He remembered who gave him the idea. As long as he insisted on his side of the story on how he did not know that the Empress had fallen, no matter how much Rong Yuan did not believe him, he would have to make a proposition with him in order to appease the masses. He would then settle the situation with the Empress privately.

But why was Rong Yuan’s reaction different from what they had predicted?

Seeing his look of disbelief, Rong Yuan laughed coldly, “Were you cursed at? What is wrong with me catching someone harbouring bad intentions?”

Rong Yuan’s eyes hardened as his pitch black pupils looked directly at Wei Guoping. It caused him to have goosebumps.

“There is hard evidence that the Empress colluded with the North Qiu Kingdom. How can you, as her older brother, not know anything? At this time when we can be attacked by the North Qiu Kingdom at any time, you instigate the masses to make things difficult for the Royal Family. What are you trying to do? Other than being an accomplice to the North Qiu Kingdom, I cannot think of any other reason for you to do so.”

As his sentence ended, the surrounding guards started to attack Wei Guoping’s men.

“No, no, you can’t do this! Your Majesty, are you going to let the Third Prince do whatever he wants? You are killing your loyal subjects. You will face retribution!” Wei Guoping pleaded Rong han desperately. 

But the reason why Rong Han called Rong Yuan over was to get rid of Wei Guoping. Why would he help Wei Guoping?

Although Rong Yuan’s method was a bit harsh and might be used against him by someone in the future, there was no stopping him now. Hence, when Wei Guoping pleaded with him, he looked coldly as he said, “Master Wei, what Rong’er says makes sense. As the older brother of the Empress, how can you not know what she is up to? You are trying to cause internal strife at such a critical period. Aren’t you trying to help the North Qiu Kingdom cripple us?”

As Rong Han was speaking, Wei Guoping and his men were surrounded by the Imperial Guards as well as the Silver-Armoured Troops.

Ordering his guards to lock everyone up into prison, Rong Yuan turned to look at the bustling crowd outside the palace gates. His cold gaze swept across the crowd. Wherever is gaze landed, the people would feel as if one thousand stones were pressed onto their hearts as they could not mutter a single word due to nervousness.

“The Empress has colluded with North Qiu and betrayed our country. After she was exposed, she tried to escape punishment. From now on, whoever speaks on behalf of the Empress will be punished along with her. I don’t want to be wary of anyone backstabbing us when it is time to face the North Qiu Kingdom.”

Rong Yuan then walked slowly across the palace door and returned to the Royal Palace. He smiled gently at Gu Lingzhi who was looking at him worriedly. His warm gaze was completely different from the demeanour he portrayed earlier.

“Aren’t you afraid of someone using this against you in the future if you catch them so easily?”

“What is there to be scared of?” If anyone is not happy, I will just lock them up as well.” Rong Yuan did not care and brought Gu Lingzhi’s hand to his lips. The uncertainty that they were feeling because of Wei Guoping gradually subsided away.

“How are you?” Gu Lingzhi was between laughter, “You really aren’t scared of creating public anger?”

“No,” Rong Yuan replied definitively. “The situation now is very tense and the North Qiu Kingdom can attack us at any time. Anyone who is smart would know that the most important thing now is to be united. What Wei Guoping did was to create cracks in the Xia Kingdom and even if anyone believes what he says, they would not stand by him now.”

Rong Yuan was not at all exaggerating when he said this. As the Empress of a country, she had used her position to get clans to work for her. If these clans were to rebel, the losses would be extremely great to the Xia Kingdom and it would have been a troubling matter that would tear the kingdom apart.

What Wei Guoping did today could have been a reasonable excuse for those that wanted to rebel. This was why Rong Han had allowed Wei Guoping to make a scene at the palace doors and did not take him down immediately. He was not willing to take the risk that the clans would not rebel along with the Empress.

It was just that no one had thought that Rong Han would call Rong Yuan over and solve the issue in less than fifteen minutes. He did it so simply and direct that everyone started to suspect their own intellect.

The way that Rong Yuan resolved the matter was rough but it was useful.

Without caring whether the crowd at the palace doors were bought over by Wei Guoping’s long speech, with Rong Yuan’s blunt method they could not do anything but stare.

Whatever happened at the palace doors quickly spread around Chiyang City.

In an average looking inn in the city, an average looking thirty year old woman with a forgettable face was listening to the report from her subordinate. She was so angry she wanted to smash the teacup she was holding in her hand.

“Bastard! How dare he?”

An eighteen-year-old youngster sitting beside her had the same ugly look on his face as he asked the subordinate, “Rong Yuan really locked up my uncle and said that?”

“Y-yes,” The guard that was in charge of obtaining information answered carefully as if he was afraid to say the wrong thing and anger them.

Ever since they smuggled Tianfeng Wei out of the palace, the Empress and the First Prince had taken the Yirong Pill to change their appearance. They had been hiding in an inn. To prevent anyone from finding them, they were using a special communication method to keep in contact with Wei Guoping and the clans that were under her. They did not expect their ‘foolproof’ plan to so quickly be destroyed by Rong Yuan before it could even be put into action.

“This son of a bitch! We should have killed him when he was young.” The Empress, Wei Shenglan bellowed. She looked indignantly at another scholarly looking man at the corner.

“Leader Gu, what should we do?”

“This…we should discuss with the North Qiu Kingdom first,” Gu Rong frowned.

When he woke up that day, Rong Yuan did not make things difficult for him on account of him being Gu Lingzhi’s father. He merely threatened him to not make use of Gu Lingzhi ever again and threw him out of the palace.

Worn out and despaired, he returned to the North Qiu Kingdom. He had thought that although he did not succeed, he might have some credit for his hard work. However, he did not expect to be Pan Wen’s punching bag, who had lost the ability to pass down his family’s name. In front of the king of the North Qiu Kingdom, Pan Wen claimed him to be someone with no use at all.

In order to secure his position in the North Qiu Kingdom, he had to volunteer to return to the Xia Kingdom and assist in undermining the Xia Kingdom’s power. He would be working with those in the Xia Kingdom who had already sworn allegiance to the North Qiu Kingdom. After knowing that the spy in the Xia Kingdom was actually the Empress, Gu Rong was shocked. He then heard that Wei Shenglan was under house arrest in Yonghe Palace. He had believed he was going to fail another mission until he saw Tianfeng Wei.

The girl, who had been the Third Prince’s fiancée before had completely lost the glamour she had in the past and looked extremely dejected. It took him a while to recognise that the person that rescued the Empress out of the palace had been Tianfeng Wei.

Thereafter, he was thinking of how to undermine the Xia Kingdom’s power. After being a leader of the Gu Clan for so many years, schemes and plots came very naturally to him. He very soon thought of the plan for Wei Guoping to go to the palace and disrupt them. He thought of all the pros and cons of it as well as deduced the possible reactions Rong Han and Rong Yan might have. In the end, Rong Yuan’s reaction was something they never expected as they fell into a predicament.

On the other hand, it was the first time that the Xia Kingdom had faced internal strife. Those kingdoms who had bought spy information off from Gu Lingzhi were facing the same problems. It was just that the way they solved it was not as blunt as Rong Yuan.

In a short period of time, other than the North Qiu Kingdom and their allies, the other kingdoms all fell into chaos. This was an extremely good chance for the North Qiu Kingdom to launch their first attack and hence, the first attack started.

The Liao Kingdom, as well as several other kingdoms that were nearer to the North Qiu Kingdom were attacked. In a single day, three cities had fallen into the North Qiu Kingdom’s hands. When this news spread, it was the signal that the war between the North Qiu Kingdom and the other kingdoms had started. 

When Rong Yuan heard this, he immediately sent two groups of his Silver-Armoured Troops to Minglan Kingdom, to help them guard against the possible attack from Muji Kingdom and Sangna Kingdom in this time of chaos.

Along with Gu Lingzhi, he brought half of his Silver-armoured Troops to the common border between the Xia Kingdom and Dayin Kingdom. Currently, they were the only ones that were publicly siding with the North Qiu Kingdom. Naturally, they would also be the first target for kingdoms that did not dare to take North Qiu on directly.

When Rong Yuan reached the Sangbo Town that was located at the boundary of the Xia and Dayin Kingdom, the Dayin Kingdom had just started to make their first attack against the Xia Kingdom. 

The Dayin Kingdom had preempted that they would be the target of most and knew that in the war with the North Qiu Kingdom, most kingdoms would take this route.

“It’s about time you arrived!”

Leading his troop of less than a hundred men, Yuan Hang chuckled as he reported to Rong Yuan. He then rushed in with his troop.

The other small troops did not want to be outdone as they rushed forth as well. A dark-skinned skinny man gave a roar as his body seemed to burst with energy and he seemed to grow taller as he rushed towards the enemy.

“That is the captain of the third division of the Silver-Armoured Troops, Wu Ming. Normally, his skinny self does not seem like much of a threat, but he has a special technique passed down in his family. Once he starts moving, his entire body will change and he is a very useful soldier on the battlefield.” Rong Yuan leaned towards Gu Lingzhi and introduced the important people in his Silver-Armoured Troops to her. His eyes were filled with pride.

Although the entire Silver-Armoured Troops including the captains only added up to a mere 102 soldiers, all of them were carefully selected by him. He had chosen the most outstanding soldiers.

While some of them might only be ordinary in strength, they possessed talents in other areas.

With the addition of the Silver-Armoured Troops, the stalemate very quickly turned into a one-sided battle.

Like Rong Yuan said, the men in his Silver-Armoured Troops were all outstanding people. They went over the enemies as if they were not there at all and very quickly defeated most of the Dayin Kingdom’s troops, forcing them to retreat.

“Rong Yuan, I did not think that you would come so quickly.”

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