Chapter 105 The Qinghai Sea

In mid-October, Hu Hongxiu, Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, hurriedly set out for the west.

Of course, although it was said to be in a hurry, the arrangements were complete. There were staff from the Ministry of Rites, staff from the Ministry of War, a whole company of the Imperial Bodyguard, a whole company of imperial cavalry from the Hehuang region, several Jinshi attached to the Imperial Army, several newly appointed Jinshi, and even a team of monks and a team of Taoists.

Even the envoy's regalia and the gifts prepared for Yelu Dashi were all there, just not ostentatiously displayed.

The party traveled light and discreetly in the heart of the Central Plains, arriving leisurely in Guanxi. Then, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of War, ostensibly going to Guanxi to inspect logistics and purchase warhorses from the Qingtang tribes, only spoke briefly with Yuwen Xuzhong, who had received advance notice, before continuing westward. To save time, Hu Hongxiu met with Yelu Yudu, a small Tubo tribe from Qingtang, a Han merchant caravan with experience traveling west, and a Khotan merchant caravan about to return, in Lanzhou.

There, local officials and generals had arranged for logistical vehicles, horses, provisions, and some necessary salt and cloth.

By this time, it was already November, and the weather was getting colder.

In northern Shaanxi, it was said that the war situation was fluctuating again. The Jin troops of the Baoan Army had been successfully driven out by Wu Jie and Guo Hao, but at the same time, because one of the three chief ministers of the Jin Dynasty, Wanyan Wushu, Prince of Wei, had arrived at the important riverside town of Daning, the line along Danzhou, bordering the Yellow River, was somewhat tense again.

But all of this was irrelevant, at least to Hu Hongxiu and Yelu Yudu, who were too busy to care, as they had to press on westward without stopping.

The road westward was not that complicated.

Firstly, thanks to the opening of the Hehuang region during the reign of Emperor Shenzong, Lanzhou, Huangzhou, and Xiningzhou were already civilized Han lands. The Tubo Gusiluo regime, which had once occupied this area, had been largely annexed and ‘civilized’. Even during Cai Jing's administration, efforts were made to strengthen the rule of this area, suppressing the once-shaky Qingtang City (the capital of Xiningzhou, later Xining). Zhao Huaien, the commissioner of Huangshan affairs, who had taken office only five years earlier, as a descendant of Gusiluo, had always been loyal to the Great Song… The local Tubo tribe was provided through his connections, specifically to negotiate with the Tubo tribes along the way.

Therefore, this road was generally safe.

Secondly, because the Western Xia had long controlled the Hexi Corridor and deliberately isolated the Great Song from the Western Regions, many merchants from the Western Regions were forced to take this Qinghai route.

Even after Emperor Shenzong controlled Xining, Khotan envoys immediately came through this place, and because they came too quickly and in too great numbers, the Great Song became somewhat weary of bestowing gifts and had to limit them to once every two years.

Khotan was later Hetian, the word ‘Tian’ meaning ‘gate’, indicating that Khotan was a transportation hub in southern Xinjiang, and at least this Qinghai route could lead directly to Khotan.

In other words, this road had been clear and well-defined from ancient times to the present, and was never a wilderness route.

Or, in the almost unanimous words of the Han, Tubo, and Khotan guides, if nobles traveled west along this road, as long as they endured the hardships, they were guaranteed to enter a major city in the Western Regions within two months, and then find Yelu Dashi at their leisure.

If the road was smooth, forty to fifty days would be enough.

Hu Hongxiu and Yelu Yudu had nothing to say. In particular, Khotan merchants who had just arrived in Xining City explicitly told them that they had indeed heard news of Yelu Dashi in southern Xinjiang before their departure. They knew that a Qidan King had swept through the Yemili and was about to move south because the Xizhou Uyghur tribes, which controlled Gaochang and Hami, were then engaged in diplomatic negotiations with that Qidan King to avoid war.

This was consistent with the information Yudu had obtained from Western Xia. Considering that Western Xia controlled the Hexi Corridor, they would naturally know more quickly and completely. Therefore, Hu Hongxiu's large delegation had almost no doubts and immediately set off westward from Xiningzhou to meet Yelu Dashi as soon as possible.

However, travel always involves surprises and waves, as well as monotony and tedium.

Less than a hundred li west of Xiningzhou, the group was plunged into its first great shock, as they saw Qinghai Lake, a veritable natural wonder.

Qinghai Lake, in those days, no one would call it a lake. The Tubo people had always called it the ‘Blue Sea’. After seeing such a large, blue saltwater body, the Han people could not believe it was a lake either. They simply called it the Western Sea, but at the same time, they had to admit that it was a ‘Blue Sea’.

Of course, when the Han people continued to expand and saw the Salt Sea further west, they changed the definition of the Western Sea and re-recognized that this place in Xiningzhou was only ‘a Blue Sea’.

And faced with this Qinghai Sea, everyone, Hu Hongxiu, the cultured Qidan remnant Yelu Yudu, and the accompanying Jinshi, including the Guangdong native with the lowest level of education, who had been promoted to a Yuanwailang in the Ministry of War because of his strong connections and experience in suppressing rebellions in Yaoshan and Qianzhou, all immediately thought of that poem.

It went:

*Long clouds darken the snow mountains by the Qinghai Sea,*

*From the lonely city, one gazes afar at Jade Gate Pass.*

*In yellow sand, a hundred battles pierce golden armor,*

*Until Lou Lan is conquered, one will never return!*

This land had not been effectively ruled by the Central Plains dynasty for hundreds of years.

The great Tang Dynasty, which once spanned the universe, was gone forever; the Tubo, which had simultaneously launched wars on five fronts against the Tang, the Uyghurs, the Arabs, India, and Nanzhao, was even more like a flash in the pan, completely collapsing beyond repair; earlier, the once powerful Turks had long since rolled to the Mediterranean to redefine the Western Sea… However, this Blue Sea and this poem, which almost everyone could recite, clearly reminded everyone that this land, from the mountains to the sea, had long been integrated into the cultural bloodline of the Central Plains dynasty.

Even Yelu Yudu had this absurd idea.

The large team continued to travel along the north side of Qinghai Lake. For the first few days, the scholars in the team could not suppress their excitement. They clearly recalled various allusions:

They knew that to their immediate south was the Qinghai Sea of ‘Long clouds darken the snow mountains by the Qinghai Sea’;

They knew that somewhere to the east was hidden the ‘source of the Yellow River’ where ‘the Yellow River's waters come from the sky’;

They knew that the snow-capped peaks visible to the north on a clear day were the Qilian Mountains of ‘Marching ten thousand li to awe the Qilian’, and north of the Qilian Mountains, where Liangzhou and Ganzhou were occupied by Western Xia, was precisely the Liangzhou of so many *Liangzhou Ci* poems;

They also knew that as they continued westward, they would pass parallel to Jade Gate Pass of ‘No spring breeze reaches Jade Gate Pass’ and Yang Pass of ‘No old friends beyond Yang Pass’.

But what was sad or laughable was that these places, all clearly recorded in their minds, places that even the Guangzhou native and the Qidan remnant could recite, they had not visited for centuries?

Was this reasonable?!

Of course, this unique restlessness of young cultured people would eventually be suppressed by the monotonous journey. After leaving Qinghai Lake, they spent the next twenty days marching in the territory of the Caotou Tatar south of the Qilian Mountains.

Then the topic turned to the four words "Caotou Tatar."

It was said that no one could clearly explain the origin of the Caotou Tatar.

Some in the team speculated that they were closely related to the Ganzhou Uyghurs; others speculated that they were closely related to the Xizhou Uyghurs; the accompanying Khotan merchants interjected, saying that these people should be descendants of the Zhaowu Nine Surnames, who were driven out of the northern Qilian Mountains by the Xiongnu and then returned to the southern Qilian Mountains; but when they asked a local tribal leader who had done business in Xining, he said that some of his tribe's ancestors were Türgesh people… Everyone discussed heatedly, but the only definite information seemed to come from Yelu Yudu and his Qidan and Xi followers, who insisted that, in any case, these so-called Caotou Tatar were definitely not Tatar, because the difference was too great.

But, so to speak, but.

Suddenly, one day, the accompanying Yuanwailang from the Ministry of Rites had an outburst while writing his official travel diary at sunset. He clearly recalled a text he had read in a remote corner, saying that these tribes were called Caotou Tatar because the Khotan envoys had told Emperor Shenzong that these mixed-race tribes south of the Qilian Mountains were the Caotou Tatar… And just that midday, the accompanying Khotan merchant had solemnly said that these people were originally called Huangtou Tatar in Khotan, but the Song people kept saying Caotou Tatar, which forced them to change their name.

As for Huangtou Tatar, that was much simpler. It had always been a general term for scattered Tatar tribes in western Mongolia. In other words, this tribal group was likely to have come from the north, crossed the Hexi Corridor, and arrived here through the Qilian Mountains.

But if that were the case, not only was Yelu Yudu wrong, they were indeed Tatar, but the key was that the reason this southern Qilian Mountain tribal group was called Caotou Tatar was very likely that some official responsible for recording or copying had copied or recorded it incorrectly, or it was simply something the Khotan people had made up when Emperor Shenzong asked them.

And they had been tangled over this error for more than ten days.

However, it was impossible for everyone to focus on the four words "Caotou Tatar," simply because they were too bored.

This place was too poor and too broken. The largest tribe had no more than three or four hundred riders, and could not even gather dozens of sets of armor. When they saw the large delegation from the Great Song, they almost thought the Great Song had come to conquer them, and were about to surrender… The officials from the Ministry of Rites wanted to temporarily write a document, but they were stopped by Hu Hongxiu, who was worried about alarming the enemy and causing unnecessary trouble.

As for buying a woman for half a bolt of cloth, although it was a good deal, it was of course not allowed. Not many people traded a handful of salt for a sunbath… After all, they had only left Xining for a little over half a month. How could they not hold back?

The towering Qilian Mountains stretched endlessly, cutting off the only possible military threat to the north.

Then the ground was covered with winter's withered meadows and swamps. They were tired of looking at the Qilian Mountains for more than ten days, and they were tired of reciting poems dozens of times. They could not help but start whiling away the time with the four words "Caotou Tatar."

In this way, twenty days after leaving Xining, they finally passed the front of the Qilian Mountains, left the territory of the Caotou Tatar, and arrived at a mountain pass (Dangjin Pass). Next, according to the guides, they would enter the territory of the Huangtou Uyghur, who were stronger, and could theoretically pose a threat to the team, but the probability was small. Compared with this theoretical danger, the more troublesome thing was that the following was a sporadic no-man's-land.

That's right. Compared with the first half of the road, the north was still continuous high mountains (Altyn-Tagh) sufficient to block everything, but the south no longer had the lush Qinghai Sea and pastures. That place was a desert, and only a narrow semi-desert area at the foot of the mountains could be traveled through. This was also the fundamental reason why the military threat of the Huangtou Uyghur was actually relatively low. Robbing in this kind of place was like a blind cat looking for a dead mouse.

Of course, there was water, and the overall journey was not a big problem. But according to experience, a considerable number of people were likely to get sick, not the kind of serious illness, but all kinds of unclear minor illnesses, and according to the size of the team, there would be an indefinite number of people dying on this road, and warhorses and yaks would also be lost.

But everything would improve after another twenty days, when they entered the pass and entered the heart of the Western Regions, the city of Datun (according to the Khotan envoys, this journey was likely to cross the Sorkuli corridor in the middle of the Altyn-Tagh and enter the then-prosperous Lop Nur area).

This was expected. Everyone was prepared, and there was nothing to say.

However, Hu Hongxiu, the leader of the delegation, who had gathered these guides together and gradually learned some geographical elements these days, suddenly took the initiative to ask a question: "After arriving in Datun City, do we have to cross the Nanhe River (汉称塔里木河, known as the Tarim River in Chinese) to the north, go to the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, and then turn east to reach Hami?"

The Khotan merchant immediately nodded.

"And if we go past the mountain pass in front of us," Hu Hongxiu, whose face was somewhat rosy, turned around on his horse and pointed directly to the Qilian Mountain pass behind him. The mountain pass was clearly visible to the naked eye. "Can we go straight to Hami without detours?"

"Yes," replied the Han merchant from Xining. "So that Vice Minister Hu knows, going from here is the location of Shazhou (Dunhuang). Shazhou is directly north of Hami. If we go from here, we can arrive in half a month…"

As soon as this was said, Yelu Yudu and others next to him, who also had rosy faces, looked at each other, clearly tempted.

"But Shazhou is in the hands of the Western Xia people," the Han merchant said cautiously. "When the Western Xia people encounter ordinary merchants, whether Han or foreign, they set up checkpoints to exploit them at every level, let alone nobles from Dongjing?"

Everyone became quiet again.

"If we go from Shazhou to Hami, are there any unavoidable natural dangers?" Hu Hongxiu asked seriously.

"Vice Minister Hu is confused," even Yelu Yudu said somewhat helplessly. "The northwest of Shazhou is Jade Gate Pass, and the southwest is Yang Pass. We go to Lou Lan through Yang Pass, and we go to Gaochang through Jade Gate Pass. We are going to Gaochang… We can't avoid the Western Xia people. In this general's opinion, let's be patient for a while and continue to detour west!"

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

Yelu Yudu was slightly stunned, and immediately asked in return: "Aren't they the same place? Aren't they where the Xizhou Uyghurs are located? And according to what was said before, the Xizhou Uyghurs have just made a subordinate agreement with our King Dashi. Therefore, if we find the Xizhou Uyghurs, we can know the news of our king. Calculating the time, we might even meet him directly."

"That's true, but Gaochang and Hami are not the same place," Hu Hongxiu shook his head repeatedly. "Gaochang must be reached through Jade Gate Pass. What about Hami? Are we actually going to find the Xizhou Uyghurs, without specifying Gaochang or Hami?"

Yelu Yudu wanted to refute, but in the end he was discouraged… He really didn't want to offend this Zhao Song official, whose personality was somewhat serious to the point of being awkward.

In fact, even the other Song attendants felt that Hu Hongxiu was overthinking things. Hami and Gaochang both belonged to the Western Regions, and they were the same family. If you wanted to go to the Western Regions, wouldn't you have to go through Jade Gate Pass or Yang Pass?

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

Everyone turned to look at him.

"Shazhou, Guazhou, Hami, and Gaochang are a four-cornered circle…" the Khotan merchant quickly explained under everyone's scrutiny. "Jade Gate Pass is between Shazhou and Gaochang, and Hami is northeast of Gaochang, and northwest of Guazhou… If you want to go from Shazhou to Hami, you can of course go through Jade Gate Pass to Gaochang, and then turn to Hami, but you can also turn east from Shazhou, retreat to Guazhou, and then go directly to Hami from Guazhou… There are no checkpoints on this road."

The Han merchant also nodded heavily.

Yelu Yudu and Hu Hongxiu looked at each other silently, clearly tempted, and the latter turned to look at the heads of the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of War again.

The two heads hesitated, and then one of them, a Yuanwailang from the Ministry of War named Liang Jiaying, blurted out in a strange accent: "Gamble it! There are so few people here. We split our troops into two groups, and one group takes light cavalry to Hami from Guazhou… Why can't we gamble it!"

Hu Hongxiu immediately nodded, and the matter was settled.

There was no other way. Of the four people who had the right to speak, three had been on the battlefield, and the three who had been on the battlefield had basically no doubts about this adventurous choice, which left the learned Yuanwailang from the Ministry of Rites with nothing to say.

In a moment, everyone made a plan. Hu Hongxiu and Yelu Yudu carefully selected a hundred riders, covered in the broken clothes of the local Huangtou Tatar, brought enough water and food, left the due north mountain pass, entered Shazhou, retreated to Guazhou, and then headed straight for Hami.

The remaining people, led by Liang Jiaying and the Yuanwailang from the Ministry of Rites, took the supplies, merchants, gifts, and regalia, and continued westward at their leisure, going another twenty days to enter the city of Datun in the Western Regions, as a backup plan.

And since the decision had been made, and the leaders were all from the battlefield, they did not hesitate and immediately implemented it.

It can only be said that the Western Xia people never imagined that the hundred riders that popped out of the Qilian Mountain pass were actually Han envoys. In fact, they didn't even notice these hundred riders… After the hundred riders left the Qilian Mountain pass, they followed the guide's instructions and completely ignored Shazhou City. Instead, they traveled by night and rested during the day, first heading for Mount Sanwei, and then passing through the small town of Changle City in the middle. They only bought enough food and water in the villages around Changle City, and then crossed the Guazhou City to the north at night, bypassing the small desert around Shule, and finally galloped straight northwest.

The Western Xia people did not react at all throughout the entire process.

They had no reason to react. The Western Xia Xiping Military Command in Guazhou only received a report from Changle City two days later, saying that there was a team of Huangtou Tatar who should have just robbed a sum and were actually quite rich, and were going from west to east… The people from the Xiping Military Command were not thinking of going to find them, but when they asked, they learned that these people had already crossed the small desert of Shule, and they had no interest at all.

In this kind of place, as long as you don't harass the core land of the Hexi Corridor, who wants to care?

As a result, without any real danger, Hu Hongxiu and Yelu Yudu arrived in Hami five or six days before the New Year, and immediately received definite news that Yelu Dashi was in Gaochang (later Turpan) ahead!

It was said that after discussing for a long time, the Xizhou Uyghur tribes, with Gaochang as their actual capital, had expressed their respect for Yelu Dashi long ago. However, Yelu Dashi didn't just want a letter, so he led his army south. After Yelu Dashi's troops marched south to Beiting (Beshbalik), the Xizhou Uyghur regime, led by Uyghur King Bilge, after making its final ideological struggle, officially submitted to Yelu Dashi and paid tribute.

They offered a heavy gift of six hundred horses, one hundred camels, and three thousand sheep, and promised to provide Uyghur noble children as hostages.

Therefore, Yelu Dashi completely subdued the Xizhou Uyghurs without bloodshed, and was about to lead his army to Gaochang to meet with Bilge and receive his gifts and hostages.

This was great news.

But it was also bad news… Because Yelu Dashi had told the Xizhou Uyghur tribes from the beginning that he was going to "borrow troops" from the Karakhanid Khanate further west, so he was only passing through the Xizhou Uyghurs and would be leaving soon.

In other words, if they were late, Yelu Dashi might continue to travel west.

Hu Hongxiu and Yelu Yudu were exhausted at this time, and the hundred riders who had accompanied them had been reduced to seventy or eighty people, all of whom were exhausted. But they couldn't care about anything at this time. The two immediately exchanged horses on the street in Hami, exchanging three tired horses for one good horse, obtaining thirty horses. They then selected eight followers, with one person and three horses, and, under the name of Yelu Dashi's subordinates, immediately traveled west again to Gaochang.

It must be said that Bilge was very helpful. He did not play any tricks. Facing Yelu Dashi and his army, the Uyghur king obediently opened the city gate, presented gifts, handed over his children, and took out his savings to entertain Yelu Dashi and his entourage, holding banquets for three days.

The entire city of Gaochang was in a frenzy to avoid a war.

On the third day of continuous banquets, Yelu Dashi, who was happily drinking wine, suddenly heard a name that was enough to evoke half of his life's sadness.

And it was still in authentic Qidan pronunciation.

"Yelu Yudu?" In the joyful atmosphere of the city, when everyone was excited to avoid a war, Yelu Dashi, who was not yet forty years old this year, sat on the throne of the Uyghur king and, upon hearing these words, felt as if he was in another world. "He dares to come and see me? How many people did he bring?"

"Ten!" In front of Dashi, a Qidan general bowed, it was Xiao Woliela, Yelu Dashi's right-hand man.

"Ten?" Yelu Dashi, with a rosy face and wearing a brocade robe, smiled, then picked up the glass goblet in his hand, shook the wine in the glass, then turned his head to face the Uyghur King Bilge beside him. "Ten is not bad! Ten brave warriors who live and die together can laugh at the thousands of troops with ulterior motives… Since this guy can bring ten Qidan warriors here to find me, I'm embarrassed to cut off his head."

Bilge smiled… He didn't understand a word… But that didn't stop him from smiling.

"There is also a Zhao Song Vice Minister of the Ministry of War!" Xiao Woliela waited for the Uyghur King to finish smiling before calmly adding. "Ten people, one Yelu Yudu, one Zhao Song Vice Minister of the Ministry of War Hu Hongxiu, one Khotan guide, and seven Zhao Song Imperial Cavalry soldiers from the Xihe Road… It is said that there is also a personal letter from the Zhao Song Emperor, and a gift specially selected by the Zhao Song Emperor."

Yelu Dashi was stunned as soon as he heard the first supplemental description, and listened to it all in one breath. After a long silence, he suddenly stood up, then suddenly sat back down, raised his hand again, stopped halfway, and finally opened his mouth to speak, but was silent for a while.

No matter how you looked at it, he looked like he had drunk too much.

But after waiting for a while and thinking for a while, the greatest Qidan exile still waved his hand heavily with a drunken breath: "Bring them all in!"

Xiao Woliela, who had not drunk a glass of wine in three days and was only arranging city defense, immediately turned away and brought ten people in after a while.

Below the Uyghur king, everyone had already noticed what was happening here, and they were observing his expression and had long since become solemn.

It was said that the ten people had arrived here with all their strength and were already extremely exhausted. Entering the palace, they were truly embarrassed compared to the Uyghur and Qidan nobles who had been feasting and partying for three days.

The two leaders, Yelu Yudu, knew that the success or failure of today depended entirely on whether or not an alliance could be established, so he didn't say a word, but just stood in the palace panting, and then looked at Hu Hongxiu.

Hu Hongxiu also slowed down his breathing and cupped his hands frankly: "Today is the New Year, Hu Hongxiu, Vice Minister of the Ministry of War of the Great Song, asks Dashi Linya on behalf of the Emperor of the Great Song, I wonder what the customs are for celebrating the New Year in a foreign country?"

"Is today the New Year?" Yelu Dashi looked at each other in astonishment from his seat, speaking fluent Hebei Chinese, but then shook his head immediately. "New Year or not… You, as an envoy and a high-ranking official, don't you know that since your family broke the alliance, there have been fourteen years of fighting between the Song and Liao? How dare you come to Gaochang, the territory of an enemy country?"

Hu Hongxiu was silent for a moment, and the scene actually cooled down.

After a while, Xiao Woliela snorted coldly from the side: "Why is the Song envoy not speaking? Have you come thousands of miles to this place, only to find you have nothing to say?"

"It's not thousands of miles, it's only a little over two thousand miles from Xiningzhou to here, and it took less than two months to travel," Hu Hongxiu replied earnestly. "And if we could take the Hexi prefectures, it would naturally be faster. Moreover, it's not that I have nothing to say… I thought about it for a long time on horseback when I came, and I also thought that there would be such boring words waiting for me after meeting Dashi Linya, so I also thought of many responses… For example, at this time, I only need to say that Gaochang was originally Chinese territory, and I am a senior Chinese official, so why can't I come? But just as I was about to say it, I felt that after working so hard to travel two thousand miles to this place, it would be quite meaningless to only say these nonsense words, and I would be letting down the Emperor who is waiting in Tokyo."

Yelu Dashi sneered, not knowing whether he was mocking himself or the person in front of him.

Having said this, Hu Hongxiu turned to Yelu Dashi again and cupped his hands frankly: "Dashi Linya… My Emperor wishes to take the Yellow River as the border, and allow the Great Liao to have the Hexi six prefectures and four departments of Western Xia, and the two families will divide Western Xia equally, so that Dashi Linya can see his old country and homeland, what do you think?!"

Yelu Dashi's heart pounded, but he sneered again, and then seemed to feel that it was beneath him to threaten a senior Song official who dared to bring only ten people across the Western Xia blockade two thousand miles to this place, so while considering the gains and losses in his heart, he directly stroked his chin and said perfunctorily: "You just said you had a gift for me?"

"Yes."

As he spoke, Hu Hongxiu took off the helmet of a Han soldier beside him, to the stunned surprise of Yelu Yudu, and handed it to Xiao Woliela, who was also somewhat at a loss.

But then, this senior Song official, who didn't look like a senior Song official at all, changed the faces of all the Qidan people present with just one sentence:

"This is the helmet that Wanyan Lou Shi wore when he died in battle at Yaoshan! My Emperor heard that this person was very close to Dashi Linya, so he ordered me to send it here… It is just right as a New Year's gift for Dashi Linya and all the Qidan warriors."

Xiao Woliela, who had been holding his face all along, also lost his composure, and the helmet, with the smell of sweat, fell to the ground, rolling several times in Gaochang's magnificent palace before stopping.

"Vice Minister Hu," after a long silence, Yelu Dashi broke the silence. "I have also heard some words from the Dangxiang merchants… Some people said that in the Battle of Yaoshan, your Emperor shot Wanyan Lou Shi to death with an arrow?"

"No, it was Qu Duan, the commander of the Imperial Cavalry, who shot Lou Shi in the armpit with an arrow, Han Shizhong, the commander of the Imperial Left Army, shot Lou Shi's horse's head with an arrow, Li Shifu, the deputy commander of the Imperial Cavalry, shot another arrow, and then Hou Dan, the captain of the Imperial Central Army, charged forward with an axe, first chopping off his arm, and then chopping off his head!" Hu Hongxiu replied seriously. "As for my Emperor, although he drew his bow early and wanted to shoot, he didn't succeed. If it wasn't for Commander Qu's arrow, he would have almost lost his life on the spot… However, these are all old stories. My Emperor also has a few words to be passed on to Dashi Linya this time…"

"Not so fast," Yelu Dashi suddenly stood up, turned to look at the Xizhou Uyghur King Bilge. "This king will borrow flowers to offer to the Buddha, and ask for a glass of grape wine for Vice Minister Hu."

ps: Thank you to book friend Xiahou Ningyuan for the alliance leader reward… I am very grateful.