Boom~
All the ministers in court started raving right there and then.
"Please deploy the troops, Your Majesty."
"Clan Zhao, big deal! They only have an army of 300,000. We have 2 million, all right!"
"Clan Zhao has killed a member of the royal family. They're really out of control now."
"Please deploy the troops and wipe out Clan Zhao, Your Majesty."
"If Clan Zhao has a death wish, we'll indulge them then," the emperor closed his eyes and said.
If a war breaks out, the ones who will suffer will be the people.
He then thought of the number of years that had passed since Clan Dugu rebelled.
The people had just gotten their chance to live peaceful lives.
He was very reluctant to deploy the troops, yet there was little else he could do against Clan Zhao.
The royal family had yet to declare war on Clan Zhao.
Yet the news about what had happened in Jinluan Hall had already spread far and wide.
The royal family was aggressively preparing for war, while Clan Zhao was doing their best to amass forces as well.
In contrast to the tense atmosphere at court, things back in the harem were a lot more relaxed.
Many consorts simply thought that Clan Zhao had a death wish for wanting to fight against the royal family.
The emperor would be able to suppress the rebellion as soon as the troops were deployed.
...
"A question, An Mu. If Clan Zhao were to seize the Tianlong River and make it their base, what would you do?"
Back in Shouning Palace...
Liu An and An Mu were hovering over a crude map.
The war had yet to break out, yet both of them were already beginning to run their own simulations on the map.
From the looks of things, both of them had been at it for a very long time.
"Your Highness, if it's just this many of the enemy, the answer would be simple. We'd just hit them in the water. Clan Zhao would definitely have a lot of high-end combatants at their disposal, if they were to dare to rebel. There's little use for us to talk about that here."
An Mu shook his head.
The deciding factor that would tip the balance of war would always be found on the higher end of combatants.
"Yeah. If Clan Zhao dares to do that, then they definitely must have powerful supporters backing them. We're so done for."
Liu An frowned.
He wondered what his brother-in-law would be doing.
That man would definitely be busy right now.
It was said that Clan Zhao was backed by the Xuan Sect.
Liu An turned around and looked at Li Mu, who was mopping the floor in the hall.
Li Mu's expression was a calm one.
That scene eased the frown on Liu An's brow.
"Okay, high-end combatants aside then!" Liu An took a deep breath and continued confidently.
"Your Highness, if that's the case, would there be any meaning to our simulations then?"
"Oh, they are meaningful, all right."
...
At Taihe Hall...
The emperor threw the folding memorial in his hand away as soon as he'd finished reading it.
"The Black Dragon Order again. Once I'm done with Clan Zhao, I'll eliminate the Black Dragon Order next. They dare to rob people everywhere at times like these and cut off our supply routes."
"Your Majesty, I would suggest getting rid of the Black Dragon Order at once."
"The Black Dragon Order has many formidable fighters at their disposal and they are very well organized. More important, many of them have kept their identities secret. Getting rid of the Black Dragon Order isn't something that can be done in a short period of time."
The head of the secret police and the scribe of the Ceremony Directorate had both come to see him at the same time.
The Black Dragon Order hadn't been around for very long.
Yet, in just five years, they were already all over Great Xia. Furthermore, there were even branches of the order outside of the state.
The secret police had dismissed their importance at first.
It was only when the order had finally gotten to work that the secret police had discovered that it had become a massive underground syndicate.
It commanded a fearsome level of powers.
Formidable warriors from the secret police and eunuchs from the Ceremony Directorate had had to fight this order many times. The two official agencies had suffered huge losses, and they had still been unable to even dent the order.
"We'd get rid of Clan Zhao first then."
The ministers had heard things about the Black Dragon Order before.
However, none of them had expected that the Ceremony Directorate was incapable of doing anything against them.
...
War broke out all of a sudden several days later.
The royal troops ran into Clan Zhao's troops outside Baiyun City.
The war broke out immediately. The royal troops were able to quickly surround Clan Zhao's troops, due to having superior numbers and having effective commanders.
Clan Zhao's troops were just about to be eliminated outside Baiyun City.
That was when several figures clad in white emerged from Clan Zhao's army.
They headed straight for the generals of the royal army.
It took mere moments for all the commanding officers of the royal army to be killed.
All the remaining royal troops were reduced to cluelessness and were quickly eliminated by the remaining troops of Clan Zhao.
Baiyun City was seized.
The news traveled all the way to the capital city.
Panic set in all over the city.
"The Xuan Sect made their move!"
"Are we going to see a regime change already?"
The common people were unable to process the news.
It was then that the general of the garrison at Heishui City was assassinated and the news of another city being seized was spread. Things in the capital city became very quiet.
Panic was brewing underneath all that silence.
"Is Great Xia really going to fall?"
Losing a city was hard. Losing yet another city after that was even harder.
The royal troops exceeded those of the rebels in sheer numbers.
It was especially traumatic because Heishui City was very difficult to attack.
The loss was anything but normal.
"Xuan Sect, d*mn you! Why are things turning out like this?"
The emperor was unable to figure out why the Xuan Sect was siding with Clan Zhao.
All because Zhao Wu was one of their own?
"Your Majesty, please hurry up and think of something," one of his chancellors pleaded.
All of the ministers were staring at the emperor.
It was time for the protector of the royal family to make an appearance.
"I know."
The emperor nodded.
After the meeting, the emperor wrote a note and went to the Imperial Ancestral Temple again.
He put the note down in the underground palace.
...
Back in the royal palace...
"Tell the princes to come in here."
He figured that it was time for his children to learn about the underground palace.
The emperor had become completely despondent over the happenings that had been taking place for the past several days.
He had never been so tired in his life.
His children were lackluster beings, Clan Zhao had rebelled with the backing of the Xuan Sect, and there was also the Black Dragon Order to deal with.
He was running out of energy.
I'm getting old.
The emperor had grown a lot more silver hair on his head in mere days.
The war continued.
In the days that followed, the royal army lost more than it won.
Even if the royal army did manage to win, a great deal of their commanding officers would have been assassinated in the process.
If things were to go on like this, the state's army would be running out of commanders.
In the underground palace, several days later...
Li Mu discovered many messy footprints around.
The prints were of different sizes.
Furthermore, the place was filled with all kinds of different presences.
The emperor's kids have been here, huh?
He took a look at the prints.
He then discovered that there were two among the children who had come more than once.
The emperor had only told his children about the place two days ago.
And the children were already making the place their playground.
Tap~ Tap~ Tap~
Footsteps could be heard from the passage behind him at that moment.
Li Mu opened the door of the stone room and went inside.
He saw the dried corpse that had once been Liu Ling.
It was then that he realized why the old man had wanted to open up a stone room in the underground palace, and why such a thick, heavy stone door had been used.
When the princes learned of the place, they would often come to disturb the old man back in the day.
A young man quickly appeared at the end of the passage.
The young man came to the underground palace and scanned the place.
"Are you here, sir?"
His voice reverberated in the underground palace.
No one answered his question.
"Sir, if you were willing to help me ascend the throne, I'll make sure to give you the best there is."
Li Mu rolled his eyes in that stone room.
A war is going on out there.
Clan Zhao has already seized all the places south of the Tianlong River, and you're here asking for backup for taking the throne?
And what do you mean about giving me the best, huh?
Does the royal family like fighting among themselves so much?
He wouldn't have grumbled if these people had had decent talents.
Yet, it was clear to him that these people didn't have a clue about what they were getting into.
They really think that the royal family will be secure as long as I'm around?
It seems like I won't be able to use the underground palace for much longer.
Li Mu then listed the underground palace as a place that he would only check in at.
...
In a house at a corner of the compound in Shouning Palace...
Smoke billowed out.
This was the house where the court ladies used to live.
The place had been converted into a kitchen.
Concubine Jing was making food as her eyes glittered.
An Mu was stoking the fire of the stove.
They looked like peasants living in a village hidden from the world, where life was quiet and serene, as if none of the storm out there had anything to do with where they were.
Li Mu entered the kitchen and took a look around, finding the place to be filled with food.
"Eunuch Li."
An Mu saw Li Mu heading inside, so he got up and bowed.
"You two seem to making a lot of food today," Li Mu asked in a subdued voice.
"The Fourth Prince is heading to the front lines. The concubine is worried that His Highness will be unaccustomed to the food in the military, so we're making food for him to take."
"The Fourth Prince is heading to the front lines?"
Li Mu was surprised.