Imperial Husband Chapter 105

Chapter 105

That night.

Ying Zihui gazed at the moon outside the window, his eyes filled with unconcealed ambition.

Heaven truly helps me. If I can claim sole glory in the battle of Zhuzhou, or even become famous overnight from this one battle, Father Emperor will surely change his view of me. By then, the crown prince's position will be mine as well. 

At this moment.

Ying Zihui felt extremely fortunate to have rushed to Zhuzhou at this very time. Otherwise, he would have missed this rare opportunity for nothing.

Ying Zihui's confidant cupped his hands and reported, "Your Highness, the message has already been sent back. Soon, His Majesty will know that Your Highness is also in Zhuzhou, resisting the enemy together with the Heir of the Prince of Dingbei and the others."

"Good." Ying Zihui nodded with satisfaction, then asked coldly, "What has Prince An been up to?"

Speaking of Ying Ziheng, Ying Zihui felt deeply aggrieved.

He was clearly the eldest prince, the firstborn son. Yet, all the advantages had been taken by Ying Ziheng. How could Ying Zihui not be infuriated?

The confidant, noticing Ying Zihui's poor expression, quickly informed him of the newly obtained news: "Nothing. However, it seems Princess Consort An and Secondary Consort An are pregnant."

"So quickly?"

Ying Zihui's brows instantly furrowed tightly.

Because in Ying Zihui's view, among all his brothers, the most difficult to deal with was Ying Ziheng, who had once held the position of crown prince.

Although Ying Ziheng's crown prince position had been stripped, his maternal family's influence was too powerful, including an uncle who served as the Right Minister. To restore his position, he only lacked a suitable opportunity.  

It was precisely for this reason that Ying Zihui was so guarded against Ying Ziheng, even planting many spies around him.

The confidant nodded, "Yes."

No, I cannot allow Ying Ziheng to have a child, or he will become even harder to deal with.

Thinking of this, Ying Zihui narrowed his eyes slightly and said, "Send a message back. Tell Zheng Yan she must eliminate the child."

Zheng Yan was originally from Ying Zihui's faction. Since being arranged to enter Prince An's mansion, she had deeply won Ying Ziheng's favor. At the same time, she was also one of the earliest spies Ying Zihui had planted by Ying Ziheng's side

The confidant said, "Your Highness, isn't that too risky? After all, Zheng Yan is our only source for important information from within Prince An's mansion."

"If you do not enter the tiger's den, how can you catch the tiger cub?"

[不入虎穴，焉得虎子 (bù rù hǔxué, yān dé hǔzǐ): lit. If you do not enter the tiger's den, how can you catch the tiger's cub?; fig. High risks are necessary for great rewards].

Ying Zihui stood with his hands behind his back, showing no intention of changing his mind. "Before I obtain the crown prince's position, Ying Ziheng absolutely must not have any offspring. As for Zheng Yan, she will know how to handle it."

If Zheng Yan could remain standing firm within Prince An's mansion all this time without some capability, Ying Zihui would be the first not to believe it.

"Yes, this subordinate will go send the message immediately."

On the other side.

Ying Yuan made no attempt to conceal his suspicion of Ying Zihui. "A-Jin, Ying Zihui's arrival at this time is too strange. Also, he has never been to Zhuzhou before. How would he know there are rebellious peasants here? I think he must have come for you." 

Zhuzhou had been suffering from continuous drought and had long become a barren land. Therefore, as soon as Ying Zihui arrived, Ying Yuan guessed that Ying Zihui's purpose in coming was most likely to gain Li Jin's support, adding chips to his bid for the crown prince's position.

"He will not succeed."

Li Jin shook his head, his words carrying a double meaning.

Ying Yuan said gravely, "That may be true, but I think he will definitely come to pester you again. After all, he is someone who will stop at nothing for his own gain. A-Jin, you must be careful in dealing with him."

"Alright, I will remember."

Li Jin smiled gently and lightly ruffled Ying Yuan's hair.

What Ying Yuan was thinking, Li Jin had naturally also considered. But now that Ying Yuan had spoken so directly, a warm feeling flowed through Li Jin's heart.

 

...

At daybreak the next day.

Due to the inexplicable arrival of seventy thousand troops, the entire Zhuzhou was in an uproar. Everyone, without prior agreement, began speculating that a war was coming to Zhuzhou.

Lan Mingzhou himself seemed to have long anticipated things would turn out this way. Therefore, he had posters put up, publicly and straightforwardly announcing the news that the Qianluo army was coming to invade. Furthermore, he ordered villagers living around Zhuzhou City to immediately move into the city.

Instantly, the people of Zhuzhou were dumbfounded.

Although they had only vaguely guessed, with this bombshell dropped on them now, how could they possibly remain calm? There were even quite a few people packing their belongings, preparing to leave Zhuzhou to take refuge.

There were also many who chose to stay and fight for Zhuzhou.

Because Zhuzhou was their root. They couldn't just stand by and watch their ancestors' legacy be destroyed just like that.

The Yamen.

"Your Highness, I have already said, your proposed methods are not feasible." Faced with Ying Zihui's series of bookish tactics conceived from theoretical knowledge alone, Bai Yifei directly rejected them, leaving no face for Ying Zihui at all.

Damn old fool.

Ying Zihui gnashed his teeth and said, "General Bai, the methods I thought of are clearly good ones. You repeatedly denying them like this, could it be you want to monopolize the military achievements?"

Bai Yifei replied neither humbly nor arrogantly, "Your Highness, the eldest prince, please watch your words. This general has fought on the battlefield for decades. Would I need to resort to deceit at a time like this? I can tell you directly right now, your methods are not feasible. If forced into use, they will only cause the soldiers under our command to die in vain."

"General Bai, that is merely your conjecture. I have actually tried the method I just mentioned before. How could it be useless?"

Ying Zihui still insisted he was right.

Bai Yifei said with displeasure, "Your Highness, what we need to do is defend the city."

If someone familiar with Bai Yifei saw him now, they would definitely notice he was already angry.

"I know about defending the city. However, as the ancient saying goes, 'the best defense is a good offense.'" Ying Zihui retorted, "Why can't we attack first? Why waste our forces on pure defense?"

"Your Highness, use your brain a little. Situations cannot be treated as all the same. Zhuzhou has always been easy to defend but hard to attack. Sending people on a surprise raid would be completely superfluous."

Bai Yifei was hot-tempered by nature. Seeing that Ying Zihui still acted like the same impulsive, power-hungry fool, Bai Yifei stopped being polite.

Bai Yifei's son, Bai Xiansi, also did not hold back. "Your Highness, what my father says is correct. Your methods are truly foolish."

Ying Zihui did not expect the two of them to speak like this and was immediately left speechless.

"You..."

Bai Yifei interrupted, "Your Highness, I urge you to prioritize the greater situation and put away all those improper little schemes of yours. Otherwise, if something happens, this general will not be polite to you just because you are a prince."

"Bai Yifei, are you planning a rebellion?"

Ying Zihui was so angry he felt smoke coming from all seven orifices, even mentioning rebellion.

Bai Yifei's expression darkened. "We father and son cannot bear the label of rebellion. Your Highness should not slander us. No, this general has decided to submit a memorial to His Majesty regarding Your Highness's words and actions today and let His Majesty pass judgment."

Hearing that Bai Yifei intended to submit a memorial the Emperor, Ying Zihui instantly backed down. "Uh... General Bai, I was just speaking offhand. There's no need to take it so seriously."

Bai Yifei, having gained the upper hand, did not relent. "Your Highness, this is not about taking things seriously. This is about preserving oneself wisely. What if, by some accident, your words were taken out of context, leading people outside to misunderstand and think we father and son are rebelling? Wouldn't we be wronged to death?"

"General Bai, you've misunderstood my meaning. I truly misspoke and said those words unintentionally. Besides, only a few of us are here. It won't leak."

Ying Zihui felt a sense of having reason but being unable to explain it clearly.

Just a moment ago, they were locked in a stalemate. Yet, in no time, how had he ended up at a disadvantage?

"Whether there is a misunderstanding or not, His Majesty will decide."

Bai Yifei was clearly unwilling to compromise.

"Bai Yifei!"

Ying Zihui was so angry his veins bulged. However, Bai Yifei was like a stone, impervious to both soft and hard tactics. No matter what Ying Zihui said, he refused to compromise, determined to submit the memorial.

Ying Zihui was unlucky enough.

Originally, Li Shiyun had sent Bai Yifei to prevent Li Jin, at critical moments, from doing anything that might affect military morale. After all, Li Jin's status was the Heir of the Prince of Dingbei, effectively the second-in-command of the Dingbei army. If Li Jin gave an order, they would not disobey.

But Bai Yifei was different. If one didn't have a sufficiently convincing reason to persuade him, even if the person speaking to him right now were Li Shiyun, he would not compromise.

Unexpectedly, Ying Zihui was the first to experience Bai Yifei's stubbornness.

In the blink of an eye, a scout soldier rushed in hurriedly. "It's bad, it's bad! The Qianluo... the Qianluo army of one hundred fifty thousand has arrived, right outside the gates of Zhuzhou City."

One stone stirred up a thousand waves.

No one present had anticipated that Qianluo, in order to seize Zhuzhou, would dispatch an army of one hundred fifty thousand.

Li Jin's expression also turned grave.

Wasn't it eighty thousand? How could it be one hundred fifty thousand? Could it be a consequence of me leaking the information early?

Putting aside the discrepancy between eighty thousand and one hundred fifty thousand troops—in his past life, Li Jin had heard that Qianluo had gone to great lengths and exhausted every scheme in their attempt to seize Zhuzhou. If not for Lan Mingzhou fighting desperately to the death, defending Zhuzhou, it was highly likely Zhuzhou would have been taken by Qianluo long ago.

Qianluo's exhaustive efforts to seize Zhuzhou definitely indicated a problem. Considering Zhuzhou's relatively special resource, that was saltpeter. Li Jin wondered whether the Qianluo forces had already discovered the saltpeter.

Thinking this far, Li Jin's mood instantly grew heavy.

If his speculation was correct, and Qianluo's goal was the saltpeter, then they could only win this battle; they must not lose. If Qianluo managed to produce gunpowder, what awaited Da Xia would be a catastrophic disaster.

"I must go see for myself if there truly is an army of one hundred fifty thousand."

Bai Yifei stood up abruptly and strode towards the direction of the city wall, his eyes filled with gravity.

Although Bai Yifei couldn't guess Qianluo's purpose, the fact that Qianluo had sent one hundred fifty thousand troops to deal with a single city was real. There must be some hidden reason he didn't know about.

"Father, I'm coming too."

Bai Xiansi quickly followed, his expression as grave as Bai Yifei's.

"A-Yuan, let's go up too."

"Mmm."

Following behind Bai Yifei and his son were Li Jin and Ying Yuan.

"Your Highness, then we..."

"Let's go take a look."

Although Ying Zihui harbored great dissatisfaction with Bai Yifei, he wanted even more to see with his own eyes whether Qianluo had truly sent one hundred fifty thousand troops to attack Zhuzhou.

Not long after.

When Li Jin and the others ascended the city wall of Zhuzhou, the first thing that came into view was Qianluo's neatly arrayed army of one hundred fifty thousand.

What was even more chilling was that these one hundred fifty thousand soldiers were not a motley crew. Without exception, they were all well-trained elite troops. And their own forces numbered only seventy thousand. The enemy outnumbered them by more than double. Could they really hold Zhuzhou?