His entire family perished in battle; he rose from the ashes to conquer the world.

Upon learning that it was the Fourth Prince Zhu Qi who sent the messenger, Mu Yuan's eyes lit up.

"Uncle Xu, please excuse me."

Without the slightest hesitation, Mu Yuan greeted Xu Wei and hurriedly left the Xu residence for the Fourth Prince's mansion.

Xu Wei watched Mu Yuan's departing figure, sighed deeply, and a complex look flashed in his eyes.

the other side.

Mu Yuan arrived at the residence of the Fourth Prince, Zhu Qi.

Upon seeing Mu Yuan, Zhu Qi's face beamed with smiles, and he exclaimed, "A narrow escape from death! A narrow escape from death!"

Upon hearing this, Mu Yuan's heart stirred, and he said:

"So it seems Your Highness has made some progress?"

"That's right." Zhu Qi nodded and said, "Fang Bai of the Fang family did indeed bribe officials in the canal transport sector to sell smuggled salt."

At this point, Zhu Qi deliberately paused to observe Mu Yuan's expression. Seeing that he remained calm, he continued:

"According to my information, there are three officials in charge of the canal transport who have been bribed, two of whom are from the Crown Prince's residence."

After saying that, Zhu Qi gave a sinister smile.

Clearly, the intelligence he possessed contained information detrimental to Crown Prince Zhu Xu.

When Mu Yuan learned that two of the bribed officials in the canal transport sector came from the Crown Prince's residence, he immediately sensed that something was amiss.

The purpose of selling smuggled salt was to improve the food for the Western Army and fill the gap in military pay. Mu Yuan entrusted the task to his third sister-in-law, Fang Yuyan, who, with her business acumen, would certainly not act so rashly.

Fang Bai, the cousin of the third sister-in-law, also seems to be closely involved in this matter.

Mu Yuan's fingers suddenly clenched tightly in his sleeve. The doubts that had arisen from Zhu Qi's words earlier, like embers doused with ice water, instantly sank to the bottom of his heart.

He originally thought that Fang Bai was cunning and scheming, using the pretext of supplementing the military pay of the Western Army to secretly carry out his plan.

They thought they were using the Crown Prince's people as front men, but upon closer reflection, given Fang Yuyan's calculating nature, it was impossible for her to bribe two of the Crown Prince's subordinates, who were not trusted by the Fang family, at such a crucial juncture as the Grand Canal transport.

Moreover, Fang Bai has been operating in the salt trade for decades, with trusted confidants all over the checkpoints along the route. Why would he go to such lengths to bribe the Crown Prince's men?

"From which channel did Your Highness receive this message?"

Mu Yuan looked up, a mixture of shock and lingering fear on his face: "The Fang family and the Crown Prince's residence have always kept to themselves. Where did Fang Bai get the audacity to use the Crown Prince's men to smuggle salt? Isn't that blatantly handing a knife to his own throat?"

Zhu Qi paused for a moment, holding the teacup, then smiled and placed the teacup on the table, tapping the surface with his fingertip as he slowly said:

"This brings us to Fang Bai. He's incredibly shrewd. He uses the Crown Prince's men to smuggle salt. Even if they're caught halfway through, the first thing they'll do is investigate the Crown Prince. Who would suspect the Fang family first? By the time His Majesty is furious and busy investigating the Crown Prince's negligence, the Fang family will have already sold all the salt and pocketed the money."

As he spoke, he took out a stack of account books from behind the desk and slammed them down in front of Mu Yuan.

As the pages fluttered, the table was covered with densely packed accounts and signed confessions, even the numbers of the cargo ships and the times they docked were clearly written down.

The most glaring detail was at the end of the confessions of the two transport officials, which clearly stated that they had been "lured by Fang Bai with a large sum of money and secretly engaged in smuggling salt without the knowledge of the Crown Prince."

Mu Yuan's gaze swept over the amount of money in the ledger, but his heart sank lower and lower.

These accounts are so "clean" that it's as if someone had meticulously calculated each item in advance, just waiting for someone to come and check them.

He suddenly remembered that his third sister-in-law, Fang Yuyan, had once said that during the journey of smuggling salt, the checkpoint was suddenly changed halfway through the journey, and his former subordinates sent word that there were unfamiliar faces from the capital walking along the line.

At the time, he thought it was just a routine inspection by the imperial court, but now, looking back, he realizes that it was not an inspection at all, but rather a pre-arranged trap.

"Does Your Highness mean that I should take this evidence and accompany you to the palace to meet the Emperor tomorrow?" Mu Yuan raised his head, his voice tense with a hint of probing.

Zhu Qi stepped forward, patted him on the shoulder, and his smile was so warm it was almost scalding:

"Exactly. You are the commander of the Western Army and also related to the Fang family by marriage. If you testify against Fang Bai and present the connection between these two transport officials and the Crown Prince before the Emperor, His Majesty will surely believe you. When the Fang family falls, I will give your Western Army 30% of the half of the profits from the Jiangnan Salt Road. From now on, you will never have to worry about military pay and provisions again."

Zhu Qi was unaware that the Fang family's smuggling of salt was orchestrated by Mu Yuan.

However, Mu Yuan could not reveal this to Zhu Qi.

Mu Yuan deliberately bowed to express his gratitude, but his fingertips secretly made a deep mark in his sleeve.

He instantly pieced all the fragments together. It wasn't the Fang family bribing the Crown Prince's people; it was clearly Crown Prince Zhu Xu who had long been eyeing the West Army's lack of military pay. He deliberately "placed" his two pawns, planted in the canal transport, in front of Fang Bai, using fabricated evidence to buy off evidence and shift all the blame onto the Fang family.

Once the smuggled salt boats docked and the smugglers were caught red-handed, the Fang family, a powerful salt merchant clan that had dominated Jiangnan for centuries, would immediately be accused of treason by "colluding with the Crown Prince and smuggling official salt," and the entire family would be executed.

The Crown Prince could use this incident to eliminate his financial rivals in Jiangnan, seize control of the entire salt route, and conveniently shift the blame for inadequate supervision onto the Fourth Prince, Zhu Qi.

After all, the grain transport was under Zhu Qi's jurisdiction, and with such a major incident, he, as the prince in charge, could not escape responsibility.

As for Mu Yuan and the Xifu Army, who were short of pay, they would be accused of "colluding with salt smugglers" and become fish on the Crown Prince's chopping block.

What a cunning plan that kills three birds with one stone!

Zhu Qi was still rambling on about the rewards after the mission was accomplished, but Mu Yuan suddenly remembered the long sigh Xu Wei let out as he watched him leave.

Xu Wei had long understood this situation; the Crown Prince never cared about the smuggled salt.

It is not only the fate of the Fang family, but also the power of the Xifu Army, and even more so, a move to stabilize the situation for the crown prince by wiping out all potential rivals.

Zhu Qi thought he had the leverage to bring down the Crown Prince, but little did he know that every page of the account book in his hands was bait deliberately handed to him by the Crown Prince. When he jumped out and took the bait, it would be the time when he, the Fang family, and the Western Army would be hanged together.

"Your Highness, this matter is of great importance, involving both the Crown Prince and the Fang family. I must return to my residence to make a proper plan, lest I enter the palace tomorrow and, if I say anything incorrect, alert the enemy."

Mu Yuan closed the account book and hugged it to his chest, looking at Zhu Qi with a solemn expression.

Zhu Qi had no doubt whatsoever and nodded with a smile: "That's only right. I'll be waiting for your good news at home. Tomorrow at dawn, we'll go to the palace together."

Mu Yuan returned to his residence and spent the entire night going through the account books three times from beginning to end. With each reading, his heart sank a little deeper.

The testimonies of the two canal transport officials described in detail when and where Fang Bai invited them to drink, what was said during the meal, and how many silver notes were handed over, as if they had witnessed it themselves.

But it's just too detailed...