On this day, outside the gate of Peilai City, the capital of Maolin, King Keya's team was ready to go.
This team will set off south to meet the messenger from distant Dayu.
The monarch has issued an order to block the border crossing, and the people have naturally received the news from the court.
So there were so many people who spontaneously took to the streets to see the king off that they almost turned out in overwhelming numbers.
Everyone has a simple wish in their hearts, that is, they hope that the distant and powerful empire in their minds can bring real protection to Maolin.
Saving them from the hands of the Loufan people is their greatest hope.
None of them even had time to think that the beauty's arrival would make Maolin rich and powerful.
They just want to live an ordinary but stable life, that's all.
Keya stood on the carriage and waved to the people. She knew how heavy the weight was on her shoulders.
This time when she went to meet Dayu's envoy, she had already decided that as long as Dayu could protect Maolin, she was even willing not to be the king.
She can go to the throne and be willing to turn Maolin into a state in Dayu, so that the people of Maolin can have stability and peace.
Some people may think she is stupid for doing this, but only she can understand the hardship and helplessness of being a king.
If Maolin was just a vassal state of Dayu, Dayu might not do its best to protect the people here.
But if Maolin becomes a state of Dayu, even if it is an enclave of Dayu, as long as it is invaded by Lou Fan, Dayu's pride will not allow him to choose to turn a blind eye.
She loves her people and her home more than she loves this throne.
When her husband told her that Dayu was too far away, thousands of miles away, it was difficult to preserve the lush forest.
She had already made this choice. She hoped that after meeting Dayu's envoy, her sincerity would be sent to the Geling she longed for.
The teacher said that the magnificence of Geling exceeds any other place in the world.
The husband also said that the prosperity of Geling exceeded the limit that everyone in Maolin could imagine.
If it were a man who was the king of Maolin, he might not have such courage.
Keya saw too many wives who had lost their husbands and mothers who had lost their sons. They were kneeling outside the palace gate, praying for her to save their loved ones, but she was unable to do anything.
Lou Fan recruits no less than 10,000 strong men from Maolin every year, and this is when there is no war.
More than ten years ago, Lou Fan went south and invaded Dongbo, and 60,000 to 70,000 strong men from Maolin were taken away to work as coolies, and none of them came back alive.
Just two years ago, when Emperor Loufan personally conquered Dongbo, he also forcibly recruited nearly 100,000 men from Maolin, but none of them came back.
In fact, Keya knew that not all the men in Maolin died on the battlefield, but were sold to Lou Fan as slaves.
Even the number of men that the Loufan court conscripted from Maolin was probably far less than 100,000. It was the evil Loufan nobles who used the conquest to make a lot of money.
A mature man was sold there as a slave, and the cheapest price for an older man was five or six taels of silver. This price was considered very low for Lou Fan.
After all, a man like this can contribute for at least 20 to 30 years. Five taels of silver can be exchanged for a slave who will not need to pay for the next 20 to 30 years, and does not even need to take care of food. No matter how you calculate the account, it is a profit.
The fortunate thing about Maolin is that it is located in the southern Xinjiang. If it were in the northern Xinjiang, the country might have been destroyed by the people of the Nine Banners and Eighteen Tribes.
But here is the unfortunate part, because it is close to Dongbo. Every time Lou Fan used troops against Dongbo, it was Maolin who forced the most coolies.
Keya no longer wants to see a wife lose her husband and a mother lose her son.
The farewell team followed the monarch's motorcade out of the city, waving and shouting all the way.
They hope that the monarch can come back smoothly and safely, and also hope that the monarch can bring hope back. While the people of Dayu were still enjoying the prosperity, the people of Maolin were still living in fear.
But the world has always been like this, and there has never been a situation where the whole world is prosperous and all nations are prosperous.
The people watched the monarch's team gradually go away, and then they reluctantly walked back until they could no longer see it.
At the same time, inside the gate of Peilai City, there was a man standing on the roadside with his hands behind his back, watching. When the people returned from outside the city, he turned and left.
Soon after, in the residence of Prime Minister Maolin Sugei, the man walked to the courtyard. Sugei and a group of Maolin's courtiers came to greet him quickly. They hurried back in order to welcome this man's arrival earlier.
"Meet His Highness the Crown Prince."
Su Gai was the leader and was the first to bow down, followed by others who followed suit and knelt down.
"I know that you have all received the news, unless you are so stupid that you can't even see or listen to what is going on around you."
Sugei knelt there and said, "Your Highness, we all know what happened in the past two nights. If His Highness had not warned us in advance, we would all have died."
The prince standing in front of him turned out to be Qihe Manruo.
He sighed slightly: "If I hadn't guessed in advance that the beauty would act like this, I wouldn't have had time to remind you."
He walked towards the house, and the group of people quickly got up and followed him.
Qihe Manruo said as he walked: "The beauty wants to kill you, but you are still dreaming of spring and autumn dreams."
"If I let the beauty become a beauty this time, think about it for yourselves, which one of you can survive."
After he entered the living room, he sat down directly on the main seat. Who dared to think that he was a little arrogant?
"You should have heard about it..."
Qihe Manruo glanced at the coffee table next to him, and Su Gai immediately ran up to pour him tea himself.
"The beauty wants to kill you all, not just you officials, but your family members as well."
"I sent someone to deliver a message to you in advance, and you hid. This is just a temporary survival... Those assassins of the beauty were all invited back to the palace to hide in the palace by your monarch. She did not dare to let anyone know. Now These assassins are probably still with her."
"Once your monarch and the envoy of the beauty have negotiated the terms before returning to the capital, the first thing she will do is to get rid of you in a legitimate manner."
Qihe Manruo looked at Sugei: "As Prime Minister Maolin, do you really have no ability to protect yourself?"
Sugei said with half flattery and half helplessness: "Your Highness, Maolin is a small country. The total number of soldiers in the country is only 40,000 to 50,000."
"Most of these 40,000 to 50,000 people are still on the border. For example, the soldiers and horses in Peilai City only add up to more than 5,000 people, and they may not be able to obey my orders."
Qihe Manruo glanced outside: "There are hundreds of people in your house, including servants and slaves, from top to bottom."
These words startled Su Gai: "Sir, these people, what use can they have."
Qihe Manruo pointed at Sugai: "You have a family of several hundred, at least half of them can fight."
He pointed to another person: "You have a family of hundreds, and more than half of them can fight."
He glanced at the crowd: "Your king's butcher's knife has been placed on your necks, but you are still submissive..."
Having said this, he stood up and said: "It seems that my trip here was in vain, and I met you people who have no courage and no plan."
Su Gei just let their savior go and knelt down again with a plop.
The reason why he was afraid was because he did not dare to let King Keya know what he had done.
Over the years, seven out of ten slaves sold to Lou Fan were actually sold by him.
Previously, Emperor Loufan personally went to Dongbo and ordered 30,000 coolies to be recruited from Maolin.
After Lou Fan announced that the imperial envoy arrived, he insisted on persuading the imperial envoy to change the number of 30,000 to 100,000.
They jointly sold 70,000 young laborers to Lou Fan, earning hundreds of thousands in silver.
He distributed less than half of the money to the people involved in the matter, and kept more than half himself.
In a small country like Maolin, he could make such a huge profit by selling his own people, which was more than the income of Maolin's national treasury in a year.
Not only this money, but also the Maolin court allocated funds to compensate those coolies who failed to come back.
Most of this pension was privately divided between him and his subordinates.
King Keya couldn't find anything because most of the civil and military officials in the dynasty were Sugei people. The people she sent to investigate were all the same as Sugei, so how could they find out anything.
Now that the beauty is coming, Su should know that his good days are coming to an end.
"Your Highness, please save me."
Sugai kowtowed and cried and begged. He was really crying. Seeing the old man in tears was a bit pitiful.
Of course Qihe Manruo would not really leave. These things were all planned by him. Seeing that he was half successful, how could he leave.
He sent Lou Chishen, and he also sent people to inform the courtiers of Maolin Kingdom.
Even that night, he deliberately lured the middle-aged man to find Lou Chishen and others.
Qihe Manruo had already been dissatisfied with Lou Chishen for a long time. A follower, relying on his trust, had become more and more arrogant and domineering in recent years.
More than once, he refuted his face in front of everyone and repeatedly challenged his majesty.
What made him even more angry was that he had received the order to lead his troops south, and Lou Chisheng immediately made a fortune in Jinting City.
He said that with just one word from him, he could join the Southern Expedition Army as a general, or at worst, become a captain.
Therefore, those people in Jinting City who were thirsty for power gave him gold and silver.
Especially those wealthy businessmen who had money but no power. The money they sent to Lou Chishen was far more than the hundreds of thousands of taels that made Su Gai Feng crazy.
At the beginning, when Lou Chishen asked if anyone could use him, Qiheman nodded and agreed. After all, he also wanted to give his guard some respect.
But later, Lou Chishen actually bypassed him, thinking that even if he knew about it, he wouldn't blame him, let alone stop him, so he would just insert the person into the team.
Keeping such subordinates will only spoil things.
If Emperor Zong Zhengshiquan knew about this kind of thing, even if Qihe Manruo gained favor, there would be no good end.
Besides, with Zong Zheng Shiquan’s character, how could he really treat Qihe Manruo as a brother.
Everything is just about needing each other, one is acting as a brother, and the other is acting as an emperor who needs brothers.
Therefore, Lou Chishen brought 300 people to Maolin, which was a road of no return. Here was the cemetery prepared for him by Qihe Manruo.
Those three hundred people were Lou Chishen's people, trained by him personally, or Qihe Manruo's personal soldiers. How terrifying these people were. Since Lou Chishen was to be eliminated, none of his cronies could be kept.
If Qiheman implemented a small plan, he could get rid of the evil around him and make all the courtiers of Maolin Kingdom frightened.
But of course his plan doesn't stop there.
Qihe Manruo turned around and looked at Sugei: "If you still expect others to save you now, then you can hang yourself in your wealthy mansion. At least you can keep your body intact."
After he took a breath, he said: "If we can kill Keya outside, kill those beauties, and blame the beauties for this matter..."
He glanced at everyone: "I think one of you can become the king."
Upon hearing this, Sugei's eyes immediately lit up.
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[The next two updates will be resumed for a while, I am taking my time, although I am very sorry... I still have to shamelessly ask for a monthly ticket. 】
