Madam, don't do this!

Chapter 433 Empress? You dare to challenge me? (11,000 words)

Occasionally, a breeze would waft into the room, casting a slightly distorted mist above the charcoal stove and carrying away some of the smell of carbon monoxide.

Song Yan leaned back in his chair, a mocking expression on his face.

Empress, you dare to challenge me?

To become an empress, one must first have a husband named Li Zhi and the shrewdness of Wu Zetian.

This is not something that can be achieved by betraying the country or selling one's daughter.

As for Arunchi, he is completely unreliable.

He was inherently cruel and ruthless, and in order to seize the position of Great Chanyu, he would kill even his own brothers without hesitation. Although he had some cleverness, he lacked great wisdom.

He lacked loyal confidants, was arrogant and self-willed, and inherently suspicious... Most importantly, he was also a fool who couldn't control his desires. Despite the importance of infiltrating Ningguo, he couldn't control Lingdang and was captured alive, causing all his plans to fail.

Such a person is unlikely to achieve great things.

Kong Nianhan's plan was wonderful, but it was at best a castle in the air and had little feasibility.

Putting aside other issues, the most basic point is that Alunchi was never on the list of candidates for the position of king of the Xiongnu or Suochuoluo. Even though all three of his brothers died, the Xiongnu would probably have chosen a new king from among the kings, or even supported a blood relative of another prince.

The succession of the Xiongnu Chanyu was somewhat different from that of the Central Plains dynasties. It was based on the primogeniture system, supplemented by the succession of brothers to brothers and uncles to nephews, and was subject to the final decision-making power of the noble council. It was not simply a matter of father to son.

Moreover, even the main system of primogeniture was not absolute. At that time, the Xiongnu did not have a strict distinction between legitimate and illegitimate sons. As long as the position of Chanyu did not fall into the hands of someone else, the distinction between seniority and legitimate/illegitimate sons did not need to be investigated. At most, the eldest son would be given priority in inheritance. However, if other brothers were more outstanding, they could kick you out at any time.

Therefore, while the succession of imperial power in the Central Plains dynasties was sometimes smooth, every struggle for the position of Chanyu among the Xiongnu was a bloody and brutal affair.

The influence of the maternal clan also significantly affects the succession to the position of Chanyu. If the prince's mother comes from a prominent Xiongnu noble family, such as the Huyan or Lan clan, then even if he is not the eldest son, his chances of inheriting the position of Chanyu will increase dramatically.

Tribal support is also of paramount importance. If the prince can gain the support of more tribes, even the Chanyu (ruler) will not easily pass on the Chanyu position to someone else.

Alunchi was not the eldest son, supported very few tribes, and his maternal clan was not powerful. It can be said without any hesitation that Alunchi never had even the slightest chance of ascending to the position of Chanyu. Even though all three of his brothers were dead, the possibility of Suochuoluo's brothers inheriting the Chanyu position was much greater.

Even Song Yan, a Han Chinese from the Central Plains, could see through the truth, but Alunchi couldn't. This alone is enough to prove that he is a complete fool.

Kong Nianhan was also a fool for failing to see this point.

Of course, it cannot be ruled out that Kong Nianhan has other plans and is only temporarily using Alunchi, but the specifics are difficult to predict.

As Song Yan pondered, Liang Qiaofeng stood quietly beside him, not uttering a word, as if afraid of accidentally disturbing Song Yan's thoughts.

"Kong Nianhan hopes that after Alunchi becomes the Xiongnu Chanyu, he will help her plot to establish Ningguo. Has he said how he can help?" After a long while, Song Yan raised his eyes and asked.

Liang Qiaofeng shook her head: "It was not explicitly stated, but both Alunchi and Tang Shenghai speculated that it must be about borrowing troops."

Borrow troops?

Could this be a prelude to Emperor Suzong of Tang borrowing troops from the Uyghurs?

Emperor Suzong of Tang granted the Uyghurs the right to plunder resources from both Chang'an and Luoyang, the two capitals. All the gold, silk, and women in the cities fell into Uyghur hands, turning the once prosperous Chang'an into a scene of devastation, and leaving Luoyang deserted and desolate. Furthermore, Tang was required to send 20,000 bolts of silk annually, open trade, and allow the Uyghurs to engage in forced buying and selling. Tang even broke with precedent by marrying a princess to the Uyghur Khan.

It can be said that the power and prestige of the Tang Dynasty were completely lost.

Kong Nianhan asked the Xiongnu for troops, wasn't he afraid of never getting them back?
This woman is truly insane.

However, this is also the tragedy of this era, where the decisions made arbitrarily by the upper class for their own benefit result in the demise of millions.

Song Yan tapped his fingers lightly on the armrest: "I have a feeling that the information we have so far is not complete. There is still a lot of information that we haven't obtained, such as how Kong Nianhan assured Alunchi that she could eliminate her three brothers in order to achieve cooperation."

"How exactly should the specific intelligence be transmitted? It shouldn't be that Tang Shenghai is simply a messenger; that would be far too inefficient. By the time it gets back to them, the information would be gone. They should have prepared a separate channel specifically for transmitting intelligence."

"And... who is Arunchi's coachman?"

"Tonight, the black-armored soldiers sealed off Pingyang City and surrounded the Fenglai Inn at top speed. Logically, no one should have been able to escape, but Alunchi's coachman has not been seen at all."

"And what about this matter? Was it done by Kong Nianhan alone, or was it instigated by Prince Fu?"

Song Yan's eyes narrowed into slits, a faint, cold smile playing on her lips. The whole process seemed to show no involvement from Prince Fu, but did Kong Nianhan, merely a Princess Consort of Prince Fu, truly have such power and qualifications? "Why not continue the interrogation?" Song Yan raised an eyebrow. This was unlike Liang Qiaofeng's style. According to Liang Qiaofeng's usual approach, she would never stop until she had dug up the entire family of the other party, down to nine generations and eighteen generations.

Liang Qiaofeng blushed slightly and said, "It's not that I don't want to continue the interrogation, it's just that..."

"These little things we've recently developed are quite effective, but they seem to cause too much damage to the body. Plus, these people are already missing limbs, and if we continue interrogating them, I'm afraid they'll all die."

"We still need to slow down."

Song Yan was stunned; she truly hadn't expected the reason to be like this.

"Take me to the cellar."

Liang Qiaofeng hesitated for a moment, then nodded and led the way.

Willow branches on the moon.

The clear moonlight shone on Song Yan, casting a long shadow on the ground.

The temperature has indeed risen a bit, and even at night, you can hear the chirping of insects.

On the way, Song Yan asked Liang Qiaofeng some questions, such as who had captured the two women. The answer he received was Tang Shenghai.

It wasn't just those two women; in fact, more than a dozen women from the Central Plains had been brutally murdered by Alunchi after entering the Central Plains.

Neither of them could remember the exact numbers very clearly.

However, whenever Alunchi loses control, Tang Shenghai will go out to find a target for Alunchi... Tang Shenghai also has some martial arts skills. Although his strength is not very strong, it is still very easy for him to kidnap a girl.

These women had all been tortured to death by Arunchi.

After arriving in Pingyang, Alunchi had toned down his behavior considerably because of Song Yan's somewhat fearsome reputation. He had been in Pingyang for over ten days, but in the last two days he couldn't contain himself any longer and inadvertently fell into Song Yan's hands.

Before they knew it, they had arrived at a small courtyard in the backyard. Zhang Han personally led dozens of black-armored soldiers to guard the entrance of the courtyard. When they saw Song Yan appear, they all stood up straight and gave a military salute.

But when his gaze fell upon Liang Qiaofeng, the expression on his face immediately became somewhat strange.

Surprise mingled with a hint of fear.

Zhang Han and his men didn't know exactly how Liang Qiaofeng interrogated the people in the cellar, but the extremely shrill screams coming from the cellar sent chills down the spines of every black-armored soldier. Hearing such sounds in the dead of night made them wonder if they had accidentally stepped into some kind of eerie ghost realm.

The door opened.

Granny Liang, carrying a torch, walked hunched over in the dark passageway.

Under the firelight, the dust particles floating in the air could be clearly seen with the naked eye. When people walked by, the wind stirred up the dust particles, causing them to sway up, down, left, and right.

The air was filled with an indescribable odor, a unique smell that was a mixture of sweat, blood, the stench of excrement and urine, and the sourness of vomit.

Song Yan understood why Granny Liang had hesitated for a moment earlier. The environment in the cellar was simply too terrible. Song Yan had once stepped into the Ghost Cave, yet he still felt a strong sense of suffocation at this moment.

It was pitch black all around, with almost no light at all.

Pure darkness is an unimaginable torment for anyone's spirit.

The flickering flames on the torch gradually dispelled the surrounding darkness, and Song Yan finally saw the entire cellar clearly; it was quite spacious.

I felt like I stepped on something, something hard. I looked down and saw a white tooth.

The kind that's forcibly broken.

Looking ahead, several pillars supported the cellar, and Tang Shenghai and Alunchi were tied to the pillars.

The remaining five guards were bound hand and foot and left lying haphazardly on the dirty ground.

Their wounds were treated, but the treatment was quite brutal; their legs, barely hanging on by a sliver of skin, were forcibly sawed off.

The areas where legs or arms were severed were charred black, likely due to the use of red-hot irons or similar methods to forcibly stop the bleeding, which may have been painful.

Their faces were very pale and they looked very haggard, indicating that they must have suffered a great deal during the treatment.

Song Yan roughly imagined the scene in his mind, and then his body involuntarily shuddered; it was truly terrifying. Of course, for the physicians of the prefecture, Song Yan's only request was to keep them alive and prevent them from dying too quickly; whether they were comfortable or not was never within the scope of the physicians' considerations.

Their breathing was also very weak.

If it weren't for the fact that the cellar was so quiet that you couldn't even hear breathing, you would understand.

The light startled several people from their drowsy state. Their somewhat blank and empty eyes subconsciously followed the light source, and gradually, the images in their eyes became clearer and clearer.

Finally, they could see clearly the person holding the torch.

The once quiet cellar suddenly erupted into chaos. The seven men, though utterly exhausted, suddenly found a strange strength and began to struggle violently, their eyes wide and bulging with rage. Even Arunchi and Tang Shenghai were like this; their faces were contorted beyond recognition, and deep within their eyes lay an intense, overwhelming fear.

From its gaping mouth came an indescribable howl.

Yes, it's that old woman.

She just torments people without asking any questions.

She was a complete psychopath. She seemed to have completely taken tormenting people as a pleasure, a kind of enjoyment, and she had a wide variety of methods. In the end, they couldn't bear it anymore and confessed on their own, but the old woman still acted like she didn't want to listen.

Song Yan was somewhat surprised. What exactly had Granny Liang done to make these people so afraid?

Arunchi, who was struggling desperately, suddenly saw Song Yan behind Liang Qiaofeng. His body trembled, and he paused for a moment. The babbling he was making suddenly stopped, and his expression gradually became solemn and calm: "Song Yan..."

It's likely that the screams were too forceful, tearing its throat.

Arunchi's voice was somewhat hoarse.

Contrary to Song Yan's expectations of resentment, Arunchi's voice was calm, like a stagnant pool, still and undisturbed: "Let's make a deal."

It wasn't until Liang Qiaofeng's methods were applied to him that Alunchi finally understood why Song Yan hadn't pressed him for answers before. It was because there was no need. This old woman's methods were far more ruthless and cruel than anyone else's. Song Yan didn't need to negotiate with him or engage in any deceit or trickery. As long as he handed himself over to this old woman, Song Yan could get everything he wanted.

No one could withstand Liang Qiaofeng's attacks for two hours, no one!
Song Yan raised an eyebrow: "What kind of deal?"

“Kill me.” Arunchi grinned. “I’ll tell you everything I know.”

He spoke calmly. What kind of torture could possibly drive someone to lose even the slightest desire to live, leaving them only with the thought of dying?
Alan stared intently at Song Yan, his eyes glancing at the brothers lying on the ground. A hint of pity flashed in his eyes: "Please give them a release as well."

This may be the last remaining kindness in Arunchi's heart.

Song Yan chuckled: "No problem, I promise you."

“I can give them a release first, but you… no, you’ll probably live for a while longer.” Song Yan shrugged. “Of course, I assure you that if the information you give me is true, I won’t torture you while you’re still alive.”

This is the truth!

Arunchi is still somewhat useful.

With war against the Xiongnu imminent, if we were to publicly bring Alunchi to the front lines and have his head chopped off as a sacrifice to the flag, it would greatly boost our morale.

It's equivalent to a wide-range aura skill, which Song Yan wouldn't waste.

Before that, Song Yan would let Alunchi live.

Alunchi's face gradually darkened, as if he were somewhat unwilling and disappointed. He bit his lip hard, drawing blood. He seemed to be pondering whether Song Yan's words were credible or not.

Song Yan wasn't in a hurry and waited quietly.

Time ticked by, and after what seemed like an eternity, Allen finally raised his head, his face still showing signs of struggle and madness: "How can you guarantee what you're saying?"

“Actually, you know very well that you have no other choice but to trust me, don’t you?” Song Yan shrugged, but still walked up to the five guards lying on the ground: “However, to show my sincerity, I can give you some interest first.”

As she spoke, Song Yan squatted down, grabbed one of the people's heads, and gently twisted it.

crunch.

His head immediately turned to the side.

The light in his eyes gradually faded.

The pupils became hollow.

His chest quickly stopped rising and falling.

People are dead.

But there was little despair or pain on his face; only the relief of liberation.

"How about this?" Song Yan stood up and looked at Alunchi.

Arunchi's lips twitched slightly, a hint of sorrow in his eyes. These men had been his most loyal guards for over a decade, but now, all he could offer them in return was a swift and decisive death. Taking a deep breath, Arunchi suppressed the grief in his heart:

"You can ask me anything now."

"With whom did you make this deal?" Song Yan's first question went straight to the point: "Prince Fu or Princess Fu?"

"Princess Consort Fu".

"How can Kong Nianhan guarantee that she can kill your three brothers? Where does she rely on her? Private soldiers composed of household guards and servants? Or has she bribed the border troops?" Song Yan's expression remained unchanged, and his voice was neither hurried nor slow.

Alan's red lips trembled, and he glanced at Tang Shenghai beside him: "Perhaps you can ask Mr. Tang about this question; he knows more about it."

Song Yan and Liang Qiaofeng's gazes fell on Tang Shenghai at the same time. Tang Shenghai, who had also been tortured beyond recognition, suddenly trembled, his face turning deathly pale. A huge terror enveloped his heart, and he dared not hesitate for a moment. Tang Shenghai's slightly sharp voice rang out: "It's the Jianghu."

"Jianghu?"

“Yes, it’s the Jianghu.” Tang Shenghai’s throat bobbed violently. “The Princess has many Jianghu heroes under her command. These people are highly skilled. They may have limited use on the battlefield, but they are all top-notch in hiding and assassination.”

"The plan that the princess asked me to pass on is that the little prince will provide the detailed location. These chivalrous heroes are disguised as Huns and are infiltrating the army. With the little prince's help, this will not be difficult. After that, we just need to get closer and take the heads of the three Hun princes when the opportunity arises."

To be honest, if we had Arunchi as an inside man, we would actually have a good chance of succeeding.

Song Yan nodded with satisfaction, walked up to the second guard, and did the same thing, grabbing the top of his head with his bent fingers and twisting it.

crunch.

The second guard lost his life.

"Tell me, what is the true purpose of the Xiongnu in launching this war?" Song Yan asked in a deep voice, a cold smile playing on his lips.

Alan's face suddenly turned pale, a hint of fear flashed in his eyes, and his gaze unconsciously drifted to the side.

"Don't try to fool me with such a lame excuse as competing for the position of Chanyu. I know things won't be that simple." Song Yan's voice was cold: "War is not just a gamble."

At first, Song Yan did believe the story of the Chanyu's position, but as he traveled along, he couldn't help but ponder and vaguely felt that things were not so simple.

Although the Xiongnu revered military might, they were only good at marching and fighting, and not necessarily good at governing a country.

Although the Xiongnu Chanyu Suochuoluo was old, he was not so foolish as to be ignorant of such a simple principle.

The Xiongnu must have even more outrageous plans.

Judging from Arunchi's expression, Song Yan knew he had guessed correctly.

Beside Song Yan, Liang Qiaofeng's face suddenly turned ashen, and she seemed to emanate a chilling aura... There was no doubt that Granny Liang was angry. She never expected that someone would dare to lie to her.

Tsk.

This is practically a provocation against her professionalism!

What's more, it made her lose face in front of the Marquis so much, it's unforgivable.

"Hehe..." Liang Qiaofeng chuckled sinisterly, a rusty, blunt knife with a jagged edge, like a saw, appeared in her palm, and she walked slowly toward Alunchi.

Look at that thick layer of yellowish rust; this knife is enchanted.

With each step closer, it seemed to bring unimaginable pressure and fear to Arunchi, whose body, bound to the wooden stake, trembled involuntarily.

Although the cellar was spacious, it was not far away after all, and Liang Qiaofeng soon arrived in front of Alunchi.

She didn't bother with Alan's face. Instead, she grabbed the severed leg, which had been sawed off and charred by the branding iron, and lifted it up. Her eerie gaze fell on the charred wound: "It looks like it's been scalded..." She slowly raised her head, an indescribable smile on her wrinkled old face: "By the way, little prince, it seems you haven't eaten anything tonight. Are you hungry?"

Alan, naked, shuddered, his face deathly pale. His stomach churned uncontrollably, and he felt an urge to vomit. He couldn't help but scream, "I'll talk... I'll talk..."

"From what I've heard, it's all about vying for the position of Chanyu. Almost every Xiongnu tribe across the northern steppes thinks the same way. But... once, I overheard my elder brother saying something..."

"Their goal is not just women, not just food, not even just the occupied land, but... the entire Ning Kingdom."

“My father, the Great Chanyu of the Xiongnu, Suochuoluo, will personally lead an army to crush the entire Ningguo.”

"Then, using Ningguo as a springboard, we will massacre the Central Plains."

"He wants to become the first in the Central Plains of China..."

"A foreign emperor!"

(End of this chapter)