0p0 Chapter 1018 The eldest daughter is as bright as spring flowers (14)
Chapter 1018 The eldest daughter is as bright as spring flowers (14)
Chapter 1018: The eldest daughter is as bright as spring flowers (One hundred and forty)
In fact, Zhao Lan concealed the iron ore, mined it privately, and killed three hundred miners. The families of the miners united and went to the capital to file a complaint.
Wei Ying escorted those people to the capital, and reported to His Majesty that the Third Prince had assassinated Prime Minister Song, joined forces with his father-in-law, General Wuyi, to recruit soldiers, and had already gathered 20,000 private soldiers.
During this period, Zhao Lan and Zhao Yu were the most favored by the emperor, who often summoned them.
The court officials all thought that the emperor might want to choose an heir from among the two, and more people bet on Zhao Yu. After all, Zhao Lan had been confined by the emperor, and the imperial edict also stated that Zhao Lan was deeply scheming.
Suddenly, someone impeached the Third Prince, Zhao Lan, in the imperial court. The accusers were full of confidence, alleging that Zhao Lan had murdered hundreds of miners, concealed the existence of iron ore, illegally manufactured weapons, and was plotting rebellion.
The moment these words came out, the entire court was filled with shock. The emperor was even more horrified. He could never have imagined that the Third Prince, who had always acted so loyal, would actually do such a treasonous act.
In the court, the ministers were discussing the matter.
The Junior Secretary of the Dali Temple stepped forward and spoke in a resounding voice to defend Zhao Lan: "Your Majesty, the Third Prince has always been virtuous. This must be a misunderstanding!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the Minister of War retorted, "Your Majesty, there are witnesses and evidence, it is definitely not groundless!" The two of them argued back and forth, and the court instantly became a mess.
The emperor was annoyed. He looked at the evidence. He had expected his son to be restless, but this kind of restlessness was still a challenge to his authority. He slapped the armrest of the dragon throne, shocking the ministers. "Come here, arrest the third prince!"
However, when the Imperial Guards arrived at Zhao Lan's residence, they found it deserted. Wei Ying reported, "Your Majesty, the Third Prince has escaped the capital through a secret passage!"
This news was like a drop of water thrown into a frying pan, and it immediately caused an uproar in the palace and the court.
Some speculated that Zhao Lan had planned this in advance and was preparing to gather troops outside and wait for an opportunity to act; others believed that this might be a frame-up by other princes who intended to eliminate dissidents.
For a time, all kinds of speculations and rumors were flying around, and the entire palace fell into unprecedented turmoil.
The emperor ordered the arrest of Zhao Lan, but Zhao Lan had already escaped. Only his concubines remained in the mansion. The third prince's wife and other children were secretly sent away by Zhao Lan.
Wei Ying personally led people to chase after him, but in the end he just let Zhao Lan escape to the northeast under the cover of his assassins.
Zhao Lan, now oblivious to the palace's Noble Lady Tang and the Tang family, was desperate to escape. Even after hearing that his mother had been banished to the cold palace and the entire Tang family's property had been confiscated, he refused to turn back. The emperor dispatched forces to pursue his ambitious son, but Zhao Lan, already in his thirties, had previously hidden behind the former Crown Prince Zhao Duan, cultivating a network of influence that allowed him to evade capture and ultimately escape capture.
However, his family members, except for the third prince's wife and his legitimate son Zhao Jing, who had been taken away by General Wuyi's men long ago, the remaining two concubines and three sons and four daughters were all captured by the emperor's men.
The emperor couldn't take his anger out on these people. After all, they were his grandchildren, and they must have tried to please him in the past, letting him experience the feeling of being an imperial grandfather.
As the powerful party, the emperor disdained to kill these people. Killing them would only make his reputation more violent. Killing Zhao Lan's nine clans was even more impossible.
The emperor simply had them brought back and imprisoned in the Third Prince's former residence.
In other words, Zhao Lan's concubines and children attracted the attention of the pursuers, allowing Zhao Lan to escape smoothly. When Zhao Lan arrived in the northeast, he immediately established his own regime.
The emperor was so angry that he demoted Zhao Lan to a commoner in the court and personally ordered General Guo Xuezhen of Yunhui to lead an army of 50,000 to the north to kill the rebel Zhao Lan.
Guo Xuezhen was a veteran, forty-eight years old, with extensive combat experience. He was not related to Zhao Lan by marriage. The emperor felt relieved when he assigned Guo Xuezhen to suppress the rebels.
Just as Guo Xuezhen led his troops to war, another major event occurred in the east.