After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

Unable to hear Lu Zhiyuan's inner turmoil, the imperial physician, seeing her pinching her cheek, assumed she was feigning strength and anxious about her illness. A fifteen-year-old girl, even with the title of Crown Princess, was still just a child.

Illness, attack, injury, and impending death—who wouldn't be afraid? But he was just a royal physician; he couldn't overstep his bounds.

After much deliberation, she mustered her courage and said softly, "In my opinion, Your Highness should not keep this from His Highness. If there is truly no other way, you should cherish the little time you have left. I failed to understand this principle, which has led to my fiancée and I ending up in this situation."

"The matter of Miss Li is not the fault of the imperial physician. Even without the Duke of Rui, the imperial physician and she were not a good match," Lu Zhiyuan comforted her. "If she loved you, even if she were abducted, she would not have turned hatred into love, much less willingly die for him. The Duke of Rui is indeed a wicked and evil man, but it is an undeniable fact that Miss Li likes him and loves him. Conversely, if she did not love you, even if she married you, it would be a marriage of convenience. For Miss Li, it is difficult to say which choice would bring her happiness."

"The beauty is gone, why bother yourself with trivial matters? Right or wrong, it's all in the past and can't be undone." Lu Zhiyuan took out a medical book from her medicine box: "This is the 'Needling Classic,' left to me by my master. Today I'm giving it to the imperial physician, hoping he can use it to save more people."

Imperial Physician An was slightly taken aback. "How could Your Highness so casually give away such a precious item?"

“It wasn’t a casual decision; I thought about it carefully before making this choice.” Lu Zhiyuan smiled. “If this book stays in my hands, it’s as good as dead. After I’m gone, it will either be carelessly left aside or placed in my coffin as a burial item. The ground is damp, and it will become worthless in a few days. Giving it to the imperial physician will allow it to be passed on from one to ten, and from ten to a hundred. If one person knows acupuncture, they can save ten people; if a hundred people know acupuncture, how many people can they save? I’m doing this to accumulate good karma for myself, hoping to be reborn into a better family in my next life.”

"Yes, Your Majesty is so kind-hearted, you will surely be blessed with boundless good fortune." The carriage was small, but Imperial Physician An still bowed solemnly: "On behalf of all the people of the world, I thank Your Majesty!"

As a doctor, he considered himself accustomed to the comings and goings of life, but he had never met anyone as insightful as the Empress. Even his grandfather, on his deathbed, was reluctant to part with her and complained to Heaven why it couldn't have given him more time.

Only the Empress's thoughts and desires are for the common people, for the people, and for the Northern Liang.

A breeze blew, making the copper bells hanging at the four corners of the carriage jingle. Lu Zhiyuan lifted the curtain and looked outside. The guards in plain clothes had almost finished moving the luggage. To avoid interfering with the consultation, Lu Yun, Liu Ying, and Physician Cui stood guard at three different points on the carriage, about two meters away. They had their backs to the carriage, and their taut shoulders showed that they were all very nervous.

"I will carefully consider what Physician An said. Before I have thought it through, please keep it a secret."

"Your Majesty, rest assured, I will keep my word." Imperial Physician An bowed, clutched his medical book, and stepped out of the carriage.

As Lu Zhiyuan had predicted, Imperial Physician Cui was unable to diagnose anything unusual from her pulse, assuming it was a relapse of her old ailment, and went to discuss a prescription with Imperial Physician An. Before the carriage departed, the Crown Prince and Zuo Yi returned, the Crown Prince carrying a letter sent by Han Ting.

The letter stated that he had arrested two people and obtained clues from them regarding military rations.

Unlike previous wars, the suddenness of the conflict meant that military supplies were procured from various locations, primarily those closest to the battlefield. Yanzhou and Ganzhou were both areas frequently embroiled in conflict, making life extremely difficult for the local people.

Simply put, spring planting doesn't guarantee a timely autumn harvest, and the autumn harvest doesn't necessarily ensure the grain is stored in the granary. Taking Tianhe County as an example, at its peak, there were as many as seventeen battles in a single month, averaging one every two days.

Of course, the fighting here wasn't like General Xie's, commanding thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of troops in a fierce battle. It was small-scale, chaotic fighting. The enemy often split into small squads, in groups of three to five, or teams of four to five, killing indiscriminately and looting any house they saw. People were dying every day in the county, causing widespread panic. Several towns and villages in Tianhe County were once reduced to ghost towns and ghost villages. For miles around, there was no sign of human habitation, only graves and skeletons.

The fields were either barren or overgrown with weeds.

The magistrate Ma, who was implicated in the military rations case, arrived in Tianhe County around that time.

Accompanying Magistrate Ma to Tianhe County was Lu Zhiyuan's maternal uncle, Xie Yu'an, who was serving in the army at the time. With lightning speed, he wiped out the enemy troops causing trouble in Tianhe County in just three months, and then spent another half month pacifying the bandits in Tianhe County, allowing Tianhe County and its people to recuperate.

“I have never heard my eldest uncle or second uncle mention this matter.” Lu Zhiyuan closed the letter. “I know that my eldest uncle served in the army. Later, because the royal family was wary of him, and because my eldest uncle himself liked business, he retired from the army and became a merchant. As far as I know, my eldest uncle worked under my maternal grandfather, and my maternal grandfather never went to Tianhe County.”

"He was on loan! At the time, another general was sent, and he had already set off when he received the news of his mother's death. He had no choice but to write to your eldest uncle and ask him to go to Tianhe County to assist Magistrate Ma in quelling the rebellion. Tianhe County was a minor rebellion, and with your eldest uncle's abilities, it was naturally a piece of cake. Not many people knew about this, and since Tianhe County was a remote and isolated county, it was not publicized."

"Shouldn't the Ministry of War be aware of matters concerning troop deployment?"

"It was not recorded."

These few simple words are actually quite meaningful.

It's two different things that the Ministry of War knew and didn't know; it's also two different things that the Ministry of War knew but didn't record it and did record it. To put it bluntly, this wasn't a case of the Ministry of War being negligent, but rather that the Ministry of War did it intentionally.

"There are so many generals available in the court, why did they choose my eldest uncle? His Highness also said that Tianhe County was just a minor disturbance, and my eldest uncle could quell it without his intervention. They deliberately dragged my eldest uncle into this. They were already planning what would happen later back then." Lu Zhiyuan pondered, "The Ministry of War didn't record it. Either they were harming the Xie family, or they were helping the Xie family."

The Crown Prince shook his head: "This matter needs to be investigated further in Tianhe County! It is known that the magistrate of Tianhe County was involved in the military rations, and his transfer was very suspicious. He was originally going to be dismissed from office. Magistrate Ma is dead and his family is scattered, but the old people in the county are still there. If we investigate carefully, we will surely find some clues."

“We must investigate, but the whereabouts of the military rations…” Lu Zhiyuan slapped her forehead: “Look at me, I’ve accidentally fallen into the trap of investigation. Where the military rations went is not important, what’s important is why the military rations were not delivered on time, why they were switched, and why they were hidden by the county and township. We are investigating external thieves, but catching internal traitors. Once the internal traitors are caught, we will be close to uncovering the truth.”

The weather is fine, perfect for a quick trip to Ganzhou.