Discuss with you

Chapter 260 Demoted by Half a Rank
"It's just a minor wound, and it doesn't draw much blood each time, so it's nothing serious." Zhu Yu shook his head. "Father's health is related to the stability of Shuo Kingdom, and the stability of Shuo Kingdom is closely related to the peace of the world."

Since Doctor Yan believes the adjusted prescription is more effective, let's find this new prescription.

When I was a child, I often heard my eldest and second eldest brothers say while they were studying outside their study that everything should be done with the big picture in mind.

Now, Father is the one who controls the big picture.

After all... we've already got the motivation out there, might as well use it.

Although Zhu Yu was not moved by Zhu Cheng's momentary concern, the sincerity and understanding she showed truly touched Zhu Cheng.

When the guards took out their own rations and dried meat to fill their stomachs, Zhu Cheng silently swapped the larger piece of dried meat in his hand for the piece that had chipped off in Zhu Yu's hand, thus denying Lu Qing, who had originally wanted to tear off half of his own dried meat to leave for Zhu Yu, the chance to show his skills.

After eating, they hurried on their way to the next pass. They rode their horses for most of the night, and only stopped to rest and recuperate in the woods a mile away from the pass at dawn.

This pass could not be considered the upper pass of Shuo Kingdom, but rather a middle pass. When the city gates opened in the morning, Zhu Cheng and the others secretly observed the situation again and found that it was similar to the lower pass the previous night.

Since there were many people at this pass, it was impossible to repeat the same method as before. Zhu Yu suggested "capture the leader first". As long as the captain of the guards at this pass was controlled, and two or three people were left to supervise the other guards to do their jobs well, there was no need to replace all the people here at once.

After all, dereliction of duty is likely a problem that sets an example for those below. If the corrupt "upper beam" is dealt with properly, the "lower beam" will naturally not dare to go astray.

Zhu Cheng thought this method was good and ordered people to deal with it immediately. Sure enough, it worked, and the situation at this pass was resolved quickly and effectively.

And so, they traveled tirelessly through the various passes of the northern lands, day and night.

Zhu Cheng was initially unwilling to face these problems, believing that they were not that serious and that Zhu Yu and the others were just exaggerating.

He was first shocked by the weapons manufactured by the Pang family, and then he witnessed firsthand the laxity of the passes along the way. He realized the seriousness of the situation and his attitude gradually became serious.

In this way, they spent three or four days traversing several passes in the Shuo region. The more they walked and saw, the more deeply they realized the seriousness of the problem.

At one of the passes, they discovered that anyone willing to pay some money could pass through without proper official documents or permits. They even found that the commander and his subordinates were colluding, and that if someone offered a generous "gift," they could create a genuine document to prove the identity of someone who originally had no official documents or permits.

Zhu Cheng was so angry that he almost flew into a rage. After ordering his personal guards to arrest the assistant commander and the involved commander in the same way, he temporarily took over the area.

However, after traveling for several days and passing through these places, he finally realized the seriousness of the problem and understood that it was clearly not something that his personal guards could quietly resolve.

Realizing that this matter couldn't be completely eradicated overnight, and that the group was exhausted after several days of travel, Zhu Cheng decided to return to the capital first and make further plans if he stayed away from the capital for too long. Zhu Yu agreed with his suggestion, firstly because Zhu Cheng's considerations were reasonable, and secondly because the two chief secretaries in the capital were undergoing trials, and it was necessary to go and see how things were going.

Secondly, the chicken blood they brought out had been sitting for several days. Although Yan Daoxin had mixed in some medicinal powder, preventing it from solidifying into blood tofu, it was still likely to become less fresh if left untreated. If it caused him to vomit and have diarrhea, it would be a case of losing more than gaining!
If this were to continue, Zhu Yudu was prepared to steel himself, cut himself again, and really bleed out, to see the self-inflicted wound through to the very end.

Since Zhu Cheng was going back, Zhu Yu was happy to suffer less.

The group returned to the capital, weary from their journey. Just as discreetly as when they left the city, they quietly returned to the Prince's mansion. Apart from the steward and a few well-kept servants, many people didn't even know that Zhu Yu and the others had been gone for several days.

After all, Chestnut Garden wasn't a place anyone could just enter. Not only was there Zhu Cheng's prohibition, but there was also a burly man, as black as an iron tower, guarding the courtyard every day. Even if you lent the servants a few times the courage of a bear or a leopard, they wouldn't dare to approach him casually, for fear that the burly man would devour people without even spitting out the bones.

Zhu Yu went straight to his room upon returning to the Chestnut Garden and fell into a deep sleep.

She hadn't been running around like this in a long time. It's said that it's easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go from extravagance to frugality, and that's really true. If it weren't for the great ideal in her heart that she could finally relax and rest in peace in the future, she really wouldn't have been able to keep going these past few days.

When he woke up, it was already night. Lu Qing hadn't slept. When Zhu Yu woke up, he was carefully examining a piece of paper at the table. There were also several pieces of wood from a disassembled puzzle box on the table next to him.

Upon seeing the message, Zhu Yu immediately knew that it was another message from Lu Chao's people, and he quickly got up, put on his shoes, and got out of bed.

Lu Qing had noticed this the moment Zhu Yu woke up, and now that she heard her movements were noticeably faster, he turned around, handed her the things in his hand, and said with a smile, "No need to rush, I won't burn the letter before you've read it."

Take your time looking at it. I'll ask Fu Lu to take the leftover dinner to the small kitchen to heat it up and bring it over.

You slept for so long, I was just thinking about whether to wake you up, otherwise you'd sleep until tomorrow morning and be starving.

Zhu Yu had just woken up and didn't feel particularly hungry. He reached out and took the letter, glancing at it casually. Sure enough, it was another full of "musical scores".

She put the letter back on the table, reached out and pulled Lu Qing, who had just gotten up, and sighed: "Don't rush to eat, I'm not hungry."

Just tell me directly. Your code is really reliable; I genuinely can't understand it at all.

Lu Qing then sat back down: "Okay, then I'll tell you one thing first, and then you still need to eat your meal quickly, otherwise if you go to sleep after eating, it will be difficult to digest."

Because of the secret report from the "Golden-Faced Censor," the Emperor was furious and blamed Situ Jing for failing to properly handle the chaos in the Lizhou camp, thus betraying the Emperor's trust. Therefore, he dismissed Situ Jing from his position as Commander of the Lizhou Camp and demoted him to the position of Military Advisor of Qinzhou, a reduction of half a rank.

Thanks to annes741111 for the reward of 1500 Qidian coins!
Thanks to book friend 20250320135210505 for your monthly ticket!