Translator: Dj2203
Editor: Dj2203
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The summer heat was intense, and the electric fan hummed overhead. Su Xi and Lu Huan listened to the listening comprehension exercise together, each wearing a white headphone cord that disappeared around their necks. The cicadas outside were incessantly noisy, but the students studying in the classroom were unusually quiet. The two of them were also very quiet, only occasionally raising their hands to check their answer choices. After the listening comprehension exercise, Lu Huan continued working on the practice questions, and Su Xi helped him save time by correcting his listening comprehension questions as well.
After grading, Su Xi said in a low voice with some surprise, “You only got one wrong this time.”
“Is there a reward?” Lu Huan asked quietly.
He leaned his head closer and whispered something, and Su Xi blushed slightly. She urged him, “Hurry up and continue writing your test paper. Call me after you finish this one, and I’ll help you check the answers.”
Lu Huan smiled and nodded.
After a while, Su Xi peeled two candies and handed one to him. It was refreshing and could invigorate him, like a cool breeze amidst the noisy cicadas in the summer.
That night, when Lu Huan went to the Taishan Imperial Palace, he received another message from the Minister of War.
As Lu Huan had predicted, the Second Prince began to make his move.
One day ago, the Vermilion Bird Gate was suddenly sealed off.
Previously, news had circulated from the palace that the Emperor had collapsed in the Imperial Garden, whether from heatstroke or from the stroke symptoms diagnosed by the imperial physicians some time ago. For the past six months, the Emperor had been preoccupied with the Crown Prince’s affairs, and his health had been poor. A few days ago, several high-ranking officials urged the Emperor to quickly establish a new Crown Prince to assist in overseeing the country, but the Emperor had yet to make a decision. The following day, the Emperor issued an imperial edict summoning the Ninth Prince, Yan Qing, who had been guarding the imperial mausoleum for a year, back to the palace.
This imperial edict, however, failed to leave the capital.
Fortunately, the Emperor had anticipated this and drafted two imperial edicts. One was to be sent out of the capital on horseback, and the other was to be handed over to the eunuch beside him. Three days later, the edict was to be delivered to the Minister of War after he left the palace.
After that, the Vermilion Bird Gate was sealed off and heavily guarded by the Imperial Guards, who claimed that they were investigating the missing imperial edict and the person who poisoned the emperor, and that no officials were allowed to enter.
Many officials in the capital protested, but most of their families had not returned after attending the banquet at the palace during the Qingzhou Festival, so the officials dared not take any rash action. The leader of the Imperial Guards, who had somehow become the Second Prince’s man, had been patrolling the Vermilion Bird Gate in twelve-hour shifts for the past few days, with anyone trespassing facing death.
The Fifth Prince clearly did not expect the Second Prince to be so audacious, and he launched an uprising without warning. The Fifth Prince led his troops to confront him, but the Second Prince pushed the Fifth Prince’s mother onto the city gate.
This was the enormous change that had taken place in the capital in just a few days.
The Minister of War and others had taken precautions in advance by sending their families out of the capital. At this point, they were not yet hindered, but many of their colleagues were under the control of the Imperial Guard. Someone had to go to the northern border to lead troops to rescue the emperor.
However, by this time the situation was serious; the entire capital city had been sealed off, and not even a fly could get out.
….
That very night, upon receiving the letter, Lu Huan arranged for the Imperial Guards who had accompanied him to the Taishan Palace to take some measures. Most of them remained at Taishan, while only Lu Huan and his six companions donned black cloaks, mounted their horses lightly, and split into three groups, secretly and swiftly heading towards the Yan Kingdom’s garrison in the north.
However, they were attacked on the way, with a bloody scale of assassination attempts.
This assassination attempt was entirely within Lu Huan’s expectations. The Second Prince in the capital had likely already given orders that no one who came down from Taishan should be left alive. Before these people came down the mountain with him, Lu Huan had already instructed them that if anything happened, they should not fight to the death to protect him, nor should they go to the northern border. Instead, they should simply take off their Imperial Guard uniforms, blend into the civilian population, and escape the calamity.
The assassination was successful, of course.
Three days later, a corpse floated on the Caohe River, bloated and unrecognizable. The Ninth Prince’s jade pendant was found in his arms. When the news was reported to the capital, the entire city believed that the Ninth Prince was dead, and the whole country mourned.
But it was actually the body of a death row inmate whose physique resembled Lu Huan’s. Half a year ago, when Lu Huan was making preparations, he had someone find it and send it to the Taishan Palace, promising to settle the death row inmate’s family.
The second prince in the capital was unaware of this; he only knew that after eliminating the greatest threat, the throne was finally within his grasp.
The Fifth Prince’s mother was held hostage and he had no choice but to back down.
Immediately afterwards, an imperial edict was issued in the capital, in which the emperor claimed that he was getting old and that the second prince was kind and benevolent and could bring blessings to the Yan Kingdom, and that he would abdicate the throne to him on a chosen day.
Previously, the lockdown of the capital and the palace was conducted in secret, and the Second Prince could have easily distanced himself from the matter. However, with this edict, his wolfish ambition to seize the throne had become blatantly obvious. At the time of the assassination, the person on horseback was indeed Lu Huan, and he was also the one who feigned injury and rolled into the river. However, from there he went directly back to his apartment in Su Xi. The person the Second Prince then pulled from the river was the death row inmate.
Only after the Second Prince issued this edict could Lu Huan legitimately lead his troops back to the capital under the pretext of protecting the emperor.
Three days after the imperial edict was issued, amidst the widespread discussion in the capital, the situation suddenly changed. Outside the city appeared a massive army returning from the northern border, a vast and imposing force.
The Ninth Prince did not die either.
If the Ninth Prince was not dead, why did the Second Prince, who was in charge of the country, say that he was dead? The Ninth Prince clearly had the imperial edict summoning him back in the Emperor’s own handwriting, so why did the Second Prince say that he returned to the capital without an edict before the body was found?
The only conclusion reached was that the second prince harbored wolfish ambitions and had kidnapped the emperor in the palace.
Lu Huan’s army’s advance became legitimate, even becoming a celebrated feat in the eyes of the people and in historical records. Under the army’s might, the Imperial Guards in the palace offered no resistance. The Fifth Prince, even for the sake of his mother in the palace, proactively opened the city gates, allowing the army to enter. On the fifth day of the fifth month of the Gengzi year, the court was in turmoil, and the Second Prince was imprisoned.
The people of Yan were drawn to the Ninth Prince Yan Qing, who had led a large army to save the country.
Becoming emperor was easy: just kill the person on the throne and usurp the throne. But what’s difficult is winning the hearts of the people and holding onto the throne for decades.
The first person to want to be emperor was one who plotted rebellion and usurped the throne. Rebellion was never legitimate, and sooner or later someone else would rebel.
The second person who drove the first person off was none other than the Protector of the Nation.
The emperor was indeed old and awaiting an opportunity to abdicate, but the second prince couldn’t contain himself and acted prematurely. The second prince had no choice but to act; even if the emperor didn’t pass the throne to Lu Huan, there was the fifth prince, who was more capable than him, so he had no chance.
Lu Huan waited for half a year, but when his second brother, whom he had only met by chance, finally made his move, he had no choice but to go with the flow and use him as a stepping stone. In just a few days, the turmoil caused the panicked people of Yan to support the Ninth Prince’s ascension to the throne like never before.
On the sixth day of the fifth month of the Gengzi year of Yan Shuo, the Emperor Emeritus formally issued an imperial edict. By the grace of Heaven, the Emperor decrees: The Yan Shuo era name will continue. The Ninth Prince is exceptionally intelligent and blessed by Heaven; therefore, I hereby abdicate in his favor, enthroning him as Emperor. I hope he will be a wise ruler, bringing peace and prosperity to the people of Yan. May all rejoice, and taxes will be reduced for three years.
The sixth day of the fifth month of the Gengzi year in Yan State corresponded to the sixth day of the sixth month in Su Xi’s world.
Lu Huan led his guards into the Daming Palace. The coronation ceremony would be held on an auspicious day within three months, and everything was finally settled.
There were many things that urgently needed to be dealt with. For example, the Imperial Wardrobe needed to take measurements and rush to make new dragon robes. Civil and military officials were waiting to be rewarded for their merits and promoted. The people were waiting for an explanation for the rebellion of the second prince and his accomplices. The old emperor, who had suffered a stroke, was about to move to a temporary palace.
With everything in ruins and needing to be rebuilt, after discussing matters in the Golden Palace, Lu Huan first ordered a three-day amnesty for the Yan Kingdom, after which the court would resume.
The capital was bustling with activity for the past three days. People only knew that a wise ruler had been welcomed who was willing to reduce taxes, but they did not know that the very next day, this wise ruler would rush to the college entrance examination hall with his schoolbag.
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