Can't a princess ascend the throne?

Chapter 322 Only by standing tall can one see far.
Nine Palaces?
She's looking into the distance with a monocular telescope right now.

She had been leading a large army southeastward, as the intelligence she had gathered indicated that the steppe army would attack the northern border from the southeast. However, as they marched, Jiu Que suddenly stopped everyone, took a small group of people up a small hill, and used her strange-looking monocular telescope to look around, leaving everyone puzzled.

This time, Lin Chongshan assigned two deputy generals to Jiu Que: one was Wang Yue'e, one of the deputy generals of the Women's Army, and the other was Li Xu, one of the deputy generals of General Yuchi.

The two exchanged a glance and both saw the doubt in each other's eyes. They both knew very well that they had come with Jiu Que to clean up the mess and gain merit.

They initially thought this would be a tough job, after all, this Lord Ying was an official from the capital. The emperor had sent military supervisors and other civil officials to the northern frontier before, and every one of them was picky. However, after spending time with him, they realized that Lord Ying wasn't the kind of hesitant, indecisive civil official. He truly lived up to his reputation as a descendant of General Ying; his speech and actions always possessed an inexplicable decisiveness—perhaps this was the unique family tradition of their military generals.

However, Lord Ying, who had been quite dedicated and hardworking since leaving the city, suddenly halted the advance of the army and was fiddling with something on his own, which made the two deputy generals very worried.

Seeing that quite a bit of time had been wasted, the two exchanged a glance and went up to offer their advice.

However, just as they approached the vicinity of Jiuque, less than three zhang away, their intuition, honed from years of battlefield combat, suddenly sent a chill down their necks.

"Please wait a moment, Generals."

For a moment, neither of them knew what Jiu Que was up to, but since Lord Ying was the commander of the 80,000 troops, they waited quietly, no matter how anxious they were.

After a while, Ying Jiuque finally put away his monocular telescope. But then he suddenly asked a question that made the two of them change their expressions drastically.

"Generals, the scouts we sent out earlier have returned to report that all the spies we planted in the princes' armies have been eliminated, and their bodies have been found in the wasteland by the roadside."

"What? How is this possible? Our spies are always cautious, how could this be..."

After a brief moment of surprise, the two put aside their pointless arguments and worries and quickly discussed their next steps. They also reported to Jiu Que what they knew about the two princes.

The quickest way now is to find where the princes' cavalry are hiding. After all, with so many men, surely they couldn't have completely erased all traces of their passage?
Scouts ahead kept reporting that they had indeed discovered traces of a large group of people passing by. If they could take advantage of this opportunity to pursue them, they might be able to catch them off guard. After all, the enemy was definitely planning a surprise attack, and if it was discovered that their plan had been leaked, it might cause panic.

However, although the two had already informed Jiu Que of their findings and feasible methods, Jiu Que rubbed his chin and fell into deep thought. Just as the two deputy generals were fuming with worry, Jiu Que suddenly gave an order that left them completely baffled.

She asked everyone to find the tallest tree nearby.

This is no laughing matter at such a crucial moment! Lord Ying, who seemed so composed and reliable in the military camp, has become so naive once he leaves the northern border. This is not a good sign.

The two racked their brains but couldn't come up with a way to stop it. After all, Ying Jiuque had only asked them to find a tree; they hadn't done anything heinous. Before leaving, many of their superiors patted them on the shoulder and repeatedly instructed them to assist Lord Ying well. They never imagined they'd encounter this situation! The subordinates quickly found the tallest tree nearby, but Jiuque, after looking at it through his monoculars, was still not entirely satisfied with its height. But it was better than nothing.

Just as the two deputy generals were about to ask questions, Ying Jiuque brought out the elusive and mysterious Senior Cui.

Faced with this person who had suddenly appeared before them without revealing any aura, the two lieutenants were filled with trepidation. Could this be the mysterious master their superiors had spoken of, the one who could protect Lord Ying? But weren't such people usually only seen in the most dangerous situations? How could he have appeared so suddenly before they even encountered any enemies?

"Senior, look at that tree. Can you stand on the topmost branch?"

Everyone looked in the direction Jiu Que was pointing and found it was just a twig about the thickness of an index finger. They shook their heads. Although martial arts existed in this era, they weren't nearly as powerful as they had imagined. Even martial artists were already quite skilled at scaling walls and roofs; how could such a light twig possibly support the weight of an adult woman?

Unexpectedly, Senior Cui glanced at them and nodded calmly, which caught the attention of the two deputy generals.

However, Jiu Que was not entirely satisfied with this. She looked around and asked the soldier carrying the Northern Frontier Army's banner to hand over the flagpole. She then directed the nimble soldiers to tie their bodies to the main trunk, making the top of the flagpole much higher than the branch Jiu Que had just pointed to.

He handed the monocular telescope to Senior Cui.

"Senior, could you stand up there and use your binoculars to see where the real army has passed by? Or could you find where the two princes of the grasslands are hiding?"

Cui Zhufeng had seen generals scrambling for this monocular telescope before, but she hadn't thought it was anything special. However, when she took it and tried it out under Jiu Que's guidance, she was immediately amazed and couldn't put it down.

However, she quickly provided an answer.

"Yes, but the altitude is still limited, and the viewing range is not wide."

Jiu Que had anticipated this answer and took an unusually large bow from a nearby guard. This was General Ying Chongming's weapon, which had been kept in the Northern Frontier Army since her departure. Because it was so enormous and heavy, no one but her could use it, and thus it had remained idle. Jiu Que had brought many things with her on this expedition, and this was one of them.

"Don't worry, my archery skills have improved quite a bit recently. I'll help you out later; the higher you stand, the farther you can see. Those two princes are exceptional individuals; they must have had a plan in mind all along, which is why they pretended to be unaware of the spies we sent, only striking after we set off."

Cui Zhufeng didn't hesitate at all. In fact, she also wanted to know how high she could jump with the help of external forces, since no one had ever experimented with her before.

And so, to everyone's astonishment, Cui Zhufeng lightly touched the ground with his toes and flew up into the tree.

(End of this chapter)