GBP Chapter 216 Demon Queen
Chapter 216 Demon Queen
After learning about Tsinghua College, Li Xiaonuan quieted down again. Mainly, she was considering her future path.
That night, she gave Prince Jing an idea: to seize territory and become king. That's right, to form their own faction and rule over their own land. Since the Qi-Song Continent couldn't accommodate them, why not go elsewhere and dominate on their own?
That night, Prince Jing also told her about Zhao Wangchuan's background. It turned out that Zhao Wangchuan was indeed the emperor's son. In principle, he was the legitimate son. However, the emperor's heart belonged to another, and after ascending the throne, he demoted Wei Lu, who was the crown princess, to the rank of Consort, and made the woman he loved the empress.
It was only at that time that the Wei family realized that the emperor had merely used their power to ascend the throne. In particular, the woman who had been made empress had already given birth to the eldest prince.
The Wei clan was extremely indignant at the time, and even began to resist the implementation of the emperor's various policies to express their dissatisfaction. However, the result was that many members of the Wei clan were either demoted or dismissed from their posts.
What's most infuriating is that the official positions vacated by the Wei family were quickly filled by members of the Empress's maternal family. In a short time, the Empress's family, which had once been just a middle-class clan, suddenly rose to become one of the most prominent families in the capital.
Their power quickly overwhelmed the powerful families in the capital. Even some members of the royal family dared not provoke the Empress's maternal relatives.
Especially later, the women Wei Lu and her son, whom the courtiers used to attack the Empress's family, ultimately perished in a fire within the heavily guarded palace. That incident shocked and terrified everyone.
To save the lives of their families and clansmen, the officials wisely kept their mouths shut. After all, all the emperor's policies were beneficial to the people and the country. They didn't need to care too much about whether the empress and the eldest prince's relationship was legitimate; as long as the emperor was happy, that was all that mattered.
The Wei family became even more cautious. Even in their grief and indignation, they had to put on a smiling face to deal with this far from incompetent emperor. But they did not give up investigating the matter of Wei Lu and her son. The situation was too suspicious, and the emperor's replies were far too perfunctory.
This time, however, the Wei clan cleverly learned to feign compliance. They submitted to all the emperor's arrangements, but secretly dispatched their clan's forces to develop elsewhere. However, they never showed any sign of compromise regarding the matter of Wei Lu and her son.
They continued to confront the Empress's family head-on, correcting each other's mistakes and even using the situation to their advantage to crush the Empress's family. They did this merely to demonstrate their stance and divert the Emperor's attention so that the Wei clan could be distracted.
As expected, their choice ultimately proved correct. The emperor felt indebted to the Wei family, so he turned a blind eye to their actions. This created a false impression: that the emperor still favored the Wei family.
Only members of the Wei family knew that the emperor had always been wary of the Wei clan. However, they had never done anything outrageous, so the emperor had simply let them be.
Wei Yu's joining the Imperial Guard was actually one of the Emperor's methods to counterbalance the Wei clan and the Empress's family. The Empress's Wang clan, lacking sufficient resources, was known for its members abusing their power, frequently engaging in bullying and oppressive acts.
In recent years, there have been rumors that members of the Wang family have begun to disregard human life and seize land and property. They have also been intimidating local officials and colluding with them.
Incredibly, the empress not only did not punish those young men or order them to stop their heinous acts, but she also always covered up the truth for them and deceived the emperor.
These events greatly displeased many loyal and virtuous officials in the court, who repeatedly submitted memorials exposing the wrongdoings. However, among those responsible for reviewing the memorials were individuals bribed by the Empress, so all those memorials were ultimately suppressed.
As for the officials who submitted memorials, without exception, they all suffered troubles of varying degrees. Apart from a very few senior officials whom the emperor absolutely refused to touch, most of the other officials were demoted or directly punished and imprisoned.
When Li Xiaonuan and her group entered the inner city of the capital, they witnessed the confiscation of the property of one of the officials. Unlike the usual confiscation of property by other officials, there was no wailing or crying out for injustice from the entire family of that official.
The entire family stood neatly on the steps, accepting the search and arrest by the soldiers. During this time, some of the children cried, and the women holding them would gently coax them.
Li Xiaonuan found it all very interesting. She admired the family's composure and calmness. From the pointing and conversations of the people on the street, Li Xiaonuan learned that the official had been framed by someone else, or perhaps by the Empress's faction.
After a brief stop in front of the mansion, Prince Jing's entourage continued on as if nothing had happened. Just as the procession was about to finish, a commotion broke out on the steps. The entire family, except for a tall, thin middle-aged man, was sitting on the steps, all of them, young and old, vomiting blood.
In an instant, all the young children and girls died on the spot. The middle-aged man standing there watched in shock and grief as his loved ones disappeared one by one before his eyes. Suddenly, he cried out in anguish, "The Demon Queen has reappeared, the imperial star has dimmed, and the Qi Song dynasty is doomed."
After shouting this, the thin, middle-aged man suddenly rushed down the steps and crashed headfirst into the lion statue on the door, instantly dying with his brains splattered everywhere.
Faced with this sudden turn of events, the crowd erupted in uproar. Some people knelt before the official, crying and shouting that Heaven was unjust and that they wanted to end the Qi-Song dynasty. Many others followed suit, kneeling and pleading for the official's injustice.
All of this was witnessed by Li Xiaonuan, who happened to be passing by the official's house. Even after the carriage turned the corner, Li Xiaonuan was still in shock. It was too horrible; not even a young child was spared. It was too cruel; the victim had to watch his loved ones die one by one.
Li Xiaonuan suddenly felt a chill run through her limbs, as if she could see the fate of Prince Jing after his defeat in the struggle. What way would they have left to survive then? They still dreamed of conquering a continent overseas, but she feared they wouldn't even be able to leave the land of Qisong alive.
No, no matter what, even if she has to go overseas to develop her career, she has to dig out this cancerous tumor that is the Empress's family. She can't sit idly by and wait for her doom; she has to rise up and fight back with Prince Jing and the others.
No, they have an ally: Brother Zhao. Brother Zhao said he'd come to take revenge. They also have many more allies, such as the officials who were framed and their relatives and clansmen.
From this perspective, the Empress's family was essentially digging their own grave. However, the Empress's power had grown considerably in recent years, even extending into court politics. For Prince Jing to legitimately confront and bring her down would be extremely difficult. Moreover, the Emperor was quite protective of the Empress.