EWRN - Chapter 75
Chapter 75: Epilogue (II)
Winter, the first year of the Yuanye reign.
Huo Jinye had not held morning court for a month. For the ministers, their daily trip to the Hall of Imperial Governance had become a mere formality; they would stay for less than an hour before returning home. Some of the bolder officials had stopped coming altogether, figuring the emperor wouldn't notice anyway.
The emperor's absence from court became commonplace, as did the General of the State's daily visits to the palace. The more observant officials noticed that General Hou Yuwen went to the emperor's bedchambers every day, often leaving late at night and sometimes even staying over. Gradually, rumors of a cut-sleeve affair between the emperor and Hou Yuwen began to circulate. In the past, the ministers would have seized upon such a scandal, but now they could not even get an audience with Huo Jinye, let alone make an issue of it.
Within the Imperial City, senior ministers from the great families submitted their resignations in an attempt to leave their posts. Seeing no hope for the future, many minor officials followed their lead.
Huo Jinye was infuriated. He dispatched the imperial guard to ransack the homes of those minor officials. He couldn't touch the senior ministers from powerful families, but surely he could deal with these powerless minor officials?
After their homes were ransacked, Huo Jinye ordered the now-destitute officials driven out of the Imperial City. It was winter, and in the frozen, snow-covered north of the Great Yuan Kingdom, expelling them with nothing was a ruthless act, tantamount to a death sentence.
This act further fueled the ministers' discontent, yet they were powerless against him. After all, no one wanted to be the next to be so ruthlessly eliminated.
The land was frozen solid. In the northern cities of the Great Yuan Kingdom, the common people had fled their homes, escaping failed harvests and crushing taxes. Many refugees traveled thousands of miles to the Imperial City, only to be denied entry and driven away by the soldiers. The south was hardly better. The influx of refugees disrupted the lives of the local populace, fertile fields were ruined, and villages were trampled. The people were displaced and homeless. That winter, countless souls froze or starved to death.
But Huo Jinye knew nothing of this. He was lost in the beautiful dream woven for him by Chief Steward Lu and General Hou Yuwen, unable to break free. He spent his days immersed in carnal pleasures, indulging in fleeting moments of passion.
Ignorant of the world's suffering, he was naturally unaware of the Brocade Guard Army that had descended from Baili Mountain and was now massing just a few dozen miles outside the Imperial City.
The time had finally come to march. A thrill ignited in Huo Jinyu's heart, and her entire body trembled with anticipation.
The battlefield was a place where blades had no eyes, yet Yan Xi insisted on coming. Helpless, Huo Jinyu had no choice but to agree. For Yan Xi's safety, she had specially selected a suit of Reinforced Iron Armor for her—one of superior quality and slightly lighter weight. It had been personally modified by Zhai Yao, granting it exceptional defensive capabilities. It was a masterpiece.
Yan Xi was a highly skilled martial artist and no stranger to the battlefield. Why would she fear the forces of a single city? Thus, she found Huo Jinyu's fussing both amusing and exasperating.
On the northern wall of the Great Yuan Kingdom's Imperial City, the soldiers shivered in the cold. The emperor was growing more miserly by the day. It was bad enough that their pay was withheld, but now, in the dead of winter, they hadn't even been issued a single set of padded winter clothes. They had to rely on old garments from years past to fend off the cold. He was an absolute skinflint.
With their commander absent, a few soldiers huddled around a burning torch on the rampart, seeking warmth.
"Damn it all, it's cold," one soldier couldn't help but curse.
"First the drought, and now that winter's here, it won't stop snowing. My family barely has any grain stored away. Is Heaven trying to kill us all?" another soldier added, his voice filled with righteous indignation.
"Tch. Forget Heaven. I'd say it's the one on the throne who doesn't want us to live," a third soldier clicked his tongue, his tone dripping with disdain.
Hearing this, another soldier quickly clamped a hand over his mouth. "Shut it! Do you have a death wish? You dare criticize the one on high? If anyone hears you, it'll be your head."
The soldier slapped the hand away. "Pah, pah! Get your frozen pig's trotter off my mouth! It's freezing! I'm speaking the truth. If His Majesty keeps this up, he won't be on that throne for much longer." He brushed the falling snow from his shoulders and blew warm air into his cupped hands.
Seeing that his warning went unheeded, the other soldier could only shake his head in resignation.
"Hey, what's that?" one of the soldiers asked, nudging his companion and pointing into the distance.
The others followed his gaze, their faces etched with confusion.
At the far end of the road, a dark, dense mass was moving toward the Imperial City.
The soldiers stared, stunned, squinting to get a better look.
The dark mass drew nearer and nearer. When it was just over two hundred zhang away, the soldiers could finally make out what it was.
It was an army of countless soldiers!
Gods! The Imperial City of the Great Yuan Kingdom was suddenly surrounded by an army!
"Urgent report! Urgent report! Go! Go now!" The soldiers panicked. One of them was a messenger, and the others grabbed his sleeve, urging him to report to their superiors at once.
The flustered messenger took off at a run toward the commander's quarters, shouting as he went, "Urgent report! Urgent report! We're under attack! We're under attack!"
In an instant, every soldier on the wall spotted the uninvited guests in the distance and scrambled to mount a defense.
Inside the imperial palace, Huo Jinye was in his bedchambers, intimately entangled with two consorts and on the verge of daytime debauchery, when a guard's shout echoed from outside. "Report!"
The guard's voice, amplified with internal energy, filled the entire palace, startling Huo Jinye so badly that he instantly went limp.
"Fuck!" Huo Jinye swore. Before he could move, a guard burst into the bedchambers. The guard, long accustomed to the emperor's daytime dalliances, knelt and spoke rapidly before Huo Jinye could react. "Your Majesty! A massive army has suddenly appeared outside the Imperial City, estimated to be several hundred thousand strong! The city defenses have been prepared, and this servant has come to report!" The guard delivered the message in a single, uninterrupted rush, mentally congratulating himself on his success as he awaited the emperor's reaction.
Hearing that the Imperial City was besieged, Huo Jinye froze on the bed, stunned. Sensing the tense atmosphere, the two consorts were too frightened to make a sound, huddling together and trembling in a corner of the dragon bed.
"Repeat that for Us," Huo Jinye demanded, his voice trembling in disbelief.
"Your Majesty, the Imperial City is surrounded by an army hundreds of thousands strong! Please, Your Majesty, make a decision and form a plan as soon as possible!" the guard said in a low, firm voice, his head bowed to the floor.
An army of hundreds of thousands besieging the city—what did that even mean? It was like a thousand flies swarming an egg; they could peck a crack into it even where none existed.
Huo Jinye deflated, utterly panicked. "Is… is it an uprising? How could we have heard nothing?" he asked, his voice frantic.
"Your Majesty, the army appeared out of nowhere. Their origins are unknown, but their intentions… are clear!" The guard did not state their purpose outright, but Huo Jinye understood perfectly. They were coming for his throne.
"Relay Our decree! All ministers are to assemble at the Hall of Imperial Governance to discuss countermeasures! No one is to be absent! Immediately! Now!" Huo Jinye said through gritted teeth. He would not let the throne he had schemed so hard to obtain be taken from him so easily. "Mobilize the entire city's imperial guard! Send them to the north gate and hold it! Do not let a single person through! Send a messenger out the west gate; take a detour to the northwestern border and inform the Northern Garrison Army of our plight! We need their forces!" Huo Jinye's words came in a rush. He was truly terrified.
Huo Jinye changed into his dragon robes and rushed to the Hall of Imperial Governance. When he arrived, the great hall was completely empty. It was the first time he had ever arrived before his ministers.
Less than an hour later, the ministers began to hurry into the Hall of Imperial Governance. Upon learning of the siege, they were all struck with terror and had rushed to the palace to discuss a plan.
Yet, once gathered, the ministers found themselves at a loss. The Imperial City had only ten thousand or so imperial guards; a direct confrontation would be disastrous. But besides meeting the enemy head-on, they had no other choice.
Only now did Huo Jinye truly understand the saying that distant water cannot quench a nearby fire. The Northern Garrison Army was too far from the Imperial City. Even if a messenger rode without rest, it would take a full day and night just to reach the northwestern border. Who knew how long it would take for the army itself to arrive? More importantly, could the Imperial City hold out that long?
Huo Jinye's head throbbed with anxiety. He had absolutely no idea what to do.
Chief Steward Lu stood behind Huo Jinye, remaining silent and doing his best to fade into the background.
In his panic, Huo Jinye forgot to ask the chief steward for advice. Or perhaps he simply didn't believe a mere eunuch could offer any worthwhile strategies.
"Report!" Another urgent cry came from outside the Hall of Imperial Governance. "Your Majesty! The enemy commanders have revealed themselves! They are two women!"
The entire hall erupted in shock at the guard's words. What? The enemy was led by two women?
"Your Majesty, there is something… this servant is unsure if it should be said…" the guard hesitated, still kneeling.
"Speak! Out with it!" Huo Jinye snapped, infuriated by the guard's hesitation. What time was this to be worried about what could or could not be said?
"Your Majesty! The commander of the imperial guard saw through a spyglass… one of the women is the late emperor's consort who disappeared long ago, Yan Xi of the Northern Kingdom. The other woman… the other woman bears a striking resemblance to the late Emperor Yuanjin!" The guard's voice was filled with his own disbelief.
"What?" Huo Jinye slammed his hand on the table, so shocked he was nearly speechless.
His focus, however, was not on the women. "Huo Jinyu… he dares to return?!"
The court officials were all astonished. They had only heard that Huo Jinye had killed Huo Jinyu to usurp the throne; they had never heard anything about the late emperor having a twin sister. Could it be that a long-lost twin, scattered among the common folk, had come to seek revenge for her brother?
It had to be said, the ministers' imaginations were running wild.
Huo Jinye was reeling from the news that Huo Jinyu had returned with an army of hundreds of thousands, while the court officials were lost in speculation about a long-lost twin sister. For a time, the entire hall fell silent.
Comments
Post a Comment