"This battle was fought very well." Hongli chatted and laughed with the soldiers around him. As soon as he returned, before he could even have a sip of water, a soldier came over and said that the Emperor Wansheng wanted him to wait in the main tent.

"This is a reward for me," Hongli thought to himself with delight, but when he entered the main tent and saw that familiar figure, he fell silent.

"Second Brother, how could it be you?" Hongli's intuition told him that Hongshi's presence here was definitely not a coincidence. He wasn't blind; Hongshi was wearing the clothes of a masked man in black, and he knew what that meant.

How can we convince him? The prince who should love the Qing Dynasty the most is actually a black-clad man helping the enemy against the Qing? This is ridiculous!

"Hongli, I'm innocent! Please help me talk to Father Emperor! I'm innocent!" Hongshi saw Hongli and tried to rush forward, but was stopped by the Thirteenth Prince.

The Thirteenth Prince shook his head at Hongli and sighed softly.

Hongli felt a tightness in his chest, unable to catch his breath. The Qing Dynasty had suffered so many defeats in the battle against Jiru, all because of his second brother? Even if he and Hongshi didn't share much affection, he still found it hard to believe that Hongshi would help foreigners fight against the Qing Dynasty. Did he have any conscience towards the soldiers who died in the war? Did he have any conscience towards the people displaced by the war? Did he have any conscience towards his ancestors, towards the Aisin Gioro family name?

Hongli was unhappy, but the Fourth Prince was a hundred times, a thousand times more unhappy. Hongshi, ever since the repeated defeats, the Fourth Prince had harbored the idea that there was a traitor within the army. He pondered this deeply, tossed and turned, and identified countless possible traitors. But he never imagined that the real traitor would be his own second son, the very Second Prince he had raised, the very Second Prince he himself had deposed!

The father-son bond that had been stirred by the disappearance of the Second Prince evaporated completely in the face of Hongshi's actions. The Fourth Prince stared at Hongshi, staring straight at him, until Hongshi felt powerless, but the Fourth Prince remained silent.

Hongshi felt utterly hopeless. He knew he had completely disappointed the Fourth Master, but he couldn't admit defeat yet. He couldn't give up at this moment. He was willing to pay any price for his ambition.

Having made up his mind, Hongshi knelt down with a thud and kowtowed repeatedly to the Fourth Prince. The sound of his head hitting the ground was loud, and soon blood appeared. His face was covered in snot and tears, and he cried out in pain, "Father, I didn't want this, I really didn't want this! It was that Jiru, it was that Jiru who forced me to do this!"

The Fourth Master looked at him coldly, without the slightest fluctuation in his heart. His eyes were filled with disgust, in addition to a hint of disappointment.

Hongshi met his gaze and was stung by the disgust in his eyes. From then on, he only kowtowed and did not dare to raise his head.

"Hongshi, no matter how much you're forced," Fourth Master slowly stood up, looking down at Hongshi, then suddenly lashed out and swept everything on the table at Hongshi's head, "Even if someone has a knife to your throat, you can't let foreigners kill our Qing soldiers!"

“I…” Hongshi was speechless.

"You are simply a traitor to the Aisin Gioro clan, a sinner against the Qing Dynasty!"

"Men, lock him up in heavy shackles and lock him up!" Fourth Master sat down again, his words devoid of emotion.