Hu Yan Wei returned to the capital. There was no helping it—his injuries were serious, and he was unfit to continue traveling with the army. He had to come back and recuperate.
His second brother, Hu Yan Ding, was handling the final cleanup against the rebels. Whether he was there or not did not really matter.
In the palace, the Qi Emperor Hao Yuntu was delighted to see his son-in-law return victorious, smiling so broadly that he could barely close his mouth.
"Your Majesty had no idea how perilous the situation was then. This servant led five thousand Valiant Cavalry and rushed there at top speed, cutting into the rebel army from their rear..." Hu Yan Wei described the battlefield situation in extravagant detail, his saliva flying everywhere.
Not only Hao Yuntu, even Bu Xun, the chief palace eunuch standing beside him, found it hard to hold back his laughter.
Bu Xun knew very well that the Emperor was not smiling so immoderately merely because they had won the war. Naturally, that was part of it—he certainly would not have been able to smile if they had lost—but what truly made the Emperor lose his composure was Hu Yan Wei's absurdity.
Some things could be recognized as Hu Yan Wei's boasting about Xuan Yao the moment one heard them. What sort of man was Hao Yuntu? Back when he had fought for the throne, he had led troops into battle himself. He had crawled out alive from mountains of corpses. He could naturally tell truth from falsehood as soon as he heard it.
Moreover, the Emperor had long since received secret reports detailing the course of the battle. He knew everything clearly.
Hu Yan Wei continued chattering away, and the more Bu Xun listened, the more he did not know