As the sun began to set, on a hillside three miles outside the city, the Light Cloud Cavalry had set up camp, their preparations meticulously arranged. Several leaders sat on a mound, laughing and joking. The sound of galloping hooves came from a distance, and soon their general rode up. The men quickly rose to greet him.
Li Chang'an reined in his horse, reached out and lifted the little boy's belt, handing it down to him.
"Whose baby did you snatch?!" Deputy General Sun reached out and took the child, sniffed it, and then burst into loud laughter: "Hahahaha, look, this baby wet his pants! Hahahaha—"
"Don't laugh—waaaah—" The little prince's suppressed sobs suddenly erupted, mixed with his disgust and fear of Li Chang'an, all of which he vented in one go.
"Hahaha, this kid's crying pretty loudly! So what if he wets his pants? What man hasn't wet his pants as a kid? Hahahaha—"
"Don't laugh! Don't laugh! Waaah—, if you laugh again, I'll have your heads chopped off! Waaah—"
Li Chang'an had no choice but to stop him, and then instructed the soldiers beside him: "Alright, stop teasing him. Take him to my tent and have someone keep an eye on him."
Seeing that the child had been taken away, Deputy General Sun stepped forward again and asked anxiously, "General, judging from his clothes, this child is the Crown Prince, isn't he? Why did you kidnap the little prince?!"
“He is unruly and disorderly, and behaves absurdly. I intend to teach him personally.”
Deputy General Sun frowned, still feeling it was too risky: "Does that scoundrel Feng Beichuan know?"
Li Chang'an led his horse, looking at the tiny city gate in the distance, his face expressionless: "Now I roughly know."
————
"Hurry up, look how out of breath you are after just one run! A grown man like you, aren't you ashamed?"
The young prince, his legs aching and heavy, drenched in sweat, angrily shouted, "I'm not a grown man! I'm still a child, only eight years old!"
Deputy General Sun's men whipped his buttocks several times until he cried out in pain, then stopped, spraying him with dog blood: "You still have the nerve to talk! My border children can ride horses bravely at the age of five, and you, as the young crown prince of Shengnan, look like a sickly, weak chicken. How will you expect your people to submit in the future!"
"I am the Crown Prince, and you must obey me!"
Deputy General Sun went up and lashed the young prince's side twice more with his whip. The young prince, unable to bear the shock, screamed and fell to the ground.
"Get up and keep running!"
"I'm not running anymore!"
Li Chang'an, who had been watching from the front of the tent, stepped forward, looked down at the brat lying on the ground, and said coldly, "Get up and keep running."
The young prince lay sprawled on the ground like a corpse, his face deathly pale, his eyes filled with hatred as he glared at her, uttering threats: "Li Chang'an, if you have the guts, kill me! Otherwise, once I get out, I'll make sure the Regent cuts you into a thousand pieces!"
"You hate me that much?"
"I hate you so much!" The young prince, filled with resentment, blurted out, "You snatched me from the palace and made me eat such disgusting cornbread and drink such nauseating vegetable soup every day. You even made me run, and if I didn't, you'd have him beat me! I know, you definitely want to torture me to death and then take my place as crown prince!"
Li Chang'an stared at him, making the young prince feel uneasy and start trembling before he spoke: "Li Yu, the things I feed you on the frontier are what the people eat every day. If the enemy invades, sometimes they won't even have these to eat."
The young prince was shocked and asked blankly, "They're in such a terrible state?"
The deputy general next to him thought that he had finally shown a bit of pity and was about to praise him when he heard him roar and shout: "What does that have to do with me, the Crown Prince!"
A cold glint flashed in Li Chang'an's eyes: "Stubborn to the end." He then turned to Deputy General Sun: "Tonight, put him to sleep in the soldiers' tents and double his training. If he doesn't listen, beat him to death!"
"yes!"
The young prince's face was deathly pale, and his voice trembled as he said, "Li Chang'an, I'm going to have the Regent kill you!"
Deputy General Sun kicked him to the ground: "Give me a break! Look at you, you've been kidnapped for six whole days, and your regent hasn't dared to utter a single word. You expect him to come and save you?"
"Nonsense! He will definitely come to save me!"
Just then, a soldier came running over, panting heavily before finally managing to say, "General, something terrible has happened... That bastard Feng Beichuan has brought his men here!"
Before Li Chang'an could speak, the little prince started squirming and wriggling, cheering: "Are you scared? Are you scared? The Regent is here to save me!"
Li Chang'an snorted coldly, and the little prince immediately shut his mouth and shrank back. But he was unwilling to give up, and stubbornly shouted, "Hmph, he's very powerful. Just wait and see how you get beaten up!"
Several generals who had been watching the commotion from a short distance strode over and asked urgently, "What should we do now?"
Lieutenant General Sun walked to the side, picked up his broadsword, and angrily shouted, "What are you afraid of? Let's fight those bastards! Are you saying our Light Cloud Cavalry brothers are afraid of them?!"
"What do you know? If a fight breaks out here, people will think that there's some kind of internal strife in Shengnan!"
"I don't understand. Ha! Feng Beichuan and his gang of scoundrels are wreaking havoc on the court. We risk our lives outside to get a moment's peace, while they hide here and enjoy it. How can that be reasonable!"
Li Chang'an didn't say a word, picked up his younger brother from the ground and walked towards the camp entrance.
Seeing this, several generals quickly followed.
Outside the camp, Li Chang'an looked at Feng Beichuan, who was dressed in white, in the distance and spoke with a lowered gaze: "If you've come to ask for the Crown Prince, then you should go back."
"Who said I came here for the Crown Prince?"
The young prince was stunned, not believing what he had just heard: "Weren't you here to rescue me?!"
Feng Beichuan looked at him with loving eyes. Just when the little prince was convinced that he must have misheard, he heard him say slowly, "Oh dear, Your Highness, your sister is too powerful. I can't beat her!"
The young prince was stunned and cried out in grievance, "You're actually abandoning me!"
Feng Beichuan flicked his sleeves, seemingly helpless, and replied, "This king can't control the female general. Your Highness, you'd better watch yourself!"
"Waaah—" The little prince broke down in tears.
Seeing that he was still being deliberately mysterious, Li Chang'an couldn't help but snort coldly: "What exactly do you want from here?"
Feng Beichuan smiled at her, and with a flick of his fingers behind his back, the team hidden behind the hillside in the distance immediately acted on his orders.
Then came the creaking of musical instruments, followed by a group of people dressed in red and green. At the front of the procession were several musicians playing gongs and drums, and behind them, a group of people carried a large wooden box adorned with red flowers, stretching as far as the eye could see.
A group of people were dumbfounded: "This is..."
"These are the betrothal gifts I have prepared to ask for the hand in marriage with Her Highness the Princess."
What!
A group of people stared at him in disbelief, thinking he had gone mad—a regent demanding to marry a general's wife who had already been married!?
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