Chapter 98 - Chapter 98: Chapter 98: The North Prince's Family Letter 1

Chapter 98: Chapter 98: The North Prince’s Family Letter 1

Translator: 549690339

The atmosphere within Xuanzheng Hall was unbearably somber, with the ministers hardly daring to breathe.

With such an incident occurring under the heavens, they did not know how angry the Sum Emperor was by now, and they certainly didn’t dare to draw his ire at this moment.

After a long while, the Sum Emperor finally spoke, “Since my ascension to the throne, such a vile incident has occurred for the second time in the Capital city. It is a contempt for imperial authority, a provocation against me!”

As he said this, the Sum Emperor’s gaze fell upon the head of the Imperial Guards, “Li Ming, have all the assassins from last night been captured?”

Hearing this, the head of the Imperial Guards, Li Ming, suddenly knelt down with a thud and quickly said, “Your… Your Majesty, when your subordinate arrived at Prince Lu Shuyun’s residence last night, those assassins had already fled.”

Li Ming’s cold sweat was flowing freely as he feared that the Sum Emperor, in a fit of anger, might order him to be dragged out and beheaded on the spot.

Hearing Li Ming’s statement, the Sum Emperor coldly said, “The last time, you allowed remnants from Chen Nation to infiltrate the Imperial Palace, and I did not punish you. This time, a bloodbath occurred in the Prince’s residence within the imperial city, and you didn’t even catch a glimpse of the assassins’ shadows. What use is there for you as head of the Imperial Guards!”

“Effective immediately, relieve Li Ming of all duties and banish him to the frontier.”

Hearing the Sum Emperor’s words, Li Ming breathed a sigh of relief and then kowtowed, saying, “Thank you for your Imperial grace!”

Although he had lost his position, at least his life was spared, and Li Ming felt somewhat lucky.

At that moment, the Sum Emperor continued, “Turn this case over to the Ministry of Criminal Justice for investigation. Within three days, 1 need a satisfactory answer!”

As soon as these words were spoken, the officials from the Ministry of Criminal Justice began to tremble with fear.

This was not something they were able to investigate, nor dared to investigate.

The assassins had directly slaughtered their way through Prince Lu Shuyun’s residence, even killing the Grandmaster there. This indicated that among last night’s assassins there was at least one Grandmaster.

To dispatch a Grandmaster, and daring to boldly bloodbath a Prince’s residence, there must be a significant power behind it.

It might even be the work of another Prince.

Should they really find out it was another Prince who did it, that would be a hot potato for the Ministry of Criminal Justice. In Great Sum, the Ministry simply had no way or right to judge a Prince’s crime.

Although they knew it was a hot potato, the officials from the Ministry of Criminal Justice dared not refuse. With the Sum Emperor currently in a rage, they feared decapitation for even speaking out at such a time.

Then, the Sum Emperor said to Lu Shuyun, “Qi Prince, rise. I will see justice done for you.”

Lu Shuyun hurriedly responded, “This humble son thanks Father Emperor.”

The Sum Emperor did not continue to dwell on this matter. Although the incident was extremely vile, the assassins had not yet been captured, and not even a shred of information about them was available. It was too early to discuss how to deal with them.

Today, there were other matters for discussion. At this point, the Sum Emperor turned to the Minister of Revenue, “Minister Wang, I hear you are withholding the provisions for the army heading to North City. Is there any truth to this?”

Minister of Revenue, Wang Hai, quickly replied, “Your Majesty, it’s not that your servant wishes to withhold the army’s provisions, but the Ministry of Household is seriously in deficit. It is quite difficult to gather such a large sum of money in such a short time.”

The Sum Emperor replied with indifference, “Are you saying that if you cannot gather the money, the court should not send troops to North City to counter the Barbarian Tribe?”

“Wang Hai, could it be that you have colluded with the Barbarian Tribe, wishing for them to march unimpeded straight to the Capital city, intentionally delaying the army’s departure?”

Hearing the Sum Emperor’s words, Wang Hai’s complexion turned ashen in an instant. Although the Wang Family did indeed have dealings with the Barbarian Tribe, he had not expected the Sum Emperor to directly bring it up.

While the Sum Emperor seemed to be probing, Wang Hai couldn’t shake the feeling that the Emperor might know something.

Wang Hai immediately knelt down and said, “Your Majesty, your servant is earnestly preparing the army’s provisions.”

The Sum Emperor coldly stated, “If within three days the army still cannot march north, then you will no longer need to serve as the Minister of Revenue.”

Just as the Sum Emperor was about to continue, a voice suddenly echoed from the entrance of the grand hall.

“Urgent news from the North Land!”

The next moment, a Red Ribbon Messenger hurried into the hall.

Seeing the Red Ribbon Messenger, the faces of the ministers in the hall turned sour.

If they were using a Red Ribbon Messenger at this time, did it mean that the Barbarian Tribe had already begun to move south?

While the imperial court’s army was still worrying about food and fodder, the cavalry of the Barbarian Tribe had already moved south. How were they supposed to defend North City?

Could they really rely on that worthless Prince?

Better not count on that. It’s likely that the worthless Prince would flee back to the Capital City before the Barbarian cavalry even reached Yan County.

At this point, the Red Ribbon Messenger said, “The North Fre King of the Barbarian Tribe has already gathered a hundred thousand cavalry at the court of the Sky Wolf King and is about to move south!”

“This is a battle report from the North Prince, and in addition, the North Prince has also sent a personal letter to His Majesty.”

Upon hearing this, everyone in the hall was taken aback.

A personal letter?

A Prince writing a personal letter to the Emperor?

This…

It seemed not entirely inappropriate.

Although the North Prince had taken up his fief, he was, after all, the son of the Emperor, and there was a father-son relationship.

However, since the establishment of Great Sum, it seemed there had never been an instance of a Seignior writing a personal letter to the Emperor; they always submitted official memorials.

The eunuch by the Sum Emperor’s side didn’t hesitate and immediately approached the Red Ribbon Messenger, took both the battle report and the personal letter, and then presented them to the Sum Emperor.

After receiving the battle report and the personal letter, the Sum Emperor first looked over the battle report. The report itself had no issues, and the North Prince also mentioned the arrangements for North City in it.

What puzzled the Sum Emperor, however, was that Lu Chen actually planned to adopt a scorched-earth strategy, moving all the common people north of Yan County to the south and then leading the army to face off against the three hundred thousand-strong Barbarian Army in a decisive battle at Yan County. The Sum Emperor furrowed his brows. Whose strategy was this?

He didn’t believe that his good-for-nothing son had the audacity to do this. Setting aside whether the strategy was effective or not, it would require immense courage to dare to attempt it.

Yan County currently had only thirty thousand, at most fifty thousand soldiers. It would not be easy for a single Yan County to hold back the Barbarian cavalry.

Moreover, this would lead to Yan County being besieged by the Barbarian Army. He knew what character his son had, how could he not? The Sum Emperor was quite skeptical that Lu Chen would put himself in danger.

After finishing the battle report, the Sum Emperor then opened Lu Chen’s personal letter.

Just seeing the beginning of the personal letter, the Sum Emperor snorted coldly. He just knew Lu Chen couldn’t suddenly become so courageous; it turned out he wanted the Emperor to send reinforcements to North City as soon as possible.

Seeing how Lu Chen lamented in a pitiful and despicable manner in the letter, the Sum Emperor felt like tearing the letter up immediately. However, he ultimately restrained himself and continued reading.

When he reached the end, his expression darkened instantly, especially after seeing the last line of text, the Sum Emperor’s brows immediately furrowed.

He had actually long suspected that this southward move by the Barbarian Tribe was connected to the Aristocratic Families, something that didn’t need investigation to guess. But he didn’t know exactly who was colluding with the Barbarian Tribe.

The fact that the weapons of Great Sumian standard mentioned by Lu Chen in the personal letter did nothing but confirm his suspicions.

What truly caused the Sum Emperor to frown was the mention of Prince Lu Shuyun in the letter..