Such weather is inherently irritable, and His Highness Prince An, who had received a series of bad news early in the morning, was so angry that he was about to set the entire Prince An's mansion on fire.
"A bunch of useless trash!"
Yun Huan overturned the long flower stand under the window, his handsome face contorted with rage.
He turned and glared at his trembling subordinates in the study, angrily pointing at one of them and demanding, "Wasn't it said that the letter to the Northern Di people had been successfully delivered? Why haven't the Linchuan army and the Northern Di people started fighting yet?!"
The person being questioned shrugged, lowered his head, and mumbled a low reply, "After the New Year... we already released carrier pigeons, at least three in total. Logically speaking, the message should have arrived by now."
"Explain to me what 'ought to' means?!" Yun Huan grabbed a small incense burner and threw it at the man.
The small bronze incense burner has a relief design of "Immortal Receiving Dew". The "immortal's" outstretched hands poke the person's forehead, and soon a swollen and bruised mark appears.
The man dared not cry out in pain, nor did he dare to move. He simply replied respectfully, "Please rest assured, Your Highness. There has been nothing unusual in the capital these past few months, which suggests that the message was indeed sent out. I just don't know why the Northern Barbarians... did not react upon receiving the message."
If the Northern Barbarians don't make a move, no one can force them to send troops.
****
Allowing the Linchuan army to launch an attack on the Northern Barbarians without imperial permission was Yun Huan's first step in his plan to eliminate Yun Lie.
Because Emperor Xianlong did not want to leave a reputation for "exhausting the country with war" in history, he pretended to know nothing about the secret suppression of the Linchuan Army and the Yuancheng Navy in recent years.
To put it bluntly, he didn't want Yun Lie or Yun Pei to have the strength to launch an offensive; he only wanted them to be able to maintain a defensive posture.
Yun Huan had seen through this long ago. He knew that as long as Linchuan took the initiative to provoke a conflict with the Northern Di, and someone in the capital incited officials and censors to submit impeachments, no matter whether the war between Linchuan and the Northern Di was successful or not, or what the reason was, Yun Lie would not be able to turn the tide.
In order to provoke Yun Lie into sending troops, Yun Huan has done a lot of sabotage against the Linchuan army over the years.
But surprisingly, Yun Lie remained calm and composed. For many years, the Linchuan army had only fought defensive battles and had never been eager for quick success or pursued victory.
Last year, after Yun Lie and Luo Cuiwei went to Linchuan to assume their fiefdoms, in order to provoke war between Linchuan and the Northern Di, Yun Huan secretly sent a message to the Northern Di people—
"With the assistance of the 'Xiang' character in the name of Princess Zhao, Linchuan will soon become much stronger and will soon destroy the Northern Di."
It was originally thought that after receiving this news, the Northern Di people, even if they would not rashly send troops to attack Linchuan, would at least kill Luo Cuiwei.
In Yun Huan's view, Luo Cuiwei was, after all, the regent of the Prince Zhao's mansion. If she were assassinated, regardless of whether Yun Lie's feelings for her were genuine, Yun Lie would still rush to the Northern Di army just for the sake of face.
The problem arose because of the frequent back-and-forth of the information.
As the saying goes, "three men can make a tiger," and when the news was embellished and spread to the Northern Di, it had become "the fate chart of the Zhao King's wife can help bring prosperity to the country, and whoever obtains it can rule the world."
Upon hearing this news, the Northern Di people naturally preferred to have a "living Princess Zhao," which led to the incident where "Luo Cuiwei encountered danger in the new city of Linchuan, and was protected by Xiahou Ling and her secret guards."
After that incident, wherever Luo Cuiwei went, either Yun Lie or Xiahou Ling would be within ten steps, along with a whole team of secret guards who rarely showed their tracks. At the same time, Yun Lie's men also tightened their checks on strangers entering and leaving Linchuan, so they could no longer find an opportunity to harm Luo Cuiwei.
Seeing that he couldn't get anything out of Luo Cuiwei, Yun Huan had no choice but to take a risk and ordered someone to send a message directly to the Northern Di by carrier pigeon, claiming that Linchuan was preparing to attack the Northern Di and urging the Northern Di to strike first and catch Linchuan off guard.
He reasoned that if the Northern Barbarians suddenly launched an attack, Yun Lie would be too busy to explain to the capital. At that time, he would only need to stir things up behind the scenes and have the officials and censors submit memorials to impeach Yun Lie, insisting that Linchuan had launched the attack first. Emperor Xianlong, in his rage, might not have the patience to wait for Yun Lie to return and defend himself.
Several months had passed since the message was sent to the Northern Barbarians by carrier pigeon, but there had been no response from them; Yun Lie's family, on the other hand, had arrived in the capital safely and returned to the Prince Zhao's residence in a leisurely manner...
All the news was pushing Yun Huan closer and closer to the brink of madness.
****
"...Not only has there been no news of war breaking out between Linchuan and the Northern Di, but Yun Lie has also swaggered back to the capital with Luo Cuiwei!"
Enraged, Yun Huan had smashed most of the things he could in the study.
"His carriages departed from Linchuan on July 18th. As soon as I received the news, I immediately ordered you to send men to ambush and kill him at the boundary marker between Linchuan and Jinghe Prefecture. Why did his family appear in the capital unharmed?!"
Yun Huan's expression grew increasingly frantic, and a crimson mist began to rise in his eyes.
Jinghe Prefecture is only a little over a hundred miles from the capital, and it is located on the only road leading to the capital from the prefectures in the northwest and northeast. The boundary marker on the official road mentioned by Yun Huan is a remote mountain road, which is an excellent place for ambush.
Yun Lie and Luo Cuiwei returned to the capital with only four guards and two maids. If an ambush had been set up in advance, it would have been easy for them to succeed.
According to Yun Huan's prediction, as long as the attack succeeds, regardless of whether Yun Lie and Luo Cuiwei are dead or injured, as long as the news that "the Northern Di people ambushed and killed King Zhao and his wife" is spread to Linchuan, Xiong Xiaoyi and his gang of brutes will definitely be unable to restrain themselves from seeking revenge against the Northern Di.
As long as the Linchuan army makes a move, he has a way to pin the blame on Yun Lie for taking the initiative to send troops.
However, Yun Huan's wish was dashed once again.
Yun Lie not only encountered no obstacles in Jinghe Prefecture, but also made his way to the capital without any trouble!
The subordinates in the study exchanged glances, and one of them stepped forward reluctantly.
"Your Highness, I was just about to report this matter. It was Zhao Ti, the deputy commander of the Black Armored Guards, who led his men to guard the boundary marker of Jinghe Prefecture early on, preventing our men from making a move..."
"Zhao Ti only obeys the Emperor, so why would she protect Yun Lie?!" This news made Yun Huan's eyes almost pop out of their sockets.
"No, there hasn't been any communication between the capital and Linchuan for more than half a year. How did Father Emperor know that Yun Lie left Linchuan?!"
For the past six months, the people of Prince An's mansion have been setting up checkpoints on the official road under various pretexts to inspect and confiscate all kinds of letters and people traveling between Linchuan and the capital, almost blocking all communication along this road.
At this moment, Yun Huan was almost insane, and his subordinates were answering him with increasing trepidation, sometimes even uttering incoherent sentences.
"After all, His Highness Prince Zhao is a prince who has already taken up his fief. He left his fief without imperial decree. Such a big commotion could not be kept from His Majesty's ears and eyes... His Majesty ordered General Zhao Ti to go there... With a whole team of black-armored imperial guards 'escorting' Prince Zhao and his entourage back to the capital to plead guilty, our people really couldn't find an opportunity to strike."
In fact, they couldn't be sure whether the news that "Prince Zhao and his wife left their fiefdom and returned to the capital without authorization" was reported to His Majesty by His Majesty's trusted spies, or whether Prince Zhao himself found a way to let His Majesty know.
If it is the latter, then it is really hard to say whether Zhao Ti's actions with the entire team of black-armored guards towards King Zhao and his wife were "escorting" or "escorting".
At this moment, no one wanted to provoke Yun Huan any further. Although all the subordinates had this suspicion, none of them dared to say it aloud.
Enraged, Yun Huan kicked over the display shelf, yelling, "Idiot! Useless!"