My reborn husband and son are thinking about how to kill me every day.

Are ordinary people born incapable of living a good life, eating good food, or wearing nice clothes?

It's because life is too hard, too poor; they can't afford to eat, wear, or use anything...

If given the choice, who wouldn't want to eat well, dress well, and use the best things?

Their people are suffering so much that they can't even get enough to eat, let alone have the energy to spend.

Forget about spending money on candy or new clothes; they can't even afford the most basic salt. Unless there's a famine, at least they'll survive if they can't afford salt.

But if a year of famine struck, they would lose their lives, and people in every household in the village would starve to death, yet tax revenue did not decrease, but even gradually increased.

But King Jing of Qi never looked down at the lives of his people; he only cared about his grand ambitions and hegemony!

Su Zimu did not speak, but his silence actually indicated his agreement with Zhu Qi's words.

Zhu Qi continued, "Won't our country's commerce become more and more prosperous then? After the commerce prospers, won't it drive the development of all industries? Wouldn't it be better to collect taxes from these sources?"

Moreover, His Majesty led us to establish workshops, and now a cement processing workshop has been built at the foot of the mountain.

His Majesty will also lead us to build multiple food processing workshops and medicine workshops... and sell these products to neighboring countries.

She said she wouldn't initiate wars with neighboring countries, but would do business with them, make lots of money, and develop our country better and better so that everyone could live a good life.

Su Zimu and his soldiers had no idea what a cement processing workshop, food processing workshop, or medicine workshop was, but the world Zhu Qi described filled them with longing.

Many soldiers couldn't help but wonder, if this were the case, wouldn't they no longer have to guard the bitterly cold North Pass? Would they finally be able to have wives and children and warm beds?

If they could, who would want to stay in this place and live a hard life forever? They miss home too…

Su Zimu remained silent for a long time before saying, "Now I understand why you betrayed King Qi Jing. That woman is indeed very capable; the beautiful scenery she described is truly enchanting."

He paused, then looked at the two of them seriously and said, "But are you sure what she said is true? We haven't even figured out if she created those monsters, so how can you believe these empty promises she makes?"

General Yao said, "I, Yao Guangji, can guarantee with my integrity that those monsters have nothing to do with His Majesty. They were created by a witch from the Wu tribe. She almost lost her life trying to kill those monsters."

Su Zimu, however, did not believe General Yao's words.

In his view, General Yao and Zhu Qi were already Ji Yunshuang's loyal followers. The two had been completely brainwashed by Ji Yunshuang, and in their eyes, everything about Ji Yunshuang was good.

How could they possibly believe that all of this was actually a conspiracy orchestrated by Ji Yunshuang? They believed that they had already been deceived by Ji Yunshuang.

General Yao and Zhu Qi also realized that no matter what they said, Su Zimu still suspected Ji Yunshuang.

"General Su, if you don't believe us, just wait and see! We'll see if His Majesty is lying to you."

General Yao said, "But now, we must first take control of Beiguan. Not only do we need to consolidate our forces and kill all the monsters within the Beiguan area, but also because the Canglan Kingdom will launch an attack on us in the next few days."

Su Zimu's eyes widened suddenly as he stared at General Yao in disbelief.

How did he know?

He's been troubled by this these days.

He could guess that the Canglan Kingdom would launch an attack on them because he had been stationed at the North Pass for a long time and knew the Canglan Kingdom very well.

He said, "You planted a spy among my people?"

He couldn't think of any other reason than to plant spies around him and have them secretly pass on information to them.

His gaze swept over the rows of restrained soldiers in the room.

Those were his personal guards, and no one else knew this news except for his personal guards.

Meeting Su Zimu's gaze, the soldiers hurriedly said, "General, we have not betrayed you!"

"Yes! We didn't know they had come to the military camp before this."

"I swear, if I betray you, may I, Lin Xiao, be struck by lightning and die a horrible death."

……

General Yao looked at Su Zimu and said, "You don't doubt them either? I can tell you, they are all innocent. We did not plant any people around you."

Zhu Qi said, "The reason why Canglan Kingdom will launch an attack on us is because Her Majesty is a divine ruler descended from heaven. She is good at divination and foresaw it long ago."

Actually, it was Lu Yinheng who said that Canglan Kingdom might launch an attack on Beiguan in the next few days.

However, they were unsure of Lu Yinheng's true identity, wondering if he was like Ji Yunshuang, a deity descended from heaven.

Lu Yinheng has indeed shown extraordinary intelligence and talent these days. But his strengths are mainly reflected in his mind and his physical skills.

He wouldn't conjure up a lot of things out of thin air like Ji Yunshuang.

Therefore, General Yao and Zhu Qi ultimately guessed that much of the information, including news related to the Canglan Kingdom, was probably given to Lu Yinheng by Ji Yunshuang in advance.

Su Zimu chuckled lightly, feeling that the two were getting more and more absurd as they talked.

He is now increasingly convinced that Ji Yunshuang is a charlatan who will stop at nothing to deceive people.

He asked, "So, what do you plan to do now?"

"General Su, in order to reduce our casualties, we hope you can cooperate and take the initiative to have the soldiers at Beiguan follow our orders."

General Yao said, "If you don't cooperate, we may have to resort to some measures. We don't want any of our soldiers to get hurt."

Su Zimu sneered, "At this point, stop pretending. If you want to kill, then kill. Why bother with these hypocritical lies? I will not cooperate with you."

"Really? You don't care even if she gets hurt?"

Just then, Lu Yinheng walked in carrying a three- or four-year-old child.

When Su Zimu saw the child in his hands, a fierce glint instantly flashed in her eyes. "What did you do to her?"

He glared at General Yao and Zhu Qi and said, "Despicable and shameless, actually using a mere child to threaten you. You associate with such people?"

General Yao and Zhu Qi were shocked to see the child in Lu Yinheng's hands. As far as they knew, General Su, although thirty years old, was unmarried.

And in her generation, she was the only surviving member of the Su family. This little boy couldn't possibly be someone else's child in the Su family.

The most likely explanation is that General Su did not marry, but instead kept a mistress at the border who bore him this child.

This was something none of them knew, yet Lu Yinheng somehow possessed such confidential information. No wonder he wanted to separate from them after entering Beiguan.

The two were shocked and a little uncomfortable.

Indeed, using children to threaten others is not a very respectable tactic. However, in special circumstances, special measures are sometimes necessary, and there may be no other choice.

Sometimes, in order to win, they might resort to special means. But they trust Lu Yinheng; given his character, even if Su Zimu ultimately doesn't submit to his threats, he won't actually harm the child.

If Su Zimu is not threatened by him, he may have other tricks up his sleeve.

In any case, given his intelligence, they were absolutely convinced that he would eventually get things done.