Chapter 308: Old Ground

In mid-October, Vice Minister of War Hu Hong hurriedly set out westward.

Of course, though described as hurried, his entourage was fully equipped: attendants from the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of War, a full squad of Imperial Bodyguards, a full squad of cavalry from the Imperial Army drawn from the Hehuang region, several Jinshi attached to the Imperial Army, several newly-minted Jinshi, and even a squad of monks and a squad of Daoist priests.

The envoy's ceremonial regalia and the gifts prepared for Yelu Dashi were all present as required, just not ostentatiously displayed.

The party traveled lightly and unhurriedly through the Central Plains heartland until they reached Guanxi. There, the Vice Minister—ostensibly on a mission to inspect logistics in Guanxi and purchase warhorses from the Qingtang Fan tribes—merely exchanged a few words with Yuwen Xuzhong, who had been forewarned, before continuing westward. To save time, Hu Hong rendezvoused in Lanzhou with Yelu Yu, a small local Tibetan tribe from Qingtang, a Han merchant caravan with westward experience, and a Khotan merchant caravan about to return home.

There, local officials and regional armies had already prepared logistics vehicles, horses, grain, and necessary supplies like salt and cloth.

By then, it was already November, and the weather was growing increasingly cold.

In northern Shaanxi, the war situation was reportedly fluctuating again. The Jin army at Bao'an Army had been successfully driven out by Wu Jie and Guo Hao, but at the same time, the arrival of one of the Jin state's three regents, Prince Wei Wanyan Zongbi, at the key Linhe town of Daning had put the Danzhou line along the Yellow River on edge again.

But none of that mattered, at least to Hu Hong and Yelu Yu's party, who couldn't be bothered with it. They had to press on without pause, heading directly westward.

As for the westward route, it wasn't all that complicated.

First, thanks to the expansion into the Hehuang region during the reign of Emperor Shenzong, Lanzhou, Huangzhou, and Xiningzhou had already become civilized Han territory. The Tibetan Gusiluo regime that had once occupied the area had been largely annexed and "domesticated." Even during Cai Jing's administration, efforts were made to strengthen control, suppressing the once-unstable Qingtang city (the capital of Xiningzhou, later known as Xining). Moreover, Zhao Huaien, appointed to oversee the Huang and Shan regions just five years prior, as a descendant of Gusiluo, had remained loyal to the Great Song... The small local Tibetan tribe was provided through his connections, specifically to negotiate with Tibetan tribes along the way.

So, this route was generally safe.

Second, precisely because the Western Xia had long controlled the Hexi Corridor and deliberately isolated the Great Song from the Western Regions, it had conversely forced many Western Region merchants to take this Qinghai route.

In fact, as soon as Emperor Shenzong's court took control of Xining, Khotan envoys immediately began arriving via this route. They came so quickly and in such numbers that the Great Song grew weary of bestowing rewards and had to limit them to one visit every two years.

Khotan was later known as Hetian. "Tan" means "gate," signifying that Khotan was a transportation hub in the southern frontier. At the very least, this Qinghai route led directly to Khotan.

In other words, this road had been clear and well-known from ancient times to the present; it was never some obscure path.

Or, as the Han, Tibetan, and Khotan guides almost unanimously put it: "If the honored one follows this route westward, enduring the hardships, within two months at most, you will surely enter a major city in the Western Regions, and from there, you can leisurely seek out Yelu Dashi."

If the road was smooth, forty to fifty days would also suffice.

Hu Hong and Yelu Yu had nothing to add. Especially since, within Xining city, Khotan merchants who had just arrived provided them with clear information: before setting out, these Khotanese had indeed heard news of Yelu Dashi in the southern frontier. They knew that a Khitan king had swept through Yemili and was about to turn southward, because the Western Zhou Uighur tribes controlling Gaochang and Hami were then engaged in diplomatic negotiations with that Khitan king to avoid war.

This matched the intelligence Yu had obtained from the Western Xia. Given that the Western Xia controlled the Hexi Corridor, they naturally received information faster and more completely. Thus, Hu Hong's large envoy delegation had no further doubts and immediately set out from Xiningzhou in full force, heading westward to meet Yelu Dashi as soon as possible.

However, travel always brings surprises and upheavals, as well as monotony and tedium.

Less than a hundred li west of Xiningzhou, the group was struck by their first great shock: they saw Qinghai Lake, a sight like a natural wonder.

Qinghai Lake—no one in those days would call it a lake. The Tibetan people originally called it the "Blue Sea." When the Han saw such a vast, blue saltwater body, they couldn't believe it was a lake either; they simply called it the Western Sea, but they too had to admit it was a "blue sea."

Of course, when the Han expanded further and saw the more western Aral Sea, they revised the "Western Sea" designation and reclassified the one near Xiningzhou as merely "a blue sea."

At the sight of this Qinghai, everyone—Hu Hong, the cultured Khitan remnant Yelu Yu, the accompanying Jinshi, and even the least cultured among them, a Cantonese fellow nicknamed "Jiaying Boy" who had been promoted to Vice Director in the Ministry of War thanks to strong backing and his experience in suppressing rebellions at Yaoshan and Qianzhou—all instantly recalled that poem.

The poem goes:

"Dark clouds over Qinghai veil the snowy peaks; from a lonely city, the Jade Gate Pass is glimpsed afar."

"Through a hundred battles, golden armor is worn through; without breaking Loulan, we shall never return!"

This land had not been under effective rule by a Central Plains dynasty for several hundred years.

The great Tang, which once spanned the world, was gone forever; the Tibetan Empire, which once fought and expanded in five directions simultaneously—against the Tang, the Uighurs, the Arabs, India, and Nanzhao—was like a fleeting flower, utterly fragmented beyond repair; and even earlier, the Turkic Khaganate, which once dominated the region, had long since rolled off to the shores of the Mediterranean to redefine the "Western Sea"... But this blue sea and this poem, which almost everyone could recite, clearly reminded all that this land, from mountains to sea, had long been integrated into the cultural bloodline of the Central Plains dynasties.

Even Yelu Yu had this absurd thought.

The large column continued along the northern shore of Qinghai. For the first few days, the scholars in the group could hardly suppress their excitement, vividly recalling various allusions:

They knew that to their immediate south was the Qinghai of "Dark clouds over Qinghai veil the snowy peaks";

They knew that somewhere to the east lay the "Source of the Yellow River" from "The waters of the Yellow River come from the heavens";

They knew that the snowy peaks faintly visible to the north on clear days were the Qilian Mountains of "A thousand-li drive terrifies the Qilian," and north of the Qilian Mountains, the Liangzhou and Ganzhou occupied by the Western Xia were precisely the Liangzhou of so many "Liangzhou Lyrics";

They also knew that continuing westward, they would pass parallel to the Jade Gate Pass of "The spring breeze never crosses the Jade Gate Pass" and the Yang Pass of "West of the Yang Pass, there are no old friends."

But what was either pitiful or laughable was that these places, so clearly recorded in their minds—places that even the Cantonese fellow and the Khitan remnant could rattle off—they hadn't visited in several hundred years!

Was that proper?!

Of course, this peculiar restlessness unique to young intellectuals was eventually subdued by the monotonous journey. After leaving Qinghai Lake, for the next twenty days, they marched through the territory of the Grasshead Tatars south of the Qilian Mountains.

Then the conversation turned to the term "Grasshead Tatars."

No one could clearly explain the origin of the Grasshead Tatars.

Some in the group guessed they were close relatives of the Ganzhou Uighurs; others speculated they were close relatives of the Western Zhou Uighurs; the accompanying Khotan merchants interjected, saying these people should be descendants of the old Zhaowu Nine Clans, driven south of the Qilian Mountains by the Xiongnu from the north; but when they asked a local tribal chief who had done business in Xining, he said part of his tribe's ancestors were Turgish people... Everyone debated, and the only certain information seemed to come from Yelu Yu and his Khitan and Xi attendants, who insisted that, no matter what, these so-called Grasshead Tatars were definitely not Tatars, because the differences were too great.

But, and here's the but.

One day, the Vice Director from the Ministry of Rites, while writing the official travel diary in the sunset, suddenly lost his composure. He clearly recalled a text he had read in some obscure corner: it seemed this group of tribes was called Grasshead Tatars because a Khotan envoy, when meeting Emperor Shenzong, said this mixed bunch of tribes south of the Qilian Mountains were Grasshead Tatars... And just that noon, the accompanying Khotan merchants had solemnly claimed that these people were originally called Yellowhead Tatars in Khotan, but the Song people always said Grasshead Tatars, forcing them to change the name too.

As for Yellowhead Tatars, that was simpler—it had always been a general term for the scattered Tatar tribes west of the desert. In other words, this tribal group might have come from the north, crossed the Hexi Corridor, and arrived here through a pass in the Qilian Mountains.

But if that were the case, not only was Yelu Yu's insistence wrong—they were indeed Tatars—but the key point was that this southern Qilian tribal group was called Grasshead Tatars probably because some official responsible for recording or copying had made a mistake, or perhaps the Khotanese had just made something up when questioned by Emperor Shenzong.

And they had agonized over this error for over ten days.

Still, it wasn't that everyone was fixated on the term "Grasshead Tatars"; it was simply because they were too bored.

This place was too poor and too desolate. The largest tribe had only three or four hundred horsemen and couldn't even muster a few dozen sets of armor. When they saw the massive Song envoy delegation, they nearly thought the Song had come on a western expedition and were about to surrender... The Ministry of Rites officials wanted to draft a document on the spot, but Hu Hong stopped them, fearing it would alert the enemy and cause unnecessary trouble.

As for buying a woman for half a bolt of cloth—though a bargain—it was naturally forbidden, and few people exchanged a handful of salt for a sunbath... After all, it had only been half a month since leaving Xining; who would be that desperate?

Moreover, the towering, unbroken Qilian Mountains cut off any potential military threat to the north.

The land was covered in winter-yellow meadows and marshes. After seeing the Qilian Mountains for over ten days, they grew weary of them too. After reciting the poem dozens of times, they grew tired of that as well. So they inevitably began to pass the time by pondering the term "Grasshead Tatars."

And so, twenty days after leaving Xining, they finally passed the front section of the Qilian Mountains, left the Grasshead Tatar territory, and arrived at a mountain pass (Dangjin Pass). According to the guides, they would now enter the territory of the Yellowhead Uighurs. The Yellowhead Uighurs were somewhat stronger and could theoretically pose a threat to the column, but the probability was low. Compared to this theoretical danger, the greater trouble lay ahead: intermittent uninhabited areas.

Indeed, in the latter half of the journey compared to the first, the north was still blocked by unbroken high mountains (the Altun Mountains), but the south no longer had Qinghai Lake or lush pastures—it was desert. Only a narrow, semi-desert strip at the foot of the mountains was passable. This was also the fundamental reason why the military threat from the Yellowhead Uighurs was relatively low; robbing in such a place was like a blind cat looking for a dead mouse.

Of course, there was water, and the overall route was largely fine. But based on experience, a significant number of people would likely fall ill—not serious illnesses, but various minor, hard-to-define ailments. Given the size of the column, an uncertain number of people would die on this stretch, and warhorses and yaks would also be lost.

But everything would improve after another twenty days, when they turned into a mountain pass and entered the Western Regions' hinterland at Datun City (according to the Khotan envoy's account, this route likely involved crossing through the Sor Kul corridor in the middle of the Altun Mountains and entering the then-thriving Lop Nur region).

This was expected; everyone was prepared, and there was nothing more to say.

However, Hu Hong, the leader of the envoy delegation, who had gathered the guides and gradually grasped some geographical features over these days, suddenly raised a question: "Once we reach Datun City, do we need to head north across the Nanhe River (the Han name for the Tarim River), go to the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, and then turn east to reach Hami?"

The Khotan merchant immediately nodded.

"And if we go through the pass ahead of us," Hu Hong, his face slightly flushed, turned on his horse and pointed back at the Qilian Mountain pass behind him—a pass clearly visible to the naked eye—"could we go directly to Hami without taking a detour?"

"Yes," replied the Han merchant from Xining. "Let me inform Vice Minister Hu: passing through here leads to Shazhou (Dunhuang). Directly north of Shazhou is Hami. If we take this route, we can reach it in just half a month..."

At these words, Yelu Yu and the others nearby, whose faces were also flushed, exchanged glances, clearly tempted.

"But Shazhou is in the hands of the Western Xia," the Han merchant replied cautiously. "The Western Xia set up checkpoints and exploit ordinary merchants, whether Hu or Han, let alone a noble from Dongjingcheng."

The crowd fell silent again.

"If we go from Shazhou to Hami, are there any unavoidable natural barriers?" Hu Hong pressed seriously.

"Vice Minister Hu is confused," even Yelu Yu said with some helplessness. "Northwest of Shazhou is Yumen Pass, southwest is Yang Pass. Take Yang Pass to Loulan, Yumen Pass to Gaochang. We're heading to Gaochang... we can't avoid the Western Xia. In my opinion as a general, it's better to endure for a while and continue circling west."

Hu Hong frowned upon hearing this: "General Yelu, are we going to Hami or Gaochang?"

Yelu Yu was momentarily startled, then retorted: "Aren't they the same place? Both are where the Western Zhou Uighurs are? And according to what was said before, the Western Zhou Uighurs have just made a vassal agreement with our Great King Dashi. So, if we find the Western Zhou Uighurs, we'll know our king's whereabouts. Counting the time, we might even see him directly."

"That may be so, but Gaochang and Hami are not the same place," Hu Hong shook his head repeatedly. "Gaochang requires going through Yumen Pass. What about Hami? We're actually looking for the Western Zhou Uighurs, aren't we? Not specifically Gaochang or Hami?"

Yelu Yu wanted to argue but ultimately relented... he really didn't want to offend this Zhao Song high official, whose personality was somewhat rigidly earnest.

In fact, even the other Song attendants felt Hu Hong was overthinking it. Hami and Gaochang were both in the Western Regions and belonged to the same polity. To go to the Western Regions, didn't one have to go through Yumen Pass or Yang Pass?

However, at that moment, the Khotan merchant who could speak Chinese suddenly interjected with understanding: "If you go from Shazhou to Hami, you don't have to go through Yumen Pass."

Everyone turned to look at him.

"Shazhou, Guazhou, Hami, and Gaochang form a four-cornered circle..." the Khotan merchant quickly explained under everyone's intense gaze. "Yumen Pass is between Shazhou and Gaochang. Hami is northeast of Gaochang and northwest of Guazhou... To go from Shazhou to Hami, you can of course go through Yumen Pass to Gaochang and then turn to Hami, but you can also turn back east from Shazhou to Guazhou, and then go directly from Guazhou to Hami... This route has no checkpoints."

The Han merchant also nodded heavily.

Yelu Yu and Hu Hong exchanged silent glances, clearly tempted, and the latter then turned to look at the two directors from the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of War.

The two directors hesitated for a moment, and then one of them, a Vice Director from the Ministry of War named Liang Jiaying, blurted out in a strange accent: "Bet on it! The population here is so sparse. We split into two groups. One group takes light cavalry from Guazhou to Hami... Why can't we bet on it!"

Hu Hong immediately nodded, and the matter was thus decided.

There was no other way. Of the four who had a say, three had been on the battlefield, and those three showed no hesitation towards this risky choice, leaving the learned Vice Director from the Ministry of Rites with nothing to say.

For a time, the plan was settled. Hu Hong and Yelu Yu selected a hundred riders, covered them in the tattered clothes of the local Yellow-Headed Tatars, carried enough water and provisions, exited through the northern mountain pass, entered Shazhou, retreated to Guazhou, and then headed straight for Hami.

The remaining people, led by Liang Jiaying and the Vice Director from the Ministry of Rites, would take the baggage, merchant caravan, gifts, and ceremonial escort, continue calmly westward for another twenty days, and then turn into the Western Regions' Great Tun City as a backup plan.

With the decision made, and the leaders being battle-hardened, they acted without hesitation and immediately set about implementing it.

Suffice it to say, the Western Xia never imagined that the hundred riders emerging from the Qilian Mountain pass were Han Chinese envoys. In fact, they didn't even discover these hundred riders... After leaving the Qilian Mountain pass, following the guide's directions, they completely ignored Shazhou city. They traveled by night and rested by day, first heading to Sanwei Mountain, then passing through the mid-way town of Changle City. They only bought enough water and provisions from the villages around Changle City, then crossed north of Guazhou city at night, bypassed the small desert near Shule, and finally galloped all the way northwest.

The Western Xia didn't react at all throughout the entire process.

They had no reason to react. Only two days later, the Western Xia's Xiping Army Division in Guazhou received a report from Changle City that a group of Yellow-Headed Tatars, apparently having just pulled off a heist and quite wealthy, had passed from west to east... The Xiping Army Division people thought about looking for them, but upon learning they had already crossed the small Shule desert, they lost all interest.

In a place like this, as long as they didn't harass the core lands of the Hexi Corridor, who would bother to care?

And so, with fright but no real danger, about five or six days before the New Year that year, Hu Hong and Yelu Yu arrived at Hami. There, they received definite news: Yelu Dashi was right ahead in Gaochang (modern-day Turpan)!

Now, the various tribes of the Western Zhou Uighurs, with Gaochang as their de facto capital, had deliberated for a long time and early on expressed their submission to Yelu Dashi. But Yelu Dashi wasn't satisfied with just a letter; he led his army south. As Yelu Dashi's forces moved south to Beiting (Beshbalik), the Western Zhou Uighur regime, led by King Bilge, after a final ideological struggle, formally declared vassalage and paid tribute to Yelu Dashi.

They presented a heavy tribute of six hundred horses, one hundred camels, and three thousand sheep, and promised to provide Uighur noble youths as hostages.

Thus, Yelu Dashi, without bloodshed, completely subdued the Western Zhou Uighurs and was about to lead his army to Gaochang to rendezvous with Bilge, while also accepting his gifts and hostages.

This was excellent news.

But it was also bad news... because from the start, Yelu Dashi had told the Western Zhou Uighur tribes that he was going further west to the Black Khanate to "borrow troops," so he was only passing through their territory and would soon head west.

In other words, if they arrived too late, Yelu Dashi might have already continued his westward march.

Hu Hong, Yelu Yu, and the others were already exhausted. The hundred riders had been reduced to seventy or eighty, all weary. But at this point, they couldn't care about anything else. The two immediately exchanged horses on the streets of Hami, trading three tired horses for one good horse, obtaining thirty horses. They then selected eight attendants, giving each three horses, and under the pretext of being Yelu Dashi's subordinates, immediately headed west again towards Gaochang.

It must be said that Bilge was very cooperative. He played no tricks. Facing Yelu Dashi and his army, this Uighur king honestly opened the city gates, presented gifts, handed over his children, and brought out his reserves to entertain Yelu Dashi and his accompanying troops, feasting for three consecutive days.

The entire city of Gaochang was plunged into a carnival, celebrating the avoidance of war.

On the third day of continuous feasting, while happily drinking grape wine, Yelu Dashi suddenly heard a name that could evoke half a lifetime of sorrow.

And it was pronounced in authentic Khitan.

"Yelu Yu?" Amidst the joyful atmosphere of the entire city, with everyone excited about avoiding war, Yelu Dashi, not yet forty years old, sat on the Uighur king's throne. Hearing the words, he felt as if a lifetime had passed. "He still dares to come see me? How many people did he bring?"

"Ten!" A Khitan general bowed before Dashi. It was Xiao Woli La, a pillar of Yelu Dashi's command.

"Ten?" Yelu Dashi, his face ruddy and clad in a brocade robe, smiled. He then picked up the glass goblet beside him, swirled the wine inside, and turned to the Uighur King Bilge beside him. "Ten is not bad! Ten warriors who have lived and died together, fighting shoulder to shoulder, can laugh at a thousand troops with divided loyalties... Since this fellow has brought ten Khitan warriors here to find me, I'd be embarrassed to cut off his head."

Bilge smiled... He hadn't understood a single word... but that didn't stop him from smiling.

"There's also a Zhao Song Vice Minister of War!" Xiao Woli La waited for the Uighur king to finish laughing before calmly adding. "Ten people: one Yelu Yu, one Zhao Song Vice Minister of War Hu Hong, one Khotan guide, seven cavalrymen from the Zhao Song Imperial Guard, originally from the Xihe Circuit... They say they have a personal letter from the Zhao Song Emperor and a specially selected gift from him."

Yelu Dashi was stunned from the first supplementary description. After hearing it all, he was silent for a long time. Then he suddenly stood up, only to sit back down immediately. He raised his hand to signal, then stopped mid-motion. He opened his mouth to speak, but finally remained silent for a time.

He looked exactly like someone who had drunk too much.

But after waiting half a day and thinking for half a day, this greatest remnant of the Khitan exile, still reeking of alcohol, waved his hand heavily: "Bring them all in!"

Xiao Woli La, who hadn't drunk a single glass of grape wine in three days and had only been arranging the city's defenses, immediately turned and left. Moments later, he brought the ten people in.

The Uighur king and those below had already noticed the situation. Reading the mood, they had long since become solemn.

Now, the ten people had exhausted themselves to get here. Entering the hall, compared to the Uighur and Khitan nobles who had been feasting and reveling for three days, they were truly disheveled and out of place.

The two leaders, Yelu Yu, knowing that today's success or failure hinged on forming an alliance, said nothing. He just stood in the hall, panting incessantly, and then looked at Hu Hong.

As for Hu Hong, after catching his breath slightly, he cupped his hands calmly: "Today happens to be the New Year. Hu Hong, Vice Minister of War of the Great Song, on behalf of the Son of Heaven of the Great Song, asks Secretary Dashi: What is the flavor of the New Year in a foreign land?"

"Is it the New Year today?" Yelu Dashi replied in surprise from his seat, using fluent Hebei Han Chinese, but then immediately shook his head. "New Year or not... You envoy, with such a high rank, don't you know that since your country broke the alliance, Song and Liao have been at war for fourteen years? How dare you come to Gaochang, an enemy state?"

Hu Hong was silent for a moment, and the scene turned cold.

After a while, Xiao Woli La snorted from the side: "Why doesn't the Song envoy speak? Having come ten thousand li, have you run out of words?"

"It's not ten thousand li. From Xiningzhou to here is just over two thousand li, and it took less than two months," Hu Hong replied earnestly. "And if we could have traveled through the Hexi prefectures, it would have been even faster. Besides, it's not that I have nothing to say... On the way here, I thought for a long time on horseback, and I anticipated that upon seeing Secretary Dashi, there would be such boring words waiting for me. So I also thought of many responses... For instance, right now, I could say that Gaochang was originally Chinese territory, and as a high minister of China, why can't I come? But just as I was about to say it, I felt that having traveled two thousand li here with such difficulty, if I only said these useless words, it would be quite meaningless and would also disappoint the Son of Heaven waiting in Dongjingcheng."

Yelu Dashi let out a snicker, whether self-deprecating or mocking the man before him was unclear.

Having said this, Hu Hong turned back to Yelu Dashi and cupped his hands again calmly: "Secretary Dashi... My lord wishes to take the Great River as the boundary, granting the Western Xia's six prefectures of Hexi and the four directorates' lands to the Great Liao. The two sides will divide the Western Xia equally, allowing Secretary Dashi to gaze upon his homeland and former territory. What say you?!"

Yelu Dashi's heart pounded, but he let out another snicker. Then, seeming to feel that intimidating a high Song official who dared to bring only ten men through two thousand li of Western Xia blockade was beneath him, he stroked his chin and replied perfunctorily while weighing the pros and cons in his mind: "You mentioned a gift for me?"

"Yes."

As Hu Hong spoke, to the astonishment of Yelu Yu beside him, he took off the helmet of a Han army rider next to him and handed it to the equally bewildered Xiao Woli La.

But then, this high Song official, who didn't look like one at all, said just one sentence that made all the Khitan present change color:

"This is the helmet that Wanyan Loushi was wearing when he died in battle at the foot of Mount Yao! Our Son of Heaven heard that this man had a deep connection with the Great Stone Lin-ya, so he sent me to deliver it... just in time to serve as a New Year's gift for the Great Stone Lin-ya and all the Khitan warriors."

Xiao Wolila, who had been keeping his face taut all along, also lost his composure. The helmet, carrying the smell of sweat, fell to the ground and rolled several times across the resplendent palace of Gaochang before finally stopping.

"Vice Minister Hu." After a long silence, it was Yelu Dashi who broke it. "I have also heard some talk from the Tangut merchants... Some say that at the Battle of Mount Yao, it was your lord who shot and killed Wanyan Loushi with a single arrow?"

"No. It was Qu Duan, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Guard Cavalry, who shot Loushi in the armpit with one arrow; Han Shizhong, Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Guard Left Army, shot Loushi's horse's head with one arrow; Li Master, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Guard Cavalry, landed another arrow; and then Hou Dan, Captain of the Imperial Guard Central Army, charged forward with an axe, first hacking off his arm, then his head!" Hu Hongxiu answered earnestly. "As for our Son of Heaven, though he had drawn his bow early and intended to shoot, he did not succeed. If not for Qu Duan's arrow, he would have nearly died on the spot... However, these are all old matters. Our Son of Heaven also has a few words for me to convey to the Great Stone Lin-ya..."

"No hurry." Yelu Dashi suddenly rose and turned his head to look at Bilege, the King of the West Zhou Uighurs. "I am borrowing your flowers to offer to the Buddha. Let me ask for a cup of fine grape wine on behalf of Vice Minister Hu."

PS: Thank you to the book friend Xiahou Ningyuan, the big shot, for the patronage... I am deeply grateful.