Chapter 20: Embellishing a Letter So Nicely

Chapter 20: Polishing the Letter

Yun Ran, however, was in high spirits, all fired up, and even reminded the historiographer,

"Record this well. Every word I say and every decision I make needs to be written down truthfully, got it?"

The historiographer eyed Yun Ran suspiciously, thinking to himself,

Has the emperor lost her mind? Being so happy about having her blunders recorded in history,

Isn't she afraid that her foolish decisions will throw Yanchi into turmoil, and that future generations will curse her as a villain...

Yun Ran could tell at a glance what this fellow was thinking.

Hmph, what would he know?

Who knows that what the descendants of China regret most are the times in their thousand-year history when they were bullied, forced to cede land, and humiliated.

Peace-by-marriage treaties and land cession—these unequal agreements must be stopped!

Different dynasty, sure, but Yun Ran still stands on the same land—this is her home.

If she doesn't defend it now, future generations will have to suffer even more and pay an even heavier price to protect it.

Eunuch Yuan noticed the emperor's expression stiffen, and his heart lurched.

Oh no, Lord Li must have blown the emperor's budget.

The emperor must be feeling the pinch; the treasury is already empty. This Li Yuanfang is truly useless!

Lord Li was still haggling with Yuan Miao. Little did he know that he, an innocent man, had already earned the resentment of the Grand Steward, Eunuch Yuanbao, by the emperor's side...

Yuan Miao was still negotiating from his lofty position, digging in his heels.

Li Yuanfang saw that this man was simply shameless.

He dropped the pretense, took a step back, and crossed his arms.

Chang Yuan pulled out his prized weapon, aimed the black muzzle at Yuan Miao, and fired a shot.

"BOOM!!!!"

The thunderous gunshot instantly sent the crowd into an uproar.

"Hiss~"

The terrified horses scattered in all directions, and the crowd erupted in panic.

Yuan Miao felt something whiz past him, so close it grazed his side. He broke out in a cold sweat and collapsed to the ground.

"Horse! The horse!"

Panicked shouts came from around him, and trembling, he turned around.

The tall, spirited horse standing beside him had fallen to the ground, a gaping hole in its belly, blood pouring out as it neighed in agony.

Blood pooled on the ground, and with heart-wrenching cries, the horse slowly breathed its last.

Yuan Miao stared in horror, pointing at the horse's belly.

"What is that thing?"

Li Yuanfang was also witnessing this for the first time, inwardly stunned, but he kept his composure and spoke with great seriousness.

"Lord Yuan, under our new emperor's new policies in Yanchi, peace-by-marriage is an outdated decree. How can one use the policies of a previous dynasty to dictate to the king of the present one?"

Yuan Miao had never heard such brazen words, and stammered in shock,

"You... you despicable man!"

Seeing Yuan Miao like this, Li Yuanfang kept pushing.

"That shot just now was merely a warning from Yanchi, reminding you not to push your luck and forget that you represent Beixiang!

Ceding land is absolutely out of the question. His Majesty, in his generosity, is willing to offer gold and silver instead of a princess for diplomatic ties. Don't pass up this credit."

"I'm sure you wouldn't want Prince Beixiang to know what you've lost out on, would you?

Compared to cold hard cash, what Beixiang truly needs is certainly not a woman."

"How dare you threaten this old man! You're despicable!"

Yuan Miao huffed in rage.

But Beixiang was indeed poor—plenty of cattle and sheep, strong people, but little gold and silver in circulation to trade with neighbors, and a population far smaller than Yanchi's. If they had a large sum of silver to train troops and forge armor...

"Well?"

Li Yuanfang cut off Yuan Miao's thoughts.

He was just about to demand a ridiculous amount of several million taels of silver when he saw Grand General Chang pull out that dark cylinder and aim it at him again.

He nearly wet himself in fright.

Whatever that thing was, it wasn't much to look at, but it just radiated danger.

Li Yuanfang stared at Yuan Miao with a half-smile.

Let's see if that dog's mouth of yours can spit out any ivory!

"Yuan Miao thinks one million taels of silver will do."

Li Yuanfang shook his head.

Yuan Miao mulled it over.

"How about nine hundred thousand, plus..."

"No extras! There are no extras!"

Yuan Miao was ruthlessly cut off mid-sentence, feeling wronged but too scared to get mad.

That terrifying weapon was still pointed at him. For now, his priority was to return safely to Beixiang and plan his next move.

Seeing Yuan Miao couldn't find the words, Li Yuanfang answered,

"His Majesty is willing to offer three hundred thousand taels of silver in place of the Lady of Pingyang for diplomatic ties. This is our final offer. Lord Yuan can write to Prince Beixiang now. If the Prince agrees, you may return to your country with the silver."

So they were being held hostage!

Yuan Miao broke into a cold sweat,

"And what if... we don't agree?"

Li Yuanfang arched an eyebrow,

"What do you think?"

What?!

Yuan Miao was terrified—were these barbarians really going to kill them to keep them quiet?!

They were now surrounded by Yanchi soldiers, and General Chang had also brought thirty thousand elite troops.

Not even a blade of grass could escape from here unless they agreed.

This was it. They were done for.

Yuan Miao, who had originally come to complain, now had to swallow his pride just to save his own skin. In his letter, he sang Prince Yan, Dan Junlin's, praises as if he were the greatest ruler in history,

He wrote that the Prince was magnanimous, willing to use silver for diplomacy to foster better relations between the two nations,

He wrote that other countries had settled diplomatic ties with Yanchi through marriage alliances, but Great Yan had no shortage of women—silver was the real rarity...

He wrote about how much effort he'd put into securing this huge sum of three hundred thousand taels for Beixiang, and that if they missed this chance, it would never come again,

And that in the future, they'd only use worthless princesses for such alliances, and so on...

After Li Yuanfang finished reading, he had a strange look on his face,

"You sure can spin a yarn, can't you?"

Yuan Miao wiped the cold sweat off his forehead and forced a smile.

The whole "don't kill the envoy" thing—that only applied to great powers with honor!

Running into a small state where the emperor was crazy, the general was crazy, and even the envoy was crazier, he could only chalk it up to bad luck...

Life's tough, Yuan Miao sighed. Ugh.

The letter was checked by Yuan Bao before being presented to His Majesty.

After Yun Ran read it, she was also stunned by the guy's talent for flattery.

This guy could talk black into white.

A real talent, but not on their side—what a shame!

"Alright, Yuan Bao, polish it up some more."

Yuan Bao quickly nodded—polishing was his specialty.

Eunuch Yuan whispered something in Li Yuanfang's ear,

Li Yuanfang took out a fresh sheet of paper and, while dictating, watched Yuan Miao rewrite the letter under duress.

The letter emphasized just how poor Yanchi was—so poor that the emperor couldn't even drink water or eat meat, and even the latrines took days to clean,

The common folk were even poorer—the entire city was full of bandits!

When Yuan Miao and his party first arrived in Yanchi, they got robbed blind...

With that kind of embellishment, the three hundred thousand taels of silver seemed all the more precious.

Of course, with the city full of bandits, Prince Beixiang wouldn't want a county lady who might also be a bandit,

And a state that small wasn't even worth the effort of attacking.

The corner of Yuan Miao's mouth twitched—if this letter got sent out, he wouldn't live long either.

Who doesn't go a little crazy in this life? You just tough it out.

But when he got back, he couldn't tell the truth either—all the envoys had pressed their fingerprints on the letter,

Now they were all watching each other, none of them daring to tell the truth.

This was supposedly the Great Yan emperor's order.

If they changed their story once they got back, it would be treason against the emperor—death either way.

Yanchi really bred talent; such a vicious scheme was actually the emperor's idea...

If I ever set foot in Yanchi again in this life, I'll stand on my head and eat horse shit!

Yuan Miao's heart was wounded, screaming inside, but his face showed nothing—just a blank, emotionless stare as he watched the letter be sent off by a fast rider from Beixiang.

Only then did he feel like his head was temporarily safe.

"Your Majesty, what are you doing—?"

Yuan Bao watched curiously as Yun Ran pulled out a small notebook and jotted something down,

"I'm keeping the books."

Yun Ran neatly jotted down another entry in her little notebook,

Prince Beixiang owes me six hundred thousand taels of silver.

Right below the line that read, "Imperial envoy, rich, ripe for the picking."