Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 347: Brutal Hands
Tana couldn't help but look at her husband beside her. She was so excited that she almost said something. But when she saw Zhu Shenzui sitting quietly with a calm and expressionless face, Tana suppressed her inner impulse.

"master!"

At this time, Wang Hai stood up and bowed to Zhu Shenzhui, saying, "This matter is of great importance. I beg you to think twice. Once a war breaks out, the tribe will suffer losses, and no one can guarantee victory. Moreover, we don't know whether the Khan's promise is valid. If the war goes badly, there may be troubles in the future..."

"What are you talking about?" Before Wang Hai could finish, the leader who had just clamored to kill Bu Shitu and replace him could not help but interrupt him, shouting: "Bu Shitu is insidious and cunning. He has secretly attacked us before. If you hadn't discovered the secret arrangement in time, the consequences would be unimaginable. You are the person involved in this matter, don't you understand Bu Shitu's plan? With Bu Shitu's personality, although he gave in afterwards and gave a barely acceptable response, how could Bu Shitu not bear a grudge after this happened?"

"In my opinion, Bu Shitu has been secretly planning to target our tribe, and will attack us sooner or later. In this case, sooner or later is the same, so why should we follow his steps? This time the Khan intends to raise an army to attack Bu Shitu, which is a great opportunity for us. With the Khan's will and our own troops as a backing, we will surely win. Can we go against the Khan's order and keep our troops in place? If we do so, not only will we offend the Khan, but Bu Shitu will not be grateful to us. On the contrary, Bu Shitu will definitely attack us after this matter is over. By then, without the Khan's support, we will have to rely on ourselves to deal with Bu Shitu? Isn't this a loss?"

As soon as the leader finished speaking, everyone else expressed their agreement, and even Lu Yisheng felt that what the leader said made sense.

They were not friends but rivals. The peace they expressed was actually a contradiction. There would inevitably be a war between the two. In this case, why not take this opportunity to attack Bu Shitu and risk offending the Khan by standing idly by? This choice was completely unwise.

Although the Mongols appear straightforward and rough, it would be a big mistake to think they are fools. Otherwise, they would not have established the largest empire in human history. This could not be achieved by the Mongolian cavalry alone. Without a bit of wisdom, such an achievement would be impossible.

Maybe ordinary Mongolian herdsmen were simple-minded, but as Mongolian nobles, especially those who could become leaders, none of them were fools. They also saw clearly the pros and cons, and they thought it was more cost-effective to take this opportunity to stand with Lin Danhan and fight against Bu Shitu. This would not only eliminate worries, but also strike at opponents to re-establish the tribe's position in Tumed, and there was even a great possibility of replacing it.

As for Wang Hai's warning, they didn't care at all. Besides, everyone knew what Wang Hai's identity was. In the eyes of these leaders, Wang Hai, who was equal to them and even had more power than them, was looked down upon by them, because Wang Hai was born a slave, not a noble. Wasn't he able to have what he had today because of his loyalty to his master? Moreover, they also felt that Zhu Shenzhui used Wang Hai as a puppet to control the military power of the tribe, and Wang Hai himself was still just a lowly slave.

Wang Hai looked a little angry. He certainly understood that he had always been looked down upon by them for his identity, but what made him angry now was not these people's rebuttal to him, but the fact that they simply ignored the concerns he raised, did not consider many possibilities at all, only saw the immediate benefits but did not realize the possible risks. If this was the case, once a war broke out, the tribe might be dragged into the vortex of war, and the consequences would be unpredictable.

More importantly, Wang Hai, like Zhu Shenzhui, did not trust Lindan Khan, because Lindan Khan had gone back on his words too many times. If this time was no exception, when the tribe and Bu Shitu officially went to war, and Lindan Khan did not send troops as promised and just sat on the sidelines to watch the fight, then the tribe would directly bear the strong pressure from Bu Shitu.

If they lose, the tribe will cease to exist, and all of them will become ghosts under Bu Shitu's knife. Even if they win, it will be a pyrrhic victory, and the tribe will suffer great losses. At that time, when Lin Danhan leads his troops to enter the Tumote grassland to clean up the mess, the tribe will have no resistance at all. At that time, it is possible that Lin Danhan will swallow up the tribe in one gulp, and these people will definitely not have a good ending.

"You think too simply!" Wang Hai could no longer sit still when he thought of this, and immediately refuted the leader: "Who do you think Bu Shitu is? He is the King of Shunyi, and he also owns Guihua City. There are more than tens of thousands of people under his command. Moreover, there are people in the Tumed tribe who support Bu Shitu, not to mention that he has the Kalachin and Yongshebu tribes behind him. Once they join forces, we are no match for them. How can we possibly defeat them?"

"As for the Khan, haha, our Khan is a smart man. How could he leave early if he was not absolutely sure? Don't you forget how the old Taiji died? Aren't the lessons of the Battle of Mobei profound enough? Burigude, you have experienced the Battle of Mobei. Isn't it enough to be sold once? Do you want to be sold again?"

"How dare you!" A leader's face suddenly changed, and he stood up and slammed the table. He bowed to Tana and Zhu Shenzhui and said, "Your Excellency Alia, Taiji and Lord Zhaluhuchi, your lowly slave Dari is so shameless that he dared to speak ill of the Khan. He is so bold! I suggest that Dari be dismissed from his position as a centurion, arrested and detained, and handed over to the Khan for punishment after the Khan's soldiers arrive."

"I agree!" Another leader immediately said, "But I think there is no need to hand it over to the Khan. The tribe can just deal with it directly. Just chop off the slave Dari's head and send it to the Khan to apologize. This way we can show our loyalty to the Khan."

"This is good, this is good, it couldn't be better..." Another leader nodded repeatedly in agreement.

"You...you guys!" Wang Hai's eyes widened with anger, and he pointed at the leaders who were talking. He knew that his status was low, and that he had achieved his current status entirely because of Zhu Shenzhui's support. He had always been loyal to Zhu Shenzhui, including Tana and Tenger, and had never had any selfish thoughts in everything he did. The reason he opposed it just now was that he was considering the issue from the perspective of the tribe, fearing that Zhu Shenzhui's wrong decision would push the tribe into the abyss. But he never thought that he would be accused of such a big hat just for discussing the matter. These tribal leaders had long disliked Wang Hai because of his status, and they were even more dissatisfied because most of the military power of the tribe was controlled by Wang Hai.

Since the death of Ashitemur, the tribe has been in internal turmoil. Galiba carried out a purge within the tribe, which seriously damaged the vitality of the tribe. Later, Zhu Shenzui and his wife supported Tenger to take the position of Taiji. Although several leaders of the tribe were released and reappointed, the actual power of the tribe fell into the hands of Zhu Shenzui. Although these leaders did not say anything, they were dissatisfied in their hearts.

In their view, Zhu Shencui was still an outsider even though he was Tengger's father. He was not a real Mongolian, and it was a bit of a stretch for him to be a Zhalu Huchi. Moreover, Zhu Shencui valued Wang Hai so much that Wang Hai controlled the military power of the tribe, while they, the leaders, only retained their nominal status but did not have much real power, so they were naturally dissatisfied.

These people didn't have the courage to deal with Zhu Shenzhui, but it was different when dealing with Wang Hai. Wang Hai was born a slave, but a slave climbed over their heads, which made these leaders who called themselves nobles even more resentful.

Today, Wang Hai happened to express his opposition in the meeting and expressed his extreme distrust of Lin Danhan. All of a sudden, these leaders felt that they had caught Wang Hai. With such a good opportunity, how could these leaders give up? Taking advantage of the situation, they jointly proposed to take Wang Hai's head to give Lin Danhan an explanation. What they said was not unreasonable. After all, Lin Danhan was the leader of the Mongols. Especially for the Tenger tribe, which was close to Lin Danhan, opposing Lin Danhan would have the same consequences as opposing the emperor in the Ming Dynasty. How could they not be labeled as traitors?

For a moment, several leaders were excited and were determined not to punish Wang Hai. But Wang Hai was angry and loudly refuted the other party, but the other party was not afraid at all and shouted that he was taking advantage of the situation. Even Burigude did not agree with him, but he looked a little dissatisfied with Wang Hai and shook his head slightly.

"Someone come here!" At this moment, Zhu Shenzhui, who had been silent, suddenly spoke.

As soon as he finished speaking, several Mongolian guards responded and entered the tent.

"Catch him! Tie him to the pillar outside and give him thirty whips, then lock him up. No one is allowed to visit him!" Zhu Shenzhui pointed at Wang Hai and a cold voice rang out.

Wang Hai was stunned for a moment. He could not believe his ears. Zhu Shenzui actually believed these people's lies and wanted to punish him in such a way.

Is this... is this true? But the facts told Wang Hai that all this was true. When the two Mongolian guards came forward, holding Wang Hai on the left and right and dragging him out, Wang Hai subconsciously struggled for a while, but soon gave up the resistance. With pain and helplessness in his eyes, and extreme disappointment, he let himself be dragged out.

The leaders who had just clamored to deal with Wang Hai all showed excitement on their faces. Some of them even wanted to chop off Wang Hai's head immediately. They directly suggested to kill him after whipping him and there was no need to detain him.

But as soon as he said this, he saw Zhu Shenzhui's cold eyes sweeping towards him, and he was immediately shocked, and quickly swallowed all the words that followed. It was Tana who spoke up and said that thirty lashes were too harsh and could kill people, and that she should forgive Wang Hai a little for his past contributions.

Zhu Shenzui then changed his mind and reduced the number of lashes from thirty to ten. Tana wanted to persuade her again, but Zhu Shenzui ignored her and ordered it to be executed immediately.

After a while, the sound of crackling whips mixed with Wang Hai's low groans came from outside. Wang Hai is also a man, and everyone knows how painful it is to be whipped by a wet whip. Let alone ten whips, a few whips would be unbearable. But Wang Hai did not cry out until the ten whips were over.

After the beating was over, the executioner came back to report that Wang Hai had been beaten unconscious. Zhu Shenzhui nodded to show that he understood, and waved his hand to let him go without saying anything. This cold attitude made everyone present feel nervous. No one expected that Zhu Shenzhui, who always regarded Wang Hai as his confidant, would be so cruel.

(End of this chapter)