Ye Chen suddenly thought of something, "Qiu'er, you go back first, I need to go to the palace." Chen Qiu thought for a moment and nodded, "Wait a minute, let Black Hawk accompany you, I don't trust the secret guards alone."
This day had been restless since morning. First, Tan Nu happened, then there was the matter of Lan Yu and Xiao Hang, and then Fu Xia was forced to come to Wenxin and it was only the afternoon.
It is already April and the spring flowers have almost fallen. This time last year was exactly when Chen Qiu married into the Duke's Mansion. Time flies so fast. It will be exactly two days later. It was that day last year when Chen Qiu married into the Duke's Mansion.
After entering the palace, Ye Chen went straight to the upper study. The emperor was reading memorials with a frown on his face. Ye Chen came in and bowed, but he didn't hear the emperor say anything. He just looked up at the emperor. The emperor threw the memorials aside and said angrily, "Every day you don't worry about the livelihood of the people, but worry about my concubines. Before, Yan Qinglian never thought about stuffing people into my harem, but now you think about it every day. Humph, I will have a good talk with them tomorrow. What are they up to?"
Ye Chen just smiled in the face of the emperor's nagging. It seemed that these people were too idle recently. The Order of the Phoenix was not discussed openly. There had been no movement since the last cleanup of Kyoto City. Ye Chen had been assassinated several times, but they were not killed, so they were naturally not in a hurry. They didn't know about the crackdown on the Order of the Phoenix. Since the task did not fall on them, they were naturally free to rest.
"I captured Fu Xia, the leader of the Order of the Phoenix today, and released him in the afternoon." Seeing that the emperor sat next to him, Ye Chen directly told him what happened today.
The emperor stood up happily upon hearing Ye Chen's words, but sat down again after hearing the rest. "You must have your reasons for making this decision. The Order of the Phoenix is probably more anxious to get rid of you than me, the emperor. How many of their branches have you taken down?"
Ye Chen thought for a moment, "There are at least twenty of them. The least are in the northwest, but they have the most people. Lu Chenyuan has the most branches. He cleared out all the ones in his jurisdiction, and he also cleared out two on his way back. Mu Qing also cleared out a few on his way back from Jiangnan, but they can't be considered branches, just small gangs."
The emperor was shocked to hear this. So many? "Then how many are there that haven't been cleared?"
Ye Chen shook his head. "If you were to tell me everything Wen Xin had told me, I'd only cleared half of it. When Princess Duan Jing was in charge of the Order of the Phoenix, she dispersed the personnel. She placed people wherever there were people. Some places only had a few people, while the larger branches had dozens. So far, the largest branch we've cleared had fifty people in it, and the smallest had only five."
The Emperor rubbed his hands together. "It seems that from the time the Order of the Phoenix was discovered until now, the Shen family has been the one that has purged the most people."
Ye Chen nodded in agreement. Princess Duan Jing's approach was really a headache. If you disperse them like this, you will never be able to catch them all in one fell swoop. Even if you send the local county government to clear them out, it will be okay for small ones but not for big ones. If you dispatch the local garrison, it will inevitably affect the local people. The current Great Yin Kingdom cannot withstand any turmoil. It has only recovered from the Rebellion of the Three Kings in the past five or six years. Another incident will shake the foundation of the country.
"Let me tell you something about Fu Xia. It's better for me to tell you this than for others to tell you about it." Ye Chen put down the teacup in his hand and looked like he was about to leave.
The emperor held Ye Chen in his arms and said, "Hey, hey, hey, boy, when will you bring your son in so I can see him? I, your great uncle, haven't even met him yet. I have a valuable gift for you!"
Ye Chen extended his hand to the emperor, who slapped him. "It's a meeting gift. How can I give it to you before we even meet? It's almost the hundredth day, right? Can I see you before the hundredth day?"
Ye Chen shook his head, and the emperor simply looked up and cried, "Sister, Chen'er's son has been born for so long, and he didn't even ask to bring him to see his uncle, sister..."
The emperor cried while glancing at Ye Chen's reaction. Unexpectedly, Ye Chen just folded his hands on his abdomen and looked at him indifferently. The emperor's voice became smaller and smaller, and finally he simply stopped talking.
"Are you done crying?" Ye Chen adjusted his posture and then simply sat down again, motioning the emperor to continue. Seeing Ye Chen's expression, the emperor coughed dryly and sat down. "Then can I sneak out to see him? How could I not have seen my sister's grandson? Right?"
"Just wait. I'll bring him in after the patrol camp and the imperial guards can secure Kyoto. Oh, I'll come to the palace tomorrow to listen to you talk back at them." Ye Chen pointed at the memorial on the emperor's desk, then gave the emperor a look that told him not to be cowardly and left.
The emperor was so angry with Ye Chen that he stood up and kicked him, but he didn't expect that he dodged it.
When Ye Chen was about to leave the palace, Chu Jingyan caught up with him from behind, "Cousin, cousin, wait a minute!"
Ye Chen turned around and bowed to Chu Jingyan. In this palace, the only person who could make Ye Chen feel free was the emperor. Even in front of the empress, as long as the emperor was not around, Ye Chen would be fully polite. "Greetings, the eldest prince."
Chu Jingyan was a prince, so it was natural for him to receive this gift. He just stepped forward and helped Ye Chen up, saying, "Cousin, there's no need to be so polite."
"I wonder why the eldest prince called me here?"
Chu Jingyan looked down at his feet and thought for a moment, "I know it's not appropriate to ask my cousin, but there's no other way. ...I wonder if there's any news about my cousin's safety?"
Ye Chen frowned, then shook his head, "I don't know, I have never paid attention to her."
Chu Jingyan raised his head and moved the corners of his mouth, then quickly lowered his head, and then raised his head again. Ye Chen looked at him with a frown on his face. Did he have something to say?
"Your Highness, if you have anything to say, please speak directly."
Chu Jingyan thought he had misheard, and looked up suddenly with surprise, "Cousin, you are outside the palace, can you help me find out about An Ning's news? Mother misses her very much, but I haven't received any letters from her."
"If the Imperial Concubine wants Princess An Ning, she can just write directly to the Prince of Zhennan. There's no need to be so roundabout, right?"
Chu Jingyan smiled bitterly, "Last time my mother was sent to the cold palace, I wrote a letter to my uncle to let my father know. Now my mother and I can't send any letters outside the palace."
The fact that the imperial concubine threatened the emperor to marry her has always been a thorn in the emperor's heart. He had to take her as his concubine in order to quell the Rebellion of the Three Kings. Now the Prince of Zhennan has nearly 300,000 soldiers and can still rely on the imperial concubine. The imperial concubine's unintentional threat last time reminded the emperor of the threats he had received before. Later, the eldest prince's letter to Lu Chenyuan made the emperor feel that this was a threat from him. If Ye Chen had not said that Lu Chenyuan was trustworthy, Lu Chenyuan would not have been able to return to Binzhou on the Double Ninth Festival last year, so the emperor simply banned the imperial concubine and the eldest prince from contacting outside the palace.
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