Eight years passed like this...
In the winter of the eighth year, Rong Ning received a message from a scout that the Emperor of Da Jing was going on a southern tour.
For reasons unknown, the Emperor of Dajing insisted on a southern tour despite the opposition of his court officials, inspecting the territory north of the Muyang River that had been conquered from the Southern Dynasty.
The territory north of the Muyang River has been under the control of the Great Jing for ten years. During these ten years, the Great Jing has been very tolerant of the original subjects of the Southern Dynasty, and their status is no different from that of the subjects of the Great Jing.
Ordinary people lived together, intermarried, and their bloodlines merged, making it impossible to distinguish who was from the Great Jing Dynasty and who was from the Southern Dynasty.
In this respect, the Great Jing Emperor did a very good job.
Even so, there were still some anti-government forces.
These forces were mainly composed of people from the Southern Dynasty. They were unwilling to submit to the Great Jing Dynasty and often caused some minor disturbances. In order to appease the people of the Southern Dynasty, the Great Jing Dynasty never launched a major attack.
Rong Ning also secretly contributed a lot to the growth of these forces, after all, it was a happy thing to make things difficult for Da Jing.
She thought...maybe she could take advantage of Emperor Dajing's southern tour to do something, since things couldn't be peaceful anyway, and such an opportunity was rare.
Upon receiving news of the Emperor of Dajing's southern tour, Rong Ning secretly sent a message to her elder sister, telling her not to accompany him on the tour to avoid affecting her.
After years of effort, the Southern Dynasty's spies were finally able to be placed in the Great Jing Palace, but they were not used much, only for delivering messages in emergencies.
At first, Rong Ning didn't understand the purpose of the Great Jing Emperor's southern tour. Later, when the scouts brought news that he had killed his way through the south and was still very high-profile when he arrived in Qingcheng, she realized that he might be using her as bait to eliminate the anti-court forces in the southern part of the Great Jing.
I see...that's good!
After Emperor Dajing arrived in Qingcheng, he made a great show of his activities, even taking the empress, princes and princesses, as well as the accompanying officials, to Tuotuo Mountain for a winter hunt.
Such a big bait, it would be a shame not to take a bite.
This was an obvious scheme. The Emperor of Dajing knew that the anti-court forces would not let go of this opportunity to kill him, and the anti-court forces also knew that the Emperor of Dajing would take this opportunity to wipe them out.
Such a rare opportunity was not to be missed by Rong Ning, but she could not intervene directly. She simply provided information and money, and even sent a few capable and extraordinary people who could control wild beasts into the anti-court forces.
She did it discreetly and kept her tracks clean, so Da Jing couldn't trace her back to her.
Emperor Dajing could calculate how many people wanted to kill him, but he couldn't calculate how many wild beasts on Tuotuo Mountain would go berserk. So even though Emperor Dajing deployed ten times the number of troops to surround Tuotuo Mountain, the situation still got out of control that day.
The battle was fierce, with countless deaths and injuries...
The entire Tuotuo Mountain is like a living hell.
Unfortunately... they failed to kill the Emperor of Dajing, but it wasn't a complete loss either. The only prince of Dajing who was about to come of age was mauled by wild beasts and died from his injuries.
The death of a prince was enough to provoke the emperor's wrath. The Great Jing Emperor killed wave after wave of people, eliminating everyone involved in the assassination attempt.
Rong Ning watched from the sidelines, feeling a pang of regret that she hadn't been able to kill the Great Jing Emperor at Tuotuo Mountain. If he had died, her sister's return would have been imminent.
However, Rong Ning later received news that the Emperor of Dajing had been hit by an arrow during the assassination attempt. At first, it was just a minor scratch, so he didn't pay attention to it. Later, he discovered that the arrow was poisoned, but it was too late. The poison had penetrated deep into his bone marrow. He wouldn't die immediately, but he wouldn't live for long either, at least not to the age of 100.
When Rong Ning received this news, she looked up at the sky and laughed, tears streaming down her face.
She immediately sent the news back to Nanyang City in secret.
The Crown Prince of Dajing is young, not even eleven years old. If the emperor dies young, they can stir up trouble while the new ruler is still instability.
Rong Ning devoted herself to training the Northern Army, and everything was ready, just waiting for the death of the Great Jing Emperor.
But the Emperor of Dajing was truly resilient. It was said that he wouldn't live long, but he managed to hold on for three years. He also kept the news tightly under wraps, but Rong Ning discovered changes in the deployment of the Dajing army in the southern border.
They reinforced their troop deployment along the Muyang River.
She had a vague suspicion in her mind.
Having made her guess, she sent a message back to Nanyang City and gathered her troops to form ranks on the south bank of the Muyang River, confronting the Dajing army.
Today's Southern Dynasty army is not the same as it was ten years ago; they are fierce and brave, and are capable of confronting the Great Jing army.
The Southern Dynasty of today is not the same as it was ten years ago. Its ruler is wise and enlightened, its treasury is full, and it has the confidence to confront the Great Jing Dynasty.
The two armies were locked in a standoff, and minor skirmishes frequently occurred, but they always exercised restraint and did not escalate the situation. This was because Rong Ning and Xuan Xunchuan both knew that the national strength of both the Great Jing and the Southern Dynasty was growing rapidly, and neither could swallow the other whole. If they really went to war, the final result would only be mutual destruction.
Those who have actually been on the battlefield do not like fighting. War means casualties, and casualties cause many people to lose their husbands, sons, and fathers. It causes widespread suffering and turns the peaceful and prosperous southern borders of the Southern Dynasty and the southern borders of the Great Jing Dynasty back into hell on earth.
Neither of them really wanted to fight; they were just letting the other side know where their bottom line was during the next round of negotiations.
As soon as news of the death of the Great Jing Emperor spread, the Southern Dynasty immediately sent a letter of request, on behalf of the fourth prince of the Southern Dynasty, who was also the son of the Imperial Concubine, to marry the eldest princess of the Great Jing Dynasty.
The reason is: Emperor Dajing has passed away, but the marriage alliance between the two countries cannot be broken. However, the Southern Dynasty has already sent its most honorable eldest princess to Dajing as a consort, so this time Dajing should send a princess to the Southern Dynasty to continue the good relations between the two countries.
This is definitely taking advantage of someone's misfortune!
That's utterly shameless!
But that's how things are between countries. When the Great Jing Dynasty and the Southern Dynasty were negotiating peace, weren't they taking advantage of each other's misfortune?
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