Chapter 1123: Sunflower Village Day [Requesting Double Monthly Tickets]
Calling her Empress Dowager Wang is not entirely accurate.
The new ruler of Gao State had not yet had time to appoint an empress dowager after ascending to the throne.
However, this does not prevent him from conveying the message.
Wu Xian's brain was severely damaged by those words.
He only remembered a buzzing in his head, followed by a white blur, his vision going completely blind, and all his strength being drained by some strange force. His limbs, now without support, suddenly went limp, and if the person beside him hadn't reached out to help him, he would likely have collapsed to the ground, utterly disheveled. Even now, his face was deathly pale, and he wasn't much better off: "What new Queen Mother of Gao Kingdom!"
Wu Xian sneered at Gong Xichou.
Before I knew it, beads of cold sweat appeared on my forehead.
He knew which son was the new ruler of Gao. Shen Youli had sent someone to inform him of the final outcome of the Gao palace coup, and it was precisely because of this that Wu Xian could not accept the existence of these two boxes. He awkwardly avoided reality, refusing to acknowledge the truth before him. Gong Xichou could not understand his attitude—although he did not know Wu Xian personally, he had heard about his past and knew that Wu Xian was not a devoted lover.
He had wives and concubines in their twenties and over fifty children.
As a former powerful ruler of a nation, Wu Xian's number of children is not excessive, and may even be considered low. Other warlords did not have that many offspring, which only proves that they did not pay attention to the upbringing and management of their children's families. They did not take good care of their children or their mothers, and the high mortality rate of their children does not mean that they had few women in their families or that Wu Xian was particularly licentious.
But that's all there is to it.
Wu Xian is not associated with words like "devoted" or "loyal".
His reaction to the news of a mother and child's deaths in public is baffling; it's unclear whether it's a genuine outpouring of emotion or a display of his desire to put on a show. If it's the latter, it's too late for such a performance; if it's the former, Gong Xichou's thought process is incomprehensible.
Gong Xichou then used his own logic to handle the unexpected situation.
He flicked his fingers and released two exquisite streams of martial energy.
His control over martial energy had reached a state of perfection. He conjured an invisible hand and gently opened the box, revealing the contents inside—two severed heads! It was a sight Wu Xian knew all too well!
The woman's head had its eyes gently closed, her expression serene. The younger man's head bore a weathered look, his brows furrowed with a relaxed relief, as if death wasn't a nightmare he desperately wanted to avoid. Judging from their expressions, their deaths weren't due to external coercion, but rather a voluntary choice. Shen Tang gave a signal to his guards, ordering them to summon a physician to give Wu Xian acupuncture to calm his mind.
"Gongxi Chou, how did the heads of those two end up in your hands?"
Shen Tang had personally promised Wu Xian's plea that she would spare the mother and son as long as they did not commit suicide. Gong Xi Chou would not stoop to harming the weak and fleeing, let alone driving them to their deaths. Judging from the timeline, he must have intercepted these two heads from someone else! Hearing Shen Tang's question, Wu Xian, whose mind was in a daze, managed to regain some clarity and suddenly looked at Gong Xi Chou, waiting for a response.
It would be better to let Wei Shou answer this question.
Wei Shou was the first person to come into contact with the severed head.
This story begins with him and Gongxi Chou being ordered to lead troops. Their forces were elite, and without the burden of baggage trains, their marching speed could be confidently maximized. After traveling for about half an hour, scouts discovered traces of a sizable unfamiliar force ahead. Further investigation revealed that this enemy army belonged to the imperial guards of the Gao Kingdom's capital—a direct confrontation indeed.
Enemies meeting are bound to be extremely hostile.
Let's grab our weapons and get to work!
In the end, a fight didn't break out; the other side surrendered first.
Shen Tang glanced at Wu Xian, who was lost in his own world, and pressed him for an answer: "Could it be that they mutinied and harmed the two of them?"
With the king and queen dowager fleeing in disarray, how could they continue to control the army that would fight and die for them? Logically, it makes sense that the imperial guards, during their escape, mutinied, killed the two, and used their heads as a pledge of allegiance to the Kang Kingdom. However, Shen Tang felt something was amiss.
She carefully pieced together the existing intelligence and noticed a detail—was the Qi and Blood too heavy? In the event of a mutiny, with the forces on both sides being one-sided, large-scale casualties were unlikely.
Wu Xian said decisively, "Impossible! They wouldn't!"
He has his own reasons for daring to say that.
Wu Xian could be betrayed by anyone, but these 10,000 Imperial Guards would not; they were all meticulously prepared by Wu Xian from top to bottom.
Wei Shou ordered his soldiers to bring some things over.
Three supply wagons with their cargo stacked high.
The goods on the supply wagons were covered with cloth.
Judging from the ruts left by the wheels, it must have been quite heavy.
As the supply wagons were pushed aboard, the stench of blood grew stronger, faintly mixed with the stench of corpses. Wei Shou waved his hand, signaling for the covering cloth to be removed. When the goods were revealed, Shen Tang's pupils constricted sharply! The supply wagons were not carrying provisions, but rather rows of brutally murdered corpses.
If it were merely the corpses, they wouldn't have shocked her so much—she'd seen countless mountains of corpses and seas of blood over the years. What truly stunned her was their clothing; every single one of them exuded wealth, implying they had held high social status in life, were either rich or noble. All three supply wagons, once opened, revealed the same thing.
Shen Tang took two steps forward.
Some of the bodies were even dressed in official robes.
The rest wore expensive headdresses or scholar's robes, and the quality of their clothing revealed their distinguished backgrounds. A few individuals would have been one thing, but the fact that all three supply wagons were filled with such people surprised even Shen Tang.
Shen Tang could only judge based on their attire, but Wu Xian was familiar with them.
"How could this be, how could this be..."
He kept muttering these scattered sentences.
Wei Shou leaned closer with a subtle expression and whispered in Shen Tang's ear.
There were still hundreds of vehicles behind the army, and this was only a part of it; the rest were all left uncollected. Wei Shou took a deep breath, his gaze falling on the woman's head, a deep sense of dread surfacing: "...This woman is far more decisive than her man; she doesn't let even the deepest grudge linger overnight...saving us a lot of trouble."
Shen Tang understood the implied meaning in the words.
Are all of these related to the Mi clan?
Wei Shou said, "Alas, it's true what they say: a doting mother spoils her son."
Mi Shi was practically spoiling her son rotten.
"This mother and son have a blood feud with the powerful officials of Gao State." As it turns out, one should not judge a book by its cover. Despite her gentle appearance, the things Mi Shi did were more shocking and bloody than the last. If Wu Zhaode had her ruthlessness and decisiveness, the war between Kang and Gao could have gone back and forth twice. "If there is a grudge, it must be avenged. And it must be avenged personally before death."
It's perfectly normal for Lady Mi and her son to hate these people.
"If it weren't for their interference, the royal decree wouldn't have failed to be transmitted, the local generals wouldn't have disobeyed orders, and the Gao Kingdom wouldn't have reached the point of destruction so quickly." Mi Shi and her son must be out of their minds to abandon past grievances and flee with these people. The only reason they hastily led these people out of the capital was because the royal tombs weren't yet completed, and there weren't enough terracotta figures for burial.
If there aren't enough terracotta figurines for burial, then living people have to be used.
It's best to use the entire living family!
From Wei Shou's account, Shen Tang roughly learned the whole story.
Under the escort of the Imperial Guards, Lady Mi and her son hastily fled the capital. Various families within the city, half-heartedly and half-heartedly, followed suit. They had no choice but to escape; the formidable Shen Youli was still lurking outside. Any territory she conquered had brought misfortune to the local gentry and nobles, and they themselves would suffer a similar fate if captured. Rather than wait to be killed, they decided to take a gamble.
What truly made them decide was this Imperial Guard.
The elite of the elite in the country.
The Mi family, mother and son, were already like grasshoppers in autumn—one an ordinary person, the other of meager ability. What right did they have to command the continued loyalty of the Imperial Guards? The other families, however, were different. It would be easy for them to unite and turn the Imperial Guards against them. With this army, they could attack or defend as they pleased. They could retreat to another country with their wealth and connections, seeking new patrons to rebuild their power, or they could use it as leverage to surrender to Shen Youli, receiving far better treatment than the prisoners.
They were really calculating.
But they didn't hear that Lady Mi's abacus was even more cunning!
The Mi family and their son were unable to control the Imperial Guard; their weakness was a well-known flaw, but it was precisely this flaw that made them invincible in the revenge plot. The fire in the capital tied down Shen Tang's troops and cut off everyone's escape route.
Mi suggested that they could retreat towards the royal tombs.
The construction of this royal mausoleum began after Wu Xian came to power, and it consumed a considerable amount of manpower, material resources, and financial resources.
The royal tomb was strategically located and contained a large quantity of provisions, weapons, and spoils of war from Wu Xian's campaigns over the years—items he had prepared for his own burial. Lady Mi suggested going to the royal tomb, as the provisions there could alleviate their immediate crisis.
The refugee groups were large, and how many mouths were waiting to be fed?
How many people managed to escape with enough food?
Lacking food supplies, they couldn't run very far.
Mi's proposal was approved by everyone.
Behind the scenes, these people also tried to turn the Imperial Guards against the Mi family, as the mother and son could offer these elite soldiers little benefit. Rather than have them humiliate them, they decided to rebel, using the mother and son's heads as a pledge of allegiance to secure their future. The Imperial Guard leader initially hesitated, remembering Wu Xian's kindness, but couldn't resist the ever-increasing temptations and readily agreed.
Upon arriving at the royal tomb that night, they smashed a cup as a signal.
Many members of noble families were hacked to pieces by the Imperial Guards in their sleep; the sudden turn of events caught everyone off guard. The royal tomb was riddled with traps and constructed of the same materials as the capital's walls, making it impervious to ordinary catapults. Taking advantage of the tomb's terrain, the Imperial Guards launched a sudden attack, indiscriminately slaughtering everyone else, leaving no one alive!
These aristocratic families also brought their own private retinues.
Their combat strength is decent, but they are too few in number and too scattered.
This fierce battle raged from night until day, leaving corpses strewn across the battlefield.
Mi's son, in protecting his mother, suffered over a dozen fatal stab wounds and died in battle. Mi herself was also caught in the crossfire, sustaining severe injuries and nearing her end. When the leader of the Imperial Guard arrived with several prisoners of war, they all cursed Mi. Mi smiled wryly and ordered her son's body to be placed in the royal mausoleum coffin. Then, with a heavy heart, she ordered her son's head to be severed and pieced together with a stone almost the size of his head.
She held onto the coffin, her eyes bloodshot.
His expression was one of profound grief, and he vomited a mouthful of blood, his breath growing weaker than before: "My son had only one wish before his death: to be buried as a king! Since you are his subjects, why don't you continue to serve him even in the afterlife? You manipulated power, forcing him to his death, and causing hundreds of thousands of people in Gao Kingdom to suffer the ravages of war. How can you not deserve to die!"
Although he only reigned for a short period, he did his utmost to save the crumbling empire! What did his efforts earn him? One after another, officials who relied on their seniority and took sick leave, military generals who only cared about their own interests, and those so-called aristocratic families who didn't dare to utter a word, all craning their necks to wait for the dust to settle down, trying to curry favor with Shen Youli!
Haha, and what happened?
People absolutely loathe them!
I loathe these insects that suck the blood and bones of everyone!
Despite being favored by Emperor Wu over the years, Lady Mi has suffered countless injustices, both openly and secretly. Simply because she was born a lowly dancer, she has been subjected to ridicule and scorn by these despicable people for over twenty years. She is unwilling to give up her hard-won foothold and has always lived cautiously. Even if someone slaps her left cheek, she will smile and offer her right, making sure to offer both cheeks in return!
She's been so patient and restrained!
Why still try to exterminate them all?
If the Gao state's ruler and his ministers are united but still cannot defeat the powerful enemy, and the matter is about to end, then Mi Shi, as a mother, can still smile and send her son off on his journey—she doesn't understand why some people value other things more than their own lives, but this is something he is willing to risk his life for, and she will grant his wish.
But these things are just too much!
You, existing in this world, have done nothing to benefit Heaven and Earth!
[It's better to be dead and have it all over!]
Mi ordered that all of these people be buried alive with her.
[A ruler of a country should be buried with the rites due to a ruler of a country!] After dealing with these matters, Mi Shi was also exhausted. As arranged beforehand, she had the captain of the Imperial Guard take her head.
They used the heads of the mother and son to declare the destruction of the Gao Kingdom.
This can be considered Gao Guo's final explanation.
It is hoped that upon seeing their heads, Shen Youli will treat the innocent people of Gao with kindness. Wei Shou conveyed the last words of Lady Mi, relayed by the leader of the Imperial Guards. These words had been arranged long ago. They were simply to tell Shen Tang that she had two daughters and a son who were still living abroad, and hoped that Shen Tang would pardon them. If she disdained her, she could simply throw her head into some desolate wilderness; if it could provide a feast for wild animals, it would be her last act of kindness. If she wished to give her a proper burial, she should inscribe her and her son's names on the tombstone.
My name is Mi Kui.
Wu Xian staggered forward and angrily asked, "What about me? What about me?"
He did not believe that Lady Mi had not given him a dying wish.
Wei Shou shrugged: "I don't know."
He had only relayed what Mi Shi said; he hadn't heard it with his own ears. Wu Xian couldn't accept this outcome. Looking at the severed head in the wooden box, he was overcome with grief and burst into tears. Shen Tang looked away: "Where are their bodies?"
She never intended to make things difficult for the mother and son.
Let him be buried in his entirety, so he can rest in peace.
I just suddenly remembered something.
"Her name is Mi Kui, does she have a courtesy name?"
The inscription on the tombstone should be clearer.
Wu Xian's sobs finally subsided a little: "She..."
Mi was born into poverty, and no one in her family could afford to marry her. Wu Xian had taken her as a concubine for many years, but he never thought of this, or rather, there was never a situation where he needed to call her by her childhood name. Shen Tang said, "The sunflower is in the south, so why not call her 'Facing South'?"
The update was blocked immediately, and I don't know what's wrong with it.
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