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Emperor Kangxi was beaten to death in public in his study!
This earth-shattering news was like a thunderclap from a clear sky, or a hurricane carrying blood and rain, instantly sweeping across the entire Forbidden City and spreading to the capital at top speed!
At first, it was hard to believe, but when they saw the palace guards running around like madmen and heard the unusual commotion and cries that were faintly emanating from them, a huge panic began to spread like a plague.

The area around the Qianqing Palace has become a living hell.

Having regained a sliver of his sanity, Ao Bai looked at the bloodied and almost unrecognizable dragon corpse in the imperial study, as well as the panicked young boy, eunuchs, and palace maids filling the hall. He knew he had crossed the line of no return!

Regicide!

This is a crime punishable by the extermination of nine generations of one's family!

Even if he wields immense power, once this matter is confirmed, the people of the world will rise up against him, and he will surely die without a burial place!
Fear and lust for power intertwined, instantly overwhelming the brief moment of panic.

His massive hands, stained with the emperor's blood, trembled slightly, but his eyes quickly turned ruthless and decisive.

"Guards!" Ao Bai roared, his voice like tearing silk, at his trusted generals who had rushed over upon hearing the news but were equally terrified by the scene before them. "Seal off the Qianqing Palace! Seal off the nine gates of the Forbidden City! No one is allowed to enter, but no one is allowed to leave!"

His gaze swept over the slumped, pale-faced Buku boys and the palace servants, his eyes flashing with murderous intent: "These traitors! They colluded with assassins to plot against His Majesty! Execute them all on the spot, leave no one alive! Execute immediately!"

"Yes, sir!" Although the trusted general was terrified, he knew he was now in cahoots with Ao Bai and immediately obeyed the order.

The fierce guards rushed forward, ignoring the cries, pleas for mercy, and struggles of the young palace servants. With a flash of swords, blood splattered!
In a short while, corpses littered the inside and outside of the Imperial Study, and the stench of blood filled the air!

Ao Bai was trying to silence them and pin the blame for "regicide" on these "assassins" and "accomplices," attempting to cover up the truth that he had personally killed the emperor.

At the same time, more orders were swiftly relayed: "Send a messenger by express horse to the Commander of the Nine Gates to seal all the city gates of the capital! No one is to enter or leave without a warrant from Ao Zhongtang!"

"Immediately deploy the elite troops of the Bordered Yellow Banner into the city! Take control of key locations and suppress any unrest!"

"Order the Infantry Commander's Office to impose martial law throughout the city. Anyone who dares to spread rumors or incite disturbances will be executed without exception!"

At this moment, Ao Bai's military machine began to operate efficiently.

His elite troops from the Bordered Yellow Banner, who belonged to his direct line of command, quickly marched to the capital, replacing the original guards. The coldness of swords and spears and the grim atmosphere enveloped the capital of the empire.

The news was strictly suppressed, and the only public statement was that there were rebels causing trouble, the emperor was alarmed, and the palace was purging the remaining forces.

……

Cining Palace.

When Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, Dayuer, a woman who had lived through three reigns and witnessed countless political upheavals, first heard the tragic news, the Buddhist prayer beads in her hand snapped with a "crack," and the sandalwood beads rolled to the ground.

She suddenly stood up, her face turning deathly pale. Her body swayed uncontrollably, and she almost fell to the ground if Su Ma La Gu hadn't caught her in time.

"You... what did you say? The Emperor... the Emperor..." Her voice trembled like never before, and her insightful phoenix eyes were filled with extreme shock, grief, and... a trace of bewilderment.

She meticulously planned and instructed her grandson to be patient and forbearing, secretly plotting and waiting for the opportune moment to overthrow the powerful minister. She had anticipated failure, even foreseen that her grandson might be placed under house arrest.

But she never imagined that the ending would be so tragic, so direct, so... absurd!
Xuan Ye, the Qing emperor on whom she placed so much hope, was actually beaten to death by his own ministers in his own palace?!
"It was Ao Bai! It was that treacherous dog Ao Bai who did it! The scene... the scene was too gruesome for Your Majesty to bear!" The trusted eunuch, kneeling on the ground, reported with tears streaming down his face, his voice filled with fear.

Overwhelmed by immense grief, Empress Xiaozhuang knew that this was not the time to give up.

She forcefully suppressed the metallic taste in her throat, her nails digging deep into her palms, forcing herself to calm down.

Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang immediately realized what Oboi would do next...

Suppressing information, silencing witnesses, controlling the capital, and then... establishing a new emperor!
"Fuquan... his target is Fuquan!" Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang instantly understood Aobai's plan.

Prince Yu, Fuquan, was Kangxi's elder brother. He was relatively mild-mannered. If he were to be enthroned by Aobai, he would undoubtedly become a puppet that Aobai could control more easily!
At that time, Ao Bai's power will no longer be that of a powerful minister, but that of a true "regency," or even... a step further!
"What a ruthless man, Ao Bai! What vicious methods!" A raging fire blazed in Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang's eyes, a flame intertwined with the grief of a grandmother and the ruthlessness of a politician. "He wants to cover it up, he wants to control everything! Not so easy!"

She immediately gave instructions to Sumalagu and her most trusted senior ministers: "Immediately find a way to contact our people in the palace and find out the truth, especially the details of the emperor's murder! As for the outside world, we should pretend to be friendly for now, and we must not provoke Aobai, lest he become desperate and do something rash!"

"Furthermore," Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang's voice was extremely low, carrying a hint of desperate resolve, "secretly contact Sony's family, Ebilun, and... several banner princes who are away! Tell them that Aobai's regicide is an outrage against Heaven! The Qing Dynasty cannot fall into the hands of such a traitor!"

On the surface, inside and outside the Forbidden City, there was a deathly silence and austere atmosphere under the control of Ao Bai's elite Bordered Yellow Banner troops, but underneath, undercurrents were already surging.

Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang is urgently making connections with forces loyal to the royal family, while Aobai is frantically killing those in the know and stabilizing the situation, and has already begun sending people to Prince Yu's residence to "discuss important matters".

A more brutal and intense storm, centered on the ownership of the empire's supreme power, is rapidly brewing over the capital city, which is shrouded in bloodshed and lies.

Su Ning, the instigator of all this, had long since distanced himself from the situation, coldly observing the completely out-of-control chaos he had orchestrated.

……

While bloodshed raged within the Forbidden City, as Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and Ao Bai's factions engaged in a life-or-death struggle for supreme power, the instigator, Su Ning, had vanished without a trace, like a fish returning to the sea.

Thanks to his meticulously planned evacuation route and his deep understanding of the investigative methods of the era, Su Ning narrowly escaped the strict checks at the nine gates of the capital. He blended in with the common people and merchants leaving the city to make a living and successfully escaped the city that had become a huge vortex of trouble.

In a secluded woodland outside the city, he quickly changed out of the eunuch's robes that symbolized restraint, restoring his original appearance and clothing.

Looking at her own face reflected in the water, a face she hadn't seen in so long, Su Ning let out a long sigh of relief, a feeling of freedom, as if she had broken free from a cage, welled up inside her.

However, this relief did not last long.

Soon, he discovered that the main roads leading to various places were covered with arrest warrants bearing the image of "Little Gui Zi".

The wanted notice stated unequivocally that he was the "chief villain of the rebellious party who plotted to assassinate the emperor," and offered a large reward, demanding that local governments strictly apprehend him.

Although the portrait bears some resemblance to him, thanks to the disguise technique and the lag in information dissemination, it does not pose a direct threat to him for the time being.

But the speed at which the wanted notice spread made him feel the impending danger.

"They're moving really fast... Ao Bai is trying to pin the blame for the regicide on me and all those dead people." Su Ning sneered, his eyes showing no panic, but rather a burning flame.

How could he sit idly by and let Ao Bai control public opinion and designate him as a wanted criminal?

"You want to cover it up and suppress the news? I'll make sure you blew it all away!"

A bold plan quickly took shape in his mind.

If you want to issue a warrant for "Little Gui Zi's" arrest, then I'll make sure the truth about "Ao Bai's regicide" spreads throughout the country!
Taking advantage of his prior research into the geography of Beizhili, he avoided official roads and large towns, opting instead for country lanes and remote mountain paths.

Su Ning was no longer merely a fugitive; he had transformed into a clandestine "rumor-spreading machine." In bustling teahouses and taverns, he would disguise himself as a traveling merchant, speaking at a volume just loud enough for the next table to hear, and exclaim to his "companions," "Have you heard? Something terrible has happened in the capital! The Emperor... is gone!"

"Ah? What's going on?"

"Shh...keep your voice down! It's said that Ao Zhongtang...got into a fight with the Emperor in the Imperial Study, and then...sigh, the scene was so bad, they say the Dragon Throne was stained red with blood! Ao Zhongtang did it himself, his fist was as big as a sand bowl, and he directly...tsk tsk..."

"My God! This...this is regicide!"

"That's right! The capital is under martial law now. Ao Zhongtang has deployed the Bordered Yellow Banner troops into the city, ostensibly to catch assassins, but actually... they're just silencing them!"

In the dilapidated temples and ruins where refugees gathered, he would disguise himself as a well-informed, down-on-his-luck scholar and spread rumors mysteriously: "Do you know why there are suddenly so many soldiers? The sky has fallen! Our Qing Emperor has been beaten to death by the powerful minister Ao Bai! Right there in the Qianqing Palace! Those wanted posters are all arresting witnesses! Ao Bai is planning a rebellion!"

Sometimes, he would even spend some money to hire some street urchins and wandering monks to turn the news of "Ao Bai's murder of the emperor" into simple rhymes or stories of cause and effect, and spread it by word of mouth in a wider area.

Suning understands the patterns of information transmission in this era: the more sensational and secret the information is, the faster it spreads and the harder it is to completely suppress.

He didn't need to provide solid evidence at all; he only needed to plant the seeds of doubt, allowing the idea that "Ao Bai murdered the emperor" to grow and ferment in the minds of officials, scholars, and even ordinary people like a virus.

Sure enough, despite Ao Bai's best efforts to suppress the rumors, various versions of the story, such as "the emperor's sudden death," "the bloodbath in the imperial study," and "Ao Bai's assassination of the emperor," spread rapidly from Beizhili to Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, and other places like wildfire.

People whispered amongst themselves, their gazes toward the capital filled with astonishment and unease.

Some officials and gentry who were already dissatisfied with Ao Bai's monopoly of power secretly colluded and were eager to take action.

Su Ning stood on a high slope, gazing at the faint outline of the capital city in the distance, a cold smile curving his lips.

"Issuing a warrant for my father's arrest? Then let the whole world know what kind of person you, Ao Bai, are! Stir up this mess completely, and let's see how you'll still be able to maintain your puppet emperor peacefully!"

Suning didn't linger; instead, it turned towards Shandong to continue its journey.

Behind him was a media storm that he had personally ignited, sweeping across the country.

The road ahead is long, but at least he is no longer the caged bird trapped in the Forbidden City, but has become a player who stirs up the winds of history behind the scenes...

As for where this game will ultimately lead, even he himself is filled with "anticipation".

……

Despite Su Ning's relentless efforts to spread the news and the instigation of various forces, the news that Emperor Kangxi had been beaten to death by Ao Bai in the Imperial Study could not be completely suppressed.

This earth-shattering secret was like a spark thrown into boiling oil, instantly igniting the already tinderbox of the Qing Empire and causing an unprecedented and violent explosion!
The capital city, the center of the power vortex.

Relying on her years of cultivated prestige and political network, Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang took the initiative to secretly transfer and carefully protect Prince Yu, Fuquan, thus completely thwarting Aobai's plot to install Fuquan as emperor and use the emperor to command the princes.

Enraged and seeing that he could not succeed, Ao Bai had no choice but to settle for second best in order to stabilize the "legal system" as soon as possible. He hastily selected Longxi from among Kangxi's young brothers and enthroned him as the new emperor, attempting to continue the rule of the Aisin Gioro clan and pave the way for his own regency.

However, how could Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and the royal family members and ministers who were loyal to the imperial family sit idly by and watch the regicide traitor seize control of the court?

They raised the banner of "suppressing the traitors and upholding the state," and with the Plain Yellow Banner as the core, they united a large number of forces dissatisfied with Aobai. Together with the Bordered Yellow Banner controlled by Aobai and some of the troops that were affiliated with him, they launched a fierce battle inside and outside the capital!

The once prosperous capital has now become a battlefield where the elite troops of the two Yellow Banners fight each other.

Street fighting, barricades, cavalry charges... Arrows rained down, swords flashed, and blood stained the streets and palace walls of the capital.

The two sides fought a protracted battle for control of key locations such as the palace, armory, and granary, resulting in heavy casualties.

The entire capital was shrouded in war and panic, and the empire's central government was completely paralyzed!

……

War broke out everywhere, and turmoil ensued in all directions.

The dramatic changes in the capital region were like the first domino to fall, instantly triggering a chain reaction that shook the entire land of China!
Locally, the forces supporting the legitimacy of the Manchu Qing dynasty and those supporting the powerful minister Oboi were locked in a fierce struggle, and the internal contradictions within the Manchu Eight Banners were amplified and intensified to an extreme degree.

San Francisco.

Wu Sangui, the Prince of Pingxi; Shang Kexi, the Prince of Pingnan; and Geng Jingzhong, the Prince of Jingnan—these Han Chinese princes, who had long been too powerful to control, keenly sensed a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

On the surface, they still submitted memorials to the Qing court, earnestly expressing their desire to "go north to defend the emperor and annihilate the rebellious party of Ao Bai," but secretly they intensified their preparations for war, amassed provisions, and reorganized their military.

Messengers secretly traveled between the regional military governors, and the plot to rebel was already on the verge of being launched. They were just waiting for the perfect opportunity to raise the banner of anti-Qing, seize a region, and even contend for the Central Plains!

Customs.

Hong Antong, the leader of the Shenlong Sect who entrenched himself on Shenlong Island, was an ambitious man with strange martial arts skills. Taking advantage of the Qing court's internal strife and inability to attend to the north, he openly raised the flag of rebellion!

He used the Shenlong Sect's influence outside the Great Wall to quickly seize coastal prefectures and counties, coerce the people, and marched his troops straight towards Shengjing, turning the "ancestral homeland" of the Manchus upside down and seriously threatening the Qing court's rear.

Meanwhile, the Heaven and Earth Society, which had been operating underground, raised the banner of "internal strife among the Tartar chieftains, Heaven blesses the Ming Dynasty," and its branches in various places rose up in rebellion, assassinating Qing officials and attacking prefectures and counties, making a great show of force.

The remnants of the Ming dynasty in Yunnan, led by the descendants of Prince Mu, also saw hope for revival and intensified their efforts to contact righteous people in various places, attempting to open up a new situation in the southwest.

In Taiwan, isolated overseas, Prince Zheng Jing of Yanping was even more excited, believing that this was the perfect opportunity to "revive the Ming Dynasty". He continuously dispatched his navy to harass the southeast coast and strengthened his ties with anti-Qing forces on the mainland, preparing for a major westward expedition.

In an instant, the entire land of China, from the capital to the frontier, from beyond the Great Wall to the islands, was engulfed in flames and smoke.

The power vacuum and crisis of trust triggered by Ao Bai's regicide, like an uncontrollable plague, quickly dismantled the seemingly strong ruling order of the Qing Dynasty.

With central authority gone and local forces wielding their own armies, ambitious individuals have taken to the historical stage, attempting to gain a share of the spoils in this chaotic world.

A vast empire is crumbling at a visible speed in the storm triggered by Suning, plunging into an unprecedented full-scale civil war and turmoil.

History veered completely into an unknown and chaotic abyss.

The mastermind behind all this may be hiding somewhere, coldly observing the chaotic world that he himself started.

...(End of chapter)