No matter how foolish Cui Yingtang and Cui Yingyun were, they couldn’t possibly allow the Imperial Guard to actually investigate the escort agencies. Such an investigation would likely create trouble even where none existed. Moreover, Ma Yongfu and Ma Wangkun had both said that Prince Zhennan had come to Jin territory specifically to take over the sixty thousand princely guard troops in Jin territory. At this moment, for Hong Fa to act in a way that bypassed Prince Zhennan was clearly extremely suspicious.

Ma Yongfu had an honest appearance but was anything but honest. After brief consideration, he knew something must have gone wrong: “Prince Zhennan’s whereabouts were unknown earlier, and now the Imperial Guard is bypassing Prince Zhennan to make things difficult for the Cui family. I’m afraid… I’m afraid they’re not searching for any remnant party members, but rather following Prince Gong’s orders to search for Prince Zhennan. From this, we can deduce that Prince Zhennan should be seeking refuge with us.”

His analysis was well-reasoned and well-founded. Cui Yingtang couldn’t help but nod along: “Right now in all of Jin territory, if we’re talking about whom Prince Zhennan would dare to seek refuge with in confidence, it would only be us in Jinzhong. But how should we deal with the Imperial Guard?”

Ma Wangkun was even less polite, speaking bluntly: “So what if he’s the Imperial Guard Commander? First, we haven’t received orders from the court, and second, he can’t produce an imperial edict. By what right can he run rampant in Jinzhong?”

Thinking back and forth, he knew something was wrong. The Imperial Guard should have come under orders to hunt down those who killed Prince Gong. Given the relationship between Lai Chenglong and Song Chuyi, the Imperial Guard definitely couldn’t harm the Cui family. The only possibility was that Hong Fa was a traitor.

Thinking about why Prince Gong had been able to smoothly reach Jin territory with his whereabouts unknown, and why Prince Zhennan had also gone completely silent, Ma Wangkun and Ma Yongfu exchanged glances, becoming even more convinced that Hong Fa harbored ill intentions.

However, though their suspicions were such, they still needed to test him.

But before they could test him, Hong Fa made his move first. While Cui Yingtang and Cui Yingyun were still discussing what to do, Hong Fa had already used his authority as Imperial Guard Commander to command the Imperial Guards of the Shanxi Guard Station, leading a large force to storm into both the East and West residences, demanding to search the entire estate.

He could wait no longer. Regardless of whether Prince Zhennan was actually at the Cui residence or not, he had to subdue the Cui family first, cut off Prince Zhennan’s escape route, and grasp this hard-to-chew bone of Jinzhong in his hands.

But the Cui family had always maintained a large number of guards. Moreover, they had escort agencies under their control and could pull out a great number of martial escort masters. What’s more, the Cui family had one enormous advantage—they were the local tyrants of Jinzhong.

Hong Fa had barely surrounded the residence when Prefectural Magistrate Hu Yingming arrived with a large contingent of men upon hearing the news.

Hu Yingming was crafty. He didn’t confront Hong Fa directly but first asked him to present an imperial edict: “We all received the court bulletin reporting Prince Gong’s death and deeply regretted it. However, we haven’t received any message from His Majesty saying that Ma Yuantong’s remnants still exist in our Jinzhong. Moreover, wasn’t it said that the remnants of Ma Yuantong’s party who killed Prince Gong had already been completely eliminated on the road to Jin territory? How is it that there are suddenly remnants in Jinzhong again? Forgive me for not having heard of this.”

Hong Fa stood with his hands behind his back, looking at him for a long moment, his lips curving into a faint smile: “Prefectural Magistrate Hu will hear of it very soon.”

Hu Yingming neither confirmed nor denied this, but resolutely opposed Hong Fa searching the Cui residence: “The Cui clan is a prestigious noble family highly favored and trusted by His Majesty. Moreover, both Vice Minister of Works Cui Yingshu and Three Borders Commander-in-Chief Cui Shaoting hail from the Cui family. This concerns important court officials—how can we search without an imperial edict, just on someone’s word?”

Things had reached this point. Clearly, no advantage could be gained through open means. Hong Fa knew that at this moment, Prince Gong had already firmly grasped the lifeline of Jin territory and held it tightly in his hands. Therefore, he made his decision decisively—to force his way in.

But he gained no advantage. Not to mention the Cui family members, who were all martial artists with considerable skill, but the men under Hu Yingming’s command were even more formidable. They weren’t ordinary constables at all. It was only at this moment that Hong Fa realized Hu Yingming had brought far too many men.

Unfortunately, he realized this too late.

Afterward, Hu Yingming laughed with lingering fear: “Fortunately, His Highness’s personal guards came to give us advance warning, saying that the Imperial Guards sent to Jin territory to hunt down Prince Gong’s killers had now gone wrong. Otherwise, Jinzhong would have been in danger.”

Cui Yingtang and Cui Yingyun also couldn’t help but breathe sighs of relief, yet they remained deeply worried: “Our Jinzhong is only a few days’ journey from Taiyuan. If Prince Gong wants to deal with us, wouldn’t it be as easy as lifting a hand?”

Ma Yongfu was the first to ask Hu Yingming: “I wonder where His Highness currently is?”

Hu Yingming knew that Ma Yongfu was the Crown Princess’s trusted confidant and didn’t find his question presumptuous. He lowered his voice: “I’ve already sent my most trusted subordinates to fetch him.”

However, after bringing him back, what to do next was another difficult problem. Things were still chaotic on Prince Gong’s side. Lin Chong and Bai Guan had died one after another, and he himself was already a dead man on the surface. Even with the help of the Taiyuan Prefectural Magistrate and Wu Qianli and Wu Feng, fully consolidating military authority in Jin territory and recovering his identity would still take time. But the problem was, once this period passed and Prince Gong had dealt with everything properly and freed his hands to deal with Jinzhong, what would Jinzhong do?

Cui Yingtang thought this and asked accordingly: “Prefectural Magistrate should first submit a memorial to the court.”

Hu Yingming stroked his beard with a bitter smile: “At this moment, even if Prince Gong hasn’t completely consolidated military authority, for us to send messages out is still extremely difficult.”

Moreover, since they had sent Hong Fa here, it meant they had already determined that Prince Zhennan had nowhere else to go. Perhaps they didn’t even need to wait for Prince Gong to find a legitimate pretext—next, they should move against the Cui family and Hu Yingming in Jinzhong first.

“Why not first send people to make contact with the Three Borders Commander-in-Chief?” Hu Yingming sighed: “This is also His Highness’s intention.”

Ma Yongfu and Ma Wangkun exchanged glances, feeling the situation was thorny and wondering whether they should personally return to the capital to report, when the steward announced that Ma San had arrived.

With all this chaos going on, for someone to actually arrive from the capital—everyone felt their spirits lift.

Ma San wiped his face and entered the room. After confirming that Prince Zhennan was safe, he first breathed a sigh of relief. After explaining how he had used every means at his disposal to reach Jinzhong alive, he said: “His Majesty has already issued an edict urgently summoning Marquis Jinxiang, who guards Datong, back to the capital for an audience. Using Prince Gong’s death as the reason, the edict orders Navy Admiral Huang Yiqing to coordinate with Prince Zhennan in reorganizing the Jin territory princely guard forces. As long as His Highness is safe, everything can be managed.”

Prince Zhennan could openly kill Prince Gong—after all, Prince Gong was already a dead man on the surface, and right now he absolutely didn’t dare openly proclaim his identity. If he dared to proclaim it and rebel, then Huang Yiqing and Prince Zhennan would have even more ready-made reasons to deal with him.

Hu Yingming frowned: “When a general is abroad, military orders need not all be obeyed. I’m afraid Marquis Jinxiang may not necessarily heed the edict.”

Ma San let out a cold laugh, and at this moment, that bloodthirsty aura from his time struggling through Fujian reappeared on his face: “If he doesn’t heed the edict, His Majesty will issue an order based on his defiance, commanding Three Borders Commander-in-Chief Cui to punish his crime of insubordination.”

And defying the imperial command naturally warranted beheading. Even Censors could act first and report later—Cui Shaoting, who had openly received an imperial edict, had even more justification.