Li Xia thought of the high walls that had collapsed one after another in the imperial palace, and said in a low voice.

  Li Wenshan stared blankly at Li Xia, nodded slightly, and then nodded again. In the past, that formidable one shouldn't have been him, should it...

  ………………

  As the sky was approaching dusk, Zhong Baozi carried a half-old small bundle from her small cabin and came out to stand at the bow of the boat. She looked around in all directions, smoothed her hair, and then turned to get off the boat.

  "Where is the old lady going?" asked a sailor who was scrubbing the deck and quickly stood up.

  Zhong Pozi gave him a sideways glance, hummed, and didn't even bother to respond to him. She went straight up the gangway and hurriedly disembarked from the ship.

  The boatman stood on the boat, waving his arms and shouting a few times. Seeing that she didn't even turn her head as she walked away, he let out a few sighs and squatted down to continue washing.

  Zhong Paozi stood on the shore, glanced around, and hastily stepped up onto the stairs, heading towards a row of foot shops and inns to the right.

  Just passing by a guest foot shop, Ji Er flashed out of the foot shop and blocked Zhong Baozi in front of him. "Where are you going, old lady? Didn't Master say to ask you to return to your hometown in Yangzhou to enjoy your old age?"

  "Who are you? I don't know you, get out of the way!" Zhong Pozi's face changed slightly, her voice rising as she spoke. Ji Er's hands and feet moved quickly, almost too fast to see, as he reached out and pinched her chin. "Perhaps Granny didn't understand, the old master I'm referring to is a great master. Granny, please, at your age you should be at home enjoying your twilight years and the blessings of your children and grandchildren. The old master is doing this for your own good."

  Ji Er took the bundle from Zhong Baozi's hands, his other hand grasping her arm, looking as if he was both carrying things for her and supporting her, turned around, and headed down to the dock again.

  Zhong Baozi wanted to shout but couldn't, her arm was clamped by Ji Er's hands, and every movement made her bones ache as if they were cracking. Ji Er, with a respectful face, kept saying and smiling as he pushed her back onto the boat and threw her into her cabin.

  Ji Er tightly followed her into the cabin, pressed her onto a chair fixed to the deck, pulled down her belt and tied her firmly to the chair with a few quick movements.

  Zhong Pozi's face was distorted with fear, Ji Er tied him up, carefully checked him over, turned around and left the cabin, sat by the door, and started chatting idly with the boatman.

  ………………

  After several days, the academy was closed for half a day. Li Wenshan hurriedly rushed home. When he arrived, his father and mother were not well. The matter of Changping Village was about to go wrong again. He worried about his family and had nightmares for several nights.

  Qin Wang and Jin Xueyan walked out of the academy, watching Li Wenshan hastily bid farewell without even a bow. Qin Wang furrowed his brow, "This Li Wenshan, why does he always rush home? How old is he now?"

  "There's something going on at his home." Lu Yi, standing behind King Qin, smiled and explained for Li Wenshan, "When Xunxiu came back that night, I asked him about it, and he didn't hide anything. He said it was a case of a wicked slave bullying his master...".

  "You should say that indulging in evil slaves deceiving their masters has reached this point." Jin Zuo interrupted Lu Yi's words bluntly.

  Lu Yi smiled with a good temper, but before he could speak again, Qin Wang's mouth turned down, "It's obviously his own fault, stupid to this extent, one slave is not deceived, another slave has to be bullied, who can blame?"

  Gu Liu Lang blinked his eyes, looking at this one and that one, and finally squeezed in a sentence, "You're talking about Li Wu? He even borrowed that long-following servant from his father, what evil slaves does his family have? Why haven't I heard Li Wu mention it?"

  "That long servant is a wicked slave." Jin Zuo said with a serious face, fanning himself with his folding fan.

  "What? That Li Wu... no, that's not right, Li Wu isn't stupid... Ah, wait for me, where are we going? It's still early..." Gu Liu Lang hadn't finished speaking when he saw Qin Wang had already mounted his horse. He hastily followed suit, taking the reins and mounting up, asking as he climbed onto the horse's back.

  "It's getting late! It's almost dark, let's head back to the mansion." Qin Wang seemed to be in a bad mood and cut off Gu Liu with a sentence, then rode his horse straight towards Mingtao Mountain Villa.

  Jin Zheyan pushed the inexplicable Gu Liu Lang forward, "Hurry up and go, Master Wang said it's getting late, that means it's really getting late."

  Entering Mingtao Mountain Villa, Qin Wang strode in with big steps and went straight in.

  Lu Yi stood inside the second gate, waiting for the Empress Dowager's summons. The Prince's expression was not right, and the Empress Dowager would certainly summon him to ask a few questions.

  Before long, a young eunuch hastily came out and invited Lu Yi to enter.

  "Brother is not young anymore, joy and anger are all on his face, this won't do." Lu Yi paid his respects, the first words from Empress Jin were beyond Lu Yi's expectations, he hastily replied, "The prince is outside..." The rest of the sentence Lu Yi didn't dare to continue, whether it was outside or in this mountain villa, there wasn't much difference.

  "From today on, the military affairs you've been handling, discuss them with him, he's not young anymore." The Empress Dowager's complexion wasn't good, Lu Yi was worried and nodded in agreement.

  "Afterwards, don't protect him too much, let him know what he needs to know. In the past, I always thought he was young...". The Empress Dowager's words stopped abruptly, and after a long pause, she looked at Lu Yi and continued: "He is no longer young, when you were his age, you had already fought in many battles for several years. I protected him too much... the deeper the love, the deeper the harm. I won't be able to protect him forever."

  Lu Yi listened with a startled heart, bowed his head in response, and after a while, he heard Empress Jin order him to withdraw. He retreated with his hands hanging down and went straight to look for King Qin.

  There were still over a dozen steps away from the study door when he saw a small eunuch carrying a tray with only one lacquerware plate, lifting his feet to enter the house. Lu Yi had extremely good eyesight, and although it was just a glance, he clearly saw that on the tray were four or five nine-linked rings of varying sizes.

  Xiao Tong reported, Lu Yi entered the house, and after a long bow to show respect, he glanced around calmly, but didn't see the nine-linked ring that the little eunuch had just brought in.

  "What are you doing here?" The King of Qin still looked unhappy, Lu Yi bowed and smiled: "The Empress Dowager ordered me to report the military affairs of the past few days and a few small matters to Your Majesty."

  The King of Qin's face was cold and stern, his two hands lifted from under the table to the surface, "Since I've given orders, speak up, I'm listening."

  "The second batch of elite troops has been reviewed by Deputy General Guan, three-tenths are from the Imperial Guard, all are sons of noble families. Four-tenths are from the two routes of Xijing and Nanjing, and another three-tenths, 300 each from Wuwei Army and Zhenyuan Army. Deputy General Guan said that out of these 2,000 people, not even half can be used."

  Lu Yi spoke while looking at the expression of the King of Qin. The King of Qin had a cold face, and now he couldn't see any expression on it.

  "Verification of the usual warehouse is a bit muddy, as it involves many parties. This time, the verification was attended by Zhou Qi, Luo Shuai, Guan Fushi, Zheng Cao, and Lin Xian, among others. Previously, because the two Zhejiang roads were constantly replenishing their warehouses with grain from the Ministry of Revenue to make up for the shortage, Zheng Cao thought that this matter should be coordinated with the Ministry of Revenue. Lin Xian thought that since the two Zhejiang roads' warehouses are responsible for supplying military rations, they cannot ignore the Ministry of War. Guan Fushi thought that if it goes on like this, it will only get more complicated and may not be able to get to the bottom of it."

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