allonlinenovel Chapter 212 The Calamity of the Rainbow Robe: The Smoke of War in the East Turkestan and the Fall of
Chapter 212 The Calamity of the Rainbow Robe: The Smoke of War in the East Turkestan and the Fall of
Six years after Empress Mei Xiaosi left, the Great Cage Kingdom had just quelled an internal rebellion.
Taking advantage of the situation, the East Turkestan Khan raided the border, but while massacring the prisoners of war, he saw a golden poisonous flower suddenly blooming outside the camp—according to the grasslands, this was the manifestation of the resentment of a woman who had died.
He jolted awake, tossing aside his blood-stained scimitar, and muttered towards the Yin Mountains, "Is the future of the Turks destined to be ruined by this poisonous flower? What bad luck!"
Inside the Honglu Temple in Chang'an, He Fengyao gently stroked the crack in the Western Regions' luminous pearl. This flaw left by the upheaval made him even more wary of the arrival of the Turkic prince.
As the five-colored silk ribbon (with yellow in the center, subtly representing the earth element of the Central Plains) between Yang Wozhi's braid brushed against the surface of the fake pearl, he suddenly remembered the secret report from the Court of State Ceremonial: the Turkic delegation had been secretly investigating the Song Prince's residence for days.
Princess Xuanjinshan—
As the eunuchs called out, a woman dressed in modified Hu clothing, posing as Li Chengqi's daughter, entered the palace, trying her best to conceal her unsteady steps. In reality, this woman, Xia Dan, a distant relative of the imperial clan who had been adopted by Emperor Ruizong, still had Mohe silver ornaments from her hometown in Northeast China stuck in her hair.
Yang Wozhi squinted and noticed that she wasn't a family member of the border guards? That stupid lady who only loved wearing pretty clothes.
Three days later, at the banquet in the Pear Garden of Taiji Palace, Xia Dan, who was supposed to play the zither, suddenly broke a string because she didn't know how to play the zither and only knew how to wear pretty clothes. In order to cover up her ignorance, she suddenly broke the string.
Her nails, adorned with crimson nail polish, pointed directly at Yang Wozhi: "What about the wealth and glory you promised? The Turks have been raiding the borders year after year. My husband, who was originally stationed on the frontier, can still afford to support me. Besides, this style of clothing isn't even to my liking! Moreover, I prefer wearing skirts!! If I go to the Turks, won't I have to wear trousers?"
Amidst the uproar, the East Turkestan Wolf King lost face, and half a sheepskin slipped from his sleeve—it was a copy of the genealogy he had secretly copied from the Song Prince's residence!
Deep within the cellar of the Honglu Temple, the cracked Western Region luminous pearl is slowly seeping out the pear blossom poisonous rouge that Xia Dan overturned back then.
The wolf king quickly abducted the fake woman and left the scene.
That night, the glass cup in Emperor Ruizong's hand shattered, and Prince Longji of Linzi entered the palace in full armor. Seven days later, a coup d'état broke out, and the unsealed edict for a marriage alliance was ultimately burned together with the list of Princess Taiping's supporters in front of the Lingyan Pavilion…
Meanwhile, under the instigation of the foolish woman Xia Dan, the East Turkestan Wolf King had donned a Tang Dynasty-style suit. Xia Dan seized the opportunity to demand many clothes and jewels, claiming she had a way to help him conquer the West Turkestan and even dominate the Central Plains. The East Turkestan Wolf King actually believed her, and thus, dressed in a magnificent purple robe befitting a third-rank official, he bowed down to the Great Cage Kingdom and submitted…
Along the way, the ethnic minorities all witnessed this, which became a huge joke and culminated in the wolf king's reckless killing of prisoners, corresponding to another fierce battle during Emperor Xuanzong's reign. Originally, this Eastern Turkic wolf king wanted to use the power of the Great Cage Kingdom to annex the Western Turks, but the Great Cage Kingdom changed emperors again, not only putting aside the much-discussed marriage alliance, but also taking a woman who liked to buy clothes as part of her dowry—Xia Dan.
The Eastern Turkic Khan stroked the "Five Virtues Ribbon" presented by the Tang Dynasty, then abruptly tore off the central yellow tassel. Amidst the fluttering threads, he saw the border of the Long Kingdom, where massacres had taken place five years prior: the despairing eyes of the people gradually overlapped with the terrified eyes of Xia Dan at the banquet; she had thought her carefree days were over…
"Report! The new emperor of the Great Cage Kingdom has sent a letter of peace!"
He never expected that his powerful destiny would end so tragically because of his association with the foolish woman, Xia Dan.
As the messenger presented the document bearing the pear blossom seal, on a distant cliff, the last few gilded poisonous flowers crumbled into dust in the wind, like the ashes of the edict for marriage alliance that had been burned years ago!
As the Eastern Turkic Khan's hand gripped Xia Dan's shoulder, the gilded and kingfisher-feather hairpin in her hair suddenly snapped. The falling pearls rolled into the bonfire, and in the burst of smoke, the prophecy of Empress Mei Xiaosi appeared: "Where the calamity of the Rainbow Robe begins, the wolf star will fall." He hadn't yet realized that provoking this woman, Xia Dan, was precisely the "Rainbow Robe of Misfortune"!
"Xia Dan! You foolish woman!" The Wolf King of the Eastern Turks slammed Xia Dan onto the woolen felt, only to see a brocade sachet fall from her bosom—the very "dowry tribute" he had forcibly taken from the Honglu Temple's treasury three days prior. At that moment, the pear blossom fragrance emanating from the sachet reacted with the blood, solidifying on the tent ceiling into a phantom image of "Eighty-One Feudal Ministers Paying Tribute," with a poisoned arrow clearly visible in the Eastern Turkic position.
Xia Dan had intended to threaten the Empress by using the "Purple Ribbon Binding Life" technique. She struggled to grab the rolling jade forbidden step, but the gold-plated silk ribbon around her wrist tightened even more.
That was the "Five Virtues Ribbon" tied when Emperor Ruizong bestowed the marriage upon her. At this moment, the yellow tassel in the center was seeping out of the soil—Xia Dan would never know that the Ministry of Rites had woven fragments of the Empress's military tally into the silk thread.
As the Khan roughly draped the ceremonial robes of a third-rank noblewoman over her shoulders, the wolf-head incantations embroidered on the back of the robe suddenly tore through the brocade, transforming into countless barbed strands of light that pierced her skin…