He smiled bitterly and said, "His Majesty is obsessed with elixirs. The Empress Dowager Wei is incredibly powerful in the harem, the Empress is a mere figurehead, the Crown Prince is dissolute, and the court is dominated by the Wei family, who are relatives of the empress. Their fifth son is eyeing the position of Crown Prince. They are already blinded by their internal power struggles. How could they care about the loss of a few cities on the border?"
Liu Yingying sensed an immense sadness in Huo Huaizhi's words.
She never imagined that the eldest son of the Duke of Zhenguo, a man of great stature and prestige, would have such a desolate side.
"But the Duke of Zhenguo and the Prince of Lin'an have been guarding the north and west of Great Xia for many years, and have not yielded an inch of land in the face of repeated provocations from enemy countries. This shows that Great Xia's national prestige is still intact. Why are they so lax in their defense of the south?"
Along the way, Liu Yingying had witnessed firsthand how the people from the small countries and tribes of the Southern Frontier could enter the Great Xia as if it were their own backyard.
The difference between the loose defenses in the south and the tight security in the northwest is too great. Why is that?
Liu Yingying felt a deep sense of doubt...
Huo Huaizhi walked ahead, and Liu Yingying couldn't see his expression; the air remained silent.
After a while, Huo Huaizhi slowly explained, "Before I was transferred here, the commander of Zhennan Pass was Wei Yan, the younger brother of the Imperial Concubine Wei."
"I see!" Liu Yingying exclaimed with sudden clarity.
The two chatted all the way, and time seemed to fly by. It felt like they hadn't walked for very long before they arrived at the gate of the military camp.
Throughout their conversations, Huo Huaizhi began to view Liu Yingying in a more positive light.
No woman has ever been able to talk to him about these matters of family, country, and the world.
He even felt that Liu Yingying's insights far surpassed those of those pedantic Confucian scholars!
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