DLWAV CH35

Xia Jingyao had always been a man of action. So that night, as he lay on the beauty couch with his clothes half-open, reading a book, he used the excuse of foot pain to call Ao Ruize over to massage his feet…

However, in the end, Xia Jingyao never found out how big Ao Ruize’s belly could swell. Because halfway through the experiment, he couldn’t sit still anymore, and then he just passed out.

This wasn’t a big deal. The main thing was that the next morning, Ao Ruize still woke up at Mao hour (5-7 AM). After stuffing a hot water bottle into Xia Jingyao’s arms and planting a kiss on the corner of his mouth, he spiritedly climbed over the side wall of the Duke’s estate and went to morning court.

It was evident that the data measured earlier had absolutely no reference value.

For a moment, Xia Jingyao didn’t know whether to be disappointed or happy.

But it didn’t matter. There would be plenty of opportunities in the future.

Next time, next time he would definitely rest well in advance and strive to persevere until the end.

Thinking of this, Xia Jingyao snuggled into the blanket and fell into a deep sleep again.

Meanwhile, just as the First Prince was eloquently discussing the chronic illnesses of the Ministry of Justice in court and offering several improvement methods, earning applause from the whole hall, and the Fourth Prince donated all the tens of thousands of private property left to him by the late Empress to purchase cotton clothes and quilts for the impoverished scholars entering the capital for exams, earning praise from the whole hall… a piece of news suddenly spread in the capital.

That is—the news that Prince An was infertile was spread by the Fourth Prince to bring down Prince An, because he thought Prince An had deliberately concealed his infertility to fight for the position of Crown Prince.

But what he didn’t expect was that Prince An had never concealed his infertility, and the Emperor and the First Prince had known about it long ago.

The reason the Fourth Prince knew about this was that the First Prince deliberately sent someone to tell him, intending to lure the Fourth Prince into persecuting Prince An and then take the opportunity to bring down the Fourth Prince.

At first, the people of the capital didn’t believe this news. Until they saw the confessions of Chen Zhao and others posted at the entrance of the examination hall, stamped with the seal of the Ministry of Justice…

The smiles on the faces of the First Prince and the Fourth Prince froze instantly.

The officials and scholars from Yunzhou, as well as scholars from Fuzhou, Zhangzhou, and Haizhou, all exploded.

“Isn’t the Fourth Prince always known for filial piety, brotherly love, loyalty, and trustworthiness? How could he do such a frenzied thing?”

“The Fourth Prince is one thing, but the First Prince is Prince An’s full brother. How could he also do such heartless things?”

“How has Prince An wronged them? If not for Prince An turning the tide, Yunzhou would have long been a mountain of corpses. How could Fuzhou, Zhangzhou, and Haizhou have the vitality they have today?”

“Are they really princes of Great Yang?”

“They are unworthy of being princes of Great Yang—”

“We will go to the Meridian Gate to petition right now. We must make the Emperor severely punish the First Prince and the Fourth Prince and give Prince An justice.”

“Good.”

Seeing this, the scholars from the other fifteen provinces could only grit their teeth and join the team petitioning at the Meridian Gate.

Overnight, the sky in the capital changed.

Emperor Yuanxi was furious: “Useless, all useless—”

He never expected that even after he helped the First Prince and the Fourth Prince dispose of all informed people immediately, they could still cause such a mess.

He had assumed this was the work of remnants from the previous dynasty and only blamed the First Prince for not acting rigorously enough, allowing even the confessions of Chen Zhao and others to be stolen by the mastermind behind the scenes.

But now, it was too late to say anything.

To appease public anger, Emperor Yuanxi could only order people to drag the First Prince and the Fourth Prince out of their respective mansions and exile them to the imperial mausoleum overnight to do hard labor and reflect on their mistakes.

However, Ao Ruize also left the capital soon after—

Because after the incident, Consort Xian brought the First Prince’s Consort to find him.

“Old Eight, I know this time it was the Eldest who was wrong. He is a scoundrel now, he is not human, he was blinded by power…”

“But no matter what, he is your big brother.”

“Although he is confused now, do you remember? When you were weak and sickly as a child, often ill for ten days or half a month at a time, and I couldn’t take care of you alone, many times it was your big brother who took care of you day and night without undressing…”

Hearing this, the expression on Ao Ruize’s face didn’t change in the slightest.

His predecessor had a total of twenty maids and eunuchs around him; where was the need for the First Prince to take care of him personally?

Of course, this didn’t mean the First Prince hadn’t taken care of his predecessor. It was just that more often than not, such things happened when Emperor Yuanxi came to visit his predecessor.

So the First Prince’s true intention wasn’t concern for his brother. He just wanted to use his predecessor’s illness to leave a good impression of brotherly love on Emperor Yuanxi.

Seeing this, the heavily pregnant First Princess Consort also knelt directly towards Ao Ruize: “Eighth Uncle, sister-in-law knows you have been wronged. All mistakes are our family’s fault. But please, for the sake of your nephew in my belly, forgive the First Prince this time.”

Seeing this, Consort Xian couldn’t help but say, “Old Eight—”

She only knew that in this matter, the First Prince’s fault was obviously greater than the Fourth Prince’s, because the Fourth Prince and Prince An were at least not born of the same mother, while the First Prince was Prince An’s full brother.

But as long as Ao Ruize was willing to forgive the First Prince, the fault on the First Prince could be reduced a lot, and he could stand on the same starting line as the Fourth Prince again.

Most importantly, the First Prince’s reputation was ruined. He couldn’t afford to lose Ao Ruize’s support, so no matter what, they had to appease him now.

As for Ao Ruize being wronged, once the First Prince succeeded to the throne, she would definitely have the First Prince compensate him well.

So Ao Ruize wouldn’t suffer a loss, right?

Ao Ruize didn’t speak, just stared at her intently.

For no reason, Consort Xian suddenly had the illusion of being seen through by Ao Ruize.

But before she could speak again, they heard Ao Ruize say, “Alright, I’ll go to the palace later to plead with Imperial Father.”

But after entering the palace, Ao Ruize didn’t mention a single word about this matter, just as he hadn’t complained to Emperor Yuanxi even half a word last time.

He only said, “Imperial Father, your son saw the court gazette this morning stating that banditry has suddenly become rampant in various places in recent months.”

“That’s right.”

Emperor Yuanxi said, “It should be because the lean season has arrived, and the bandits on the mountains are also short of food, so they have started looting passing travelers again.”

Thinking of this, Emperor Yuanxi couldn’t help but frown.

After all, banditry had always been a headache for emperors throughout history, and his reign was no exception.

Because bandits occupied perilous places all year round, easy to defend and hard to attack, and they were extremely familiar with the mountains and forests. Whenever they encountered a large-scale encirclement by government troops, they would hide in the mountains and forests, waiting for the troops to leave before coming out to cause trouble again.

“Imperial Father.”

Ao Ruize reminded, “But the banditry this winter and spring is more severe than in previous years at this time.”

Emperor Yuanxi subconsciously sat up straight: “How so?”

Ao Ruize: “I’m afraid someone is behind this.”

Someone behind this?

Emperor Yuanxi’s frown deepened instantly: “Could it be those remnants of the previous dynasty again?”

Ao Ruize: “…”

The previous dynasty fell over a hundred years ago; where would there be so many remnants?

He said directly, “The biggest suspects are the salt merchants in Lianghuai.”

Emperor Yuanxi immediately took out a stack of memorials from the cabinet behind him. Upon opening them, he saw that the places with the most severe banditry were indeed the routes usually taken by salt merchants to transport salt.

“Most importantly, these bandits have existed for decades, but in the past, they looted small peddlers and commoners passing by, almost never touching those big salt merchants.”

Ao Ruize: “Therefore, it can be inferred that nine out of ten of these bandits collude with those salt merchants, and some bandits are even kept by those salt merchants.”

As for their original purpose—colluding with bandits was to protect the safety of their goods, while keeping bandits was purely to cut off the possibility of other small peddlers selling salt.

But now that the court had abolished the government salt monopoly law and cut off the salt merchants’ way to get rich, they naturally wouldn’t be reconciled.

The countermeasure they thought of was obviously to drive those bandits to scare away those small peddlers so they could continue to control the salt sales channels of Great Yang.

Having figured this out, Emperor Yuanxi’s face turned black instantly: “Unscrupulous merchants, a bunch of shameless unscrupulous merchants!”

Ao Ruize immediately said, “So your son came today mainly to ask for orders to lead troops out of the capital to suppress bandits.”

“Suppress bandits, you?”

Emperor Yuanxi said subconsciously.

Not that he doubted Ao Ruize’s ability, but because he remembered that before this, Prince An hadn’t even read many books on military strategy, let alone led troops in war.

“Imperial Father, whether it works or not, we have to try. Anyway, the court is not short of money now.”

“Most importantly, if we can wipe out all those bandits, the people can truly live a peaceful life.”

Speaking of this, Ao Ruize paused: “To be safe, Imperial Father can send the Duke of Wei to assist your son.”

Hearing this, Emperor Yuanxi couldn’t help but be moved.

Thinking of the news he just received that Consort Xian had left the palace to find Ao Ruize—

He didn’t need to guess to know why Consort Xian went out to find Ao Ruize.

He couldn’t help but be somewhat disappointed in Consort Xian.

Because he originally thought Consort Xian was a very qualified mother.

Now it seemed she had plenty of schemes in her heart too.

He just didn’t expect that Ao Ruize didn’t seem to intend to comply with Consort Xian’s wishes; otherwise, he wouldn’t be thinking of leaving the capital at this time.

Although he also hoped that the three brothers could be harmonious, he wouldn’t force Ao Ruize, the victim, to forgive the perpetrator.

So since Ao Ruize wanted to stay away from this sad place temporarily and go out to relax, he naturally wouldn’t refuse.

After a brief silence, Emperor Yuanxi nodded: “Alright.”

Precisely because of this, Emperor Yuanxi didn’t expect Ao Ruize to really achieve anything.

But what he didn’t expect was that after Ao Ruize and Xia Jingyao arrived in Bianzhou, it took them less than half a month to lead ten thousand troops from the Left Army of the Five Barracks to sweep through the Fengshan Gang, the largest bandit alliance in Great Yang, which had long entrenched itself in Tongzhou, Bianzhou, and Shuozhou, with crushing force. The number of bandits they killed on the spot exceeded four thousand.

“I really didn’t expect that we would sweep away this Fengshan Gang so easily.”

“This Prince An is kind of amazing!”

After the battle ended, while cleaning up the battlefield, some generals couldn’t help but gather to discuss.

“Exactly. Sloughing off the cicada’s golden shell, tossing out a brick to attract jade, borrowing a knife to kill, catching a turtle in a jar… Prince An has played the Thirty-Six Stratagems with such flair.”

“And I dare say his martial arts are definitely above ours. You didn’t see him just now, one spear one bandit, without even blinking.”

“Don’t mention it. Just now on the battlefield, if Prince An hadn’t thrown a spear from afar and stabbed to death a bandit leader who tried to sneak attack me from behind, I’m afraid I would have gone to the underworld to see my ancestors by now.”

“That’s one thing, but the key is, he was thirty meters away from me at the time, and he was riding a horse!”

“Hiss, didn’t he just start learning martial arts a few months ago?”

“Thinking of my hard practice for more than ten years, training in the bitter cold of winter and the sweltering heat of summer, in the end, I’m not even as good as Prince An practicing casually for a few days… Comparison really kills people.”

“Who says it isn’t so!”

…

Xia Jingyao’s attention, however, was not on these things, nor on how handsome Ao Ruize looked holding his spear on horseback just now.

He just looked at Ao Ruize, who was washing off the bloodstains on his body under the ‘service’ of a young lady from a noble family not far away, and snorted coldly.

Hmph, clothes wrapped so tightly, yet still attracting bees and butterflies. He had underestimated him!

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