Chapter 573. Bait (2/2)

“Young Miss, does Little Red’s son have a name yet? Will he also be coming back with us to the capital?” Yingchun helped her master to wash up while she chirped away incessantly like a skylark.

“The little fellow looks like Fierce Wind and is black from head to toe. I think the name ‘Black Whirlwind’ will fit him quite well! What do you think?” As the ‘grandmother’ in this relationship, choosing a name for the horse was naturally her duty.

Zhu Junyang, whose opinion had just been asked, had always thought that her naming conventions for things were quite dull. She gave names like ‘Little Red’, ‘Little Black’, and ‘Little White’...in the future, this little colt was destined to become one of the best horses in the empire. He was truly afraid that, in a moment of hot-headedness, she would also give him a ‘simple and common’ name to this horse.

As soon as he heard ‘Black Whirlwind’ being proposed as a name, he immediately nodded his head in agreement. Out of all of the names that the little lass had come up with, this had to be the best one yet! However, he would have never expected that the lass had gotten this name by purloining it from someone’s book [1] !

“Mhm, this name is very suitable and quite fitting!” Zhu Junyang gave his evaluation.

The little lass huffed arrogantly and said, “Obviously. When have I ever chosen a name that’s not fitting?”

Zhu Junyang glanced in the direction of Little Red and stated, “Eh? Is that so ah?”

Yu Xiaocao immediately scowled and glared at him angrily. She used her foot to kick at a certain someone’s ankle and then huffily left to go eat. Earlier, when they were galloping their horses on the plain, she had lost track of time accidentally. By the time they got back, it was mid-afternoon and her stomach was rumbling in hunger. On the way back, she had even secretly eaten a piece of rock candy from the pouch she used to feed the horses. This maltose candy was actually made by her and she used malt and mystic-stone water as the raw ingredients. Naturally, it was very tasty!

“Master, what do you plan on doing with the three people in the guest courtyard?” After they finished eating their late noon meal, Commander Liu seriously asked Zhu Junyang for his opinion.

Zhu Junyang raised his eyes and looked at him while he blandly asked, “What is it? Something is off?”

Commander Liu had a slightly angry expression on his face as he growled out, “Master, you told me to carefully observe these three people, so I sent Li Zhan, who is good at disguising himself and making discreet inquiries, to keep an eye on them. I didn’t expect to find out that those three people aren’t actually citizens of the Great Ming Empire and instead are from the Tuha’erhanbu tribe! The other two call the one who looks like the master ‘Great King’. The other two are named Ajige and Dela Citeng, and they seem to be his trusted aides. Master, for these three people to enter our Central Plains, they must have ulterior motives! In addition, it must not be for a small reason!! This subordinate asks permission to bring a few people over so we can take them for prisoners!”

Tuha’erhanbu tribe’s Great King Yelu Rong? The rulers of the Khitan tribes always had the surname of ‘Xiao’. Since he had introduced himself as ‘Xiao Rong’, it meant that he wasn’t trying to deceive them. As for Ajige and Dela Citeng, one of them was the current Wise Teacher of the State while the other was a famous general who was well known to be good at fighting. With them here, that basically made it obvious what Yelu Rong’s identity was!

Although the Tuha’erhanbu tribe was a more subdued tribe, Zhu Junyang still knew them like the back of his own hand as he had once led troops as a high-ranking military official. There were only two reasons why the Great King of the Tuha’erhanbu tribe would sneak into their borders, which was a very dangerous thing for him to do. He was either pretending to be injured in order to get closer to his objective, or they had an internal incident in the tribe, leading him to secretly flee into the Great Ming borders.

When they had encountered these three men, if he, Zhu Junyang, hadn’t lifted a hand to help them, it was likely those three would be dead now. As the Great King, Yelu Rong absolutely wouldn’t risk his own life to that extent in order to finish a mission. Thus, it was very likely that there was internal strife in his own tribe!

“No need to hurry! Commander Liu, take a few people to secretly leave the border and make some inquiries on what is happening with that tribe. If it truly is what this prince suspects, then the Tuha’erhanbu tribe will soon make their own moves next!” Zhu Junyang smiled craftily like a fox, which made chills run down Commander Liu’s body.

Like that, Xiao Rong and his two advisors were left by themselves in the guest courtyard. Every day, the guest courtyard was always sent delicious foods and drinks for them to enjoy. Furthermore, they even had a highly skilled doctor tending to their wounds. The servants in the courtyard were also extremely polite and treated them with utmost courtesy. Xiao Rong had already come up with the idea to become allies with the Great Ming. The only thing he was missing was the chance to broadcast his good will to Zhu Junyang. However, by the time their wounds were completely healed, he still hadn't had the opportunity to meet up with the prince.

Every time they asked the servants in the guest courtyard about their master’s whereabouts, the servants always said the same excuse, ‘The master is currently trapping a wild horse herd for the farm,’ to diplomatically hint that their master was too busy to see them.

In actuality, this wasn’t a complete lie. Zhu Junyang had been spending most of his days with his subordinates coming up with a special method to catch these wild horses. Furthermore, they had come up with a perfect strategy. Naturally, this strategy relied heavily on Xiaocao’s special ‘bait’.

The so-called ‘bait’ was merely a cake that was made with a special oat and bean mixture that had some mystic-stone water added to it. In order to fool other people, Xiaocao also especially added a few uncommon herbs to this ‘bait’. Furthermore, her finished ‘bait’ was tested on the horses at the stud farm.

[1] Black Whirlwind is the nickname of Li Kui, a character in Water Margin, as he has dark skin and berserk behaviour in fights.