Chapter 224: In the Bag

Chapter 224

“Li Yao,” inside the central military tent, Grand Marshal Xu had a worried look on his face, “His Majesty probably won’t do anything to you when we go to the capital this time, but Xu wants to remind you that the situation in the capital is very complicated now. Zhu Zilin the Chancellor is very close with the Crown Prince. If they want to harm you...”

“Why would they want to harm me?”

“Because you get along well with the Prince of Yizhou.” Grand Marshal Xu said, “Now the Prince of Yizhou controls his own territory, which is a big threat to the Crown Prince.”

Li Yao understood, but also did not understand.

The Crown Prince, the future emperor, you just have to obediently wait for the old emperor to die, and then naturally succeed to the throne.

Why do you have to make trouble here and there every day?

He even colluded with the barbarians, unclear.

According to a certain law, any crown prince who likes to mess around east and west will eventually not end well.

It looks like I need to prepare more backup plans and protection for myself.

Li Yao thought for a while and asked, “Grand Marshal Xu, when do we set off?”

“In three days.”

“Can it be delayed for a few more days?” Li Yao asked, “I want to teach some more techniques to treat injuries to those doctors.”

“That's easy to say,” Grand Marshal Xu said, “Although Imperial Secretary is the Crown Prince's man, he's just bluffing. I guess he wouldn't dare to boss me around.”

“Then thank you for that.” Findd new stories at novelhall.com

“Li Yao,” Grand Marshal Xu knew that Li Yao must not be wanting to teach more techniques, “Be very careful.”

Seeing his concerned eyes, Li Yao just nodded and hurried away.

After it got dark, she took two fast horses and a more than three meters long sleigh from Wang San.

“Mother, why don't I go with you?”

“You'll just add to my troubles if you go,” Li Yao bluntly said, “You have to help cover for me these days, I’ll be back soon.”

The hooves of the war horses were wrapped with cotton cloth and thin rubber sleeves to prevent frostbitten hooves. The two horses pulling one sleigh made it extremely easy and the speed was not slow at all.

Li Yao oriented herself and headed northwest all the way.

She was going to find the barbarian king’s court, which was said to be in the mountains, but didn’t know exactly where.

A brawny man in his forties was sleeping on a large bed, snoring like thunder.

Was this the barbarian chieftain?

If she were an assassin, Li Yao would probably be excited to death, because with a gentle stab she could easily end this guy’s life.

But regrettably she was retired now.

And killing a chieftain, the barbarians would still elect a new chieftain, so it was meaningless and would only expose herself.

She took out a piece of incense from her bag and lit it on the brazier.

This kind of incense was beneficial for sleep. Usually after smelling a little, one would sleep for a whole day and night, unless there was thunder by one’s ear or one was splashed with cold water, otherwise it was hard to wake up.

Putting the incense by the barbarian chieftain’s pillow, Li Yao waited a few minutes then started rummaging around noiselessly.

Opening a big chest, it was actually full of gold.

Opening another, it was still gold.

Looking further, finally it was not gold, but pearls, agate and various gold and silver ornaments...

For a chieftain to be wealthy was normal.

Li Yao did not stand on ceremony with him and picked five most valuable treasures and put them in her bag.

Finally in an inconspicuous chest Li Yao found what she was looking for: a large pile of letters.

After quickly skimming through, half were written by the current Chancellor Zhu Zilin, plus several influential officials in the capital, while the one carrying the most weight was naturally from the Crown Prince.

She quickly read it. The time it was written was before spring this year. The gist was that if the barbarian army could keep harassing Daling’s northern border this year, tying down Grand Marshal Xu and his troops on the grasslands, then after the Crown Prince succeeded to the throne at the end of this year, he would give all the territory outside of Yuhan Pass to the barbarians as their fief.

The barbarians taking the unusual action of launching an offensive this spring must have been because of this letter.

The Daling troops also had not received supplies because of this.

What confused Li Yao was why the Crown Prince was so certain he would succeed to the throne by the end of the year?

Very informative.

Keeping all the letters, Li Yao put the chest back and returned the same way.

But since coming had taken too much time, by the time she walked out of the barbarians’ dwelling, the sky was already bright.