Following the doctor's orders, I started taking medicine and dieting. I had absolutely no expectations for lunch (┬＿┬).
"...I beg Your Excellency's forgiveness."
At the mouth of the valley.
The Jurchen envoy, Ye Su Gai, was explaining the full circumstances of the stable incident to Xu Furen amid the clamorous temporary camp.
It was much as Sun Shaozong had anticipated. The Zhesheli Tribe had suffered grievous losses in the battle a month ago; even He Li Sule, the younger brother of the chieftain Zhe Heli, had died near Xingcheng.
The corpse had only just been brought back and buried when the "enemy" came swaggering to their doorstep, demanding to be fed, housed, and properly entertained. No one would have been happy about that.
Thus, with the chieftain's tacit approval, Ha Qinmi and the others had tried to force the Great Zhou delegation into the stables, hoping to vent their resentment.
After learning the details, the Great Zhou delegation's response consisted mainly of official platitudes: "grave concern," "pull back from the brink," "we shall wait and see," and the like.
Naturally, Sun Shaozong, who was playing the hardliner, did not fail to slip in a few threats, such as, "Do not say we failed to warn you."
In the end, after Ye Su Gai repeatedly promised there would be no next time, both sides reached a consensus in the spirit of mutual understanding and accommodation: they would let the matter rest for now.
Meanwhile.
A Lin Qitu, feeling that his dignity had been challenged, stormed angrily to his father-in-law Zhe Heli's home.
Though the Zhesheli Tribe, as the Jurchens' vanguard, had fought bitterly against the Great Zhou army year after year and accumulated irreconcilable hatred, the chieftain's residence was built in an utterly authentic Han style.
It was a neat,