He closed his eyes briefly, and when he opened them again, his eyes were filled with a chilling coldness.
The bronze whistle in his sleeve was burning hot as he gripped it, waiting for the worst moment to arrive.
Footsteps approached from afar, and Gu Zhixing instantly tensed up.
However, only a young eunuch arrived, hurrying past with a tea tray.
He slowly exhaled and realized that his back was soaked with sweat.
As night deepened, the power struggle within the palace walls continued.
"Father, she has secretly amassed troops! I saw it with my own eyes!"
The Crown Prince suddenly stood up, his eyes sharp as he looked at Xie Zhaoran.
How could someone who fell from such a high cliff survive?
What a lucky escape!
The emperor leaned back on his dragon throne, his cloudy eyes sweeping over everyone in the hall.
The senior ministers bowed their heads, and the princess sat calmly to the side, seemingly unconcerned.
Is what the Crown Prince said true?
The emperor's voice was hoarse and rough as he looked at Xie Zhaoran.
Xie Zhaoran knelt in the center of the hall, his back ramrod straight: "It's true."
The entire hall erupted in uproar.
The old ministers whispered among themselves, and the princess's teacup clattered onto the table.
No one expected Xie Zhaoran to admit it so readily. Hiding troops is such a serious crime!
“It’s the Xie family’s troops.” Xie Zhaoran’s clear voice cut through the noise. “It’s the Xie family’s army that was falsely accused of being rebels three years ago.”
A deathly silence enveloped the hall.
The crown prince's expression changed drastically, and his fingers twitched involuntarily.
Xie Zhaoran slowly took out a blood-stained silk scroll from his bosom and raised it high above his head with both hands.
The edges of the silk scroll were yellowed and damaged, but the mottled bloody fingerprints on it were still clearly visible.
The emperor ordered the silk scroll to be brought up.
“In the winter of the twelfth year of Jian’an, His Highness the Crown Prince personally went to Youzhou.” Her voice was neither loud nor soft, but every word was like a knife. “He used 100,000 taels of military pay as bait and military tally as an inducement to ask King Xie Jing of You to open the gates and let the Northern Di into the city.”
The candlelight inside the hall suddenly flickered, making it seem as if there were tears glistening in her eyes.
"King You only said one sentence at the time: 'The Xie family has guarded the territory of Dayong for generations, not the Crown Prince's private treasury.'"
Xie Zhaoran's throat bobbed slightly. "At midnight that night, the fire broke out at the Xie residence in the capital. All 374 members of the Xie family, including the elderly, women, and children, perished."
The old eunuch's hands trembled so much that he could barely hold the silk book.
When the emperor unfolded it, the crown prince's private seal was clearly visible, with several bloody handprints pressed next to it.
“These are the Ministry of Revenue’s secret accounts from the past five years.” Xie Zhaoran took out another booklet, with dried bloodstains still between the pages. “The military pay that His Highness the Crown Prince embezzled was all turned into swords and spears for the Northern Di’s eldest prince. Last winter, when the Youzhou garrison was so hungry that they were gnawing on their leather belts, the Northern Di were using our Great Yong’s silver to forge siege hammers.”
Her voice grew softer and softer, yet increasingly piercing:
"Three years ago, on the eighth day of the twelfth lunar month, the water in Youzhou froze instantly. Xie's army was defending the city walls against the seventh attack by the Northern Di when suddenly an arrow bearing the patterns of the Dayong Kingdom was shot from behind."
"They died without understanding why the arrows of Dayong were shot at the general of Dayong."
The old eunuch trembled as he accepted the evidence.
The emperor unfolded the military report, and the crown prince's vermilion annotations stung his eyes.
“Not a single man of the Xie family has died on the run.” Xie Zhaoran then took out a piece of charred cloth from his bosom. “When General Xie was shot to death by a hail of arrows at the city gate, he was still clutching a blood-soaked military flag in his hand—embroidered with the dragon pattern of our Great Yong.”
Suppressed gasps came from the corner of the hall.
“The most ridiculous thing is…” Xie Zhaoran suddenly chuckled, but his eyes were icy, “He was still shouting ‘Watch out for stray arrows’ before he died—he thought the arrows coming from the Northern Barbarians.”
The crown prince kicked over the table: "Utter nonsense!"
Xie Zhaoran neither dodged nor yielded, but instead stepped forward: "Does Your Highness know what the first rule of the Xie family's military regulations is?" She suddenly raised her voice, each word filled with anguish, "'We would rather die on the battlefield than point a sword at our compatriots!'"
"The arrow that night should have been aimed at the throat of the Northern Di people, but it ended up in the heart of one of our own."
In the deathly silence of the hall, Xie Zhaoran's voice suddenly softened: "The blood on the walls of Youzhou has not yet dried, and His Highness the Crown Prince has used the heads of the Xie family army to exchange for five gold mines of the Northern Di people."
She raised her eyes and looked at the emperor on the dragon throne. "Your Majesty, is this the peaceful and prosperous era you desired?"
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