“What do you think you’re doing?” Seeing that Feng Liao dared to use words to restrain Zhao Wuji at this moment, Han Daoxun trembled with rage all over his body and rebuked him sternly with a fierce expression.

“My lord, please forgive Feng Liao’s presumptuousness. After this, whether you kill me or cut me to pieces, Feng Liao will have absolutely no complaints. But at this moment, please humble yourself slightly, my lord!”

Though Feng Liao’s hands were bound, making movement very inconvenient, he still knelt down and kowtowed twice toward Han Daoxun, then ordered Zhao Wuji:

“Zhao Wuji, you lead men to detain the lord along with Zhao Kuo and Han Laoshan, kill Zhou Zhi, then prepare horses and carriages. We’ll leave the city at daybreak!”

“Who dares seize me?” Han Daoxun’s tiger eyes glared furiously as he stared at Zhao Wuji, rebuking sternly, “Do you wish to see the Jianghuai lands, for your selfish private interests, become strewn with corpses and flowing with blood?”

Seeing Zhao Wuji reveal a hesitant expression, Feng Liao knew his heart was struggling intensely within. At this critical moment, he couldn’t care about restraint. He stood up and refuted Han Daoxun:

“My lord, even if you enter the palace now, you cannot resolve this crisis. The Palace Domestic Service’s Junior Supervisor and Chongwen Hall Attendant Chen Xingmo is from Anning Palace. First of all, you may not even be able to get past Chen Xingmo, let alone how to secretly memorialize this matter for His Majesty to know! Moreover, if there’s the slightest disturbance around His Majesty, Anning Palace will certainly act desperately like cornered dogs. How could the situation possibly be delayed until Chuzhou troops cross the river? The crisis in Jinling already has no solution. My lord, preserving your useful life first is what’s most urgent!”

“Whether the crisis can be resolved or not is not for you to decide. His Majesty has experienced military campaigns his whole life and endured countless crises. As long as this matter can avoid Anning Palace’s surveillance and be secretly memorialized for His Majesty to know, His Majesty will have countermeasures. His Majesty has been guarding against Anning Palace for more than just a day or two these years. If we indulge your selfish desires and conceal this without reporting, and His Majesty dies suddenly, with the Great Chu court and provinces completely unprepared, then Jianghuai will inevitably become bloodstained for a thousand li, strewn with corpses!” Han Daoxun stared at Feng Liao solemnly. He would never be intimidated by Feng Liao’s sophistry.

“If my lord goes to the palace to report, Zhao Wuji, you immediately go to Shudu to notify the young master to withdraw directly to Xuzhou. Even if there’s the crime of deceiving the emperor, His Majesty and Prince Xin, considering my lord’s loyal service to the country, will absolutely not do anything to the young master!” Zhao Kuo stepped forward at this moment. First using words to try to stabilize Zhao Wuji, he then accused Feng Liao sternly, “Although the young master has committed the crime of deceiving the emperor, his self-preservation is secure. Feng Liao, you’re worried that your Feng family has no opportunity for restoration, aren’t you?”

“You’re slandering me with vicious lies.” Feng Liao hadn’t expected Zhao Kuo to be so sharp-tongued, directly throwing dirty water on him. Just as he was about to find more words to strengthen Zhao Wuji’s resolve and summon the guards, especially the hidden Xi clan youths who only obeyed Han Qian and Zhao Wuji’s orders, to come in and place Han Daoxun and the others under house arrest, Zhao Kuo suddenly struck—blade and scabbard together—using the hilt to ram toward the chest of Zhao Wuji, whose heart was caught in fierce internal struggle.

Caught completely off guard, how could Zhao Wuji have anticipated that Zhao Kuo would suddenly attack him?

He instinctively sensed Zhao Kuo’s blade hilt ramming horizontally toward him, swift as lightning, with the force of a thousand jun, almost collapsing his sternum.

His body suddenly jerked backward, but Zhao Kuo, having seized the initiative, was even faster. With another punch hammering into his chest, Zhao Wuji’s vision suddenly went black…

When Feng Liao had wanted to ensure Zhao Wuji could remain by Han Daoxun’s side to silence Zhou Zhi, he hadn’t informed Zhao Wuji. It was only when Feng Liao was detained and brought back that Zhao Wuji awakened and rushed over. He hadn’t even had time to put on armor. His physique wasn’t as robust as Kong Xirong’s, and he hadn’t imagined Zhao Kuo’s martial skills were so formidable. Taking these two solid hits directly, his reaction completely slowed down.

Zhao Kuo followed with a hand-chop to Zhao Wuji’s neck, completely knocking him unconscious.

Seeing this scene, Feng Liao’s heart turned ice-cold. Just as he was about to say something more, Zhao Kuo raised his hand like an iron clamp seizing, grasping his throat directly like thunder, preventing him from uttering half a word.

Then, from somewhere, Zhao Kuo produced a foul-smelling, tattered cloth and stuffed it directly into Feng Liao’s mouth, then bound his hands behind his back, making it impossible for him to speak another half-sentence.

Hearing the commotion inside the room, several guards waiting in the courtyard pushed open the door and entered, looking at the scene inside with shocked uncertainty.

Han Daoxun straightened his clothes slightly and said: “Feng Liao and Zhao Wuji have acted insubordinately against their superior. Han Laoshan, you confine them to the woodshed and watch over them. Wait until I return to deal with them. The rest of you either guard the residence or prepare horses and carriages. Remember not to show the slightest panic…”

With Zhao Wuji and Feng Liao both under control, without ringleaders, who among the remaining guards or even the Xi clan youths could or dare defy Han Daoxun’s authority?

Moreover, they had no idea what had actually happened. Thinking perhaps Zhao Wuji and Feng Liao really had committed some offense, and since they were only being confined for now, not killed, they all thought to wait until the young master returned from his mission to Shu before discussing anything else. Two men immediately helped Han Laoshan lift up Zhao Wuji and Feng Liao and drag them to the rear courtyard to confine them in the woodshed.

Han Laoshan had no favorable impression of the scheming, gloomy Feng family’s eldest young master who had always been high and mighty. In the woodshed, he especially took a hemp rope and bound Feng Liao to a pillar. As for Zhao Wuji, he had a particularly deep impression of him shooting and killing Fan Wucheng years ago. He also feared Zhao Wuji might act rashly and cause injury again, which would be difficult to explain to the young mistress and Old Man Zhao. Seeing him merely unconscious, he relaxed slightly and carefully bound him with rope as well.

Feng Liao was so anxious he nearly fainted, but at this moment there was nothing he could do. He thought perhaps the Third Prince was ultimately not destined for the throne, perhaps his Feng family was finally meant to sink into decline.

Although Feng Liao was strictly following Han Qian’s instructions in his letter, there was one point where he couldn’t deny Zhao Kuo’s “accusation”—that he had indeed placed all the Feng family’s hopes for restoration on the Third Prince ascending the throne!

Feng Liao’s heart was in turmoil. This man who thought so highly of himself was at this moment like a trapped beast.

Although a portion of the Dragonfinch Army’s elite forces were being arranged to return to Jinling, having three to five thousand elite troops transferred back to Jinling’s Taowu Military Command Headquarters in the name of rotation duty required a process. It couldn’t be like Zhao Wuji bringing fifty household troops and retainers, arriving by boat from Yueyang in six or seven days.

Could Han Daoxun successfully bypass Anning Palace’s surveillance and secretly memorialize the truth to Emperor Tianyou?

And how would Emperor Tianyou react? Would he possibly seize the last moments of his life, successfully evade Anning Palace’s scrutiny, deploy Chuzhou troops across the river, and deliver a fatal blow to Anning Palace and the Crown Prince’s faction?

And knowing that Han Qian and the Third Prince had concealed such critical information, how would Emperor Tianyou view Han Qian and the Third Prince?

Feng Liao’s vision went dark, as if in the darkest moment before this dawn, he could not clearly see in which direction Jinling’s situation might develop next.

Would the Liang army seize the opportunity to launch a massive southern invasion if Great Chu fell into internal strife that couldn’t be quickly quelled?

Following that, the Kingdom of Shu’s reaction would also become unpredictable.

If the Third Prince had no destiny with the throne, even his marriage alliance with Princess Qingyang might directly fall through, right?

After all, Shu Lord Wang Jian couldn’t possibly marry his daughter to someone who might be destined to be eliminated by Great Chu’s new emperor—unless Shu Lord Wang Jian believed Tanzhou’s foundation was solid!

Feng Liao’s thoughts were in complete disorder. Soon through the woodshed door he saw the light outside brighten. He heard the courtyard preparing horses and carriages, and the rumbling sound of carriage wheels as Han Daoxun, accompanied by Zhao Kuo and others, left Lanting Lane. Those wheel tracks seemed to roll over his very heart…

……

……

The north wind howled, heavy snow fell.

In Weishi County in the southern part of Liang Kingdom’s Biangjing, the suburban areas were all covered in silver.

A squad of black-clad cavalry appeared before a manor on the east side of Weishi County city when the swirling snow made it impossible to keep one’s eyes open.

At the rear of the cavalry formation, someone used large tree branches to sweep away the hoofprints. The remaining slight traces, under the combined action of wind and snow, were soon completely covered.

This cavalry squad of over two hundred men appeared in the Weishi County wilderness seventy to eighty li outside Biangjing city without alarming anyone.

The manor occupied a vast area but was quite ordinary. Inside, aside from a dozen or so brick and tile buildings, it consisted mainly of thatched houses. Surrounded only by hedgerows as walls, enclosing five to six hundred mu of land, it resembled an ordinary village outside Biangjing city. The manor’s wooden gate was also crooked and slanted, seeming ready to collapse with a single push.

When the cavalry squad appeared before the manor’s main gate, two men wearing cloaks to shield against wind and snow ran over from a nearby thatched hut, with sabers hanging at their waists protruding obliquely from under their cloaks. They opened the wooden gate and asked the leader: “Where is the master?”

Without waiting for the leader to answer, the black-clad cavalry parted to both sides, revealing Prince Yong Zhu Yu, who had been surrounded in the center.

Prince Yong Zhu Yu wore a black cloak, his broad face hidden within it. His expression was iron-gray, saying nothing as he passed through the wooden gate and walked into the manor.

Chen Kun signaled for the over two hundred cavalry to enter several thatched houses inside the wooden gate to conceal their presence. He followed closely behind Prince Yong Zhu Yu, walking toward the building complex composed of a dozen or so brick and tile structures to the north.

Though the dozen or so brick and tile buildings on the north side of the manor seemed small in scale, the security here was more strict. Through the windows, each building could be seen packed full of armored soldiers.

They didn’t come out, but seeing Prince Yong Zhu Yu pass by, they all merely gazed and saluted respectfully.

Chen Kun accompanied Prince Yong Zhu Yu to the front of a relatively tall building to the north. Over ten green-armored guards stood in the corridor, their faces stern as statues. Seeing Prince Yong Zhu Yu approach, they saluted: “We greet Your Highness.”

After a while, with a creaking sound, the tightly closed wooden door opened. From the dimly lit small hall emerged an old black-robed eunuch whose face was as wrinkled as tree bark. He signaled for the green-armored guards to withdraw, then walked up to Prince Yong Zhu Yu and said in a very low, raspy voice: “Consort Rong’s corpse is stopped inside…”

What?

Chen Kun felt as if struck by thunder. Consort Rong had passed away?

Seeing Prince Yong’s face contorting with ferocity from time to time these past ten-plus days, Chen Kun knew a life-threatening major event had occurred in Biangjing. But he could never have imagined it was Consort Rong’s death—the death of “Rong’er,” whom Prince Yong treated as his heart’s flesh and palm’s treasure!

But if Consort Rong had died, whether from illness, epidemic, or accident, why seal off the news without letting half a word leak out?

Why was Lei Jiuyuan, who hadn’t shown his face for nearly ten years and whom Prince Yong had invited into the prince’s mansion to take command three years ago, being so extremely cautious and careful?

Could it be that Consort Rong’s death concealed some world-shaking, shocking secret?

In the third Hibernating Tiger coded message sent into Mount Li over ten days ago, was the cause of Consort Rong’s death written?