Chapter 99: Why Hasn't the First Prince Come to Rebel Yet

After the Eunuch left, Lu Wanshun and Qian Jiangjun looked at each other and sighed in unison.

Was it that he did not want to fight? The men he led were simply no match; he could not really let them go to their deaths, could he?

Lu Wanshun rarely said much, "Actually, as long as you do not go too far, His Highness will not send you to your deaths. As for the Emperor, he is a hundred thousand miles away, so just putting on a show will suffice."

Having said that, Lu Wanshun returned to the government office.

Qian Jiangjun stood in place, pondering for a moment; he had completely lost his initial sharpness, and now he only thought about how to muddle through.

He did not want to treat human lives as a joke, nor did he want to defect to Yan Ze.

On the other side, Er Gouzi brought back ten blacksmiths for her.

At this moment, all the blacksmiths were at Er Gouzi's house, and Er Gouzi came over first to tell Yan Ning about the situation.

"There are ten people in total, with a monthly salary of fifty taels each."

Yan Ning was somewhat surprised; this was a large number, and the price was low. She had already prepared five hundred taels of silver per person per month.

Yan Ning could not help but ask: "Where did you find so many blacksmiths? It has only been a few days."

Er Gouzi smiled and said: "Miss, they were called from the nearby Shawan County, Qingshi Town, Haicheng, and several nearby villages."

Yan Ning was very satisfied, but she asked: "How did you find so many people?"

Er Gouzi gave a chuckle and recounted the entire process of how he found them.

"At first, these blacksmiths did not want to come. As soon as they heard it was for the household in Chaoyang Village, they chased me away, saying they did not want to die too quickly."

"It must be that the three blacksmiths who ran away told everyone about Qian Jiangjun bringing five thousand troops over; it spread not long after."

"When I was looking for them, I told them that if they could defect to Miss, they could still earn money while smithing. Otherwise, if war broke out, they, the ones who smith, would be the first to be captured and forced to work for the army."

"I also told them about how you dealt with the Japanese pirates, so from now on, we who live by the sea will no longer have to suffer from the harassment of the Japanese pirates."

"After I said these things, several blacksmiths agreed, and then some of them notified blacksmiths they were familiar with, which is why we gathered these ten. However, a few of the blacksmith families brought apprentices along; I also set the wages for these apprentices at 10 to 20 taels per month, depending on their skills."

Yan Ning was pleasantly surprised; Er Gouzi's handling of affairs was as reliable as ever.

Yan Ning asked: "Would you like to live in our Chaoyang Village with your father? There will be quite a lot of things for you to do in the future."

Er Gouzi's eyes lit up, and he hurriedly said: "Miss, is that really okay?"

He could hardly believe his own ears.

If he could live here, his relationship with the Yan family would go a step further.

Following Miss means having meat to eat.

Er Gouzi almost did not even think about it and agreed immediately.

However, there was an awkward matter now.

The blacksmiths had all been gathered together, but they had not expected that Yan Ning's home had no Iron Mine.

They had collected five hundred catties of iron on the road before, but it had long since been used up, and the remaining bit of iron was not enough.

Yan Ning pondered for a moment, "Do not worry, wait a few days, and someone will be able to send Iron Mine over to us."

At this time, the Iron Mine was being delivered by Duan Tian, a confidant of the Prince of Nanyang.

The mine cave Yan Ning found truly had a lot of Iron Mine, and it was said there were other mine caves, but it was just inconvenient to find them for the time being.

Duan Tian thought to himself, the little Princess's family is just too lucky.

The most troublesome thing now was how to transport the Iron Mine over.

Duan Tian bought a small boat that could seat about two hundred people, stuffed all the Iron Mine into the boat's hidden cargo hold, and then used a batch of cotton cloth as a cover.

Sure enough, when they reached the pier and needed to inspect the items in the boat, they only saw some cotton cloth and did not find the hidden warehouse under the boat.

Dozens of baskets of Iron Mine were delivered to Chaoyang Village just like that.

They listened to the situation Duan Tian recounted along the way.

Xiao Chengtian frowned: "Should we occupy Haicheng and Ding'an City first?"

Yan Ze pondered for a moment and grabbed Yan Ning over.

He asked: "Ningning, should we occupy Haicheng and Ding'an City?"

Yan Ning did not even think: "That is definitely a no. The Gou Huangdi is obsessed with alchemy and probably does not have many years left to live. Most likely, Yan Qing will ascend the throne, so we do not need to rebel; let us see how the situation develops first."

Xiao Chengtian looked at Yan Ze: "Is that what you think too?"

Yan Ze nodded, "Yes."

Xiao Chengtian was frustrated by their lack of ambition, "Have you never thought about rebelling and becoming the Emperor yourself?"

Yan Ze shook his head: "We want to rebel, but we do not necessarily want to be the Emperor. Making me and Ningning get up at the hour of the rabbit every day is harder than killing us."

Yan Ning: "My father is right!"

"Yan Qing is very capable of enduring hardship; getting up early is nothing to him."

Xiao Chengtian:...

This is just absurd.

The Capital.

Eunuch Li hurried and rushed, and finally managed to bring the letter back to the Capital.

When Eunuch Li returned, the Emperor and several ministers were discussing important matters in the Imperial Study. Yan Qing was also listening on the side.

Eunuch Li returned at this very moment.

The matter they were originally discussing stopped all of a sudden.

No one knew what was written on the letter, but the Emperor's face was gloomy.

Before the ministers could speak, the Emperor threw everything on the Table Desk.

The ministers could not care about much else and knelt down in unison: "Your Majesty, please calm your anger."

The Emperor roared: "Yan Ning, a fine Yan Ning, she actually dares to threaten me!"

Yan Qing picked up the letter and said to the Emperor: "Grandfather Emperor, this might not have been written by my cousin..."

The Emperor's anger grew even greater: "Besides her, who else writes this chicken-scratch handwriting?"

"I am going to lead an army of one hundred thousand to attack them!"

The court officials once again begged him to think thrice.

Another inkstone was thrown off the table.

"Think thrice, think thrice, is that all you know how to advise Me? Not only have they committed treason, they even wrote such a letter to provoke Me; shouldn't they be killed!"

At this moment, they did not dare to speak again.

It still has to be the little Princess; she is much bolder than her father.

So, when will Yan Ze and the others attack the Capital?

At this time, the Emperor suddenly looked at Eunuch Li: "What have they been doing lately?"

Eunuch Li said cautiously: "Half of the subordinates under Wu Jiangjun, the Prince of Nanyang, and Qian Jiangjun have all defected to the First Prince. They are estimated to have nearly ten thousand troops in their hands."

"Moreover, what is most terrifying about them is not these subordinates, but the explosives. I heard that seven Explosive Packages wiped out five thousand Japanese pirates, and they still have many Explosive Packages in their hands now."

The court officials gasped.

How many troops would have to be sent over to eradicate them?

So, why hasn't the First Prince returned to rebel yet?

They, too, have had enough of this muddled ruler.

The happiest one was Yan Qing.

On the surface, he still maintained a naive and cute appearance, but his heart was blooming with joy.

After coming out of the Imperial Study, he immediately went to Cining Palace.

Seeing several nannies and maidservants attending nearby, Yan Qing said: "You all go out first; I have something to say to Grandmother."

After the palace servants left, the Empress Dowager was somewhat excited and asked: "Is there news of Ningning and the others?"