"Insolence! Wang Xuan, how dare you!" Li Wei roared. "You actually question the Emperor!"
Seeing Li Wei's terrified and panicked appearance, Wang Xuan became even more determined in his decision.
The person in front of me is definitely not the real emperor!
"Eunuch Li, with so many screens erected here, who can truly see the Emperor's face? Why not remove these screens and let everyone see clearly whether the person before us is truly His Majesty, or whether someone with ill intentions is impersonating the Emperor!"
Many people present, along with Wang Xuan's faction, naturally supported his words. After all, if the person before them was truly the Emperor, their lives would be in grave danger today!
"Yes, if he really is the emperor, why hasn't he attended court for so long?"
"We have been kept out of the way by the Regent while trying to see His Majesty. It is no wonder that we are worried about His Majesty's health!"
As everyone was talking at once, they saw the person behind the screen raise their hand.
Li Wei stepped forward and announced loudly, "Summon Grand Secretaries Zhai Xianjin, Zeng Bufan, and Gai Louyu to an audience!"
The person whose name was called glanced at Wang Xuan and Xie Liwei before stepping forward to the screen and bowing to the Emperor.
"I have been ill since then and cannot be exposed to the wind. All of you come forward and see if I am real or not!"
Yuwen Wuji's voice was colder than ever before, as if a knife had ripped away the fig leaf covering these people.
The three Grand Secretaries entered one by one, and upon seeing the Emperor's appearance, they were all shocked.
"Your Majesty, I have offended Your Majesty. Please forgive me!"
Wang Xuan, standing outside the screen, could barely maintain his composure. Knowing that his fate was sealed, he immediately put down his sword, knelt down, and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive us. We were simply too unfamiliar with Your Majesty's presence tonight and mistakenly believed that the Regent had ulterior motives. We beg Your Majesty to punish us!"
Yuwen Wuji, behind the screen, sneered, "How does the Grand Secretary know that I'm not luring you into a trap?"
Upon hearing this, Wang Xuan felt a chill run down his spine.
"Wang Xuan colluded with the Prince of Yan to force the emperor to abdicate and rebel. The evidence is conclusive. Take him and his accomplices down!" Xie Liwei gave the order, and more imperial guards emerged from the shadows.
Wang Xuan looked at the Qiankun Palace, which was surrounded, and finally his gaze fell on Xie Liwei.
It turns out that all of this was Xie Liwei's scheme!
His coup tonight actually helped him clean up the court and the public, so there will be no more voices opposing his rule in the future!
It's pitiful that the Wang family's century-old foundation was destroyed by Wang Xuan!
He's not convinced! He's really not convinced!
But once a move is made, there's no going back. Today's situation is his own fault for not being careful enough; he can't blame anyone else!
"This emperor is an imposter! It's a treacherous minister who hired someone to impersonate him! You all, follow me and fight your way out of the palace!" Wang Xuan began his final, desperate struggle, unwilling to give up.
At this point, he was also wondering where Xie Liwei had found someone to impersonate the emperor. Qingxu had given enough medicine; logically, the emperor shouldn't be able to stand up now.
Could it be that Yuwen Wuji has never taken any of the pills refined by Qingxu?
Impossible. I've seen his complexion improve day by day; those are definitely symptoms of erysipelas on the face. There's no mistake.
He stared intently at Xie Liwei, convinced that the emperor before him was an imposter. But he lacked sufficient evidence!
"Wang Xuan, the other ministers have already verified the Emperor's true identity, yet you stubbornly insist that the Emperor is not the real Emperor! It is clear that you colluded with the Prince of Yan to plot a rebellion, and now that the matter has been exposed, you refuse to admit it!"
"I, Wang Xuan, have been loyal to every king I have ever ruled, but I will never be loyal to a counterfeit! Only you know who this person before you truly is! Xie Liwei, in this game, I have made a mistake. We shall meet again in the future!"
After he finished speaking, the people around him covered his retreat.
Cheng Cheng sneered, "Whoever takes Wang Xuan's head will be rewarded with a hundred gold pieces!"
In an instant, the two sides clashed. Xie Liwei and his men were well-prepared; this was a trap set to lure their prey into a snare. Xie Liwei had made meticulous arrangements in the palace, and he was not about to let the tiger return to the mountain.
As the first rays of dawn touched the earth, the dark red bloodstains on the palace floor were still not completely clear.
Today's morning court session was canceled. Xie Li sat upright in the Qiankun Hall, took a sip of water, and prepared to return to the Prince's residence.
"Wang Xuan has been executed on the spot, and the entire Wang family has been imprisoned. However, I have discovered that two of the Wang family's grandchildren are not in the capital. I have already sent people to investigate their whereabouts."
Xie Liwei nodded, stood up, and patted him on the shoulder.
"You've worked hard, go home and get some rest."
Chengcheng looked at him, hesitated for a moment, and finally asked what was on his mind.
"Has Your Highness never considered this position?"
Xie Liwei's gaze suddenly sharpened, and his tone was full of warning: "Chengcheng, watch your words!"
Chengcheng asked the question after thinking for a long time. He continued, "If Your Highness is willing, I will certainly do my best!"
Xie Liwei's tone was very resolute: "I have no such intention. I have never had it, I don't have it now, and I won't have it in the future."
Chengcheng lowered his eyelids, clasped his hands in a fist and said, "Your subordinate misspoke, please punish me, Your Highness!"
"Alright, let's go back and rest early."
As a century-old family, the Wang family's foundation and wealth are immeasurable. The Ministry of Revenue's officials searched the Wang family's private treasury in the capital for three days and three nights without completing the verification. Not to mention the Wang family's ancestral home in Langya.
The Dowager Consort was placed under house arrest at the Prince of Yan's residence. She insisted that it was Wang Xuan himself who harbored ambitions to become king, not the Prince of Yan. However, Xie Liwei produced the news that the Prince of Yan had already destroyed the Southern Kingdom but had kept it a secret. The Dowager Consort collapsed to the ground, nearly fainting.
In the entire court, both the Jing Prince's faction and the Yan Prince's faction were purged at this time. As for the remaining Fifth Prince's faction, they seemed to have done nothing in this matter, only wanting to confirm whether the emperor was really the emperor, but they still managed to step forward.
Xie Liwei didn't want to deal with these people for the time being, since there was no concrete evidence of treason against them. The Jingwang faction was the most vocal, feeling they were unjustly killed, that Tao Dingbang had led the rebellion, and that he wanted to support the Yanwang—what did the Jingwang have to do with it? However, in handling this treason case, the Xuanwang faction firmly bound the Jingwang and Yanwang together, making them inseparable, preventing the Jingwang faction from escaping.
Prince Xuan was exceptionally talented in handling cases, using this opportunity to eliminate the factions of Prince Jing and Prince Yan in the court. Then, Princess Yuwen Xian recommended the Duke of Dingguo, Xiao Jia, appointing him General Zhennan. He immediately mustered 100,000 troops and marched south to bring Prince Yan back. If Prince Yan was arrested, he could be executed on the spot!
The army broke camp and marched south. The news from the capital city naturally reached the Prince of Yan immediately. The Prince of Yan immediately headed north, preparing to use his 200,000 troops to directly attack the capital city and force Yuwen Wuji to abdicate.
However, despite his wonderful idea, he was discouraged when he attacked Yunzhou in the first battle.
Logically speaking, Yunzhou, having barely had time to recover after the drought, shouldn't have so many troops. Yet, its city walls are impregnable.
Yongle looked at the Yan Prince's army, which was blocked outside Yunzhou City, and breathed a long sigh of relief. The enemy had attempted to attack the city several times, but all their efforts had failed. Her hard work over the past few months had not been in vain!
When she traveled south, Song Yaozhu gave her a clever plan hidden in a brocade pouch. When she learned from Shen Qingque that Donglin might attack, she was extremely anxious and asked Granny Feng to open the pouch for her.
Unexpectedly, Song Yaozhu had arranged everything for her. She just needed to do as instructed in the letter, and everything else would be discussed later.
She has been extremely busy these past few months, laying a solid foundation for Song Yaozhu's arrival!
"My God! I can't believe I played a part in all of this!" When the Prince of Yan's army failed in their first siege, Yongle cried while holding Granny Feng. She truly couldn't believe that everything she had done had kept so many people at bay!
Granny Feng was also in tears. The princess had lost nearly 20 pounds in just two months to do all these things!
Not only did she feel sorry for the princess, but Shen Qingque also felt incredibly sorry for Yongle. However, she was experiencing both pain and pleasure while doing these things, so he let her do them.
When he returns to the capital, he will definitely make it up to her properly.
When Song Yaozhu received the news from the capital, she breathed a huge sigh of relief. Xie Liwei only wrote on the paper, "After a fierce battle lasting half the night, the traitorous king has been executed, the overall situation is settled, and everything is going smoothly," but she could imagine the danger behind those eight words.
That was a real clash of swords and spears, just like what she's going through now.
"Song Yaozhu, we'll definitely get back safely, right?" Yongle couldn't sleep well every night; she was too scared.
People died every day, and wounded soldiers were sent to the infirmary every day. The Eastern Front battlefield was very close to Yunzhou, and she could sense the earth shaking with the force of thousands of troops every time the two sides went to war.
The war kept her on edge every day. She and Song Yaozhu guarded the rear, while Shen Qingque was indeed at the forefront.
On the tenth day after they had kept the Prince of Yan's army outside the city, the Duke of Dingguo finally arrived with a portion of his vanguard to support them.
The Duke of Dingguo brought with him an imperial edict ordering Princess Yongle to retreat back to the capital. It was issued by Prince Xuan. How could he possibly allow his daughter to remain in such a dangerous place?
Yongle was naturally unwilling to go back. She knew she couldn't be of much help here, but her husband was still here, and she wanted to stay with him and get through anything together, rather than leaving first at a crucial moment.
When Shen Qingque returned that evening, Yongle was already in bed. She didn't want to talk to Shen Qingque right now. He had always wanted her to return, and now that there was an imperial decree, his position was even more legitimate. How could he let this opportunity slip by?
However, to her surprise...
"The prince wants you to go back. Do you want to go back?"
Yongle, who was pretending to be asleep, intended to ignore it, but she was always one to hold back her temper. After a few moments, she couldn't help but sit up and said angrily, "I don't want to go back. Will you let me stay here?"
Shen Qingque looked at her with a smile, "If you don't want to go back, then don't."
Yongle was taken aback, looked at him, and after a long while said, "You didn't say that last time."
"The situation was uncertain last time, but now that the Princess is here, I feel at ease knowing she is taking care of you."
Yongle snorted and said arrogantly, "It's not certain who will take care of whom between me and my aunt!"
"Yes, yes, yes, Yongle is incredibly powerful now. If it weren't for you, Yunzhou City would have fallen when the Prince of Yan's army attacked! The people of Yunzhou would have suffered, and the Great Chen Dynasty would have been plunged into war again, falling apart. Yongle, you really did a great job this time!"
With Shen Qingque's praise, Yongle's little mouth almost popped out of her head. She was so happy; she wasn't just a useless royal mascot after all!
"Hmph! I'm not as amazing as you make me out to be~ Alright, alright, go wash up and go to bed early. You have a lot of things to do tomorrow, and you won't have any energy if you don't sleep well."
Shen Qingque smiled and kissed her forehead before going to the bathroom to wash up.
The main reason he now feels comfortable leaving Yongle here is naturally because Song Yaozhu has arrived.
He could tell that Xie Liwei cared deeply about Song Yaozhu; that care was ingrained in his very bones. The fact that Xie Liwei agreed to let Song Yaozhu come here meant that they were confident of victory, so he felt at ease having Yongle here.
To put it bluntly, given Yongle's personality, even if she were really asked to pack her things and return to the capital, would she really obey?
Maybe I'll sneak away without anyone knowing, making him even more anxious.
It would be better to let her work under my nose and help Song Yaozhu with some tasks.
After Song Yaozhu arrived, she inspected the city defenses of Yunzhou again and then rearranged several places.
"Twenty days have passed now, and the Prince of Yan is more anxious than anyone else. He may have already joined forces with the people of Donglin. We must prepare for the worst."
Song Yaozhu had already sent a letter to the general of the Zhen Dong Army. She only learned before she came that the general of the Zhen Dong Army was actually a member of the Xie family! The Xie family had always been worried about Yuwen Wuji, so they had a backup plan, allowing many of their sons to change their names and join the army.
The requirements for joining the army were not as difficult as those for the imperial examinations. In the early days of the Great Chen Dynasty, when the household registration system was not yet fully established, even death row inmates could start over.
All these preparations were made by the father. He saw that Yuwen Wuji was not a magnanimous ruler, but thought that as long as his daughter was still alive, Yuwen Wuji could tolerate the Xie family for a while. The Xie family could wait until the situation in the world was completely stable before gradually withdrawing from the court, allowing the couple to live in harmony. However, Yuwen Wuji couldn't wait at all; he couldn't wait to take action against his wife.
Xie Lu was her father, so naturally he wished Yuwen Wuji dead more than anyone else.
His daughter was good in every way, but because she loved the wrong person, she paid the ultimate price. Not only her life, but also the lives of those around her. What did they do wrong? They were merely servants bought by the Xie family!
But Yuwen Wuji, fearing his secret would be exposed, killed all those people.
Stepping onto the steps of the Qiankun Palace once again, Xie Lü felt as if he had been transported to another world.
I haven't walked this road for over ten years. Coming back again, it feels both strange and familiar.
He once stood in a high position as the emperor's father-in-law, overlooking the court alongside the emperor. Later, he also took his daughter's body from this very place.
Now, he has come to send his enemy on his final journey.
It's just a pity that he left so easily.
Xie Lu wished he could subject Yuwen Wuji to the excruciating punishment of slow slicing, but he couldn't. A monarch's body would be examined by the imperial physician and then completely sealed in the imperial mausoleum.
Attorney Xie utterly despised this regulation; it was utterly inhumane!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com