"What!" The first and second princes were full of surprise and disbelief. After a moment, the first prince said with a sullen face, "Nonsense! Lu Chenghong was left by our father to protect us. How could he collude with the rebels? What on earth are you going to do?"
Chu Xuan, who had been silent the whole time, stood up, took out the secret letter from his arms, and placed it on the table: "This contains all the evidence of Lu Chenghong and Duoze's secret dealings. And the two princes may have misunderstood the emperor's intentions. The guard he left for you is General Ahan who is in prison, not Lu Chenghong."
"In order to eliminate dissidents and become the sole commander of the royal army, Lu Chenghong took the initiative and imprisoned General Ahan. Your Highnesses have been deceived by Lu Chenghong. Now you are courting disaster. I hope you will wake up as soon as possible."
The eldest prince didn't believe it. He picked up the secret letter angrily and looked at it carefully. In the end, he had to believe it because the secret letter was printed with his father's private seal.
Seeing that the eldest prince looked strange, the second prince snatched the letter from the eldest prince without thinking, and then he was also stunned.
This is my father's handwriting, and there is a private seal on the back. This secret letter is authentic.
Few people knew that Emperor Fengxi had a habit. Whenever a matter was investigated by the secret guards, all documents would be stamped with his private seal instead of the imperial seal. This was to prevent someone from mistaking the real thing for the real thing and falsely conveying the imperial edict.
The eldest prince and the second prince happened to know this custom, so there was no doubt that the letter was indeed authentic and there could be no mistake.
But...but wasn't Lu Chenghong helping them? Was he faking all this?
Lu Yanluo and Chu Xuan sat quietly in the pavilion drinking tea, considerately giving the two princes some time to accept the facts.
After a long while, the eldest prince finally asked, "Why hasn't Lu Chenghong handed over Fenglan City yet? Is he doing this for the imperial seal?"
Lu Yanluo smiled faintly and shook her head slowly: "I think that when you two knew that Lu Chenghong was a traitor, the first thing you should have done was to try to find a way to take the command of the Wang Army back from Lu Chenghong, instead of thinking about the reasons why Lu Chenghong did this. No matter what the reason is, he is a traitor."
Lu Yanluo looked at the first and second princes meaningfully: "What do you two say?"
The second prince looked obviously flustered and clearly didn't know what to do.
“Brother…”
"What are you panicking about?" The eldest prince frowned and said impatiently, "What's there to be afraid of about a treacherous villain who colluded with foreign enemies?"
Although the eldest prince did not want to follow the wishes of the two pretentious people in front of him, the fact was that Lu Chenghong had rebelled, and if he was not eliminated now, it would cause endless harm.
"Let's go!" The eldest prince took the secret letter and turned to leave. Before leaving, he narrowed his eyes slightly and looked at Lu Yanluo and Chu Xuan dangerously: "No matter what your purpose is, when this matter is over, this prince hopes that you can give this prince an explanation, otherwise, including Sun Ce'an, none of you will be able to leave Fenglan safely."
He was not stupid. After meeting Lu Yanluo and Chu Xuan, he understood the purpose of Sun Ce'an's sudden change of behavior and organizing this banquet.
Sun Ce'an was obviously in cahoots with them.
Leaving the Sun Mansion unwillingly, the eldest prince and the second prince went straight to the camp where Wang Jun was. They wanted to take the initiative and cut off his relationship with Wang Jun without Lu Chenghong knowing.
Since arriving in Fenglan, the two of them have been obsessed with finding the third prince and the imperial seal. It has been a long time since they have been to the royal army’s base.
The royal army has a total of 500,000 troops, stationed in batches outside Fenglan City. The snow-white tents stretch as far as the eye can see. This is their confidence to return to the imperial capital in the future, and they will never allow anyone to destroy it.
The eldest prince entered the commander's tent with great vigor and summoned all the generals of the royal army. He took out the secret letter in front of everyone.
"Please look, everyone. This is the evidence of the secret collusion between Lu Chenghong and Duoze. Our country was broken and we were forced to live here because of that ungrateful villain Duoze. We cannot forget this hatred! Now Lu Chenghong has rebelled and intends to deceive you. This prince will never tolerate it!"
"Crown Prince, is it true this time?" Several generals who were on good terms with Lu Chenghong hesitated and were somewhat skeptical.
Before this, the eldest prince and Lu Chenghong had a very close relationship, so why did he suddenly act out of character today?
The eldest prince's eyes darkened slightly, and he said in a serious tone: "Before this, I was also deceived by Lu Chenghong. I didn't know that there was a jackal around me. This secret letter was sent out of the city in advance by my father, who was far-sighted to prevent the evildoers from succeeding in their schemes. However, the outside world was not peaceful, and it took many days for this letter to reach my hands."
"The Crown Prince is wise!" Most of the generals in Wang's army had long been aware of what Lu Chenghong had done, but due to their status, they could not speak out. Now they did not have to worry about anything.
"When Lu Chenghong first arrived in Fenglan, he arrested General Ahan on charges of treason. However, General Ahan is the commander of the royal army appointed by His Majesty. Lu Chenghong's actions are to exclude dissidents and have bad intentions. Your Highness, I am willing to lend a hand to Your Highness, except for Lu Chenghong, the bastard!"
"Okay!" The eldest prince was infected by the emotions of everyone, and his heart was beating fast. This was the first time that he fought side by side with the royal army.
The next morning, Lu Chenghong had to go to the military camp to inspect according to the rules, but for some reason, he always felt uneasy when he went out, as if something was going to happen.
When we arrived at the military camp, everything was the same as before. Wang's troops were training and everything was in order.
Before this, Duoze had given him a secret order that if he failed to get the treasure in the end, he should kill all of Wang's troops to prevent future troubles.
Now the Third Prince has been missing, the whereabouts of the Imperial Seal is unknown, and he has been living in Fenglan for a long time. I am afraid that the time has come when he will have to reveal his true colors.
"General." A soldier ran up to Lu Chenghong and interrupted his thoughts.
"What's wrong?"
The soldier whispered, "The eldest prince is in the commander's tent, forcing the generals to attack Duoze. Go and have a look!"
Lu Chenghong's face suddenly turned bad when he heard this, and he said angrily: "Why didn't anyone inform me in advance that the eldest prince was coming to the military camp? It's just wishful thinking for a child who is still wet behind the ears to talk about restoring the country!"
Lu Chenghong strode towards the general's tent with great momentum, not noticing the anger and cruelty in the eyes of the soldier who had just delivered the message.
When he walked outside the general's tent, he could indeed hear a fierce quarrel inside. Lu Chenghong did not notice anything unusual, so he opened the tent and walked in.
But he didn't expect that as soon as he stepped into the tent, a knife was placed on his neck. Then a large group of people rushed out from inside and outside the tent, each holding a sharp blade and pointing it directly at Lu Chenghong.