News of the narrow victory in the northern frontier reached the capital, and the court was filled with praise and celebration.
The noble families in the capital had no idea of the hardships and sacrifices made by the soldiers behind every victory; they only cared about the result.
As long as Xie's army keeps the northern barbarians at bay and doesn't affect their decadent and extravagant lifestyle, nothing else matters.
As for the Northern Barbarians, their equipment seems to be better than in previous years.
Why bother with such a small matter?
Anyway, Xie's army won in the end, didn't they?
At times like these, they are happy to sing praises of the Xie family army's might and extol the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion.
Some people genuinely praise, while others deliberately add fuel to the fire.
Flowers adorn the landscape, oil is poured over a raging fire; even excessive praise can be detrimental.
Fortunately, most of the Qingliu faction and the poor families in the court are now on the side of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, so it is unlikely that the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion will be pushed to the forefront of the storm.
As for the emperor's attitude, he is quite calm now.
Five years ago, taking advantage of the opportunity to summon the three sons of the Duke of Zhenguo back to the capital, he really stuffed a lot of people into Xie's army.
Some were not good enough and have not even had the chance to appear by the Duke of Zhenguo's side. Some died on the battlefield against the Northern Barbarians. Two were more astute and accumulated a lot of military merits in several battles against the Northern Barbarians. They have been promoted to junior generals by the Duke of Zhenguo and are highly valued.
The emperor used to be wary of the Duke of Zhenguo because Xie's army was like an iron barrel, and he couldn't place his own men in it. But now that someone has won the Duke of Zhenguo's favor, he is more at ease with the Duke of Zhenguo and Xie's army.
Anyway, the Duke of Zhenguo is getting old, and the three Xie brothers have all been transferred away from the northern frontier. There are no other outstanding members of the Xie clan, so in the end, he will be the one to be promoted.
In fact, it was Ye Jingchen who suggested promoting the emperor.
As long as there are people from the emperor's faction within Xie Family Army, making the emperor feel that Xie Family Army is controllable, he will naturally not be too wary of them.
After all, the emperor needed Xie's army.
It wasn't that the Duke of Zhenguo had any objection to the people the emperor had placed in the Xie family army; it was simply that the northern frontier was bitterly cold, and the Xie family army had strict discipline. Nine out of ten people the emperor sent there couldn't stand it, and the remaining one was either too scheming or too arrogant. In short, most of the delicate people raised in the capital couldn't withstand the harshness of the northern frontier's winds and sand.
The Duke of Zhenguo was a man who couldn't tolerate any flaws. If someone didn't meet his standards at first glance, he certainly wouldn't accept them, regardless of who they were working for. He wouldn't even give face to the Emperor himself!
However, Xie Chang'an specifically wrote a letter to ask someone to give special "care" to the group of people that the emperor sent five years ago.
Although the training was the same as that of ordinary soldiers, without any special treatment, Xie Chang'an privately asked one of his cousins, who was good at boosting morale, to encourage them from time to time and show some humanistic care.
These people were carefully cultivated by the emperor in the capital, so they weren't all that bad. After enduring the most difficult period and adapting to the harsh conditions of the frontier, with further training, two of them became quite promising talents and were promoted based on their military achievements.
The Duke of Zhenguo never held back when leading troops, and he was never stingy with good prospects. As a result, the army had two more capable young generals, and the emperor was also reassured in the court, achieving the best of both worlds.
The emperor was not entirely satisfied with this narrow victory.
In previous years, they had either won big victories or crushing victories, but this year they could only win narrowly. The emperor couldn't help but overthink things, wondering if Xie's army had done it on purpose or if they had become complacent.
Later, he received a letter from the two young generals he had placed in Xie's army, informing him that the Northern Barbarians had changed their armor and weapons, greatly increasing their combat power, and Xie's army was almost unable to withstand them.
The emperor initially didn't care about the Northern Barbarians changing their equipment, but when he realized that the invincible Xie family army might fail, he finally felt the crisis and took the initiative to send a lot of supplies and military equipment to the northern frontier. At the same time, he secretly sent people into the northern frontier to investigate the matter.
Xie Chang'an knew the Northern Barbarians well, after all, they were his defeated enemies in his previous life. If it weren't for the flat terrain of the grasslands, which made them difficult to defend, he could have easily incorporated the Northern Barbarians into his territory in his previous life.
He knew very well that the Northern Barbarians could not forge excellent weapons and equipment; these things must have come from the Great Abyss, and only aristocratic families had the financial resources and foundation to do so.
What he wanted to investigate was how these aristocratic families transported large quantities of equipment into the Northern Barbarian lands right under the noses of the Northern Frontier Guard!
How many soldiers in the northern frontier have already defected to powerful families?
Although he had never been to the Northern Frontier in his life, he knew the environment and military deployment there very well. He even knew roughly who was trustworthy and who was suspicious among the Northern Frontier Guards. Therefore, he was much faster at investigating than the emperor's secret agents.
While the emperor's men were still clueless, he had already identified the suspect.
Once the evidence was conclusive, he used secret agents to deliver it to the emperor.
The weapons obtained by the Northern Barbarians were not even secretly forged by aristocratic families, but were directly obtained from the border guards' material reserves, with only slight modifications to their appearance.
Selling military supplies is a serious crime of treason. This investigation uncovered a large number of people, from the northern border guards to the imperial court. The border guards underwent a major reshuffle, and people were beheaded every day at the execution ground on the south street of the imperial city.
Ye Jingchen couldn't bear to see such a bloody scene. Call him hypocritical or pretentious, but these people's deaths were all related to him. You could even say that he and Xie Chang'an had sent them to the guillotine together. But he just couldn't stand such a bloody scene.
Who knows what Xie Chang'an was thinking, insisting on bringing him to witness the execution?
He didn't want to come and even mocked him for being a coward!
He didn't come here because he couldn't resist Xie Chang'an's provocation. He was simply here because he had made too many empty promises to Xie Chang'an in the past, and Xie Chang'an demanded that he fulfill those promises, so he had no choice but to appear below the execution platform.
Although he has kept a low profile over the years, his status as crown prince is an obvious target. No matter how low he keeps a low profile, there are always people who want to kill him. Whether in the palace or outside the palace, he has been the target of many assassination attempts.
He had seen many bloody scenes, experienced being covered in blood, and even killed people himself. He had used the plum blossom sleeve arrow and lotus hidden weapon that Chenxi gave him, as well as the crossbow that Xie Shaoling gave him.
He can now remain calm and composed even after committing murder, but he always maintains a sense of awe for life, always remembers the path he came from, and remembers that peaceful and prosperous era when life was above all else.
So he really didn't understand why the common people in the capital would enjoy watching this kind of spectacle.
Is watching someone else behead someone really that interesting? Is it worth surrounding the execution ground with layers upon layers of guards?
Moreover, can't they smell the nauseating stench of blood that permeates the air?
Although Ye Jingchen was physically standing here, his soul had long since wandered away!
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