Duke Qi knew perfectly well that even if the young prince wanted the wealthy fiefdom of Jiangnan, the emperor would not grant it to him, after all, Gu Yufan was a clear example of what not to do.

He chuckled and changed the subject, quickly inquiring about Jiangzhou.

"Your Highness, Jiangzhou is Gu Yufan's stronghold. Did your entry into Jiangzhou go smoothly? Did you encounter any obstacles?"

Gu Yufan's advisors left in Jiangzhou, the people in the Chu Prince's mansion, his own garrison commander, and the prefect—none of them are easy to deal with. Even if His Highness were to attack Jiangzhou, he would likely face difficulties in taking over the city.

Gu Yuzhi didn't feel anything was going wrong, and cheerfully shook his head, saying, "Everything went smoothly!"

Guard Zhang couldn't help but frown and say, "Smoothly? What do you mean? His Highness's reputation was almost ruined by those women from the Chu Prince's mansion!"

Gu Yuzhi blinked, looking completely bewildered, and asked, "Is that so?"

Although the Princess of Chu led the entire household to commit suicide and burned a lot of evidence of Gu Yufan's crimes, she didn't cause herself any trouble in general.

The thought of the pile of gold and silver treasures in the main courtyard, which was almost overflowing, made Gu Yuzhi feel a little happy.

Now that the Ministry of Revenue has money, it can allocate funds to rebuild the irrigation canals in Jiangnan.

Guard Zhang and his men inspected the irrigation canals in Jiangzhou and Yangzhou and discovered that if the rainy season next year was like last year, the two prefectures would face the danger of their dikes bursting.

The canals also need to be cleaned and reinforced in a timely manner...

Gu Yuzhi scratched his head, feeling that there were really a lot of things to do, and secretly hoped that his elder brother Meng would send someone to take over the business as soon as possible.

Gu Yuzhi was completely unaware of what he had almost experienced, but the Duke of Qi noticed something amiss from the expressions of Xie Changshi and the others.

He hesitated for a moment, then pressed for an answer: "What happened?"

Guard Zhang immediately recounted how he had killed everyone in the Prince of Chu's residence and then committed suicide.

He became more and more agitated as he spoke: "Luckily, Chief Secretary Xie was afraid of something going wrong, so he had Jiang Kangming lead His Highness around several times before returning to the yamen, otherwise it would have been troublesome."

Upon hearing what Guard Zhang said, Gu Yuzhi finally remembered what happened that day, and muttered softly, "That day, I thought Guard Jiang had just arrived in Jiangzhou and didn't remember the way, which is why he took so many detours."

He puffed out his cheeks, blinked somewhat guiltily, and lowered his eyes, not daring to look at Guard Jiang.

After all, he was still thinking at the time that Guard Jiang was a leader of elite troops, and Guard Zhang had praised him for his abilities.

He had seen the map of Jiangzhou several times and memorized it, but he hadn't?

Fortunately, he only told Manager Wen and Teacher Shu at the time. Teacher Shu also said that these words should never be said in front of Guard Jiang, otherwise it would damage his dignity as the leader of the elite troops.

Thinking of this, Gu Yuzhi gently patted his chest.

Thank goodness I listened to Teacher Shu's advice, otherwise it would have been troublesome.

Jiang, the guard, felt that His Highness's gaze was a bit strange. He glanced down at him, then looked away, his eyes still blank, and his tone flat and without any fluctuation: "The Princess Consort of Chu must have made such arrangements a long time ago."

Chief Secretary Xie stroked his beard and nodded, looking at Gu Yuzhi: "That's also my guess."

After discovering the secret room in the Chu King's study, Xie Changshi and others dug up the Chu King's mansion thoroughly but found no secret passages. Therefore, it was impossible for the Chu King's wife to send a message to the advisors of those two families while surrounded by heavy troops.

Chief Secretary Xie shook his head slightly: "At that time, there was a shortage of manpower, so the Chu Prince's Mansion was heavily guarded, and the homes of those advisors were not guarded so strictly."

After all, Jiangzhou City was under their control, and the city gates were closed, so these advisors could no longer cause any trouble.

Chief Secretary Xie continued, "Not long after Guard Jiang escorted His Highness back to the yamen, news spread throughout Jiangzhou City that His Highness was ruthless and had forced his own sister-in-law to her death in order to curry favor with the Emperor."

Gu Yuzhi pointed at himself, looking utterly bewildered: "Me? Trying to curry favor with my elder brother?"

He pouted, clearly unconvinced, and said, "Even though what these people say is true, I won't do anything to force someone to their death just to please my brother!"

He never did anything bad when he was so poor, so how could he do something now that he has money and connections?

Gu Yuzhi snorted in dissatisfaction: "These people in Jiangzhou have all lost their minds."

As soon as he finished speaking, Guard Zhang nodded repeatedly and said, "That's right. These past few days, we've been having an incredibly difficult time investigating something in Jiangzhou."

He glanced at Prince Qi, then stepped forward with a smile and put his arm around Prince Qi's shoulder: "It's fortunate that Your Highness was wise enough to summon Prince Qi so early."

After all, Prince Qi had cured the plague, and he was still quite famous among the people of Jiangnan.

Chief Secretary Xie lifted his eyelids and glanced at Guard Zhang: "Guard Zhang, you are mistaken."

He raised an eyebrow and said, "It's not just Prince Qi who deserves credit, but also Your Highness."

Gu Yuzhi pointed to himself again: "And my contribution? What contribution did I make?"

Chief Secretary Xie said with a smile, "Your Highness's sweet potatoes and potatoes!"

"The rumors that the Princess of Chu and others want to spread are only circulating among wealthy merchants and gentry—people of high status. As for the common people..."

Chief Secretary Xie smiled slightly: "In the past two years, the Chu King's business in the northern desert has declined sharply. In addition, his previous neglect of refugees and forced imprisonment of plague patients have left him with little prestige among ordinary people."

So the rumors spread quickly within the city, but they didn't have a particularly significant effect.

Chief Secretary Xie continued, "When I heard the news, I had Guard Zhang and the others post notices saying that His Highness had been reviewing case files at the government office to investigate whether there had been any wrongful convictions or miscarriages of justice over the years. I also asked the people to provide clues to find the source of the rumors, and the matter was naturally resolved quickly."

Upon hearing that the source of the rumor had been found, Gu Yuzhi immediately sat up straight.

He suddenly thought of He Han, the simple-minded man, when he first opened the pharmacy.

He smiled and said, "My mother is right, doing good deeds really does bring blessings!"

He glanced at the Duke of Qi, then his eyes suddenly lit up: "Duke of Qi, are you going to take these prisoners to the capital?"

Now that the war is over, shouldn't the Duke of Qi, the Grand General, be heading to the capital?

His big eyes darted around; he really wanted to go back to the northern desert.

Looking at the young prince's smiling face, the Duke of Qi hesitated for a moment, then asked cautiously, "Is there something Your Highness needs me to do?"

As the commander-in-chief, he naturally had to go to the capital to explain the war situation to the emperor.

What should be done with these prisoners? There are tens of thousands of them; it's impossible to kill them all.

The mutiny of the Jiangnan navy does not mean that Jiangnan no longer needs a navy; otherwise, Jiangnan pirates will run rampant again, and the common people will suffer the consequences.

Where did these naval forces come from?

Over the years, Gu Yufan has been training a private army, forcibly conscripting many able-bodied men from ordinary families...