I, the villainous eldest prince, will suppress everything!

These words were tantamount to the two of them talking naked, meeting each other in complete nudity.

Although the two had already met naked before, the significance of that time was clearly different from this one!

Because they belong to different camps, the two will always be enemies, and that will never change.

One is the eldest prince of the Great Zhou Dynasty, and the other is the empress of the Northern Mang Dynasty. They both dream of devouring each other.

Unfortunately, neither side can or is capable of doing so now.

"Speak! What does His Majesty desire to spare the vanguard battalion within the barbican?"

Qin Li squinted at the Great Zhou army formation outside the city, sighed, and asked.

This time, the blame lies with the vanguard battalion for their recklessness, which allowed the Empress to seize the opportunity.

The Empress did not directly order the complete annihilation of the vanguard battalion because she was being merciful and lenient, not wanting to push things too far!

If Qin Li wants the Empress to spare the vanguard battalion, he'll have to bleed a lot of money.

Qin Li was prepared for this; at worst, he could ask Su Chen for it when he got back.

Su Chen didn't have it? Then we'll turn his Dingyuan Marquis's mansion upside down and find a way to make up for it.

The Empress raised her left hand, held it up to the sunlight, admiring her glossy, delicate nails, and said with a smile:

"To borrow a phrase from the First Prince, it's always comfortable talking to intelligent people."

"In that case, Your Highness, please order a withdrawal!"

"How about handing over Xuanque Pass to me?"

"What?!"

Qin Li narrowed his eyes even more, until they were just slits.

He gripped the armrests on both sides of the chair with both hands and sat up abruptly.

"You want Xuanque Pass?"

"We made a promise before: I, the prince, would only spare your two younger brothers if your Northern Mang withdrew from Xuanque Pass. Does Your Majesty intend to break your word?"

The Empress continued to admire her beautiful nails, not even glancing at Qin Li, and said:

"There was indeed an agreement before, and there was a reason for this. You can't blame me!"

"Fang Yuan has escaped! The man who poisoned 50,000 of my Northern Barbarian troops has escaped!"

"Shouldn't I ask the Crown Prince for some other compensation? I think Xuanque Pass is quite good, so let's use Xuanque Pass as collateral."

At Qingling Pass, Fang Yuan led his men to poison the water source, causing countless deaths and injuries among the people of the Great Zhou Dynasty within the city, leaving corpses scattered everywhere.

The Northern Mang army stationed in the city at that time was not in much better shape.

After further calculation, it was found that more than 50,000 Northern Mang soldiers had died.

Qin Li didn't have time to care how many soldiers from Northern Mang had died; it was none of his business if they all died.

It would be better if they all died; the strength of Northern Mang would be greatly reduced.

What he cared about was Xuanque Pass and Fang Yuan's escape.

"They escaped?"

Qin Li raised his voice, frowned, and looked incredulous.

The Empress nodded, glanced at Qin Li, and said, "He did escape, so I have no reason to lie to the Crown Prince about this."

"When I sent someone to hand Fang Yuan over to His Majesty, Fang Yuan was in a state of demonic possession." Qin Li emphasized, sounding somewhat angry.

How could someone who's gone mad and lost their mind be allowed to escape? What is the Empress even good for?

Upon hearing this, the Empress became somewhat angry and lowered her hand.

"It's true that you've gone into a state of demonic possession, but does Your Highness know that when a martial artist goes into a state of demonic possession, their strength usually increases dramatically?"

"Even with greatly increased strength, with the experts around His Majesty, can't he defeat a mere Fang Yuan?"

With that one sentence, the Empress fell silent instantly, but she was clearly furious.

It was indeed her mistake and carelessness that allowed Fang Yuan to escape.

Otherwise, even a hundred Fang Yuans wouldn't be able to escape from her hands!

"Fang Yuan, I personally sent someone to deliver this to His Majesty."

"Now that the person has escaped, how dare Your Majesty ask this prince for anything again?"

boom!

The Empress slammed her hand on the armrest of her dragon throne, making a loud noise. "How dare you! How dare you speak to me like that!"

Enraged, the Empress drew her swords and glared at Qin Li.

As soon as the Empress gave the order, they rushed forward and hacked Qin Li into mincemeat without the slightest hesitation.

Zhou Biao and his men were not to be trifled with either; although they outnumbered each other, they all drew their swords.

If they were to die, they would die alongside their eldest prince; if they were to die, they would take a few others down with them.

Normally, Qin Li would never speak to the Empress like this.

He simply couldn't help himself.

Fang Yuan is the main character.

If he gets away, that would be terrible!

From now on, I'll have to sleep with my eyes open, wary of Qin Li, this villain.

The Empress ruined his grand plan.

If Qin Li had known this would happen, he should have executed Fang Yuan himself to prevent future troubles!

With a wave of her hand, the Empress ordered the soldiers to sheathe their swords.

At the moment, she doesn't want to strain her relationship with Qin Li too much!

In any case, the two are now allies and partners.

"Fine, Fang Yuan escaped. It was my mistake, and I won't hold it against you."

"But your vanguard battalion entered the city before I led my troops out of Xuanque Pass. What is your intention?"

"Now, trapped within the barbican, your life or death rests entirely in my hands!"

"Their lives must be on the Crown Prince's mind."

"How about we take Xuanque Pass in exchange for their survival?"

Qin Li sneered, "Your Majesty has truly played a clever game of wishful thinking. If everyone did business like Your Majesty, this prince would lose everything, not even a drop of bitter tea!"

"The vanguard battalion numbers a mere five thousand men, while Xuanque Pass is the formidable northern pass of our Great Zhou!"

"Don't even mention five thousand people, even fifty thousand would be a loss for this prince!"

Xuanque Pass has been the first pass for the Central Plains dynasties to defend against the southward invasion of the northern nomadic tribes since ancient times!

Throughout history, the Central Plains dynasties have spent countless manpower and resources to improve Xuanque Pass and enhance its defenses.

If the Great Zhou hadn't neglected the military preparedness of the northern border in recent years, the Empress would never have been able to cross this pass.

Even so, the Empress paid a heavy price to conquer Xuanque Pass.

If we cannot firmly grasp Xuanque Pass, the northern border will be forever open to the Northern Barbarians.

The Northern Barbarians could move south at any time.

Therefore, Qin Li must recapture Xuanque Pass no matter what.

This is his bottom line, his red line, and no one can cross it.

The Empress laughed as well, "Five thousand men, or fifty thousand men, certainly cannot buy Xuanque Pass, but Crown Prince, don't forget, your future Crown Princess, and even Empress, are among those five thousand!"

"What, does the First Prince want her dead right now?"

The Empress has a weakness: her two foolish younger brothers.

She would give anything for the sake of thousands of troops.

Qin Li had said he had no weaknesses, but the Empress did not believe him.

This time, she wanted to test whether she could exploit Wei Hongying's weakness to manipulate Qin Li.

The spies hidden in the Great Zhou army had already sent back news that Wei Hongying was nominally the Seventh Prince's fiancée, but in reality, she belonged to Qin Li, and Qin Li and Wei Hongying had even consummated their marriage.

"You're threatening me, the prince!"

The Empress did not answer the question directly, but instead asked, "Has the Crown Prince admitted it?"

"Admit what?"

"Admit that Wei Hongying is your woman!"

Qin Li fell silent, his eyes fixed on the Empress, his mind filled with thoughts of killing her.

As time went on, the empress not only didn't get angry, but instead laughed even more happily.

See? See? She said Qin Li also has a weakness.

What makes her even happier is that she has now seized this weakness.

Just when the Empress thought she had victory in her grasp and used Wei Hongying as leverage to force Qin Li to agree to her unreasonable demands.

Qin Li suddenly stood up from his chair.

Seeing Qin Li stand up, the Empress frowned and asked in confusion, "What, is the Crown Prince leaving?"

"I really don't care about that beauty anymore. I only caught a glimpse of her from afar, and she is truly beautiful."

"If I were a man, I would be tempted too!"

As they were talking, the Empress noticed the slight upturn of Qin Li's lips.

Although she didn't know what Qin Li was up to, the Empress still felt a sense of foreboding.

Sure enough, the next moment, Qin Li was heard loudly proclaiming, "Your Empress Murong Huang drugged me with aphrodisiacs back at Qingling Pass! She slept with me! She slept with me!"

The incident happened so suddenly that the Empress had no time to send anyone to stop it, nor did she expect Qin Li to pull this stunt.

Qin Li stood up and shouted very loudly.

The sound carried very far, and almost every Northern Mang soldier on the city wall could hear it.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Biao and the others immediately echoed, shouting, "Yes, yes, your Empress gave our Crown Prince an aphrodisiac and slept with him! Slept with him!"

Zhou Biao and the others deliberately emphasized the word "slept," shouting it several times in a row, as if afraid the Northern Barbarian soldiers wouldn't hear them!

The Empress was trembling with rage. With just a glance, Jin Ge led his men forward and immediately silenced them.

With several knives held to the necks of Zhou Biao and his men, they immediately dared not make any rash moves.

Even Qin Li had a knife held to his neck...