The capital city, the residence of the Second Prince.
"Your Highness, this is a secret letter sent back from Yuezhou!"
The eunuch respectfully presented a letter to the Second Prince, Helian Yu.
The second prince is one year younger than Helian Jue, and is twenty-one years old this year.
His mother came from the Mu clan, one of the eight great clans of the Xianbei.
The Second Prince also has several powerful Xianbei noble families as his backers.
If we follow the standard of a son's status being determined by his mother's, the Second Prince's birth was actually higher than Helian Jue's.
Unfortunately, Helian Jue had the advantage of being "half a legitimate son" and the eldest son, which allowed him to surpass the second prince and be made crown prince.
The second prince was naturally dissatisfied, as were his maternal clan and several major Xianbei noble families.
At that time, as a Turkic princess, Empress Ashina's family was at its most powerful, and even the emperor had to give way to her.
Helian Jue secured his position as crown prince, but Empress Ashina spoiled him, making him arrogant and capricious, which made the second prince and others increasingly resentful.
For the past ten years or so, the second prince has never given up on vying for the throne.
He and the Mu family, among others, also relentlessly plotted against the Crown Prince in secret.
Finally, their opportunity arrived—Empress Ashina's family was defeated, and her father and brothers all passed away one after another.
Even if the Turkic forces were still present, the new Khan was merely Empress Ashina's cousin, not close to her, and could not be her support at all.
Taking advantage of the opportunity, the emperor suppressed the empress's clan, and Helian Jue was deposed!
The second prince was overjoyed. On the one hand, he fought desperately against the other princes, and on the other hand, he continued to suppress Helian Jue to prevent Helian Jue from making a comeback.
Cui Boyong, the governor of Yuezhou, was a man of the second prince. He had written a secret letter to Cui Boyong when Helian Jue left the capital.
In the letter, the Second Prince instructed Cui Boyong on several matters—
First, keep a close watch on Helian Jue and pay attention to his every move;
Second, try every means to find fault with him, preferably to seize his weakness and make him completely deposed as a commoner, or even kill him directly.
Third, if no fault can be found, then suppress and control him, trapping him forever in Yuezhou and locking him in the palace.
Fourth, if Helian Jue could be "accidentally" killed, that would be ideal.
fifth……
Judging by the time, Helian Jue should have already arrived in Yuezhou.
During these days, the Second Prince had been waiting for Cui Boyong's letter.
Finally, the Second Prince snatched the letter, tore open the envelope, and pulled out the letter.
The second prince quickly skimmed through the text, reading ten lines at a glance.
"Huh? The Xie family? That unlucky girl who was pushed out by the Xie family to marry in place of another?"
"He Lianjue actually put her in charge of the household, and even... he made her recruit and train soldiers?"
The second prince couldn't believe it, so he took the letter again and read it carefully once more.
Ha ha!
Hahaha!!
The second prince finally realized he hadn't misread it and couldn't help but throw his head back and burst into laughter.
"Great! That's wonderful!"
"Helian Jue, you've finally met your match?"
"The once arrogant and powerful Crown Prince has now fallen so low that he has to rely on women for sustenance!"
"The princess is in charge! Haha, what a joke!"
The second prince laughed so hard that tears were about to stream down his face.
The depression he had accumulated over the years because of Helian Jue was swept away with his laughter.
Originally, the Second Prince was worried that Helian Jue was deliberately feigning weakness, wanting to go to Yuezhou to bide his time, accumulate strength, and then return to the capital to fight back!
But now, the Second Prince is not worried at all.
Helian Jue could endure hardship and bide his time, but he absolutely could not bear the reputation of "relying on women".
I ask you, among all the heroes in the world, who would invest in a "son-in-law"?
In the Great Zhou Dynasty, sons-in-law were not even considered "people" and were treated the same as criminals and lowly people!
"However, Helian Jue is extremely cunning, so we must be wary of him deliberately defaming himself!"
After laughing, the second prince regained his shrewdness.
He thought for a moment, then returned to his desk, picked up a brush, dipped it in ink, and began to write.
A moment later, the second prince finished writing the letter, blew on the ink to dry it, folded the letter, and put it into an envelope.
After sealing the letter with sealing wax, the Second Prince handed it to the eunuch, saying, "Go, give this letter to the messenger and have him take it back to Cui Boyong!"
"Yes! I obey!"
The young eunuch responded, respectfully held the letter, and withdrew.
The second prince paced to the window, gazing in the direction of Yuezhou, and murmured, "My dear brother, are you truly 'resting and recuperating,' or are you really disheartened?"
Not only the Second Prince, but the shrewd Fifth Prince also received news from his spies in the Thousand Bull Guard.
Upon reading the contents of the letter, the Fifth Prince's face darkened with inexplicable unease.
He sat alone in his study, deep in thought.
After a long while, he suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, "Someone, bring the Fourth Prince here!"
The Fifth Prince had a drink with the Fourth Prince, who had rushed over in a hurry. That evening, the Fourth Prince tried every means to meet the Emperor.
"Father, my brother is really going too far! He actually lets a woman run the household!"
The fourth prince perfectly embodies what it means to be a simple-minded fool.
Without any preamble, he went straight to the point: "He also recruited soldiers and arbitrarily seized farmland..."
The emperor frowned, his eyes filled with disdain as he looked at the fourth prince.
That stupid son of mine has been used as a pawn again.
The key point is that he didn't fulfill his duty as a gunman. He didn't even understand the intentions of the person instigating him before running to the emperor and talking nonsense.
From the Fourth Prince's rambling speech, even the Sage could roughly deduce that the person who instructed the Fourth Prince wanted to achieve a certain goal.
They simply wanted to use the fourth prince to tell the emperor—
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