Having many children brings many blessings; the struggle for power begins with marriage.

Chapter 130 Yelü Nanyan's Plans

Upon hearing the news about Wu Yuan, Yelü Nanyan and Xiao Wenyao were stunned for a long time.

At this moment, the thought that her uncle might also have died in battle made Xiao Wenyao feel weak all over, and she sat down on the ground with a thud.

She had no feelings for her father, and since he had treated her like a tool and given her to the King of Northern Xian, she wouldn't be too sad even if her father died.

However, she treated her uncle differently. Her uncle had always treated her well, and before this trip, he even said that he would send her to Daxia after conquering Beijun.

Unfortunately, everything has now vanished.

Yelü Nanyan muttered to himself, "How could we have been defeated... There shouldn't be many troops garrisoned in Beijun. Even if we couldn't win, the King and his men couldn't have been unable to escape..."

As she muttered to herself, Yelü Nanyan suddenly looked up, her eyes fixed on Wu Yuan. "Are you sure the news you heard is true?"

Wu Yuan continued, his voice trembling with sobs, "Your Highness, I've not only heard about it, but I've also discovered that the soldiers of the Great Xia dug many large pits to bury corpses. Moreover, when I entered the city, I found a large number of barbarian soldiers being bound and sent to some unknown place."

Upon hearing Wu Yuan's words, Yelü Nanyan felt her mind go blank.

If what Wu Yuan said is true, it would be a huge disaster for the Sirius King tribe.

Most of the able-bodied men from the Sirius King tribe went south this time. The sudden loss of so many men was a devastating blow to the entire tribe.

The Sirius King tribe suddenly lost so many men, which solved their food problem considerably, but without men this winter, other tribes on the grassland would definitely have designs on them.

Especially the tribe of the Northern Xian King!

The barbarian tribes were not on good terms and wars broke out frequently.

If the barbarian tribes were harmonious, they wouldn't have split into several large tribes, and each tribe wouldn't even have its own royal court.

Although the Northern Xian King initially lent tens of thousands of soldiers to the Tianlang King tribe, making it seem like the two tribes had a good relationship, in reality, it was only because the Tianlang King tribe promised them many benefits that they symbolically sent tens of thousands of soldiers.

Now that the Sirius King is gone, and the entire tribe has lost so many men, the Northern King will not be polite to them. The Northern King may very well lead his tribe to rob the Sirius King's tribe of their food or women.

If the Northern King steals all the grain from the Sirius King tribe, countless elderly and children of the Sirius King tribe will starve to death this winter.

Perhaps the Sirius King tribe will no longer exist by next spring.

What worried Yelü Nanyan even more was that if the Northern Xian King led his troops to raid the Tianlang King's tribe, he might capture her as well and make her his woman.

Yelü Nanyan naturally knew what kind of person the Northern Xian King was, and she had no intention of going to the Northern Xian King's court.

Upon realizing this, Yelü Nanyan quickly came to her senses; they now had to save themselves.

No matter the conditions, they must ransom the 100,000 barbarian soldiers of the Northern Commandery.

Among those soldiers might be soldiers from the Northern Xianwang tribe, but there were still 100,000 prisoners. Even if all the soldiers from the Northern Xianwang tribe were still alive, there were still tens of thousands of soldiers from the Tianlangwang tribe.

Moreover, Yelü Nanyan also planned to only redeem the soldiers of their Tianlang King tribe.

Coming to her senses, Yelü Nanyan immediately said, "Summon the tribal elders for a meeting immediately!"

"Wu Yuan, you can go down now. I'll call you if I need anything."

Wu Yuan wiped away his tears with his sleeve and said, "Yes, Your Highness."

Yelü Nanyan glanced at Xiao Wenyao, who was sitting on the ground with vacant eyes, and sighed, saying, "Yaoyao, you should go out too."

Xiao Wenyao didn't speak. She slowly got up and left Yelü Nanyan's tent. At this moment, Xiao Wenyao was neither crying nor making a fuss. Her face was expressionless and her eyes were devoid of any light. She was like a walking corpse.

The news Wu Yuan brought back was such a blow to her that she has now forgotten her grief.

Soon, the elders of the Sirius King tribe appeared inside Yelü Nanyan's large tent.

At this moment, the elders were still unaware of what had happened. They had just seen Wu Yuan leave the Queen's tent and then saw the Queen summon them for a meeting, so they assumed that the Heavenly Wolf King had already conquered the entire Northern Prefecture.

After the elders entered the Queen's tent, they sat down on the ground. At this moment, one of the elders asked, "Your Highness, what brings you here? Has the King already conquered the Northern Commandery?"

Yelü Nanyan's face was somewhat pale. She sighed and then said, "You should be prepared for what I'm about to say."

When Yelü Nanyan did not answer the question but instead said this, all the elders were stunned, and a bad feeling immediately arose in their hearts.

At this moment, another elder asked, "Your Highness, what has happened? Please tell me!"

Yelü Nanyan then said, "The king was defeated, and 200,000 soldiers were killed, 100,000 soldiers were captured by Beijun, and the king also died in battle under the walls of Yancheng."

These words struck like a bolt from the blue. All the elders inside the tent were stunned, their minds blank, just like Yelü Nanyan had when she first heard the news.

They could neither believe nor dared to believe what Yelü Nanyan had said.

That's an army of 300,000!

And it's 300,000 cavalry!

Most importantly, they also have several grandmasters and countless ninth-rank martial artists, while the Northern Commandery only has 30,000 soldiers.

How could they possibly lose!

Even if they fail to capture Yancheng, their king shouldn't die under its walls. The barbarian 300,000 cavalry are so fast that if they wanted to escape, they could easily flee back to the royal court.

But now the princess tells them that not only have 200,000 barbarian soldiers died, but the remaining 100,000 barbarian soldiers have all been captured by the Xia people!

How is this possible?!

Yelü Nanyan could tell that they didn't believe it, and she knew they dared not believe it, but this news was brought back by Wu Yuan, and they would soon be able to verify it.

In fact, since the Sirius King had not sent anyone back with news for so long, Yelü Nanyan had been feeling a little uneasy, but she never expected that the Sirius King's army would end up like this.

Of the 300,000 barbarian soldiers, not a single one left the Northern Commandery!

What does this mean? It means that the Northern Commandery was definitely prepared. The 300,000-strong army led by the Wolf King was most likely surrounded, which is why they had no way to escape. Otherwise, the 100,000 barbarian soldiers would not have surrendered and become prisoners of the Great Xia people.

Yelü Nanyan couldn't figure out what exactly went wrong.

Upon hearing the news about Yelü Nanyan, two of the older elders suddenly tilted their heads back and fainted.

The other elders, having regained their senses, quickly came to the two elders.

"High Priest, Second Elder, you must hold on!"

"High Priest, are you alright?"

"Second Elder, wake up!!!"

……

Seeing the chaos inside the tent, Yelü Nanyan did not stop them.

After an unknown amount of time, the High Priest and the Second Elder finally woke up, and the two elders gradually began to accept this cruel news.

They knew very well that now was not the time to be sad, nor was it the time to assign blame.

Now the Sirius King's tribe has suddenly lost hundreds of thousands of men. In addition, many tribes know the location of the Sirius King's royal court. Once those tribes find out that their Sirius King has been killed and that they are missing hundreds of thousands of soldiers, they will definitely send people to plunder them.

Especially the Northern Xian King in the north.

So the most important thing now is to move out immediately; we can't stay here any longer.

However, relocating the royal court would take a lot of time, and since their tribe no longer had many able-bodied men, it would take even longer. They were worried that if the news leaked out at this time, it would attract other tribes on the grasslands to come ahead of time.

At this moment, supported by the elders, the high priest looked at Yelü Nanyan and asked, "Your Highness, has the news of the King's defeat been confirmed?"

Yelü Nanyan said, "Not yet. This is news that Wu Yuan brought back from Beijun, but I will arrange for someone to confirm it later."

"Let's assume this news is true for now."

The high priest thought for a moment, then asked, "Your Highness, what should we do next?"

The elders did not blame Yelü Nanyan for this defeat. After all, this was 300,000 cavalrymen, and the fact that so many cavalrymen had been defeated by the Great Xia could not possibly be the fault of just one woman.

Logically speaking, even if they fell for the Great Xia Dynasty's conspiracy at the beginning, it's unlikely that they would be completely wiped out when they marched south with an army of 300,000. There must have been other factors involved.

Those who can become elders of the Sirius King tribe are all relatively quick-witted, and they are also very clear that now is not the time to pursue accountability.

Yelü Nanyan pondered for a moment and said, "This matter must not be known to the ordinary people of the tribe. After the meeting, go out and tell the people of the tribe that the king has conquered Beijun and that they should pack their things immediately because we are heading to Beijun."

Upon hearing Yelü Nanyan's words, the elders instantly understood why she had done this.

If we tell the tribe members about the defeat now, it will surely cause panic.

Panic is one thing, but the main concern is the risk of leaks.

If other tribes on the grasslands learn of their defeat, they will surely seize this opportunity to launch a surprise attack.

On the one hand, they told the people that the king had conquered the Northern County, and on the other hand, they told the people to prepare to move to the Northern County. Even if some tribes discovered that they were going to move the royal court, they would likely be misled by their people into thinking that they had really conquered the Northern County and were going to move the royal court there.

But in reality, they were just in a different place.

Yelü Nanyan continued, "In addition, I will send Wu Yuan to Beijun to negotiate with the Northern King and see if we can exchange our soldiers for cattle and sheep."

"A tribe cannot exist without able-bodied men."

Upon hearing Yelü Nanyan's words, the elders fell silent; this was the only thing they could do now.

at the same time.

Outside the tent.

Xiao Wenyao sat on a grassy slope, quietly looking towards the direction of Beijun.

At this moment, Wu Yuan came to her side and said, "Princess, there is something I don't know if I should tell you. I have found out that General Xiao is not dead yet and is still being held in Yancheng prison."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Wenyao's eyes instantly lit up. She immediately turned to look at Wu Yuan, then grabbed his collar and asked, "Wu Yuan, is what you're saying true?"

"My uncle isn't dead? He's really not dead, right?"

Seeing Xiao Wenyao so agitated, Wu Yuan sobbed and said, "Yes, I've heard that General Xiao is imprisoned and is being tortured every day."

"It's all my fault. If I had been able to gather more intelligence about Beijun back then, perhaps General Xiao wouldn't be in this situation today."

"You deserve to die!"

Upon hearing Wu Yuan's words, Xiao Wenyao immediately released Wu Yuan's collar and murmured, "Thank goodness, Uncle isn't dead!"

At this point, Xiao Wenyao suddenly remembered something and continued, "Wu Yuan, do you know what the Northern King likes? I want to get my uncle back!"

The exchange of prisoners between the barbarians and the Great Xia was actually very common. Since its founding, the Great Xia had fought countless wars with the barbarians in the north.

After each war, the Xia and the barbarian tribes would exchange prisoners. If one side had no prisoners, they would exchange them for resources.

For example, cattle and sheep, and also grains, salt, and iron.

If the barbarians wanted to exchange their people for horses, cattle, and sheep, then the Great Xia court wanted to exchange their soldiers for salt and iron.

Of course, even if the Great Xia replaces their soldiers, those soldiers will no longer be given important positions. However, in order not to discourage the people, the Great Xia court will usually spend some resources to replace their soldiers.

It was precisely because of the frequent exchange of prisoners that Yelü Nanyan immediately thought of exchanging cattle and sheep for prisoners after learning of the defeat of the Heavenly Wolf King.

Xiao Wenyao also thought of exchanging something for her uncle.

Upon hearing Xiao Wenyao's question, Wu Yuan sighed and then said, "Alas, Your Highness, as far as I know, the Northern King seems to only like one thing, and that is women."

"Moreover, the Northern King only likes stunningly beautiful women. In our tribe, only the Queen and you are the type that the Northern King likes."

Xiao Wenyao's mind went blank for a moment, and she stood there stunned.

After a long pause, Xiao Wenyao asked unwillingly, "Can't we exchange cattle and sheep for my uncle?"

Wu Yuan said, "If it were just ordinary soldiers, the Northern King might allow us to exchange them for cattle and sheep. But General Xiao is a Grandmaster-level expert. If we let him return, he could very well become the next Heavenly Wolf King. Great Xia will not let him return so easily unless we can offer something that will tempt them."

After hearing Wu Yuan's words, Xiao Wenyao fell silent.

Just then, a barbarian soldier approached Wu Yuan. "Wu Yuan, the Queen wants you to come over. She has a task for you."

Wu Yuan then said to Xiao Wenyao, "Your Highness, I'm going to the Princess Consort now. Please don't have any wild thoughts. You must not even consider exchanging yourself for General Xiao. The Northern King is a lecherous man. If you go to the Northern Prefecture, I don't know what kind of torture you will suffer."

(End of this chapter)