In the Imperial City of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, within the study room of the palace.
It was obviously nightfall, and the lanterns hanging in the palace had already been lit up, swinging like stars in the sky. But inside the study, it was pitch black, silent and without a sound.
The guards responsible for guarding the safety of the Eighth Prince stood outside the study, not daring to take a breath for fear that making any noise would trigger a violent storm.
When the servants passed by nearby, they would deliberately stay away from it, and some would even take a detour.
After the prince came back today, he became furious and filled with murderous intent. He only saw a maid chatting and laughing with his servants on the roadside, and he ordered their heads to be chopped off.
At this moment, the two bloody heads were still hanging on one of the eaves of the palace. The blood dripped down along the wounds, forming a pool of blood on the ground. The servants in the palace were so horrified that they no longer dared to joke and even walked cautiously.
.
Tonight, the palace seemed to be shrouded in dark clouds, the atmosphere was depressing, and everyone was in danger.
Probably only Mu Zichen, who was the emperor's uncle, dared to open the study door with a carefree attitude and barged in under the admiring looks of the guards.
The door was closed, and soon the lights came on in the study. But the guards tensed their nerves, fearing that the prince would order them to arrest the emperor's uncle in the next second, and cold sweat broke out on their foreheads unknowingly.
In the study, after lighting the candle without asking, Mu Zichen pretended to be relaxed and said: "I said why are you so serious? The servants in the house are all frightened by you."
Walking around the screen embroidered with mountains and rivers, Mu Zichen paused, eyes widened, and looked at the Eighth Prince sitting behind the desk in horror, almost unable to believe his eyes.
I saw that the dashing and elegant Eighth Prince of the past now had white hair, dull skin, and even traces of crow's feet at the corners of his eyes. At first glance, he looked like an old man in his fifties.
However, between his brows, there was a thick evil aura. After hearing the movement, he raised his eyes slightly. The terrifying murderous intention that overflowed at this moment actually shocked Mu Zichen, a super master, to the point where his heart beat violently.
, opened his mouth and was speechless.
"You, you..." After calming down for a while, Mu Zichen wanted to comfort him, but found that he didn't know how to comfort him. After thinking for a long time, he said: "Zhang Jiaquan is dead, and all parties will definitely fight for Zhang Jiaquan's territory.
If we fight to the death, our goal will be achieved, and you really don't need to do this."
The Eighth Prince stared intently into Mu Zichen's eyes. After looking at each other for a long time, Mu Zichen subconsciously moved away and looked back again. He found that the Eighth Prince laughed, but the smile only gave people a creepy feeling: "Yes,
The purpose was achieved.”
Mu Zichen took a step back and felt a little more comfortable. He spread his hands and said, "My nephew, can you please stop being so weird? Also, you are so good, why did you kill the servants in the mansion?"
The Eighth Prince: "When the country is in crisis, they are still in the mood to have fun. Such people are not traitors. They will become traitors in the future. Shouldn't they be killed?"
Mu Zichen was stunned when he heard this and said angrily: "You are exaggerating, aren't you? There are so many noble disciples in the imperial city who are still drinking and singing every night, why don't you kill them all?"
Unexpectedly, the Eighth Prince actually nodded: "Who said that I will not kill? I have ordered the Jin Yuwei to dispatch, arrest relevant people everywhere, and send them to the sky prison according to their crimes. If there are any arrests, they will be killed regardless of their identity or origin.
No mercy!"
Hearing this, Mu Zichen, who did not understand government affairs, was shocked and said: "Are you crazy? If you do this, you will offend all the nobles in the court. These are troubled times, and you still think the court is not chaotic enough.
?"
The Eighth Prince sneered: "Chaos? How much chaos can there be? With me here in charge, whoever dares to stretch out his hand will have his limbs chopped off. Whoever dares to stretch out his head, his head will be chopped off. In troubled times, heavy punishments are needed! This incident has given me a
Lesson learned, it is better to kill more people beforehand than to be betrayed when the incident occurs."
Although he lacked foresight, Mu Zichen was not stupid and quickly thought of the crux: "Is it because of Yuan Chen and Zhang Dingkang?"
As soon as these words came out, the murderous intention on the Eighth Prince's face almost overflowed, and the temperature in the study suddenly dropped sharply.
No one can understand the shame, anger and resentment in the heart of the Eighth Prince. Now that the Eastern Zhou Dynasty is in chaos, the situation of the court is not good to begin with. Yuan Chen and Zhang Dingkang are the few royalist generals left outside.
He carefully planned everything to push the Zhang family to a dead end. In addition to sitting on the mountain and watching the tigers fight, trying to consume the strength of all parties, he also wanted to give credit to Yuan Chen and Zhang Dingkang.
As long as the two of them guard the two cities and resist for a while before all parties take action, the morale of the imperial court will be greatly boosted. By then, I will promote the two of them and publicize them, which will undoubtedly increase the imperial court's prestige and centripetal force. In this situation where it is besieged on all sides
It is of great significance to change the situation of the imperial court!
But Yuan Chen and Zhang Dingkang, two loyal ministers he had never doubted, ruined everything with their own hands, causing all his painstaking plans to go to waste.
The betrayal of the two was more like a slap in the face in front of everyone in the world, causing the prestige of the entire court to be severely damaged again. Under the current situation, it is just adding insult to injury!
Let me ask, how could the eighth prince not be angry and hateful? When he heard the news, he wished he could bite off every piece of flesh and blood on Yuan Chen and Zhang Dingkang with his own hands!
Mu Zichen tried his best to persuade: "The mistake was made by Yuan Chen and Zhang Dingkang, so why do you need to vent your anger on others? No, I must stop this, and I can't let you commit murder in vain."
Just as he was about to turn around, a loud shout came from behind: "Stop!"
boom!
The Eighth Prince slapped the table and stood up, staring mercilessly at Mu Zichen who turned around, and said coldly: "Who is the one who calls the shots?"
Mu Zichen: "If you do this, it will only make the court more dangerous!"
The Eighth Prince: "Idiot, what do you know! The two thieves Yuan Chen and Zhang Dingkang betrayed, and the people in the court were uneasy. I used the excuse of searching for the remnants of the two thieves to imprison the direct descendants of the great nobles. It is logical. Who dares to say otherwise?
On the one hand, it can indeed investigate the identities of those people, and on the other hand, it can also suppress the restless hearts of those nobles. I don’t believe it, this world is full of ruthless people like two thieves, even their own family members are involved in order to rebel.
You don’t even care about your wife or children!”
Mu Zichen was left speechless. Only then did he realize that his nephew was not impulsive, but had other plans. His thoughts were much deeper than his own.
After rolling his throat a few times, he suddenly asked: "What happened to Yuan Chen and Zhang Dingkang's wife and children?"
The Eighth Prince laughed, with a heart-stopping cruelty in his smile: "Since ancient times, the crime of rebellion has never been tolerated by nature. A thousand swords are not enough to scare Xiao Xiao! When the two thieves choose to betray, they should know the consequences! The emperor's uncle
, there is no need to persuade the king, I am the one who makes the decision here, and don’t try to stop it, because the execution has already begun."
Mu Zichen's body shook a few times: "You can't kill someone without a nod, so why bother? Why bother..."
The current situation in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty can only be described as chaos upon chaos.
After hundreds of thousands of Zhang Jiaquan's tribesmen fled into the South China Sea, the military governors from all sides were furious. Later, they heard that Zhang Jiaquan had been beheaded long ago and were confirmed by their own intelligence members. Many military commanders looked up to the sky and laughed.
Some people scorned him and shouted loudly, but in their hearts they were jealous of the strength of the Dongfang family and regretted that they did not get the kill.
Seeing that there was no hope of killing, all parties had no choice but to give up the idea and began to compete for the territory left by Zhang Jiaquan.
Of course, the leaders of this group of rebels were all human beings. No one wanted to take action at first, but chose to negotiate a solution. However, this was destined to be a protracted process.
As a result, all parties simply distributed their troops on the way south. On one side, they exchanged news with their own families and were always on guard against the imperial court's sneak attacks. On the other side, they started a fierce argument, and everyone wanted to get the most and the best territory.
This was only an action on the surface. In private, all parties had not given up on tracking Zhang Jiaquan's hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses. If there was a chance, who wouldn't want to get those elite soldiers and generals?
In addition to the major forces in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, the four major dynasties are also covetous. There are also holy land-level forces such as the Moko Sect, the Nangong Family, and the Dahuan Mountain, all of which have sent heavyweights to the Nanhai forces controlled by them to sit in and ask the latter to send
Manpower was used to search for traces of soldiers and horses.
Because of this incident, countless disputes arose in the originally peaceful South China Sea.
The large and small forces are calm on the surface, but secretly they are scolding each other. Unfortunately, they have no choice, let alone disobey the orders of the dynasty and the Holy Land, so they can only obey orders.
Just when the whole world was trying their best to find Zhang Jiaquan's followers, no one knew that Zhang Jiaquan, who was believed to have died without a complete body, actually appeared in a small mountain village.
His whole body's skills were blocked, and even his movement was somewhat inconvenient. Under the surveillance of two people on the left and right, he walked into a small fenced courtyard with a calm expression.
In the small courtyard, a man in cloth was watering the flowers. His back was as tall as a jade tree facing the wind. Even though he heard the footsteps, he was minding his own business and never looked back.
The two warriors who were monitoring Zhang Jiaquan bowed respectfully to the man in civilian clothes and then left the small courtyard.
Zhang Jiaquan waited patiently for a long time. After the man in cloth had finished watering all the flowers, he finally put down the wooden watering can, turned around and smiled faintly at Zhang Jiaquan: "Master Zhang, I haven't seen you for many years, how are you doing?"
Looking at the overly young face opposite, Zhang Jiaquan's face turned green and white, and the anger of being humiliated flashed in his eyes, but in the end, all the anger was suppressed by him, and he calmly said: "Zhuo Mufeng, you put it down.
Did Zhang come here just to humiliate Zhang? This is not the measure that someone who does great things should have."
Once upon a time, the person on the other side had to salute respectfully when they saw him, and whether he should respond or not all depended on his mood. But in just a few years, everything turned upside down, and he became a prisoner, while the other person became the master.
This earth-shaking change is really hard for Zhang Jiaquan to accept.
On the way to being escorted, he actually knew who wanted to see him, so when he saw Zhuo Mufeng's back just now, he had already recognized him.