Fifty thousand taels of gold, it’s an amount of silver and gold that many people can never touch in their lifetimes. Right now, only by finding Ye Zhi can they obtain it, so more people have joined in.

Ming Yan hesitantly spoke, "Miss, didn’t you leave a letter for the young master telling him not to look for you? Maybe the young master really won’t seek you out."

Ye Zhi, feeling annoyed, waved her hand, "Forget it, don’t mention irrelevant people." She lay down and closed her eyes, swaying on the rocking chair, and fell asleep comfortably.

The house they were in had doors and windows decorated with rough carvings, without any paint or color. There was a main hall, with two tile-roofed rooms attached, along with a small courtyard. In the yard, there was a well, some trees, and a vegetable patch. Nearby, there were also some farming tools.

This courtyard previously belonged to a scholar’s family, who later moved to the city, leaving it vacant. The village chief, being a distant relative of the scholar’s family, rented it to the two women, seeing they were without support.

The excuse they gave outsiders was that they had come from Xuan City.

Seeing the young lady close her eyes and nap, Ming Yan got up and headed to the courtyard to prepare dinner. When she went to the well to draw water, for some reason, she thought of Master Zhi Chen’s natural aura and well-defined features, and her heart ached momentarily. She shook her head, cleared her chaotic emotions, and proceeded to draw water.

Xinghua Village was nestled between hills, living in harmony with the world, looking like a paradise from above.

Outside, the war continued.

On a night of high winds and darkness, Shen Chen led a small team from the Investigation Factory on a night raid of Li Shu’s city residence in Bianliang City. Charging straight at the heart, he kicked open the main gate, wielding the Chengque Sword, without blinking, he beheaded Li Shu.

In military strategy, capturing the leader to capture the entire group is not without basis.

Without their leader, the subordinates were like a sand pile, and most of the army was coerced into service, so Li Shu’s troops scattered, those remaining were strategically wiped out by Shen Chen and his men.

Shen Chen commanded that those who surrendered to the Court were to be treated as innocent. However, those who insisted on resisting were to be slaughtered as rebels.

Many quickly laid down their arms and surrendered.

The Court easily reclaimed the three territories of Xuan City, Feng County, and Fuyang, but in Bianliang, ten thousand rebels refused to surrender.

That day, the sun was obscured by dark clouds, with no wind or rain, yet another battle unfolded. Shen Chen personally went to the battlefield, gripping the Chengque Sword with bloodshot eyes, exuding a biting aura, akin to a drawn bow, once released, never to return.

In that battle, he single-handedly killed two thousand men, and the remaining partisans were utterly destroyed. By now, it was approaching the year-end, and the nearly five-month-long war had finally concluded. Daqing was no longer troubled by the Prince An’s Mansion, and as for Li Shu’s family, some were exiled, others executed.

This battle also bolstered Shen Chen’s reputation in Daqing—after all, he had single-handedly slain two thousand men...

This, this, this...is terrifying...

After returning to the Capital City, Lord Minister, upon meeting Prime Minister Shen at the court, would bow respectfully and address him as Prime Minister Shen because the Shen Chen of today was not the Xiao Chen of the past.

The Ye Family harbored resentment, believing he was the cause of Ah Zhi’s departure, and had never visited the Shen Mansion again.

But Shen Chen visited the Ye Mansion two or three times.

Ten days before the Spring Festival, another event occurred.

Several dozen highly skilled assassins dressed in black, armed with long swords, used qinggong to enter the Imperial Palace, heading directly for the Qianqing Palace, their aim was to assassinate the Emperor.

The assassins came so suddenly that they were unpreventable. Although the Qianqing Palace was surrounded by the Imperial Palace’s elite guards, they were still no match for the attackers, and Emperor Jingping received a sword wound on his shoulder.