"Your Highness, a letter has arrived from Xianyang," Yunxiao hurried into the study, holding a sealed letter in his hand.
Xiao Yi lifted his head, reached out to take the confidential letter.
"How dare he meddle with the city walls!"
Slap! Xiao Yi smacked his palm hard against the table.
It was rare for him to show such unbridled anger.
He was far too furious.
A former local official, who was supposed to be the guardian of the people under his jurisdiction, had actually used the safety of ordinary folk as a bargaining chip to climb the ranks!
This was intolerable, absolutely unforgivable!
Magistrate Song had been playing underhanded tricks behind his back, and Xiao Yi would never stand for that.
He directly submitted all the evidence of Magistrate Song embezzling local disaster relief grain, and cooking the books while claiming to repair the city walls to siphon off imperial funds, straight to the Emperor.
Magistrate Song was immediately stripped of his official position.
Xiao Yi had already sent a letter back to Xianyang, ordering his trusted subordinates left there to look into exactly what Magistrate Song had done before he fled the place.
Now, the two thin sheets of paper lying before Xiao Yi concerned the lives of every single common person in Xianyang.
How could Xiao Yi not be enraged?
"Your Highness, our men have already arranged for workers to start the repair work," Yunxiao said.
"They are going to inspect every single project Magistrate Song had a hand in, no matter if it's the city walls or the moat, to make sure nothing is left unchecked!"
Yunxiao was bent slightly at the waist, trying hard to ignore the dull discomfort in his buttocks.
He had taken ten hits from the cane not long ago, but after applying the ointment the Princess had given him, the pain had mostly faded.
To be able to stay by His Highness's side and continue serving him, Yunxiao would happily take ten more beatings if he had to.
Xiao Yi's face was dark with fury.
"That Song fellow has aligned himself with the Second Prince?"
The news that Magistrate Song had arrived in the capital and settled down in the Song family estate was delivered to Xiao Yi the very next day.
Xiao Yi had known for a long time that Song Jiang was a aide working for Prince Ling.
"Your Highness, the Crown Prince has not met with Magistrate Song yet," Yunxiao reported.
"But we heard yesterday that Song Jiang and the other aides went to Prince Ling's Manor, and stayed there for a full half day before leaving."
Xiao Yi lifted his gaze. "All the aides went?"
Yunxiao nodded. "Yes. The men we posted to keep watch say security at Prince Ling's Manor has been tightened so much lately that they can't slip inside to find out what's going on."
"If only our old informants were still there, we would definitely know exactly what they were discussing in that meeting!"
Ever since Prince Ling stepped back from handling court affairs, he had started some mysterious purge inside his estate.
He replaced every single servant who had waited on him before.
Even his study was strictly off-limits to everyone else.
Guards patrolled outside the study in shifts, not even a fly could sneak in.
All the informants that the Prince of Pingyang had planted in Prince Ling's Manor were cleared out for no apparent reason.
No one knew if Prince Ling had caught onto their presence, or if it had just been a random coincidence.
Xiao Yi tapped his fingers gently against the table.
There were only a handful of reasons he would gather all his aides in such a rush.
The first one was related to the imperial army sending out on a campaign.
The second was that the Fourth Brother was being removed from his post, and the Fifth Brother was taking his place.
The Fifth Brother and the Second Prince used to be close, but now they had ended up on opposite sides. Xiao Yi wondered what the Second Prince would do to deal with the Fifth Brother.
A cold smirk tugged at the corner of Xiao Yi's lips.
"Keep a close eye on the Second Prince's movements. Report any unusual activity to me immediately, no matter how small it seems," Xiao Yi ordered.
He paused after giving the instruction, wondering to himself what he would do if he were the Second Prince.
Prince Ling put on a facade of being kind and approachable to everyone, but in reality he was arrogant and conceited.
He had been fully convinced that the throne was his to take.
Now, the opportunity had been ripped away from him for no reason at all. It was like a plump duck he had already had in his mouth was snatched away right before he could swallow it.
Prince Ling would never accept that lying down.
He would never let go of any chance to drag the others who stood in his way down.
The most straightforward way to bring the Fifth Brother down was to make sure this upcoming military expedition ended in failure.
Xiao Yi followed this train of thought, thinking through all the possibilities.
How do you make a military campaign fail? There were plenty of methods.
Cut off their grain supplies, stir up mutiny among the soldiers, or even provoke the war to break out much earlier than planned...
Xiao Yi's hand clenched into a tight fist the moment this thought crossed his mind.
If the Second Prince really dared to do such a thing?
Xiao Yi's brows furrowed tightly. "Yunxiao, send a message to the men at the military camp. Tell them to guard the grain stores with their lives."
"And warn them to be on high alert for spies hiding in their ranks!"
Yunxiao was startled for a split second, then quickly bowed and rushed out to carry out the order.
Xiao Yi held the letter he had just read over the flame of the candle.
Thin trails of smoke curled up, and the paper burned away into a pile of ash.
Flap flap flap! A homing pigeon landed lightly on the windowsill outside Duoduo's room.
"Princess, it's our carrier pigeon!" Lüdou recognized the bird at a glance.
She hurried over, lifted the pigeon up, and sure enough there was a small bamboo tube tied to its leg.
Duoduo took the small bamboo tube Lüdou handed her, and shook out the tiny paper scroll inside.
She unrolled the scroll with one hand, and flipped open her copy of the Three Character Classic with the other.
It did not take her long to match the coded characters to the right words and write down the full message.
"The farm estate matters are all settled. Total income is one thousand eight hundred taels."
"The Crown Prince summoned the Song brothers. The Song brothers quarreled with each other the moment they left the Crown Prince's residence."
"The Crown Prince's men have dispatched to follow and escort the grain convoy."
Duoduo went through the coded numbers on the scrap of paper over and over again, double checking every detail.
In the end, she confirmed she had not written down a single wrong character.
She stared at the information on the paper, sinking into deep thought.
Lüdou noticed the strange look on Duoduo's face and leaned over. She caught sight of the words "the Song brothers" right away.
"Princess, who are the Song brothers?" Lüdou was confused why Shitou would send news about such seemingly irrelevant people.
Duoduo snapped back to her senses, her expression turning serious.
"Magistrate Song and Song Jiang."
"My biological father and my paternal uncle."
Lüdou gaped at her, completely shocked.
"Master and Second Master of the Song family? Why did they go to see the Crown Prince?"
"Oh! I get it now," Lüdou suddenly thought of Song Shuyu. "Second Master Song got close to the Crown Prince all because of Miss Song Shuyu, right? And then Magistrate Song relied on his brother to get in touch with the Crown Prince too?" Lüdou finally pieced the whole story together.
Duoduo nodded. "The eldest Song brother lost his official position, so he had no face to stay in Xianyang anymore. He brought his whole family to the capital to seek shelter with the second Song brother."
Lüdou had never heard these details before, and for a moment she felt a hint of glee.
"The eldest Song brother lost his job! That's what he deserves for all his evil deeds!"
But right after that, her face fell again.
"But now he's got the Crown Prince backing him up, isn't he even more powerful than he used to be? The heavens are so unfair!"
"The second Song brother must have some use for him, that's why he's willing to help him," Duoduo said with absolute certainty. She knew perfectly well what a selfish, self-serving man her uncle was. He would never do anyone a favor for no reason at all.
Lüdou looked doubtful.
"What use could the eldest Song brother possibly have for the Crown Prince? I remember the old Madam of the Song family always calling him good for nothing."
Duoduo could not help but laugh at her words.
"You're right. I'll tell Shitou to look into exactly what the Crown Prince wants from the eldest Song brother."
Lüdou pointed to the last line of the message.
"Princess, does that mean the Crown Prince's people are planning to target the grain convoy?"
