Chapter 207 An Auspicious Omen

Upon hearing this, Xue San didn't think his master was shameless, but instead suggested:

"My lord, let's build our Garrison General's mansion next to the North Gate. When promoting it later, we can say that we're willing to coexist with Xue Hai Pass and that the Zheng family guards the nation's gate!"

No matter how shameless the thought, as long as it was labeled with righteousness, it would instantly give people a "pleasing" feeling.

"Not bad, not bad, that works."

General Zheng was open to good advice.

Then, as if he had thought of something, he said:

"San'er, tomorrow, take a group of people to the snowfield and welcome back the First Prince."

"Yes, your subordinate understands."

The First Prince could be considered to have completed his mission perfectly. During the city's defense, there were no battles on the northern side of Xue Hai Pass, which greatly supported the southern defense.

Zheng Fan looked towards the northern snowfield, feeling somewhat sentimental:

"Since waking up in this world, I've either been eating sand in the west or crossing the snowfield in the north. The only time I went south was when I followed Li Fusheng to attack the Qian Kingdom.

No matter how magnificent the desert sunsets and snowfield sunsets are, after seeing them for a long time, they become a bit boring. I really want to go to the Jiangnan region of the Qian Kingdom to see the small bridges and flowing water."

People are just so insatiable. Once they have satisfied their basic material needs, they start wanting to pursue spiritual enjoyment.

For the past two years, he had either been cutting people down or on the road to cutting people down. Having grown accustomed to heroism, he now wanted to experience the true "cultural" atmosphere.

"That's easy, my lord. Once things settle down here, you can take Si Niang and sneak off to Jiangnan in the Qian Kingdom for fun. Just treat it as a honeymoon.

Anyway, the heavens are high and the emperor is far away here. Whether you're here or not doesn't really matter..."

Xue San paused for a moment, then continued:

"When you're here, we feel at ease. When you're not here, we'll work hard to help you maintain the situation."

"Let's talk about it later. It's not convenient for me to go to Jiangnan with this identity."

Before, when he was just the garrison commander of Cui Liu Fort, it didn't matter. If he really wanted to defect to the Qian Kingdom, it would have been very easy.

But now, after the imperial court rewards his merits, he would become the Garrison General of Xue Hai Pass. With this position and title, it would be really difficult to sneak off to Jiangnan in the Qian Kingdom.

After all, the quality and level of the Qian Kingdom's Silver Armored Guards were obvious to all.

"By the way, my lord, I've already had A Li lead the prisoners to start working. The area outside the city walls has to be cleared first, and then the damaged city walls have to be repaired.

And there, and there, and there,

all need to be renovated again. Sigh, the amount of work is quite large, so we have to hurry."

The repairs that Xue San was talking about were both Xue Hai Pass itself and the northern defense line that relied on Xue Hai Pass. Since he was going to take over, he had to go through everything again.

This was already a huge project, and there was no time to delay. After all, when the soldiers and civilians of Shengle City moved over later, the construction below would definitely focus on people's livelihood.

Two thousand Savage laborers seemed like a lot, but considering the amount of work, they might not be enough.

They could only wait for Blind Man to bring the soldiers and civilians of Shengle over. After the troops were reorganized, they could then find a way to get some more labor from the snowfield.

Any primitive accumulation was accompanied by the extraction of blood and sweat. Either they had to extract it from others, or they had to extract it from their own people.

Fortunately, Xue Hai Pass was close to the snowfield. After the Savage army that had entered the pass was "burned to ashes," there would basically be no more forces on the snowfield to cause trouble in the short term, which was just right for him to suppress and plunder.

"San'er, try to build it well, put your heart into it."

"Yes, my lord, your subordinate understands."

"After it's built, let's try not to leave."

"Okay, my lord."

………

General Zheng's situation at Xue Hai Pass could be considered temporarily settled.

However, due to the distance,

the wind of the Wang Jiang battle

had only just blown back to the Yan Kingdom.

In the Yan Kingdom, from the officials of the court and His Majesty to the common people, everyone was looking forward to the results from the front lines.

It was like a main course that had been built up, whetting your appetite before it was served.

First, there was the disastrous defeat at Wang Jiang, and everyone was working hard to seek revenge.

Then, the Jingnan Marquis disobeyed the imperial edict, and several imperial eunuchs died one after another, but he still didn't move. Finally, when the Jingnan Marquis set off for the front lines, there was still no movement on the front lines for a long time.

Enthusiasm couldn't last for too long.

As time slowly accumulated, people's patience began to wear away, replaced by anxiety and unease.

Everyone could actually accept one failure.

But if there was a second failure, the problem would really be big.

Various speculations began to circulate among the people, with all sorts of theories.

Even in the imperial court, there were undercurrents surging.

However,

after the Yan Emperor directly ordered the home of a vice minister to be ransacked, the court officials calmed down after understanding His Majesty's attitude.

That vice minister had the bad luck to actually submit a memorial advising the Yan Emperor to be careful of the Jingnan Marquis taking advantage of his control of the Eastern Expeditionary Army and his presence in Yingdu to negotiate peace with the Chu and Savage people and establish himself in the Three Jin lands!

You could say that this vice minister was purely thinking about the problem from the perspective of the Ji family and His Majesty, or you could say that he was making a political gamble.

After all, from the time the Jingnan Marquis refused to accept the imperial edict, discerning people could smell that the relationship between the Jingnan Marquis and His Majesty, the iron triangle of three people leading the Zhenbei Army and the Jingnan Army cavalry into the imperial palace,

was no longer so solid.

But the Yan Emperor was still the Yan Emperor.

He was not the kind of emperor who could be bewitched by slander.

The vice minister who submitted the memorial was ransacked and exiled,

and he himself encountered bandits on the way to exile and was killed.

Heaven knows that the Great Yan had been fighting wars frequently in recent years, to the point where even those who were caught in scandalous affairs were being conscripted into the army. Where would there be bandits?

And why would they have the bad luck to attack the team of exiled ministers?

But His Majesty used this very clear attitude and resolute posture to tell his ministers that he trusted Tian Wujing. How the war was fought was Tian Wujing's business, and he would not interfere from behind.

But despite this,

the wind on the surface was suppressed,

but the undercurrents were still surging.

Trampling down the aristocratic families had eliminated a large number of aristocratic forces, but it was almost impossible to completely eliminate them physically and mentally.

In recent years, many forced centralization measures had been taken, and many people were clear about how terrifying the suppressed anger and dissatisfaction were.

However, because of the continuous victories in expanding the territory, the Emperor's prestige had been consolidated, so many people were just daring to be angry but not daring to speak out.

And once Wang Jiang was defeated again, then the contradictions that had been concealed by the continuous foreign victories would be completely suppressed.

……

Crown Prince Ji Cheng Lang walked into the inner palace to visit his mother, the current Empress.

"Greetings to His Highness the Crown Prince!"

"Greetings to His Highness the Crown Prince!"

A group of eunuchs and palace maids knelt down and saluted the Crown Prince respectfully.

In this imperial palace, the biggest sun was naturally His Majesty.

The moon was naturally the Empress.

Below the sun and moon, the most honorable person was naturally the Crown Prince.

The Crown Prince waved his hand, signaling them to retreat.

Without asking anyone to inform her, he walked into the bedchamber himself.

Logically speaking, between a mother and son, there should still be the etiquette between a ruler and subject, and it was absolutely impossible to enter directly without being informed.

But the problem now was that you couldn't inform the Empress.

After walking in,

the Crown Prince saw that his mother was sitting by the edge of the bed, supported by two matrons. Her hair was a little disheveled, and the clothes on her body were a little wrinkled.

"Your son pays his respects to the Empress."

The Crown Prince knelt down respectfully.

After kneeling for a while, seeing that his mother did not speak, the Crown Prince slowly stood up and looked at a matron beside him, saying:

"Is the Empress feeling unwell again?"

In the palace, it was naturally impossible to say that his mother was crazy.

The matron immediately bowed and replied:

"Responding to Your Highness the Crown Prince, the Empress was fine last night, but this morning... perhaps she had another nightmare last night."

The Crown Prince nodded upon hearing this.

Looking at his mother again, he found that his mother was also looking at him.

The Crown Prince took a few steps forward, wanting to hold his mother's hand and say a few words to give her some comfort.

The imperial family was ruthless,

but the Empress only had the Crown Prince as her son, so the relationship between the mother and son was indeed very good.

As a woman of the Tian family, she had been protected by her father and relatives since she was young. After entering the palace and marrying the Emperor, she had been smooth sailing all along.

Moreover, the Yan Emperor was ambitious and talented externally, but internally, he was somewhat indifferent to his family.

Therefore, there were very few cases of fighting for favor in the harem, after all, with such an Emperor, it was impossible to compete for the qualifications to be a model for the world.

Therefore, the Empress had always been very indifferent. After having her son, she put seven-tenths of her heart on her son, while only three-tenths were on the Emperor.

Who knew that,

just as the Crown Prince approached the bed,

the Empress suddenly trembled,

and waved her arms, shouting:

"Don't kill me, don't kill me, don't kill me!!!!!"

The smile on the Crown Prince's face froze.

He began to retreat, and as he retreated, the Empress's emotions gradually stabilized, and several matrons were comforting the Empress.

"Father, Father, Mother, Mother..."

The Empress leaned against the bed somewhat woodenly, murmuring with blank eyes.

The Crown Prince took a deep breath,

his right fist

began to clench,

but then slowly released it.

This was the inner palace. He could express his anger, and he could express his dissatisfaction, but everything needed to be within a certain limit.

The Empress murmured:

"Younger brother, younger brother, Wujing, no, no, those are our parents, younger brother, no..."

"Take good care of the Empress."

"Yes, Your Highness the Crown Prince."

"Yes, Your Highness the Crown Prince."

The Crown Prince walked out of Fengjia Palace in one breath, his teeth tightly biting his lips.

The eunuchs around him, even Li Yinglian, didn't dare to breathe loudly at this moment.

But at this moment, a group of eunuchs and palace maids outside the palace began to cheer, as if there was some good news that was being spread.

Before Li Yinglian could ask, they shouted:

"Victory, victory, Jingnan Marquis's great victory at Wang Jiang, killing 100,000 Savages!!!!!"

The Crown Prince's somewhat gloomy expression

began to forcefully lift up,

and a smile

was forced onto his face.

At the same time,

he waved his hand,

and shouted to the eunuchs and Li Yinglian around him:

"Good, the Jingnan Marquis is indeed the pillar of my Great Yan!!!"

——————

Good night.