Can't a princess ascend the throne?

Chapter 325 Gourd Mouth

Over the years, although for some reason, Murden has had a bad relationship with Namtso, perhaps because he has been acting for too long, even now that his father no longer has eyes and ears around him, Murden's attitude towards Namtso is not much better. Perhaps he has gotten used to it.

Especially since he was naturally boisterous and unrestrained, and disliked people who were indecisive and fussy, his youngest brother happened to be one of those talkative people. Actually, it wasn't so much that he was talkative, but rather that Namtso possessed a certain scholarly caution. However, this trait only reminded people of their natural enemy, the people of the Central Plains, on the grasslands.

When he was little, Namtso was often bullied by his brothers for this reason.

However, at least those days are over.

Disturbed by his elder brother, Namtso's lingering unease vanished. He bent down and patted his horse, his companion for many years, using this gesture to release his worries; perhaps he had indeed been overthinking things.

Those steppe cavalrymen were all elite soldiers selected from among the best. Now, with Xiao Xin gone, their warhorses were traversing the somewhat narrow valley. Due to the confined terrain, they had already wasted a considerable amount of time here.

As Murden watched, he felt a growing sense of unease. He grabbed the rope and pulled out a disheveled, bloodied, hunched figure.

"Are you sure you're not fooling this prince? If I find out you're playing tricks, I'll cut off pieces of your flesh and stuff them into your mouth."

"I... this lowly servant wouldn't dare, this lowly servant wouldn't dare. This place is just like this, the entrances and exits are all so narrow, the locals call it the gourd mouth. But once you get out of the gourd mouth, it's basically all plains ahead. It'll be much easier to travel after that."

Although I couldn't see her face clearly, her fluent Mandarin...

The other party turned out to be a person from the Central Plains.

Murden brandished his whip with slight annoyance. Although he disliked the tough Han Chinese, he didn't have a kind look towards traitors who sold out their country just to save their own lives. He quickly beat the traitor, sending him tumbling across the ground like a rolling gourd. Murden forcibly suppressed the barely perceptible frustration in his heart. Although he had interrupted his brother earlier, Murden also felt that something was amiss in Sihui. On their way there, they had heard a series of rapid explosions; calling them thunder seemed far-fetched. What on earth was that, and why was it making him so annoyed?
I have a feeling that something I can't understand has appeared...

The gourd-shaped opening was narrow, but its belly was quite large. Seeing that many soldiers had gone in, Murden stopped thinking about it and spurred his horse to follow. He wanted to see what the people ahead were doing and why they were moving so slowly.

No matter how crowded it was, no one dared to push Murdon, so he arrived at Hulukou smoothly. Looking around, he saw that it was early winter, and the weather was unexpectedly cold. Inside Hulukou, apart from the withered branches and fallen leaves, there was hardly any greenery. It looked no different from the grassland.

The area here is truly vast. If that Central Plains lackey hadn't mentioned a narrow passage ahead with a rather cramped exit, he wouldn't have guessed it was nestled in a mountain hollow. If he were a Central Plains person, knowing they were heading this way, he would have definitely laid an ambush here—it's an excellent spot. However, those Central Plains people are probably currently engaged in a life-or-death struggle with their father, so how could they know they've taken a shortcut, preparing to seize the opportunity to march south? If they can capture the emperor, would those Central Plains generals fighting tooth and nail in the northern border really disregard his safety? Although the Central Plains people are often considered pedantic, this is something Murden greatly appreciates. There's a similar story in Central Plains history: "holding the emperor hostage to command the princes." Once Emperor Jingtai is captured, with him in hand, who in the entire Jingtai Kingdom would dare openly oppose them?
As he pondered, Murdon felt the light dimming. He frowned and looked up at the sky. This place was strange; no wonder it was called "Gourd Mouth." Looking up at the sky, he could only see a winding, narrow line—nowhere like this existed on the grasslands. But once they conquered the Great Plains, such places would all belong to the grasslands… Actually, the scene before him wasn't particularly beautiful, but perhaps it was his mood; Murdon found the desolate, frost-covered landscape strangely beautiful.

Suddenly, a growing commotion arose ahead. Multon frowned. He knew that the steppe cavalry who had come with him were all skilled warriors and there shouldn't be any chaos. What was going on? At that moment, a personal guard with a conflicted expression rushed towards them.

"Your Highness, there's something strange on the road ahead. It looks like a box."

Normally, if these steppe cavalry saw something blocking their path, they probably wouldn't have thought twice and would have simply moved it aside. However, before setting off, the two princes had repeatedly warned them to be careful of unexpected situations. Faced with this situation, they dared not act on their own and could only send someone to report back to the eldest prince.

Multon immediately became alert and quickly passed through the narrow opening in the middle to the second, relatively spacious area. In the middle of that flat area, there were several crates scattered haphazardly. The guard hadn't lied to him; these were indeed crates, square and neatly arranged. But why were there several crates here out of nowhere, and they didn't look particularly old or like they had been carelessly abandoned?

The advancing grassland troops, faced with these suddenly appearing figures, dared not move rashly. They huddled to the side, their eyes wide as they looked left and right.

Looking at their restless, curious expressions, Murden felt a headache coming on. These idiots, did they really think they were out for a vacation? He casually called over a soldier who was peeking around and told him to check the nearest crate.

"Let's go see what's in there?"

Faced with a box that was half a person's height, they didn't think there was anything dangerous inside. Even if it were a person, with so many soldiers here, each of them could easily turn him into a sieve with a knife.

The soldier who was called away was also a bold one. Because he had been given this task, his face beamed with pride, and he walked forward excitedly until he came to the box, at which point he truly began to examine it. It looked like an ordinary box used to store clothes and other miscellaneous items. If there was anything special about it, it was that there were some unique patterns on its surface.

Most grassland people are illiterate, and know nothing about Chinese characters, let alone the strange patterns and symbols written on it. After looking around at the symbols, the soldier quite keenly found a thin rope extending from the box, and naturally tugged it gently before opening the box.

Then he saw sparks suddenly appear in front of him.

(End of this chapter)