Chapter 627 I want one of your children!
A new round of verbal battles has begun.
The officials from Tianjin were so angry that their faces turned red.
"Can't they understand human language? Shen Lanxi is rebellious and has overturned the heavens, sitting on the throne as a woman. It's like a hen crowing at dawn, letting a woman oppress them and lord it over them. Do they really want that?"
"They're a bunch of lunatics, incomprehensible lunatics."
"They have all been bewitched by Shen Lanxi."
"What kind of evil magic did Shen Lanxi use to make them all lose their sense of right and wrong?"
"Your Majesty, Imperial Advisor, let's continue the attack. Let's press on and march on to the capital. Let's show those people who is the true Son of Heaven, the one destined by Heaven."
"His Majesty is of the legitimate royal bloodline of the Great Zhou Dynasty. As long as he raises his arms and shouts, he will surely be answered by a hundred men."
"Your Majesty, let's fight!"
"Under Shen Lanxi's rule, the imperial court is utterly corrupt and vulnerable. Our army easily captured Funing, and the imperial people were routed by our forces. Our army is in high spirits and it is time to press on."
"Your Majesty, I agree. If we don't fight now, when will we?"
"We must take advantage of the high morale of our army to capture three more cities."
Zhou Ruyuan looked at Yuan Lang: "Grand Preceptor, what do you think?"
It was Yuan Lang's idea not to press the attack; if he hadn't stopped them, they would probably have already fought their way out a hundred miles and captured the second city.
"Your Majesty, I think it's not that simple. We need to think carefully and not fall into someone else's trap."
Zhou Yanxing was unwilling to listen. He had already burned his bridges and there was no room for maneuver. At this point, he could only charge forward and could not retreat.
"Imperial Preceptor, are you perhaps afraid of the disciple of Guiguzi?"
A flash of annoyance crossed Yuan Lang's face. If he hadn't been unsure of Zhou Yanxing's intentions, he wouldn't have hesitated.
"Your Highness is mistaken. Dongchuan is, after all, the place where Shen Lanxi raised her army. We have no idea how much she has hidden here."
“You’ve been stationed in Dongchuan for many years, so you should know more about it than I do. If it were that easy to attack, how could those who faced Shen Lanxi have suffered repeated defeats?”
"Is Shen Lanxi really that easy to fool?"
"If Shen Lanxi weren't truly difficult to deal with, why would Your Highness abandon your perfectly good fiefdom and come to seek refuge with Your Highness?"
These words made Zhou Yanxing's face darken.
It was because the Dongchuan Army, under the command of Shen Lanxi, repeatedly divided up his territory, replaced his people, and made progress against him step by step that he had no choice but to come to Tianjin.
He had intended to use Prince Zhou Ruyuan's identity to achieve his goal, but he never expected that Zhou Ruyuan, who was a war god on the surface, was actually a complete idiot.
It was because he didn't understand Zhou Ruyuan before and believed the rumors that led to his exposure.
It's too late to say anything now. His fiefdom has probably already been eradicated by Shen Lanxi. Now he can only gamble everything.
Zhou Yanxing, his face dark, looked at Yuan Lang and said, "I came to support my royal family out of consideration for His Majesty's direct lineage, but I never expected someone to have such despicable thoughts."
Now it was Yuan Lang's turn to have a dark expression.
"Your Majesty, it is highly questionable that Funing was captured so easily. I was merely acting cautiously."
Zhou Yanxing snorted coldly and said sarcastically, "Shen Lanxi, a mere woman, dares to come to Tianjin to provoke us. If Your Majesty still hesitates, wouldn't the whole world think that Your Majesty has no guts?"
Zhou Ruyuan's face grew increasingly dark.
Yuan Lang retorted, "The best way now is to disintegrate the regime from within. Let the people who left earlier return on their own. Only those who win the hearts of the people can win the world."
Zhou Yanxing sneered: "Absurd. Since ancient times, whoever sits on the throne, the people of the world will worship him. Now they are under pressure from Shen Lanxi, so naturally they dare not take any action. How can they come to submit to us?"
"The Grand Preceptor is oversimplifying things. If we conquer the city, why would we worry about the people not being loyal?"
“We are the legitimate rulers of the Great Zhou Dynasty, while Shen Lanxi is merely a false emperor. It is only natural for the people to be loyal to us.”
"We are different from foreign tribes; we uphold the orthodox and eliminate the wicked!"
Zhou Ruyuan: "That's enough. What the Imperial Advisor and the Imperial Uncle said makes sense to me."
"Quickly order the creation of banners to uphold the legitimate rule of the Great Zhou Dynasty, eliminate traitors and false emperors. When the soldiers carry these banners to conquer cities and territories, they will surely be invincible and no one will dare to stop them."
"I agree with what the Imperial Advisor said: 'He who wins the hearts of the people wins the world.' Imperial Advisor, you shall take charge of winning over the people!"
Zhou Yanxing looked at Yuan Lang provocatively, his face full of smug smile.
~
Yuan Lang returned to the princess's residence with a dark face and told Zhou Qiwu about what had happened in the court.
"Zhou Ruyuan is starting to get out of control."
Seeing Yuan Lang's angry expression, Zhou Qiwu tenderly cupped his face in her hands.
"Don't be angry, it will break my heart if you get upset."
Yuan Lang's face flushed with anger, and he couldn't suppress his resentment.
"I'm afraid Zhou Ruyuan has already started to suspect me."
Zhou Qiwu: "Really? You're so dedicated to helping him, what could he possibly suspect?"
Yuan Lang shook his head, thinking of a common ailment among emperors.
"He either dislikes being told what to do or feels that I'm interfering too much in his decisions."
"Furthermore, after an emperor seizes the throne, the first people he kills are his meritorious officials."
“If the princess becomes useless to him one day, he probably won’t keep her.”
Zhou Qiwu's face darkened at Yuan Lang's words: "He wouldn't dare! If it weren't for this princess taking him in back then, he'd be wandering around begging for food like a stray dog."
Yuan Lang: "I'm afraid that once the wild dogs are fattened up, they'll turn into wolves and start to prey on their masters."
Zhou Qiwu suddenly remembered his son's recent unusual behavior, and his heart skipped a beat.
"Go and bring the young master back. If he doesn't come back, you can tie him up and bring him back to me."
"yes!"
A sense of crisis arose in Zhou Xiwu's heart. Thinking of his daughter spending every day alone in her empty room, a plan suddenly came to mind.
"Yuan Lang, I want one of your children."
Yuan Lang's eyes widened in surprise.
...
After transferring Shen Lanxi and her group, they arrived in Wencheng.
"Your Majesty, the official road we traveled from Xining was very smooth and wide."
The construction of official roads in the imperial court was carried out according to standards, with a width of no less than three meters. The official road here is more than six meters wide, enough to accommodate three horse-drawn carriages side by side.
“The imperial court allocates a sum of money for road repairs every year, and the standard is the same as before. If the road is to be widened, the local area has to pay for it itself, which shows that both places are very wealthy.”
Shen Lanxi: "To get rich, you must first build roads. If the roads are not good, how can trade routes be smooth and how can the people become rich?"
Liu Yan replied, "We have just passed two post stations, both of which were well-maintained, which shows that there is no shortage of caravans on this road."
As they were talking, a caravan actually appeared not far away.
"The prices in Wencheng are higher than in Xining. It's not worthwhile for so many of us to stay in Wencheng. Let's stay in Xining instead."
"I've heard that the garrison commander of Wencheng is His Majesty's adopted son. Is that true?"
"The same goes for the garrison commander of Xining. His Majesty has many adopted sons. I saw in the news that His Majesty could form an Imperial Guard just from his adopted sons. I wonder if that's true?"
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