Forced Into the Palace: Becoming the Emperor's Favorite-Chapter 447 Cold Mountain is Excavated

After staying in a safe place for half a day, waiting for the ground-shaking sensation to disappear, Feng Qi led his troops to set off.

Meanwhile, Jiang Huanqing stayed behind with the remaining forces to guard the Marquis of Northwest.

Only after Feng Qi and his men had gone far did Jiang Huanqing gather the remaining soldiers.

He then instructed them.

"Immediately proceed to Yan State, Qingzhou, Anzhou, and Liangzhou. I don’t need to teach you what to say, right?"

"Yes, my lord!"

"Be sure, within seven days, to make all the people link this earthquake to the Marquis of Northwest and the Liu Family’s lack of virtue and conduct, understand?"

"Yes!"

Then, those men shed their disguises and headed to their respective territories.

In those four states, they had already arranged everything pretty much in order.

After a year of being out, it would be a waste of their military might not to leave something behind.

In front of the pitch-dark Marquis of Northwest, he was truly somewhat panicked and confused at this moment.

He never expected the Little Emperor to be so formidable.

Strategy after strategy, he even managed to accurately link the natural disaster to him and the Liu Family.

He had truly underestimated him before.

But for now, he had no means of escape.

He could only place all his hopes on the elder and second brothers in command within the Northwest Army.

Meanwhile, in the Northwest Army Camp in Ganzhou.

The two brothers were equally worried and anxious.

At present, sitting in the position of commanding general was the eldest son of the Liu Family, Liu Xu’er’s father, Liu Qilin.

He had followed his father, the Marquis of Northwest, since childhood, experiencing dozens of battles large and small.

Thus, he had developed extraordinary skills.

If strategy was needed, he had strategy; if courage was needed, he had courage.

Sitting in the command tent at this moment, his face looked very grim.

The Emperor had precisely cut off all their Liu Family’s communications with Shengjing City.

Therefore, he did not know how his father and third brother were doing.

Nor did he know that his beloved daughter had already passed away.

But he had a constant worry in his heart, thinking something might have happened.

However, with his father and third brother’s skills, breaking through the siege should not be difficult.

So he had already ordered people to receive them at all exits of Ganzhou, thinking that news should come soon.

What troubled him at the moment was this "earthquake predicted in advance."

The crack, like a gaping bloody mouth, lay across the border of the Northwest Army Camp.

Quite a few patrolling soldiers fell into it unexpectedly.

One place of grain storage also happened to fall within that crack.

Food for thousands of people was suddenly gone.

Fortunately, they always left room for maneuver in their actions.

So, without this place, there were two others.

Compared to personnel casualties and grain loss, the soldiers’ fear was the hardest to dispel.

Some even began to spread rumors, wondering if they had done something wrong to anger the Heavenly God, causing this calamity.

Uncle Liu intended to suppress these rumors.

But he lacked a good reason.

If he forcibly suppressed them, it might backfire.

So, he only let the military physician tend to everyone’s injuries first.

He then discussed countermeasures in the main tent with his second brother, Liu Qijin.

"This time, the Little Emperor really predicted correctly! There has never been an earthquake in the Northwest, yet it happened now. Big Brother, do you think this earthquake is related to our digging at Cold Mountain?"

Liu Qijin spoke with a hint of uncertainty in his eyes.

Cold Mountain was a peak only thirty miles from the Northwest Army Camp.

It seemed unremarkable on the surface, but inside it hid the saltpeter needed to make land mines.

If not for this, the Marquis of Northwest could not have suddenly possessed so many land mines with which he planned to flatten Shengjing City.

Thus, they had hollowed out much of Cold Mountain.

But this was never disclosed to the outside world.

And now, the most severe part of the earthquake happened to be near the villages around Cold Mountain.

Naturally, this made Liu Er full of speculation.

They weren’t very concerned about how many commoners were affected by the disaster.

Clearly, they had the opportunity to move the people away in advance. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

But due to their disdain, they gave up on the people’s right to survive.

Now, the most important thing to them wasn’t how to rescue the victims.

It was to cover up the entire affair of Cold Mountain being dug out.

Otherwise, if word got out, it would be troublesome.

Such disregard for the people had already led to impending disaster.

Yet, the two brothers were still worried about other things.

Upon thinking of this, Uncle Liu immediately instructed.

"Make sure outsiders do not know about this matter. Arrange to make it look like Cold Mountain was also destroyed by the earthquake, and this must be covered up!"

"Understood!"

Upon receiving the order, Liu Er quickly led five thousand elite troops straight to the villages nearby.

At the same time, the thousand elite troops Feng Qi brought were also rushing to the disaster site.

Probably, the unprecedented tremor had instilled fear in the hearts of the people and soldiers throughout the Northwest Region.

Thus, they encountered little resistance on their way.

The epicenter of this earthquake lay on the border between Anzhou and Ganzhou.

Stretching for scores of miles, no less than dozens of villages were affected.

The disaster impacted at least tens of thousands of people.

But something odd was that some villages suffered tremendous losses in both people and houses, while in others, though the houses were severely damaged, the people remained unscathed.

The commander of the Anzhou Army, Liang Qingde, was at this moment mounted on a tall horse, standing halfway up the mountain, looking down at the devastated Northwest.

He too had developed biases in his heart.

If not for the Emperor’s secret message sent three days earlier, allowing him to relocate the residents from Anzhou’s villages.

Their fate would have been rivers of blood.

In contrast, across the view, the village in Ganzhou was already filled with corpses.

This stark contrast left Liang Qingde at a loss for words.

Messages were sent to both places.

Although he harbored a thousand doubts, for the sake of the people’s lives, he exhausted all means to relocate them.

Before leaving, some incomprehensible villagers were full of complaints.

Saying it was unreasonable to make them leave home in this snowy weather.

And now, when they felt the earth shake, their internal fear was magnified infinitely.

All of a sudden, they were endlessly grateful to Liang Qingde and the Anzhou Army for sheltering them.

Without the Anzhou Army’s evacuation, they would have been the ones crushed under the buildings as mere corpses.

Therefore, while feeling the admiration of the people, Liang Qingde couldn’t help but cast his gaze toward the Northwest Army Camp, allies for so many years.

Could it be that the Liu Family is truly so heartless?

Instantly, he felt endless concern and suspicion toward his ally.

Having dominated the Northwest for many years, he too was subject to the Marquis of Northwest.

He harbored great resentment toward the Little Emperor enjoying peace in Shengjing City.

He pondered why they shed blood and sweat here to establish prosperity for him.

So, he also conceived the notion of rebelling with the Marquis of Northwest.