CHAPTER 523: CHAPTER 280: LOOKING DOWN ON THE EMPEROR OF GREAT ZHOU

In the hostel, Hu Yanping’s face was very unpleasant.

"Wuwei, didn’t you say the Emperor of Great Zhou would make us wait three days before granting us an audience? It’s already the fourth day, and the Emperor hasn’t summoned us yet?"

For these four days, Hu Yanping and his group have been stuck in the hostel, unable to go anywhere. It’s not that they don’t want to go out, but the Great Zhou soldiers guarding around the hostel won’t let them.

The reason given by Great Zhou is that they fear the envoys might frighten the citizens, and even more so, harm them, especially since they had already intimidated the citizens upon entering the capital.

Of course, Yitu and the others could not accept being under house arrest in the hostel. They attempted to break out but were forcibly pushed back by the soldiers of Great Zhou.

Surrounding the hostel are not only soldiers from Great Zhou but also archers. If Yitu and his group were to attempt to force their way out, they would be shot into a sieve by the archers.

"Do these Great Zhou people take us for prisoners?" Yitu said angrily, "How dare the Great Zhou treat us like this?!"

Wuwei couldn’t be bothered with Yitu. Instead, he looked at Hu Yanping and said, "The reason Great Zhou hasn’t summoned us is simple."

Hu Yanping raised his eyebrows and asked, "What reason?"

"I mentioned before that the Emperor of Great Zhou is angry," Wuwei said coolly. "Four days have passed without a summon, which means the Emperor is still angry."

Yitu stood up abruptly and solemnly bowed to Hu Yanping, saying seriously, "Left Chief Household, we should return to the Xiongnu immediately, ask the Chanyu to lead troops southward to flatten Great Zhou, and kill the Emperor of Great Zhou!"

Others immediately agreed and supported Yitu’s words: "Flatten Great Zhou, kill the Emperor of Great Zhou!"

Hu Yanping sternly rebuked them: "Shut up! Do you want the Great Zhou people to kill us now?" Hu Yanping now deeply regretted agreeing to bring Yitu to Great Zhou.

Wuwei pointed at the door and said to them, "Thousand Riders Commander, if you have the guts, go out there and shout at the Great Zhou soldiers guarding the hostel."

"Wuwei, you..."

"Shut your mouth!" Hu Yanping’s face was extremely gloomy, and his tone was full of warning, "Don’t speak again."

Seeing Hu Yanping angry, Yitu could only shut his mouth, not daring to speak anymore, though his expression remained defiant.

Hu Yanping turned his gaze to Wuwei, his expression calm as he asked, "The Emperor of Great Zhou won’t keep refusing to see us, right?"

Wuwei replied, "If we do nothing, the Emperor of Great Zhou certainly won’t see us."

"Does the Emperor of Great Zhou intend to imprison us for life?" Hu Yanping asked incredulously.

"No, he doesn’t,"

Hearing this, Hu Yanping breathed a slight sigh of relief, but soon his heart tensed up again.

"The Emperor of Great Zhou will only hold us for a while, but after that, we would certainly die."

"What?" Hu Yanping’s face changed dramatically as he exclaimed, "The Emperor of Great Zhou would kill us?"

Wuwei nodded and said, "That’s right."

"Isn’t the Emperor of Great Zhou afraid that the Chanyu would seek justice if he kills us?" Hu Yanping doubted Wuwei’s words. "Is he not afraid of the Xiongnu’s Iron Cavalry?"

"Left Chief Household, haven’t you noticed that the Great Zhou people aren’t afraid of us at all these days?" Wuwei pointed out the window and said, "All those Great Zhou people outside have surrounded us."

Like Yitu, deep down, Hu Yanping couldn’t believe that Great Zhou dared to confront them. He also believed that the Great Zhou people feared them.

Seeing Hu Yanping remain silent, Wuwei continued, "Left Chief Household, when the time comes, you as an envoy won’t be able to return to the grasslands either."

Hu Yanping said coldly, "But I’m an envoy. How dare the Emperor of Great Zhou?"

"After killing us, the Emperor of Great Zhou can tell the Chanyu that he already sent us on our way back, but whether or not we made it safely or encountered accidents on the way back has nothing to do with Great Zhou," Wuwei said indifferently. "Aren’t such things quite common?"

Hu Yanping didn’t speak.

"The armed Great Zhou soldiers and archers outside speak volumes already," Wuwei’s lips curled into a mocking smile. "If you still think Great Zhou won’t do anything to us, there’s only one end for us, and that’s death."

The word "death" startled Hu Yanping. He didn’t come to Great Zhou to die.

"Wuwei, what do you think we should do?"

"I said before, we must request an audience with the Emperor of Great Zhou. There is no other way," Wuwei said, "If we don’t request an audience, the outcome I mentioned will certainly follow."

Hu Yanping remained silent.

Wuwei couldn’t be bothered to waste more words with them. He stood up and said, "I don’t want to die in Great Zhou. If tomorrow you, Left Chief Household, still don’t go to request an audience with the Emperor, I will go on behalf of myself. If I successfully leave Great Zhou, you all..." Wuwei looked coldly at Hu Yanping and Yitu, "will die in Great Zhou!" Finished speaking, he turned and left Hu Yanping’s room.

Just as Wuwei reached the door, prepared to open it, Hu Yanping called out to him: "You will join me tomorrow in requesting an audience with the Emperor of Great Zhou." He couldn’t die here in Great Zhou!

Hearing this, Yitu and the others couldn’t believe it and shouted, "Left Chief Household!" How could they, the Xiongnu, request an audience with the Emperor of Great Zhou?

Hu Yanping gave them a cold look, so frightened that they dared not speak again.

Wuwei turned around and looked at Hu Yanping, "Alright."

The next day, after the morning court, the Emperor received the news that the Xiongnu envoys were requesting an audience.

"I thought they would keep waiting," the Emperor said with a sneer, "Unexpectedly, there is someone among the Xiongnu who knows the times."

Prime Minister He and Grandmaster Liu said nothing.

"Alas..." the Emperor sighed lightly, a tone of regret, "What a pity."

Prime Minister He spoke up, "Your Majesty, since the Xiongnu are requesting an audience, you should summon them."

"No." The Emperor shook his finger and said, "If they ask for an audience, and I immediately see them, won’t it make me seem too accessible? I’m not someone anyone can casually request to see."

Grandmaster Liu had guessed the Emperor’s thought, and he asked, expressionless, "When do you plan to see them?"

"Let them ask a few more times." The Emperor said seriously, "These couple of days, I’m very busy and have no time for them."

"Your Majesty, even if you don’t see them, Prince Dai should still meet them," Prime Minister He suggested, "Whether we go to war with the Xiongnu or not, we can’t keep leaving them in the cold."

The Emperor nodded and said, "Then let Prince Dai see them."

Hu Yanping thought the request for an audience would allow them to be granted a meeting with the Emperor, but unexpectedly, it was the Emperor’s son, Prince Dai, whom they met.

Wuwei had long anticipated this situation.

Although Prince Dai came to meet Hu Yanping and his party, he was not very polite, nor did he chat with them for long. He was just there to inform them that the Emperor was busy over the next few days and had no time to see them, so they should continue to wait.

Naturally, Hu Yanping was dissatisfied with this result, but he couldn’t show it. After Prince Dai left, Hu Yanping burst into a rage.

He questioned Wuwei why, even after their proactive request, the Emperor of Great Zhou was still unwilling to see them.

Wuwei told him simply that they need to ask multiple times before the Emperor of Great Zhou would be willing to meet them.

Although Hu Yanping had never been to Great Zhou before, he had previously represented the Xiongnu to visit other countries in the Western Regions, where he was treated as an honored guest and shown great respect. In the Xiongnu Royal Court, his status was high and he was respected, and he had never been treated so rudely in his decades of life.

Since coming to Great Zhou, they had been continuously ignored, which made Hu Yanping very angry, but there was nothing he could do. When under another’s roof, one should bow one’s head. If he wished to leave Great Zhou alive, he had to meet the Emperor of Great Zhou.

Deep down, Hu Yanping still believed that the people of Great Zhou feared them and dared not truly go to war. It seemed to him that the actions of Great Zhou were merely to scare them. Now, it appeared that the people of Great Zhou were not bluffing, but truly... unafraid of them!

"Why aren’t the people of Great Zhou afraid of us?" Throughout history, the people of the Central Plains have always feared the Xiongnu. Those Central Plains Dynasties that dared to confront them were trampled by their Iron Cavalry. Are the people of Great Zhou not afraid of their Iron Cavalry?

"Left Chief Household, before coming to Great Zhou, you must have heard stories about the Emperor of Great Zhou," Wuwei continued without waiting for Hu Yanping’s response, "The current Emperor of Great Zhou has walked out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood. Before establishing Great Zhou, he fought countless battles, both big and small. Do you think such a battle-hardened person would fear us?"

Before coming to Great Zhou, Hu Yanping had known some things about the Emperor of Great Zhou, but had not taken them to heart. This was because, deep down, he looked down on the Emperor of Great Zhou.

"If you properly understand the Emperor of Great Zhou, you would find he is an extraordinary person, different from past emperors. To put it bluntly, even the battles fought by the Chanyu are less numerous than his," Wuwei sneered, "If you continue to underestimate him, the consequences will be beyond your bearing."

"What should we do next, keep petitioning for an audience?"

"We can only keep petitioning, until the Emperor of Great Zhou grants us a meeting."

Hu Yanping sighed deeply in resignation, "It seems that’s our only option."

In the following days, Hu Yanping and Wuwei continued their requests and finally were granted an audience with the Emperor of Great Zhou.

On the eighth day since they arrived in Great Zhou, they finally met the Emperor.

The Emperor summoned Hu Yanping and his group directly in the morning court.

The first glance Hu Yanping took of the Emperor sent a chill down his spine. The immense authority exuded from the Emperor severely intimidated him, making his legs slightly weak, unconsciously kneeling on the ground.

He had never felt his legs go weak even when meeting the new Modu Chanyu.

The Emperor of Great Zhou is a very difficult person to deal with!