"Bang--"

A crisp sound came from the room, followed by He Yuerong's cry of pain.

"Ah Rui! Ugh...it hurts!"

He Yuerong hurriedly tore off a piece of clean cloth and pressed down the blood oozing from her forehead. She howled a few times in resentment, but Xiao Jingrui did not come back.

She was so angry that her breathing became rapid and she almost broke her teeth.

"Are you injured? I'll find you a doctor." Seeing this, the personal maid came over and helped her out of bed.

He Yuerong was filled with anger and had no place to vent it, so she picked up the jade pillow on the bed and threw it at the little maid.

"Get out! Get out now!"

The leading maid fell to the ground after being hit, but she did not dare to cry out in pain. She hurriedly left with a few people behind her.

He Yuerong lay alone on the bed for a long time before she managed to catch her breath.

Damn it! She knew Xiao Jingrui was obsessed with her, and she thought he was at her beck and call.

It seemed that what the other party liked was not her as a person, but the self that he had seen a few times a long time ago.

Or rather, the person he liked was not his younger self, but the 'He Yuerong' that he imagined in his mind!

In the past, she had been flattering He Huaiyuan. Although the old dog didn't love her, he wasn't very smart. From time to time, he would reveal some loopholes for her to build up her own power.

The Prince of Jingnan was much more cunning than He Huaiyuan. On the surface, he loved her very much, but in fact, he kept a tight watch on her, not letting her take advantage of any loopholes!

It seems that if she wants to gain power under Prince Jingnan, she has to think of other ways.

He Yuerong was distractedly thinking of a solution when she suddenly heard a few regular cat meows coming from outside the window.

She was overjoyed and made some noises to respond to the people outside. She washed and dressed herself in her room, and waited until the guards outside the yard were changing shifts before she quietly went into the grove not far away.

"Your Majesty, please forgive me. The Jinnan Palace is heavily guarded. I hid for many days before I got the chance to sneak in."

The person was dressed as a maid. There was no need to hide at this time, and every move she made revealed her masculinity. She was clearly a secret guard disguised as a man!

"Let's not talk about this useless stuff. What's the situation outside?"

Seeing the former second best master of the Dark Dragon Guard, He Yuerong finally breathed a sigh of relief and asked hurriedly.

"We found out that a few months ago, the King of Jinnan formed an alliance with the Nanzhao people, pretending that the southwest border had failed frequently, and deceived the court into giving them a huge amount of military supplies. At the same time, he diverted He Huaiyuan's attention, and he himself led 50,000 elite troops to attack the capital."

"A few days ago, when the palace was on fire, Prince Jingnan's men took advantage of the chaos to set fire to the Gyeonggi Camp. With only 20,000 men, they defeated the unprepared 10,000 Gyeonggi Guards."

"The army in the capital is limited, and they are completely unprepared and cannot be a match for the Jingnan Army. He Huaiyuan immediately led all the civil and military officials north and fled to the Huaiyang Palace..."

“Crack—”

Before the hidden guard could finish his words, He Yuerong was so angry that she broke the branch in her hand.

Xiao Jingrui really deserves to die! When he first came to the palace to rescue himself, he kept saying that he only brought three elite soldiers with him.

I was deeply moved at first, thinking that this man was still so silly and affectionate, willing to risk his life to save me.

It seems that his careful planning is clearly to get the position that all men in the world want. Saving herself is just a matter of convenience!

He Yuerong was so angry that her eyes were blazing with fire. It took her a while to calm down. She asked leisurely, "How many people are left in the Dark Dragon Guard?"

"Your Majesty, He Huaiyuan forced his way into the palace and killed all three of the commander-level secret guards who were brought into the palace. He then took advantage of the victory and killed several of our secret points in succession."

"The situation was urgent at the time. I was afraid that if they continued to investigate, we would suffer even greater losses, so I took the initiative to recall all the Dark Dragon Guards in Nanqi."

Hearing this, He Yuerong clenched her fists even more.

"What a fool He Huaiyuan! This is clearly cutting off the last escape route!"

"And that damn eldest wife of the Sheng family! If the Sheng family hadn't spread your private letter all over Linyang County, you would have killed He Huaiyuan long ago and taken control of Nanqi!"

When He Yuerong thought of the rare treasures and several Dark Dragon Guards she had lost, she felt a pain in her heart, liver, lungs and kidneys.

After thinking carefully for a while, he slowly raised the corners of his lips again.

"Heh... He Huaiyuan led tens of thousands of troops to flee north not just to avoid Xiao Jingrui. Most of the wealth of Southern Qi is in the hands of the Sheng family."

"He Huaiyuan's men have already taken control of the northern border troops. Leading them north now, isn't it a plan to attack from both sides and force Sheng Yichen to hand over a huge amount of property?!"

He Yuerong looked far into the north, her eyes becoming increasingly sinister.

"Okay, okay! I thought I was cruel enough, but I didn't expect that each of you is many times more cruel than me! In this case, don't blame me for being merciless!"

"You take all the Dark Dragon Guards north. You don't have to face the Sheng family head-on. Just quietly fall behind He Huaiyuan's men and wait for them to fight to the point where both sides are injured, then take advantage of their unpreparedness and kidnap Sheng Yichen!"

She thought for a moment and added, "As long as we get back the supplies and food that Sheng Yichen stole, we will be able to make a comeback. This mission must succeed, not fail!"

"If we can't catch Sheng Yichen, we'll just capture the baby and the women in their family! Anyway, there are many women and children in their family. If he doesn't tell the truth, we'll kill one or two women to intimidate him!"

"Yes." The dark guard answered respectfully, but then asked:

"My lady, please take everyone away and you will stay here alone..."

"Yes. Xiao Jingrui won't hurt you." A hint of resentment flashed in He Yuerong's eyes.

"He doesn't know that he still has the Dark Dragon Guards. If you stay here, it will hinder his plans. Don't worry, the Jingnan Army will be yours soon."

"The target has always been the Jingnan Army, not Xiao Jingrui. He didn't obey, so the Jingnan Army had to change its commander..."

He Yuerong turned gracefully and walked out of the grove. The last words were spoken in a very low voice, and disappeared without a trace in the wind.

Unexpectedly, as soon as she walked out, she ran into a general in full armor.

"Where did you go just now?"

The person who came was Xiao Jingrui's personal guard leader. He had been with Xiao Jingrui before, and was recently transferred to guard the palace. From time to time, he would come to the courtyard where He Yuerong lived for routine patrols.

She heard from the maidservant beside her that this person was a bit lustful and would occasionally do some romantic things behind Xiao Jingrui's back. She had never been very kind to this person before.

As the situation was beyond her control, He Yuerong had no choice but to suppress the nausea in her heart and put on a tender and delicate smile towards the other party.

"It turned out to be General Zhu... I was staying in the house and wanted to go out for some fresh air."

"General Zhu, as the leader of the personal guard, actually patrols the area in person every day. It's rare to find someone as down-to-earth as you. I heard that the prince thinks highly of you and wants to transfer you to the Jingnan Army for training?"

“Ah… yes…”

No matter how much He Yuerong said that she was the former empress dowager, Zhu Youguang was so happy that his face turned red when he was suddenly addressed as an honorific by her.

He was thinking about how to deal with it. Unexpectedly, He Yuerong seemed to slip suddenly, and her body tilted and fell towards him!