Xia Yu's Jingnan army could no longer move forward and could only temporarily return to Yanjing.

Shen Yuyao saw Xu Yunxuan waiting for her outside the palace gate from a distance, and Zi Su with tears in her eyes beside her.

After getting off the carriage, Shen Yuyao looked up and saw Xia Linan and Zhang Mingyu also coming to the gate to greet her.

"Mother."

"Lin'an, Mingyu." Shen Yuyao looked at Zhang Mingyue's rosy face and slightly protruding belly, and instantly understood, "Great, the Ning Wang Mansion is going to have another baby!"

Xia Linan's round face was also filled with smiles. "I was just thinking of reporting the good news to Father and Mother, but I never thought that Mother would see through it herself."

"Good, good, good!" Xia Yu stroked his beard and said, "Time flies, and there will always be successors!"

"This is a perfect double blessing," Xu Yunxuan pulled Shen Yuyao over, looked her up and down, and said, "How come you've lost so much weight in just a few days at the military camp? Where's my little fairy princess?"

She saw that Shen Yuyao and Xia Yu had already returned to the palace, but Xia Xiaoxian was nowhere to be seen, which made her very confused.

"Princess Xiaoxian returned to Yanjing with us. As soon as she entered Yanjing City, she accompanied her and Uncle Shang to the temple." Shen Yuyao smiled slightly and said, "Let's go. Everyone is tired. Let's talk when we get back to the mansion."

"Wait a minute!"

Xia Yu suddenly said, "Yuyao, Lin'an, Yong'an, and Ping'an should all stay at the palace gate. The rest of you should go to the palace and rest first."

Seeing Shen Yuyao looking at him with a puzzled look, he explained, "We have another distinguished guest coming to Prince Ning's Mansion today, so naturally, the princess and her three children will come with me to greet him!"

Xia Yu seldom spoke with such a serious expression. Shen Yuyao was a little curious about which distinguished guest the prince valued so much.

After waiting for a whole incense stick of time, a carriage slowly drove out from the alley on the right side of Prince Ning's Mansion.

The carriage stopped at the gate of Prince Ning's Mansion, and an old man with white hair and beard got off the carriage.

"Uncle Gu." Shen Yuyao immediately greeted him with a smile when she saw the person coming.

It turned out that the person who got off the carriage was General Gu Cheng, a fierce general under Duke Shen!

While General Gu was protecting Geng Yiwen's escape, he was captured by General Zhang Yu, a subordinate of Xia Yu.

He originally thought that he would be killed by Prince Ning, but unexpectedly, Prince Ning treated him with great courtesy and did not force him to join Prince Ning's army. Instead, he treated him like an elder and respectfully sent him from the battlefield outside Zhending City to the gate of Prince Ning's Mansion in Yanjing City!

As soon as Gu Cheng got off the carriage, he heard such a familiar and kind name. He then thought about how he had followed Duke Shen to fight on the battlefield, and now the eldest daughter of the Shen family was the Princess of Ning.

For a moment, Gu Cheng's eyes were filled with tears.

"Yuyao meets Uncle Gu." Shen Yuyao walked to Gu Cheng and bowed.

Seeing that his former well-behaved niece, now the Princess of Ning, was so polite to him, Gu Cheng did not hesitate and surrendered to Xia Yu in front of Xia Yu, right at the gate of the Ning Palace!

Because of Xia Yu's withdrawal, the Great Xia Dynasty finally ushered in a brief period of peace.

Here, in the imperial palace of Kyoto City, Xia Chongwen and a group of ministers were rejoicing over Xia Yu's withdrawal of troops when Huang Zicheng suddenly came to the palace to report.

"Your Majesty, General Geng Yiwen's deputy, General Gu Cheng, surrendered to Xia Yu at the gate of Prince Ning's Mansion in Yanjing the other day!"

"What?" Xia Chongwen was so shocked that he stood up from the dragon throne. "How dare he!"

"Your Majesty has always treated General Geng and his subordinates well. Now that the deputy general has defected to the enemy, our army's morale has been greatly reduced!" Prince Cheng continued.

"Your Majesty!" Empress Dowager Lü said from behind the curtain behind Xia Chongwen, "We must punish them severely, only then can we enhance the prestige of our army.

"Come here!" Xia Chongwen shouted sternly, "Behead all of Gu Cheng's family members who left behind in Kyoto! Anyone who surrenders to the enemy will have their entire clan exterminated!"

"yes!"

"Your Majesty, Gu Cheng was General Geng Yiwen's deputy. Geng Yiwen himself was guilty of the defeat, and now that his deputy has defected to the enemy, he is also responsible for negligence. Therefore, I implore Your Majesty to punish General Geng as well, to serve as a warning to others!"

Huang Zicheng continued to play.

"My dear minister, you are absolutely right! Eunuch Wang, draft the decree!" Xia Chongwen's face was icy, and he said angrily, "Remove General Geng Yiwen's title of Marquis of Changxing and order him to return to the capital immediately for investigation!"

"Also, Duke Cao Li Jiujiang will replace General Geng Yiwen! Head north to defeat the traitor Xia Yu!"

"Your Highness, I will obey your Majesty's command! Long live the Emperor!"

The brief tranquility was broken again.

In the military camp in Yanjing City.

"Report!"

"Come in!"

"Your Majesty, the new emperor has wiped out General Gu's entire family!"

"I understand!" Xia Yu replied with gritted teeth.

Xia Chongwen's cruelty was indeed beyond Xia Yu's expectation.

It seems that the real power of the court is still in the hands of that vicious woman in the harem!

"Send someone to General Gu's mansion to appease him."

"yes!"

"Also, notify the princess and ask her to come to General Gu's residence as well."

Long before Gu Cheng came to Yanjing, Xia Yu found a house for him and gave it to him as a general's residence.

He originally wanted to find an opportunity to secretly bring all his family members from Kyoto to Yanjing, but he never expected that Xia Chongwen was one step ahead of Xia Yu.

Xia Yu was feeling regretful when he suddenly heard the soldiers outside the door shouting again.

"Report!"

"Come in!"

"Geng Yiwen was stripped of his title of Marquis of Changxing by the new emperor and placed under house arrest in Kyoto. Li Jiujiang was sent to take over as Grand General!"

"Are you serious?"

When Xia Yu heard this, his eyes suddenly lit up.

It’s truly a godsend!

Li Jiujiang?

Li Jiujiang!

Li Jiujiang is great!

"Upon his arrival, Duke Cao Li Jiujiang immediately ordered the army to march into Hejian three days later! Then they'll wait for the arrival of reinforcements from the imperial court."

"Hahaha! Good! Good! Good!"

Xia Yu burst into laughter.

It was indeed Li Jiujiang. With just one move, all of Geng Yiwen’s hard work was wasted!

"Pass on my military order. All the troops of the Jingnan Campaign must assemble and prepare to march out today!"

Xia Yu was overjoyed and hurriedly gave orders to the messenger.

During the Great Xia Dynasty, the Fengxian Palace in Kyoto was built.

"Your Majesty, Duke Cao Li Jiujiang's deployment of troops is truly foolish!"

When Shen Yizhong learned that Li Jiujiang replaced Geng Yiwen as the general to suppress the rebellion and formulated such a strategy, he could not help but curse it as stupid!

He even spoke frankly at the court session the next morning.

"According to your opinion, what should we do?" Xia Chongwen felt a splitting headache. In recent days, Li Jiujiang, the Duke of Cao, whom he relied on, made many stupid moves.

Empress Dowager Lu was so angry that she fell ill and was unable to attend the morning court today.

"In my opinion, Xia Yu is currently in Yanjing City. Duke Cao should lead his army to quickly surround Yanjing City."

"Even if we encounter a small group of rebels blocking our way, we don't need to pay any attention to them!"

"First, surround Yanjing City, and then destroy all the farmland outside Yanjing City. If you do this, it won't be long before Xia Yu runs out of food! He just gained an army of tens of thousands of people!"

"Starve Xia Yu for three to five months, and you're still afraid he won't surrender?"