DLWAV CH146

“Useless! Incompetent trash!”

Under the imperial physician’s acupuncture, Emperor Jianzhao woke up in less than two quarters of an hour.

The very first thing he did upon waking was furiously curse Prince Rui.

He had originally thought Prince Rui’s feat of sweeping through the nine vassal kings in one fell swoop was due to heaven-sent genius, establishing such unprecedented merit the very first time he took to the battlefield.

Who could have guessed that from beginning to end, he had been danced on the palm of Prince Wu’s manor? In the end, the one hundred and eighty thousand troops under his command, along with the rations, weapons, and armaments seized from the Prince of Yun and the other four kings, all fell straight into Prince Wu’s hands.

If Prince Rui hadn’t already been killed by Prince Wu’s men, he would have loved nothing more than to personally send him to meet King Yanluo.

The Grand Secretary of the Cabinet immediately spoke up: “Your Majesty, now is no longer the time to dwell on these matters.”

“The most urgent priority is to mobilize troops and encircle the rebels.”

Only then did Emperor Jianzhao come back to his senses.

That was right.

Even if Prince Wu’s manor seized Prince Rui’s hundred and eighty thousand troops, so what?

The imperial court still possessed four hundred thousand troops.

Most importantly, they were the legitimate rulers of the empire; whether in terms of popular support or public opinion, the momentum would surely side with them.

Emperor Jianzhao immediately slammed his hand hard against the bedframe: “Men! Summon the Duke of Zhenguo, the Duke of Fuguo, the Marquis of Binzhou, the Marquis of Changyang…”

Thus, early the next morning, just as dawn broke, renowned veteran generals such as the Duke of Zhenguo, the Duke of Fuguo, the Marquis of Binzhou, and the Marquis of Changyang led their respective soldiers out of the city in full force, marching straight for Changzhou.

What they never expected was that the moment the imperial army set foot in the southwest, they collided head-on with the rebel forces.

The result: the imperial army suffered a crushing defeat, routed and retreating a hundred li.

Only after the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Justice rounded up hundreds of fleeing officers and soldiers in one breath did they finally piece together the full sequence of events from their testimonies.

Upon discovering that the opposing rebel vanguard numbered a mere fifty thousand men, the Duke of Zhenguo and the Duke of Fuguo made an immediate decision, commanding the entire army to surround them.

Unexpectedly, rather than fleeing in panic, the rebels chose to meet the attack head-on.

Yet the weapons held by the vanguard troops were neither spears nor broadswords, but pitch-black rods that looked remarkably like fire pokers.

It was precisely these objects—resembling fire-tending sticks that bore zero resemblance to anything sharp, and thus were completely dismissed by the Duke of Zhenguo and the Duke of Fuguo—that suddenly spewed forth deafening bursts of blazing fire just as the court’s ten thousand cavalry were about to crash into the rebel lines.

In a single clash, more than half of the ten thousand charging cavalry in the front ranks collapsed instantly, while their warhorses halted in panicked frenzy from injury and fright.

The riders behind had no time to pull their reins.

They crashed headlong into the pileup.

With the fire pokers in the rebels’ hands continuously discharging bursts of fire, the court’s ten thousand cavalry were completely wiped out in less than the time it took an incense stick to burn.

Immediately afterward, the rebels launched their full charge.

Wherever the rebel vanguard swept through, virtually no one could stand in their way.

With rebel reinforcements arriving shortly after, the court’s main army fell into absolute disarray.

Just like that, two hundred thousand troops were sliced apart and systematically slaughtered. The Duke of Zhenguo and the Duke of Fuguo were shot dead on the spot; only the Marquis of Changyang and the Count of Bingzhou were lucky enough to escape back with a fraction of the shattered remnants.

Boom!

Another bolt of thunder crashed from the cloudless sky.

“Useless! A bunch of useless trash!”

“That was an army of two hundred thousand men!”

“If the rebel vanguard numbered twenty thousand, losing would at least be understandable!”

“Yet those… those fire pokers in the rebels’ hands numbered barely two thousand! Even using the stupidest method of throwing bodies at them, two hundred thousand men should have drowned those two thousand!”

“And yet they… they just threw away two hundred thousand soldiers like that!”

“Men! Men! Raze the households of the Duke of Zhenguo and the Duke of Fuguo! Drag all their kin to Caishikou and behead them for public display! Behead them all!”

Inside the Hall of Taiji, Emperor Jianzhao’s eyes were bloodshot as he screamed himself hoarse in sheer fury.

He should have known all along. The Duke of Zhenguo, the Duke of Fuguo, and their ilk were merely figureheads propped up by Emperor Taizu to suppress the prestige of Prince Wu’s manor and elevate the royal family’s standing.

Their past achievements were either deliberately exaggerated by the court at Emperor Taizu’s behest, outright fabrications, or stolen directly from the Wu family’s military honors. They were nothing more than a flock of incompetent fools.

Even so, the Grand Secretary still had to brace himself and report: “In addition, Your Majesty… Prince Wu… the rebel Wu has declared himself Emperor in Changzhou.”

“They have also enumerated eighteen cardinal crimes committed by the Em… by the imperial court…”

These included Emperor Taizu murdering his own brother’s entire family to rid himself of the humiliating status of a matrilocal son-in-law, poisoning old Prince Wu’s six sons and eleven daughters to usurp the throne, and colluding with the Southern Rong to orchestrate old Prince Wu’s death—resulting not only in the slaughter of a hundred thousand southern troops, but also in the people of the south suffering under Southern Rong devastation for over twenty years…

“Right now, the rebel forces are already marching straight toward the capital.”

The expression on Emperor Jianzhao’s face froze solid: “When did this happen? When did this happen?!”

The Grand Secretary: “Just yesterday.”

Smash!

Emperor Jianzhao grabbed the teacup beside his hand and hurled it violently to the ground.

“Traitorous scoundrels! Treasonous thieves!”

No.

They could no longer be called mere treasonous thieves.

Wu Ruize had declared himself Emperor.

He could now claim legitimate imperial authority as well.

Coupled with the rebels possessing such divine weaponry, the prefectures and counties across the southeast were likely surrendering on sight.

The Grand Secretary spoke at once: “The rebels come with overwhelming momentum; within at most five days, they will reach the foot of the capital. Therefore, Your Majesty, the top priority is to summon the border armies from all frontiers to defend the throne.”

Though unwilling, Emperor Jianzhao knew this was the only path left to them.

As long as they could hold off the rebel offensive, there would still be room to maneuver.

When the time came, as long as they found a way to destroy those two thousand-odd strange weapons held by the rebels, or stole the manufacturing blueprints to replicate a batch of their own, the final victor would still be undecided.

Emperor Jianzhao ordered immediately: “Not only must the border armies be summoned to protect the capital, but we must also enlist a batch of new recruits as quickly as possible. The more, the better! The more, the better!”

The Grand Secretary: “Understood.”

Soon, the news of Wu Ruize ascending the throne in Changzhou swept across the entire capital.

In the backyard of the Minister of War’s estate.

Meng Jiao had practically forgotten how to write the word “numb.”

Who could have imagined that in less than half a year, this world would undergo such an earth-shattering transformation?

The male lead was dead.

Of the nine supporting male leads, eight were dead.

The one remaining was already Prince Wu’s man.

And the arch-villain had gone ahead and declared himself Emperor.

Looking at the female lead:

Her health had finally recovered once more.

Unfortunately, her family shared distant kinship with the Duke of Zhenguo’s household. Now that the Duke of Zhenguo’s estate was facing full asset confiscation and clan execution, her family naturally couldn’t escape.

Her entire household had already been thrown into the imperial prison.

Most crucially, regarding that weapon deployed by the Wu army—those ancient people had no idea what it was, mistaking them for fire-spitting fire pokers, but how could she not recognize it?

That was unmistakably the quintessential transmigrator golden finger: the flintlock musket… Wait, as a fellow transmigrator, she didn’t know how to make muskets either…

Meng Jiao: “…”

None of that mattered. What mattered was that Wu Ruize actually had a transmigrator by his side.

And that person’s capability clearly far exceeded her own.

Was this world a sieve?

Transmigrators everywhere.

Then she couldn’t help feeling secretly relieved.

Fortunately, she had chosen to be a total salted fish from the start. Otherwise, the tragic ends of the male lead and his cohort would have been her own cautionary tale.

Just then, her senior maid’s voice rang out again: “Still, this Prince Wu… this rebel Wu is really reckless. Of all the dynasty names to pick, he chose the character Qian—the Great Qian, the Qian Dynasty, the former dynasty. Isn’t that just cursing himself to fall quickly?”

Meng Jiao’s ears perked up instantly: “The Qian Dynasty?”

Her senior maid immediately replied: “Indeed.”

Hearing this name, how could Meng Jiao not sit bolt upright?

One had to remember that back in her original world, their founding Emperor Taizu was an imperial prince of the Qian Dynasty. Later, when his useless emperor brother was taken captive by the Northern Rong, he took up the mantle in a time of crisis and ascended the throne. Yet after leading his ministers and commoners to crush the Northern Rong armies, he was ousted from the throne by his useless elder brother in collusion with a pack of ungrateful, corrupt officials. In a fit of fury, he raised an army, annihilated the Qian Dynasty, and founded the Great Yang.

Granted, that was history from her original world.

She hadn’t expected the arch-villain of this world to have such terrible taste, choosing Great Qian as his dynastic title as well.

So Meng Jiao took a sip of the water brought by her senior maid to soothe her nerves, casually asking, “Then what is his reign era name?”

The maid thought for a moment: “It seems to be Jian… Jianxing.”

“Yes, Jianxing.”

Before the words fully landed, Meng Jiao sprayed out the mouthful of water she had just swallowed.

Without even bothering to wipe her mouth: “What did you say? Jianxing?!”

The maid didn’t understand why her reaction was so extreme, but still nodded: “Yes.”

Jianxing?

One must know that back then, their founding Emperor Taizu ascended the throne twice, and both times his chosen reign title was Jianxing.

Combine that with Wu Ruize choosing Great Qian as the dynastic title…

This has to be a coincidence, right? This has to be a coincidence… Coincidence, my foot!

Clatter! The teacup in her hand fell straight to the floor.

Don’t forget, before she transmigrated, rumors had circulated online that the royal family already possessed proof that Emperor Taizu of Yang was actually a transmigrator.

Now look at the muskets in the hands of the Wu army—

This wasn’t because Wu Ruize had the help of a transmigrator; this was clearly because Wu Ruize was their founding Emperor Taizu himself!

Click!

Only a single realization remained in Meng Jiao’s mind:

The heavens hadn’t been playing tricks on her after all. Sending her to this world was truly to fulfill her lifelong dream of meeting Emperor Taizu.

No, wait—

One should say that their Emperor Taizu really knew how to play the game. When he grew tired of the Qian Dynasty, he destroyed Qian and established Yang.

When he grew disgusted with the Yang Dynasty, he destroyed Yang and re-established Qian.

Playing Russian nesting dolls with empires, was he?

Truly, when you have absolute power, you really can do whatever the hell you want!