Bloodshed at the Palace Gate
The stalemate between the Empress Dowager and the Emperor was finally broken at midnight three days later.
The trigger was the sudden death of Eunuch Chang in the inner prison. The Empress Dowager believed the Emperor had murdered him, while Emperor Sheng believed the Empress Dowager was trying to cover up the truth. Simmering suspicion and panic ignited like gunpowder.
The sound of clashing weapons and faint shouting were first heard from the direction of the Hall of Mental Cultivation. Soon afterwards, the Cining Palace was surrounded by the remnants of the Emperor's West Wind Guards and some of the palace guards who had defected to the Emperor. The Empress Dowager mobilized the spies planted by Eunuch Chang during his time as head of the Censorate, as well as some Imperial Guards loyal to the Liu family's orthodoxy. A bloody battle ensued within the palace walls.
The news spread like wildfire, reaching every corner of the capital. The gates of Prince Bao's palace were sealed, and his private soldiers, fully armored, stood in silent wait. Zhou You and Wei Chong each restrained their subordinates, strictly guarding the nine gates and main streets of the capital, forbidding anyone from taking advantage of the situation. In effect, they isolated the palace like an island, waiting to see what would happen.
Inside the Yuan Clinic, Qin Yousi sat in his robe, listening to the faint commotion in the distance, his face calm. Yu Huan and Tianying stood guard nearby, their expressions tense.
"Miss, should we proceed as planned..." Tianying asked in a low voice. The plan was that if the palace gates were breached and chaos spread throughout the city, they would immediately escort Qin Yousi and the Yuan couple to the Ningjun Prince's Mansion, which had been secretly armed.
Qin Yousi shook her head and looked towards the direction of the palace: "Wait a little longer." She was waiting for an opportunity, an opportunity to let the truth come to light.
The fighting within the palace raged all night, and at dawn, the sounds gradually faded. The Hall of Mental Cultivation and the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility were both in shambles, with corpses strewn across the ground. Protected by a handful of trusted warriors, the Empress Dowager retreated to the Fengxian Hall, where the Liu family's ancestors were enshrined. Emperor Sheng, flanked by the West Wind Guards, pressed forward. Finally, before the ancestral tablets, mother and son fell out completely.
"Rebellious son! You carry the blood of the remnants of the previous dynasty, you stole the throne, and now you want to kill your mother!" The empress dowager's phoenix hairpin was askew, her robe was stained with blood, and she pointed at Emperor Sheng and scolded him loudly.
Emperor Sheng's face was grim, his usual pretense of gentleness gone. "I am the Son of Heaven! The heir chosen by my father! You, vicious woman, have conspired with that eunuch Chang Gui to confuse the royal bloodline, and now you're trying to throw dirty water on me! Today, in front of all our ancestors, I will purge the court and restore order!"
Just as the two sides were on the verge of a final fight, the heavy door of Fengxian Hall was slowly pushed open from the outside.
In the dim light of dawn, Prince Bao, dressed in his proper attire and with a solemn expression, slowly entered. Behind him were not soldiers, but Prime Minister Su, the head of the Cabinet, Elder Prince Yu, the head of the Imperial Clan Affairs Bureau, and several highly respected members of the imperial clan. Even more surprising, they were followed by two others: Qin Yousi, dressed in plain clothes and without makeup, and Gu Wu, holding a red sandalwood box.
"Uncle? You..." Emperor Sheng's pupils shrank, and a strong sense of unease rose in his heart. The Empress Dowager also looked surprised and suspicious.
Prince Bao glanced across the devastated hall and said sadly, "Your Majesty, Queen Mother, things have come to this point. Our ancestors are disgraced, and the people of the world are terrified! It's time to put an end to this."
Prime Minister Su stepped forward and said in a loud voice: "Your Majesty, the Queen Mother, and I, the old minister, have recently received secret evidence jointly submitted by Prince Ning and Miss Sang. It concerns the foundation of the country and involves the unjust case of the Qin family many years ago. We had to risk our lives to come here. Please, Your Majesty and the Queen Mother, clarify the matter in front of our ancestors!" He deliberately emphasized the "unjust case of the Qin family."
Emperor Sheng's face changed drastically. "Nonsense! Why bring up the Qin family rebellion case at this time? Prince Bao, Prime Minister Su, are you trying to force the emperor to abdicate?"
Qin Yousi stepped forward, bowed slightly to the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, and said in a clear and calm voice, "I, Sang Youzhi, have come with the late Consort Shu, the late Imperial Physician Qin Wenyu, and over five hundred wronged souls of the Qin family to seek justice from Your Majesty and the Empress Dowager."
She gestured for Gu Wu to open the wooden box. Inside were no swords or knives, but rather several yellowed pieces of paper, a token carved with strange patterns (a token of the Jiuyou Sect), and a confession written in illegible handwriting but stamped with a bloody handprint (written by Eunuch Chang before his death).
"This is a copy of a letter between Xia Rongyun, the former director of the Imperial Hospital, and a Beiliang spy. It mentions that he is the son of the previous emperor's master of the Nine Nether Sect, and was ordered to go undercover." Qin Yousi picked up the letter and held up the token. "This is the Nine Nether Sect master's token, found on Xia Lieyun." Finally, she picked up the blood-written document. "This is the dying confession of Chang Gui, the chief steward of the Imperial Household Department. Written and signed in his own hand, it describes how Xia Rongyun deceived him into replacing the Empress Dowager's deceased fourth son with his son born to Qin's fourth daughter. This was a cover-up!"
With every word, the Empress Dowager's face turned paler and Emperor Sheng's face turned bluer.
"You...you are slandering me!" Emperor Sheng was trembling all over, pointing at Qin Yousi, his eyes bloodshot.
Qin Yousi met his gaze fearlessly, his words piercing his heart. "Your Majesty, do you have a red birthmark shaped like a flame three inches below your left breast? This is a characteristic of the Xia bloodline, shared by both Xia Rongyun and Xia Lieyun! Do you know how your biological mother, the fourth aunt of the Qin family, felt in prison when she learned that you had wiped out the entire Qin family to conceal your origins. She threw herself against the wall in remorse and despair. Her only dying wish was for me, the last remaining vestige of the Qin family's bloodline, to ask you this: In your dreams at midnight, have you ever seen your grandfather, your aunt, your cousin, or the over five hundred members of the Qin family who died in vain?!"
These words were like thunder, shocking the entire hall. The clan elders looked at each other in bewilderment, and Uncle Yu was so angry that he trembled all over. "How could this happen! How could this happen!"
The empress dowager staggered a step, looking at Emperor Sheng's eyebrows and eyes, which were somewhat similar to Xia Rongyun's. She remembered Eunuch Chang's previous confession and finally collapsed completely. She screamed: "It's him! It's all because of this bastard! And Xia Rongyun, that traitor! He killed my son! He confused my Liu bloodline! He deserves to die!" At this moment, she hated Xia Rongyun who deceived her, and she also hated this "son" whom she helped to ascend to the throne with her own hands, but now wanted to kill her.
Emperor Sheng saw that the situation was hopeless and, like a madman, he suddenly drew his sword and said, "I am the emperor! I will kill you, the traitors!"
However, just as he moved, Zhou You's figure appeared at the door of the palace like a ghost, holding a long sword in his hand, and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, please put down your weapons." Outside the palace, the imperial guards loyal to Prince Bao and Zhou You had already taken control of the situation.
Prince Bao took a deep breath and knelt solemnly before the ancestral tablets. "Ancestors, I, your unworthy descendant Liu Heng, must do this extraordinary thing today to preserve the Liu family's empire and eliminate the evildoers! The false emperor, Liu Mian, carries the blood of the remnants of the previous dynasty. His crimes are irrefutable. To conceal his origins, he has framed loyal officials and murdered the entire Qin family. This is unforgivable! Effective immediately, he is deposed from the throne and detained in the clan office, awaiting his fate!"
He then looked at the distraught Empress Dowager and said, "Your Majesty the Empress Dowager has been deceived by a treacherous person and has also failed to observe the situation. Please move to the West Palace to recuperate. You are not allowed to leave without the emperor's order."
The dust has settled.
Qin Yousi watched Emperor Sheng, stripped of his crown and led away like a trapped beast, and the empress dowager, limp on the ground, mumbling to herself. He felt no sense of vengeance, only endless sadness. For a secret, the Qin family had perished, the last vestiges of tenderness between mother and son had been extinguished, and the nation had been plunged into unnecessary turmoil.
She slowly knelt on the ground and kowtowed three times towards the south - the direction of the Qin family's ancestral tomb.
"Grandfather, father, mother, eldest sister, second sister... all the ancestors of the Qin family... you can rest in peace."
The sunlight finally penetrated the window lattices of the Fengxian Hall, illuminating the mess on the ground and the tears that silently slid down her face. Justice, though late, has arrived.
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