Chapter 68: The True and False Golden Ambassadors

  "What? Zhong Ziyi actually knows he's a fake, how is this possible?" Yue Yun was shocked in her heart.

  Standing beside him, Zhao Yao and Li Yu Rong were even more frightened, their faces as pale as earth. Fortunately, Zhong Zi Yi was now focusing all his attention on Yue Yun, and didn't notice the looks on their faces.

  Yue Yunqiang calmly retorted, "What makes the Eldest Young Master say such a thing? I am an aide under the ninth prince of the Jin kingdom, I don't know how the Eldest Young Master thinks I'm an imposter?"

  "What? You're a staff member under the 9th King's command?" Zhong Ziyi's expression changed to one of surprise upon hearing this.

  "Your Excellency, I was just listening to what Special Envoy Yao said. He is a staff member of the Ninth Prince and has brought him here to report."

  Zhong Ziyi shook his head, the fat on his face jiggling with the motion. After a moment, he narrowed his eyes and said: "Baiyuan, go invite Ulin Dalai to come over! Ask him what's going on? Two envoys arrived at once?"

  Yue Yun seemed to have understood that the feeling was that a golden national envoy had already arrived before him, which is why Zhong Ziyi was not good to him. He must think that there is only one envoy of the Golden State, and suddenly another envoy appears, so he naturally thinks that he is fake.

  But now it seems that after reporting to Wan Zongmin, he hesitated and was afraid of making a mistake. I guess next will be asking myself and that Ulin Dalai envoy to confront each other face-to-face.

  Yue Yun was praying in her heart at this time, hoping that the Jin State envoy would not recognize herself, otherwise, if she called out "Yue Yun", everything would be over.

  Zhao Yao was originally timid, and he managed to hold on until now with the help of acting. However, at this moment, standing in the hall, his legs were shaking uncontrollably.

  Li Yurou was even more frightened, her pretty face turned pale, biting her cherry lips tightly, and she didn't say a word.

  After a while, Baiyuan Fang brought in a middle-aged man wearing a round-necked and narrow-sleeved brocade shirt with a leather belt around his waist and two shiny small braids on his head. Yue Yun looked closely and saw that the man was about thirty years old, with an eight-character beard and a pair of small eyes narrowed into a line, but his expression was very unruly.

  As soon as he walked into the hall, he shouted: "Zhong Ziyi, why did you wake up a certain family so early? Didn't we agree to announce your positions in the afternoon?" His Chinese was quite fluent, but his tone sounded a bit strange.

  Zhong Ziyi's face trembled with fat, but he smiled and said: "Wulin Dalai, another person has arrived, claiming to be an envoy of the Golden Nation, so I thought I'd invite you out to meet him!"

  "Oh?" Wu Lin Da replied, only then noticing Yue Yun and others standing in the hall.

  He carefully sized up Yue Yun and the others before asking, "Which one of you claims to be an envoy of my Great Jin Country?"

  Yue Yun's heart was secretly delighted, thinking that he might be saved. Because Wu Lin'de was a civil official and had never been to the front line to fight, so it was unlikely that he would recognize him. Moreover, the most important thing was: he knew what kind of person Wu Lin'de was. This made his heart even more at ease.

  To say, this Wulinxiaodale himself has no fame in history, but he has a sister who is very famous.

  His sister was the wife of Wanyan Yong, the fifth emperor of Jin Dynasty, Wulinda. The two were married in early 1140. Due to her intelligence and beauty, she had a good reputation in Jin Dynasty, so in 1153, she was favored by Emperor Wanyan Liang at that time, who wanted to summon her into the palace as his concubine. She refused to submit and killed herself on the way to preserve her chastity. This made Wanyan Yong determined to find an opportunity to rebel against Wanyan Liang.

  Later, Wanyan Yong also found the opportunity and launched a coup in 1161 when Wanyan Liang was on an expedition against Southern Song. He became the fifth emperor of Jin, later known as Emperor Xizong of Jin.

  Yue Yun immediately pretended to be very surprised, rushed over and gave Wu Lin Daren a bear hug, then loudly said: "Wu Lin Daren, don't you remember me? I'm Yao Yuan, the aide of the 9th King! At the beginning of the year, when your sister and Wanyan Yong General got married in Shangjing, I saw you at the banquet with the 9th King!"

  Wu Lin Da actually had no impression of Yue Yun, but his sister did marry Wan Yan Yong at the beginning of this year. However, with so many people present, he only knew that Wan Yan Zong Min was there, but he couldn't remember which staff members were present or not.

  Wu Lin Da Er then had to vaguely say: "It seems like there is such a thing. However, my memory has never been very good, and I've forgotten your name."

  He was secretly shocked in his heart, this Han person was so young and had become the staff of the Ninth King, and he looked handsome, presumably with real talent and learning, and his future prospects would be boundless.

  He paused for a moment before asking: "Lord Yao, I don't know what the Ninth King has sent you here for. Shouldn't the king be with Liang Gong at Suzhou City now?"

  Yue Yun was even more determined at this time. It seemed that Wu Lin didn't even understand the battle of Chu State, so it wouldn't be a problem to deceive him.

  At this time, he did not know that the war in Chuzhou was actually launched by Wanyan Zongmin, Wanyan Liang and Xishi Zhengning on their own initiative, so naturally other Jurchen people in other places were unaware of it.

  "Alas, it was General Xieli who spoke a few words too many in front of the Prince, making him particularly concerned about the naval exercises and the recruitment of the Four Seas Help Righteous Army. This time, when the Prince inspected the front line, he found that our Jin Dynasty's water army is far inferior to the Song Dynasty's water force, so he wanted to understand the situation of the Four Seas Help in detail, to see if they really have the ability to help our Jin Dynasty train and build a powerful navy." Yue Yun sighed, showing an extremely reluctant attitude towards coming to this godforsaken place.

  Wu Lin Da Er believed it a bit more after hearing this, because Xi Shi Lie Zhi Ning indeed led the army to Xizhou half a month before he set out. It was normal for Yao Yuan to meet Xi Shi Lie Zhi Ning in Xizhou, and it was possible that he knew the secret of Xi Shi Lie Zhi Ning's arrival in Xizhou, which could be true if he was a staff member of Wan Yan Zong Min.

  He also sighed at this time: "Yes! We northerners don't even need to talk about naval battles, and many of us get seasick just sitting on a boat. I took the Beihai No. 1 ship from the Four Seas Society to come to this island yesterday, and I was so dizzy that I slept for a whole night before feeling slightly better. Did Lord Yao not get seasick?"

  "It's okay! It's okay!" Yue Yun laughed.

  Then the two chatted for a few more sentences, and Wulin heard that he had said everything about the situation in Xizhou City, and was already 70% convinced. He curiously asked: "Lord Yao, did King Wang entrust you with a letter to give to Clock Da's family?"

  "This is of course!" Yueshan only felt that his back was all cold sweat, if Wulin Daren asked a few more questions about Jin Guo and Jin Jun's situation earlier, he would have absolutely not been able to answer.

  Yue Yun took out the letter from her bosom and handed it over to Zhong Ziyi.

  Zhong Ziyi's attitude had undergone a great change at this time. With a respectful face, he took over the letter made by Li Yurou with both hands.

  He opened and looked at it, and was very excited in his heart. He hurriedly asked: "Does the Ninth King really intend to recommend me to command the navy of the Great Jin State?"

  Yue Yun listened and said with a straight face: "That depends on your level and achievements. My Da Jin will certainly make good use of people with talents, but as for those who deceive and cheat, I will not let them mix in the army to eat!"

  "Right! Right! This is what should be!" Zhong Ziyi took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from his fat face, then swore an oath to himself that he would not disappoint King Wang's high hopes, and would build a superior navy for the Great Jin, defeating the Song Dynasty's naval forces in one fell swoop.

  Wu Lin took over the letter paper and looked at its contents. He had seen Wan Yan Zongmin's handwriting before, and he felt that the handwriting was very similar, and the seal was also real. But this made him even more puzzled.

  Because the Jin army's naval force is now only in Lai State, and the commander of Lai State's naval force is Xu Wen, a former general of Qi who surrendered. If Zhong Ziyi, as fat as a ball, were to become the commander-in-chief of the Jin army's naval force, where would Xu Wen be placed? And Xu Wen is also a trusted confidant of Wanyan Zongbi.

  Is it that the Ninth Prince and Wanyan Zonghan are not in harmony with each other? Or is there a Grand Preceptor Wanyan Zonghan supporting the Ninth Prince from behind? The Ninth Prince therefore has such great audacity, to promote another surrendered general as Commander of the Navy.

  Wu Lin thought about it and felt that it was related to the internal struggle of the imperial court at home. In recent years, the Jin Dynasty's political situation has been chaotic, and last year the pro-peace faction's Wanyan Zongwang took power and dismissed Wuzong from his position. However, just a year later, this year at the beginning of the year, Wuzong joined forces with Wanyan Zonggan to launch a coup, killing or dismissing many high-ranking officials including Wanyan Zongwang. Now Wuzong is in control of the military, and Wanyan Zonggan is in charge of government affairs. On the surface, they are each responsible for their own duties, but it's hard to avoid some friction between them. It's better to stay away from these internal struggles among the imperial family members.

  Thinking of this, he naturally didn't dare to offend Yue Yun, the red man beside the Ninth King. The two of them suddenly became like old friends who had been reunited after a long time, chatting and laughing together.

  Zhong Ziyi saw that the two Jin State envoys had recognized each other, and immediately felt a sense of relief. He ordered the warships to withdraw back to the dock and instructed his men to take Li Yuru into custody, preparing to send someone else to negotiate with the Li family about the ransom and terms.

  Zhao Yao saw that this crisis had finally been resolved and heaved a sigh of relief. He then said he wanted to go back and see how San Dangjia's injury was, whether the person had woken up or not.

  But what he had in mind was to take the opportunity to go back and report the current situation to Yang Yu.

  Wu Lin answered that he was probably in a good mood, so he said he wanted to go to the Nanhai number to see how Zhou Lun, the three masters who had come to Qingzhou several times to contact him, were injured.

  Yue Yun heard this and thought it was just what he wanted. He also lied, saying that he still had some luggage on the boat and needed to go back to get it, so they could go together.

  The two envoys, one true and one false, sang the same tune, forcing Zhong Ziyi to take a stand as well, going with the two envoys to visit Zhou Lun. After all, the two foreign envoys were concerned about Zhou Lun's injuries, and he, as the elder brother, did not go to see his third brother, which was also unreasonable.

  Zhao Yao was overjoyed to see things develop to this point, and hastily excused himself to return to the ship to thoroughly clean it up in preparation for the arrival of the Grand Master and the two Golden Envoys.

  Zhong Ziyi didn't suspect anything else, waved his hand and let him go back.

  About half an hour later, the three of them walked towards the dock at the foot of the mountain under the protection of dozens of guards.