The Empress raised her head and asked, "Little Chenzi, have you returned to me because there's something you forgot to say?"
Chu Chen cupped his hands and asked, "Your Majesty, I heard that the rebel Chen Yuanliang was only defeated by Your Majesty and not captured?"
"That is indeed the case. That rebel had some experts by his side, and his personal guards were also extraordinary. I did not capture him and do not know where he escaped to."
The Empress replied indifferently, then smiled, "What? Could it be that Little Chenzi can capture the rebel Chen Yuanliang?"
"Your Majesty, you might not believe it, but I do know how to capture Chen Yuanliang."
Chu Chen smiled and replied.
"Really? Tell me quickly." The Empress's eyes, filled with authority, lit up with joy.
"Your Majesty, it's like this. I heard that before Chen Yuanliang rose to prominence, he had a so-called hometown in the Yunyue Kingdom, and that hometown was quite close to the northwestern border."
"I was thinking, could it be that Chen Yuanliang directly ran back to his hometown to hide and is secretly plotting something?"
Chu Chen slightly altered his approach, recounting the content related to Chen Yuanliang from his life simulator.
"After Chen Yuanliang fled, I naturally did not forget to send people to search his hometown. However, his escape direction was not northwest, but north."
The Empress frowned and continued, "Moreover, I also sent an urgent dispatch to the local government, notifying them to send people to thoroughly search Chen Yuanliang's residence and property in his hometown, but no useful information was found."
"Only a group of servants left behind were captured. Even his children, wives, and concubines were nowhere to be found."
Chen Yuanliang, that fellow, is indeed cunning. If I didn't have the life simulator, I probably wouldn't have thought he returned to his hometown.
Chu Chen was somewhat surprised, and with a smile, he said, "Your Majesty, I believe this is merely Chen Yuanliang's tactic of feigning to the east and attacking to the west, or shedding his skin to escape."
"The world is vast. With Chen Yuanliang's crime of rebellion, there is no place for him to make a living except in Qin. A single person can hide in the deep mountains and old forests. But with his entire family so well-arranged, it is suspicious."
"You mean?"
The Empress vaguely had an idea, and this idea made her somewhat angry.
"Just as Your Majesty thinks, since Chen Yuanliang was a minister in the court and could corrupt half of the officials, how could his hometown government resist Chen Yuanliang's continuous and focused 'attention'?"
After speaking, Chu Chen deliberately sighed, lamenting the fate of those local officials.
The Empress now understood Chu Chen's meaning. She slammed the table in anger, her chest heaving with emotion.
"This Chen Yuanliang deserves to die! What a brilliant deception! If Little Chenzi hadn't reminded me, I would have truly been deceived by his shedding of skin!"
"Since ancient times, royal authority does not extend to the countryside; scholars in the countryside judge morality."
This refers to how ancient courts could not manage specific villages. The management of these blind spots was controlled by local gentry and powerful families.
If Chen Yuanliang was indeed in his 'hometown,' he would definitely have allied with these people and hidden in the countryside.
Furthermore, the local government's report of a thorough search was also highly suspect.
After calming her emotions, the Empress regained her composure and asked indifferently, "Little Chenzi, I heard you are a martial arts cultivator. Would you be willing to capture this rebel for me?"
"Your Majesty, I am naturally willing, but the matter Your Majesty previously entrusted to me, please hand it over to someone else."
Chu Chen cupped his hands with the demeanor of a loyal minister, without any hesitation.
The Empress was stunned for a moment. It was only then that she remembered that she had indeed assigned Chu Chen a very important task earlier.
Finding talented individuals to fill the vacancies in the court and recruiting soldiers to train an army to compensate for the shortage of personnel in the military.
The Empress thought for a moment and said coldly, "These matters cannot be handled by anyone but Little Chenzi. Fine, let Chen Yuanliang live for a few more days. I will dispatch other experts to capture him."
"If you have nothing else, you may go and attend to your business."
"Yes!"
As Chu Chen just reached the door of the Imperial Study, he heard the Empress smashing things inside and shouting Chen Yuanliang's name in anger.
"It seems Chen Yuanliang dealt a significant blow to the Empress!"
"Indeed. Although Chen Yuanliang is currently in rebellion, he was at least a capable assistant, even a teacher, before the Empress ascended the throne."
Chu Chen shook his head slightly and stopped thinking about it.
On his way back to Qingming Palace, just as Chu Chen turned a corner, he collided with a wooden cart that had poked its head out.
"Ouch~"
"Damn it, what's that smell of dung?"
Chu Chen covered his nose and looked over with disgust.
Five eunuchs, none older than twenty, lay on the ground, surrounded by several wooden carts.
Beside the carts, a pile of foul substances had spilled from wooden barrels, contaminating the clothes of the eunuchs lying on the ground.
Behind them, a middle-aged eunuch stepped forward with annoyance, "What's going on with you lot? You can trip on flat ground while walking?"
"No, Eunuch Wei, we seem to have bumped into someone just now?"
The eunuchs on the ground quickly stood up, lowering their heads, not daring to look at Eunuch Wei, nor daring to touch or wipe off the contamination on their bodies.
"Bumped into someone?"
Eunuch Wei's heart tightened, and he quickly looked towards Chu Chen. The sight almost scared him to death.
But even if he wasn't scared to death, he immediately fell to his knees in fright.
"Eunuch Chu, spare us! Spare us! We didn't do it on purpose!"
Eunuch Wei's face was deathly pale, and he knelt on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly.
This scene also turned the faces of the five eunuchs deathly pale. Without a word, they followed suit and knelt before Chu Chen, completely unconcerned about the filth beneath their knees.
"Alright, alright, all of you get up. Don't kneel here."
Chu Chen, covering his nose with annoyance, tilted his head slightly, avoiding looking at the contamination on the ground.
What kind of mess is this? Walking down the road and bumping into a team cleaning the latrines?
Fortunately, it didn't splash on me, otherwise, Princess Xinyue would be disgusted with me again when I returned.
"Thank you, Eunuch Chu, for your magnanimity!"
Eunuch Wei was overjoyed. He didn't get up immediately but kowtowed three more times after speaking.
The five eunuchs beside him reacted a little slower but followed suit, all of them feeling incredibly fortunate.
"Be careful next time. It's only me. If it were someone else, you would have lost your lives like this."
Chu Chen reprimanded them with displeasure.
"Yes, yes, yes. We will definitely be careful next time, definitely."
"Eunuch Chu, please go slowly."
Eunuch Wei bowed his waist, accompanying Chu Chen with a humble smile.
Just as Chu Chen was about to bypass these杂物 (miscellaneous items) and contamination and continue back to Qingming Palace, his gaze suddenly fell upon the wooden carts carrying the pollutants, which seemed somewhat unusual.
He immediately stopped and turned back to examine them closely with a puzzled expression.
"A wooden cart with one wheel? Isn't this a wheelbarrow? Do wheelbarrows exist in this era?"