Chapter 385: Chapter 25: Phoenix Returns Home
Aleta’s face was unsettled, her heart filled with suspicion and doubt. The Tartar acted so "recklessly," wasn’t it simply because they relied on the old alliance between their ancestors and the founding Emperor of Great Chu!
Initially, their ancestors didn’t believe it, but over the span of more than a hundred and fifty years, no matter how they provoked, Great Chu had never truly exterminated the Tartars, which only bolstered their confidence.
But what if a "renegade" Emperor of Great Chu emerged! Observing the current Emperor of Great Chu, he indeed does not tread the usual path!
However...
"Would Great Chu really withdraw the troops just by overthrowing Batraj?"
Aleta truly grew up in Great Chu, learning its culture as a Tartar. He wasn’t as simple-minded as his compatriots.
Qin Miao shrugged, "No!"
Aleta’s expression changed immediately, "Are you playing with me?"
"Please, Prince Yin, calm your anger. I have not lived enough yet, and would not joke at this time!
Prince Ke promised that as long as Batraj is overthrown and the Tartars surrender to Great Chu, becoming vassals, someone would suggest to the Emperor that Great Chu should demonstrate the authority of a Celestial Country, and perhaps you might become the next Batraj, with Great Chu supporting your ascent.
However, to avoid the outcome of a farmer and a snake, the Tartar Royal Family and some nobles should head to Great Chu as hostages."
Aleta was born, raised, and married in Great Chu. Although recognized as the noble Prince Yin, the Tartar Royal Family looked down upon him. His brothers and sons were sent as hostages to Shangjing, leaving him with little sense of belonging to the Tartar Royal Family.
Speaking of which, his ancestor was merely an exiled member of the Tartar Royal Family, and this included a segment of Tartar secret history.
Aleta’s ancestor’s background was much like that Tartar Prince who became a sworn brother to the founding Emperor of Great Chu. Both were mixed-blood princes born of a Tartar Khan and a Jiangnan singer.
Only that Tartar Prince’s mother was the beloved of his father’s life and was protected by him, sent to live in the Han Land since childhood.
Not only did he hide his identity and follow great scholars to study, but he also made a group of friends, traveled with his insightful sworn brother, greatly broadening his horizons, and eventually returned to the Tartars to inherit the khan position.
But Aleta’s ancestor was initially considered a fatherless bastard, not recognized back into the royal family until he grew more and more to resemble the Great Khan of that time at around ten years old, bestowed the title of Prince, moving from the filthy stables into the Royal Palace.
Yet such good days lasted only a few years until his father passed away, and his half-brother ascended to the khan position, rendering this prince’s situation precarious.
Coincidentally, at that time, the Tartars and Great Chu went to war, capturing a batch of Great Chu soldiers.
The Tartars were not without smart people, and someone thought of the concept of switching flowers to replace impersonations, planning to have someone infiltrate and replace another in Great Chu.
Success would naturally be good, and failure regrettable.
At this point, Aleta’s ancestor, of half-Han blood and not welcomed by the Tartar Royal Family, easy to control with a wife and son recently acquired, entered the vision of the group.
Reportedly, Aleta’s ancestor also contemplated straightforwardly siding with Great Chu, but his wife and son were hostages in Shangjing. After marrying and taking concubines in Great Chu, he discovered that these women could not bear him children.
Hiring a renowned physician he learned he had been poisoned, and without an antidote, his son in Shangjing was his only descendant.
Thus, the Aleta royal branch not only felt no allegiance to the Tartars but even harbored ancestral resentment towards the royal family direct line. However, with poison in their blood, to bear descendants, they needed the royal secret medicine.
No man doesn’t care about heirs, and Aleta was no exception.
If he could truly ascend as the Great Khan, he would send those damned royal members as hostages to Great Chu to extort the old retainers for the antidote.
If Qin Miao knew Aleta’s tragic and melodramatic lineage history, she might have shed tears of sympathy for them. Alas, these affairs were Tartar Royal Family secrets, unbeknownst to outsiders.
Watching Aleta’s shifting expressions, Qin Miao assumed he was still wrestling with the kill-daughter vendetta against Prince Ke and decided to drop another potent piece of information on him.
Seeing her intent expression, she said meaningfully, "You’ve been in Great Chu for so many years, you should know there’s a saying, ’A gentleman takes his revenge even after ten years.’"
This statement by Qin Miao seemed nonsensical, but Aleta miraculously understood it, for she referred to the unresolved enmity between him and Prince Ke.
He looked oddly at Qin Miao. Wasn’t she in Prince Ke’s faction? Why did she, after delivering his message, now utter such substantial words?
"I remember Duke Zhen’s Mansion doesn’t involve itself in the infighting among the princes, right?"
Hearing this, Qin Miao’s complexion changed, "I am now the Tartar Queen, the Great Chu Princess Yonghe, no longer a girl of Duke Zhen’s Mansion."
...
As the Tartar suffered continuous defeats, the atmosphere in Shangjing grew increasingly heavy, with more and more unfavorable remarks against Batraj.
In Tartary, the Bo’er Tiechi Na family is revered as "Children of the Gods" for being direct descendants of the Grey Wolf and White Deer, chosen as the royal family after the founding of Tartary.
But in reality, the Great Khan and even the royal family were more like symbolic mascots.
The actual power lay with the chiefs of the clans.
In essence, the Tartars practiced a constitutional monarchy, where the council held a position markedly higher than the monarch.
This is why, back then, when the old Great Khan wanted to quickly ransom his beloved youngest son, the faction of the Eldest Prince managed to delay it repeatedly.
Now, as the clan chiefs grew more disappointed with Batraj, especially after receiving reports from their subordinates that the Great Khan, citing the reason "a noble son should stay away from the danger," resolutely returned to Shangjing despite the low morale, their disappointment peaked.
As the Great Chu Army breached another clan, only five hundred miles from Shangjing, the thirteen major Tartar clans (originally fifteen, but those of Batraj and Bashahan divided themselves due to internal strife, no wonder he’s the grandson who wronged his elders!) convened a council.
Ultimately, with the High Priest, clan chiefs, royal members, and elders, the divine order to depose Batraj from the khan position was issued, deciding to hand Batraj over to the Emperor of Great Chu for punishment.
Since a new Great Khan had yet to be chosen, it fell to Prince Yin to continue managing affairs.
These people confidently believed they had grasped Aleta’s weakness, assuming he would, like his ancestor, toil away selflessly for Tartary, not daring to betray.
Unaware that even a cornered rabbit will bite, let alone that Aleta was a venomous snake moving secretly in the shadows.
Though Qin Miao was Batraj’s Queen, due to being the Great Chu Princess, she was merely imprisoned in Qiu Huang Palace, well-fed and well-clothed.
One must know, Tartary had customs of father-to-son and brother succession. After Batraj’s death, the new Khan could fully assume this beautiful Great Chu Princess as they continued the political marriage with Great Chu.
Of course, even if Qin Miao was not the Queen, not the Great Chu Princess, based on her beauty alone, many would wish to bow to her.
Yet Qin Miao demonstrated an unyielding affection for Batraj, setting Qiu Huang Palace ablaze on a high, dark night.
It’s said that night the fire was sky-high, with Princess Yonghe, in a red dress, standing atop a high roof, singing loudly, before leaping into the flames.
O phoenix, O phoenix, return to your homeland, roam the four seas to find your mate...
