“You’re thinking the same as me!” Bai Qingyan smiled and nodded, leaning slightly closer to Bai Qingjue and said, “Send someone to depart for Dongyi tonight, going in the identity of someone dispatched by this shopkeeper to meet the Dongyi Ministry of Personnel Vice Minister. Have the Vice Minister go see the Empress and tell her that this time, Great Zhou’s military expedition will pull the Second Prince down from the throne, and can push the Seventh Prince to power. But the Empress cannot just take advantage without contributing effort – when Great Zhou’s army attacks Dongyi’s imperial city, we hope the Empress can find a way to have Dongyi’s capital gates open wide in welcome. Otherwise, it will be national destruction rather than supporting a puppet!”

Naturally, these words were spoken by the Empress’s own turned spy, and the Seventh Prince was also hidden away by them. Bai Qingyan had never seen any Dongyi Seventh Prince, and these words were not something Bai Qingyan someone had brought to the Dongyi Empress.

“Take whatever tokens the Seventh Prince has on him to show that Empress…” Bai Qingyan’s eyes were filled with killing intent. “Since they dare to use Great Zhou, they must be able to bear the price of using Great Zhou.”

“Younger brother understands!” After Bai Qingjue nodded and spoke, he said with concern to Bai Qingyan, “Elder Sister has been tired for so long, you should rest.”

Looking at her younger brother’s appearance with a gentle smile in his brows and eyes, Bai Qingyan set down the teacup in her hand: “Are the people all outside?”

Bai Qingjue nodded: “They’re waiting outside!”

“You value these four people so highly?” Bai Qingyan smiled and said, “Fine, for my Seventh Brother’s sake, meeting them once is no problem!”

“Elder Sister, trust me, these four people… will be able to accomplish great things in the future!” Bai Qingjue stood up together with Bai Qingyan, walking with his hands behind his back as he accompanied Bai Qingyan across the threshold.

The Imperial Guards were pressing those four scholars to kneel in the corridor not far away. Seeing Bai Qingjue following behind Bai Qingyan as they emerged from afar, the four scholars looked at each other, and before they could react, they felt pain behind their knees and heavily knelt down.

Though all four had proud bones, they weren’t so arrogant as to not kneel upon seeing the Emperor. They simply hadn’t expected this Great Zhou Emperor to have such an appearance, and were momentarily stunned.

Even from just a distant glance, these four could feel the Great Zhou Emperor’s ethereal and extraordinary beauty.

Soon, the four saw Bai Qingyan’s auspicious cloud and small deer leather boots embroidered with silver thread appear before their eyes. They became even more terrified, lowering their heads further, not even daring to look at Bai Qingyan’s deer leather short boots.

“You four are the ones who advised the wrongfully killed butcher’s wife, having that sister-in-law use public sentiment and indignation to force the officials to give the butcher justice and retrieve Prince Han Cheng’s body?” Bai Qingyan stood with hands behind her back, looking down at the four scholars, her voice extremely slow, “Do you think the Great Zhou court… and I as Emperor would abandon Prince Han Cheng and abandon the coastal people?”

The four kept their heads lowered without speaking.

“Who wrote the testimony?” Bai Qingyan asked.

“Your Majesty…” A scholar dressed in azure robes spoke with an unsteady voice, hurriedly kowtowing and saying, “When this humble person wrote that testimony, I truly never thought Your Majesty would disregard the national gambling matter and come to the coast, and even less thought that Your Majesty would… would as some lord said, destroy Dongyi to eliminate future worries for the coastal people! This humble person… this humble person calculated the time. For Your Majesty to arrive so quickly, you must have set out immediately upon receiving the battle report, traveling day and night to get here. This humble person… this humble person used a petty heart to judge a gentleman, causing trouble for Great Zhou and Your Majesty! This humble person… admits guilt!”

The azure-robed scholar’s words were correct. Today, after meeting that young lord and hearing that His Majesty would come to the coast to destroy Dongyi, and just now, when someone came to summon them, saying His Majesty wanted to see them, they calculated the time. Bai Qingyan’s arrival time was even faster than the normal time to travel from the capital to the coast. This was sufficient proof that Bai Qingyan was not forced by the coastal people’s public sentiment and indignation, but had already decided to send troops to destroy Dongyi and retrieve Prince Han Cheng’s remains after receiving the battle report.

Though this Emperor was a woman, her backbone and courage were admirable, and she indeed treated the former subjects of Great Liang’s coastal regions as her people, not letting her people suffer humiliation or fear.

“Your article is extremely well written. You understand how to use public sentiment and indignation to pressure the court – you can be considered capable people. But next time, don’t use others. If you can do it yourselves, I would think even more highly of you!” After Bai Qingyan finished speaking, she glanced at Bai Qingjue, “Prince Zhongguo values the talent in you. I also, considering that you acted for the sake of the coastal people, Prince Han Cheng, and that butcher patriot, will let this matter pass without mentioning it again! Since you have such talent, why not take the imperial examinations to serve the country? Heaven granted you talent and brought you to this world – don’t let yourselves down.”

After speaking, Bai Qingyan signaled for Bai Qingjue to take them away, and only brought Wei Zhong back to rest.

Bai Qingjue stood in place, bowing deeply to respectfully send off his elder sister: “Elder Sister, take care…”

Hearing this, the azure-robed scholar suddenly raised his head, eyes wide as he looked at the gentleman of distinguished bearing who was bowing deeply to send off the Emperor.

Only now did these four realize that the lord who had made a wager with them was Great Zhou’s Prince Zhongguo. No wonder he was so certain the Emperor would return – he had known the Emperor was coming all along, and had even come together with the Emperor.

Before this, they had only thought that Bai Qingjue was merely from some noble family, relying on his family connections to become an official.

The sons of the Bai family all had to go to the battlefield for training at age ten, and when the Emperor ascended the throne, she did not immediately enfeoff her brothers and sisters, but waited until after destroying Western Liang when they had all achieved merit before granting them princely titles.

These things were not unknown to these scholars.

After seeing off Bai Qingyan, Bai Qingjue straightened up, looking at these four with their varying expressions with a smile in his brows and eyes, the laughter in his eyes deepening.

Now facing Bai Qingjue again, they had a different mentality and immediately became respectful toward Bai Qingjue.

An hour later, Xie Yuchang indeed brought people to search out the Seventh Prince from the eastern part of Jin Wan City, along with the Seventh Prince’s accompanying guards.

Xie Yuchang returned with injuries. The shadow guards the Empress had assigned to the Seventh Prince were too troublesome. Bai Qingyan had ordered that these shadow guards not be allowed to escape, so Xie Yuchang personally led people to intercept them, which resulted in some injuries.

Wei Zhong quickly had someone help Xie Yuchang bandage his wounds, but didn’t disturb Bai Qingyan. Bai Qingyan had just rested for less than an hour. These past days of traveling day and night aside, Bai Qingyan had also done many things along the way and was already very tired. Wei Zhong couldn’t bear to disturb her.

After all, it was just a prince from a small country about to be destroyed, already firmly in their grasp. Wei Zhong still had this much propriety and didn’t disturb Bai Qingyan, only having Xie Yuchang send someone to retrieve the tokens from the Seventh Prince and deliver them to Prince Zhongguo.

Bai Qingyan slept for two hours before getting up. While Bai Qingyan was washing, Wei Zhong told her that the Dongyi Seventh Prince had already been “invited” back and the tokens had been obtained: “Does Your Majesty want to meet this Dongyi Seventh Prince?”