Chapter 808: The Palace is Like a Sieve

The news of Hong Wu’s return had finally taken the empress’s attention away from the television show.

After all, he had once firmly supported her ascension to the throne, so she had very strong feelings for him.

If he were to know that she had been watching television shows, he would definitely nag her.

Although the empress had been stable in her position for a long time and Hong Wu was currently no match for her, many things couldn’t be measured simply like that.

“If General Hong Wu comes and seeks an audience, bring him here directly,” the empress told Xin Zhe.

Someone immediately reported the news once he entered the city.

After Xin Zhe was dismissed, Ren Baqian asked, “Your Majesty, how do you intend to deal with the Yun Nation’s former emperor?”

“What was the situation when you saw him today?” the empress asked.

With a hidden bitterness on his face, he recounted the situation, “He seemed fine, but after being left there for so long, I estimate that he will collapse at any time. Is there anything that we can obtain from him? For instance, his jade seal or any kind of treasure? I don’t think he would dare to reject us.”

“What do you want to do with that thing?” the empress asked casually.

The Yun Nation had already fallen, so what use was there for the jade seal?

She would probably only be interested in that object if she planned to use it to rebel against him. However, she had no intentions of doing that.

“His letter of surrender is not essential. My army can suppress everything,” the empress added.

“It could save us some trouble. After all, the Yun Nation has already existed for so many years that there are many people who are loyal to the royal family. If he were to come forward and willingly surrender, it would crumble some of their people’s fighting spirit. We could then save some effort while also displaying Your Majesty’s generosity,” Ren Baqian said.

“If you put it that way, it sounds pretty reasonable. It’s also not impossible to allow him to live the rest of his life peacefully. Alright, get him to write a letter of surrender and have him surrender himself in front of the palace in the next few days. Let our commoners and all those people from the Yun Nation witness it. After that, find him a place to retire. Attach some experts to him and who knows, he might be able to catch fish on his own,” the empress ordered after pondering for a while.

“Understood, I’ll arrange it tomorrow.”

“You can let someone else make this arrangement.” She lifted her head and looked at Ren Baqian. This man would be her husband in two weeks’ time, someone whom she would spend a lifetime with.

He kept quiet and let her look at him before reaching out and putting her hand in his hands.

At present, Ren Baqian’s palms were twice the size of the empress’s. He could almost cover her hands entirely with his palms.

He glanced around and saw the computer at the side before truthfully saying, “Your Majesty, you have changed…”

“How?” She looked at him and wondered if he had realized that she was being more gentle to him. After all, they were about to get married soon. She was pretty satisfied with this man…

“Geekier…” Ren Baqian sighed. “If fortunate, you would be known as an otaku girl on Earth. Otherwise, you would be a useless person!”

The empress groaned and withdrew her hand from his bear paws. She looked at him coldly and thought about whether to pin him to the wall or the ground.

“However, no matter how geeky you become, you’ll still be known by future generations as the greatest emperor ever! Who says the emperor can’t be geeky?” Ren Baqian changed his tone. “There are so many emperors who don’t even step out of the palace twice in their entire lives. So what if Your Majesty watches television shows? So what if you are geekier? Who doesn’t have a little hobby? Whoever dares to speak badly of you, I will be the first to deal with them.”

“I feel that you aren’t saying something positive!” she muttered to herself.

“How could that be? Every word I said was from the bottom of my heart.” Ren Baqian’s face was full of righteousness.

“In any case, I just don’t think so!” The empress had always been an idealist. Everything she felt it was, it would be.

Boom!

When Hong Wu came in, Ren Baqian was still trying to pull himself out of the wall.

“Greetings, Your Majesty.” Hong Wu greeted as soon as he entered the hall. Then, his attention shifted to Ren Baqian, who was stuck in the wall.

“The great general has returned. It must be exhausting.” The empress laughed.

Ren Baqian struggled in the wall for some time. He used his elbow to expand the hole a little and finally managed to break free.

He looked around and saw that there were already several holes in the wall. Two of them had been created today, one the day before, and another one two days before. They were all sealed up with wooden boards.

The empress’s control of her strength had reached greater heights.

Even though Ren Baqian was slammed into the wall, he didn’t feel any pain.

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Of course, it could be that he was getting tougher.

“I’ll get the Ministry of Works to send someone to repair the wall.” He said faintly, “This palace looks like a sieve.”

“You asked for it, didn’t you?” The empress stared at him.

There wasn’t anger in her words, and both of them were already used to talking like this.

Hong Wu was originally in a good mood when he came to see her. However, after hearing her tone of voice, he immediately became unhappy.

After Ren Baqian left, Hong Wu said. “You give in to him too much, Your Majesty.”

The empress grinned as her attitude suddenly changed for the better.

“This isn’t really giving in to him. We are used to it,” she replied.

“Your Majesty, you have changed…” Hong Wu couldn’t help himself. “You are the emperor of the aboriginals.”

She felt a little at a loss after hearing two people say that she had changed on the same day.

However, Ren Baqian was deliberating teasing her, whereas Hong Wu was speaking the truth.

“Everything in this world is changing,” the empress replied faintly. She used to have no interest in men. Even though she still didn’t, it was good to have a companion.

She used to feel that the palace was cold, but she already hadn’t felt that for a long time.

She began to change ever since she chose her husband.

There were many more things in her life. One more person, a few more robotic dogs, more television dramas, more comics, more desserts, and more candy. She frequently travelled to the other world to relieve boredom as well, and she became more like an ordinary person walking on the street.

She didn’t hate these changes at all.

Those television dramas were so interesting!

So were the comics!

After pondering for a bit, the empress started laughing.

When Hong Wu saw her laugh, he felt as if he hadn’t seen it before and thought that he ought to be happy.

However, thinking about Ren Baqian, his mood turned sour again.

“How is the situation in the north now?” The empress didn’t want to talk about about this matter and changed the topic. Even though they could communicate at any time through the radio, she still wanted to hear it from Hong Wu.

“There’s currently a chaotic war in Great Xia with rebel troops occupying about 30 percent of the capital. Nowadays, Great Xia has been extremely busy dealing with the situation. With the impetus of these rebel troops, even if they could suppress these people, they wouldn’t be able to recover for at least the next 10 years. Needless to say, with the current situation, there’s no telling whether Great Xia can survive this ordeal. Currently, there are only 50,000 wounded soldiers in Yumen City. If Your Majesty wishes, I can deploy troops there at any time.”

Great Xia had divided several regions and made them into residences, and there were more than 20 of these residences in the entire nation. The rebel troops had occupied 30 percent of the city, which meant that they had already expanded their power to about eight of these residences.

At this point, Hong Wu asked, “Do you have any connections with those rebels, Your Majesty?”

“There are indeed. However, they aren’t mine, but Ren Baqian’s.” The empress shook her head. “These rebels still owe me 100 million taels of silver.”

Hong Wu took a deep breath. 100 million taels of silver was equivalent to more than 10 years of revenue from Dayao’s national treasury.

Afterward, the empress explained Ren Baqian and Su Qing’s deal to Hong Wu.

“In any case, we can also calm down Great Xia this way. As for the money they owe, they shouldn’t dare to renege on this debt,” she said.

Hearing this, things started making sense to Hong Wu. He thought to himself, No wonder the news has not been announced regarding Tianjing Basin’s pacification.

After concealing this piece of news and setting off stink bombs in the palace of Great Xia, Great Xia was forced to have to send troops to the south again. This made them unable to make ends meets and left them with no choice but to increase taxes. When the rebel troops moved in, they left Great Xia unable to recover their vigor for at least the next 10 years, no matter the outcome of the war. This strategy was extremely shocking.

Not only was the north worry-free, but Dayao was also able to invest all of its energy into pacifying the Yun Nation.

If these things hadn’t happened, Great Xia would naturally move their troops away from the south and secretly support the Yun Nation.

At present, Great Xia was powerless.

Even though Hong Wu didn’t like Ren Baqian, he had to admit that this strategy was truly remarkable.

However, this didn’t mean that he would cut him some slack during the wedding!