When Prince Gong said to behead, he beheaded—he didn’t even give Zou Yanzheng a chance to react, let alone the Chief Clerk. By the time the two of them learned of it, Wu Feng had already led his men in an aggressive march straight toward the courier station.

Zou Yanzheng stood dumbfounded in front of Prince Gong’s mansion. The sun was still in the sky, the fish were still in the water, but damn it all—how could this person suddenly lose his mind?! To go behead Vice General Chen now—did he have no brain?!

Before he could express his position—and there was fundamentally no need for him to express any position—Wu Feng had already swiftly returned to report his mission accomplished, carrying Vice General Chen’s head. His timing had been quite coincidental. When he arrived, Vice General Chen, having heard the news, was just preparing to flee. Although Vice General Chen had also fought his way through battlefields, how could he compare with Wu Feng, who came from a martial arts family? After just a few exchanges, Wu Feng beheaded him with a single strike. Blood immediately splattered everywhere, frightening the courier station master into madness on the spot.

Prince Gong irritably waved his hand. He fundamentally didn’t want to look at this dead man’s head. Whether he looked or not made no difference and only hurt his eyes. Right now, he just felt this person’s death was well-deserved. His death could at least properly enrage Han Zhengqing, letting Han Zhengqing know that Prince Gong was not some brainless fool for him to toy with!

That Vice General Chen could actually receive wind of danger and attempt to flee—thinking of this made him want to sneer coldly. What did this prove? It proved Vice General Chen truly had an inside contact in Prince Gong’s mansion, had spies planted there, so Vice General Chen knew everything he did, crystal clear!

Prince Gong was so angry his hands were trembling. It took quite a while before he calmed down. He picked up his teacup and fiercely gulped down a large mouthful of tea, but even so, his ready-to-explode fury couldn’t be blocked. He paced back and forth restlessly for some time: “This prince will kill him!”

Zou Yanzheng had just reached the doorway when, hearing these words, he stopped in his tracks. Though the weather was gradually warming, he suddenly felt colder than in the dead of winter. He silently glanced at Han Zhi and suddenly realized the situation was beyond saving. What could he say? Saying anything was useless. Vice General Chen’s death was already a foregone conclusion. Prince Gong had already become completely obedient to Han Zhi—it was irreversible now.

He did understand why Han Zhi wanted to sabotage Han Zhengqing’s affairs. With a father like that, no one could tolerate it.

He couldn’t stop this, couldn’t afford to offend anyone. He lowered his head and looked at his toes for a while, then made up his mind to still flee the city in secret. These people had all gone mad, completely unaware of the consequences of tearing off the false face with Han Zhengqing. He didn’t want to go mad with them—even if offending Han Zhengqing wasn’t that serious, right now the Xibei was only so large. Cui Shaoting and Marquis Dingyuan were clearly getting a chance to catch their breath because of the friction between Han Zhengqing and Prince Gong. Prince Gong and Han Zhengqing were obviously about to fall out completely. Neither side would have a good ending. Fine then, he wouldn’t join in this chaos anymore. Better to run, rather than die either way.

Han Zhi had no time to care whether he ran or not. As long as Prince Gong didn’t run, that was enough. He soothed the furiously angry Prince Gong, then walked out the door with a trace of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth.

When he smiled, there was never any mirth in his eyes. That kind of icy gaze often made people’s hearts run cold, but Sun Ergou wasn’t afraid. He affectionately called out to Guan Shan and approached to tell Han Zhi: “The dosage has been increased,” then lowered his voice to ask: “Should we increase the dosage even more?”

Han Zhi stood with his hands behind his back, looking at the white poplar tree in the courtyard, the smile never fading from the corners of his mouth: “Forget it. Any heavier and he might die. It’s quite good like this now.”

Being this irritable, like a madman, unable to listen properly when people spoke, getting angry at the slightest provocation—it was quite good. Like a puppet with strings in his hand, making him do whatever he wanted—this feeling was truly too wonderful.

If Han Zhengqing could die right before his eyes, that would of course be even better.

Although it hadn’t happened yet, that day wouldn’t be too far away. He would definitely make this person pay a painful price!

Guan Shan chimed in from the side: “Vice General Chen is dead. With…” He considered the form of address for a moment before continuing: “With Marquis Jinxiang’s temperament, he definitely won’t be able to hold back. Now Prince Gong and he have completely fallen out.”

Han Zhi smiled without speaking. Only after seeing Sun Ergou nod as well did he laugh coldly: “You don’t understand this person. He won’t. As long as he can achieve his goal, even if Han Yang and Han Yu died right in front of him, he wouldn’t even furrow his brow. What does one Vice General Chen count for? He’ll only feel his face has been hurt, but face is also something that can be discarded. So we can’t be careless. Go keep watch.” As he spoke, his tone became increasingly cold and cutting: “Intercept all messages Han Zhengqing sends. If he sends a letter, report to me immediately.”

Guan Shan and Sun Ergou immediately bowed and acknowledged the order.

These days, most external affairs were generally handled by Sun Ergou. Since Han Zhi said to intercept messages, he was busy every day. Of course, amid his busyness, he still set aside time to write several letters and send them out.

When Han Zhengqing heard the news, he almost thought he had misheard. He never imagined that after Prince Gong had done one supremely stupid thing, he could actually do something even more stupid. He couldn’t help but smash everything on the table to smithereens, his eyebrows rising so high they nearly flew off, unable to control himself as he laughed coldly several times: “Has he lost his mind?!”

If he hadn’t gone mad, he couldn’t have done such a thing.

His trusted aide’s heart was in complete chaos—both chaotic and fearful. Somehow, he always felt something was about to go wrong.

Han Zhengqing clenched his fist and hammered the table once, using all his self-control to calm himself down: “Send someone again.”

What other method was there besides this? Prince Gong had lost his mind. If he went mad along with him, the situation in the Xibei would immediately reverse.

The trusted aide breathed a sigh of relief, acknowledged the order, and left the tent only to see several Tatars with unpleasant expressions waiting outside. He immediately plastered on a smile.

The several Tatars paid him no mind whatsoever, treating him purely as air, stepping past him to enter the tent directly.

Others might fear Han Zhengqing, but they didn’t.

They didn’t care whether you were an official or a pervert—fists were the hard truth. They now had men and money. They could step on these Han people and crush them to death anytime.

Things had been discussed properly, but unexpectedly something went wrong. Wu Feng’s side had withdrawn troops, nearly causing Yezhā to die at Cui Shaoting’s hands. The Tatars couldn’t swallow this grievance—no matter what, they had to make Han Zhengqing give them an explanation.

If these grandsons couldn’t get things done, then they should get lost early. They didn’t need to listen to these grandsons either. Fighting here and fighting there—what was all this fighting about? What was all this feinting east and striking west? Clean and straightforward, show their fists, head straight for Zijing Pass to meet up with Yetan’s people, directly take down Zijing Pass and charge straight to Tongzhou then attack toward the capital—they’d have everything all the same!

They no longer wanted to make deals with Han Zhengqing and Prince Gong. What was there to deal about? If they could attack into the capital themselves, then the Tatars could possess all of Great Zhou!