Quick Transmigration: Why did you provoke him? He's love-struck!

Chapter 492 Relying on Favor (37)

Yang Jun's methods of fighting were simple and brutal. Every time he conquered a city, he would order a massacre of the city's inhabitants, plunder the gold and silver treasures of the wealthy households, and allow his soldiers to rape and defile young and beautiful women.

This move not only allows them to seize a large amount of money in the shortest time to prepare for the next battle, but also maximizes the enthusiasm of their soldiers.

For him, massacring entire cities was nothing out of the ordinary.

"No." Zhao Yuan refused without even thinking. "My wife said that in this world, lending out grain and money is no different from throwing meat buns to a dog."

Yang Jun: "..."

He tried everything to persuade Zhao Yuan, but Zhao Yuan just wouldn't budge, saying, "My wife won't allow it."

After hearing the phrase "my wife said" so many times, Yang Jun couldn't help but become curious about who this Princess Zhao was.

She was able to make Zhao Yuan listen to her every word.

After Zhao Yuan led two thousand men back home, Yang Jun asked his scouts for information. The scouts only said, "She's a farmer's wife who knows how to farm."

Yang Jun immediately conjured up an image of a burly woman with rough skin, and he couldn't help but show a look of disgust.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Yuan had a taste for this.

Meanwhile, Zhao Yuan returned to Tingzhou and began making intensive preparations for war.

Of the 80,000 troops, Zhao Yuan took 50,000 with him and left 30,000 to defend the city.

Yan Zhen knew how sensitive she was to the cold and that she wouldn't be of any help in the war effort, so she didn't try to be brave and go to the front lines, lest Zhao Yuan have to worry about her safety.

Not long after, war broke out in Tingzhou, Yunzhou, and Jingzhou.

When the news reached Daliang, a few days later, six assassins secretly infiltrated the refugee group and entered Tingzhou City.

At the Prince Zhao's residence, after dark, it was freezing cold outside.

The warm room was cozy, and Yan Zhen, wearing a fox fur coat, sat at his desk, writing down his plans for opening a school.

After conquering Yunzhou, she and Zhao Yuan will most likely move the capital to Yunzhou.

Yunzhou has a lot of arable land, and most of it is flat, making it more suitable for large-scale farming. She will bring agricultural officials there to oversee the work in person.

Before leaving Tingzhou, she wanted to get the matter of opening a school settled.

Fu Xue sat to one side, a sewing basket on her lap, sewing knee pads.

Neither master nor servant spoke, and for a moment the warm pavilion was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

After a long while, the steward knocked on the door: "Your Highness."

Fu Xue put down her sewing basket and went to open the door. The steward whispered a few words to her.

Fu Xue quickly returned and reported to Yan Zhen: "The steward said that six people who attempted to assassinate the Prince's mansion have been captured. Five are dead, and one is still alive. Your Highness, would you like to go and take a look?"

Tingzhou has been receiving refugees for a long time, so it is inevitable that spies from various state governments will infiltrate the area.

Starting a year ago, Zhao Yuan took time to train a team of over a hundred bodyguards to protect Yan Zhen's safety.

Every now and then, this secret guard would uncover a few people with ill intentions, and they would usually kill them on the spot, rarely reporting it to Yan Zhen.

The manager came over specifically to say something, proving that these people have something special about them.

Yan Zhen put down his pen, stood up, and said, "Let's go take a look."

Stepping out of the warm pavilion, snowflakes began to fall outside, and Fu Xue quickly held up an umbrella for Yan Zhen.

The master and servant walked through the long corridor and arrived at the front courtyard of the Prince's Mansion.

Five corpses lay scattered in the front yard, and a man in black was pinned to the ground with his hands tied behind his back.

Yan Zhen walked up to the man, and the guards immediately pulled the man in black up by the waist, pinched his chin, and forced him to look up.

Yan Zhen then noticed that the man in black had his jaw dislocated, his mouth was unable to close, and saliva was constantly dripping from the corner of his mouth.

Yan Zhen looked him up and down a few times, then said to the guards, "Let him speak."

"Yes."

The guard grabbed the man in black's chin and pushed it back into place with a sharp "crack." The man in black shuddered in pain.

Before Yan Zhen could speak, the man in black spat at her: "Traitorous witch!"

Yan Zhen remained calm: "Who sent you?"

The man in black did not answer, his gaze towards Yan Zhen growing increasingly resentful: "Witch! The Great Liang is ashamed of you! The Tan royal family is ashamed of you! If you have any shame left, you should atone with your death!"

Yan Zhen raised an eyebrow and said to the guards, "Kill them."

The guards immediately drew their swords.

The man in black panicked upon hearing this and shouted, "Thank you, sir..."

Before he could finish speaking, the guard swiftly swung his sword and beheaded him.

The steward was taken aback, then stepped forward and said, "Your Highness, we haven't yet found out who sent him..."

Yan Zhen put his hands in his hand warmers and said calmly, "No need to ask, I know."

After she finished speaking, she raised her chin and said to the guards, "Search them."

The guards searched the body of the man in black and quickly found a waist tag engraved with the character "谢" (Xie).

This is a unique identification token used by the guards of Xie Ying's residence.

Fu Xue asked incredulously, "These people were sent by Lord Xie?"

Yan Zhen chuckled and said, "Silly girl, have you ever seen someone who sends assassins while still wearing their own family's identification badge? Are they afraid others won't recognize who they are?"

Fu Xue asked blankly, "Then what is he...?"

“They were either sent by Tan Xuanmo or by Tan Jinyu. There’s only one reason these people came to the Zhao Prince’s residence: to frame Xie Ying and make me think he wanted to kill me.” Yan Zhen said lazily as he turned and walked toward the warm pavilion. “Fu Xue, put on your waist token.”

"Yes."

Fu Xue took the waist token from the guard and hurriedly chased after him: "Your Highness, were these people sent by His Majesty or by the Second Princess?"

"Is there a difference?" Yan Zhen said. "Anyway, when I return to Daliang, they will all be dead."

Fu Xue: "..."

-

On the fourteenth day of Zhao Yuan's expedition, news of a victory came from the front lines: the first battle against Yunzhou had been won, and a small city within Yunzhou's territory had been captured.

Zhao Yuan sent a letter home. Apart from a brief mention of the battle situation at the beginning, the entire letter was about how much he missed Tingzhou, how much he missed her and the Zhao Prince's Mansion.

As Yan Zhen looked at the letter, she thought that if Zhao Yuan lived in an era with electronic devices, he might be the kind of talkative person who could kill enemies with one hand and shoot vlogs with his phone with the other, sending them back to her immediately afterward.

After reading the letter twice, Yan Zhen extracted one important point from Zhao Yuan's thousand-word ramblings—

When Zhao Yuan and Yang Jun met, they agreed to attack Yunzhou from both sides, catching it off guard.

While Zhao Yuan launched his attack from the west, Yang Jun also launched an attack from the east on another city within Yunzhou.

Yang Jun breached the city earlier than Zhao Yuan, and upon entering the city, he began burning, killing, looting, and massacring the city's inhabitants.

Yan Zhen pondered for a while, then wrote a letter to Zhao Yuan, instructing him to send people to the cities that had not yet been conquered, especially those planned to be attacked and occupied by Yang Jun, to spread the word that the Tingzhou army would not kill prisoners after breaching the city.

As a result, the people of Yunzhou would move westward in large numbers, bringing their families with them.

Yunzhou is the next planting area that Yan Zhen has her eye on. She hopes to save the lives of the local people as much as possible to avoid a situation where there is no one to cultivate the land and there is a shortage of labor after the city is captured.