Imperial study.
Eunuch Jia still stood at the door with his head bowed.
Fu Xiaoguan thought that perhaps only here in the world would there be a powerful saint-level person serving as a doorman.
His Majesty sat in front of the dragon table, and Yan Beixi and Yan Shidao sat beside the coffee table.
Fu Xiaoguan walked in and did not mention Yu Wentian's rebellion at all. Instead, he explained to His Majesty in detail the reasons and consequences of the eldest prince taking the blame.
After hearing this, Yan Beixi's sparse eyebrows slowly relaxed. However, Yan Shidao stared at Fu Xiaoguan and wanted to speak, but was suppressed by Yan Beixi who gently waved his hand.
"Wentian has been wronged in this matter. I won't hide it from you. This is how it is. So, Mr. Fu, do you think Wentian can be a commander?"
Fu Xiaoguan saluted and said, "Your Majesty, the First Prince is loyal to the Yu Dynasty and respects Your Majesty as if he were a god. In addition, the First Prince has studied military books since childhood and has great ambitions. I believe that the commander of the Eastern Border Army must be the First Prince. However..."
He paused, startling the emperor. He thought his son might not accept the command due to guilt and self-blame. Fu Xiaoguan continued, "The eldest prince believes that changing commanders in the middle of a battle is a serious taboo. Furthermore, he doesn't know much about the eastern border troops. Now that the Yi Kingdom has sent troops, he won't have time to get to know his men. Therefore, the eldest prince implores Your Majesty to appoint Fei An as his deputy general and accompany him on the expedition!"
The emperor finally felt relieved and waved his hand, "Permitted! Eunuch Jia, quickly summon Yu Wentian and Fei An to see me!"
"I obey your order!"
Eunuch Jia bowed and left, and as he left, he looked at Fu Xiaoguan with approval.
"Wen Tian, do you have anything else to say to me?"
"Your Majesty, His Highness said... his life's ambition is to serve in the military, and he will never return to the capital!"
The emperor frowned slightly. Yan Beixi breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this. Yan Shidao listened carefully, becoming more and more confused, wondering if it was really a play.
If this is really a play, your Majesty's skills are really superb!
There are clues hidden deep within the grass!
When did Your Majesty become so powerful?
…
…
Fu Xiaoguan left the imperial study, thought for a while, and walked towards the harem.
He met Eunuch Nian outside Dieyi Palace and learned that Yu Wenjun was not in the palace. He was about to turn around and leave, but Yu Wendao came out and stopped him: "My mother wants to see you."
In fact, Fu Xiaoguan also wanted to meet Concubine Shang because of the matter of the eldest prince.
Perhaps because of the warm winter sun, Concubine Shang was not in Dieyi Palace, but in her back garden.
When Yu Wendao took Fu Xiaoguan there, Concubine Shang was wielding a hoe to clean up the former chrysanthemum garden.
Seeing Fu Xiaoguan coming over, she straightened up, took out a handkerchief and wiped the sweat from her forehead.
"It's been a while since I last came to see Your Majesty. Please forgive me." Fu Xiaoguan bowed and Concubine Shang smiled calmly, "There's also a hoe."
Fu Xiaoguan rolled up his sleeves, took the hoe and went to the chrysanthemum garden. Without saying anything else, he skillfully hoeed the withered chrysanthemums in the garden.
"Wen Yun went out today. Didn't he come to see you?"
"Ah, I was summoned to the palace by His Majesty. I'm afraid I missed it."
"With the Cold Food Festival approaching, the matter of going to the capital is almost over. I will handle the rest of the matter myself. You must hurry up. I have arranged for Shangguan Wenxiu to select people. Tomorrow you can go to the Imperial Academy to see and decide on the personnel. The Honglu Temple is also basically ready. Xu Huaishu, the Minister of Rites, will be accompanying us. I will tell you that after we return, we will promote Xu Huaishu to the position of Minister of Rites."
Fu Xiaoguan never stopped working with the hoe in his hand. He listened very carefully and did not express any opinion on Xu Huaishu's subsequent promotion.
"Wen Yun insisted on going, so I found an excuse and asked her to go to Wu Dynasty to see her second aunt Yu Yu. You can also go and meet her. She is married to the Marquis of Dingguo in Wu Dynasty. With the Marquis of Dingguo's care, it will be more convenient for you to act in Wu Dynasty."
"Your Majesty will give you instructions on other matters. Since they are state affairs, I will not say anything more. Once you arrive in the Wu Dynasty, you will do as His Majesty wishes, and nothing will go wrong."
Fu Xiaoguan nodded and asked a question that had nothing to do with Concubine Shang's speech: "Why does Your Majesty trust the eldest prince so much?"
"Done?"
"Well, it should be settled."
Concubine Shang looked up at the sun in the sky and raised her eyebrows. "Men always find it hard to forget their first love."
Fu Xiaoguan was stunned. First love? Xue Binglan was His Majesty's first love?
"He is Xue Binglan's son. Furthermore, after interrogating Eunuch Wei, we learned that he is a member of the Moon Worship Cult. Naturally, Your Majesty believes that the Crown Prince has been bewitched and deceived by Eunuch Wei."
Concubine Shang sighed and continued, "The eldest prince has been without a mother since he was born, which has made Your Majesty feel that he owes him. So even though he has committed such a heinous crime, Your Majesty still wants to let him out and live in the sunshine. Only in this way can Your Majesty feel at ease and not feel even more guilty towards Xue Binglan."
Fu Xiaoguan didn't dare to respond. The place was silent for a cup of tea. Concubine Shang laughed at herself again, "The whole court, both civil and military, thinks I'm a scheming person. But they're wrong. I can't even defeat a woman who's been dead for over 20 years."
"Never mind, let's just turn the soil in the chrysanthemum garden over and plant some chrysanthemums next year, and it will be a brand new scene."
Fu Xiaoguan pondered for a long moment before cautiously asking in a low voice, "So... Your Majesty, do you think Yu Wentian deserves to die? Or not?"
This time, it was Concubine Shang's turn to hesitate in answering. Only after the withered chrysanthemums in the garden had been plowed away did she look at Fu Xiaoguan and say seriously, "He is your Majesty's son. This is also your Majesty's concern. From now on, you must forget about this matter!"
"Remember, forget it completely!"
Fu Xiaoguan was startled and nodded very cautiously.
Damn it, this secret is so big that only a handful of people in the Yu Dynasty know about it. Carrying this huge secret is like carrying a bomb with you, and the detonator of this bomb is in the hands of Your Majesty!
…
When Fu Xiaoguan returned to the Fu Mansion with a heavy heart, he did not expect that someone was waiting for him there.
Fei An!
The image of this former general of the Southern Frontier Army is quite unbearable.
His hair was disheveled and his beard was untrimmed, growing wildly on his cheeks like weeds.
His complexion was not very good, and he looked even older than he did a few days ago in the prison of Jinling Prefecture.
"I wanted to invite you to my place to drink a jar of wine, but after thinking about it, I thought you might not want to go, so I had no choice but to come to your place."
Fu Xiaoguan sat down, and Fei An moved a box of wine from the ground to the table. "I brought the wine, and the food is yours."
"make a deal!"
Fei An was conscientiously brewing wine, his eyes fixed on the wine vessel. However, Fu Xiaoguan just kept looking at him and said, "Are you going to see the emperor like this?"
"After this disaster at home, do I still have to put on makeup?"
Fu Xiaoguan nodded. "That makes sense. When do we leave?"
"Tomorrow morning, so if I don't come, you might not be able to see me again."
The wine is hot and smoke is curling up.
Fei An filled two glasses of wine and handed one to Fu Xiaoguan. "Let's drink to you for my misunderstanding of you in prison that day."
"I really distributed that flyer, so you didn't misunderstand me."
"I know you were the one who made that flyer. What I meant was that I underestimated you before. You are indeed a man of character. If I were still alive and still able to return to the court, I guess you would have been made a marquis and a prime minister."
"I'll give you some good luck!"
The two drank from the cup, and Fei An continued to pour wine.
"The last time I told you about Nun Bu Nian, she was also a member of the Moon Worship Sect. The Moon Worship Sect was founded by Princess Jing'an of the previous dynasty and has been active in the Western Wasteland, also known as Xirong Prefecture. The terrain there is complex, and although the court claims to have established Xirong Prefecture, in reality the court has had little control over it. Instead, it manages the area through the local chieftains."
"Princess Jing'an probably spent her last years in Xirong Mansion. She was the Saint of the Xirong tribe and held extremely high prestige in the Western Wasteland. Therefore, the Moon Worship Cult was the sacred religion of the Xirong tribe."
Fu Xiaoguan drank another cup with Fei An and asked in surprise, "How did you know?"
"Before I joined the Eastern Frontier Army, I was a captain of the Jingyu Guard. I was ordered by the late emperor to apprehend Chen Xiyun, the current Saint of the Moon Worshiping Cult. So, I went to Xirong and even met her."
"Didn't catch it?"
"I didn't catch her and almost died in her hands."
"Very impressive?"
"Her kung fu is inherited from the lineage of the previous dynasty's martial arts saint, Yang Xianzi. Do you think it's amazing?"
He is also a martial saint, so of course he is amazing.
"What's your purpose in telling me this?"
"With Xiyu Tower in your hands, I hope you can find Master Bunian, also known as Chen Xiyun, and through her, find the royal bloodline left over from the previous dynasty, and then eliminate it completely!"
Fu Xiaoguan was delighted, picked up a piece of food with chopsticks and started eating, thinking to himself, this is none of my business!
But Fei An was very serious. He stared at Fu Xiaoguan and said, "I'm leaving soon. There's no way to track down Nun Bu Nian's whereabouts. Few people know about the Moon Worship Sect now. I'm worried that they've already infiltrated the court, just like Eunuch Wei. If they do something... I don't think you'll have a chance even if you want to return to Linjiang and become a small landlord!"
So powerful?
Fu Xiaoguan was surprised and frowned.
Since it concerned his life and property, he immediately took it to heart.
"Besides that old nun, do you have any other clues?"
"When Master Jing'an was preaching in Xirong, she taught all Moon Worshipers a special technique, which allowed them to feign death like the old nun. It was Yang Xianzhi's unique skill, called the Turtle Breathing Technique."
That’s it… ?
This is hard to identify. It's impossible for those believers to fake their death for no reason, right?
"No more?"
“Gone!”
Then the only option is to drink.
"What happened to the 800 villagers in the small village at the foot of the Qilian Mountains?"
"It was done by the military supervisor, Eunuch Chang."
Fu Xiaoguan frowned slightly. Was it the eunuch who supervised the army who did it? Why did His Majesty let Fei An take the blame?
"This trip to the eastern border is not the southern part you are familiar with. Do you have any strategy for this?"
Fei An smiled, raised his glass, and drank. "The main generals of the Eastern Frontier Army were all arranged by my brother. I have their names, which is enough to threaten them to fight to the death."
"But you..." Fei An drank another glass of wine, "I'm afraid your trip to Wu Dynasty won't be so smooth."
"Why?"
"Because you're so dazzling!"
“…”
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