Steward Zhong was momentarily stunned by Qin Yining’s question, his brows furrowing slightly in thoughtful contemplation.

Qin Yining continued: “The timing isn’t right yet. Minor disturbances won’t have much impact on that man surnamed Gao. Once someone like him catches his breath, he’ll likely retaliate against the common people who confronted him. If that’s the case, it would be better to stabilize the people for now and wait for the right opportunity to proceed with the next step of the plan.”

After pondering for a moment, Steward Zhong nodded slowly with dawning understanding: “I understand the Princess’s meaning. I was thinking too simplistically just now. I didn’t consider the consequences of the common people causing trouble at this time.”

Qin Yining smiled and comforted Steward Zhong with a few words, then sighed: “In natural disasters and man-made calamities, those who suffer the most are these ordinary people. If we continue the soup kitchen, at least we can give everyone a better chance of survival.”

“Indeed. The Princess is a benevolent person. Whether it was spending your entire fortune to provide disaster relief during the drought years, or using your personal silver to help the Prince provide disaster relief during the earthquake, everything you’ve done has been without shame. This has always been something I admire.”

“You give me too much credit. As a mere woman in such circumstances, what I can do is ultimately limited. The situation is as it is now, and there may be many times in the future when I’ll be unable to act according to my wishes.”

“Being able to do something for the common people within one’s capabilities is already very good.”

After the two discussed subsequent matters, Steward Zhong hurried off to arrange soup kitchen affairs with Zhao Yinuo, planning to find someone with an unfamiliar face to continue the food distribution.

Qin Yining returned to her room to play with the two children for a while. Qian Yun then lifted the curtain and entered the room. Seeing that both Zhao Ge’er and Han Ge’er were awake, she spoke softly: “Princess, Jingzhe has returned.”

Qin Yining immediately stood up and handed Han Ge’er in her arms to the wet nurse.

She had arranged for Jingzhe to secretly investigate the situation in the military camp. Pang Xiao’s letters only reported good news and not bad, and she feared that Pang Xiao was in some danger but wouldn’t let her know.

Walking quickly to the main room of Xueli Courtyard, Jingzhe had already been waiting with his head bowed for some time. Upon seeing Qin Yining and paying his respects, he said: “Princess, the main force of the Pingnan Army appears to be like scattered sand, but the core camp areas are extremely heavily guarded. The Prince has definitely made arrangements within. Our people were afraid of alerting the enemy and didn’t dare get too close, so we gathered very little information about the Prince. Most of what we saw was the Prince drilling troops. However, Deng Minchang’s situation is quite obvious.”

This was within Qin Yining’s expectations.

If people could freely gather intelligence around Pang Xiao’s main command camp, after so many years of warfare, wouldn’t he have been torn apart long ago?

“Then tell me about Deng Minchang.”

“Yes.” Jingzhe bowed and then said in a low voice: “Deng Minchang basically doesn’t do any proper work in the army. He constantly indulges in wine and meat, with beautiful women serving him. He’s rarely seen training with the soldiers, and the Prince doesn’t seem to strictly discipline him either.”

“This kind of person can become a Pingnan General?”

Although Li Qitian stood in opposition to them, Qin Yining still trusted Li Qitian’s intelligence and eye for people. If Deng Minchang had been such a waste from the beginning, he probably wouldn’t have been able to assume the position of Pingnan General.

Qin Yining unconsciously played with her long hair that had fallen to her shoulders, but her thoughts were entirely on this abnormal situation.

However, recalling what she had seen and heard while walking around the former capital recently, Qin Yining already had a general idea in her heart.

Although this place was far from the emperor, the local situation was certainly no less chaotic than the capital. This was the former capital of Yan Dynasty. Setting aside whether those officials were truly loyal to Great Zhou or Great Yan, and not speaking of distant matters, just the merchants and wealthy families each had their own calculations.

If Deng Minchang were someone as resolute and principled as Pang Xiao, both local officials and gentry would find things difficult when trying to accomplish anything. But by corrupting someone’s character, they could then cater to his preferences when trying to achieve something. Even worse, they could have women whisper sweet words in his ear.

Even if not for these relationship-building purposes, having a garrison commander full of weaknesses would bring nothing but benefits to those Yan Dynasty supporters who still harbored feelings for Yuchi Yan.

So Qin Yining felt that it wasn’t that Li Qitian had chosen an unreliable person as garrison commander, but rather that someone with ulterior motives had led the originally decent but weak-willed Deng Minchang astray.

“It seems the Prince’s affairs in the military camp are also not easy to handle. As the saying goes, when the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam follows suit. If Deng Minchang is this kind of person, the soldiers he’s trained probably aren’t much better.”

“Indeed. The Prince probably has his hands full in the military camp,” Jingzhe said.

Qin Yining then asked: “Are the people in the army still respectful to the Prince? Do they still obey orders and prohibitions?”

“When I went, the Prince still seemed to handle things with ease. However, subduing the large and small officers in the Pingnan Army is definitely not an easy task.”

Having one Deng Minchang at the top certainly couldn’t represent all the officers in the entire Pingnan Army.

At this moment, Qin Yining was extremely grateful that she hadn’t told Pang Xiao about these troubles at home. Li Qitian had ill intentions in arranging for Pang Xiao to come to such a place, so the military situation had probably been accumulating problems for a long time. If he managed the Pingnan Army well, it would bring honor to their reputation and Li Qitian would have no reason to blame him.

But if he managed it poorly, then he would have to give up the glorious title of War God Prince. Not just Pang Xiao, even she, a mere woman, would feel embarrassed for him.

“Princess, a letter from the Prince has arrived.” Qian Yun held up a thick envelope with both hands.

Qin Yining stood up in delighted surprise, taking the envelope and looking at Pang Xiao’s bold and unrestrained handwriting that showed through the paper. She smiled genuinely.

The content of this letter was the same as those he usually wrote to her – all caring inquiries about the cold weather, asking about the household situation and the children’s condition. He didn’t mention a single word about the difficulties and chaos in the army, much less write about the intelligence that Jingzhe had gathered.

Looking at the mushy sentence “I miss you dearly” at the signature, Qin Yining’s face flushed with color. She sat down at the black lacquered wooden table with a smile, methodically grinding ink while secretly composing the content of her reply.

But when she finished writing her response, she realized that what she was doing was no different from what Pang Xiao was doing.

Pang Xiao didn’t tell her about military affairs, and she didn’t tell Pang Xiao about the troubling matters around her.

Both of them reported only good news and not bad, both concealing unpleasant content and keeping only what would bring joy.

Qin Yining shook her head with a rueful smile. Pang Xiao probably wasn’t completely unaware of external affairs – he must have heard something about what was happening in the city. Since she didn’t explain it in her letter, she wondered if Pang Xiao would be angry when he found out.

When Pang Xiao received the reply, the sky had already grown dim. He held the letter close to a silk lantern and carefully read it back and forth three times before chuckling softly and folding the letter to keep close to his chest. Then he told Huzi: “Take a few clever ones and disguise yourselves as civilian workers. Go into the city and find out if anything major has happened in the city these past few days.”

He then added with amusement: “How are those guards I left by Yining’s side doing their job!” Those people had apparently become loyal only to her after following Qin Yining, and even his instructions for them to regularly report on matters around Qin Yining had yielded no useful information.