I will lead the whole village to occupy the land and become the king.

Not to mention that Su Ziyu did not expect that someone would know his secret and even steal his treasure directly. Xiao Rui and others reached the place where they would meet up with the Northwest Army as quickly as possible.

But when they arrived, Lu Yanzheng's fleet had not arrived yet.

This place is only fifty miles away from the capital and has a hidden location, but the area within a radius of ten miles is barren and is a sparsely populated area.

Xiao Rui and the others hid their belongings. The leader of the Northwest Army, Xiao Hu, looked around and said, "The prince has instructed that if we arrive here too early, we should go to the nearby area to inquire about news from the capital."

An Shiqi nodded when he heard this, "That's fine, but we must leave someone to guard this place."

"Gui Qi and Lin Wu are the best at chatting with people, so send them and the rest of us will stay behind." Xiao Hu seemed to be prepared and responded immediately.

An Shiqi had no objection, and Xiao Rui remained silent, just following the arrangements.

Seeing that the two of them didn't say anything, Xiao Hu immediately called Gui Qi and Lin Wu and asked them to go to the surrounding towns to inquire about the news.

In fact, Gui Qi and Lin Wu were elite scouts hidden in the team. They set off immediately after receiving the order.

What Xiao Rui and An Shiqi didn't know was that, except for Xiao Hu, the rest of the team were elite soldiers of the Northwest Army carefully selected by Zhao Qi.

Some are good at gathering information, some have extremely high fighting power, some have been practicing iron shirts since childhood and are invulnerable to swords and guns, and some have excellent lightness skills and can take people away at critical moments.

These were all arranged by Zhao Qi according to Lu Yanzheng's instructions. The person who led the escape was the one Lu Yanzheng specifically instructed to ensure the safe retreat of the An brothers no matter what happened.

In addition, Xiao Hu received the order that he must stay with the An brothers at all times, but he must not let anyone think that they are monitoring the brothers.

Gui Qi and Lin Wu soon arrived at the nearest town, Julin Town. As the name suggests, this town is rich in chrysanthemums and there are many farmers who can cultivate high-quality chrysanthemums.

However, the streets of the once prosperous town are now sparsely populated.

Gui Qi pulled out a middle-aged man and asked politely, "Brother, what happened in this town? Why are there so few people?"

"You're not from here, are you?" The middle-aged man looked them up and down, then shook his head and sighed. "The imperial court recently forced conscription, and many people in our town have fled. Besides, I heard that the King of the Northwest will be attacking us soon, so everyone has been preparing to flee to other places to avoid the war."

Lin Wu and Gui Qi exchanged a glance and smiled benevolently, "Then the imperial court won't send anyone to protect you? Besides, the imperial court has so many troops. Even if the King of the Northwest attacks, he may not be able to capture the city, right?"

"Don't you know?" the middle-aged man looked at the two men in surprise. "The Northwest Army has very powerful gunpowder weapons! Even the Marquis of Jing'an died at the hands of the Northwest Army. I heard that he was killed in a single encounter. Even the Marquis couldn't escape, let alone us ordinary people?"

Gui Qi and Lin Wu looked as if they had suddenly understood something, then thanked the elder brother and continued walking forward.

While observing, they also bought a lot of dry food for Xiao Rui and others along the way. They wandered around the town for about three quarters of an hour and then went back.

Gui Qi asked Lin Wu, "I didn't expect the people in the court to be so afraid of us."

Lin Wu chuckled, "They haven't seen our navy yet. Once they do, I bet the imperial court will surrender immediately."

"I also think that, with the old emperor being so cowardly, he can ruin his kingdom on his own without our prince having to do anything." Lin Wu rolled his eyes in disdain.

Gui Qi agreed, "Who says not? If His Majesty didn't want to start a war and cause too many casualties, we would have attacked long ago."

The two chatted all the way and soon returned to Xiao Rui and the others.

Xiao Hu hurried forward to inquire about the situation. Gui Qi and Lin Wu told him what they had learned and distributed dry food to everyone.

Xiao Hu took the dry food and said thoughtfully: "The prince is kind-hearted and has always avoided the court's edge. This time our army has been dispatched, and the war is definitely going to be fought, but I don't know how it will end."

"The court should hold a peace meeting." Xiao Rui suddenly spoke.

Xiao Hu and the others all looked at him, only to see Xiao Rui continue, "The imperial treasury is now empty, and the officials are only concerned with themselves. Even Prime Minister Su has abandoned the court and fled. I believe other ministers will follow suit. By then, even if the court doesn't want to negotiate peace, it will be impossible."

"I see!" Xiao Hu said, "Oh!" and became interested in Xiao Rui. "How do you know all this?"

Xiao Rui curled his lips and said, "I've heard some things about the imperial court before, but I don't know if they are accurate."

He naturally knew what his father was like, and he had also seen the faces of the ministers in the court. However, now that Lu Yanzheng was in charge of all of this, he didn't have to think too much.

What Xiao Rui didn't know was that the imperial court had already sent envoys to Qiongzhou to negotiate peace, and they were still on the way.

On the other hand, Lu Yanzheng's fleet had its first head-on confrontation with the imperial navy two days ago.

Unsurprisingly, the imperial navy was vulnerable, and it took only one hour for the Northwest Navy to completely take down the imperial navy's defense line across the river.

After spending some time re-defending several important ferry crossings across the river, Lu Yanzheng quickly led his men to continue heading south.

Two days later, they arrived at Changning Ferry on the Yue River, fifty miles away from the capital.

The huge warships were parked in the middle of the river. I don't know if they were lucky or what, but there was heavy fog over the river these two days, and people on the shore couldn't see anything on the river surface at all. This also gave the Northwest Army the best time to hide.

Lu Yanzheng, along with a dozen personal guards and deputy general Zhao Qi, went ashore alone on a small boat.

"Your Highness, we arrived early. I thought you should wait on the boat for General Qin and the others to join us." Zhao Qi spoke after struggling all the way.

The prince’s safety is the top priority right now. How can he, as a deputy general, be negligent?

But they couldn't easily change what the prince had decided, so he was really in a dilemma!

Lu Yanzheng said calmly: "It's okay, let's go check on Xiao Hu's situation first."

He had received a letter from Xiao Hu before, knowing that they had obtained Su Ziyu's treasure. That was why Lu Yanzheng couldn't wait to meet the An brothers.

According to the An brothers, all the money embezzled by the current Prime Minister Su Ziyu was hidden on a small island. By chance, they got a treasure map and knew where the treasure was. Seeing that Lu Yanzheng cared so much about the people, they wanted to give Lu Yanzheng the clue to the treasure.

At that time, Lu Yanzheng didn't particularly believe it, but later because of the familiarity An'er gave him, he decided to give the two brothers a try, so he asked them to lead the team to find the treasure.

Unexpectedly, they actually brought the treasure back and were willing to give it to him without reservation.

This approach seems familiar no matter how you think about it.

Lu Yanzheng quickened his pace again, and the others hurried to catch up. It didn't take long for the group to arrive at where Xiao Rui and the others were staying.

"Who is it?" Xiao Hu was very alert. When he heard the noise, he immediately stuffed the dried meat in his hand into his arms, took out the knife on his waist, and assumed a fighting posture.

Zhao Qi took a few quick steps forward and said with a smile, "It's me. The prince has arrived. Why don't you step forward and salute?"

Sure enough, the next moment, Lu Yanzheng's face appeared in the field of vision.

Xiao Hu quickly put away his knife, knelt on one knee, and saluted Lu Yanzheng with his hands clasped together, "Your Highness!"

The others naturally followed suit, but Xiao Rui and An Shiqi's actions and tone were obviously different from those of Xiao Hu and the others.

Lu Yanzheng's eyes fell on Xiao Rui. He first said, "No need to be polite." After everyone stood up, he stared into Xiao Rui's eyes and said, "I heard that you got the Su family's treasure?"