Chapter 38 Unknown Fate of Lovely Women – No matter a noble Princess lovely Enough to Cause the fall of a City or a State or a Lowly Maid

Author: Jin Xifeng Translator: Fanglin Louis

Introduction of the novel "The Great Khan" from the author:A modern Chinese soul-travels to the Tang Dynasty 1300 years ago and merges into the body of Xue Chongxun, the eldest son of Princess Taiping of the Tang Dynasty of China. He tragically discovers that he and his families will be killed by the then Crown Prince Li Longji in a coup within the forthcoming two year later according to the original historical development. Therefore, Li Longji becomes his destined mortal enemy since he soul-travelled back to the world. So, as the protagonist of this novel, how can he sort out to avoid that disaster? In order to survive, is he qualified to be the opponent of Li Longji, the original great man in Chinese history? How should he reinterpret the prosperous Tang poetry in this time and space he traveled to? ……

Message from the transaltor:If you really want to understand the Chinese people and the so-caled "Chinese Culture",please patiently read my translation of this Chinese Novel because it surely will tell you what they are thinking in most cases while you are communicating or dealing with them -Chinese people has never change their cruel, brutal and inhuman mindset since 2000 years ago while China was just established by the First Emperor.Thanks! Meanwhile ,due to strong language and sexual content of the orginal source texts, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18. All contents posted here is my Enlgish transaltion of the Chinese novel ,which was oringinally posted in the website as https://www.xiguasuwu.com/bookread/3704055759/405891.html

(Continued)

At this point, Liu Youqiu could no longer blame Zhang Wei for not keeping his mouth shut. Although Zhang Wei explained many times that he had never leaked the conspiracy, Liu Youqiu did not believe it at all. If it wasn't Zhang Wei who leaked the secret, who else could it be?

There were not any news about Xiao Heng, which made Liu Youqiu feel ominous about his future fate because maybe one day Xiao Heng would suddenly appear to testify about his bribery, and the result of his fate under the punishment of multiple crimes could be imagined. He thought that the saying was right: once a person is unlucky, he will be really unlucky to the extreme.

"Bang!" Liu Youqiu waved his hand and brushed several ceramic antiques on the table to the ground, breaking them into pieces. This scared the pretty girl standing by to serve him and made her screamed. She was about to leave in fear, but Liu Youqiu shouted again: "Stop!"

The woman had no choice but to stand there with her head down and her hands hanging down.

Liu Youqiu walked over, held her chin with one finger, and looked at her pretty face carefully, with a slight murmur of admiration:" I fell in love with you at first sight when I bought you, you know I like you very much." The woman whispered: "I am so grateful for your love for me, my master." Liu Youqiu shook his head and sighed: "I am unlucky now, and I don't know how the emperor will punish me. Even if the death penalty can be spared, dismissal is inevitable... I feel very uncomfortable when I think of you being pressed down in bed by other male masters and moaning during the sex." She listened to this and didn't know how to answer-she thought to herself: As the saying goes, when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. I didn't plan to preserve chastity after the death of this old man. Besides, I am just a maid. Is it necessary to keep my chastity for an old man like him?

”At this moment, Liu Youqiu grabbed her wrist and said, "Why don't you go ahead and wait for me on the road to the underworld."

The woman's body trembled, raised her head and said in fear, "Ah... Master, what are you going to do?" She wanted to run, but her wrist was tightly held by Liu Youqiu.

Liu Youqiu sneered, "I bought you with money, you are mine, and I have let you live a good life for so long, don't you want to do something for me?" As he spoke, he pulled her to find a white silk and slowly put it around her neck, "Be obedient, it will be fine in a while."

"No, don't! Master, please don't kill me..." She was so scared that her face turned pale, and she quickly reached out to grab the white silk on her neck, crying in fear.

Liu Youqiu said angrily, "This is not up to you!"

The woman struggled and begged, "Master, please be kind. For the sake of my serving you for so long, please spare my life. I don't want to die..." Liu Youqiu put on the white silk and, regardless of what she said, he tightened his hand around her neck. She stared with frightened eyes and opened her mouth to whine indistinctly, "No, no!" …

The emperor did not kill Liu and Zhang in the end, but only issued an edict to exile them to Lingnan (note 1). There was no news about Xiao Heng, but according to the official announcement, the murderer of the rape and murder case had been found by the Ministry of Justice-It was a merchant next door who was attracted by the beauty and committed the murder. So Chang'an returned to peace, and the court officials of Princess Taiping's party did not hold on to the matter of Liu and Zhang and insisted on dealing with the crown prince. Both sides eased down. But whether the emperor was more wary of Li Longji because of this, the people of both factions had no way of knowing. As the saying goes, the emperor's heart is hard to predict.

When the Dragon Boat Festival came, Chang'an became even more lively: local officials from surrounding counties watched the "dragon boat race", people hung cattails, mugwort and paper cows on their doors to "ward off diseases", and the emperor also held a banquet in the palace, inviting royal relatives and envoys from various states to participate, a scene of prosperity

This year, the court also had another major event, which was to officially announce the decree to send Princess Jincheng to Tubo(A barbaric Kingdom west-northern of China, note 1) for marriage on the Dragon Boat Festival. After Princess Wencheng married Tubo in the early Tang Dynasty, the relationship between the Tang Dynasty and its neighboring country Tubo improved and developed due to such policy ,which technically and theoretically, makes peace with rulers of minority nationalities in the border areas by marriage.But in recent years, along with frequent wars between the two countries, so the Tang court decided to send Princess Jincheng to Tubo for marriage as early as the third year of Shenlong(note 3).

Princess Jincheng was the granddaughter of Prince Zhanghuai, and had always lived in the palace. Her adoptive father was Emperor Zhongzong of Tang.

It was originally planned to send Princess Jincheng to Tubo for marriage in exchange for temporary peace between the two countries last year, but here had ?been a border conflict last year, resulting in countless casualties on both sides, so the Tang emperor delayed the time to send the princess to marry. On the eve of the Dragon Boat Festival this year,as urged by the Tubo envoy in Chang'an the emperor summoned all the senior officials above the third rank in the capital to discuss how to deal with it. As a result, almost all the court officials attending the meeting agreed to send the princess to marry in exchange for a period of peace.

Because there were many people participating in this court meeting, even Xue Chongxun was lucky enough to be present. He felt very uncomfortable - giving a Han princess as a gift to the chief of another barbaric tribe as a wife, he was very unhappy no matter how he thought about it.

Seeing that the civil and military ministers in the court did not mind at all, Xue Chongxun's face was ashen, and he really wanted to yell at the Tubo envoy: There is no princess to be sent for marriage, but how about three thousand warriors as brave as tigers and wolves?

But he finally knelt in his seat without saying a word... He knew that it was useless to yell about his opposition at the court meeting, and other high-ranking officials in the court would laugh at him as if he was an ignorant monkey. Since the time of Emperor Taizong of Tang, the Tang court has always believed that marrying princesses to the chieftains and princes of the barbarian tribes as wives can not only appease the barbarians, but also influence the political situation of foreign countries through women and promote peace between the two countries. In short, this was an established national policy at the time, and it was not something that could be changed by one or two people, not to mention that Xue Chongxun had a low official position in the court - such a small official, would anyone listen to his opinion?

In Xue Chongxun's memory of his previous life, there was a Ming Dynasty. Although it was defeated repeatedly in the late period of its rule in wars with neighboring barbarian tribes, it never sent princesses to marry... It is said that the Tang army was quite good at fighting, but the emperor still wanted to send princesses to marry in exchange for peace, which made him very uncomfortable.

After the court meeting was over, a large group of ministers who had attended the meeting came out of the Hanyuan Hall one after another. However, Xue Chongxun and others, as royal relatives, could not go home first. They had to attend the court banquet first. Then he walked north to the Linde Hall.

At this time, a man with a broad face and black beard caught up with Xue Chongxun and said with a smile: "Just now in the palace, I saw that you looked unhappy, I wonder why?"

This rough-looking man was Xue Chongxun's half-brother, Wu Chongxing, who was also born from Princess Taiping. He was big and strong, and was a head taller than Xue Chongxun with a black face. Walking beside him was Wu Chongxing's brother Wu Chongmin.

There were only two brothers in the Wu family. Although Wu Chongmin was the eldest in the family, people generally called him Wu Dalang (Dalang means "the eldest brother" in Chinese literally), but he was not the ugly and short Wu Dalang in a novel called Water Margin in Xue Chongxun's previous life. He looked very similar to his father, with a tall stature, handsome face, and elegant demeanor. He was really an elegant and handsome young man.

Xue Chongxun thought to himself: Although they are merely my half-brothers, they will also be finished and killed if our same biological mother would be defeated by the crown prince. ?So Xue Chongxun feels that they are also his fellow sufferers, and immediately feels closer to them a little bit. He shook his head and said, "Seeing that our Tang Empire gave a princess to the barbarians as a wife for free, and all the civil and military officials in the court were so happy, I felt so upset." Wu Chongxing said, "Brother, I have the same idea as you, it really gets me feeling injured and resentful. We have millions of soldiers, not that we don't have men to resist the invasion of the barbarians. If Tubo doesn't accept it and invades us, we can just send troops to fight! Why don't you let the emperor marry Princess Jincheng to me, so I am willing to be the vanguard general when we fight Tubo."

Hearing this, Xue Chongxun suddenly felt that he and this half-brother from the same mother had a lot in common, so he patted his shoulder and said, "One day, when our Tang army attacks Tubo, we brothers will go to the battlefield together to rob the women of their Tubo king to relieve today's hatred." Wu Erlang (“Erlang” is a nickname of the second son in a Chinese family) laughed out loud. At this moment, there was a "snap" sound of a fan behind him, and Wu Chongmin said indifferently, "The princesses have enjoyed a rich life for so long. Besides, they will marry a king or a prince. They can still live a life with neither lack of food nor clothes over there, and at the same time they can make some contributions to our country, so what's wrong with this?" "Alas, my elder brother, you are really a man without blood when you say this. Although they will have no shortage of food and clothes when they marry over there, but they are also all our relatives. Do you feel comfortable knowing that they will be played and abused by those barbarians?" Wu Erlang looked at his own elder brother unhappily and retorted.

Wu Chongmin snorted: "Women have to get married anyway, so it doesn't matter who they marry."

"I can't agree with you, so I don't bother to pay attention to you." Wu Erlang said unhappily, took a few quick steps, and walked side by side with Xue Chongxun.

Xue Chongxun sighed and said, "This is an established national policy. It is useless for us to have different opinions. Unless the national policy is changed, the emperor can only continue to send the princess to the barbarians for free in exchange for peace between the two countries." At this time, Wu Chongmin said coldly from behind, "Princess Jincheng thought she could marry a Tubo prince. Haha, I heard from a Tubo person that the prince she was going to marry, Jiang Chalawen, died last year while riding a horse. I'm afraid she can only marry the old man Chide Zuzan when she arrives in Tubo." Xue Chongxun immediately turned around and glared at Wu Chongmin and said, "The Tubo envoy deceived us... Since you knew it, why didn't you write a letter to inform the emperor before the court decided to make a marriage?" Wu Chongmin sneered, "Will writing a letter be useful? We get princesses to marry the Tubo royal members in order to promote border peace. What difference does it make to the emperor to let her marry a young prince or an old king?"

Wu Erlang said angrily: "Is this true? If you don't write a letter, I will!"

"It's useless." Wu Chongmin waved his fan and walked past Wu Erlang with his eyes looking forward. Xue Chongxun was silent. He thought and signed secretely: although such words from Wu Dalang (“Dalang” is the nickname of the eldest son in a Chinese family) were unpleasant to hear, but he had to acknowledge that it is the truth that he can understood.

Xue Chongxun thought: I just pity Princess Jincheng, another political victim. Princess Jincheng is the youngest, most beautiful, virtuous and famous princess in Daming Palace. Otherwise, Wu Erlang would not be so angry.

The three brothers came to the front of Linde Hall in a noisy manner. They saw that the corridors of Linde Hall were magnificent, the arc-shaped flying bridge was ingenious, and the whole palace was magnificent. This reminded Xue Chongxun of a line of poetry that praised the magnificent scenery of Daming Palace: "As the doors of the three halls were opened with auspicious smoke covering them, the officials were led into the hall to pay homage to the emperor as the spring rain began to fall."

As soon as they walked through the square in front of Linde Hall, they saw a large group of princes and royal members gathered at the bottom of the steps, but they did not go up the steps, but just gathered at the bottom, and no one knew what they were doing.

After Xue Chongxun approached, he heard many people in the circle talking at once, "Sister, you are going to Tubo, I don't know when we can meet again..." "Sister Jincheng, will you come back to Chang'an to see us?" "Please accept my brocade bag, take it with you, and think more about your relatives when you get there..."

At this moment, he heard a delicate shout: "Will you let my aunt go forward? Get out of the way!"

"Get out of the way, get out of the way!" He saw a thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl pushing away the crowd and pulling a slightly older girl behind her to squeeze out. Xue Chongxun was shocked when he saw the older girl behind her. This woman was really stunning! Her beautiful face could not be described in words. “Bueatiful and Lovely Enough to Cause the fall of a City " is used to describe this kind of beautiful woman whose beauty is rarely seen in the world-her hair is like silk, her eyes are beautiful, her lips are slightly parted, and her aura is simply the essence of heaven and earth, like the brilliance of the sun and the moon in the sky, so beautiful that it is so breathtaking.

Her smooth skin, which was more beautiful than jade, was gleaming with the sun's light, and there seemed to be a halo surrounding her all the time... She should not be a mortal, but a fairy who had descended from heaven to the mortal world, detached from the mundane world.

When Xue Chongxun looked back at Wu Erlang, he saw that he was already dumbfounded, like an old monk in meditation, standing there staring blankly at Princess Jincheng in front of him. Xue Chongxun sighed secretly, "Oh my God, if I can keep her as my wife, even if I have to pay the price of 100,000 soldiers’ deaths in battle, it's worth it!"

She should be Princess Jincheng, whom Xue Chongxun saw for the first time. At this moment, only Wu Chongmin was calm, so Xue Chongxun couldn't help but admire his composure.

The girl in front holding Jincheng was unknown, but she called Princess Jincheng "Auntie", so she was probably a little princess. The two of them finally got rid of the entanglement of a large group of princes and ran out like escaping.

At this time, Xue Chongxun could no longer control his hands and feet. He took two steps forward in a daze. He just wanted to reach out and hold Princess Jincheng, telling her that the Tubo prince was dead and that their old king wanted to trick her into marrying an old man... But he couldn't utter a word. He just stared blankly at Princess Jincheng running past him.

At this moment, there was a sudden "whoosh" sound. Xue Chongxun was startled-When he looked down, he found that he had stepped on Jincheng's skirt when he walked forward involuntarily, as a result ,when she ran in a hurry,a large piece of her skirt was torn off, revealing her beautiful and flawless calves.

"Ah!" Everyone exclaimed and looked at Jincheng's calves. The little girl in front stared at Xue Chongxun with anger, her eyes almost bursting with fire. Jincheng hurriedly pulled up the other side of her long skirt and covered her legs.

"I... I didn't mean it." Xue Chongxun said innocently

(To be continued)

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Note:

1.?????? Lingnan?(simplified Chinese:?岭南;?traditional Chinese:?嶺南;?pinyin:?lǐng nán;??lit.?'South of the [Nanling] Mountains'), is a geographic area referring to the lands in the south of the?Nanling Mountains. The region covers the modern?Chinese?subdivisions of?Guangdong,?Guangxi,?Hainan,?Hong Kong?&?Macau and?Northern Vietnam. The area was inhabited by the Baiyue and was the base of the ancient kingdom of Nanyue. At that time, Lingnan was considered by the ancient Chinese court to be a tropical barbarian land that had no contact with the Zhongyuan, which was the cultural cradle of Chinese culture.(Data Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lingnan)

2.?????? Tubo (Chinese: 吐蕃;, Tibetan: ??????????,), also called the Tibetan Empire, existed from the 7th to 9th centuries. Its first king was Songtsen Gampo. Its second king was Mangsong Mangzan. It controlled the Tibetan Plateau as well as parts of Central Asia and South Asia. They came after the Zhangzhung people, who practiced the Bon religion. The Tibetan empire combined Buddhism with the native Bon religion, and created Tibetan Buddhism. Gampo also helped invent the Tibetan alphabet during this time.( Data Source: https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tubo)

3.?????? Shenlong ( 神龙in Chinese ,refer to the period from January 705 to September 707),is the reign title of Wu Zetian, the Empress of Zhou, and Li Xian, the Emperor Zhongzong of Tang. In February of the first year of Shenlong, Princess Taiping and others launched a coup d'état and ushered in Emperor Zhongzong of Tang to the throne, which is known in history as the Shenlong coup. The country was renamed Tang and Wu Zetian's reign title "Shenlong" was used.(Data Source: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%A5%9E%E9%BE%99/2284948).??????