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

Chapter 226 Wu Junwan's Curiosity

As a member of the Xuan Yue Palace, Lin Wanyun naturally knew the function of the Twin Butterflies, but she was somewhat surprised that Chen Wanrong would actually use this move.

This is a strategy that would hurt the enemy a thousand while harming oneself eight hundred. Once Chen Wanrong ingests the powder from the female lovebird butterfly, she will also develop a strong interest in men who have ingested the male lovebird butterfly. This is why Chen Wanrong did not use this tactic at first.

Of course, there was another major reason why she didn't use this trick at first: the disciples of Xuan Yue Palace had spent a lot of time collecting the powder from the Lovebird Butterflies, and it wasn't until recently that they delivered the collected Lovebird Butterfly powder to the Northern King's Mansion.

Although the Lovebirds Powder can affect people, Chen Wanrong's strength is sufficient to force the Lovebirds Powder she has ingested out of her body. However, in doing so, she would no longer be attractive to Lu Chen.

Therefore, in order for the powder from the lovebird butterfly to take effect, she had to suppress the strange movements in her body and ensure that the powder from the lovebird butterfly's wings remained inside her body.

Once Lu Chen can't hold back any longer and comes to her, she can take that opportunity to directly implant the love potion into Lu Chen's body.

Lin Wanyun looked at the bottle in her hand, then glanced at Chen Wanrong, and asked with certainty, "Palace Master, are you sure you want to use this method? Once you use the Butterfly Powder, you yourself might develop feelings for the Northern King."

Chen Wanrong said expressionlessly, "We're out of time. Even if we can't control his time for too long, we must refine the Dragon Subduing Curse before Zhuge Chongguang discovers our purpose. The Great Xia is about to fall into chaos. This is my last chance."

Lin Wanyun sighed and said, "Alright, I'll take the opportunity to put the Butterfly Powder into his water while I'm serving him tea and water."

With that, Lin Wanyun turned and left the courtyard.

After Lin Wanyun left, Chen Wanrong took out another small porcelain bottle. Looking at the female lovebird powder in her hand, a slight change appeared on Chen Wanrong's usually icy face, as if she had made up her mind.

The Great Xia imperial army is about to march south, and a civil war is about to begin. She must seize the time to refine the Dragon Subduing Spell, and then take advantage of the internal strife in Great Xia, when the capital's defenses are weakened, to directly attack the palace, kill the Xia emperor, and avenge her parents.

After the Xia Emperor dies, the people on the former land of Chen will surely be inspired. At that time, she can reveal her identity as a princess of Chen and lead the former officials of Chen to restore the country.

All the plans had been brewing in Chen Wanrong's mind for almost a year, and now it was time to put them into practice.

News of what happened in Yancheng today quickly spread to other dynasties, and people from all the major dynasties were very surprised when they heard about it.

The Northern Kingdom is clearly just a remote vassal state. Why would Zhuge Chongguang, a literary sage, go to this place and be so polite to the Northern King, a vassal king? Could it be that Zhuge Chongguang plans to move the Huanyu Academy to the Northern Kingdom?

Huanyu Academy is indeed unpopular, but Zhuge Chongguang is a Grandmaster-level expert. As long as Huanyu Academy is retained, Zhuge Chongguang can be won over.

Now that the Grandmaster Zhuge Chongguang has fled to the northern country, the rulers of the Great Qian Dynasty are very unhappy.

Although Emperor Qianlong disliked the students at Huanyu Academy who talked big, and the court officials had always wanted to shut down Huanyu Academy, he did not take any action against it for the sake of the Grandmaster Zhuge Chongguang.

Now that Zhuge Chongguang has actually gone to the Great Xia Dynasty, and it seems he even wants to move the Huanyu Academy there as well, this makes Emperor Qian very uncomfortable.

It's all the fault of those ministers, who have been spreading rumors among the people all day long, thus offending the great master Zhuge Chongguang.

In an effort to win back Zhuge Chongguang, Emperor Qian quickly dispatched an envoy to the northern kingdom, hoping to keep Zhuge Chongguang in the Great Qian Dynasty. He also promised that he would give the students of Huanyu Academy opportunities to become officials in the future.

At this time, Emperor Qian still thought that Zhuge Chongguang had left in a huff, and had no idea that Zhuge Chongguang was already Lu Chen's man.

……

The Great Wu Dynasty.

Qingyun Palace.

The stunningly beautiful Wu Yunwan, dressed in a crimson robe trimmed with gold thread, reclined on a phoenix chair, looking somewhat listless.

Inside the main hall, a middle-aged man was talking. After listening to what the middle-aged man said, Wu Yunwan yawned and then said, "Prime Minister Chai, you are not a very competent prime minister. It has been almost a year, and the civil unrest in the southwest has not been resolved yet."

"My father has given us a chance. If we can't resolve this in a short time, he will mobilize a large army and use force to quell the rebellion."

"I have heard that the Great Xia has already sent troops south to take action against the powerful families of Jiangnan. At this time, the Great Xia has no time to come and cause trouble for the Great Wu."

After the uprising broke out in the Great Wu Dynasty, Emperor Wu immediately dispatched a large army to quell the rebellion. Emperor Wu and the officials of the Great Wu Dynasty believed that the peasant soldiers who rebelled were just ordinary people. They thought that once the Great Wu Dynasty's army arrived, they would be frightened into a rout and that they could resolve the rebellion in less than a month.

To everyone's surprise, the Great Wu has yet to resolve the chaos in the southwest, and the imperial army has even reached a stalemate with the rebels.

This infuriated the Emperor, who always preferred to solve problems with force. The rebels were only a few hundred thousand peasant soldiers, and there weren't many martial artists in the army. Yet, these few hundred thousand peasant soldiers were able to hold off the imperial army for so long.

If it weren't for the fear that Great Xia would retaliate against Great Wu at this time, Emperor Wu would likely have directly transferred the elite soldiers from Great Xia's border to attack the rebels in the southwest.

Chai Jiliang belonged to the peace faction in the imperial court, and he intended to resolve the unrest in the southwest peacefully with minimal cost.

In his view, the reason why the common people rebelled was because Emperor Wu had been waging wars against foreign countries for years, which made life difficult for the people. This allowed some people with ulterior motives to take advantage of this and incite the people's hatred towards the court.

Therefore, the best way for Emperor Wu to resolve the popular uprising was to first issue an edict of self-reproach and make some promises to the people, appease the people among the rebels, and persuade some people who were not determined to rebel to give up their idea of ​​rebellion.

Unfortunately, Emperor Wu would never issue an edict of self-reproach. He never believed he was wrong, and as the emperor, how could an emperor so easily admit his mistakes?

However, in order to resolve the chaos in the southwest, Emperor Wu listened to some of Chai Jiliang's suggestions and sent people to convey some peaceful ideas to the rebels.

Emperor Wu sent messengers to tell the rebels that as long as they surrendered and did not continue to rebel, he could pardon all their crimes and even appoint the rebel leaders as generals.

Using incentives to lure rebel leaders into laying down their arms is a common method for resolving insurgency.

However, the rebel leaders did not seem to accept the Empress's terms. They had big appetites and wanted a lot of things, which led the court to send many envoys to negotiate with the rebel leaders, but no agreement was reached that satisfied both sides.

This made Emperor Wu uneasy. As an emperor, he had already made such a big concession, but those unruly people were still ungrateful and wanted more.

Since we can't reach an agreement, let's just start fighting.

Just then, they received news that the Great Xia had sent troops south.

It's obvious to everyone what the Great Xia wants to do by sending troops south. Great Xia will soon be in chaos, and then Great Wu won't need to worry about Great Xia's retaliation. In addition, Great Qian is currently affected by the plague and can't spare the energy to cause trouble for Great Wu.

As for Dayue, the Yue Emperor and Wu Yunwan are like sisters and have a very good relationship. Moreover, there are barbarian tribes in the north putting pressure on Dayue, so Dayue would not take advantage of their vulnerability at this time.

Since there were no external threats, Emperor Wu had nothing to worry about. He planned to recall the elite soldiers who were guarding against the Great Xia and eliminate the rebels in the southwest within two months.

Empress Wu's decision put Prime Minister Chai Jiliang in a very awkward position. After all, Chai Jiliang had initially advocated for a peaceful resolution to the rebellion in the southwest, but after dragging it out for more than half a year, the rebellion still had to be resolved by force.

Upon hearing Wu Yunwan's words, Chai Jiliang said, "If His Majesty really uses force to quell the rebellion, he is creating an opportunity for the vassal kings within the Great Wu territory. The ones who most want to rebel within the Great Wu territory are not the common people, but the vassal kings who hold heavy troops. The reason why the rebellion in the southwest has not been resolved is because someone is secretly causing trouble."

"If Your Majesty loses patience and sends troops now, it is very likely that those vassal kings will also jump out at this time."

Wu Junwan chuckled softly, then said, "My father doesn't have as many worries as Prime Minister Chai. Anyone who dares to step forward will surely have their head rolled."

As soon as Wu Yunwan finished speaking, and Chai Jiliang was about to say something, a maid entered the hall, "Your Highness, intelligence from the Northern Kingdom!"

Upon hearing this, Wu Yunwan immediately stood up and sat up straight. "Hand it over."

The next moment, the maid handed Wu Yunwan a piece of intelligence from the Northern Kingdom. Wu Yunwan took the intelligence and glanced at it carefully.

Then, she frowned and muttered to herself, "I thought Zhuge Chongguang would go to Dayue, but I didn't expect him to end up in the Northern Kingdom..."

Seeing that Wu Yunwan's expression was rather unpleasant, Chai Jiliang asked, "Your Highness, what has happened? Why do you look so pale?"

Wu Yunwan did not answer. She folded the intelligence report in her hand and flew it directly towards Chai Jiliang.

Chai Jiliang caught the intelligence report that Wu Yunwan had sent him, glanced at it, and then fell into deep thought.

Wu Yunwan smiled and said, "Since you know so much, Minister Chai, could you analyze for me why Zhuge Chongguang rejected me and ultimately didn't stay in Dayue, but instead went to the Northern Kingdom?"

Upon hearing Wu Yunwan's question, Chai Jiliang snapped out of his reverie and replied directly, "Your subject does not know."

The situation in the Northern Kingdom is very special right now. Not only is there a mysterious super power, but the Xuan Yue Palace is also located in the Northern Kingdom. The Palace Master of the Xuan Yue Palace has been in the Northern Kingdom for an unknown period of time. Now, Zhuge Chongguang, the Sage of Literature, has also gone to the Northern Kingdom. No one knows what they want to get from the Northern Kingdom.

Wu Yunwan said jokingly, "I never expected there were things that Prime Minister Chai didn't know. This is quite unexpected."

At this moment, Wu Yunwan stood up and slowly walked towards the center of the hall. She looked at the sky outside the hall and said, "Including Zhuge Chongguang, there are now two Grandmasters in the Northern Kingdom. I am not surprised that the Northern King declared independence that day. However, I am very curious about what the Northern Kingdom has that makes them so eager to go there one after another."

At this point, Wu Junwan said to her maid, "Write to the Qianhai Chamber of Commerce immediately and let them get a little more active."

Hearing Wu Yunwan's words, Chai Jiliang said with some dissatisfaction, "Princess, the rebellion within the Great Wu territory has not yet been resolved. Is there any need to be so concerned about what is happening in the Northern Kingdom?"

Wu Yunwan asked with a smile, "Isn't Prime Minister Chai curious about what the Northern Kingdom has?"

Chai Jiliang said, "If there is something in the Northern Kingdom that attracts all the major forces, it won't be long before the news leaks out. At this stage, the most important thing for the Great Wu is to quell the rebellion."

"If the eldest princess wants that position, suppressing the rebellion is the best opportunity. As long as there is no enemy country invading Great Wu, what is happening in other countries now is not important."

Upon hearing Chai Jiliang's words, Wu Yunwan said calmly, "What you say is true, then I'll trouble you to come up with a way for me to intervene in this matter."

Chai Jiliang said calmly, "Please don't be impatient, Your Highness, the opportunity will come soon."

(End of this chapter)