The army was at the city gates, and the defending troops were on high alert. They had received their orders long ago and dared not relax their vigilance for a moment.

Tao's army marched north under the pretext of "purging the court of corrupt officials," and Tao Dingbang had already made a desperate gamble. He had put in so much effort on Prince Jing, but Prince Jing had caused him to fail at the last hurdle!

Now that Wang Xuan said that if he was willing to lend him another hand, the Prince of Yan would certainly not treat him unfairly. Naturally, he would not let such an opportunity pass him by.

Throughout history, history has always been written by the victors. If they win tonight, they will rewrite history!

With the enemy at the city gates, Tao Dingbang drew his sword and shouted, "The traitor Xie has used the emperor to command the feudal lords; he must be executed! Whoever kills ten traitors today will be rewarded with one tael of gold! Whoever kills twenty will be rewarded with ten taels of gold!"

Tao's army immediately gained high morale, shouting, "Kill the traitor Xie! Kill the traitor Xie!"

The sheer scale of the attack startled the residents near the city, and some curious individuals even ran to the city walls to ask the guards what had happened.

"What? The Tao family has rebelled! Why?!"

Outside the city walls, Tao's army was still shouting: "Purge the court of corrupt officials! Kill the traitor Xie!"

The people gathered under the city walls inside the city were all bewildered.

"What are they talking about? What's this about 'purging the emperor's inner circle'?"

The soldiers defending the city didn't have time to pay them any attention, only urging them: "Go home quickly! We have to defend the city! If we can't hold it, you can at least save your lives if you stay at home, but what if you get mistaken for soldiers and killed in the streets!"

The onlookers immediately objected, shouting, "What do you mean the city has fallen! Just defend it properly!"

"That's right, why exactly are they attacking the capital?"

"I can't explain it to you! It's just that those people want to rebel, they think the regent is going to seize power!"

The people finally understood, and some immediately shouted, "Nonsense! The Xie family is such a good family, how could they possibly usurp the throne! If they were going to usurp the throne, they would have done so more than ten years ago!"

"Exactly! The Xie family has done so well all these years, only showing up during times of chaos! My God, now that the Carefree Prince is in power, does that mean we're in a time of chaos?! Let's go back quickly!"

The crowd cried out in alarm and scattered back to their homes, secretly cursing the people outside the city as the real rebels!

The soldiers defending the city gates fought desperately, using everything from rockets to tung oil. Nearly an hour of fighting left them exhausted; they lost count of how many of their comrades had fallen, and they had no idea how much time had passed.

Just when they thought they couldn't hold on any longer, they suddenly heard someone shout: "We must not let the rebels into the city!"

The people in the city poured out like a tide, some carrying hoes and others carrying hammers.

The defending soldiers would never have allowed them to approach the city gate, but they were exhausted. The civilians easily bypassed them, climbed the high city walls, and then beat the Tao family soldiers who had climbed the walls.

Tao's army was also exhausted. They finally managed to climb the high wall when the enemy was about to give up. However, they were then subjected to a fierce beating. Many of them could not withstand the attack, some fell off the wall, and some died under the hoes.

Inside the palace, Wang Xuan had already turned the Imperial Guards against him, and with a thousand men, he stormed into the palace.

The palace was unusually quiet tonight. Accompanying Wang Xuan were the civil and military officials who had come during the day. Among them were those who strongly supported the Prince of Yan, those who were remnants of the Prince of Jing's faction, those who were from the Fifth Prince's lineage, and those who were genuinely concerned about the Emperor's health.

Because Xie Liwei controlled the government, the power of these people was diluted or transferred to them to varying degrees, so they united to try to get rid of him.

"You actually conspired with the traitorous king to force the emperor to abdicate! Do you want to become traitors and rebels?!"

Chengcheng, accompanied by the Imperial Guards, refused to allow these people to enter the Qiankun Palace. The steps outside the palace were already stained red with blood; the change of power required a bloodbath.

Wang Xuan sneered, "It's still hard to say who the traitor is! Xie Liwei, for the past few months, you haven't allowed anyone to see His Majesty. We have no idea how His Majesty is doing now. We suspect that His Majesty has already poisoned you!"

Before Wang Xuan took action today, he had received definite information. A eunuch he had arranged in the Qiankun Palace came out to report that he hadn't seen anyone in the inner palace, but Li Wei was still guarding the empty bed. This indicated that Yuwen Wuji's body had already been disposed of!

Xie Liwei and Prince Xuan are truly audacious. The emperor is dead, and they don't want their two sons to succeed to the throne, so they keep it a secret!

Wang Xuan was already lost in his own thoughts. If he calmed down and thought about it carefully, if Yuwen Wuji really died, then at this moment, Xie Liwei could kill Prince Jing and the Fifth Prince, and then support the Sixth Prince to succeed to the throne, thus truly holding the emperor hostage to command the princes!

Xie Liwei didn't do that because he was saving it for today, to clean up the court and the public!

"Who dares to be so insolent before my palace!" A familiar voice rang out from inside the palace, a voice that terrified Wang Xuan.

What's going on? Didn't the messenger say that Yuwen Wuji was already dead?

Wang Xuan calmed himself and sneered, "You actually dared to have someone impersonate the emperor, Xie Liwei, you're simply insane!"

Xie Liwei smiled, his already alluring face becoming even more sinister.

"Lord Wang, have I gone mad, or have you?! All this time, I've been waiting for your true colors to show!" With that, a guard behind him presented a thick stack of papers, which Xie Liwei tossed aside. "These are all evidence of Wang Xuan's collusion with the Prince of Yan in his plot to rebel! Do you still wish to follow him today?! You are all compatriots; if you lay down your weapons now, I will forgive you! But if you remain ungrateful, don't blame the law for its ruthlessness!"

Most of the civil officials who had come with Wang Xuan picked up the paper from the ground and examined it, and were all shocked. The vast majority of them subconsciously took a few steps back.

"Xie Liwei, this is slander! You will all understand my innocence in the future, but today, can you even get the Emperor to come out? Your puppet only dares to stand behind the door!"

After Wang Xuanfang finished speaking, the doors of the main hall opened, and several eunuchs came out first. They carried a screen and placed it outside. Then, through the gap in the screen, someone saw Li Wei helping a person wearing a bright yellow dragon robe walk out from inside.

"Ever since I developed the ailment that prevents me from being exposed to the wind, I have stopped going out. All the affairs of state have been handled by Ali, and his will is my will. I never imagined that staying indoors for so long would make you all think I was dead!"

A dignified voice came from behind the screen, which relieved the officials who were worried about the emperor.

But Wang Xuan refused to give up. They had come this far, and they couldn't afford to give up now!

"Are you really the Emperor?!"

Even if the real emperor were standing here today, he would be a fake!