Captain Zhang’s expression changed drastically in an instant.

He couldn’t react in time, and before he could understand what was happening, Li Qingyuan, who had dragged a group of commanders over, swiftly dismounted from his horse.

He loudly declared, “Report to the princess: all the commanders of the three major guard armies have been detained here.”

Not only that, but behind him were the soldiers of all three major guard armies.

Today, the three major guard armies had planned to show Wen Yuesheng a lesson by bringing all the soldiers out to the outskirts of the city for training.

When Li Qingyuan and his troops arrived, they were prepared, thinking that Li Qingyuan was sent by Wen Yue Sheng to issue orders for training.

Although they had intended to oppose Wen Yue Sheng, the training was real.

Thus, many of them felt safe, believing that even if Wen Yue Sheng became angry and wanted to punish her subordinates, she couldn’t say anything about the training.

After all, the joint military exercises were approaching, and Wen Yue Sheng had only just taken charge of the three major guard armies. She didn’t know the training methods of each army.

It would be unreasonable to sacrifice the soldiers’ training time just to review them.

This seemed like an unintentional mistake, and since all three major guard armies were involved, even though Wen Yue Sheng was ruthless, she couldn’t blame the soldiers for choosing today for training.

Thus, when Li Qingyuan appeared, most didn’t think much of it.

Only a few commanders, who used to serve under the loyal Duke, noticed that Li Qingyuan’s right hand was wrapped in thick bandages. But it seemed that his injury wasn’t as severe as that of the loyal Duke.

The loyal Duke’s right hand had been ruined, and in recent days, he had nearly gone mad. Anyone who visited his house would suffer.

In contrast, Li Qingyuan didn’t seem troubled by his hand injury.

In fact, Li Qingyuan’s right hand had also been nearly destroyed, but after leaving the palace, Miss Zhou, who was close to the princess, had personally treated him.

His hand had been treated by Zhou Man-niang.

Ironically, after hearing rumors of Zhou Man-niang’s excellent medical skills, those at the loyal Duke’s residence still tried to hire her with a high salary to treat his injuries.

It was as if they had no idea what had caused Li Qingyuan’s injury, or who was responsible.

At the time, these commanders led more than ten thousand soldiers. They didn’t take Li Qingyuan’s sudden appearance seriously, but they didn’t expect that after Li Qingyuan appeared, without saying a word, he immediately ordered his soldiers to detain all the commanders.

The commanders, caught off guard, tried to issue orders to the whole army.

What they didn’t expect was that Li Qingyuan didn’t just bring a few dozen soldiers; he brought with him… three thousand soldiers from the northern city guard.

From the beginning, Wen Yue Sheng never intended to call them in. The three thousand soldiers were the elites from the northern city training grounds.

When Li Qingyuan arrived, he immediately issued an order: anyone who disobeyed military orders would be killed on the spot.

The three major guard armies, which numbered several times more than the northern city training ground, were unarmed during this training.

Furthermore, the soldiers under the commanders only followed their leaders’ orders.

Even if they were willing to resist, they didn’t truly want to oppose Wen Yue Sheng.

Under the suppression of a powerful military, all the commanders were detained, and the army was taken back to the largest training ground in the eastern city.

Captain Zhang was detained.

Hearing the sounds of countless footsteps behind him, he immediately understood that the army was being brought back to the eastern city training ground.

His heart sank.

But the more people there were, the better it was for them.

He exchanged a glance with the other commanders who were also detained and suddenly shouted, “Princess! What you are doing now is excessive and unreasonable! The eastern city training ground has always been praised by the Emperor, and for many years, it has been the strongest of the four guard armies.”

“The things you mentioned, I have never heard of. Yet today, you have detained so many soldiers! These are soldiers of Da Hui, who have made many contributions in the past. How could the princess treat them like this?”

The commanders who were detained beside him also shouted loudly, “Without evidence, the princess has placed such a heavy accusation on us!”

“She claims to be purging the bad elements in the army, but in reality, she is just eliminating rivals! Please forgive us, but we cannot accept this!”

As soon as they spoke, the detained soldiers echoed in agreement.

Even more loudly, one of them shouted, “The Emperor gave the princess the golden belt, but that was not to kill good generals! The princess has control over the four major guard armies, yet on her first day at the eastern city training ground, she acts against so many commanders.”

“This is to chill the hearts of the three major guard armies! And to ignore the army!”

At this point, they realized that Wen Yue Sheng had no intention of letting things go today.

But while she could kill one or two people, it would be impossible for her to kill all twenty or so commanders from the three guard armies.

These commanders were not all from the Loyal Duke, but most were closely connected to him. They weren’t entirely unrelated.

Among them, there were seven or eight who were the Loyal Duke’s trusted subordinates, and many of them had military achievements. They had entered the military long before Wen Yue Sheng.

Wen Yuesheng could not easily gain the trust of the people in the three major training grounds, so she resorted to executing the commanders.

If this matter spread, she might lose her golden belt.

However, despite the situation, Captain Zhang was still sweating coldly. He had expected Wen Yue Sheng to target some of them, but he never imagined that almost everyone would be detained.

When the army appeared, dragging all the commanders, he couldn’t hide his panic.

They immediately labeled Wen Yue Sheng’s actions as eliminating rivals.

Moreover, none of the commanders detained here were from the northern city training grounds.

So when these words were spoken, they still had some impact.

The commanders had been in charge of the three major guard armies for a long time, and their influence was not insignificant.

Otherwise, the situation wouldn’t have escalated like this.

The detained soldiers exchanged looks, and some of them seemed to waver.

Captain Zhang saw this and couldn’t help but breathe a sigh of relief.

No matter how ruthless Wen Yue Sheng was, she couldn’t completely ignore the opinions of the soldiers.

But before he could fully relax, he saw Wen Yue Sheng, still with the same expression, sitting under the blazing sun. She coldly spoke:

“Take Zhang Ji, Wang Youwei, and Liao Qiu out in front of the whole army.”

Her gaze was emotionless, and her eyes, under the bright sun, were as cold as ice.

“Beat them to death with cudgels.”

The entire field fell silent.

Captain Zhang, also known as Zhang Ji, was stunned.

He never expected that after all the commanders united in pointing out Wen Yue Sheng’s actions as establishing authority and eliminating rivals, she would give no explanation and directly order them to be beaten to death.

Such actions…

The army, which had just been somewhat swayed, suddenly fell into complete silence.

Moreover, Wen Yue Sheng did not even gag them.

She let them continue to argue.

They claimed they had done nothing, that Wen Yue Sheng was indiscriminately killing the innocent, and that they were wrongly accused.

But these words, after several military clubs struck them, were reduced to nothing.

Zhang Ji, who had a hard will, couldn’t even get up after his ribs were broken.

As he struggled to breathe, he weakly repeated, “I’m wronged.”

His strength couldn’t support him to say anything more; he could only repeat those four words.

At this point, the entire training ground was silent. Nearly twenty thousand soldiers stood in place, but no one dared to speak.

Wen Yuesheng remained calm, holding a string of red jade Buddha beads.

The color of the beads reflected in everyone’s eyes, emitting a bloody red.

Wen Yuesheng looked down at him, “Are you saying that you were wronged for using the soldiers’ supplies to gain wealth and honor, or were you wronged for killing the soldiers who tried to expose your embezzlement?”

“Are you wronged for your beautiful carriages and women, or for defiling the wives of soldiers and forcing their families to commit suicide?”

The entire training ground erupted in an uproar.

Though Wen Yue Sheng didn’t name names, the soldiers in the eastern city training ground had heard the rumors.

But they never knew that these evil deeds were committed by Captain Zhang, whom they trusted, who always spoke of military merit and regulations.

And it didn’t stop there.

“Tell everyone what you did with the silver that the soldiers contributed,” Wen Yuesheng raised her hand, pointing to another man.

That man had already been beaten nearly to death. At this moment, he couldn’t even speak a complete sentence.

“Speak!” Zhang Yulin’s face was already ashen. Upon hearing the order, Wen Yue Sheng did not need to give further instructions. She immediately seized the general’s hair.

In unbearable pain, the general could not hold out and screamed sharply, “I… I just bought some children…”

A deathly silence filled the room.

Some of the soldiers with children at home instantly realized what was happening and were both shocked and furious.

“This madman, he even inquired about my youngest daughter before!”

“I don’t have children, but Captain Wang has repeatedly hinted to me that my lack of progress in the army these years is because the money didn’t go to the right places.”

“Beast!”

With the examples of these three men, the other detained generals immediately changed their expressions.

“Kill them.” Wen Yuesheng ordered coldly, stepping onto the high platform amidst the chaos.

At that moment, those three men, in front of the massive army, fell silent.

Among the three major guard armies, the eastern barracks was the largest, and thus, the most corrupt. Besides the three men, there were two others who conspired with them.

In the other two guard armies, the southern barracks was somewhat better, while the western barracks had a general who was the mastermind behind embezzling military salaries.

The general, with a fifth-rank military rank, had two deputy officers under him.

When they were dragged out, all of them were terrified.

The matters Wen Yuesheng controlled were far more profound than they had imagined, and with every detail and ledger of the stolen military salaries being exposed, the crimes they committed were undeniable.

All that awaited them was death.

The two deputy officers begged for mercy, while the general, in a panic, shouted, “These things… were all done under orders from above. We were just following orders. Please, Princess, spare me…”

Orders from above.

Everyone’s hearts tightened.

The two most involved barracks, the eastern and western ones, had been under the control of Duke Zhongqin before.

Not only that, but the officer who first informed Wen Yue Sheng about the heavy training that day, Officer Zhang, was also one of Duke Zhongqin’s people.

The man who spoke out in fear of death was a military officer supported by Duke Zhongqin.