Chapter 54
The capital city had been broken, and Lu Ling led his army into the imperial city. The eunuchs and palace maids in the imperial city fled in panic.
People inside and outside the imperial city were in panic. Clothes and fabrics were scattered all over the ground, incense burners fell to the ground, and there were bloodstains in many places.
Someone saw Lu Ling's army crawling away into the distance.
Lu Ling had already ordered that no innocent people should be harmed.
So when these palace maids and eunuchs were halfway there, they were surprised to see that the soldiers did not hurt them.
After all, throughout history, those who have destroyed cities have all been stained with blood.
But looking at the current situation, it seems that no murder or arson has occurred. Some people saw this and stopped running halfway.
Lu Ling held the sword and walked into the Zichen Hall step by step.
Inside the Purple Palace, the emperor sat upright on the dragon throne, his crown blocking his face, so Lu Ling could not see his expression.
There were only the emperor and Lu Ling in the hall. The light coming in through the doors and windows made Lu Ling's figure look more upright and mysterious.
"You're here."
As if he had anticipated this day, when the emperor said this, his tone was as if he was chatting with someone, without any surprise.
"You framed the Lu family?"
"yes."
Lu Ling held the sword tightly in his hand.
"You were the one who killed the late emperor?"
"Yes." He smiled. "Actually, you already knew it, didn't you? Why are you asking me?"
Lu Ling stared at him without saying a word.
The emperor spread his hands indifferently and said, "I can tell you everything if you are willing to listen."
Lu Ling's eyes were fierce. He put the sword on the emperor's neck and said, "Speak!"
The emperor stood up and shook his sleeves, seemingly unaware of the sword on his shoulders. He said calmly, "Your father has always disagreed with me in the court, so I naturally have no intention of letting him remain in the court."
He laughed: "I don't know what the emperor thought of, he actually asked Shen Wangyou to confiscate the house."
Otherwise, he could let the entire Lu family die quietly in prison.
Perhaps wanting to make Lu Ling angry, he continued, "But it's just right. Making you hate Chen Wangyou is not bad either. At least it can make you suffer."
Perhaps knowing that he was doomed to die, the emperor recounted everything he had done over the years.
He framed an official of the imperial court, murdered his father, killed his brother, and finally ascended to the supreme throne.
Lu Ling listened and felt a little dazed. The emperor she knew was gentle and polite when he was the crown prince, and he was the one who debated with scholars on behalf of the people. But now he seemed like a different person.
The sword in his hand had fallen from the emperor's neck.
Everything changed since he ascended the throne. It turned out that he was actually a sinister, cunning, incompetent and shameless person.
No, it should be that he has always been this kind of person, but he has been hiding it all along.
Lu Ling gripped the sword tighter and tighter, with silent anger in his heart.
The emperor smiled evilly and said, "There is nothing more to say now. I am at the end of my rope. Please kill me."
He opened his arms, closed his eyes, and waited for Lu Ling to arrive.
Lu Ling raised his sword, pointing it at the emperor's chest. He quickly moved forward, but just as the sword was about to touch the emperor, someone blocked it for him.
When Lu Ling discovered someone was coming, he didn't have time to retract his sword, and the sword pierced straight into the person in front of him.
And Lu Ling also discovered a secret.
The person who blocked the sword for the emperor was none other than Shannai, who had died in exile long ago.
Shannai was thrown into the snow because he contradicted the leading general. After one night, Shannai stopped breathing and froze to death in the snow.
Lu Ling remembered that he had seen Shannai's face clearly at the time, and there was no mistake. The injured person in front of him was obviously Shannai, the Shannai who was ignorant of the world and always liked to get into trouble.
When the emperor found that the sword did not penetrate him, he opened his eyes and looked at Lu Ling, but he did not expect Shannai to be standing in front of him, covered in blood.
Shannai couldn't bear it and fell backwards. The emperor was quick to support her. He slowly squatted down and let Shannai lie in his arms.
"Why are you doing this?" As he said this, a tear rolled down from the corner of his eye.
"As long as you are safe, I will feel relieved." Shannai stroked the emperor's face with his bloody hands.
She was so tired and wanted to rest, but she couldn't bear to leave her brother, the prince.
"Prince brother..." Shannai seemed to have made some kind of decision.
"Brother Prince, Shannai is gone. You must take good care of yourself." The hand slid down from the emperor's face, and Shannai closed his eyes and died.
The emperor looked at Shannai's closed eyes in front of him, veins bulged on his forehead, and his hands trembled unconsciously.
"Shanna——"
His father doted on him since he was a child. When he was three months old, he became the crown prince, above everyone else and second only to everyone else. No one dared to offend him.
But it is not so easy to hold the position of crown prince.
Shannai's father was the tutor who taught him since childhood.
He grew up with Shannai, and in his heart, Shannai was her crown princess.
But Shannai's father came from a humble background, and Emperor Huan looked down on Shannai.
In order to prevent the prince from getting deeper into trouble, Emperor Huan sent Shannai away, and the Taifu was also demoted to another place.
That was the first time he felt hatred towards Emperor Huan.
At that time, he was only twelve years old, and Shanna was only ten years old.
When I saw Shannai again, he was wearing tattered clothes, his face was covered with dust, and his body was covered with whip marks.
With a broken heart, he brought her back to the East Palace and taught her martial arts to prevent anyone from hurting her.
Later, the dangers around him increased, his desires were no longer satisfied, and he wanted to kill anyone who stood in his way.
Shannai knew what he was thinking and took the initiative to suggest going to the Lu family.
From then on, the two of them kept in touch with each other in a close manner.
After he ascended the throne, his third brother still came to point out his mistakes from time to time, and he felt that it was time for his third brother to leave.
In order to help him, Shannai disguised himself as a subordinate of King Chang'an and changed his appearance every day.
Although she had changed her appearance, he could still recognize her, and he would often meet Shanna secretly.
After the death of King Chang'an, there were no obstacles, and he thought he could finally marry Shannai, but Shannai said that her status was not worthy of being the queen mother, and she only wanted to stay by his side and did not ask for a formal status.
He talked to Shanna several times, but was rejected every time.
The emperor had not yet recovered from Shannai's death. He hugged her and gently stroked her face.
Because of the assassination just now, Zhang Xunwen outside thought that the emperor was dead and led his army into the Purple Palace.
As soon as I entered the room, I saw the emperor holding someone in his arms, and I was a little stunned for a moment.
Lu Ling stood aside, the sword in his hand still in his hand, blood slid down the edge of the sword and fell to the ground.
"This is..." Then he seemed to react, "Shannai is the spy you arranged in the Lu Mansion." Lu Ling said.
It turns out...it turns out that this is how everything is. Lu Ling figured it all out.
Why were those weapons in the basement of the Lu Mansion, why did the emperor know about it at the first time, and why did Shannai "die" on the first day of exile.
From the beginning to the end, the emperor had been deceiving people and paving the way for his throne.
But he was obviously already the crown prince, and the late emperor doted on him. As long as he did his job well, the throne would have been his long ago.
Before Lu Ling could react to what had just happened, he saw the emperor gently place Shannai on the ground. His crown had fallen to the ground and his face was stained with blood.
He stood up dejectedly, walked to the side and drew his sword.
Zhang Xunwen thought that he was going to harm Lu Ling, so he immediately ordered people to surround the emperor.
The emperor put the sword on his neck, looked at Shannai, and then looked at Lu Ling.
"It's not that you want to kill me today, but I don't want to live like this anymore."
At least, I can be free.
Then, blood splattered everywhere.
This battle lasted for three months and finally had an outcome.
And Daliang finally ended its history of more than two hundred years.
*
Since no woman had ever ascended the throne, Lu Ling's crown and dragon robe gave the Shangyi Bureau a headache. The coronation ceremony was about to begin, but the new emperor's attire had not yet been decided.
Upon hearing this, Lu Ling simply said that it would be fine if it remained the same as before, except that the style was changed to women's clothing, and everything else remained the same.
When the people in the Shanggong Bureau heard this, they started to work quickly to make the clothes.
The coronation ceremony was in November, and the snow began to fall.
The vast snowy ground was filled with civil and military officials wearing red court robes, and in the middle, a beautiful red line was moving forward.
Lu Ling, wearing a crimson court robe and a crown with thirteen tassels on his head, walked among the court officials, step by step towards the supreme position.
In the eyes of court officials, she was a woman who relied on herself to rise from an unknown person to the pinnacle of power; in the eyes of the people, the world had a empress, the likes of which had never been seen before.
But no matter what these people thought, only Lu Ling understood the hardships he had faced along the way. Without power, he was like an ant, vulnerable to being trampled upon at any moment.
She just wanted to live a better life and stop the people from suffering.
Lu Ling walked to the dragon throne, stopped, then turned around, sat on the dragon throne, and accepted the kneeling worship of the court officials.
"Long live our emperor!"
"Long live our emperor!"
"Long live our emperor!"
“…”
From outside to inside, from top to bottom, the sound resounded throughout heaven and earth.
In the second year of Ningwu, the Liang State was destroyed, the empress ascended the throne, changed the country's name to Chu, and the reign title was Jinghe.
From then on, the world was at peace and there was no more trouble around the State of Chu.
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