Chapter 274:
The following days passed peacefully and steadily.
No more letters came from the Capital City, but with Ji Chengfeng there, Xie Wanning learned of the changes in the imperial court situation quite quickly.
The First Prince and Second Prince’s final counterattack was no surprise and did not stir up any waves.
In the spring of the second year, the Old Emperor issued a decree to confine his two princes.
After spitting blood and fainting at the imperial court last year, the Old Emperor’s body grew increasingly weak, and after issuing this imperial decree, he could not even get out of bed.
After consecutively suspending court for several days, he formally announced passing the throne to the Crown Prince.
Lu Ziyan had begun serving as regent since last year, and imperial power was already in his grasp.
This decree of succession came as no surprise to the civil and military officials or the millions of people across the land.
When Xie Wanning was delighted that her son was starting to teethe, his biological father formally ascended to the throne in the Capital City thousands of miles away.
Hearing this news, she teased the chubby son in her arms while smiling at Ji Chengfeng, “See, hasn’t everything returned to the right track?”
The struggle for succession ended smoothly. Although Lu Ziyan was arrogant and unrestrained, in this war-torn era with countless treacherous ministers and thieves, only a killing god like him ascending to the throne could suppress them. Any benevolent ruler who came to power would be devoured until not even bones were left.
Pei Yuqing had not met with any mishaps either; they were all living well.
And the Great Khan also went from declining to thriving.
As expected, her decision that day had been correct.
Next, it was just a matter of time eroding the past.
Waiting for him to become a true emperor of his generation.
He would have a harem of three thousand, abundant offspring, drive out foreign invaders, and pacify internal chaos.
He would become a revitalizing lord recorded in the history books, returning the Great Khan to an era of peace and prosperity across the four seas.
Sung down through the ages.
Xie Wanning thought so.
Soon, the routine purge after the New Emperor’s ascension began.
For those ministers who had backed the wrong side in the struggle for succession, Lu Ziyan had no magnanimous temperament.
In his eyes, the two princes along with the Jin Raiders kidnapping his Wanwan was likely a scheme offered by these people.
Under thunderous methods, after demoting some and executing others.
He also demoted the two chief culprits—the two princes already confined—into commoners.
He specially enclosed a plot of land in the royal hunting grounds and built a long alley, shutting the two princes along with their offspring and the women of their inner residences inside.
Without an imperial decree, they were forbidden to leave for eternity.
Consort Yu, the First Prince’s imperial consort who had previously been exiled to the military camps to serve the troops, was granted amnesty this time and returned to her husband’s side.
And Imperial Consort Shu, who had once been the most favored in the harem, had long been deposed, so naturally she had to go with her son this time.
As for the Second Prince’s side.
Leaving aside his imperial consort, there was only his newly wed side consort from last year, who was the Lu Family’s eldest legitimate daughter Lu Xiyao.
It was an imperial marriage grant decreed by the Old Emperor during his reign.
At the time, some court officials speculated that perhaps this was the emperor leaving a way out for his son.
After all, Lu Ziyan had grown up in the Lu Family, and it was an undeniable fact that he had received the Lu Family’s nurturing grace.
Lu Xiyao had once been his own blood little sister; with her in the Second Prince’s residence, the Second Prince surely would not end up too miserable in the future.
Only Xie Wanning knew.
Probably, this imperial decree of marriage was issued by Lu Ziyan himself.
He simply wanted to lump Lu Xiyao together with the First Prince or the Second Prince, anyway.
To deal with them all at once later.
She had always wanted to know Lu Xiyao’s outcome in her past life.
Thinking about it now, it was probably the same in her past life.
No one would know what kind of days these people lived in that cold alley from which no one could escape.
