The people in the Cining Palace reacted quickly, and the two eunuchs who smelled the blood were immediately covered with their mouths and taken away.

Except for the Empress Dowager's close confidants, no one was allowed to approach the main hall. At the same time, no one was allowed to enter or leave the Cining Palace to prevent the news from leaking out.

Inside the hall, Manager Liu bravely stepped forward to check the wooden box.

The senior palace maids standing on both sides of the Queen Mother hurried forward and gently patted her back to help her calm down.

The Queen Mother's frightened heart gradually calmed down.

He sat up and looked at the mahogany box below with a sharp gaze, his eyes shining brightly.

"No head in the box?"

Although she showed concern and care for Qi Xu, her level of familiarity with him was not even as good as any of the maids in the palace who she had arranged to take care of Qi Xu.

If this was Qi Xu's body, she really wouldn't be able to recognize it without the head.

"Call Nanny Sun over." This was the old lady who used to be with her. When the late emperor had just passed away, considering that Qi Xu was still young, she specially sent Nanny Sun to take care of Qi Xu for a while.

Although people change as they grow older, some features are still recognizable.

The senior palace maid beside the Queen Mother was about to go out to call someone.

Then, Chief Steward Liu from below exclaimed, "My Lady, this corpse doesn't look like a Dayong person!"

"What?" The Queen Mother's eyes widened, with a hint of fear in them.

"In my opinion, this is clearly the stature of our Dayong people..."

Her voice trembled a little when she said this. There were barbarians who were not from Dayong but had the stature of Dayong people.

Her Nan'er...

Isn’t that exactly the case with her Nan’er?

The Queen Mother did not dare to think further. Her body went limp and she leaned weakly against the back of her chair.

The senior palace maid beside her turned pale with fright, and was unsure whether she should go out and call for help.

Chief Steward Liu took out a handkerchief from his bosom, bravely lifted up the corpse's right hand, pointed at the item on the finger and said, "This is a ring inlaid with gemstones. The ring setting is an animal head totem of the Northern Barbarians. I have seen it before among the treasures that the Northern Barbarians presented as tribute."

The Northern Barbarians pay tribute to us with treasures...

That was probably many years ago when the late emperor was still alive.

The only tribes that were qualified to use animal heads as decorations were the Qiulin tribe, which had produced an old Chanyu, or the Huyan tribe, where the current Chanyu was.

The identity of the corpse seemed self-evident.

The Queen Mother's body trembled slightly and her expression became increasingly ugly, but she clenched her teeth tightly, unwilling to convince herself to agree with that horrible guess.

How could this corpse be...

No, it's impossible!

The right hand with the ring on it slipped out of Manager Liu's hand as he didn't hold it firmly, and it hit the box with a "bang". The movement caused the already loose collar to completely fall apart.

Manager Liu's gaze naturally fell on the exposed chest of the corpse. There were three black spots lined up just below the right collarbone.

Holding his breath and moving a little closer, Manager Liu confirmed that there were three moles here, not corpse spots.

"My lady, there are three moles on the left chest of this corpse!"

As soon as Manager Liu finished speaking, the Empress Dowager, who was slumped in her chair, stood up abruptly, shook off the hand of the palace maid that was supporting her, and stumbled towards the mahogany box.

He knelt down beside the wooden box and looked inside.

The body was missing its head, and there were many scars on the knife wound on its neck, as if it had been torn apart by a wild beast.

Further down, the open neckline reveals the three moles standing side by side.

The location is exactly as described in the letter.

The breath that the Empress Dowager had been trying so hard to hold finally let go.

He lost all his strength, his eyes rolled back, and he fell backwards in a faint.

The incident happened suddenly, and Manager Liu didn't care to be particular. He quickly used his hands, which were stained with the stench of corpses, to support the empress dowager's head to prevent it from accidentally hitting the ground.

"Oh no, the Queen Mother has fainted."

"Quickly call the imperial physician!"

…

There was chaos in the Cining Palace. The Empress Dowager's men cleaned up the blood in the palace and moved the headless male corpse away before the imperial physician arrived.

I don’t know if it was because he was moved after fainting, or because he was too anxious and worried.

Even the chief judge of the Imperial Medical Bureau came in person to check, but he was unable to wake the Empress Dowager.

There was such a big commotion in the Cining Palace, but the Second Prince and Concubine Ling, who were also in the palace, had no time to pay attention to the situation there.

Just now, news finally reached the capital from the north, which had been without news for ten days.

The Northern Barbarian Chanyu died!

The strength of Huyan’s army was greatly reduced, and the northern barbarian tribes disintegrated!

King You has brought Princess Changning back from Lingmen Pass!

Either piece of news is enough to make people stunned.

When the second prince first saw the letter, his first reaction was disbelief.

"The Northern Barbarians' Chanyu died, and the Northern Barbarian tribes disintegrated?" How is this possible?

If the Northern Barbarians could really collapse so easily, the border of Dayong would not have had to suffer so many years of hard fighting.

And the death of the Chanyu...

If he remembered correctly, the Northern Barbarian Chanyu personally led his troops to fight a battle last year. The intelligence sent back from the north at that time said that although the Northern Barbarian Chanyu was old, his military strength was no less than before. It seemed that he could hold out on the battlefields of the two countries for another ten years longer than General Shi.

However, there is still some possibility that Qi Xu quietly brought Changning back.

Qi Xu that fellow...

Softer than him and his father.

The second prince still remembered one year when his father had just ascended the throne and he and Qi Xu were still young. On the way to the altar for offering sacrifices to the heaven outside the capital, they met a group of old and weak villagers who accidentally strayed into the official road.

The Royal Guards wanted to execute the man for colliding with the royal guard.

Qi Xu stopped the soldiers from taking action, saying that he would deal with the matter after finding out the truth. If it was an accident, a minor punishment would be enough as a warning, but if it was intentional, the entire clan would be punished severely.

What was he thinking at that time?

He felt that Qi Xu was soft-hearted and troublesome because he felt sorry for the old and weak.

"Are you trying to get support from Concubine Xian and Duke Xu's Mansion by bringing Changning back?" The second prince sneered, his eyes full of sarcasm.

"Then he is really a step too late. If he wants Concubine Xian's support, he must go to the underground to find Concubine Xian first!"

"Your Highness, the contents of this letter are not false..."

The soldier who delivered the letter knelt before the prince, looking at the Second Prince's eyes full of disbelief, and felt extremely anxious.

"What did you say?" The second prince frowned and looked at the soldier.

"Your Highness, there is a caravan coming back from Hanzhou in the capital today, bringing back the situation in the north. What the caravan said is exactly the same as in the letter."

"The Northern Barbarians have truly been defeated. From now on, we no longer need to be afraid of them."

As the biggest threat to Dayong, the defeat of the Northern Barbarians was undoubtedly a great thing.

But behind all these achievements, there is Qi Xu.

Now the army stationed in the north has completely escaped the control of the imperial court and is under the control of Qi Xu.

The second prince didn't feel happy at all.