“Oh my, Prince Zhongshun, it’s been quite a while since we last met.” Several ministers approached with smiles and bowed in greeting. “It’s been many days since we’ve seen you. How has Your Highness been feeling?”

Pang Xiao nodded with a smile. “Thank you all for your concern. This prince has recovered considerably.”

Someone lowered their voice and said with a smile, “The grand court assembly arranged by His Majesty—even if one’s health hasn’t fully recovered, Your Highness would still come for the Emperor’s sake.”

Pang Xiao glanced sideways at this person. Anyone who could come to the Fengtian Gate to attend court during a grand assembly was a fourth-rank or higher official in the capital. This man was a veteran minister from the Personnel Ministry, belonging to the faction of old ministers from the former Bei Ji Kingdom.

“Minister Lin certainly understands this prince well.” Pang Xiao smiled faintly, his expression unreadable.

But the perceptive people nearby could all hear that this official’s words were quite ambiguous, easily making people feel he was mocking Pang Xiao. Yet Pang Xiao showed no signs of displeasure whatsoever.

The noble military generals who passed by, seeing Pang Xiao being so forbearing, couldn’t help but feel their anger nearly bursting forth.

When they were out there spilling blood and fighting desperately to protect the country, these civil officials only knew how to scheme against each other. Not helping was one thing, but they even sabotaged from behind. The ones risking their lives in battle were the generals, yet those with high positions and great power were these incompetent parasites. What kind of figure was Pang Xiao? He was the War God Prince who struck terror into enemies’ hearts—behind his back, they all called him a fierce demon! Yet now he was being repeatedly suppressed and harshly treated by the Emperor, causing his family to be destroyed. Even the prince’s temper had been worn away.

How much grievance must he have endured to make the prince bow his head? And what difference was there between a prince who bowed his head and a tiger or wolf with its fangs pulled?

The military generals and nobles felt uncomfortable. Some were good at enduring and simply walked past with lowered heads, while others had explosive tempers and spat on the spot. Without naming names, they only said, “A bunch of parasites!”

Pang Xiao found it amusing and said no more, shaking his head as he proceeded to where the court assembly was held, taking his position as the first among the military officials according to his rank.

These days, the court ministers had all been concerned about the situation with the Tatar war. Although Ji Zeyu had prior experience defeating enemies, since Pang Xiao was in the capital, the chances of success would be greater if the two joined forces. Therefore, many people, regardless of whether they had taken a stance or visited the prince’s mansion to persuade him, secretly hoped that Pang Xiao could step forward and join Ji Zeyu in confronting the Tatars.

Pang Xiao paid no attention to others’ thoughts. He had already prepared himself mentally—if the Emperor issued an edict, he would immediately accept the imperial decree and carry out the duty. His thinking was simple. No matter what Li Qitian had done, the territory of the Great Zhou Dynasty belonged to the Great Zhou Dynasty. Anyone who wanted to interfere should be prepared to have their hands chopped off. No matter what, the Tatars were still foreigners, and he absolutely would not allow the common people to fall into Tatar hands.

The area in front of Fengtian Hall was exceptionally quiet today. Everyone had their own calculations in their hearts.

Just then, the distinctive hoarse, high-pitched voice of the inner palace eunuchs echoed across the square.

“His Majesty holds court! All officials, kneel!”

The crowd shouted “Long live!” and knelt in unison to pay their respects.

Although Pang Xiao’s injuries hadn’t fully healed, he bowed and kowtowed along with everyone else, showing not the slightest transgression of protocol.

Li Qitian, dressed in bright yellow, ascended the imperial steps. After taking his seat at the head, he first looked toward the first among the military officials. Indeed, Pang Xiao hadn’t made excuses but had truly come. His heart felt considerably more comfortable.

The ministers quietly awaited instructions, waiting for the words “Those with memorials step forward, those without may withdraw” before they would petition the Emperor to allow Prince Zhongshun to march against the Tatars.

But no one could know what Li Qitian was thinking today.

He coughed once, and the eunuchs all stepped back. Li Qitian then stood up and declared passionately, “Today’s grand court assembly—We have several policy decisions to announce.”

Everyone felt anxious, waiting for Li Qitian’s subsequent words.

Pang Xiao lowered his eyes, observing his nose and heart, maintaining his usual steady composure, like a precious sword still in its sheath, seemingly completely unmoved by the current situation.

Pang Xiao could maintain his composure, but some officials became nervous.

Li Qitian could see everyone’s reactions clearly. The fact that a single sentence from him could cause so many people to become tense greatly satisfied Li Qitian.

But seeing that Pang Xiao still wore the same expression as before, as if nothing could shake him, Li Qitian felt his heart fill with an atmosphere of barely suppressible anger.

It was like this again—as if he was constantly mocking him, ridiculing him, as if his imperial edicts meant nothing to him at all!

At this moment, Li Qitian became even more certain that his decision was correct!

Li Qitian stood up and took the initiative, declaring, “We command Gao Wenliang to serve as commander of the Huben Army, leading one hundred thousand troops to reinforce Huichuan!”

As soon as these words were spoken, the entire court fell silent. Everyone was stunned, mouths agape, unable to react for a long time.

The Huben Army was indeed brave and fierce, but the only one who could bring out the Huben Army’s abilities to their fullest was Pang Xiao, who had personally trained the Huben Army!

Before today’s court assembly, many people believed that Pang Xiao would definitely receive an imperial decree to march and regain command of the Huben Army. But no one could have imagined that the Emperor had become so wary of Pang Xiao that even with Yuan threatened by the Tatars, he refused to entrust the Huben Army to him again!

Those civil and military officials who hoped for Pang Xiao to march were unable to recover from their shock. And those officials who secretly belonged to the Qiu family faction were even more turbulent, trembling with nervousness.

They had already done their homework—the Emperor had even sent people to persuade them. Who could have expected that by now, the Emperor had never even considered their thoughts at all! He was completely unable to trust Pang Xiao in battle!

As for Gao Wenliang, he was now shocked beyond measure. He had once been Ji Zeyu’s subordinate and had later enjoyed a smooth career path with continuous promotions. In his heart, he admired both Ji Zeyu and Pang Xiao. This wasn’t surprising—what military general in the entire Great Zhou Dynasty didn’t respect Ji Zeyu and Pang Xiao?

But he had never imagined that he would one day become the commander of the Huben Army!

“Your Majesty, this subject…” Gao Wenliang stepped forward with large strides, performed a grand bow, and said in his rough voice, “This subject is terrified, this subject…”

“What? Does General Gao still want to resist the imperial decree?”

Li Qitian didn’t wait for him to finish speaking before his expression darkened, and he sternly rebuked, “Could it be that you’re unwilling to march for the country and join Duke Dingguo in resisting the Tatars?”

“This subject is naturally willing, but this subject’s experience is still shallow, and I fear that I might…”

“No matter. You just need to accept the decree!”

Hearing Li Qitian’s voice rise, Gao Wenliang dared not say more and could only accept like a duck being pushed onto a perch.

Throughout this exchange, Li Qitian kept observing Pang Xiao’s condition. He saw that Pang Xiao stood with his hands hanging down, observing his nose and heart, seemingly completely indifferent to external affairs. Li Qitian became even more furious.

Could it be that Pang Zhixi wasn’t a person of the Great Zhou? Did he have no emotional response whatsoever to the matter of marching to war?

If that was the case, Li Qitian would no longer hesitate. “Pang Zhixi.”

“This subject is present.” Pang Xiao stepped forward with large strides and bowed respectfully.

All the civil and military officials looked in Pang Xiao’s direction.

Li Qitian said, “The disaster situation in the south is severe. When the earth dragon turned over, you were out there providing disaster relief, so your experience must be quite extensive. You must also be more confident in handling disaster relief matters. The people are the foundation of the Great Zhou Dynasty. We entrust this task to you—you shall serve as special envoy for disaster relief, traveling to the south to govern and quell the floods, to relieve the people’s suffering!”

Everyone was even more shocked than before, unable to close their mouths.

All present were intelligent people—what was there not to understand by this point?

The Emperor clearly feared Prince Zhongshun and dared not let him touch even the slightest bit of the Huben Army, preferring to send a War God Prince with exceptional abilities who could very likely drive out the Tatars to provide disaster relief instead!

Indeed, Pang Xiao had experience with disaster relief and was quite experienced. But when he went south for disaster relief before, it was because of the earth dragon turning over, and the affected areas were certainly limited in size.

But what about now? This year, the Great Zhou Dynasty had suffered continuous natural and man-made disasters, and the Emperor had taken the already insufficient silver to build the imperial mausoleum. The national treasury was empty, and no proper solution had been devised to solve the problem. Instead, it was left to drift, causing the Great Zhou’s regional granaries to fail to receive adequate replenishment of grain. At this critical moment, the various regional granaries of the Great Zhou couldn’t sustain themselves!

The common people had no rice to eat, and there were unscrupulous merchants in various regions hoarding grain and selling it at high prices to profit from the national disaster! The people normally had to calculate when eating—how could they afford the sky-high grain prices set by those black-hearted merchants? Unable to afford it, they could only endure and eat tree roots and bark. Some people who couldn’t survive in their hometowns came out to flee famine, while others organized attacks on local government offices. Those who raised banners in rebellion—just this month alone, they had heard of four different places.

Now that the Emperor had given this task to Pang Xiao, what he intended to do was already obvious.

To resist foreign enemies, even if poor, the Emperor would still take out money.

But if Pang Xiao went to provide disaster relief and the Emperor didn’t provide silver, disaster relief couldn’t be carried out. If disaster relief couldn’t be carried out, who would the people of the world resent? At that time, the first person they would resent would be Pang Xiao, the official in charge!

The Emperor’s move was too vicious. He was using this great chaos to make Pang Xiao completely perish here, giving himself sufficient time to fabricate charges against Pang Xiao, thus eliminating this major threat to his peace of mind.

But at such a time of internal and external troubles, was the Emperor still only focused on eliminating Pang Xiao, this threat to the imperial throne, to consolidate his own position? Was this really being responsible?

Pang Xiao smiled self-mockingly.

Should he now lament his importance in Li Qitian’s heart?

To be targeted so seriously with such effort—he really should feel honored.

But did Li Qitian really not care about the Tatar foreign enemies anymore?

Pang Xiao’s thoughts raced, and he immediately understood.

Li Qitian didn’t not care about the Tatars, nor did he not want to destroy the Tatars to boost national prestige. What he was doing was making a “two-pronged” decision. Ji Zeyu had defeated the Tatars once before, and this time with the Huben Army joining in, Li Qitian was convinced that even without Pang Xiao present, Ji Zeyu and Gao Wenliang could easily take down the Tatars.

When the external enemies were cleanly removed, he could then pin some crime on Pang Xiao to resolve him, and Li Qitian could truly sleep peacefully.

He smiled slightly. In the blink of an eye, having thought through all this, his expression became more peaceful than ever before.

“This subject obeys the decree.” Pang Xiao bowed in salute, pulling at the wound on his buttocks, causing him a momentary grimace of pain. However, Pang Xiao acted as if nothing had happened and stood up. Right there in the court, he asked, “Your Majesty, the disaster situation in the south is severe. How much rice, grain, silver, money, and medicinal materials has Your Majesty prepared for disaster relief? With such instructions given, this subject should also go inventory them and make preparations in advance.”

Upon hearing this, Li Qitian’s face immediately darkened.