Around noon, Pan Wei and Sun Xingjian emerged from Tianlu Pavilion. Seeing their ashen faces, Eunuch Cao, who was guarding the door, knew that the Emperor had not shown any mercy. After exchanging greetings, Eunuch Cao went inside to serve them.
Upon learning that the bandits' stronghold in Yandang Mountain had been burned down, Emperor Pingjia was in high spirits and immediately ordered Eunuch Cao to prepare a banquet so that he could have a drink with Consort Wen to celebrate.
Pan Wei, sitting in the carriage leaving the palace, looked extremely grim: "It seems that in His Majesty's eyes, no matter how great our achievements are, they are not enough to make him cancel the marriage alliance with Ziyi Kingdom."
Sun Xingjian understood this principle long ago. His advice to Pan Wei to suppress the bandits was merely to follow Li Qingchen's plan, so that everyone would know that the Pan family had offended the bandits of Yandang Mountain, making the subsequent events seem logical.
But Pan Wei was so dejected, and Sun Xingjian's face was not good either. In fact, when he was doing this, he had also hoped that if the emperor really canceled the marriage because of their bandit suppression, then he would not have to let Wenjun lose her reputation.
pity.
So everything still has to go according to Li Qingchen's plan.
In fact, when the two of them entered the palace, Li Qingchen had already sent people to spread the word about Pan Wei's achievements, so that almost everyone in the city knew about them. The bandits who had been entrenched in Yandang Mountain for many years were beyond the control of the court and government, but Pan Jieshi destroyed their stronghold not long after entering the capital!
Many people praised the Wei Rong Army for living up to its reputation, while others secretly wondered if Pan Wei's swift and decisive actions might have angered the bandits. After all, he had only destroyed their stronghold, not wiped out all the bandits!
...
As night deepened, several men in black moved swiftly through the darkness, soon arriving at the gate of a mansion. They looked up to confirm that it was indeed the "Pan Mansion."
The leader of the men in black turned and nodded to the others behind him. They then began to act, nimbly pulling out wine flasks from their robes and splashing them towards the gate of the Pan residence and the stone lions on either side. However, the flasks contained not wine, but chicken blood.
After splashing the gate and stone lions red, the leader took a rag, stained it with blood, and wrote several large characters on the wall: "Those who raid my stronghold will die!"
Then the group dispersed like a gust of wind, disappearing into the night in the blink of an eye, their movements so swift as if they had never existed.
The next day, at the crack of dawn, a peddler passing by the Pan family mansion was the first to spot the blood and writing, and immediately recoiled in terror. He quickly recalled the gossip circulating in the marketplace the day before—yes, the bandits had come seeking revenge on the Pan family!
The vendor's unusual reaction drew the attention of more and more passersby, and soon news of the Pan family's revenge by the bandits spread like wildfire throughout Shengjing City. From the elderly to children, everyone knew about it. And everyone automatically kept their distance from the Pan family's gate, fearing they might be caught in the crossfire and get splattered with blood.
When this news reached the palace, Emperor Pingjia listened to Eunuch Cao's account and chuckled to himself, "Did Pan Wei really think that no one in the entire previous dynasty could defeat those mountain bandits? They simply knew the consequences of this matter and dared not do it. Suppressing bandits is easy, but preventing their counterattack and retaliation is difficult..."
Emperor Pingjia sighed deeply, feeling a pang of guilt. How many in the entire court could be as loyal and fearless as Pan Wei?
But what could he do? The people of Ziyi were barbaric and warlike. They had been fighting with Daye for years, and even though they lost nine out of ten battles, they were still relentless and kept causing trouble! Unless Daye could win an overwhelming victory and truly subdue them, this entanglement would only result in mutual destruction.
Now that there's such a simple way to resolve this matter—a marriage alliance—why wouldn't he be happy to do it? Even if the other party goes back on their word, it's still better than dragging this out indefinitely without any hope.
Even if the other party were to ask for the hand of a noblewoman, or even a princess, he would still marry her.
"Minister Pan... just consider it an act of loyalty to the country and serving the people!"
Upon hearing this, Eunuch Cao glanced at His Majesty and vaguely sensed that there were tears glistening in his eyes.
Now that things had come to this point, it was Wei Shuwan's turn to step in. As soon as she heard about what had happened at the Pan residence this morning, she rushed over to the Pan family to comfort Pan Wenjun.
Pan Wei knew that his daughter only had one close friend in the entire capital, so he was very polite when Wei Shuwan came to visit, telling her to comfort Wenjun. As a father, he didn't know what else he could do for his daughter now.
Compared to her father's confusion and despair, Pan Wenjun was much better off, because she had learned about their plan from Sun Xingjian early on. However, ever since the plan began to be implemented, her father had been preventing her from leaving the house.
When Wei Shuwan finally arrived, Pan Wenjun quickly welcomed him into her courtyard, closed the doors and windows, and anxiously asked, "How is it outside?"
Wei Shuwan held her hand and comforted her, "Don't worry, Sister Pan, everything outside is going according to plan. Now the whole of Shengjing, from the common people to the palace, knows that your father has offended those bandits and they are all waiting to see how they will take revenge."
Hearing that everything went smoothly, Pan Wenjun nodded with relief. However, thinking of her father's state of mind, she couldn't help but choke up again: "I am truly unfilial. I watched helplessly as my father collapsed and despaired because of my situation, and I couldn't tell him the truth..."
Wei Shuwan understood her feelings and stood up to gently hug her: "Sister Pan, please bear with it a little longer. It's for his own good that we haven't told your father yet. Otherwise, once you've gone far away, the first person the Emperor will suspect and punish will be him."
Pan Wenjun nodded vigorously: "I know, I know everything." But she still couldn't stop her tears.
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