The force gripping A’yin’s neck intensified. A’yin, from instinctive fear, began crying again.

Jiang Yichu, weak as she was, in that moment somehow found strength from somewhere. She struggled to rise from the bed, snatched A’yin from his hands, and held her tightly in her arms.

Her back was so thin and frail it had become gaunt, yet the eyes looking at Pei Song were still like a mother beast protecting her young, saying palely: “Come at me if you want. Don’t touch A’yin!”

Pei Song looked at his empty palm, the mockery in his eyes intensifying. He smiled thinly in fury, questioning her: “Yes, then why didn’t Elder Sister come at me? Why strike at a child who hasn’t even been born to see this world?”

Jiang Yichu held her daughter forcefully, as if her daughter were the only lifeline supporting her survival. Her eyes were desolate and numb: “You can kill me.”

After saying this, as if finally thinking of a solution, she continued patting A’yin’s back rhythmically, comforting her daughter, yet wearily smiled at Pei Song: “Qin Huan, you can kill me.”

She spoke so earnestly, as if truly hoping Pei Song would do so.

For A’yin’s sake, she couldn’t seek death herself.

But she was truly so tired of living.

Hearing these words, the anger on Pei Song’s face intensified for an instant. Only for some unknown reason, he suddenly calmed down very quickly again. Like a lover, he intimately caressed Jiang Yichu’s cheek, his smile gentle: “What is Elder Sister saying?”

As if playing a role, his previous fury and mockery vanished without trace. Extremely gently: “Elder Sister should properly recuperate.”

He wiped away the tears stuck to the lashes of A’yin, who was crying hiccupping sobs collapsed against her shoulder. Like a family of three, he embraced Jiang Yichu, kissed the top of her head, deciding for her: “After Elder Sister’s body recovers, we’ll have another child.”

In this instant, Jiang Yichu was very certain—the mad one was Pei Song, not her.

Facing Jiang Yichu’s gaze looking at him like a madman, Pei Song only smiled: “Worried about Beauty Zheng and her father? Don’t be afraid. I’ll settle accounts with them over this matter.”

Outside, a running dog knocked at the door: “Master, Master Gongsun has come seeking you.”

Pei Song glanced at A’yin in Jiang Yichu’s arms: “Be good, Elder Sister. Let this child stay here these two days. I’ll come see Elder Sister again later.”

He seemed to want to kiss Jiang Yichu’s cheek again. After Jiang Yichu hastily dodged, that kiss only brushed her temple. Pei Song didn’t mind at all. After a smile gentle enough to be hair-raising, he rose and departed.

Jiang Yichu watched the door curtain swaying after Pei Song’s departure. Besides pallor, her face at this moment also showed some sarcastic and absurd emotion.

He’d thrown her Jun’er to death—how dare he ask her for another child?

—

The moment Pei Song exited the courtyard, he saw Gongsun Chou standing rigidly in the cold wind, his expression very ugly.

Upon seeing him, Gongsun Chou didn’t wait for him to speak, bowing: “Master, that demon woman, relying on being pregnant, previously bewitched you in every way to wastefully expend resources and harm the people. For the sake of your bloodline in her belly, this old minister only advised you not to be deluded by her. Now with her viper’s heart, she actually schemes against your other offspring, helping her Liang camp, using this critical moment to drive wedges between you and your subordinate generals. Master, such a poisonous woman truly cannot be kept! Only by immediately executing this poisonous woman can we give General Zheng and his daughter an accounting!”

Yet Pei Song said almost with a cold laugh: “Accounting? Is there any possibility that this Grand Commandant should seek an accounting from the Zheng family?”

Under Gongsun Chou’s shocked gaze, he said coldly: “As for how that bastard in Beauty Zheng’s belly came to be, she herself should know best.”

Gongsun Chou looked utterly shocked. Then his mind held only one thought: Absurd.

Beauty Zheng had news of pregnancy not long after Jiang Yichu was diagnosed pregnant.

That is to say, the Zheng family dared not gamble whether Jiang Yichu would give birth to Pei Song’s eldest son first, so Beauty Zheng took this risky action—no matter what, she had to become pregnant first.

This time, she even used General Zheng being relied upon again to deliberately miscarry, while also eliminating Pei Song’s true bloodline in Jiang Yichu’s belly.

Gongsun Chou stammered: “Does Master have evidence?”

Pei Song laughed coldly: “Does sir think this Grand Commandant is making excuses for the Jiang woman? Then this Grand Commandant can immediately arrest that guard the Zheng woman brought from her natal family and interrogate him for sir to see.”

Under grief and fury interwoven, Gongsun Chou’s face suddenly showed a collapse as if secretly knowing the general situation was lost.

Beauty Zheng acted this way to compete again for her Zheng clan, but also due to feeling injustice from Pei Song.

He was angry the Zheng clan dared pull such deception, and grieved that Pei Song had ultimately reached the step of calculating with subordinate generals for profit.

He asked Pei Song: “Then why didn’t you previously expose the Zheng clan?”

Pei Song said lightly: “Letting the Zheng clan think they’ve deceived this Grand Commandant—wouldn’t that make them work even more devotedly for this Grand Commandant?”

After several silences, Gongsun Chou finally spoke: “Master previously had this plan. The current situation is urgent. To prevent further fluctuation of military morale, Master… should still pretend not to know this matter and stabilize General Zheng…”

Mozhou’s Zheng clan, bringing the entire Mozhou army to Pei Song, was aside from troops obtained from Grand Commandant Ao, Pei Song’s most combat-capable regular army.

Pei Song countered: “The Zheng clan is audacious, murdering this Grand Commandant’s offspring—at this time sir no longer seeks justice for this Grand Commandant’s unborn child?”

Gongsun Chou’s expression was complex and pained: “Master should never have let that demon woman become pregnant. Everything now is perhaps heaven’s will. The Zheng father and daughter disrespected you—you can certainly settle accounts after the situation stabilizes. Why add more difficulties for yourself now?”

He paused, continuing with difficulty: “This old minister only hopes Master won’t continue being deluded by that demon woman, neglecting all the madams.”

Pei Song’s face suddenly turned cold: “Is sir blaming me for pushing the Zheng clan to this step?”

Gongsun Chou bowed with clasped hands: “This old minister wouldn’t dare. Only the Liang camp not only properly settles southward-fleeing civilians but also issued recruitment decrees, proclaiming all who defect to her Liang camp now will have past crimes forgiven. Civilian conscription can’t recruit anyone. Subordinate generals’ thoughts waver. Didn’t Master initially marry many generals’ daughters to stabilize them? How can you now continue neglecting the madams?”

Pei Song suddenly said extremely darkly: “Is sir afraid of her Hanyang?”

Gongsun Chou’s eyes were full of vicissitudes: “A Wen clan remnant elevated to that high position by borrowing her father and brother’s accumulated reputation, successively pushed by those two old fools Li Yao and Yu Zideng—what does this old minister fear? If Master insists on keeping that demon woman alive, if one day she can serve as leverage threatening her Liang camp, this old minister has no more words. Only if all the madams bear your offspring will the generals following you truly settle their hearts and not be deluded by her Liang camp!”

He sighed heavily: “I know Master is proud, but Master’s secretly dispatched people to the Northern Territory, intending when barbarians attack to bite Northern Wei from behind—this plan has already failed with Dou Jianliang’s exposure. Wei Qishan has marshaled troops to campaign south against us. Under pincer attack from him and the Liang camp, even if Master isn’t afraid, subordinate officers will ultimately panic…”

The barbarians outside the pass, unable to conquer the Northern Territory for long—once spring arrived, the barbarians wouldn’t need to attack the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun with full force for provisions. Once Wei Qishan had spare energy, their situation would only worsen.

By then, trying to cooperate with barbarians to have them restrain Wei Qishan, what they’d demand likely wouldn’t just be the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun.

By the end of his speech, Gongsun Chou’s eyes had reddened: “If this battle is lost, Master’s future will only be more difficult. Every general who defects will further shatter military morale. What this old minister advises is all for Master’s sake…”

Pei Song laughed coldly: “Sir has decided this Grand Commandant will lose?”

Not waiting for Gongsun Chou to reply, he said forcefully: “Then this Grand Commandant will show sir how this battle is won!”

He departed angrily with a flick of his sleeves. Gongsun Chou watched his retreating back, the redness in his eyes suddenly deepening.

A running dog following Pei Song cupped fists toward Gongsun Chou, also about to leave. Gongsun Chou stopped him: “In Master’s name, send some rewards to Beauty Zheng’s place.”

That running dog hesitated, then told Gongsun Chou: “It should no longer be necessary.”

—

At Beauty Zheng’s residence, the matron serving her lifted the curtain from outside and entered. After dismissing everyone, she told Beauty Zheng lying sickly on the bed: “Madam, that guard has been dealt with.”

After this miscarriage, Beauty Zheng was extremely weak, her lips showing little blood color. Her eyes seemed to float sorrow for an instant, only to quickly suppress it, asking: “No one saw, right?”

The matron said: “Madam rest assured. That guard ate cold food and died of sudden illness.”

Only then did Beauty Zheng feel somewhat relieved. She would have no evidence left with Pei Song.

She risked self-harm to drag Jiang Yichu into falling and losing the child because she discovered Pei Song seemed to already notice that guard she brought from her natal family.

Already suspected—this child absolutely couldn’t be born, or it would become ironclad evidence.

Seeing Beauty Zheng’s face white as death, the matron was also full of heartache. After a maidservant brought medicine, she carefully fed it to Beauty Zheng spoon by spoon, saying: “The General received your letter. Learning you’re unharmed, he also sent back news—the Grand Commandant promoted the General another military rank and rewarded many things. Only pity you, Madam, suffered such grievous harm.”

Beauty Zheng swallowed the difficult-to-swallow medicine, using the bitter medicine’s excuse for tears rolling from her eyes. Sad, resentful, yet somewhat ruthlessly decisive: “This is all what that Pei Song owes my Zheng family.”

“My father risked our entire clan’s heads, brought tens of thousands of officers to his command, fighting desperately at front lines. Yet he exclusively favors a former Liang criminal woman. Does he want my father and his subordinates—after so many died—to all pave the way for him and that former Liang criminal woman’s bastard!”

The matron comforted with heartache: “The Grand Commandant currently relies on the General. After Madam recovers, it won’t be late to have another child with the Grand Commandant.”

As Beauty Zheng’s dowry matron, she naturally knew Pei Song rarely visited the various beauties’ quarters. He came to Beauty Zheng’s place relatively more—still only once or twice a month. Beauty Zheng had always had people watch that former Liang criminal woman’s courtyard. Learning the other was pregnant, she took this desperate measure.

Originally thinking she could deceive everyone—once she had pregnancy pulses, she’d send that guard back to the Zheng family. Who expected Pei Song still targeted him?

Thus going all in—simply dragging that former Liang criminal woman Jiang into falling and losing children together, then eliminating that guard.

Beauty Zheng painfully swallowed another mouthful of medicine the matron fed her. Her face pale, yet resolutely: “Naturally. I willingly became a concubine to marry over precisely for that Empress position after he ascends the throne someday.”

Pei Song’s past wasn’t honorable. Any aristocratic family with pride disdained associating with him.

Mozhou wasn’t any strategic location in the Northern Territory. Her father couldn’t rank among Wei Qishan’s important generals.

If she married Wei Pingzin as a concubine, the assistance the Zheng family could give her wouldn’t be enough before the Wei clan.

Pei Song, as the Ao family’s master-devouring dog, temporarily rampant by popular resentment—her father carrying all of Mozhou to defect to Pei Song represented aristocratic recognition of Pei Song. This weight was sufficient.

Just as Beauty Zheng was about to drink more medicine the matron fed, she suddenly clutched her abdomen extremely painfully: “My belly…”

The matron was shocked: “What’s wrong, Madam?”

Beauty Zheng was in such pain she nearly rolled all over the bed. The matron sensed something wrong. Lifting the bedding, she saw Beauty Zheng’s underside had already turned a large patch red.

The matron panicked: “Why bleeding again?”

She hurriedly shouted outside urgently: “Ping’er, quickly fetch the physician!”

The originally tightly closed room door was kicked open from outside by someone. The maidservant whose throat had been violently snapped fell inside like a sandbag.

Cold wind swept away all warmth inside, carrying in the dense bloody stench from outside the courtyard.

A running dog stepped inside: “No need to fetch a physician.”

The matron was terrified, stammering: “You… you dare disrespect Madam? My family’s General is still at the front lines…”

The running dog leader tilted his head back. Subordinate running dogs tore down the high-hanging gauze curtains in the room, wrapping them left and right around that matron’s neck.

The running dog leader said unhurriedly: “General Zheng has already received Beauty’s letter. He’ll fight this battle well for Master with peace of mind.”

The two subordinate running dogs exerted force. The matron desperately pulled at the gauze strangling her neck, yet it was still futile.

On the bed, Beauty Zheng—who from excessive blood loss had already dyed a large patch of the bedding beneath her red—cried out in collapse: “Nanny Song!”

The matron stared at Beauty Zheng with bulging eyes, quickly breathed her last, and like that maidservant at the door, softly collapsed to the ground.

The running dog leader said: “Beauty Zheng died from excessive blood loss after miscarriage. The Grand Commandant was furious and ordered the manor physician treating her and all servants in the courtyard executed.”

Beauty Zheng lay collapsed on the bed, her entire person already pale as paper without a trace of vitality. Her forehead was also covered in cold sweat from immense pain, yet she still began laughing madly.

She knew from sending that letter to her father, she’d already fallen into Pei Song’s trap.

She thought Pei Song for the current situation would compromise to an unverified result—she underestimated Pei Song’s viciousness.

Clutching her abdomen, flowing tears with a fierce smile, she viciously cursed: “Pei Song! How vicious you are!”

“I curse you… betrayed by all, may you die horribly!”

—

Pei Song blocked all news. Beauty Zheng’s death, like a grain of sand falling into lakes and seas, couldn’t stir any ripples.

When Wei’s camp marched south, the Liang and Chen camps in just a few short days recaptured another prefecture and several counties under Pei Song’s rule.

Refugees migrating south from the Central Plains became like seasonally migrating fish schools—an unstoppable force.

Pei Song locked passes, detained women and children, forcibly conscripted—only temporarily stabilizing the situation.

Yet even though his numerous strategists labored over proclamations, loudly denouncing Great Liang for wrongly executing many loyal ministers and harming people’s livelihood, the Liang camp’s response—that these were all mistakes committed by the late emperor, detailing Prince Changlian and his son’s many reforms to change this, now their Princess Hanyang willing to write a self-reproaching edict for the late emperor’s actions—rebutted all Pei camp’s denunciations. They even listed Pei Song’s many crimes from serving as the outer relatives Ao faction’s running dog to now devastating the living—truly fitting the phrase “too numerous to record.”

—

In Weizhou, still ravaged by fierce winds and cruel snow, Wei Manor was raided one deep night, the dungeon gate broken open.

Tao Kui used his physical advantage to directly scatter the iron gate outside the dungeon. In the distance, Wei Manor’s study blazed with soaring flames. Sounds of fierce fire burning, gong-beating for firefighting, and bronze bells struck in the dungeon mixed together.

Zheng Hu led people to fell the guards watching the dungeon, taking keys to try one by one on the arm-thick iron cell bar locks, cheerfully telling Xiao Li inside: “Old man Wei took his dog son to fight that traitor Pei Song. Barbarians took the opportunity to cross Yanle Mountain. Liao Jiang led wolf riders to kill over. Finally brothers found an opportunity to break you out! The strategist said—this time you come out, openly rebel against that Wei Qishan, and no one under heaven will say a word against you, Second Brother!”

Finally finding the right key, the cell door lock clicked open and fell. The heavy black iron shackles on Xiao Li’s hands also crashed to the ground—like a fierce beast finally breaking free of restraints.

At the dungeon entrance, another batch of Wei reinforcements surged at this moment. Looking at their group, forcibly suppressing fear to order: “Someone’s breaking the prison! Random arrows—shoot these bandits dead!”

Xiao Li’s brow and eyes were desolate, all ferocity contained in that mountain-like steadiness. Not at all like someone imprisoned nearly ten days, he raised cold eyes sweeping toward the group of Wei soldiers raising crossbows at the entrance, saying: “Kill our way out!”