Protect Our Clan Leader
Chapter 1141 - 86: The Great Emperor Arrives at the Wang Family! Unsettled Feelings

...

Wu Xue Ning rolled her eyes speechlessly.

It was clear that in the recent decades, ever since Emperor Zi'an took his diligent role supervising the state, the national power had been steadily increasing, and the Old Ancestor had run out of things to do.

And now, out of sheer boredom, the Old Ancestor had begun to be jealous of all sorts. Especially towards Master Shouzhe, the Old Ancestor was never short of complaints, seeming to have various dissatisfactions with him.

"Moreover, Xue Ning, you've been in frequent contact with Anye. You must be mindful of your status. Before long, Yiluo and Anye will be wed," Emperor Longchang advised earnestly, "Our Wu's Family marrying a Commandery Princess to his Wang family is already a great honor for them. Do not give me another reason to send you as well."

Wu Xue Ning's face turned red, and she stamped her foot, exclaiming, "Grandfather, what are you talking about? Anye and I, we're just friends. It's perfectly normal for us to communicate."

By relation, Emperor Longchang was her great-great-grandfather, but this time while they were out, the Emperor insisted on pretending to be a "commoner," and since he didn't look particularly old, calling him Grandfather was more prudent.

What left Wu Xue Ning speechless was how the Old Ancestor claimed to be conducting a discreet investigation in disguise when, in reality, he was simply having fun. Traveling from Qing An Prefecture to Northern Ridge Province, he had mostly been playing a game of feigned ignorance.

Whenever they encountered injustice or something displeasing, it was either sending Old Yao to be a decoy or making her, Wu Xue Ning, act as the bait. Then, using small clues to lead others into revealing their true nature, they would force the hand of their adversaries, who resorted to dirty tricks to oppress the "weak". At the critical moment, the Old Ancestor himself would suddenly turn the tables completely.

Every time he revealed his imperial identity, watching those who plagued the region with their wrongdoings shaking in terror and begging for mercy brought him an indescribable pleasure.

He never tired of it.

On this journey alone, within a matter of months, the Old Ancestor had dealt with five "local bullies" from the Profound Martial Prominent Families, eight City Lords, and nearly implicated the Prefectural Governor of Northern Ridge Province too.

The Old Ancestor glorified it: Since I'm idling anyway, might as well inspect the base level of the Prominent Families' environment that's usually out of reach, and help "Emperor Zi'an" eradicate the cancer of the local Prominent Families, making use of an aging Great Emperor's afterglow and remaining warmth.

But Wu Xue Ning privately heard the Old Ancestor confiding to Old Yao, "Old Yao, I feel like I've lived in vain all my life; it turns out that discreet investigations are so interesting, and playing dumb while being strong is so exhilarating. No wonder that scoundrel Wang Shouzhe, whenever he has some power, always hides and holds back, and often buys all kinds of treasures to conceal his strength and play the weakling. It seems he enjoys it too~"

"If we talk about the leading forces of evil in this world, it would definitely be that scoundrel Wang Shouzhe. Therefore, for this last stop, we must have a good meeting with that Wang Shouzhe."

This left Wu Xue Ning both crying and laughing.

What on earth had Master Shouzhe done to the Old Ancestor? The Old Ancestor couldn't stop talking about Master Shouzhe, and it was rarely anything good, his grievances almost spilling over.

The riverboat sailed quickly downstream with the current.

In just half a day's time, they arrived at the confluence of Peace River and the Great Wilderness Marsh.

Since ancient times, Peace River and the Great Wilderness Marsh have been inseparable, interconnected as one. During each year's rainy season, a vast amount of water would flow into the Great Wilderness Marsh, turning it into a vast sea.

And during the dry season each year, the water in the Great Wilderness Marsh would gradually recede, forming a massive swamp wetland environment.

However, Wang Shouzhe's Peace River management plan also included the Great Wilderness Marsh management and development plan. Following the natural course of Peace River, he constructed a gargantuan dyke spanning hundreds of miles, forcibly separating Peace River from the Great Wilderness Marsh.

Then within that dyke, several massive sluice gates were constructed to artificially control the flow of water from Peace River into the Great Wilderness Marsh.

Beyond that.

Wang Shouzhe and Taishi Ankang had summoned hundreds of thousands of laborers, recruited numerous experts from the Prominent Families, and even mobilized parts of the military to conduct large-scale dredging and earth-moving of the Great Wilderness Marsh, building embankments and planting a large number of trees on them. The goal was to significantly increase the water storage capacity of the Great Wilderness Marsh.

Moreover, this plan was not something that could be completed in merely ten or twenty years; even a hundred years would be too short.

Emperor Longchang was not particularly supportive of this immense and costly plan. With such efforts, it would be better to clear more land; with that much money, it would be better to conquer the Southern Frontier and establish a new prefecture.

Just the thought of the Southern Frontier caused Emperor Longchang's complexion to worsen.

The Southern Frontier had always been a thorn in his side, a small stain on his thousands of years of the "perfect Great Emperor's career."

He had assumed that, after Emperor Zi'an started supervising the country, he would immediately initiate the Southern Frontier conquest plan to silence the critics and show those Imperial family and Prominent Families who thought Emperor Zi'an had ascended by "luck," his true capabilities. It would also serve to remove the thorn from his heart so he could abdicate perfectly and completely with good merit.

But plans were still just plans, and now there was seldom any talk of the Southern Frontier conquest.

Could it be that he, Emperor Longchang, would have to depart this world with this regret?

It must be that scoundrel Wang Shouzhe playing tricks in the shadows. He must be resentful of how I've given him a hard time on several occasions, and now he's secretly encouraging Emperor Zi'an to delay the Southern Frontier conquest plan.