Prince Ning appeared outside the Qian'an Palace in a battle robe.
Apparently he had not had time to go back home to change clothes, and his battle robe was stained with black blood. The bloody uniform and murderous aura shocked many civil officials in the palace who had never seen a killing before.
When Su Bi saw Prince Ning, he secretly breathed a sigh of relief and felt more confident about what he was going to say next.
Prince Ning entered the hall and kowtowed to Emperor Shao Yuan.
"I have lived up to your trust. Beiqiong has already called back its troops, and the commander has evacuated. Only a small part of the army remains to guard the border, and there is no intention of invading again. This battle has been a great victory for our dynasty!"
"well!"
Emperor Shao Yuan clapped his hands and laughed. The Qianyuan Palace, which had been gloomy due to the plague in Yizhou, finally had a little sunshine.
"My dear, you have worked hard in this battle! I will reward you handsomely!"
Prince Ning was still kneeling, "This is what a subject should do. I just arrived in the capital and heard about the plague in Yizhou. I was uneasy, so I came here without washing my face. I hope Your Majesty will forgive me."
Emperor Shao Yuan stopped laughing and said, "It is natural for you to worry about your family, my dear minister. What crime have you committed? Calm down now."
Prince Ning thanked His Majesty and stood aside.
The ministers around him who had just agreed to abandon the city all moved away from him silently.
After all, the murderous aura was too strong and they felt a little embarrassed.
After Prince Ning's interruption, everyone remembered that Yizhou was not only a prosperous place in the south of the Yangtze River, but also the family land of Prince Ning's mansion.
Prince Ning's mother and brothers are all in Yizhou. I heard that Princess Yuexi also went to Yizhou before.
The lives and property of Prince Ning's family depend on Yizhou, so it's no wonder that he is so anxious.
This is why Emperor Shao Yuan did not dare to abandon the city easily. If he abandoned Yizhou and lost the lives of Prince Ning's family, he was worried that Prince Ning would feel resentful and plot rebellion.
But as an emperor, he couldn't say that he would take Prince Ning and his family out of the city before abandoning it. If the government orders differed according to different people, he would lose the prestige of the superior.
"Now that you have returned to the court, what do you think of the plague in Yizhou?"
Prince Ning bowed respectfully and said, "Your Majesty, I think we should indeed increase the number of troops stationed here to prevent the plague from spreading and the people from rioting. But Yizhou cannot be abandoned. Once Yizhou is abandoned, the people's will to survive will drive them, and the riots will only become more serious."
He turned around and glared fiercely at the Minister of Justice and the Minister of Rites, almost threatening them directly.
After staring, he continued, "Besides, if Yizhou can be abandoned, then all other cities can be abandoned. If there is such a precedent, once the plague has spread, we will not be able to cure a single person, and we will not be able to defend a single city. The situation will only get out of control. Your Majesty, this loophole cannot be opened!"
The Minister of Rites, who was glared at, directly retorted, "Prince Ning, it's easy for you to say that. The plague in Yizhou is so serious, how many people are willing to risk their lives to go to the city to help?"
Prince Ning directly replied to Emperor Shao Yuan, "I am willing to go!"
The Minister of Rites is weird again.
"But you can't do it alone. If you want to send people, you can only send more troops. All the armies are stationed at the borders, which are far away. The Yulin Army needs to protect the safety of the imperial city and cannot be easily mobilized. Even if the city guards of several cities around Yizhou go to reinforce, they can only seal the city gates. If you want to send more people into the city to help, it will be beyond their ability."
Prince Ning stared at the Minister of Rites with a look that seemed as if he wanted to tear his head off.
The Minister of Rites was frightened by Prince Ning, who was covered in blood and had murderous eyes, and he subconsciously took a step back.
Prince Ning sneered upon seeing this.
He turned to report to Emperor Shao Yuan, "I won a great victory in the battle with Beiqiong this time, so I granted leave to some soldiers in the Northern Frontier Army who have not returned home for many years. They returned to the capital with me this time and are waiting outside the city gate. I have not had time to disperse them yet."
Emperor Shao Yuan was a little surprised, "How many people did you bring?"
Prince Ning lowered his head and replied calmly, "Fifty thousand."
Emperor Shao Yuan: ...
The people below were speechless.
How can you grant 50,000 soldiers just one day off? Do you think they are fools?
The Minister of Rites was even more furious, "You are bringing troops back to the capital without permission!"
Prince Ning rolled his eyes at him and said, "Are you deaf? I allowed the soldiers to take leave and went with them, but when I arrived in the capital, I hurried to see the emperor and didn't have time to disband."
Emperor Shao Yuan rubbed his brows and looked at Prince Ning below with a righteous look on his face. He was too lazy to argue with him.
Since Prince Ning is not worried about any casualties among his soldiers in Yizhou City, then what should he worry about?
To put it bluntly, if these soldiers were really injured, he would take this opportunity to weaken the military power of King Ning. No matter how you look at it, this matter is a hundred benefits for him and no harm.
But he was still worried about letting Prince Ning lead the troops to Yizhou in person. Yizhou was not like the northern border, it was the heartland of the Central Plains. If there was any second thought, it would be impossible to stop it.
So he said, "You have just returned from the front line, so you should rest and recuperate. The epidemic situation in Yizhou is still unclear, so it is not appropriate for you to take risks again. It is better to let someone else lead your 50,000 soldiers to Yizhou for support."
Before he could even open his mouth to ask who was willing to lead the troops, Su Bi stepped forward.
"I am willing to go on behalf of King Ning."
When people saw Su Bi's calm expression, they admired her in their hearts. Apart from anything else, her courage and character alone were admirable.
Emperor Shao Yuan waited for a long time, but when he saw that no one in the court tried to stop him, he couldn't help feeling a little upset.
"You are the prince, you shouldn't put yourself in danger."
Su Bi, however, bowed his head.
"Because I am the crown prince, I should take the people of the world as my responsibility. In Yizhou City there is not only my fiancée, but also hundreds of thousands of my subjects in Dali."
Emperor Shao Yuan sighed.
Well, if you give these 50,000 troops to someone else, Prince Ning may not agree, but if you give them to the prince, then he will have nothing to say.
"Since this is the case, order the Crown Prince to lead 50,000 troops to Yizhou to provide disaster relief. Set out immediately."
"Your son obeys your command."
…
In the suburbs of Beijing, Su Bi had just assembled 50,000 soldiers with the help of Prince Ning and was ready to set out.
Prince Ning looked at Su Bi with a complicated expression.
"Thanks to your Highness's letter, I was able to bring back so many soldiers in time and prevent Yizhou from becoming an isolated city."
Su Bi shook her head and said, "Thank you, Princess."
Because Ning Xihua spared Lin Mengli's life, Su Bi had been keeping an eye on her. Later, he noticed something unusual happening in Su Xu's mansion, but he didn't know the details.
The people who were watching Lin Mengli found that she frequently went in and out of Su Xu's house. Su Bi sent people to interrogate Lin Mengli with drugs to relieve the symptoms when the Heart-Eating Pill took effect. In the end, they got the information about "Yizhou and Northern Frontier" from Lin Mengli, but she didn't know anything else.
Su Bi suspected that Su Xu had set up traps in these two places.
With Prince Ning in charge of the Northern Frontier and all the spies in the army pulled out, and He Louche in Beiqiong on his side, he was not worried about any problems.
On the contrary, Yizhou, where Ning Xihua had just been, was the ancestral home of Prince Ning. If something happened in Ning Prefecture, it would definitely disrupt Prince Ning's situation on the front line.
He immediately wrote a letter to Prince Ning, asking him to fight a quick battle and take the opportunity to bring some soldiers back to Beijing in case of emergency.
In addition, he immediately sent a group of people to Yizhou, fearing that Ning Xihua did not have enough manpower in Yizhou.
As a result, as soon as Prince Ning returned to the capital, news of the plague came from Yizhou.
When Prince Ning heard Su Bi mention Ning Xihua, he became even more worried.
"Since Xihua has chosen you and you and Xihua are already engaged, I will speak my mind."
Su Bisi didn't care at all that King Ning didn't mention her honorific title and only treated her as a junior.
"Please go ahead."
Prince Ning patted his shoulder and said earnestly, "I will keep an eye on these monsters in the capital for you, but you have to go to Yizhou and bring my Xihua back safely."
Su Bi looked into Prince Ning's eyes that were full of expectation and nodded solemnly.
"Don't worry, I will protect it with my life."