Chapter 204

When the opportunity arose, Fang Gonggong used his men to create chaos. Initially, they refused to travel with Governor Mu’s convoy, claiming it was unsafe. They knew they were being followed but couldn’t catch the perpetrators. So, when Fang Gonggong requested to separate, he also demanded that the governor of Red Earth City send skilled cooks and bodyguards to accompany him.

After rejoining the convoy, following the governor of Red Earth City’s handling of over 200 people with only 100 soldiers, Fang Gonggong decided not to target the governor of Red Earth City but rather to focus on the treacherous woman instead.

Upon hearing that she was preparing the food herself, he ordered two of his court ladies to create disruption. If the journey was delayed because she couldn’t prepare the food on time, who would be blamed for this?

Who would have thought that her people would be so stubborn that it turned into a major incident, resulting in injuries and them needing medical treatment? Now he himself was suspected of being a traitor. The plan to create chaos and incite hatred among the soldiers towards the governor’s furen failed before it even started, and they ended up being the ones hated by everyone!

Fang Gonggong said nothing more, because even if he wanted to speak, he couldn’t. Who would have thought that throughout the entire day, Yueqian and the governor of Red Earth City would ignore him completely? The two acted as if he and his presence didn’t exist, all the way until they arrived at the next town for the night’s rest.

Whether it was the breakfast they didn’t eat, the lunch they were ignored by the soldiers, or the rumbling stomachs, if it weren’t for the fear that Gonggong and the three court ladies would die first and be guilty, it was likely that those people would have let them starve for the whole day.

When they finally opened their mouths, Gonggong and the court ladies seemed eager to speak. Just then, the food from the inn where they were staying was brought in. The aroma made their stomachs growl loudly again, as if urging their masters to eat as quickly and as much as possible. So, the four of them said nothing further and simply ate while the soldiers left them alone.

They had no idea that this act of kindness was not because Yueqian feared Fang Gonggong would starve to death. Anyone who had completed high school knew that going without food for three days wasn’t a big issue, as long as they had water to drink. It would be considered effective torture for them.

However, her plan to torment him was unexpectedly cut short. The Art Institute secretly informed her in advance that a royal member was hiding in this distant town due to a severe epidemic. Due to a severe epidemic, this person had taken on a task no one else wanted. Fortunately, they received some medicine from Red Earth City, enough to treat 20 people. This allowed them to send 10 people to undertake this mission. Otherwise, his mother, who was a noble consort, would never have allowed her son to leave.

This was a difficult task, and contracting the disease was unavoidable. If there hadn’t been medicine, even the Emperor wouldn’t have sent his son. Despite the intense competition for the throne, they had no desire to throw their lives away.

This prince, the Emperor’s favorite, was named Second Prince Ren Suncheng. Not only was he favored by the Emperor, but he was also the nephew who had the honor of freely entering and leaving the palace of a powerful Wang. Although Yueqian had never met him due to his other royal duties, she had heard much about him.

He seemed to be a good, honest, and straightforward person. If it weren’t for his mother’s ambition to become Empress Dowager or the emperor’s mother, he wouldn’t be interested in the loathsome throne at all.

It must be said that this Second Prince was diligent and genuinely wanted to help his people, likely inspired by his respected uncle. His uncle had never been Emperor but had always served honorably and earned the Emperor’s trust.

Moreover, as his uncle, he was able to accomplish much more, being free from the constraints of the nobles. Because of this, the nephew like Second Prince, didn’t care much for the emperor’s position.

Nevertheless, he had no choice. He used his position as a prince to travel throughout the Bai Region, appreciating its beauty and understanding its true problems. Otherwise, when his father asked who would volunteer to care for the people, while everyone else declined, how could he have been the only one to step forward?

Second Prince like him was not afraid of hardship. While following his uncle on various journeys, they even had to disguise themselves to deal with bandits. He was used to a simple life without special care. In fact, his own palace was more like a tourist spot for him. He resided in his own palace less frequently than anything else.

"Your High—uh, master, the group ahead is the soldiers from Red Earth City," One of Second Prince’s men reported breathlessly upon returning from gathering information.

Second Prince thought for a moment and remembered the summons for the governor of Red Earth City and his furen to appear before the Emperor. A terrible incident had befallen them, with the governor of Small Mountain City sending assassins to kill the furen of Red Earth City’s governor to force them into surrendering their medicine.

While these medicines were scarce, even the citizens of Red Earth City were relying on hope from the Bai Region. It turned out that the governor of Small Mountain City was selfish. He had heard from his uncle that the governor of Red Earth City initially wanted to negotiate resource allocation based on what they had. However, the governor of Small Mountain City refused to cooperate, demanding medicine without offering anything in return, which was clearly wrong.

In fact, when the governor of Red Earth City submitted a request to the palace to trade all their resources for herbs, everyone understood it was due to the severe epidemic. Yet, they didn’t agree with this approach entirely.Everyone knew that saving the citizens’ lives now was good, but in the future, they would ultimately starve due to the lack of food and essential supplies. Every year, even without an epidemic, Red Earth City was already like hell.

They obtained all the resources not to develop Red Earth City but merely to extend their lives. Given such struggles, it was no surprise that Red Earth City sought exchanges with other cities. If they exhausted their resources, death would be inevitable.

As the governor of Red Earth City, such decisions were correct. The actions of Small Mountain City’s governor were wrong from the start, showing his narrow-mindedness. But his wickedness did not end there; he even dared to harm people to seize resources.

Second Prince detested the shameless actions of the other party greatly. He never imagined that the people of the Bai Region could think this way. How could they unite in the future to fight against people from other Regions?

"And the soldiers who were captured?" The one who was the master raised an eyebrow after seeing several tightly bound soldiers being led away. These soldiers were taken to the open courtyard of the inn, where everyone passing by could see them clearly, as if they were criminals being publicly humiliated.

"Those soldiers are from Small Mountain City."

"Hmm?"

"I heard the soldiers tell the inn staff that the soldiers from Small Mountain City were sent to kill them while they were on their way to the palace, to prevent them from reaching the capital. This was an order from the governor of Small Mountain City who was previously arrested."

"Oh, they dared to make such a grand move? How could the governor of Small Mountain City be so foolish?" The Second Prince raised an eyebrow.

This struggle of the governor of Small Mountain City seemed rather foolish. It was as if a fool had undertaken such a reckless act, which only added fuel to the fire. If there was a trial, their punishment would be much harsher, as this was no longer just the crime of attempting to assassinate a single woman.

Initially, in the case of an investigation, the governor of Small Mountain City could argue that he had prioritized the benefits of his people and thus made an unguarded decision. However, now such an explanation was no longer plausible. Taking such grand actions to obstruct a royal decree was tantamount to declaring oneself a rebel.

Deep down, Second Prince found it hard to believe that the governor of Small Mountain City, who had long controlled Small Mountain City with great power and success, could be so foolish.

"It seems they weren’t entirely foolish, Your Highness. They brought over 200 men, while the Governor of Red Earth City only had 100 soldiers. Moreover, they carefully timed their attack. It was heard that the soldiers from Xiao attacked at dusk when the others were setting up camp."

"The soldiers of Red Earth City would have been at their weakest at that time, and if they succeeded, they could have blamed it on bandits, claiming that the governor of Red Earth City was merely unfortunate."

"What they didn’t expect was that the men of the governor of Red Earth City were actually skilled soldiers from the Wang. Thus, the battle wasn’t easy, and they were all captured," the attendant said with pride.

Who wouldn’t respect the Wang of the Region? Especially those who followed the second prince everywhere understood his strength very well. They believed that this was the result of the Wang’s training, making the soldiers so skilled that ordinary troops couldn’t respond at all.

However, Second Prince didn’t think that way. He was observant and immediately noticed that the battle, which should have been intense between the 300 men, showed no signs of having occurred. It didn’t look like they had fought at all. Where were the injuries on each person? Even the soldiers from Small Mountain City didn’t have any wounds.

If one claimed that the strength of the soldiers trained by his uncle was superior to others, he wouldn’t argue. But to say that 100 soldiers could fight 200 without anyone getting injured, not even the opponents, he couldn’t believe it outright.

If the consequences of this act wouldn’t certainly lead to their execution, he might think this was just a performance by the governor of Red Earth City to boost his value and declare his strength to the people by hiring 200 men to pretend to be from Small Mountain City. However, would those 200 men willingly die for the charge of rebellion? Certainly not! 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Therefore, the fight must have actually occurred. The situation was just more complicated. This thought made the second prince more interested in this governor of the foreign land.

"Where is the governor of Red Earth City now? I want to meet him," the second prince said.

He didn’t want to meet the other as the second prince; otherwise, he could simply inform his soldiers that he was the second prince. However, he still wanted to conceal his identity. Even though he was familiar with the training at his uncle’s residence, his current attire wasn’t suitable for recognition. Moreover, he had a black cloth covering his face like a group of refugees."Currently, the governor of Red Earth City is at the governor’s manor. It seems he was invited to discuss the plague and the medicine to cure it."