The carriage made a sound, the three heating pipes around the cart's body released white steam. The door opened from the inside. Shen Yi stepped out first.

Shen Yi breathed out white smoke and said to the person inside the cart: "I think you shouldn't get off here, let people open the gate and drive directly in. It's too cold out."

The person inside — Gu Yun — made a sound in agreement, his face seemed very tired, but his spirit seemed to be alright. He instructed the driver: "Go open up the gate."

The driver followed his order and ran out. Shen Yi stood still and asked: "Did the headache subside?"

Gu Yun lazily dragged out his response: "It did, killing a few more Jia Lai's won't be a problem."

Shen Yi: "What did His Majesty summon you into the palace for? I heard that the Heavenly Wolf Sect sent their ambassador?"

"The crippled old man dared to send his request, almost smeared his own snot on it. He said that they will increase the annual amount of Ziliujin tribute by ten percent, pleaded the Emperor to pardon his son that is 'young and bashful', still 'ignorant' and begged to release him, the old man is willing to take his son's place and come over to be Great Liang's prisoner in his stead."

Gu Yun's mood was not good, the words coming from his mouth weren't pleasant to hear either: "Old bastard, birthed seven or eight children already, can this still be counted as being 'young and ignorant'? Is it that the dried dirt and stone outside of the border are no good, thus the seedlings are also growing slowly?"

Shen Yi frowned: "You did not explode right in the middle of the court session, did you?"

"Since when do I have such a bad temper? But if I just stood still, then the Minister of Revenue who is turning mad from poverty would agree on the spot already." Gu Yun said coldly, then softened his voice and sighed: "The Imperial Court is filled with countless intellectuals - yet no one knew what 'releasing the tiger back to its mountain' means."

The Heavy Armor units that were used in attacking Yanhui Town all had explosives equipped to the fronts of their chests. That was the typical design of the Westerners.

The bones of the Central Plains people were naturally thinner, even the soldiers in the army were generally not so sturdy. Their Heavy Armor design also prioritized lightness and agility, and usually, did not play 'breaking boulders with one's chest' on the battlefield.

There was absolutely no doubt that the force standing behind, and assisting Jia Lai Yinghuo, was the foreign Westerners who had always craved Great Liang's territories.

Gu Yun lowered his eyes and looked at the thin sheen of snow that was slightly reflective on the ground and whispered: "Surrounding the home country are nothing but tigers and wolves."