"Absolutely not!" came a hurried shout, followed by an elderly man with white hair walking quickly in, surrounded by a group of people.
“Bi Gan?” Zu An glanced back and frowned. His remaining memories reminded him of this person; he was none other than Uncle Bi Gan.
He has the appearance of someone who is concerned about the country and its people, much like some of the loyal ministers commonly seen in TV dramas from before time travel.
"Why not?" Zu'an thought with dissatisfaction. It seemed that this guy wasn't on his side.
Bi Gan stood in front of Ji Chang and said anxiously, "The Marquis of the West is the leader of the western lords. How can he be subjected to such extreme punishment without cause? Wouldn't this make all the lords in the world feel insecure?"
"Without any reason?" Zu'an sneered. "They killed my sister... Aunt Sancai. How can that be called without any reason? A life for a life is a matter of course!"
Bigan was taken aback, clearly not expecting this. At this moment, Pei Mianman gave a brief account of the tricolor pottery. She also knew that Uncle Bigan had a very high prestige in the court. If she could bring him to the same camp, things would be much easier in the future.
Bi Gan clearly knew about the story of the marriage alliance involving the three-colored pottery, and he frowned deeply upon hearing it.
However, he still said, "Your Majesty, things have come to this point. If we kill the Marquis of Xibo, Princess Sancai will not be able to come back to life. Moreover, the reason why Sancai was sent to marry the Marquis of Xibo was to ease relations with the Western Zhou. If we kill the Marquis of Xibo now, wouldn't it be a waste for Sancai to die? Strictly speaking, Sancai committed suicide back then, and it was not the Marquis of Xibo who did it."
Zu An laughed: "According to Uncle Wang, San Cai's death is all her own fault?"
Bi Gan replied, "That's not what I meant. I just wanted Your Majesty to prioritize the overall situation and not act impulsively."
Zuan said coldly, "Uncle Wang keeps talking about the big picture, but now we've completely broken off relations. Even if we release Ji Chang, he won't appreciate our kindness. He'll definitely start working on how to destroy the Shang dynasty. This is like letting a tiger return to the mountains. Uncle Wang is too stubborn."
After saying that, he didn't bother with Bigan anymore and directly ordered: "Where are the executioners? If they delay any longer, they will be chopped into mincemeat along with the Marquis of Xibo."
He was furious at this moment. He was too lazy to care about the big picture or long-term planning, and he was not afraid of changing history. The only thing he wanted to do now was to avenge Sancai.
At this moment, the jailers dared not delay and hurriedly dragged Ji Chang out to carry out the execution.
Bigan was frantic, pacing back and forth: "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, this is absolutely forbidden! This will surely bring about a great disaster."
Zu'an grew impatient: "Are you the king's uncle of the Shang Dynasty or the king's uncle of the Zhou Dynasty? You're always siding with outsiders." After saying that, he ignored him and left the cell with Pei Mianman.
"You...you..." Bi Gan was so angry that he trembled all over and was choked with words.
Anger from Bigan: +733 +733 +733...
Ji Chang was eventually killed, and the next day the court and the public were in an uproar, with countless ministers submitting memorials to remonstrate.
Ji Chang was a very good person, with the demeanor of an elder, and had good relationships with the high-ranking officials in the capital.
Throughout the process, Zu'an had been secretly observing the factions in the court. He discovered that one faction was led by his uncle Bi Gan, and the other by another uncle, Ji Zi. The two men's attitudes were quite similar, making it difficult to divide and weaken them.
Another faction included his own elder brother, Wei Ziqi. Speaking of Wei Ziqi, he was also unlucky. Although they were born to the same parents, Wei Ziqi was an illegitimate son because his mother was not yet the queen when she gave birth to him. However, when his younger brother was born, his mother became the queen, so his younger brother became the legitimate heir and inherited the throne.
Knowing this relationship, Zu'an knew that Wei Ziqi and he couldn't possibly have a good relationship. Sure enough, in the court, he and Bigan Jizi had previously berated him mercilessly.
Prime Minister Sang Yong and Deputy Prime Minister Sin Ghaktay led their ministers in various attacks.
Another faction is that of Prince Wu Geng, which is also quite troublesome, as he already has an adult son in this world.
He naturally had no feelings for this adopted son, but fortunately, the son was quite filial and was one of the few who spoke up for him.
Wu Geng was born to Empress Jiang. Zu An had seen her in the palace before; she was a gentle and refined woman. However, Zu An had no interest in seeking pleasure now. All his energy was focused on avenging San Cai and completing this trial with Pei Mianman.
Seeing that almost all the officials in the court were against him, Zu'an couldn't help but despise King Zhou for being such a failure. He even had to personally intervene in tearing up the pen. It seemed that it was time to rebuild some trusted confidants.
After a day of chaos and arguments, the court finally began to discuss a practical problem: how to deal with the Zhou people's counterattack.
It is conceivable that with Ji Chang and his son chopped into mincemeat, such deep-seated hatred would cause the Zhou people to turn against each other completely.
For the next period of time, Zu'an and Pei Mianman focused on reorganizing military affairs, waiting for the Zhou people's revenge.
Unfortunately, several months passed, and the Zhou army did not arrive as expected. Just as Zu'an was wondering about this, an urgent military report came from the northwest: the Li Kingdom in the Taihang Mountains had been captured by the Zhou people.
The State of Li was the northwestern gateway to the capital of the Shang Dynasty. It had maintained friendly relations with the Shang for generations, yet it was destroyed by the Zhou people.
Zaun was furious; he hadn't received a single message from beginning to end.
He sent people to investigate thoroughly and discovered that Lebanon's letter requesting aid had been forgotten with Prime Minister Shang Rong.
Although Shang Rong had a perfectly legitimate reason to claim that he had nothing to do with it, Zu An had been an emperor for so many years in the trials and was able to see through everything. It was him who did it. Apart from the prime minister, no one had such great authority to intercept such an urgent military intelligence.
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