Chapter 192: Rong Yin Is Inside

Mu Yunlian and Rong Yin got into a fight. They were both trying to kill each other, holding nothing back and showing no mercy, but after a full hour of fighting, neither had gained the upper hand.

Their clothes were in disarray, and they were drenched in sweat. Neither had any fatal wounds, but they were covered in minor cuts, and blood stained the ground. It was a battle where both sides lost.

In the end, it was Prince Jing who couldn’t watch any longer and sent a messenger to them.

"A tall and imposing man has come to Your Majesty’s side. Your Majesty invited him for a drink, and the two are getting along splendidly."

Prince Jing deliberately had the messenger hide Wu Taimei’s identity and say such ambiguous words. As expected, the two of them stopped. They exchanged a glance and went their separate ways.

They washed up, changed their clothes, and bandaged their wounds. In less than half an hour, they had recovered their noble and composed appearances. Their injuries were no longer visible, but the strong smell of medicine clung to them.

In the side hall, Xiao Yang was still drinking. Wu Taimei had already taken his leave.

"Your Majesty."

The two men entered together, one in red, one in black. Their equally bewitching and handsome faces were visually striking.

They exchanged a look, and killing intent instantly flared between them. But when they turned to look at Xiao Yang, it vanished just as quickly.

Xiao Yang looked at the two of them but didn’t mention their fight. She had food and wine served to them and went straight to discussing the current situation.

"We need to dispatch officials to Beimeng. The batch of officials who were previously convicted and exiled will be reinstated and all sent to Beimeng."

Xiao Yang looked at Rong Yin. "The Danzhou Governor, Wu Taimei, brought Marquis Wucheng here, tied up. The official story is that he’s here to pay his respects to me. For now, it’s not an open break, but the Marquis’s forces have gathered and grown formidable. I’m afraid he’s already preparing to rebel. This must be dealt with. I want you to take Marquis Wucheng to Yizhou, disperse the forces he has gathered, and reclaim the region."

Rong Yin had only just arrived and didn’t want to be separated from Xiao Yang, but he hadn’t forgotten that their relationship was that of a ruler and a subject.

He was the subject.

"This subject accepts your command."

Xiao Yang turned to Mu Yunlian. "Didn’t Ling Ji send you a message? Why were you in such a hurry to come back?"

Mu Yunlian sighed softly. "Your Majesty is always so unpredictable. If I didn’t come back to see for myself, I wouldn’t have been able to rest easy."

’He wanted to blame Your Majesty for running off and having fun, disregarding her own safety, but she was already back, and she’d had guards on the journey. There was no point in saying anything now. In the future, he would just have to stay by her side as much as possible. No matter what she wanted to do, he would only feel at ease if he was there to protect her himself.’

"Everything is arranged on Li Wei’s side. All the supplies are in place. He will attack Chiyang City tomorrow. The various tribes of Beimeng have gathered, so this battle might be more difficult."

The power of gunpowder and cannons is great, but the combat strength of the Beimeng iron cavalry cannot be underestimated.

The more they fought on the plains, the greater their advantage.

Especially now that the fight had reached Chiyang City. With the crisis of their nation’s destruction looming, no matter how great the divisions between the Beimeng tribes, they would be exceptionally united at this moment. They would present a unified front against an external enemy and should not be taken lightly.

There was another point: while Li Wei had achieved crushing victories all the way here, the battle lines were now stretched. He was leading an army deep into enemy territory and could easily be encircled.

Xiao Yang said, "I have ordered Prince Jing to assemble the forces from five other states, seventy thousand men in total. Although their combat strength is not equal to the soldiers Li Wei leads, they are more than enough to occupy cities and secure our rear."

"Furthermore, we must deal with Marquis Wucheng as quickly as possible, seize all of his forces, and commit them to the Beimeng battlefield."

"With a steppe nation like Beimeng, where the people are fierce, you either leave them alone or you swallow them whole. If you only take half, you’ll be left with endless trouble. We absolutely cannot give them time to recover..."

When the three of them only discussed matters of state, they were surprisingly harmonious.

After they finished talking, Xiao Yang went back to read some memorials for a while before finally washing up and resting.

Mu Yunlian went to arrange some matters and came over a little later, only to see Rong Yin’s men outside the Emperor’s bedchambers.

’In an instant, he understood. Rong Yin was inside.’

’The lights inside were already out. That meant Rong Yin was staying the night.’

’Xiao Yang won’t let me sleep with her because she doesn’t want to get pregnant. That means Rong Yin must just be sleeping beside her. Besides, Rong Yin is injured; he can’t do anything, really.’

’But even so, it couldn’t change one fact: Rong Yin was just like him.’

’He wasn’t indispensable to Xiao Yang.’

’He was no longer the Meng Xuechen of his youth, and she was no longer the fifteen-year-old Xiao Yang.’

Mu Yunlian turned away, his once-shimmering eyes now frozen like ice.

’He was not one to accept the arrangements of fate. What he wanted, he would obtain, by any means necessary.’

Rong Yin was exhausted from his journey and now covered in injuries. He truly couldn’t do anything. But he wasn’t in the mood for it anyway; he just wanted to hold Your Majesty and find a sense of peace.

’His rival in love, Mu Yunlian, was more formidable than he had imagined. Given his own status, he would never give up, but he feared being the one the Emperor abandoned.’

The next day, Rong Yin set out for Yizhou with Zhao Cheng’an, assisted by Wu Taimei. The forces from Dan State were also transferred to Rong Yin’s command. Meanwhile, Mu Yunlian continued to monitor Li Wei’s front.

Li Wei launched his attack on Chiyang City and, as expected, met with fierce resistance. However, all resistance was futile in the face of gunpowder weapons. He took Chiyang City in just three days. The Old Beimeng King was killed, and the Second Prince fled with the survivors.

Li Wei continued his advance into Beimeng, intending to conquer it completely. In Yizhou, however, Zhao Cheng’an’s son had taken power and was now in a standoff with Rong Yin.

He refused to let Rong Yin enter the city and wouldn’t come out to receive his own father.

It seemed he didn’t much care whether his own father lived or died.

Rong Yin traveled around Yizhou with Zhao Cheng’an, targeting the governors allied with him one by one. He killed the governors, replaced the officials, and commandeered their armies.

If Zhao Cheng’an’s son wouldn’t open the gates, then he would use Zhao Cheng’an as a blade to cut down all the surrounding powers, turning Yizhou into an isolated island.

Seeing Liangzhou and Lingzhou both dealt with by Rong Yin, Su Wu finally made his move. He sent Prince Kang to petition the Regent King while he personally led his men straight for Luoyan City.

’He had to make one last gamble.’

The weapons Li Wei was using were too destructive; this was the reason Su Wu hadn’t dared to rebel openly.

’He wanted to rebel and seize power, not get himself killed.’

’He had secretly contacted his network and carved out a territory for himself around Yizhou. His plan was to wait for Li Wei to be deep in Beimeng territory, then besiege the Emperor, support Zhao Cheng’an in declaring himself king, and then use the Emperor as a puppet to command the other lords, eventually swallowing the entire empire.’

’But who could have expected that scoundrel Wu Taimei to actually trick Zhao Cheng’an and take him away?’

’One wrong step, and every step after was wrong.’

’Now the Regent King was weakening the alliance’s power. If he remained passive any longer, he would surely be swallowed up.’

’The key to breaking this deadlock was the Emperor.’

Su Wu first disguised himself and entered Luoyan City. Meanwhile, his army outside was already secretly in position. Only by capturing the Emperor would there be any room for negotiation.

However, what Su Wu hadn’t expected was that while hiding in Luoyan City and observing the situation, he would once again run into ’Rong Jin’.

"Brother Rong, what are you doing here?"

Xiao Yang, who had just stepped out for a stroll, never imagined she’d run into this attention magnet again.

"Brother Su, didn’t I tell you? This is my hometown."

Xiao Yang replied naturally, turning the question back on him, "What brings you here, Brother Su?"

Su Wu said, "I came to visit a friend."

Xiao Yang nodded. "Oh. Well, I’ll let you get to it then. We can talk later when you’re free."

Without giving him time to react, she sidestepped past him, and as she swung herself onto her horse, she commanded, "Seize him."