DLWAV CH99

The wedding day for the Third Prince and Song Qingying was set for the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month.

Before dawn broke that day, Prince Xian’s Estate and the Song family residence were already bustling with activity.

The wedding procedures of the Great Qian Dynasty were more complex than those of any previous dynasty. Informing the ancestors, receiving the groom, urging the bride’s makeup, sitting on the saddle… blocking the carriage…

By the time this entire set of procedures was completed and the Third Prince brought the bridal sedan chair back to Prince Xian’s Estate, it was already dusk.

Next came the bowing to heaven and earth.

Although the Third Prince had absolutely no desire to marry Song Qingying, at this moment, not the slightest hint of reluctance could be seen on his face.

It wasn’t because his acting skills were so exceptional, but rather because things had unfolded exactly as they had anticipated. The Prince of Huaian didn’t dare to offend them now, so he directly returned the 2.4 million taels of silver to the Song family. And, quite sensibly, the Song family included that entire 2.4 million taels as part of Song Qingying’s dowry.

—So the reason he had previously moved against the Prince of Huaian wasn’t to vent anger on Song Qingying’s behalf, as others assumed. He had simply set his sights on those 2.4 million taels of silver.

One had to know that even as wealthy as the Jiangnan region was, its annual tax revenue was only four million taels of silver.

And his own annual stipend was a mere eight thousand taels.

Two million four hundred thousand taels of silver was more than enough for him to buy the loyalty of the entire Ministry of Revenue.

Thinking of this, he triumphantly shot a glance at the Second Prince, who was watching the ceremony nearby and whose complexion was somewhat ugly despite his best efforts to conceal it.

Little did he know, the moment he looked away, a look of mockery suddenly rose in the eyes of the Second Prince and his trusted aides.

“I heard that when the Third Prince went to fetch the bride just now, he scattered ten thousand strings of copper coins along the way.”

The one speaking was the Second Prince’s study companion.

Ten thousand strings of copper coins was equivalent to ten thousand taels of silver.

Hearing this, the Second Prince smiled instead. “Let him be smug for a few more days. After all, he won’t have this chance in the future.”

The Third Prince mistakenly believed that as long as he established enough merit, the Emperor would look upon him favorably and subsequently pass the throne to him.

Little did he know, the Emperor had long since handed the edict naming him [the Second Prince] Crown Prince to his mother, the Consort.

It was only because they also knew that as long as the First Prince, Zhou Hongyi, was still alive, those pedantic court officials would never agree to the Emperor making him the Crown Prince.

This was solely because First Prince Zhou Hongyi was the eldest legitimate son, had previously been named Crown Prince by the Emperor, and his maternal family, the Chen clan, remained the leaders of the upright “Qingliu” officials.

The Emperor heavily relying on the Third Prince right now was merely to use him to fill the national treasury and his privy purse.

Therefore, the rumors previously attacking the lottery stations weren’t spread by him, as the Third Prince had assumed.

That was just a coincidence.

Because in his eyes, the Third Prince’s threat level didn’t even match a single finger of the First Prince.

Thinking of this, the Second Prince glanced at First Prince Zhou Hongyi beside him, who was clearly genuinely happy for the Third Prince.

He needed to figure out a way to get rid of Zhou Hongyi as soon as possible.

Because once Zhou Hongyi died, he would become the eldest imperial son, and those pedantic upright officials wouldn’t oppose the Emperor naming him Crown Prince.

However, this shouldn’t be a difficult task.

After all, on some levels, this good eldest brother of his was so naive that it bordered on stupidity.

Thinking of this, the smile in the Second Prince’s eyes deepened.

Who would have expected that right at this moment, a burst of clamor suddenly erupted from outside the hall.

The noise was so loud that it directly drowned out Emperor Zhangwu’s voice as he offered words of encouragement to the Third Prince and Song Qingying.

Emperor Zhangwu’s brows instantly furrowed.

The Second Prince immediately barked out, “What is that racket outside?”

The surroundings instantly quieted down.

They were finally able to hear the voices outside clearly.

“An 800-li urgent military dispatch from Zhenjiang Prefecture!”

“An 800-li urgent military dispatch from Zhenjiang Prefecture!”

…

“The Fatuous Commoner Zhou Ruize has raised an army in rebellion in Yangzhou!”

“They are already slaughtering their way toward the capital!”

Boom!

Hearing this, the expressions of everyone present drastically changed.

Emperor Zhangwu abruptly stood up with a swish.

The Fatuous Commoner Zhou Ruize?

Wasn’t he dead?

For a moment, everyone looked toward Emperor Zhangwu sitting at the head of the hall.

Emperor Zhangwu’s complexion was incredibly ugly.

The thing he had worried about the most had still happened.

He couldn’t understand. When he was restored to the throne, Zhou Ruize was clearly terminally ill. Half a year had passed since then, yet Zhou Ruize was unexpectedly still alive and well.

Most importantly, given that Zhou Ruize had fallen to such a state, he actually still dared to jump out.

As soon as the messenger soldier arrived, Emperor Zhangwu directly demanded, “How many troops does Zhou Ruize have in total right now?”

The messenger immediately replied, “About ten thousand men. Ninety percent of them are officers and soldiers from the Jiangnan Mobile Camp.”

Ten thousand men?

The civil and military officials present were all momentarily stunned.

Emperor Zhangwu even burst into laughter out loud.

He had thought that since Zhou Ruize dared to raise an army, he must have roped in over a hundred thousand troops. It turned out to be a mere ten thousand.

The Second Prince sneered, “With a mere ten thousand troops, he dares to raise an army in rebellion? And he even comes to attack the capital?”

“It’s simply utterly ridiculous.”

One had to know that the Imperial Court had stationed a hundred thousand Imperial Guards in the capital alone.

As if realizing something, the civil and military officials chimed in, “Could it be that because the Fatuous Commoner Zhou Ruize doesn’t have much time left to live, but feels unwilling to resign himself to his fate, he decided to make one last desperate gamble and directly raised an army?”

Then what did they have to worry about?

Emperor Zhangwu’s complexion instantly improved considerably. Then, as if thinking of something else, he asked, “What banner is Zhou Ruize rallying under?”

Hearing this, the civil and military officials present all turned their heads to look at the messenger.

After all, back then, Zhou Ruize had personally written an imperial edict abolishing his own position as Emperor. Therefore, banners like ‘setting things right’ or ‘executing treacherous sycophants’ definitely couldn’t be used by him.

Thus, they were very curious: what kind of high-sounding banner could Zhou Ruize possibly muster?

Who knew that upon hearing this, cold sweat would immediately stream down the messenger’s forehead.

He mumbled hesitantly, completely not daring to speak.

It wasn’t until Emperor Zhangwu said, “Just speak. I pardon you of any crime.”

The messenger then spoke, trembling with fear: “The rebels… the banner the rebels are flying is: ‘The Qian sky is dead, the Yang sky shall rise; the Azure Heaven is above, protecting all living beings.'”

Then, as if remembering something else, he hastily added, “The Fatuous Commoner Zhou Ruize has proclaimed himself the Prince of Yang in Yangzhou.”

The Qian sky is dead, the Yang sky shall rise?

Zhou Ruize wasn’t just rebelling against Emperor Zhangwu; he wanted to overthrow the entire Great Qian Dynasty!

The crowd of civil and military officials instantly erupted into another uproar.

They had originally thought that when Zhou Ruize wrote that edict abolishing his own throne, it was to vent his dissatisfaction, but mainly to show weakness to Emperor Zhangwu, hoping that the Emperor would spare his life seeing how obedient he was.

—After all, with him abolishing his own imperial title, Emperor Zhangwu’s restoration to the throne became much more legitimate.

But they never expected that this was actually his true intention—

He was no longer going to be the Emperor of Great Qian; he was going to overthrow Great Qian, establish a new dynasty, and then become the Emperor of that new dynasty!

But if this wasn’t forsaking one’s ancestors and committing the highest treason, what was?

Looking again at Emperor Zhangwu, his face had indeed turned dark again.

“That ancestral-forsaking bastard—!”

But soon, as if thinking of something, a sharp glint suddenly flashed across Emperor Zhangwu’s eyes.

When he learned that Zhou Ruize only had a paltry ten thousand troops, he was no longer worried that Zhou Ruize could shake his throne.

So he only had one remaining worry left, and that was how the official historians would evaluate him in the future.

But now, he didn’t need to worry about this matter anymore.

After all, by abandoning Great Qian and his ancestors, Zhou Ruize would definitely not be tolerated by the billions of people in the world.

When that time came, future generations might even praise him for having the merit of eliminating a traitor.

Thinking of this, Emperor Zhangwu immediately shouted, “Where is the Heir of the Duke of Zhenguo?”

A middle-aged man stepped out from the crowd of guests, dropped to one knee, and said resoundingly, “This general is here!”

Emperor Zhangwu commanded: “I appoint you as the Grand General for Quelling the Rebellion. You shall lead fifty thousand troops from the Five Armies Battalion and the Divine Machine Battalion, along with fifty thousand troops from the Shannan Circuit Camp and the Huaibei Circuit Camp, to crusade against the traitor Zhou Ruize!”

“This general receives the order!”

The Heir of the Duke of Zhenguo stood up and left the wedding venue.

Emperor Zhangwu then turned back around. “Alright, let us continue.”

“With the Heir of the Duke of Zhenguo here, the Imperial Court will definitely win this battle!”

The civil and military officials also snapped back to reality: “Your Majesty is wise!”

Song Qingying, who was initially somewhat annoyed by her wedding being interrupted, immediately revealed a satisfied expression.

The tight furrow between First Prince Zhou Hongyi’s brows also relaxed.

However, as if something crossed his mind, he couldn’t help but sigh softly in his heart.

They hadn’t even considered the possibility that they would lose, so naturally, they wouldn’t think about what kind of fate awaited them if they did.

Thus, as the Master of Ceremonies called out, ‘Second bow to the parents,’ the scene instantly became lively again. Laughter and words of flattery were even carried by the wind to Chongming Gate, several miles away.

It wasn’t until late into the night that the guests completely dispersed.

The Third Prince had been poured a lot of wine. Thinking about how he was one step closer to the throne, he tossed whatever disgust he felt towards Song Qingying entirely to the back of his mind.

And Song Qingying also felt that she was merely inches away from the ultimate seat of power, so looking at the Third Prince’s face—which was far inferior to the First Prince’s—she no longer found it an eyesore.

Therefore, the newlyweds actually had a rather blissful wedding night.

Of course, this was under the premise that early the next morning, the Chief Administrator of the Prince’s Estate hadn’t rushed into the courtyard, dropped to his knees outside their bedroom door, and cried out in panic, “Your Highness, something has happened, Your Highness!”

“The army of the Fatuous Commoner… the Fatuous Commoner Zhou Ruize has fought their way to the outside of Chongming Gate!”

Boom!

The Third Prince, who was originally extremely dissatisfied at having his sweet dreams interrupted, directly fell out of bed after realizing what the Chief Administrator had just said.

He scrambled and crawled to pull open the door. “What did you say?”

The Chief Administrator was in a state of utter panic. “Your Highness, the army of the Fatuous Commoner Zhou Ruize has fought their way to the outside of Chongming Gate…”

Before he could finish, the Third Prince blurted out, “That’s impossible—!”

He shouted hysterically, “How many troops does Zhou Ruize even have?”

“Just a mere ten thousand men!”

“The Heir of the Duke of Zhenguo led a full one hundred thousand troops to war—”

Then, as if thinking of something, his face twisted completely. “Could it be that the Heir of the Duke of Zhenguo surrendered to Zhou Ruize?”

Otherwise, how else could one explain Zhou Ruize’s troops slaughtering their way to the capital so quickly?

“No.”

The Chief Administrator said, “After the Heir of the Duke of Zhenguo received the imperial decree, he immediately went to the Western Hills, mustered fifty thousand Imperial Guards, and marched straight toward Yangzhou.”

“But halfway there, they ran into the army of the Fatuous Commoner Zhou Ruize…”

“The Heir of the Duke of Zhenguo didn’t take the Fatuous Commoner Zhou Ruize’s army seriously at first. It was said that the rebel forces were all wearing plain cloth garments and couldn’t even put together a single set of armor. The weapons in their hands weren’t long swords or short spears either, but things that looked like fire-stoking sticks.”

“So upon seeing them, the Heir of the Duke of Zhenguo immediately ordered his army to charge at them.”

“But it turned out that the things in the rebels’ hands weren’t fire sticks at all, but some kind of divine weapon! While our army was still a hundred meters away from the rebels, the Heir of the Duke of Zhenguo and the other generals were all shot dead by the rebels…”

Right at this moment, faint, intermittent battle cries suddenly drifted over from afar.

The Chief Administrator’s face went completely pale, because it was self-evident what this meant—

“Your Highness, the rebels… the rebels have breached the city gates—!”

Boom!

Following behind the Third Prince, Song Qingying, who had only managed to drape a piece of clothing over herself before rushing out, had her eyes wide open, feeling as if her eye sockets were about to split apart in shock.

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