Since only three people were allowed to enter the city, Shi Ju was not particularly surprised and readily agreed.
The moment they passed through the city gates, several soldiers stepped forward and searched the three of them from head to toe, making sure they were not carrying weapons, poison, or anything else of the sort.
Shi Ju spread his arms and endured the humiliation of being searched. He sneered, “Who would have thought Princess Jinyang would be such a coward, afraid of a mere civil official?”
A cold glint flashed through Nan Wen and Chu Qing’s eyes. They were just about to step forward when Yao Ji waved a hand to stop them.
Yao Ji ignored Shi Ju’s remark and loudly ordered, “Hang the Great Chanyu of the Ji on the city wall!”
Nan Wen and Chu Qing froze for a moment before delighting in the order. Could they really retaliate like this?
It felt incredibly satisfying!
The two answered in unison, “Yes, sir!”
Then they dashed toward the city tower, eager to personally prepare a hanging ceremony that Ji Duoyan would never forget.
“How dare you!” Shi Ju roared, his eyes bulging with fury.
Yao Ji smiled. “Whether I dare or not, haven’t you already seen the answer?”
“I searched you only to humiliate you, not as a precaution. My lord could defeat you without even half a move.”
Shi Ju and the other two were so furious they nearly fainted. Yet at that moment, they finally recognized reality. No matter how aggrieved they felt, they had to grit their teeth and endure it—for fear that the Grand Chanyu would suffer even greater humiliation.
Seeing that the three of them had fallen silent, Yao Ji was finally satisfied. “Take them away.”
Up on the city tower, Ji Duoyan sat on the ground resting. Although his mouth was gagged and his entire body was bound, it was still better than being hung out in the scorching sun.
Suddenly, the doorway was shrouded in shadow. He looked up and saw Nan Wen and Chu Qing approaching with excited expressions.
An ominous feeling rose in Ji Duoyan’s heart. “Mmph! Mmph!”
Nan Wen and Chu Qing paid no attention to his muffled cries. One grabbed him by the hands and the other by the feet, lifting him like a dead pig and carrying him out of the tower.
When they reached the top of the city wall, the two exchanged a glance and shouted in unison, “One, two, three!”
Then Ji Duoyan went flying!
He really did fly—straight over the city wall.
Ji Duoyan’s pupils contracted as his body plummeted rapidly. Just as he was about to hit the ground, the rope around his waist suddenly went taut, and his body was yanked upward at tremendous speed.
With a bang, his entire body slammed into the city wall. He bounced several times before finally coming to a stop.
Ji Duoyan felt as though his whole body had been smashed apart, the pain so intense that it seemed his internal organs had shifted out of place.
Before he could recover, his body was hauled upward again. He was pulled almost to the top of the wall before finally stopping.
Nan Wen leaned over the edge and looked down. “A little too high. Lower him!”
Chu Qing nodded, and the rope slackened. Ji Duoyan instantly began plummeting again.
After finally stopping him, Nan Wen was still dissatisfied. “Too low. Raise him a bit.”
Ji Duoyan: “…”
Shi Ju had no idea that because of one careless remark of his, the Grand Chanyu was being hauled up and down over and over again.
At that moment, he was looking at the spotless streets, which had clearly returned to life. He was secretly astonished, even wondering whether Princess Jinyang’s army had entered the city without much fighting. Otherwise, how could the city have recovered so quickly?
Before long, they were brought to the county office. Looking at Jiang Jin, who sat in the seat of authority, Shi Ju’s expression turned cold.
“You are Princess Jinyang?”
Jiang Jin was not offended. “That’s right. May I ask why the Ji strategist has come to my city of Wenxia?”
Her tone was perfectly calm, yet for some reason Shi Ju felt as if he had already been overpowered in terms of presence.
He took a deep breath. “I came to negotiate the matter of the Grand Chanyu and our Ji people. The three commanderies demanded by the Jinyang Army are too much. We cannot agree.”
“At most, the Ji Army can cede Shouci Commandery. As for the other commanderies and counties, I’m afraid we cannot agree to them.”
“Hmph. Cede?” Qiu Liao could not hold back any longer and shot back angrily. “How dare you barbarians talk about ceding anything? This is clearly Han territory!”
Shi Ju sneered. “But the fact remains that Chongzhou is currently under the control of the Ji Army. In another ten or twenty years, your Han commoners—and all their descendants—will become the most loyal slaves of the Ji people.”
Qiu Liao was furious, but he truly was not good at arguing. For a moment, he did not know how to respond.
Jiang Jin smiled. “The fact is that your Grand Chanyu, along with all your Ji officials—civil and military alike—are in my hands. I can kill them if I wish, or let them live if I wish.”
She looked at the furious Shi Ju and the others, her gaze calm. “Punan Commandery and Shangjing Commandery. Those are my bottom line. If you refuse, that is fine as well. Feel free to come and attack us.”
She gave a low laugh. “But can you even get in? Even with a tunnel to let you enter, you don’t dare go through it.”
Shi Ju felt as if he were about to cough up blood.
To this day, they still had not figured out what had happened in the tunnel. Yet rumors of “divine punishment” and “a curse” had spread throughout the army.
Although they had repeatedly tried to suppress the rumors, they simply could not contain them!
Most of the soldiers who had entered the tunnel that day had died. A few thousand had survived, but several of them had been so terrified that they babbled incoherently, behaving as though they had gone mad.
They were ready-made sources of information. Although the soldiers had been strictly forbidden to speak about what had happened in the tunnel, the more heavily the matter was suppressed, the more curious the troops became.
On top of that, the corpses of the soldiers sent back were in grotesque condition, which only fueled the army’s panic.
Shi Ju fought down the metallic taste rising in his throat and said, “I want to see the Grand Chanyu.”
Everything had to wait until he had seen the Grand Chanyu before a decision could be made.
Jiang Jin agreed without hesitation. “Very well.”
Shi Ju secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He had not expected Princess Jinyang to be so accommodating. He had thought they would have to argue for quite some time.
The corners of Xia Chanyi’s lips curled upward. “My lord, I’ll take them there.”
As they watched Shi Ju and the others leave, Dongzhi voiced her concern. “What if Ji Duoyan would rather die than submit? Wouldn’t that ruin everything?”
Qiu Liao shook his head. “Ji Duoyan values his life and has lived in comfort for many years. It would be difficult for him to put up much of a fight.”
Jiang Jin smiled faintly. When they had first captured Ji Duoyan, he might still have had the courage to die. But after several days, his sharp edges had already been worn away.
Yes, for Ji Duoyan, all it took to grind down those edges was a few days of hunger and a few threats of death.
When Shi Ju reached the city wall, Ji Duoyan had just been hung at a neither-too-high-nor-too-low height. He gazed at his army in the distance with an utterly hopeless expression.
They were clearly right before his eyes, yet they seemed separated from him by an impassable gulf.
Yao Ji looked toward Xia Chanyi.
Xia Chanyi nodded. “My lord has agreed.”
Yao Ji had no objection. “All right. Pull him back up.”
Ji Duoyan, being hauled back once again: “…”
Seeing the Grand Chanyu humiliated like this, with injuries on his face that could have come from either beatings or collisions, tears welled up in Shi Ju’s eyes.
“Grand Chanyu, you’ve suffered.”
He glared viciously at Chu Qing, who stood nearby watching them like a tiger stalking its prey. “How can you bind our Grand Chanyu like this? Hurry and release him!”
Chu Qing snorted. “Dream on. Say what you came to say and be done with it. You have one quarter of an hour.”
“Mmph, mmph…” When Ji Duoyan saw Shi Ju, he nearly burst into tears as well. He was just about to speak when he realized that his mouth was still gagged.
Chu Qing did not make things difficult for him. He signaled to the soldiers.
Although he wanted to kill Ji Duoyan, if Ji Duoyan and ten or twenty thousand Ji people could be exchanged for two commanderies and the civilians of those two commanderies, Chu Qing felt it would be well worth it.
A soldier immediately stepped forward and removed the rag from Ji Duoyan’s mouth.
“Cough, cough, cough…”
Ji Duoyan coughed several times and took a few breaths before finally speaking.
“You—you came here?”
