A son who doesn't resemble his father? Love you, old man, see you at Xuanwu Gate!

Chapter 267 Zhu Clan
The north wind howled, whipping up the snow from the Dragon Head Plain, making everything in the already dark world blur.

The main hall of the Marquis of Tangyi's residence.

Princess Guantao, Princess Tangyi, Grand Princess, Princess Dou—regardless of the title, she was a noblewoman of the Han Dynasty. Amidst the intense emotional turmoil, a sweet taste rose in her throat, and she suddenly spat out a large mouthful of blood.

Marquis Chen Xu of Tangyi could no longer stand and fell to the ground.

The mother and son didn't need to look at the secret book; they could tell from the cover that it was written by them.

However, the mother and son did not know why the secret letter had been obtained by the embroidered man and ended up in Zhang Tang's hands.

It's clear that I've entrusted it to someone I can absolutely trust.

“Your Majesty, Marquis of Tangyi, times have changed,” Zhang Tang said softly.

After His Majesty retreated to Ganquan Palace, Princess Dou went to talk to him. Although the specific content is unknown, it was nothing more than "My aunt helped me to restore the throne. In the future, I will give my aunt an honorary position. Or, if Empress Wei and her son fail, Empress Chen will leave Changmen Palace."

Then, Princess Dou and Marquis Tangyi instructed their elders to return to the Princess's fiefdom of Guantao County and the Marquis's fiefdom of Tangyi County to secretly forge weapons and armor, and to train soldiers.

As the eldest daughter of Emperor Xiaowen, and a powerful figure from Emperor Xiaowen's reign to the present day, Princess Dou's methods are truly extraordinary.

To prevent the sound of forging from spreading, the elders of the Princess's residence and the Marquis of Tangyi's residence first ordered the excavation of a huge underground chamber. Then, they filled the walls of the basement with empty ceramic vessels such as bottles and jars, with the mouths facing inward, using the cavities to absorb the sound.

In addition, thick walls were built on the ground to further block the transmission of sound.

Meanwhile, in the backyards of the Princess's Mansion and the Marquis of Tangyi's Mansion in their fiefdoms, large numbers of poultry such as chickens, ducks, and geese were raised. Their constant crowing day and night effectively masked the sounds of weapons being forged and soldiers being drilled underground.

In addition, the Princess's residence and the Marquis of Tangyi's residence were secretly recruiting assassins as their trusted troops, and were transporting weapons and provisions to secret outposts outside the city in batches, with trusted confidants in charge of their deployment, to ensure that they could be put into use as soon as an uprising broke out.

Through the above methods, Guantao County and Tangyi County each trained eight hundred elite guards. During the training process, Dou Taizhu's "investment" was the same as that of the emperor when he selected personal guards from the Northern Army. Fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, roasted meat, and crispy tea were all provided. She even gave what the emperor had not been able to give to his personal guards: the women of the brothel would go to comfort the hardworking soldiers from time to time.

Those 1,600 men cannot be compared to the one-in-a-hundred elite guards of the Crown Prince, but they are certainly no match for ordinary elite soldiers.

Such a well-organized group of assassins is perhaps a once-in-a-lifetime event. In order to suppress the assassins in the two counties, the Embroidered Uniform Guard mobilized troops from six nearby prefectures, totaling over 20,000 men. With a calculated and unexpected attack, they launched a surprise attack on the Princess's Mansion in Guantao County and the Marquis's Mansion in Tangyi County. They quickly took control of the two mansions. While the 1,600 assassins in the two mansions were training underground at night, they sealed off all exits and poured flammable oil and mercury into the basement. If it weren't for the concern that the mercury would seep into the ground and harm the drinking water of the people in the two counties, those assassins would have been drowned alive by the countless drops of mercury.

However, after being burned and flooded for three days, the 1,600 assassins also suffered heavy casualties. Only then did the Embroidered Uniform Envoy order the soldiers of the six prefectures to dig an opening. The surviving assassins rushed up, only to be shot dead.

A body of flesh and blood is ultimately just a body of flesh and blood, and it is completely vulnerable to the attack of a powerful crossbow.

After killing most of the surviving assassins, the Embroidered Robe Envoy waited until the poisonous gas in the underground had dissipated before ordering the soldiers of the six prefectures to gradually clean up the basement.

When faced with a person lying on the ground, whether dead or alive, raise your hand and strike with three crossbow bolts: first the head, second the neck, and third the chest. The effect is remarkable, and no assassin is "feigning death".

The soldiers from the six prefectures still suffered casualties. Using the crossbows and armor in the basement, the surviving assassins, familiar with the underground terrain, launched a counterattack. The soldiers from the six prefectures paid over three hundred casualties before finally completing the task of bringing the bodies of the 1,600 assassins to the surface, recovering the mercury, and filling the underground chamber. As for the blood on the secret letter, it was splattered on it when the elders of the Princess's household and the Marquis of Tangyi's household were executed when they attempted to destroy it, seeing that the situation was beyond repair.

After spitting out blood, Princess Dou was able to speak with difficulty, though her voice was hoarse. "How did the Embroidered Uniform Guard discover this?"

This secretive and meticulously planned uprising was a replica of what Princess Dou had witnessed her father, Emperor Xiaowen of the Han Dynasty, had done when he was the king of Dai.

Although his father did not use it, after entering the ancestral temple, he still killed most of the people in the region who knew about it. To this day, Princess Dou believes that only she still knows this secret and meticulous method of starting a rebellion. So how was it leaked?
"The Grand Prince does not reside in Guantao County, nor does the Marquis of Tangyi reside in Tangyi County. In these two fiefdoms, apart from a few clansmen, everyone else is a servant. Yet, every day, tens of thousands of catties of seasonal vegetables, fresh fruits, meat, and fine tea, among other precious items, are delivered to the mansions, but never seen to leave. If the Grand Prince's mansion and the Marquis of Tangyi's mansion treat their servants like this, I myself would rather be a servant in the Grand Prince's mansion," Zhang Tang said with no small amount of sarcasm.

The powerful and wealthy of the Han Dynasty were cannibals.

They would rather let the fruits and vegetables rot, or the meat spoil, than give even a single bite to their servants.

The large influx of vegetables, fruits, meat, and tea into the unoccupied mansion inevitably aroused the suspicion of the secret envoys from the two counties.

Once you have a direction, the investigation becomes simple.

"Furthermore, so many women from brothels frequent the residences of the princess and marquises in the fiefdoms. Although Your Excellency knows to have these women veiled to comfort those marquises, the Princess and Marquis of Tangyi seem to have forgotten that these women are what they do. They know exactly how many guests they receive in a single night—once, twice, three times…"

Zhang Tang paused for a moment, then continued, "The Embroidered Uniform Envoy has obtained information on the number of assassins raised by the Eldest Princess and the Marquis of Tangyi."

Having learned about the assassins and their numbers, the Embroidered Robe Envoy no longer needed to know anything else; he could simply send men to carry it out.

Even without the secret letter, based solely on the crime of raising assassins and harboring treacherous intentions, Princess Dou and Marquis Tangyi would have no chance of escaping.

Princess Dou then realized that the defeat was not due to her father's secretive and meticulous method of starting the uprising, but rather to her own imitation of his methods.

Those very methods she thought were being used to improve her skills, including seasonal vegetables, fresh fruits, roasted meat, crispy tea, and women from the brothel, ironically became the source of the leak and failure.

Princess Dou was filled with remorse and asked, "Where am I supposed to go? To the Lost Land?"

“The Emperor has committed an unforgivable crime and should not be subjected to private torture. He should be handed over to the Imperial Clan Court and imprisoned for life,” Zhang Tang replied.

Treason and regicide are public crimes, and given her status as the Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager's will, she could not have gone to the Lost Land.

Princess Dou nodded, then asked, "What about my Xu'er?"

Marquis Chen Xu of Tangyi suddenly raised his head, his eyes filled with expectation.

"Strain!"

(End of this chapter)