Chapter 321 After Dying I Woke Up In Ancient Times With My Pharmacy 20
Countless perplexed eyes focused on He Yuan. Whether it was the ministers belonging to a faction or the neutral ones, none of them had even thought of the Fifth prince.
A second later though, the faces of a lot of them darkened in dissatisfaction. They were all aware that the Emperor didn't want any of the factions gaining an advantage over the others at this stage.
If Tian Weisheng went, it would solve this problem but then again, if Tian Weisheng finally decided to support one of his brothers, that contender would gain a lot for doing nothing. Each minister knew that it would be wonderful if their faction was the one Tian Weisheng joined but what if it wasn't?
They would be at a disadvantage!
Whilst a lot of the ministers were grumbling in their hearts, the Emperor was satisfied in his. It turned out that he still had ministers with good eyesight! He couldn't accept immediately as that would be too obvious so he hid his satisfaction and said, "State your reasons."
He Yuan's went straight to the point, "The Fifth prince's strength is widely known as evidenced by the growth of the Southern army over the years.
-With the Fifth prince's reputation, Changzhou country in the South with strength rumoured to rival ours dare not attack, not to mention a mere Zhoudong. If the Fifth prince is sent, Xiangshan can be sure of a resounding victory."
To the Emperor and the ministers, his words were merely something to expect of someone who admired the strong but it wasn't the same for Tian Weisheng.
The Fifth prince wasn't stupid. He'd encountered General He at the Lu mansion and the man hadn't seemed like someone who admired him greatly. In fact, he'd detected more of indifference from the General.
All of a sudden that same person was listing off his good points and praising him as if the sun rose and set in his palm.
Tian Weisheng narrowed his eyes. General He wanted him to go over to the Eastern frontier. Why? He became lost in thought until Lu Xuilan's figure popped into his mind and then his gaze turned cold.
General He was interested in Lu Xuilan but the woman in question was already bethroded to him, Tian Weisheng, so no matter what tricks the general played, unless the engagement between the two parties was broken, he would never have a chance.
The Lu family would never dare to break up the engagement even if they had nine lives and he'd already developed interest in Lu Xuilan so he didn't plan on breaking up the engagement either.
This meant that the engagement could only be broken if one party was dead.
Tian Weisheng smirked in amusement. It was true that his military prowess was widely known but, currently, he was disabled so it was very easy for others to underestimate him.
General He must be thinking that if he played a trick or two, he could easily kill off a disabled man at the Frontline. Ha.
In the great hall, the Emperor was very satisfied with He Yuan's words but before he could open his mouth to agree, a low sultry voice suddenly rang out,
"I see General He admires this prince greatly but compared to the current me, isn't General He much more outstanding?"
The Emperor frowned and hope lit up in the hearts of the various factions as Tian Weisheng continued, "The Eastern army is in trouble, the Western army has to face Sailan and although my reputation has successfully kept Changzhou in check, who's to say that the second a part of the Southern army is redeployed, they wouldn't attack?
-Compared to the other three armies, isn't General He's Northern army the best bet? You completely crushed Qinmen in a recent battle with less than four thousand casualties, leaving the Northern army with a little over thirty-seven thousand soldiers. It would take at least two years and at most five years for Qinmen to recover from that blow.
-This automatically means that this period, the Northern frontier is the most secured. Don't tell me General He can't spare twenty to twenty-five thousand soldiers to reinforce the Eastern army?"
He Yuan's brows furrowed. "This..."
Tian Weisheng sneered inwardly at his reaction.
Seated on the other end, a calculative look flashed in the eyes of the Ninth prince as he stared at He Yuan. Just like his Fifth imperial brother, General He also did not belong to any faction but... he still had a chance to woo him.
In any case if he didn't succeed then he could send out a bunch of dead warriors to kill the General. That would be much better than giving him the chance to join a different faction. Afterall, it would be much easier to get rid of the son of a merchant than the favoured son of the Emperor!
At that thought, the Ninth prince glared at Tian Weisheng's direction before signalling at the right Prime minister.
The things that the Ninth prince had been able to think of, the other princes and ministers had clearly thought of too so Lu Qian quickly spoke up, "Ha, Ha, the Fifth prince is still the wisest, able to think so clearly even in troubled times."
The other ministers from various factions followed suit:
"General He has always produced results, it would surely be the same this time."
"Ah, the world is the platform of the young, don't let us down General He!"
"Yes, yes. General He is a better option. The Fifth prince is already like this, it wouldn't be good for him to...." This particular minister's voice trailed off when Tian Weisheng pinned him with a glare.
Tian Weisheng moved his eyes back to He Yuan. The General was expressionless but he knew how angry the man must be feeling deep down. His amusement increased.
At the same time, his eyes moved to his brothers and a flash of cruelty crossed his eyes He might have hidden his ambitions deeply but he was also aiming for the throne so he knew how important this trip to the Eastern frontier was.
There was no way he would, in his clear mind, waste such an opportunity on General He. In fact, the only reason he pushed for General He to go to the East at this time was because he understood the situation in the East clearly.
Right now, more than half of General Gong's army of fifty-five thousand soldiers had already been wiped out. The people in the Capital thought it was just five thousand soldiers because unbeknowest to everyone -ten years ago- Zhoudong had sneaked in a group of spies into Xiangshan to develop and grow their network.
Presently, this group had established a firm foothold in Fu Zu town, Shigai city and Nanshu county. These were the three routes information travelled from the Eastern frontier to the Capital.
This was a very dangerous situation for Xiangshan as it meant that news from the Eastern frontier to everywhere else was firmly controlled by the Zhoudong spies. Whatever info they got was what Zhoudong wanted the Capital to know and not what was truly happening.
It was due to a stroke of luck that Tian Weisheng discovered this operation but rather than rooting out this group of spies, he decided to let them be and beat Zhoudong at their own game.
His plan was to go over to the East and secretly replace the spies with his own people. This way, it would be easy to send out false information to Zhoudong that could comprise the enemy army and allow him to reap all the benefits.
It was risky but the gains were immeasurable. He would not only crush the Zhoudong soldiers but could even successfully capture two or three cities from Zhoudong. Another reason he hid the news was because he wanted to take down the general of the Eastern army.
As long as General Gong lost his life, it would be a piece of cake for him -Tian Weisheng- who had gained victory to take over the Eastern army.
The plan was already going smoothly but since General He wanted to act smart... Tian Weisheng scoffed. Why not let the idiot accompany General Gong to the grave?
Three months should be enough for the lack of communication to lead to the demise of General Gong and General He. When that happened, he would lead his army over and gain complete victory over Zhoudong.
This method was using one stone to kill three birds. He'd gain prestige, he'd take over the Eastern army and the pesky mosquito who had dared to set his sights on Xuilan would be smacked to death!
It was a splendid idea and General He could only blame himself for attempting to scheme against him.
With all that had been said, the ministers and princes all turned to the Emperor, awaiting his decision.
The dragon son of heaven felt helpless. He originally wanted Weisheng to go to the Eastern frontier, who knew that brat would push the He family boy forward instead?
He was informed of the fact that General He had ignorantly shown interest in the Lu family girl so he knew his son was just being vengeful. He eyed Tian Weisheng. He had to remind Sheng'er later not to go too far. After all, the young General was still usable.
At that thought, the Emperor cleared his throat and addressed He Yuan, "This matter... Zhen would hand it over to you."
A lot of the ministers let out a secret sigh of relief as He Yuan hesitated for two seconds before cupping his fists in 'defeat'. "It is this General's honour."
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After morning court, He Yuan zoomed out of the Imperial palace. The officials who were planning on engaging in 'small talk' with him could only click their tongues in disappointment.
He Yuan did not have the time to pay attention to their reactions. General Gong had already left for the Eastern army and it would take two and a half weeks to get there at top speed.
If he decided to lead the Northern army there, it would take two months and some weeks. Again, time was what he did not have so he planned to go ahead of his army.
He was this hurried because he'd carefully gone through the details of the original timeline so, just like Tian Weisheng, he knew the situation in the East too.
Tian Weisheng already had a couple of spies in the Eastern frontier and these people had been responsible for orchestrating the death of General Gong in the original timeline.
The Southern and Eastern armies were the strongest in Xiangshan and control of these two armies was one of the things that aided Tian Weisheng's smooth ascent to the throne.
He Yuan had no idea how to take down Lu Xuilan's pharmacy at the moment so he had to make sure Tian Weisheng did not grow stronger. Because the more power the Fifth prince had, the more protection Lu Xuilan would have and the harder it would be to get to her.
Although Lu Xuilan would also grow her forces. She'd just returned to the Capital so things were at the beginning stages. It would be easier for him to send a group of shadow guards to discreetly interfere with her.
For now, the most important thing was to get that divorce decree and make sure Tian Weisheng did not take over the Eastern army.
And to do that?
General Gong had to survive.
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