After being forced to leave the marriage, I became the wife of a top scholar.

Chapter 314 Carrying Weight
By the time the 100,000-strong army had completed its encampment, it was already dark.

Inside Lord Cui's tent, Bai Wanqing, Lin Yunche, and a few others were gathered together, discussing their next move.

Lord Cui was the commander-in-chief, sitting at the head of the table. Lin Feiyun and Uncle Lin sat at the lower levels on either side, followed by Lin Yunche, Cheng Kailin, Bai Wanqing, and their group.

Lord Cheng and his group could have escaped far away through the secret passage, but not only was Cui Jingcheng difficult to deal with, Susu was just as stubborn.

After escorting them out of the secret passage, he secretly ran back! Helpless, Lord Cheng had no choice but to lead them back in a circle.

Lin Yunche secretly glanced at Bai Chengdong. He hadn't had a chance to ask about Feng Niang's background yet, but why was he sitting with Wanqing at this moment?
Lord Cui looked to his left at Lin Yunche, who was jealous, and to his right at Cui Jingcheng, who was raising his eyebrows in a provocative manner towards Lin Yunche. He was truly at a loss for words, not knowing whether to laugh or cry.

"Ahem!" Lord Cui coughed lightly twice, and Lin Yunche and Cui Jingcheng then looked away.

Seeing that everyone was looking at him, Lord Cui slowly spoke, "Today I was ordered by the Emperor to lead troops to kill the traitor Prince Huai. Now that Prince Huai is dead, I should lead my troops back to report to the Emperor."

"But who knew that I would receive such a letter of denunciation along the way!"

As he spoke, Lord Cui took out a neatly folded letter from his bosom. Everyone noticed that there were subtle patterns printed on the paper of the letter!

Lin Feiyun and Lin Yunche, in particular, recognized the origin of the dark pattern at a glance.

"Lord Cui, this letter..." Lin Feiyun looked at Lord Cui nervously.

Lord Cui smiled and told him to calm down, "Master Lin, don't be impatient!"

"As you suspected, this letter came from your Lin family."

"But don't worry, this isn't any evidence of a crime!"

Lin Feiyun and his family finally breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this.

The Lin family of this generation have spent their entire lives trying to clear their names, but they can no longer withstand any slander.

Lord Cui unfolded the letter and said, "This letter was delivered to me by someone sent by Lin Sishu!"

"The letter explained his plans and actions in the Northern Dynasty, and I have already reported this to the Emperor!"

"While the Emperor was using the pretext of exonerating the Prince of Huai, he was also secretly having people monitor Lin Sishu."

"Fortunately, Lin Sishu passed the Emperor's test!"

"Therefore, the Emperor sent me here on another mission!"

"It means working together with the Lin family to reclaim the four cities we lost!"

After Lord Cui finished speaking, he took out a map and slowly unfolded it on the table!

"According to Lin Sishu's plan, he has already controlled the ruler of the Northern Dynasty through poison."

"They also used Princess Yunni's help to expand their sphere of influence into the Northern Dynasty's army."

"The reason why Luan Heng was so thoroughly defeated by you, Lin Yunche, must have received a lot of help from Lin Sishu, right?"

Lord Cui looked up at Lin Yunche and asked.

Lin Yunche nodded, recalling how his uncle had truly given him one shock after another.

That day, he was knocked unconscious by his uncle's chop to the neck. When he woke up, he was in a dimly lit cave.

"Lord Lin, you're finally awake!"

Lin Yunche stared intently at the speaker's face, "Pan Hu?"

"Yang Cong?"

"It's me! It's us!"

Yang Cong quickly brought over some food to replenish his strength, while Pan Hu handed him a set of clothes to change into.

"This is the uniform of the Northern Dynasty soldiers. Wearing it around this area, no one dares to mess with them."

Lin Yunche's mind was still a bit hazy. He remembered that he had been ambushed by his uncle, and how did he end up in such a place in the blink of an eye?

"Yang Cong, where is this?" Lin Yunche asked.

At this point, a hint of admiration flashed in Yang Cong's eyes. "Lord Lin, this is where Lin Sishu stationed his troops."

Lin Sishu? Garrisoning troops?
At this point, Pan Hu also became excited, "Yes! This place probably hides about 50,000 troops!"

"Lord Lin, your Lin family is indeed extraordinary!"

To say that the Prince of Huai is not simple, he does have some advantages. After all, the area around Beifeng City was a fiefdom granted to the Prince of Huai by the emperor, and it is relatively easier to do some tricks on his own fiefdom.

But Lin Sishu was different; he was a prisoner of war in the Northern Dynasty!
The terms "princess and prince consort" sound nice, but everyone in the Northern Dynasty knows that this prince consort is merely a nominal slave.

Regardless of whether they have real power, their every move is under the surveillance of the public.

Under such conditions, Lin Sishu was able to gather nearly 50,000 soldiers from the Shang Kingdom and secretly hide them in the mountains.
Lin Yunche then realized that he had occasionally heard some rumors at the princess's residence.

"Hmph! He only got to where he is because of his good looks!"

"Moreover, he always has ambiguous relationships with those wealthy women!"

“A slave is a slave, and a lackey is a lackey. If someone throws him a meat bun, he'll pounce on it and tear it apart. It's disgusting.”

"I don't know what our princess was thinking, insisting on having such a person as her husband."

"No wonder he could displease the king."

"But he's certainly amassed a fortune. Despite the fact that the Princess's residence treats him no better than that of nobles, he's still incredibly greedy and unrestrained. Bah!"

Looking at the countless caves covering the mountain, Lin Yunche naturally understood where his uncle's money had gone!

"But this is the Northern Dynasty, where did so many Shang people come from?" Lin Yunche asked.

Pan Hu remained silent, but Yang Cong explained solemnly, "Lord Lin, these Shang people you speak of are not considered human in the Northern Dynasty!"

Lin Yunche was taken aback.

Yang Cong continued, "These people were originally the people of the four cities that the Shang Kingdom handed over to the Northern Dynasty." "Because they were once Shang people, they have always been classified as inferior people in the Northern Dynasty."

“Anyone in the Northern Dynasty can beat, enslave, and drive them.”

"When we first arrived, we were fortunate enough to receive help from some of the soldiers here."

"From their words, I learned that they had lost their homes the moment the Shang emperor ceded the four cities of Luobing."

"The ruler of the Northern Dynasty embarked on massive construction projects and captured them to serve as free labor."

"The younger ones are alright, at least they can still earn a living while they're working."

"But the elderly and women and children are considered worthless and a financial burden. Those who can be helped survive, and those who cannot die!"

"A small portion of these were rescued by General Lin in secret under various pretexts."

"Most of the remaining people were called here by those who came here."

"For them, even living in these desolate mountains and wildernesses is better than living in other parts of the Northern Dynasty."

Lin Yunche clenched his fist slightly. He seemed to understand why his uncle had stayed in the Northern Dynasty and had been humbly trying to please Princess Yunni.

He single-handedly bore the fate of so many people on his shoulders!
He seemed to transform into Lin Sishu, standing on the blood-soaked battlefield, desperately hearing the imperial edict delivered by the emperor.

"The Lin family colluded with foreign powers and is the culprit behind the loss of the city!"

"Lin Sishu fled to evade punishment; his crime is unforgivable!"

My uncle knew the late emperor's weakness, and he knew that the late emperor had no intention of protecting the people.

Thump! Lin Yunche slammed his fist into his side, feeling ashamed for misunderstanding his uncle earlier.

Thinking of this, Lin Yunche suddenly looked up, "Where's my uncle?" He looked around!

Pan Hu said, "Here, this is what General Lin asked us to give you before he left."

He said, "The day we go home is not far away!"

Looking at the wooden box that Pan Hu handed him, Lin Yunche already had two guesses in his mind. After opening the wooden box, Lin Yunche's eyes welled up with tears.

This is the Lin family's seal!
Uncle hasn't changed, and Uncle would never forget!

In the following days, Lin Yunche learned from the scouts that his uncle had gained the king's trust by offering his own head!
His uncle sent him a message, instructing him to lead his troops to take a detour through the mountains to the vicinity of the southern border.

He held the Lin family's seal as if it were a tiger tally.

Fifty thousand troops followed him across rivers, lakes, and seas, and were stationed at the foot of the snow-capped mountains.

My uncle is here too!
However, he was following Princess Yunni.

As soon as Princess Yunni entered the military camp, she turned against Luan Heng. That night, Luan Heng's camp was thrown into chaos. Pei Ming was killed, and Princess Yunni disappeared without a trace. A signal for the Lin family army to attack flashed across the sky.

Lin Yunche led 30,000 troops and charged forward.

Luan Heng was caught completely off guard. His 50,000 troops were slaughtered unexpectedly, forcing Luan Heng to retreat repeatedly. He unknowingly retreated to the territory of the Prince of Huai!
Lin Yunche had not seen his uncle yet; all communication between them was through scouts.

Lin Yunche only learned upon arriving near Beifeng City that the Prince of Huai had rebelled and that his father was leading a fierce resistance.

Perhaps he misread it.
The person protected behind his father and mother was the one he longed for.

"Wanqing," he called tentatively.

The woman looked up at him, her eyes filled with joy, "It's her! It really is her! She's not dead!"

Lin Yunche's joy exploded in his heart, but the battlefield was in turmoil, and it was not yet time for them to reminisce.

Lin Yunche's thoughts returned to the tent. He took a deep look at Bai Wanqing sitting not far away, his heart filled with emotion!

"Yes, my lord!"

"Without my uncle's years of hard work, we would not be able to deal with the Luan Heng lineage."

"Moreover, he also successfully sowed discord between Prince Huai and Luan Heng."

"This gave us the opportunity to defeat them one by one."

Lord Cui nodded slightly, "That's it!"

"Therefore, His Majesty made this decision after careful consideration."

"You should know that the Northern Dynasty has always been a strong and well-equipped military. If it weren't for Luan Heng really suffering a setback this time..."

"His Majesty is unlikely to make a decision so quickly!"

Upon hearing this, Uncle Lin could no longer contain himself. Over the years, his Lin family had completely disgraced their ancestors because of these four cities.

Now that he finally had a chance to take it back, he was naturally eager to do so. "Lord Cui, just tell me, when are we going to attack!"

Lord Cui said, "Five days later!"

"We are determined to take back what we've lost this time!"

Lin Yunche stepped out of the camp with a complicated expression and headed straight for the manor outside the city. Of the 30,000 troops he brought, only 10,000 remained, and they were now settled in the manor.

These people were bursting with excitement at the prospect of returning to the land of the Shang Kingdom.

A wounded soldier said to Doctor Zheng, who was applying medicine to him, "If there's not enough medicine, give it to someone else!"

"It's enough that I'm alive enough to return to my homeland with this wretched life of mine."

"It can be considered as returning to my roots, with no regrets!"

Doctor Zheng glared at him angrily and scolded, "Nonsense! No one cared about you when you were wandering around, but now that you're back, are you going to abandon you?"

The wounded soldier lowered his eyes, looking silently at his blood-stained Northern Dynasty uniform.

They've returned! But they are soldiers from the Northern Dynasty.
They are soldiers whose names are not legitimate.