Poet Immortal, Poet Sage, Duke of the State!

above the hall.

Murong Gu raised his head, his lips twitched a few times, and his face turned completely pale.

On that day, he made a written test agreement with Da Ning and publicly promised that if the Yan Kingdom lost, he would hand over one of the three cities outside Yanmen Pass in the north.

At that time, he never even considered that Yan Kingdom would lose!

If the promise is kept, Yan Kingdom will lose an important city on its border.

If the Yan state breaks its promise and gains wealth, it will lose all credibility among the other states.

This is an even more unacceptable outcome than losing the city.

Inside the Hall of Supreme Harmony, the cheers of the courtiers gradually subsided.

All eyes were on Murong Gu.

The Emperor of Da Ning sat upright on the dragon throne, looking at him calmly, without speaking or urging him.

The silent pressure of the entire hall almost crushed him.

Finally, Murong Gu took a deep breath, presented the letter of state with both hands, and bowed, saying, "According to the bet, the Yan Kingdom is willing to cede Liangzhou City outside Yanmen Pass to Da Ning. This is the letter of state ceding the city, personally signed by the Emperor of Yan. Please take a look, Your Majesty."

The eunuch stepped forward, took the imperial letter, and presented it to the emperor's desk.

The Emperor of Da Ning unfolded the letter of state, his gaze sweeping over the text and the imperial seal. He nodded slightly, closed the letter, and handed it to the eunuch beside him: "Keep it safe."

Murong Guzhi stood up, his face ashen.

Han Boyuan stepped forward again, glanced at Murong Gu, and said with sympathy, "According to the bet, if the Yan Kingdom loses, Envoy Murong must kowtow three times and bow nine times in the palace. Envoy Murong, please fulfill your promise."

The hall was completely silent.

The "three kneelings and nine kowtows" refers to kneeling three times and kowtowing nine times.

This is a grand ceremony from a vassal state to its suzerain state, a subject's homage to his monarch.

For decades, the Yan Kingdom and the Da Ning Kingdom had been on equal footing, and never before had a Yan envoy performed such a grand ceremony in the Da Ning Golden Hall.

Murong Gu stood in the center of the hall, his face deathly pale.

He was the chief envoy of the Yan state, representing the face of the Great Yan.

If he did this in front of Ningguo officials and Liangguo envoys, he would become a sinner of Great Yan, nailed to the pillar of historical shame, and cursed by hundreds of millions of Great Yan people!

Even the Murong family will be implicated.

After a long silence, Murong Gu suddenly let out a sigh of relief.

He slowly raised his head, neither looking at the Emperor of Da Ning nor at the assembled officials of Da Ning in the hall.

"Long live the Great Yan!"

He roared and rammed into the nearest pillar.

boom!

A muffled sound suddenly rang out in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

A blood flower bloomed on the gilded pillar, and Murong Gu's body slowly slid down the pillar, leaving a shocking trail of blood on it.

The nearest eunuch rushed forward, reached out, checked his breath, and then looked at the Emperor of Da Ning in horror, trembling as he said, "Your Majesty, he's dead..."

The smiles of the Da Ning officials, who had just been cheering, suddenly froze on their faces.

The hall was deathly silent.

No one expected that Murong Gu would make such a choice.

He would rather die by crashing into a pillar than kneel before Da Ning.

At this moment, a complex emotion arose in the hearts of some court officials in Da Ning.

Although they and Murong Gu had different stances and were furious with him just now, they couldn't help but feel a bit of admiration for him when they saw that he was willing to die by crashing into a pillar in order to prevent the country from being humiliated.

As an envoy of the Yan state, he had done his utmost for Yan.

They might not have had that courage.

Grand Secretary Zhou stared blankly at the motionless body beneath the palace pillar. There was no schadenfreude in his old, cloudy eyes. He looked for a long time, his lips moved several times, but in the end he only let out a long sigh.

Several scholars also stood up, staring at the dark red bloodstain on the ground in silence. One of the older scholars even raised his hand to wipe the corner of his eye.

Although Murong Gu was an enemy of Da Ning, he was loyal to the Yan Kingdom.

Having served the country to this extent, even enemies cannot bring themselves to hate him.

Behind the curtain, Princess Zhaoyue's hand slowly fell to her knees.

She watched the bloodstain slowly spread across the gold brick, feeling no joy whatsoever.

Did Murong Gu deserve to die? He gambled his entire life on this, declaring in the palace that he would marry her off to the notorious beastly third prince of Yan. He deserved to die.

But Murong Gu was merely an envoy; it was the Emperor of Yan who proposed the wager, not him.

He was caught in the situation and had no choice but to act against his will.

Just as she was born into royalty, her life was not entirely up to her.

Today, Qing Shuang found that young master. What if Qing Shuang hadn't found him? What if that young master was just an ordinary scholar who couldn't possibly come up with those couplets?

Would her father really make her marry that beast just to fulfill the bet?

At that time, she would probably have no choice but to die to prove her innocence, just like Murong Gu is now.

On the dragon throne, the Emperor of Da Ning stared at the corpse covered with an old robe beneath the golden pillar, remaining silent for a long time.

He was the emperor of Da Ning, and Murong Gu was the envoy of Yan, his enemy, the arrogant man who publicly humiliated him and boasted in the palace that he would marry his beloved daughter to a beast.

Murong Gu should feel relieved to have died by crashing into a pillar.

But he was not happy at all. How many of the civil and military officials in the Great Ning court could do this?

He would rather die by crashing into a pillar than bring shame upon the king or dishonor to the country.

When the emperor and the nation were humiliated, not a single official in the entire Da Ning court stood up.

He slowly stood up and said in a deep voice, "Murong Gu has repaid his promise with his life. I respect him as a true man and will send people to escort his body back to his country so that his soul may return to his homeland."

The head eunuch beside him bowed and said, "Yes, Your Majesty!"

Grand Scholar Chang walked to Murong Gu's side and slowly squatted down.

He said nothing, reached out his palm, closed Murong Gu's eyes, and slowly lifted Murong Gu's body with his withered arms.

Murong Gu's head hung limply outside his arms, dark red blood seeping from his forehead, staining his gray robe sleeves.

Two deputy envoys rushed forward to help, but he shook his head to stop them.

He carried Murong Gu and walked step by step toward the palace gate.

His back was slightly hunched, but his steps were unusually steady.

The two deputy envoys kept their heads down and followed closely behind, not one of them turning back to look at the officials of Da Ning.

By this time, the palace guards had already spread the news of Da Ning's victory.

This competition has everyone on edge.

The people of the capital had crowded the palace gates well in advance.

Upon receiving the news, after a moment of silence, cheers erupted like a flood.

"We won! We won!"

"The Yan Kingdom has lost; the princess no longer needs to go on the marriage alliance!"

"The Yan state has lost Liangzhou to us!"

"The Yan envoy committed suicide in the palace; he deserved it!"

……

Some people threw their hats into the air, some hugged the people next to them and cried and laughed, and some ran wildly along the Imperial Street like madmen.

From the palace gate to Zhuque Avenue, and from Zhuque Avenue to the south alley of the city, cheers rose in waves, and new people kept joining in, making the already congested streets even more crowded. The whole capital was in an uproar.

In the south of the city, behind that wooden door with peeling paint.

Chen Chang'an was holding a broom, sweeping the fallen leaves in the yard one stroke at a time.

The courtyard wasn't large, and most of the leaves of the old locust tree in the corner had fallen. With a gust of autumn wind, a few more leaves fell on the ground that had just been swept clean. He wasn't in a hurry; he swept slowly, the broom making a rustling sound on the blue brick floor.

Suddenly, a commotion arose in the distance, faint and indistinct, sounding like many people shouting something...

He stopped sweeping, straightened up, and glanced over the courtyard wall.

I saw nothing. White clouds drifted lazily across the sky, and the autumn wind carried a few locust leaves as they floated past the wall...

He listened for a while longer; the noise continued, but he couldn't make out the specifics. He just felt that the capital city seemed unusually lively today.

He shook his head, looked away, switched the broom to his other hand, and continued sweeping...

At this moment, inside the imperial palace.

Just as Emperor Da Ning returned to his study, a figure entered from outside, cupping his hands in greeting, and said, "Your Majesty, we have investigated thoroughly. The young man who provided the three couplets that helped the court out of its predicament is Chen Chang'an, the eldest son of Chen Wenyuan, the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel. The princess's coachman said that three days ago, Chen Chang'an also provided the matching couplet for the Yan Kingdom. He doesn't seem to know the princess's identity yet..."