I Rely on Beauty to Stabilize the Country - Chap 21
Xue Yuan’s hands suddenly tensed up.
But the young Emperor didn’t seem to have fainted.
After spitting out the blood, Gu Yuanbai quickly calmed down. Before him, the eunuch who had come to report was already trembling. Gu Yuanbai’s face sank, and he said, “Zhang Xu, grab him and put him under strict supervision. Then send people over to the hamlet as fast as possible to see if what he said is true.”
The eunuch went weak and the robust guards dragged him out of the hall.
Gu Yuanbai wiped the blood from his lips with his sleeve and patted Xue Yuan’s arm. “Put Us down.”
Xue Yuan put Gu Yuanbai down with a stiff face. Gu Yuanbai sat on the main seat with grandeur, his eyes looking gloomily towards the door.
Someone had already ran off to call the Imperial doctor, but Gu Yuanbai was still in a bad mood.
He shouldn’t be so easily affected.
There was a person from the Supervision Office next to Grand Imperial Concubine Wan. If she were really ill, there wouldn’t be just an eunuch like that reporting to him, and Gu Yuanbai hadn’t received any news.
A palace attendant offered him a towel, Gu Yuanbai took it and wiped the blood from his hands and the corners of his lips. Suddenly remembering something, he looked up at Xue Yuan.
Xue Yuan’s neck, the trim of his clothes and his hair were stained with some of the blood that Gu Yuanbai coughed up. His face was dark and sullen, staring at Gu Yuanbai.
Gu Yuanbai said, “…give him another towel.”
As the gong lead in the original book, Xue Yuan’s appearance was naturally not bad. He had sharp eyebrows, thin lips and a high nose. He had the sort of looks and mannerisms that carried a sense of danger that made people feel wary.
He looked too sharp, and fighting in the battlefield would only make his fiery aura heavier. With such a look and the blood covering his face and neck, it made the palace maid who handed him the towel tremble.
Xue Yuan took the towel and wiped his neck with it. He cleaned his neck while looking at Gu Yuanbai. Suddenly, he paused his hands and asked, “Your Majesty, do you feel uncomfortable anywhere?”
Gu Yuanbai said, “We’re alright.”
Xue Yuan’s expression became even more strange. Just a moment ago, Gu Yuanbai had vomited blood from receiving a shock. Now looking at him, the way he looked made him think that his entire body felt ill and that he might vomit blood again if he moved.
The sticky blood on his neck was smeared on the towel. Xue Yuan’s expression became more and more livid as he wiped it off. Needless to say, his current appearance, just from watching the palace maids next to him it’d be clear how scary it looked.
Gu Yuanbai said warmly, “Someone, take Guard Xue to clean up.”
It was the first time Xue Yuan heard him speak so softly, and it made him feel strange for a while. The palace maid walked up to him. “Guard Xue, shall we go?”
Xue Yuan regained his senses, and threw the scarf over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
After Xue Yuan left, Gu Yuanbai smiled. He closed his eyes and knocked on the table, the tapping sound from his fingertips as terrible as a fatal sickle.
Before long, a sweaty guard ran and knelt in front of Gu Yuanbai. He said, “Your Majesty, Grand Imperial Concubine Wan is fine. She said she misses Your Highness, and sent someone to invite Your Highness to go to Beijing’s outskirts to visit her.”
With that, the guard handed a letter to Gu Yuanbai. The young eunuch checked the letter paper, and then carefully handed it to the Emperor.
This was a secret letter from the Supervision Office that cleared up the cause and effect of the whole ordeal. The person who had deliberately transmitted the wrong information had been arrested by the Supervision Office and was now being tortured to extract a confession.
Gu Yuanbai was very satisfied with the speed they had handled things with. After burning the secret letter and wiping out the last remains of the paper, the Imperial doctor also rushed in.
“Investigate,” Gu Yuanbai said. “Investigate within the clan.”
The captain of the guard felt a chill run down his spine, and bowed his head in response. “This servant obeys.”
The remaining forces of the powerful minister, Lu Feng, had been frightened by Gu Yuanbai and fled all the way to Jinghunan and Jiangnan. After Gu Yuanbai had cleaned the court and the inner palace, the second thing was to uproot the chess pieces that Lu Feng had buried in the military.
But while for these three places he could use thunderous means, he couldn’t forcefully pull out by force the people Lu Feng had buried in the houses of other ministers and clan members.
There were advantages and disadvantages to it. He couldn’t catch the people who were in hiding, but these people were also unwilling to follow the bigger part of the forces and flee the capital.
No, some people were starting to get anxious.
Gu Yuanbai had placed people to supervise the manors of ministers and relatives from his clan. The first goal was to dig out these malignant tumors, and the second was to deter the people who received a salary from the court but whose ideas were becoming confused.
Gu Yuanbai’s own ideas were very clear. After the Imperial doctor treated him, he asked Tian Fusheng, who waited on the side while wiping his tears, to come forward, saying” “It’s time to move.”
The important ministers from the Great Heng were not stupid, and stupid people couldn’t be important ministers. They knew who to follow and to whom it was best to remain loyal. But there were always some whimsical clan relatives who thought that, since the current Emperor was in poor health and had no children, perhaps, if the current Emperor died, they, or their children, might gain support to get to the throne.
Those who had good heirs in the family, or those who had a reputation for being wise, were more likely to do stupid things.
The capital was calm, but dozens of eunuchs rushed out of the palace holding Imperial edicts in a hurry.
These eunuchs were sent to the palaces of various princes to announce the Imperial will.
Gu Yuanbai gave them a chance to confess and receive a lenient treatment.
The language of the Imperial decree was concise, but the eunuchs read it out loud with a fierce, harsh tone, asking them to hand over the remaining people of Lu Feng hidden in their mansion, the malignant tumor that had encouraged them to be disrespectful to the Emperor. As long as they handed them over, the Emperor would be lenient.
Everyone in the Prince’s mansion was trembling and terrified, but, no matter what they asked, the eunuch only replied that there was still half an hour.
After half an hour, if those who had dared to do such a thing did not dare to be honest on their own accord, they would have to accept the Emperor’s thunderous means of dealing with them.
During this half an hour, the eunuchs stood in front of the clan’s families mansions with their hands together, looking coldly at the innocent or worried faces of the Emperor’s relatives.
It was hard to tell just whose heart was beating faster and faster, hiding in the crowd with sweat on their face, cold sweat slipping from their chin to the ground.
Fearing, dreading, but still not believing what the Emperor might do.
As time passed, it seemed as if the capital knew what was going to happen. The officials closed their gates, and there was no one on the street in front of the palaces of the clan’s princes.
The setting afternoon sun gradually moved westward.
The legs of the clansmen who had done something became weak and they didn’t know if it was because they had been kneeling for half an hour or because of some inexplicable fear. After time passed, no one in the Prince’s mansion stood up and pleaded their guilt, and finally, the half hour went by.
Heavy footsteps sounded in the Imperial palace. Thousands of black armored Imperial guards ran out and went straight to the clan prince’s palace in close formation.
Their footsteps sunk so heavily that they made the ground shake, and their shields and swords gleamed with bloodthirsty rays. The general in charge yelled, “Following the Emperor’s will, we will clear out the rebellious forces! Make way!”
On the street, the doors of every household were closed tight. Through the gaps in the windows, they watched as the troops in black armor ran past their door. Their sharp blades, reflecting the light of the setting sun’s glow against the ground and their doors with a terrifying shine.
Gu Yuanbai had spent a lot of money to raise these Imperial troops. Their daily training and drills had given them a strong body, and the daily rations of good quality meat and rice had given them the strength required to bear their armor and take up their swords and shields.
Many clansmen saw through their wide open gates, their thighs shaking, how this group of Imperial troops ran past. Only then did the clansmen feel alive again and able to breathe and they fell softly to the ground, as well as their servants. It was only now that they realized that the Emperor’s words were true.
Someone really had made a mistake that the Emperor could not tolerate.
The black armored Imperial guards ran past the gates of these mansions. They spotted an eunuch who had been standing in front of a gate suddenly smiling like a chrysanthemum and enthusiastically helping up the master of the house who had fallen to the ground. The eunuch apologized. “Don’t resent this little one, I was just following orders. Now that the Imperial army has run past your door, that proves your innocence! His Majesty will send a reward later, so as a great man you shouldn’t take something like this to heart.”
The joy and fear had yet to dissipate from the clan head who was helped up. He had a clear understanding of the Emperor’s temper now, how would he dare say anything?
It was terrifying, terrifying.
They felt terrified even though it wasn’t them.
Thousands of forbidden troops finally surrounded the mansion of Prince Qi.
The eunuch who was waiting in front of Prince Qi’s gate walked down the steps with a smile, and said hello to the general who led the Imperial troops. “General Cheng, is this the place?”
The general nodded and said with a serious expression, “I’m sorry for troubling you, eunuch.”1
The eunuch exchanged a few polite words with him and then stepped aside, leaving the people of Prince Qi’s mansion to face the encroaching Imperial army. Prince Qi, a middle aged man,2 was supported to walk to the door, his hands trembling. “What are you trying to do?!”
The people inside the mansion saw this black and imposing Imperial forbidden army. Some of them already had their eyes roll inside their skulls and faint. Panic spread, and finally someone couldn’t help but let out a low sob.
General Cheng said coldly, “Us officials have been ordered to eliminate the rebels. If there is any resistance, kill them!”
King Qi couldn’t breathe, and he almost keeled over. He stared at the armored soldiers in front of him with wide eyes, his legs under his robe trembling more and more.
He also had a young child beside him. It was the prince’s youngest son, who was quick witted and intelligent since he was a child, and had been known as a child prodigy since his childhood. At this moment, the child was holding the hand of a servant next him, crying and calling for his mother.
In which way was such a child, still unweaned, “as wise and benevolent as the current Emperor”?
Like hell!3 General Cheng’s eyes seemed to be on fire, and the soldiers at his back were also ready to start trouble.
Prince Qi was the brother of the late Emperor. He was about a dozen years younger than the previous Emperor, and, when he had been proclaimed emperor, Prince Qi hadn’t been a big threat. Prince Qi had also been a respectable and proper, peaceful lord, so he had gained a good reputation.
But when Gu Yuanbai came to power, he, who was weak and unlikely to have children, gave Prince Qi a chance for his ambitions to swell. When the powerful minister, Lu Feng, was around, Prince Qi received many gold and treasures and got a name from Lu Feng. When the other relatives of the Emperor were acting obsequious and servile, he was already dreaming bigger.
Lu Feng didn’t dare offend the heavens and support the prince’s claim to the Imperial throne. He only dared to wait for Gu Yuanbai’s passing to support a puppet emperor after he died. Prince Qi was old, and Lu Feng didn’t feel reassured about it, but Prince Qi had a son.
He had many, many sons.
Prince Qi was angry and frightened. He looked at the Imperial soldiers outside his gates and, looking at the swords and shields in their hands, he realized that what the eunuch had read earlier had been true.
But how did Gu Yuanbai discover it?!
How dared he?!
Prince Qi was his uncle!
Prince Qi’s voice shook as he said: “This prince wants to meet with His Highness!”
The guards blocking the door stared at him in silence.
Prince Qi’s upset mood turned worse. He grabbed the arm of a young servant next to him and pushed the young man violently. “Go! You go and report to the Emperor! Say I want to see His Highness!”
The young servant ran, staggering, towards the Imperial palace. However, after just a few steps, a deputy general chopped off his head. The bloody head rolled down the steps of Prince Qi’s mansion.
The bloodstain spread all the way. The deputy general snorted coldly and said, “We’re rough people with heavy hands. The Emperor told us to clear up the rebel forces, and that there was no need to hold back. This little servant just now tried to run away in front of the royal army. Perhaps he was trying to inform the enemy and ask for reinforcements?”
Prince Qi’s eyes widened, his hands trembling and pointing at him. “You, you, you—”
Inside the large hall, Gu Yuanbai had personally ordered General Cheng and his deputies. The Emperor, with a light tone, said only five simple words. “We want to see blood.”
Unless there was blood, there’d always be people who wouldn’t feel afraid.
The crowd in Prince Qi’s mansion stared at the head at the bottom of the steps. It took a long while for the earth-shattering screaming to start.
The eldest son in the Prince Qi’s mansion forced himself to remain calm and, supporting his mother, he said, “They won’t dare to do anything to us.”
No matter what, they were still the Emperor’s relatives!
General Cheng told the soldiers to put away their swords and replaced them with long and thick clubs. He invited the eunuch beside him to step forward, and the eunuch said in a loud voice: “Prince Qi, are you really not going to confess and hand over the rebel forces?”
Prince Qi answered loudly: “You dare threaten the Emperor’s relatives?! Do you also dare to make a move against this prince?!”
All the masters in the Qi mansion cursed loudly. “We want to meet with the Emperor! You said that you want to clear the rebels, so what are you doing around our residence?!”
More and more people joined the yelling, feeling supported, and more and more of them became excited and, while pointing at the Imperial guards, cursed them out.
It wasn’t until some son of Prince Qi’s family got hit on the head with a cane and fell to the ground, covered in blood, that all the sounds suddenly stopped.
Big groups of Imperial guards rushed into Prince Qi’s mansion. The cries and howls reached the sky, the servants lay down on the ground, and the mansion seemed to be hell.
The masters were beaten, and the servants were beaten too. However, while the servants could be beaten to death, the masters had to remain alive.
Prince Qi fell softly into a pool of blood. He watched as the black armored Imperial guards found their way to the study, and even quickly caught a few of Lu Feng’s men.
They were so fast that it seemed as if they already knew who these people were.
Prince Qi was dizzy, and his anger had long since turned into shivering panic.
Gu Yuanbai, Gu Yuanbai… He was crueler than the previous Emperor, too cruel, too terrifying.
His Highness was too terrifying.
