Chapter 382
Since it's come to this, I'll add a few more words of advice for everyone.
Your Highness, your mood is just so‑so; you'd better watch what you say in a moment. Being idle anyway, I might as well start threatening the beards early so they get used to it.
Wujihan turned his gaze away, completely ignoring him, and Liang Bin didn't care either. After waiting a cup of tea, a message came from inside telling them to go in.
The three of them, with Wujihan in the middle, entered and stood in the cleared space, then gave the Great King a hasty salute.
Each of the three had a different manner; even the Great King couldn't tell who was just going through the motions.
He almost rolled his eyes at him—how perfunctory!
Wujihan looked at the child sitting highest up, who was even smaller than he'd imagined—it was utterly unbelievable!
Damn, it's a kid who'd struggle to herd three sheep!
Actually the Great King is of normal height; it's just that when he sits he doesn't stand out, and he has a tender, white face you'd never see on the steppe, making him look remarkably young to the Xiongnu.
Seeing the Great King, Wujihan felt Lan He's death was even more puzzling.
Just this kid slaughtered Lan He plus fifty thousand Xiongnu cavalry? How could that be possible!
The Great King initially let that survivor escape back to Dragon City to report; his words were doubted even by the Chanyu, and at first basically no one believed them. Lan He died in defeat, the fifty thousand Xiongnu cavalry were wiped out—was it really at the hands of a Jin feudal lord? Who would believe that? Not even the Jin people dared to.
Never mind those; at least there's a sliver of plausibility. But listen to what he said next—something about a divine eagle bringing heavenly punishment, a single wing instantly freezing an army? That makes the earlier battle report sound even more like a tall tale.
Immediately someone jumped out saying that soldier had gone mad, spouting nonsense.
Later the Chanyu sent people to take that soldier to the battlefield he described, and they really saw the fallen Xiongnu cavalry—tens of thousands of corpses just left on the field, a sight the Xiongnu hadn't seen in recent times. Examining it further wasn't necessary; they discovered not a single corpse belonged to a Jin person. Combined with earlier reports, Dragon City had to believe that a truly formidable figure had risen in the east of Jin.
The Chanyu had sent many people to the northwest to inquire, and the answers were almost unanimous.
This time the North Border King seized Lianxi Shizi and opened his mouth wide; they also hadn't considered simply bringing cavalry south.
The northwest had swallowed a hundred thousand Xiongnu cavalry, plus their pillar‑stone Lan He, and the Xiongnu were already badly hurt.
That's why Wujihan is standing here today.
After Wujihan finished introducing himself, it was the turn of the Wusun's Suwan, whose identity was introduced as the Wusun prince.
The Great King immediately straightened his posture, and Xie Yuan had a premonition that mischief was afoot—and sure enough.
"A Wusun prince? Another Wusun prince. A few years ago I, the King, met a prince in Chang'an; you're the new one. What's your relation to the current Wusun king?"
Suwan replied that he was a grand‑generation descendant of the Wusun king, ranking sixth.
The Great King smiled, bringing up the old story without changing a word: "My imperial elder sister, Princess Changchun, married the Wusun king; by seniority you should call me Grandfather."
Xie Yuan: ……?
What kind of hobby is this? Or are you just trying to piss people off!?
The Great King also sighed regretfully: "Of course, today's setting isn't appropriate; I'm speaking privately."
Suwan's eldest son is already the same age as the Great King; hearing this, his face flushed red on the spot and he couldn't help asking, "Is the North Border King humiliating a guest who's come from afar?"
The Great King was even more blunt: "You've got it wrong—it's not you. I'm humiliating the Wusun king.
"Disrespectful to elders, poor character, or just a wall‑grass." After saying that he glanced pointedly at Wujihan, then added, "And you blindly picked a lousy wall‑grass to boot!"
The three big shots below stared in shock, while the Great King blinked innocently.
What are you looking at? As soon as the Wusun prince was mentioned, old and new grudges flooded in—thinking of Princess Changchun and his father, what kind of talk is this?! I couldn't pay attention to anything.
Suwan was stunned; he thought they had come voluntarily to build relations, yet it was already over before it began.
Being so eager, they should have curried favor—instead they're worse than not coming at all.
He was smoothing things over for Wujihan at the city gate; today it was his turn, but Wujihan and the Kucha fellow stayed as quiet as chickens, not uttering a sound.
Things having come to this, Suwan was put on the spot, his face flushed as he blustered, "Is the North Border King declaring war on the Wusun?"
The Great King laughed above, his laugh clear and bright.
This time the three in the hall were a bit dazed, this plot…… is that right?
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"You can also understand it that way."
The Great King propped his small chin, looking harmless, but his words were deadly.
"I, the King, am here declaring war on the Wusun; this afternoon the Mysterious Armor Cavalry can set out on a western expedition against the Wusun. This letter of challenge—do you, the Wusun, dare to accept it?"
Suwan's face turned ashen.
The North Border King simply doesn't play by the rules—how did things come to this!
"The Prince isn't, it's not like that. Just... please, Prince of the Northern Border, calm your anger." Su Wan, after weighing, finally chose to lower his head first.
Unfortunately, his bowing is worth nothing to the Great King; the Great King truly is not the Emperor Ningde.
The Great Jin insists on saving face and suffers alive; they're so poor they make a clatter, yet they still insist on maintaining appearances. These wall-sitters have been raised to not know which way is up.
"Why are you standing here, I, the Prince, know clearly; you yourselves know even more clearly."
My Northern Border is completely different from the Great Jin; I, the Prince, do not have the burden of the Celestial Dynasty.
My father died in a failed northern expedition; the Great Jin has fallen into a chaotic era of multiple powers carving up territory—the Xiongnu, the three Xianbei tribes, and the various Western Regions states—playing what roles, I, the Prince, know clearly, and you know as well.
These accounts, I, the Prince, will settle with you item by item.
You lot, you have destroyed the three-hundred-year foundation of our Bai Li clan!
Xie Yuan: ……
Chancellor: ……
Grand Tutor: ……
What a fellow!
You've thrown this pot well, you Bai Li family, you brought death upon yourselves, and now you have no responsibility at all, right?
Wujihan took a deep breath, this brat is sharp‑tongued and hard to deal with!
'Speaking of which, last year I, the King, could slaughter fifty thousand Xiongnu in a single battle at the Northern Frontier, wipe out three Western Regions states in three days, and could have continued the advance to attack the Xiongnu royal capital, unifying the thirty‑six states of the Western Regions—why didn't I do that?' Of course, it's because I had no money to eat!
The King threw out a question, showing he had already figured out the direction of his fabrication.
'Let me tell you the truth, because I, the King, am a Buddhist!'
'Not to mention the three envoys below, even the Northern Frontier ministers look dazed. The King actually has this faith? How come I've never heard of this!'
'You haven't heard of it? The King just came up with it.'
'Aren't many of you in the Western Regions devout Buddhists? Leaving that aside, I, the King, greatly advocate the saying that saving a life outweighs building a seven‑story pagoda. When the Xiongnu and the three Xianbei tribes invaded our Great Jin, hundreds of thousands died; I drove you out, and another ten or so thousand died—such loss of life is truly tragic! Whether Jin people or foreign peoples, they're all human; I, the King, truly cannot bear to see so many die at once.'
'After careful consideration, I, the King, for the sake of all under heaven, voluntarily withdrew the troops back to Youzhou.'
Xie Yuan glanced at the chancellor beside him; the chancellor looked back. 'Don't look at me—this is the first time I've heard he's Buddhist.'
Wujihan felt like vomiting blood: 'Just look at your scene of slaughtering Xiongnu cavalry in the western Northern Frontier—now you're pretending to be a sage?!'
The King then sighed: 'How can this deep sea of hatred be filled?! I, the King, haven't even sent envoys on a mission, yet you all came first—what a coincidence! After careful thought, I, the King, decided to levy a border stability tribute on all neighboring states to maintain peace and stability in the Northern Frontier's surrounding regions.'
The King nodded at Zhang Sinong: 'Zhang Sinong, read out the
Xie Yuan: ……
What the hell is this?!
Haven't we even discussed the amount yet?!
He and the chancellor turned back to look at Zhang Sinong behind them; the old man's hands began to shake—not because he didn't want to report to his two superiors, but because the King only gave him this this morning! It really wasn't him who wrote it!
The King decided that, starting immediately, each year he would levy 300,000 taels of silver and 10,000 sheep, plus 2,000 horses from the Xiongnu;
from each of the three Xianbei tribes, 100,000 taels of silver and 10,000 sheep;
from the Wusun, 100,000 taels of silver and 1,000 camels, 500 horses;
from Kucha, 50,000 taels of silver and 500 horses;
the remaining Western Regions states each owe 50,000 taels of silver, or can pay in kind if they lack silver;
These figures were estimated by the Chief Steward based on the data in his hands, set at the economic breaking point of those countries—just enough that they could scrape it together if they were strapped for cash;
If it were any more—for instance, if they only had 10,000 taels but you demanded 100,000—you'd really be driving them to desperation, likely causing them to revolt, picking up knives to fight to the death; that would run contrary to the King's two‑year plan of rest and recuperation.
As soon as Zhang Sinong finished reading, the entire hall fell silent.
This figure isn't exactly out of thin air; at most it's like a lion opening its mouth wide!
After all, the Little Ice Age doesn't favor only the Great Jin; natural disasters also plague the Xiongnu and the Western Regions.
Wujihan felt that sense of powerlessness returning: 'Your Highness, King of the Northern Frontier, we Xiongnu are neither a vassal of the Great Jin nor of the Northern Frontier state—why should we pay tribute?' And there are fractions and whole numbers too!
The King sighed: 'I thought you were just speaking imprecisely, but I didn't realize you also have a hearing impairment! Then I, the King, will repeat this once. Wusun and Kucha, listen carefully—I'll say this only once.'
Xie Yuan felt inexplicably familiar—this isn't the sort of thing he often says to the sly‑nicknamed King, is it?
'You really weren't vassals of the Northern Frontier before, and you still aren't. Sigh! How can you be so dim? Let me put it bluntly: the tribute you owe is based solely on the blood‑deep grudge between us—do you understand? This tribute is the price I, the King, pay to avoid declaring war on you.'
Wujihan hadn't seen someone this arrogant in years—really.
Want money? If you don't pay, we'll go straight to war!
Formerly, the Great Jin still cared about face: tributary states would submit as vassals, and the Great Jin would confer rewards and send troops to protect them, maintaining dignity. Now it's fine—bandits are in charge.
'The Xiongnu won't agree!' he declared firmly.
The Wusun and Kucha only whined about poverty, and didn't dare refuse, after all those three states beyond the Jade Gate Pass have already been herding sheep for the King!
Xie Yuan stepped in to smooth things over, urging them not to get worked up or rush to refuse—taking a few more days to think wouldn't hurt.
The King was already thinking about clocking out: 'No matter what, the envoys who've come from afar are also guests; to welcome you all, I've deliberately postponed the Northern Frontier's grand review. Tomorrow is the proper day—please attend on time… Oh right, the Xiongnu's ransom of two million taels for the three princes isn't included here and needs to be paid separately. Left Valley Rong King just needs to settle the handover with Zhang Sinong—I won't say more. I'm done for today, court dismissed.'
The ministers all bowed and saw the King off, leaving the three dazed foreigners standing in the middle, bewildered.
The plot sped up eight hundred times, and they felt dazed and dreamy.
Tribute isn't just a symbolic token of animal skins sent over, with a more substantial reward on the return trip? Throw in some gems—how is there still silver left? And what are the exact numbers?!
Liang Bin also sent them back to the Hongru Academy, and reiterated the time of tomorrow's review, saying he'd come early to escort them there.
After Liang Bin left, the envoys regrouped to discuss countermeasures, with Wujihan not uttering a sound from start to finish.
Su Wan returned to his room and then slammed his fist on the table.
He's angrier than Wujihan—today he was publicly scolded over the head, that was him. Moreover, bringing this news back to the Wusun, what future could he have?
The old Wusun king had fifteen sons, and his grandchildren were fast approaching a hundred. How he managed to stand out among so many—only he knows what he sacrificed.
His confidant worriedly asked: 'Could that Northern Frontier king just be talking? This number is truly not small—who could agree to it? Would the Xiongnu be so easy to talk to?'
After a while, Su Wan calmed down: 'I can't afford to provoke him, but I don't believe he really has the audacity to offend all neighboring states at once—how old is he?!'
'That's the reasoning—we'll wait and see the Xiongnu's attitude.'
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Inside the Northern Frontier King's mansion, Xie Yuan and the Grand Tutor blocked the King in the study.
Xie Yuan was genuinely curious: 'Your Highness, do you still have any research on Buddhism in the Western Regions? When did you start believing in it?'
Only someone as broadly versed as he would know that there are Indian monks spreading the Dharma in the Western Regions, that Buddhism has followers there, but the Great Jin currently has almost no missionaries, still a desert—how could the King have studied Buddhism?
The Grand Tutor thought further: 'Could it be that Your Highness already has a plan to promote this Buddhism within the realm?' Saving a life outweighs building a seven‑story pagoda—sounds pretty good!
The King snatched his ink stick from under Wei·Nizhao's feet, indifferent: 'My religious belief isn't set yet—I'll see which works better… but compared to Buddhism, Daoism might suit me more.'
Xie Yuan: 'How so?'
Grand Tutor: 'You really understand?'
Who are you looking down on? Everyone says he actually reads a lot.
The King: 'Let me sum it up for you—the core of Buddhism is karma and the pursuit of nirvana liberation. Daoism is about going with nature, ruling through non‑action.'
To put it even more simply, Buddhism is—letting go.
Daoism is——take it down!
When comparing these two, this king currently admires Daoism—take it down! All take it down! He said it but wasn't willing, picking up an ink stick and using it as a sword, chopping back and forth on the table...
"Take it down!"
Xie Yuan:...
Grand Tutor:...
Xie Yuan: "I think Confucianism is quite good."
The Grand Tutor strongly echoed: "Exactly! Confucianism is still reliable, Your Highness!"
Scaring off the two old men, the king himself happily took out a miscellaneous book and continued reading.
End of Chapter
