Chapter 510: Oriole (6)
Editor: Atlas Studios
Mu Yangling placed the two children on the couch and let them play together. Careful to avoid the eyes and ears outside, Spring whispered, “Fourth Madam, should we think of a way to send news outside?”
Mu Yangling glanced at her indifferently and said, “Don’t act on your own. We just need to stay in the palace in peace.”
At a time like this, it was better to be quiet than to move. Wouldn’t they be courting death by rashly sending out news without knowing anything?
In the afternoon, Li Jinghua went by herself to the palace where the Yuan family lived to visit Matriarch Yuan. Only then did she know that they were not the only ones who had been brought into the palace to attend to the sick Empress. There were also the families of the three other generals. All of those generals controlled more than 100,000 troops each.
Among them, General Yuan and Qi Xiuyuan were given special attention because they were far away from Jiangnan. The duo’s families were arranged to stay in the annex palace of the Palace of Earthly Tranquility, while the other three families were also arranged to stay in the harem. All of the families were brought here under the excuse of attending to the sick Empress.
However, not only were there women entering the palace, but there were also young children and old ladies. Clearly, these two types of people were the main hostages.
A man could remarry if he lost his wife, but men had always valued bloodlines. Unless they were really cold-blooded and ambitious, very few people would give up on their children. Moreover, their mother was among them.
If they could even give up their mother, wife, and children, the Emperor would have to praise them for being ruthless. However, considering very few people would be willing to follow such a person, the other party would have lost from the beginning.
Of course, the Emperor’s act of using his subjects’ families as hostages would also be criticized. However, as the Emperor, he had the right to be willful. As a subject, would those people have such a right?
The Emperor felt much more at ease after detaining the hostages in the palace. He gave the order to take good care of the generals’ families who entered the palace to attend to the Emperor’s illness. As long as it was doable, they would agree to any requests they had. As long as they did not spread the news or leave the palace, all else was fine.
General Yuan was filial and Matriarch Yuan was in the palace. As long as she was well, General Yuan would definitely not dare to do anything. As for Qi Xiuyuan, although he no longer had a mother, he only had a son at such an age. He must value this son very much.
The Emperor felt that it was a pity that Qi Feng and Qi Xiuyuan didn’t get along. Otherwise, he would definitely have more confidence by detaining Qi Feng.
Source: NovelFull.com, updated on ƝονǤօ.ᴄᴑ
Meanwhile, Qi Feng, who was outside the palace, was both indignant and glad.
On the one hand, he was indignant that he was so unimportant to his son that he did not even have the right to be a hostage. On the other hand, he was glad that he did not have to be a hostage…
The outside world was in chaos because of the sudden war, and because of the Emperor’s actions, waves surged secretly. Though the palace was completely isolated from the outside world, they still found out some things after two days.
For example, the battle between the Imperial Court’s army and the bandits became more and more intense. Both sides suffered heavy losses. Just as the Emperor sent out the amnesty officials and had yet to reach the south road of Jinghu, a group of bandits shot and killed the commander-in-chief. Without a leader, the army was in chaos.
The bandits seized the opportunity to attack the cities and territories. At the same time, the southwest and northwest borders were in a state of emergency with the West Xia army pressing closer at the borders. When the Emperor received the speedily-delivered news, the other party had already captured five county cities. Just as the Emperor was feeling worried, there was an urgent report from the north. The Jin army was pressing down on the borders, and were about to invade the borders on a large scale. General Yuan and Qi Xiuyuan had already discussed to resist the Jin soldiers together.
This made the Emperor, who had originally planned to transfer Qi Xiuyuan back, give up on the idea. Smoke rose everywhere, and the flames of war seemed to burn through the entire Great Zhou overnight. The Emperor was so worried that his eyebrows turned white.
The more complacent he was before, the more regretful he felt now.
He originally thought that by killing Minister Qin’s subordinates and shifting the blame to the bandits, he could use this opportunity to remove Minister Qin’s influence. He could also take the opportunity to send an army to suppress those bandits who could not be eliminated and completely control the south road of Jinghu. However, he did not expect that after the mantis stalks the cicada, he would become a mantis that was about to be hunted by the oriole.
Now, he could no longer see through whether West Xia and the Jin Kingdom were involved in what he had done back then. He only knew that he was trapped both internally and externally and could not be negligent at all. Otherwise, he would fall into a bottomless abyss.
Half of the Emperor’s hair turned white overnight. Looking at the country that was surrounded by flames of war, he regretted his impulsiveness for the first time.
However, no matter how regretful he was, he had to persevere. In short, the Great Zhou could not perish in his hands. Otherwise, he would really become a sinner for all eternity.
At this moment, the Emperor was most afraid that his generals would rebel, so he had no choice but to invite the families of these generals into the palace.
The Emperor had no intention of hiding the news from the family of those generals. He sent people to spread the outside news to their families one after another, wanting to win their support. He hoped that they could write to the generals leading troops outside and let them lead the troops in peace to serve the country.
The Emperor originally wanted to release some news to them every day and then complain about his difficulties before asking them to write a letter. However, the situation was not optimistic, with news of them losing territories coming in every day. Not only the borders, but the rebellion within the country had already spread from the south of Jinghu. If he did not stop it, the entire Jiangnan would be involved in the rebellion. The Emperor had no choice but to reveal all the news to the generals’ family members within two days, hoping that they would encourage their sons or husbands to protect the country for him, for the sake of their country.
The Emperor felt that the reason why the cities were lost so quickly was not only because they had failed to seize the opportunity to win the battle, but also because the generals were unwilling to do their best. Otherwise, why would the 800,000-strong army be so vulnerable?
Now, his gold medals and imperial edicts were no longer of much use. He could only place his hopes on the family’s letters and hope that the generals could serve the country on account of their families.
The Emperor conveyed this message through the Empress, and everyone looked in the Yuan family’s direction.
Of the five generals, General Yuan led more than 260,000 troops. Qi Xiuyuan led 150,000 troops, while the other three generals only had 100,000 each. Coupled with the Yuan family’s reputation, almost everyone acted according to the Yuan family’s wishes.
The Empress also looked at the Yuan family and smiled. “How long has it been since Matriarch Yuan wrote a letter to General Yuan? It’s good to take this opportunity to ask after him.”
Matriarch Yuan lowered her eyes and said indifferently, “Thank you for your concern, Empress. It’s just that I’m illiterate and have never written a letter to him. If His Majesty wants to send a message to my son, he can just help me pass along two sentences.”
The Empress said to Madam Yuan with a faint smile, “The Emperor passed down an imperial edict. I’m afraid it’s not convenient for him to pass along Matriarch Yuan’s message. However, when Madam Yuan writes to General, you can help Matriarch Yuan pass along her greetings. The Imperial Court will send the letter over quickly. General Yuan should be able to receive it soon.”
The Empress was worried that Matriarch Yuan would reject her again and embarrass her, so she said with a smile, “Alright, go back and write a letter first. I’ll send someone to get it later.”
Everyone glanced at Matriarch Yuan before lowering their eyes and retreating.
Everyone stood outside the palace and looked at the indifferent Matriarch Yuan and Madam Yuan. They wanted to go forward and inquire, but under the watchful eyes of the palace maids and the emissary, they did not dare to do so.
Li Jinghua only glanced at the Yuan family before pulling Mu Yangling away.