At the end of June, Huang Feihu, You Hun, and Xin Jia returned to Chaoge.
Huang Feihu and You Hun attended court, while Xin Jia stayed outside the city, enthralled by stone gambling.
It was truly one piece of bad news after another. Zi Shou felt utterly stifled.
The north had been pacified, and dozens of tribes, large and small, had submitted and moved into the realm.
The entire Huang family seemed determined to thwart him. Although Huang Feihu had credited Dou Rong with every achievement, who did not know that he had actually been the key figure?
Never mind anything else: if Dou Rong had done it all, he could not even have arranged the initial supplies of grain and provisions. Only Huang Feihu could persuade his old father, Huang Gun, stationed at Jiepai Pass, to release those supplies.
What was he supposed to do with Huang Feihu?
Send him wandering the world like Yang Jian?
There was no solution. He could only leave him alone for now.
Only You Hun's work had been somewhat satisfactory. Meng Jiangnü had indeed cried.
Although, of the hundred or so Meng Jiangnüs taken to the Great Wall alive and well, only two had returned.
Those two had returned as the wives of tribal chiefs, their faces blooming with smiles. After all, the chiefs would receive noble titles and settle permanently in Chaoge.
Still, he could spread the rumor. They really had cried at the Great Wall, after all. Using that as the basis for an opera about Meng Jiangnü weeping the Great Wall down would be pretty good.
Huang Feihu entered the palace, hoping to discuss how to settle the northern tribes.
For Noble Consort Huang's sake, Zi Shou received him, though his expression was far from pleasant.
Huang Feihu was exceedingly