Chapter 93 My Heart Aches
Zhou Chuanxing held full command of the 400,000-strong army of the Great Zhou Dynasty.
Two years ago, his influence was still concentrated on the border.
Since returning to the capital, he has taken control of the Imperial Guards. Apart from the loyal and upright officials who are completely devoted to the emperor, he has replaced the rest with his own people.
He indeed couldn't find enough talented civil officials to replace them in a short period of time.
As for military generals, he had led troops for over a decade, cultivating countless talented generals and loyal servants; he could have as many as he wanted.
If he harbored ambitions to seize the throne, it would only take a moment to raise his arm and call for action.
But he didn't.
The emperor was seriously ill, and he was forced to return to court to assume the regency.
Unfortunately, the emperor had no son, so he couldn't even find someone to assist him.
Although the emperor repeatedly expressed his intention to pass the throne to him.
But he always hoped that the emperor would get better.
He then ruled the country for another fourteen years.
He was tired; all he wanted for the rest of his life was to live a warm and comfortable life with the girl he loved.
As the sun sets, he reads and writes, while she sketches him onto the paper.
Or she would dress as a man and be surrounded by a crowd of students, patiently answering all sorts of complicated questions.
He was not far away, gazing at her confident and assertive eyes.
Or perhaps, they walk hand in hand through the snow, making crunching sounds, and the little girl occasionally mischievously grabs a snowball and throws it down his neck, and he chases after her with a fierce expression.
...
Just thinking about it makes him feel happy.
"Erlang, who tied you with these chains?" Tang Xinuan touched the cold chains, the biting wind chilling her to the bone, her hatred rising sharply. "I'm going to kill him."
Zhou Chuanxing waved his hands, and the ironware rattled in the winter air.
"It doesn't bother me at all."
Tang Xinuan still felt sorry for you, "They bullied you because your hands were tied and you didn't have any weapons..."
Zhou Chuanxing was dressed in thin clothes, and his arm had been stabbed. The blood was congealed and stung Tang Xinuan's eyes.
"Hurry up and go find a doctor to treat you."
Tao Guan and the others had prepared a carriage and were waiting at the palace gate.
Upon seeing Zhou Chuanxing come out, she immediately grabbed a coat and rushed over to drape it over him.
The palace gates were bustling with activity at that moment.
Xiaoqian and the four guards Zhou Chuanxing assigned to Tang Xinuan, along with Zisu, Lianqiao, Huangqi, and Baihe, were all present.
And military generals who heard that Zhou Chuanxing had been punished.
"Your Highness," they all said, rubbing their hands together in anticipation, "if you don't come out soon, we'll storm in."
Zhou Chuanxing was only reprimanded by his elder brother, and besides, he did make a mistake.
How could you be so disrespectful over such a trivial matter? "Who sent you? Get back now, and from now on, you are not allowed to come to me without my orders!"
Tang Xinuan helped him straighten his clothes. "Erlang, get in the car first."
Zhou Chuanxing felt sorry for the young girl who had been walking outside for so long, "You go up first."
Before he could finish speaking, someone suddenly threw himself at him.
Fortunately, he reacted quickly and blocked it, otherwise it would have hit the little girl.
Besides Zhou Chuanxing's men, there were also thirty or forty martial arts masters waiting at the palace gate.
They were all ordered to kill Chu Yannuo and came specifically to provoke him.
Zhou Chuanxing and Tang Xinu walked out of the palace, with Chu Yannuo following behind them.
As soon as he stepped out of the palace gate, martial arts masters rushed up to him, and without saying a word, they drew their swords and stabbed him.
After all, a hundred taels of silver could create a bloody hole, so earning that money couldn't be easier.
Chu Yannuo was skilled in martial arts and could handle dozens of martial arts masters at the same time. He was quickly stabbed three or four times.
Every sword strike was stained with blood, every knife cut to the bone.
As Chu Yannuo dodged, she shouted, "Who are you people? I have no grudge against you, why are you trying to assassinate me?"
Even Lianqiao wanted to participate.
“Young Master Chu, our young lady said that whoever pokes a bloody hole in you will receive a hundred taels of silver. You won’t be leaving here alive today.”
"cousin--"
Chu Yannuo rushed to Tang Xinuan's side as fast as he could, "Do you really have no feelings for me at all? Are you determined to kill me?"
Tang Xinuan ignored him.
At this moment, he was utterly desperate. "Since that's how it is," he simply threw down the sword in his hand, "let them kill me then."
Wei Minxian was worried about Chu Yannuo's injury and rushed to the palace gate to find him after hearing that he had gone to the palace to complain.
Seeing a group of people surrounding Chu Yannuo, he panicked and actually used his physical body to rush forward and defend himself.
Fortunately, these martial arts practitioners had a clear target: Chu Yannuo. She was not seriously injured.
Hearing that these martial arts figures were all brought by Tang Xinuan, they disregarded their status as a young lady from the Duke's mansion and knelt down in front of Tang Xinuan, kowtowing and begging for mercy.
"Cousin, please forgive him for the sake of the Chu family raising you for over ten years."
Miss Tang, please spare his life, considering that the Marquis and his wife only have one son.
Miss Tang, I beg you, I beg you…
Wei Minxian slammed her head into the ground, quickly breaking a large patch of her forehead. Blood stained the ground and flowed onto the unmelted snow, the red and white contrasting sharply.
Tang Xinu hated Chu Yannuo to the core.
She drank 193 bowls of contraceptive soup.
I'll poke 193 holes in him.
If he is lucky enough to survive, it is his good fortune.
“I gave him a chance yesterday, but he narrowed his own path.”
Seeing that Tang Xinuan refused to forgive, Wei Minxian noticed someone raising a sword to stab Chu Yannuo in the chest. In a moment of desperation, she got up and rushed forward to block it with her own body.
Blood splattered everywhere, and Wei Minxian quickly collapsed in a pool of blood.
"lady--"
On a bitterly cold winter day, Tang Xinuan heard Chu Yannuo's heart-wrenching cries for help.
Perhaps, at this moment, he should let go.
"Stop it," Tang Xinuan gestured to Lian Qiao.
Lian Qiao immediately ordered all martial arts practitioners to stop.
Then she took out a stack of silver notes from her bosom. "The Crown Prince Chu has thirty-five bloody holes in his body. Here are three thousand five hundred taels of silver notes. You can take them and divide them among yourselves."
She handed out the banknotes, and just as they were about to be taken away, she took them back and snatched two of them.
"Whoever accidentally injured Miss Wei, deduct their penalty."
Zhou Chuanxing first helped the little girl into the car, then instructed Tao Guan, "Give me a hand."
He was referring to Wei Minxian.
A woman who could sacrifice herself for her husband without hesitation should not die young.
I hope the Crown Prince of Chu will cherish this opportunity.
"Yes," the pottery jar replied and rushed over to help.
Zhou Chuanxing glanced coldly at Zisu and the others.
"The four of you don't need to follow me anymore."
Zisu and the others panicked and hurriedly knelt down to beg for mercy, "Your Highness, we were wrong, we were wrong, please don't send us away, please don't send us away."
Lian Qiao crawled on her knees to grab Zhou Chuanxing's robes, "Your Highness, please don't send us away. We were wrong, we'll accept any punishment."
Zhou Chuanxing's face was as cold as ice. "Tell me, what did you do wrong?"
Lian Qiao thought it was about issuing a kill order, "I shouldn't have offered a reward for martial arts practitioners to stab Miss Wei."
Zhou Chuanxing was too lazy to waste words. "I can't afford to use you all. Get out of here."
After he finished speaking, he got into the car.
Baihe suddenly realized what was happening and blocked the carriage from leaving. "Your Highness, we shouldn't have let Miss Tang go to the palace alone. It was our mistake."
Zhou Chuanxing's expression softened somewhat. "What were my instructions? And what did you promise me?"
Both Lianqiao and Baihe were terrified of Zhou Chuanxing, and neither of them dared to speak.
Zisu said cautiously, "You instructed us to stay with Miss Tang at all times, and that she must never be alone. We promised the Prince that we would keep our word."
Zhou Chuanxing's gaze sharpened, his expression growing increasingly cold and hard. "And the result?"
Zisu: "We shouldn't have let Miss Tang enter the palace alone, Your Highness. We promise that this will never happen again. Please give us another chance."
Tang Xinuan had just thought that Zhou Chuanxing's sudden anger was because of Wei Minxian.
The reason she was so angry was because she entered the palace alone.
She tugged at Zhou Chuanxing's sleeve in a conciliatory manner, "Erlang, it was my own idea to go with Brother Sun, so please don't blame them."
How could Zhou Chuanxing not be upset? If his elder brother were to truly be ruthless today, and something were to happen to the young girl...
"Go and accept your punishment."
This means they plan to keep four people.
All four of them breathed a sigh of relief, but Baihe was unconvinced: "Your Highness, Sun Qingzhao swore to us that Miss Tang would come out safe and sound, which is why we agreed."
Moreover, Sun Qingzhao carried poison, saying that if Miss Tang were in any danger, he would commit suicide by poisoning himself.
Zhou Chuanxing was still angry: "I don't think you know where you went wrong. You'll receive double the punishment."
Noticing Baihe's indignant expression, he couldn't help but curse, "Sun Qingzhao's worthless life, even if he died a hundred times, couldn't compare to Miss Tang."
Zhou Chuanxing's fingers trembled with anger as he forcefully pulled the curtain down.
I thought that Zisu and Huangqi were both calm and sensible, and that's how they did things for him.
This was the first time Tang Xinuan had ever seen Zhou Chuanxing so angry.
"Erlang..."
She continued to tug at Erlang's sleeve, acting coquettishly.
The man was still angry, so she continued to whine, "Erlang—"
The man was still angry.
Her temper flared up, and she lifted the curtain to tell Zisu and the others, "You are not allowed to go and receive your punishment. You will still be following me from now on."
Then she turned to Zhou Chuanxing and said, "I've already coaxed you. If you're still angry, I'm not talking to you anymore."
What could Zhou Chuanxing do? He lifted the curtain and instructed the four girls outside, "Alright, you can go back and rest."
He pulled the little girl into his arms, saying, "You're getting bolder and bolder, you even dare to yell at me now!"
Tang Xi snorted softly, "You can get angry, but I'm not allowed to? How can you be so domineering!"
Zhou Chuanxing said speechlessly, "What reason do you have to get angry?"
Tang Xinuan: "You could have come out, so why are you standing obediently at the entrance of the Hall of Mental Cultivation, dressed so scantily, and chained up? You idiot!"
Zhou Chuanxing said helplessly, "He is my elder brother, and besides, I was in the wrong first. Shouldn't he punish me?"
Tang Xinuan: "Wasn't it wrong to kill the Grand Tutor? He did so many bad things and killed so many people. It's clearly the Emperor who was confused; otherwise, he should have rewarded you."
Zhou Chuanxing couldn't do anything with the little girl, so he pinched her little nose, which was red from the cold, and said, "You, if you do something wrong, can't your brother punish you?"
Tang Xinuan couldn't recall how she spent time with her brother when they were little.
Now my brother is far away in the northern region, and it's difficult for me to even see him.
She would be happy if she had the chance to be punished, even if it was the wrong thing to do.
Putting yourself in Erlang's shoes, he has been fighting on the front lines and doesn't have many opportunities to spend time with the Emperor. It's quite rare that he's being punished.
"Erlang, you did nothing wrong."
She reached out and wrapped her arms around his strong waist, pressed her face against his chest, and said softly, "Yes, it's true, it hurts me."
Zhou Chuanxing sighed, "My daughter is so wonderful."
Tang Xinuan suddenly remembered something, "By the way, Ambassador Liu will be punished for handing over the red cannon to me, won't he?"
Zhou Chuanxing reassured her, "I will handle it."
Tang Xinuan added, "He made three in total, and I had the other two transported to the Northern Region."
With the current complexities of the court and the dangerous northern region, having two red-coated cannons stationed there provides a degree of protection.
"You did a good job," Zhou Chuanxing praised generously.
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