On the wedding day, my wife was abnormal

The bowl of sobering soup in Tuoba Ke's hand fell "clang" onto the steps of the throne, and the soup seeped into the cracks in the blue bricks, looking very much like the blood dripping from the armor of the messenger outside the hall.

He stared at the mottled wolf head emblem on the other party's breastplate, and suddenly found that the position of the wolf's eyes was covered with blood, as if the sacred beast was shedding tears of blood.

"What did you say? The Qian army invaded? And they came from the south?" Li Chonghou, the Minister of War, took a half step forward, and the wolf-head gilded pendant on his waist hit the Danchi, and his knuckles turned white due to the force.

He glanced at the emperor's sullen face and knew in his heart that this sudden battle report would tear apart the lie of the great victory in suppressing bandits - the number of beheadings he had falsely reported in the past three months, the military pay he had embezzled, and the two thousand war horses he had embezzled for his son's horse farm were now like a wolf-head knife hanging around his neck.

"Yanmen Pass is in the north and Dingxiang City is in the south. How could the Qian army invade from the south? Are you fucking lying about military intelligence?" He deliberately raised his voice, but caught a glimpse of the corner of the account book sticking out from the sleeve of the Minister of Revenue Zhang Shouzheng. That was the thing he feared the most.

The messenger's knees were rubbed bloody on the blue bricks, and he looked up with tears in his throat. "My Lord, please allow me to report this! I saw with my own eyes the Vermillion Bird pattern on the Qian army's battle flag. The general leading the army rode a blue horse, with a sword with a dragon pattern hanging from his waist... That's the standard equipment for the Qian Kingdom's Regent, Lin Zhenxian!"

He pulled out a half-broken flag from his bosom. The blood-stained Vermillion Bird's tail feathers were particularly dazzling in the candlelight.

"The Qian army flags have been hoisted at the four gates of Dingxiang City, and Hao Aimin has even offered his official seal!"

There were gasps coming from the hall.

Zhang Shouzheng stared at the Vermillion Bird flag, his fingertips stroking quickly on the cover of the account book - he had cut 40% of the budget for the southern city defense. The city wall that was supposed to be repaired in three years was now overgrown with weeds even on the parapet.

If the Qian army is really as good at using the Eight Ox Crossbow as rumored, these shoddy projects will be completely vulnerable.

"It's bad! Seventy percent of our Northern Yan forces are at Yanmen Pass suppressing bandits, leaving all the cities along the southern frontier deserted..." He suddenly stumbled, deliberately dropping the account book. "Your Majesty, the Qian army is making a feint to the east and attacking in the west! I suspect the bandits at Yanmen Pass were sent by the Qian Kingdom! Their goal is to lure us into suppressing the bandits so they can take a detour south!"

Tuoba Ke's roar exploded like thunder: "Mobilize the troops! Immediately send the Wolf Division back to defend Yanmen Pass!"

Li Chonghou felt a tightness in his heart. If the Wolf Division retreated, there would be no one to clean up the mess at Yanmen Pass. The caravan guards he had stuffed into the army and the personal guards he had falsely reported dead in battle would all be exposed during the withdrawal.

He pressed his hand on the hilt of his sword, and with a clang, he drew out a half-inch of cold light. This was more to embolden himself than to intimidate the messenger: "Abandon Yanmen Pass? The surrendered bandits of the Eighteen Black Mountain Villages have just been incorporated. Withdrawing troops now will only lead to rebellion!"

Zhang Shouzheng heard the panic in the other party's tone and knew that he had hit the sore spot.

He picked up the account book and ran his fingertips over the page with the warhorse transfer notice. "Lord Li, do you care about Master Wolf? Or do you care about the two thousand fine horses at your Youzhou horse farm?"

These words hit Li Chonghou's chest like a heavy hammer.

The two thousand war horses were supposed to strengthen the Yanmen cavalry, but he transferred them to his son's horse farm on the grounds of "injury" and then sold them to the Western Region merchant caravan for profit.

His ears suddenly turned red, and he simply tore off his face: "Zhang, don't be so insinuating! When you were repairing the Taimiao, you used copper foil to pass it off as gold foil, embezzling 200,000 taels of silver. Do you think I don't know?"

These words hit Zhang Shouzheng's vital point.

Last year, when the Taimiao was being renovated, he did collude with his nephew, who was in charge of supervising the project, to falsify the expenses and used half of the money to circulate in his own bank.

He suddenly coughed violently and frantically searched for the secret report, only to reveal a list of shoddy work done on the city defenses hidden in his sleeve: "The suppression of the bandits at Yanmen Pass cost one million taels of silver, of which three hundred thousand taels went into your private residence! Even your concubine's jade bracelet was listed in the secret letter from the Daizhou governor!"

The eyes of the generals in the hall were on the two of them.

Left General Yuwen Bao clenched his wolf-head sword. He had known for a long time that Li Chonghou was drawing a salary without working, but he had not expected him to be so deeply involved. Right General Zhao Tiezhu stared at Zhang Shouzheng's account book, regretting that he had not joined in to make some money from the war horses last year.

Seeing the generals' wavering expressions, Li Chonghou immediately changed his strategy and knelt before the emperor: "Your Majesty! I have fought for half my life. If I do not recall the Wolf Division now, the capital will be in danger!"

He stole a glance at Zhang Shouzheng and found that he was using his toes to crush the receipt for the city defense fee hidden in the account book, and he was secretly delighted.

Once the water is muddied, no one can remain unscathed.

How could Zhang Shouzheng let the other party succeed?

He unfolded the Daizhou Blood Letter, and the thirty-seven bloody handprints beneath the night-shining pearls resembled blooming red plums. "Your Majesty, take a look! Lord Li's so-called suppression of bandits is actually a massacre of civilians for credit! These children's eyes were gouged out by his Wolf Master!"

He suddenly turned to the generals and said, "Generals, think about it. You are fighting on the front lines, but he is selling horses and drinking the blood of soldiers in the rear. Is such a person worthy of commanding the army?"

Zhao Tiezhu's wine jug fell to the ground with a clang. He remembered that last year in Yunzhou, Li Chonghou asked them to behead the old and weak civilians as if they were bandit leaders, saying that it was to make up the numbers and ask for credit.

Looking at the blood letter in Zhang Shouzheng's hand, he suddenly felt a fishy sensation in his throat and couldn't help cursing, "Li, you deserve to be eaten by wolves!"

Li Chonghou's forehead was covered with cold sweat, knowing that he would definitely lose if he continued to fight.

He stood up suddenly and pointed at Zhang Shouzheng's shaking hand. "Do you think you are innocent? You sold the city defense maps of the southern Yan cities to the Qian army spies a long time ago! Otherwise, how could Lin Zhenxian bypass Yanmen Pass and directly capture the empty city of Dingxiang?"

This statement was pure fabrication, but it shocked Zhang Shouzheng - he had indeed sold outdated city defense maps to merchants from the Western Regions, but he didn't know that they had been used by the Qian army.

He stared at the ruthlessness in Li Chonghou's eyes and suddenly realized that this was the other party's counterattack plan.

"Enough!" Tuoba Ke's roar caused the wolf-head candlestick to shake violently, and candle oil splashed on the official uniforms of the two men. "I am not here to listen to you throwing dirty water on each other!"

He looked at the secret reports, account books, and blood-written documents scattered on the steps, and suddenly realized that these documents, when pieced together, were a map of the two ministers' corruption.

Li Chonghou was afraid that his corruption would be exposed if he could not recall the troops, and Zhang Shouzheng was afraid that his embezzlement would be confirmed if he did not shrink the defense line. As for the war situation, they did not care at all.

Li Chonghou stole a glance at the emperor's uncertain expression and knew he had to play his last card. "Your Majesty, if the Wolf Division returns to defend, I guarantee with my entire family's lives that we will be able to stop the Qian army!"

He deliberately reached for the gilded wolf-head pendant at his waist, a token bestowed upon him by the late king. "If anything goes wrong, my whole family will be punished like wolves!"

These words expressed loyalty but also served as a threat - if the emperor did not dispatch troops, it would mean that he did not trust the Wolf Division, which would chill the hearts of the generals.

Zhang Shouzheng understood the meaning and immediately quoted the previous king's teachings: "Your Majesty, as the saying goes, even when a wolf travels a thousand miles, it must protect its heart. The capital is the foundation!"

He shook out the late king's handwritten instructions on the yellow silk, "When the late king drew up the line of defense, Yunzhong was the core, and the cities in southern Yan were abandoned!"

He deliberately ignored the second half of the imperial edict, "If you abandon a pawn, you must fortify the city walls and clear the fields." Anyway, the city defense funds he had withheld were not enough to fortify the city walls and clear the fields.

Tuoba Ke stared at the wolf head carving on the armrest of the throne. The wolf's eyes were empty and lifeless, as if mocking his incompetence.

He suddenly remembered what Zhang Shouzheng mentioned about "breaking armor to protect the heart" and Li Chonghou's "loyalty as a wolf master", and finally understood that what these two people were fighting for was not the battle situation, but who could bear less blame after the defeat.

Li Chonghou wanted to keep his military power and face, Zhang Shouzheng wanted to keep his financial power and life, and he, the emperor, was just a chessboard in their game.

"Pass on my order!" His voice was filled with the fierceness of a desperate struggle. "The troops at Yanmen Pass will be divided into two groups. 50,000 will return to the capital first, and 30,000 will remain to guard Yanmen. The defenders of the cities south of Yan will be withdrawn to Yunzhong."

He looked at the two men's instantly stiff expressions and knew that this compromise gave Li Chonghou some buffer time for embezzlement and also gave Zhang Shouzheng a chance to cover up his embezzlement.

"I don't care what you're planning. If I see you attacking each other again, I'll hang your heads on the city gate along with the wolf's!"

The hall was completely silent. Li Chonghou touched the bloodstain on the wolf-head pendant, while Zhang Shouzheng quietly crumpled up the page in the account book that covered "Yannan City Defense Fund."

Neither of them was able to fully achieve their goal.

This foolish emperor could have chosen any plan to implement, but he chose a compromise just to balance the two forces in the court.

It's ridiculous, he just shot himself in the foot.

The two looked at each other and saw the deceit in each other's eyes.

I'm afraid that Northern Yan will be completely destroyed because of the emperor's edict.