novelhk Chapter 559: Aristocratic Family Revolts against Yuan Dynasty
Chapter 559: Aristocratic Family Revolts against Yuan Dynasty
After a while, a guard troop of a thousand men in black armor rushed in from outside, surrounded the four family heads and protected them.
All the palace guards who came to stop them were killed by their swords.
Empress Dowager Yuan was so angry that she almost vomited blood. She looked at the four family heads below, and her clenched fists were shaking.
"You, you guys are so brave that you dare to let people break into the palace without permission and bring weapons into the palace."
"Don't you know that trespassing into the palace will result in the extermination of all nine clans?"
Qi Huaichuan sneered, "Of course I know, but it was you, Empress Dowager Yuan, who was unkind first."
"You are going to take us to jail. Do we four have to stand here and wait for your men to come and arrest us? Don't you know how to resist?"
"Everyone knows what the Heavenly Prison is. If you go in, you may not come out alive. The four of us are already quite old. If we go in, wouldn't that be just what you want?"
Her dark thoughts were exposed, and Empress Dowager Yuan became so angry that her neck turned red and her palms were bleeding.
She originally thought that after she had secured the throne of the Yuan Dynasty, she would then find a way to move the people from the four great families, force them to reveal their cards little by little, and disintegrate their power.
In this way, no one in the entire court could pose a threat to the Yuan Dynasty's status.
However, Empress Dowager Yuan had never anticipated the series of events that would occur on the day of the crown prince's enthronement.
First, her affair with the imperial teacher was exposed, then the identity of the Yuan Dynasty's illegitimate child was exposed, and then the imperial teacher's original wife and daughter's mother came to the door, and the results of the blood test were completely consistent.
Although these emergencies were beyond Empress Dowager Yuan's expectations, it did not mean that she had no solutions.
As the queen mother, she was the most powerful person in the world. Even if she had an affair with another man, no one present dared to throw her into a pig cage.
She can still live well. She will kill anyone who dares to speak nonsense. It is that simple and brutal.
These matters were still within her scope of handling, but the collusion and treason of the four major families caught her off guard.
It was only then that Empress Dowager Yuan discovered that the group of guards who suddenly broke in to protect the heads of the four great families were wearing Jingwei armor made of fine iron ore.
Generally, only those who go to the battlefield are qualified to wear this kind of armor, and ordinary guards are not qualified to wear it.
It is even more impossible for them to own such a set, because all these armors are controlled by the court. When not in use, they will be handed over and locked up, and guarded and registered by special personnel.
As for rare and precious refining materials such as refined iron ore, once discovered, they must be reported to the imperial court. Concealing or embezzling them is a serious crime, and in serious cases, the entire clan will be exterminated.
The amount of ore used to craft thousands of sets of armor cannot be underestimated, and the more you craft, the more time is wasted.
If the court's thousands of sets of armor were loaned out by the heads of the four great families, there is no way that Empress Dowager Yuan was unaware of this.
This means that the Jingwei armor worn by these guards was not from the imperial court. In all likelihood, they had people make it by secretly mining.
This kind of armor is invulnerable to swords and guns, and is impervious to water and fire. If you want to kill someone, you can only attack the enemy's exposed skin. It is a great defensive weapon in combat.
Queen Mother Yuan dared to guarantee that the number of Jingwei armors in the hands of the heads of the four great families would definitely not be just thousands of sets, they would definitely have even more.
If this is true, it means that the heads of the four major families had already planned to rebel!
Perhaps, they have always been on guard against themselves and the Yuan family, making weapons and armor, secretly training private soldiers, and quietly expanding their own power.
Just waiting for the day when he can rebel against the Yuan family and seize power from them.
After realizing the other party's evil ambitions, Queen Dowager Yuan became more murderous.
She had finally brought down the Chu family and seized the imperial power from Emperor Chu. How could she tolerate someone else taking the imperial power away from her again?
This was simply unbearable for her.
Empress Dowager Yuan was so angry that she began to smile, "Well, well, you are really my good subjects and good uncles."
"I trusted you so much that I gave you a share of everything the Yuan family had. I never thought you would train private soldiers to build armor and weapons, intending to rebel against me."
"I originally wanted to spare you this time out of our previous friendship. I would let you stay in jail for a few days and then release you. I would not harm your lives and your family."
"I didn't expect you to be so stubborn. Since you are unwilling to cooperate and are eager to die, I will grant your wish!"
After that, she looked at Zhu Wei, the leader of the imperial guards, with a sharp gaze and ordered: "Commander Zhu, pass on my order. Gather all the people in the palace. Anyone who plots rebellion will be killed without mercy!"
Empress Dowager Yuan also made full preparations today and summoned 50,000 elite soldiers from the Iron Blood Camp outside the capital.
Originally, she asked these people to come here to guard against Yuan Jiuan.
But unexpectedly, it would come in handy now.
Before Yuan Jiuan took any action, they started to deal with their own people.
The heads of the four great families knew very well that what Empress Dowager Yuan said was only for the other ministers to hear.
She said that she would spare them this time out of consideration for their previous friendship, and would release them after letting them stay in jail for a few days. But in fact, she was just talking, and it was impossible for her to release them.
Given the vengeful nature of Empress Dowager Yuan, today the four men disobeyed her in public and even declared that they wanted to seize the throne.
In this regard, if they were caught and imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison today, they would surely die.
If we resist now, there might still be a glimmer of hope.
Soon, Zhu Wei led a large army in. The black mass of soldiers swarmed in like a tide and soon surrounded the Chengqian Palace.
Zhu Wei held a long sword in his hand, waved his hand, and said sternly: "The Queen Mother has ordered that those who plot treason will be killed without mercy!"
Although they were called traitors, their main targets were actually people from the four great families.
The war was about to break out. Both sides drew their swords and soon started fighting.
The sound of weapons clashing rang in the ears, the army's shouts of killing shook the sky, bright red blood splattered on the ground like ink, and screams came one after another, which was horrifying.
The other ministers who came to attend the ceremony of establishing the crown prince were as terrified as they were when they arrived.
They originally thought that Empress Dowager Yuan's words of killing without mercy were just lip service, and she would never take action against anyone from aristocratic families.
After all, the five major families have always been united for more than two hundred years since the founding of the Western Shu Kingdom. They have an unshakable position in the court and very strong economic strength.