DLWAV CH86

And right at that moment, a wave of battle cries drifted in from outside the hall, faint yet unmistakable: “……The foolish tyrant Emperor Jianxing Zhou Ruize, who rose to the throne through the base blood of a collateral line, has shown neither filial piety to the Empress Dowager nor respect for his elder brother, and has failed to bring peace and comfort to the common people……Acting under the sacred decree of the Empress Dowager, we hereby depose Zhou Ruize from the imperial throne……Any who dare resist shall be executed without mercy!”

“Strike down the tyrant, punish the wicked.”

“Strike down the tyrant, punish the wicked.”

Hearing this, the head eunuch, Lu Dang, who served as Zhou Ruize’s chief steward, couldn’t hold back his outrage: “How, how dare they twist the truth so shamelessly!”

“If not for His Majesty turning the tide back then, Da Qian would likely have fallen long ago.”

Ao Ruize, however, couldn’t help but laugh.

In truth, they not only dared to twist the truth, they would also dare, after their victory, to strangle the original body with a belt while he still had breath left in him.

In the end, Emperor Zhangwu successfully reclaimed the throne.

And the very first thing he did after his restoration was to issue an edict denouncing the original body once more, declaring him “disloyal, unfilial, lacking in brotherly virtue, devoid of benevolence and righteousness, a man who acted against all natural order and drew the wrath of both gods and men.” He then stripped the original body of his place in the imperial family, assigned him the posthumous title of “Benighted Commoner,” and had him buried with the rites of a ninth-rank court lady on a barren hillside outside the imperial mausoleum.

(Da Qian also maintained a system of honorary titles for the direct female relatives of officials: the direct female relatives of first and second rank officials were titled Lady, third rank were titled Gracious Lady, and so on down to sixth, seventh, and eighth rank as Peaceful Lady, and ninth rank as Court Lady.)

It was only over a hundred years later, when a newly enthroned emperor died suddenly without an heir, plunging Da Qian once more into turmoil, that the various regional princes, seeking to justify their own claims to power, chose to restore the original body’s reputation.

Because the original body had come to the throne precisely by the route of the main imperial line dying out and a collateral branch inheriting it.

In other words, by restoring the original body’s status as a legitimate emperor, these princes would have historical precedent to legitimize their own future accessions.

Even so, as descendants of Emperor Zhangwu, they had no intention of fully rehabilitating the original body.

They granted him the temple name Daizong, implying that he had merely been lucky enough to sit on the throne in Emperor Zhangwu’s place for ten years.

His remains were moved into the imperial mausoleum, but he was given no separate imperial tomb of his own.

Meanwhile, his dear elder brother Emperor Zhangwu, who had squandered three hundred thousand of Da Qian’s troops in total and caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of common people, was ultimately given the temple name Ruizong, meaning “the Sagacious Ancestor.”

If things had ended there, it would actually have been better for the original body.

Because a dozen or so years later, when a new dynasty was established, the founding emperor of the new dynasty happened to have a brother of his own whose achievements threatened to overshadow the throne. After his coronation, he once again stripped the original body of his imperial status and had his remains removed from the Da Qian imperial mausoleum.

And most critically, because the soldiers tasked with moving the remains were negligent in their duties, a stray dog made off with one of the original body’s skull bones.

So the original body had actually fared even worse than the Jingtai Emperor.

Even the milk dumpling, which had been sulking and refusing to speak because of its ongoing quarrel with Ao Ruize, couldn’t help but pipe up: “It’s also Zhou Ruize’s own fault for not being ruthless enough, just like the Jingtai Emperor. If he had been as ruthless as Emperor Zhangwu, he could have just killed Emperor Zhangwu outright when he was sent back, or quietly slipped him something during those years he was confined in the Huaiyang Traveling Palace. He wouldn’t have ended up in this state.”

The head eunuch Lu Dang snapped back to his senses at that moment as well.

“Wait…… how did they break through so quickly……”

After all, the imperial palace was permanently garrisoned by nearly ten thousand imperial guards.

So there was no need to guess. The guards had clearly surrendered outright.

“How could they……”

“Treacherous rebels. A pack of shameless opportunists without a shred of integrity, good for nothing but fawning on whoever holds power……”

But there was no point saying any of this now.

“Your Majesty……”

The head eunuch Lu Dang broke down entirely and began to wail.

The consorts and palace maids kneeling below burst into loud sobs as well.

Because there was no need to guess what fate awaited them.

It was right at this moment that the milk dumpling’s voice sounded: “Don’t worry. I have a way.”

Having learned its lessons from the previous worlds, it was now a mature system that knew to first locate a means of ensuring the host’s safety before dropping the host in.

“Somewhere in the Cold Palace, there is a secret passage left over from the previous dynasty that leads out beyond the city walls. Many sections have collapsed, but it should be more than sufficient for us to escape through.”

That saved him quite a bit of effort.

Ao Ruize immediately raised his hand: “Stop crying.”

“Stop crying.”

Only then did the head eunuch Lu Dang come back to himself. He immediately shuffled forward on his knees to the bedside: “Your Majesty.”

Ao Ruize spoke through ragged breaths: “Go to the Cold Palace. There is a secret passage there that leads out beyond the city walls.”

At these words, every person in the room felt their eyes light up.

The head eunuch Lu Dang froze for a moment, then made his decision without hesitation: “Quickly, quickly help His Majesty up.”

Then, as though something had occurred to him, he added in rapid succession: “No. Take the door panels down. Help His Majesty onto one of them.”

“And the imperial seal! Bring the imperial seal!”

As long as the seal remained in their hands, Ao Ruize was still the emperor.

With that, everyone found something to rally around and moved according to his instructions.

In no time at all, Ao Ruize had been lifted onto a door panel by two eunuchs.

Shortly after, a eunuch brought over the imperial seal.

But Ao Ruize said: “That won’t be necessary.”

The head eunuch Lu Dang: “Your Majesty?”

Ao Ruize looked around at those gathered, then simply said: “Bring me an imperial edict.”

A eunuch immediately produced a blank imperial edict.

“They say: eat the ruler’s grain, serve the ruler’s cause. Yet who could have imagined that of the thirty-three thousand officials filling this court, every last one of them, for all their self-proclaimed learning and cultivation, would turn out to be anything but loyal.”

“It is you, this group of eunuchs and palace maids who cannot read a single character, who have remained by my side through all of this.”

As he spoke, Ao Ruize picked up the vermilion brush and began to write on the edict: “It was you who knelt and begged me to take the throne. And now it is you who slander me as a treacherous rebel.”

“I have never failed Da Qian, and I have never failed any of you. Yet you have failed me in every way.”

“Then this title of Emperor of Da Qian, I relinquish without regret.”

“But the laws of heaven are clear. They will not allow a pack of conscience-forsaken schemers and frauds like yourselves to go on deceiving the world indefinitely. Just you wait.”

When he finished writing, he seized the imperial jade seal and pressed it squarely onto the edict.

“Let us go.”

Seeing this, the head eunuch Lu Dang ultimately chose not to say another word in protest.

He drew the long sword at his side: “Move out!”

The palace was already in chaos.

And when they came charging out, the palace maids and eunuchs fleeing in every direction glanced at them with faint surprise and then paid them no further attention.

Still, a number of people fell in behind them, though their intentions were clearly not pure.

Because they only followed at a distance without stepping forward to help.

It was plain that they intended to track them, then report their whereabouts to Emperor Zhangwu when the time came, and claim the credit for themselves.

Seeing this, the head eunuch Lu Dang immediately led a group into hiding in the garden not far from the Cold Palace. When those followers came within range, they burst out and cut them all down.

It was because of this that they were able to enter the Cold Palace without further incident, pry open the secret passage entrance beneath the kitchen stove, and slip inside.

As they departed, the head eunuch Lu Dang did not forget to order someone to set the Cold Palace ablaze.

So when a general led his troops storming into the Chenggian Palace, what he found was every inner and outer chamber completely empty of people.

“Zhou Ruize, your end has come…”

The triumphant joy on the general’s face froze in place.

The two personal guards behind him exchanged an incredulous look, then lifted the blankets on the dragon bed with their sword tips. Sure enough, there was no one beneath.

“General, the tyrant has fled!”

Did you really need to say that out loud?

The general’s fury boiled over: “What are you standing there for? Search! Go and find them, now!”

He had been counting on capturing Zhou Ruize alive this day, hoping it would earn him a promotion and a title.

But by the time they discovered the bodies in the garden and traced their way to the Cold Palace, the fire had already climbed seven or eight meters high. They couldn’t get within any distance of it, let alone give chase inside.

Half an hour later, the unrest had been fully quelled.

Emperor Zhangwu was carried into the palace on a sedan chair.

A large retinue of officials followed in his wake.

The general knelt on the ground, his expression steeped in frustration.

Emperor Zhangwu, seated in his palanquin, swept the general with a flat, expressionless glance, then looked back at the civil and military officials gathered behind him.

The officials, reading the moment, pressed down the complicated feelings churning in their chests and sank to their knees in unison: “Long live His Majesty! Long live, long live, long may he reign!”

The soldiers, seeing this, also knelt one by one: “Long live His Majesty! Long live, long live, long may he reign!”

For a moment, the only things rising above the imperial palace were the lingering smoke drifting from the Cold Palace and that thunderous, tide-like chorus of voices.

At the sight of this, the rigid set of Emperor Zhangwu’s features finally shifted.

He closed his eyes. A few seconds later, he tilted his head back and drew in a long, deep breath.

Ten years. He had finally come back.

Heaven had truly been generous to him.

It was only a pity that Zhou Ruize, that disloyal and unfilial wretch, had managed to get away.

Thinking this, Emperor Zhangwu’s gaze settled on the tray in the general’s hands.

He slowly unclenched the fingers that had been gripping the sides of the palanquin, stepped down one pace at a time, and came to a halt directly in front of the kneeling general.

He picked up the imperial jade seal from the tray, and beneath it, found the edict with its inscription.

Then he burst out laughing. He laughed until he nearly fell backward, until his chest ached with the force of it.

Only when he had laughed enough did he raise a hand and wipe the tears from the corners of his eyes.

“Just you wait?”

“What, does he think he can still make a comeback?”

“Has he forgotten that he has only days left to live?”

But in the very next second, the laughter faded from his face entirely.

He said: “Relay our decree. A nationwide manhunt is to be issued for the traitor Zhou Ruize. He is to be taken alive.”

After all, he still had a great many things he wanted to say to Zhou Ruize.

“Furthermore, anyone who conceals Zhou Ruize without authorization shall have nine generations of their family put to death.”

The general immediately responded: “Yes, Your Majesty.”

Emperor Zhangwu: “Where is the Minister of Rites?”

The Minister of Rites stepped forward at once: “Your servant is present.”

Emperor Zhangwu: “You are hereby ordered to thoroughly compile the crimes of the traitor Zhou Ruize, to be made public at the full morning court tomorrow.”

“Additionally, prepare an imperial procession to escort the Empress Dowager and the Imperial Noble Consort and others back to the palace.”

The Minister of Rites: “By your command.”

Almost simultaneously, in a mountain valley outside the western gate of the capital.

“One, two, three. One, two, three……”

Accompanied by a chorus of hoarse, strained voices, an enormous boulder was shoved aside with tremendous force.

As the boulder rolled away down the ridge, and the blinding light of the sun outside the tunnel broke through, several eunuchs and palace maids who scrambled out first couldn’t contain themselves and cried out in joy: “We’re out! We made it out!”

“We don’t have to die!”

Even the head eunuch Lu Dang couldn’t help clenching his fists tightly: “Your Majesty, we are saved.”

But in the very next second, every voice went silent.

Every face drained to a deathly white.

Because they suddenly saw, not far away, a large company of soldiers standing at the ready with long sabers drawn, watching them with wary eyes.

And protected at the center of those soldiers was a young man of seventeen or eighteen.

That young man was none other than Zhou Hongyi.

The eldest legitimate son of Emperor Zhangwu. The former crown prince, deposed by Zhou Ruize.

Upon seeing them, the soldiers also started for a moment, and then a flash of wild elation rose in their eyes.

Because from Ao Ruize and the others’ clothing alone, it was more than enough for them to guess at their identities.

As far as they were concerned, hadn’t Ao Ruize and the others just fallen out of the sky like a gift-wrapped merit waiting to be claimed?

But the head eunuch Lu Dang and the others felt the world go dark before their eyes.

They had never imagined that even after escaping from the palace, they would run directly into Zhou Hongyi at the exit, of all times returning to the capital at this very moment.

Anyone could see that Zhou Hongyi would have absolutely no reason to let them go.

Why was heaven playing such a cruel joke on them?

Even the milk dumpling was stunned for a beat.

But things had come to this. They had no choice.

The head eunuch Lu Dang immediately said, eyes red: “Protect His Majesty and get out, quickly!”

But right at that moment, Zhou Hongyi suddenly reached out and stopped the guard commander who had already begun to surge forward.

The guard commander turned to Zhou Hongyi with a look of startled confusion.

Zhou Hongyi opened his mouth, and in the end said only one thing: “Leave half the horses behind. Move out.”

With that, he took one long, deep look at Ao Ruize, swung himself up onto his horse, and rode away.

The guard commander fell silent as well.

He too had recalled how ten years ago, Zhou Ruize had personally stood on the city walls, leading from the front, coming within a hair’s breadth of death under enemy blades on multiple occasions, and had ultimately driven back the Western Rong army and protected the hundreds of thousands of people in the capital.

And then he thought of how Zhou Ruize now lay gravely ill with little time left to live. In the end, he said nothing, turned and mounted his horse, and followed.

And watching the retreating figures of Zhou Hongyi and his men disappear into the distance, the head eunuch Lu Dang and the others were left standing in complete and utter bewilderment.

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