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

Chapter 98 The Northern King's Family Letter

The atmosphere inside the Xuanzheng Hall was extremely heavy, and the ministers dared not even breathe loudly.

With such a thing happening right under the emperor's nose, the Xia Emperor is furious beyond measure, and they dare not provoke him at this time.

After a long pause, Emperor Xia finally spoke, saying, "This is only the second time such a heinous incident has occurred in the capital since I ascended the throne. This is a contempt for imperial authority and a provocation against me!"

At this point, Emperor Xia's gaze fell on the commander of the Imperial Guards, "Li Ming, have all the assassins from last night been captured?"

Upon hearing this, Li Ming, the commander of the Imperial Guards, knelt down abruptly and hurriedly said, "Your Majesty... Your Majesty, when I arrived at the Eighth Prince's residence yesterday, the assassins had already fled."

Li Ming was sweating profusely, fearing that the Xia Emperor might order him to be dragged out and beheaded in a fit of anger.

Hearing Li Ming's words, Emperor Xia coldly said, "Last time you allowed remnants of the Chen Kingdom to infiltrate the palace, and I didn't punish you. This time, such a heinous incident as the massacre of a prince's residence occurred in the capital, and you didn't even see a shadow of the assassins. What use are you as the commander of the Imperial Guards!"

"Effective immediately, Li Ming is relieved of all his posts and exiled to the frontier."

Upon hearing Emperor Xia's words, Li Ming breathed a sigh of relief and immediately kowtowed, saying, "Thank you for your great kindness, Your Majesty!"

Although he lost his job, Li Ming was at least saved, and he felt somewhat fortunate.

At this point, Emperor Xia continued, "This case will be handed over to the Ministry of Justice for investigation. I need a satisfactory answer within three days!"

Upon hearing this, the officials of the Ministry of Justice trembled with fear.

This is something they can't possibly investigate, nor dare to investigate.

The assassins massacred the Eighth Prince's residence, even killing the Grandmaster there, which means that at least one of the assassins last night was a Grandmaster.

The fact that someone could send a grandmaster and dare to go so far as to massacre a prince's residence must mean that there is a powerful force behind them.

It could even be the work of another prince.

If they find out that it was actually another prince who committed the crime, it will be a hot potato for the Ministry of Justice. In the Great Xia Dynasty, the Ministry of Justice has no way to handle the case and is not qualified to try the crimes of princes.

Although they knew this was a hot potato, the officials of the Ministry of Justice dared not refuse. The Emperor was furious, and if they dared to say anything at this time, they would probably lose their heads later.

At this moment, Emperor Xia said to Lu Shuyun, "Prince Qi, get up. I will take care of this matter for you."

Lu Shuyun quickly said, "Your subject thanks Your Majesty."

Emperor Xia did not say anything more about this matter. Although the matter was extremely serious, the assassin had not yet been caught and there was not even a trace of information about him. It was too early to discuss how to deal with the assassin.

They had other matters to discuss today, and Emperor Xia looked at the Minister of Revenue and said, "Minister Wang, I've heard that you've been obstructing the supply of provisions for the army heading to Beijun. Is this true?"

Minister of Revenue Wang Hai hurriedly said, "Your Majesty, it's not that I want to withhold the army's provisions, but the Ministry of Revenue is severely in debt, and we simply can't raise that much silver in a short time."

The Xia Emperor coldly replied, "Are you saying that if we can't raise the money, the court shouldn't send troops to the Northern Commandery to defend against the barbarians?"

"Wang Hai, could it be that you're colluding with the barbarians, hoping they'll advance unimpeded and reach the capital, deliberately delaying the army's departure?"

Upon hearing Emperor Xia's words, Wang Hai's face turned deathly pale. His Wang family did indeed have some dealings with the barbarians, but he hadn't expected Emperor Xia to say it so directly.

Although it sounded like Emperor Xia was testing them, Wang Hai had a feeling that Emperor Xia knew something.

Wang Hai immediately knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, I am doing my best to prepare provisions for the army."

The Xia Emperor coldly said, "If the army still cannot march north within three days, you will no longer be the Minister of Revenue."

Just as Emperor Xia was about to continue speaking, a voice suddenly came from the entrance of the main hall.

"Urgent report from the North!"

The next moment, a messenger in red ribbons rushed into the main hall.

Upon seeing the red-robed messenger, the ministers in the hall all turned pale.

If the Red Silk Messenger is used at this time, does it mean that the barbarians have already begun their southward advance?

The imperial army here is still worried about food supplies, while the barbarian cavalry in the north have already moved south. How can we defend Beijun?

Could it be that we really have to rely on that useless prince?

Let's forget about it then. I'm afraid that the barbarian cavalry won't even reach Yancheng before that useless prince escapes back to the capital.

At this moment, the messenger in red silk said, "The Northern King of the Barbarians has led 100,000 cavalry to meet at the royal court of the Barbarian King of the Heavenly Wolf, and they are about to march south!"

"This is the Northern King's battle report. In addition, the Northern King sent a letter home to His Majesty."

Upon hearing this, everyone in the hall was stunned.

A letter from home?

A prince who had been enfeoffed wrote a letter home to the emperor.

This……

It seems not impossible.

Although the Northern King has already gone to his fiefdom, he is still the emperor's son, and there is a father-son relationship between them.

However, since the founding of the Great Xia Dynasty, it seems that no vassal king has ever written a letter to the emperor; they have always submitted memorials.

Without hesitation, the eunuch beside Emperor Xia immediately went to the messenger in red silk, took the battle report and the letter from home, and presented them to Emperor Xia.

After receiving the battle report and the letter from home, Emperor Xia first looked at the battle report. The report was written without any problems, and the Northern King also mentioned the arrangements for the Northern Commandery.

However, what puzzled Emperor Xia was that Lu Chen actually planned to implement a scorched-earth policy, relocating all the people north of Yancheng to the south of Yancheng, and then leading his army to fight a decisive battle against the 300,000-strong barbarian army in Yancheng.

Emperor Xia frowned. Who came up with this strategy?

He didn't think his good-for-nothing son had that kind of guts. Putting aside whether the strategy would be effective, it would take a lot of courage to do it.

Yancheng currently has only 30,000, or at most 50,000, soldiers. It will probably not be easy for Yancheng to hold off the barbarian cavalry.

Moreover, this would lead to Yancheng being besieged by the barbarian army. How could he not know what kind of personality his son had? Emperor Xia did not believe that Lu Chen would put himself in danger.

After reading the battle report, Emperor Xia then opened Lu Chen's letter home.

Upon reading only the beginning of the letter, Emperor Xia snorted coldly. He wondered why Lu Chen had suddenly become so decisive; it turned out he wanted him to send a large army to support Beijun as soon as possible.

Seeing Lu Chen's pathetic display of crying for his father in the letter home, Emperor Xia wanted to tear the letter up immediately, but he ultimately resisted the urge to read on.

When he saw the next part, his face instantly darkened, especially when he saw the last line of text, Xia Huang's brows immediately furrowed.

He had long known that the barbarian invasion was related to powerful clans; such things could be guessed without investigation. However, he did not know who was colluding with the barbarians.

The weapons of the Great Xia Dynasty that Lu Chen mentioned in his letter home only confirmed his guess once again.

What truly made Emperor Xia frown was that Lu Chen mentioned the Eighth Prince in his letter.

(End of this chapter)