Let Me Pursue You

28

Chapter 28
It was also strange to say that a living being was killed at the Yulan Basin Ceremony, and soon afterward, disasters really fell on Great Zhou. A few days later, at the end of Seventh month, the imperial court received the news that heavy rains in Huainan had caused sudden flooding, destroying countless farmland and houses, especially in Shuzhou.

Emperor Huining originally put off Zheng Zhuo’s punishment and planned to catch the conspiracy’s mastermind. But when the news of the flood spread, the ministers and the common people were wagging their tongues, saying that such an indiscriminate disaster was caused by Sixth Prince who angered the Heaven. No matter what, this matter couldn’t be suppressed anymore, and an explanation must be given immediately.

Therefore, the old emperor had no choice but to declare to the outside world that the accident on the Yulan Basin ceremony was indeed caused by the improper arrangement of Sixth Prince and his reckless actions. Now he took back the control of Jinwu Guards in his hands, and punished him for the next whole year by ordering him to go to Wangji Temple on the fifteenth of each month, to chant scriptures behind closed doors, praying for the blessing of Great Zhou, and repaying the evil deeds of killing.

In the eyes of the courtiers, such punishment was not small.

Chanting scriptures was originally harmless, but the stipulated date was tantamount to depriving Zheng Zhuo of the opportunity to participate in the big court meeting every month. Not to mention the Jinwu Guards – this support-army was not only responsible for His Majesty’s travel safety, but also in charge of day-and-night inspection and security of the palace and the capital city, and could be said to be the most important part of defending the capital. Zheng Zhuo’s political achievements, which had finally improved, returned to nothing.

In Chang’an City, many people privately spread that the Sixth Prince was a joke, he lost the power in his hands before it even warmed up. But Yuan Ci Xian knew that it was not the case.

How could the emperor not be aware of such an obvious framing scheme? However, this decision was made out of desperation. This action, on the surface, seemed to be a punishment, but in fact it made Zheng Zhuo get the rarest thing, the emperor’s heart. If Yuan Ci Xian’s guess was correct, the old emperor would quietly make up for this son after gave explanation to the world.

Not to mention, being in charge of the Jinwu Guard seemed to be a glorious job, but a wise person knew that this job was practically harmful but not beneficial. The left and right Jinwu guards each have a general, who used to be directly under the emperor. Until a few years ago, Emperor Huining ordered the second prince to supervise them on the grounds that he was getting older and could no longer personally handle the military affairs.

But in fact, for many years, the second prince had been the outsider of this support-army, and had never been able to make the Jinwu Guard obey him.

How could the suspicious old emperor really delegate such important powers. And the reason for this was because the first prince was so ambitious and even wanted to pull him down from the dragon seat as soon as possible, so the emperor wanted to let the second prince to be a chess piece for check and balance.

Since the second prince had worked so hard for so many years, but still couldn’t get rid of the fate of being a chess piece, why should Zheng Zhuo try in vain? It was really a good thing that he lost the right to be in charge, so as to avoid being treated as chess piece by the emperor, and to avoid being envied by the rest of the princes.

Yuan Ci Xian really admired Zheng Zhuo and Xu Shan’s plan. It seemed Zheng Zuo did not lack the character of enduring hardship to accomplish his ambition, nor the wisdom of foresight, and had a background that made the emperor more at ease because of the lack of power of his maternal family, so why he didn’t succeed in the end? The Thirteenth Prince ascended to the throne, so what kind of ending did he get?