The words that Xiao Jingnan said next made Li Wanming's ears ring. She felt as if her soul had left her body and was floating in the air for a long while before it reluctantly returned.
"Th...the Eldest Princess? You mean the Eldest Princess?!" Her voice trembled with shock.
"Yes. While we were in the palace to root out the witches and evil men, the Eldest Princess sent the Golden Wu Guards to surround the palace."
The candle flames flickered violently, illuminating the shocked faces of everyone.
"What...what does she want to do?" Li Wanming stammered. "She...she doesn't want to suppress the rebels and become the Regent Princess, does she?"
"No," Xiao Jingnan said calmly. "She wants to ascend the throne and become the empress."
The room fell into instant silence.
Li Wanming opened her mouth but couldn't make a sound. In a daze, she even had the strange urge to clap—
Goodness! Such ambition! Such courage!
Who would have thought that the Eldest Princess, a lazy, charming woman full of amorous adventures, actually harbored a dream of becoming an empress?
Truly, the bigger the heart, the bigger the dream...
The Prince of Ning was silent for a long time before he let out a cold laugh. "Wishful thinking! Daydreaming! Does she think she can ascend the dragon throne with those useless Golden Wu Guards and her lovers? Isn't she afraid that the throne is too high and she'll hurt her back!"
"What happened next?" Li Wanming asked eagerly. "How did you solve it later?"
If she remembered correctly, there were 30,000 Golden Wu Guards...
Xiao Jingnan picked up the teacup and took a sip before he slowly said, "I had already arranged for General Liang Xiong to lead 20,000 troops to wait outside the city. As soon as they saw the whistling arrow in the air, they knew something was wrong in the city and immediately led the troops into the city to reinforce us."
"The Golden Wu Guards had been under the jurisdiction of the Marquis of Xuanping for many years and their military discipline had long been lax. As soon as they found themselves surrounded, they quickly surrendered. Except for a few lovers the Eldest Princess had placed among them, there weren't many casualties."
Li Wanming let out a long sigh of relief and then said, "No wonder you only took 100 elite black-armored cavalry. You had a plan in mind... Hey, did you leave a backhand because you already knew the Eldest Princess would make a move?"
"Yes." Xiao Jingnan nodded. "When my aunt told the Palace Order to remind me that I might be able to use the power of the Eldest Princess, I thought it was strange."
"She is the daughter of the Empress Dowager. All her wealth and honor depend on the Empress Dowager. There's no reason for her to remain neutral in the struggle between the Empress Dowager and the Emperor, or even deliberately leak information to me... Unless she wants to reap the benefits."
Xiao Jingnan shook his head and sighed. "I just didn't expect that she actually wanted to be the emperor."
No one could have expected it.
Even if Li Wanming let her imagination run wild, she could only think that the Eldest Princess wanted to be the Regent Princess.
This ambition to be an empress... was truly amazing.
The Prince of Ning glanced at Xiao Yuanjie, who had been silent and looked dejected. He said softly, "Then... what about sister-in-law?"
Xiao Jingnan's Adam's apple rolled. "The Eldest Princess had already entered the palace at that time. When she saw that the situation was hopeless, she actually wanted to set fire to the palace and burn the Empress Dowager and the Emperor to death..."
"No one knew when she had hidden so much charcoal and kerosene under the Shoukang Palace."
"The fire blazed up. The palace servants were all busy saving the Emperor and the Empress Dowager and forgot that there was still a person tied up in the side hall of the Shoukang Palace..."
"I always thought that my second aunt was in the Punishment Department. I didn't know that the Empress Dowager had already transferred her to the Shoukang Palace."
...
The room fell into a long silence.
Thinking about this incident, it was really terrifying.
The Empress Dowager's sudden interrogation of Concubine Kang must have meant that she was already suspicious. If Xiao Jingnan hadn't taken action the night before, I'm afraid that the Prince of Ning's Mansion would have been in a pool of blood by now...
Everyone looked at the mourning hall but didn't say a word.
The white mourning curtains fluttered gently in the night, as if someone was crying softly.
Everyone was silent.
The funeral was over. Tomorrow would be the burial. It was useless to say anything now.
Death was like a sudden snowfall that instantly buried all the right and wrong.
The dead were to be respected.
It seemed that all the grudges, loves, and hatreds in life had suddenly dissipated at the moment when the coffin was closed and turned into a wisp of green smoke on the offering table.
Xiao Yuanjie suddenly stood up. Hunched over, he walked over slowly.
The candlelight cast a long shadow of him that extended deep into the mourning hall. He threw himself in front of the coffin and finally burst into tears.
————————
The imperial edicts came down quickly.
One after another, each one was a major event.
It seemed that overnight, the fate of this country for the next few decades would be completely changed.
First, Zhao Yanke announced that he would take over the government in person.
This didn't cause much of a stir.
After that night's baptism, everyone seemed to know what had happened in the capital, but they were all tacitly silent about it.
A simple imperial edict announced that Zhao Yanke had truly become the monarch of this country.
From then on, there would be no more bright yellow beaded curtain embroidered with dragons and phoenixes behind the dragon throne in the Zichen Palace.
Next was the edict for the Empress Dowager to "recover from illness". Every word was gentle and considerate, only saying that the Empress Dowager was ill and needed to move to the Dongshan Villa to recuperate.
This edict didn't arouse much reaction either. The court officials accepted the end of a generation of rulers calmly and submissively.
The Empress Dowager was old. It was normal for her to have some minor ailments and need to recuperate.
Although the place for recuperation was a bit far and remote, more than 400 kilometers away from the capital, it was still a royal villa after all. The personnel arrangements and facilities were all very complete, enough for the Empress Dowager to spend her remaining years in comfort.
The real thunderbolt came after the third edict.
The crimes of Concubine Kang and her son colluding with the enemy and betraying the country were announced to the world. The four characters of "confiscate the family property and exile" written in vermilion by the emperor's pen were so powerful that they seemed like a blood-stained blade.
The Kang family was thus destroyed, and it also marked the beginning of the downfall of the Empress Dowager's party—
When the Chen family, the Imperial Academy Jijiu, was raided, thousands of books were flying in the air mixed with dust;
When the golden plaque of the Huo Mansion, the Marquis of Guangyi, was taken down, the onlookers actually heard the clear sound of jade and stone shattering;
When the female relatives of the Zhu family, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, were escorted out of the mansion, the pearls and emeralds on their heads were still reflecting a cold light in the sun.
...
Zhao Yanke's purge came quickly and fiercely.
Demotion, imprisonment, execution... The heads rolled in the capital. The stone road outside the Meridian Gate was soaked in blood and shone brightly. Every vermilion pen stroke was like the judgment pen of Yama, nailing the once glorious families to the pages of sin in the history books.
At the same time, a group of new faces began to appear between the pillars of the Six Ministries. They walked briskly with bright eyes, carrying the unique sharpness of the new dynasty.
The world was changing.
Zhao Yanke sat upright in the main hall. There was no longer the former frivolity between his eyebrows. The bright yellow dragon robe wrapped around him was already the awe-inspiring majesty that could make the mountains and rivers change color.
In addition, there were some edicts... that were a bit unexpected.