Zhu Yu nodded and said, "In the period before my grandfather was born, the previous dynasty was already in chaos. In addition, there were several natural disasters, and people were starving and freezing to death everywhere. My great-grandfather and great-grandmother fled to the capital during that time."
Zhu Yu said with a mocking sneer, "The last emperor of the previous dynasty killed all the twins in and around the capital, but he spared the unborn child in my great-grandmother's womb."
Lu Xiaoyun jumped to her feet: "You, you mean the late emperor also had a twin brother? So the prophecy of that former imperial advisor finally came true?"
After all, the late emperor and her grandfather were twins, and they did indeed overthrow the previous dynasty.
Zhu Yu shook his head: "They're not brothers. My great-grandmother was pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl."
"Huh? But wasn't it said that the previous emperor killed all twins, regardless of gender? How did they escape? Could it be that, like my grandfather and the others, one of them was secretly sent to another place?"
Zhu Yu shook his head, a faint sadness in his eyes, and said, “No. My great-grandfather and his family couldn’t even support themselves back then, let alone raise two children. When my great-grandmother was pregnant with my grandfather and my great-aunt, she often went hungry, and the babies in her womb were very weak. So, my great-aunt died less than two hours after she was born.”
Lu Xiaoyun thought for a moment and sat down, continuing Zhu Yu's words: "At that time, the capital was also arresting newborn twins, so your great-grandfather, who was also the ancestor emperor, secretly buried the baby girl's body and claimed that he had only given birth to the late emperor, thus escaping the royal family's siege?"
Zhu Yu nodded: "Yes, that's true. You should know what happened next. There were already constant natural disasters and man-made calamities. The previous emperor ruthlessly slaughtered infants, which completely aroused public anger. In addition, he ordered that the city gates not be opened, and countless refugees starved to death outside the city."
“My great-grandfather and his group gathered with a group of refugees, and eventually their numbers grew. By the time my grandfather was twenty-five, they had formed an army of fifty thousand men, which confronted the royal family.”
"When did my grandfather begin to follow the late emperor?" Lu Xiaoyun asked.
"It must have been when the old Duke Zhenguo was twenty years old. When he returned to the capital at the age of fifteen and saw the tragic state of the Lu family, he wanted to storm the palace, but was stopped by the servants sent by the Lu family's collateral relatives to serve him. In the end, they forcibly took him back to the southern border."
Seeing the tragic state of his great-grandfather and the others, and driven by his youthful impetuosity, the fifteen-year-old grandfather would surely be driven to kill the former emperor at all costs.
But at that time, if he went to kill them, he wouldn't even be able to enter the palace gates before being killed by the imperial guards or even the Five Cities Garrison.
She thought for a moment and said, "So, after my grandfather returned to his adoptive parents in the southern border, he began to study military strategy diligently, determined to really rebel against the previous dynasty's royal family? But in the end, he went to serve the late emperor?"
"Yes, that's right. The previous emperor passed away, and the successor did not repent after ascending the throne. Instead, he became even worse, frequently eliminating loyal officials in the court. In addition, natural disasters continued, and war broke out in various places, making the royal family extremely vulnerable."
The decline of a dynasty never happens overnight.
"When the old Duke Zhenguo was twenty years old, the last emperor was still worried and feared that the Lu family's collateral branches might have some evil intentions, so he wanted to take action against the Lu family's collateral branches again. His adoptive parents sensed something was wrong in advance and sent the old Duke Zhenguo away overnight."
Lu Xiaoyun pursed her lips. Her grandfather was not one of the people who followed the late emperor from the beginning, but in the end he fought alongside the late emperor to conquer the Great Zhou Dynasty, which shows his outstanding military talent.
"Just a few days after the old Duke of Zhenguo left, the emperor indeed sent secret guards to kill the old Duke of Zhenguo's adoptive parents and their entire family. Afterwards, all the collateral branches of the Lu family sent their children away overnight to hide their identities. The previous dynasty was already too weak in the later period, so it was impossible to hunt down so many Lu family descendants who had escaped one by one."
Lu Xiaoyun nodded. That's why, after more than forty years of development in the Great Zhou Dynasty, the Lu family has grown stronger step by step, with the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion at the head, and has gradually aroused the current emperor's suspicion.
Zhu Yu said, "The old Duke of Zhenguo brought more than a thousand men to join my grandfather. He went directly to my grandfather and said that he was a descendant of the Lu family and that his only wish in life was to rebel against the royal family and avenge his biological parents and adoptive parents."
"My grandfather saw that he was frank and straightforward, so he immediately appointed him as deputy commander, and together with the thousand men he brought, he commanded a total of five thousand soldiers."
"In the subsequent battles against the former dynasty's army, the old Duke of Zhenguo demonstrated astonishing military leadership skills and was eventually promoted to the rank of Deputy Marshal of the Army, which was only one rank below my grandfather, the Emperor."
"Thirty years later, the previous dynasty collapsed and the Great Zhou was established. The Great Zhou has been established for forty-five years now. My grandfather and the old Duke Zhenguo had long since become sworn brothers. My grandfather also intended to enfeoff the old Duke Zhenguo as a king of a different surname, to be hereditary, but the old Duke Zhenguo refused."
After calming herself down, Lu Xiaoyun said, "When my grandfather joined the late emperor, he made it clear that his only wish was to rebel against the previous dynasty's royal family. The late emperor offered him the title of a king of a different surname, which he naturally refused."
Not only that, my grandfather didn't even stay in Shengjing City, but went to the southern border, and never came back.
Zhu Yu's eyes flickered as he said, "My imperial grandfather reigned for nineteen years. During those nineteen years, the old Duke of Zhenguo never set foot in Shengjing City. My imperial grandfather sent people to the southern border to invite him many times, and even went there in person once, but the old Duke of Zhenguo did not waver in the slightest."
How could Lu Xiaoyun not know his grandfather's meaning? He had personally witnessed the slaughter of more than five hundred corpses and his adoptive parents' family, and the sight of the Lu family's blood flowing like a river. Even though he had become sworn brothers with the late emperor, he also knew the principle that one should not allow others to sleep soundly beside one's bed.
Having experienced the pain of losing loved ones, how could he possibly want his descendants to follow in his footsteps?
"My grandfather passed away on the afternoon of the eighth day of the sixth month of the nineteenth year of Shengyuan. I don't know if it was a spiritual premonition or something else. He was originally very healthy, but that afternoon, the old Duke of Zhenguo, who was far away in the southern border, suddenly had a sharp pain in his chest. Before he could call a doctor, he passed away."
Zhu Yu looked at Lu Xiaoyun with deep eyes: "Do you know that they were born on the same day, month, and year?"
Lu Xiaoyun looked dazed. She stiffly raised her eyes and looked at Zhu Yu, slowly saying, "Dying on the same day, in the same month, in the same year again?"
Zhu Yu nodded.
Lu Xiaoyun felt as if her throat was stuffed with cotton, making her feel indescribably uncomfortable.
My grandfather and the late emperor were brothers for nearly fifty years. They fought side by side for thirty years to build the Great Zhou Dynasty. They scavenged for food in piles of corpses and survived the swords of enemies. How can the word "brother" possibly describe the bond between my grandfather and the late emperor?
Although he never met the old Duke Zhenguo, during those nineteen years in the southern borderlands, how could my grandfather not long to return to Shengjing and fight alongside his "brother" again?
But he knew all too well the ruthlessness of the royal family. Even though he had long since become sworn brothers with the late emperor, he believed that the late emperor would never lay a hand on him or the Lu family. But the corpses and blood scattered all over the ground had already left an indelible mark on his grandfather's heart.
That's why my grandfather established the ancestral precept that the Lu family would guard the southern border for generations and would not be granted the title of king.
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