He was surrounded and had no choice but to fight his way out. His uncle was always protecting him and even gave him a dagger for self-defense.
There were more and more imperial guards in the palace, and some of them surrounded the city gate to prevent them from going out. The other side had more people and they were definitely no match for them. The prince made a quick decision and decided not to run away but to kill inside.
All the princes and the late emperor were on the execution platform. The prince decided to kill them directly on the execution platform. His uncle did not understand why he did this, but he immediately gave the order to go to the execution platform.
Blood flowed like a river. The Fourth Prince panicked and shouted, "The Crown Prince is really rebelling!"
By the time the prince and his men had reached the execution platform, there were only a few left. The late emperor stood up angrily and shouted, "Stop it!"
The two sides finally stopped fighting.
The prince's eyes were filled with despair and sadness, and all kinds of complicated emotions filled his heart. He looked at his father, but didn't know what to say.
The late emperor immediately jumped up and cursed, "You unfilial son!"
The prince smiled helplessly, thunder and lightning flashed, and heavy rain began to fall from the sky.
When the Fourth Prince saw the Crown Prince, he was terrified and hurriedly urged, "Father, quickly order the Crown Prince to be killed! Quickly! He wants to rebel and kill you."
The prince said disdainfully, "I think it's you who should be killed."
When the late emperor heard what the prince said, he hurriedly picked up the sword from the waist of the guard beside him. However, as he took a step forward, his foot slipped and he fell directly from the stairs.
Everyone panicked. The imperial physician came immediately and a few minutes later, he announced tremblingly, "His Majesty has passed away!"
The Fourth Prince collapsed and grabbed the imperial physician, "You quack, did you make a mistake? I haven't even become the crown prince yet, and my father can't die."
Because the Fourth Prince lost control and said this, everyone immediately understood the Fourth Prince's purpose. After all, he grew up in the imperial city and understood conspiracies.
The imperial guards also stood there, not knowing what to do.
Although the prince was about to be executed, the country had no leader at the moment, and people were worried about who should become the new emperor.
Led by the Fourth Prince, all of them nominated the Fourth Prince, and then supported the Crown Prince to succeed to the throne and formed another wave.
The two sides were evenly matched and it was difficult to tell who was better, so everyone looked at General Lin next to them. After hesitating for a moment, General Lin immediately stood in the prince's team.
General Lin did this simply because he thought the prince was more suitable to be emperor.
After making the selection, the Crown Prince immediately ordered the imperial guards to arrest all the people headed by the Fourth Prince, whether they were ministers, concubines in the harem, or princes.
There was chaos in the palace for a while, and hundreds of people were killed within that day, including the palace maids, eunuchs and servants who were involved, all of whom were executed without mercy.
Four or five princes were killed, and Li Chen was taken out of the palace before today because the prince was afraid that if he lost, Li Chen would not survive, and if he won, he was afraid that Li Chen would be kidnapped in the war.
The execution platform was covered in blood. Although the princes begged desperately, the crown prince spared no one and was extremely cruel. The only ones who escaped were those who had been granted foreign lands and left the capital early on. Those who participated in the execution were directly executed along with their entire clans.
After the battle for the throne ended, the only one who survived was the fourth prince's biological mother, who was later crowned queen. Because she had killed the previous queen, how could the prince let her die so easily?
He wanted her to watch her son and her relatives die one by one.
A day later, the prince officially succeeded to the throne and became emperor.
Also because the prince was too cruel at the time, he was defined by the censor as the coldest-blooded emperor.
His uncle who rescued him was made Duke of Zhao and enjoyed extremely high treatment. His salary was the highest among all the ministers and princes. He was also granted a title that could be passed down for three generations.
The families of the escort agency brothers who died in the war also received generous compensation.
General Lin was also appointed as the commander of the imperial guards, in charge of the entire imperial palace and the comfort of the capital. He was arguably the most powerful general.
The fourth prince's biological mother also became the empress dowager, and the former queen was granted the title of empress dowager. However, the queen dowager was required to recite scriptures and pray in the house every day, and to copy scriptures, and she could hardly stop for a moment. The content of her writing was still to curse the fourth prince as a bastard, and that he had let down the former queen and that he was guilty.
She looks glamorous on the outside, but in reality, she is worse than a dog. She is restricted from leaving the palace. All the palace maids and eunuchs in the palace are there to supervise and watch over her. If they are disobedient, they will be whipped. Those palace maids and eunuchs were the ones she had bullied before.
So the Empress Dowager always called the imperial physician in the palace, and her illness was very simple, it was a psychological problem. The Empress Dowager was on the verge of collapse every day and often had nightmares.
Two years after the prince became emperor, everything began to get back on track. He sent people to look for Li Chen, but in the end he only found the two guards who had escorted Li Chen out of the palace. When they found him, they were already dead, having starved to death.
After the three of them took Li Chen out of the palace, they traveled everywhere and went to Yongzhou first. However, because Li Chen was only a few months old, he was not acclimatized to the climate and immediately had a fever. It was a big deal for such a young child to have a fever. They spent a lot of money on treatment, and after a year, they were penniless.
Because they had no land or house, everything was too urgent, so one person had to stay behind to take care of Li Chen, and the other two went to do odd jobs to earn money. They persisted like this for half a year. Later, the Yongzhou area suffered a drought, and the people had no harvest. The wealthy families no longer hired odd jobs, so the three had no choice but to leave Yongzhou with the refugees.
But on the way, they met some criminals who wanted to kidnap Li Chen and sell him for money.
The three men fought hard, but they were injured and lost their only remaining money. Two of them starved to death while walking.
Only one guard was left with Li Chen, but fortunately, they settled down as refugees. The county magistrate gave them two acres of land and distributed food, so they barely survived. Li Chen grew up little by little. Later, when they heard that the prince had succeeded to the throne, the guard excitedly took Li Chen to the capital. They passed by a county town that was very crowded and bustling. It was here that the guard and Li Chen separated.
The guards found that Li Chen was missing. How could they not find him? He was just a three-year-old child, and he might be gone now. The guards were in great pain and too embarrassed to return to the capital, so they left this place and went to Jiangnan.
After separating from the guards, Li Chen stumbled along the street, searching for the guards everywhere. Unable to find them, he broke down and burst into tears. An old widower passing by saw him, immediately picked him up, and walked away from the busy street. He gently asked, "Where are your parents? I'll take you back. You'll run into bad people on the street alone."
Li Chen cried and said, "I don't have any parents. My brother is missing and I can't find him."
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