They walked down the hill.

Smoke rises from the village chimneys.

They entered the village.

Several women dressed in loose-fitting Hu-style clothing, secured only by belts, were squatting by the stream. Scattered around them were the corpses of men.

Their sleeves were rolled up, and their cleavers were swiftly and decisively wielded.

The man's arm was severed and then carelessly thrown into the water. Their bodies drifted away with the current and disappeared into the stream.

Upon seeing the strangers, the women glanced at them warily. They whispered among themselves, and one of them washed the bloodstains from her hands in the stream before standing up.

The woman said, "Thank you for giving us a second life."

Her attitude was respectful, and she didn't seem like an ordinary farmer.

The eldest princess stepped forward. Of all the people in the group, she was the one who most wanted to have her own soldiers.

She then asked first, "Who are you?"

The woman laughed heartily.

She exchanged a glance with her companion and said, "We're from the same village. I'm the leader, just call me Zhang Yanzi. By the way, you haven't seen our little girl yet, have you? I'll take you to see her."

She wiped her hands on her clothes twice, then turned and led them into the village.

The group passed through the low houses and arrived at a particularly spacious courtyard. In the courtyard, a gentle-looking woman was holding and comforting an infant in swaddling clothes.

When the woman saw them arrive, she smiled gently and bowed to them, saying, "If it weren't for you all, how could my daughter and I have had the chance to meet again..."

At this point, the woman choked up again, almost bursting into tears.

The baby girl in her arms let out a clear laugh.

Zhang Yanzi smiled and said, "This is our village's youngest daughter." She moved closer and gently poked the baby girl's cheek.

“When they slaughtered our village, they didn’t even spare this youngest daughter.”

"Thank you so much," Zhang Yanzi said again. "Is there anything we can help you with?"

The eldest princess and the crown princess exchanged a glance.

The eldest princess asked, "Can you fight?" Having received an affirmative answer from Zhang Yanzi, she continued with an even more pointed question, "Can you kill people?"

Zhang Yanzi laughed heartily again: "Sure." She patted the woman next to her with a smile, "Our hands are stained with blood."

That makes things easier.

The eldest princess spoke of some less important matters, and Zhang Yanzi, with a serious expression, invited her inside to discuss the matter. The eldest princess pulled the crown princess inside with her and spoke with Zhang Yanzi about it.

During this time, Ai Cao Song Tang and the mute girl were taken away by the other women in the village. They first had a country lunch, and then helped loosen the soil.

Ai Cao was quick and efficient, and was even invited by the women in the village to stay.

Artemisia naturally declined these invitations.

These women might not even stay here.

The discussions among the Crown Princess and her companions were not yet over.

After checking the situation outside the house, Ai Cao decided to invite Song Tang and the mute girl to take a walk along the ridge of the field.

Looking at the meticulously maintained fields, Songtang said, "It's been a long time since I've taken a walk like this." She kicked a clod of earth and watched it crumble in mid-air, breaking into fine dust.

Ai Cao nodded. Although she also missed that leisurely rural life, one cannot live in such a tranquil vacuum.

She neither disliked nor regretted persuading Songtang to leave the countryside.

Only by leaving the countryside can Songtang completely break free from the male protagonist's wings and see those new things from her own perspective.

Even if Songtang chose to marry after Ai Cao left this world, then... at least she wouldn't end up committing suicide in the backyard.

Songtang chuckled softly. She said, "It's good to have made it out of this."

The mugwort continued to nod.

They walked along the ridges of the fields several times, and the sky gradually darkened.

The negotiations finally came to an end.

The eldest princess successfully obtained an army of a thousand men.

Soldiers alone are not enough.

Fortunately, these men were already quite capable and did not require additional training; moreover, the prince had left a considerable amount of provisions and horses for these private soldiers, which could be used directly.

In addition, considering the special abilities of Ai Cao and the mute girl, the Crown Princess also asked them how they could help in this coup.

After thinking for a while, Ai Cao said, "I can make His Majesty's husband... that imperial consort, pregnant."

The Crown Princess frowned: "What good is pregnancy?"

Ai Cao thought for a moment: "It comes with a specific innate phenomenon."

"The designated innate anomaly..." the Crown Princess pondered.

She sat calmly in her seat, the flickering candlelight reflecting in her eyes.

That night, a stork carrying a precious pearl flew through the clouds.

It descended from above the Royal Palace and circled the palace several times.

Finally, it precisely burrowed into the emperor's belly. His already round belly, which resembled a pregnancy, showed no further change even after the mugwort was used to induce a false pregnancy.

The next day, during the routine morning court session, they saw the emperor, who was beaming with joy.

The Emperor declared, "The Imperial Consort is pregnant; this is a cause for great celebration throughout the land."

The celebration lasted for three days. During these three days, several more cases of men becoming pregnant or menstruating were reported among officials and common people.

After three days, some commoners began to raise an army in the name of the prince. They claimed that a man's pregnancy was a divine punishment sent down in the anger of the gods; their uprising was to remove the criminals who were disrupting the order of the state.

Purge the court of corrupt officials and punish the traitors.

This scattered civilian army was quickly suppressed by the armed forces in the capital. At the time of this incident, the prince they had been using as a figurehead had already been staying in his palace for several days.

Because his belly also swelled up.

No matter which doctor he consulted, they all believed he was pregnant. This was too strange. Although the emperor's wife was already showing signs of pregnancy, every time he felt the child gradually taking shape inside his belly... a sense of fear would well up in his heart.

The Emperor summoned him several times, but the prince remained secluded, claiming illness. The Emperor grew angry and simply placed him under house arrest.

Having grown accustomed to their childish court games, and with strange occurrences of male pregnancies appearing in many aristocratic families, the aristocratic families turned a blind eye to the chaos in the capital.

Amidst this apparent calm and chaos, the Crown Princess, leading a small, elite squad and accompanied by the Emperor's personal maid, quietly paid her respects to the Emperor.

They had a private conversation in the Emperor's palace for some time, after which the Emperor claimed to be unwell and passed the position to the Crown Princess.

The Duke and Queen Mother had a big argument with the Emperor over this matter; but even though the Emperor defied his elders and knelt before the Father and Mother of the Nation, he was still determined to enjoy rural life with his consort and young son.

According to her, this was her "pursuit of the freedom to enjoy rural life with her husband."

Arranged by the Crown Princess, she lived in a picturesque village outside the capital. She led a life of working at sunrise and resting at sunset. Although she had to wash her own and her husband's clothes daily and prepare three meals a day, she was quite content with her life.

The Emperor eagerly awaited the child with great joy.

The child born to the Emperor's consort, a gift from heaven.