Jinting Han people

Chapter 113 Awakening (4k)

After a bloody battle in the East Palace for more than an hour, Meng Guan finally arrived with reinforcements.

With Meng Guan's arrival and the giant's death, the outcome was sealed. Under the moonlight, the palace guards and reinforcements joined forces, crushing the remaining rebels. Although they attempted a counterattack, they were cornered, attacked from both sides, and saw no hope of success. Ultimately, they were completely slaughtered.

As the leader of this surprise attack on the Eastern Palace, Yang Ji, one of the Three Yangs and the Prince's Grand Tutor, saw that the situation was hopeless. After a sigh, he committed suicide on the spot with a sword without waiting for Meng Guan to capture him. It was quite heroic, but it could not prevent him from being beheaded in public. Even though he was already dead, Yang Ji's head was still cut off by the imperial guards and handed over. His head was also sent to the prefectures and counties as the culprit of the rebellion.

But all this had nothing to do with Liu Xian. After seeing Meng Guan arrive and the giant die, Liu Xian felt relieved. The pain of the fracture was finally unbearable, causing his eyes to turn black and he fainted directly on the ground. He only vaguely heard Jiang Tong shouting something beside him, but he didn't hear it clearly in the end, as his consciousness had already fallen into a pool of stagnant water.

In the darkness, Liu Xian's consciousness seemed to have left his body, yet strangely, he felt a drowsy sense of contentment. It was as if he had transformed into a fish, returning to the ocean's motherly embrace, drifting freely with the current. Everything around him was crystal clear and pure, and all his worries and confusions disappeared. It seemed as if he only needed to sleep in this world. The things of the original world, the coup, the King of Chu, the Crown Prince, the Queen, had nothing to do with him.

After experiencing this bloody battle, Liu Xian felt that life was too tiring. He wanted to get a good rest, or even a permanent rest.

But this thought was fleeting, unreal. Soon, the drowsy moment ended, transforming into a distant dream that drew him forward. Familiar voices seemed to be calling him from the front, like his mother's voice, his wife's greetings, and the encouragement of his teachers and fathers...

Liu Xian couldn't hear clearly, so he walked forward, but as he walked, the sounds gradually blended, merged, separated, rose and fell, and finally turned into an indescribable song, like a love song sung by a woman, or a song of ambition sung by a man, and finally turned into the faint and invisible sound of the wind between heaven and earth.

Suddenly, streams of hot air covered his face, and then he felt something hot and soft crawling on his face, which made Liu Xian feel itchy. He couldn't help wanting to laugh, and then he sneezed loudly. The sneeze was so loud that it startled him suddenly, and all the sleepiness and drowsiness disappeared, and then he opened his eyes.

Before his eyes, the face of a palace maid appeared. She was holding a hot towel and wiping it up and down Liu Xian's face. Liu Xian subconsciously tried to move his wrist, but ended up sitting up straight. Then, he felt a piercing pain in his right arm, causing him to cry out in pain, startling the palace maid beside him.

The maid quickly said, "Prince, please don't move rashly. Your hand is still injured!"

Only then did Liu Xian realize he'd broken his arm fighting the giant. He looked down and saw his clothes had been changed, now into a silk brocade robe embroidered with bamboo patterns. His injured right arm had been wrapped between two bamboo strips, then wrapped in about ten layers of gauze, and finally tied around Liu Xian's neck. The gauze must have been filled with herbs; it had a cool, refreshing smell and a rather unpleasant aroma.

The palace maid quickly helped Liu Xian lie down and said, "Prince, please rest for a while. It's still noon!"

Liu Xian looked outside the hall and saw that the bright sunlight was shining on the steps. He could vaguely see a few clumps of crimson azaleas. He smiled and asked, "I'm a little confused. Where is this?"

Liu Xian's smile was so warm that the maid couldn't help but laugh as well. She replied, "Prince, this is in the West Hall of the East Palace!"

"Ah?" Liu Xian was surprised. No wonder he wasn't familiar with the place. He quickly asked, "Isn't this His Highness's harem? Am I overstepping the boundaries by being here?"

"That's not true! Your Highness, you bravely fought the rebels last night and turned the tide. Everyone saw it. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said that without you, he didn't know what to do. How could he care about these things? He personally arranged for you to be here, so don't worry."

"So that's how it is. Thank you for your compliment." Liu Xian breathed a sigh of relief and then asked rapidly, "Then do you know? What's going on in the palace now? What's going on with the rebels? What's the current situation in Luoyang?"

"This……"

Seeing the maid's embarrassment, Liu Xian suddenly realized that she was just a maid, how could she possibly know all this? He showed an apologetic look and said, "Then please inform His Highness that Liu Xian has woken up."

The maid understood what she meant, knowing that she wanted to talk to the Crown Prince: "Sir, can you take a rest for a while?"

"Thank you for your concern, but I'm probably destined to be a hard worker. I only want to be loyal to the court and contribute to the country, and I don't have any other aspirations."

Liu Xian's words were obviously a joke, but they did not sound hypocritical. The palace maid couldn't help but cover her mouth and laugh when she heard it. Then she put away the towel and basin, bowed slightly to Liu Xian, and turned to walk out.

Then Liu Xian closed his eyes for a while, and heard many footsteps outside the hall. It was obvious that more than one person was coming.

Before the Crown Prince Sima Yi arrived, his voice had arrived first. He used the voice of a teenager and laughed with a pretentious air of maturity, saying, "Come, come and see the great hero of our East Palace!"

Then, with a group of people, they stood directly in front of Liu Xian and said, "You have been hiding this from me for so long. You never told me that you have such a great skill!"

Without waiting for Liu Xian's reply, he turned to a man dressed as a doctor and said, "Doctor Qin, you have to treat his hand well. This hand of his has saved the day before. If he can't wield the knife anymore, it will be a loss for the court."

Doctor Qin smiled apologetically and said, "Your Highness, I've just examined him. Although the Crown Prince has a fracture, fortunately there's nothing else seriously wrong with him. All he needs next is time to rest and recuperate."

"how much time is required?"

"It will take about two to three months to remove the splint, but it will probably take another two to three years to fully recover."

"Two to three years..." Sima Yi said with some regret. He turned to Liu Xian and said, "I was planning to let you recover completely, but now it seems that this time is too long. How about this, Huai Chong, I will give you a six-month leave. You can stay at home and take good care of yourself. Don't complain."

"Your Highness is joking. This is the duty of a subject."

Liu Xian glanced around and looked at the people who followed Sima Yi in. As expected, they were basically officials from the Eastern Palace: Wang Dun, Jiang Tong, Lu Yao, Liu Qiao, Yang Zhun, Feng Sun... In addition to these people, Liu Xian unexpectedly found that Meng Guan was also here. When he saw Liu Xian's eyes looking at him, he smiled apologetically and nodded slightly. Liu Xian also smiled at him.

After hearing Liu Xian's reply, Sima Yi murmured, "A minister's duty, a minister's duty! I think too many people don't know their duty, which is why the country has become like this!"

He murmured on the surface, but in reality he was putting pressure on the people behind him. He then found a straw mat to sit on and said to Liu Xian, "Yesterday, one hundred and eighty guards of the East Palace died. Including the seriously injured, there were a total of three hundred and twenty-nine. Yang Gong doesn't usually show off his power, so I didn't know he was capable of such a thing."

This statement was meant as a sarcastic remark, but for Liu Xian, it was a personal experience. He said, "Yang Ji was able to be favored by the late emperor, so he's certainly not incompetent. In comparison, the palace guards don't have much experience, but they've done their best." "Diligent? Perhaps." Sima Yi smiled, but he didn't pursue the topic further. After all, the Eastern Palace had four thousand guards, but apart from the guards temporarily summoned last night, most of the others were watching from the sidelines. While this was understandable, as it was a matter of life and death, understanding didn't mean forgiveness. Starting today, a large number of palace guards would be convicted and punished.

Sima Yi continued, "Yang Gong's abilities are far more than just this. Just now, Meng Zhonglang told me that Yang Gong killed the spies guarding the mansion, then slipped through the thousands of patrols along the way without anyone noticing, and then raided the Eastern Palace. It's truly terrifying! Even if Wei Wu were reborn, he wouldn't be able to achieve such a level of military prowess."

"Meng Zhonglang, you killed Yang Jun with your own hands, and you also saved me. Speaking of which, you are also a person who knows military affairs. Tell me, do I make sense?"

Meng Guan was speechless for a long time before he said, "Your Highness, sometimes, the use of troops depends not only on the level of military tactics, but also on luck."

"luck?"

"In the art of war, the so-called favorable time, favorable terrain, and favorable people, the favorable time includes luck."

"Your Highness, no matter how powerful a general is, they can't predict every detail of a battle. Sometimes success or failure depends on luck. Take, for example, Cao Cao, the Emperor Wu of Wei. Although he won the Battle of Guandu, we have to admit that Xu You's surrender was an indispensable part of his luck. Another example is Zhou Yu's battle at Red Cliffs. If he hadn't waited for the east wind, he wouldn't have been able to set fire to and defeat Cao Cao's navy. In fact, all battles are like this: 30% depends on the plan, and the remaining 70% depends on luck."

Sima Yi raised an eyebrow and sneered, "So, what Meng Zhonglang is saying is... Yang Ji was able to lead the chaotic army past layers of martial law and searches, and even such a conspicuous giant, and directly attack the Eastern Palace, all by luck?"

Meng Guan's expression remained unchanged. He calmly replied, "It was indeed luck. After General Pei Wei of the Right Army took over the Left Army, he heard that most of Yang Jun's staff had gone to the palace, so he seconded a portion of the Imperial Guards to arrest them. This disrupted the plan, and the mistake was made."

"Just right?"

Meng Guan added: "If the prince insists that it is not luck, then that is another answer."

"Among the imperial guards patrolling between the east and west of the city, whether out of fear or some other motive, some, or perhaps all, of the five thousand imperial guards deliberately allowed Yang Ji to pass through in order to threaten the Eastern Palace. Is this what Your Highness the Crown Prince meant?"

Sima Yi stared at Meng Guan without saying anything, and the people around him also looked nervous and did not dare to say a word.

Liu Xian heard that this night attack on the Eastern Palace seemed to be caused by Yang Ji himself who received the news that Yang Jun's mansion was attacked. He took the risk and directly led his own death squad to attack the Eastern Palace in an attempt to fight back.

But the strange thing is that I don’t know whether he got the information from somewhere, bribed someone, or someone in the imperial guards responded, but in any case, he made his way to the Eastern Palace unhindered and almost captured the prince at one point.

Now Yang Ji is dead, and all his loyal soldiers were buried with him. The war has subsided, but how he managed to reach the Eastern Palace has become a mystery.

But for Sima Yi, this mystery was unavoidable. After all, he couldn't convince himself that it was just luck. Crossing one street might be luck, crossing two streets might also be luck, but Yang Ji had actually crossed from the west to the east of the city, spanning the entire city of Luoyang. How could this be explained by luck? Someone must have been plotting to murder Sima Yi, which was why he ended up like this.

On the other hand, Sima Yi could not solve the mystery.

Firstly, he was still too young, and his power base was too shallow, so it was impossible for him to get to the bottom of this matter; secondly, this incident affected too many people. Among the five thousand people, there were so many aristocratic bureaucrats, and so many talented people from the royal family. If a disturbance really arose and all these people were involved, it might offend too many people, and this cost was something Sima Yi could not afford; finally, no matter who wanted to plot against him, it was certainly not a small force. Once there was an open break, whether the prince could win was also a question.

Meng Guan obviously knew Sima Yi's predicament. He had just made great contributions in overthrowing Yang Zhong, but had not yet been rewarded. He really didn't want to cause any more trouble, so the meaning of his words just now was to persuade Sima Yi to be patient.

Sima Yi smiled and said, "Good, good, it seems that Yang Ji is really lucky. I'm really envious. I wish I could have such good luck someday..."

After saying this, Sima Yi stood up and sighed deeply. He walked over to Liu Xian, weighed his injured arm, and then said, "I owe you my life. If you have any difficulties in the future, no matter what it is, as long as you come to me, I will definitely help you."

"You don't have to rush to do anything now. I've already reported your contribution today. I still have the authority to reward you based on your merits. I've already notified your family, and an oxcart will be coming to pick you up soon..."

Having said that, he had no intention of talking any more here. He just asked Qin Yishi to write down the prescription for healing his injuries, and prescribed a few more herbal remedies, and then quickly left the hall.

The rest of his colleagues also praised Liu Xian and then followed the prince.

Only Meng Guan paused and sighed to Liu Xian, "Huai Chong, I didn't take your advice that day. You won't blame me, will you?"

Liu Xian knew that Meng Guan was talking about the draft of the coup plot. Meng Guan did not adopt Liu Xian's suggestion to strengthen the defense of the East Palace, which eventually led to this unexpected disaster.

He replied, "Brother Meng saved my life with that arrow. How could I blame you?"

Meng Guan's expression softened, and he offered his blessing, "Take good care of yourself. Although this incident happened, we have won a great victory. Good days are coming, and there will be plenty of time for you to be full of vigor and vitality in the future!"

Yes, the coup was essentially over, with the Prince of Chu and his faction achieving complete victory. But after the night raid on the Eastern Palace, Liu Xian couldn't help but wonder: Overthrowing Yang was a perfectly supported plan, yet it had gone so terribly wrong. Would Sima Wei's attempt to take over government be as smooth as anticipated?
Moreover, based on Sima Yi's performance, Liu Xian also had vague guesses about the forces that helped Yang Ji launch a surprise attack on the Eastern Palace.

While he was lost in thought, Liu Xian was the only one left in the hall. After putting his worries aside, he looked at the scenery outside the door boredly. After all, he now had half a year of paid leave, so he didn't have to think about these things in a hurry.

Unexpectedly, when Liu Xian glanced at the door frame, he met a curious look, which made him stunned. Before he could look carefully, the princess ran away like a frightened butterfly.

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(End of this chapter)