Wang Yande also looked up, his expression full of emotion.
"Truly, lone loyalty endures in the great desert of the Western Regions. The people of the Pacified West Grand Protectorate have done the people of our Central Plains proud!"
Hearing Wang Yande's heartfelt remark, Verdant Green Maiden nodded as well.
"Indeed."
The climate had changed now.
Across the Western Regions, many oases were shrinking. With nature changing and no reinforcements from the Central Plains, holding out here for so long with Kucha City alone was truly admirable. Verdant Green Maiden recalled what it had been like when she first visited the Pacified West Grand Protectorate.
Back then, prosperity had filled this place.
Now, only a touch of desolation remained, without laughter or joy.
"I wonder whether the Heavenly Mountain Kingdom still exists."
Verdant Green Maiden murmured.
Her murmur reached Wang Yande's ears, and he turned toward her curiously.
"Imperial Tutor, what did you just say?"
"Nothing."
Verdant Green Maiden shook her head.
Just then, a stone was thrown down from the gate tower of Kucha City, followed by two people poking their heads out.
Both were visibly advanced in years, their hair and beards graying.
Leaning over the battlements, they asked, "You down there... are you... from the Central Plains?"
Their speech was recognizably Han Speech.
Yet it sounded somewhat awkward.
It was no longer standard official speech, but carried many accents of the Western Regions.
In fact, Kucha City's defenders had spotted the delegation approaching while it was still far away.
To be honest, they had been terribly nervous too.
In the past, when the Tibetan Tribes attacked Kucha City, they had tried posing as people from the Central Plains to trick the defenders into opening the gates.
But their people either could not speak fluently or looked nothing