Although he knew it was all an act, the news of Princess Qin being kidnapped by bandits had already spread, so Emperor Cheng'an still had to put on a show.
After much deliberation, he finally appointed the Crown Prince to suppress the bandits.
Since the Crown Prince and Xue Shen were so close that the Crown Prince disregarded his own father, he was determined to show the Crown Prince with his own eyes just how much treacherous ambition the man he considered a brother harbored.
Xue Heng first went to the Prince of Qin's residence, then led his troops out of the city. After checking around, he felt relieved and guessed that the kidnapping was a ruse and that the person had probably already left with Xue Shen.
He gestured for the rest of his troops to return first, while he rode his horse aimlessly around the outskirts of the capital.
As the setting sun cast its golden rays upon the distant forests, he sat on his horse watching, yet a sense of emptiness and loneliness welled up within him.
His relationship with Xue Shen had grown increasingly distant; and his father-son bond with the emperor was on the verge of collapse.
Since his falling out with Emperor Cheng'an, the emperor no longer relied on him for many things, and even began to gradually take back some of the powers that had been transferred to him.
Xue Heng didn't care about these things; he hadn't been without capable people since taking over the government. What he truly found unacceptable was the changes his men had observed in the emperor's palace during this time.
He didn't want to think of his father as something too sordid and filthy, but the reality hit him hard.
Recalling the facts confirmed by his spies today, he even felt an urge to leave and escape this filthy quagmire.
Only today did he fully realize that the father he had admired since childhood and the current Emperor Cheng'an were two completely different people.
The difference was so great that, in order to keep his son in check, the emperor actually came up with the absurd idea of having the empress bear a child through artificial insemination. To cover his tracks and ensure that the child born to the empress would not be questioned, he even had the empress move into his own palace.
Now, when Xue Heng thinks about it, he feels nauseous and vomits.
He stood in the twilight for a long time, until night fell and the city gates were about to close, before returning to the palace.
*
Ten days later, Shen Youying and her party arrived in Xizhou.
Xue Shen arrived with 50,000 troops, but before he could return to the city to rest, he encountered his first battle with the remnants of the Northern Rong army.
Although the remnants of the Northern Rong army were defeated, the Northern Rong people, raised on horseback, were all brave and skilled in battle. The local army, having been idle for many years, had become lazy and complacent. Even with their numerical superiority and local advantage, they were still no match for the remnants of the Northern Rong army.
If it weren't for the increasingly arrogant behavior of the remnants of the Northern Rong army, which caused widespread resentment among the local people, local officials would not have been willing to report the matter to the imperial court.
The remnants of the Northern Rong army had long heard that the imperial court would send reinforcements, but they had been fighting back and forth in Xizhou City these days, robbing countless women and gold and silver, and had long forgotten the humiliation of being defeated and fleeing in disarray by the Prince of Qin in the capital.
Therefore, upon hearing that the imperial reinforcements had arrived, they were not afraid at all. Instead, they set a trap early on, thinking of wiping them out in one fell swoop and seizing another batch of military supplies and provisions.
If they had encountered an ordinary general, they might have succeeded, but they encountered Xue Shen.
Five days prior, Xue Shen had dispatched scouts to gather intelligence and monitor the movements of the Northern Rong people. Therefore, even before arriving in Xizhou, he had already deduced the Northern Rong's plot from subtle clues.
He used a counter-strategy, first ordering men to escort Shen Youying to Xizhou City for settlement, and then, a day later, leisurely leading his army to arrive.
To reach Xizhou, the army must pass through a deep and long canyon, which is the perfect place for an ambush.
The Northern Rong people had long occupied the terrain and were lying in ambush in the forests on both sides of the valley.
When the Northern Rong people saw the Wei army heading into the valley from afar, they became excited and eager to fight.
Once they have seized the supplies and provisions of the Wei army and have rested and recuperated, they can break through Xizhou City and march back to the grasslands.
Thinking this, the leading Northern Rong general's blood boiled. He raised his arm high, waiting for the Wei army to go deeper into the valley, and then immediately ordered the rolling stones to be pushed down the cliff, catching the Wei army off guard.
But before he could give the order, countless rocks suddenly rolled down from where they were lying in ambush.
The remnants of the Northern Rong army, who were lying in ambush in the mountains and forests, were caught off guard and, in their panic, tumbled down the steep cliff like dumplings being dropped into boiling water.
The Wei army, which had been advancing, stopped at this moment. They watched coldly as the Northern Rong people, who had been slaughtered without any resistance, tumbled down the cliff a dozen meters away. Only when no more rocks fell did Xue Shen, who had been hiding in the ranks, reveal himself and raise his arm to shout: "Kill!"
Having experienced the battle of the capital, the Northern Rong people naturally knew the King of Qin as a god of war.
The initial, clumsy attack threw the Northern Rong people into disarray. When they discovered that the reinforcements were led by the King of Qin, the Northern Rong people lost all will to fight and even tried to escape from the other side of the canyon.
However, Xue Shen had long anticipated this possibility. As soon as the Northern Rong people escaped to the other side of the canyon, they were devastated to find that the other side was also blocked by the Wei army.
They were forced into the canyon like cattle and sheep, while the Wei army blocked the exits on both sides of the canyon and raised their swords against them.
The battle lasted a day and a night. Xue Shen wiped out 3,321 remnants of the Northern Rong army, while the Wei army suffered no casualties.
During wartime, the battlefield needs to be inventoried.
Xue Shen left some men to clean up the battlefield, while he led the remaining survivors to the camp of the Northern Rong remnants in the deep forest. They rescued more than 100 people who had been robbed and found several thousand taels of gold and silver.
When everything was completed on the hour, it was three days later when Xue Shen led his troops back to Xizhou City.
When the governor of Xizhou learned of Xue Shen's triumphant return, he personally led the officials of Xizhou out of the city to welcome him.
Xue Shen coldly sized up the bloated and bloated governor of Xizhou, then threw the head of a Northern Rong general in front of him, smearing the man's head and face with blood.
The governor of Xizhou, who was used to a life of luxury, had never seen a freshly severed human head before. He was so frightened that he knelt on the ground and begged for mercy.
Xue Shen scoffed coldly: "Xizhou is a key border city, garrisoned with 100,000 troops. As the governor of Xizhou, you can't even defeat 3,000 remnants of the Northern Rong army, and you allow them to plunder the people everywhere. A governor like you is better off without."
Upon hearing this, the governor of Xizhou became even more apprehensive and repeatedly begged for forgiveness: "It is my incompetence, Your Highness. We are willing to wipe out the remnants of the Northern Rong army, but the Northern Rong remnants are cunning, and we are not as wise and powerful as Your Highness, so we can only ask the court for help."
Xue Shen glanced at him coldly, ignoring his explanations, and with a flick of his whip, spurred his horse toward the city. As he passed by him, Xue Shen flicked his spear, lifting the head off the man before galloping away.
Seeing his behavior, Pang Lai and the others followed suit, showing no regard for the governor of Xizhou. They rode past him, kicking up dust from his head and face.
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