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墨書 Inktalez
Upon seeing the girl in palace attire, who was strikingly beautiful and exuded an air of nobility with every gesture, the officials were momentarily taken aback.
The Xia Kingdom was a superpower, boasting a population of hundreds of millions, an army of tens of thousands, and vast territories. The area of their dynasty was ten times that of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Previously, a contingent from the Xia Kingdom had invaded the Great Zhou Dynasty.
The Great Zhou Dynasty, unwilling to exhaust its forces in defense for fear of being overrun by other kingdoms, sought to negotiate with the Xia envoy who had come to the Great Zhou Capital to discuss troop withdrawal.
Su Qianxue observed that the envoy, who appeared to be not much younger than herself, declared, "Then I shall speak directly with this envoy!"
The envoy represented the Xia Kingdom, which had attacked the Our Dynasty, capturing twelve cities and plundering eighteen county towns. They had slaughtered thirty-seven villages, resulting in a death toll of three hundred thousand.
Currently, their army remained stationed within Our Dynasty's territory. How could they negotiate under such circumstances?
The envoy took a step forward, disregarding the full assembly of civil and military officials from the Great Zhou. "The territories seized by your army now belong to Our Dynasty. Henceforth, the Great Zhou Dynasty must pay tribute to my Xia Kingdom annually: one hundred thousand taels of gold, ten thousand taels of silver, and one hundred thousand bolts of silk!"
"Such a large sum?" The officials were left dumbfounded.
It was known that the Great Zhou Dynasty had a population of only thirty to forty million and governed merely seven provinces; how could they possibly gather such wealth for tribute?
Su Qianxue furrowed her brow, struggling to contain her anger as she replied, "Envoy, your nation has invaded Our Dynasty, killed our people, slaughtered our soldiers, and plundered our lands. Now you demand compensation from us?"
"Indeed!" The envoy retorted confidently. "Because my Xia Kingdom is ten times stronger than your Great Zhou Dynasty!"
"Emperor of Da Zhou," he continued nonchalantly as he surveyed the assembly. "You may refuse to pay tribute, but our border forces are more than capable of continuing their assault!"
Su Qianxue sighed deeply and said with all her might, "But we simply cannot afford this tribute!"
"One Hundred Thousand Taels of Gold! One Hundred Thousand Taels of Silver! One Hundred Thousand bolts of silk! No matter how you look at it, we cannot produce such sums—even if we scour the entire nation."
If they were to comply with these demands now, it would be akin to slowly poisoning themselves. After all, even maintaining an army of several hundred thousand would become impossible if they were forced into such financial strain.
Moreover, after continuous warfare—especially with Lin Qingyue relying on confrontations with various armies and battling against the forces of the Xia Kingdom—our treasury was already depleted. There was simply no way they could provide such funds.
Langya Prince stood coldly to one side, hands clasped behind his back. This morning, he had personally met with Xia Guo Jiu to inform him of the situation and had agreed on the amount of compensation from the Great Zhou Dynasty. If Su Qianxue dared to bare her teeth and offend Xia Guo Jiu, he could leverage Jiu's power to eliminate Su Qianxue and seize the throne of the Great Zhou.
Seeing Su Qianxue's distressed expression and the puzzled looks on the faces of the court officials, Jiu decided to propose a way to obtain the compensation. "Your Majesty!" she began, "Since you are facing some difficulties, how about this? This Palace will engage in three wagers with your nation. If your country wins all three, we can renegotiate the compensation. However, if your country loses, you must prepare the funds honestly!"
She paused for effect before continuing, "Furthermore, if your nation currently lacks the money, we can defer payment until early next year. However, this requires a treaty with This Palace. If by early next year you fail to fulfill your obligations, our nation will attack the Xia Kingdom to reclaim this sum. Is that acceptable?"
Su Qianxue furrowed her brow, contemplating the three wagers. It seemed there was no other choice but to agree. With a long sigh, she declared, "I will personally respond to these three wagers along with my court officials! If I win, then this compensation shall not be required!"
Jiu responded calmly. The entire court of the Great Zhou, including Luo Yuhua, focused intently on Jiu as if listening to a divine proclamation. In that moment, tension filled the air; no one knew what Jiu would propose as the wager.
"For the first wager," Jiu announced, "I have a question. I bet that none of you can answer it. If anyone from your nation can provide an answer, then it will count as a win for you. If not, you must prepare your funds." With that, she gestured for a Jin Jia Jiang Jun to present a silk scroll.
The scroll was slowly unfurled to reveal dense text. Su Qianxue read aloud: "On the first day, give this person one grain of rice; on the second day, give two grains; on the third day, give four grains; on the fourth day, give eight grains; on the fifth day, give sixteen grains; on the sixth day, give thirty-two grains. The question is: how many grains will this person receive after ten days?"
"This!" Su Qianxue exclaimed in disbelief. "With such exponential growth in numbers over ten days—three thousand six hundred days—how could your nation possibly calculate this? It’s simply unreasonable!"
"This question," Jiu interjected smoothly, "I wager that your country will be able to answer it within two days!"
"Your Majesty, in two days, you can summon more people to calculate!"
This question is also a problem from the academy of the Xia Kingdom, and someone has spent ten years solving it!
Jiu Qing smiled and said, "This Palace will come to pay respects to the Da Zhou Emperor in two days!"
Her words left no room for Su Qianxue to refuse, and she turned to leave.
Once they were gone, the court officials began to grumble: "If it were a month, we could manage it; we could just write out the numbers day by day! But ten years? Three thousand six hundred days! We would have to add up the numbers for each day. Even if we gathered tens of thousands of people to calculate together, we wouldn't be able to finish it in two days!"
"Oh dear, Chen Da Ren, didn't you hear what Jiu said? Their own academy took ten years to figure it out. There's no way to cheat; they have the correct answer right in front of them. Your Majesty, this Xia Kingdom is simply making things difficult for us!"
The officials felt overwhelmed; the numbers were too vast, and just thinking about it made their heads spin.
Su Qianxue rested her left hand on the table, her palm against her forehead. As she contemplated the data, she realized it was impossible to calculate. The further along they went, the more complex it became. They would need to solve earlier numbers before they could tackle the later ones. Even attempting a human wave strategy wouldn't work.
In her turmoil, she thought of Jiang Han, believing that such an extraordinary man would be able to unravel this problem!
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