Chapter 105: Fury: If you dare to hide it... kill you without mercy! …
There was dead silence outside the side hall. Only the sound of wind blowing through the long corridor, stirring the flower branches hanging from the eaves, was like someone suddenly plucked the strings of a frightened heart.
Wei Zilin walked quickly and went straight to a secluded side hall with anger.
The young eunuch who came to report the news was already shaking like a sieve, but there was nothing he could do. He could only get up tremblingly, trotted to catch up with him, and ran with him to the side hall.
Wei Zilin strode in, slammed the palace door shut with his backhand, turned around and grabbed the little eunuch who was already huddled against the door with his body frightened out of his wits.
He suddenly pulled up the young eunuch's collar, and the whole person was lifted half an inch off the ground.
"What happened to Shen Yunchao?!"
Wei Zilin gritted his teeth and growled, his eyes and eyebrows were fierce, almost ferocious.
His eyes were cold and murderous, which made the young eunuch sweat through his underwear. His knees went weak and he fell to the ground with a thud.
"Your Highness... Your Highness, please spare my life..."
The young eunuch was speechless, his body shaking violently like a sieve, "General Shen...he...he's gone!"
"What?!"
Wei Zilin suddenly pulled him closer, the anger in his eyes almost burning him to ashes, "What do you mean disappeared?!"
He gritted his teeth and said, "If he's alive, I want to see him. If he's dead, I want to see his body. Tell me, what does "missing" mean?!"
"I... don't know either!"
The young eunuch had a sad face, and he rolled and crawled on his knees, shrinking back, "Yes... it was the message sent back from the Black Armor Army..."
"The leader of the Black Armor Army said that we calculated the timing of the interception very accurately, and the vanguard easily broke in, but we didn't expect that we fell into the empty city plan... General Shen was not in the vanguard at all..."
Wei Zilin froze, his face so gloomy that it looked like water was dripping out of it. He suppressed his anger and asked, "What did you say?"
"General Shen himself was not in that army at all...no trace..."
"and......"
Wei Zilin grabbed his collar and pulled him up, "And what?"
The young eunuch was so frightened that he was incoherent, and he spilled all the information like a bamboo tube pouring beans, "And it seems that all the spies we planted before have been removed, so there is no way to find his whereabouts."
"I...I heard from the leader of the Black Armored Army that General Shen's trusted generals also disappeared at the same time...They suspected that...General Shen deliberately set up a trap and had already bypassed the front line and...entered the capital."
One stone can cause a thousand ripples.
Wei Zilin suddenly let go of the little eunuch and staggered back half a step.
It was as if a bucket of ice water was poured over my head, and the chill went straight to my heart and lungs.
His face was pale and blue, and his knuckles were clenched until they turned white, making slight noises.
It's not that he hadn't considered Shen Yunchao's cunning, and he had even arranged a series of ambushes. However, he didn't expect that the other party would be able to escape unscathed without even leaving any trace, which instead cast a layer of mystery over him.
Now that he is in the light and Shen Yunchao is in the dark, he has been put in a passive position.
He is the prince who is about to ascend the throne, the master of the palace, and is at the pinnacle of power.
But Shen Yunchao was like a jackal lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce at any time and tear his throat apart.
"waste!"
He let out a low shout and flicked his sleeves, causing the young eunuch in front of him to fall to the ground, not daring to even breathe.
Wei Zilin almost trotted out of the side hall, gnashing his teeth as he gave the order:
"Come here, pass on my order. Immediately seal off the entire Prime Minister's Mansion. No one is allowed to enter or leave! Not even a bird can fly out! Send the Black Armored Army to guard it personally. If there is any movement, report it immediately!"
The evening breeze lifted the corners of his fluttering robe, blew the strands of hair on his forehead, and let them fall on his dark eyelashes, but he had no time to care.
His expression was stern and his jaw was as tight as a string.
He knew that he had no way out.
If Shen Yunchao really led his army into the capital, then Wei Zilin would have no tomorrow.
It was already getting dark.
The lights in the Grand Council were on brightly, with candles lit one after another, casting shadows of people in the room, making it look extremely depressing.
Wei Zilin sat in the head seat, leaning against the desk, his face so gloomy that it seemed as if water might drip out of it.
He was still wearing the court robe he wore during the day, with the corners of his robe untied, and golden python patterns curling and snaking, as if they would break out of his clothes at any moment and swallow up the entire court.
The atmosphere in the room was tense.
All the ministers had lost their former dignity at this moment. They were all sweating profusely, pacing back and forth, or looking frightened. Only the generals in the corner of the room were arguing continuously, their faces red.
"Don't transfer the Imperial Guards to the south! If the five battalions are transferred, the defense line of the Imperial Palace will be immediately empty. If Shen Yunchao really enters the city, wouldn't we be opening our gates wide to welcome the enemy?"
"But Shen Yunchao's troops are approaching. If the Black Armor Army meets the enemy head-on without support, won't they die in vain? We have mobilized these brave soldiers for three years. We cannot let them be destroyed outside the city!"
"You are distracted! If the palace gate is lost, our lives will be in danger!"
"But if the Black Armor Army is defeated, do you think Shen Yunchao won't counterattack and attack the capital?"
"Why don't you tell me what to do? You just keep opposing but never make a decision. Do you really think you can command everything just by talking about it on paper?"
"you!"
"shut up!!"
Wei Zilin slammed the table with his palm and shouted in a deep and cold voice.
Several memorials on the table suddenly fell and landed on the ground.
The two generals who had been arguing the loudest were startled and both stopped talking, lowered their heads and bowed in silence.
Wei Zilin swept his cold eyes over everyone present, and no one dared to look up and meet his gaze.
"A bunch of rubbish!"
His voice was not loud, but every word was as sharp as a knife.
"At this time, are you still fighting over the military power?"
"If Shen Yunchao attacks the palace tonight, all of you will lose your heads one by one."
When all the ministers heard this, they were all silent.
At this moment, a nearly fifty-year-old Zhongshu Ling dressed in civil servant uniform slowly stepped forward, with a hesitant look on his face and a very low voice, with a bit of feminine calculation, hesitantly said: "Your Highness, I do have a way... maybe it can make General Shen surrender without a fight."
Wei Zilin glanced at him and said, "Speak."
The Minister of the Central Secretariat whispered, "General Shen is a loyal and righteous man who values filial piety."
"Why not invite Prime Minister Shen and Madam Shen to the palace and persuade General Shen with reason and emotion? If he cares about his parents' lives, he will not act rashly again."
As soon as these words were spoken, all the ministers looked at them sideways with different expressions.
Everyone knew the situation clearly and said nice things, using reason and emotion to persuade people.
To put it bluntly, they captured his parents and threatened him with their lives.
Wei Zilin's expression remained unchanged, but he was actually slightly shaken.
He was silent for a long time, tapping his fingertips slowly on the table, but his eyes slowly changed.
He naturally understood the viciousness of this idea.
If it were someone else, he would definitely not refuse and would easily adopt this plan, but... this is Shen Xingwan's relative...
Shen Xingwan has returned to him.
She said she felt sorry for him, applied medicine to him, and even her voice was soft and touchingly tender when she called him.
He didn't want to hurt her like this again.
The Minister of the Central Secretariat was a very shrewd person, and was a close minister of Wei Zilin. He knew that Wei Zilin had abducted Shen Xingwan yesterday. He carefully observed Wei Zilin's expression and guessed about 70% of his thoughts.
The Secretary of State rolled his eyes slightly, approached Wei Zilin, and whispered seductively, "If Prime Minister Shen and Madam Shen also submit to you, then you and General Shen will be one family, right?"
“You hold great power. If you give Shen Xingwan the false title of a concubine in the harem, Prime Minister Shen will be the father-in-law of the emperor, and Shen Yunchao will be the uncle of the emperor.”
"We are a family, why would we kill each other?"
Wei Zilin lowered his head, frowned slightly, and looked a little hesitant. After a long time, he nodded.
"Go," he said, "Send someone to the Shen Mansion to bring Prime Minister Shen and Madam Shen to the palace."
He wanted to add, "Please don't be violent," but when the words came to his lips, he didn't say them.
The young eunuch took the order and bowed and left.
Before the young eunuch walked out of the gate of the Military Affairs Office, a dusty and frightened eunuch stumbled in, fell to his knees with a plop, and cried in a hoarse voice: "Your Highness, the Crown Prince! The Prime Minister's Mansion... The Prime Minister's Mansion is empty!"
The room suddenly became quiet, as if everyone was paused.
"What did you say?" Wei Zilin almost squeezed out these words from between his teeth.
The young eunuch knelt on the ground and kowtowed like pounding garlic, "I followed your order and led people to seal off the Shen Mansion. When I entered the door, I found that there was no one in the mansion. The courtyard was deserted, and there was not even a servant. It seemed that they had been moved away... I dare not hide it, and I immediately came to report..."
"fart!"
Wei Zilin slammed the table and stood up suddenly. His robe sleeves brushed across the table, almost overturning everything on it. "That's the Prime Minister's Mansion, not the firewood room! Tell me how they could disappear out of thin air?!"
The young eunuch kowtowed repeatedly, his head making a thumping sound on the bricks.
"According to the guards' inquiries, Madam Shen said a few days ago that she wanted to go back to her hometown to visit her relatives, and ordered people to quietly prepare a car... There is no clear order in the palace not to allow the families of Beijing officials to return to their hometowns to visit their relatives, so..."
There was a sudden explosion in Wei Zilin's head, and it took him a long time to realize what was happening.
He overlooked so many things.
Although Madam Shen is gentle and reserved, she is definitely not an ordinary woman.
Prime Minister Shen is even more shrewd and calculating. He has been in the court for decades. If he really wants to escape quietly, how could he leave any trace?
What's more, now that Shen Xingwan was abducted by him, if Madam Shen was still in the mansion, how could she not come to the palace to visit her daughter?
No wonder Prime Minister Shen has been claiming to be ill and bedridden recently and has not attended court for a long time.
This was a long-planned transfer!
Shen Yunchao, this had been planned long ago!
Wei Zilin's chest rose and fell violently, veins popped out on his forehead, and he almost gritted his teeth. He waved his sleeves fiercely and shouted, "Order! Immediately seal off the nine gates in the capital, thoroughly investigate all the post roads, and capture Prime Minister Shen and Madam Shen!"
"And more!" he said sternly, "All relatives of the nine clans of the Prime Minister's Mansion are not allowed to leave the house. Capture them all and interrogate them one by one. If anyone dares to conceal anything... kill them without mercy!"
"yes!"
The ministers finally realized the seriousness of the situation. They stopped arguing and all bowed their heads to obey orders.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
