Chapter 422: Stormy
Although Helian Feng was wearing a dragon robe and sitting on the golden palace, he could not hide his worry between his brows.
Yesterday, he had already named the reign title Ganhe, honored Su Qinyao as the Empress Dowager, the emperor's sister Helian Shu as Princess Tai'an, and reinstated Xiao Beicheng as the General of the Nation, giving him overall military power in the capital.
As for the previous emperor Helian Ji, he demoted him to the title of King Xiaoyao, moved him out of the palace and gave him another mansion. His mother, Concubine Shu, moved with her son and was given the title of Concubine Xianyi.
This series of decrees seemed to have straightened out the status of the royal family and court officials, but in fact they were chess pieces laid by Helian Feng to consolidate his own throne: he appeased Su Qinyao and Xiao Beicheng with their noble positions, and placed Helian Ji and his mother under house arrest with empty titles, thus cutting off the possibility of others using the "former emperor" to cause chaos.
Before the noise of the coronation ceremony had died down, he immediately issued a secret order, ordering people to dig deep into the ground to search the Grand Tutor's Mansion and the Regent's Mansion.
But the two mansions were empty. Not only Fu Mingyuan and Xuan Yue, mother and son, but even the maids and servants in the mansions were nowhere to be seen, as if they had turned into dust overnight.
"The Tianqi Imperial City is completely surrounded by my men. Even birds can hardly get in or out. Where are they hiding?"
Helian Feng gripped the armrest of the dragon throne, his knuckles turning white.
He strongly suspected that these people might not have left at all, but were hiding in some secret corner of the city, waiting like a poisonous snake to give him a fatal blow.
"Pass the order down! Close all city gates and search every house! Not even cellars or dry wells should be spared!"
Because, along with Fu Mingyuan's disappearance, the imperial seal also disappeared.
Of course, one can become an emperor without the imperial seal, but in the end, it is not legitimate and the words are not convincing.
Compared to the anxiety of tracking down the missing persons, Helian Feng showed some organization when dealing with the 50,000 remaining soldiers in the city.
These people did not participate in the battle outside the city because they were infected with the "bone-eating miasma" epidemic spread by Xiao Beicheng.
Xiao Beicheng only gave them the antidote for the head, distributing it among the soldiers to temporarily relieve the poison. He also warned them that he was the only one in the world who could cure this bone-eating miasma. Only by obeying him and not resisting could they obtain the subsequent antidote; otherwise, they would surely die.
After stabilizing the morale of the troops in the city, Helian Feng immediately summoned all the ministers to discuss military affairs.
He spread out the map and tapped his fingertips heavily on the road that Xiao Nanyan had to take to return to his army:
"Xiao Nanyan has brought 200,000 Xiao family soldiers with him. We have no chance of victory in a head-on fight. Pass the order down to reinforce the city defenses and set up three lines of defense at Shili Slope outside the city to resist the Xiao family army with all our strength."
There was a glint of ruthlessness in his eyes.
Right now, the most important thing is to stop Xiao Nanyan. As long as he can repel this army, no one in the entire Apocalypse will be able to compete with him.
Now, the dragon throne is not stable, it is precarious and the swordplay ahead is more intense than he imagined.
At the same time, what worried him even more was how to accommodate his several younger brothers.
Yesterday, he used several of his younger brothers to force Fu Yunqing out of the city. Except for Helian Ji, who was brought into the palace to announce his abdication, the others have been imprisoned in the former prince's mansion and are under the supervision of special personnel.
He originally wanted to let them return home after his foundation was solid, but after he ascended the throne, selfish thoughts arose in his heart.
He was worried that Xiao Beicheng harbored resentment towards the Helian lineage and would harm his brothers, so he allowed them to continue staying in the Prince's Mansion under the pretext of "temporarily avoiding trouble", but in fact he let the Shadow Guards protect them secretly.
Helian Feng still cared about a little bit of blood relationship. After all, those brothers were blood-related brothers. He was not so heartless as to do so.
Right now, he only hopes to get rid of Xiao Nanyue, the thorn in his side, as soon as possible, and then confer titles of nobility on his brothers to make up for today's debt.
However, the most worrying thing happened.
Last night, the former Crown Prince's Mansion suddenly caught fire, and the raging flames illuminated half of the night sky red. By the time the fire was put out, the entire mansion had been burned down, and the bodies of the guards guarding the mansion and several of the Emperor's brothers were nowhere to be found.
When Helian Feng heard the news, the teacup in his hand fell to the ground with a clang, and the scalding tea splashed on the hem of his dragon robe, but he was completely unaware.
The first thought was: It must be Xiao Beicheng's murder!
That old villain hated the Helian royal family so much that he actually used such cruel means to wipe them out completely!
A surge of hatred surged up from the bottom of his heart, almost swallowing him up.
But at the moment he has not yet established a firm foothold and cannot openly become an enemy of Xiao Beicheng.
Moreover, Xiao Beicheng wanted Xiao Nanyan dead even more than he did. He had probably already figured out a plan to repel the enemy in the past two days. The grudge between them had to be put aside.
The next morning, in the court, Helian Feng, wearing a dragon robe, announced with a sad face:
"The fire in my former residence was caused by Fu Yunqing's remnants! They harbored hatred and murdered my brothers and sisters. Such evil deeds are intolerable to heaven and earth!"
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