Fierce Consort

Chapter 143

The Zhenguo Duke's reply quickly arrived.

It was as Yan Yan had guessed. The Zhenguo Duke truly did have an unusual relationship with Luo Bi Shi. This dated back to when the Zhenguo Duke was battling the southern barbarians.

Luo Bi Shi was commander of a local hundred-troop squad back then. The Zhenguo Duke was the great general dispatched to deal with the southern barbarians. The difference between the two was like heaven and earth.

At that time, the grudge between the southern barbarians and the people of China had been ongoing for a long time. It was seemingly to the point where they couldn't coexist. Luo Bi Shi was garrisoned in the area and the situation was very tough. They had to always be on guard against extremists within the citizens who would incite people and end up causing a rebellion. The sourthern barbarians were all skilled in martial arts and had the habit of bringing their blades everywhere. If a rebellion happened, the outcome would be unimaginable.

Luo Bi Shi had encountered several such instances. The worst occasion had been orchestrated by the rebel army of the southern barbarians. He almost lost his life on the spot but was saved by the Zhenguo Duke who brought reinforcements.

When the Zhenguo Duke arrived, he wasn't like many of the generals sent by the court who forcibly used troops to suppress the enemy. Instead, he started meticulously investigating the conflict between the barbarians and the Chinese, and why the usually docile southern barbarians would repeatedly revolt to the extent the court sent troops over.

It wasn't a mistake to say this was a long-standing grudge between the two peoples.

During the reign of one of the previous emperors, the southern barbarians became part of the Grand Xi. The court at that time had been singing his praises, saying he had both political and military achievements and that he was a wise monarch. This previous emperor was Emperor Xi's grandfather.

The Zhenguo Duke's punitive expedition against the southern barbarians was during this emperor's reign.

The southern barbarians had been suppressed, but after they were taken over, the court didn't establish a plan for the two peoples to live together in harmony. Instead, they swallowed the territory in one gulp and rushed to send over a batch of Chinese people to live on the land that belonged to the southern barbarians.

The southern barbarians were frightened after the battle. Their corpses had been piled into mountains. For the sake of survival, despite being resentful of the Chinese people's invasion, they still put on a docile appearance.

Just like this, the two different peoples lived together for several decades. The conflict between them also accumulated in the dark bit by bit.

The Chinese disdained the barbarians for not speaking their language, their brutish ways and lack of etiquette. The southern barbarians felt the Chinese were treacherous and cunning. They bullied the honest and sincere southern barbarians for the sake of getting some small benefits. Therefore, they remained separate groups despite living together.

The Chinese especially felt an innate sense of superiority to the barbarians. They felt that since they lost their homes, these barbarians could only attach themselves to the Chinese in order to survive. The local laws were also more or less biased towards the Chinese. For example, if a Chinese hit a barbarian and it was reported to the authorities, the punishment was extremely light. If it were the other way around, the punishment was unimaginably heavy.

This only added to the arrogance of the Chinese, and although the southern barbarians looked humble, they held smoldering fires inside.

Furthermore, the Chinese had undergone Confucian teachings and had a concrete culture. This was completely different from the southern barbarians who only kept to themselves. Gradually, the Chinese occupied a large amount of the land and the barbarians ended up being laborers.