She knew it. Although Yang Zhongqing had abandoned them, mother and son, he was still their son, and would not have been able to bring himself to kill him. The mastermind was Wu Qingzhi. But how could a woman who never left her chambers have such great power? It was obvious that those who had helped her back then were remnants of the previous dynasty.
But she wondered which faction had targeted them during the time they had just returned to the capital. The methods didn't seem to belong to the remnants of the previous dynasty. In the original owner's past life, they hadn't even appeared. Currently, it seemed the mastermind was well hidden, and she could only wait until they returned to the capital to investigate thoroughly.
"Your Highness the Third Prince, may I know what you are hesitating about? We already have six hundred thousand troops. No matter what, the Emperor cannot win. We can directly level the capital." Since pledging allegiance to the Third Prince, Zuo Ziqing had been waiting for the day they would march into the capital with the Third Prince, wanting to slap his stepmother's face. He had waited and waited, but the Third Prince had made no move. Feeling impatient, he came before him to urge him.
The Third Prince looked at his anxious expression and understood what he was thinking. He patted his shoulder and smiled, "I am waiting for an opportunity."
"What opportunity? Why wait for an opportunity?" Zuo Ziqing asked curiously, wanting to know if he could help the prince create one.
"Undeniably, I have the ambition to usurp the throne. If we were to march directly into the capital, it would indeed be an easy task. But doing so would alienate the people. Those old fuddy-duddies would surely condemn me to death. It would be more loss than gain. Furthermore, our establishing ourselves here would help develop the economy and allow the people to live and work in peace and contentment," the Third Prince said, gazing into the distance.
Zuo Ziqing, somewhat enlightened, bowed to him and wanted to leave quickly to find someone to ask.
Originally, everyone thought the opportunity the Third Prince was waiting for would take a very, very long time. Unexpectedly, it arrived so soon.
The Emperor had lost all his troops. He felt unwilling, no matter how he thought about it. He knew how many manipulations he had made over the years, and how many times he had pushed the Third Prince to the brink of death. He believed the Third Prince also knew. He didn't believe that after all he had done to him, the Third Prince would repay his kindness with benevolence after becoming Emperor and let him off. There was only one way: to fight with all his might.
In order to confront the Third Prince, he ordered all men between fifteen and forty-five years old in the Tian Chao to enlist. Instantly, cries of grief filled the countryside. Since the founding of the dynasty, they had never been conscripted. Even so, they knew the dangers; those who went to battle rarely returned.
Although the Emperor also allowed men to buy their way out of service with silver, fifty taels of silver per person was not something everyone could afford.
In an instant, there were widespread grievances. A peasant family in a small mountain village had only fifty taels of silver in total, which could exempt two people from military service. However, there were five men in the family eligible for conscription. The elderly grandfather unanimously agreed that he should take up one spot. In addition, his three sons and eldest grandson were all on the list for military service.
The eldest daughter-in-law felt that her family could not lose two people and that spot must be reserved for the eldest branch. The second and third branches were indignant. They had done a lot of work and earned quite a bit of silver, all of which they had honestly handed over. It was easy to imagine the life their sons would lead without their fathers. At this time, everyone was considering their own small families.
No matter how hard the old couple tried to reason with them, no one agreed. That night, while all the branches were asleep, they secretly found the military official, paid the silver, and had the eldest son's name removed. The next day, when the second and third sons learned the truth, they could not accept the outcome and beat up the eldest son fiercely.
The old couple tried to intervene, but the second and third daughters-in-law intentionally or unintentionally blocked them. In the end, they helped up their bruised eldest son and looked at their second and third sons, their eyes full of anger. They closed their eyes in resignation. They insisted on keeping the eldest son because they also had selfish motives; after all, the eldest son was to inherit the family business and care for his parents. They also feared being left alone in their old age.
Such tragedies continued to unfold. Eventually, a rumor began to circulate among the populace, spreading from one person to ten, then to a hundred. It was said that the Third Prince had declared that as long as the Emperor could recognize reality and abdicate, he would let bygones be bygones. Even the court officials were promised that only half of them would be replaced.
The Emperor was furious upon hearing this. He knocked all the memorials on his table to the floor and said to the eunuch beside him, "He wants to sway public opinion! At this moment, there are probably many people leaning towards them. After all, if a war breaks out, the court has no chance of winning. The victor becomes king, the vanquished becomes a bandit. They won't have a good outcome either. If they surrender now, at least half of their official positions can be preserved, and the other half, even if lost, can escape unscathed. This must be the outcome Gao Zimu desires, right?"
The grand eunuch lowered his head and dared not speak. He and the Emperor were in the same boat. The Third Prince would spare anyone but him. He completely understood the Emperor's anger, but he was also very helpless in the face of his future fate.
The Emperor did not want to admit it, but he knew that both of them would not have a good ending. He had lived a good life, having once been second only to the Emperor, with everyone bowing to him. How many of them, as grand eunuchs, had a good end?
He had come to terms with it, but the Emperor could not. He did not want to die. As for abdicating and yielding the throne, he would do that in his next life.
As expected, the next day when he announced the continuation of conscription, he was immediately met with widespread opposition. The Emperor was angered by their defiance. They were already going against him before the troops had even departed. This was unacceptable. To kill the rooster to scare the monkeys, he immediately ordered his secret guards to arrest and execute the ringleaders. Only then did people dare not say more.
Just as the Emperor was smugly congratulating himself, when he sent people to dispatch the troops, another problem arose. As the common people saw their loved ones about to leave, they were extremely reluctant. An old woman loudly questioned, "Didn't the Third Prince say that as long as we surrender, bygones will be bygones? Why do we have to fight?"
The yamen runners looked at them dismissively and said condescendingly, "We are acting under the Emperor's decree. Do you believe rumors?"
"We believe it. The Third Prince was once the God of War, our protector. I don't believe he can cruelly kill us. It must be you who are unwilling to relinquish your power and have lost all conscience, fearing the Third Prince's retribution, that you are obstructing us in every way possible." The old woman looked at him with determined eyes. Having lived through that era, she knew that the Third Prince had eaten and lived with the soldiers back then and treated everyone with extreme kindness. She believed he loved his people as his own children.
The yamen runners saw the wavering expressions on the faces of the common people and felt that continuing like this was not an option. They wanted to drive the old woman away, but how could she be willing? She had come today to see her son off. The years of war had taken her eldest and second sons, and this was her only remaining son. It was possible that this was goodbye forever, and how could she accept it?