"Your Majesty, I seek your forgiveness. It is really difficult to identify the words from this handwriting." That eunuch immediately fell to his knees.
"Get up. It's commendable that a bunch of barbarians can even write." Xia Bailong laughed. It was as if a switch had been turned on, and all the court officials began to burst into loud laughter that was full of contempt.
"His Majesty is right, it's already commendable that a bunch of barbarians can write. We shall not expect too much from them," one of the court officials agreed with Xia Bailong.
Xia Bailong nodded his head in satisfaction.
"Erm, Your Majesty, your servant's vision is blurry and can't make out the words written on this letter." that eunuch cautiously and solemnly said after reading through the letter.
Although Ren Baqian's writing was difficult to read, it had yet to reach the point that it was completely illegible. As someone who served Xia Bailong, the eunuch understood Xia Bailong's character very well. If he read this letter out loud, he wouldn't be in Xia Bailong's good books anymore. Even if nothing happened to him in the short term, Xia Bailong would probably find an excuse to kill him tragically.
One had to know if these castrated men wanted to be well-regarded, it all depended on the emperor's trust. If the emperor was not satisfied with any of them, there were already countless people who were waiting to step over them and climb to the top of the hierarchical structure.
"You can't even read a letter? Get lost," Xia Bailong coldly retorted. "Li Kairui, you read it."
"Yes, Your Majesty."
A bearded elder with grizzled white hair came forward and received the letter in great spirits. Then, he read it in detail and revealed an odd expression on his face.
"What? A scholar like you can't read either?" Xia Bailong laughed coldly.
Li Kairui was a Chancellor of Great Xia and also a scholar from the Zhaoyang consulate. Naturally, he would be of a different caliber compared to the eunuch from before.
He forced a smiled and said, "The contents of this letter disrespect Your Majesty."
"Read!" Xia Bailong coldly replied. "I would like to hear how disrespectful they are."
Li Kairui forced a smile before clearing his throat and reading the letter out loud,
"Dayao's empress to Great Xia's emperor:
My old friend was arrogant like you, but look, the weeds on his grave are already 15 meters tall now.
Looking at the weeds on his grave, I thought of how arrogant you are, just like him.
The weeds on your grave will soon be as tall as his!"
Li Kairui changed the originally written "Xia Baichong" to "Xia Bailong." After all, it really sounded too unpleasant.
However, he read the contents exactly as they were written in the letter.
The smile on Xia Bailong's face began to freeze after Li Kairui read half of the letter.
After Li Kairui finished reading the entire letter, a chilly vibe was emitting from Xia Bailong's body. He even left a deep fingerprint mark on the armrest of the throne made of pure gold.
Everyone else was stunned. No one would have imagined that the contents of Dayao's letter of credence would turn out like that. It was practically openly lashing out at Great Xia's emperor.
"My old friend was arrogant like you?"
"The weeds on his grave are already 15 meters tall?"
What kind of words were those?
"I thought of how arrogant you are, just like him?"
"The weeds on your grave will soon be as tall as his?"
This was practically how gangsters behaved.
Originally, everyone still wanted to ridicule Dayao's empress since they would still attack Dayao regardless of how she struggled to give an explanation.
At this point in time, however, nobody could say anything.
Dayao's empress didn't even have the intention of giving an explanation!
She openly lashed out at them!
Even though they previously thought about how the empress of Dayao might react, any normal human being would definitely give some explanation, right? Even if she shifted the blame of the Seventh Prince's death, it would be considered giving some face to Xia Bailong.
Yet, how could she actually do this?
How could the proud and arrogant Xia Bailong accept this situation? How could he and his officials, who believed that they were the strongest nation, swallow this?
Everyone felt that attacking Dayao without any explanation was already a very hooligan behavior. Never had they expected that the other party would be no weaker than them. They even sent a limerick that insulted them openly.
"Qi Zixiao actually dares to act this way?" Xia Bailong's chest was heaving up and down heavily. He cursed out loud, "I'll definitely capture her alive and see if she's still reluctant to admit her mistake."
"Your Majesty, please calm down. She must have wrote those words in the heat of moment," Li Kairui replied in a low voice.
"I know, it's just that she dares to ridicule me to this extent..." Xia Bailong was boiling with anger.
From that day onward, Xia Bailong had a headache for a few consecutive days. He wasn't able to sleep peacefully at night.
If Ren Baqian knew that the letter he wrote impulsively would make the Great Xia emperor's blood pressure rise until he almost had a cerebral congestion, he would probably write this event down in the so-called historical records he kept out of arrogance.
...
In addition to studying the location of the salt pan, the manufacturing process, and the drilling of the well with Tong Zhenye and others, Ren Baqian would also find out what was going on at the frontline on a daily basis from the radio station.
After Yusheng City was destroyed, the soldiers from the Protectorate General of the Center finally arrived at the frontline. Previously, they dispatched 1,000 soldiers to assist Yusheng City in their defense. However, along with the fall of Yusheng City, those 1,000 soldiers had died in the city as well.
As for the remaining 7,000 soldiers, they didn't wage war with the Great Xia soldiers. Due to the Great Xia soldiers that were guarding the city, it was difficult for just 7,000 Dayao soldiers to attack them. If the Dayao soldiers forcefully attacked the Great Xia soldiers, not only would they fail to defeat them, but they would also sustain serious injuries.
As a result, they decided one day later to switch to attacking the 80,000 Great Xia soldiers outside Guke City. In coordination with the 1,000 aboriginal soldiers who were defending Guke City, the arriving aboriginal army killed half of Great Xia's 80,000 soldiers. At the very least, they left over 20,000 enemy corpses in the city and more than 10,000 dead soldiers dispersed outside. Only about 40,000 of these Great Xia soldiers retreated to Liao City and grouped up with the 80,000 soldiers there, totaling up to about 120,000.
Currently, there were only 5,000 soldiers left under the Protectorate General of the Center.
Presently, the empress was already nearing Liao City. She was using the radio station from time to time to stay in contact with the Protector General of the Center, Li Qianqiu. This was because she was prepared to mount a joint attack on the 120,000 Great Xia soldiers.
Only the aboriginals could do such a thing like sending 6,000 of their soldiers to launch a joint attack on 120,000 Great Xia soldiers.
Even though 1,200 out of the 6,000 Dayao winged cavalry warriors were at least Earth Wheel experts, Ren Baqian still felt that it was somewhat hard for him to accept this fact.
After all, the schools on Earth educated him about wars with a few hundred thousand soldiers surrounding over 100,000 of their opponents, and he had already gone through 20 years of such an education. Now, seeing a few thousand aboriginal soldiers attacking over 100,000 Great Xia soldiers, these numbers still made him felt uncomfortable even though he knew that Earth Wheel experts weren't comparable to the normal soldiers on Earth.
...
Ren Baqian was seated on the ground with a mechanical model for percussion drilling in front of him. As his finger tapped on a small piece of wood behind the model, the drill bit was drilling under the action of the lever and bored into the ground, digging a small hole without much effort.
A group of students looked curiously at the mechanical model that Ren Baqian was fiddling with. Although they had learned a bit of physics, the content was all theoretical. Furthermore, Ren Baqian had just touched on the topic of light rays.
This was the second time that they had seen a mechanical model with such application and practicality. Consequently, they felt very curious and examined it very carefully. The first time they saw something like this was Ren Baqian's motorbike, which had turned into scrap iron in their hands.
After fiddling with the model for a long time, Ren Baqian kept it and said to Tong Zhenye who was nearby, "These are the fundamentals of the issue. I will leave the rest to all of you."
"Sir Ren won't be staying here?" Tong Zhenye was slightly distracted.
"It's almost time, so I will go to the frontline to take a look," Ren Baqian replied nonchalantly.
If one wasn't familiar with him, one would never know that he was putting on an act.
"Sir Ren, it's better for you to stay over here so that everyone can worry less," Tong Zhenye replied with a queer expression on his face.
Previously, you were almost assassinated twice and always provoked the empress into flying into a terrible rage. You still want to run to the frontline now? Should I say that your heart is big or that you are just acting recklessly? You staying here peacefully would be the greatest contribution.
Ren Baqian opened his eyes wide and asked, "Do you really think that I'm made of mud? That I don't even have the energy to defend myself? Let me tell you, when I'm furious, even I'm afraid of myself."
"You are really made of mud. Watery mud." Tong Zhenye nodded his head seriously.
"If there is an opportunity in the future, I'll definitely let you experience what power is. All of you are completely ignorant about what power is," Ren Baqian gave him the side eye and replied resentfully.