Chapter 236: Chapter 120: Questioning the Crime_2
Some fretted about the situation, while others delighted in the calamity.
However, some of the more far-sighted magnates merely chuckled dismissively at this. When their subordinates inquired, they remained silent.
They didn’t believe Tian Wujing would cause trouble for the Prime Minister’s residence. This wasn’t to say Tian Wujing lacked courage. To be honest, Tian Wujing was on the verge of being named king, wielded substantial military power, and had the Empress’s support. As a member of the Empress’s family, what was wrong with being a bit arrogant? As a warlord, what was wrong with being somewhat domineering?
What these true magnates didn’t believe was that Zhao Jiulang, a Prime Minister personally promoted by the Emperor, would be so petty as to need to seek revenge immediately.
Sure enough, scouts soon reported back from the front: the Jingnan army had not detoured towards the Prime Minister’s residence but was proceeding straight ahead.
Continuing straight would lead them to the eastern district of the city.
However, there were no residences of high officials or nobles in the eastern district. This was because the Yan Empire’s palace and capital city had undergone several expansions, altering the original layout where the palace was centrally located. The previous Yan Emperor, a lover of luxury, had not only compelled people from Qian State to build the West Garden for him but had also forcibly expanded the eastern side of the palace to enlarge the Grand Temple. At its peak, thousands of religious personnel resided there, with incense smoke filling the air daily.
At that time, even the great patrician families found this Emperor somewhat unbearable.
These powerful families did not wish for Yan State to have a hegemon, as a hegemon would inevitably seek to expand outwards and centralize power domestically.
However, neither did they want the Yan Emperor to be an incompetent wastrel, engaging in reckless follies that might drag everyone down with him!
Fortunately, while the founding and defense of Yan State had been incredibly arduous—marked by centuries of brutal warfare against the Desert Barbarians and recurrent struggles with eastern nations—the heavens had been relatively kind to Yan’s Ji imperial lineage. It wasn’t that there were no foolish or unenterprising emperors, but such rulers tended not to live long.
The previous Emperor, who had indulged excessively in pleasures and vanities, passed away after only a few years on the throne. This was a much better fate than that of neighboring Qian State, Jin State, and Chu State. In those lands, emperors who were not true rulers—be they obsessed with alchemy, calligraphy, or hedonism—all seemed to live to a ripe old age!
The current Yan Emperor, upon ascending the throne, truly disliked indulgence and was the opposite of his father. He rarely stayed in the West Garden; indeed, the Earl of North Border was quartered there upon his return to the capital.
As for the Grand Temple from the previous emperor’s time, its thousands of religious personnel were all purged. They were exiled to the frontiers to perform hard labor as penance for their "crimes." Ji Runhao, through his actions, delivered a clear message to those who might attempt to use religious trickery to deceive or curry favor with the emperor: Rejoice while you can, for a day of reckoning will surely come.
A portion of the original Grand Temple was preserved to continue its sacred functions, while the remainder was converted into office spaces for various government departments.
However, only one place, accessible by continuing straight east on this road and possessing a separate main gate, fit this description: the official residence of the current imperial princes!
The Ji imperial family had only begun to experience a measure of comfort in the past sixty years. In former times, members of the imperial clan were expected to lead from the front in battle. Several Yan Emperors had perished on the battlefield, to say nothing of other imperial relatives.
With so many dying in combat, the burden of their financial support was less of an issue. However, over the last century, as peace gradually settled over the land, the imperial family began to proliferate. As their numbers swelled, so too did the attendant problems.
Consequently, after Ji Runhao ascended the throne, he decreed that all his adult sons were to reside in the Princes’ Residence, a complex converted from a section of the Grand Temple. They were not granted individual estates. Only after marriage were they to be assigned posts and residences outside this complex.
This was also a move to establish a precedent for future generations, starting with his own sons, aimed at curtailing the imperial family’s expenditures.
Therefore, apart from the underage Seventh Prince, the residences of the other six princes were all located together. It somewhat resembled a row of connected villas within a compound, much like townhouses. In the Qing Dynasty of that other world, it was a replica of the Prince’s Residence.
And so it was. The Jingnan Army arrived at the main gate of the Princes’ Residence. The Pi Beast beneath Lord Jingnan also came to a halt.
The Jingnan Army knights surrounding them began to deploy, preparing to charge.
The nearby spies were dumbstruck. Bloody hell, this is even more shocking than if he’d gone to demolish the Prime Minister’s residence! Is Lord Jingnan actually seeking revenge against the imperial princes?
This explosive news spread like wildfire. Upon receiving it, even those magnates who had previously considered themselves in complete control of the situation were unable to remain seated.
What in the blazes does Tian Wujing think he’s doing?!
Going after the Prime Minister is, at worst, a slap in the face to the imperial court. But going after an imperial prince? That’s a direct slap in the Emperor’s own face!
The magnates were acutely aware of how much fury they had already stoked in the Emperor. Is Tian Wujing intending to pour oil on these flames?
Zheng Fan, too, was somewhat stupefied. Truth be told, during his analyses with the blind man back at Green Willow Fortress, they hadn’t entirely dismissed the possibility that a prince might be behind the attacks on him. After all, struggles to seize the throne had, since ancient times, always been the most brutal of affairs.
He had accepted the Sixth Prince’s patronage; in essence, he had already boarded the Sixth Prince’s carriage.
Yet, when he and the blind man had discussed this particular scenario, they had both been uncertain. It just didn’t seem to add up. The Sixth Prince was considered such a ’good-for-nothing’; surely, other princes ambitious to seize the throne wouldn’t be *that* hypersensitive, would they?
But the facts were now laid bare before him. Barring the possibility that Lord Jingnan was merely using him as a pretext to deliberately widen his scope of attack, then the one who had targeted him, the one who had orchestrated that assassination attempt at the relay station, was very likely one of the princes residing within these walls.