The three of them discussed in secret for a long time, and finally decided to take action three days later when the prince inspected the coastal defense of Dagukou.
Wan Youliang and Guan Haishan were responsible for arranging the pirates, while Xue Shu only needed to hold his troops in place when the pirates appeared.
When coming out of Nanchuan Building, Xue Shu's brows were extremely low, and beneath his calm appearance, murderous intent was surging like an undercurrent, and every drop of boiling blood was clamoring for killing.
Perhaps he had a bloodthirsty instinct in his bones. When he heard Wan Youliang and Guan Haishan planning how to harm Yin Chengyu, he just wanted to let these two people experience all 108 kinds of torture.
Even death is a mercy to them.
"Go back to the inn." Xue Shu's voice was so hoarse that it seemed as if he was squeezing out each word from his throat. He was like a bow that was stretched to the extreme, with the arrow already on the string. The cold arrowhead hung in front of his eyes, locking the enemy's throat.
The accompanying soldier was quick to notice that something was wrong with his mood, and even slowed down his breathing while driving the carriage towards the inn.
When he returned to the inn, Xue Shu paused. In the end, he did not immediately go to report to Yin Chengyu, but returned to his own courtyard.
He stood in the yard for a long time, with anger surging in his heart and unable to calm down.
After a long while, he looked at the soldiers in the courtyard, took off his complicated cloak and outer robe, and said, "Ten men, come."
This is what it means to have someone to practice with.
The soldiers surrounded him hesitantly and looked at each other for a long time, but no one dared to make the first move.
Xue Shu moved his neck left and right and licked his lips: "Draw your swords, and attack together."
After saying this, he took the first step.
He didn't use a knife, but faced ten soldiers with his bare hands.
At first, the knives-wielding soldiers shrank back, fearing that they would hurt Xue Shu. But soon, they realized that if they did not fight back, their lives would be in danger.
Xue Shu showed no mercy when he attacked. He was extremely strong, and every punch and palm strike went straight to the vital points. Some soldiers who were unable to dodge were hit in the abdomen by his punch and were unable to get up immediately.
"Do it!"
Xue Shu retracted his fist, his eyes filled with murderous anger.
If he didn't do something, he was afraid that he would lose control and kill those two people tonight.
His gaze was so oppressive that the remaining soldiers did not dare to hesitate any longer. They raised their swords and attacked together.
The long sword reflected a cold light in the sunlight, and Xue Shu's grim brows were reflected on the sword, like a Shura evil ghost.
The soldiers fought back passively and killed fiercely. When their swords clashed, Xue Shu was often injured.
Xue Shu had another wound on his face. He raised his hand to wipe off the blood. He did not look angry, but more excited: "Let's do it again."
When Yin Chengyu came over, he saw several soldiers lying on the ground, and another four or five soldiers were besieging Xue Shu with swords.
As the sword flashed, both sides suffered injuries.
Especially the wound on Xue Shu's face, which was bright red and eye-catching.
"What are you doing?!" With anger boiling in his chest, Yin Chengyu called out to stop the fight.
Both sides withdrew their forces at once. Xue Shu turned to look at Yin Chengyu, then threw down a sentence, "Take them down to treat their injuries, and each of them will receive a reward of fifty taels," and quickly walked towards Yin Chengyu.
"Your Highness." Having just been through a fierce fight, the blood in his body had not yet calmed down, and his voice was still hoarse from being suppressed.
Yin Chengyu glanced at his body, looking at the rips on his clothes, and sneered, "You have become quite capable. You didn't come back to report to me, and you still have the leisure time to practice martial arts?"
Xue Shu bowed his head and admitted his fault: "I am guilty."
His obedient attitude choked Yin Chengyu. He glared at him for a while and simply changed the subject: "What did Wan Youliang say when he invited you to come? Why are you so angry?"
Of course Yin Chengyu knew why Xue Shu acted like this today.
——He was angry and wanted to kill someone.
Xue Shu usually got angry in two situations: one was when he was simply unhappy, and the other was when someone violated his taboos.
If Xue Shu was in a bad mood, he would find an excuse to torture him. When he was tortured to the point of being unhappy, Xue Shu would be happy. But if someone violated his taboos, Xue Shu would kill that person.
The Nine-Thousand-Year-Old, who had great power over the government and the country, would kill whomever he wanted most of the time. However, there were many people who opposed him, both openly and covertly, both inside and outside the court, and there were always a few who could not be touched for the time being.
Yin Chengyu had only seen a situation like today once in his previous life.
That was the time when Emperor Longfeng had not yet passed away and was obsessed with the art of immortality.
Emperor Longfeng became violent and insane due to long-term use of elixirs. Xue Shu welcomed him back to the court and made him the crown prince, gradually regaining control of the government.
In order to compete with him, the second son found a Taoist priest from somewhere and presented two rejuvenation pills to Emperor Longfeng, which were said to be able to make people rejuvenate. After taking the pills, Emperor Longfeng was greatly inspired and immediately asked the Taoist priest to make a magic pill for him. However, the Taoist priest said that the rejuvenation pill was a magical medicine and needed two taels of dragon meat and the blood of a young girl at the beginning of her menstruation as the guide.
Upon hearing this, Emperor Longfeng naturally ordered Xue Shu to look for it.
That time, after Xue Shu came out of Qingfu Palace where Emperor Longfeng lived, he looked like he was going to kill someone.
When he heard the news and went to the parade ground to look for someone, Xue Shu was also fighting with someone.
However, Xue Shu was much more cruel at that time than he is now. He ordered his men to bring out dozens of vicious and extremely cruel death row prisoners from the prison and told them that they would be pardoned as long as they could survive.
Those death row inmates who believed the advice naturally fought for their lives.
In the end, they all died at the hands of Xue Shu.
Yin Chengyu still clearly remembers the scene at that time: there were corpses everywhere on the training ground, and only Xue Shu was standing in the middle, covered in blood. When he looked over with a knife in hand, blood was still dripping from the tip of the knife.
At that time he felt that Xue Shu was born to be a killing knife.
And now, the knife was held in his hand.
Seeing Xue Shu's murderous look, Yin Chengyu walked towards his room first: "Clean yourself up and come back to report."
Zheng Duobao followed him, wiped the chairs and benches clean, invited him to sit down, and ordered someone to bring him some hot tea.
Xue Shu came just as Yin Chengyu finished his cup of tea.
He changed his clothes and must have taken a bath, as he smelled of soap. Only the shallow wound on his face was not treated, which made him look even more ferocious.
"Go ahead." Yin Chengyu took a sip of tea slowly.
Xue Shu then suppressed his anger and told Wan Youliang and Guan Haishan about their plans.
When Yin Chengyu heard about the pirates, his expression darkened: "They are truly lawless. They even dare to collude with pirates."
Dayan has suffered from sea pirates for a long time.
Since the founding of Dayan, coastal prefectures have been burned and looted by pirates every year. These pirates are of complex composition, including remnants of the previous dynasty, foreign Japanese, and coastal bandits. These lawless people gathered together, accumulated wealth by robbing cargo ships at sea and plundering coastal people, and developed from generation to generation.
They hid on islands in the sea, and mostly made a living by robbing cargo ships. Later, when the canal was unblocked and the number of ships decreased, they began to come to the shore from time to time to burn, kill and rob. They were ruthless and left quickly. Even though the imperial court sent troops to suppress them several times, they were unable to do anything about these pirates.
One of the reasons for the establishment of Tianjin was to defend against increasingly rampant pirates.
Yin Chengyu knew that the rampant pirates must be due to the inaction of the coastal troops. In his previous life, he had sent people to reorganize the coastal military and train the navy. However, he did not expect Guan Haishan and others to be so bold that they colluded with the pirates at this time.
Yin Chengyu pondered for a long time, then said in a cold voice: "Let's follow their plan. I want to see how rampant they are."
"Your Highness is a jade artifact, and they are tiles. How can you use jade to touch tiles?" Xue Shu frowned, his tone full of disapproval.
If he were to say so, it would be better to just kill Wan Youliang and Guan Haishan and be done with it.
Yin Chengyu's heart moved, and he looked at him suddenly: "Are you angry about this?"
Xue Shu hummed solemnly: "They deserve to die."
"They really deserve to die." Yin Chengyu nodded in agreement, stood up in a very good mood, and said, "This matter is settled. After the matter is settled, those two people will be handed over to you for disposal. I will definitely let you vent your anger."
Yin Chengyu is determined to serve as bait, and Xue Shu's objection is useless. He can only speed up the arrangements with Zhao Lin to prevent any mistakes in the plan that day.
The day before Yin Chengyu went to Dagukou, he received news from Wei Xihe.
——Wei Xihe wants to see him.
He didn't think about it for too long, and took Xue Shu to Wei Mansion that night.
Wei Xihe's residence is in the westernmost courtyard of the Wei Mansion. A moon gate separates this remote courtyard from the entire Wei Mansion.
In the distance, one could see the bright lights of the main courtyard of the Wei Mansion, but the west courtyard of Wei Xihe was pitch dark, with only a candlestick barely illuminating it.
"Sir, please follow me." The man holding the candlestick was a tall and strong young man. Because the light was too dim, his face could not be seen clearly. He could only be identified by his clothes. He should be a servant who served Wei Xihe.
Yin Chengyu followed the other party into the house and saw Wei Xihe limping towards him.
According to the calculations of his previous life, he should have just reached the age of 20 this year. He was wearing a gray robe that had turned white, and he was thin and frail. Only when he smiled could one still see some of his former elegance and handsomeness.
Yin Chengyu's gaze subconsciously fell on his legs. At this time, Wei Xihe was not yet paralyzed.
When he saw Wei Xihe in his previous life, he was already 25 years old. His legs were completely disabled due to improper care and he could only move around in a wheelchair. He was so thin that his cheekbones were protruding. Only in his eyes, which were full of sorrow, was there a gleam of resignation.
At that time, he had no one to serve him. In comparison, his current situation is relatively good.
"Your Highness, the Crown Prince is 1,000 years old."
Wei Xihe welcomed the person into the house and asked him to sit down, then he knelt down to pay his respects.
Yin Chengyu raised his hand to stop him, and did not ask him to kneel down: "I came here at night not for these false gifts. The subordinates reported that you have the account of Ke Shouxin's illegal salt sales?"
He originally just asked people to keep an eye on the Wei Mansion's every move, but he didn't expect Wei Xihe to be so sharp that he not only noticed someone was following them, but also guessed that the person behind it was him. He invited him to come through the mouth of the spy.
Yin Chengyu admired Wei Xihe's tenacity and cleverness in his previous life, and even more so now.
It's a pity that in his previous life, Wei Xihe chose to starve to death after the fall of the Ke family. Otherwise, he might have had another loyal minister.
"Yes." Wei Xihe did not play any roundabout tricks with him. He winked at the young man following beside him, and the young man went inside. After a moment, he held out two tightly wrapped booklets.
“All the accounts over the years are here.”
Yin Chengyu took it and after roughly looking through it, he had a general idea in his mind.
After all, it was five years earlier, so these accounts were not as complete as in the previous life, but they were sufficient.
He handed the account book to Xue Shu and put it away, then looked at Wei Xihe: "What are your conditions?"
"After everything has settled, please ask Your Highness to hand Ke Shouxin over to me, the common people." Wei Xihe knelt on the ground, with resentment flashing in his lowered eyes.
Yin Chengyu really valued his talent and didn't want to see him go to the end of his rope: "What about you?"
Wei Xihe stood up, with a moment of hesitation in his eyes, but soon he became firm. He did not reject Yin Chengyu's invitation like he did in his previous life, but said: "If possible, I would like to enter the palace as a eunuch."
"You have a strong character and are very knowledgeable. Even though you have physical defects, I am not a narrow-minded person. If you wish, you can join the East Palace as an aide."
This is the biggest promise Yin Chengyu can give him.
But Wei Xihe still shook his head. He touched the ground with his forehead and said, "Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness. But I am a disabled person and I dare not tarnish the reputation of the Crown Prince."
Seeing that he was determined, Yin Chengyu stopped trying to persuade him and stood up, saying, "I agree. Ask Supervisor Xue to arrange for you to enter the palace. You have a leg disease, so it is inconvenient for you to walk around the palace and serve. You can only work in the East and West factories."
Wei Xihe thanked him and stood up to see him off to the side door.
When Xue Shu passed by him, he called out to Xue Shu again: "Officer Xue, please stay."
The author has something to say:
Gou Gou: Your Highness helped me vent my anger. Your Highness is so nice to me.
Your Highness: