In the main camp, Di Yiwei spread out a map and discussed the upcoming deployment with the generals.

Tie Ci only listened silently without interjecting. The officers were initially somewhat uncomfortable, but seeing that she truly kept her word and did not interfere with military affairs, they relaxed considerably.

Only then did everyone realize that Di Yiwei was indeed prepared for a major battle. The military granary in nearby Yong Ping city had sufficient provisions, the result of years of military farming and land reclamation. The main granary and fodder yards were well-stocked. From Cangtan Pass to the Yong Ping-Kaiping line, many small military supply depots had also been built, ensuring supplies along the way in case of urgent marches. Di Yiwei not only ordered soldiers to farm, but also planted miscellaneous grains and cotton to trade with civilians for grain, ensuring that in a sudden major war, they would not suffer setbacks due to inadequate military supplies.

Di Yiwei’s military granaries also served as small garrison points. These garrison points had not been noticed by Huang Ming, Xiao Chang and others. After Cangtan Pass was breached, countless civilians fled, and these small garrison points took in many refugees, transporting them to safe areas in the rear. News was slowly filtering in at this time.

Only now did everyone learn that Liaodong had entered the territory under the pretext of “eliminating rebels,” claiming that Liang Shiyi, the Grand Commander of Xining Pass, had rebelled and fled toward Cangtan Pass after his defeat, so the Liaodong army had “mistakenly entered Cangtan Pass.”

It could be imagined that once Da Qian could not form effective defense and counterattack, Liaodong’s “rebel elimination” operation would continue endlessly, advancing from Cangtan toward Yong Ping, changing from a probe into a true plunder.

Tie Ci listened, sighing inwardly that Da Qian was both fortunate and unfortunate in this affair. Unfortunate because Cangtan should never have fallen originally, and the cautious Di Yiwei had made preparations; unfortunate because at this critical moment, certain people were still plotting to disrupt the army, seizing Di Yiwei’s authority and transferring away her troops, leading to Liaodong cavalry charging straight in with Da Qian’s northern border gates wide open.

Fortunately, Di Yiwei had returned in time. Tie Ci listened to her calmly deploying troops, feeling somewhat reassured. While thinking about how to ask Di Yiwei to lend her troops later, she walked to the tent edge and saw academy students bustling about, entering and leaving various military camp tents.

Di Yiwei went out for a while to check the preparation of supplies and provisions. When she returned, she said: “After we entered the tent earlier, Rong Pu spoke to the soldiers for a while. There’s no need to elaborate, but essentially it was intimidation combined with winning them over, explaining the stakes to the soldiers and making them keep completely silent about your order today to execute the Xiao family’s personal troops, unifying their story.”

Tie Ci smiled.

“The soldiers are actually fine, since they were the ones who acted. If word gets out, they’ll be the first to die. But Rong Pu’s warning was very timely, otherwise these rough men might not know the gravity and treat this matter as bragging material to show off outside.” Di Yiwei said, “Moreover, he just asked me to send people to deal with those escaped Xiao family personal troops.”

Tie Ci’s smile faded and she said nothing.

“He also had academy students visit officers at all levels in the camp one by one, persuading them to jointly impeach the Xiao family.” Di Yiwei smiled. “Rong Pu is truly a born treacherous minister. He directly wrote a petition and asked everyone to sign it one by one, not missing a single person.”

Tie Ci smiled slightly.

Whether willing or unwilling, he had forcibly bound everyone to the chariot against the Xiao family. Once everyone signed, today’s events could be suppressed.

She could imagine how Rong Pu’s petition would be written. The responsibility for losing Cangtan Pass, the annihilation of the Xiao family’s personal troops, Xiao Chang’s death—naturally each would have someone to take the blame.

This was not clean work that she could not do, but someone had to do it. She hadn’t expected Rong Pu to say nothing and silently do it for her.

Di Yiwei said behind her: “He’s quite thoughtful.”

There was a faint melancholy in her tone.

Tie Ci didn’t respond to this, saying: “I came too late and caused the Commander to suffer so much.”

Di Yiwei said: “You should regret that you didn’t see my good figure.”

Tie Ci smiled and said: “Aren’t the bathhouses in the north quite famous? When we return, you can invite me to bathe, and won’t I see it then?”

The two looked at each other and smiled.

Two women with strong hearts simply brushed aside the enormous humiliation that no woman in this world could bear.

Di Yiwei said: “The northern bathhouses are truly wonderful places. After we drive back those hairy bears from Liaodong, I’ll take you there. Inside there’s not only back scrubbing and foot massage, but also song, dance, wine, food, and various entertainments, plus beautiful young male attendants…” She winked at Tie Ci, “But your… oh right, where is your person?”

Tie Ci said: “Speaking of this, I was just about to ask the Commander—I need to borrow troops.”

…

“Report—”

The messenger’s voice penetrated the hall with great force.

The generals in the hall all looked up with surprised expressions.

The hall was discussing the army’s next moves. Some proposed taking advantage of Di Yiwei being stripped of power and the border soldiers’ low morale to advance triumphantly. Even if they couldn’t take all of Da Qian, they should swallow the northern lands and seize this fertile territory, superior to their harsh borderlands. With good management in the future, Liaodong would have the opportunity to completely annex Da Qian.

Others argued that Di Yiwei had not gone to the capital, and might make a comeback at any time. As long as she was there, the success at Cangtan Pass would not continue. With an overextended battle line, once deadlocked, the Liaodong army could very well be trapped in the northern lands.

They were arguing inconclusively when they heard this report.

“Report to Your Majesty! Di Yiwei has returned to Yong Ping army. The right army of thirty thousand and three thousand from Scorpion Camp have now left their positions!”

The generals turned their heads one after another.

“Also, Da Qian’s Crown Princess has appeared in Yong Ping army and is reportedly going to personally campaign at Cangtan!”

This time no one could sit still, and they rose abruptly.

“Is this true? What about Xiao Chang and Huang Ming?”

“Unknown. But on the day Di Yiwei returned, there was unusual activity in the main camp, with black smoke covering the sun and sounds of killing without end.”

The crowd looked at each other, and someone said: “Could Di Yiwei have killed both Xiao Chang and Huang Ming?”

“That’s impossible! Those were people from the Xiao family faction. If Di Yiwei opposed the Xiao family, she wouldn’t have peace later either.”

“Isn’t there the Crown Princess backing her up?”

“What kind of thing is that? A puppet. Coming to Yong Ping, she’s nothing but a decoration. They said she was there before, and now that she’s foolishly trying to campaign personally, perfect—kill Da Qian’s heir and let them fall into chaos. We can seize several more cities.”

“Not appropriate, not appropriate.”

“What’s inappropriate? Don’t tell me you’re afraid of that Crown Princess?”

“What nonsense—who’s afraid of her? It’s just that since Di Yiwei has regained military authority and is counterattacking Cangtan so quickly, the Yong Ping line can no longer be breached. As I said before, though Liang Shiyi was defeated and fled, he still has remaining troops. If they collude with someone in the rear to cause trouble, we’ll be attacked from both sides…”

Everyone found this reasonable and nodded, knowing that “the rear” referred to the Second Prince still confined in the cold palace. Now that the King had left Ruzhou to eliminate Liang Shiyi and attack Da Qian, if the Second Prince colluded with the desperate Liang family…

But they heard the person above say: “Seize Da Qian’s northern lands early, then turn back to sweep away Liang Shiyi. How could there be an attack from both sides?”

Once the King said this, everyone fell silent. After a long while, someone said quietly: “But since Di Yiwei has returned, Yong Ping is impregnable. To ‘resolve it quickly’—how easy is that…”

The person above smiled leisurely: “Really? Not easy?”

…

In the northwest corner of Yong Ping main camp was the place for detaining guilty soldiers and prisoners. Di Yiwei maintained strict military discipline, so this temporary prison was usually empty.

Today it held two prisoners—Cui Shi and Huang Ming, imprisoned east and west respectively.

Huang Ming was badly burned, lying on the plank bed moaning. Cui Shi clearly looked like a weak and cowardly scholar, pale-faced and crouching in the corner of his cell.

The guarding soldiers’ hearts were with the battle ahead, eagerly anticipating defeating Liaodong and earning military merit, but they were assigned to watch these two unlucky things, putting them in a foul mood.

Therefore, although Chi Xue had repeatedly instructed them to guard carefully when she came over, the soldiers nodded and agreed on the surface but were quite dismissive in their hearts.

They all felt the Crown Princess was wise and mighty, but her attendants lacked boldness.

Even so, due to strict military orders, the ten guarding soldiers still divided into two shifts, guarding the only exit to the death.

No one noticed the joy in Huang Ming’s eyes when he saw Cui Shi being taken away.

At midnight, one shift slept while the other remained at the door.

A black shadow drifted out from the eastern cell, floating through the dark corridor, floating past Huang Ming’s cell.

Huang Ming was in too much pain to sleep. Seeing the black shadow approach, he waved without surprise, whispering: “Cui Shi, you came to save me? Quick, quick.”

The black shadow stopped outside the bars, the black robe moving slightly as a ghostly smell dispersed.

The soldiers a few steps away heard vague movement inside and walked over, but before getting close, they suddenly collapsed.

Huang Ming chuckled and sat up from the plank bed, saying: “Is this the demon-expelling poison you mentioned?”

“No.”

“Then what about the catalyst you said you planted? Why hasn’t it taken effect yet? How exactly do you control it? I’ve already arranged for cotton clothes to be brought to Yong Ping as you requested—they’ll arrive soon. Quick, tell me the method of control so we can still turn things around. Then the army will be our dogs, you’ll be a hero in the Empress Dowager’s eyes, and you can have as much rank, fame, and property as you want!”

Huang Ming eagerly stretched out his hands, as if he could grasp the grand promises Cui Shi had painted for him.

Cui Shi also reached out, placing something in his palm.

“What is this…” Huang Ming watched wide-eyed as the thing, like a glob of snot or spit, suddenly disappeared into his palm. Then he suddenly jumped up, all the blood in his body seeming to rush to his face, burning hot. His throat wheezed out breath like charcoal fire. He clutched his throat, convulsed, and fell down.

Cui Shi watched him coldly throughout. After he curled up like a red shrimp and stopped moving, hearing the footsteps of the changing guard approaching outside, he walked out again without haste.

Moments later, four more corpses lay on the ground.

Cui Shi had changed into ordinary soldier’s clothing and was being led out by the sole surviving soldier.

Walking toward the camp exit, nighttime movement in the main camp was forbidden, so they were naturally stopped and questioned repeatedly, but each time they were smoothly let through. After passing checkpoints, they walked farther and farther.

In the night, everything was quiet and orderly.

Only faintly, with the footsteps, came a tiny jingling sound.

…

Tie Ci was currently heading to the drill ground to inspect the distribution of new cotton clothes.

The soldiers’ cotton clothes had been worn for three years and should be uniformly replaced this year. Di Yiwei had previously submitted reports to the Ministry of Personnel and Ministry of Revenue, but approval was repeatedly delayed. The Ministry of Revenue claimed no money, the Ministry of War said to wear them another year.

After Huang Ming and Xiao Chang arrived, to win hearts and minds, they promised new cotton clothes for everyone this year, plus an additional set of leather armor. And they moved quickly—it had already been transported and distributed in recent days. Today was the last two camps collecting theirs.

Since these were things given by Huang Ming and Xiao Chang, Tie Ci came to see personally, fearing problems.

She also brought Rong Pu along, since he had experience with poisons.

When leaving the tent, Rong Pu took her hand, saying: “I haven’t taken your pulse in a long time. That needle in Xi Rong’s royal city—I don’t know how effective it really was.”

Tie Ci didn’t refuse, saying: “I haven’t thanked you yet for taking the risk on the palace wall. I heard you were injured then—are you better now?”

Rong Pu shifted his boot, saying: “Naturally I’m better.”

Tie Ci glanced at him without speaking, slowing her pace.

While such flesh wounds would only take her a day or two to heal, Rong Pu was different. The young master was delicate with a weak constitution. After being injured and then urgently chasing after her without proper rest, clearly he still hadn’t healed.

But Tie Ci didn’t expose this.

Rong Pu had already sensed the Crown Princess’s consideration. He looked at her with smiling eyes, that glance hesitant to speak, making Tie Ci’s whole body tense. She quickly averted her gaze, but saw Rong Pu frowning again: “That needle of mine was indeed treating symptoms, not the root.”

“Hmm?”

“You’ve been traveling, fighting, rushing about, anxious, without rest for a long time, extremely exhausted.” Rong Pu said, “I can sense your meridians have that blocked feeling again. I don’t know if it will affect your gifted abilities.”

“Why is my teleportation ability the most prone to problems?”

“Because teleportation consumes the most and is used most often.” Rong Pu said, “Though gifted abilities seem not to require true force to drive them, they actually operate and burst forth through true force. The stability of true qi circulation determines the stability of your gifted abilities. Any ability requires enormous true force support. Obviously as your gifted abilities continue awakening, true force accumulation gradually cannot support them… The so-called ‘extremes lead to reversal’—Your Highness, I suggest you stop activating your gifted abilities.”

“You think I want to?” Tie Ci smiled bitterly. “At first I needed to manually circulate true qi and risk reversing the flow to awaken clairvoyance; later it became automatically reversing true qi flow during life-and-death moments; then it became opening whenever I had strong desires as true qi flowed; last time it seemed I activated it just by getting angry; going forward, will I activate it by sighing, eating, or drinking water?”

Rong Pu clearly hadn’t expected such a situation. After thinking for a long time, he sighed: “Misfortune depends on fortune, fortune depends on misfortune.”

“Where in this world is there eternal luck?” Tie Ci agreed. “Is there any solution?”

“There’s a method to try. The prescription requires herbs I happened to collect completely during the Xi Rong trip. Once I prepare the medicine, combined with…”

“How long will it take?” Tie Ci interrupted.

“At least half a month…”

“Then there’s no time.” Tie Ci interrupted again, striding forward.

“Your Highness!” Rong Pu caught up. “You shouldn’t personally take the battlefield. Commanding from the rear would actually reassure everyone more. This time would be perfect for me to treat you. Otherwise, letting it drag on, who knows when it will bring you disaster, like last time in Xi Rong…”

“I know, I understand, but I truly have no time. After this battle, once I resolve the problem, I’ll definitely treat it properly.”

“Your Highness, has something happened to Rong Wei?”

Tie Ci stopped walking.

Rong Pu was unwilling to voice this guess, but he had never seen such anxiety in Tie Ci’s eyes.

In others’ eyes, Tie Ci was that composed, noble Crown Princess, unmoved by the eight winds, even her steps and stride length identical.

But only he could see clearly that beneath that composed exterior, in the Crown Princess’s eyes, ice stretched for thousands of miles while fire burned unextinguished.

What could make her, who always put the greater good first, so worried and regardless of danger, racing forward like her life depended on it, could only be that person.

A bitter taste rose in his heart, but it instantly calmed.

He wanted to be a famous minister who would go down in history, a meritorious official whose portrait would hang first in the hall of achievements, not a petty jealous man.

He had chosen Da Qian’s sole and destined first heir, embarking on a different path from his father and grandfather. The Rong family’s chariot rumbled toward danger, while he stood in place, raising his arms against the wind, trying to turn the tide.

Before that, he would always stand by her side, through ten thousand miles of rivers and mountains, a thousand changes in the mortal world, blood, fire, stars, and frost—experiencing them all.

After a moment of jealousy, what needed to be done still had to be done.

He said: “Then Your Highness, let me perform acupuncture to minimize the intensity and possibility of episodes as much as possible.”

“Very good.”

“But it can’t be done gradually—it may be quite painful.”

“No matter.”

Brief silence.

Rong Pu seemed to finally make up his mind.

“Your Highness, there’s something I should have mentioned before…”

Tie Ci cut off his words: “Are you going to tell me Rong Wei’s true identity?”

Rong Pu wasn’t surprised by her perceptiveness, but under her gaze he had some difficulty breathing. For a moment he somewhat regretted this.

Some things shouldn’t involve too much personal interest, otherwise if bad consequences arose someday, no one could bear the responsibility.

He said: “Your Highness, I think this matter should be clarified…”

Tie Ci raised her palm, stopping his words.

“Don’t, don’t say it.”

Rong Pu was startled.

Tie Ci had clearly inquired about Rong Wei’s identity multiple times. What woman wouldn’t be curious about her lover’s identity?

Why now, when he was about to speak, was she unwilling to listen?

Tie Ci glanced at the darkness, silent for a moment, then lowered her eyelashes: “I’ll ask him myself.”

Rong Pu said no more.

After brief silence, they changed the subject.

“Earlier when I was treating injured soldiers in the main camp, I discovered something rather strange.”

“Hmm?”

“Their pulses were slightly stringy and choppy, tongues quite pale. When questioned, they reported occasional nausea, palpitations, and anxiety recently. Observing their pulse indicated exhaustion syndrome. My teacher said all accumulated illnesses arise from deficiency. But these northern soldiers train regularly and eat normally—where would deficiency come from? And to encounter two with the same symptoms…”

Tie Ci said: “Is it serious?”

“Extremely mild, so mild that ordinary military doctors definitely wouldn’t notice. Even one night of poor sleep could cause such pulse patterns. I just found it suspicious that two consecutive patients had the same symptoms…”

Someone approached from the roadside, interrupting their conversation. It was Qi Yuansi, holding a small cloth bundle, offering it to Tie Ci.

He was returning the treasure armor.

Tie Ci was about to accept it when she saw several riders galloping into camp, hurrying toward the main tent. Looking at their rear military flags, clearly the Liaodong army had unusual movements. Soon Di Yiwei came looking for her with people, and after hastily speaking for a few sentences, Tie Ci pondered briefly, raised an eyebrow and said: “Don’t return the treasure armor to me yet—I have another use for it.”

She also said to Rong Pu: “Emergency military situation. The Liaodong garrison at Cangtan Pass has unusual activity. Prince Da’an and his main camp may not be at Cangtan. We must lead troops to campaign. Everyone will be bait for each other—let’s see who bites through whose mouth. You wait well in camp. When the army returns, give everyone a thorough examination.”

After speaking, she hurried to inspect the cotton clothes. Rong Pu watched her retreating figure and the soldiers around busily preparing for battle as usual, an inexplicable shadow passing through his heart.

Suddenly he saw Xia Houchun strolling over leisurely, joining him in watching Tie Ci’s departing figure.

Rong Pu said: “Commander Xia Hou was hiding in the darkness earlier. Why lurk around instead of showing yourself?”

“This old man originally came to discuss something with the Crown Princess, but overheard your conversation with her.” Xia Houchun smacked his lips. “Then this old man understood—better not to speak.”

He turned to look at Rong Pu: “Do you understand now?”

Rong Pu lowered his eyes.

He understood.

He and Xia Houchun had originally intended to say similar things.

Murong Yi was the son of the Liaodong King—what disaster could befall him?

Combined with Liaodong’s invasion, one couldn’t help but think of some conspiracy against the Crown Princess.

All this could be a trap, gaping wide, waiting for the Crown Princess to throw herself into the net.

They had wanted to persuade the Crown Princess not to step into it.

However, the Crown Princess was perceptive and understood immediately. Since Rong Pu suddenly brought up Feiyu’s identity under these circumstances, it meant this identity was disadvantageous to him and her, possibly affecting her determination to save him and interfering with her decision to rescue him.

What she was about to do was extremely difficult, requiring unwavering courage and unrelenting determination.

This time, she didn’t want to consider any factors like “the greater good, identity, inside information.”

Having struggled half her life, she always thought carefully when encountering problems, but this time, she didn’t want to think about anything.

She only wanted to save him.

She was unwilling to listen further.