"Your Majesty, the primary task today is dealing with the smallpox outbreak in Wenzhou; other matters can be discussed later."

The Grand Princess had no choice but to use state affairs as an excuse to help Ye Wantang out of the predicament once again.

There is always room for maneuver if a decision isn't made on the spot.

"The smallpox outbreak in Wenzhou could spread very quickly if it is not dealt with promptly. Moreover, the fact that Wenzhou is concealing the outbreak means that there may have been infections elsewhere."

"Regarding smallpox, there are already preventative measures in place. Your Majesty will order their implementation and promptly isolate and treat patients."

Xie Tingzhou retorted, "The Crown Prince is the heir apparent of the country, and his wife's character is related to the stability of the country, so it is equally important."

Ye Wantang's disregard for human life is unacceptable; if he is not punished, public anger will not be appeased.

The old scholar Fang knelt down, "Your Majesty, my son is now infected and his life is uncertain. I beg Your Majesty to give him justice."

Imperial Censor Wang knelt down and said, "This woman is morally deficient and unworthy to enter the royal family. I beg Your Majesty to cancel the engagement."

Ye Wantang shook her head, "Your Majesty, I am willing to accept other punishments and repent."

This marriage was arranged by my mother on my behalf. Now that she is no longer here, if I were to lose even the marriage she arranged for me, I would be ashamed before my mother.

"Now you know to bring up your mother, but why didn't you follow her teachings before?"

Yin Jiuniang snorted, "If your mother knew what you've done in the afterlife, she would probably be turning in her grave. She would have asked to annul the engagement long ago."

She cupped her hands in a traditional Jianghu greeting and said, “Your Majesty, I am now her only elder, and I can make the decision regarding her marriage. I beg Your Majesty to grant my request.”

“Your marriage certificate is like a child’s play; there has never been such an example in Da Yuan.”

Ye Wantang's eyes were filled with hatred. "You are not my elder, nor can you make decisions for me."

"Before my aunt, there had never been a female general in Dayuan. This marriage certificate is stamped with the official seal, so it is valid."

Ye Zhen said calmly, "No one in this world does something wrong without paying a price."

First, you used old and rotten rice to distribute porridge, disregarding the lives of the people. Now, in your greed for merit, you are using living people as experiments.

Now, it's my aunt who's lost face; if she enters the royal family in the future, it will be the royal family that's lost face, and the entire Great Yuan Dynasty.

The emperor found Ye Zhen's words reasonable, so he glanced subtly behind the screen and saw the person behind the screen nod.

Just as he was about to agree to annul the engagement, the Grand Princess shouted, "Enough! With the epidemic raging, instead of thinking about sharing His Majesty's burdens, you are still fixated on personal grudges."

General Ye lost her husband early in life and risked her life for Dayuan, thus neglecting the education of her children.

Even if Miss Ye is not the best, she is still the daughter of a meritorious official, and her marriage is a reward from His Majesty for her mother's achievements.

Now, so many of you are ganging up to bully an orphan girl. Are you trying to erase General Ye's past contributions to Dayuan?

If the students find out, and mistakenly believe that Your Majesty is harsh and ungrateful, wouldn't that implicate Your Majesty in an act of inhumanity and injustice?

She spoke with great righteousness, but in reality, she saw that the emperor was wavering, so she used the emperor's reputation to remind him.

Ye Zhen then realized that the old princess was extremely hypocritical, and that she was not as selfless as the people said. No wonder she would protect people like Fu Jiang.

Just as she was wondering how to shut her up, Yin Jiuniang smiled and spoke up, "Does the Grand Princess mean that as long as the parents have made merits, the children can make mistakes at will?"

No wonder the Grand Princess would rely on her own merits to protect Fu Jiang.

"You audacious scoundrel, stop distorting my meaning!"

The Grand Princess's face was dark and gloomy. Lately, she had been having a lot of bad luck and had been encountering people who showed her no mercy, which made her very unhappy.

She was also furious with Ye Wantang for daring to use Fu Jiang to blackmail her, forcing her, a royal elder, to lower herself to engage in a verbal battle.

But she was used to being praised and had long since developed a competitive and unyielding personality.

"I have already taken responsibility for Fu Jiang's mistake. Stop making trouble here."

She denied covering up the wrongdoing.

"It's good that Your Highness didn't mean that. Students who read the classics have the ability to distinguish right from wrong; they are not fools."

Ye Wantang made a mistake, and His Majesty punished him according to the law. This is the conduct of a wise ruler, and the students will only sing his praises.

Xie Tingzhou was equally too lazy to engage in a war of words. "Since the Grand Princess is so anxious about the smallpox issue, then this humble subject will speak of smallpox."

He bowed to the emperor and said, "Your Majesty, I have also discovered that a village within Qingzhou's jurisdiction experienced a smallpox outbreak a few months ago."

But the entire village was slaughtered and burned by bandits overnight, and all 231 lives were lost.

When some of their relatives in the village tried to stand up for them and file a complaint with the authorities, their families were also massacred.

With a series of deaths, the people were terrified and dared not speak of the matter to outsiders anymore.

Fu Jiang, as the magistrate of Qingzhou County, concealed the smallpox outbreak within his jurisdiction and also concealed the massacre and burning of an entire village by bandits. This is dereliction of duty and deceiving the emperor.

Ye Wantang shuddered; Xie Tingzhou must have known about this.

Now that he has exposed the truth, what will she have left to threaten the Grand Princess with?

She looked at the Grand Princess and saw that her whole old face was drooping, and every wrinkle was filled with anger.

Ye Wantang collapsed to the ground, knowing that she could no longer rely on the Grand Princess.

There's even a possibility that she might incur the wrath of the Grand Princess, who might think that her actions revealed Fu Jiang's secrets.

She tilted her head and pretended to faint, hoping to minimize her presence and escape this predicament.

The Grand Princess looked at Xie Tingzhou with a somber expression. "Fu Jiang's entire family has been slaughtered, leaving only his broken body. Why do you still want to exterminate him like this?"

Xie Tingzhou said, "As the Commander of the Martial Virtue Division, it is my duty to supervise all regions."

My grandmother also personally identified that the smallpox in the Marquis's mansion was caused by Fu Jiang, and Chief Feng and the leader of the Imperial Guards were both witnesses to this.

Whether the burning of the village is true or not, a simple investigation in Qingzhou will tell. I was merely fulfilling my duty.

However, Fu Jiang has never let the Marquis's mansion off the hook, and even attempted to use smallpox to kill my entire family. As his elder, the Grand Princess should give the Marquis's mansion an explanation.

He then looked at the emperor and said, “Your Majesty, I suspect that the massacre of the village was carried out by Fu Jiang in order to cover up smallpox.”

Despite his doubts, he was already certain in his heart that Fu Jiang had sent people disguised as bandits to kill him.

To avoid the emperor thinking it was a personal grudge against Fu Jiang by the Marquis's family, Xie Tingzhou chose to let the emperor investigate personally, while he would guide them to discover the evidence during their investigation.

Moreover, Fu Jiang's crimes go far beyond this. Wu Er and Zhongyong Hou have not yet returned, and Xie Tingzhou has also discovered that there seems to be someone behind Fu Jiang. He needs some time.

Upon hearing this, the emperor was furious. "Guards, bring Fu Jiang here!"

He didn't like getting involved in the messy lawsuits, but this involved smallpox, and the entire village had been killed, more than two hundred lives lost. Did they think he, the emperor, was going to die?

So, as soon as Fu Jiang arrived at the princess's residence, before he could even start to act arrogantly, he was carried into the palace.