When Jiang Yuqing brought in the washbasin, she saw that the Mingyang Princess was smiling. She asked, "Your Highness, what are you laughing about?"
The Mingyang Princess looked out at the bright tent outside and said, "Look how nice the sun is outside!"
Jiang Yuqing glanced up and laughed, "Indeed it’s quite nice. Did you sleep well last night?"
The Mingyang Princess said, “Extremely well, I haven't slept this soundly for a long time.”
“That’s good to hear. Please get up first to wash up, the generals are still waiting to pay their respects to you.”
“I’m troubling you.”
The Mingyang Princess got dressed by herself and washed up skillfully with the items provided. Jiang Yuqing brought over the food and the two ate breakfast together.
It was just simple white rice porridge and pickled vegetables, but the Mingyang Princess ate with great relish. She said, "I haven't eaten my homeland's food for many years. This taste really makes me nostalgic."
Jiang Yuqing smiled slightly, "Have some more if you like it. There’s more in the kitchen if it’s not enough."
The Mingyang Princess ate two whole bowls in one go before putting down her bowl and chopsticks and asked, "How come I don't see A Yan?"
While clearing up the bowls and chopsticks, Jiang Yuqing said, "He was discussing affairs with the generals and will come over after the meal."
Just as she spoke, the tent curtains were lifted, and a tall and sturdy figure walked in against the light. It was Jing Yan, "Elder sister, have you eaten well?"
The Mingyang Princess laughed and said, "Eaten well! Has younger brother finished conferring?"
"Yes. The generals are waiting outside to pay their respects to you. Does elder sister want to meet them?"
"Of course, let them in!"
Jing Yan called out to the people outside. A few burly men immediately walked in, dressed in armor. They were the generals who led the troops this time.
They paid their respects to the Mingyang Princess with a kneeling salute, shouting in unison, "We pay our respects to the Princess. The Princess has suffered."
The Mingyang Princess helped them up, "The generals need not stand on ceremony. Please rise quickly."
After exchanging pleasantries for a while and seeing that it was getting late, they bid farewell to the Mingyang Princess.
It was time to settle the score with Mou Ru.
The war drums rumbled as the army swiftly formed battle formations.
The city walls of the Tubo Royal Court were much taller and sturdier than other places.
It was still alright to blast open the gates with the Thunder Bombs, but it would probably be ineffective trying to blast over such high walls.
But that was no trouble for the army. Following General Yuan Yun’s order, they brought over the trebuchets obtained along the way.
With these devices, just ignite a pile of Thunder Bombs and fling them upwards, it would be like blossoming fireworks. Even if the walls were thirty feet taller, there was nothing to fear.
With the battle formations in place, a general rode forward to issue a challenge, “Mou Ru, get your ass out here, you millennium old bastard turtle!
If you know better, open the damn city gates right now and let me in. I may even leave your corpse intact! Otherwise I will chop you into ten thousand pieces!”
He cursed out a whole string of insults, no idea if they understood any of it, probably not.
But that didn’t stop them from shooting arrows from the city walls, straight at General Ye’s face.
Yet he didn’t even flinch, just lightly flicked his heavy crescent blade weighing several dozen catties upwards, deflecting the arrow away.
The general spat curses at the city wall, but they didn’t even respond with half a word. It really pissed him off.
He asked General Yuan Yun, “General, let’s attack the city directly! It looks like this old Mou Ru has made up his mind to hide like a turtle.”
Just then, someone on the city wall shouted in clumsy Da Xia language, “Wait! Look who this is! Don't you people want your princess anymore?”
The generals looked up to see Mou Ru leading several Tubo soldiers, pushing forward a disheveled woman onto the top of the city wall.
The woman looked confused and quite good-looking, resembling the Mingyang Princess somewhat.
If they didn’t know the real princess was in their camp, perhaps they might have really been fooled.
Jiang Yuqing sat behind the battle lines waiting to receive the wounded, but her spiritual senses were locked onto the battle situation at all times. Seeing this, she flicked her wrist lightly and withdrew the strand of spiritual power from the paper effigy.
Without the spiritual power to sustain it, the illusion instantly collapsed.
So the Tubo soldiers watched wide-eyed as a living princess before them turned into a light paper cutout. Their worldview was utterly shattered.
They thought they had encountered an evil spirit, scaring them witless as they tumbled and crawled wildly off the city wall, temporarily forgetting they were still on the battlefield.
Even Mou Ru was stunned speechless by the sudden twist.
Coming to his senses, he immediately erupted into mad curses, “What the hell is going on here? How can she be a fake! Where has Mingyang Princess gone?” But no one could answer him.
Seeing the dramatic turn of events, the Da Xia generals nearly laughed themselves into stomach cramps.
The challenging general yelled in his coarse voice, “This is your so-called princess?
Don't think you can just take a paper cutout, randomly paint on some eyes and nose, put it in clothes and call it a princess! Our princess was already rescued by His Highness the Prince!”
General Yuan Yun was too lazy to bother with more nonsense. He directly ordered, “Brothers, get ready. Give them the most dazzling firework show ever. Attack the city!”
At his third drum beat, the order rang out, “Bombardiers get ready! Trebuchets get ready! Load ammunition! Light fuses! Fire at will!”
At the order, countless Thunder Bombs blossomed like heavenly maidens scattering flowers as they flew at the city walls opposite.
In just one volley, the pair of heavy-looking gates were blasted open with an earth-shattering, deafening explosion.
A few more rounds of Thunder Bombs later, a huge hole was blasted into the thick city walls.
Flames and thick smoke shot into the sky everywhere as explosions kept thundering. Mixed in were the wretched cries of Tubo soldiers.
Next, the war drums rumbled once more. Holding their weapons high, the generals let out a battle cry, “Brave sons of Da Xia, charge! Avenge our princess!”
The 200 thousand strong army was whipped into a frenzy as they surged wildly through the collapsed gates and blasted wall openings like a tidal wave, the air rent with their roars. In a flash, the battlefield was filled with chaos.
The Tubo soldiers had already lost their nerve from the bombardment.
Seeing the Da Xia troops lunging at them now like fierce tigers, their courage deserted them utterly as they fled, abandoning armor and gear. They bitterly regretted their parents didn’t bless them with more than two legs!
The slower ones were cut down in a single stroke by the Da Xia soldiers. The smarter ones threw their weapons aside as they kneeled and surrendered.
Hearing General Yuan Yun’s loud order to capture and not kill those who surrendered, they swiftly tossed their weapons aside and knelt down begging for mercy.
Better alive than dying for no reason! If they can’t win, then surrender! At least they would still keep their lives, better than losing them for that traitor king unknowingly.
Mou Ru was a savage traitor to begin with, why should they die for him?
The Da Xia army swept across the battlefield. The so-called 50 thousand strong Tubo Royal Court army didn’t last an hour before being completely captured.
The half-dead Mou Ru with his leg and an eye blown off from the explosions was also captured on the spot, barely clinging onto a thread of life.
Since he was already useless in such a state, General Yuan Yun decisively ended his life.
With the traitor king dead, what else was there to fight for?
The Da Xia army mopped up the remaining enemies. Jing Yan planted Da Xia’s dragon flag on the highest point of the Tubo royal palace as he raised both arms and shouted, “From today onwards, Tubo belongs to Da Xia!”
Deafening cheers came from below, “Ah! We've won! Da Xia, Da Xia, Da Xia!”
As she dressed the wounds of injured soldiers, Jiang Yuqing heard the cheering loud as thunder and the corners of her lips behind her mask turned up slightly before she lowered her head to continue her task.
With the dust settled, when the Mingyang Princess once again set foot into the Tubo royal palace under the escort of Da Xia soldiers, a multitude of emotions welled up while taking in the familiar yet foreign sights.
From fifteen to thirty years old, the most beautiful years of her life were all buried here.
Over those fifteen years, her attendants, wet nurses, and the ladies by her side, and finally her nominal husband and son, left her one by one.
In the end, only she was left, living a lonely, cold existence on the high plateau.
In her heart there was only endless grievances with no one to air them to, and longing for her homeland.
Jiang Yuqing walked over and asked, “Princess, A Yan said they found the burial site of your late husband the regent and little prince. Would you like to go offer sacrifices?”
The Mingyang Princess shook her head coldly: "No need. Zanbu has several concubines, although I am the Grand Princess of Da Xia and my status is respected, he only respects me but does not love me. He even has children, but they are not mine."
Jiang Yuqing was extremely surprised: "How could that be?"
The Mingyang Princess let out a cold laugh: "My children were killed as soon as they were born, and replaced with the children of another concubine.
The Tubo people do not need a child with Da Xia blood to inherit this land.
They think I don't know, but I know everything.
I don't expose it in order to maintain this superficial peace.
Also, I need this child to consolidate my position."
Jiang Yuqing hugged her sympathetically.
She did not know what words could comfort this pitiful woman, she could only hold her this way, hoping to give her a little warmth.
She really is too strong and has suffered too much.
If it were her, after living in such a cruel and oppressive environment for years, she could not guarantee that she would not go crazy.
Outside, flurries of heavy snow drifted down at some point, and the world was bleak.
The falling snow covered the ground, concealing all the sins. By next spring when the ice melts and snow thaws, flowers bloom, perhaps everything will be different.
Conquering Tubo is just the beginning. To completely recover this land, there is still much to be done afterwards.
Jing Yan has been busy early to late, making arrangements in all aspects. Even the Da Xia new year was spent here.
Jiang Yuqing also does not understand much about these matters and does not dare to interfere recklessly.
She only told him what little she knew from her previous life about ethnic integration and assimilation. The specifics still depend on him.
Another half month passed. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, Lantern Festival, in the twenty-seventh year of Xia Jing, Jing Yan finally received a reply from the court.
Tubo was officially renamed "Tubo Protectorate".
Thus, Tubo was incorporated into the territory of Da Xia.
With everything settled, Jing Yan left a general with five thousand soldiers to garrison here, and the main force set off to return to court on the twentieth day of the first month.
On the day they departed on the return journey, the Mingyang Princess took one last look at the city that had trapped her for fifteen years, and the rolling snow-capped mountains in the distance. She was silent for a long time.
Jing Yan walked over to stand beside her and took her hand. "Sister, we're going home!"
