Tang Dynasty Bandits

Chapter 201 The Past of the Flower King

After the rebel army suffered an initial defeat in Guangzhou, the area around the mouth of the Yuejiang River was hit by three consecutive days of torrential rain.

The ponds and marshes overflowed, and Li Tiao's navy could even use small boats to skim along the swampy waters and attack the various besieging camps. Whether they were local southern water monsters or Hu pirates recruited by Li Tiao, they were all proficient in swimming and skilled at ashore raids, making it very difficult for the inexperienced naval troops.

Huang Chao was forced to lift the siege of the city, retreated ten miles to set up camp, and rested his soldiers.

The downpour brought a brief respite from the heat, finally allowing Tian Jun to escape the stench of sweat. After a refreshing shower, she held Lan Suting on her lap and had him style her hair and eyebrows.

Tian Jun and Lan Suting have always had a good relationship. Lan Suting is petite, cute, and has an intellectual air, which Tian Jun likes very much.

"When the day comes that you will really marry Sister Jun, shall Su Ting help you dress up?" Lan Su Ting said softly.

Tian Jun happily leaned in and kissed Lan Suting on the cheek.

For her sake, Lan Suting had voluntarily withdrawn from the competition for Zhu Wen. Moved by this, she grew closer to Lan Suting, and they talked about everything.

Just then, the maid Zhu Wen had hired for Lan Suting rushed in and told the two of them that Huang Chao had rewarded Zhu Wen with three blonde beauties.

Tian Jun's expression changed instantly. She stood up and gently placed Lan Suting on the ground.

Lan Suting remained quite calm and grabbed Tian Jun's hand: "Your makeup isn't finished yet. It's not too late to go over after I've helped you get ready."

Zhu Wen was looking at three blonde beauties from inside the general's tent in the camp.

Two of them were very young, only teenagers.

The older woman, around twenty-eight or twenty-nine, had faint crow's feet around her eyes, yet possessed a mature charm that made her more beautiful than the two girls.

"General, please don't treat us as slaves," the older blonde woman said. "We are still warriors, capable of fighting!"

"If possible, we'd like to be 'second wives'..."

Just then, Tian Jun lifted the curtain and walked in.

Zhu Wen promptly said, "The 'little wife' you're talking about is a concubine, right? You're afraid of becoming a slave because slaves might be killed if they don't serve their masters well."

The blonde woman nodded vigorously: "In our Rakshasa Kingdom, a man can marry many wives, and there is no distinction between them."

Before converting to Christianity, the Rus' people did indeed practice polygamy, and all wives were equal, which differed from the Chinese practice of monogamy with multiple concubines.

"Once I find suitable men, I will marry you off. If you cannot be my principal wife, you can at least be my concubines. You can rest assured that you will all be heroes and valiant men in the righteous army."

Zhu Wen didn't know what the Rakshasa Kingdom was, but Tian Jun had already entered, so he first needed to make his stance clear.

Tian Jun immediately relaxed and walked over gracefully.

"Aren't you jealous?" Zhu Wen asked with a playful smile.

"If you really want to cheat, I can't stop you. I can only trust you." Tian Jun spoke with a calm and composed demeanor at this moment.

Zhu Wen lovingly embraced Tian Jun's waist and gently kissed her cheek.

Although Tian Jun was prone to jealousy, she wasn't entirely opposed to men having multiple wives and concubines. Otherwise, she wouldn't have once suggested that Lan Suting marry Zhu Wen along with her.

The older blonde woman parted her red lips and said, “Oh, what a beautiful woman, just like the Valkyrie from our mythology!”

"I won't touch you anymore. Until I find you suitable partners, you'll serve my Junmei first."

Zhu Wen made Tian Jun lie face down on the bed, and then had the adult blonde woman lean over and press her chest against Tian Jun's back to massage it, while the two girls massaged Tian Jun's hands and feet.

Tian Jun quickly let out a comfortable groan, quite satisfied with the service from the three Hu women.

Zhu Wen sat leisurely to one side and asked the older Rakshasa woman named "Mira" a question: "While we're doing our work, let's talk about something else. Mira, do you eat pork?"

Tian Jun was stunned.

She then recalled that when they were in Mount Tai, Yang Xingmi had told her and Zhu Wen that the Flower King did not eat pork.

The Arabs, known for not eating pork, do not have blond hair and blue eyes; they are almost all black-haired and black-eyed. The only difference between them and the Tang people is their high noses and deep-set eyes.

These three women, like the Flower King, have blonde hair and blue eyes.

“We raise pigs!” Mira said. “Our ancestors, the Vikings, had a tradition of slaughtering pigs for meat!”

"And what are Vikings?" Zhu Wen asked in surprise.

He couldn't distinguish the strange and unusual people from the Western Regions.

After asking for a while, Zhu Wen finally understood that the Russians were a nation established by the Vikings after conquering the Slavs and merging the two groups.

The Vikings were a Western pirate people known for their ferocity. The Russians also inherited this tradition, being fierce and warlike.

Mira, along with her brother, formed a mercenary group to work for the Kingdom of Fulin against the Arabs. Because Fulin did not offer satisfactory pay, they defected to the Arabs, and before leaving, they ravaged Fulin's borders with burning, killing, and looting.

As a result, Fulin made peace with the Abbasid Caliphate. After they defected, they had no more battles to fight, so they followed Abbasid merchants across the sea to work for Li Tiao in the Tang Dynasty.

If they weren't paid enough, they would turn against their former employers and even commit arson, murder, and looting. Mira considered this perfectly normal and justified.

Mira, however, said that if they were defeated and captured, they would completely submit to Zhu Wen's will and offer their loyalty, because her people revered the strong.

Zhu Wen didn't want to delve into this matter; they wouldn't stay by his side for long anyway. No matter who they were given to, three women alone couldn't cause any trouble.

"So, which country around you is like yours, with blond hair and blue eyes, yet not eating pork?"

Mira was stunned for a moment, then a look of hatred suddenly flashed in her eyes.

"The Khazars! The most vicious slave traders in the northern Caucasus! Despicable bandits who adhere to Judaism!"

Out of anger, she temporarily stopped serving Tian Jun.

Mira then realized this and repeatedly apologized.

"The Khazar Turks are to the east of our country. They migrated from north of your Great Tang Dynasty three hundred years ago. These people became rich through the slave trade and kidnapped tens of thousands of people every year to sell."

Clearly, the Russians, as a neighboring country, must have been serious victims of the Khazar Turkic slave trade.

Mira then told Juwen that after the Khazars established their state, they absorbed many Slavic refugees, and the Turks also liked to marry Slavic beauties. As a result, they gradually changed from having narrow faces and high cheekbones to having blond hair and blue eyes like the Russians.

After they established themselves, they converted to Judaism, which also prohibits the consumption of pork.

Zhu Wen suddenly realized that many clues were suddenly connected.

The Demonic Sect has always maintained close ties with the Turks. In the early Tang Dynasty, the Turks were defeated, and the Demonic Sect fled westward. Since the Khazars were a branch of the Turks, it is not surprising that the Demonic Sect chose this place as its base after migrating westward.

Flower King Yudi is the successor of Qiao Beiming, the Demon Lord who was killed by Wang Xianzhi forty years ago.

Her status in the Khazar Khanate must have been quite unusual.

Zhu Wen dismissed the three blonde Rakshasa shield-wielding women from the tent, his expression solemn: "I'm wondering if the Flower King's surname might be Ashina."

Ashina was the surname of the Turkic royal family.

"You mean, the Flower Queen is a Turkic princess?" Tian Jun asked in surprise. "According to that Rakshasa woman, the Khazar Turks are still quite powerful. Why would she come to the East?"

"The young talent she has currently selected is Li Yi, the eldest son of Li Tiao, and a descendant of Li Jiancheng."

"Think about it, the Turks were once invincible, but they were crushed by the Tang Dynasty. If a Turkic wolf girl were to become the Empress of the Tang Dynasty, or even ascend to the throne like the Empress Dowager, what a contrast that would be!"

Tian Jun was stunned.

She was not an ambitious girl.

Tian Jun found Kao's almost delusional ambitions somewhat difficult to comprehend.

But she soon realized that this woman was indeed incredibly bold.

……

The eldest son of the military governor, Li Yi, returned victorious and, amidst cheers, adorned in brand-new battle robes, made a grand return to Guangzhou.

No one noticed that Young Master Li Yi, sitting in the carriage, was experiencing a subtle tremor in his upper body.

After returning to his father Li Tiao's military governor's residence, Li Yi pulled a blonde, blue-eyed Hu woman into his private courtyard.

The orchid appeared to have just swallowed something.

Li Yi covered her head with a hood.

"Youdi, say you love me!" Li Yi roared frantically.

"I love..."

"That's not the tone!" Li Yi retorted angrily. "It should sound charming and alluring, but inside there's a fierce coldness that no man in the world would despise!"

Hu Ji was immediately stumped; how could she imitate this?

Li Yi was somewhat disappointed. After hastily resolving the battle, he heard the voice he had been longing for: "Oh, Young Master Yi has returned victorious?"

Li Yi shivered and shoved Hu Ji into the bushes: "Yes... tonight the flowers are in full bloom and the moon is bright. I wonder if the Flower King would like to drink with me?"

"I need to cultivate tonight, can we change the date?" You Di covered her mouth and chuckled softly, her eyes sparkling, captivating Li Yi's soul.

"I'll do whatever you say," Li Yi said.

Youdi nodded, winked playfully, and transformed into a fragrant breeze as she drifted away.

Her thoughts suddenly drifted back to seventeen years ago.

At that time, she was still in the western lands, in the magnificent palace of the capital of the Khazar Turkic Khaganate.

The father stroked his thirteen-year-old daughter's face, his usually stern expression softening with tenderness.

"The Roman emperor sent someone to propose marriage to the crown prince. Their country practices monogamy, and if you go, you will become their future empress."

"My most beloved darling, are you interested?"

"Does Father Khan mean that his daughter can become the empress of a great nation without doing anything?"

"Yes." Father Khan nodded: "You are wiser than your father and brother, and you deserve the purple robes of the Romans."

"But from what Father Khan said, he hoped that his daughter would choose another path."

“Our country has no room for expansion. If you want to seize power with your own hands, you can only go back to the place where our ancestors were defeated. That road is treacherous and full of thorns, and you may die on the way if you are not careful.”

"But my daughter has also heard that the country called Tang Dynasty has a foolish monarch, the people are suffering, and there may be great chaos in the future."

"The Turkic Khaganate of the past had ten times the population and territory of ours, yet it was still destroyed by the Tang Dynasty. The population and wealth of the Tang Dynasty were greater than those of the Arabs and the Romans combined." The Khan's expression suddenly turned solemn: "Even if it showed signs of decline, playing with fire could very well lead to its own destruction."

"The more this is the case, the more unparalleled the rewards of success will be."

Youdi chuckled and said, "Father, please help me politely decline the Romans' marriage proposal. I will take over the position of Holy Maiden of the Demonic Sect tomorrow and then set off for the Tang Dynasty."

The Khan paused for a moment, then burst into laughter: "Good, this is my daughter! The blood of the sacred wolf of the Ashina family will forever bless you! Power gained through your own hard work is the only truly reliable power!"

Seventeen years have passed, and Youdi has not seen his relatives for seventeen years, and does not even know if his father is still alive.

But the feeling of longing was fleeting for her.

As for Young Master Li Yi, You Di's evaluation was simply "mediocre".

This man possessed considerable naval and leadership skills, but his ambition and spirit only made her feel a strong sense of mediocrity.

Leaving aside Yang Xingmi's younger brother and her formidable rival Zhu Wen, Li Yi was clearly inferior to even Gao Yan and Shi Pu.

People like this are easier to control.

Youdi returned to her residence, and a charming smile suddenly appeared on her face.

This captivating and fiery intensity was something Li Yi had never seen before.

Youdi generously took off her dress and gestured for the maid to bring her face closer.

The space was instantly filled with soft chanting.

For someone like Li Yi, you have to keep him hanging on, let him find a woman to solve his problems, but you can't give him to him too early.

If it were any other woman, keeping her hanging on for too long would inevitably make the man tired of her.

But Youdi has absolute confidence in her charm and skills.

(End of this chapter)