Hong Qiao understood that the Jin Kingdom had reached the edge of life and death, and Prince Liang was planning to make a final desperate struggle.
They had originally all been servants of the Second Prince’s mansion and were later rescued by Prince Liang. Prince Liang had spent his entire life working for Consort Tong and the Second Prince – as servants, what reason did they have to retreat?
Hong Mei nodded: “Yes!”
“Release Fan Yuhuai and all those military generals who follow me, and have him accompany me to rescue Father Emperor!”
“What about Li Mao and those other ministers?” Hong Mei asked again.
“Useless things – what use would rescuing them be? Let them fend for themselves!” Prince Liang straightened his sleeves and stepped out of the prison cell.
Luohong City was in complete chaos, with screams everywhere and flames shooting up to the sky…
Some dared to break into the prison to rescue Prince Liang, while others dared to take advantage of the chaos to rescue their children.
The common people whose children had been forcibly conscripted by the Crown Prince on behalf of the Emperor saw that Luohong City was already in turmoil. Thinking of their children still imprisoned like livestock in the government office, how could their hearts not be anxious?
Those men who feared no death for the sake of their children… took advantage of the chaos to go door to door, calling upon the able-bodied men from families whose children had been taken away. They gathered more than twenty men, each bringing whatever makeshift weapons they could find, charging toward the government office to rescue their flesh and blood.
All the soldiers in the government office had been transferred to defend the city gates, leaving only six men to guard the children locked in cages within the office.
The leader among the common people, fearing that a desperate fight might harm the children, saw the towering flames in the distance and had a sudden inspiration. He led three men around to the rear of the government office and set fire to the back residence.
The great fire drew away the guards watching the children. The common people broke down the doors and used hammers to smash open the cages locked with iron chains, protecting the children as they fled outward…
Who would have known that before they could exit the government office, they saw ten armed soldiers charging into the office. Those twenty-odd men quickly shielded the crying children behind them – some raising their family sickles, others their hoes, each with a determination to die, presenting a fierce stance ready for desperate combat.
“Father! I’m scared!” A little girl hugged a man’s leg, looking at the soldiers at the entrance with tear-filled eyes, crying out.
Before entering the city, Bai Qingyan had given orders for the hundred soldiers to divide into ten men after entering the city to go to the government office to rescue the children imprisoned there, ensuring the children’s safety above all.
They had not expected that just as they broke open the city gates and came to the government office to rescue these children, they would find that the children’s fathers had already beaten them to it…
The squad leader of the Great Zhou soldiers sheathed his sword and cupped his hands toward these men: “I am a soldier under Madam Qin, Bai Jinxiu. By order of the Great Zhou Female Emperor, I have come to rescue the children forcibly detained in the government office. Since you have already preceded us, quickly take the children home. The city is in great chaos… do not venture out for now! The Female Emperor has decreed… not a single common person shall be harmed! When the great battle subsides, you will surely be notified!”
After the squad leader finished speaking, he did not linger, leading his soldiers to turn and leave, returning to rejoin the battlefield.
“Great Zhou Female Emperor?” The common people of Luohong City were somewhat bewildered.
“I know Madam Qin, Bai Jinxiu – she’s Princess Zhenguo’s younger sister!”
“I heard that when Princess Zhenguo was leading troops to reinforce the capital city, she rescued forcibly conscripted children along the way and had already rebelled! Could it be… Princess Zhenguo is going to ascend the throne as Female Emperor!”
“Now is not the time to discuss this. First, quickly send all the children back! Listen to what that soldier said… hide at home and don’t come out!” said the man who had led the rescue of the children. “Let’s go quickly!”
The men took the children by the hand, hiding in the dark shadows of walls, running home at top speed.
Inside Luohong Tower, the Emperor was like a trapped beast. He stared intently at Bai Qingyan but did not push away Gao Demao, who was protecting him.
The Emperor knew full well in his heart that he was no match for Bai Qingyan, and there was no one outside he could command. Moreover, at this moment… Bai Jinxiu had also led troops into the city – the Jin Kingdom’s great situation was lost.
But he was the Emperor of the Jin Kingdom! How dare Bai Qingyan rebel against him!
The Grand Princess looked at the Emperor, whose eyes burned with rage, and spoke in a slow, measured tone: “Once, when the Bai family had not yet harbored rebellious intentions, you suspected the Bai family would rebel. The treacherous ministers in court, reading your intentions, competed to exert effort to help Your Majesty eliminate the Bai family – this great worry of your heart. Now it has indeed come to pass as you wished… the Bai family has rebelled. This should have been expected, so why are you so angry?”
“Traitorous subjects and rebels! Traitorous subjects and rebels! You are all traitorous subjects and rebels!” The Emperor’s forehead veins bulged. “You, as the Imperial Grand Princess, assist your granddaughter in destroying the Lin family’s imperial power – are you not afraid of having no face to meet your ancestors after death?!”
The Grand Princess sat under the lamplight.
“Speaking of shame… this old woman, as a grandmother, has never helped her granddaughter on her path to becoming an emperor. Instead, for the sake of the Lin family’s imperial power, I exhausted all my schemes calculating against her!” The Grand Princess leaned against her hidden cushion, showing her advanced age, speaking slowly. She looked at the Jin Kingdom Emperor, shook her head, her gaze sharp with intense hatred and disgust. “Rather, it is you who, seeking immortality, built the Nine-Tiered Platform, using children’s lives to refine elixirs, causing heaven’s wrath and people’s resentment throughout the Jin Kingdom, leaving the common people without means to live, with rebellions springing up everywhere! You… are the greatest force pushing this old woman’s granddaughter to ascend the throne. This is something you know full well in your heart – why must you always deceive yourself and blame others, Your Majesty?”
“Regarding the Lin family’s imperial power, this old woman can honestly say… I have a clear conscience. When I meet the Lin family ancestors in the future, this old woman will have something to account for. But this vast estate of the Lin family… the rivers and mountains, the state and society were placed in your hands, yet you severed your arms, killed Duke Zhenguo Bai Weiting, and finally caused the Lin family’s imperial power to be lost in your hands.” The Grand Princess’s sandalwood prayer beads slipped from her wrist into her palm within her sleeve, and she began methodically fingering them. “The one who should worry about how to account to the Lin family’s successive ancestors is you, Your Majesty! What this old woman must worry about is how to account to the Bai family’s successive ancestors after death! You and I are both people heavy with sin – one… sorry to the Lin family, one sorry to the Bai family! When we meet underground in the future, this old woman will have to tell your father emperor, about this. The taste of your father emperor’s paddle – you surely still remember it.”
Mentioning his father’s emperor’s paddle, the Emperor’s buttocks still ached faintly even now. Ashamed and enraged, he could not listen to the Grand Princess’s words at all, shouting: “Traitorous subjects and rebels! Traitorous subjects and rebels! You will all surely die without burial places!”
The Emperor’s mind was filled with the thought that his aunt had betrayed the Lin family’s imperial power, and that his granddaughter was a traitorous rebel of the Jin Kingdom.
At this moment, the Emperor truly regretted deeply that when the Bai family’s men had died in the southern frontier, he should have completely exterminated all the women of the Bai family, leaving none alive. Thus… there would be no Bai Qingyan and Bai Jinxiu, these two despicable women, to cause trouble and ruin his grand plan to ascend the Nine-Tiered Platform.
The Bai family was indeed his unlucky star. When Bai Weiting went to the southern frontier battlefield, why didn’t he take all these Bai family descendants with him to show their loyalty? Why didn’t they all die on the southern frontier?