Chapter 449 Oath
Thinking back to ten days ago, Yun Chen said that he wanted to break up with me and never meet again in this life.
Ten days later, she could only walk out of the prison with handcuffs on her hands and feet, and was obediently led by Su Zhengyang with an iron chain to the Yong'an Palace.
Su Zhengyang gently pulled the other end of the iron chain, and Yun Chen staggered slightly and rolled his eyes at him.
He wanted to joke that she couldn't escape from his grasp after all and still had to meet him.
Then he thought again that Yun Chen would be torn into pieces by five horses in three days, so he couldn't joke at all.
Su Zhengyang was so anxious that he got angry. In just one hour, two big blisters appeared on his mouth, but he still couldn't think of any way to escape.
He frowned deeply in worry, his eyes fixed on Yun Chen's profile as she looked up at the moon, but he couldn't help but relax his brows along with her, staring at her moon-like tranquil appearance.
Her chin was small and fair, her face thin but with plump cheeks, just like the furry and lovely hillside on the green grass in spring.
She looked at the moon, and in her beautiful obsidian eyes there was a color brighter than the moonlight.
There was no trace of grievance of being wronged or fear of impending death between his eyebrows.
She didn't care about the intrigues and deceptions in the court, nor did she delve into who was right and who was wrong between Huo Gannian and Nan Lijun.
She still trusted Huo Gannian unconditionally and deeply as before, and was willing to live and die with him.
When they heard that Nan Lijun was going to summon her alone, Rong Yi and the others in the cell were all furious. They grabbed the cell door with both hands and shook it loudly, causing the dirt on the roof to fall off.
Huo Gannian changed his usual serious demeanor and squeezed through the bars of the prison gate without caring about his image. He stretched out his hand to Yun Chen and shouted anxiously and worriedly:
"Chen'er! Protect yourself!"
Everyone seemed to have an ominous premonition that Yun Chen would never come back, as if Nan Lijun was some kind of devil who was going to attack Yun Chen first.
Only Yun Chen looked at ease. He glanced back at Huo Gannian who was about to cry, and smiled carefreely as if nothing was wrong. He then signaled Rong Yi and the others to be quiet, and said to everyone in a joking tone:
"I went there to plead for all of us. Wait for my good news—"
These words sounded like a farewell, and Rong Yi immediately got furious. He shook the cell door hard, almost collapsing it, and yelled:
"Boss! You can't go alone! Run! Grab Su Zhengyang's sword! Fight your way out of the palace! Leave Kyoto! If you run, don't come back!"
Su Zhengyang, who was walking side by side with Yun Chen: "..."
He thought to himself, "What a great idea! They plotted this on the spot? You really don't take me, the commander of the Imperial Guards, seriously, do you?"
Su Zhengyang glared at Rong Yi angrily and took Yun Chen to Yong'an Hall.
Su Zhengyang actually couldn't understand Rong Yi's feelings.
In his opinion, Nan Lijun was indeed mediocre in talent, jealous, willful, and had a bad temper. Now he was even fooled by the treacherous minister Wu Yanguan and could not distinguish right from wrong... He was inferior to the late emperor in every aspect, but he was not a tyrant. Was there any need to be so afraid of him?
Yun Chen is going there just to ask questions, there will be no danger.
Even if there is, with Su Zhengyang here, there is nothing to be afraid of!
But we still have to be on guard. Huo Gannian and Yun Chen are too powerful and their achievements overshadow their master. Nan Lijun clearly has murderous intentions. We must protect Yun Chen and avoid bringing disaster upon ourselves for the Su family...
Su Zhengyang was filled with all kinds of anxiety, and with a heavy face he brought Yun Chen into the hall.
In comparison, Yun Chen seemed much more relaxed, as if Su Zhengyang was a "death row prisoner".
Yun Chen saluted Nan Lijun as usual, but just as he knelt down with the iron chains all over his body rattling, before he could even raise his head, he heard Nan Lijun crying out in a sobbing voice, "Prime Minister Wu... General Yun!"
The tone was so sad and exaggerated that Yun Chen was stunned and Su Zhengyang next to him got goosebumps.
Afterwards, Nan Lijun began to echo the censor surnamed Wu.
Nan Lijun's words were nothing more than those of deep sorrow and grief:
"General Yun, you are my most trusted meritorious official. Of all the civil and military officials in the court, I value you the most. How could you betray me like this?"
"Forget it. I still believe that you have no intention of rebelling. You were just implicated by Huo Gannian this time."
"General Yun, I also want to forgive you, but how can I stop the people from talking about it, and how can I explain it to the Western Yan Kingdom?"
The censor Wu had the look of a treacherous official in power and said:
"Yun Chen, you and Huo Gannian were close friends, how could you not know about his plot to rebel? I'm afraid you can't escape the blame!"
"You keep saying you're loyal to the Emperor, but over the years, you and Huo Gannian have been constantly recruiting soldiers and horses, and the combined forces have grown to over 500,000. You've returned with great success, but you haven't yet handed over your military power. How can you be considered loyal?"
Yun Chen was still kneeling and looking at Nan Lijun and Wu Yanguan's "passionate performance" with some confusion.
Su Zhengyang, who was watching the performance of playing the good cop and the bad cop, figured out something:
Does this mean you want the military power of the Lion Army and the Tiger Army?
It turns out that this was the purpose of interrogating Yun Chen alone.
It was probably that Wu Yanguan who gave Nan Lijun the idea. Knowing that he couldn't deal with Huo Gannian, he wanted to take military power from Yun Chen. This wasn't surprising.
After all, that was an army of 500,000, which was painstakingly accumulated by Huo Gannian and Yun Chen after the decisive battle of Youzhou. It was almost all the young and strong troops in the entire Nan Kingdom.
The incident happened not long ago, and the news that Huo Gannian, Yun Chen and others were sentenced to death has not yet reached the Lion Army and the Tiger Army.
Once it gets out, the consequences will be disastrous.
The loyalty of the Lion and Tiger Armies to their generals far surpassed their trust and reliance on Nan Lijun. If they knew Huo Gannian and Yun Chen were to be executed in three days, how would the soldiers feel? If only one person took the lead, hundreds, thousands, and even tens of thousands would respond...
At that time, it might directly trigger an unprecedented military riot.
Generally speaking, since ancient times, when mobilizing military power, the military commander comes first, and the commander-in-chief comes second, only then can they command the entire army.
But in the Lion and Tiger Army, the general is obviously the first.
At this moment, Huo Gannian, Yun Chen and others were all imprisoned. Even if Nan Lijun spent some time and manpower to search inch by inch from the Regent's Mansion to the Prime Minister Wu's Mansion to find the military token.
But without the main generals Huo Gannian and Yun Chen appearing as witnesses, even if they had the military tokens in hand, I'm afraid no one from either army would obey their orders.
Therefore, the most reliable way to hand over the military power is for Yun Chen to take the two military tokens, Lion Might and Tiger Might, and personally hand them back to the court representative in front of all the soldiers of both armies.
And this representative is most likely Su Zhengyang.
Thinking of this, Su Zhengyang couldn't help but curse inwardly, why did he always get these deadly and hateful jobs day after day!
He glared at Wu Yanguan, then looked at Nan Lijun with some resentment, but saw that the latter had talked about something sad and was covering her face with a handkerchief, crying as if she was about to faint.
Official Wu comforted Nan Lijun for a while, then waved to the palace servants, and two figures, one big and one small, were brought into the hall, which made Yun Chen's eyes widen instantly.
"aunt!"
Yun Liancheng cried out happily, jumping like a little bird, and wanted to throw himself into Yun Chen's arms, but was immediately grabbed tightly by the palace servant beside him. His little arm was twisted and deformed, and he cried in pain:
"Aunt, help me! Aunt... Mother, save me, I want to find Aunt..."
Yun Liancheng said to her mother pleadingly.
He couldn't understand why Hua had tears in her eyes just like him and was also being strangled by a palace servant, unable to move.
Yun Wang's wife, Hua, was pale. Although she tried her best to maintain the dignity of a prime minister's wife, her trembling eyes revealed her fear.
Official Wu walked slowly between Hua Shi and Yun Liancheng, signaling the palace servants to withdraw. He personally took their arms and said to Yun Chen:
"You said Huo Gannian and all of you generals have no intention of rebellion. But he killed King Xiyan in front of the whole world. This is an irrefutable fact. If you want to prove that he has no intention of rebellion, you must show your loyalty in front of the whole world. Handing over the military power of your Lion and Tiger Armies is the best way to show your loyalty."
As Wu Yanguan spoke, his smile became quite strange:
"Yun Chen, in order not to affect you, I will temporarily entrust your sister-in-law and nephew to the palace. After you hand over your military power, I will come to pick them up. But, alas! Such a young child, such a huge palace, what if the palace servants neglect to keep an eye on him and let your little nephew run out to play, and run to those high palace walls or rooftops? What if he falls down, alas..."
With a hypocritical tone and full of threats, Wu Yanguan raised his hand and grabbed Yun Liancheng's neck, causing her to scream and struggle in pain.
Yun Chen suddenly became anxious, straightened up suddenly, and instinctively took a step forward on his knees.
Nan Lijun and Wu Yanguan were both shocked, thinking that Yun Chen was about to attack, and quickly signaled the imperial guards to control Yun Chen.
The imperial guards on the side frowned, looked at Su Zhengyang with a gloomy face, stepped forward reluctantly, pressed Yun Chen's shoulders with their scabbards, and made her kneel again.
As the imperial guards guarding the imperial palace and the emperor, they felt disgusted for the first time.
Look at the face of that Wu guy. For the sake of military power, he actually used Yun Wang’s wife and children to threaten Yun Chen!
Any man with blood in his veins would feel embarrassed and disgusted by such sinister behavior, and even unable to speak out. But the man surnamed Wu was so confident and self-righteous, he really was a rootless eunuch.
Seeing Nan Lijun being manipulated by such a treacherous minister, the imperial guards sighed helplessly in their hearts.
It seemed that she was afraid of going too far and angering Yun Chen, who was never afraid of death. Nan Lijun took over Wu Yanguan's words and said to Yun Chen with tears in her eyes:
"General Yun, I can promise you that as long as you surrender your military power, I can revoke the execution order and spare all of you the death penalty. Instead, you will be demoted and fined. Your families will also be spared from the consequences. Also, the marriage I granted to you and Huo Gannian will still stand, and I will allow you to get married!"
After saying this, Yun Chen clearly looked like he was filled with hope.
Just as Su Zhengyang said, whether it was her, Rong Yi or Duan Jie, they were all men of steel who were not afraid of death.
But family members are my weak point, how can I bear to implicate them.
Yun Chen frowned reluctantly, looked at Hua and Yun Liancheng with distressed eyes, and then continued to look at Nan Lijun with confusion and a bit of bewilderment.
Seeing this, Su Zhengyang thought that Yun Chen was just a fool and had not yet realized that all the threats and inducements in front of him were meant to get the military power in her and Huo Gannian's hands.
He was thinking about how to remind Yun Chen, but he saw her bowing deeply to Nan Lijun.
When he raised his head again, Yun Chen's eyes were clear, and he said something that shocked everyone, looking at Nan Lijun and the throne:
"The soldiers are soldiers of the Nan Kingdom, the generals are generals of the Nan Kingdom, and the king is the king of the Nan Kingdom. Your Majesty, everything in this Nan Kingdom belongs to you, including the Lion and Tiger Armies, my sister-in-law, and my nephew. You do not need to risk the lives of your people to demand the rights that already belong to you."
As he spoke, Yun Chen kowtowed to Wu Yanguan again:
"Please take good care of my sister-in-law and nephew, my lord. Allow me to go get the military token and rush to the two armies' garrisons to arrange the return of military power. I will be back to pick up my family in three hours at most."
After saying that, regardless of how stunned everyone in the audience was, she stood up and walked towards Su Zhengyang, raising her hands to put on heavy shackles.
Su Zhengyang looked at her straight, and it took him a while to react. He even forgot to ask Nan Lijun first, and directly uncuffed all the shackles for Yun Chen.
Yun Chen then turned and left without even looking back.
The Yong'an Palace was completely silent for a moment. Nan Lijun, Wu Yanguan, Su Zhengyang, and the many imperial guards...
Everyone's eyes followed Yun Chen's back as he walked away. Just then, they saw a ray of golden morning light breaking through the darkness above the dark palace wall, illuminating the vast sky and the thick clouds with gold.
Su Zhengyang gently curled up his palms and tightly grasped the iron chain he had untied from Yun Chen, trying to relieve the numbness all over his body and calm his mind, but his eyes still involuntarily looked in the direction where Yun Chen's figure disappeared.
Looking at the people around him, they were all shocked like him, unable to recover for a long time.
Yun Chen's few words just now were simple and pure, and every word showed her broad mind and loyalty.
She stood in a position higher than the throne, looking down at the world with the most tolerant and gentle eyes.
It was like a thunderclap that woke everyone up from their decadent lust for power.
Ah...it turns out that people can be so selfless and loyal. Every day I hold power, I still remember the oath I made when I was first crowned as an official before the Kowloon flag of the Southern Kingdom:
From this day forward, I will serve you loyally, defend your sovereignty, protect the country with my saddle horse, and maintain peace with my sword...
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