The Crown Prince waved his hand dismissively: “Not at all. It’s Great Yan and Beirong are jointly attacking Nanrong. This matter is understandable. Nanrong set an ambush and killed Great Yan’s marriage alliance princess… Beirong’s new empress. How could Great Yan and Beirong swallow this insult? Naturally, they must attack Nanrong! This is good too… Nanrong just raided our Jin’s Dengzhou City, so they should learn their lesson and suffer some hardship.”

The Crown Prince didn’t take this matter to heart.

“Your Highness!” Bai Qingyan suddenly became serious, stood up, and bowed to the Crown Prince. “Great Yan and Beirong attacking Nanrong, this matter… our Jin Kingdom cannot ignore it and let it be!”

The Crown Prince didn’t understand Bai Qingyan’s words, his brows furrowing: “What does Princess Zhenguo mean? Do you… Think Jin should take the opportunity to annihilate Nanrong?”

Bai Qingyan’s gaze fell on the territorial map hanging in the Crown Prince’s study. She stood up and walked toward the map, with the Crown Prince hurrying to follow.

“Your Highness, please look…” Bai Qingyan pointed to Great Yan, located to the west of Jin. “Great Yan sits to our Jin’s west, and now controls Beirong, which is to our Jin’s east. If in this battle… Beirong swallows Nanrong, and Great Yan has close relations with the Rong tribes; they will form an encircling pincer movement against our Jin! Your Highness… as long as Nanrong exists, it will be entangled with Beirong and Great Yan, which keeps Jin safe!”

The Crown Prince looked at Great Yan at the bottom of the territorial map, then at the Rong tribes at the top of the map, his fists clenching at his sides: “Nanrong just raided Dengzhou. Are we supposed to help Nanrong? I really can’t swallow this insult!”

“Your Highness, dwelling in safety while thinking of danger, enduring momentary anger while keeping the big picture in mind – this is how to plan for the realm! For Jin’s peace, Bai Qingyan requests that Your Highness dispatch envoys to Beirong and Great Yan to give warnings, and send word to Uncle so that Anping Military Camp and Dengzhou Army can sleep on their weapons and await dawn!” Bai Qingyan gave the Crown Prince a formal bow.

In military matters, the Crown Prince had always trusted Bai Qingyan. After all, in the Southern Border campaign, he had once doubted Bai Qingyan and suffered heavy losses as a result.

The Crown Prince stared at the territorial map, his fists clenching: “But Father Emperor has not yet awakened. This matter…”

“Your Highness, you will eventually ascend to the imperial throne. His Majesty is now unconscious and has entrusted state affairs to Your Highness. You must accomplish some things to make His Majesty feel at ease, entrusting the Great Jin’s realm to you! As long as Your Highness believes it’s good for Jin, you can give the order! Of course… if Your Highness is uncertain about this matter, you can immediately summon the War Minister and Imperial Teacher Old Tan for consultation! His Majesty entrusted Imperial Teacher Old Tan to assist in governing, so the Imperial Teacher’s opinion is still very important!”

When all was said and done, the Crown Prince was still afraid of taking responsibility. Bai Qingyan had thoroughly understood the Crown Prince’s mentality, so she suggested discussing this matter with Imperial Teacher Old Tan. Getting approval from the Imperial Teacher and War Minister before acting would make the Crown Prince feel… even if something went wrong, his responsibility wouldn’t be so great.

Sure enough, the Crown Prince nodded and instructed Quan Yu to summon the War Minister and Imperial Teacher Old Tan to come quickly to the Crown Prince’s mansion.

For Jin, the more divided the nations surrounding Jin were, the more beneficial it was for Jin. Bai Qingyan understood this principle, as did Imperial Teacher Old Tan and the War Minister.

Regardless of whether this attack on Nanrong by Beirong and Great Yan was… to avenge Great Yan’s Princess Mingcheng or to plan for future strategy, Bai Qingyan had to protect Nanrong!

The reason, aside from the fact that losing Nanrong would indeed be detrimental to Jin, was that Bai Qingyan also had to protect A’Yu and ensure Uncle could safely train their cavalry in Nanrong.

“You don’t need to worry about this matter. After consulting with the Imperial Teacher and War Minister, I will immediately dispatch envoys to Great Yan and Beirong! You go back and rest well. You’ve worked hard during this time.”

The Crown Prince also instructed Quan Yu to open the treasury and send Bai Qingyan many superior medicinal supplements, as well as dispatching people to send gold and silver, ostensibly for Bai Qingyan’s use in Shuoyang for bandit suppression and military training, but actually as rewards for Bai Qingyan to curry her favor.

Not long after Bai Qingyan left the mansion, Old Fang hurried to the study.

The Crown Prince had already changed clothes and was reclining on the couch, applying an ice compress to his head. Hearing Quan Yu say Old Fang had arrived, he removed the compress from his head and sat up, casually pointing to the cushion beside the soft couch: “Old Fang, please sit first!”

Old Fang lifted his robe hem and knelt on the cushion. After a young eunuch minced forward to serve Old Fang tea and then withdrew, the Crown Prince looked at Old Fang and spoke: “There’s something I need Old Fang to investigate privately! But it must be fast!”

Old Fang cupped his hands toward the Crown Prince: “Whatever Your Highness commands!”

“Go investigate where the servants sold off by the Fu Family and the Empress’s maternal family in the year Father Emperor married the Empress as Crown Princess were sold to. Find a few to question whether Fu Ruoxi and the Empress had a marriage engagement back then!” The Crown Prince’s eyes darkened as he looked at Old Fang, solemnly instructing: “This matter concerns the Imperial Family’s reputation, so I’m only telling Old Fang alone. Old Fang must be extremely careful when investigating.”

Hearing that this matter was only told to him, and seeing that the Crown Prince hadn’t summoned Qin Shangzhi and Ren Shijie, Old Fang immediately straightened his kneeling posture and bowed to the Crown Prince: “Your Highness can rest assured, this old one will certainly handle this matter properly! Your Highness… are you suspecting the relationship between the Empress and Fu Ruoxi?”

The Crown Prince nodded: “Since becoming pregnant, this Empress has only allowed Imperial Physician Hu to check her pulse. I remember the previous matter of the Empress’s personal palace maid escorting Fu Ruoxi out of the palace, and I suspect… the child in the Empress’s womb is not the Father Emperor’s! If this matter is true, then the Empress and Prince Xin will be doomed forever, and no one will threaten my position anymore!”

Old Fang quickly sorted through the information the Crown Prince had given him, then suddenly looked up at the Crown Prince: “To place the Empress and Prince Xin in a position of eternal damnation, this old one recalls something…”

The Crown Prince threw the ice compress into the water basin: “Old Fang, speak directly.”

“Does Your Highness remember that after the Empress entered the Crown Prince’s mansion and learned that Consort Yu had already given birth to Your Highness, she made things difficult for Consort Yu in every way? Later, when the Empress became pregnant… before Prince Xin reached full term, Consort Yu argued with the Empress, causing Prince Xin to be born prematurely! At that time, the Empress claimed that Consort Yu pushed her. If not for Madam Lord Shoushan rushing back to say that the Empress had tripped herself and that Consort Yu was talking to her at the time and hurried over to help the Empress, Consort Yu’s life would have been in danger then!” Old Fang’s eyes darkened. “Thinking about it now, doesn’t Your Highness think that perhaps the Empress’s pregnancy term was already full and she wanted to use this to frame Consort Yu?”

Hearing these words, the Crown Prince suddenly looked up, his eyes filled with murderous intent.

Because of that incident back then, his mother consort was beaten fifty strokes by Father Emperor and nearly died. Later, though the mother consort’s health gradually improved, because of those fifty strokes, she lost her child and could never become pregnant again. He was also mistreated by those snobbish servants who looked down on people, and those days were extremely difficult.

“What Old Fang says… is not without reason!”

The Crown Prince suddenly became furious. If it was truly the Empress who framed her, then the Crown Prince absolutely could not let the Empress go.