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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.”
“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.
Up until now in Daling, few people had gone to the barbarian royal court. Even the envoys sent there were almost always received in the big tents on the grasslands.
So whether this trip would be successful depended on Li Yao's own skills.
Luckily she was good at tracking, although there was more than a foot of snow, the traces under the snow were still preserved because they were frozen.
Li Yao tracked the barbarian army's movements all the way, spending two days and two nights, and finally arrived at the foot of a huge mountain range.
She didn’t know what the mountain was called, but she was sure the barbarian royal court was in this big mountain.
The two horses and sleigh could not enter the mountains. Li Yao found a sheltered place to tie the horses, took a large amount of forage from the sleigh, and put thick cotton quilts on them.
These two horses could have no mishaps, otherwise how could she get back?
After resting for half a day, Li Yao regained her strength and spirit, and set off into the mountains with her backpack.
After only walking for half a day, she had already discovered signs of human activity, which gave her more confidence in her judgment.
Taking advantage of the night, Li Yao in white clothes kept going deeper, and finally before dawn, arrived at a huge valley. It could no longer be called a valley, but a space ten miles wide between two mountains, with tens of thousands of tents set up in this space.
This was where the barbarians spent the winter, and also the location of the barbarian royal court.
Possibly because they felt no one could find this place, or even if found, no one could do anything to them, so there was almost no professional vigilance around.
Of course every barbarian was a warrior, so you could say there were alerts everywhere.
A Han Chinese walking in would be identified in less than three seconds.
Li Yao hid in the snow for a whole day until it was pitch dark before slowly approaching.
Luckily no one kept dogs. All around the tents were large numbers of cattle and sheep. Their strong smells and noisy sounds perfectly concealed Li Yao's tracks.
It took half the night before Li Yao finally reached the center area. The security here was stricter. In the middle of the night there were still dozens of fully armed barbarian soldiers patrolling around.
Trying to enter the largest and most luxurious tent did pose some difficulty.
But only a little bit.
Li Yao calculated the routes and timing of the soldiers’ patrols. Using a gap she quickly went behind the big tent and lightly cut a long slit with her knife, then slipped inside.
The temperature inside the tent was significantly higher, with a huge brazier in the middle, and the air was full of alcohol and roasted meat smells.
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.