Chapter 411 Uncle, Lanxi volunteered!
The imperial eunuch delivered the decree: "The eldest princess has been poisoned in the imperial prison. The Prince of Zhennan is hereby ordered to find the culprit..."
Zhou Ruyuan accepted the imperial edict with both hands and said, "I wish to see my father, please inform him."
The imperial eunuch delivered the decree: "His Majesty is recuperating from his injuries and will not see anyone. Your Highness, you should hurry and attend to your duties!"
Zhou Ruyuan stood at the entrance of the Hall of Mental Cultivation for a while, and when he left, he happened to run into Shen Lanxi, who was on patrol.
"I know about the matter concerning the eldest princess. My father has ordered me to thoroughly investigate the poisoning."
Shen Lanxi reminded him, "His Majesty has already demoted Zhou Yunshang to a commoner."
Zhou Ruyuan changed his tune: "Wasn't Zhou Yunshang imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison? How could she have been poisoned?"
Shen Lanxi: "Who knows? Zhou Yunshang's case isn't my responsibility. I only know that His Majesty knows that Zhou Yunshang was poisoned. Now, the number of checks on food has increased from two to ten, and the security of Yangxin Hall has been strengthened. Even I have to personally patrol the area. Zhou Yunshang has really done a lot of harm."
Hearing Shen Lanxi speak to him in such a tone for the first time, Zhou Ruyuan was surprised, but his mood relaxed considerably.
"What does Father Emperor plan to do about the Fifth Prince's matter?" Surely he knows the answer to that.
Shen Lanxi: "Scouts have already been dispatched and troops have been assembled. Hasn't the Prince of Zhennan received the notification?"
Zhou Ruyuan froze for a moment, then said, "The city defense battalion has indeed not received the imperial edict."
Shen Lanxi said indifferently, "Even if it's not true, it will be soon. According to the information I have received, the Fifth Prince has also taken the First Prince hostage. He really intends to rebel."
Zhou Ruyuan knew that he would come back sooner or later, but he didn't expect that the fifth brother would be the first to take action.
"How will Father deal with him?"
Shen Lanxi: "The Emperor's heart is unpredictable. The Fifth Prince is, after all, a prince. Even a tiger wouldn't eat its own cub. Your Highness need not worry too much."
"Are you trying to comfort me?" Zhou Ruyuan suddenly asked.
Shen Lanxi smiled enigmatically, "Yuan Tang keeps saying that I, her older sister, won't help her. If I give you some pointers now, consider it helping her."
Zhou Ruyuan watched Shen Lanxi's departing figure with a heavy heart.
~
In just three days, Emperor Renxiao was poisoned five times and assassinated three times. He had become extremely nervous. The palace servants in the Hall of Mental Cultivation had been replaced three times. Apart from Wang Bao, no familiar faces could be seen serving him anymore.
"Uncle, the scouts have reported that the Fifth Prince has assembled 200,000 troops and will arrive in Pingcheng in one more day."
Pingcheng is the closest major city to the capital and serves as its protective barrier. If Pingcheng falls, the Fifth Prince's troops will be able to advance unimpeded and storm the capital.
Emperor Renxiao gasped upon hearing the enormous number of troops.
How many troops are there in the capital now?
Shen Lanxi: "All the personnel that can be mobilized together are less than 30,000."
Emperor Renxiao exclaimed in surprise, "How can there be so little?"
Shen Lanxi: "Half a year ago, my uncle sent 10,000 troops to the Northwest." This is all publicly available information.
"Nearly 10,000 of these 30,000 were newly recruited soldiers."
In the blink of an eye, Emperor Renxiao's forehead was covered in sweat. He roared in a mixture of anxiety and anger, "You traitor, how do you have so many troops?"
The number of private soldiers a prince can keep in his fiefdom is limited, so the fifth prince has long harbored rebellious intentions.
Emperor Renxiao slumped onto the dragon throne in a dejected manner.
“Uncle, the eldest prince is still in the hands of the fifth prince. I think we can’t fight this battle. We should outwit him.”
Emperor Renxiao was already completely disoriented, and now he would listen to whatever Shen Lanxi said.
"Lanxi, if you have a solution, please tell me quickly."
Shen Lanxi frowned: "There is a way, but it is extremely dangerous."
The rebellious son is about to bring an army of 200,000 to force the emperor to abdicate. At this point, what danger is there to worry about?
As long as we can force our rebellious son to back down, we'll do anything, even if it means a thousand troops crossing a single-plank bridge.
"Tell me quickly."
Shen Lanxi: "I intend to send someone to steal the Crown Prince out, and then launch a surprise attack."
Emperor Renxiao was taken aback. After careful consideration, he realized that this method was indeed dangerous.
Those who went there faced a near-certain death.
"Lanxi, in your opinion, who should we send?"
Shen Lanxi: "Uncle, Lanxi is volunteering!"
Emperor Renxiao's eyes flashed with shock. That was a near-death experience, and he felt that this method was simply impossible.
Those who go there will never return.
"It's too risky, let's send someone else!" Emperor Renxiao said hesitantly.
Shen Lanxi insisted: "Uncle, whoever you send is afraid of dying. Only if I go can I give it my all and have a chance to survive."
Emperor Renxiao had never imagined that his emotions would fluctuate so much. He thought that his kindness to Shen Lanxi in the past was full of calculation, but he did not expect that in times of crisis, Shen Lanxi would help him wholeheartedly time and time again. To fulfill this filial piety, she was even willing to risk her life.
This child is truly... he can't compare to all his children combined.
At this moment, Emperor Renxiao cast aside all his reservations and no longer harbored any suspicions towards Shen Lanxi.
"No, you are a woman, you should be living a comfortable life in the inner quarters. Now you are stepping forward to fight time and time again, your uncle has already wronged you a lot." Thinking of everything that had happened before, Emperor Renxiao felt extremely guilty and wished he could make up for it immediately.
Shen Lanxi said righteously, "Uncle, you are closer to me than my father. To put it bluntly, I have long regarded you as my father. It is only natural for a daughter to do things for her father. Uncle, you should not feel guilty."
The more composed and magnanimous she was, the more guilty Emperor Renxiao felt.
Perhaps due to his prolonged illness, he often thought about the past. In his youth, he was surrounded by groups of friends, but he didn't know when it happened, but the number of people around him gradually decreased, until finally, in his old age, he became a lonely figure. Even his eldest son, whom he doted on, was not even half as good as Shen Lanxi.
"Uncle, please let me go. Time waits for no one, it's urgent!" Shen Lanxi said anxiously.
No matter how moved Emperor Renxiao was, the interests of imperial power still outweighed this feeling.
"Enough, I'm old, I can't stop anything anymore."
"Since you've decided to go, be careful. Even if... you must come back safely." For a moment, he even thought that even if she couldn't rescue the eldest prince, she must come back.
As I get older, my heart becomes softer and softer.
"Lanxi, if you can return safely, I will reward you handsomely!" Emperor Renxiao said with unprecedented seriousness.
Shen Lanxi nodded solemnly, and after leaving the Hall of Mental Cultivation, she immediately took stock of her men and left.
"I'm entrusting the imperial city to the two of you!" Shen Lanxi said to Wei Dongzhu and Zhao Zheng.
Zhao Zheng, unlike his previous hostile attitude towards Shen Lanxi, respectfully accepted the order.
"My lord, could you please call Qian Feng and the others back?" The tense atmosphere between Zhao Zheng and Shen Lanxi was all an act from beginning to end.
Even before she returned to Beijing from the Northwest, she had arranged for her former subordinates from the Black Tiger Army to contact Zhao Zheng.
Knowing that Zhao Zheng had been keeping a low profile and hiding his true abilities, he had been contacting Zhou Yuxue under the guise of being her ex-fiancé and friend since returning to Beijing.
No one would have guessed that the two people who had argued like they had a deep-seated hatred for each other were actually in a superior-subordinate relationship in private.
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