HLnovel Chapter 301 301 A Tide of Change
Chapter 301 301 A Tide of Change
Chapter 301 301 A Surge of Trends
To ensure her safety, Ye Pianran disguised herself as a man, using her disguise skills to make herself look rough. She and Tong Zhu traveled a long and arduous journey to the Northern Frontier, and then spent nearly two months on the battlefield. Apart from looking somewhat thin and weak, she was indistinguishable from a woman. However, Chunyu Yang recognized her at a glance, without even needing to use the shared space to check her true identity.
Suddenly being embraced, Ye Pianran was startled at first. But when she smelled Chunyu Yang's familiar scent, she immediately felt at ease, hugged him back, and gently called out, "Boyuan."
The soldiers had followed Chunyu Yang on the battlefield for many years and had never seen their lord so distraught. Everyone was curious about who Ye Pianran really was. Noticing that the soldiers were watching them, Chunyu Yang didn't dare reveal Ye Pianran's identity. He had intended to pretend that she was a friend who had come to join his cause, but to his surprise, Ye Pianran boldly removed her disguise in front of the soldiers, revealing her true appearance.
Upon seeing her true appearance, the soldiers gasped in astonishment, never expecting that the woman who had been taking care of them all these days was such a beautiful woman. Some of the soldiers had seen Ye Pianran in the Xuanjia Camp before and immediately recognized her as their future princess. In an instant, Ye Pianran's reputation in the army soared.
Chunyu Yang brought Ye Pianran back to his tent and asked her in detail what had happened on the day of the autumn hunt chaos. Ye Pianran recounted everything that had happened that day. When she mentioned that Ye Yanxun had pushed her off the cliff, Chunyu Yang was furious, but he calmed down and told Ye Pianran that when he went to look for her, he did not see Ye Yanxun, nor did he find his body.
Ye Pianran said that since Ye Yanxun was ordered by Ye Yingrou to kill her, then he must have been rescued by Ye Yingrou.
Chunyu Yang mentioned that Gongsun Zhan was still implicated in Prince Yue's rebellion, but he had instructed Chunyu Shan to find out the truth and clear Gongsun Zhan's name, so Ye Pianran didn't need to worry.
When Ye Pianran learned that the case of Prince Yue's treason had been handed over to Chunyu Jing, she knew that it would not be easy to turn the tide. She could only suppress her anxiety and help Chunyu Yang win the battle at hand.
Ye Chu had always coveted the northern border of Great Xia. Although they lost every battle with Great Xia, they refused to withdraw their troops or negotiate peace, as if they wanted to drag the war on indefinitely. This war lasted for a full six months. The longer the war dragged on, the more disadvantageous it became. First, the soldiers were prone to fatigue and loss of morale. Second, the food supply was insufficient, and the soldiers were not well-fed, so they had no strength to fight.
However, Ye Chu refused to negotiate peace or surrender, leaving Chunyu Yang helpless. If he wanted to completely defeat Ye Chu, he would have to cross the border of Ye Chu, reach the capital city of Juanyun, and force them to surrender.
Ye Chu was not the only state bordering Great Xia; there were also the Nine Gods Kingdom, Yang Kingdom, and Western Expedition Kingdom. Among these five states, the Nine Gods Kingdom and Great Xia were the most powerful. Yang Kingdom, Ye Chu, and Western Expedition Kingdom were roughly equal in strength, and their mutual checks and balances maintained the relatively stable global situation. However, if Great Xia were to advance and destroy Ye Chu, Yang Kingdom and Western Expedition Kingdom would undoubtedly launch a pincer attack on Great Xia. If Great Xia were to be bogged down in war for a prolonged period, its national strength would inevitably be affected and weakened compared to the Nine Gods Kingdom, and Great Xia's situation would truly be perilous.
During the six months of fighting in the northern border region, the situation in Beijing changed rapidly.
Meanwhile, Marquis Anshi, fearing implication in the treason case, divorced Gongsun Yuan. He felt no pity upon learning that Gongsun Yuan had taken Ye Yankang with her when she left, as a mentally challenged son was utterly useless to him. However, Ye Yanxun held a different significance for him; he was his eldest son, and rightfully his legitimate eldest son. Xu Pingyue, upon learning from Marquis Anshi that Ye Yanxun had disappeared in Xingzhou, wept bitterly. Marquis Anshi, grieving the loss of his beloved son, was also deeply saddened. To comfort Xu Pingyue, five days after the Crown Prince's funeral, he ostentatiously welcomed her into his household as his second wife, thus severing all ties with the Gongsun family. Ye Yingrou finally returned to the Marquis's household smoothly, becoming its legitimate daughter.
A country cannot be without an heir for a day. After the death of the crown prince, the competition for the throne became increasingly fierce. Chunyu Jing had always coveted the position; Chunyu Yang, though far away in the northern frontier, was the eldest prince and his mother was Consort Xian, one of the four imperial consorts, and he also held military power, making him the most advantageous contender for the throne; while Chunyu Shan had always maintained a leisurely lifestyle and had no desire to participate in the struggle for the throne, his unwillingness did not mean that Consort Yu and her family did not want to. Thus, under Consort Yu's repeated persuasion, Chunyu Shan reluctantly joined the struggle for the throne.
Over the course of six months, Chunyu Shan finally gathered enough evidence to clear Gongsun Zhan's name. However, by then, the emperor no longer trusted Gongsun Zhan. Although he retained his position, he was effectively placed under house arrest in the emperor's residence. When news of Gongsun Zhan's safe release reached the northern frontier, Ye Pianran breathed a long sigh of relief and was extremely grateful to Chunyu Shan.
In his quest for the throne, Chunyu Jing resorted to every means possible. For him, the identity of the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Anshi was irrelevant; all he desired was the Marquis's support. Therefore, he seized an opportunity to propose to the emperor that he marry Ye Yingrou as his principal wife.
The emperor himself had climbed his way up through the power struggles of the imperial court, so he naturally knew what Chunyu Jing wanted. However, Chunyu Jing was not his chosen successor. He also knew Chunyu Jing's character and temperament; he couldn't suppress him, only keep him in check. Just then, a battle report from the northern frontier mentioned that Ye Pianran, the eldest daughter of Marquis Anshi, was working as a military doctor in the army. She had earned a high reputation in the army for her superb medical skills and was greatly respected by the soldiers.
This military report greatly surprised the emperor. He knew that Marquis Anshi had divorced his first wife and taken a mistress, which was a laughing stock in the capital. However, upon further reflection, he felt that this was an excellent opportunity to check and balance the emperor. After careful consideration, he bestowed marriages upon both Chunyu Yang and Chunyu Jing.
Both men married daughters of the Marquis of Anshi, but Chunyu Yang married the daughter of the Marquis's first wife, while Chunyu Jing married the daughter of his second wife. This created a delicate balance between them and prevented the Marquis from showing favoritism. The Emperor was very satisfied with his arrangement.
The happiest person upon receiving the imperial decree of marriage was Marquis Anshi. With both daughters married to the emperor's sons, what other family in the capital had such an honor? He didn't even care why Ye Pianran had disappeared in Xingzhou or how she had ended up in Chunyu Yang's military camp in the northern frontier. He immediately ordered a letter to be sent to the northern frontier to summon Ye Pianran back.
The most shocked and furious person was Ye Yingrou. She never expected that Ye Pianran would not die after falling off the cliff, but would instead appear in the Northern Frontier to help Chunyu Yang attack Ye Chu. She knew that if Ye Pianran really married Chunyu Yang, then Chunyu Yang and Chunyu Jing would be on equal footing again, and all their previous efforts would have been in vain.
Chunyu Jing has done so much for the throne, how could he not know the emperor's thoughts? Chunyu Yang, who holds military power, has always been his biggest rival on the road to seizing the throne. If he really succeeds in getting Chunyu Yang to marry Ye Pianran this time, and Ye Pianran has a considerable reputation in the army, it will probably be even more difficult for him to bring down Chunyu Yang in the future.
If he could get Ye Pianran… Chunyu Jing had barely entertained this thought when he suffered a backlash from the Heart Gu. Because his affection for Ye Yingrou was very high, the backlash was severe, causing him to vomit blood and faint.
Sensing that Chunyu Jing was being harmed by the Heart Gu, Ye Yingrou quickly calmed the Gu worms within him to prevent Chunyu Jing from becoming suspicious. However, she also harbored even deeper hatred for Ye Pianran and was determined to eliminate her on the way back to the capital.
Because the war had dragged on for too long, the army's provisions could not withstand the depletion. Chunyu Yang was aware of this and had already arranged for someone to send a message requesting the transport of provisions. The transport of provisions was initially very smooth, but Chunyu Jing seized this opportunity to incite the famine-stricken refugees to intercept the transported provisions, thus delaying their arrival in the northern frontier.
Meanwhile, Chunyu Jing made contact with Fu Lei, the second prince of Ye Chu, offering to relinquish the benefits of the two cities of Li and Tong in the northern frontier in exchange for cooperation with Fu Lei, on the condition that Chunyu Yang be defeated, and promising to help Fu Lei seize the crown prince position in Ye Chu after the matter was accomplished.
With the supply of provisions disrupted and military secrets leaked, the Ye Chu army suddenly amassed in the dead of night, catching the Great Xia off guard. Although Chunyu Yang ultimately led the Xuanjia Army to victory against Ye Chu, forcing them back into Ye Chu territory, he also lost the two important cities of Li and Tong.
After this battle, the Xia army suffered heavy losses and was severely weakened, making it unsuitable for them to continue their entanglement with Ye Chu.
For the past six months, Chunyu Yang had failed to either negotiate peace or conquer Ye Chu, leading to numerous impeachments in the court questioning whether his military leadership abilities had been exaggerated. This latest war has only intensified these impeachments. Even though the emperor wanted to protect him, he found it difficult to suppress these voices.
Therefore, the emperor had no choice but to issue an imperial edict summoning Chunyu Yang back and replacing him with another neutral general to lead the northern frontier. This general was ostensibly neutral, but in reality, he had already defected to Chunyu Jing's camp. All of this was naturally orchestrated by Chunyu Jing. Of course, this was not enough; he wanted to cut off all of Chunyu Yang's escape routes.
The imperial edict summoning Chunyu Yang back to the capital arrived in the northern frontier along with another general. However, the soldiers were very supportive of Chunyu Yang, and the change of general on the eve of battle caused a lot of opposition in the army. Chunyu Yang was worried that the opposition in the army would make the emperor more suspicious of him. After appeasing the soldiers, he accepted the edict and returned to the capital with Ye Pianran.
Returning to the capital from the northern frontier required passing through Xingzhou. While resting briefly in Xingzhou, Chunyu Yang and Ye Pianran saw a missing person notice posted throughout the city. Ye Pianran then learned that Gongsun Yuan had been searching for her in Xingzhou for a full six months. When she finally found Gongsun Yuan following the clues on the notice, Gongsun Yuan and Ye Lingyue were outside the Guanyin Temple in Xingzhou, distributing porridge to beggars and performing other acts of charity.
Gongsun Yuan's journey north to Xingzhou wasn't just about Ye Pianran; she was also searching for Ye Yanxun. For the past six months, she had searched tirelessly without finding any trace of her children, and her hope was slowly fading. She could only place her last remaining hope in the Bodhisattva. For the past six months, she had gone to the Guanyin Temple daily to offer incense. After offering incense, she would join the nuns in giving alms to beggars and vagrants, hoping that her good deeds would move the Bodhisattva to return her children to her.
Sure enough, her kindness moved the heavens, and six months later she finally met Ye Pianran.
Neither mother nor daughter expected that going to Xingzhou would mean being separated forever. In just six months, the world has changed so drastically. Holding her daughter, whom she had lost and found again, tightly, Gongsun Yuan cried until she almost stopped. She reached out and traced Ye Pianran's face, as if she couldn't get enough of looking at her, repeatedly murmuring, "It's good that she's alive, it's good that she's alive."