PNB Chapter 214 1 Thoughts of the Pass 17
Chapter 214 1 Thoughts of the Pass 17
"Your Highness is eager to save your brother and wants to win over the important officials of Anguo to act as our advocates. However, those people from Anguo are untrustworthy. They took our money one day and gave it to Emperor An the next. They are clearly making a fool of us!"
Ning Yuanzhou also worriedly advised, "Yes, Your Highness! Let's think of another way!"
If we keep sending money out, and all the 100,000 taels of gold are gone, how will they pay the ransom?
Yang Ying covered his face with his sleeve, and said with shame and embarrassment, "I am really worried about my brother's safety, but Emperor An is deliberately giving the delegation the cold shoulder. He neither mentions peace talks nor allows me to see my brother. I am really... sigh!"
Yang Ying sighed and went back to her room, slamming the door shut behind her.
Du Changshi and Ning Yuanzhou were left speechless. In the end, they silently added two more large locks to the place where the gold was kept, for fear that Yang Ying would take it away again.
Yang Ying, who had already returned to her room, showed no trace of sadness on her face.
Yang Ying naturally knew that Emperor An had taken her for a fool for her actions these past few days, but so what?
Her main purpose was to let the world know that she—Prince Li, Yang Ying—genuinely wanted to welcome Emperor Wu back to the country, was a loyal subject to Emperor Wu, and a younger brother who would give anything to save his elder brother.
She is cultivating a persona of loyalty, righteousness, benevolence, and filial piety for herself, laying the groundwork for her future plans.
In addition, she had previously turned Qian Zhao and Sun Lang against their cause, ordering them to take 90% of the gold from the delegation and leave only 10% as a cover.
Now that Yang Ying is sending out this last ten percent of gold, she is also telling everyone that the ransom brought by the delegation is genuine and is indeed gold.
"The plan is progressing smoothly. Now it depends on whether Andi will accept the challenge."
Yang Ying smiled as she looked at the wild geese flying high in the sky, as if she had already foreseen the final outcome.
……
Emperor An in the palace was almost mesmerized by the bright, gleaming gold before him.
Only one thought remained in his mind: the ransom of 100,000 taels was too little!
If he had known that Wu Kingdom was so rich, he should have asked for more, such as 200,000 taels, 300,000 taels, 500,000 taels... in gold!
The war between An and Wu resulted in An emerging victorious, but the enormous cost of the war left the national treasury depleted.
If An could obtain more gold from Wu, he could quickly restore An to its pre-war prosperity, after which he could prepare his troops, further expand his territory, and realize his grand ambition.
Emperor An shook his head slightly, already somewhat dazzled by the gold before him: "No! I hold the trump card of Emperor Wu in my hand. The initiative in this peace negotiation is in my hands. I can increase the ransom!"
Thinking of this, Emperor An immediately ordered Li Tongguang to be summoned. Soon, Li Tongguang arrived in haste. Before he could even pay his respects, Emperor An went straight to the point:
"Marquis Changqing, you must immediately go to the Siyi Pavilion and inform the Wu Kingdom delegation that if they want to welcome back their emperor, they must send another 200,000 taels of gold."
"Your Majesty, you mustn't!" Li Tongguang blurted out.
Emperor An was caught off guard by Li Tongguang's interruption, and his expression instantly turned icy: "What did you say?"
The cold voice startled Li Tongguang, who quickly composed himself and patiently advised, "Your Majesty, the amount of 100,000 taels of gold was already agreed upon beforehand. It is really not easy to change it now. Moreover, the Prince of Danyang is unwilling for Emperor Wu to return to the country. He has even set up ambushes several times in the past to try to prevent Prince Li from going on his mission."
If our country suddenly demands an increase in the ransom, he might go to an even more extreme position, directly bestowing upon Wudi the title of Retired Emperor and then ascending the throne himself. In that case, wouldn't all our previous plans be in vain?
Li Tongguang almost wanted to slap Emperor An twice. How could such a great emperor be so short-sighted!
Between two hundred thousand taels of gold and the complete annihilation of the Wu Kingdom, which is more important?
Li Tongguang suppressed his dissatisfaction and said with a hint of urgency, "Your Majesty, think about it. Although 200,000 taels of gold is a lot, it is just a drop in the ocean compared to the benefits brought by destroying the Wu Kingdom."
"What Marquis Changqing said makes sense!" Emperor An pondered for a moment, then finally nodded, saying with some reluctance.
Li Tongguang breathed a sigh of relief and respectfully withdrew from the imperial study.
After Li Tongguang left, Deng Hui, the commander of the Zhuyiwei, entered the hall with a mask-like smile: "Your Majesty!"
"How is the mission going?" Emperor An asked his trusted advisor calmly.
Even if the mission members were willing to remove the spies from the Siyi Pavilion, this was, after all, Anguo, and the servants and attendants in the pavilion were all Anguo people.
Deng Hui easily placed people within the palace, ensuring that news of the mission was transmitted to the palace on time every day.
Deng Hui lowered his head slightly, concealing the slight glint in his eyes: "News came from over there that they overheard Prince Li, Yang Ying, and Chief Secretary Du discussing how to welcome back Emperor Wu. They also mentioned that in order to successfully complete the mission, they brought more than 100,000 taels of gold."
At the Emperor's banquet, his gaze sharpened: "More than 100,000 taels? How much did they actually bring?"
Deng Hui replied, "The exact amount is still unclear, but according to the secret report, it seems to be more than half again as much as 100,000 taels of gold. However..."
"But what?" Andi urged him to continue.
"However, they did not put all the gold in one place. Apart from the 100,000 taels of gold mentioned earlier, the rest of the gold was hidden by Prince Li in a secret place."
"Oh?" Andy was overjoyed. He hadn't expected that even though he had given up on increasing the ransom, things would take a turn for the better. It seemed that even God was going to make him rich.
Thinking of this, Emperor An smiled and summoned Deng Hui to his side:
"Deng Hui, I have an order for you to do something..."
……
Yang Ying sat in her room all day, occasionally going out for a stroll to show off her anxiety to An Guo's spies, or to occasionally flaunt her wealth.
Soon, Deng Hui, the commander of the Zhuyiwei, rode his horse directly to the Siyiguan with the imperial edict.
Deng Hui's arrival caused a stir in the Siyi Pavilion. Upon hearing the news, Yang Ying immediately rushed to the reception room to greet him.
But Du Changshi's face turned red with anger, and he was trembling with rage.
Yang Ying quickly asked what had happened.
“Your Highness, Anguo is utterly shameless. They previously agreed that as long as 100,000 taels of gold were brought to Anguo, they would immediately release Your Majesty. But now they have broken their promise and are demanding an increase in the ransom to 200,000 taels before they will release Your Majesty to return home.”
"what?"
Yang Ying snorted coldly, her tone filled with undisguised anger: "Commander Deng, it was clearly agreed before that as long as my Wu Kingdom pays 100,000 taels of gold and sends a prince as an envoy to welcome the emperor, we can return to His Majesty. Are you going to break your promise now?"
Faced with the questioning, Deng Hui remained calm and patiently explained, "Your country is rich in gold resources, so it should be no problem for you to acquire a mere 200,000 taels of gold. Moreover, His Majesty has issued an edict that as long as Your Highness agrees to this matter, you will be able to meet with your country's ruler."
"Your country actually used this as a condition; it is truly shameless!" Yang Ying's face showed undisguised disgust.
Deng Hui seemed not to understand, his face still bearing a polite smile, and turned to leave with his men.
"Your Highness, what should we do?" Chief Secretary Du's voice was filled with anxiety and helplessness.
Before heading to Anguo, Chief Secretary Du envisioned a peace negotiation where both sides would sit down and negotiate, with his side appealing to emotions and reasoning with the people, and finally offering a ransom, in which case Anguo would naturally release the prisoners.
Who would have thought that Emperor An would be so shameless as to suddenly demand an increase in the ransom?
Although Wu Kingdom is rich in metal minerals, it can only produce 100,000 taels of gold at a time. The national treasury is already so empty that mice can run around in it. Where can it possibly produce another 100,000 taels of gold?
Enraged, Chief Secretary Du was about to storm into the Anguo court to denounce Emperor An for breaking his promise. He then committed suicide by crashing into the golden hall in protest.
"Du Changshi, please calm down," Yu Shisan stepped forward to stop Du Changshi. "Even His Highness can't see Emperor An now, so how can you rebuke him to his face? You should sit down and think of a solution!"
“I… sigh!” Upon hearing this, Chief Secretary Du sat down in frustration. Yu Shisan was right. Emperor An was not seeing anyone, and he couldn’t even rebuke Emperor An to his face.
Ning Yuanzhou noticed Yang Ying, who hadn't spoken since the beginning. Seeing her furrowed brows as if deep in thought, he asked, "Your Highness? Have you thought of something?"
Yang Ying looked around, her gaze sweeping across everyone's faces, taking in their expressions, and said with concern, "My frequent visits to the residences of important officials of Anguo were merely an attempt to force Emperor An to issue a peace order as soon as possible."
But now it seems that Emperor An is not negotiating with us, not summoning our delegation to an audience, not allowing us to see our elder brother, and now he is directly proposing to increase the ransom.
All of this makes me suspect that something is wrong with my elder brother, which is why Emperor An is doing everything he can to prevent us from negotiating peace.
After hearing this, Ning Yuanzhou frowned, seemingly also considering the possibility of Yang Ying's words.
"It's unlikely! If something really happened to the Emperor, Anguo would definitely try to silence him instead of increasing the ransom. It's just that why he suddenly did this is really hard to figure out."
Yang Ying gave a bitter smile and shook her head, saying, "Emperor An has not given us any choice. If we want to save my brother, we can only return to Wudu, raise the ransom again, and come back to redeem him once we have enough gold to reach 200,000 taels."
"Does Your Highness intend to agree to Emperor An's request?"
Everyone looked at Yang Ying in disbelief. The national treasury had already been emptied by the previous 100,000 taels of gold. Where would they find another 100,000 taels?
Not to mention the Empress, the Prince of Danyang, and even Prime Minister Zhang, how could they possibly agree to this?
"Your Highness..."
Yang Ying waved his hand and closed his eyes wearily: "I only want to do my best to rescue my brother!"
Everyone remained silent.
The following day, Deng Hui, the commander of the Zhuyiwei, went to the Siyiguan again. After receiving Yang Ying's approval of the decision to donate 200,000 taels of gold, he immediately returned to the palace to report to Emperor An.
Emperor An was overjoyed and ordered the mission to return to China as soon as possible to raise the remaining ransom.
Emperor An feared that the delegation would never return and would lose the 100,000 taels of gold they had already secured, so he naturally forbade the delegation from taking the gold with them.
The mission had to split into two groups.
Yang Ying, Ning Yuanzhou, Yu Shisan, and some of the Tiandao Daoist followers, along with the ransom they brought, remained in Anguo. Du Changshi, Ding Hui, and Yuan Lu led the others back to Wuguo to raise more ransom.
The group originally intended to find other ways to save Emperor Wu, but Yang Ying actually agreed to increase the ransom demand and even urged Chief Secretary Du and the others to return to Wu Kingdom as quickly as possible.
Du Changshi had no choice but to leave dejectedly with his men.
This trip not only failed to rescue Emperor Wu, but also cost us Prince Li and 100,000 taels of gold. It's truly...sigh!
Yang Ying personally saw off Chief Secretary Du and the others, and breathed a sigh of relief. After that, she was "sick" for a few more days. When she figured the delegation had gone quite far, she urged Emperor An to arrange for her to meet Emperor Wu.
Emperor An thought that in a few months the national treasury would increase by 200,000 taels of gold, and he was in a good mood, so he did not make things too difficult for him. He immediately sent Fan Dongyang to take Yang Ying to Yong'an Temple.
Yang Ying took the lead and, led by Deng Hui, entered Yong'an Temple. They passed through the main hall and the temple's backyard, arriving at a square where a seven-story pagoda stood quietly, with three large golden characters on the plaque: "Yong'an Pagoda".
Emperor Wu was imprisoned on the top floor of Yong'an Tower.
Ning Yuanzhou and Yu Shisan observed the surrounding guards and defenses without making a sound, while Yang Ying followed Fan Dongyang without looking to the side.
Upon arriving at the tower, Fan Dongyang and the guards at the gate verified the imperial edict before the guards stepped aside to make way for them. The passage was narrow, allowing only two people to pass at a time.
Fan Dongyang turned to Ning Yuanzhou and Yu Shisan and said, "Please wait a moment, you two!" Then he said to Yang Ying, "Your Highness, please!"
Yang Ying nodded slightly to the two men, signaling them to stay, and then followed Fan Dongyang up the steps.
The wooden steps inside the tower are narrow and steep. Because of their age, they creak and groan when stepped on, and dust falls in a flurry, as if the planks might break at any moment.
Yang Ying took out a handkerchief and covered her mouth and nose to avoid inhaling the smoke and dust, but her eyes couldn't help but wander to the scene inside the tower.
Inside the tower, hidden mechanisms were in place, with guards armed with knives watching over every corner and open space. Their gazes were sharp as they noticed the two men, but they would only look away when they saw the imperial edict in Fan Dongyang's hand, and then continue to guard the surroundings.
It seems that Anguo really values Emperor Wudi, such a precious living treasure. Not only did they find such a secluded place, but they also assigned so many guard agencies both inside and outside the city.
In the cramped cell at the top of the tower, Emperor Wu, Yang Xingyuan, was anxiously awaiting today's meeting.
He thought he would be able to see the delegation members soon, but it has been delayed for so long. As expected, the delegation members did not do their best to save him.
Not only did they fail to rescue him, but the meeting was also delayed until today.
Emperor Wu thought unhappily that he must punish Prince Li severely and order him to find a way to rescue him as soon as possible.
But before he could even put on his imperial airs, a wave of bitterness welled up in his heart.
As a captured emperor, he is now probably being wished dead by the entire Wu Kingdom. What face does he have to question Prince Li for not doing his job properly?
Thinking of this, Emperor Wu's hands began to tremble uncontrollably. He quickly pulled down his sleeves to cover his hands.