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

As dawn approached, Mu Yuan returned to his residence with witnesses and evidence.

Fang Yuyan was sitting under the lamp sorting out old files along the canal route. The candlelight cast her shadow on the wall, and her fingertips traced the yellowed pages. Each circle and dot corresponded to a secret point in the Crown Prince's smuggling of weapons.

Seeing the slight glimpse of the hem of Mu Yuan's armor, she pushed a cup of warm ginger tea in front of him:

"The news of the Crown Prince's men being captured should have reached the palace by now. His Majesty will probably summon us at dawn."

Mu Yuan took the ginger tea, the steam blurring the bloodshot eyes. He had spent the entire night guarding outside the prison, not because he was afraid the assassin would escape, but because he feared Zhu Xu might have another trick up his sleeve.

After all, this crown prince had been operating in the capital for many years, and no one knew how many hidden agents he had in the Imperial Guard.

But now, looking at the three things spread out on the table: the assassin's confession, the original seal of the canal checkpoint, and the inscription of the Crown Prince's Mansion made from the intercepted private soldiers' armor.

He knew that the final move of this game was about to be made.

At 2:45 AM, when the eunuch delivering the imperial decree rang out outside the mansion gate, the morning mist over the capital had not yet dissipated.

Mu Yuan, carrying the wooden box containing the evidence, boarded the carriage to the palace with Fang Yuyan.

The wheels rolled over the bluestone pavement, making a steady sound. Fang Yuyan suddenly spoke softly:

"What do you plan to say about the Fang family in the Imperial Palace later? His Majesty is shrewd; we can't hide the fact that we smuggled salt to supplement the Western Army's pay."

Mu Yuan gazed at the palace walls and eaves flashing past the car window, and gently tapped the wooden box lid three times with his fingertips—this was his habit before making any decisions.

To be honest.

His voice was steady. "But we must first present the irrefutable evidence of the Crown Prince's treason before discussing the Fang family's 'crimes.' In recent years, what His Majesty has cared about most has never been the silver from the salt route, but rather that someone dared to secretly raise a private army along the canal. Only by bringing the Crown Prince's affair into the open will the Fang family's 'unavoidable circumstances' be tolerated."

When the carriage stopped outside Chengtian Gate, Zhu Qi had already been waiting there for a long time.

He hadn't slept a wink last night, his eyes bloodshot. When he saw the wooden box in Mu Yuan's hand, it was like grasping at a last straw: "Mu Yuan, my people just delivered a message that the Crown Prince entered the palace before dawn this morning and turned around and accused you in front of the Emperor, saying that you broke into the Ministry of Justice prison last night, tortured and forced a confession, and fabricated a statement. He also said that the Fang family's private salt ships are currently waiting on the canal outside the capital to pick up the Western Army's rebellion."

Mu Yuan raised an eyebrow slightly. He hadn't expected that Zhu Xu, even in dire straits, would still be able to unleash such a ruthless counterattack.

But the next second he laughed!

This Crown Prince still hasn't realized that Zhu Youzhen has been sitting on the dragon throne for thirty years and has witnessed more rebellions than they've eaten breakfast.

A "treason" plot that can be convincing with just a few empty words is utterly vulnerable in the face of real armor, seals, and assassins.

The atmosphere in the Golden Palace was even more tense than the night before.

Zhu Xu knelt in the hall, his crown prince robes still neatly in place, but his face lacked its usual gentle smile. Seeing Mu Yuan enter, he immediately pointed at him, his voice filled with grief and indignation:

"Father! It's him! Mu Yuan and the Fang family have been colluding for a long time. Last night, they kidnapped witnesses from the Ministry of Justice and fabricated evidence against me, all in an attempt to use me to cover up their smuggling of salt and iron and their treacherous schemes!"

Zhu Youzhen sat upright on the dragon throne, his fingers lightly tapping the imperial desk, his gaze sweeping over the four people kneeling below!

Zhu Xu's exasperation, Zhu Qi's panic, Mu Yuan's composure, and Fang Yuyan standing beside Mu Yuan, dressed in plain clothes but with her back ramrod straight. The emperor's voice was as deep as a mountain:

"Mu Yuan, what do you have to say in your defense of what the Crown Prince said?"

Mu Yuan stepped forward and raised the wooden box in his hand above his head.

The elite troops of the Western Army were on duty outside the palace gates last night, and His Majesty's special permission for him to bring his sword into the palace is now the most powerful proof of that!

No one dared to fabricate a lie of treason in front of the border town commander who held a sword.

"Your Majesty, I will not offer any explanation." Mu Yuan's voice resounded throughout the entire hall. "Your Majesty, I only present three items for your wise judgment."

The first piece of evidence is the killer's confession from last night.

The document clearly details how the Crown Prince replaced the guards at the checkpoints along the Grand Canal three months prior, how he fabricated the Fang family's confession about smuggled salt, how he planned to use the Fourth Prince to frame the heir apparent, and finally, how he would turn the tables and pin all the blame on the Western Army and the Fang family.

Each word corresponds to the message Fang Yuyan had previously sent back: "Unfamiliar faces in Beijing are moving along the line."

The second piece of evidence was the original inspection log that the Grand Canal Transport Office had kept sealed for three years.

On the yellowed pages, the red ink of each checkpoint guard is clearly visible. The records on the pages, including the time the grain transport ships docked and the details of the cargo they carried, contradict the accounts forged by the prince!

Those so-called "salt-carrying" cargo ships clearly stated on their manifests that they were "carrying stone and building materials," but the weight of the stone and building materials was simply insufficient to support the depth of the waterline.

The third piece of evidence was the suit of armor taken from the intercepted cargo ship.

Hidden within the lining of the armor are engraved special marks that can only be used by the Crown Prince's Imperial Workshop.

Mu Yuan's voice was firm and resounding:

"Last year, during the snowstorm in the southwest, the Western Army intercepted this ship on a tributary of the Grand Canal. There was not a single grain of official rations or a single piece of stone on board, only armor and weapons like these. At the time, I did not know who was transporting private soldiers to the border towns. It was only after the Crown Prince deployed his entire Grand Canal system this time that I followed the people he had placed and finally connected the dots."

The main hall was deathly silent.

Zhu Xu's face turned from deathly pale to ashen. He abruptly looked up at the emperor on the dragon throne, his voice trembling:

"Father! This is a forgery! They conspired to frame me!"

Zhu Youzhen didn't look at him; his gaze fell on Fang Yuyan.

The daughter of a salt merchant from Jiangnan calmly knelt down and took out the last scroll of silk from her sleeve!

That was a record of the flow of all the salt and silver in the Fang family over the past three years.

"Your Majesty, the Fang family did indeed smuggle government salt privately." Fang Yuyan's voice was unwavering. "But not a single penny of the salt profits went into the Fang family's private coffers. They were all exchanged for cotton clothing, dry rations, and gunpowder, which were then sent to the southwest through the Western Army's secret network. Last year, during the snowstorm, the Western Army was without food for three months. If it weren't for this salt revenue, the three passes of the border town would have been breached by the southern barbarians long ago."

She held the silk book high, and the date of every expenditure on it matched perfectly with the records of "cold weather, food shortages, and equipment losses" in the Xifu Army's military report.

Zhu Youzhen stared at the rolled-up scroll, remaining silent for a long time.

The smoke of ambergris rose slowly before his eyes, and the hardships of thirty years of imperial life were now reflected in his sharp eyes.

Of course he knew the difficulties faced by the Western Army!

After layers of embezzlement, less than half of the imperial rations reached the border towns. Mu Yuan's ability to keep the 200,000 Western Army firmly stationed in the southwest was never due to the meager funds allocated by the Ministry of Revenue. He had long suspected that the Crown Prince was secretly cultivating his power, but he had never obtained concrete evidence.

Today, all the fig leaves have been completely torn away.

"Crown Prince Zhu Xu".

The emperor's voice finally rang out, calm and composed, yet carrying an undeniable majesty.

"He illegally diverted grain transport, supervised the construction of private armor, framed court officials, plotted to seize the throne, deposed the crown prince, and imprisoned him in the Eastern Palace. He is not allowed to step out of the palace gates without my decree."

Zhu Xu collapsed to the ground, his face ashen.

He had been plotting for three years, but in the end he lost to the "border town warrior" he despised the most!

He thought Mu Yuan would only follow Zhu Qi's lead, but he didn't expect that this person had seen through every move on the chessboard from the very beginning.

Zhu Qi knelt to one side, his back already soaked with cold sweat.

Only now did he realize that he had been nothing more than a pawn in Mu Yuan's hands from beginning to end, used to break through the Crown Prince's defenses, yet he couldn't even gain a fraction of the credit for the succession struggle.

The emperor's gaze swept over him, carrying a hint of disdain: "Fourth Prince, you acted rashly and failed to distinguish between loyalty and treachery. You are hereby fined three years' salary, confined to your home to reflect on your mistakes, and forbidden from entering the court without imperial decree."

Soon, only Mu Yuan and Fang Yuyan remained in the main hall.

Zhu Youzhen stepped down from the dragon throne and patted Mu Yuan on the shoulder.

This border general, who had risked his life on the battlefield, still stood tall before the emperor.

"I will not pursue your matter with the Fang family." The emperor's voice softened slightly. "From now on, 30% of the salt permits in the Jiangnan salt route will be allocated to the Western Army for distribution. You will no longer need to take these risky routes. The defense line in the southwest will still depend on you."

As Mu Yuan kowtowed to express his gratitude, the sun outside the window just shone over the palace wall, illuminating the glazed tiles of the Golden Palace.

A few days later.

The new decree along the Grand Canal spread throughout Jiangnan.

All the checkpoint commanders placed by the Crown Prince were replaced, and the official boats on the Grand Canal resumed their steady voyages with the tides, with no more unfamiliar faces from the capital wandering along the river.

The Fang family's salt shop still operates in the streets and alleys of Jiangnan, but they no longer need to operate secretly. Every transaction of salt silver flows openly and legitimately into the military treasury in the southwest.

On the day Mu Yuan took Fang Yuyan away from the capital back to the border town, Zhu Qi stood on the city tower and watched their carriage disappear into the distance.

He finally realized that after fighting with the Crown Prince for so long, he had never understood the young master of the Western Army who wore a sword at his waist!

What he wanted was never the credit for seizing the throne, nor the power in the court. All he wanted was for the 200,000 soldiers of the Western Army to be able to wear warm clothes and eat their fill in the snow and wind of the southwest, and to firmly guard the gates of the Great Qian Dynasty.

As the carriage drove away from the city gates of the capital, Fang Yuyan lifted the curtain, gazing at the palaces gradually receding into the distance, and softly spoke:

"This game of chess is finally over."

Mu Yuan sat beside her, gazing at the southwest horizon. There lay the continuous border defense line, the place where the flags of the Western Army fluttered in the wind. He tapped lightly on the car window with his fingertips, a relieved smile playing on his lips.

The mist over the Grand Canal has dissipated, and the turmoil in the imperial court has subsided.

He should go back to the southwest.