Night Raid by the Princess of Beijing

Third Watch before 1 a.m.

Sure enough, every family had its own troubles.

Reclining sprawled out inside the carriage, Sun Shaozong rubbed his throbbing temples and sighed soundlessly to himself.

Liu Xianglian's troubles could at least be helped along by him; his own troubles, however, could only be borne alone.

On the surface, Zhang An's case was exactly as Chou Yunfei had said: Zhang An had brought suffering upon himself for the sake of saving face, and whether Sun Shaozong helped him or not was entirely a matter of goodwill.

But human relationships were never judged that way!

Zhang An was Sun Shaozong's personal guard. Among the entire southern campaign force, he ranked in the top five when it came to closeness with Sun Shaozong.

Moreover, the military had always had a tradition of protecting its own. If they simply watched Zhang An lose his head, who knew what the generals of the southern campaign would think once they returned to the capital?

After all, Zhang An had not behaved disgracefully while drunk. He had acted to avenge the humiliation inflicted upon his wife.

Most of those thousand-odd men had, like him, left their families and livelihoods behind for two years. Who would not feel the same anger and distress upon hearing such a miserable tale?

Once these men returned to the capital, at least a tenth of them would earn promotions through their military merit, and those promotions would be spread across all four capital garrisons.

For now, their influence might not seem all that great, but in the long run, it would be enough to establish the Sun family's base within the capital garrisons—and their loyalty would far surpass that of Sun Shaozu's old subordinates, not to mention the idle pieces Sun Shaozong had arranged in Jinmen Prefecture.