The Second Prince’s method for sowing distrust between the mountain bandits and the government was very simple.

He just kept increasing misunderstandings and didn’t give them a chance to explain themselves.

For two parties who originally shared common interests, creating rifts between them by constantly manipulating their benefits was certainly effective.

And where did the benefits of the collusion between officials and bandits come from?

From the common people.

The mountain bandits robbed travelers, and the government did nothing; the mountain bandits harassed citizens in the city, and the government still did nothing.

The government, which was supposed to be the protector of the people, became a shield and enabler of the bandits because of shared interests. The loot taken from the people by the bandits would be shared with the officials, who, having received their cut, were satisfied and would continue to cover for the bandits—thus the cycle repeated.

The Second Prince used a small scheme to create a crack between two parties that should never have stood on the same side to begin with.

This crack wasn’t big at first, but due to the already fragile trust between them and Du Rulin’s sabotage, it grew larger and larger. Within less than half a month, the confrontation between the bandits and officials spread from Qiling County to the neighboring counties of Heyang and Lingbei.

The collapse of trust was so swift that even Guo Xiu, the Prefect of Ji Prefecture, hadn’t anticipated it!

In Yuanyang’s city, inside the Prefect’s residence.

“A bunch of useless trash! How long has it even been? Not even half a month, and you let a group of worthless, unskilled bandits gain the upper hand? And you call yourselves imperial officials—what an utter disgrace!”

Shards of shattered cups and goblets covered the floor of the study. A tall man with hair bristling in anger paced back and forth, chest heaving—clearly furious.

A few people stood in the room, but none dared make a sound.

“What’s the name of the Qiling County Magistrate again?”

Thinking of how the bandit trouble started in Qiling, Guo Xiu turned to those standing there.

“Chai Jin! My lord, his name is Chai Jin.”

“Hah!”

Guo Xiu let out a cold laugh. “Chai Jin—what a fine county magistrate of Qiling indeed!”

He had reminded these people long ago—if there was any sign of bandit activity, send a report, send a report!

But Chai Jin? Absolutely reckless. Despite all the warnings, not a single message was sent!

If he had been able to resolve the problem on his own, maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad. But not only could he not, he dragged two neighboring counties into the mess as well. Now the bandit problem had erupted out in the open!

The thought of this getting out, reaching his superiors or even the Emperor, enraged Guo Xiu.

After all, he had supported those bandits for years, collaborated with them for years—how many bandits were in Ji Prefecture, how capable they were—Guo Xiu knew all of it.

Years ago, when merchants from other regions stopped coming to Ji Prefecture, he already felt the bandit issue was getting too out of hand. He had to start reining them in.

Otherwise, one day, those wild bandits he had allowed to run free might just turn against him.

Guo Xiu had good intentions.

He thought that since he had “raised” the bandits for so many years, they’d be like his own soldiers—follow orders and do as told. So when he told them to keep a lower profile and stop recruiting more men, he never expected them to agree on the surface but go back and ignore everything.

They promised compliance, but once back in their own territory, it was business as usual.

When he realized the bandits were still acting on their own, Guo Xiu understood one thing clearly:

The wolves he had raised were no longer under his control.

As long as there was meat, the wolves were obedient. But when the meat ran out, they would start biting back.

—

While Guo Xiu was weighing whether to send troops to wipe out the bandits, Wei Yu and his group also arrived in Ji Prefecture.

Coming from the previous prefecture, the first county they entered was Ziyang.

Wei Yu was familiar with Ziyang. When He An sought justice from him before, he had mentioned that his hometown was in Ziyang.

Wei Yu had been thinking of checking out Ziyang, but before they even entered the city, while still in the suburbs, they were ambushed by a group of bandits.

“Get off the carriage! Now! If you know what’s good for you, hand over everything valuable!”

Wei Yu, who had been lying idly in the carriage reading a novel, sat upright at the sound of the robbery.

My god!

Someone actually dared to rob them? Ji Prefecture really lived up to its name.

With a group of over a hundred people, and guards who didn’t look easy to mess with, they hadn’t run into any robbers or even anyone trying to block their way.

This was a classic novel scenario—Wei Yu absolutely had to lift the curtain and take a good look.

As soon as he pulled open the curtain, he saw the caravan surrounded by armed bandits.

There were a lot of them, clearly enough to surround the group. While not all of them looked huge or menacing, they certainly looked vicious—and hygiene clearly wasn’t their priority.

Just as Wei Yu poked his head out of the window, a bandit right in front of the carriage raised his blade at him.

Wei Yu: !

Unfortunately for that bandit, before he could even lift his blade, Ding Facai—who had been waiting by the side—kicked him straight into the bushes.

“Aaargh—”

Wei Yu: Tch, pathetic.

That kick was the signal for the guards to move.

Blades unsheathed, arrows loosed, crossbows fired.

The prince’s safety could not be compromised, and these guards, trained by the Gray Guards, were all elite fighters.

Against a bunch of untrained bandits, the guards didn’t even move more than three meters from their original spots before they had subdued every single one of them.

The whole encounter took less than the time to drink a cup of tea.

Wei Yu moved from the carriage to the driver’s seat, watching this one-sided victory unfold with his own eyes.

When Fang Sheng dragged the leader over, Wei Yu applauded. “Nice job, Fang Sheng! Your young master is proud of you!”

Under His Highness’s starry-eyed gaze, Fang Sheng—who hadn’t thought much of it earlier—now felt a faint sense of… pride?

Fang Sheng brought over the bandit leader and asked, “Young Master, how should we deal with him?”

The Gray Guards’ usual style was simple: those who sought death were killed outright.

But now they were guards of a young prince.

The young master was still a child—things had to be handled more civilly.

“Young Master, please have mercy on us! This is our first time robbing, we’re good people! Truly! Please forgive us just this once, we promise we’ll never do it again!”

The bandit leader was a big, burly man, but now he was like a jellyfish. Even while being dragged by the collar, he tried to kneel in front of Wei Yu.

Bandits might be uneducated and fearless, but to become a leader, you had to at least have some sense.

This group had looked like regular merchants at first, but these guards—far too powerful for that!

What merchant hires guards this skilled?

Damn, these guys were killers!