aircannonsinc Chapter 76 The Turks retreat, Li Yuanba returns to the mountains
Chapter 76 The Turks retreat, Li Yuanba returns to the mountains
"Hahaha!"
Upon hearing the words "Heavenly Khan," Yang Guang felt completely refreshed, and the pent-up frustration of the past few days vanished.
He laughed loudly, raised his hand and lightly punched the shoulder of the bound and gagged Shibi Khan beside him, his tone tinged with a hint of mockery and pleasure:
"When you revoked the title of Holy Khan and led your troops to provoke the Sui Dynasty."
Have you ever imagined that you would be so subservient and manipulated today?
The fist didn't land hard, but it felt like a heavy hammer blow to Shibi Khan's heart.
Yang Guang leaned closer, his gaze sharp as a knife: "Hmm? Do you regret it now?"
At this moment, with the hostage in hand, Yang Guang had 300,000 Turkic soldiers prostrating themselves in submission, completely free from any worries about the rear.
He finally let go of his pride and openly adopted the posture of a victor.
The arrogance of the Turkic envoy in the court that day has now turned into the disheveled appearance of the Turkic soldiers.
This time, Lü Xiao really helped him vent his anger!
Shibi Khan was speechless and filled with deep regret.
He did indeed provoke Yang Guang's failed expedition, which was why he made a small provocation, trying to test the Sui Dynasty's bottom line.
However, he did not expect that he would make a move.
As a result, the Sui Dynasty acted utterly unreasonable and marched directly into their own homeland.
If he had known about Lü Xiao earlier, he would never have dared to provoke the Sui Dynasty.
"Yicheng," Yang Guang said loudly, turning his gaze to Princess Yicheng below the pass.
"Take your people back."
As for Shibi Khan, I will spare his life and allow him to visit Luoyang, so that he may witness the prosperity of my Great Sui Dynasty.
The Turks had already adopted a very humble attitude, and Yang Guang was quite satisfied.
But people are never going to let go; once you've finally got your hands on a bargaining chip, you'll naturally hold onto it tightly.
This was to restrain the various Turkic tribes and permanently eliminate the northern border troubles.
"Your Majesty's command is obeyed!" Princess Yicheng bowed to receive the decree, then turned around and shouted loudly in fluent Turkic:
"The Heavenly Khan is magnanimous and cannot bear to punish Ashina Duojishi for his crimes. You should quickly thank the Heavenly Khan for his grace!"
"Thank you, Heavenly Khan!"
The Turks felt as if they had been granted a pardon, and they all prostrated themselves on the ground, their foreheads hitting the ground again.
They had already kowtowed three times and nine times, causing their foreheads to bleed, but now they felt no pain at all.
More than the physical pain, they feared Lü Xiao, who stood atop the city wall with two pheasant feathers on his head and a fierce tiger by his side.
The intimidation emanating from this one person is more terrifying than that of a thousand troops.
"Your Majesty, I shall take my leave now and return to the northern desert to comfort my people."
Princess Yicheng bowed again.
She knew perfectly well that Yang Guang keeping Shibi Khan was actually a good thing for her.
As long as Shibi Khan remains in the Sui Dynasty, her position in the Turkic Khaganate will be more secure.
In time, it remains to be seen whether the Turks will ultimately be surnamed Yang or Ashina.
Yang Guang waved his hand, signaling her to step back.
The Turks stood up one last time, taking a reluctant look at Shibi Khan on the city wall.
Led by Princess Yicheng, they turned around together and slowly left with a sense of relief.
Standing atop the city wall, Lü Xiao took in the entire scene.
The Turkic army marched ahead, their steps scattered and lacking their previous arrogance; instead, they resembled a herd of cattle and sheep being driven.
Princess Yicheng walked slowly at the back, her expression calm, like a shepherd tending his flock, firmly in control of the 300,000-strong army.
"Old man, you're finished! Sooner or later, the Turks will be completely tamed by our Great Sui!"
Yuwen Chenglong sidled up from the side, his tone sharp and sarcastic.
The words were like knives, stabbing again and again into Shibi Khan's heart.
"I've heard that the Turks have many fine horses. I'll have Princess Yicheng send over tens of thousands of them later."
Since the Turks will be vassals of the Sui Dynasty anyway, these things will naturally belong to us!
Although Pei Yuanqing was young, he had a sharp tongue and deliberately raised his voice.
Everyone knew that Shibi Khan could understand Chinese, so they all chimed in with their own words, deliberately trying to annoy him, which made Yang Guang laugh.
After the laughter subsided, Yang Guang immediately ordered the journey back to Luoyang.
He has been missing for many days, and the court must be in complete chaos.
Fortunately, Yang Lin rushed back to Luoyang from Dengzhou in time to take charge; otherwise, someone might have already taken the opportunity to cause trouble, put him on the throne as the retired emperor, and established a new emperor.
Li Yuan, accompanied by his four sons, escorted Yang Guang all the way past Taiyuan before finally stopping.
No sooner had he parted from the Emperor than Li Yuanji vented his anger on Li Yuanba.
He glared at him and angrily shouted, "Yuanba! Why didn't you make a move that day? If you had, Yang Guang would have been dead for sure!"
In his view, the likes of Lü Xiao and Yuwen Chengdu might not be a match for Li Yuanba.
If Li Yuanba could kill Yang Guang on the spot, the world would inevitably descend into chaos, and that would be the Li family's chance.
"Third, Third Brother, people with beards are very powerful."
Li Yuanba stammered, deeply impressed by Lü Xiao.
If he were to fight him, he didn't know if he could defeat him.
Seeing Li Yuanji bullying Li Yuanba like this, Li Shimin was even more furious.
He turned around, kicked out, and pointed at the fallen Li Yuanji, angrily shouting:
"How dare you speak ill of Yuan Ba! You almost killed our Li family, do you even know that?!"
"Li Shimin, you...you dare hit me? Wasn't I doing this for the sake of the Li family's future?"
Li Yuanji got up from the ground and charged towards Li Shimin.
Upon reaching him, he raised his fist and struck Li Shimin.
Li Shimin dodged the attack and kicked out, knocking Li Yuanji down again.
"Stop hitting him! Stop hitting him!"
Seeing this, Li Jiancheng quickly stepped forward to break up the fight.
Fortunately, it was just the father and his sons here. If others had seen them fighting amongst themselves, wouldn't they have become a laughing stock?
"Brothers fighting amongst themselves, truly brothers fighting amongst themselves!" Li Yuan looked at the scene before him and felt a splitting headache.
Today's skirmish is just a small-scale conflict, but if it comes to power and interests tomorrow, they might really start fighting each other and kill one another!
After a short while, Li Jiancheng finally managed to separate Li Shimin and Li Yuanji.
Both of them were injured and their clothes were disheveled.
Li Yuanji, in particular, was kicked twice in succession, and his injuries were more serious. He clutched his chest and kept groaning.
"Yuanji, how can you be so disrespectful to your second brother?"
Immediately, Li Jiancheng began to reprimand his younger brother.
After speaking to Li Yuanji, he then said to Li Shimin, "Shimin, you are the second elder brother, how can you be the first to strike your brother?"
Li Jiancheng was too lazy to say much about Li Yuanji.
To say that this guy is like a human is an insult to the word "human".
But in any case, this person's surname is Li.
"Brother is right," Li Shimin replied casually, and then said no more.
Clearly, he was extremely dissatisfied with Li Jiancheng's approach of assigning equal blame to both sides, but he was too lazy to argue.
Anyway, saying more is pointless and will only increase the argument.