As soon as Yan Sikong entered the mansion, servants came to greet him, looking terrified and helpless: "Master, you are finally back."

Yan Sikong said calmly, "Why, Madam is angry again?"

The servant smiled bitterly and nodded: "Go and persuade him."

"No hurry." Yan Sikong returned to his bedroom, and the servants changed his court clothes for him. He sat down and drank a cup of tea, calmed down his emotions, and then he pulled himself together to deal with the ancestor of the Yan family - Princess Wanyang.

A month after their marriage, the two of them had already moved into separate rooms. After that, Wan Yang was too lazy to even act and bossed him around and made sarcastic remarks. The closer he got to Xie Zhongren, the more angry Wan Yang became with him.

Yan Sikong calmly let her do whatever she wanted. Their "family affairs" had long become a laughing stock among the people in Beijing, and even reached the ears of Emperor Zhaowu. However, Emperor Zhaowu could not control this spoiled princess and even persuaded Yan Sikong to take a concubine. Yan Sikong took advantage of Emperor Zhaowu's guilt and won the emperor's favor step by step. Compared with Xie Zhongren, he is now the most popular figure in front of the emperor.

Walking through the corridor, Yan Sikong heard the sound of something falling from a distance.

As he stepped into the house, a teacup exploded right at his feet, and the tea splashed on his shoes.

"Sir..." The servant looked at Yan Sikong tremblingly.

Wan Yang turned around and glared at Yan Sikong coldly: "Today I returned to the palace to pay my respects to my mother, and she actually advised me to have a baby. Did you say something bad to my father again?"

Yan Sikong said calmly, "Madam, you are too kind. This is a family matter between us, so how could I bother Your Majesty with it? But it is only natural for Your Majesty to be concerned about whether the Yan family has an heir."

"You must have told Father something!"

Yan Sikong said calmly: "No."

Wan Yang was so angry that she was shaking. For the past three years, she and Yan Sikong had always been like this. No matter how violent her storms were, Yan Sikong would only respond with slanting wind and drizzle.

Yan Sikong added: "However, the other day your Majesty advised me to take a concubine..."

"No!" Wan Yang said sharply without thinking.

Yan Sikong nodded: "I think Madam would not allow it either."

The servants on the side did not dare to breathe, but they felt unfair for Yan Sikong in their hearts. Even if she was a princess of a wealthy family, she should not be so rude and overbearing after getting married. She did not want to give birth to an heir to her husband's family, but she was not even allowed to take a concubine. It was really outrageous.

Wan Yang's face flushed red. "You are so sinister and despicable. If you have a child, wouldn't it bring more trouble to Da Sheng?"

Everyone gasped; these words were too vicious.

Yan Sikong's expression remained calm: "Madam, you are right."

Wan Yang's beautiful eyes were filled with disappointment and pain: "You married me just to get promoted and make money, right? Now everything is as you wish. As a princess, I cannot choose my own man. As your wife, I cannot stop you from helping the tyrant. There is at least one thing I will not let you do. I will make your Yan family end up with a line of incense!"

Yan Sikong stared at Wan Yang and sighed in his heart. As a member of the royal family, she was not in control of her own life. But as she said, she had no say in her own life. Whenever he wanted to be indifferent, he looked at that face and couldn't help looking for traces of Feng Ye on it, and couldn't help but soften his heart.

Yan Sikong dismissed the servants and advised slowly, "Your Highness, although you and I are not destined to be husband and wife, I will still respect you and take care of you. Whatever you want, as long as I have it, I will definitely satisfy you. You can live the way you feel happy, and you don't have to worry about me."

Wan Yang bit his lip and said, "What if I want you to draw a clear line between yourself and the eunuchs and respect yourself?"

Yan Sikong lowered his eyes and said, "I have studied hard for twenty years just for fame and fortune. Now that Lord Xie has taken over the government, I should be prudent and protect myself. How can I fight against him?"

"You have been in cahoots with that evil bastard and are despised by the world. Is this kind of fame and fortune what you want? Do you have any integrity at all?" Wan Yang cursed with red eyes.

Yan Sikong said softly: "Your Highness is a princess, doted on by thousands of people, you won't understand."

Wan Yang gritted her teeth and said, "Yan Sikong, I really pity you." She strode away.

The word "poor" really made Yan Sikong stunned for a long time, and then he murmured: "It's okay not to understand."

——

After dinner, the servant reported that Zhu Lanting wanted to see him, and then led him to the study.

As soon as Yan Sikong saw his dark face, he knew that he came for General Di.

As expected, as soon as the servant closed the door, Zhu Lanting slammed the desk hard with his palm.

Yan Sikong poured a cup of tea for Zhu Lanting and said, "Commander Zhu, please calm down. My table may not be able to withstand a blow from you."

Zhu Lanting said in a deep voice: "Yan Sikong, you knew that General Di was going to die, why didn't you stop him?"

"Xie Zhongren has been whispering to your majesty for years that he wants to send troops to Liaodong. This time, it will be General Di or General Zhao who seizes the opportunity." Yan Sikong's eyes were calm and wise. "Let me ask you, if the Jin Kingdom invades Liaodong, who has a better chance of winning, General Di or General Zhao?"

Zhu Lanting thought for a moment and said, "General Zhao."

"Yes, our great country has almost no generals left. The only ones who can compete with Zhuoletai's army are these two generals. General Di was born in the south of the Yangtze River and stationed in the Central Plains. He has never experienced the harsh weather in the north and is old. General Zhao was born in the northwest and is in his prime. Most importantly, he led his troops to pursue Zhuoletai seventeen years ago. Zhuoletai was jealous of him and wanted to avenge his past humiliation. Under this emotional state, it is most likely to make mistakes. No matter how you compare them, General Zhao has a much greater chance of winning than General Di."

"Then why didn't you let General Zhao go?" Zhu Lanting narrowed his eyes. "Do you want Han Zhaoxing to fail?"

"Han Zhaoxing's defeat was inevitable." Yan Sikong's eyes flashed with countless thoughts, "I couldn't stop Your Majesty from sending reinforcements to Han Zhaoxing, but Xie Zhongren wanted to send General Zhao at first. He wanted to take control of the garrison troops that he had always been jealous of. It was me who secretly negotiated between him and Your Majesty to replace General Zhao with General Di."

Zhu Lanting lowered his head: "You want to wait until Han Zhaoxing is defeated, and then send General Zhao to clean up the mess."

"Only if Han Zhaoxing is defeated, General Zhao will be able to take charge of the Liaodong army. Otherwise, if he goes, he will be the next General Di to be killed by Han Zhaoxing." Yan Sikong said in a gloomy voice, "Han Zhaoxing is an expert in this."

"Yan Sikong, Yan Sikong." Zhu Lanting's face was a little distorted. "You knew everything in your heart, but you could watch General Di go to his death, and watch the Liaodong soldiers and civilians sacrifice innocently. You...is there no other way?"

Yan Sikong looked at Zhu Lanting coldly: "What if I tell you that Taining is my hometown?"

"What?" Zhu Lanting was shocked.

"You have always wanted to know about my life experience, haven't you? Speaking of Taining, you can probably guess it, and you can understand why I hate Han Zhaoxing and Xie Zhongren." Yan Sikong stared deeply into Zhu Lanting's eyes, "Commander Zhu, victory comes at a price. Sacrificing a Di general and the soldiers and civilians of a city can replace a commander who can truly resist the Jin Kingdom for Liaoning!"

Zhu Lanting took a deep breath and was silent for a long time before he said, "You have become increasingly difficult for me to understand over the years. I often wonder whether I was right or wrong to let you go back then."

Yan Sikong also fell silent.

When Zhu Lanting was ordered to search for Feng Ye, he naturally thought of Yan Sikong, and even found evidence of Yan Sikong and She Zhun's prison break.

But he finally pretended to be ignorant, because he believed in the Feng family's innocence, and because he believed in Yan Sikong's determination to overthrow Xie Zhongren and support Chen Yu to inherit the throne.

But the current Yan Sikong was so cold and sinister that he was jealous. A poor boy who had nothing, in just seven years, became a third-rank minister at the age of thirty. He got all the benefits from Yan Zilian, and then turned to Xie Zhongren, and became very successful. Now, the emperor is favoring him and he is likely to overshadow Xie Zhongren. He carefully recalled the path Yan Sikong had taken and was terrified by this man's mind.

Zhu Lanting knew in his heart that Yan Sikong was a two-legged wild fox. Who would not be afraid of being bitten if he associated with such a person? Therefore, he had been walking on thin ice for the past three years.

Yan Sikong took a breath and said calmly: "Commander Zhu, I know you are full of suspicion towards me. No one in this world understands me. The closer you are to me, the less you will believe me. But there is one thing I know you see clearly, that is my hatred for Xie Zhongren. He and I have an irreconcilable feud. I will eradicate the poisonous root for myself, the court, and the people of the world. Isn't this the reason why you let me go in the first place?"

Zhu Lanting hesitated for a while and then nodded.

"Han Zhaoxing will surely suffer a great defeat. Then, Your Majesty will have to replace him with General Zhao, and will certainly anger Xie Zhongren. That will be the opportunity I have been waiting for for many years." After witnessing the fate of Yan Zilian and the Feng family, he realized that trying his best to eliminate the eunuch party was just a temporary solution. If he wanted to eradicate the problem completely, he would have to eliminate Xie Zhongren's greatest support - the emperor's favor. For three years, he had tried his best to please Emperor Zhaowu, just to remove the firewood from under the cauldron. As long as Han Zhaoxing was defeated, Xie Zhongren would be close to death.

Zhu Lanting said: "I hope this time, it will really be what you and I wish for."

"I will make him suffer eternal damnation." Yan Sikong uttered these words from between his teeth.

Zhu Lanting hesitated for a moment: "I came here today for another matter... I may have some news about Feng Ye."

Yan Sikong froze for a moment, and when he looked at Zhu Lanting, a look of helplessness suddenly flashed across his eyes.

Close the wild.

To him, this name was like a sharp sword that could pierce through his heart no matter whether he was wearing an iron helmet or rattan armor.