Young man, please stay

Chapter 325: Night Visit to the Empress
Snapped!
Without even a moment to struggle away from Qin Lang's trotters, the empress slammed the booklet on the table, on which was written the word "urgent".

"what happened?"

Qin Lang frowned, and the empress waved her fist several times but failed to break the hand, so she consciously retracted it:
"Anything else?"

"Ah."

Su Yupan let out a long breath and felt strange for a moment.

……

She felt a little unreal because she never thought that one day when she encountered major events in her family and country, she would think of another person first.

Even though this person was not an important official of the country, and was even a traitor, the first thing Su Yupan wanted when he received this urgent intelligence today was to have him by his side, as if he would feel inexplicably at ease as long as he was by his side.

Was it like this before?

It doesn't seem so.

It’s not that Su Yupan has become spoiled.

But the old Su Yupan always felt a sense of emptiness in his heart at this time.

Now it’s only because of Qin Lang’s existence that she can fill in this gap.

Su Yupan felt that, looking at all the monarchs in history, even those who were empresses, would not be like her.

Well…

This seems to be another strong proof that he is not suitable to be an emperor...

……

"This time the news came from the direction of Yizhou."

Su Yupan continued, and Qin Lang's eyes lit up:

"Yizhou?"

"yes…"

Su Yupan glanced at Qin Lang and felt that not only his eyes were brighter, but even his voice was a little higher-pitched. So he snorted barely perceptibly from the tip of his nose, and as if nothing had happened, he took the booklet that Qin Lang was about to open and moved it towards himself.

"?"

"I haven't said anything yet. Why are you more anxious than I am?"

"Well... I am just worried about you, baby. Besides, every citizen has a duty to fulfill national affairs. As a citizen of the Great Zhou..."

"You are a barbarian from Tianshan. When did you become a citizen of my Great Zhou?"

"?"

Qin Lang stared blankly. His mind was just turning around when he heard Su Yupan snort coldly again:
"When it comes to Yizhou, it's like a monkey seeing a peach... Haha, it turns out that holding the old one in my arms is not enough, I always think about the young one..."

"..."

Qin Lang is not stupid, of course he understands what he should understand.

The “old one” is none other than Zhuo Beibei, and the “young one” is Nan Lingyue.

The fact was indeed as the empress said. When talking about Yizhou, Qin Lang thought of the weird, eccentric girl who was always thinking about him.

"Baby, you better be careful with your words and actions. Why did you call Beibei 'old'? If she knew about this, I would be very sorry for her."

"I'll tell you what I mean. How about that? She's my senior sister, and I'm still the emperor."

Su Yupan is not a princess after all. As the emperor, she has "stood up" after the night of Dragon Boat Festival. She can't be as timid in front of the third sister as before. Sometimes... especially when Zhuo Beibei is not around, she can at least stand up more proudly than before.

"Besides, she is your senior sister. I am not your senior sister?"

"Yes, yes, yes... Senior Sister Baby, let's get down to business. What happened in Yizhou? What's the news? Could it be that something happened to the Tianhe Sect?"

"..."

Tsk, you are indeed worried about me.

Su Yupan complained that he was like a pig, but then he thought, if he wasn't a pig, how would he have a chance...

Tsk, forget it.

Really, why do you have to think about these messy things when you have nothing to do.

The empress felt a little regretful. It would have been better if she didn't think too much about it. But when she thought too much about it, she felt inexplicably sour in her heart.

"Rebel."

Su Yupan threw the booklet towards Qin Lang:
"See for yourself."

Qin Lang caught it and after flipping it over for a while, his originally relaxed mood became a little gloomy.

"Yinzhu, Wuer, and Tuoshan are causing trouble at the border... At this point in time, the three countries in the southwest are doing the same thing at the same time. Baby, do you think they are in collusion with Beili?"

"Ah."

Su Yupan nodded slightly:
"That's what I guessed, and most people in the court thought so too. Although the southwestern countries often harassed Yizhou before it was pacified, they often directly invaded each time. If it weren't for the consent of the kings behind them, their actions would be no different from robbers and bandits. But this time..."

Su Yupan lowered his eyelids and flipped through the book again with Qin Lang:

"…This time they suddenly seem to have gotten smarter, so they let some soldiers pretend to be ordinary people, and use stones and hoes to harass the people on the border of Yizhou. If they don't raise troops, it will be difficult for us to mobilize troops. Although there is no evidence for the time being, I still suspect that there is someone behind their trip... Qin Lang, what do you think?"

"At this stage, it's always right to be skeptical."

...Although the empress did not really make such harsh demands on her man, and did not insist that a young hero from the martial arts world give constructive opinions on national affairs like an official of the imperial court, Su Yupan was somewhat surprised that Qin Lang's attitude towards this matter was not only the same as her own, but even more "extreme".

……

"Baby, what do you mean by saying that when foreign countries invade our borders, we cannot mobilize our troops?"

"Eh? It's just that... the southwest border has been pacified for many years, and now they are not blatantly using national force. If we send troops there without authorization, wouldn't it be a bit unreasonable? So..."

"Do not."

Qin Lang shook his head and interrupted Su Yupan:

"Baby, just tell me, in this case, if we don't consider the unjust cause, should we send troops or not? No matter how big or small the war is, it involves the consideration of all aspects of the country. I am sure I don't understand this aspect as well as you do."

The empress thought for a moment and said decisively:

"Of course, it would be best to send troops, but as I said before, sending troops in this way is somewhat against the rules. If we act without authorization..."

"Baby, I want to ask you something. I don't mean anything else. I hope you don't think too much about it, okay?"

"Well, you ask."

"If it were the late emperor, what would he do in this situation?"

"he…"

Su Yupan's thinking was much faster than before:

"He will definitely send troops."

Qin Lang pondered for a moment:

"In fact, I may have the same idea as the late emperor."

"why?"

"how to say…"

Qin Lang thought for a while:
"Baby, I don't know how to govern a country, so I can only express my personal opinions for reference. I think that it is right to follow the rules. Following the rules is a manifestation of civilization, but this is only limited to countries like our Great Zhou, which has been civilized for many years. Are the southwestern foreign countries civilized countries?"

Qin Lang paused:
"Even a scholar cannot explain his reasoning to a soldier, let alone between countries?"

Qin Lang's meaning was very clear. Instead of playing the lute to a cow, it would be more effective to actually whip the cow a few times.

The empress was not unaware of this truth, and there were some ministers in the court who advocated sending troops directly to teach the restless southwestern foreign states a lesson, but Su Yupan also considered some longer-term issues:
"Since the first year of Zhaoguan, the Great Zhou has also made friends with some distant states west of the Tianshan Mountains. They have been friendly with each other, and some have even taken the initiative to come to Zhou to pay tribute in order to seek trade and military protection. There will definitely be more such situations in the future. If we respond strongly to our southwestern neighbors this time, what if in the future..."

"Baby, actually this is the same as what I just said."

Qin Lang pulled Su Yupan's hand:

"My core attitude is that, whether now or in the future, we should try not to think too highly of other countries in the world, and not imagine them by our civilized standards. Is it possible that other countries in the world are still more barbaric and believe more in the law of the jungle? If so, our toughness towards our neighbors will not only not have a negative impact on other countries, but will make them more submissive."

After Qin Lang made this point, he didn't say anything more. It was Su Yupan who was thinking about everything on his own.

Just as Qin Lang said, she knew much more about the situation in Da Zhou than Qin Lang did, and in a more comprehensive way, so in the end she had to decide these matters.

After half an hour of flipping through the files and closing her eyes to think, Su Yupan began to stare at Qin Lang. After staring at him for a long time until Qin Lang felt a little scared, the empress said thoughtfully:
"Don't mention it, some of your words really sound like those of the late emperor."

"So... have you made a decision?"

"Yes, but I won't tell you."

"It's okay if you don't tell me, the main thing is that... Hey..."

Qin Lang rubbed his hands:
"Baby, you summoned an official to an audience late at night. Is there anything else?"

The empress narrowed her beautiful eyes vigilantly:

"What do you mean…"

"Uh... I don't mean anything, it's just... since I'm here, I feel like committing an act of disobedience... ahem..."

Qin Lang was too embarrassed to say it directly, but when he looked at the empress, he saw that although her pretty face was deliberately stern, her eyes contained three parts of smile and seven parts of shame and anger. Her pair of black silk jade feet had quietly slipped out of the embroidered shoes and were lightly touching Qin Lang's calves intentionally or unintentionally.

"Bold Qin Lang, you...you are not going to do anything treasonous to me?!"

"..."

Qin Lang's throat moved. On the one hand, the rich foot fragrance lingered around his nose. On the other hand, looking at Su Yupan's pretending to be embarrassed and flustered, he thought in his heart that the women around him seemed to be getting better and better recently. In the end, he held the empress's jade feet without hesitation and pounced on her like a hungry wolf.

……

"Uh... Your Majesty, I have a request."

"explain…"

"Can you please let your Majesty wear the dragon robe, but...but don't wear anything under the dragon robe except stockings, okay?"

"..."

"Your Majesty?"

"Traitor... I will obey you..."

"Thank you, Your Majesty! Well, Your Majesty, I have one more request. You see, the Golden Palace is closed now, and there is no one on the dragon throne. How about...hiss! No, no, no! I'm just talking casually! It's fine like this, it's fine... By the way, baby, put your hair up first..."

……

(End of this chapter)