At nightfall.
Beyond the great wall, the snowstorm was continuous, but the stars still twinkled like the beginning, hanging large on the deep black curtain, as if they could be plucked by reaching out.
The camp was still lit.
The frontline soldiers needed to change shifts every twelve hours. The night was the time when vigilance was most needed. From morning to night, the people on the lookout post must be fully alert. The scouts who were out exploring must be careful and responsible for the surrounding vigilance, always paying attention to the enemy’s movements.
The night on the snowfield always came early, and there were no insects chirping at night, only the howling of the cold wind.
In the silence, the prince in white was holding Zhanlu, sitting in front of the fire in the center of the camp. His face was almost blank, as empty as his current hair color.
After a long time, he reached out and disassembled the hilt of Zhan Lu in his hand, repeating the action of Emperor Yuan pushing out the Qiankun Inside the Sword like a magic trick.
In the small four-sided black box, there was a bottle of golden wound medicine in a white jade bottle.
Zong Luo remembered this bottle.
The old imperial physician and the medical sage hit it off right away. When they were treating his eyes, the two often got together to research new medicines. They got some amazing inspiration from the pill formula they got from Zong Chengsi, and asked Emperor Yuan to approve a batch of precious medicines for research. In the few days when he was resting, it was said that it had been quite effective and was known as a divine medicine. Unfortunately, the raw materials were too precious, so they could only continue to replace the medicines in it for research, hoping to research a medicine that could be promoted in the army for mass production.
There were only a few bottles of the final product, all of which were put into the palace treasury.
One of them was in his hand at this moment.
It was clearly empty when Zhan Lu was given to him last time. This divine medicine only had three or four bottles, and it was needless to say who ordered it to be put in.
Zong Luo looked at this bottle of golden wound medicine for a long time, then reached out and took it out of the Qiankun Inside the Sword, and put it into the hidden pocket of his own clothes.
The clothes of the ancients were not convenient for carrying personal belongings, which Zong Luo had considered long ago.
He once asked the embroiderer to change all his clothes and sew a hidden pocket on the inside. If one really suffered a fatal injury, it was definitely simpler to pull it out directly from the clothes than to forcefully open the sword hilt.
After doing all this, he pushed the hilt back again and continued to hold Zhanlu in a daze.
Crackle, crackle
The firewood leaned together to burn, the center rolled up a raging fire, rushed into the air, making a crackling sound.
Near the source of the fire, due to the intense temperature, the air was also slightly distorted.
Zong Luo just stared at the color that spread in the center of the flame in a daze, like a numb puppet.
He didn’t think about anything.
Perhaps it was too precious to lose and regain. Since the night he regained his eyesight and was given the sword, Emperor Yuan no longer tried to hide his true intentions.
First, he personally sent him out of the city, then directly sent an envoy to send the golden silk soft armor and Zhanlu, and then put in the divine medicine. The cold and majestic tyrant would not say much, nor would he say much, but when he looked back or needed it, this heavy fatherly love was always there.
The things that happened on the border today, when Zong Luo returned to the court a few months later, he’s afraid everyone in the Imperial City would know that Emperor Yuan gave him Zhanlu.
As soon as the sword of benevolence, Zhanlu, came out, it was almost like welding the big characters “The future crown prince I favor” brightly on Zong Luo’s head.
That’s great.
This was something Zong Luo had dreamed of for two lifetimes.
If it were in the past, Zong Luo might not know how happy he would be, and he would probably be crazy with joy.
But now, apart from indifference, he could hardly feel any emotions.
After extreme pain, the human brain would open a kind of protective mechanism, which was to subconsciously avoid one’s own pain, hypnotize oneself, and numb this pain with nothing to think about.
Hypnosis, but it still existed.
The white hair was Zong Luo’s evidence.
“How did it become like this?”
For the first time in his life, he, who was known for his intelligence and rationality, could not figure out his own sanity. He only felt that after the night of surprise from Yu Beizhou, he had been in a daze every day for the past month, almost unable to distinguish between night and day.
Even after being calm for so many days and far away from the Imperial City, he still felt very dazed.
The prince in white stretched out his hand and gently stroked the cold body of Zhanlu, his fingertips hesitated.
The thin and bright sword surface reflected his pupils.
Although the sword edge was like snow, it also reflected the firelight
Sure enough, the next day, a signal for a peace talk came from Hanmen Pass.
The envoy from the Yu Country, who came against the snowstorm, was checked by the Xuan Cavalry at the gate of the pass, disarmed all the weapons on his body, and after confirming that it was correct, he was allowed to stay temporarily in the temporary tent outside the camp.
After a while, Mu Yuanlong came in the snowstorm and talked with the envoy from the Yu Country.
As for the Commanding General Zong Luo, if an envoy came, going out to see him, would be losing too much face. It’s best to let the deputy general come to greet him.
The envoy from the Yu Country was very clear in his intentions. First, he spoke a lot of official jargon praising the might of the Xuan Cavalry, then he stated his real intention. “As long as the Great Yuan can withdraw its troops, the Emperor Yu is willing to exchange ten thousand taels of gold, a thousand bolts of cloth, and good farmland and cities.”
“I still need to report this matter to the commanding general, and we can only know after discussing it in detail.”
Mu Yuanlong nodded, his expression was inscrutable, showing a demeanor that fully respected Zong Luo’s authority.
The deputy general of Xuan Cavalry, Mu Yuanlong, was known for his loyalty. After the Third Prince’s battle in Hangu Pass, he was promoted to the rank of general of the Xuan Cavalry. Unexpectedly, when the main general returned a year later, he willingly gave up his position.
Even though they have proposed conditions of gold and cities, they were still unmoved.
The envoy from the Yu Country was not flustered, but flattered. “The Emperor Yu also said that he is willing to marry the number one beauty of the Yu Country to Emperor Yuan, so as to form a good relationship with the Great Yuan, forever be friends, and be relatives for generations.”
After a while, Mu Yuanlong informed Zong Luo of the content of the peace talk.
The prince standing in front of the map with his hands behind his back sneered: “The degree of the Emperor Yu’s spinelessness really exceeds my imagination.”
The number one beauty in the Yu Country was also the number one beauty in the Great Wilderness, and her name fell on the fifth princess of the Yu Country.
The fifth princess was born from Shufei. It was said that she inherited her mother’s good looks, and she was born with a beauty that could make fish sink and wild geese fall, and made the moon hide and flowers blush due to her appearance. Even before she reached the coming of age, her beauty had spread throughout the various countries, and the princes who sought to marry her lined up from the north to the south of the Imperial City of the Yu Country, just to catch a glimpse of the princess.
(t/n: Shufei-one of the titles of high-ranking concubines in ancient times)
(t/n: fish sink and wild geese fall-drop-dead gorgeous)
(t/n: moon hide and flowers blush-A woman’s beauty puts the flowers to shame and outshines the moon
