Entering the second month of the year, the Jiangnan region more or less had an atmosphere of flourishing spring growth, but within Bian Capital the spring chill remained piercing, grass blades stayed yellowed, and as cold winds swept through, withered leaves that had survived the harsh winter still fell from the treetops, making everything appear even more desolate.

Over a thousand black-armored warriors formed battle arrays at both ends of the passage on the eastern side of Qiuyang Palace. Together with the thick high walls nearly two zhang tall, they resembled a despairing iron prison, trapping several hundred eunuchs and palace maids within.

The night was cold and clear. From the leaden night sky came the screech of an old owl, causing the hearts of the several hundred eunuchs and palace maids to instinctively fill with penetrating coldness, making them tremble involuntarily.

The armored soldiers on both sides had their faces concealed beneath face guards, with only their cold, emotionless eyes visible. Their halberds and spears pointed obliquely toward the sky, and under the reflection of the crackling, burning torches, they emitted cold, sharp glints while also revealing a killing intent extremely hungry for blood and flesh.

Within the thick palace walls, tall burning dragon candles illuminated the great hall as bright as day.

Chen Kun wore a plain-colored robe over his armor to ward off the night chill. He stood before the hall’s corridor, gazing at the spacious plaza before the hall.

Meanwhile, Lei Jiuyuan, who had grown increasingly aged in recent years with an old face like tree bark, stood silently within the great hall as if drowsy. The Dragon Throne sat high above, currently empty of any occupant. From the west side hall came the sounds of faint but violent struggling, yet this seemed unable to arouse even the slightest interest in him.

Beyond the heavy brocade curtains, not a single palace eunuch attended in the west side hall. Prince Yong, holding a massive bow, had a face that under the reflection of the giant candles appeared so sinister, fierce, and twisted.

The Emperor of Liang’s neck was strangled and twisted backward by the deer tendon bowstring. The divine strength from his early years that could pull a galloping horse had long since completely drained from his aged body. His feet twitched and struggled futilely. His clouded tiger eyes stared wide, trying desperately to turn his head to glimpse his second son who was personally sending him to the western heaven—his second son who would commit regicide and patricide for a woman he could obtain with a mere wave of his hand, to see what sort of ferocity he displayed at this moment. But until the very moment he completely expired, Prince Yong remained like hard, cold bedrock standing behind him, with only his shadow pressing down on his head like a mountain.

After the commotion in the west side hall ceased, Lei Jiuyuan waited for quite some time without seeing Prince Yong emerge. Only then did he slightly adjust his robes and stride into the west side hall to see that the Emperor of Liang had long since stopped breathing, his neck nearly severed by the massive bow. Yet Prince Yong still gripped the massive bow with his entire body tensed, as if the slightest loosening would cause the dead to revive and rise up to devour everything.

“Your Majesty, the Great Emperor has passed away!” Lei Jiuyuan reminded in a hoarse voice.

Only at this moment did Zhu Yu suddenly come to his senses. He threw down the massive bow in his hands and collapsed to the ground as if drowning, then as if awakening from a nightmare, gasped violently, feeling something deep within his heart being devoured bit by bit.

Lei Jiuyuan picked up this carved feather bow that had accompanied the Emperor of Liang for half his life and had shot countless powerful enemies on the battlefield. He rehung it on the dragon-beast carved pillar, glanced at it a few times, and slightly adjusted its angle so that the carved feather bow appeared as if it had never left the pillar.

“The eunuchs and palace maids of Qiuyang Palace have all been brought to the passage on the east side. How does Your Majesty wish to deal with them?” Lei Jiuyuan asked.

Zhu Yu rose from the ground and sat on the footstool before the Dragon Couch. His gloomy face twitched and contorted, then he straightened his spine. A cold gleam flashed in his eyes as they gazed toward the deep night outside the hall. He waved his hand fiercely and said: “Allow them to be buried with him!”

“This subject receives the decree!” Lei Jiuyuan bowed deeply and walked out of the west side hall.

Lei Jiuyuan returned to the great hall and said to Chen Kun, who stood guard before the corridor:

“The Great Emperor has passed away—the entire nation mourns! The eunuchs and palace maids of Qiuyang Palace, overcome with grief, wish to be buried with the Great Emperor. His Majesty permits it!”

Chen Kun suppressed the impulse to crane his neck toward the west side hall and directly walked down the long corridor before the hall, crossed the plaza, and signaled to the guards at the palace gate to push open the heavy doors. To the colonel waiting outside for orders, he said: “The Great Emperor has passed away. The entire nation mourns. His Majesty permits the eunuchs and palace maids of Qiuyang Palace to be buried with him!”

The colonel bowed and received the order, drew the sword at his waist, thrust it obliquely toward the night sky, and transmitted the command: “Archers step forward, shoot arrows!”

Several hundred armored archers walked behind the arrayed armored soldiers at both ends of the passage, drew their longbows to point obliquely at the night sky, and shot volley after volley of sharp, merciless iron-feathered arrows into the passage flanked by two palace walls, shooting toward those defenseless eunuchs and palace maids.

The muffled sounds of sharp arrows entering bodies were so clear in the night, while the miserable wails of several hundred people hung like gloomy rain clouds over the Great Liang Imperial Palace in the piercing spring cold.

Tens of thousands of sharp arrows were shot. After waiting for the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, the wailing and groaning gradually ceased. Then over a hundred armored soldiers divided into several teams entered the passage to find those eunuchs and palace maids who were wounded but not dead or hiding beneath corpses, ensuring that every person from Qiuyang Palace was buried this night. Then they used dozens of carts to transport the corpses out of the Imperial City, first sending them to the nearly completed Yu Mountain Imperial Mausoleum.

More than ten water carts stopped on both sides of the passage. Low-ranking eunuchs transferred from other palace departments carried water buckets to wash away the bloodstains.

By the time the southern gate of the palace city opened at dawn, the passage on the eastern side of Qiuyang Palace was clean as new, as if nothing had happened the previous night, as if all the ugly affairs that had occurred in Qiuyang Palace had also been completely washed away.

At this time, more than ten palace envoys left the palace carrying decrees to report to the imperial clan and ministers about the matter of the Great Liang Great Emperor, who had abdicated only twenty days ago, suddenly dying of illness the previous night.

The Great Emperor’s testament called for simplicity in all matters. He did not summon princes, dukes, ministers, or civil and military officials to view the Great Emperor’s remains, but proceeded directly with the grand funeral rites, placing him in a great coffin and moving it to Qianyang Palace for the lying-in-state.

The new Emperor ordered that imperial clansmen, marquises, imperial princes and grandsons, princesses and consorts should each return home for purification, while ministers from the Six Ministries, Nine Courts and other government offices should collectively lodge at their administrative offices for purification, forbidden from returning home.

Officials without formal posts were to gather at Wuchao Gate for purification. Civil and military officials were prohibited from music-making, forbidden from mourning ceremonies and marriages. All military personnel and commoners had to remove cap tassels, wear plain white garments, and were prohibited from slaughtering animals or offering prayers.

Besides the six hundred seventy-two palace attendants of Qiuyang Palace buried with the emperor, the new Emperor specially permitted seventeen great eunuchs of the Palace Attendants Office including the Director, Vice Director, and Internal Regular Attendants to commit suicide and be buried alongside, to serve the High Ancestor forever at his side…

* * *

Everything occurring within the Great Liang Imperial City seemed as distant as affairs of another country to the ordinary soldiers guarding beneath the southern city gate of Bian Capital.

No one knew why Prince Yong had suddenly led troops to the capital with such urgency to force His Majesty to abdicate, nor did anyone know how the Great Emperor, who had abdicated only twenty days ago, suddenly died of illness in Qiuyang Palace.

Even regarding how many of those palace attendants and eunuchs buried with the emperor truly wished to follow the Great Emperor to the underworld to serve him forever at his side, the ordinary soldiers beneath the southern city gate found it difficult to discern.

Approaching noon, they heard that high court ministers and important generals such as the Minister of Personnel, the Director of the Imperial Clan Court, the Right Divine Martial General, and Duke of Song, as well as several consorts including Dowager Consort Zhou and Dowager Consort Yang who had accompanied the Great Emperor in his later years, had all submitted memorials to the new Emperor requesting to be buried at Yu Mountain Imperial Mausoleum to serve the Great Emperor forever at his side.

“How truly strange. Old Gou, tell me—people living perfectly well, why are they all seeking death, wanting to follow the Great Emperor?” A sharp-faced, monkey-cheeked soldier leaning crookedly against the city wall roots with a white wax wood spear explored this question with the junior officer leading their duty today.

The junior officer was somewhat older, about thirty-five or thirty-six years old. He didn’t respond to the monkey-cheeked soldier’s words. Hearing approaching hoofbeats, he looked into the distance to see several horses galloping swiftly forward, raising billowing dust that the cold wind swept up, making everything appear gray and hazy.

The several riders all wore black armor. The leader had short hair about an inch long, and beneath his black armor wore a Buddhist monk’s robe—a strange, odd appearance.

Seeing them gallop right up to the city gate before suddenly reining in their horses, with the horses’ nostrils snorting hot breath that nearly sprayed onto the southern gate junior officer’s face.

“Dismount, dismount!” The gate-guarding junior officer was in no good mood either. He pressed his hand on his sword hilt and shouted loudly.

Seeing the gate soldiers surround them to block their way and order them to submit to questioning, the leader finally pulled out a bronze tally from his robes inscribed with the two characters “Chengtian.” The city gate junior officer’s expression changed slightly. He quickly signaled the soldiers behind him to clear a passage, allowing the arrivals to enter the city at the fastest speed.

“Who are they, charging about so recklessly?” The sharp-mouthed soldier stared as the several riders galloped into the city. Not only did they not slow down, but they whipped their horses faster, charging recklessly along the imperial avenue, muttering in displeasure.

“These lords are all from the Chengtian Bureau—not people we can afford to provoke.” The junior officer glared at that loose-tongued soldier, ordering him not to speak nonsense.

The other soldiers were all startled. Looking again at those several fast horses, their eyes held more or less some reverence.

After the new Emperor ascended the throne, court ministers temporarily remained in their positions, each secure in their duties. The Black Armor Command only took over defense of the Imperial City and Dongyang Gate and Zhengyang Gate. But the most crucial decree was the order establishing the Chengtian Bureau Commandery Office, with Marquis of Xiangcheng Jing Zhen commanding it. Besides controlling the direct imperial guard, it was specially ordered that outside the Court of Judicial Review, Censorate, and Ministry of Justice, the Chengtian Bureau would exclusively handle imperial prison affairs, and was also permitted to have the authority to patrol, apprehend, investigate, and gather military intelligence.

In other words, henceforth any criminals that the new Emperor decreed to be apprehended would be dealt with by the Chengtian Bureau, which also reported directly to the new Emperor.

“That leader—he’s the Chengtian Bureau’s chief investigator, the one nicknamed ‘Monk’ Shen Peng, right?” Some soldiers who were well-informed exchanged information.

“They seem to be returning from Xu Province’s direction,” the sharp-mouthed soldier still couldn’t remain quiet. Watching the Chengtian Bureau scouts head directly toward the Imperial City, he held the white wax wood shaft of his fine iron spear with both hands tucked into his sleeves, moved close to the junior officer, and said, “Old Gou, I hear the south of our Great Liang has already descended into complete chaos?”

“Must I sew that stinking mouth of yours shut before you learn to close it?” the junior officer rebuked in displeasure.

Han Yuanqi had killed his uncle Han Jian, wanting to seize Cai Province. Prince Bo Zhu Gui and Vice Privy Councilor Feng Tingge received orders to lead eighty thousand Imperial Guards south. At that time, Bian Capital had fewer than twenty thousand defenders remaining.

Zhu Yu led the Black Armor Command elite cavalry traveling day and night to arrive beneath Bian Capital. Marquis of Xiangcheng Jing Zhen ledMansion guards and over eight hundred Chengtian Bureau secret troops in an elite assault on Xianjin Bridge, opening a passage from within the city for the Black Armor Command elite cavalry to enter.

At that time, the vast majority of court ministers and even the defenders still hadn’t figured out what was happening.

Although a portion of the defenders received orders to resist, they were swiftly and mercilessly crushed by the Black Armor cavalry elite.

Quite many defenders, awed by Zhu Yu’s illustrious military achievements and simultaneously dissatisfied with His Majesty’s tyrannical temperament and execution of loyal subjects after Empress Zhang’s death, chose to submit to the new Emperor.

The soldiers on duty at the southern city gate were former Imperial Guard soldiers who had submitted to the new Emperor.

Defending the most important southern gate in and out of Bian Capital, what they saw with their eyes and heard with their ears was more abundant and timely news than even ordinary minor officials in the city. They also clearly understood that although the new Emperor had occupied Bian Capital and ascended the throne, this didn’t mean the imperial throne was already secure.

On one hand, Prince Bo Zhu Gui, upon learning of the new Emperor’s surprise attack on Bian Liang while he and Vice Privy Councilor Feng Tingge were leading eighty thousand Imperial Guards en route to attack Cai Province, immediately abandoned the established objective and led the eighty thousand elite forces east to occupy Chen Province. By now he had already circulated proclamations throughout the realm denouncing the new Emperor for imprisoning his father and usurping the throne.

Besides Prince Bo Zhu Gui and Feng Tingge, and besides Han Yuanqi of Cai Province, Great Liang still had four great Military Commissioners each occupying one region. They were all still observing the situation, not rushing to acknowledge the new Emperor. Nor could it be ruled out that some among them harbored greater ambitions, stirring restlessly and choosing to establish themselves independently.

Never mind the three powerful enemy nations of Chu, Shu, and Jin—Great Liang’s internal affairs alone were already in complete turmoil. The new Emperor had fewer than forty thousand troops in Bian Capital. Whether he could withstand Prince Bo Zhu Gui’s counterattack remained uncertain.

All this before his eyes caused the gate-guarding junior officer, who understood the situation somewhat, to have his heart shrouded by the shadow of an approaching great calamity!