Chapter 164 – Paper in the Lake and Fish Move, Sleeve Opened and People Died

It only took one night for the people who came down from the Great Eastern Mountain to deal with everything, and the first rebellion in the history of the Kingdom of Qing that was lit up in the middle of the day ended miserably, or at least the regicide ended miserably, and could no longer turn over any waves. Everyone, including the emperor, but some cold-blooded and slightly nervous waiting for the changes in Kyoto after ten days.

The emperor was already very tired, in addition to the bitter lotus and four Gu sword two great masters, is certainly the most magnificent page of his life, but also consumed too much of his strength and spirit, especially after this long planning to become a reality, in the spirit of some of the impact, so that at this time he, far from the people look at that powerful.

In this life of his, this current stage was actually the hour when he was the weakest and most easily defeated, yet no one found this out and no one dared to take advantage of it. This was because the tens of thousands of state troops, in addition to surrounding Dadong Mountain and blocking the news, were also desperately chasing down the two forces that had infiltrated the state border from Dongyi City and Northern Qi.

The tiger was napping, but forcibly squinted his eyes and flared out a cold light, frightening those characters who dared to come and offend him into prey that fled in a state of disarray. Uesugi tiger single person, but to bring bitter lotus north, naturally powerless to do something, and right now temporarily preside over the affairs of Dongyi city Yun Zhilan, although also a generation of sword art everyone, but not the art of war everyone, simply can not think of at this time can be courageous to kill a horseback, seek some shocking effect, which has nothing to do with the courage.

The Supervisory Yuan has also acted, beforehand allocated three road inspection division characters have been densely spread in by the east mountain road to Kyoto on every road. Although Chen Pingping was in Kyoto, these subordinates under him still brought into play the strong and honorable tradition of the Supervisory Yuan, displaying an extremely terrifying information blocking ability.

Whether it was Uesugi Tiger or Dongyi City, even if they were able to release information on the road to notify the Princess who was far away from Kyoto, it would be impossible to do so within a few days, coupled with the detour and long distance traveling all the way to avoid pursuit, the truth of the Great Eastern Mountains to Kyoto, to be slower than the usual hours, for more than ten days.

The inconvenient transmission of information brought great convenience to the Emperor and Chen Pingping.

At this time, Fan Xian was in the depths of the mountains in his final fight with Yan Xiaoyi, and he didn’t know what was happening on the Dadong Mountain. Only after he managed to kill Yan Xiaoyi, enter the Song Kingdom, and then move southward from Yanjing did the people who had escaped from the Great Eastern Mountains protrude out of the Qunshan Mountains and burst into the sphere of influence of Dongyi City.

Fan Xian’s luck was not in his favor, he had left from Song a few days earlier, so he did not hear that news. By the time he had entered the border of Qing, not long afterward, the commander-in-chief of the Yanjing camp had already received a secret decree to secretly take over the leaderless Zhengbei camp, while at the same time forcibly severing the borders between the three countries.

And what’s even more marvelous is that whether it’s Beiqi or Dongyi going back to the people, they all seem to be subconsciously closing their lips tightly. It was already late when the young Emperor of Northern Qi received the news, and even if he sent a message towards the Southern Princess, it was too late to change anything. And the Four Gu Swords …… of Dong Yi City, this maniac who was seriously injured and about to die, for some reason, did not try to notify Li Yunrui in Kyoto.

The reasoning was actually very simple, once the news that the emperor was not dead was sent back to Kyoto, it was only to be feared that the chaos within the Qing country would end before it had even begun, and that the Qing country’s national strength would not suffer any loss, which was something that the Four Gu Swords was very unwilling to see.

Nowadays, the Four Gu Swords must consider where Dongyi City will go after his own death, in order to delay the Qing Emperor’s steps to unify the world, letting the Eldest Princess know the news that the Emperor is not dead a few days later may be more in line with Dongyi City’s interests – if they can let the Eldest Princess make a big mess in Kyoto, the national strength of the State of Qing will surely be damaged, and together with the big war, without two to three years of work, the Qing can’t recover and send out troops to the outside world.

Of course, Yanjing and Cangzhou were already under martial law, and soon after Fan Xian entered the capital, Kyoto was sealed off, so even if the Four Gu Swords wanted to notify Li Yunrui, it wasn’t that simple. The most horrible thing is that Emperor Qing seems to have calculated the thoughts of the Four Gu Swords clearly, the hearts of the great masters are really that similar to each other.

There was another most crucial issue, and that was Fan Xian’s safety. As long as Fan Xian can successfully break through this barrier of Yan Xiaoyi and return to Kyoto …… four Gu Jian for the future consideration of Dongyi City, he can not let Fan Xian die so early.

In the last days of their lives, the great masters needed to consider more, farther, and deeper things, and while they had lost the most crucial battle at the hands of Emperor Qing, they had left their hopes in the future, in that one who, at this time, seemed to be …… Fan Xian, who could not be the hope of Dongyi City in any way.

These are all things that will happen after a dozen or so days, His Majesty the Emperor of Qing is not a sophisticated computer, he can only deduce the approximate possibilities, the good thing is that the development of the situation is not too far from his analysis.

After dealing with Dadong Mountain, he did not stay at the bottom of the mountain, but went to the northwest in the night, arrived at Lokzhou, entered the city in the early hours of the morning, and entered the governor’s residence of Hou Yongzhi, the governor of Dongshan Road.

On that day, the whole city of Lokzhou was closed down, and the state army of Jiangbei Road, which followed His Majesty’s northward advancement, was ordered to take over the important duty of guarding the local state army. More than ten ministers, as well as eunuchs and experts from the inner court, controlled the entire governor’s residence.

The people of Lokzhou City looked at everything in front of them with dumbfounded eyes, not knowing where so many soldiers with unfamiliar faces suddenly came from, and the eyes of these soldiers were very unkind, looking like wild beasts, with the faint smell of blood on their bodies, obviously just coming down from the battlefield.

The soldiers were patrolling the streets of Lokzhou City, watching everything around them with vigilant faces, bringing a solemn meaning to this largest city on Dongshan Road, pressurizing those ordinary people, who no longer dared to whisper on the streets, and most of the time retreated back to their rooms in fear and trembling, except for a few things that were necessary.

Dongshan Road Governor’s Mansion, Governor Hou Yongzhi kneeling in front of the emperor, not how the heart trembling, just face like ashes, kowtowed two heads, then did not say a word. Because he knows he will die, just do not know whether it is going to suffer death by a thousand cuts, or five horses. From the moment he joined the Rapunzel’s plan, he knew what would happen if he failed.

It was just that he did not expect that His Majesty would crack the situation in Dadong Mountain so easily, and before anyone had time to react, like a sharp arrow feather, he stabbed into the Governor’s Mansion, and descended upon his own face with a flourish.

The Emperor did not look at him, and there was no disappointment on his face. This was because he knew that the minister kneeling at his feet would surely become the first governor to be executed in office in the thirty years of the Qing Kingdom. He just coldly counted the days to see if he could leave enough time for his sister.

Lokzhou City became a dead city, no one could leave, even if the Eldest Princess had planted her eyes in Dongshan Road, she had no idea what was happening in the Governor’s Mansion. And some people outside the city noticed the city’s anomalies and began to transmit news to Kyoto, however, every time they made a sudden journey of only tens of miles, they were taken by the secret agents of the Inspectorate disguised as all kinds of characters and took their lives.

Chen Pingping had invested as much as 40% of the Inspectorate’s manpower in these three directions, so it was no wonder that he was forced to lead the Kyoto Guard Division in a guerrilla attack around Kyoto. The old dean had put in his blood for the sake of His Majesty’s decree.

After waiting in silence for some days in Lokzhou City, estimating the time, the news of the Emperor’s death on Dadong Mountain should have already reached Kyoto, and Fan Xian should have arrived with his last decree, the Emperor’s face in the Governor’s Mansion in Lokzhou City only looked a little better.

After a few more days, expedited secret reports from the imperial court were sent from Kyoto to several governor’s mansions around the world, especially to the Dongshan Road state capital, which arrived as fast as possible, and began to question the truth about the Great East Mountain for confirmation.

The emperor quite rightly confirmed his death through the formalities of the governor’s offices, and then waited for the arrival of the court procession to welcome the spirit.

On the next day, the imperial residence report arrived again, speaking of the crown prince and of Fan Xian’s assassination. All the major governors have written to the court and started to fight against the court. Except for the two Jiangbei and Jiangnan governors who knew the inside story, the rest of the governors were purely from the point of view of a feudal official and His Majesty’s loyal subject.

Although the emperor did not receive the petition from the remaining several governors, he probably knew what they would say. At this point, he ordered someone to bring out Hou Yongzhi, the Governor of Dongshan Road, and slowly opened his mouth to say, “I chose seven of you to shepherd the world for me, and the six of them didn’t let me down, but you …… are the only one.”

Hou Yongzhi had been imprisoned for many days without thinking about food and drink, and was already exhausted. Hearing His Majesty’s words, he didn’t dare to make the slightest plea for forgiveness, knowing that the day His Majesty left Lokzhou would be the day of his death, he just desperately kowtowed, wanting His Majesty to spare his wife, son and mother.

The Emperor looked at him indifferently, not saying a word.

On the second day, His Majesty led the state army and all the ministers and eunuchs out of the state. Before leaving Lok Chau, Hou Yongzhi was given to death, his three sons and daughters were beheaded, and the entire governor’s mansion, as well as the officials at all levels controlled from top to bottom of Dongshan Road, totaling thirty-four people, were all hanged.

The emperor was not a person who would be easily angered, and he was also too lazy to use those harsh punishments to torture Hou Yongzhi who betrayed the court. In his opinion, making a person lose his life was only a necessary means for the king to grasp power, and had nothing to do with punishment.

On the sixth day after receiving the report of the Crown Prince’s ascension to the throne and Fan Xian’s charges, His Majesty, who was slowly traveling from Lokzhou to Kyoto, finally saw the procession that had come to greet him. Of course, the original purpose of the procession was to greet his body and soul.

After making contact with the court’s procession to welcome the spirit, the Emperor indifferently ordered the brigade to speed up a little and continue to approach Kyoto.

After a few more days, Kyoto was still far away, and the emperor was not sure what kind of situation was going on in Kyoto today. Chen Pingping and his pair of officials and ministers were like two lonely ghosts on the fields of Daqing, drifting along, not betting their spirit on the collection of intelligence.

It was just that these two lone souls and wild ghosts worked together too perfectly and appeared too powerful.

On a certain day, the Emperor passed by outside Xinyang City, looking at the unfamiliar city in the distance, silent. After a moment, he turned back to look at the hearse being dragged at the back of the procession, and the large coffin in the car of unknown weight and layers, and a hint of self-deprecation appeared at the corner of his lips.

“Tell Yun Rui.” The emperor spoke.

Eunuch Yao rides his horse and serves beside him, hurriedly taking out a pen and paper to listen carefully.

“I’m back.”

The emperor indifferently opens his mouth, then clips the belly of his horse and rides ahead of the large group through Xinyang, heading towards Kyoto in the distance.

The strings have been broken, the flowers and trees have been disabled, a neon dress of the Princess, at this time is standing in a daze in the Taiping courtyard of the lakeshore, looking at the hands of the information just received, dazed, and did not pay attention to, sitting at his feet not far away from the Fan Xian.

From the beginning of the plan, she has gradually moved her forces from Xinyang to Kyoto, this process took two years, including the dead Huang Yi, living Yuan Hongdao, all from the palace in Xinyang to Kyoto. However, after the night of the thunderstorm a year ago, the emperor and Chen Pingping, two people, only used half an hour, will be swept away the forces of the eldest princess.

Nowadays, the Rapunzel was basically hidden behind the scenes in the plotting rebellion, formulating the big picture and convincing the world’s strongest people to take action. Partly because she was good at such a role, and partly because she had to choose this role. When she controlled the Crown Prince and the Second Prince, it was like controlling the Ye and Qin families, and she was extraordinarily comfortable with a deft hand.

However, her own intelligence system had been dealt an extremely fatal blow, and would not be able to recover in two or three years’ time. So when she received the intensified secret intelligence from Xinyang, she couldn’t help but frown and feel a hint of surprise.

This intelligence was a fake. As the Lord of Xinyang, Li Yunrui naturally recognized it at a glance. But this piece of intelligence was real, or rather Xinyang had been under the full control of someone in order to use his own channels to send an expedited secret report to himself. What kind of person was it?

Li Yunrui was a little surprised, a little curious, and a little expectant. Tearing open the cover that was embossed with fire paint, his eyes faintly swept over it, then his gaze was fixed on the letter paper.

There were only four words on the paper, but these four words made her look at it for a long, long time. The emotions contained in her eyes were complex, very complex. These four words seemed to be reflected in her dark and clear eyes, typed out word by word, turning into the shrinking and opening of the pupils of her eyes, the intensity and lightness of her gaze.

Her pupils were first intensely shocked, then faintly disappointed, followed by a reasonless anger, which then turned into a faint self-deprecating smile, and finally, like a stone falling into a lake, gradually turning into a calm.

In just a few moments, the most beautiful and ruthless woman in the country of Qing, her pupils had undergone so many emotional changes.

Fan Xian quietly watched her from the sidelines, observing the changes in the pupils of her eyes. Not seeing the flash of madness that frightened him, his heart felt slightly at ease, but immediately afterward, he let out a thump and guessed what was written on that letter.

Even if the Ye family’s backlash and his own control of Kyoto hadn’t caused Li Yunrui to be so out of sorts, then there was only one person in the entire world who could cause her to become the way she was today.

Li Yunrui once again lowered his head, savoring the four words on the letter paper, “I’m back.”

The handwriting on the letter paper was strong and vigorous, precisely the handwriting of His Majesty the Emperor. However, Li Yunrui could tell at a glance that it was Eunuch Yao’s ghostwriting. Although his majesty is a very diligent king, but to lead such a large country, deal with so many zhangzhi, there will still be some mental weakness, some not important zhangzhi are often handed over to the eunuch yao to approve, over time, yao eunuch also will be his majesty’s handwriting to learn ninety percent, enough to conceal the ministers in the imperial court and those imperial historians.

However, Li Yunrui had put so much thought into his emperor brother, how could he not see the difference. However, she did not suspect that this was a false statement, that someone was using Eunuch Yao’s handwriting to disguise that His Majesty was still alive.

Because she knew clearly that with four words as simple and powerful as these, no one other than His Majesty could have thought to say this.

The meaning of these four words was simple: I’m back, I’m still alive. You can see for yourself.

Two lines of tears just slid down Li Yunrui’s eyes for no apparent reason, it was an indescribable emotion that stimulated her tear ducts, making this woman who was extremely crybaby in front of the empress dowager cry in this forlorn Taiping Farewell Courtyard.

This was probably Emperor Qing’s last message to his sister, his last words. Li Yunrui thought sadly in his heart, he didn’t bother to write the last words himself?

His Majesty surely could not have imagined that these four words would bring out so many emotions in Li Yunrui, he was only announcing his return as an emperor, like a lion, telling the four wilds of his supreme dominion over his territory.

Fan Xian didn’t understand why the Princess was crying, the crazy woman didn’t look crazy, she was just sad. In any case, he could not have imagined that the Princess was angry and sad because the Emperor had not written the four words himself.

The Emperor and Fan Xian were undoubtedly both intelligent people, but they still couldn’t understand women. To men, creatures like women were undoubtedly another completely different species, strangers from a distant unknown space.

Li Yunrui feebly loosened her fingers, and the paper fluttered down from between her fingers, and was flicked by the wind of early fall, landing on the small lake in the middle of Taiping Special Courtyard. The paper was dipped in the lake water and instantly sank towards the surface.

In a flash, Fan Xian saw the four words clearly and was shocked. Although he had thought about the possibility of His Majesty still being alive after the Ye Family’s rebellion, he still couldn’t stop being shocked when he saw it with his own eyes and confirmed it with his own eyes. Because he didn’t know what exactly happened on the Great Eastern Mountain.

Since His Majesty was still alive, the eldest princess was naturally defeated. Although she had said so earlier, Fan Xian knew clearly that her thoughts would be most satisfied if she could eliminate all the powerful men under the sky in one fell swoop.

This news was the good news that Fan Xian had been waiting for. If His Majesty died, he was still really worried about whether or not the Ye family would continue on this path.

Fan Xian could hardly contain his excitement as he clenched his fists and slowly stood up, gazing at Li Yunrui’s back, worried that this woman would not give any crazy orders, fueled by this news.

Li Yunrui gently clapped her hands, and many experts poured in around the small lake. Fan Xian swept a glance and wasn’t really scared. These Xinyang recruited men might seem very frightening to the average person, but they weren’t in his eyes at all, he was only worried about Wan’er and Dabao.

To Fan Xian’s surprise, and to the shock of those minions, Li Yunrui had a calm face and slowly spoke, “All of you leave. You are no longer needed here.” She paused for a moment and then said, “Go incognito and spend the rest of your lives in peace, and don’t think about revenge or anything ridiculous like that.”

The ministers clamored, looking at the eldest princess with disbelieving eyes and saying in pain, “Your Highness!”

From the moment Fan Xian had stepped into the Taiping Farewell House, these people had known that something had gone terribly wrong with the conspiracy and rebellion in Kyoto, but they still had strong faith in the Eldest Princess.

Li Yunrui just smiled indifferently and waved his hand, saying nothing more.

“Your Highness!” Those ministers knelt down to her up and down the hill and around the small lake, refusing to leave, and a few even cried out.

Fan Xian looked at this scene in shock. Although it was clear that Li Yunrui had already entertained the thought of killing himself after the defeat, and only then did he send his subordinates away, he really didn’t expect that these subordinates would be so loyal to her.

He had very little contact with Xinyang, and did not know how the Princess commanded her subordinates, in the Emperor’s connivance and Chen Pingping’s help, these two years of war against the Princess, he was more victorious than negative, Li Yunrui could not help but give birth to a few points of contempt.

However, at this time, seeing those subordinates who cried bitterly and refused to leave, and feeling the loyalty of all the people to the Eldest Princess, Fan Xian only vaguely understood some things, such as why this Princess could have so much power in the imperial court, why she could persuade Bitter Lotus and the Four Guards Sword to take action, why she could control the Crown Prince and the Second Prince, and why… …

It was just a feeling, and he still wasn’t sure where the Rapunzel’s magic came from, but he knew that it definitely wasn’t something that could be achieved by being absolutely beautiful. It was just a pity that Fan Xian didn’t know about it in the past, and now it seemed that he wouldn’t have much chance to see the Rapunzel’s true power.

The surrounding area was filled with cries, but the Eldest Princess, who was at the edge of the lake, frowned slightly, looking a bit bored, and waved her hand once again.

A leading official looked at this scene, knowing that the momentum had gone, wiped away the tear tracks in the corner of his eyes, knelt down and kowtowed, and resolutely turned around and left. When one person left, many others left, perhaps none of these people were greedy for life and death, however, since Li Yunrui had given the order and His Highness was clearly displeased with it, there was little else they could do but leave.

In this way, the entire Taiping Buyuan was left with only the Princess and Fan Xian. Although it was the same earlier, Fan Xian knew that there were many people outside watching him, and now that he knew that those people had all left, his heart felt even more lonely, and he looked at the Eldest Princess’s thin shoulders with a slight sense of perplexity.

Li Yunrui slowly turned around, her two hands placed extremely elegantly on her abdomen, her wide sleeves hanging low, falling into beautiful and gorgeous lines.

Her face was still smiling, but her eyes were extraordinarily clear, no longer that sinister figure in front of her enemies, no longer the pseudo-coward who was often slapped in front of the empress dowager and cried timidly, and no longer the sister who was stubborn, angry, and sorrowful under the emperor’s iron-like hand.

She is the eldest princess, she is Li Yunrui, the unique one in heaven and on earth.

Li Yunrui looked at her son-in-law with a smile and said, “Knowing that His Majesty is still alive, you don’t seem as happy as I thought you would be.”

Fan Xian bowed his head slightly and said, “In recent times, there have been many deaths, I can’t be happy.”

“So that’s how it is, it seems that you and your mother are really like ……” Li Yunrui laughed after being slightly stunned, aborting the topic with an inexplicable emotion and turning to ask lightly, “Have you ever wondered why the Qin family want to rebel?”

Fan Xian frowned, not comprehending the meaning of this sentence, and even more unclear as to why, at such a moment, she would suddenly mention the Qin family, which had already been driven out of Kyoto by the Dingzhou army.

The Eldest Princess glanced at him with a slightly mocking gaze and turned to sigh, looking at the party of papers that had sunk to the bottom of the lake. The lake water of Taiping Special Courtyard was extremely clear and shallow, the white paper gradually spread out in the lake water, like slices of soaked steamed buns, causing countless red carp to come and compete for food, and the water tumbled for a while.

She quietly looked at this scene, said: “In fact, we are all fish, only the things we fight for are not quite the same. This time I didn t compete for anything, I had thought that I would be angry and disappointed …… and I was indeed angry and disappointed. But in the end, I realized that he was alive …… and I was happy after all.”

Fan Xian was stunned, and then thought with a slight sadness, according to what the eldest princess had said earlier, her goal in life had already been achieved, and as for the emperor’s death or non-death, so what? It was just that since His Majesty had returned, the Eldest Princess feared that she would no longer have a way to live.

Then he saw a scene that shocked him.

Li Yunrui’s face was calm and serene as she slowly lowered her own arms, the wide sleeves of those light-colored palace dresses naturally hanging down and spreading out, as if a big play had already come to an end, and the actors were stepping out of the curtain for the last time to show their appreciation to the audience.

The last actor was not only herself, but also included a black poisoned dagger, which was plunged deeply into her belly, deep down to the handle.

Fan Xian’s heart trembled, and his entire body flew across the room, tackling her to the ground and reaching out to point at the small of her back.