Chapter 302 Xie Wanniang Receives a Reward

Chapter 302 Xie Wanniang Receives a Reward

Let alone these new, highly lethal weapons, the Chang family father and son have been guarding the blueprints for those outdated versions of cold weapons that Xie Wanniang provided, which could be found in their existing arsenal, and have tried their best to prevent them from being leaked.

This is why, in the past, whenever they obtained something good, they would always send someone to the Chang family in the capital as soon as possible, but this time they only secretly researched and made it themselves.

It wasn't that they wanted to keep it from the emperor and the crown prince, but rather that there were many gossipy people around the emperor and the crown prince, and many of the traitors were simultaneously working for several different companies.

Throughout history, there have been countless individuals who have colluded with foreign enemies for their own selfish interests. Naturally, the Chang family father and son would not have any high hopes or expectations for the officials of the Great Wei Dynasty, as well as the nobles, palace maids, and eunuchs in the palace.

Who knows if some of these people might have a moment of madness and take risks for their own selfish gain?

We mustn't let the small advantage that our Great Wei has painstakingly built up with its new weapons be destroyed by these people who only care about their own petty gains.

The Chang family father and son were in perfect agreement on this point, so neither of them leaked a single word to the capital.

Even Lady Hou, who was busy preparing supplies such as grain and medicine, unfortunately missed the great opportunity to learn some inside information from her husband.

As for the Crown Prince's wife, she was different from the Lady of the Marquis. She was the kind of traditional woman who never left her home and was devoted to being a good wife to her husband.

Although she would help Chang Yao raise money and provisions, her help was limited to using her own dowry to make up for the shortfall, or going back to her family for help.

Unlike Lady Hou, she wouldn't travel around as a woman, nor would she proactively discuss military affairs with Chang Yao.

All along, she had only been doing what Chang Yao asked her to do.

She would never proactively mention or participate in anything that Chang Yao didn't tell her or forbade her to do.

Since she couldn't help with the new weapons, Chang Yao didn't bring it up with her. And since she'd never been interested in these things, she naturally wouldn't ask Chang Yao anything.

Thus, without the knowledge of the Crown Prince's wife and the Lady of the Marquis, Chang Yao and his son quietly completed the matter.

Xie Wanniang, busy remotely directing her subordinates to install various traps and hidden weapons on her estate and demanding that they make appropriate modifications to the estate, had no idea that the Chang family father and son's secrecy work had actually reached their own husbands.

All she knew was that it wasn't until her estate was completely renovated that Jiang Yuan's promise to recommend her for credit was finally fulfilled by the Chang family father and son.

By then, they had already had the first batch of new weapons manufactured. After testing them and getting relatively satisfactory results, Marquis Dingbei Chang Hongchuan finally decided to write a secret letter to the emperor.

Of course, this secret letter was not delivered to the emperor through the usual channels, but rather passed through only his hands and one of his personal attendants throughout the entire process.

His attendant sewed the letter into the pocket of his inner garment to ensure that no one could steal it without him noticing.

Although an uninformed person wouldn't notice anything amiss in this letter that seemed like just casual conversation between friends, he still didn't want to lose his master's letter halfway through.

Accompanying him to the capital were the stewards, nannies, servants, and guards of the Marquis's residence, all ostensibly there to deliver festival gifts.

These people were ordered to deliver festival gifts to the Crown Prince and the Empress, and the attendant in charge of delivering the message also carried a message with him in addition to the secret letter.

Without that key, even if someone deliberately stole the letter along the way, it would just be an ordinary letter.

With that key phrase, the Crown Prince and the Emperor could glean important information from what appeared to be a casual letter from Marquis Chang Hongchuan of Dingbei.

Fortunately, although they were spied on and tested along the way, perhaps because the Marquis of Dingbei's residence did have frequent dealings with the Empress and the Crown Prince in the capital, those who were watching them did not take any harsh measures against them.

Neither surveillance nor probing revealed anything suspicious, so those hiding in the shadows genuinely believed it was just an ordinary holiday gift.

No one knew that the most important thing they sent was actually just a seemingly ordinary letter that was kept hidden close to their body.

There were quite a few people muttering behind their backs, saying that the drought was now a foregone conclusion and countless people were suffering because of it, yet the Marquis of Dingbei's mansion and those people in the royal family still had the mind to go through with these routine exchanges of gifts. It was clear that they did not care about the people as much as people said.

As for the two things that the Marquis of Dingbei donated money and goods to the Baoding Prefecture government, and that the Marquis of Dingbei also sent a team to help the prefect maintain order and transport disaster relief supplies, and the emperor issued an edict requiring local government and government offices at all levels in the surrounding areas to actively provide disaster relief, ensure that the people have water and food, not cause unrest, and report the progress of the disaster at any time, they were tacitly ignored.

It wasn't until the emperor suddenly sent twenty carefully selected guards to Xie Wanniang that those who were loyal to the Tatar royal court or had interests in collusion with the Tatars belatedly realized that something was amiss.

At that time, the drought in the Tatar region was completely out of control. Countless weak tribes died and lost their herds of cattle, sheep and horses. The large tribes began to fight and plunder each other's fertile land.

As the border generals had predicted, the Tatar royal court, unable to control the situation, began to shift its focus outwards. They organized various tribes to select able-bodied men and called upon them to join the royal army in attacking the Great Wei.

Upon receiving this news, Jiang Yuan immediately began helping Xie Wanniang pack her bags.

Anyway, the emperor readily agreed to his request, which he had Chang Yao relay through the middle, to send someone to protect Xie Wanniang, and immediately dispatched twenty carefully selected guards to Xie Wanniang.

With this group of people accompanying and protecting her, and also helping to train the young guards around Xie Wanniang who had never seen blood, even if Xie Wanniang still insisted on leaving all the guards she had previously hired from the Marquis's mansion in Zijing Pass to protect her, Jiang Yuan could rest assured that she could temporarily seek refuge in Tang County.

It should be noted that those guards from the Marquis's mansion, whom Xie Wanniang had previously hired to protect her family, secretly preferred to stay in Zijing Pass rather than go to the manor in Tang County with Xie Wanniang.

The reason is simple: the vast majority of their family members, relatives, friends, and their former master—Chang Yao, the commander of Zijing Pass—will not leave Zijing Pass.