“The situation of the war in Chenzhou has already become so grim,” Wei Ci said.

Wei Ci and the rest had been urgently summoned by Jiang Pengji. She handed Wei Ci a letter immediately after he sat down.

Scanning over the contents of the letter, the expression on Wei Ci’s sharp face turned dark. He couldn’t help but tighten his grip on the letter, leaving a mark behind.

Although Feng Zhen was the last to arrive, he was impatient and couldn’t wait for his turn, so he disregarded his dignity and scooted over to Wei Ci.

After getting a good look at the letter, Feng Zhen finally understood why Wei Ci looked so surprised.

Feng Zhen said, “This is… a request to send troops to protect the king? Could it be a fake…?”

Wei Ci shook his head and passed the letter to Feng Jin, who had been waiting for his turn for quite a while.

“The stamp at the end of the letter is indeed from the imperial seal. ‘Ordained by God, thus be everlasting and mighty great.’ Who but the emperor would dare to use these words in their seal?” he asked.

Feng Zhen snickered and said, “Prince Changshou has besieged Chenzhou in the name of ridding the emperor of his evil ministers. To protect himself, the emperor summoned House Meng of Cangzhou to the capital city with their troops. House Meng’s response was rather interesting; they turned their coats on the battlefield. Suffering such a loss once clearly isn’t enough for the emperor, as he is now sending out requests for protection to the various counties in the nation, summoning his subordinates to bring their armies to save him… Isn’t the emperor worried that there might be people with ill intentions among those who respond to his request for protection?”

In simple words, a request for protection meant that the emperor was in trouble. He needed to request that his subordinates send their troops to rescue him.

Prince Shouchang had rallied his troops in the name of ridding the emperor of evil ministers, which technically ticked all the boxes of “sending troops to protect the king.” However, Prince Shouchang harbored ill intentions.

House Meng of Cangzhou had also “sent troops to protect the king,” but at the very last moment, they had switched sides and decided to support Prince Shouchang instead, so the emperor had basically shot himself in the foot by calling them.

Feng Jin frowned and said, “If the emperor doesn’t do this, he may lose his life when the time comes. Even though requesting that his subordinates protect him has its risks, at least he can use the ministers who sent troops to protect him to keep Prince Shouchang, who is at the summit of his power, in check. If he gets a bit luckier, he may even be able to stage a comeback from his desperate situation.”

Feng Zhen laughed and said meanly, “Even his roots have rotted, how can he still think of staging a comeback at this point?”

The royal court of Dongqing was like a towering tree that had rotted and wilted. The inside had already become hollow, eaten up by the worms, and the roots deep beneath the earth had rotted.

Surely such a tree had no chance of being revived, regardless of how skilled the gardener was.

Would the request for protection sent by Dongqing’s royal family serve any purpose other than to drag the whole of Dongqing into the swamps of war?

Seizing the opportunity to flip the tables was just a dream!

Feng Zhen lifted a hand to scratch his ears, then went back to his seat with a lazy demeanor. He walked as if he didn’t have any bones in his body.

Feng Jin looked through the contents of the letter carefully, not missing a word.

After he finished reading the letter, he asked Jiang Pengji, “What do you think, my lord?”

Send troops to protect the king?

Or pretend not to have heard of it?

Jiang Pengji said, “I haven’t decided. Although the royal family has been in decline for a long time and exists more in name than in reality, they still have a high nominal status. As subordinates, we should dutifully respond by sending help at the request of the emperor… But the timing is not very good, and I don’t really feel like going.”

She frowned, but her expression showed not even the slightest sign of her struggling to choose between the two options.

“I want to hear your opinions before deciding whether or not I should get involved. I’m having trouble deciding,” she said.

Requesting that the subordinates from all over the nation send troops to protect the king meant that the various forces of Dongqing, be they big or small, would congregate in Chenzhou along with their armies.

Then, all the elites would gather, and heroes would make pacts. Talents would be plentiful. Their future enemies might be there too.

It would be a good chance to steal talents over to their side.

Jiang Pengji naturally didn’t want to miss out on such a bustling event.

However, as she had just said, it was a bad time to send troops over.

It might be even worse if she went.

The original plan had been to take over Chengde County in the coming spring. She was almost certain that she could conquer Chengde County with An Cui’s coordinated action from within the Red Lotus Group. Plus, her troops were all elites with high combat effectiveness. Then, she could absorb the resources of the Red Lotus Group and further expand her forces. She could use her strengthened military power to suppress the influences of the noble houses in Shangyang County and finally replace the important officials with the talents that she had cultivated and trained…

This way, not only could she occupy Chengde County, but she could completely control Shangyang County as well!

Then, the entirety of Wanzhou would be under her control.

Dongqing only had six states and 21 counties. Liu She and his “son” already occupied two of the states, Wanzhou and Chongzhou, making House Liu one of the forces that would compete to rule the world in the future.

All the segments of the plan were related, and the situation would be excellent if it was carried out step by step.

If they were to allocate some troops to protect the king, they would face a shortage of soldiers. If they were unlucky enough for someone to attack their headquarters, her assets would be gone.

Feng Jin murmured, “My lord, if you don’t go, you might be condemned by everyone and become a huge target.”

Jiang Pengji sighed softly. While the three advisors were still thinking, she secretly opened the bullet-screen comments, wanting to read the opinions of the laidback audience.

Little Angels: “I’m so disappointed. So the emperor is seeking protection? I thought the emperor was going to bestow the title of “Prince Qin” upon the streamer.”

All the Best for the National College Entrance Examination: “As a district magistrate, the streamer expanded her influences to the whole of Wanzhou. To put it bluntly, she would be considered a rebel. She can’t be given the title of prince. But she can use this chance to claim the rank of Governor of Wanzhou. After all, no one would protect the emperor for nothing, and the emperor must offer certain benefits.”

There is a Surge in the Number of Chapters Published this Month: “I agree with what the previous commenter said. It is clearly a rather good opportunity. After all, the streamer’s influence is fairly strong now. If she can learn from Cao Cao and hold the emperor as a hostage to order the rebellious ministers around in his name, it will be even cooler. Streamer, you are my goddess!”

On my Knees Begging for Monthly Passes: No, no — If it really is that simple, why would the streamer and her friends be struggling to make decisions?

Clearly, those four had much higher IQs than the “losers” in the livestream.

How could they not understand things that even the “losers” in the livestream understood?

In the end, a member of the audience that had been following the livestream for a long time, Laosiji Lianmeng, pointed out why Jiang Pengji was struggling so much.

Laosiji Lianmeng: “If she doesn’t go to protect the king? There are benefits, but there are disadvantages too. The main disadvantage is that she has yet to conquer Chengde County and tame the restless local nobles of Shangyang County. If something goes wrong while her troops are away protecting the king, it would be hard for the streamer to keep her headquarters. If she goes to protect the king? It would be even better for her enemies. The royal family of Dongqing is not finished yet. We can deduce this from the fact that they sent requests for protection. Doing so would mean that the streamer is going against royal orders, and it would confirm the rumors that she is a rebel. Then… Heh, if the royal family of Dongqing manages to stage a comeback, they would deal with the streamer first.”

Of course, if the royal family failed to make a comeback and Prince Shouchang gained power, he would also direct his spearhead at Jiang Pengji.

Going against royal orders and refusing royal requests, a person who did so was clearly a rebel, no?

There were some educational and analytical comments in the livestream, but most of the comments were pointless ones sent by bored onlookers.

Jiang Pengji scanned through and found the comments to be quite useless. The corners of her mouth twitched as she closed the comments section.

Meanwhile, the three advisors had reached a tacit agreement.

In his previous incarnation, Wei Ci had spent some time with the bandit version of Jiang Pengji. Under her influence, he had actually embraced his wild side even more than Feng Zhen.

For example, at the moment, Feng Zhen was still restrained and unable to think outside of the box, but Wei Ci had come up with an idea.

However, the idea he’d come up with was ingenious in some senses, but also terrible… really terrible.

“My lord, I feel that there is no conflict,” Wei Ci said. “You want to ‘protect the king,’ but you are worried that it could delay the battle against Chengde County next spring. If that’s the concern, why not take over Chengde County earlier than planned? Maybe it would be just in time for spring plowing next year.”

Feng Zhen and Feng Jin were both surprised, and the former’s expression turned grotesque.