After traveling for several days, the group finally reached the camp. But on the way, they received a letter from the general left behind, saying that the Southern Frontier had shown no major moves for several consecutive days.
Su Wan'er guessed that Yuwen Shan was just one of the many powerful figures in the Yuwen family and far from having absolute power. But the current lull in the Southern Frontier might be largely due to the failure of her previous attack.
Since the two had swapped identities, the rule of setting up a separate tent for the emperor was changed. Now the emperor's tent was placed adjacent to the commander's.
After everything was ready, the whole army was preparing for battle. According to the generals' speculation, the Southern Frontier would surely stage a comeback and would never admit defeat so easily.
That night, after settling Yue'er down, Su Wan'er voluntarily walked into Si Junlin's tent.
"Wan'er, you come at this time..." Si Junlin was just about to look for her. Naturally, he was overjoyed to see her come on her own initiative.
"Today, I come here as a subject to ask Your Majesty. Judging from the situation in the past few days, the offensive of the Southern Frontier seems to be less intense than last month. So when will this war end, and what kind of result should we achieve?"
In Su Wan'er's mind, she always advocated peace. Although a peaceful policy towards the Southern Frontier seemed a bit unrealistic, she still hoped that after driving the enemy back across the border, the two sides could live in peace. Of course, there were also many people in the court who advocated concentrating all the troops to conquer the Southern Frontier and make it a vassal state.
This radical idea was not without reason. Now that the Southern Frontier had launched the attack on its own initiative, it had indeed consumed a large amount of its troops and supplies. If the Jin State took this opportunity to launch a full - scale attack, it was not impossible to win, but it would surely cost the country a great deal.
"You come to see me just to talk about this?" Si Junlin was rather absent - minded.
"Otherwise?" Although the situation was currently stable, time on the battlefield was extremely precious. Tens of thousands of soldiers and hundreds of horses all needed to consume military rations and pay.
"What do you think? I'll follow your advice."
"In my humble opinion, the relatively rich land and people accumulated over the years should be cherished. Moreover, although Your Majesty has personally led the army on this expedition, there is still no support from the Chu Army. So it's better to end this war as soon as possible."
"But what if I want to fight?" Si Junlin looked at Su Wan'er and said word by word, "I want to fight with you, conquer the Southern Frontier, and marry you as the queen with the wealth of a nation. How about that?"
"Si Junlin, stop being so childish. I'm not joking with you. Besides, how do you know how to fight?" Su Wan'er really didn't want to talk about this with him anymore.
"I'm not joking either. Princes start reading military strategies and learning military tactics from the age of five. How do you know that I, who became the crown prince at the age of eight and accompanied the late emperor on military expeditions, don't know how to fight?" The unruly look in Si Junlin's eyes faded, and instead, there was a look of determination.
"Moreover, do you think that there is only one way to fight a war between two countries, that is, to engage in direct combat?"
"Hmm?" Su Wan'er was taken aback. "Then what do you want to..."
"Now, according to your thinking, making the Yuwen family lose and supporting the Long family can bring about a short - term peace. But now that the Yuwen family has been in power for many days, most of the elders of the Long family have either been killed or injured and have lost most of their strength. So instead, we might as well directly take down the Yuwen family and annex the Southern Frontier into the Jin State."
Su Wan'er had also considered this problem. Although a few elders of the Long family had escaped, in these days, except for Xiao Jiu, almost all of them had been hiding in the dark, not daring to act. But once the Yuwen family was out of power, the people of the Southern Frontier would surely support other families. If we didn't rely on war, how could they allow the Jin people to rule?
"The Southern Frontier is an ancient tribe and will never allow outsiders to interfere."
"This will require you to make a sacrifice."
"Me?"
"It's impossible for the Jin people to rule the Southern Frontier directly. But as long as the next ruler of the Southern Frontier is on good terms with the Jin State, in just two or three years, with a series of treaties imposed, the Southern Frontier can still become a vassal state that pays tribute to the Jin State every year and is protected by the Jin army."
"You mean... support Xiao Jiu?!" Su Wan'er felt as if a thunderbolt had flashed through her mind. She always thought that Si Junlin was just a wise emperor who was diligent and cared about the people. But she never thought that he could be so calculating.
"Yes. The people of the Southern Frontier will surely not accept the rule of the Jin State. But if the next ruler is friendly with the Jin State, won't the problem be solved? And right now, there just happens to be a candidate who is on good terms with the Jin State. She originally thought that Si Junlin should dislike Xiao Jiu. After all, during the war between the two countries, the ruler should be hostile. And it was always she who was on good terms with Xiao Jiu, while Si Junlin always seemed to be against it. But unexpectedly, he could come up with this idea.
"Yes, so I need you to step in. Although the Long family's strength has declined greatly and most of the elders have either been killed or injured, at least Long Xiao Jiu is the Holy Maiden of the Long family, and the Long family still has the greatest influence in the Southern Frontier."
"Then what do you want to do?"
"Do you know what your Xiao Jiu has been doing in the Southern Frontier these days?" Si Junlin waved his hand and summoned the leader of the secret agents.
"According to my investigation, since the Yuwen family came to power, Long Xiao Jiu has disguised herself as an illegitimate daughter of a collateral branch of the Yuwen family and has ingratiated herself with the eldest elder of the Yuwen family. She had originally obtained the position of the vanguard general of the front army, but now the eldest elder and the second elder of the Yuwen family are in a power struggle over the ruling position."
"Then isn't Xiao Jiu in great danger inside the Yuwen family? Isn't she afraid of being recognized?"
"Except for the ruling figures, the Yuwen people and the Long people have never met each other. Moreover, most of the women in the Southern Frontier wear veils. Compared with appearance, the most difficult thing to fake is identity."
"Then Xiao Jiu is always at risk of being exposed." Su Wan'er immediately thought of this. How on earth did Xiao Jiu gain the trust of the Yuwen people?
"Yes, and this little girl is bolder than we thought. They also found that most of the conflict between the eldest elder and the second elder was caused by her instigation."
What? She was really walking on the edge of a knife.
After the leader of the secret agents left, Su Wan'er became even more worried. Xiao Jiu naturally carried the hatred of the Yuwen family's extermination and the responsibility of being the Holy Maiden of the Southern Frontier, but she didn't have to put her life on the line like this.
"Do you want to hear my plan?"
Su Wan'er remained silent, waiting for him to continue.
"I think that judging from the current situation in the Southern Frontier, since the Yuwen family has internal strife and the public sentiment is unstable, what they desire most now is a truce. But out of face, they would never dare to surrender. If the Jin State takes the initiative to propose a truce at this time..."