Ten days later, Tubo.
Cheng Yaojin, holding a telescope, looked at a city situated between two mountains in the distance.
This was a checkpoint, and he had been stationed here with the Yangwei Army for five or six days.
Since the army marched into Tubo, everything had been smooth sailing until now.
However, as they ventured deeper into Tubo's territory, more and more soldiers in the Yangwei Army began experiencing problems.
Symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and shortness of breath were occurring frequently.
If Cheng Yaojin hadn't been certain he was leading a group of men, he might have suspected the Yangwei Army soldiers were pregnant!
Damn it all, they could barely walk a few steps without gasping for air! How did these men even survive!
"Deputy General, what did that woman from the Eastern Women's Kingdom say? Will they grant us passage?"
A man with a flushed face stepped forward. "Duke, that woman said they are afraid of repercussions from Tubo if they allow us passage, so they will not."
"To hell with them! They refuse a toast and prefer a penalty! Do they want me to force my way through?"
Cheng Yaojin was clearly displeased. This was the third time they had sent someone to negotiate for passage.
A few days ago, while marching, one of his deputy generals suddenly declared they had taken the wrong road.
Comparing it with the map, they had indeed gone astray. The small city ahead, situated halfway up the mountain, was the capital of the Eastern Women's Kingdom!
After a careful examination of the map, he awkwardly discovered that the shortest route to attack Tubo's capital, Luoxie City, was to pass through this city.
The Eastern Women's Kingdom was a small country, especially when compared to the Great Tang.
After capturing a few herders with his elite troops, they found that none of the soldiers could understand what the locals were saying.
In the end, they had no choice but to send someone into the city to negotiate with the high-ranking officials of the Eastern Women's Kingdom.
After all, the Eastern Women's Kingdom had not provoked the Great Tang in any way, so it wouldn't be appropriate to just bombard them without reason, would it?
Fortunately, there were officials within the capital of the Eastern Women's Kingdom who understood the Tang dialect.
The result of the first negotiation was a refusal.
But to Cheng Yaojin's surprise, all the officials of the Eastern Women's Kingdom were women!
These women, mind you, actually ruled over seventy to eighty small cities. Of course, from the perspective of the Great Tang, these small cities were merely the size of towns.
"Send someone again! Bring weapons, and let these unsophisticated women have a look. If they still don't grant passage, I'll lead the troops to conquer them!"
"Damn it, I'm as dark as a charcoal seller now! I want to finish off Tubo and go home soon!"
This damned place made breathing difficult. He couldn't smoke or drink, or he would get dizzy even faster, which made Cheng Yaojin exceptionally irritable.
"Yes, Duke!"
A team of scouts, mounted on horseback, galloped out of the camp and acted as messengers, heading towards the small city between the two mountains.
Less than an hour later, the scouts returned, their faces flushed with excitement.
One of the scouts approached Cheng Yaojin. "Duke, that old woman said that if you really want passage, it's not impossible, but there's a condition."
Cheng Yaojin frowned. "A condition? What the hell! Pack up the camp! Follow me, and we'll fight our way in. I'll spend the night in the city tonight!"
This cursed place was noisy with wolf howls at night, making it impossible to sleep!
"Uh, Duke, aren't you curious about what the condition is?"
The scout coyly kept him in suspense.
"You son of a bitch, spit it out!"
Cheng Yaojin kicked him in the backside.
"Heh, Duke, be gentle!"
The scout quickly jumped aside and grinned at Cheng Yaojin. "Duke, she said that passage is allowed, but first, they need someone to father a child!"
Cheng Yaojin: ...
What kind of monstrous condition was this!
"Did that woman in the city really say that? What, do they not have any men?"
Cheng Yaojin asked the scout incredulously.
"Heh heh heh, these few times I've gone in, I've really only seen a few men."
"Let me think! Right, I only saw four in total!"
"One was bald, like a monk."
"One was short and had a pointed mouth and monkey cheeks!"
"Another had a large beard and a halo on his head."
"The last one was fair-skinned, but had unusually large ears!"
These four were the only men the scout had seen in the city, and they were all emaciated. Especially the one with big ears, whose belly sagged to his knees!
The scout described the scene, gesturing as he recounted his encounter with the four men.
Hiss!
Cheng Yaojin, having some experience, understood. A city full of women, with only four emaciated men!
What kind of torment had these four fellows endured?
However, this also piqued his curiosity. A city populated entirely by women, how bizarre!
"Liu Chan! Wei Datou! Yue Jing! Bi Yuntao!"
"Gather your men and follow me into the city. I want to see what ghosts are in this city!"
Having said that, he walked directly to his warhorse, mounted it, and with a flick of his whip, the horse galloped towards the city in the distance.
The four men he had called out quickly followed with their subordinates.
Closer and closer they got.
The city guards had already spotted Cheng Yaojin and the hundred-odd Yangwei soldiers behind him.
Old Cheng originally intended to halt outside the city, but then he suddenly saw the city gate open, and a woman on horseback emerged, her face veiled, riding directly towards Cheng Yaojin.
"Her Majesty the Queen has commanded me to come. Please, General, come to the palace to speak."
The woman's voice was rough, and her gaze was fixed on Cheng Yaojin, making him feel somewhat uneasy.
"What are you looking at!"
Roar! Roar! Roar!
The woman did not respond to Cheng Yaojin's words. Instead, she placed her hands on her hips and burst into loud laughter.
After laughing for a while, she turned around directly and threw down a sentence: "If you want passage, follow me!"
With that, she rode back into the city.
Cheng Yaojin almost spat out his blood.
"Damn it, she looks like a boulder, and her laugh is coarser than that of the dark-skinned fellow!"
"It's bad enough that she's ugly, but she also keeps calling herself 'this humble woman'. Is she perverted?"
However, thinking about the passage and the strangeness of the city, Cheng Yaojin actually followed.
After everyone entered the city, they found that, just as the scout had said, there wasn't a single man among the people on the streets.
But Cheng Yaojin didn't notice the fervent gazes of the women on the streets as they looked at him from behind.
Following the robust woman—yes, she could only be called a robust woman, because Old Cheng felt she was more muscular than himself!—they arrived at a nine-story stone building near the northern mountains of the city. The building occupied an area of nearly a hundred meters in diameter.
A plaque hung on the first floor of the stone building: Eastern Queen's Palace.
Tsk, tsk, tsk. Although this nine-story stone building looked quite grand, using it as a royal palace showed how small a place it was!
Cheng Yaojin, with his hands behind his back, followed the robust woman into the stone building.
Upon entering, the first floor was empty, with only four emaciated figures sitting by the stone steps, their eyes vacant as they stared at the sunlight outside.
These were the four men the scout had mentioned to Cheng Yaojin!
The only men in the entire city that the scout had seen!