Protect Our Chief

...

Wu Xue Ning looked speechless, secretly rolling her eyes.

Clearly, in the past few decades, since Emperor’s Son An began his diligent governance, with the nation’s strength on the rise, the Ancestor found himself with nothing to do.

So, out of sheer boredom, the Ancestor began getting irrationally jealous, especially towards Patriarch Shouzhe, constantly nagging with dissatisfaction.

"Also, Xue Ning, you and An Ye seem to be in frequent contact. You should pay attention to your status because soon Yiluo and An Ye will be getting married," Emperor Longchang said earnestly, "Our Wu Family marrying a Commandery Princess into the Wang Family is already a great honor for them, so don’t you dare send another."

Wu Xue Ning blushed instantly, stamping her foot in frustration: "Grandfather, what are you saying? An Ye and I, we, we have nothing going on. We’re just friends, and it’s normal for us to write to each other."

In terms of seniority, Emperor Longchang is her Ancestor Grandfather, but on this trip outside, the Emperor insisted on pretending as a "commoner," and since he doesn’t appear particularly old, calling him grandfather seems more prudent.

The most speechless thing for Wu Xue Ning is that this time, when Ancestor Grandfather said it was an undercover investigation, it is actually just playing. From Qeng’an County to Lingbei County, along the way, it’s basically playing the trick of a sheep in wolf’s clothing.

Whenever encountering some unfair or unpleasant incidents, he either has Old Yao go up to cause trouble, or has her, Wu Xue Ning, act as bait. Then, step by step, they lure out the opponent’s true face, making them use dirty methods to persecute the "weak." At the critical moment, he dramatically reverses the situation completely to turn it around.

Each time after revealing himself as the Emperor, seeing those local bullies being scared stiff, crying and begging for mercy, he couldn’t be more pleased.

He simply enjoys it thoroughly.

On this journey, in just a few months, Ancestor Grandfather managed to dismantle five violent forces from the local villainous Black Tortoise Noble Families, eight City Guards, and even almost implicated the Commander of Lingbei County.

Ancestor Grandfather had a grand name for it: Anyway, being idle is being idle, it’s perfect to investigate the grassroots Noble Family environment that can’t be normally reached, to help "Emperor’s Son An" clean up the local Noble Family tumors, and to play his residual light and heat as an outdated Emperor.

But privately Wu Xue Ning overheard Ancestor Grandfather and Old Yao saying: "Old Yao, I feel like I’ve wasted this life, it turns out that undercover investigation is so interesting, sheep in wolf’s clothing is so satisfying. No wonder Wang Shouzhe, that guy, hides his strength whenever he has any, buys various Concealing Breath Treasures to play weak, and also likes just this kind of thing."

"If you talk about the world’s top villainous force, it must be Wang Shouzhe, that guy. So my final stop must be a good meeting with Wang Shouzhe."

This left Wu Xue Ning torn between laughter and tears.

I don’t know what exactly the Patriarch Shouzhe did to Ancestor Grandfather to make him constantly talk about Patriarch Shouzhe, and mostly not in a good way, with such lingering resentment almost overflowing.

The River Boat went downstream quickly.

In just half a day, it reached the junction of Anjiang and the Great Wilderness Marsh.

Since ancient times, Anjiang and the Great Wilderness Marsh have been inseparable, connecting one another. During the rainy season each year, a large amount of water flows into the Great Wilderness Marsh, turning it into a vast ocean-like body.

And in the dry season each year, the water of the Great Wilderness Marsh gradually evaporates, forming a giant swamp wetland environment.

However, Wang Shouzhe’s Anjiang governance plan also includes plans to manage and develop the Great Wilderness Marsh. He built a giant river dyke stretching a hundred miles following Anjiang’s natural curve, forcibly separating Anjiang from the Great Wilderness Marsh.

Then, within the river dyke, several giant sluice gates were constructed to artificially control the flow of Anjiang’s water into the Great Wilderness Marsh.

Moreover.

Wang Shouzhe and Taishi An Kang also gathered hundreds of thousands of laborers, conscripted a large number of Noble Family experts, and even mobilized part of the army for large-scale dredging, digging soil, and constructing embankments in the Great Wilderness Marsh, and planted a large number of trees on the embankments, all aimed at significantly increasing the water storage capacity of the Great Wilderness Marsh.

And this plan is not something that can be done in just a short ten or eight years, not even a hundred years would be short.

As for this massive plan that exhausts the people and drains finances, Emperor Longchang doesn’t really agree with it, thinking it would be better to develop more land, with that much money, it would be wiser to attack the Southern Border, possibly opening up a new County.

Thinking of the Southern Border, Emperor Longchang’s face turned somewhat unpleasant again.

All along, the Southern Border has been a thorn in his heart, a small blemish in his millennia-long "perfect Emperor career."

Initially, after Emperor’s Son An took over governance, he expected him to immediately start the Southern Border conquest plan, to silence the gossipers, and let those who believed Emperor’s Son An ascended by "luck," including the Royal Race and Noble Families, see his measures. Incidentally, it would also help the Emperor in clearing this heart thorn to perfectly retire with great merits.

Yet after planning and planning, it is still just in planning stage now, gradually nearly no one mentions Southern Border conquest anymore.

Could it be that Emperor Longchang has to go with this heart thorn and regretfully pass away?

It must be Wang Shouzhe, that guy, who is secretly being crafty. He must be resenting me for giving him a hard time several times, that’s why he privately incites Emperor’s Son An to delay the Southern Border conquest plan.