Madam, don't do this!

Chapter 572 Cooking Raw Rice into Porridge (12,000 words)

Snowflakes drifted down from the sky.

Crimson crystals formed from congealed blood on the ground, and corpses gradually being buried by snowflakes. Heads had been chopped off, and without large carts to transport them, they had to resort to clumsy methods. For example, they would twist hair into a knot and hang it around a horse's neck. Although the sight of a bunch of heads swaying back and forth as the warhorse galloped around gave it a somewhat Cthulhu-esque feel.

Snowflakes landed on his face and quickly melted from his body heat. Even some dried bloodstains gradually dissolved and rolled slowly down his face. Feeling sticky and uncomfortable, Lei Yi raised his hand to wipe it off, and then his whole face turned into a big red mess.

He had gradually come to accept the fact that the prince had recruited eight thousand cavalrymen from the Blackwater tribe.

Regardless, Nahetuya was a prospective princess... well, maybe not. After all, the prince's primary wife was Princess Tianxuan, his secondary wife was Lady Lianyue, and his concubine was Princess Yuheng. Only one concubine's position remained, which was very likely reserved for the second young lady, Princess Yongxing, Luo Tianyi. Even if not the second young lady, Princess Gaoyang or Fang Wanlin, the youngest daughter of the Fang family, were both very possible candidates. Although Nahetuya was the daughter of the Khan of the Jilie tribe, the Heishui tribe was ultimately inferior to the Fang family, which was deeply entrenched throughout Ning Kingdom.

However, the position of the lady should be attainable. Batu is indeed the prince's father-in-law. Considering this, giving the remnants of the Blackwater tribe a way out is not a problem. Moreover, eight thousand cavalrymen are also a force to be reckoned with.

Lei Yi simply couldn't understand what this surrender strategy had to do with the treacherous plot to exterminate the entire race.
So giving someone a way out is considered a vicious scheme?

Seeing Lei Yi's appearance, Li Er just smiled wryly. This guy is only suited to be a fierce general charging into battle. Unfortunately, when it comes to charging into battle, the prince has Luo Tianyang under his command who is firmly above everyone else, so it will be difficult for him to stand out.

Zhang Han, out of consideration for his friendship with Lei Yi, sighed and slowly explained, "Given the Prince's prestige in his fiefdom, how do you think the people in the fiefdom would react if he said he wanted to give these Jurchens a chance?"

Lei Yi was waiting for an answer, but he didn't expect to be asked a question first. However, he thought about it seriously for a while and then said, "Some people may find it hard to accept, but in the end they will feel that the prince must have his reasons for doing this."

Just like myself.

“That’s right, you could say that. At present, the prestige of Prince Anzhou and Prince Pingyang can suppress everything. What the prince says is more effective than the emperor’s edict.”

Li Er sighed helplessly. These people, nowadays, don't even hide their disrespectful words from others.

Looking at these people, and then thinking back to how I was besieged by the government troops and labeled a rebel, I felt truly wronged. Fortunately, they are now on my side.

Zhang Han, however, didn't care about all that and continued, "To put it bluntly, the remnants of the Blackwater Tribe can be put to life or death with a single word from Your Highness. If that's the case, why make so many demands? Think carefully about what conditions Your Highness has made."

“Accepting the Prince’s jurisdiction and abiding by the Prince’s military law is only the most basic requirement, a constraint on the remnants of the Blackwater Tribe.” Zhang Han continued, “The truly vicious methods are yet to come… to behead all the Jurchens and build a mound of heads.”

"This is the pledge of loyalty."

"No matter what grudges they may have had before, they are all Jurchens, fellow citizens. If Batu truly leads his remaining troops to behead these people and build a mound of heads according to the prince's orders, then Batu and the remnants of the Blackwater tribe will have essentially severed themselves from the Jurchen people. They will be seen as a thorn in the side by all Jurchen tribes, and there will be no possibility of them ever returning to the Jurchens. They must abandon all their customs and beliefs, and only by being single-mindedly loyal to the prince will they have any chance of survival."

Lei Yi's eyes widened suddenly. He had thought that the prince had given the task to Batu because he didn't want his soldiers to work hard. Who would have thought that there was such a twist in the story?

"And also, the instructor." Zhang Han curled his lips: "You know how powerful the instructor's mouth is, believe it or not, as long as you arrange for the instructor to brainwash them every night... cough cough, I mean to carry out ideological reform, given their situation, in less than three years, these eight thousand elite cavalry will become eight thousand death warriors under the prince's command, making them serve the prince without batting an eye."

"The prince also said that when attacking the Haixi Grassland, he would select those with excellent ideological reform results... Do you understand what this means? This time he will select a batch, and next time he will select a batch. In a few times, the eight thousand iron cavalry will be separated. As long as they don't gather together, they won't cause any trouble."

"The most vicious one is the last one: the heads of ten Jurchen men can be used to obtain Han Chinese household registration... Note what the prince said: Jurchen men, it's not limited to young and strong, old men and boys are also included. Do you think that after the Jurchen barbarians see the luxurious life in the prince's fiefdom, they won't raise their butcher knives for a Han Chinese household registration?"

"Eight thousand registered households, that's eighty thousand people."

"And this is just the household registration. If the prince were to offer a condition: twenty heads in exchange for the right to marry and have children in the fiefdom, do you think these people would take action? One hundred heads could lead to promotions, titles, and privileges for one's wife and children. Do you think these people would go crazy for it?"

"The moment the conditions were set, the men in the Jurchen tribes were no longer their compatriots, but prey that could bring huge profits."

"In addition, the Blackwater tribe was slaughtered by other Jurchen tribes, so they won't have much of a psychological burden when they do it. The heads of all the Jurchen men probably won't be enough for these eight thousand madmen to chop off. In the end, the result will be that there will be no men left in the entire Haixi Grassland, and only women will remain..." Zhang Han sneered: "Do you know what the prince's fiefdom lacks the most right now? Population."

“As long as we bring back these barbarian women from the Haixi Grassland and give them to single men, or those who only have one wife, two to each family, the population of Pingyang and Anzhou will surely explode in a few years. And the exploded population will be a source of soldiers and tax revenue.”

"As for these eight thousand elite cavalry, how many will be left in the end? A thousand or five hundred? Even if too many survive, an enemy will appear at just the right moment to wipe out all these Jurchen barbarians, or leave only a few survivors."

"What good are the remaining few people if they marry and have children? They are surrounded by Han Chinese. These few hundred or thousand people will be assimilated in a few years. Once they have completely forgotten their ancestors, their gods, and their language, the Jurchen people will disappear from this world."

"Extinction of the race and the species."

hiss.

After Zhang Han's explanation, Lei Yi finally understood the trick. He felt a chill run down his spine; this method was truly vicious.

The prince wanted to exterminate the Jurchen people, or rather, he wanted to kill all the Jurchen men and then plunder the Jurchen women to use as breeding tools.

Such a thing is easy to do but hard to hear, and it will inevitably leave a reputation for tyranny and cruelty in history books. But now it's all good, the Jurchens did it themselves, what does it have to do with the King of Yan?
He might even earn a reputation for benevolence by recruiting eight thousand Jurchens from the Blackwater tribe.

The most terrifying thing is that even if Batu understands Prince Yan's thoughts and knows that what lies ahead is a trap, he has no choice but to obediently jump in, because they have no other options.

Tsk, my prince is so wicked... well, so clever, so wise.

Batu could sense that something was amiss; things seemed to be going too smoothly. However, lacking a deep understanding of Central Plains culture, he couldn't grasp Song Yan's true intentions. At that moment, he was cautiously speaking to his daughter, "Nahtoya, this won't do."

"You need to get into the Prince of Yan's bed as soon as possible, understand?"

"You must give birth to a child for the Prince of Yan, preferably a son. Only in this way can your position in the Prince of Yan's mansion be secure, and your father and brothers in the clan receive better treatment."

Nakhtoya's face turned bright red, and she stamped her little feet: "Father, what nonsense are you talking about? Song Yan and I are not married yet, there's no need to rush into consummating our marriage."

Batu looked at him with exasperation: "You girl, how come you're so cowardly now? If you like someone, just take the initiative! Otherwise, with so many women around Prince Yan, when will he ever think of you? If there's no movement from Prince Yan, why don't you just push him down? There's an old saying in the Central Plains: 'Raw rice can be cooked into porridge'..."

They've fallen.

How long has it been since their own daughter was taken to Han territory by the King of Yan? She's already been corrupted and degraded by Han culture.

Where is even a trace of the heroic spirit of the grassland people?
Which truly outstanding son or daughter of the grasslands hasn't been targeted? If they can talk it out, they will; if not, they'll resort to force.

If you can cook raw rice into porridge, then even if you're not a couple, you're already a couple.

Nakhtoya glared at her father, annoyed: "Don't talk nonsense if you don't know. That's called making it a fait accompli!"

Batu shrugged: "Is there a difference between cooked rice and porridge?"

Then his expression became mysterious. He looked around as if afraid of being seen, and then quietly took out a stick-like object about half a foot long from his pocket. The top of the stick was conical and the middle and lower part was covered with small barbs.

Then, he sneakily slipped it into Nakhtoya's little hand.

Nakhtoya looked at the object in her hand with some curiosity, and seeing her father's pained expression, she became even more suspicious: "What is this?" "Dried tiger penis."

Nakhtoya's face flushed crimson in an instant; she knew the uses of tiger penis.

Batu gritted his teeth, clearly in great pain, and even glanced back at his warhorse, on which sat a bulging animal skin bag: "These things, I only have twenty-seven left..."

"There were originally about a hundred, but that bastard Wanyan Guangzhi came too fast. There wasn't enough time to pack up too many, so we could only hurriedly pack some. The rest all went to Wanyan Guangzhi. What a pity, what a pity."

Nakhtoya's mouth opened slightly.

She didn't even know what kind of expression she should make.

About a hundred?
I'm afraid Father has killed all the big insects around the Blackwater Tribe.
But what does Father need so many tiger penises for? Will he be able to use them all?

The Jurchens were clearly much more open than the Han Chinese. Even fathers and daughters would occasionally discuss topics that would be considered extremely inappropriate by scholars in the Central Plains. However, even though Batu was extremely thick-skinned, he still blushed when faced with his daughter's gaze and muttered under his breath, "Besides your mother, you also have seventy-one concubines."

Without this, could he survive?
They've long been drained dry by those bastards.

Batu coughed forcefully and abruptly changed the subject: "Girl, listen carefully. Would your father harm you? I'll give you another recipe: tiger penis, ginseng, wolfberry, epimedium, cistanche, cnidium, deer antler, and seahorse. Stew them all together."

"I guarantee that even if he's a eunuch, he'll still stand up straight."

Batu was going to great lengths to ensure his daughter could gain a foothold in Song Yan's household as soon as possible.

He also knew that although his daughter was considered a beauty among the Jurchens, she would only be considered above average in the Central Plains. Batu did not personally escort the dowry of three thousand warhorses, but according to what those people said after they returned, Song Yan's palace was full of beauties, each one of them as beautiful as a fairy.

My daughter has absolutely no advantage over those women, except for her fit figure and long legs. How can we not come up with a solution?
People in the Central Plains place great importance on legitimate and illegitimate children, as well as seniority. It is said that although Song Yan has many women, he does not have a son yet, and none of the women around him are pregnant. He can forget about having a legitimate son, but if he could have an eldest son or daughter born out of wedlock, that would be good too.

His position as his father-in-law will be more secure in the future.

Batu didn't say anything more, just patted his daughter's shoulder, then turned and left, leaving Nakhtoya alone, holding the tiger whip in one hand, bewildered in the wind.

A dashing young woman, a tiger whip... I have to say, this kind of picture is a bit, well, bizarre.

About half an hour later, all the heads were collected and all the warhorses were gathered together. The Jurchens were all skilled horse trainers, and each person could arrange one or two horses perfectly. The number of warhorses obtained was more than Song Yan had expected, 11,532, which made Song Yan very happy.

With a shout, four thousand black-armored soldiers and eight thousand Jurchen cavalry, along with more than ten thousand warhorses, marched in a vast procession, trudging through the thick snow, toward Xinhou County.

More than a hundred miles.

Say whether it is far or not, say whether it is close or not.

The standard marching speed of heavy cavalry is about seventy to eighty li per day. In order to speed up the march, the Black Armor Guards even transferred some of their armor to captured warhorses to reduce their burden as much as possible. After all, snow has begun to fall, and if they had to spend the night in the open in a snowstorm, many would freeze to death.

With an ample supply of warhorses, they could be rotated multiple times, and finally arrived at the new queen's residence at nightfall.

However, it was too late to reach Pingyang, as both the men and their horses were already exhausted.

Fortunately, Xinhou County is also an important border county with a large number of border troops stationed there all year round. The military camps are ready-made, so there is no need to worry about not having a place to stay. The cooks in Xinhou County temporarily cooked pots of noodle soup. After drinking the hot soup, the chill on my body was immediately dispelled.

If the eight thousand soldiers under Batu's command originally harbored some resentment at being forced into this situation, that resentment has now vanished completely... The scalding hot noodle soup, a common meal for the soldiers of Pingyang City, was an extremely rare treat for the Jurchen barbarians.

Especially in the cold winter, it is extremely difficult to get a hot meal.

It even had salt added, not that smelly salt cloth, but pure saltiness. It was absolutely the finest salt, such a precious thing.

With these conditions in place, it suddenly seemed that even becoming a lackey of the Prince of Yan wasn't such an unacceptable thing.

Some Jurchen cavalrymen quietly inquired about the treatment of other Han soldiers. After asking around, they learned that today's meals were simple because it was too late. At other times, they would have steamed buns with white flour, pork buns, rice, and white noodles.

They even received two taels of silver in military pay each month.

Two taels of silver—that's no small sum. Although the Jurchen Khan was wealthy, most Jurchens didn't even know what silver looked like; they only knew it was extremely precious. As for steamed buns, noodles, and rice, they were delicacies enjoyed only by Jurchen nobles on the Haixi Grassland.

For a moment, I felt quite envious. After all, they were just surrendered Jurchen soldiers, and their treatment was naturally incomparable to that of the direct subordinates under the Prince of Yan. They didn't receive two taels of silver in military pay, but I heard they could get several hundred copper coins, and even their food was worse.

Thus, the household registration system for Han Chinese became even more attractive.

It's just the heads of ten Jurchen men, just chop them off.

That night, countless people were thinking the same thing.

Of course, Nakhtoya was not among these people.

Song Yan did not live in the military camp. After all, he had served as the magistrate of Xinhou County for a period of time and also owned a house in Xinhou County. He washed himself early, changed into a dry cotton-padded coat, sat at his desk, the charcoal brazier crackling in the room, and held a brush, writing something, probably the specific arrangements for the eight thousand surrendered Jurchen soldiers.

Meanwhile, in the direction of the kitchen, Nakhtoya's cheeks flushed red.

She was somewhat hesitant.

only……

Cook raw rice into porridge!
Cook it into porridge!
porridge!
My father's voice echoed in my ears in an eerie way.

Finally, Nakhtoya made up her mind, took a deep breath, and threw the tiger whip, which was about half a foot long, into the pot.

Beside her was a large pile of medicinal ingredients, such as deer antler, seahorse, and old ginseng. She had managed to gather all of these by knocking on the doors of several pharmacies late at night.

After about an hour, the food in the pot was finally almost cooked.

He took a small amount, tasted it himself, and confirmed that there was nothing wrong with it. Only when he was sure that his father hadn't added anything strange to the tiger penis did he feel relieved.

Then he filled a whole basin... well, just a whole basin, and carried it steaming hot towards Song Yan's bedroom.

(End of this chapter)