Princess Menglang is hard to change, the whole capital is embarrassed for her

Without waiting for Xiao Chenze to speak, Fang Yao said anxiously, "Your Majesty, the eldest prince still has a lot to say. How about you spare him first and let him stand up and speak?"

The emperor rolled his eyes at him and said to Xiao Chenze unhappily, "Get up."

"Yes, thank you, father." Xiao Chenze hurriedly got up from the ground and lifted the cage aside.

"What's in there? Why is it covered with cloth?" The emperor and Fang Yao were both very curious. They stared at the cage up and down, but they couldn't see through it and couldn't hear any movement.

"Your Majesty, these are two poisonous insects I bought from outside," Xiao Chenze said to the emperor, placing the cage at his feet. "Thanks to these two insects, I was able to get many things out of Miergan."

As he spoke, he casually lifted the cloth covering the cage, revealing what was inside.

They were two bottles with small mouths and big bellies. When they were freed from the cover of the cloth and exposed to the light and shadow, rustling sounds came from inside the bottles, probably because the things inside started to move.

"One of these two insects can cause hallucinations. I used it to bite Miergan, then made a room that Miergan was familiar with. The poison took effect and brought him inside. He thought he was back in his own territory, completely let down his guard, and answered whatever I asked him. The other insect can drive him crazy, and I used it to torture his mind. Miergan has completely lost the arrogance he had when he was first captured. He would kneel down and beg for mercy for a piece of bone."

"Of course, the Beidi people are cunning by nature, so maybe he was just pretending. But I don't care at all. Initially, I wanted to use the conflict between him and the Beidi Crown Prince to cause chaos in Beidi. Then I received a letter from my uncle. One letter mentioned my grandmother and her family's return to the capital, and the other specifically said that the people of the Beidi Queen's tribe suspected that Miergan was murdered by the Crown Prince. Upon hearing this news, I changed my mind and didn't intend to let him leave alive."

Having said this, he looked up at the emperor.

The emperor said expressionlessly, "Go on."

Xiao Chenze said, "Since their conflict has already arisen and the Northern Di Crown Prince has vehemently denied the accusation, I will allow the accusation to come true and kill Miergan."

"For this reason, I have been investigating some matters recently. There have suddenly been many more spies in the capital, some from the Western Qiang and some from the Northern Di. I believe that Your Majesty and the General have noticed this. I have captured several of them and interrogated them using the same method. Your Majesty, guess what I have learned?"

He attracted the attention of the emperor and Fang Yao.

"I learned that the Northern Di spies were sent by the Northern Di Queen's clan. The Northern Di Crown Prince's maternal clan was weak, and those sent from the Northern Di were killed along the way. They had no choice but to seek help from the Western Qiang. The Western Qiang then sent spies to help the Northern Di Crown Prince find Mergan. I interrogated Mergan about this and learned that the Northern Di Crown Prince's wife was a Western Qiang princess. If the Northern Di Crown Prince could ascend the throne, they could unite with the Western Qiang to deal with our Great Zhou."

The imperial study was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Fang Yao felt that Xiao Chenze was more pleasing to the eye than ever before. The more he looked at him, the more proud he felt.

This kid and Li'er must be close, because their behavior is different from others. Look how lucky my Li'er is for her husband, hahahaha.

The emperor looked at his son proudly, and then glanced at Fang Yao proudly.

He found that this guy was even more proud than his father, and he immediately became angry.

Pooh.

You were so blind that you looked down on my son. Now that you see how outstanding my son is, you are getting cocky. How shameless!

"Father," Xiao Chenze continued, "the Northern Di and Western Qiang have frequently provoked war against our Great Zhou over the years. If they unite, they will become a grave threat. If this continues, Great Zhou will be harassed by them for generations. The people living on the border will suffer terribly, and the imperial court will pay a heavy price for this. To prevent this from happening again, I have come up with a plan..."

He looked at the emperor and said, "I want to kill Miergan and put the blame on the Western Qiang."

"Once the Queen of Beidi learns that her son was killed by the Western Qiang, it goes without saying that she will be convinced that it was the eldest prince's fault. She will mobilize the entire tribe to avenge her son. By then, not only will the Northern Di be in civil strife, but they will also fight against the Western Qiang."

"We just need to seize this opportunity to strengthen our own forces and find ways to sow discord between them, so that they will be enemies for generations. When they are severely weakened, we can defeat them one by one and completely crush their power, so that they will never dare to covet the Great Zhou again."

After he finished speaking, he bent down to pick up the cloth and put it back on the cage.

Look up.

Huh?

Why are both my father and Fang Yao looking at me with serious expressions?

Xiao Chenze's heart was filled with alarm.

I was so excited when I said that I didn’t have time to think it over in my mind like I usually do. Did I say something I shouldn’t have said?

Xiao Chenze raised his head and was about to recall what he had just said when Fang Yao suddenly burst into laughter, which scared him.

"Hahahaha, hahahaha, congratulations, Your Majesty, congratulations, Your Majesty," Fang Yao's voice was so loud that even Eunuch Chang standing outside could hear it clearly. "The eldest prince is indeed your bloodline. He is indeed far-sighted and strategic. I cannot even compare to him, Your Majesty."

Xiao Chenze's mouth twitched.

He exaggerated a bit, and he himself felt uncomfortable listening to it.

The emperor coughed hard twice, but in the end he couldn't suppress the upturned corners of his mouth.

He and Fang Yao had just discussed how to solve Miergan's problem, but unexpectedly his son had the same idea as them.

Has your son grown up?

Or was he just that good?

Fang Yao then asked, "Grand Prince, have you found out what Miergan came here to steal?"

Xiao Chenze shook his head, then nodded, confusing Fang Yao and the emperor. "What does this mean? Do you know or not?"

"I asked Miergan," Xiao Chenze put down the cage in his hand and said slowly, "I asked him with a poisonous insect. He said he was looking for a passage to another world."

"What?" The emperor and Fang Yao spoke at the same time.

"My son was also curious. I spent several more illusion insects to ask him. He had half of the Great Zhou's northern border defense map and was looking for the other half. He also wanted to find a map of the border between Western Qiang and the Great Zhou. He said that if he found these and put them together, he would see a long, winding, narrow canyon. The passage to the other world is along that long canyon..."

"What?" The emperor and Fang Yao were even more confused.

What other world? And a passage? What a mess!

"This Miergan, are you scaring him to death?" Fang Yao couldn't help but ask, "Listen to what he said."

"Yes, I also think he's playing mad and talking nonsense. I specifically used Qiluo's medicine to ask him three times, but I got the same answer..."

When Fang Yao heard this, he was speechless.

Qi Luo's skill in using medicine is unmatched in the world.

The answer was the same three times after taking the medicine, so there is only one possibility: he is telling the truth.

"So, what Mergan said is true?" Fang Yao said casually. "I see. The Northern Di and Western Qiang people are the same, both superstitious. I wonder where Mergan heard this legend about the gods from. Well, if there weren't this legend, if he didn't believe it so firmly, he wouldn't have brought his men to our Great Zhou, and we wouldn't have been able to capture him alive. Haha, thanks to that story, it's given us such a great gift. God bless the Great Zhou, Your Majesty, don't you agree?"

The emperor also nodded.

Only Xiao Chenze squatted down silently, adjusted the cloth covering the cage, and felt inexplicably confused.

Yesterday he and Shen Li discussed going to Mizhou together, talked about how there were so many more spies in the capital now, and mentioned the interrogation of Miergan.

He still remembers Shen Li's expression of excitement and surprise when she heard about the passage to another world proposed by Miergan.

Whenever he thought of that expression, his heart would beat faster, his hands and feet would feel cold, and he would feel so weak that he couldn't even lift the cage.

Something is wrong, absolutely wrong.

All the things that were wrong with Shen Li came to a head when that expression showed on her face.