Chapter 54: The End

Chapter 54 The End

To Hu Sheng, the cause of the capital's turmoil seemed utterly absurd.

It all began during the Qixi Festival, when Empress Zhao Qingcheng, as was customary, hosted a palace banquet. The daughter of the Vice Minister of Penal Affairs made a minor error in her ceremonial etiquette. Zhao Qingcheng, ever gracious, showed great tolerance and did not reprimand the girl. However, upon learning of this incident, Li Xiuye secretly dispatched assassins to kill her.

Li Xiuye believed the girl had disrespected Zhao Qingcheng out of jealousy. More precisely, he thought she had deliberately acted out of line to attract his attention, and he would not permit anyone who threatened his relationship with Zhao Qingcheng to live.

While emperors are typically perceived as domineering and supremely self-important, Li Xiuye’s level of narcissism—believing that every girl in the world should inherently love him—still shocked Hu Sheng.

His immediate decision to send assassins to eliminate the girl, a tactic he frequently employed, was made almost without a second thought.

Had the matter ended there, it would not have plunged the entire capital into chaos. However, the girl’s father, a loving parent, could not accept his daughter’s unexplained death and spared no effort to uncover the truth.

As it turned out, the Vice Minister of Penal Affairs possessed considerable investigative skills. Through various clues, he managed to apprehend an imperial guard and, under severe interrogation, obtained evidence that the emperor had ordered his daughter’s murder. Armed with this proof, he intended to present his case by striking the imperial drum.

He knew that accusing the emperor would likely end in tragedy. He had even prepared his own coffin, determined to seek justice for his daughter at any cost, risking his own life and sending the rest of his family away from the capital.

However, his plans were not kept sufficiently secret, and Li Xiuye learned of them in advance. The minister met the same fate as his daughter—assassinated on his way to appeal for justice.

This incident had been closely watched by various factions within the court. When the minister was also assassinated, many high-ranking officials in the capital felt a chill of dread, while the regional lords, conversely, rejoiced as if they had seized an immense advantage.

Murdering an innocent girl was shameful enough, but to secretly assassinate a court official—even an emperor should not commit such a foolish act.

On the very night the Vice Minister of Penal Affairs was killed, eight regional lords, along with the most powerful officials including the Chancellor, ministers of the various boards, and several dukes, launched a joint palace coup.

They all believed that if the emperor remained in power, their lives would constantly be at risk, as if perpetually under the executioner's blade. Since the danger was already so great, they decided rebellion was their only recourse.

When Hu Sheng received this news, he found it both unbelievable and yet understandable.

Li Xiuye’s path to power had always been fraught with assassinations and intrigues. He had grown accustomed to ruling through intimidation. However, such oppressive governance, while temporarily effective in subduing the populace, ultimately provoked widespread resistance.

Some might assume that palace coups are meticulously planned, filled with intricate strategies and conspiracies, but often they appear rash and absurd.

Whether successful or not, history records instances of coup leaders getting lost in the palace, palace maids joining forces to kill the emperor, and eunuchs locking the emperor in a palace to starve to death. These events may seem absurd, but they are real occurrences documented in historical records.

The coup in Xu Country was equally absurd. The regional lords and officials who stormed the palace seized the imperial jade seal and took the empress and crown prince hostage, yet the emperor, with his formidable martial arts skills, managed to escape. The temporarily allied regional lords and court officials then turned on each other in an internal conflict.

The outcome was that the court officials installed the three-year-old crown prince as emperor, announcing a change in regime. Half of the regional lords were killed, while the rest fled the capital, intending to return to their domains and declare themselves emperors.

When Hu Sheng received this news, he read it over three times, his veins throbbing with frustration. He was utterly speechless.

Even though he and Zhao An had faced such unfair treatment, their choice was to flee abroad. In contrast, the court officials, regional lords, and the emperor all acted irresponsibly, treating the entire nation as a tool for their power struggles and the lives of all common people as disposable pawns.

Zhao An also saw the news from Xu Country and finally realized that the story of "City-Toppling Tears" had come to an end. In fact, the story had reached its conclusion the moment Zhao Qingcheng became empress and her son was named crown prince. From then on, Li Xiuye and Zhao Qingcheng were no longer favored by fate, and their lives began to unravel.

Perhaps this was an inevitability under the will of the world. When Li Xiuye was emperor, he would stop at nothing for love. To win Zhao Qingcheng, he eliminated all rivals and those he perceived as threats. His success was always built on violent brutality. But when his luck ran out, that very brutality brought upon him consequences he could not bear.

This ridiculous love story had finally ended, but the era of war and tragedy had just begun.

Zhao An paced around the room several times before finally looking up at Hu Sheng and asking, "Are you interested in vying for control of the Central Plains?"

Hu Sheng touched his face, then raised his luminous blue eyes to look at Zhao An. "Would the people of the Central Plains accept a non-Han person like me as their emperor?" Then he laughed, flashing an arrogant smile. "But I can make you their emperor."

However, Zhao An had an even bolder plan in mind, though he was not yet ready to share it with Hu Sheng. His idea required a great deal of effort, so he decided to keep it to himself for the time being.

From that day on, while the Central Plains were engulfed in war, Hu Sheng and his people took refuge on the border between Nanyue Country and Xu Country, continuously taking in refugees.

They cultivated the land, planting rice that yielded over a thousand *jin* per *mu* (approximately 1,300 pounds per acre) in the southern region, where three crops a year were possible. This allowed them to take in even more people the following year. These once malnourished and hungry refugees gradually grew stronger after arriving.

In the second year of the frequent wars in Xu Country, the king of Nanyue Country could no longer tolerate Hu Sheng and his group’s presence and secretly launched an attack against them. However, with the combination of telescopes and watchtowers, Nanyue’s army was intercepted in a canyon just after leaving the royal city.

After a few cannon blasts, rolling stones split the army in two. Instead of pursuing the victory, Hu Sheng’s troops stood on high ground and shouted through megaphones, "Surrender, and you will not be killed."

After this battle, Hu Sheng and his forces effectively gained control over all of Nanyue Country.

They then settled on this fertile land, farming while observing the various armies in the Central Plains battle back and forth.

Li Xiuye returned to his original domain and organized his most elite troops, with the primary goal of marching back to the capital to reclaim his son and wife.

But fate continued to play cruel twists on him. Despite his formidable martial arts skills, which allowed him to infiltrate the palace multiple times, his army was no match for the capital’s forces.

After his army was defeated, he could not single-handedly escape with his wife and son, so he was forced to flee alone once again.

Three years later, he assembled another large army to attack the capital. However, on the way, he unexpectedly clashed with the army of another regional lord. The two sides fought to the death, and this time, Li Xiuye emerged victorious. He led his remaining troops to the capital and successfully stormed the city. But his son, who had been a figurehead emperor for only three years and was still very young, was someone Li Xiuye never suspected. During a victory celebration that evening, the child poisoned Li Xiuye’s wine.

Li Xiuye’s martial arts skills were exceptional, so the poison did not kill him instantly. As he looked around in shock, he saw his son smiling with a malicious grin and saying, "Father, why did you have to return? Now that you’re back, I can’t be emperor anymore. There won’t be as many people to play with me. This isn’t fun."

Li Xiuye died, but before he did, he swung his sword and killed his wife and son. Then he set fire to the Phoenix Algae Palace, which had been built for Zhao Qingcheng with the finest wood gathered from across the land.

It took Zhao An and Hu Sheng ten years to gradually advance from the south to the capital. During this time, Zhao An promoted simplified writing and a phonetic system among his followers. Using lead-type printing, they produced inexpensive books. Everyone who joined the army learned to read, and girls also had the opportunity to work in factories, where they were taught to read as well. They were promoted to supervisory roles, gradually gaining management skills. Later, schools teaching various subjects were established. Over more than a decade, the world underwent transformative changes.

Standing before the former palace, Zhao An pointed to the dilapidated dragon throne and said, "Now, in this world, it is us, the common people, who are in charge. There will be no more emperors. Let us move toward a republican government."

Hu Sheng held his hand and smiled. "I'll follow your lead."

(End of Book)