Quickly wear salted fish, she won by lying down

Chapter 1631 Substitute Bride 35
The Third Prince's maternal grandfather had previously lost a lot of men because someone tried to steal Jiang San's grandmother. This time, he sent people to kill the First Prince and the Second Prince, using almost all of his men. However, the First Prince and the Second Prince turned the tables on him, and almost all of them were wiped out.

The Third Prince's maternal grandfather suffered a severe blow. After all, his manpower was cultivated over time and couldn't be created overnight. With all these manpower gone, he couldn't do anything he wanted to do, as he had no professional staff left. Relying solely on the servants and attendants in his household was clearly insufficient to accomplish anything.

When the Third Prince's maternal grandfather saw that his plan had failed, he was furious and went to confront Jiang San's grandmother. He felt that Jiang San's grandmother had done something wrong. He never thought that Jiang San's grandmother would dare to do something wrong when she was in his hands. Wasn't she afraid that he would deal with her when he got back? After all, he couldn't beat others, but he could beat a weak woman like her.

When they arrived at the village, they found that Granny Jiang was nowhere to be found.

It wasn't that Granny Jiang ran away on her own, but rather, just as the Third Prince's maternal grandfather had thought, someone finally discovered that he had hidden Granny Jiang, and so they kidnapped her.

In order to eliminate the eldest and second princes, he transferred away many of the guards who were watching over Granny Jiang. As a result, the people who came to kidnap her were able to do so very easily, and almost all of the people he left on the estate were wiped out.

After this battle, he failed to achieve his goal, almost all his men were killed, and Grandma Jiang San even escaped. It was a complete case of trying to steal a chicken but losing the rice instead, which infuriated the Third Prince's maternal grandfather.

Of course, the First Prince and the Second Prince's forces had also been almost wiped out, because they did not expect the Third Prince's maternal grandfather to have so many men. So even though they had sent enough men, they still could not stop them and suffered countless casualties. This was a lose-lose situation for all three.

For a time, all three parties became much more subdued due to heavy manpower losses, but the conflicts between them intensified. In particular, this time, it was the Third Prince's forces that wanted to wipe out the First Prince and the Second Prince in one fell swoop, which led the First Prince and the Second Prince to temporarily form an alliance, preparing to deal with the Third Prince first, and then compete for supremacy. As a result, the Third Prince was in trouble.

His birth mother was ostracized in the palace by the power of the mothers of the eldest and second princes. He himself was also ostracized in the court by the power of the eldest and second princes. He had made several mistakes in the tasks assigned to him by the emperor and had been scolded by the emperor. Naturally, all of this was the result of the power of the eldest and second princes making things difficult for him.

When the Third Prince learned that his maternal grandfather had tried to deal with the First and Second Princes but failed, he was naturally unhappy. Instead of praising his grandfather for helping him, he complained that his grandfather had acted on his own initiative without consulting him, leading to this outcome.

His maternal grandfather could not refute his complaints, after all, he had to say that he had someone with special abilities in his hands before, and he felt that he was completely confident, so he took action.
The reason he didn't tell him was because he was afraid that if too many people knew, it would be easier for the secret to leak out. Who knew that things would go wrong and implicate the Third Prince? He had nothing to say, after all, the Third Prince's misfortune was indeed due to his poor handling of the situation, which dragged him down with him.

What they didn't know was that while the three of them were still fighting to the death, someone else had obtained the Ding family's property and was preparing to wipe them all out and then install their own people in power.

The person who planned to wipe them out was, needless to say, because these three princes were neither his grandsons nor had a very good relationship with him. They all sided with their maternal relatives or other closer ministers, which made him unsure of which side to support. He felt that whichever side he supported would be detrimental to him if the other came to power. Therefore, he wanted to wipe them out in one fell swoop, so that the emperor would only be able to adopt one member of the imperial clan in the future.

As for the imperial clan, he would have a say. He could find a way to adopt someone who was easy to fool, or someone with whom he had a good relationship—he was sure he could get someone with whom he had a good relationship. As for those with whom he didn't have a good relationship, he wouldn't side with them at all, because he could bring several members of the imperial clan into the palace and support whoever had a good relationship with him to the throne.

This person with such great power is none other than the Grand Secretary.

Although the Grand Secretary holds a high position and wields great power, his life is also fraught with hardship. With each new emperor comes a new court, and the emperor is growing old and his health is declining in recent years. It seems he might pass away at any moment, leaving three princes to ascend the throne. None of these three princes have a particularly good relationship with him. While not exactly bad—after all, he is the Grand Secretary, holding a high position and wielding great power—the other princes are eager to curry favor with him.

However, they were only trying to win him over and use his support to rise in rank. Their true confidants were not him at all, but their maternal relatives or other people. In any case, it was not him.

In this way, once any of the three princes ascends to the throne, he will likely have to relinquish his position as Grand Secretary.

He didn't want to relinquish his position as Grand Secretary, so naturally he wanted to replace him with someone else as emperor.

However, the emperor had three princes, and killing all three of them would not be an easy task, so he had not yet taken action.

The result showed him that there were people with special abilities in this world. So what was there to say? He quickly got his hands on the person and made him kill all three princes so that he could put his own person on the throne.

As a result, he was just a little too cautious and a step too slow, allowing others to get there first.

Fortunately, the person is finally in his hands, and he can use him to do something.

Upon questioning, the other party revealed that the people who had kidnapped her had forced her to fight others, which had depleted her energy. He then claimed that he wanted to kill three princes. The Grand Secretary didn't mince words with the Ding family and directly stated that he wanted to kill three princes. It would be even more difficult if he wasn't trying to brainwash her. He directly stated that it would take several years to accumulate enough energy to kill three princes.

The Grand Secretary wasn't worried when he heard it would take several years. He told her to accumulate power and, when the time came, to let her meet the three princes and kill them.

Actually, it could be done faster, for example, by having Ding brainwash the people around the three princes to kill them. That would require much less energy.

But what if it fails? That would only make the three princes more vigilant. It would be better to let the Ding family accumulate enough power and use special means to kill the three princes.

Of course, if time is running out, for example, if the emperor's condition becomes dire and Ding has not yet accumulated enough power, he might have Ding brainwash the people around the three princes to carry out the attack. But for now, there's no rush.

The reason why the Grand Secretary was not as eager to get things done as the Third Prince's maternal grandfather and the Second Grand Secretary was that there was a secret room in the Grand Secretary's study. After the Grand Secretary brought Ding back, he locked her in this secret room.

He worked in his study every day, and his family would bring him food and drinks from time to time. He would give some to Ding Shi to eat and drink, so that Ding Shi would not starve to death. He didn't need to prepare food for an extra person to arouse suspicion. In this way, he was confident that no one would find out that he had hidden Ding Shi in his home, so he was not afraid of others trying to take her away.