannot be escaped. You killed countless Great Jin people in Du Ye and An Ding, so you must make restitution.' The Great King is skilled at drawing pies—look how his business scope has expanded, now even drawn onto the Xianbei people's heads!

This warrior had no idea of the Great King's schemes, yet he was deeply moved.

His people would have to spend the rest of their lives farming, and he was moved to tears.

The Great King still didn't know whether he was putting on an act or was just a simpleton, but it didn't matter—this man became the Great King's chief superintendent of the Xianbei Slave Camp.

With Mu Tu, matters were settled quickly, and even the silver that the three Xianbei factions had brought was ascertained by the Great King.

The silver given by Chang'an amounted to exactly eight hundred thousand taels of pure silver from the three Xianbei factions, plus what they looted in Yizhou City and earlier in An Ding Commandery, all of which ended up in the Great King's purse; in fact, the looted amount alone was not less than eight hundred thousand taels.

'If the original owners of Yizhou City come looking, we can return it; everything else will be taken to Youzhou.'

Otherwise, how could we say they love moving south? Just herding sheep on the grasslands, how many years would it take to amass this much silver?!

Moreover, the land of the two commanderies is the real prize. The Great Jin's land is not like the Xianbei's, which is all grass; it's estimated that these folks originally planned to migrate a group southward, but now it's all come to nothing.

What the Xiongnu got was even better—they also have the salt‑producing Fuyang.

The Great King asked Mu Tu, 'Did the Xiongnu go straight north to Liangzhou? When will they come to take over Fuyang?'

Mu Tu wouldn't know about this; he muttered for a long time without reaching a conclusion, so the Great King thought of one for him: 'Go tell Tuoba Yao to write a letter to the Left Wise King of the Xiongnu, saying that Fuyang has changed and urging him to send people to take over as soon as possible.'

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Supplement:

Tuoba Yao fell into the Great King's hands; even if he wanted to live, he had no chance to resist, so he obediently wrote a letter to the Left Wise King of the Xiongnu.

The Great King summarized the main idea for him, then let him write it himself. This guy feared that if he wrote it well and Tuoba Yao copied it, the Xiongnu would notice the difference in wording, so he insisted on an essay question.

After they finished writing, he still crossed out some parts, worried that the verbose words might contain hints, lest Lan He not take the bait.

Wei Shen specially interviewed the Great King for this, asking, 'May I ask where you have recently been training your intuition?'

The Great King raised his chin and said, 'Since I became a rebel.' After saying that, this guy let out a meaningful sigh.

'A perfectly fine person has become a rebel king; I'm not used to it, so I must act cautiously.'

Wei Shen: ……

The Great King swiftly seized Yizhou City, clearing out all the Xianbei there and bringing them en masse to Youzhou to farm.

This empty city, however, posed another problem.

Giving it to Bai Li Jin is out of the question—they have already torn apart completely and split up. Giving it to that prodigal son would only result in losing it again next time.

He wondered whether to assign someone to govern it, but for now there aren't enough people. The Great King only has those few, and he doesn't want to garrison Yizhou.

Because Yizhou is not smaller than Youzhou in area, and now it's visible that the people have all left; if they don't return, the Great King would find this worthless patch of land meaningless, since he hasn't even finished farming his own land in Youzhou.

His territory is large enough; what he lacks is people, and even the mapped parts of Liaodong remain barren.

If the Yizhou people don't come back, this place really isn't attractive.

Wei Shen summed it up for him: 'It's just that you don't want it; throwing it away would be a shame, and giving it to your eldest brother is even more impossible—is that what you mean?'

The Great King nodded eagerly.

Wei Shen didn't think it was a big deal, saying, 'You truly still lack the self‑awareness of a rebel king—who would have a reason to refuse land? If you now claim Yizhou is yours, just say so outwardly and let whoever wants to fight do so. Not having enough manpower is fine; you don't have to manage everything like in Youzhou. You're just too responsible—if your father had even a fraction of your concern, the Great Jin wouldn't have come to this.'

The Great King understood the reasoning, but he had been pondering half a day, and Yizhou hadn't been included in his territorial scope like the Liaodong Peninsula, so he felt like putting in effort would be pointless. However, what the cousin said also made sense. After thinking, this guy brought Tuoba Yao over again.

Tuoba Yao doubted his own ears, asking, 'You mean I should issue a deed of transfer? I would willingly hand over Yizhou to you?'

「Yes, you Xianbei three tribes feel unaccustomed to the land, and also admire this king's character, you gave Baili Jin back to this king along with your Wing Province. From now on, Wing Province will be this king's fief. 」

This time, not only Tuoba Yao, but Wei Shen also had a toothache.

Tuoba Yao, under the eaves, with great difficulty swallowed back the foul words that had reached his lips.

Seeing his face flush and his expression change drastically, the Great King stopped pulling the Heaven-Covering, turned his head and asked Tuoba Yao, 'Could it be that you are not willing?'

Wei Shen began to touch his sidearm, 'You aren't willing?'

Tuoba Yao really doesn't know how the Ningde Emperor gave birth to such a little monster; he got all the benefits, yet he still wants to stand on the moral high ground.

He felt like vomiting blood from holding it in.