The Crown Prince of Xiping suspected that the young general he had sent to request Prince Jiujiang’s reinforcements had been captured. Considering that Prince Jiujiang still hadn’t arrived, he felt his guess was probably close to the truth.

He spoke in a hoarse voice, “Although I am the Crown Prince of Prince Xiping’s mansion, I am not yet Prince Xiping myself. I dare not say that the Great Zhou Emperor’s words are nonsense, but… I truly don’t know about any unrecorded mines and weapon workshops. I only heard my father mention something about it once with Prince Jiujiang, so… when I sent someone to request Prince Jiujiang’s aid, I used this matter to threaten him! But Prince Jiujiang still hasn’t come to provide reinforcements, so perhaps… this matter might be false.”

Bai Qingyan raised an eyebrow.

Bai Qingyan wasn’t sure whether Bai Jinzhi had let the person the Crown Prince of Xiping sent to Jiujiang pass through or had killed them on the spot.

Most likely, the Crown Prince of Xiping had used these mines and weapon workshops to threaten Prince Jiujiang. Seeing that Prince Jiujiang was slow to arrive and thinking that Great Zhou had captured the person he sent to request aid from Prince Jiujiang, he had no choice but to use such an explanation.

“Then the Crown Prince should tell me where that batch of arrows with ink powder came from, who was responsible for transporting them, and who supervised their production?” Bai Qingyan casually placed her teacup on the small ebony table beside her, resting her elbow on the armrest of her chair, her voice light and casual. “The Crown Prince knows that investigating this matter would only take a little effort. There are always those in Xiping County who know which way the wind blows and will tell me! Or… I could go ask Prince Jiujiang directly, but by then… this would no longer be a bargaining chip in the Crown Prince of Xiping’s hands.”

The Crown Prince of Xiping stared at the azure stone floor before him, calculating in his mind. He closed his eyes, then raised them to gaze at the deerskin boots on Bai Qingyan’s feet, stained with blood, and spoke, “I’ll tell you…”

“Shen Tianzhi…” Bai Qingyan stood up, “You stay here and have a good talk with this Crown Prince of Xiping about this matter. Then have Liu Pinggao lead people to control the mines and weapon workshops! Also, have someone take good care of Prince Xiping’s family. As long as their requests aren’t excessive, satisfy them all!”

“Yes!” Shen Tianzhi and Liu Pinggao responded in unison.

Stepping out of the main hall’s threshold, Bai Qingyan whispered to Bai Qingjue, “Have someone keep Prince Xiping’s three children and their wet nurses confined together separately, just in case.”

“Elder Sister, rest assured!” Bai Qingjue said.

“Has Xiao Si sent any news?” she asked.

“Not yet! I’ve already sent someone to inquire. They should be back soon…”

She nodded, “Have Xiao Si withdraw her troops, leaving only a few teams to watch the direction of Jiujiang.”

Bai Qingjue, thinking of what the Crown Prince of Xiping had just said about sending someone to request Prince Jiujiang’s aid, asked Bai Qingyan, “The Pingyang army should arrive soon, too. Elder Sister, are you waiting for the capital to deploy heavy troops toward Yan Country’s border before annihilating Yan in one stroke, or should we take Jiujiang first?”

“While these feudal princes haven’t reacted yet, let’s take Jiujiang! One Xiping and one Jiujiang will be enough to strike fear into their hearts!” After Bai Qingyan finished speaking, she pressed her lips together and said to Wei Zhong, “Send some arrows from Prince Xiping’s mansion to Yan’s capital. If you catch up with the Regent Prince of Yan, tell him that Yan Country’s emperor and feudal princes have already gotten entangled with Tianfeng Country. If you don’t catch up, deliver them to Jintong and tell her that if any feudal princes turn back toward Yan’s capital, she must be careful—these arrows from Tianfeng Country can pierce through battle armor.”

“Yes! Your Majesty, rest assured!” Wei Zhong responded.

Bai Jinzhi was someone who wasn’t afraid of battle. When she led troops to encounter danger and went to set up an ambush, she happened to see the group of soldiers the Crown Prince of Xiping had sent to Jiujiang for aid. She had originally thought that since the Pingyang army hadn’t arrived yet, she could kill these reinforcement-seeking soldiers and then return to help her elder sister attack Pingyang City.

However, she ultimately didn’t act impulsively and let them pass.

Afterward, just as Bai Qingyan had predicted, when Prince Jiujiang heard the news, he also wanted to take advantage of the fact that Great Zhou’s reinforcements hadn’t yet joined with Bai Qingyan to kill the Great Zhou Emperor first. After all, only with the Great Zhou Emperor’s death could the Great Zhou fall into the chaos of power struggles.

Prince Jiujiang led his troops partway when he was suddenly attacked, and the one leading the attacking force was none other than Prince Gaoyi Bai Jinzhi, who had a reputation for being skilled in battle throughout Great Zhou. This put pressure on his heart, and before he could retreat his troops, he saw Prince Gaoyi withdraw her forces.

Prince Jiujiang became truly suspicious. He immediately had someone bring out a map and spread it open. Looking at it, he discovered there was another location very suitable for an ambush on the way to Xiping City. Moreover, when the soldiers he sent to pursue Prince Gaoyi returned, they reported that in the end, Prince Gaoyi and the Great Zhou army she led had vanished into thin air, which made Prince Jiujiang even more suspicious. Worried that the Great Zhou Emperor’s attack on Xiping was false and that ambushing him was the real purpose, he turned back to plan for the long term.

But there wasn’t much time left for him.

On the sixth day of the second month in the third year of Yuanhe, the Great Zhou Emperor personally led seventy thousand troops to attack Jiujiang.

At the same time, Zhao Sheng, far away in the old territory of Great Liang, received deployment orders commanding him to lead troops to the border of Yan Country’s Huyi territory.

When Zhao Sheng saw the deployment orders, his blood surged with excitement. Although he hadn’t received news from Yan Country here, he knew… being deployed to Yan’s border meant they were going to annihilate Yan.

When Zhao Sheng had originally surrendered to Bai Qingyan, wasn’t it because following Bai Qingyan could achieve the unprecedented merit of creating peace in the realm? He hadn’t been able to participate in the war to destroy Xi Liang, but this time… he absolutely couldn’t miss the war to annihilate Yan. He immediately ordered the troops to be mustered for the expedition.

Yang Wuce also received deployment orders commanding him to go to Yan Country cities within Great Zhou’s territory and cooperate with Dengzhou Prefect Dong Qingyue to control the military forces of Yan Country cities within Zhou’s borders, not allowing them to create chaos within Great Zhou’s territory.

Yang Wuce was a military general and keenly perceived that the deep meaning behind these deployment orders was to annihilate Yan. Although Yang Wuce didn’t know why Bai Qingyan would suddenly annihilate Yan during the national wager, he was also stirred with excitement and immediately ordered troops to be mustered for departure.

On the tenth day of the second month in the third year of Yuanhe, Jiujiang City was broken.

Far away in Nan Jiang, Prince Zhennan Shen Kunyang received deployment orders commanding him to immediately set out and lead the Bai Family Army to Yan’s border to rendezvous with Great Zhou Emperor Bai Qingyan.

On the day Prince Zhennan Shen Kunyang received the deployment orders, he mustered his troops and departed, marching urgently toward Yan’s border.

In the capital city, Bai Qingping had already delivered the first batch of repeating crossbows and arrows and crossbow bolts forged with ink powder, and had requisitioned civilian blacksmith shops throughout Great Zhou’s territory, having the Military Equipment Bureau work day and night according to the blueprints Bai Qingyun had provided to forge the second batch of weapons.

Minister of Revenue Wei Bugong had also sent the first batch of gathered provisions along three routes to Yan Country’s border and began preparing the second batch of provisions.

Minister of War Zhang Duanning announced that Bai Qingyan had been attacked in Yan Country and that Great Zhou was determined to annihilate it, and began conscripting troops throughout Great Zhou’s territory…

Retired soldiers responded to the call and returned one after another, saying… “When the nation is at war, when called, we return!”

There were even elderly common people who, thinking the conscription was to send troops to Yan’s territory to rescue Bai Qingyan, personally sent their only sons to join the army.

The young general in charge of conscription said, “Old sir, Great Zhou has laws for conscription—only sons are not conscripted.”

But the elderly man said, “Your Majesty has gone to the battlefield so many times to protect us common people of Great Zhou. Now that Your Majesty is trapped in Yan Country, how can the good sons of Great Zhou not go to the battlefield?”