Tang Dynasty, my wife Wu Zetian

Chapter 466 The King in the Sheepfold

At dawn, the rooster crows to signal the start of day.

The sky was still dark, but the backyard of Mo Jiaxuan was already bustling with noise.

The descendants of Tocharian nobles and the shop assistants disguised as guards were searching the backyard, seemingly looking for something.

Peroz crossed his arms, his face ashen, and glanced sideways at Xue Niang beside him.

"You insisted on persuading me to choose such a shepherd, and now he's not only made a fool of himself in Chang'an, but he's also suddenly disappeared. If you had listened to me and chosen Harvey's third son, none of this would have happened."

Xue Niang remained silent for a long time before saying, "Harvey's third son may not be willing to come to Chang'an, and he might even report us. Although Sissis is a bit reckless, at least he is under our control."

Peroz said coldly, "Under control? Then why did he suddenly run away?"

Xue Niang said, "Both the front and back doors are locked, and there are inner guards on duty at night. He probably didn't escape; he just found a place to hide."

Just then, an inner guard strode over and bowed to Peroz, saying, "General, we have searched everywhere but have not found any trace of Sissis."

Peroz roared, "How could that be? Keep searching! Dig three feet into the ground and find him! I refuse to believe he can fly!"

At this moment, Xue Niang's eyes flashed, as if she had thought of something, and she walked in a certain direction.

Peroz asked, "Where are you going?"

“I think I know where he’s hiding,” Xue Niang said softly.

Just as Peroz was about to follow, Xue Niang turned around and said, "General Peroz, you should wait here. Tell the others not to look anymore."

Peroz scoffed, "You mean to say, hand him over to you completely?"

Xue Niang said slowly, "His emotions have been very unstable lately, so it's best not to upset him further. Please let me see him alone and comfort him for a while."

Peroz reminded him, "There's also a Lantern Festival banquet tonight."

"I know, I will let him attend the palace banquet."

"Alright, I'm leaving him to you. If anything goes wrong tonight, don't blame me for finding fault with you in front of the General." Peroz turned and left.

Xue Niang sighed softly and, with light, quick steps, soon arrived at the sheepfold.

This sheepfold was built specifically for Sissis's Sheep General, and initially only the Sheep General lived there.

A while ago, Sissis suddenly went mad, saying that his Sheep General could not be without subordinates, otherwise he would be unworthy of the title. So he ordered people to buy more than a dozen sheep to serve as subordinates for the Sheep General, and even gave each sheep a name.

The sheepfold wasn't big; a dozen or so sheep filled the small space.

Xue Niang glanced around and quickly spotted a goat with a red ribbon tied around its body.

This sheep is pure white, six feet long, with strong limbs, no horns, but a large hooked nose, and wide, slightly drooping ears shaped like banana leaves.

This is Sissis's sheep general, named Karen the Sheep, also known as Big-Eared Sheep.

Xue Niang slowly walked towards General Yang and immediately saw a figure hiding behind him.

Xue Niang stopped and said calmly, "Your Majesty, please don't hide. I've already seen you."

After a while, a man stood up behind General Yang. He was short and thin, with a dark complexion, brown curly hair, and an unremarkable appearance. He looked to be in his early twenties.

"How did you know I was here?" Sissis asked with a pained expression.

Xue Niang said, "Even if you were to escape, you would definitely take General Yang with you. Since General Yang is still here, you should be nearby."

Sissis knelt on the ground, rested her head on the sheep, and whispered, "I didn't want to run away. I just had a nightmare last night. I was so scared that I couldn't sleep. So I came to find General Sheep. I can only feel at ease when I'm with him."

Xue Niang frowned and said, "Then why didn't you say anything when everyone was looking for you?"

Sissis muttered, "Of course I'm scared after all that commotion. General Bei is sure to scold me again..."

Xue Niang slowly walked over, squatted down beside him, and said softly, "Your Majesty, you are now the Tokharistan King appointed by the Emperor, you don't need to be so afraid all the time."

Sissis scoffed, "You suddenly summoned me and made me king, but who knows when you won't kick me aside? How can I not be afraid?"

Xue Niang said gently, "The Emperor of the Tang Dynasty is a man of his word; what he says will not be changed. You will always be the King of Tokharistan, so please be strong, okay?"

Sissis looked up at Snow Maiden and asked, "Then why won't you agree when I offer you the position of my queen?"

"This……"

"Hmph, the reason you won't agree is because you know that my title of king is fake and that I will definitely be kicked out in the future, so naturally you won't follow me."

Xue Niang rolled her eyes at him helplessly and said, "Your Majesty, right now we should prioritize the overall situation and take the restoration of the country as our mission. If you take a queen now, the officials of the Tang Dynasty will look down on you."

Sissis muttered, "So what if they look down on me? I'm used to being looked down upon anyway. A woman as beautiful as you who's willing to talk to me, I definitely have to snatch you up first!"

Xue Niang said calmly, "What do you take me for, a piece of merchandise?"

When Sissis saw that she was still so beautiful despite her angry expression, his heart fluttered and he said in a daze, "Snow Maiden, you are so beautiful, I want you."

Xue Niang tilted her head slightly, her chest heaving for a moment, before saying, "As long as you can restore your kingdom, you will meet many more beautiful women in the future, and you can have them. At that time, you may not even look at me anymore."

Sissis hurriedly replied, "No, Snow Maiden, I only want you to be my queen!"

Xue Niang was silent for a moment, then said, "Then let's make a deal. If you succeed in restoring your kingdom, I will be your woman." Xi Xi clenched her fist, overjoyed, and said, "Alright, it's a deal! I will definitely succeed in restoring my kingdom and marry you as my queen!"

He paused for a moment, then asked, "By the way, what should I do if I want to restore my country?"

Xue Niang looked at him and said, "First of all, you must attend the Lantern Festival banquet tonight. You must also take this opportunity to improve your image in the hearts of the Tang Dynasty officials!"

With high spirits, Sissis shouted, "I will definitely do it, Snow Maiden, you must believe me!"

Xue Niang said, "Do you still remember the information we asked you to memorize a few days ago?"

Sissis's face stiffened, and she forced a smile, "You should still remember, right?"

Xue Niang said, "Then I'm going to test you now."

"Okay, go ahead and ask."

Xue Niang asked, "Which officials do you want to focus on pleasing tonight?"

Sissis hurriedly said, "First of all, there are Duke Li Ji of Yingguo and Duke Xue Rengui of Liangguo, because they are the two generals most trusted by the Emperor of Tang."

Xue Niang nodded, signaling him to continue.

"Secondly, there are the Grand Secretary Shangguan Yi, the Grand Secretary Yan Liben, and the Attendant-in-Ordinary Xin Maojiang, because the three of them are the prime ministers in charge of affairs."

"anything else?"

"Uh... Secondly, there's Lu Chengqing, the Minister of Revenue. Because he's in charge of the Tang Dynasty's grain and finances, if he secretly doesn't cooperate, it will waste a lot of time. See, am I remembering correctly?"

Xue Niang nodded: "Your Majesty has a good memory. Does Your Majesty remember everyone's personality and hobbies, and what topics they like to talk about?"

Sissis's face turned pale, and sweat began to bead on his forehead.

"Well... the Duke of Liang likes hunting, the Duke of Ying likes fishing, Shangguan Yi likes calligraphy, Yan Liben likes painting, and Xin Mao... he likes... likes..."

“Xin Mao will like tea,” Xue Niang reminded him.

"Yes, yes, he likes tea, Lu Chengqing likes..."

Seeing that Xixis was glancing at her, as if waiting for her to remind him, Xue Niang glared at him and said, "Think about it yourself. No one will remind you during the palace banquet tonight."

Sissis muttered, "I'm hungry, I don't have the energy to think anymore."

Xue Niang said, "Who told you to come to the sheepfold? Otherwise, we could have had breakfast already."

Snow Maiden led Sissis away from the sheepfold, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief when they saw that he had finally been found. Peroz wanted to scold him a few more times, but Snow Maiden stopped him with a look.

After having breakfast, Sissis began preparing for the evening's banquet.

With Xue Niang's promise, he became much more motivated and memorized all the key points by the end of the morning.

In the afternoon, everyone simulated a palace banquet, and he performed quite well, making almost no mistakes.

As the time for the divination of the day approached, he changed his clothes and, accompanied by Xue Niang and Bilus, headed towards Taiji Palace.

……

After 7 PM, just half an hour into the palace banquet, Li Zhi left Chengqing Hall and headed towards Lizheng Hall.

When he left Lizheng Hall yesterday, he promised Princess Taiping that he would play chess with her after the banquet tonight to see if her chess skills had improved.

When they arrived at the Lizheng Hall, Princess Taiping had been waiting for a long time, holding two chess boxes in her hands, craning her neck behind the moon gate, her little face red from the cold.

Li Zhi carried her into the bedchamber, and the two set up a chessboard on the couch. Li Zhi gave her a three-piece handicap, and then took the white pieces and moved.

Wu Zetian handed each of the two a hand warmer and then sat down next to Princess Taiping to watch the battle.

Although she remained silent, Princess Taiping was not satisfied and muttered, "Mother, could you please sit next to Father? You're putting a lot of pressure on me!"

Wu Meiniang tapped her forehead with her finger and said irritably, "So I was going to help you, you really don't know what's good for you." She then sat down next to Li Zhi.

Princess Taiping snorted, "I don't need your help!"

Li Zhi actually enjoyed playing chess with Princess Taiping. She was young and her chess style was unpredictable, sometimes making brilliant moves and sometimes making useless ones.

Even with a three-stone handicap, Princess Taiping still managed to win one out of ten games.

Although Li Xian was better at chess than her, he couldn't win a single game even when Li Zhi gave him a three-stone handicap, which made Princess Taiping very proud.

However, in this game, Princess Taiping made fewer brilliant moves and more useless moves, and by the middle game, Li Zhi had already caught up.

In this situation, Princess Taiping would undoubtedly lose, because she was less skilled in the endgame and would always give Li Zhi a huge advantage.

Even so, Princess Taiping still refused to give up, her little head almost touching the chessboard, and she would think for a long time before each move.

In the end, she still lost this round.

Because I was so exhausted, I kept rubbing my eyes in a daze after finishing the exercise.

Wu Meiniang then had Jiang Yan carry her to bed.

(End of this chapter)