Unexpectedly, Emperor Yuan patted the fur blanket next to him and ordered, “Sit.”
Sharing a couch with the emperor. Although the long couch was long enough for at least three people, it was absolutely against etiquette.
Zong Luo sensed something was wrong and quietly raised his eyes.
He saw the usually cold and majestic tyrant with one hand supporting his forehead and the other holding a wine cup, his eyes slightly closed, looking quite drunk.
Seeing him hesitate, Emperor Yuan impatiently asked.
“What are you dawdling for, didn’t you hear what Zhen said?”
Zong Luo was also unsure whether Emperor Yuan was really drunk. But obviously, a drunk tyrant was harder to serve than a sober one.
He sat on this fur blanket, feeling as if he was sitting on pins and needles.
In the next second, Zong Luo was almost scared to jump up.
Emperor Yuan gently placed his hand on his head.
Such an unusually intimate gesture, the last time it happened was when he returned from the death escape and regained what was lost. At that time, Zong Luo’s heart and eyes were full of resentment from his previous life when Emperor Yuan bestowed a sword for him to commit suicide, he had no mood, nor room to think about anything else.
But now, this simple action by Emperor Yuan made his heart sour to the extreme. “After all these years, Zhen has been indifferent to you, do you hold any resentment in your heart?”
“This son dares not!”
He hadn’t even let out a breath, and another breath was held up. Zong Luo hurriedly explained, “This son knows that all this is for this son’s own good.”
Emperor Yuan scoffed, “Enough.”
The large palm gently stroked the white hair, “Zhen has always wondered whether to tell you about this matter. Originally, this matter should be told to you the night before you ascend the throne.”
Saying this, he sighed, “Forget it, now that the Witch Sacrificial Ceremony has passed, and you are the Crown Prince, let’s just say it, who can blame Zhen?”
The Witch Sacrificial Ceremony has passed? I’m the Crown Prince?
Good heavens, how much did he drink! No wonder he would ignore the rule that one cannot enter the Great Witch Temple before the Witch Sacrificial Ceremony, and still call him over.
Zong Luo was still in shock when he heard Emperor Yuan say, “Do you know why every succession of the throne in our Great Yuan imperial family is so unstable?”
The prince in white shook his head.
He had a feeling that he was about to hear a big secret.
“Because the late emperor favored the crown prince, who was also Zhen’s imperial brother, the eldest prince.”
Emperor Yuan said indifferently, “He even let Zhen replace the eldest prince to be a proton in the Wei Country.”
Throughout the court, although there were many old ministers, no one dared to explore His Majesty’s past.
Even Zong Luo only learned from Emperor Yuan last time that the Father Emperor had also been a proton in the Wei Country when he was young and had suffered a lot.
Emperor Yuan had indeed been a proton, and his situation was even worse than that of Ye Linghan in the Great Yuan, let alone Zong Luo who had the support of the Yu family. Even the mistress of the Yu family, who had privately agreed to marry him, turned around and married someone else after seeing the situation of Emperor Yuan returning to the country.
But Zong Luo didn’t expect that Emperor Yuan was actually forced to be a proton in place of the eldest prince who was supposed to be the proton.
“After Zhen came back, the country just happened to lack military talent. Fortunately, Zhen met a good teacher in Wei Country who taught Zhen a lot of methods of leading troops and fighting, so after Zhen came back, the late emperor reluctantly agreed to use Zhen, and drove Zhen out of the Imperial City, leading troops outside.”
The emperor poured himself another cup of strong wine and drank it all at once, “The late emperor had an order, and naturally Zhen dared not disobey. Even though Zhen’s imperial brother regarded Zhen as a thorn in his eye, and designed open and honest several ambushes.”
During the initial battle between Emperor Yuan and Lord Wu An, he was narrowly defeated by Lord Wu An because the large army that was supposed to support him from the rear was held back by the eldest prince and did not come in time. If it weren’t for his decisive decision to admit defeat and retreat quickly, he would have died under the iron cavalry of the Yu Country at that time.
The eldest prince’s maternal family was powerful, and these things were not openly said, but they were not concealed at all.
How could the late emperor not know? But knowing it, he still pretended not to know because of his love for his own prince.
Emperor Yuan also knew it well.
But what really angered him was the last thing.
“On the day of the Witch Sacrificial Ceremony, the wooden plaque that the late emperor announced for calculation was inexplicably destroyed, and the eldest prince was immediately established as the crown prince. However, Zhen received a decree to take back the military power and exile to the frontier.”
Even with a drunken face, thinking of that scene, Emperor Yuan still showed a cold smile, “And it was that night, Zhen’s spy told Zhen that the wooden plaque was not damaged at all.”
“The one who was calculated to inherit the throne in the future was clearly Zhen!”
But the late emperor, for his own selfish desires, because of his love for the eldest prince, forcibly changed the result.
Not only that, but also to take back the military power and exile to the frontier.
Not to mention that the eldest prince, who had known the truth at that time, regarded him as a thorn in the flesh and wanted to get rid of Emperor Yuan by all means. If the military power was taken back and be exiled to the frontier, he’s afraid he would be worn to death on the road by the endless men of sacrifice raised by the eldest prince.
Suddenly knowing the truth, and it was a matter of life and death, Emperor Yuan directly rebelled in anger.
The next thing, the whole world already knows.
He slaughtered his brothers, bathed the imperial city with blood, and fought into the imperial palace.
In the eyes of everyone, the young prince in cold armor, holding the Zhanlu sword, step by step ascended the Jinluan Hall. When he went up, the tip of the sword was still dripping blood, perhaps from that most beloved prince of the late emperor. (TL: Jinluan Hall; golden Luan Hall= throne room; emperor’s audience hall-where the emperor handled government affairs or held grand ceremonies)
Emperor Yuan would always remember that scene.
He walked into the throne room, where it was empty, with only a hunched figure sitting on the dragon chair.
“You’re here,” the late emperor said in a low voice.
In that empty hall, the aged late emperor also told him a story.
