Ren Yushan nodded. That was true. It was just a pity that because he had given birth to a stupid daughter, the Third Prince no longer trusted him.
"Your Majesty, there is one more thing that I do not understand."
"Please speak, Prime Minister Ren." Zhu Heng leisurely raised his teacup and took a small sip.
"The tens of thousands of troops that ambushed the Xishan military camp at Beiqiupo seem to be different from the number of troops we sent."
Zhu Heng paused, his hand holding the teacup still: "You mean there's a third group?"
Ren Yushan nodded: "We only have 10,000 men, who are ambushed on both sides of the North Autumn Slope with rolling stones and logs. We simply cannot spare any troops to set up an ambush at the exit. But when the military report came in this morning, it said that nearly half of the troops lost by the Xishan Military Camp died in the ambush at the exit."
Zhu Heng was also startled and sat up straight abruptly: "Does Prime Minister Ren mean that our actions were already known to others? There's another hand behind the scenes?"
When Ren Yushan heard Zhu Heng say this, he understood everything. His heart pounded and his face turned deathly pale.
Zhu Heng immediately ordered, "Guards!"
A masked man in black flashed in from outside: "My lord."
"Immediately issue an order for Xiong Haiquan to bring 50,000 troops into the capital in batches."
Xiong Haiquan was the commander of the 50,000 troops he had raised, which were left to him by his biological father and were hidden in a very secretive place.
"My lord, do you mean we should act ahead of schedule?"
Before Zhu Heng could answer, Ren Yushan nodded in understanding: "That's right, now is the perfect time. This morning at court, when the military report arrived, the Emperor was furious and immediately dispatched 100,000 troops from the Xishan Military Camp to Mu City. With the Northern Army on a distant expedition to Chen State, the defenses of Shengjing City are at their weakest at this time."
Zhu Heng looked at Ren Yushan, his hand gripping the teacup so tightly it made a creaking sound: "There is less than a month until the imperial examination on March 18th. A large number of students, their servants, and merchants will enter the capital. Xiong Haiquan can first take 5,000 men to infiltrate Shengjing City, while the remaining 45,000 men can hide in the suburbs of the capital."
Ren Yushan sat up straight and nodded, saying, "Alright, then let's take action on the day of the imperial examination!"
That day, everything revolved around the imperial examinations, and even the people from the Jingzhao Prefecture and the Five City Garrison were protecting the safety of the examinations.
And the Imperial Guards protecting the capital—ah, Xiao Song is one of the Second Prince's men.
"Hasn't the group behind that been investigated?"
Zhu Heng thought for a moment and said, "Let's observe secretly first. It might be Zhu Zhi and Bu Feizhang's men."
Ren Yushan breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.
A full month has passed since the Lantern Festival, and Lu Xiaoyun's leg and hand injuries have almost healed.
Jiang Chuan found it all a bit surreal. He heard Li Feng whispering to him every day that the princess was practicing martial arts with Qi Yu at Feixue Garden, and he secretly went to watch once.
He was surprised to discover that the princess's martial arts skills were quite high, at least to the point that he couldn't beat.
Moreover, in just one month, the princess's martial arts skills have improved by leaps and bounds. Now she is only lacking Feng Yan, and she is the kind of person who can't even beat Wu Chuan and Xi Yi.
The key point is that the princess's martial arts style is almost identical to the prince's.
Could it be that after spending a lot of time together, not only do the couple's faces and personalities become more and more alike, but their martial arts skills also become contagious?
Li Feng rushed over: "Miss, Miss, the young master has arrived. He says he wants to take you back to the manor. Miss, what should we do? Do you want to go back?"
Zhu Yu rubbed his temples. Although he had sent his brother away that day to help the fifth brother investigate the assassination, the matter was now over.
Sure enough, whenever the eldest brother had a spare moment, he remembered that his younger sister was still living in the Prince An's mansion.
He looked at Lu Xiaoyun, his eyes even carrying a hint of pleading.
Lu Xiaoyun said, "Please invite Young Master Lu in and tell him that Miss Lu will return to the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion with him after she has packed her things."
Li Feng sighed and shook her head: "Alas, it won't work. The young master said that Miss must go with him immediately. Miss's things are her own and I will pack them up and take them back. Anything that is not Miss's is not allowed to be taken."
Qi Yu helped Zhu Yu up: "Okay, Miss, let me help you out."
Zhu Yu: "..."
Upon hearing that the princess was leaving, Yuan Xiu became extremely anxious: "Oh dear, Your Highness, you can't leave! If you leave, how can this old servant manage the account books of so many properties in the Prince An's mansion?"
Zhu Yu gave him a cold look; this old bastard still had the nerve to say that.
Yuan Xiu was startled by that look. After Zhu Yu left, he slapped his thigh and ran to Lu Xiaoyun: "Your Highness, the Princess Consort is gone. What, what should we do? We haven't trained anyone. If these things are handed over to this old servant, I'm afraid I'll lose all of Anwang Mansion's wealth."
Lu Xiaoyun waved her hand to interrupt: "Alright, alright, instead of complaining, you should hurry up and sort out the accounts so that Li Feng can take them with him."
Yuan Xiu was delighted: "Your Highness, do you mean that the Princess Consort, while at the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, will also handle the accounts for the Prince of An's mansion?"
"Um."
When Zhu Yu arrived at the gate, he saw Lu Yucheng sitting in the carriage waiting for him.
As soon as he came out, she jumped off the carriage, grabbed his wrist without saying a word, and pulled him back onto the carriage.
"elder brother……"
Lu Yucheng, his face dark, shoved the man into the carriage and urged Luo Wang to drive: "What is your relationship with His Highness Prince An now? What kind of young lady stays in a man's residence for a month?"
"She's injured, isn't she? I'll take care of her."
"He was injured while saving the Emperor and the Fifth Prince. He has a physician in his household, so why do you need to take care of him? Are you good at taking pulses or prescribing medicine?"
Zhu Yu lowered his head and twisted his sleeves, thinking that he could feed her medicine and food, wipe her body, and sometimes even help her to use the toilet, so why didn't he need her anymore?
"Grandmother will be returning to the manor in a couple of days. During this time, you should stay here and not go anywhere. Also, regarding the dowry we mentioned last time, we should get it back from the stepmother after we return to the manor."
"Oh," Zhu Yu said sullenly.
The next day, Lu Yucheng came to find Zhu Yu with his mother's dowry list.
Lu Yucheng's idea was to check with him first to see how much dowry the stepmother had given to his sister, so that he could go to the steward of the Prince An's mansion tomorrow to hand over the shops and estates and so on.
So much has happened during this period that this delay has lasted for so long.
Thinking of this, Lu Yucheng became somewhat angry. This Prince An was quite something. The two had been divorced for so long, yet Prince An did not take the initiative to return Xiaoyun's dowry. Instead, he made the heir of their Zhenguo Duke's Mansion come to ask for it.
That makes no sense.
Surely a large and prestigious Prince An's mansion wouldn't keep his sister's dowry.
Zhu Yu took the dowry list and glanced at it, and was shocked. He hadn't expected that the original owner Lu Xiaoyun's mother's dowry was so lavish; it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it a ten-mile-long red procession.
But after Lu Xiaoyun married him, she never saw him again.
He shook his head: "I have never seen these things before, but I saw quite a few at Tongjia Courtyard. They must have been completely controlled by the Fang family."
He looked up at Lu Yucheng with a pitiful expression: "Brother, these are all Mother's things. I don't want them to be swallowed up by Fang Shi and end up as dowries for her two daughters."
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