Chapter 317 The Tatars' Plea for Peace

Chapter 317 The Tatars' Plea for Peace

Six days after Jiang Yuan returned, Xie Wanniang gave birth to a son and then began to recuperate peacefully under the careful care of Madam Chen and the servants in the house.

The child's nickname is Linlin, Lin being the name of the mythical auspicious beast "Qilin," symbolizing good fortune, benevolence, and health.

The older sister, An'an, was very curious about her tiny little brother. She would often sneakily pinch his little hands, feet, face, and ears when her parents and servants weren't looking.

She didn't use much force, just a light and careful touch. Linlin didn't feel uncomfortable at all; on the contrary, she liked her sister's sneaky touch.

The brother and sister got along well. One spoke in childlike innocence, while the other babbled. Others thought they were talking at cross purposes, but they themselves were having a great time chatting away.

When Da Bao didn't reject Er Bao, Xie Wan Niang secretly breathed a sigh of relief, and at the same time, she became even more concerned about her daughter An An.

She treats her children the same; she doesn't want her daughter to feel that she's no longer important after a brother is born.

While Xie Wanniang was in confinement after childbirth, the Tatar royal court issued an order to withdraw its troops. The Tatar commander led the remaining half of his soldiers and left the border of the Great Wei in a sorry state.

The drought in the Great Wei has been alleviated, and fortunately, the locust plague that usually accompanies drought has not broken out.

Thanks to the joint efforts of local officials and the people, as well as the imperial court and surrounding prefectures and counties, the drought was brought under control.

In the following period, although the people in the disaster area still needed some financial and food assistance, their need for relief had been greatly reduced as crops and vegetables had been planted in the fields and wild vegetables were slowly growing on the mountains.

The situation was different in the Tatars. Only about a third of their drought-stricken grasslands received the long-awaited rain, while the remaining two-thirds still did not receive enough rain to allow the vegetation to sprout and grow.

Furthermore, the Tatars and the Great Wei were different. The Great Wei attached great importance to the disaster-stricken areas, and both the government and the people made great efforts in disaster relief. However, the Tatars followed the law of the jungle, where the strong prey on the weak.

If a small tribe that is affected by a disaster cannot survive, it can only rely on a large or medium-sized tribe, and from then on it will be considered inferior. However, if a large or medium-sized tribe is affected by a disaster, it will choose to wage war against other tribes and seize their grasslands for its own use.

As a result, the conflicts between the various tribes within the Tatars naturally intensified.

The method of relieving internal conflicts by conquering and plundering southwards is no longer feasible, so the Tatar royal court has to find another way.

This "other method" is actually an old trick that foreign races have used countless times throughout history—if their fists are not strong enough, they can only soften their stance and seek peace.

Of course, even when they sought peace, their attitude was always quite arrogant.

If it weren't for the Zhenbei Army ostensibly escorting, but in reality guarding, the Tatar envoys delivering the peace treaty would have caused countless troubles on their journey from Zijing Pass to the capital of the Great Wei.

With great difficulty, this group of self-righteous wolves who had infiltrated the flock of sheep, and who had no sense of propriety or shame, were personally escorted—no, escorted—to the capital by Chang Yao. At the inn, this group started causing trouble for the servants and lower-level officials.

If it weren't for the garrison commander in charge of the security of the post station who couldn't stand it and dealt with them severely several times, they would have continued to be so arrogant.

Well, that's not entirely accurate.

More precisely, although these guys have been dealt with and have temporarily stopped causing trouble, they still don't take the Great Wei Dynasty seriously.

Sure enough, although they no longer dared to act recklessly in the inns and on the streets, they remained as arrogant as ever in the court of the Great Wei Dynasty.

After meeting the Emperor of Wei, they not only demanded that Wei provide them with valuable supplies such as grain, cloth, tea, and salt, but also requested that Wei marry a princess to the Tatar Khan.

Not to mention the wealth they demanded, which totaled at least 500,000 taels of silver, just consider their so-called Khan. That old man not only has countless wives, concubines, and children, but he's also an old coffin-like figure with half his neck buried in the ground. I don't know where their Tatar envoys got the audacity to ask for a young and beautiful princess from the Great Wei on his behalf.

What's most infuriating is that these scoundrels act so self-righteously and arrogantly when making demands that anyone unaware of the situation would definitely think that the Great Wei was the defeated party.

The court officials of the Great Wei were puzzled. Where did these people get the audacity to stand in front of their founding emperor and spout such nonsense?

It should be understood that the Great Wei Dynasty, in terms of national strength, military power, and the emperor's style of conduct, was incomparable to the later period of the previous dynasty.

Perhaps the Tatars had become accustomed to bullying the former dynasty's rulers and officials, but after suffering a defeat, didn't they learn to curb their blind arrogance and ingrained habits?

Or was it intentional, a test of the reaction and bottom line of the Wei emperor and his ministers?

Although these thoughts were racing through their minds, everyone maintained their usual quick reactions and fast speech.

After the Tatar envoy made those outrageous remarks, the vast majority of the officials of the Great Wei became indignant.

The crowd angrily denounced the Tatar envoy for being arrogant, domineering, and rude, and for making outrageous demands that showed he was utterly ignorant of his own limitations.

Of course, there is actually a small group of people who believe that if problems can be solved with women and money, then it might not be such a bad thing.

However, given their understanding of the emperor's style of doing things, they dared not utter such spineless remarks that would damage the prestige of the Great Wei Kingdom in front of the emperor.

In order not to be completely rejected by the emperor, even some spineless people who were used to sacrificing others put on an indignant act and joined others in spitting at the Tatar envoy.

In an instant, the commotion emanating from the Great Wei Imperial Palace was so loud that even birds flapped their wings and flew away, fearing that their landing spot would be overturned by the sudden, terrifying sound.

Faced with this overwhelming accusation, the Tatar envoy did not flinch or back down.

Although they had long anticipated that the Great Wei would not tolerate their exorbitant demands, isn't bargaining always about asking for the moon and settling for the moon?

They demanded urgently needed supplies worth a total of 500,000, and also asked the Great Wei to send a princess for a marriage alliance. While this was certainly excessive, they should at least leave room for the Great Wei to negotiate.