Chapter 142 Final Chapter (End) ◇

◎Jinjiang exclusive◎

: The reason why the Fourth Prince's attempt to force the emperor to abdicate was almost successful was that he took his opponent by surprise!

It turned out that a few years ago, Zhang Zhen, the eunuch in charge of the Imperial Stables, and a junior general from the Imperial Guard had been bribed by him and became his allies...

The betrayal of these two people is enough to prove that the Fourth Prince had been secretly cultivating his own power a few years ago!

Because the Fourth Prince led his men directly out from the inner harem, the rest of the palace was completely unguarded. Furthermore, the Fourth Prince's men had previously trapped the Twelfth Prince, the commander of the guards. The hundreds of guards were leaderless, unaware of what was happening, and afraid to move. This sudden attack gave the Fourth Prince and his men an opportunity to quickly seize control of the harem...

Therefore, when the turmoil in the harem was quelled, the imperial guards in the outer city still didn't know what had happened...

In fact, not only the Imperial Guards, but even the Imperial Household Department, which was right next to the Imperial Stables, would have been completely unaware of the turmoil if Zhou Jin hadn't started the fire.

If it weren't for that fire, by the time they found out, the ownership of Dayan might have changed! !

At this time, Eunuch Li was receiving the satisfied look from his godfather, Eunuch Lu, and was thanking the fire from the bottom of his heart. Without the fire, how could he have saved Prince Rui and the twelfth prince, not to mention the great merit of helping the two of them to save the emperor!

The Twelfth Prince and Zhu Xi were also grateful for the fire, but the difference was that none of them knew who had set the fire, and why had that person refused to show up afterwards?!

One understood everything when the fire started...

The Twelfth Prince naturally realized that the fire was deliberately set by someone, otherwise it would be impossible for several sheds storing hay to catch fire at the same time. Moreover, they later discovered that those troublesome thieves had been dealt with in advance.

But who is that person?! Why did he save them but refuse to show himself? The twelfth prince couldn't figure it out...

…

"Twelve, gather all the Royal Guards and Guards for me. I want to go and see for myself!"

After hearing that Lan Ting's men were leading troops to attack the inner city, Emperor Chengqian immediately gave orders to the twelfth prince under him! He wanted to personally lead the troops to the inner city gate to supervise the battle!

This move immediately aroused opposition from everyone in the room, especially Zhou Yu. After checking, she found that the blood that Emperor Cheng Qian had vomited in anger was not serious, but after the previous tossing and turning, the wound that was supposed to be sutured tomorrow had been torn open again...

Seeing that he still refused to lie down, Zhou Yu immediately frowned and said rudely:

"If you want to stay in bed for another month or two, go ahead!"

"Father, let me take the others over! It's more important for you to recover from your illness!"

The twelfth prince, who was standing by, didn't know what Emperor Chengqian was ill with, but seeing how serious Zhou Yu said it was, he immediately followed suit and said...

With the help of Lord Su and others, Emperor Chengqian finally had no choice but to stay in the palace. However, he was still worried about the thousands of soldiers under Mu Qingni, fearing that they would not be able to stop the people under Lan Ting, so he gave orders to Mu Feng who was standing by:

"I'm afraid the three main camps still don't know what's happening in the capital. Quickly send more scouts out of the city to mobilize troops from the three main camps to quell the rebellion..."

"Your Majesty, rest assured. You originally instructed me to keep an eye on the movements of Duke Su's men. After returning to the capital, I handed this matter over to my trusted subordinates. Duke Su has caused such a big commotion, it's impossible for them not to notice. They should have already notified the three camps by now..."

Seeing Emperor Cheng Qian was anxious, Mu Feng on the side hurriedly reported back.

Emperor Chengqian felt relieved after hearing this...

…

A moment later…

As expected, the twelfth prince, who had gone to support Mu Qingni, sent troops to report back, saying that the Tiger Guard Battalion, the Dragon Sovereign Battalion, and the Eagle Battalion had already dispatched troops to join forces to encircle and suppress the rebels. The inner city was also intact under Mu Qingni's defense and had not been breached...

The ministers finally felt relieved...

Half a day later, the rebels were suppressed, and the leading generals were captured. Most of them were Lan Ting's adopted sons or close confidants...

However, Lan Renhao, the son of Lan Ting, the leader of the group, was not among them, and Lan Ting himself was nowhere to be found...

According to the confessions of several adopted sons of Lan Ting who were captured, they did not know that the attack on the city was a rebellion, but it was because they received an order from the Duke of Su that said that the Prince of Xiang had joined forces with the Marquis of Pingxi to rebel, so Gu Cai led his troops to Beijing to quell the rebellion!

After being captured, they were held in different locations for interrogation, so there was no possibility of collusion. They all had warrants in hand, so it seemed like they were telling the truth.

After the interrogation, all the evidence seemed to indicate that the rebellion was probably just Duke Su's alliance with the Fourth Prince, and no one else was involved...

"I don't believe my uncle would rebel, especially with my fourth uncle!"

After hearing all this, Zhu Xi couldn't help but speak. Although he and his great uncle had been extremely unhappy over the Lan Renhao incident in the past few months, and his great uncle had indeed once wanted to help him get promoted, even when they last met, his great uncle was still reminding him to be wary of his fourth uncle. How could he suddenly unite with his fourth uncle?

Emperor Chengqian was also very puzzled by this, but to confirm it, he had to find Lan Ting and his son first... Therefore, he immediately ordered the main roads around Kyoto to be blocked, and appointed Zhou Jin to lead a search for the whereabouts of Duke Su and his son...

…

Three days later, Zhou Jin received a message from Zhou Dai, saying that their people had found traces of someone suspected to be Lan Renhao on a barren mountain outside Beijing. He hurriedly led his men to chase after him and finally caught the ragged Lan Renhao in a narrow cave.

According to his account, the Duke of Su, who had been imprisoned by him, was found in a cellar in a farmhouse outside Beijing.

It turned out that three months earlier, Duke Su had discovered that the murders on their estate were indeed related to his son, Lan Renhao. In a rage, he not only beat Lan Renhao half to death, but also attempted to seize his position as Crown Prince and imprison him...

Unexpectedly, before Duke Su took action, Lan Renhao had already learned the news from one of Duke Su's adopted sons.

The adopted son of Duke Suguo had never been valued by the Duke Suguo, so he secretly defected to the Fourth Prince a few years ago.

Under the advice of Duke Su's adopted son, Lan Renhao, upon regaining consciousness the next morning, supported by his wife and children, knelt outside Duke Su's courtyard, weeping bitterly and begging his father to give him another chance...

He even said that he didn't want the throne, and only wanted to be able to be filial to his father... He kowtowed so hard, almost to the point of dying...

Duke Suguo has always felt guilty towards his son, and thinks that he is largely responsible for his son's current situation. When he was young, he only knew how to lead troops to fight and build achievements, but he neglected to discipline his only legitimate son and only knew how to indulge him, which led to his current willful behavior!

Seeing that he seemed to truly want to repent, and with his grandson crying out for help, Duke Su finally relented and agreed to let him stay in the mansion temporarily until he recovered from his injuries...

After that, Lan Renhao seemed to have truly become a different person. Not only did he exercise extreme caution in his words and actions, rarely leaving the palace, but when he heard that Duke Su's old illness had recurred, he personally attended to him, taking care of him day and night...

Knowing that the imperial doctors in the capital were helpless to treat his father's old injuries, he sent people to search for doctors and medicines everywhere, hoping to relieve his father's pain...

Finally, he actually found a "good medicine." After taking it, Duke Suguo felt that the effect was excellent. Not only did the pain in his body disappear, but he also felt extremely comfortable every time he took it...

I gradually became dependent on this drug... I felt so uncomfortable every day when I didn't take it...

A few days ago, two days before the Fourth Prince's abdication, when Duke Su was about to take his medicine again, Lan Renhao suddenly asked for his general's token...

Although Duke Suguo had been idle at home for a long time, his adopted sons were still active in the army and only followed his orders.

Duke Suguo naturally understood the importance of the military token in his hand. Even Emperor Chengqian was afraid of it, so how could he easily hand it over? Naturally, he refused...

But he didn't expect that when his son saw that he refused to hand over the talisman, he actually stopped his medication...

After a day, Duke Su, unable to endure this inhuman torture, finally took out the talisman...

To prevent Duke Su from regretting his actions later and reporting the incident, Lan Renhao took him out of the palace under the pretext that he was going out for a trip and imprisoned him in a manor arranged by the Fourth Prince... intending to release him after the deed was accomplished...

After hearing Zhou Jin's account of the whole story, Zhou Yu and his wife consulted Emperor Chengqian and personally visited Duke Su in prison. As they had suspected, they saw that he had become addicted to drugs and was currently in the midst of a drug addiction attack...

Wrapped up like a silkworm chrysalis by the jailer, he was still struggling and howling in agony. When he saw Zhu Xi, he immediately cried and begged him to get him some medicine quickly.

Zhu Xi saw that in just a few months, his uncle, who was once known as the number one war god of Dayan, was tortured beyond recognition. He disregarded his dignity and begged for mercy from everyone, just to get even a little bit of medicine.

I couldn't help but pay attention to the harm of the drug his wife mentioned...

And I was getting increasingly fed up with Lan Renhao's cold-bloodedness and ruthlessness...

If the person who created this drug is guilty of causing great harm to others, then Lan Renhao, who knew the drug's potent effects and yet still murdered his own father, is even worse!

…

Zhou Yu had already learned all about the harmful effects of drugs in textbooks in his previous life. He couldn't learn any more, and he couldn't know any more! Therefore, he had an even greater responsibility to prevent the spread of this drug, otherwise, who knows how many people would be harmed!

Therefore, upon returning, Zhou Yu and his wife reported the matter to Emperor Chengqian and explained the dangers of this item to him one by one...

When Emperor Chengqian heard that even someone as fearless as Duke Su was being tortured by this drug and forced to do whatever he wanted, he immediately took it seriously...

He immediately sent people to interrogate the Fourth Prince's men, and eventually learned that the medicine was all made by a Taoist priest. He then quickly sent a large force to arrest the Taoist priest...

After interrogation, it was revealed that the Taoist priest had once sailed out to sea and, on a small island, discovered a flower commonly used by the locals as medicine. The flower had the effects of calming the nerves, promoting sleep, relieving pain, stopping diarrhea, and forgetting worries. The locals called it "□□." The Taoist priest brought back some seeds of the flower and began planting them...

Later, he accidentally discovered that the drug extracted from this flower was addictive, so he decided to use it to make a fortune...

Knowing the source of the drugs, Zhou Yu hurriedly led his men to the Taoist's poppy cultivation site. He was relieved only after personally watching the men completely destroy the plants...

…

With Lan Renhao finally being apprehended, the fact that the Fourth Prince led his troops to force the palace was finally clarified, and the generals who followed the Fourth Prince were severely punished. Some were beheaded, some were exiled... In a short period of time, a large number of heads fell to the ground!

The fourth prince ended up like his second brother, trapped in a life of despair.

However, because his son Zhu Xu did not support his rebellion at the critical moment, and risked his life to save the twelfth prince and Zhu Xi, after investigation, it was found that his eldest son was not involved.

In the end, the Fourth Prince's arrest only included him and his wife, and his princely title was revoked. His two legitimate sons were pardoned and continued to enjoy the treatment of the Emperor's grandsons...

Also demoted to a commoner was Duke Su Lan Ting. Emperor Chengqian originally wanted to kill him, but because the wife of Duke E personally came to the capital to plead for him,

Zhu Xi also argued that even if his uncle was guilty, his numerous military achievements for Dayan were enough to offset his faults and save his life!

In the end, considering the sake of his grandson and his relative, the wife of the Duke of E, Emperor Cheng Qian decided to spare the lives of the whole family!

Except Lan Renhao!

Under trial by the Ministry of Justice, the Supreme Court, and the Censorate, Lan Renhao, after being severely tortured, not only confessed his conspiracy with the Fourth Prince but, under the accusations of the Fourth Prince's men, was also forced to admit to the brutal murder of dozens of women...

His crimes were too numerous to list, and he was eventually sentenced to death by slow slicing. The execution was carried out in public at Caishikou three days later!

Two days before Lan Renhao's execution, the wife of Duke E secretly took Duke Su's family back to her hometown to prevent her family from being despised by the people of Kyoto because of him!

…

Three days later, Lan Renhao began the execution...

The people of Beijing all rushed to tell each other about it, and the scene was even more lively than Zhu Xi's wedding...

The families of the women who were tortured and killed by him brought paper money and spirit tablets. While watching Lan Renhao's execution, they snatched away his cut flesh and offered them in public in front of the spirits of the women he had tortured and killed. Their wails were simply earth-shaking!

Even so, one mother was still not satisfied and actually rushed to the execution platform, insisting on cutting Lan Renhao with her own knife to avenge her daughter's tragic death!

The supervising judge this time was none other than the Dali Temple official who had tried the murder cases of those women. He was disgusted by Lan Renhao's crime of killing dozens of innocent women. Seeing how miserable this mother was, he actually agreed to her decision!

After the mother took the knife, she gritted her teeth and very slowly cut off a piece of flesh from Lan Renhao's chest. Seeing Lan Renhao grimacing in pain and screaming heartbreakingly, she immediately burst into laughter.

But those bursts of laughter sounded even more miserable than crying...it made people's noses sore.

The mother laughed and cursed at Lan Renhao:

"You beast, you actually feel pain?! When you hurt my daughter, did you ever imagine that you would end up like this?"

She started crying again while laughing, then picked up the piece of flesh she had just cut off and stuffed it into her mouth, chewing it in front of Lan Renhao, crying as she chewed:

"Lan'er! Mother has avenged you! My daughter! Mother has finally gotten revenge for you!"

Her crying immediately attracted the mothers around her who had suffered the same fate as her to cry together, and the people who were watching the execution also shed tears!

Lan Renhao's execution lasted three days, with a total of 3,357 cuts. The people of Kyoto watched for three days. Of course, he died on the second day, but the executioner insisted on completing all the cuts even after his death...

The way he died finally made the mothers who lost their daughters feel a little relieved!

As for how to ease the sadness of losing a child in the future, it can only be left to time...

Just like this, in the long river of time, there are always people who die, but there are always people who are born...

Time flies, and soon half a year has passed. Kyoto has long since returned to its former tranquility...

On the first day of May that year, Mu Qingni took the lead and gave birth to a chubby boy weighing six and a half kilograms to Zhou Jin just one hour later. Zhou Jin, who had prepared a room full of baby girl clothes, was very "delighted"!

Then, on the sixth day of the fifth lunar month, Zheng also successfully gave birth to a son, disappointing the Zhou brothers, who had always wanted a sister, and Zhou Jin, who was also looking forward to having a sister to make up for the regret of not having a daughter.

But the two babies didn't care about their thoughts. They ate and slept as usual. In just ten days, they grew from wrinkled babies into two small balls. Everyone loved them, especially Zhou Yu. Looking at the two fat babies like cotton candy, he suddenly wanted to have a child of his own...

Zhu Xi is so handsome, it would be a waste of his good genes if he doesn't have a few children!

…

Mu Qingni returned to work three months after giving birth and left her son directly to her mother-in-law to be raised. After all, her son and his uncle were only five days apart, just like a pair of twins. Her mother-in-law had to raise both one and two!

This move directly led to a year later, when both children began to learn to speak, his son saw the couple and directly called them with his uncle: "Big Brother, Oshima!"

Of course, this is all in the past.

In September of that year, Emperor Chengqian finally decided to appoint the twelfth prince as crown prince under the advice of Su Ge Lao and others. After several attempts to refuse, the twelfth prince took Zhu Xi out for a night of drinking, saying that he had never thought that the position would fall to him... He had thought...

Zhu Xi smiled and said, "As the saying goes, those who are capable should do more work. Uncle Twelve, I am the first one to be impressed by your taking this position!"

Three months later, when the new year came again, Emperor Cheng Qian announced his abdication and became the first emperor emeritus of Dayan.

The twelfth prince officially succeeded to the throne and became the second monarch of Dayan, with the reign title of Longhe.

In March of the same year, after attending the inauguration ceremony of Emperor Longhe, Zhu Xi and his wife officially moved to their vassal state of Yunnan...

In addition to traveling, the couple also vigorously developed local specialty crops such as sugarcane, tea, and Chinese herbal medicine...

A few years later, Yunnan, once considered a semi-wild land, became prosperous. Its sugar, Pu'er tea, and Chinese herbal medicines such as Panax notoginseng, Gastrodia elata, and Dendrobium officinale were sold all over the country and were highly recognized.

Not only did they achieve self-sufficiency, but they were also able to pay a high amount of taxes assigned by the court! !

At the same time, Emperor Longhe also promoted potato cultivation throughout Dayan. This high-yield crop was immediately welcomed by the common people. In just a few years, it became the third most important food crop after rice and wheat.

The food crisis that had plagued Dayan since its founding was finally resolved...

After Emperor Longhe came to power, he not only focused on economic development, but also attached great importance to the cultivation of talents.

Under the initiative of Zhou Po, Zhou Jin and others, mathematics, engineering, foreign languages, etc. were added to the Four Books and Five Classics and integrated into the imperial examinations.

In the second year of Longhe, Su Mo, the great-nephew of Su Ge Lao, became the first number one scholar under the new imperial examination system. Three years later, Zhou Li, who was only 22 years old, followed in Su Mo's footsteps and ascended the throne of number one scholar. In the same year, he married Su Mo's sister Su Qing.

In the seventh year of Longhe, news came that the Western Regions were occupied by Luosha. Emperor Longhe appointed Zhou Jin as the general and Prince of Yan, the eighth grandson of the emperor, Zhu Xu, as the deputy general, to officially launch an expedition against Luosha.

At the beginning of the eighth year of Longhe, after nearly a year of fighting, Zhou Jin and others finally drove the Russians out of the territory of Dayan, and took the opportunity to recapture Ili, Puli and other places occupied by the Russians during the previous dynasty, and officially incorporated them into the territory of Dayan.

In September of the same year, Emperor Chengqian died in his sleep at the age of 79, ending his heroic and glorious life.

In the ninth year of Longhe, due to frequent conflicts among the tribes in the newly recovered Western Regions, Zhou Jin was conferred the title of Marquis of Wu'an by Emperor Longhe, and concurrently served as the Jiedushi of the Western Regions, officially leading troops to garrison the Western Regions. Mu Qingni was also conferred the title of Princess Yongning by Emperor Longhe, and was promoted to General Zhaowu, allowing her to take up the post with Zhou Jin along with her two sons.

Therefore, Mu Qingni became the only marquis' wife in the history of Dayan who had a higher official position and title than her husband without relying on her husband to earn an imperial decree!

However, although Emperor Longhe allowed Zhou Jin and his wife to take their children to the Western Regions, because neither of them cared about taking care of children, they ultimately decided to leave their two sons behind and give them to Zheng to raise...

I felt that in Kyoto, not only were there the grandparents, Zheng and Zhou Zelin, but also uncles and aunts like Zhou Po, Zhou Luo, Zhou Li, and Zhou Ying. The two children would receive a better education and care than if they were with them alone...

Although Zhou Zelin seriously suspected that Zhou Jin was "favoring daughters over sons" and didn't care about his two sons, he finally agreed to take on the responsibility of raising their children! To be honest, after raising two children for so many years, they were reluctant to let them go so suddenly!

But Zhou Zelin wasn't the type to spoil his children. He thought, when the seven children were older, he would send them all to either Zhou Jin in the Western Regions or Zhou Yu in Yunnan, so they could experience life...

Why seven children?

Because besides Zhou Jin's two sons and Zheng's youngest son, Zhou Po's children and Zhou Luo's twins also came to Zhou Zelin's house all day long, and they would stay for three, four, five, or six days...

For some unknown reason, Zhou Luo suddenly fell in love with Liang Qingniang, who had stayed in the mansion to help Mu Qingni take care of the children. A year after their marriage, they gave birth to twin sons.

At the age of 28, Zhou Po suddenly announced to everyone that he was going to marry Deng Xinran, the daughter of Deng Yu, the Marquis of Linchuan, who had just divorced her husband and moved back to Kyoto from Fujian.

He also treated the three-year-old daughter that Deng Xinran insisted on bringing back after the divorce as if she were his own...

A year after they got married, Deng Xinran gave birth to another son for Zhou Po...

…

Autumn turns to winter and another year has passed in the blink of an eye...

This is the seventeenth year since the brother and sister came into this world...

On this day, when the two couples met again in the RV space, Zhou Yu suddenly discovered that his brother had fine lines at the corners of his eyes. He was suddenly shocked to realize that they, the brother and sister, had lived in this world for so long!

"Brother! This extra life is so wonderful!"

Zhou Yu snuggled in Zhu Xi's arms, stroking his slightly bulging belly, and suddenly sighed.

The love, love, and joy of being a parent that they hadn't enjoyed in their previous lives, they now enjoyed in this life...

Zhou Jin drank a glass with his wife generously, and replied to his sister generously:

"Hey! This is just the beginning! We still have a lot of good days ahead of us!"

He added:

"When you give birth to this one, I can at least take my two nieces to live with me for two years, right?"

Zhu Xi on the side...

"Why? I haven't loved my daughter enough! You should just raise your own son!"

(End of text)

The author has something to say:

It's finally finished. There will be a few extra chapters later, including short stories about Zhou Po and others...

This is the first novel written by Cai Cai. I feel that there are still many unsatisfactory aspects. I will try my best to avoid them in future works... But even though it is not perfect, it does not prevent me from liking it!

Thank you to all readers for their attention, especially those who have been with Cai Cai from the very beginning. Thank you for your affirmation at the first time, which gave me the courage to continue writing!

Thanks also to everyone who provided valuable feedback and suggestions for this article! Love you all!

Thank you very much for your support. I will continue to work hard!

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