After deceiving the villain, I was forced to love him.

As the clamor of voices and the sounds of horses and men approached from afar, the ambushers lying in ambush on both sides of the road immediately lowered their bodies, gripped their weapons, and prepared to charge.

The scouts, concealed by weeds, rose slightly above the road and observed Lin Yuchuan and the others fleeing in this direction before confidently relaying the order.

"run!"

"Run!"

"Da da da......"

As the sound grew closer, the ambushing soldiers held their breath in anticipation.

One, two, three, "Kill!"

"kill!!"

The moment the defeated troops entered the ambush range, deafening battle cries immediately rang out all around.

The leading general charged forward, leaped from the ground, and beheaded the man on horseback with a single stroke!

"Clatter..." The sound of it falling to the ground was a little off.

Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a piece of wood.

Looking around, all I saw were chopped-up scarecrows.

The ambush commander hesitated for only a moment before shouting, "We've fallen into a trap! Run!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!!!"

But most of the ambushers were shot through the body by a hail of arrows before they could react.

The chopped straw or wood, having been soaked in kerosene, quickly caught fire.

"Ah..." In an instant, screams echoed throughout the entire mountain bend.

Once the fire was almost completely extinguished, Lin Yuchuan drew his sword and charged out, shouting, "Kill!"

......

"call out--"

"Boom!"

"This is..."

Half an hour later, a dazzling signal fire exploded over Thorn City.

Even in broad daylight, it was dazzlingly bright.

Li Tong, who was lying in ambush near Cypress Village, was greatly encouraged by what he saw and immediately rushed into the village again to fight the private army.

Wang Qingyan understood immediately and ordered Jiu Er to lead his men down the mountain to join forces with Li Tong to attack the private army.

The spies from each household were overjoyed upon seeing this and immediately sent messages back to the capital.

......

A few days later.

"what?!"

"Did you succeed, sir?"

He Shouzhen nodded and bowed, extremely excited, "Yes, brother, we also sent Li Tong away."

"Hahaha..." He Shoufeng laughed wildly, looking up at the sky.

Once Lin Yuchuan and the Imperial Guards fall, what else does he have to fear!

"God help me too!"

"God help me!"

"From this day forward, the Lu family's empire will be overthrown, hahaha..."

He Shouzhen obediently stepped back and knelt, saying, "This humble subject pays respects to Your Majesty, long live Your Majesty!"

"Hey~" He Shoufeng waved his hand, not in a hurry to get to Gan Yin. "You should stand up first. There's still one last step to take."

He Shouzhen fawned over He Shoufeng even more, bowing and hunching over like a eunuch, "You mean Consort Xuan?"

"But she..."

According to news from the palace, He Yao's belly has not shown any signs of pregnancy, and Lu Jian has stopped visiting her palace recently.

"Hmph, useless brat."

"She can't even hold onto a man, I don't know what the point of having her is."

"But I gave up on her a long time ago."

"what do you mean?"

"Tomorrow is the day to visit her; she will definitely come."

“Yes,” He Shouzhen wholeheartedly agreed, his eyes filled with utterly vulgarity.

He Shoufeng had even prepared his explanation: "Qiu Niang has always been frail and sickly, and after catching a cold, she doesn't have much time left."

"Consort Xuan has always been filial. She stayed at home to spend the last moments with her mother, and it was discovered that she was two months pregnant with the emperor's child."

"It's not impossible."

He Shouzhen understood and continued, "The first pregnancy is the most dangerous for a woman. Consort Xuan was also overwhelmed with grief, which made the pregnancy unstable. In order to avoid the back and forth movement that could harm the imperial fetus, she had to stay at the He family to rest."

"What my second brother says is absolutely right."

The two exchanged a smile, each calculating the potential gains after the deed was done.

As for whether He Yao died in childbirth or whether she and her child were safe a few months later, that was none of his business.

At the hour of Chou (1-3 AM), Chen Yuege.

After hiding for more than ten days, Lu Jian finally appeared in front of He Yao.

As he approached, He Yao calmly sat down on the veranda, and after a while, she spoke softly.

“When my mother was young, she liked someone who was not well-educated and came from a very poor family.”

"Yet they never gave up on themselves because of their background."

"Like most ordinary people, I work very hard despite the hardship."

"Later, he became a carpenter. Because of his outstanding skills, his life gradually improved, and more and more girls in the village wanted to marry him."

"Although my mother liked him, she was timid and dared not say a word to him."

"But somehow he took away my mother's designs and carved a lot of wooden crafts based on them."

“The employers liked them, so he took the opportunity to help my mother sell a lot of her embroidery.”

"After a while, the two of them became familiar with each other."

"Unfortunately, one day, He Shoufeng abducted more than a dozen girls, including my mother."

"After he abused my mother, he originally intended to sell her to someone else."

“But…” He Yao paused, “she got pregnant with me.”

Having misunderstood, Lu Jian immediately stepped forward and grasped her hand, "It's not your fault! Your mother isn't wrong either!"

He Yao simply went along with him, "How could it not be true?"

“My mother originally had a chance to escape.”

"She stayed because of me."

Lu Jian hugged her tightly.

“A few years ago, I inquired about that carpenter. He had already found a matchmaker a few days before my mother disappeared.”

"The matchmaker said that he had spent a long time secretly building the house, intending to spend his whole life with my mother."

"He waited for my mother for a long time."

"He reported it to the authorities, and the corrupt official beat him so badly that he was crippled."

"He spent all his savings and asked people everywhere to inquire about my mother's whereabouts."

"But he was swindled out of all his money and died in despair."

"..." Lu Jian didn't say a single word of comfort.

He simply held her quietly.

He Yao slowly hugged him back, "So, Lu Jian, please don't stop me, okay?"

"......good"

......

After witnessing firsthand how Wang Qingyan wiped out the private army overnight without letting a word out, Lin Yuchuan broke out in a cold sweat.

Bai Li Ce broke out in a cold sweat.

Li Tong...

He doesn't sweat much.

But the look in his eyes when he looked at Wang Qingyan was full of awe and fear.

Ninety-nine percent fear, one percent reverence.

Not a single word of thanks.

In the final stages of the event, Li Tong even gave the order to leave, saying, "Patriarch Wang, there's nothing more to do here. Please go back and rest."

Wang Qingyan turned to look at Baili Ce.

"After being busy for so long, I have to witness the results with my own eyes."

After working myself to the bone for so long, can't I even enjoy the show?!

"General Li, go ahead and do your work. Don't worry about us."

"...Okay." Li Tong paused for a moment, then left with 200% suspicion.

Standing on the makeshift viewing platform, Baili Ce became increasingly engrossed in the game.

Under the morning light, the blood-red color resembled a rainbow.

The remaining private army was surrounded and annihilated.

The surrounding scene resembled a slaughterhouse, with carcasses of fruits and livestock scattered everywhere.

"Down!"

"My lord, we surrender!"

But Lin Yuchuan refused to surrender and led the Imperial Guards to tighten the encirclement, showing no mercy whatsoever.

Wang Qingyan's archers blocked the encirclement, hitting their targets every time, and in the chaos, they did not kill a single friendly soldier or waste a single arrow.

Zheng Fu took the lead and killed all the remaining female warriors.

Like a wild beast driven into a corner, no matter how desperately it struggles, it cannot escape the fate of being beaten to death with sticks.

finally--

"General! Please, please spare us..."

"Please, please!"

"We were forced into this; we didn't know anything..."

A hundred or so teenagers knelt on the ground, begging for mercy.

Judging from her appearance, she has a truly innocent and naive look.

“If you are truly innocent and naive, you won’t commit murder and robbery,” Wang Qingyan said.

Bai Lize didn't understand. "What do you mean?"

"Over the years, Sanchengzhai has taken on a lot of work for the He family."

"..."

Wang Qingyan's words were, of course, a reminder that she could use this to reduce the sentences of the bandits in Sanchengzhai.

But then she suddenly remembered something An Luo had said.

Wang Qingyan is more terrifying than the existence of a private army.

Even though he denied it in the end.

So...

Just then, a pitiful cry came from ahead.

"Waaaah... My lord, please spare me."

A twelve or thirteen-year-old girl crawled on her knees to Lin Yuchuan's feet, tears streaming down her face, and hugged his legs.

Lin Yuchuan suddenly took a step back.

The little girl stopped arguing and started kowtowing repeatedly.

"Waaaaah... My... my mother is still waiting for me to come home, please let me go."

Another child, barely a teenager, cried out, "Waaah, I want to go home! Please let me go home, I miss my daddy..."

A slightly older boy said, "We...we came here because we didn't have enough to eat."

"I... I just wanted to save money for my mother's medical treatment, sir, sob sob..."

"My lord, please spare us..."

"Please spare my sister, she's only eleven years old."

Suddenly, the cries from the battlefield grew louder and louder, more and more heartbreaking.

The backgrounds of these "children" are all tragic.

Lin Yuchuan and Li Tong looked at each other with difficulty. Although they knew these were not ordinary children, they were still moved with compassion.

Li Tong, in particular, has several children of that age in his family.

A junior officer, unable to bear it any longer, stepped forward and said, "Generals, perhaps..."

Seeing that some people were starting to plead for leniency, Baili Ce couldn't help but feel a little worried.

But she doesn't intend to stop it, "This trick is indeed very effective for most people."

Those who can withstand all kinds of indiscriminate curses and accusations from moral high ground are ultimately a minority.

Even fewer people are truly ruthless enough to pick up a child, throw him to his death, and then immediately retaliate.

"If those women and young people hadn't died, and their entire families had joined the fight, wouldn't it have been even more touching?" Bai Lize proposed a hypothetical scenario.

"Indeed, even a barbarian would soften upon seeing such a scene."

"so......"

"Lin Yuchuan will never be soft-hearted."

Um? ! !

Bai Lize was shocked.

Your guess is completely different from what you said.

Then--

"Bah! Bah!!!!"

With a flurry of swift movements, knives fell, blood splattered everywhere, and heads flew in disarray.

None of the private soldiers survived.

Even from a great distance, Baili Ce could see Li Tong looking at Lin Yuchuan with utter fear.

"..." Jiu Er swallowed hard, gripping the bow tightly until his palms were sweaty.

Many of the Imperial Guards retreated several steps.

Lin Yuchuan simply wiped the knife on his clothes, intimidating everyone present, and said, "Remember this."

"The Investigation Division acts solely based on reason and law, without regard to human relationships or social niceties."

......