Chapter 557

The Prince came all the way from the Northern Border to Long Peace, not for this chair, but to support the Jin house, quell the rebellion, and live up to the Bai Li surname and to the people under heaven.

The ministers below looked dumbfounded: how can you, at such a young age, have more tricks than your uncle did back then?

The Marquis of the Eastern Capital immediately responded: 'Precisely for that reason, Your Highness should all the more ascend the throne.'

The crowd echoed in agreement.

The Prince nodded: 'Not in a hurry. I'll first go offer sacrifices to my father emperor tomorrow, then we'll talk—I'm very busy.'

That's true enough: once the Prince has taken a city, he won't give it up, and he's in no rush to ascend the throne—holding Long Peace in his grip is what matters most.

The surrendered troops must be re‑dispersed and resettled; the east and west camps, the city gates, and the imperial palace all need to be taken over. Whether the Marquis of the Eastern Capital and his lot can sleep or not, the Prince bluntly said he was exhausted.

The child still has to keep an eye on the Northern Border's war—he's really busy.

The Prince does have a residence in this imperial palace: a small annex called Guanlan Hall behind Weiyang Palace was his fief‑holding residence before, where he lived for five years. Returning to his old stomping ground, he thought he'd be too moved to sleep, but who knew—upon opening the full topographic map of Cool Prefecture and seeing no fighting between the sides, this guy just flopped over and fell asleep.

Bai Ze and his cousin kept him company; the Prince could make his home anywhere in the four seas.

This guy is also big‑hearted; after all that tossing and turning he's genuinely exhausted, and he slept straight through to broad daylight without a care—Wei Shen had already risen early and made a round of the palace.

Seeing the Prince awake, he came over, eager to share his impressions of touring the Great Jin imperial palace.

「...... Last night it was too dark to see clearly; in broad daylight the Chengzhang Palace looks old and worn, the coiling dragon pillars are peeling paint. The palace grounds are indeed sizable, but aside from a few main halls, the other palace buildings are quite ordinary. It has grandeur but lacks refinement—our Northern Frontier Prince's mansion is both magnificent and exquisite, leaving your father's palace far behind by more than ten streets! 」

The king thought, these past few years, whether it was his father or Bai Li Jing, they certainly had no mood to maintain the palace; Chengzhang Palace was built in his great-grandfather's generation, a century-old building left unattended quickly becomes a dangerous house. While his mansion is still brand‑new……

Wait, thinking of those astronomically priced facilities inside the Northern Frontier Prince's mansion, the smile that was just about to rise froze again. The mansion being new now is fine, but who knows how much silver will be needed for upkeep in a few years! Then he recalled that he still owed twenty thousand taels of treasure in Mengmeng's place—that is two hundred thousand taels of silver; if he doesn't sweep the Great Jin clean within six years, this debt……

The king shook his head—so scary, begone!

"I also prefer the Northern Frontier Prince's mansion."

Wei Shen thought of such a magnificent mansion lying idle and felt deeply regretful: "What a pity, this world… Do you still have money to build something like that in Chang'an?"

The king jumped in fright—"Such a fine world, I can't even afford to repair it!" "Youzhou is wonderful; we'll return there someday."

Wei Shen only thought he was joking; no matter how good Youzhou is, it's still on the frontier.

The Snow Riders took over the duties of the Forbidden Army, the Eagle Riders continued to circle around the king, and the entire palace was plowed overnight. This plowing not only turned up Old Seven Bai Lizhang, but also the wives, concubines, and children of Bai Li Jun.

The king had a head full of question marks: "Old Seven is still around, what about Old Six?"

The Duke of Dongdu glanced at the king's expression, weighed his words, and said: "The Sixth Prince has grown up, so… he's gone, said to have died of illness."

The king set down his breakfast, feeling a bit unable to eat; at a glance it looked like "died of illness."

The old man's seven sons have already lost half by now; Bai Li Jing deserves it, the fifth and sixth are somewhat tragic—the fifth was hung on the city wall, and the sixth died under mysterious circumstances.

This made the king not too pleased; when Wei Shen asked about the arrangements for visiting Emperor Ningde's mausoleum, this guy insisted on bringing all the civil officials of Chang'an along.

"These people are truly useless; they can't even protect a young child like the Sixth Prince—let them go kneel at the late emperor's mausoleum."

Then he thought about how, in Chang'an, he was 'isolated and weak'—the troops were in his hands, but the civil officials, each one, either had or hadn't been of one mind with him; he still needed some of his own people.

Chang'an needs to keep running; you can't just sweep away all these bad apples entirely, and the king grew ever more nostalgic for his own people from Youzhou.

This guy, upon thinking of it, acted immediately—he drafted a letter to Xie Yuan, ordering Xie Yuan and Lu Xiu to come to Chang'an to take charge of the overall situation.

The Wang and Cui clans are gone—who in the world could rival the prestige of the Xie and Lu clans?! Isn't it that you love aristocratic clans? Are the Chen Commandery Xie and Fanyang Lu prestigious or not?

The more the king thought, the more right it seemed; he couldn't wait a moment, and after finishing the writing he promptly sought an opportunity to go to the manor and summon Zhuti.

After finishing the main business, he casually opened the Liangzhou map to check the battle situation, and discovered that while he had been busy tossing about the Chang'an city walls, this defensive battle had apparently…… ended? It was daytime now, and he saw Tang Qian's people already moving toward the northern frontier line; ahead lay the retreating enemy troops, the distance between them still quite far, not seeming to be earnestly pursued.

The king looked around the nearby battlefield and found that the enemy seemed to have split into two routes, with the people of Shuofang Pass still cleaning up the battlefield near Beidi Commandery. The king guessed this clash should have been very brief—could the enemy have seen the situation turn bad and withdrawn quickly?

"Ignoring this king's warning, thinking that running away would settle it?" The king fumed.

He examined closely and felt his own forces weren't that few, so he felt a bit relieved. He immediately wrote another letter, wanting to ask Tang Qian exactly what was going on. Although Tang Qian was an old general and wouldn't let victory go to his head to the point of leading a lone army deep into Xiongnu territory at this critical juncture, the king still reminded him once more to just drive the enemy out of Liangzhou; the postage had been spent, so writing a bit more wouldn't hurt.

Who would have thought that this creature, Shadow Heaven, after eating a mid‑grade beast‑taming pill, would stay rooted in place, not moving an inch, its pair of metallic‑shining large eyes still fixed straight on the king.

"What do you mean? Don't you understand taking people's money to relieve their disasters? You've swallowed the payment and won't do any work?"

Shadow Heaven even stretched its claw forward, no matter how you say it, it just won't leave. Wei Shen, who had been by his side the whole time, understood: "Why not try settling your debt first?" The king had recently not owed little in postage fees.

The king remembered!

Back then it was just spent as spent; now coughing up nine thousand taels all at once makes the king's flesh ache.

He widened his eyes innocently and said, "Didn't we say we'd settle it when we go home?" He gestured for Shadow Heaven to look around the surroundings, then began rummaging through his clothing chest, "We're still out here—do you see this as our home? There's only clothing, no extra stock when we're out; shall we settle the account when we return to the Northern Frontier Prince's mansion?"

Shadow Heaven looked at him doubtfully—there was some sense to that……

The king hastily raised the stakes: "Give an extra interest when we get home! One for free, get it?" Don't believe that in a few months you'll still be able to tell two from three.

Deal! Shadow Heaven flew off happily satisfied～

Bai Ze cast a sympathetic glance, Wei Shen sighed beside him—Shadow Heaven really was naive; an old deadbeat has no way to turn back, hoping to recover this debt is wishful thinking!

The king snorted at their distrust; stepping outside, he saw the officials waiting at the palace gate were also not pleasing to the eye. With all these varied thoughts, he'll have to pay their salaries from now on, and they look increasingly hateful～

Who would have thought they'd still come forward on their own: "Your Highness, I heard you intend to disperse the ladies of the Jiangxia Prince?"

"Uncle Wang is gone; I won't blame the ladies for any fault—sending them back to their natal clans for reunion, what's the problem?"

The Great Jin rule is that when a new emperor ascends, the late emperor's consorts who have sons go to their sons' fiefs, those without sons go to the Luoyang auxiliary palace. Originally the king thought to follow precedent and send Bai Li Jun's wives and concubines to the Luoyang auxiliary palace to be confined, but Bai Li Jun's harem is huge, and he heard there are many childless young women; the king also felt confining them to the auxiliary palace would waste their prime years. Moreover, once confined to the auxiliary palace, he would have to support them—and as someone owing two million taels of silver, the king didn't want to do that.

Cheng Guang again stammered in his advice, as if the king were a mischievous child: "Your Highness, this move is really improper! Your Highness knows you demoted the Jiangxia Prince's children to commoners and kept them in Chang'an; the ladies should be treated the same—there's absolutely no justification for sending them straight back to their natal clans! Really not dignified!" He, a former Minister of Rites of the previous dynasty, spoke in an instructive tone.

He obviously didn't understand what kind of fireworks the king was; as soon as he finished speaking, the king calmly said, "I don't have the spare resources to support too many redundancies. How about this—people! Send the forty‑two ladies of the rebel Jiangxia Prince to Minister Cheng Tai Chang's residence!"

"Cough cough cough～"

"Cough——"