Chapter 530: Success or Failure Depends on This Move
Mo Jiuye held He Zhiran and jumped onto a nearby hidden wall to watch.
Prime Minister Xue was staring at Nan Yu, Nan Rui and Nan Qi with disdain.
"Are the two princes planning to disobey the imperial order?" He didn't know Nan Yu's true identity yet, so the two princes were only talking about Nan Rui and Nan Qi.
The recent events have greatly reduced Nan Qi's morale. If Nan Yu hadn't been reminding him, if he continued like this, not only would he not be able to get the throne, he might even lose his life.
In order to save his own life, Nan Qi had no choice but to confront the Queen's men.
It was a confrontation, but Nan Yu couldn't bear to watch the scene.
Every time he was persuaded to come forward, Nan Qi looked very heroic, but after meeting the Queen and the Xue family, he quickly lost his arrogance.
The same thing happened today. Nanyu and Nanrui had to work very hard to finally pull the person out.
If the Queen's party had not done such a thing, Nan Yu would never have discovered that Nan Qi was so cowardly.
Fortunately, after repeated persuasion from Nan Yu and Nan Rui, Nan Qi brought a thousand private soldiers he had raised today.
Speaking of private soldiers, the princes of the Dashun Dynasty were allowed to keep a certain number of them.
For example, Nanrui and Nanqi were both princes who were granted the title of king. Their poverty was higher than that of other people who were granted the title of king. The court allowed them to maintain a maximum of 2,000 private soldiers.
Of course, as long as the number of private soldiers does not exceed two thousand, the number mainly depends on the financial resources of the person who maintains the soldiers.
Nan Qi was not good at managing money and his income was not much, so he only raised a thousand private soldiers.
Originally, he wanted to release some of his private soldiers due to financial constraints. Later, Nan Yu persuaded him that since the crown prince had not yet been appointed, everything would be uncertain and the more people he could use, the better.
Fortunately, Nan Yu persuaded him at the beginning, otherwise, he would not be able to take out even these 1,000 private soldiers today.
Nanrui had no interest in the throne at first. It was only after Mr. Simeng used poisonous insects to control Concubine De that he had no choice but to raise private soldiers.
Moreover, the number of private soldiers is exactly the two thousand required by Mr. Simeng.
Later, he rushed to the northwest with the faked-dead Concubine De and hastily disbanded this group of private soldiers before leaving.
This time, in order to help Mo Jia repay his mother's life-saving grace, Nan Rui returned to the capital and recontacted his former loyal subordinates and summoned back some of the disbanded private soldiers.
To this day, Nanrui has 1,500 private soldiers under his command, which shows his sincerity in helping the Mo family.
The two princes' private soldiers together numbered 2,500.
In the past, having such a large army in the capital would have been quite intimidating.
The Xue family had been planning for many years, originally wanting to help Nan Heng ascend to that position. Now that Nan Heng is gone, their ambitions have become even greater.
On the surface, they helped the fourth prince adopted by the queen to win the position of crown prince. In fact, anyone with a discerning eye knew that the fourth prince was just a pawn of the Xue family.
When the time comes, the Xue family will definitely change the name of the Dashun Dynasty.
Prime Minister Xue had laid out the plan long ago. Although he could not openly raise private soldiers like the two princes, he put in a lot of effort behind the scenes.
There were also some fence-sitter generals who had some military power and sided with the Xue family under their inducement.
The troops in the capital now, apart from the private soldiers secretly trained by the Xue family, are brought by those fence-sitter generals. They are now working for the Queen's party, thinking that it will not be long before the Fourth Prince ascends the throne and they will be able to rise to prominence.
Therefore, the number of troops currently held by the Queen's party, including those that control the entire palace, is at least over 20,000.
Just now, Prime Minister Xue walked out of the palace, and the team following him looked to be at least three thousand people.
This is also the real reason why Nan Qi was so scared that his legs went weak.
Nan Yu squinted at his cowardly look and warned him, "Your Highness Prince Qi, things have developed to this point. We simply cannot afford to retreat. Success or failure depends on this one move."
Nan Qi once again looked at the team behind Prime Minister Xue and whispered to Nan Yu, "They clearly have more people than us. How can we win?"
The more Nan Yu saw him like this, the angrier he became, but Nan Qi was still useful at this time, not to mention that his true identity as a prince had not been made public yet. At this moment, he could only continue to endure.
"The purpose of our coming here is not to take action, but to inquire about the situation of the old thief Emperor Xue."
After being reminded of this, Nan Qi realized the purpose of coming here today.
Just when he finally mustered up the courage to speak, Nan Rui had already calmly walked to the opposite side of Prime Minister Xue.
"Prime Minister Xue, I have no other purpose today. The imperial edict states that my father is ill. As his sons, my third brother and I have the obligation to be at his bedside and show filial respect.
Why do you bring so many people to stop us brothers?
Could it be that the emperor is not ill at all, but has been murdered by you?"
In fact, there were many civil and military ministers present, some of whom remained neutral like Minister He, and a small number of them secretly supported Nan Rui and Nan Qi.
The vast majority of them are a group of people who change their minds and side with the Xue family.
No matter who they are, they all have such doubts in their hearts.
It is suspected that Emperor Shunwu was not simply ill, but had been assassinated by the Queen's people. Now that this news has not been made public, it must be because the Queen's party has something unfinished.
Therefore, when Nan Rui asked this question, everyone present looked at Prime Minister Xue, wanting to know how he would answer this question.
It has to be said that Prime Minister Xue is extremely cunning and scheming.
After Nan Rui asked this question in public, the old man did not show any guilt on his face. Not only that, his answer sounded completely justified.
"Since His Royal Highness Prince Rui has asked this question publicly today, I, this old minister, may as well speak frankly.
It is true that the emperor has not appeared for a long time because of illness, but he also personally told his old ministers that he is extremely disappointed with the abilities of the two princes, His Royal Highness Prince Rui and His Royal Highness Prince Qi.
I hope that this old minister will use his own abilities to assist the Fourth Prince and train him to become a qualified crown prince.
Because the Emperor was disappointed with the two princes, he specifically instructed the old ministers and the Empress that the two princes were not required to come to attend to him when he was ill, so that you could reflect on your own incompetence over the past twenty years."
If this is true, it can be said that Nan Rui and Nan Qi were slapped in the face.
Not to mention Nan Rui, he himself did not want to pursue that position, but Nan Qi was different. He had only one goal since he was a child, which was to defeat Nan Heng and stand out to become the next emperor of the Dashun Dynasty.
Now Xue Cheng was saying in front of so many people that he was incompetent. Even though he had too much fear in his heart, he could no longer bear it.
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