RPAGF Chapter 212 1 Thoughts of the Pass 15
Chapter 212 1 Thoughts of the Pass 15
This matter could be a big deal or a small deal!
Ning Yuanzhou's actions tonight can be classified as treason and collusion with the enemy.
Of course, Yang Ying knew he wouldn't really betray the country, but this incident also showed that he didn't have much affection for the Wu Kingdom anymore.
Therefore, after the battle at Tianmen Pass, he wanted to escape by dying. So, after discovering Ren Ruyi's identity as a Zhu Yiwei, he neither reported it nor killed Ren Ruyi directly.
The root cause is that he didn't want to continue serving the Wu Kingdom. It's estimated that if Zhang Song hadn't used the innocence of the Tiandao Hall members as leverage, he probably wouldn't have joined the delegation at all.
Thinking of this, Yang Ying closed her eyes, suppressing the churning memories of the original owner in her mind.
……
The next day, around noon, Ning Yuanzhou returned to the mission with faltering steps.
His face was as pale as paper, and his gait was unsteady, as if every step required tremendous effort; he appeared extremely weak.
Upon closer inspection, one can also spot traces of blood on the corner of his mouth that he hadn't wiped clean.
"You're injured?" Qian Zhao's heart tightened upon seeing this. He took a few steps to him, grabbed his wrist, and quickly checked his pulse: "Why is your internal energy gone?"
Upon hearing that Ning Yuanzhou was injured, everyone unconsciously showed concern.
Although they were disappointed by Ning Yuanzhou's actions in rescuing Ren Ruyi yesterday, they still gathered around him with concern when they heard that he was injured, asking him what had happened.
Ning Yuanzhou didn't want everyone to know that he lost his internal energy while saving Ruyi, so he vaguely said that he encountered a pack of wolves on the way and that's why he was injured.
Qian Zhao's gaze, which had been warm, turned cold again. Having just taken Ning Yuanzhou's pulse, he knew perfectly well that Ning Yuanzhou was lying.
Ning Yuanzhou actually used up all his internal energy to save Ren Ruyi!
Realizing this, Qian Zhao's anger, which had subsided slightly after a night of adjustment, reignited.
Looking at the weakened Ning Yuanzhou from a distance, and then at Qian Zhao's fiery gaze, Yang Ying immediately realized that Ning Yuanzhou was lying.
Yang Ying suddenly felt that her previous decision to marginalize Ning Yuanzhou was the right one.
Ning Yuanzhou is now acting quite recklessly for Ren Ruyi's sake.
In front of the injured Ren Ruyi, he could put aside his brothers of many years and his internal strength cultivated over many years.
If Ren Ruyi is in any danger in the future, what will he do?
Yang Ying simply couldn't understand!
How did someone who acts so rashly become the head of the Six Paths Hall?
Go through the back door?
Yang Ying could tell at a glance that Ning Yuanzhou was lying, and the others could naturally figure it out as well, so their gazes towards Ning Yuanzhou immediately became somewhat strange.
Sun Lang, in particular, felt that Ning Yuanzhou, knowing that his father had died at the hands of Zhu Yiwei, still fell in love with Zhu Yiwei and even turned against him. This made Sun Lang feel that all his feelings over the years had been misplaced.
If Sun Lang, who had always followed Ning Yuanzhou, was like this, one can only imagine how others were.
At this point, the only person who still firmly supports Ning Yuanzhou is Yuanlu, whom he raised himself.
Ning Yuanzhou wanted to explain, but everything that had happened since last night was true, and there was no misunderstanding. So he had no way to defend himself. In addition, his weak body left him with no energy to argue with everyone. So he could only rest for the time being and think about how to persuade everyone to accept Ren Ruyi later.
With Yuan Lu's help, Ning Yuanzhou returned to his room to rest. Yang Ying rightfully took over the power to control the delegation and began to cultivate relationships with everyone, focusing on Qian Zhao.
Thus, the delegation stayed for another two days before continuing their journey. As they were about to enter Anguo's territory, Yang Ying began to consider another matter.
The mission brought 100,000 taels of gold as ransom to Anguo this time—100,000 taels of gold!
Despite honing her skills for so long, she still only earns ten taels of gold a day.
Even if he didn't spend a single tael of gold and saved it all, it would still take him 27 years, 4 months, and 25 days to accumulate 100,000 taels of gold!
To put it bluntly, if she used that money to build cannons, she could take down Anguo in one fell swoop!
But now she not only can't use the money to build weapons, she even has to personally send the money to Anguo to aid the enemy in exchange for that good-for-nothing Yang Xingyan!
OMG!
Thinking of this, Yang Ying's heart was bleeding!
As they were about to reach Anguo's territory, Yang Ying began to devise a plan on how to transfer the gold without anyone noticing.
While Yang Ying was eyeing these gold coins, the Prince of Danyang, far away in Wudu, was also eyeing them.
When Yang Ying's letter was delivered to Wudu by fast horse, it immediately caused a huge uproar. The civil and military officials were in an uproar, and the empress directly confronted the Prince of Danyang with the letter, questioning why he sent Zhou Jian to ambush the delegation.
Meanwhile, Chancellor Zhang Song, who had already joined forces with the Empress, also mobilized his court officials to put pressure on the Prince of Danyang.
The Prince of Danyang claimed that he was wronged because he did not do it, but his uncle, the Marquis of Yongping, did it behind his back. However, given their uncle-nephew relationship, there was no difference between what the Marquis of Yongping did and what he did, so the blame ultimately fell on him.
In the end, having no other choice, the Prince of Danyang could only pin the blame entirely on the deceased Zhou Jianshen, and confiscated his property, which was a mere fig leaf to cover up the matter.
However, this incident caused those who followed the Prince of Danyang to waver, and they all felt a chill down their spines.
Zhou Jian was the brother-in-law of the Prince of Danyang's cousin, and he died working for the Prince of Danyang. If he still met such an end, what kind of fate awaits these people?
Faced with the court officials' questioning, Prince Danyang was furious, having thus incurred Yang Ying's wrath, and secretly vowed to teach his sister a lesson. In Prince Danyang's view, although his uncle had acted on his own initiative by ordering Zhou Jian to ambush and kill the delegation, Yang Ying's reaction was excessive. How could she drag him into it? She even wrote a letter to Wudu to scold him, showing no regard for their sibling relationship.
Enraged, and because of Zhou Jian's matter, the Prince of Danyang could not openly take action against Yang Ying. He could only secretly order his men to disguise themselves as bandits and prepare to steal the peace negotiation money from the delegation in order to sabotage the delegation's mission to welcome the emperor. At the same time, he also bribed Zheng Qingyun, hoping that Zheng Qingyun would use his emotions to trap Yang Ying.
These disguised bandits caught up with the delegation at full speed, but instead of attacking directly, they secretly observed the delegation's movements and waited for the right opportunity. Yang Ying spotted them first.
Yang Ying was overjoyed; finally, someone was taking the blame for her.
She could have used these bandits sent by the Prince of Danyang to move the gold, but on the surface, she could have shifted the blame to the Prince of Danyang.
It's perfect!
Yang Ying secretly watched these well-trained 'mountain bandits,' keeping a close eye on when they would make their move. Finally, on the night they made their move, she successfully got them to steal the 'gold.'
Several people tried to sneak over and kidnap her, but Yang Ying ignored them. After giving the delegation a brief warning, Ding Hui wiped them all out.
When the mission finally wiped out the remaining bandits and retrieved the gold, Sun Lang and Qian Zhao were unfortunately knocked off a cliff during their fight with the bandits, and their bodies were never found.
With tears in her eyes, Yang Ying offered incense to the two men and others who had died in the battle, presented them with elegiac couplets, bestowed large sums of compensation to comfort their families, and finally petitioned the court to grant them official titles. Only then did she return to her room, overcome with grief.
Upon hearing this devastating news, Ning Yuanzhou felt a wave of dizziness. When he regained his senses, he knelt before the two spirits and wept bitterly, crying, "It's all my fault! If I hadn't lost my inner strength to help them, they wouldn't have died! It's all my fault! It's all my fault!"
Seeing his self-reproach and guilt, Yuanlu felt bad for him and cried as he comforted him, "Ning, this is not entirely your fault. Those bandits are well-trained and their moves are perfectly coordinated. They are not comparable to ordinary bandits. I'm afraid they were sent down by that person."
Ning Yuanzhou suddenly looked up, his eyes flashing with murderous intent: "It must be the Prince of Danyang. He doesn't want the delegation to welcome back the emperor, so he's desperately trying to stop the delegation from entering An. Last time, he ordered Zhou Jian to ambush the delegation, but it failed. This time, he's even eyeing the gold, causing me to lose two good brothers!"
Ning Yuanzhou secretly swore in his heart: King Danyang! You refused to let the emperor return to the country for the sake of the throne, and you ambushed the delegation many times, killing my two brothers. Since that's the case, then I will make sure the emperor comes back, so that your plans will be in vain, so that you will be brought back to reality when you are only one step away from the throne, and so that you will suffer unbearable pain!
As the delegation remained shrouded in this somber atmosphere, no one noticed that the recovered gold chests, except for the top layer which was gold, had been replaced with stones. Even less did anyone notice that in the darkness of night, a troop of people was moving swiftly along the path, carriages carrying chests of gold, covered with thick felt.
Leading the procession were the already deceased Qian Zhao and Sun Lang. The two looked back in the direction of the delegation, their eyes filled with determination. Finally, they exchanged a glance and escorted the convoy away, one in front and one behind.
Regardless of where the two went, after the delegation completed their funeral arrangements, instead of being depressed, they turned their grief into motivation and continued on to Anguo with high spirits.
For them, Anguo was certainly fraught with danger, but Wuguo was also fraught with peril. The only thing they could do now was to rescue Emperor Wu, which would give them a glimmer of hope.
Thus the mission advanced with this fearless spirit, but because Yang Ying deliberately delayed, she would occasionally feign illness and recuperate, which made the mission's progress very slow.
Two months later, when the delegation entered Anguo, the delegation sent by Emperor An to receive them and Fan Dongming, the Vice Minister of the Court of State Ceremonies, had been waiting for nearly a month. The group, who were already impatient, saw that His Highness Prince Dawu was dragging his feet and claiming illness, unwilling to leave. So they stormed into the post station with the physician.
Then they saw Yang Ying, pale-faced and weak, sitting on the bed.
The delegation from Anguo looked at each other in bewilderment: Oh! Is it really sick?
An attendant whispered in the ear of the envoy Li Tongguang: "This woman's appearance does resemble that of Emperor Wu, and judging from her sickly appearance, it doesn't seem fake. It matches the news that came from Wu that 'Prince Li has been frail and sickly since childhood.'"
Li Tongguang nodded and gave An Guo Shaoqing a wink. An Guo Shaoqing quickly stepped forward, stopped three steps away from Yang Ying, and respectfully bowed, saying, "Fan Dongming, Shaoqing of the Court of State Ceremonies of Da'an, greets Your Highness Prince Li. Is Your Highness well?"
"I'm just having an old ailment flare up, it's nothing serious!" Yang Ying stretched out a hand to signal him to get up. However, this simple sentence and action seemed to have exhausted her energy. She breathed heavily for a while before calming down, and in the end, she only nodded slightly to Li Tongguang as a greeting.
An Guo Shaoqing's eyes darted around: "Hearing that Your Highness is unwell, we were very worried and specially brought a physician to examine Your Highness." After saying that, Fan Dongming beckoned to the physician behind him, and a physician who was around sixty years old and carrying a medicine box quickly came to the bedside. After bowing deeply, he stepped forward to take the pulse.
"How dare you! How dare you touch Her Highness's body?" Ning Yuanzhou shouted, his back already covered in cold sweat. If His Highness were to have his pulse taken by this physician now, wouldn't His Highness's identity as a woman be exposed?
Li Tongguang scoffed, seeing through Ning Yuanzhou's bluster. Just as he was about to speak, Yang Ying preemptively sneered, "It's alright! Let him come to see the doctor, so they won't find fault again and say that I'm faking illness."
Upon hearing this, the doctor immediately took out a handkerchief and placed it on Yang Ying's wrist, then placed his fingers on her wrist. Ning Yuanzhou was extremely anxious and his mind was in turmoil.
Yang Ying, however, looked at the hand on her wrist with a disdainful smile and turned her gaze to a golden vase by the window.
She's not bragging, but when it comes to faking illness, if she claims to be second, no one dares to claim to be first!
Sure enough, when the doctor placed his hand on Yang Ying's pulse, his eyelids twitched violently, and after a careful examination, his expression changed instantly.
Ning Yuanzhou thought the doctor had discovered Yang Ying's true gender, and his expression changed instantly. His hand involuntarily went to the sword at his waist, which made Li Tongguang look at him frequently.
Yang Ying sensed the unusual atmosphere around her and glanced calmly at Ning Yuanzhou, which made the latter realize what was going on.
He was really confused. His Highness must have made preparations beforehand, otherwise why would he let the physician take his pulse so easily?
Fan Dongming didn't notice Ning Yuanzhou's unusual behavior; his eyes were fixed on the physician. Seeing the physician's expression change repeatedly, he hurriedly asked, "How is Your Highness's health?"
The doctor wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and forced a smile: "Your Highness is blessed with good fortune. Although you are currently unwell, you will surely recover soon."
He said this, but he made a gesture to Fan Dongming. Fan Dongming was taken aback for a moment, then immediately understood and nodded slightly to Li Tongguang.