Fan Changsheng continued sitting cross-legged in meditation, saying lightly, “General, please return.”

Li Xiang’s breathing grew rapid as he asked with difficulty, “Prime Minister, doing this—can you face His Majesty?”

Fan Changsheng sighed, “Does the General think His Majesty has not thought of these things? It is only because the princes are truly worthless that he has no choice but to settle for the next best option.”

Li Xiong chose Li Ban partly out of respect and love for his elder brother, but the greater reason was that his several sons were truly too shameful, wasn’t it?

Not only were they cruel and arrogant, they lacked even the most basic filial piety.

Last year when the Shu region fought wars, Li Xiong personally led troops into battle and inevitably sustained injuries. When summer arrived and the weather grew hot, some wounds festered, becoming infected and foul-smelling. When his several sons caught the smell, forget about caring for him—each showed disgust on their faces and directly moved out of the palace to live elsewhere. They didn’t enter the palace even once in ten days or half a month. They repeatedly visited the commander of the emperor’s imperial guards, sending gifts to his residence every few days, trying to win him over.

But Li Ban, from the moment he learned his uncle’s condition had worsened, stayed by his side day and night caring for him. He even personally sucked out the pus and carefully applied medicine to him.

During this time, Li Xiong once had a high fever that would not break and nearly died. It was Li Ban and the imperial physicians who served him devotedly that saved his life.

How could one expect a person who could not even show filial piety to his own father to have benevolence and kindness toward ordinary common people?

An emperor without a benevolent and kind heart ascending the throne would be a catastrophe of extinction for the state and the people.

Therefore, Fan Changsheng supported Li Xiong. Even without Zhao Hanzhang, he would have agreed to Li Xiong establishing Li Ban. At least with Li Ban, there was a fifty-percent chance of success. As for establishing Li Xiong’s sons…

Fan Changsheng closed his eyes. No matter how much Li Xiang asked, he would not speak again.

Li Xiang, seeing this, could only prostrate himself and leave.

When he emerged from the temple, the sky had already darkened. He stood before the temple in the mountain wind, gazing at the dim mountain ranges. Floating clouds were blown by the wind, rising and falling among the peaks. Suddenly grief welled up from within, and tears flowed down his cheeks.

This time he did not wail loudly but sobbed quietly. He stumbled down the mountain like this, one foot high and one foot low, crying as he walked.

His personal guard, covered in sweat, hurriedly led a horse and followed behind him. “Young master, it’s getting dark. Why don’t we stay the night at the temple?”

Li Xiang paid him no heed and continued crying his way down the mountain.

When they reached the foot of the mountain, the guard caught up again. “Young master, it’s pitch dark now and the road is difficult. Let’s rest in the village for the night.”

Li Xiang ignored him. By this time he had begun crying aloud, though still just two streams of tears flowing silently as he headed toward the city gate.

The guard had no choice but to light a torch to illuminate the path ahead for him.

Li Xiang stumbled along like this all night. When he reached the city gate, dawn was just breaking. He stopped, raised his head to look at the two characters “Bicheng” above the city gate, and his knees went soft as he knelt down directly.

He looked up, crying silently, only able to murmur, “Your Majesty, I have failed you. I have failed Chengguo…”

The guard looked on with complete bewilderment, having no idea what had happened to Li Xiang.

When Li Xiang returned alone from West Mountain like this, the ministers of Chengguo knew Fan Changsheng’s choice. Their hearts shook greatly, not understanding why Fan Changsheng would make such a choice. Could he not see the consequences of establishing Li Ban?

No one knew what Fan Changsheng had said to Li Xiang. The ministers who ran to the city gate to meet him could not get any answers no matter how they asked.

Zhao Xin also went to watch the excitement.

He did not know this matter had anything to do with him, so he stood to the side watching the spectacle with great enjoyment.

Tsk, tsk, tsk—who would have thought? Before their negotiations even concluded, Chengguo would fall into chaos first.

Although this chaos would not last long—after all, Li Xiong was still there—being able to watch the drama and temporarily relieve pressure on his side, Zhao Xin still watched with great interest.

Just as he was watching happily, Li Xiang suddenly raised his head and looked in his direction. Not knowing what he saw, his eyes turned blood red.

Zhao Xin was startled and immediately stood straight, putting on a serious expression.

After the ministers of Chengguo’s court carried Li Xiang away, Zhao Xin’s eyes showed inquiry as he pondered deeply.

Returning to the postal station, he called over a personal guard. “Quietly contact our scouts and have them compile all information about Li Xiong, Fan Changsheng, Li Xiang and others for me—whether detailed or rough, already confirmed or just rumors, bring it all to me.”

The guard responded with a serious expression and left quietly.

Zhao Xin paced back and forth in the room. Actually, his understanding of Chengguo’s ruler and ministers was all superficial. After all, they had not paid much attention to the Shu Kingdom before, keeping their attention mainly on the north, Central Plains, and south.

Due to the natural barriers and geographical advantages of the Shu region, before the Central Plains was settled, outsiders found it very difficult to pay attention to the internal situation there.

So his understanding of them was actually quite shallow. During this time he had been working hard to make up for it, but judging from today, his understanding of them was still insufficient.

Li Xiang—why did he look at him with that kind of gaze?

Fan Changsheng—why did he not obstruct Li Xiong from establishing Li Ban?

Li Xiong—why would he insist on establishing Li Ban when the ministers opposed it so strongly?

Zhao Xin wanted many things. It took them until the third day to quietly deliver everything. During this process, Zhao Xin met with Chengguo’s ministers once more. This meeting was fairly harmonious. Though nothing was finalized, they probed each other’s bottom lines. Zhao Xin gradually gained clarity in his heart. Chengguo’s ruler and ministers were also getting a sense—though they were not very satisfied with Zhao Xin’s conditions.

This included Li Xiong. Even knowing the possibility was very small, they still wanted Hanzhong Commandery. If that didn’t work, could Hanzhong be divided, giving them half its counties?

Zhao Xin did not agree. As soon as he returned to the postal station, seeing his guard’s expression, he immediately went to his room.

The scouts had sent quite a lot of intelligence. Zhao Xin read through it carefully.

After reading it, he vaguely understood some things.

He had been narrow-minded, treating Li Xiong and his people as the same as the Jin imperial family—those who for the sake of power and position plunged the realm’s myriad people into fire and water.

Looking at them, one could see that the realm did not only have people like the Sima family who cared only about power and position, nor only people like Shi Lei who were brutal but believed only in themselves.

There were also those like Li Xiong and Fan Changsheng.

After Li Xiong’s father and elder brother died, the refugee army fell apart for a time. But he insisted on not surrendering, gritting his teeth to keep fighting. At that time, the refugee army from top to bottom all faced famine, and even Li Xiong, their leader, had to endure hunger.

It was under such circumstances that they won over the local gentry magnate Fan Changsheng.

Don’t be fooled by Fan Changsheng being a Daoist priest—he was no ordinary priest.

Here he possessed vast tracts of good fields and lands, over a thousand household soldiers, and because he believed in the Celestial Masters Taoism, he had an enormous following of believers throughout the Ba-Shu region.

When Li Xiong connected with Fan Changsheng, Fan provided them with grain. Only then did the refugee army avoid starvation.

After that, Fan Changsheng provided the refugee army with large quantities of grain and equipment, assisting them in warfare.

Li Xiong felt that here was their true provider of food and clothing! So he called up his good brothers and subordinates and went together to find Fan Changsheng, wanting to make him emperor.

Fan Changsheng thought carefully and felt he could not control the refugee army, so he firmly refused and instead pushed Li Xiong onto the throne.

Over these years, he had been dedicated and responsible. The relationship between ruler and minister was very harmonious. The policy Fan Changsheng proposed of “rest and recuperation, light taxes and promoting education” had been implemented very well.

The Shu people under their actual control lived far better lives than the Shu people in other areas. Because of this, their struggles with other commanderies and counties in the Shu region in recent years had become increasingly fierce.

Simply put, neither Li Xiong nor Fan Changsheng were particularly keen on power and position. One did it for the refugee army and the Shu people; the other for the Shu region’s common people and the prosperity of Taoism.

After reading all the intelligence, Zhao Xin felt deep respect, and at the same time another idea formed in his mind.

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