146. End

"Prince Ning." Rong Se called.

Rong Zhan stepped forward, leaned over and said, "The young king is here."

"The Rong family has lost its heirs, and now you are the only one who is qualified to sit on the throne. I know you have lived in Danzhou for a long time, but your surname is Rong. Now is a time of trouble and the border wars are not over. It is a time of crisis. If there is no emperor, the officials will be leaderless and chaos will occur. You will be the emperor and sit in Jinjing. What do you think?"

Rong Zhan said solemnly, "It's all up to the uncle's arrangement."

At this point, how could people not understand?

Prince Ning is helping the Prince Regent today, and it is clear that the two of them had planned this long ago.

Rong Se then said to the ministers, "Prince Ning is a patriarch of the Rong family, and has royal blood. He has been stationed in Danzhou for many years and has suppressed the various countries in the South China Sea. When the Tongxian earthquake occurred, he personally went to the disaster area and worked hard, which further proves his wisdom. I think there is nothing wrong with handing over the country of Dajin to Prince Ning. What do you think?"

The officials were all stunned. After a moment of silence in the Xuanzheng Hall, all the officials exchanged glances with each other and said in unison: "Your Majesty is wise. We respectfully invite the Prince of Ning to ascend the throne as emperor."

Rong Se looked at the solemn hall, and then glanced at the ministers. He finally felt relieved and slowly exhaled.

Done.

Rongse achieved his goal, but there were still many matters to be dealt with regarding the chaos in Jinjing today, especially those concerning the Cao, Lou and Hou families. Rongse handed them over to the Ministry of Justice and the Dali Temple for handling. The court meeting was dispersed. When the ministers left the Xuanzheng Hall, the bodies at the palace gate had been cleaned up, and several palace maids and eunuchs were wiping the bloodstains on the steps.

The outcome of the coup on New Year's Eve was unexpected to all the civil and military officials in the court.

Lu Shangqian and Yu Qingzhou walked down the stairs side by side. They were silent until they reached the palace gate. Yu Qingzhou couldn't help but whispered, "Minister Lu, what do you think the prince wants to do today?"

In terms of qualifications to ascend the throne, he, Prince Ning, is a collateral relative, while Rongse is the son of Emperor Yuanguang. Naturally, he is more qualified than Prince Ning to sit on that position.

Moreover, the Regent had been planning for a long time. Yu Qingzhou had always believed that the Regent coveted the throne and would sooner or later pull Rong Jing down and replace him.

As a result, the Regent did take action against the Emperor, but he handed over the throne to someone else. Does he still want to continue to be the Regent in an unjustifiable manner?

Lu Shangqian was silent for a moment, then said softly, "What did the prince do in Xuanzheng Palace?"

"... to clear the name of Concubine Yan Gui, to expose the evil deeds of the previous emperor to the public, and..." Yu Qingzhou paused for a moment. He thought about it carefully, and seemed to understand something. He asked doubtfully, "Is this all the prince wants to do? He doesn't want to be the emperor at all?"

"I'm afraid that's exactly the case." Lu Shang sighed, his expression complicated, "This is all the Prince wants to do. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed that there is such a person in the world."

It was so pure that it could be called naivety. If it happened to anyone else, it would be fine, but when it happened to the scheming Regent, Lu Shangqian had to examine himself. Perhaps he had misjudged the Regent from the very beginning.

He could not help but recall the day when he truly changed his mind about the Regent. He gave him sincere advice, but the Regent did not appreciate it at all and seemed to insist on having his own way. Thinking about it now, Lu Shangqian felt a little ashamed.

What qualifications does he have to persuade the Regent to let go of the revenge for his mother's murder?

.

In Linghui Pavilion, Rong Se left two censors to draft the imperial edict. He knew that Rong Jing was not good at writing anything, and he could not guarantee that Rong Jing would include ulterior motives in the imperial edict. So he simply asked civil officials to draft it. Civil officials in the court were used to writing memorials, but they had never written an imperial edict before. So they were trembling with fear and were nervous about their words.

After Rong Se finished writing, he took a look at it. It was a long and earnest speech, so he nodded with satisfaction and ordered the two adults to leave.

"Your Majesty, please copy it down."

Rong Se placed the drafted edict of apology on Rong Jing's desk and turned to sit beside him, as if he wanted to watch Rong Jing write the edict of apology and the abdication edict with his own eyes.

Rong Jing's face was pale and ugly, and he held the pen tightly but did not move. After a while, he said in a low voice: "You just used the throne to pull Rong Zhan, right?"

"Yes." Rong Se said frankly, "Now that things have come to this, Rong Jing, it's useless to think about it anymore. It's you and your family who have brought us to this point today, so you can't blame others."

Rong Jing sneered: "He would be a fool to believe you. I am waiting for Rong Zhan to become the second I."

"Then you probably won't be able to wait." Rong Se smiled, "Rong Zhan and I have no grudges. He can be a good emperor without my intervention. Rong Jing, since I have given him the throne, I will not take away his power. As for you, you know why I did this. Don't waste time and write."

Rong Jing's face turned even paler.

He knew that Rong Se hated him, and he always thought that Rong Se wanted to be emperor, so after he ascended the throne, he felt that he had defeated Rong Se. However, what Rong Se wanted was not the throne at all. The throne that he regarded as a treasure was nothing in his eyes.

All Rong Se wanted was revenge.

Rong Jing couldn't help but think that maybe he was wrong from the beginning. If he hadn't forced Concubine Yan Gui to death, or if he hadn't humiliated, beaten, scolded and slandered Rong Se when he was young, things might not have turned out like this.

Even if he was reluctant to admit it, Rong Jing still knew that he regretted it.

As a result, the hand holding the pen was trembling slightly, and it took him a full hour to copy out the edict of guilt and the imperial edict, stamp them with the jade seal, and drop the cinnabar ink on the bright yellow brocade satin, completely ending Rong Jing's brief, six-month reign as emperor.

"Not bad." Rong Se walked forward and took the imperial edict to take a look. It clearly stated what Rong Xu and Cao Yumin had done, enough for the world to understand. "Come here, post the imperial edict on the palace wall so that the people of the world can see it. As for this imperial edict of succession, send it to Prince Ning, and ask the Ministry of Rites and Guanglu Temple to prepare for the coronation ceremony. The date will be set on... the tenth day."

After the palace servants left, Rong Se turned around, with his back to the light, and looked down at the almost paralyzed Rong Jing, smiling slightly, "Since you are the deposed emperor, you cannot live in the palace, but I have already found a place for you."

Rong Jing raised his head abruptly. "Even if I'm not the emperor, I'm still a member of the royal family. Are you going to kick me out of the palace?!"

"More than that." Rong Se stretched out a finger and shook it slowly twice. "Don't you always think that you are nobler than others? In that case, then go to the streets and be a commoner. Come on -"

Before Rong Se could finish his words, there was a sudden noise outside the door.

"Let me in! I want to see the Regent!"

Rong Se raised his eyebrows slightly and winked at Lan Ying who was guarding the room, "Let her in."

Lan Ying nodded and pushed the door open. A woman in luxurious palace dress walked in quickly. She had no manners at all and looked hurried. The hairpins on her high bun seemed to be flying in front of her face, making clanking sounds.

"Uncle, I heard that you forced His Majesty to give up the throne to that Prince of Ning?!" Hou Qingxia tried to remain calm, but one could still see panic in her expression.

"Why did I force you to do that? Rong Xu did all those bad things himself, so his son must take the blame for him." Rong Se smiled, "I almost forgot about the empress. Since the emperor is not the emperor, you are not the empress either. The Hou family participated in this rebellion, but you are a female relative. If you are willing to behave yourself, you can spend the rest of your life in the palace."

He had no grudge against Hou Qingxia, so naturally he wouldn't make things difficult for a woman.

Hou Qingxia did not appreciate it. She stared at Rong Se and said, "Even if Your Majesty is no longer Your Majesty, the throne should not be handed over to a royal relative, and the uncle cannot depose me. I am pregnant. This is the heir to the throne!"

Rong Se was slightly stunned when he saw Hou Qingxia's sharp words. He glanced at Rong Jing and saw that his expression was even uglier than when he wrote the confession just now. It could almost be called disgust. Rong Se even suspected that Rong Jing looked like he was about to vomit.

So I had an idea in mind.

"Really? That's a good thing." Rong Se narrowed his eyes slightly, "But confusing the royal bloodline is a capital crime, Queen."

When Hou Qingxia learned about the incident, the Hou family had already been imprisoned. She knew what she should do at this moment, but when facing Rong Se's all-seeing eyes, she couldn't help but feel terrified and guilty. She clenched her fingertips tightly and said calmly: "Of course, it's true that I am pregnant with a dragon seed. Uncle, there is royal blood in my belly. It is a great achievement to expand the royal family of Dajin. How can you abandon my position?"

Rong Se pondered and glanced at Rong Jing again.

Although Rong Jing looked so ugly that he seemed to be about to vomit as if he had eaten a fly, he remained silent throughout, as if he tacitly agreed with Hou Qingxia's words.

Although Rong Jing knew that Hou Qingxia was pregnant and the child was definitely not his, he knew that he had no hope of turning things around, so he simply did not expose the truth and let Hou Qingxia cause trouble for Rong Se.

Rong Se also knew what he was thinking, and said with a half-smile, "That's it. The Queen will stay in the palace to take care of her baby and wait to see what the new emperor means before deciding whether to stay or go. As for the deposed emperor, he will be demoted to a commoner and driven out of the palace!"

Rong Se did not kill him, but made him suffer more than death. Didn't he think he was superior to others? Didn't he think the people were like ants?

Then let him become the ant that he once despised the most.

Even though he knew he was powerless to resist, Rong Jing was still afraid when he was actually dragged away. He struggled and roared like crazy, shouting at the top of his lungs: "No, no... Let me go! Let me go! I am the emperor! I am the emperor of Dajin! You can't treat me like this!"

Hou Qingxia was still so shocked by this scene that she turned pale.

"The Queen should go back too." Rong Se glanced at her and then called Lan Ying, "Let's go back to the palace."

"Here I come!" Lanying immediately followed Rongse like a little tail.

Walking out of Linghui Pavilion, Rongse wrapped his cloak tightly until he left the palace. He suddenly came back to his senses and looked at the towering palace walls with a gloomy look in his eyes.

Rong Se touched his chest and silently said to the original owner who was somewhere unknown: Did you see it? Today, I have finished all the things you failed to complete. Those people will get the retribution they deserve. If your obsession has been resolved, no matter where you are, I hope you can be resolved.

May you be free from this life, and if there is an afterlife, may it be safe and peaceful.

Rong Se then turned around and got on the carriage.

From now on, he will be the one to decide his life.