“Have you gotten all the words out of those two’s mouths?” Emperor Hongming sat at the table and asked Eunuch Su.
“Your Majesty, in fact, these two have already been interrogated by the Grand Prince. This is the transcript of the interrogation at that time, which was sent by Eunuch Chen, who was with the Grand Prince.” Eunuch Su handed over a pile of paper.
Once he saw the handwriting on the paper, Emperor Hongming recognized almost instantly that it was written by Yan Sa personally, stroke by stroke. Looking at the sharp writing on the paper, Emperor Hongming could hardly imagine the anger in that child’s heart when he asked the truth out of these two people.
Emperor Hongming’s eyes grew deeper and deeper as he looked over the paper in his hands. At this time, his mind strangely returned to the peak of his life. Even though every word on the paper made his heart cry, he maintained his composure until he saw a slightly new line of ink on the paper at the end. Then, his eyes suddenly fluttered.
“The love between you and me, father and son, has long since faded away!”
Touching the sharp strokes on the paper, Emperor Hongming’s eyes were filled with sorrow.
Eunuch Su walked in with a bowl of steaming medicine and coincidentally saw Emperor Hongming flipping through to the last page and went over to comfort him. “Your Majesty, come and drink the medicine. This is the prescription that the Grand Prince took the trouble to find. It is the filial piety of the Grand Prince!”
Emperor Hongming was stunned and turned his head to look at the medicine bowl in Eunuch Su’s hand. He had drunk this medicine countless times but had not thought that the drug was ineffective when taken for a long time. This medicine was able to maintain its healing effect all the time, and in the end, it must have taken Sa’er much effort.
Accepting the medicine bowl and drinking it, Emperor Hongming sighed with emotion in his eyes. This child is still too soft-hearted and has moved to force the palace to take the trouble to save his life.
As the two were talking, the sound of neat footsteps rang out from outside the hall. Emperor Hongming glanced out the window and frowned as he asked Eunuch Su: “The Imperial Guard has been practicing frequently recently. What is the situation?”
Eunuch Su nodded towards Emperor Hongming and said, “I heard from my servant yesterday that there is some disturbance outside the Capital. I am afraid that……the Third Prince has assembled his army to attack the Capital.”
“Nonsense!” Emperor Hongming’s face immediately sank, and he slapped the table, ” The Capital is prosperous now. What is he trying to do!”
In the beginning, Emperor Hongming summoned Qi Yue and asked him to protect the Third Prince, but only as an escort. It was not a sign that the Third Prince should use the strength of the Northern Army to start a war.
Now, after a bit of thought, Emperor Hongming knew why the Third Prince had such intentions. He must have discovered that the Capital had been improved by the Grand Prince like an iron barrel. The influential courtiers of the court were all obedient to the Grand Prince, so he panicked.
However, Qi Yue and Yang Hui even let the Third Prince fool around? Emperor Hongming looked grim. He knew Qi Yue’s skills, and if he really led an attack on the Capital, the Imperial army would surely face a bloody battle.
Wait, Qi Yue?
Emperor Hongming thought of the order he had given to Qi Yue and immediately said to Eunuch Su, “Quick! Send a message to Qi Yue. Tell him that I have withdrawn my order and that he must not target the Grand Prince!”
Eunuch Su looked puzzled, “Your Majesty, General Qi has already arrived at the Capital from the border. Not to mention that we can’t send a message now, even if we can, we don’t know where to send it to?”
“Find Chen Bing! He will definitely help in this matter!” Emperor Hongming was in a panic, afraid that Qi Yue would really follow his orders to support the Third Prince and turn against the First Prince.
Eunuch Su answered and ran out in a panic.
After turning around the room twice, Emperor Hongming took out two blank volumes of holy decrees and wrote something on one of them with a gloomy face.
Since the third son wants to attack the Capital, let him do it. He has to settle the accounts of those years.
Qi Yue sat in the military tent and listened to the military commander’s account of the Third Prince’s movements in the past few days.
""
“Didn’t the Third Prince want to take Jizhou first for the food problem? How did it turn out?”
Hearing Qi Yue’s question, the military commander immediately told him in detail, ” How can he take it. General, you don’t know that the Third Prince has almost reached Jizhou with his troops, but he heard a scout say that there is a group of imperial troops secretly marching towards our camp.”
“Oh?” Qi Yue raised his eyebrows, “He asked me to stay in the camp. How come I didn’t see the imperial army coming?”
“Hey, wasn’t he tricked? At that time, as soon as the Third Prince heard the news, his face immediately changed because his precious holy decree was not with him but left in the camp. So the Third Prince made a quick decision and gave up the attack on Jizhou to immediately return to help. When he returned to the camp, he discovered that there was no sign of the imperial army.”
Hearing this, Qi Yue’s face showed a smile: “Then when he returned to Jizhou again, he found that the city walls were already full of imperial troops, and if he wanted to take Jizhou, he had to fight a bitter battle?”
“Huh, how do you know that, General?” The military commander asked in surprise, but he also had an understanding of Qi Yue’s ability and was only surprised for a moment before he continued to describe the Third Prince’s ugly face to Qi Yue.
The Third Prince was already short of food and grass in his hands, and in the end, he was not able to expend his efforts to attack Jizhou.
Qi Yue did not listen to the military commander anymore and just chuckled to himself with his cup of tea. Such a cunning scheme can only be made by Xiangfeng, who passed by today and knew the general location of the camp.
Most of the soldiers did not want to start a war at this time. Even though the Third Prince lured them with additional officials and titles, these soldiers still felt a sense of relief after knowing that they could not take Jizhou.
Qi Yue has now crossed the Third Prince out of his heart. In his opinion, even if Emperor Hongming and Yang Hui praised the Third Prince to the sky, this person in his heart is not good enough to be the Emperor.
But to support the Grand Prince as Emperor, Qi Yue’s heart is even a hundred times more reluctant. He has even planned to approach the Second prince or find an obedient son of the clan to push him to the throne.
Because Xiangfeng is working under the Grand Prince, if the Third Prince ascends to the throne, he will not be spared, and the Grand Prince is more likely to kill him for his high achievements.
""
Qi Yue’s eyes were dark, and he even thought of revolting to push the youth to the throne. Although Emperor Hongming has been gracious to him, Qi Yue would rather be an ungrateful person than bring even a tiny bit of harm to Xiang Feng just because he stubbornly held on to that kindness.
The men of the Northern Army are coming from the north, and Qi Yue has begun his own planning.
While he was pondering, someone outside informed, “General, the Third Prince summons you over.”
When Qi Yue walked to the Third Prince’s tent, he found that all of the Third Prince’s men were gathered together.
“General Qi has come at the right time. I am asking if anyone is willing to go to Xiangzhou to treat the flood on my palace’s behalf. The floods in Xiangzhou are serious. Although I am busy, I am still very concerned, so I have invited several of you here to ask your intentions.”
The Third Prince’s move is actually made by Yang Hui’s nagging to do so. Recently, he did not have the heart to take care of Xiangzhou’s affairs because of a series of bad luck.
Yan Lan was not worried about the people of Xiangzhou because he had been there several times before and had already made a name for himself here. He also knew that the status of the governor of Xiangzhou was special, so even if the Grand Prince went there, he might not be successful.
Hearing the words of the Third Prince, several officials and local military generals in the tent exchanged words and discussed.
Qi Yue scanned over them and said in a deep voice, ” I am willing to go.”
“Oh? Is General Qi really serious?” The Third Prince’s eyes lit up at his words. He pretended to hold him back for a while, “You are more useful to stay here!”
“My mind is already made up. I ask the Third Prince to fulfill it.” Qi Yue lowered his head to bow. Xiang Feng went to Xiangzhou alone. Seeing how he was usually busy until late at night, he would definitely not take care of himself in Xiangzhou. Qi Yue was already anxious about this, and now the Third Prince’s decision was just what he wanted.
Moreover, the Third Prince is very suspicious of him. Qi Yue’s secret plotting has already begun, and the task has been laid out. His presence here in person will easily arouse the Third Prince’s thoughts. Although it is easy to control the Third Prince now, Qi Yue is not prepared to take out the Third Prince and remove obstacles for the Grand Prince for no reason.
The Third Prince discouraged him a few more times, but finally, he could only agree. In fact, as Qi Yue was willing to go to Xiangzhou, the Third Prince was happy to accept his Northern Army. He looked at Qi Yue and smiled: “It is just right for General Qi to go to Xiangzhou, so you can meet the daughter of the governor of Xiangzhou and relieve the pain of your longing.”
The pain of longing? What does he have to do with the daughter of the governor of Xiangzhou?
Qi Yue was puzzled and looked at the Third Prince strangely, but he did not ask about it rashly. Instead, he went back to his tent and repeated the words to his military commander, asking if the Third Prince had any plans again. Otherwise, why did he mention the daughter of Xiangzhou’s governor on purpose?
The military commander was also confused when he heard this at first. He scratched his head and turned twice in the tent: “Xiangzhou……Xiangzhou……”
In the past, he was always the one who filled the clerical duties in the Northern army, sorting out the information coming from the Capital for Qi Yue. The military commander always felt as if he had heard something about Xiangzhou at some point, but he could not recall the following.
“The daughter of the governor of Xiangzhou……daughter?” The military commander recited two sentences. Then, he suddenly slapped his head and exclaimed, “I remembered, the daughter of the governor of Xiangzhou, isn’t she your wife?”
“Nonsense, when has this General ever tied a marriage with another person?” Hearing the words of the military commander, displeasure rose in Qi Yue’s heart. How can this nonsense be said? If one is not careful, there will be a misunderstanding.
Seeing Qi Yue’s darkened face, the military commander immediately remembered what happened between him and the youth. His expression became awkward: “This……a year ago, news came from the Capital that the Emperor had given you a match, but at that time, the Mongolian side caused a small riot. You led the army to fight, so the matter was overlooked……”
The more the military commander said, the smaller his voice became. This matter is indeed negligence on his part. Now, the General may want to tear him up after hearing this news.
Qi Yue did want to strangle him directly! He now immediately thought of the youth’s anger that night when he mentioned the Xiangzhou governor. The governor had done many unscrupulous things, and he was somehow close to becoming his “father-in-law”. The young man must have thought that he was condoning all those dirty things he did!
He must go to Xiangzhou and get to the place as soon as possible, otherwise…… Qi Yue dare not imagine what kind of bad impression the youth will have of himself.
“Prepare the horses. I will immediately rush to Xiangzhou!” Qi Yue said on the spot.
Unaware that a certain man was about to arrive, Qing Yun rushed through the night and finally arrived in Xiangzhou after a long journey.
Once in the territory of Xiangzhou, Qing Yun saw a large area of flooded farmland. Many farmers cowered on the high ground and were shivering from the cold even in the middle of summer.
Qing Yun’s eyes flashed a trace of anger. He expected the Xiangzhou flooding to be serious, so the money approved for disaster relief was quite a lot, but now it seems that not a single cent was used for the people of Xiangzhou.
Seeing the luxurious carriage with the logo of the Great Yan Empire coming, some people’s eyes lit up. However, the light passed instantly, and soon, their eyes reverted to dead silence. They thought that the officials sent by the court could no longer bring them any hope.
The carriage headed towards the inner city of Xiangzhou, which is on high ground. Once they reached the city gate, Qing Yun heard someone shouting at the gate, “May I ask if the carriage is the imperial envoy sent by the court? Zhang Lin, the governor of Xiangzhou, and his daughter are here to see the imperial envoy!”