The Whole Dynasty Spoils the Tyrant's Beloved Youngest Daughter-Chapter 448 - 444: Just How Shameless Can Bei Xia Be?

Chapter 448: Chapter 444: Just How Shameless Can Bei Xia Be?
"Ye Ying, Lan Xihe was once your wife and now she has died to protect you. Look..." Jun Ning closed her eyes and said, "Will you take care of her burial?"
She died, and it was because of an assassination.
The motives were impure, filled with malice.
A grand burial was impossible; Jun Ning was not a saint.
Jun Ning could easily instruct a couple of servants to drag Lan Xihe’s body away and bury it somewhere. However, Jun Ning had concerns about the bond between Ye Ying and Lan Xihe.
After all, they shared several years of mentor-apprentice relationship, as well as several years of marriage.
Neither of these feelings is trivial.
Jun Ning was worried that Ye Ying might not agree with her way of handling it, or that he might resent her for taking it upon herself to handle Lan Xihe’s body without consulting him, hence she needed to ask for Ye Ying’s opinion.
Ye Ying looked at Lan Xihe’s body and let out a cold laugh, saying, "She was not my wife, and I never married her!"
During the days married to Lan Xihe, Ye Ying always felt it was an incredibly unrealistic dream, one he resisted internally; it was false, it was illusory.
When he woke up from the dream, everything vanished into thin air. He once again became his true self, no longer bound by everything that was void.
Jun Ning didn’t quite understand what Ye Ying wanted to do, so she asked, "Then your meaning is..."
"Ah Ning, just find someone to take care of her burial. I still have to deal with the aftermath of the battle, I don’t have time." As Ye Ying adjusted his sword at his waist, he mounted his horse and calmly continued, "Once you have it sorted, we can pay our respects in remembrance of the past."
Perhaps he truly didn’t care, didn’t love, didn’t find it important... That’s why Ye Ying could handle it in such a rational and calm manner!
After hearing Ye Ying’s response, Jun Ning didn’t know whether to sympathize with Ye Ying for being endlessly entangled these years, filled with distress, or to sympathize with Lan Xihe, who gave all her sincere love to Ye Ying, yet received no response.
"Alas..." she sighed deeply, finally saying to herself, "A cursed relationship!"
Ye Ying went about his business, and Jun Ning found someone to take care of Lan Xihe’s body, burying her on the battlefield in a spot that would easily see Bei Xia, allowing Lan Xihe to rest there while gazing towards her homeland.
Once everything was settled, Ye Ying fulfilled his promise and went with Jun Ning to pay their respects to Lan Xihe, even adding a handful of soil to her new grave.
But it was clear Ye Ying did this purely because Lan Xihe blocked the blade for him at the end, saving his life. His kindness showed, but it contained no other feelings, not even the basic bond of teacher and student.
It seemed that in Ye Ying’s heart, the pure land of mentor-apprentice bond had long been ruthlessly destroyed by Lan Xihe, leaving only hatred and resentment, which led to his disregard.
...
In the following days, the soldiers of Dongchu Kingdom cleaned the battlefield, reassembled the troops, and buried the fallen, staying busy for several days before finally finishing.
The matter of negotiation with Bei Xia was put on the agenda.
Afterward, whether to continue the war and strike straight at Bei Xia’s doorstep with the extreme method of ’wounding the enemy by a thousand while losing eight hundred of their own,’ or to temporarily cease fighting with Bei Xia ceding land and paying reparations, all depended on Bei Xia’s attitude.
If Bei Xia showed decency and offered acceptable terms, then Dongchu Kingdom wouldn’t press on relentlessly and would choose to cease fighting temporarily to recuperate.
After all, this great battle had Dongchu Kingdom expend all its national power, resulting in no small losses. And with winter approaching, continuing to fight would excessively consume provisions, which would harm Dongchu Kingdom, despite having just begun to recover.
It would be better for both sides to take a step back and make plans.
The envoy sent for negotiations from Bei Xia’s side included the accomplished frontier envoy Li Yao, along with Fei Yuque.
Li Yao appeared sly, with eyes that constantly roved when observing others, showing him as a shrewd person.
As for Fei Yuque, he had put his all into the fight, yet suffered a significant defeat, ruining his reputation while Bei Xia became entrapped and even saw their deputy commander captured. The blow he suffered was not light, as seen by his dispirited demeanor, trailing behind Li Yao with his head hung low, saying nothing.
The envoy from Dongchu Kingdom comprised the brave military general who killed the most enemies and showed courage and strategic prowess in battle, along with Qi Xiao and Ye Ying, who improved bow and arrow techniques, encircled Bei Xia’s army, and cleverly deployed tactics to achieve victory.
Jun Ning did not make an appearance.
But before the three went for negotiations, they already discussed matters with Jun Ning and got the most fitting numbers for ceded territories and reparations from Jun Ning’s perspective.
If Bei Xia could not meet these numbers, Dongchu Kingdom would continue to fight, even under great pressure.
"What, cede three cities? Pay reparations of two hundred thousand taels of silver? And make our Marshal Fei marry over there?"
"Why don’t you just rob us? Why bother negotiating? Just straight-up rob, then!"
After reading the conditions written by Dongchu Kingdom, the faces of those from Bei Xia fell instantly. Particularly those three cities, which especially displeased them.
The reason being that Jun Ning had wagered those three cities with a prince of Bei Xia before, which Bei Xia lost but dodged acknowledging, and didn’t dare to acknowledge.
After all, those were three cities, not three toys.
Back then, they relied on their national strength to brush it off, and they could do so.
But now?
Bei Xia, as the defeated nation, was being reminded of the old matter of the three cities, which not only slapped them in the face but told them that today’s Dongchu Kingdom was no longer what it was. If they still wanted to brush it off? Not accept? Could it work? It couldn’t!
This kind of attitude won’t work either!
Qi Xiao struck the table, standing up and looking coldly at the Bei Xia envoys across from them, saying, "Since you think our Dongchu Kingdom is robbing you, then let’s not negotiate at all. As you said, we can directly take what we want by might. I believe if we continue to fight, what we can take will be more than what we’re asking for today."
Bei Xia envoy: "......"
After a moment of silence, Li Yao, the frontier envoy sitting at the center, said with some unnaturalness to his expression, "... Let’s talk, there might be something to be said."
Ye Ying frowned, "Then please consider carefully the demands we have put forward?"
Li Yao, feeling embarrassed, said, "Distinguished sirs, it’s not that I, Li Yao, am speaking, but your demands are truly difficult for us, Bei Xia. We indeed lost, but you only won by luck this time. Continuing the fight, who would pay the reparations and cede territories next is still uncertain, isn’t it? So let’s stop here; it should suffice, shouldn’t it?"
"Heh heh..." Such a statement—’it should suffice’, Ye Ying merely laughed.
This laugh bore a few shades of sarcasm.
The delegates from Bei Xia felt their scalps tingle, ashamed and embarrassed.
Ye Ying exhaled several deep breaths, then continued, "I am quite curious, what do you mean by ’suffice’? How can you be content?" He wanted to know to what extent Bei Xia could be shameless.
Li Yao, smiling benignly, explained, "According to the usual practices of war, your Dongchu Kingdom is the side that must cede territories and pay reparations. You won a lucky victory this time, so you don’t have to pay reparations. You merely need to marry your Crown Prince to our Marshal Fei, and with the marriage, Bei Xia can forge an everlasting alliance with Dongchu Kingdom, avoiding further conflict, and there won’t be any more ceding of territories or reparations."
"This is indeed a rare and magnificent opportunity."
"We hope your Dongchu Kingdom can lay aside grievances and seriously consider this."