Chapter 52 Chapter 52 Beautiful and Strong Miserable Dad 22
As for the Seventeenth Uncle, Feng Pansheng ignored him. He didn't need to do anything about him; as long as everyone knew that King Li disliked him, he was finished.
The large group arrived at Junshan, the site of the Imperial Ancestral Temple, around noon. The few female members of the group rested in a courtyard at the foot of the mountain. Zhuozhuo was carried out of the carriage by Feng Pansheng, and she skipped along the mountain path with him.
Many people kept looking at Zhuozhuo and Feng Pansheng. Finally, Eunuch Wang came over with a smile, bowed, and said, "Your Highness, the mountains are high and the roads are long. Can the little princess endure the rugged mountain roads? Why not let the little princess stay in the other courtyard and play? I have a few strong boys here. They can carry the sedan chair steadily without any bumps..."
Feng Pansheng glanced at the sedan chair waiting nearby and called Zhuozhuo over to let her see it. "Would you like to sit on it?"
To show respect to the ancestors, no one was allowed to ride horses or carriages from the foot of the mountain. Only the emperor had the privilege of riding in a sedan chair. Now, in order to send Zhuozhuo down the mountain, Emperor Zhengping gave up the sedan chair.
Zhuozhuo curiously ran over to see the golden sedan chair. Decorated with auspicious clouds and five-clawed golden dragons, it was lifelike and exuded a sense of dominance. She didn't understand what the colors and patterns represented, but she simply thought it was striking and beautiful. Of course, she had to try it out.
The sedan chair was very comfortable. The soft cushions were covered with a special fabric that was cool and instantly dispelled the heat. Furthermore, the sedan chair had ample space, allowing Zhuozhuo to run back and forth and take in the scenery.
Seeing that Zhuozhuo was having fun, Feng Pansheng let Bunian follow him.
The four people carrying the sedan chair looked at each other, and finally followed Feng Pansheng in silence. Eunuch Wang wiped the sweat from his forehead and said carefully without beating around the bush, "Is the young princess going up the mountain too?"
Feng Pansheng glanced at him with a half-smile, his tone lazily tinged with sarcasm, "Please tell His Majesty that Zhuozhuo will not only go up the mountain, but also be inscribed in the family tree in the Imperial Ancestral Temple."
Many people call Zhuozhuo the Little Princess, but in fact she is not listed in the family tree and has not been canonized. Today Feng Pansheng is going to make this false title come true.
Eunuch Wang didn't even dare to say "it's against the rules" and hurried to report to Emperor Zhengping.
The people around who heard this had different reactions. Some old-fashioned people wanted to scold Feng Pansheng in anger, but were stopped by others. The rest of the people, no matter how complicated their mood was, could not cause any trouble.
More people were peeking at Zhuo Zhuo, some were envious and some were jealous. Everyone wanted to know how to reincarnate into a child born by Feng Pan, as they also wanted such pampering!
By the time they arrived at the Imperial Ancestral Temple, it was past Zhuozhuo's lunchtime. Feng Pansheng, oblivious to the surroundings, opened the food box his attendant had brought and began feeding Zhuozhu. The aroma of the food drifted on the wind, and the faint sound of his stomach growling could be heard.
The hungry clan elders gathered together and sighed, wishing they could tie up Feng Pan alive for disrespecting their ancestors and beat him in front of the ancestral tablet to apologize.
Emperor Zhengping, who had lost all his dignity along the way, was the calmest. "When God wants to destroy someone, he first makes him mad. This arrogant and ignorant child has lost the support of his clan before he even takes the throne, and has also left behind evidence of disrespect and unfilial behavior."
Eunuch Wang's eyes flashed, and he lowered his voice, "Your Majesty, do you have a solution...?"
Emperor Zhengping glanced at Eunuch Wang indifferently, saying nothing. But Eunuch Wang, having served the emperor for decades, knew him better than the emperor himself and could tell he was in a good mood.
After Zhuozhuo had eaten and drunk her fill, the ancestor worship ceremony finally began. She naively imitated Feng Pansheng's movements and began to kneel, but the stone floor was too hard and uncomfortable. Zhuozhuo simply sat on the ground and pretended to bend over, following the crowd's lead.
The others noticed Zhuozhuo's actions but pretended not to see anything.
After the ancestral worship, Zhuozhuo was too sleepy to open her eyes. Feng Pansheng picked her up and she fell asleep in his arms. He carried her through the rest of the ceremony. However, Zhuozhuo didn't sleep well until she got back to the palace because she encountered an assassination attempt on the way.
Without warning, a group of masked men in black rushed out from both sides of the road, completely disregarding their own lives. They killed anyone in court robes. In the blink of an eye, more than a dozen ministers fell to the ground. Emperor Zhengping and Feng Pansheng had the most assassins on their side. The crowd was so dense that no one else could rush in to save them.
Zhuozhuo opened his eyes in a daze, just as a hail of arrows was fired at the carriage. The iron arrowheads penetrated the wood, and the thud-thud-thud sound could be heard inside the carriage, which was like a three-dimensional surround effect. It immediately woke Zhuozhuo up, "Daddy."
"Are you awake? Don't be afraid, it will be over soon." Feng Pansheng comforted Zhuozhuo as usual.
But there were too many people attacked this time. Even if the men in black and the guards kept silent, the frightened courtiers and attendants all screamed and cried out, and the emotions of fear and despair spread.
Zhuozhuo was held in Feng Pansheng's arms, and suddenly she understood what was happening outside the carriage. She asked in confusion, "Daddy, why do people always come to kill us? Can't everyone just stop fighting and play at home?"
"Because some people want power, they have to fight for it." Feng Pansheng closed his eyes and listened to the movement outside. He suddenly drew out a long sword and stabbed it out. A muffled groan came from outside the carriage. He drew back the sword, and the sword was stained with blood.
Feng Pansheng frowned and wiped the blood off the brocade.
Zhuozhuo said, "Did Daddy kill anyone?"
"Yeah." Feng Pansheng's emotions and voice were very stable, so Zhuozhuo didn't feel afraid. She just thought it would be better if fewer people wanted to kill them, otherwise it would be uneasy to go out for fun in a carriage, which was so annoying.
Soon the army stationed outside the city came to rescue the emperor, suppressed all the assassins, and then began to look for survivors.
Zhuozhuo wanted to look outside, but was stopped by Feng Pansheng as expected. She lay obediently in his arms and heard people outside say that Emperor Zhengping was slightly injured by a stray arrow, and the assassins committed suicide by taking poison and no one was caught alive. They also said that more than 30 court officials were killed and more than a hundred were seriously or slightly injured.
9972 Wow, there were less than 200 court officials who came to worship their ancestors this time. Did they all get killed or injured? I don't know who arranged this assassination. They were probably afraid that the court would be in chaos.
At this moment, there was a commotion outside. After a moment, the man continued, "The bodies of Prince Chun and Prince Chu were found in the forest."
9972:[……]
It suspected that Feng Pansheng was the mastermind behind the assassination.
Not only 9972 had such doubts, many people also thought so, because no one could think of a reason for the assassin to massacre the court officials, and a madman does not need a reason to do things.
Of course, there are also some people who think that Emperor Zhengping was desperate after realizing that he could not keep the throne, so he simply killed people indiscriminately to vent his anger, leaving the mess for Feng Pansheng to clean up, which can be regarded as revenge.
What was the truth? Feng Pansheng never avoided Zhuozhuo when discussing matters of public interest, and 9972 soon realized that four factions were involved in the assassination.
First, Prince Chun and Prince Chu, who had no hope of succeeding to the throne, decided to assassinate Emperor Zhengping and Feng Pansheng on the day of ancestor worship. The two of them were now toothless tigers, with not many people available, but they had court officials who liked to bet on their talents and supported them behind the scenes.
Then, when Emperor Zhengping heard the news, he was furious and sent out his own death squad to kill his three rebellious sons and court officials.
Finally, there were the secret guards sent by Feng Pansheng. They did not appear in person, but only needed to make sure that everyone he wanted to kill was dead.
Therefore, the court officials were killed by Emperor Zhengping, Prince Chun and Prince Chu were killed by Emperor Zhengping, and Prince Chun and Prince Chu injured Emperor Zhengping. However, Feng Pansheng, the one who benefited from this, was innocent.
9972 didn't know what to say, so he silently gave a thumbs up. If Feng Pansheng hadn't been so crazy, the protagonist Feng Huajun in the later part of the original plot really couldn't have defeated him.
Because Emperor Zhengping had given up, all the unattended state affairs were sent to Feng Pansheng. Furthermore, there was a court in disarray, with the deaths of several top officials. Feng Pansheng suddenly became very busy, and except for eating and sleeping, he spent almost all his time in his study handling affairs.
Zhuozhuo no longer wandered around, often playing in the yard for a while before running to the study to lie on the soft couch and play with her toys, occasionally glancing at Feng Pansheng. Her silent attachment and companionship put Feng Pansheng in a good mood, allowing him to handle even the most difficult matters calmly.
That day, Zhuozhuo struggled for a long time and finally untied the nine-linked chain. Just as he was about to show it to Feng Pansheng, he heard the sound of a memorial crashing to the ground and Feng Pansheng's murderous voice, "Emissaries from Qi, congratulating His Majesty the Emperor of the Zhou Dynasty on his fiftieth birthday... I underestimated you."
Kneeling before the desk was an unfamiliar general. Upon closer inspection, it was Gu Yuan. Zhuozhuo remembered that it had been a while since he last saw Gu Yuan. He had become much darker and stronger, and his whole person had a very dangerous, reserved edge.
Gu Yuan said in a deep voice: "It was my fault that I failed to discover the contact between Prince Chun, Prince Chu and the State of Qi in time."
Shen Xingyun, standing by, speculated that Prince Chun and Prince Chu had long been connected to the State of Qi. They had made two plans, so that even if the operation on the day of the ancestral sacrifice failed, they could still try to ruin Feng Pansheng's good fortune. However, man's plans are not as good as God's will, and both of them died that day.
Qi State and Great Zhou State were neighbors, and there was hundreds of years of accumulated hatred between them. Each country had its own strengths and weaknesses, and it was either the east wind that prevailed over the west wind or the west wind that prevailed over the east wind.
Twenty years ago, the two countries went to war, and the Great Zhou was defeated. Emperor Wu, who led the army in person, was seriously injured and died. The first thing Emperor Zhengping did after ascending the throne was to seek peace with Qi, pay tribute, and send a hostage.
As the legitimate son of the Empress, Feng Pansheng was forced to shoulder the responsibilities of his position before he could even enjoy the privileges it brought. Sent away to a foreign land, he endured seven years of humiliation and suffering, narrowly escaping death. Only then did his uncle lead his troops on a surprise attack on the border of Qi, capturing three cities overnight.
There were two voices in the court at the time. One was the Imperial Concubine's father, who believed that the three cities should be incorporated into the territorial integrity as soon as possible and officials should be sent to govern them. The other was the Jiang family, including the father and son, and Queen Jiang, who believed that the three cities were easy to attack but difficult to defend, and therefore there was no point in garrisoning them. They insisted on using them to exchange for Feng Pansheng.
In a situation where war could break out between the two countries at any moment, Feng Pansheng could be beheaded for a sacrifice even if he delayed for even a second. The imperial concubine's faction might not be aware that the three cities could not be defended, and they simply wanted to delay Feng Pansheng until he died.
It was Uncle Jiang who secretly led his men into the capital of Qi and rescued Feng Pansheng. Unfortunately, his old injury relapsed on the way back, and he was unable to return to the capital and died on the border.
Uncle Jiang's behavior was a capital crime punishable by confiscation of property and execution, but with his death, his merits and demerits offset each other and will not be pursued any further.
Everyone in King Li's faction knew that if Feng Pansheng ascended to the throne, war between Great Zhou and Qi would be inevitable. Feng Pansheng had developed a vast underground influence in Qi over the years, which was why they were able to receive the news before the envoys set out.
Shen Xingyun and the others believed that Qi's envoys were not well-intentioned and should be handled with caution. Besides Zhuo Zhuo, Qi was the only country in the world that could truly affect Feng Pansheng's emotions. At this critical juncture, Feng Pansheng must not lose control of his emotions.
Feng Pansheng listened to the discussion among the others and suddenly asked, "What unusual moves has Prince Jing made?"
"Your Highness suspects it's Prince Jing?" The others followed this line of thought and realized they had indeed intentionally or unintentionally overlooked Prince Jing's information. This was truly unacceptable. Could it be that Prince Jing was the most venomous snake?
Feng Pansheng waved the man away, leaning back against his chair and pinching his brows with a weary expression. He closed his eyes and reached for the cold teapot. Just as he was about to call for help, he remembered Zhuozhuo was still playing on the couch. He hadn't moved in so long, so he must have fallen asleep.
Feng Pansheng was about to cover Zhuozhuo with a blanket. When he opened his eyes, he met a pair of clear eyes filled with concern. He smiled and said, "Zhuozhuo, come here, let daddy hug you."
Zhuozhuo ran over and was held by Feng Pansheng, sitting on his lap. She imitated the way he usually coaxed her, gently patted his arm, and said childishly, "Daddy, don't cry, Zhuozhuo has patted away all the sadness."
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