Having many children brings many blessings; the struggle for power begins with marriage.

Chapter 121 Good News Arrives in the Capital

When the caravan of the Northern Prince's Mansion left Anping City, some people in the mansion were still a little nervous. They were worried that the cavalry outside Anping City was actually barbarian cavalry.

However, after they left the city gate, they found that the cavalry were still on guard and had not done anything to the Prince's convoy. Only then did people feel relieved.

At this moment, the curtain of one of the carriages in the caravan was lifted, and Lin Wanyun and Chen Wanrong carefully examined the heavily armored cavalry in black armor through the carriage window.

Upon seeing that the commander leading the troops was a grandmaster, Chen Wanrong raised her eyebrows slightly.

At this moment, Lin Wanyun said, "These people do not look like barbarians, but they also do not look like heavy cavalry of the Great Xia."

Chen Wanrong didn't say anything; she had naturally noticed this as well.

There are some differences between the barbarians and the Xia people, and they are easy to distinguish.

The soldiers of this cavalry looked very much like the people of Daxia, but Daxia did not seem to have heavy cavalry in standard black armor.

The heavy cavalry of the Great Xia used silver armor, not black, so these heavy cavalrymen were likely not from the Great Xia.

That's strange.

Five thousand heavy cavalrymen, neither barbarians nor from the Great Xia, so where did they come from?

Can the Northern King conjure an army out of thin air?

Lin Wanyun then raised another bold guess: "Could these cavalrymen be from another dynasty?"

Since they are not from the Great Xia, nor from the barbarians, and certainly not from the Northern Commandery, there is only one possibility: these cavalrymen are foreign aid invited by the Northern King from other dynasties!

At this moment, Chen Wanrong said softly, "Aunt Lin, to the north are the barbarians, to the west is the Dayue, to the south is the Daxia, and to the east is the sea."

Chen Wanrong did not directly deny Lin Wanyun's guess, but her words clearly indicated that Lin Wanyun's guess was also unlikely.

First of all, apart from the Great Xia, the only dynasty that relies on the Northern Commandery, the Great Yue Dynasty, does not have heavy cavalry. They are so poor that even if they had heavy cavalry, they would not lend them to the Northern Commandery. If this cavalry force was indeed borrowed by the Northern King from another dynasty, then it must have passed through the Great Xia or the Great Yue.

A heavy cavalry force of five thousand men would attract attention in any dynasty.

These are fully armored heavy cavalry, not five thousand ordinary soldiers. Once you deploy heavy cavalry on the road, the surrounding countries or dynasties will soon know that you have mobilized heavy cavalry.

Surely the Northern King couldn't have secretly transported this heavy cavalry force to Beijun from the sea?

Just then, the commander of the Black Cavalry suddenly left the cavalry formation and headed straight for the caravan.

Upon seeing this, Lin Wanyun immediately became nervous.

The commander of this cavalry unit looked extraordinary; he seemed like a ferocious soldier who had emerged from the underworld, exuding an extremely heavy aura of malevolence, the result of countless murders.

Fortunately, the grandmaster-level commander did not come to their carriage, but went to Princess Mu Zixuan's carriage.

Xuan Yuan Chen arrived at the front and back of Mu Zi Xuan's carriage, immediately dismounted, and half-squatted down, saying, "This humble general, Xuan Yuan Chen, greets Your Highness!"

Upon seeing this scene through the car window, Mu Zixuan immediately said, "General Xuanyuan, please rise!"

At this moment, the people in the carriages in front of and behind Mu Zixuan opened the curtains, poked their heads out of the windows, and looked in Mu Zixuan's direction.

Xuan Yuan Chen said "Thank you, Your Highness" and got up from the ground.

Mu Zixuan then asked curiously, "General Xuanyuan, I heard that the Prince led the Northern County soldiers to kill 200,000 barbarian soldiers. Is that true?"

Xuan Yuan Chen immediately replied, "Your Highness, this is absolutely true."

"Not only that, we also captured 100,000 barbarian soldiers."

Upon hearing Xuan Yuan Chen's answer, Chu Qing Li, who had been expressionless in the carriage, couldn't help but frown.

Judging from Xuan Yuan Chen's attitude towards Mu Zi Xuan, it seems that Xuan Yuan Chen really is a general under the Northern King?

Even if the barbarians wanted to trick the Northern Princess into going north, now that the Northern Prince's caravan has already left the city, there's no need for them to continue the act.

Moreover, this appears to be a master-level general.

Chu Qingli could sense the murderous aura and imposing martial arts presence emanating from him.

Does a master-level barbarian general need to put on an act in front of the Northern Queen?

"Barbarian warriors" do not usually kneel before women; this is common knowledge even among the people of Daxia.

However, Xuan Yuan Chen just knelt down before Mu Zi Xuan, which proves that this Xuan Yuan Chen is very likely not a barbarian general.

Chu Qingli's heart sank.

She had already prepared to run away with her sister, but then Xuan Yuan Chen ran up to the princess and knelt down on one knee.

Lin Wan-yun and Chen Wan-rong were equally surprised.

The moment Xuan Yuan Chen knelt down before the Northern Princess, it indicated that this heavy cavalry was from the Northern Prince's mansion; otherwise, the general would not have performed the kneeling ceremony before the Northern Princess.

In this era, only soldiers who particularly respected the female host would kneel before her.

To put it simply, if Xuan Yuan Chen only acknowledged the Northern King, he wouldn't need to kneel before Mu Zi Xuan. Similarly, other generals of the Great Xia Dynasty wouldn't need to kneel before Mu Zi Xuan; they would only need to bow respectfully.

His gesture of respect was, to some extent, a way of saying, "Seeing the Northern Queen is like seeing the Northern King."

At this moment, Chen Wanrong murmured, "It seems that the entire Great Xia has been deceived by the Northern King."

Lin Wanyun said worriedly, "Palace Master, let's leave Beijun directly. The Northern King is no ordinary person; he must have already seen through our ulterior motives in getting close to him."

The fact that the Northern King has secretly amassed such a massive power shows how cunning he is. How could such a person not see that the Xuan Yue Palace's approach to him is purposeful?

If the Northern King finds out that Xuan Yue Palace wants to use the Love Gu to control him, he might harm them.

At this moment, Chen Wanrong said, "People are better able to control themselves when they have desires. He has secretly accumulated such a huge amount of power, which must be for the position in the capital."

"Xuan Yue Palace should help him at this time."

Lin Wanyun instantly understood Chen Wanrong's meaning. Chen Wanrong wanted to use Lu Chen as a puppet, then fight to the death with the Xia Emperor, so that their Xuan Yue Palace could reap the benefits in the end.

Chen Wanrong's idea was simple: since the Northern King had already accumulated such a huge amount of power, she would first control the Northern King and then let the Northern King and the Xia Emperor fight to the death.

Moreover, this did not prevent them from using Lu Chen to refine the Dragon Subduing Curse.

Originally, Lu Chen was only valuable for refining the Dragon Subduing Curse, but now his value in Chen Wanrong's heart has been elevated to a new level.

Upon hearing Chen Wanrong's words, Lin Wanyun sighed inwardly and said nothing more.

At this point, the convoy continued forward.

……

Great Xia Dynasty.

The capital city, Xuanzheng Hall.

As usual, Emperor Xia unleashed his fury in the court today.

"After investigating for so long, you haven't even found a trace of the assassin. What use is your Ministry of Justice to me?!"

Upon hearing Emperor Xia's roar, the officials of the Ministry of Justice trembled and dared not utter a sound.

Emperor Xia had only given the Ministry of Justice a few days to investigate the massacre at the Eighth Prince's residence. However, several days passed and they had no information about the assassins. Later, some clever person found an assassin from the Blood Moon Tower to take the blame, claiming that the Blood Moon Tower assassins harbored resentment towards the Eighth Prince and thus wanted to assassinate him.

However, Emperor Xia was not so easily fooled. Soon, Emperor Xia received news that the master of Blood Moon Tower had long since died in Beijun. Although he did not know how he died, Blood Moon Tower in the capital was now defunct in name only.

This was clearly because the Ministry of Justice couldn't find the real assassin, so they used Blood Moon Tower as a scapegoat.

Later, Emperor Xia punished a group of officials from the Ministry of Justice, but then gave them some time to continue their investigation.

The investigation has been ongoing and there is still no trace of them.

The officials of the Ministry of Justice all knew that the Prince of the North and the Eighth Prince had a conflict, but the Prince of the North was a good-for-nothing. They couldn't possibly pin the blame on the Prince of the North, could they? If they did, they would probably only provoke the Emperor of Xia to be even angrier.

Just then, Left Chancellor Lin Gaoyuan said with a forced smile, "Your Majesty, while finding the assassin who killed the Eighth Prince is important, the most important thing right now is the situation in the North."

Lin Gao was more concerned about the situation in the north than anyone else in the court, after all, it was his own son who was leading the troops into battle.

After hearing Lin Gaoyuan's reminder, Emperor Xia calmed down and then said to the people of the Ministry of Justice, "I will give you three more days. If you still can't find anything, you can consider the consequences yourselves."

Just as Emperor Xia was about to sit down, a soldier's voice suddenly came from outside the Xuanzheng Hall.

"A great victory in the North!!!"

Upon hearing this, the ministers in the Xuanzheng Hall were all stunned.

Great victory?

Could there still be a major victory at this point?

With the imperial army's 70,000 soldiers, plus the few old, weak, sick, and disabled soldiers in Beijun, it would be quite an achievement to be able to hold Beijun.

How could there possibly be another great victory?

It was obvious at a glance that the victory report was fabricated by the general at the front to falsely report his military achievements.

The thought that the man leading the troops north was the son of Left Chancellor Lin Gaoyuan made the Right Chancellor Zhao Wenhan's faction swallow hard, moisten their throats, and immediately prepare to impeach Lin Xiuming for fabricating victory reports.

However, when the Red Silk Messenger entered the main hall, his words immediately silenced the entire court, plunging it into a deathly stillness.

Upon entering the Xuanzheng Hall, the messenger in red silk immediately knelt down, holding the battle report in both hands, and shouted with all his might, "Your Majesty, the Northern King led the soldiers of the Northern Commandery in a valiant battle, killing 200,000 barbarian soldiers and capturing 100,000!"

These words were like a bombshell, causing an uproar throughout the imperial court.

All the ministers were dumbfounded.

They had seen fake battle reports before, but they had never seen one this fake!

Two hundred thousand barbarians were slaughtered?

Are you kidding me!

With so few soldiers in the Northern Commandery, it was already quite an achievement that they could withstand the barbarian attack.

They also killed 200,000 barbarian soldiers?

It's more like 200,000 civilians were slaughtered by barbarians!

Who wrote this battle report?

This isn't a battle report; it's like they've written down the names of all ten of their clans!

I updated 8,000 words yesterday, but I didn't get a single five-star review. It's so disheartening.

(End of this chapter)