In the second month of the twelfth year of Zhaoning, the Emperor of Tang issued an imperial edict to the entire realm, decreeing that his grand nuptials would take place at the end of the month, with Princess Changping of the State of Zhao taking her place as empress. By all rights, this should have been a momentous occasion under heaven. Yet with the King of Ji murdered and wild rumors flying thick and fast, it stirred up very different conversations among many.
Inside the rear garden of the Duke of Weiguo's estate in Great Tang, a cacophony of clattering, shattering porcelain rang out. The duke's eldest daughter smashed priceless vases and jade bowls onto the paving stones one after another. Beside her knelt a crowd of maidservants and attendants, none daring to utter a sound. One maid lay unconscious on the ground, blood streaming down her face.
She had been struck squarely on the forehead by a clay vase simply because she had tried to offer a few comforting words—words that failed to suit the young mistress's mood.
"If some wild girl from the countryside can become empress, why can't I? On what grounds? Nobody even knows where that wench popped out from—for all we know, she isn't even the King of Zhao's own flesh and blood!"
Listening to the young mistress's utterly treasonous ranting, the servants kept their heads pressed low, terrified to look up.
Just then, the Duke of Weiguo walked in. With a helpless sigh, he asked, "Why must you put yourself through this?"
The young lady ground her teeth. "I'm so beautiful, and I'm so talented! Why can't I be the empress?"
"All of you, dismiss," the Duke of Weiguo waved the servants away. He then led his daughter into the study, shut the doors securely, and only then spoke. "Do you still not understand? Great Tang's allotted span is already exhausted. Only the Regent King still clings to the delusion of prolonging its life. Even if you became this empress, you would merely be an empress of a fallen dynasty. You might not even keep your life! What is so grand about being that?"
"I don't care! People remember the last empress far better!"
Looking at his headstrong daughter, the Duke of Weiguo said helplessly, "I will arrange your marriage. In any case, your mother's side is the Xu family of Eastern Jin. Once Great Tang collapses, my dukedom will be worthless, and we will still have to depend on your maternal grandfather's prowess."
Only then did the young lady calm down. She said, "Father, you know my innate divine ability. As long as marriage and renown are both fulfilled, ascending to Scenery Command will be as natural as water flowing into a canal. When that time comes, our family can simply rely on me."
The Duke of Weiguo actually nodded, then sighed. "Your two older brothers and four younger sisters are fairly gifted as well, but none of them are willing to put in the bitter work. In the end, we still have to rely on you."
The Duke of Weiguo was not an isolated case. In the imperial capital of Great Tang, thirty-six hereditary princes and dukes, more than ninety dukes of the realm, and over two hundred marquises were all racking their brains to forge connections. In their eyes, matrimonial alliance was the most direct and effective path.
Beyond these nobles of different surnames, more than ninety imperial princes and over eight hundred commandery princes within the Great Tang imperial clan were also resorting to every means at their disposal. At such a juncture, imperial blood had turned into bargaining chips; its purity dictated its value on the marriage market.
After all, the imperial bloodline of Great Tang had produced more than one pinnacle Immortal Lord. Under ordinary circumstances, it was strictly reserved for intermarriage with the nine kingdoms and a few established noble houses. In former times, leaking imperial blood to outsiders was a heinous crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations, with no hope of pardon; every single drop had to be recovered.
Now that the grand mansion was on the verge of collapse, no one cared anymore. Everyone searched frantically for a way to sell their imperial blood for a handsome price to secure an exit route. Once the restriction was broken, those who sold too late would fetch nothing of value.
After all, Great Tang imperial blood belonged to over ten million people when counted up. Setting aside the Grand Ancestor and Martial Ancestor, if one were to carefully tally the proportions of Dao Foundation, Dharma Idol, and Scenery Command cultivators among them, they hardly seemed to surpass the Seven Clans and Thirteen Prominent Families by much. Naturally, that might also have been because they wallowed in luxury and lacked ambition, though who could say for sure?
Inside the Imperial Palace of Great Tang, a sharp crack sounded as the Regent King smashed another of his beloved jade cups.
"Abominable! Curse him! How dare that brat Li Shenji insult me so? Hastily adopting some random woman to pose as a princess just to serve as Great Tang's empress—this makes it blatantly clear he wants no connection with my imperial house! Does he take me for a blind fool who couldn't uncover such a petty trick?"
The Empress Dowager sat upright, her expression placid, neither angry nor pleased. "The Zhao Li clan has always been smooth and pragmatic, fond of self-preservation. It comes as no surprise that they would pull such a stunt. This was surely directed by Immortal Zhao Li himself; otherwise, Li Shenji wouldn't have possessed the gall."
The Regent King spat through gritted teeth, "How did the ancestors ever allow a bastard like Li Fugui to become an immortal back then? Were Li Weiyuan or Li Shanyuan not vastly superior to him? To play such a game with me now—it is simply intolerable!"
The Empress Dowager asked, "And how do you intend to handle this matter?"
The Regent King launched into another barrage of curses, vulgarities spewing freely. Once finished, he panted heavily, offering no real response.
A flash of disappointment crossed the Empress Dowager's face. "Great Tang has stood for three thousand years. Our dynastic span may not be the longest, but our national might was never weak—it ranks within the top three of all dynasties in human history. The Grand Ancestor and Martial Ancestor dominated their era, expanding our territory and pushing human realms to unprecedented breadths. This is the achievement of our ancestors and the glory of the imperial house.
"If we swallow our pride while the Zhao Li clan insults us so openly, where will the face of our forebears go? Li Fugui excels at opportunism and scheming, and his innate divine ability is said to be Seeking Good Fortune. Yet I firmly believe that even if our Great Tang's state fortune is now nothing more than a candle guttering in the wind, what little remains is more than enough to crush his so-called divine ability!
"I urge Your Highness to draft an imperial edict to execute this counterfeit princess, press the entire diplomatic delegation into military servitude, and proclaim to the world that the King of Zhao is guilty of high treason, stripping him of his princely title! From this day forth, the State of Zhao shall cease to exist within the polity of Great Tang! I would like to see what pretext the Zhao Li clan could possibly offer to placate the realm!"
The Regent King gave a start and hurriedly replied, "How could we possibly do that? If Zhao then marches under the banner of purging the emperor's court of wicked traitors, what will we use to hold them back?"
The Empress Dowager answered, "The capital still has five hundred thousand Imperial Guards, and local garrisons account for another five hundred thousand. Recall every last one of them to the capital! Then issue an imperial decree summoning all feudal lords to defend the sovereign. Even if not a single one comes, we still possess an army of one million men. The city was built by the Grand Ancestor, and the defensive formations were laid by the Martial Ancestor—how could we fail to withstand them? Since the Zhao Li clan dares humiliate our Great Tang, we, as keepers of the imperial blood, must nail him to the pillar of traitorous scoundrels, to be cursed by history for generations!"
"It hasn't come to that—we haven't reached that point! Sigh, must you always talk about perishing together with this one or dying alongside that one? Fine, even if I muster every soldier, where will the military funds come from? The treasury is bone-dry! Where will we find the money to pay their wages?"
The Empress Dowager replied, "Half of Great Tang's annual revenue currently goes to sustaining the imperial clan and its princes and dukes. Since you took the reins of government, your branch alone has created over a dozen imperial princes and more than seventy commandery princes, gobbling up a full tenth of our yearly revenue! In my view, if you simply strip these useless princes, dukes, marquises, and earls of their titles—without even confiscating their estates—the annual revenue alone would be enough to support a million-strong army in a fight to the death!"
The Regent King's face darkened with anger. "What do you mean by that?"
The Empress Dowager curled her lips into a cold sneer. "We have reached this hour, and you're still thinking of surviving?"
"Why shouldn't I? In history, when Great Yu replaced Later Chen, Emperor Xianzong of Chen abdicated and ultimately held the title of Retired Emperor, living on for another hundred and twenty years! His descendants enjoyed wealth and prestige for generations, celebrated as a delightful tale."
"You call that a delightful tale?" The Empress Dowager looked deeply at the Regent King and sighed. "It turns out all that martial vigor and boldness you showed back then was directed solely at a widow and her orphan child. The moment you encounter the slightest real crisis, you show your true colors! You dare not fight Southern Qi, you dare not fight Zhao or Wu, and while the King of Ji fought a bloody war for years, you didn't dare send a single soldier to reinforce him—you didn't even dare issue an edict of vocal support! You simply watched the foundation laid by our ancestors be destroyed with open eyes!
"As long as you face a man, you don't dare lift a finger! How was I so blind back then not to see what a piece of trash you are? Why don't you strip off those robes and fish a skirt out of my wardrobe to wear? You won't be entering the ancestral tombs anyway, nor will you ever see our ancestors!"
Livid with rage, the Regent King lunged forward and delivered a stinging backhand slap across her face! The Empress Dowager's cheek swelled high, and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth.
She let out a cold laugh. "Look at that. When it comes to striking a woman, your prowess returns!"
The Regent King's face shifted between green and pale. "The Princess of Zhao will arrive in a few days and will pay her respects to you. Tidy up your face and don't humiliate me on such an occasion!"
With that, he turned on his heel and strode away. As he exited the hall, he threw his sleeve back, slamming the doors shut behind him. The surrounding palace attendants and maidservants, numbering over a hundred, all kept their heads down in utter silence, wishing they were nothing more than potted plants.
That night, at the hour of zi, towering flames suddenly roared into the sky from Cining Palace.
The blaze burned with terrifying ferocity, defying even the efforts of Scenery Command cultivators to quell it. Stone and gold fractured, crows scattered in panic, and tongues of fire seemed to scorch half the heavens as the sprawling Cining Palace crumbled into charred rubble.
The maidservants and eunuchs had all been driven out by the Empress Dowager long before. Kneeling outside the triple palace gates, they wept and wiped their tears, repeatedly knocking their foreheads against the icy stone steps. A few loyal servants attempted to rush in and fight the blaze, but others held them back. From afar, they could only see the Empress Dowager crowned with her phoenix coronet and draped in embroidered regalia, seated straight in the grand hall, slowly merging with the inferno.
As the fire crept up over her chest, the Empress Dowager tilted her head back slightly. Her jeweled headpieces chimed softly before crackling and scattering into pieces. She seemed to exhale a breath of relief, gently closing her eyes as she transformed into a sphere of blazing light.
The final image burned into the depths of the attendants' eyes was a silent tear that rolled down her cheek and dropped into the flames.
"A turbulent autumn indeed..." Wei Yuan murmured with a heavy sigh, his eyes fixed upon the map.
Chapter 1370