As expected, by evening they saw envoys from Guli A’shu. Over three hundred Mongolian men wearing leather armor with half their shoulders exposed waited on a highland west of the great camp. When Qing Xia arrived with three hundred black-clad guards, this group was cooking their meal. The strong aroma of alcohol mixed with mare’s milk created an intoxicating scent. A large man glanced back at Qing Xia, suddenly let out a contemptuous snort, and didn’t even bother to go in and announce her arrival.
Huang Biao stood beside Qing Xia and immediately flew into a rage upon seeing this. He licked his lips bloodthirstily, his eyes vicious as he said, “Governor, these people don’t know their place. Let this subordinate go skin them alive, then have that bone-calculating fellow send some sensible people over.”
Qing Xia slowly shook her head, slightly narrowed her eyes, and lightly rubbed her fingers along her waist where the sharp dagger’s cold gleam stimulated her fingertip skin. She watched as the large man from before picked up a fat sheep that had just finished roasting on the rack, drawing out a small knife as if to cut the meat. Qing Xia’s mouth curved upward, and suddenly with a swift sound, the young general in black fur coat yanked out the war blade from Huang Biao’s waist. The cold blade’s edge howled sharply in the torchlight, whistling through the wind as it surged fiercely toward the large man’s direction.
Cries of alarm instantly filled the air as all the Xiongnu jumped up in terror. However, they couldn’t match the speed of Qing Xia’s war blade. The blade’s cold gleam was fully exposed, its speed violent as lightning, crashing down on the Xiongnu man’s sheep leg with a thunderous sound of bone and flesh shattering. The war blade’s momentum didn’t decrease as it plunged into the burning fire pile with a swoosh, causing the flames to roar up half a person’s height with crackling sounds. At this moment, the sheep leg severed by the war blade had just fallen into the large man’s hands.
“Go notify your leader that the person he wants to see has arrived.”
In the deadly silence, Qing Xia’s black cloak embroidered with a python dragon fluttered wildly in the wind like a proud eagle spreading its wings in the night. Her eyes slightly upturned at the corners with a disdainfully arrogant expression, she swept her gaze across everyone present.
Huang Biao awakened as if from a dream, looking at Qing Xia in disbelief, his eyes filled with amazement.
“Eastern guests, please enter. We have been quietly awaiting your distinguished presence for quite some time.”
A deep voice came from the only large tent on the highland, but no one came out to greet them. This time, Huang Biao finally couldn’t help but roar angrily, “Governor, let’s go back! These northern barbarians are so ungrateful—it’s as if we’re begging them. If we enter like this, won’t it damage our Great Chu’s prestige?”
Qing Xia smiled slightly, turned to him and said, “Negotiation is like warfare—those who taste sweetness first aren’t necessarily the final winners. If I bow my head to him once today, even if he bows to me a hundred times tomorrow, he won’t get it back. Let me teach you another principle today: those who bluff and bluster are always the most incompetent—they’re fierce on the outside but timid within. Why bother arguing with them? General Du, bring twenty men and follow me over.”
The tent flap was thrown open with a whoosh. Qing Xia removed her long cloak, handed it to an attendant beside her, and strode in first without even glancing at the surrounding Xiongnu envoys. She walked directly to the head position, sat down in the host’s main seat, and smiled as she looked down at the many Xiongnu people below, saying, “Please, everyone sit.”
Seeing her act as host as if she were the master, the several people below were stunned and hadn’t yet reacted when they saw Qing Xia pick up the mare’s milk wine on the table and drain it in one gulp. She then closed her eyes slightly and said, “Mare’s milk wine from the Mutu tribe—hmm, it has the taste of aged highland barley. This year’s grassland harvest wasn’t good, but the wine still tastes so pure.”
Several Xiongnu people were startled. The leader asked in a deep voice, “Has Your Excellency been to our grassland before?”
Qing Xia didn’t answer, only raised her head slightly with an inscrutable smile.
The several Xiongnu people looked up and down at this southeastern governor most trusted by the emperor of the great eastern nation. They saw that beneath his black cloak was a blue brocade robe, he wore a felt hat of the same color, blue satin leather boots on his feet, and at his waist hung a plain, unremarkable green jade pendant with blue-white cord knots beneath it. Under the lamplight, two small Chinese characters were faintly visible—the strokes were complex, extremely difficult to recognize even for Han people, let alone these Xiongnu.
The several men hadn’t expected that the southeastern governor who had recently shaken the northern frontier with his ruthless methods was this jade-like, gracefully elegant noble young master before them. The leader stepped forward with a few polite words, saying, “I am a subordinate of Great Khan Longge, named Shi Nudan, the leader of this diplomatic mission. This is Duoge, envoy of Nannu Chili; this is Mulier, envoy of Tanda; this is Alimaiya, envoy of Western Jurchen; and this is Baiqijiang, envoy of Eastern Jurchen.”
Qing Xia greeted everyone with an attitude that was neither humble nor arrogant—not haughty, yet not overly enthusiastic either.
Guli A’shu was the son of Longge, the previous great leader of the Xiongnu. Rumor had it he was born to a female slave and had always been outside herding horses with no particular abilities. Unexpectedly, six years ago he suddenly rose up, killed the old leader, and became the great leader of all Xiongnu tribes in one leap, moving into the golden tent and subduing large numbers of small grassland tribes. Now, except for the Jurchen in the northeastern mountain forests and the perpetually unruly Qidan Han, the rest like Nannu Chili, Tanda, Mulian, Zhusahan, and Mantuo tribes had all submitted to Guli A’shu’s iron cavalry.
Shi Nudan said in a deep voice, “Our Great Khan heard last month that the Great Emperor of Southern Chu intended to establish trade with our grassland and even sent the great governor as an envoy for negotiations. We felt both sorrow and joy at once. The joy was that His Majesty the Chu Emperor sent out his most trusted important minister—this surely shows great sincerity. However, the Governor is young, so his memory shouldn’t be too poor. Three months ago, Southern Chu cavalry entered the grassland without cause, burning, killing, and plundering with every evil deed. Taking advantage of our warriors being away from home, they massacred the elderly, weak, women, and children, seized grain and fodder, stole large amounts of gold and women. This precedent is still before our eyes, yet at this time the Chu Emperor says he wants to establish trade and mutual exchange with us—this is truly hard to believe.”
Qing Xia smiled faintly, listening to Shi Nudan speak while drinking mare’s milk wine with a leisurely attitude, showing no solemnity. After he finished, she smiled lightly and said, “If our Great Chu and the Xiongnu tribes had no previous grudges, then why would this official need to come personally today? We could simply send a written notice announcing trade. If Lord Shi Nudan insists on dredging up these old accounts, I think we needn’t sit here talking. We should go out directly, marshal our troops, and have an open battle with weapons drawn.”
Shi Nudan was startled. He had started by pouring out grievances partly from hatred toward Southern Chu but also with other plans—to lead into his subsequent arguments. Qing Xia speaking this way made his following words unsayable. Seeing the increasingly cold expressions of Qing Xia’s attendant guards, he quickly said, “I, I didn’t mean that.”
“Moreover, Lord Shi Nudan’s talk of unprovoked warfare is far too alarmist,” Qing Xia threw down her wine cup, put away her smile, and said in a deep voice, “Great Chu and the Xiongnu don’t border each other. Except for a small path below Mount Huarong, there are no points of contact. With no past grievances or recent enmities, and no pressing pain from Xiongnu tribal harassment, why would we launch unprovoked attacks on the Xiongnu? Lord Shi Nudan knows this in his heart. If you hadn’t allied with Xichuan and sent troops through the pass, attempting to assassinate our Great Emperor’s carriage returning to the capital on the Xihei Grassland, how would we have sent troops beyond the pass? Great Chu is founded on commerce, agriculture, and cultivation with few wars. In three hundred years, we have never gone beyond the passes or committed the slightest offense against the grasslands. However, the Xiongnu have harassed us repeatedly. In the third year of Minle, Longge Yida crossed Mount Ronghua into the Central Plains, burning, killing, and plundering for half a month—how many did he kill? Over a hundred thousand! In the sixteenth year of Zhuwu, Jurchen ginseng merchants used selling ginseng as a pretense to bring troops into Jiahua City, massacring the city for half a month with not one elderly, weak, woman, or child escaping. In the twenty-seventh year of Hongxi, grassland Mongols united with Xiongnu to jointly attack the garrison post at Huarong Path, slaughtering over 2,800 of our Great Chu soldiers. Lord Shi Nudan, do you want this official to continue counting?”
Shi Nudan’s face turned pale. Without giving him a chance to speak, Qing Xia continued in a deep voice, “Which Xiongnu attack didn’t involve burning, killing, plundering, and massacring civilians? Do you think only you officials can set fires while we common people can’t even light lamps? Moreover, this military expedition was also because the Xiongnu interfered in our internal affairs. You provoked first, we retaliated after—this is natural justice. What’s wrong with that?”
Shi Nudan was rendered speechless by her rebuke. After a long while, he mumbled, “At that time, at that time Huarong Path was still Eastern Qi territory.”
“That makes no difference,” Qing Xia raised an eyebrow and said in a deep voice, “Since ancient times, Eastern Qi has been a vassal state of Great Chu. Duke Qi Xian who founded the nation was a subordinate of our Great Chu ancestors. Your invasion of Eastern Qi was an offense against Great Chu, especially now that Great Chu has recovered Eastern Qi—we cannot tolerate others trampling on it!”
“However, these are all old matters after all,” Qing Xia’s tone suddenly turned gentle as she picked up a cup of mare’s milk wine and said slowly, “This official came today for the people of both our peoples. Previous grudges should be wiped clean. The Xiongnu border Xichuan and Northern Qin—the three sides have fought for over a thousand years as sworn enemies, but there’s no great enmity with Great Chu. Furthermore, establishing trade is mutually beneficial. With Great Chu’s economic support, the grassland heroes won’t need to bow to enemies like Yan Hui anymore.”
Shi Nudan’s face paled. After thinking, he said calmly, “The condition for Great Chu establishing trade with us is that we become enemies with Xichuan?”
“I said no such thing,” Qing Xia chuckled and said, “Who the Xiongnu befriend or make enemies of is none of our concern. What we want is only Huarong’s stability, only the cattle and horses beyond the frontier, only Great Chu’s economic prosperity. It’s just that Great Khan Longge is a descendant of the Golden Family with eagle’s blood flowing in his veins. If he has thoughts of contending for supremacy in the northern territories, Great Chu would be pleased to see it happen.”