Seeing Lin Hao leaning against the soft cushion still reading the letter, Baozhu reminded her: “Miss, it’s time for dinner.”

“Is it that late already?” Lin Hao rubbed her slightly sore eyes and looked toward the window.

It was almost March, and the greenery outside the window wore the evening sun like a gentle, tranquil veil.

She gathered up the scattered letter pages and put them back in the envelope, her heart brimming with joy, unable to resist showing off just a little.

“I didn’t expect that reading a letter would make time pass by so unknowingly.”

Baozhu glanced at the thick letter in her miss’s hand and nodded: “Indeed, such a long letter takes quite a while to read—it’s quite time-consuming.”

The corner of Lin Hao’s mouth twitched.

Couldn’t this girl praise her husband for being deeply devoted and affectionate, to make her happy?

Forget it, she wouldn’t make things difficult for this simple-minded girl.

“Serve dinner.”

After Baozhu left, Lin Hao held the letter with both hands and fell back onto the bed, grinning foolishly again.

On Emperor Tai’an’s dragon desk, the battle report from the northern territories had likewise been read through many times, lest anything be overlooked.

“Good, good, good!” Emperor Tai’an didn’t know how many times he said “good.” When officials from various departments arrived, he slapped down the battle report. “All of you ministers, take a look.”

The assembled officials exchanged glances, their expressions noticeably more relaxed.

Judging by His Majesty’s demeanor, it must be good news.

They glanced at the Minister of War and saw Minister Han smiling until his face was full of wrinkles, becoming even more certain of their guess: it must be a victorious battle.

Battle reports all went through the Ministry of War before being presented to His Majesty.

It wasn’t easy to guess which side, after all, they were fighting in three places—with this thought, the officials’ good mood inevitably diminished somewhat.

It was too dreadful. Even if Great Zhou had considerable military strength, it couldn’t withstand fighting three enemies at once. Victory would probably be narrow at best.

The Minister of Personnel, who was first to receive the battle report, had barely glanced at it when his hands trembled and he nearly threw the military report away.

“What is it, what is it?”

The Minister of Personnel’s cheeks quivered continuously, and tears immediately streamed down: “A great, great, great victory!”

Several hands reached out and snatched the battle report away. After all the officials had read it, they congratulated Emperor Tai’an through their tears: “Your Majesty’s blessings reach the heavens, Heaven protects Great Zhou!”

Emperor Tai’an rarely felt annoyed by these old officials’ crying. Even the deepest composure couldn’t suppress his good mood at this moment—the upward curve of his mouth never went down.

“It’s still thanks to the soldiers fighting bravely that we achieved this great victory, especially Prince Jing and his son.” Emperor Tai’an was genuinely pleased to hear the officials’ flattery—after all, who doesn’t like hearing compliments? But he still knew how the victory came about.

Hearing His Majesty say this, the officials suddenly became energized.

“Who would have thought that Prince Jing’s heir, young as he is, would have such strategic ability, such courage, daring to venture alone deep into the tiger’s den…”

“Exactly, if anything had gone wrong in this matter, he would have lost his life…”

“Uwu, who stained his hands with the blood of countless Great Zhou people, is dead, and the traitor Guan Changliang is also dead—Prince Jing and his son deserve immense credit!”

The officials grew more excited as they spoke, and the more excited they became, the more praise flowed out like it cost nothing. When Cheng Maoming, the Commander of the Jinlin Guard standing aside like a wooden statue, noticed His Majesty’s expression was off, he quickly interjected: “Mainly it’s still thanks to His Majesty’s blessings.”

The emotionally charged officials gave a start and came to their senses: “Yes, it’s all thanks to His Majesty’s blessings. Long live His Majesty, long live, long live!”

This slight displeasure from Emperor Tai’an wasn’t directed at Prince Jing and his son, but mainly stemmed from the vigilance that he as emperor couldn’t cast aside.

After the officials withdrew, he took the tea water that Liu Chuan handed him, drank a sip, and sighed: “This nephew of mine has truly opened my eyes.”

Liu Chuan smiled as he refilled the tea, wisely not responding.

“I wonder how things are in the south.” Having temporarily set his mind at ease about the north, Emperor Tai’an began worrying about Master Mingxin’s party heading south.

Speaking of which, because of Master Mingxin’s change of position, he had been expecting victory from the south. Unexpectedly, while there was still no news from the south, news of triumph arrived from the northern territories instead.

This was truly an unexpected great joy.

Good things often come in pairs. Just two days later, news also came from the south.

Under Master Mingxin’s guidance, the elite troops heading south infiltrated Emperor Pingle’s hiding place and captured the former emperor with lightning speed.

Not many people had been following the former emperor all along. Although he raised the banner of restoration and recruited a large number of troops in a short time, they were merely a rabble with mediocre combat ability. Leaderless, they quickly scattered like a pile of sand—more fled than died.

The Yuliu were most adept at being fence-sitters. Upon learning that Emperor Pingle had been captured and hearing news of Northern Qi’s war god Uwu’s death, they didn’t even hesitate before ceasing hostilities and seeking peace.

Although Emperor Tai’an hated the Yuliu’s petty conduct, at this time he couldn’t ask for more.

With the south settled and Yuliu ceasing hostilities as well, they could deploy even more military strength against Northern Qi.

And Northern Qi, due to Uwu’s death, experienced considerable internal turmoil. They particularly couldn’t understand why Tuoli had been turned by Great Zhou. When facing Zhou forces again, that attitude of looking down from a position of martial superiority changed. With one side declining and the other rising, Great Zhou fought another victorious battle.

The situation suddenly became severe for Northern Qi. Under this pressure, internal divisions grew even greater. Before long, a prince who had been suppressed by Uwu for many years staged a rebellion.

This being the case, it was instead the Qi Emperor who, in order to resolve internal conflicts, hastily sought peace with Great Zhou, willing to offer three thousand warhorses.

When Emperor Tai’an received the urgently delivered peace petition, he initially wanted to agree immediately but was possessed by some strange impulse to flip through previous military reports and changed his mind.

Handing the peace negotiations to Prince Jing might yield unexpected gains, wouldn’t it?

Prince Jing’s spirits lifted when he received the task of peace negotiations.

He had experience with this!

Thus the envoy dispatched by the Qi Emperor received secretive sympathetic looks from previous envoys.

When the negotiation results were hastily transmitted back to the capital, even with Emperor Tai’an’s composure, he couldn’t help but laugh aloud.

“Hahaha, Prince Jing truly didn’t disappoint my expectations!”

Not only had the warhorses increased from three thousand to five thousand, two horse ranches were thrown in as well!

For a moment, Emperor Tai’an was curious about how Prince Jing had negotiated, but unfortunately the battle report was written concisely. He could only wait until their return to the capital to ask in detail.

Once the war stopped, Prince Jing and his son should indeed return in triumph.

Don’t be fooled—while Emperor Tai’an never interfered or influenced the performance of frontline commanders during the war with Northern Qi, once hostilities ended, especially after such a great victory, an emperor’s caution and suspicion wouldn’t allow him to let Prince Jing remain long in the northern territories.

The edict summoning Prince Jing back to the capital was quickly dispatched.

When they had set out, the military situation was urgent and they traveled day and night. Naturally there was no need for such haste on the return. Traveling at normal marching speed, by the time Prince Jing led his forces onto the territory of the capital, spring had given way to summer, and it was a time of flourishing splendor.

That day was sunny with gentle winds, with green willows and red flowers. Emperor Tai’an personally led the hundred officials out of the city to welcome the triumphant soldiers.

The clip-clop of hooves came from far and near, raising billowing dust clouds. Amid a sea of fluttering banners, the soldiers’ armor gleamed coldly in the sunlight.

Prince Jing dismounted first, switching to walking quickly forward on foot.

“This subject-brother pays respects to Your Majesty—”

Behind him, a mass of soldiers knelt as well.

Emperor Tai’an hurriedly helped Prince Jing up, his face full of emotion: “Fifth Brother, you’ve worked hard.”

Finally returned!