Kicking an Iron Plate
Bai Wutong sighed in her heart and picked up Stinky, who was about to climb up Chu Tianbao’s arm to bite the tomato.
Stinky wasn’t happy. He flung his meaty limbs around.
Bai Wutong placed the bowl in front of him. He immediately opened his mouth wide and waited for Bai Wutong to feed him.
His adorable look as a foodie almost melted people’s hearts. Bai Wutong could not help but kiss his big fleshy face.
Chu Tianbao glanced at them and bit into the tomato.
How sour.
It made him lose his appet.i.te.
As Bai Wutong fed Stinky, she asked Lin Yue, “Why did those people kidnap Consort Ping and Princess Qingping?”
Lin Yue thought for a moment and said, “It should be Duke Chu’s people.”
“Duke Chu?”
Bai Wutong subconsciously looked at Chu Tianbao, who had finished eating the tomatoes and asked with a frown, “How old is Duke Chu?”
Lin Yue didn’t know why the topic had changed so quickly, but he still said, “Duke Chu seems to be in his forties this year.”
“Uh, how many sons does he have?” She actually wanted to ask if there was anyone called Chu Tianbao.
Lin Yue replied in confusion, “It’s difficult to have a son in the Chu royal family. There’s only one legitimate son named Chu Mingji. I heard that he’s weak since he was young. The Chu royal consort has been watching him like he’s an eyeball.”
“How old is he?” Bai Wutong continued asking.
“He’s not yet crowned.”
His body was weak and he had yet to be crowned, which meant that he was still underage. Chu Tianbao’s strong body and age did not match.
Bai Wutong immediately heaved a sigh of relief. There were so many people with the same surname in the world. It was normal for it to be a coincidence.
Bai Wutong finally returned to the main topic. “It’s understandable that Duke Chu is burning the rations. But why did he kidnap Duke Ping’s consort and daughter? It’s not like he can threaten the current emperor with it.” At most, if someone died, he would be rewarded with an impressive grade and additional burial items.
Lin Yue thought for a moment. “Perhaps he wants to cause a rift between Duke Ping and the emperor. If the emperor doesn’t save Consort Ping and Princess Qingping, Duke Ping won’t be satisfied even if he doesn’t say anything on the surface.”
Bai Wutong thought for a moment and voiced her guess. “Could it be that Duke Ping also wants to rebel? Duke Chu found out about it so he had kidnapped them in advance?”
Lin Yue suddenly looked at Bai Wutong. Thinking about the extraordinary scale of protection just now, he felt that it made sense.
After a long moment, he said, “If that’s the case, Duke Ping might very well be staging a coup in the Imperial City right now.” When they left the capital, Duke Ping would already be in the capital.
Bai Wutong asked, “Is this Duke Ping very powerful? Where is the land he is governing?”
Lin Yue only understood it later. “Duke Ping is as mediocre as his t.i.tle suggests. However, my master said that Duke Ping might be pretending to be weak. Although he lives extravagantly, he has a much better reputation among the people than the emperor.”
“And his fief is in Xunyang. It’s a place with fertile land and is quite far from the Imperial City. Like Duke Chu, he probably has a huge personal army. Xunyang is connected to Fengming City and is isolated by Fengming Mountain. No matter how strong Duke Chu’s troops are, it will take some effort to take down Duke Ping’s fief.”
He thought for a moment and said, “But as long as we take down Fengming City, it will be very easy to enter Xunyang City through Jiangyuan City.”
Bai Wutong glanced at him. “Did your master tell you all this?” Lin Yue did not seem to know anything about military matters.
Lin Yue nodded. Thinking of Sheng Huaixuan, his face was filled with admiration. “Our master is really very powerful.” He was just short of putting Sheng Huaixuan on his face.
Bai Wutong nodded. This richest man she had never met was indeed capable.
If Duke Ping had already become the emperor, he would definitely send troops to strengthen the defense of Beiyun City, Jiangyuan City, and Fengming City.
Bai Wutong frowned tightly. “We’ve rested tonight. We have to hurry. It’s very likely that the road will be blocked.”
Lin Yue also thought the same. He had to meet his master at the Beiyun City as soon as possible.
At the crack of dawn the next day, Bai Wutong and the others continued their journey. Apart from the constant rain, the journey was relatively smooth.
At midnight on the third day since they set off from Zhao farmyard, they finally saw the flames on the city wall of Beiyun City.
At this moment, it was already dark. Everyone had lit torches, so they could not see how many refugees were outside the moat.
They felt that if they took a few more steps forward, their feet would not be able to touch the ground.
The refugees’ pitch-black eyes shone in the night like ferocious wolves lurking in the dark.
Village Chief Zhao frowned and instructed Zhao Pengfei, “Make more arrangements for the people on duty tonight.”
Their team consisted of mule carts, ox carts, donkey carts, and so many other things. It was attracting too much attention.
“Okay, Dad.”
Lin Yue handed Stinky to Bai Wutong and immediately went to find the spies in the Beiyun City to find out some information.
Before long, he returned with two tall men.
From his expression, Bai Wutong knew that he had not obtained information about his master’s whereabouts.
Lin Yue said to Bai Wutong, “Madam Bai, it’s dawn. Let’s enter the city. We have a place to stay in Beiyun City. Our master might have left a message. If not, we’ll bring Little Young Master and prepare something to go with you.”
Bai Wutong nodded. “Okay.”
Along the way, she had also realized that there were some advantages to having more people.
At least, there were basically no more scattered refugees who wanted to attack them. They also traveled much faster. With the villagers taking turns to be on night duty, they were not as tired as before.
It was time for Stinky to drink milk again. Madam Yang carried the yellow dog over to milk it. After she was done, she handed it to Lin Yue.
Lin Yue was already very familiar with the villagers. He smiled and said, “Thank you, Auntie.”
He had just poured the milk into a small pot to cook when a group of people in the dark revealed themselves.
The man in the lead only had four fingers. Everyone called him Fourth Master and he was a hooligan in the city. He specially gathered his subordinates outside the Beiyun City to find a rich target.
As soon as the team led by Bai Wutong arrived, he knew that they were rich targets. Not only were they rich on average, but they also brought so many living birds and things. He had already decided on the yellow dog and had arranged for dog meat hotpot that night.
Using the light of the fire, Bai Wutong looked over. There were about 70 to 80 people in this group. All of them were holding sharp weapons and had fierce gazes. It was obvious that they were used to doing this. No wonder they dared to attack them.
Bai Wutong shook her head. “A bunch of idiots.” Anyone who could reach here with their items were ruthless characters.
The fierce-looking Fourth Master waved his dagger. “Be sensible.”
As soon as he said that, Zhao Pengfei, who had been secretly paying attention to them, raised him up and smashed him to the ground.
There was a m.u.f.fled bang, accompanied by the sound of bones shattering.
Almost at the same time, the young men from Zhao farmyard pulled out their weapons from their carts.
In an instant, several of the 50-centimeter sabers left behind by the bandits were placed on Fourth Master’s head.
The remaining hooligans were also stopped by the young men from Zhao farmyard.
Those who wanted to resist were dealt with by Lin Yue in a few moves.
The Fourth Master’s body was severely injured. When he saw the cold knife on his head, he immediately shouted in a sorry state, “Brothers, spare my life, spare my life!” He had done evil for so many years, so how could he not understand that he had kicked an iron plate that night?