Tang Tiexin said, "Lord Hu, two of those four carriages were carrying the princess's dowry."
Hu Xiaotian frowned. Had the carriages contained only everyday supplies, it would have been manageable; they could simply replenish them after passing through Peak Forest Gorge. But a dowry was another matter. Losing it was a grave offense. Although Hu Xiaotian had already planned to help Long Xiyue flee her marriage along the way, he had no intention of dusting off his backside and leaving, never to return to Great Kang. After all, his father and mother were still in the Kang Capital. Doing so would be tantamount to sending his parents down a road to certain death with his own hands. That was something he would never do.
Wen Boyuan and Wu Jingshan also heard about the matter. They came over to the Tang Family Brothers, and Wen Boyuan snapped, "In a crisis, you thought only of saving your own skins and abandoned the princess's dowry. Do you know what crime you've committed?"
Tang Tiexin looked terrified. "General Wen, we didn't want to lose the dowry either, but under those circumstances, there was simply no time to protect it..."
Wen Boyuan was utterly overbearing. "I don't care what the circumstances were. Losing the princess's dowry is a grave offense. Unless you recover it in time, not a single one of you, from top to bottom, will escape punishment."
Though Wu Jingshan's words were not nearly so fierce, the incident had left him deeply uneasy as well. He kept saying, "Oh dear, what are we to do? What are we to do..."
Tang Tiehan had always had an explosive temper, and a rift had formed between him and Wen Boyuan ever since Black Pine Forest. Seeing Wen Boyuan remain so arrogant and push all the