Reborn as Murong Fu: This time I am the protagonist

Wu Yashu's face darkened, and he glanced at the middle-aged man and said in a deep voice: "Yishilishigu, do you mean that you would rather be a slave to the Liao Kingdom with your descendants than resist?"

The chieftain of the Yishilie tribe, who was called Shigu, replied, "Of course. The Liao Dynasty has been established for more than a hundred years. It has a strong army and a million troops. Among the states of the world, Song, Xixia, Dali, and Tubo, who can compete with it? Even if all the men, women, and children of the Jurchen tribes were added together, there are only a few tens of thousands of people. With such a small number of people, fighting against the Liao Dynasty is no different from hitting a stone with an egg."

The rest of the captured chiefs were silent. It seemed that in the minds of these people, the behemoth Liao Kingdom was indeed an unshakable enemy in their minds. Even the Wanyan tribesmen in the big tent couldn't help but feel a shadow in their hearts.

Seeing that no one was talking, Shi Gu continued, "Some of our brave tribesmen usually go by sea to the Song Dynasty in the south to do business with the Song people. I believe you all know how rich and powerful the Song Dynasty is, but so what? Decades ago, when the Song Dynasty was at its peak, it still couldn't defeat the Liao Dynasty? It was forced to sign an alliance and pay countless gold, silver and silk every year. Even the Song Dynasty is like this, what can we do?"

As the stone drums say, there were indeed many brave Jurchens who crossed the sea to the Song Dynasty to do business. Compared with the forced buying and selling of the Liao Dynasty, which was almost like robbery, the Jurchens often made more than a hundred times the profit from doing business with the Song people. The prosperity of the Song Dynasty opened the eyes of these Jurchens who lived in the white mountains and black waters, and therefore they became more afraid of the Liao Dynasty. Just imagine, if such a wealthy Song Dynasty lost to the Liao Dynasty, who else in the world could be the opponent of the Liao Dynasty?

"Puch!"

Murong Fu couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Shi Gu looked towards the source of the voice. Even though he was a prisoner at the moment, he couldn't help but glare at the other party: "Hey, you are from Song Dynasty, right? Is there anything wrong with what I said?"

Murong Fu smiled and said, "Sorry, I just remembered something interesting, nothing else."

If what Shi Gu said is true, then of course it is nonsense, but if it is said to be completely wrong, that is not necessarily true.

Was the Liao Dynasty strong? In a sense, it was indeed strong. Although the so-called million-strong army was a fictitious number, it was not particularly difficult to gather an army of hundreds of thousands if one really wanted to. Was the Song Dynasty rich? In a sense, it was true. In real history, after the fall of Bianjing during the Jingkang period, the Jin people looted Bianjing and found tens of millions of taels of gold alone, and countless other treasures.

However, the so-called powerful Liao Kingdom was wiped out in just ten years. As for the wealthy Song Dynasty, it was even more vulnerable and lost half of its territory in just one year.

Wu Yashu said: "Murong, if you have any good ideas, just tell me!"

Murong Fu said, "I don't have any brilliant ideas, I just want to tell you a story. In the southern Dali Kingdom, there is a strange beast called an elephant. When it grows up, it is more than ten times heavier than a tiger, and its strength is amazing. Even a hundred people can't control it when it goes crazy. However, the acrobatics artists in Dali are able to train it and let it perform a hundred acrobatics without worrying about it running away. Do you know how they do it?"

Shi Gu said, "How can there be such a thing in the world? If there really is such a thing, even an iron cage cannot hold it, and how can it be performed?"

Wu Yashu glared at Shigu in dissatisfaction and said angrily: "Shigu, don't forget your current identity!"

Murong Fu waved his hand: "It doesn't matter. In fact, the answer is very simple. It's just a stick as thick as a wrist tying up the elephant."

Now even Wu Yashu found this a bit outrageous. Not to mention the elephant that Murong Fu mentioned was ten times stronger than a tiger, many people present had sticks as thick as wrists that could be broken with bare hands.

"The principle is actually very simple. Although elephants are big, they are not very smart. When elephants are young, elephant trainers tie them with a stick. The elephants are young and weak, and no matter how hard they struggle, they cannot break free. Over time, the elephants will form the impression that they cannot break free from the stick. With this impression in their childhood, the elephants will not try to break free from the stick when they grow up."

Everyone was silent.

"The Liao Kingdom, from the outside, does look extremely powerful. During the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty, the successive monarchs of the Liao State overwhelmed the Central Plains and had the potential to sweep the world. However, since the Chanyuan Alliance between Song and Liao, the Liao Kingdom has been at peace for nearly a hundred years. Today's Liao Kingdom has arrogant and extravagant generals, lazy and cowardly ordinary soldiers, and no fighting spirit. This is the first reason. There are many tribes within the Liao Kingdom. The real Khitans do not actually account for the absolute majority. The Han people in the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun do account for the majority, and there are also a variety of other tribes. These people are not really of the same mind as the Khitans, let alone working hard for the Khitan royal family. Once there is a strong external force pushing them, these people will certainly turn against them. This is the second reason. Today, the Liao Kingdom's monarch Yelu Hongji is incompetent. He has been in power for 30 years and has been hunting excessively, wasting the Liao Kingdom's declining national strength in vain. There are many internal contradictions that are ready to explode. The Great Liao is like a shaky clay-footed giant. As long as there is a slight external force pushing it, it will collapse!"

"On the other hand, although the Jurchen tribes are few in number, they have lived in a cold and harsh land for a long time. Even women and children can shoot arrows and are extremely brave. Wars ultimately depend on people. As long as the Jurchen tribes unite, stop their meaningless infighting, accumulate strength, and wait for the right time to win a battle, they can throw a spark into the Liao Kingdom, and then the Liao Kingdom will fall into chaos, and great things can be accomplished."

Murong Fu paused for a moment. No one spoke. The only sound in the room was breathing. The stone drum that had been making a lot of noise just now was also silent.

Wu Yashu was silent for a while, then said softly: "Shigu, if I remember correctly, this year is the eleventh anniversary of your sister's death."

Hearing this, Shi Gu's eyes couldn't help but turn red.

It turned out that eleven years ago, when Shigu was still young, a silver-medal envoy from the Liao Kingdom came to Yishilie to collect tribute of sea holly, and acted arrogantly as usual. As luck would have it, this time the silver-medal envoy took a fancy to Shigu's sister who had just married at that time. The arrogant silver-medal envoy didn't care whether the Jurchen woman was married or not, and didn't care what her status was. He insisted that Shigu's sister accompany him. Shigu's sister refused to obey, and the silver-medal envoy, relying on the support of the Liao Kingdom, ordered his men to beat Shigu's sister to death with a whip in front of everyone in Yishilie.

Recalling the tragic scene of his own sister's death that he witnessed in his childhood, Shi Gu, a seven-foot-tall man, instantly had tears in his eyes.

An elderly Jurchen chieftain stepped forward and saluted Murong Fu. "Guest from afar, the Jurchens admire warriors. You defeated so many of our tribal coalition forces today by yourself. You can be said to be a warrior among warriors. I am already eighty years old and I don't have many days left. But our children and grandchildren still have a long life ahead of them. We have to consider them. Please forgive us for not acting rashly."

This man was Yishilie Shizhong, the patriarch of the Yishilie tribe, who was knocked off his horse by a small stone thrown by Murong Fu. Fortunately, he was not trampled to death in the chaos of the army. Because he was old, the people of the Wanyan tribe did not tie him up out of respect.

Yi Shilie Shizhong said: "Thank you to the leaders of the Wanyan tribe for not killing us because we are all Jurchens. We will notify our friends and neighbors to send the ransom. Wuchun is dead, and I promise that no one else will unite to deal with the Wanyan tribe in the future. But opposing the Liao Kingdom is a big thing that needs to be considered carefully. No one heard about what happened today."

Wanyan Wuqimai was getting anxious. After all his talk, these people were still stubborn. He had already said what he wanted to say, and he couldn't kill all of them. The Jurchens were few in number, and every adult male was a rare resource. There were hundreds of them here, big and small, how could he kill them all at once?

Yi Shilie Shizhong sighed and said, "Wuqimai, don't worry. Even if someone of us secretly reports to the Liao Kingdom, it will not attract the Liao Kingdom's attention. The silver envoy who can speak has died, and the seal is in your hands. What's more, what good will it do for us to tell others? The Wanyan tribe was destroyed by the Liao Kingdom, and in the future, the taxes of the Wanyan tribe will be shared by several tribes. Who would do such a stupid thing?

Wu Yashu was silent for a long time, hesitant to speak, and finally said: "Well, if that's the case, I won't force you. Please send someone to deliver the ransom as soon as possible!"