The Revolt of the Three Feudatories: All-in at the start in Beijing

After Wu Sangui declared himself emperor, he immediately rewarded his officials and increased the pay of ordinary soldiers by three months. Instantly, the morale of the newly established Great Zhou Kingdom soared like a withered tree coming back to life.

In just ten days, they breached several cities outside Jingzhou, frightening Yue Le so much that he almost retreated to Jingmen.

But good news is often accompanied by bad news. First, there were more than a dozen rebellions in Guizhou, Guangxi and Sichuan, all of which were civil officials who killed Wu Sangui and established their own regimes.

These people all responded to the slogan of overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming, and they even recognized Wu Sangui, the great traitor who murdered the Yongli Emperor.

At first, it was alright because of the cover-up of anti-Qing and restoration of Ming, but now that Wu Sangui has declared himself emperor, all that's left is the shell of a major traitor, which is truly despicable.

As these generals declared themselves independent, Shang Zhixin realized he had been tricked. What he wanted was for each other to declare themselves emperors, not to be Wu Sangui's subjects. He might as well have joined the Qing Dynasty.

Ignoring the objections of his generals, he decisively withdrew his troops back to Guangzhou. That's how willful the eldest son of the Shang family was; he was completely unaware of the dangers of society.

If you withdraw your troops and don't fight, do you think Wu Sangui, Liu Mu, Kangxi, or even Geng Jingzhong will let you off the hook?

After this commotion, Wu Sangui had no choice but to send troops to quell the rebellion and withdraw his troops to Hunan to defend it to the death.

When Yue Le learned the details, besides mocking him, he was also slightly tempted. If Wu Sangui could become emperor, then it seemed that he, a prince of the Qing Dynasty who was his equal, could also do so.

Thinking of this, Yue Le could no longer restrain himself. He rode his horse directly to the main street of Jiangling City and found the Taoist priest who had told his fortune some time ago.

At the time, the Taoist priest said he had the aura of an emperor, and Yue Le immediately gave him a whip. However, considering it was a kind remark, he didn't kill him. Now, the more he thinks about it, the more incredible it seems.

Although Jiangling City was on the front line, Wu Sangui did not attack it. Yue Dong, for the sake of his comfortable life, rarely bothered ordinary people.

Therefore, there were still many people on the streets of Jiangling City. When Prince An arrived at the alley, the Taoist priest with dog skin plaster on his face, who looked like Captain Jia, was telling the fortune of an old lady. The old lady was so excited that she cried out.

Upon seeing this, Prince An became even more convinced that this was a master strategist with flawless plans, and immediately led his personal guards forward to bow in respect.

"An old immortal?"

"How have you been lately?"

The Taoist priest, who had just received a few copper coins from the old woman, turned around upon hearing this. When he saw that it was Yue Le, he was so frightened that he got up to run away. However, he lost his grip on the copper coins and they fell to the ground, forming the Seven Star Formation.

Anle was extremely knowledgeable about these things; his eyes lit up when he saw them.

"Old sage, no rush, no rush!"

"Come back to my residence with me first, and I will apologize to you!"

This Taoist priest has been telling fortunes for many years. He can tell the truth from the falsehoods, but he has truly mastered the skill of speaking human language to humans and ghost language to ghosts.

Seeing that Yue Le had no intention of killing him and was being very polite to him, he realized that he must have believed what Yue Le had said back then. So he straightened his collar and put on a nonchalant expression.

Upon returning to the magnificent palace, Yue Le personally poured tea for Shi Shi, his tone extremely flattering.

"Master, your calculations are flawless. I wonder if there's any explanation for the matter of the imperial aura you mentioned that day?"

Upon hearing this, the old Taoist priest was already certain that the words he had unconsciously uttered that day to beg for food were related to Prince An's recent affairs, so he pretended to be profound and unfathomable.

"I am Baili Wuji. In my youth, I studied the Book of No Words, which contains a technique called the Emperor's Aura Observation Technique. Ordinary people may not be able to see it accurately, but those who possess the aura of an emperor are like the sun in the night. On that day, I saw Your Highness radiating light, which is why I instinctively offended you. Please forgive me, Your Highness!"

Baili Wuji's words were a double-edged sword. If Yue Le had someone read his birth chart and they couldn't get a good reading, then it would mean that the person didn't have the aura of an emperor.

But Yue Le was preoccupied with becoming emperor and didn't immediately catch what he was saying, so he quickly continued pouring tea.

"Master Wuji, my imperial aura is so strong!"

"Could I declare myself emperor?"

Baili Wuji had no idea what the situation was, so how could he know if he could become emperor? But with a knife to his throat, he had no choice but to continue his deception.

"Your Highness, the current Emperor Kangxi is the illegitimate son of Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang and Hong Chengchou, a former Ming dynasty official who surrendered to the Ming dynasty. This has caused instability among the Eight Banners."

"Prince An, as the grandson of the founding emperor, your achievements in both civil and military affairs are already unparalleled. You also happen to possess a strong imperial aura, which indicates that Emperor Kangxi's identity is questionable. The founding emperor specially blessed you with imperial aura to correct the wrongs!"

That makes sense. That's absolutely right. Yue Le felt like he'd met a kindred spirit, but he still had no clue about the matter of ascending the throne, so he asked:

"Master Wuji, I still have no confidence whatsoever in how to ascend the throne. Please enlighten me."

Seeing that Yue Le had been completely fooled, Baili Wuji was already full of confidence, so he showed an expression of knowing.

"It's alright, it's alright!"

"The reason Kangxi lost the Mandate of Heaven was because his identity was illegitimate. Your Highness only needs to tell the soldiers the truth, and then you can don the yellow robe and become the new emperor!"

Upon hearing Baili Wuji's words, Yue Le no longer hesitated. After having his maid arrange accommodations for Baili Wuji, he summoned several generals from the Eight Banners and the Green Standard Army for a meeting.

After Yue Le explained the source of the matter, the Green Standard Army generals, while the other Eight Banner soldiers were still hesitating, immediately knelt down.

"We kowtow to the Emperor!"

"Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor! Long live the Emperor!"

Yue Le's largest forces were the Bordered Red and Bordered White Banners, totaling more than 8,000 men. The families of the generals of these two banners were all in Jiangling City, and they immediately knelt down and kowtowed without hesitation.

After all, Yue Le was also an Aisin Gioro, and also a descendant of Nurhaci, and a very pure one at that!

Seeing that the remaining 6,000 Eight Banners generals were hesitating, Yue Le knew that these were all from the Upper Three Banners and that their newlywed wives were all in Nanjing. He immediately slapped the table.

"Zong Yue Le is the most loyal and righteous person!"

"Brothers, if you follow me, I can provide whatever Emperor Kangxi could. As for those Han women from wealthy families, I'll arrange that for you after I ascend the throne!"

Upon hearing Yue Le's words, the Eight Banners generals didn't hesitate any longer and immediately knelt down, shouting "Long live the Emperor!"

To be honest, most of the Manchu soldiers didn't even have a chance to touch the newlywed wives in Nanjing before they were rotated to Hubei to guard the city. They really didn't care.

With all the generals in communication, at noon on the third day, Yue Le assembled 100,000 elite troops into the army, including 20,000 Eight Banner soldiers.

"Brothers of the Eight Banners, Kangxi has lost Beijing and all his family members have been killed. Why should we still serve that emperor who only knows how to run away?"

The Eight Banners were the core, and Yue Le immediately began to berate Kangxi, assimilating the lower-ranking Eight Banner soldiers.