Professional Ethics of a Concubine

Ye Qingzhi discovered that although they had captured Yancheng of Chu State and incorporated the Chu army under Xiong Dayong, the prince did not have any free time at all, but became even busier.

She was so busy that she hadn't seen the prince for half a month.

Even if she took the children to the military camp, she could not see the prince. When asked, she said that the prince had just taken people to inspect.

Unfortunately, I missed it.

After this coincidence happened twice, Ye Qingzhi even began to suspect that the prince was deliberately avoiding her and didn't want to see her.

Even Mingyan had such suspicion and asked her indirectly whether she had a conflict with her father.

Ye Qingzhi could only say no, the prince was simply busy.

Because the prince would also send people to deliver messages to her and tell her his daily schedule.

Therefore, Ye Qingzhi also knew that the prince had been doing two things these days, one was to wait and see, and the other was to transplant flowers and trees.

Sit back and wait for the rabbit to come, which means that the prince was waiting for Xie Wenyuan to come to Yancheng with tens of thousands of troops and "fall into the trap."

Originally, the prince's plan was to lead his troops from Yancheng in Chu State and fight his way through, and meet Xie Wenyuan halfway.

Some small tricks may be used in the process, such as using Xiong Dayong to lure the enemy to open the city gate, but this trick will only be used once at most, because the news of Xiong Dayong's rebellion will spread later.

However, on the second day of the war, the prince received a letter from Xie Wenyuan.

In the letter, Xie Wenyuan said that the Chu army he brought from Shangjing were all loyal to the Chu royal family. There were many children of noble families in the army. The army was well-equipped and difficult to be subverted.

Therefore, these Chu troops could only be "eliminated" by special methods.

In fact, this army is the guard force near Shangjing, and even includes a part of Shangjing’s garrison troops and the guards of the imperial city.

Among them were many children of aristocratic families, who were deceived into joining the army to earn military merits in order to facilitate future promotions.

Because of the King of Wei's love for Xie Wenyuan, no, it was his complete trust in him, Xie Wenyuan brought all these people out, leaving the Chu State's defenses in Shangjing almost empty.

This is also one of Xie Wenyuan’s strategies.

First, find a way to absorb the troops near Shangjing, and when they turn around and attack Shangjing, it will be like taking candy from a bag.

It would be a pity to kill these tens of thousands of soldiers. They were all excellent labor force. It would be better to use them to open up wasteland and mountains in the future than to kill them all.

Those children of aristocratic families were all scholars, but there were fewer scholars in that era, and they were all strong laborers who could be used.

Therefore, Xie Wenyuan thought of asking Feng Yuxi to drug them, temporarily making them unable to move, and then control them separately.

After destroying the Chu royal family, we will brainwash them and tame them. That will be much easier.

Then the question arises: to detain these tens of thousands of troops, we need a large number of trustworthy personnel and also a place to hold them.

Therefore, only Yancheng is the most suitable place to allow these troops to automatically fall into this big net.

Therefore, in order to cooperate with Xie Wenyuan, Xie Jin used a trick of grafting on Yancheng.

What is "grafting"? It means replacing the army and civilians of Chu with the soldiers of Zhao and even the civilians and military households, creating the illusion that Yancheng is still in the hands of Chu.

Xie Jin was able to perform this trick of substitution because the battle that day ended too quickly, Xiong Dayong was very cooperative in his rebellion, and there was no mutiny, so the situation in the military camp was immediately under control.

For ordinary people in Yancheng, it was difficult for them to know what exactly happened. From the noise, it seemed like there was a fight and then a truce.

Moreover, the news they heard was that Chu had won the battle and frightened Zhao, so it would rest for a while and wait for the arrival of the reinforcements, and then make a concerted effort to destroy Zhao.

Of course, such a big change could be hidden from the illiterate people, but it could not be hidden from the officials in Yancheng and a small number of knowledgeable people.

Therefore, Xie Jin and his colleagues had to control these people to prevent them from passing information to the outside. It was easy to control and screen the officials on the surface, but it would be difficult to find those knowledgeable people hiding in the dark.

Unable to find the source for a while, they could only set up checkpoints on the roads leading to the outside of Yancheng to intercept the outgoing letters.

At the same time, a large amount of news about Chu's victory should be spread through official or unofficial channels to confuse the public.

All in all, it is not easy to perform this trick of grafting quietly. There are too many loopholes to plug, which takes a lot of manpower and energy.

At the same time, it is impossible to completely replace the people of Chu in the city, so they have to continue to brainwash them through coercion and inducement, and first incite them to rebel and make them cooperate.

Therefore, Xie Jin had too many things to do, and each one was crucial, because if there was a major mistake, it might not be possible for Xie Wenyuan and his tens of thousands of soldiers to smoothly arrive in Yancheng and launch a counterattack.

In the blink of an eye, two more days passed and the prince still hadn't returned. Ye Qingzhi had gotten used to it and would prepare to go to bed after dinner and exercise.

However, just as he changed his clothes and prepared to go to bed, he heard a noise coming from outside, saying that the prince had returned.

Ye Qingzhi immediately got up from the bed, put on a coat and hurried to open the door, just in time to see the prince walking to the door.

Ye Qingzhi immediately rushed towards him, hugged him, and said passionately, "Your Highness, I missed you."

Xie Jin also hugged her, kissed her with a smile, and then picked her up and carried her back to the house.

The maids and eunuchs all took their leave tactfully and went to prepare hot water for bathing and midnight snacks.

"Your Highness, you haven't shaved your beard for a long time. It's so messy. What have you been doing?"

When they entered the house and turned on the lights, Ye Qingzhi could see clearly how exhausted and disheveled the prince looked.

This beautiful face was half damaged, and she felt really sad when she saw it.

I have never seen any other prince as desperate as this one.

"I've been busy catching people and even stayed in the mountains for a few days." The prince held her in his arms and sat on the bed. He didn't let her go and just held her while talking because he didn't want to let her go.

Holding her in my arms, I feel comfortable and satisfied both mentally and physically, and it also helps ease my longing for her these days.

"Who are you arresting? The patriots of Chu?" Ye Qingzhi asked him sideways, "Have you arrested them?"

"We caught a few, but we couldn't catch them all," said the prince.

"It's up to Xie Wenyuan to deal with the news that has spread out. I can no longer control it."

"Where is Xie Wenyuan's army? How long will it take to get to Yancheng?" Ye Qingzhi asked the prince again.

"It's almost there. According to the army's speed, it will take seven or eight days to arrive. If we rush, it will only take two or three days."

The prince said with a tired tone,

"Finally, we can take a breath. Even if there are problems in the past few days, it will only extend the battle line for a few days. It is completely controllable."

"Indeed, it is a good thing that we can reduce a lot of casualties by luring the enemy into a trap like this."

Ye Qingzhi said with a smile,

"After we have "killed" the army brought by Xie Wenyuan, we will announce to the outside world that Chu has won a great victory. We will bring our soldiers from Great Zhao back with a wave of victory, and directly attack Huanglong and occupy Shangjing. Half of the Chu Kingdom will be in our hands."

"You are smart, indeed." Xie Jin said with a smile.

"These two 'wars' almost painlessly eliminated more than 100,000 main forces of the Chu State. Just thinking about it makes people excited, but..."

"Just what? Your Highness has encountered such a beautiful thing as waiting for the rabbit to come to him, how could there be any bad things?"

Ye Qingzhi raised her eyebrows and asked with a smile.

"The only thing that bothers me is that the King of Qi was very dissatisfied with my arrangement. He ran away three days ago..."

Xie Jin rubbed his forehead again and said with a slight headache.

"...Did the King of Qi go to find Xie Wenyuan?" Ye Qingzhi was also stunned for a moment, then asked with a bit of amusement, "Did he go there by himself?"

"Yes, he just ran away capriciously. The King of Qi is very skilled in martial arts, so he will be fine. Even if he is captured by Xie Wenyuan's men..."

Xie Jin thought about the scene and continued, "I guess the King of Qi can't tell you any secrets."

Ye Qingzhi immediately laughed, "Hahahaha... King Qi's mouth is really not something that ordinary people can pry open."

"I don't know what secrets there are between Xie Wenyuan and King Qi. King Qi cares a lot about Xie Wenyuan." Xie Jin said again.

To be honest, Xie Jin did care. He was purely curious about gossip, but also had a slight worry that something might happen that he could not control.

"Could it be that the reason why the King of Qi didn't return to the capital in the past two years was because he thought Xie Wenyuan was dead, so he didn't want to go back."

Ye Qingzhi suddenly had an idea and made some associations, with gossip sparkling in her eyes.

"If that's the case, it feels like the affection between these two is extraordinary."

Xie Jin frowned, and after thinking for a while he still couldn't figure it out, so he could only say, "Then let's wait for Xie Wenyuan to come and ask him."

"It should be a feud between two brothers. They are both smart people, so it won't cause any major problems."

Ye Qingzhi felt that she had finished talking about the serious matters, so she rubbed his cheek, stroked his beard, and said to him,

"Your Highness, I'll have someone prepare a razor to trim your beard. Going out like this really undermines your dignity."

Xie Jin smiled and said, "Then I'll trouble you, Qingqing."