DLWAV CH103

Ten days later, after Song Qingying’s round-the-clock experiments, the Ministry of Works successfully produced gunpowder and cannons.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Watching hundreds of straw dummies two miles away instantly engulfed in artillery fire, Emperor Zhangwu couldn’t help but stand up from his dragon throne, clapping and laughing aloud. “Good, good, excellent!”

After all, the range of the muskets in the Yang Army’s hands was no more than a hundred meters, whereas these cannons had a range of up to a thousand meters.

The Third Prince’s faction immediately fell to their knees. “Congratulations, Your Majesty! Congratulations, Your Majesty!”

“With this divine artifact, why worry about not being able to pacify the Yang rebels?”

Emperor Zhangwu immediately burst into loud laughter.

Then he turned to look at Song Qingying beside him.

“Someone, draft an edict! I hereby confer upon the Third Prince’s Consort, the Divine Maiden Song Qingying, the title of State Preceptor Protector of the Nation. Her rank shall be equal to that of a Prince of the First Rank. She is granted the privileges to execute first and report later, to face the Emperor without kneeling, to be exempt from having her name written in edicts, and to enter the imperial court wearing a sword and shoes!”

Hearing this, members of the First Prince’s faction and the Second Prince’s faction couldn’t help but frown.

The Third Prince’s faction, naturally, was endlessly excited.

As for Song Qingying, the smugness radiating from her was almost palpable.

Keeping her posture completely straight, she said, “Thank you, Imperial Father.”

Emperor Zhangwu then commanded, “Immediately spread the news: Zhou Ruize has colluded with evil ghosts. He is absolutely not some heaven-ordained legitimate ruler. I am the true Son of Heaven.”

All the civil and military officials immediately shouted, “Yes, Your Majesty!”

But what they absolutely never expected was that after hearing these rumors spread by the imperial court, the commoners living under the Yang Army’s rule only panicked for a single day before settling completely back down.

“Those idiots in the imperial court only cared about running for their lives. How would they know that after we occupied Jiangnan and the two Hu provinces, not only did we not commit the slightest offense against the people, but we also exempted them from taxes for five years, and released the word that merchants would be allowed to participate in the imperial examinations in the future?”

A middle-aged man said, “Besides this, we are also preparing to hold public trial rallies in various places to let the people air their grievances and seek justice.”

Emperor Zhangwu actually thought he could challenge the authority of the Hua Nation’s traditional political tactics with mere rumors—how laughable.

——After all, under Emperor Jianxing Zhou Ruize’s ten-year rule, Great Qian had long since recovered its vitality, so the current era definitely couldn’t be considered a chaotic one.

But even so, there was still no shortage of corrupt officials, bullying squires, and tyrannical wealthy families among the populace. Not to mention that after Emperor Zhangwu’s restoration, because there was not much silver left in the national treasury and he wanted to reward his so-called ‘restoration heroes’ to buy their loyalty, he wantonly indulged the civil and military officials in their corruption and increased taxes three times within half a year.

So even though the Yang Army had started a war during a peaceful era, they still became the saviors in the eyes of the vast majority of merchants and commoners.

The vast majority of common folks didn’t care who sat in the Qianyuan Hall, nor did they care whether the emperor in the rumors was good or bad. They only knew that an emperor who treated them well and allowed them to eat their fill and dress warmly was a good emperor.

To this, Ao Ruize only said, “Truly not bad.”

After that, they paid no more attention to the matter. After all, they were incredibly busy right now—they had to reorganize the surrendered troops, rectify the local administrations, conduct a census… and soon they would have to travel around to hold public trials. How would they have the time to play these little tricks with Emperor Zhangwu and his lot?

One can imagine how furious Emperor Zhangwu and Song Qingying were upon learning this news.

However, Emperor Zhangwu quickly calmed down.

Even if those foolish commoners were all bewitched by Zhou Ruize, it didn’t matter. As long as those rumors were recorded in the history books in the future, they would become ironclad facts.

So rather than caring about whether those foolish commoners believed the rumors, it would be better to focus on persuading those uncorrupted historians.

But those upright historians were not easy to bribe.

Yet it wasn’t entirely impossible.

As long as he could cater to their specific preferences.

What did those upright historians like the most?

Nothing other than antiques and ancient books.

After all, whether for their reputation or other reasons, those historians had to maintain the appearance of not caring for money.

It was just that he had fled north in such a hurry that he had no time to bring out the rare treasures from the imperial palace.

So now, he had to think of another way.

Thinking of this, Emperor Zhangwu couldn’t help but smash his fist onto the imperial desk again.

However, although he had no money on hand, Luoyang—as the ancient capital of thirteen dynasties—lacked rare antiques the least.

After all, from ancient times to the present, who knew how many princes, nobles, generals, and ministers had been buried beneath Luoyang’s soil?

Most importantly, this was a business with zero cost.

Thinking of this, Emperor Zhangwu immediately summoned his confidants.

On the other side, Song Qingying also barely managed to calm down.

To her, the fact that the commoners chose to side with Zhou Ruize meant that it was impossible for them to ever believe she was a divine maiden again.

Without the hearts of the people, how could she openly and legitimately usurp the throne in the future?

But she knew that no matter how angry she was right now, it was useless.

Because as long as the Yang Army wasn’t destroyed, she couldn’t achieve her goal.

So rather than being angry here, it would be better to keep a close eye on the Ministry of Works, make them speed up the production of muskets and cannons, and strive to wipe out the Yang Army as soon as possible.

Furthermore, wasn’t the First Prince, Zhou Hongyi, currently basking in the limelight? Because he was about to marry his fiancée, the legitimate eldest daughter of the Prime Minister, Marquis Li Guo.

She had been unlucky in everything recently, and First Prince Zhou Hongyi still thought he could be a happy groom?

In his dreams.

Thinking of this, Song Qingying immediately summoned Song Jiyang.

The result was that while Emperor Zhangwu was guarding against the Yang Army and sending people to rob tombs everywhere, the Yang Army made no move whatsoever.

While Song Qingying was guarding against the Yang Army and sending people to secretly hide a dragon robe and a gold crown in the First Prince’s manor, the Yang Army still made no move.

While First Prince Zhou Hongyi was guarding against the Yang Army, and upon discovering that Emperor Zhangwu had actually sent people to excavate ancient tombs and steal burial objects, he advised Emperor Zhangwu against it regardless of the consequences—yet the Yang Army still made no move.

While the Second Prince was guarding against the Yang Army, and upon hearing that Emperor Zhangwu was digging up graves and that the First Prince was privately advising him against it, he decisively and secretly leaked the matter. This caused a group of upright scholars and pedantic literati to relentlessly attack Emperor Zhangwu, and the Second Prince further plotted to make Emperor Zhangwu believe it was the First Prince who leaked it—and yet, the Yang Army still made no move.

Emperor Zhangwu and the others, on the contrary, couldn’t sit still anymore.

In their view, the Yang Army could have clearly pursued them to the end and slaughtered them all, but they deliberately halted all their actions. Nine times out of ten, they were brewing an even larger conspiracy.

Emperor Zhangwu immediately declared, “It just so happens that the Ministry of Works has produced more than two thousand muskets and over fifty cannons. The imperial court can now completely take the initiative to dispatch troops, encircle, and suppress the Yang rebels.”

This way, they might be able to interrupt the Yang rebels’ conspiracy.

Most importantly, it could shift all the attention of those pedantic literati to this great war.

Thinking of those people, and catching sight of First Prince Zhou Hongyi standing below out of the corner of his eye, Emperor Zhangwu’s face instantly darkened so much it could drip ink.

Disregarding the courtiers’ opposition back then and choosing not to reinstate Zhou Hongyi as the Crown Prince after the restoration was indeed the most correct decision he had ever made.

Because how could such a beast—who had no regard for his father and sovereign, and who had ruined his emperor father’s reputation—be worthy of being the Crown Prince of a nation?

Hearing Emperor Zhangwu’s words, the Duke of Zhenguo, who had originally been hesitating, immediately said, “What Your Majesty says is extremely true.”

Since both Emperor Zhangwu and the Duke of Zhenguo had spoken, the other important court officials followed suit, echoing, “Your Majesty is wise.”

“Good.”

Emperor Zhangwu abruptly clenched his fists and stood up. “Then deploy the troops and suppress the Yang rebels.”

“This battle concerns the very survival of our Great Qian. Therefore, Duke of Zhenguo, in this battle, you can only win. You cannot lose—”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The Duke of Zhenguo immediately knelt on one knee, cupped his hands, and replied with a sonorous and powerful voice.

“This humble subject will definitely not fail Your Majesty’s high hopes.”

Upon learning that the Great Qian imperial court actually dared to take the initiative to raise an army to crusade against them, the middle-aged man and his peers were truly surprised for a moment.

After all, they had seen people courting death before, but never someone courting death so proactively.

“Then let’s fight,” the middle-aged man said.

Although they had just finished reorganizing the surrendered troops and the local rectifications were almost done, the census hadn’t started yet, and the public trials were only halfway through…

One could imagine how incredibly busy they would be next.

But now that the Great Qian imperial court had brought the fight to their doorstep, they had no choice but to fight.

Ao Ruize said, “Then let them in and fight. Strive to wipe out all of Great Qian’s military forces in a single battle.”

The middle-aged man and the others agreed, “Understood.”

It wasn’t until Great Qian’s 400,000-strong army approached Xiangyang that they finally realized what gave Emperor Zhangwu the confidence to court death.

Looking at those dozens of incredibly crude and clumsy cannons, what else could the middle-aged man say?

“I didn’t expect that we still underestimated Miss Song Qingying.”

Otherwise, relying solely on the little bit of knowledge in her head, she might really have had the potential to turn this ancient world upside down in the future.

It was just a pity that what she was up against was the Hua Nation.

No, it should be said, it was just a pity that who she was up against was Mr. Xia Ruize.

So the middle-aged man immediately replaced the defenders on the city wall with the wooden dummies normally used for soldier training.

Although Song Qingying had managed to produce cannons, she hadn’t produced telescopes.

As a result, the defenders on the city wall looked the size of corn cobs to the Duke of Zhenguo and his men hundreds of meters away.

Because of this, they couldn’t distinguish at all whether the figures standing on the wall were real or fake. So much so that upon hearing the screams echoing from within the city and seeing “soldiers” occasionally falling off the wall, they assumed the Yang Army was suffering catastrophic casualties under the artillery fire.

The Duke of Zhenguo stroked his beard and laughed loudly, “In this battle, our army will inevitably be victorious!”

The personal guard generals around him immediately shouted, “Victory! Victory! Victory!”

A short while later, a scout came to report, “Marshal, the Yang rebels have fled from the west gate!”

A sharp glint suddenly shot out from the Duke of Zhenguo’s eyes. “Pursue them—”

Just like that, they chased them from Xiangyang to Jingmen, and from Jingmen to Jingzhou.

Almost at every city they arrived at, the exact same scenario from the Xiangyang city walls would replay.

In the end, the Yang Army didn’t even bother putting up a defense. The moment they saw the Duke of Zhenguo’s large army arrive, they directly abandoned the city and fled.

It wasn’t until the large army pushed into Mianyang Prefecture, and the Duke of Zhenguo saw that the soldiers were truly too exhausted to run any further, that he ordered a temporary halt to the pursuit, allowing the army to rest on the spot for a day.

Very soon, the battle report was transmitted back to the Luoyang temporary palace.

“Good, good, good!” In the imperial court, Emperor Zhangwu couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

“In a short span of just three days, with the help of the Divine Maiden Cannons, the Duke of Zhenguo has consecutively taken thirteen cities from the Yang rebels, and is now closing in on Yangzhou!”

The entire court of civil and military officials was equally thrilled.

“The Duke of Zhenguo is mighty!”
“The Emperor is indeed the true Son of Heaven!”
“Long live the Emperor! Long live, long live!”

Even the First Prince and the others followed suit, bowing and shouting ‘long live’.

Who could have expected that just as Emperor Zhangwu and the others were barely calming down, the Minister of Justice would suddenly step forward.

He said, “Your Majesty, this humble minister has a matter to report.”

Seeing the Minister of Justice’s grim expression, Emperor Zhangwu couldn’t help but freeze for a moment. “Speak.”

The Minister of Justice replied, “It is just that this matter might ruin Your Majesty’s good mood.”

“But even so, this humble minister must speak.”

“Your Majesty, just this morning, someone reported to this humble minister that First Prince Zhou Hongyi colluded with the Prime Minister, Marquis Li Guo, to secretly manufacture a dragon robe and a gold crown, intending to plot treason while Your Majesty’s reputation was damaged.”

“And the person who reported this is none other than Zou Cheng, the Chief Clerk of the First Prince’s Manor.”

What?!

Hearing this, Emperor Zhangwu’s expression instantly changed.

First Prince Zhou Hongyi fell to his knees almost as a reflex. “…Imperial Father, your son is being framed…”

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