Despite his many grievances, Xiao Changyan dared not disobey the imperial command, nor could he fake an injury to avoid this task at such a crucial time.

While this would indeed help him avoid an unfortunate disaster where danger outweighed safety, His Majesty wasn’t easily fooled. No matter how cleanly he handled it without leaving evidence, His Majesty would understand this was deliberate and would be angered.

He wasn’t like Xiao Huayong, who was destined to be His Majesty’s adversary and needn’t care about His Majesty’s opinion. Angering His Majesty now would mean creating a powerful enemy for himself.

Nor was he like Xiao Changqin, who had lost his ambition for the throne and thus didn’t care how His Majesty viewed him.

While Xiao Changyan made thorough preparations and departed the capital with great pomp, Shen Xihe’s thoughts were on another matter.

“Is the village massacre real?”

Xiao Huayong was bent over reviewing memorials assigned by His Majesty when Shen Xihe, unusually idle and holding Duanming, had been sitting nearby for a long while before suddenly asking.

His writing fingers paused, and Xiao Huayong countered: “What does Youyou think?”

His Majesty had ruled for over twenty years, bringing prosperity to the dynasty. While one couldn’t say doors remained unlocked at night, it could be said there was peace throughout the land. While bandits existed, they rarely grew powerful enough to massacre an entire village – such brutal criminals were hard to find.

Even if such people existed, they wouldn’t dare cause such a commotion unless the village held some extraordinary wealth worth dying for.

Therefore, Shen Xihe didn’t believe they were real pirates. But without such a shocking event, His Majesty couldn’t mobilize troops so dramatically – a general wasn’t enough, he even needed to send a prince to oversee the situation.

Thus, the massacre couldn’t be baseless.

Reaching this conclusion, Shen Xihe still didn’t blame His Majesty: “His Majesty isn’t such a despicable person.”

Did His Majesty value power?

Naturally, he did, otherwise, there wouldn’t have been Prince Qian’s wrongful death, nor would he have ascended the throne.

Was His Majesty heartless?

On this point, Shen Xihe found it difficult to judge, as some things weren’t simply black and white. The Gu family’s destruction was an inevitable result of political struggle – even if the current Gu family had survived this round, such events would still occur.

This had nothing to do with whether the emperor was self-serving. Regarding the Shen family, as a Shen daughter, Shen Xihe naturally favored and protected her family, but to criticize His Majesty from the stance of a Shen daughter would indeed be excessive.

His Majesty’s wariness wasn’t wrong. While Shen Xihe could only guarantee her father and brothers harbored no thoughts of rebellion, she couldn’t guarantee how future generations would think if the Shen family continued to grow powerful. From this perspective, His Majesty wasn’t at fault.

However, His Majesty ultimately wouldn’t take a step back or trust her father and brothers. If His Majesty could be more magnanimous and allow her father and brothers to leave and live freely as wealthy civilians, both sides could win.

But they all understood that power couldn’t be relinquished – once released, the emperor’s blade awaited them. Only death would truly set His Majesty’s mind at ease.

This was also the quickest way to control the Northwest. The Shen family was deeply rooted there. Even if the emperor could momentarily be magnanimous and let Shen Yueshan’s family go while treating the major clans who followed the Shen family well, as long as Shen Yueshan lived, his influence would remain.

These people wouldn’t believe Shen Yueshan willingly stepped down, no matter how he explained. They would only see the sadness of a bow being stored away after all the birds were gone.

They trusted Shen Yueshan more and would spontaneously resist whoever His Majesty sent to reorganize and take control of the Northwest, plunging it into new chaos. Both His Majesty and Shen Yueshan understood this, so neither could yield.

This was a deadlock, one where blame couldn’t be assigned.

Setting aside the Gu and Shen families, His Majesty had never wronged his court officials. He was diligent, concerned for the country, and loved his people.

Shen Xihe didn’t believe His Majesty would massacre a village just to reasonably station troops along the Min River to kill Shen Yueshan and Bu Shulin.

Xiao Huayong put down his brush and looked at Shen Xihe solemnly: “Youyou, none of us compare to you.”

Upon first hearing about the Min River massacre, those who knew the truth like Xiao Huayong and Xiao Changqin immediately thought His Majesty was truly ruthless.

Only Shen Xihe didn’t investigate thoroughly, trusting in His Majesty’s way of ruling.

Xiao Huayong had sent people to investigate: “His Majesty indeed didn’t massacre the village. As emperor, fabricating a massacre wouldn’t be difficult.”

How vast was the realm? Who could count how many villages and people existed? Even the Ministry of Revenue’s records were incomplete, leaving much room for manipulation.

Finding an isolated, remote location near the Min River would suffice to create the appearance of a massacre. The corpses were covered in white cloth – who could know if they were real? Blood everywhere – who could verify if it was human blood?

As long as officials orchestrated it, how could common people doubt it?

At most, they would realize: “Oh, there was a small village we never knew about just a hundred li away.”

They would secretly feel fortunate it wasn’t their village that suffered such a fate…

Just as she had thought, although Shen Xihe believed His Majesty wasn’t such a brutal person when confirmed, she still felt relieved.

All this arose from her and Xiao Huayong’s scheming. Xiao Huayong had led His Majesty to the Min River, and she had sent Shen Yun’an there, forcing His Majesty to make arrangements. Even though she hadn’t killed anyone, if His Majesty had truly massacred a village because of this, she would have felt guilty.

“Youyou has a fair heart,” Xiao Huayong praised lightly.

Whether enemy or villain, she would never hastily judge someone based on her likes and dislikes, yet she naturally favored her own family. She protected her own but wasn’t blind about it – this made her most suitable to be a ruler.

“It’s just a habit of how I view things and people.” Perhaps because she possessed it herself, Shen Xihe never thought it particularly precious. She was simply accustomed to setting aside personal emotions when viewing everything, which was why she would never be careless against enemies or wrongly accuse someone.

“His Majesty intends to be frank with Prince Jing,” Shen Xihe suddenly understood why Emperor Youning had spread news of Shen Yun’an’s infiltration into the Min River.

The village massacre had been arranged perfectly at this point. The next step would naturally be to issue secret orders to Xiao Changyan, letting him know the massacre was fabricated to secretly capture Shen Yun’an.

This completely pushed Xiao Changyan to the edge of the storm, leaving him no retreat.

Even knowing it would be a fierce battle, Xiao Changyan couldn’t muddle through or try to preserve his forces by being passive in battle due to a lack of substantial evidence about Shen Yun’an’s presence in the Min River.

The emperor’s command was there.

His Majesty wasn’t worried about exposure – he issued the secret orders precisely because he wasn’t certain about Shen Yun’an’s presence. This showed his deep consideration.