Time travel is risky, and love requires caution

At the suggestion of the wizard Tongtian, King Ximo changed the name of the sixth prince to Lu Chengyou. The difference is only one character, replacing "you" with "you". Although the pronunciation is the same, the meaning is different. "You" with the character "ren" next to it means help from people, while "you" with the character "shi" next to it means protection from God.

King Ximo hoped that the Sixth Prince's new name would bring Ximo divine help, because at this time Ximo's situation was at the forefront and King Ximo was in a state of panic.

The territory of Ximo is vast and the population is sparse. Although the men of Ximo are all strong, their overall national strength is far inferior to that of Beiwei. The dispute between the two countries is not a one-on-one fight between two men, which can be won by wisdom and courage or bluffing. It is a protracted and real war of attrition, competing in equipment and supplies. With the national strength of Ximo, I am afraid it can't even last for three months.

More importantly, the Ximo Kingdom is composed of more than a dozen tribes, large and small, and the tribes have always been fighting openly and secretly, and no one is willing to submit to the other.

King Ximo had made great military achievements in his early years and was extremely prestigious in Ximo. It could be said that he could command the support of hundreds of people. The tribe he led was also the most populous, militarily and economically powerful in Ximo. That was why he had been able to suppress and balance the leaders of various tribes by himself for so many years.

Although King Ximo can still maintain the status quo with his remaining power, his health has been deteriorating over the years. Once he passes away one day, Ximo will probably face the embarrassing situation of being leaderless and each country acting on its own. The result is predictable. It will either be a fight among themselves or being cannibalized by other countries.

King Ximo naturally did not want this to happen, so he spent a lot of energy consolidating the kingship and training a successor to the throne. This is also why King Ximo agreed to let his eldest son go to the border to accumulate military merits and establish prestige.

But now, King Ximo is no longer able to do it. In recent years, several tribes have gradually grown stronger and their ambitions have expanded. There have been frictions between tribes, and they have become more and more intense. King Ximo has come forward to mediate several times, but it is only a temporary solution. Although the leaders of each tribe have given King Ximo enough face on the surface and temporarily shook hands and made peace, they are still accumulating strength in private and waiting for an opportunity to act.

The tribes had evolved from living in peace at first to being on the brink of war later. If they were not careful, they would fall apart and the country would no longer exist. Once Ximo and Beiwei officially went to war, I'm afraid that several tribes would not miss such a rare opportunity and would annex each other or even replace the royal family of Ximo. I'm afraid that before Beiwei attacked, Ximo would have already been torn apart.

King Ximo was overwhelmed by internal and external troubles, so he hoped for the best and followed the advice of the wizard Tongtian to change the name of the sixth prince. However, he did not expect that just a few days after the name change, Beiwei sent envoys to negotiate, which actually brought a turning point for Ximo.

It turned out that Emperor Beiwei's situation was not much better than King Ximo's.

When Ling Zhang inherited the throne, he experienced a lot of internal strife. "The imperial family is the most ruthless." Fathers and sons were suspicious of each other, and brothers were fighting. Although Ling Zhang won in the end, he had been on the throne for seven or eight years. There had always been some stubborn officials in the court who secretly criticized his governance, so Emperor Beiwei had always been cautious.

Beiwei's court was divided into a radical war faction and a conservative peace faction regarding the Western Expedition. The two factions were at a stalemate and neither could convince the other. Although the Northern Emperor was the ruler of a country and the head of all officials, he also had more helplessness and could not offend either side easily.

When they were struggling to make a decision, the nomadic tribes in the north encountered a famine. In order to survive, they gathered tens of thousands of people and risked their lives to invade. The barefoot ones were not afraid of the ones wearing shoes. They were bloodthirsty, slaughtered villages and cities, and looted all the food and property. The Ninth Prince led the army and the people to resist. For a time, the north was in flames and people were suffering.

Meanwhile, a severe flood hit the east side of the Yangtze River, submerging many fields and houses. The farmers had worked hard for a whole year, but in the end, they had nothing to harvest. Entire villages were forced to leave their homes, and people fled thousands of miles away, with corpses of starvation everywhere.

Although the imperial court had sent people to provide disaster relief as soon as possible, there were too many victims and the supplies they sent were just a drop in the bucket. In addition, corrupt officials were like termites, embezzling the relief supplies and eating away the last bit of hope of the victims.

When people really face a life-and-death situation, they no longer care about propriety, righteousness, integrity, or shame, let alone the relationship between the ruler and the people. One person raises his arm, thousands of people shout, the crowd becomes indignant, and riots occur.

The Northern Emperor had to disperse his forces, sending some to the north to resist the invasion and others to Jiangdong to suppress the rebellion. So the Northern Emperor had no choice but to select envoys from the peace faction and rush to Ximo for peace talks, in order to gain the greatest negotiation advantage before the domestic crisis of Beiwei expanded and spread to Ximo.

Beiwei put forward three demands. The first was that Ximo should formally cede the three cities that Beiwei had occupied. The second was that King Ximo should send a prince to Beiwei as a hostage to show his request for peace. The third was to present Beiwei with a hundred fine stallions.

Regardless of whether the conditions were high or not, the envoy's attitude and tone were extremely unfriendly, a completely tough stance of a victorious country, leaving Ximo no room for bargaining.

Although King Ximo and his ministers were unhappy, they could do nothing about it.

For King Ximo, the first condition was that the city had already been lost, so there was no need for him to sign a formal cession procedure. It would be embarrassing for both sides anyway.

The second condition reminded King Ximo of the divination result given to the Sixth Prince by the Wizard Tongtian. Perhaps the Sixth Prince's fate was not suitable to be kept by his side. In addition, since the Sixth Prince changed his name, things did turn around, so King Ximo believed in the words of the Wizard Tongtian even more.

Therefore, King Ximo did not give it too much thought or hesitation, and ordered the sixth prince to be sent to Beiwei as a hostage.

The third condition was even less of a problem for King Ximo. He was going to give away his own son, so why would he care about a few horses?

So it was under such circumstances that Lu Cheng, who was only six years old at the time, traveled thousands of miles to Beiwei with black sesame paste.

After the Sixth Prince left Ximo, Ximo actually began to gradually turn the situation around.

Not only did the border between Ximo and Beikui stop having any friction, but the tribes of Ximo also sympathized with and admired the King of Ximo for sending the Sixth Prince to Beikui, and they actually united against the common enemy. Moreover, the health of the King of Ximo did not continue to deteriorate, but showed signs of improvement.

So over the years, although the Sixth Prince was not raised by King Ximo, King Ximo often thought of the Sixth Prince. He felt that he owed this son, but also felt that this son should not be underestimated.

Now that King Ximo is over fifty years old, he is even more concerned about the Sixth Prince. He wants to bring the Sixth Prince back, so he asks the Wizard Tongtian. The wizard says that the evil spirit in the Sixth Prince has been removed, and his return will not only be harmless but will also help the foundation of the Ximo Kingdom.

It just so happened that King Ximo received an invitation from Emperor Beiwei to attend the Spring Festival Gala, so he wanted to take the opportunity to bring the sixth prince back to the country.