0p0 Chapter 745 Preparing for a Mutiny?
Chapter 745 Preparing for a Mutiny?
News soon arrived from the capital that the Crown Prince had succumbed to his injuries and passed away.
The entire nation of Dayong was in mourning.
The Emperor fell seriously ill and was bedridden, and the Empress was also confined to her sickbed. For a time, the atmosphere in the entire capital was extremely gloomy.
After returning to the capital, Prince Ming did not take any action. He went to visit the Crown Prince as required.
Now that the crown prince is gone, although he can't say he's particularly grieving, to be honest, he's not particularly happy either.
He was the younger brother and was tasked with keeping vigil for the Crown Prince.
After keeping vigil for two days and two nights, he was persuaded by the crowd to go back and rest at home for a day before continuing the vigil. Otherwise, even a body of iron would not be able to endure it.
Prince Ming heeded the advice and returned to his residence that evening. He didn't eat much and went to bed to sleep.
He was truly exhausted.
After two sleepless nights, coupled with the anxiety of the past few days, his mind suddenly felt empty, and he naturally felt exceptionally relaxed.
King Ming slept until the early hours of the morning, only to be woken up by hunger.
Fortunately, there were people waiting outside who immediately went to prepare food for the prince.
After the prince finished using it, he felt his strength return and was no longer as sleepy as before.
Once he regained his senses, he realized something was wrong. Turning his head, he saw a man in black standing in a corner of the room.
This immediately terrified the Prince Ming. Just as he was about to call for help, he heard the man say in a sinister tone, "Your Highness, I have come to save you. If Your Highness thinks you can overcome this difficulty, then just pretend I was never here."
The Ming King immediately tensed up, "Who are you? What difficulties are you facing?"
"Your Highness should understand that the fact that I've been here for two hours without being discovered shows that my skills are far beyond those of your men. If I truly wanted Your Highness's life, how could Your Highness speak like this now?"
The King's expression changed slightly. "Who exactly are you? What brings you here in the middle of the night?"
"As I've said, I'm doing this so that you can get through this difficult time smoothly. If I'm not mistaken, His Highness Prince Kang secretly passed a message to you in the mourning hall of the Eastern Palace, didn't he?"
King Ming was truly frightened this time.
Such a secret matter was unknown even to his own attendants; how did he find out?
"Your Highness, do not be afraid. I am here to remind you that you should think twice before you act. In particular, you should open your eyes wide and see who is loyal and who is treacherous. Don't let others use you as a pawn and end up not even knowing how you died."
"Insolence!" When had anyone ever provoked or mocked the King of Light like this?
"Hehe! Your Highness can still call me presumptuous now, but I'm afraid you might not be able to say it after the day of the Crown Prince's burial."
At this, King Ming's body trembled. It was not for any other reason than that King Kang had secretly agreed with him that on the day of the Crown Prince's burial, they would seize power by forcing the emperor to abdicate.
The meaning of the Prince Kang was to force the emperor to abdicate, place Prince An under house arrest, and support Prince Ming to ascend the throne as emperor.
This is the capital. No matter how powerful the Prince of Chang Le is, if he is not in the capital, by the time they have the Emperor's decree of abdication and succession, everything will be set in stone and cannot be changed.
As for Duanmu Chen, the Prince of Kang believed it would be better to kill him cleanly by poisoning him.
However, Prince Ming felt that with the death of the Crown Prince, all their grudges would be wiped clean, and as for the Crown Princess, he heard that she wouldn't last more than two days.
Therefore, the Crown Prince is really not a threat.
Unexpectedly, the other party knew everything about such a secret matter, and judging from his extremely sharp eyes, he clearly had known about it for a long time.
"What do you want?" Ming Wang was unsure whether the other party really knew or was deliberately bluffing him, so he simply changed the subject.
"It seems Your Highness still doesn't trust me. Let me put it this way: do you know who attacked Xingzhou not long ago?"
“Of course I know, it’s the third prince of the Turks, Keli. What? You’re in cahoots?”
"Your Highness is overthinking it! I am a true Han Chinese, and of course I would never do such a thing as colluding with foreign powers."
King Ming frowned. "What exactly are you trying to say?"
"Isn't Your Majesty curious as to why the Third Prince used some tactics commonly employed by the Han people several times during his battles with you?"
Ming Wang's eyes flickered slightly as he began to carefully recall the circumstances of their encounter with the King of Chang Le before his arrival.
"That's certainly true, so what?"
"If I told you it was because there was a Han Chinese strategist in the opposing camp, would you still think it's nothing?"
"Han people?"
King Ming shifted slightly, clearly still not understanding the other party's intentions. "What exactly do you mean by that?"
"Your Highness, the Han Chinese strategist was killed by the trampling of horses when the Prince of Changle was ordered to pursue him. He also had a jade pendant on his body, and judging from its quality, it must have been a nobleman of the Dayong Dynasty."
"You? You mean that someone in my Great Yong is colluding with him to bring disaster to my Great Yong?"
"Your Highness has finally understood. Fortunately, the Prince of Changle dispatched troops in time; otherwise, your Xingzhou would probably have fallen long ago. Not only that, but that man's identity has now been discovered. Doesn't Your Highness want to know who he is connected to?"
King Ming's face turned extremely ugly as he slowly pondered all of this. After a long while, he asked in an extremely uncertain tone, "Are you talking about King Kang?"
"It seems that Your Highness believes it shouldn't be him."
This confirms it's him!
Prince Ming shook his head slightly, swayed, and slumped into a chair. "How could this be? What happened? Why him? He's a prince of the Great Yong Dynasty! How dare he?"
"What wouldn't he dare to do for that position? Your Highness, you should be glad that when the King of Changle's men arrived in your Xingzhou territory, you didn't open the city gates and let the Turkic soldiers into the city. Otherwise, those hundreds of thousands of troops would have taken more than just the life of the Turkic Keli; they would have taken your head, Prince Ming."
King Ming was so frightened that cold sweat broke out all over his back.
"You mean to say that if my fourth brother hadn't reminded me to keep an eye on those foreigners early on, they might have taken advantage of the chaos to open the city gates? In that case, I would have been accused of colluding with the Turks?"
"Your Highness has at least retained some semblance of consciousness. Your Highness, you should thank Prince Chang Le for pointing you in the right direction back then, otherwise, hehe, now, it might not be the Crown Prince being buried, but you, Prince Ming!"