Chapter 208: Tools
I thought it would be the Ninth Prince who would came to save me, as he was the closest to me. But I didn’t expect that he just hesitated for a moment and then ran to the other side very quickly.
It seems that the Ninth Prince is not as harmless and enthusiastic as he appears to be, and is also selfish at heart.
Similar scenes had been simulated thousands of times in his dreams. The Thirteenth Prince did not feel strange at all. Instead, he felt a strange sense of excitement. Without blinking, the Thirteenth Prince pulled out the dagger in his hand.
What had been envisioned countless times has finally become a reality.
This knife was sharp and decisive, hitting the vital point directly!
During the whole process, the Thirteenth Prince did not hesitate at all. No matter who came, no matter how strong their kung fu was, as long as they were not prepared against him beforehand, they would not be able to avoid the knife.
The Fourth Prince only felt a pain in his chest, and when he saw the tip of the knife sticking out of his heart, his eyes and face were full of disbelief.
In the last moment of his consciousness, the Fourth Prince thought, perhaps he should not have fought, or perhaps the last time he broke his leg was a warning from God.If I had chosen to give up last time, if I had not been so eager for quick success this time and had chosen to slowly maintain it, I would not have been able to climb the mountain and naturally would not have made this move.
People who are too greedy will be punished…
It really proves the saying, what is destined to be yours will eventually come to you, and what is not destined to be yours should not be forced.
I just can’t bear to die like this…
In the end, the Fourth Prince collapsed completely exhausted, and he was unable to close his eyes until his death.
Without the cover of the Fourth Prince, the true appearance of the Thirteenth Prince behind him gradually revealed.
Ye Shuo, who was not far away, was afraid that he would never forget this face that still had a childish look for the rest of his life.
How could the Thirteenth Prince still have a panic expression on his face at this moment? Although his hands were not stained with blood, it still made people feel terrified.
Everyone’s impression of the Thirteenth Prince was still that he was young and cowardly. The incident happened so suddenly that they were unable to react at all.
He is only thirteen years old now.
Even an adult prince couldn’t do it so straightforwardly, so who could have thought that a thirteen-year-old child could kill his own brother without blinking an eye?
The kindness of the Fourth Prince has now become a death warrant for him.
However, in the eyes of the Thirteenth Prince, these people were never his brothers. If they were really brothers, then where were they when he was suffering?
Coming to save him now would be nothing but hypocrisy.
The Thirteenth Prince didn’t care who they were. He had made a plan from the beginning. He would kill anyone who came to save him. Anyway, all the people in front of him were going to die, so he would kill as many as he could.
If you want to blame someone, you can only blame the Fourth Prince for his disgusting and ridiculous kindness.
The queen at the top was the first person to scream when she saw this scene.
“Wu Ji, are you crazy!?”
The queen knew clearly what the crime of killing a prince was. Even if her own son was also a prince, he would not escape severe punishment if he killed his own brother in public.
Not only he himself, but also her position as queen and her maternal family behind her will be in trouble.
Doesn’t her own son know that he and those above him will rise and fall together?
However, what the Queen did not know was that this was actually what the Thirteenth Prince also wanted.
In the eyes of the Thirteenth Prince, if his biological mother was the mastermind, then everyone else was an accomplice. If he was unable or failed, then they would all die together.
The Thirteenth Prince was very surprised when he heard this: “Didn’t you ask your son to fight for that position, mother?”
“You usually despise your son for being cowardly, but now that he has killed the fourth brother with his own hands, shouldn’t you be happy, mother?”
Strange, it’s really strange.
Upon hearing this, the queen almost vomited blood.
The queen had never thought that her son was so naive. How could such a thing succeed?
Noticing that Emperor Jingwen was shocked and angry, and looked at her as if he was looking at a dead person, the queen felt her whole body tremble.
“Who on earth is it? Who on earth has bewitched you?”
Fortunately, the queen was not too stupid. She knew that in the current situation, she could only find ways to shift the blame.
The Thirteenth Prince avoided answering and just said, “Mother, don’t worry, you will be the Queen Mother soon.”
Doesn’t he realise that the emperor comes well prepared?
Seeing the people around her secretly on guard, as if the servants would decisively take action as long as she made any unusual moves, what else did the queen not understand?
Although Ye Shuo was worried about the fourth prince, there were many assassins at the moment, and his mother and Jian Jian were still here. He could not leave them for a moment, because he really could not afford the loss.
Along with the sounds of fighting and sharp movements, the assassins around Ye Shuo fell one after another.
The virtuous concubine next to him had been screaming heart-wrenchingly since the Fourth Prince fell down. She ignored the attempts of the maids beside her to stop her and tried her best to get to the Fourth Prince’s side.
Ye Shuo gritted his teeth and tried his best to help Concubine Xian eliminate the assassins who threatened her.
In the end, even the Fifth Prince couldn’t stand it anymore. The Thirteenth Prince was feeling proud when the Fifth Prince, with a cold face, kicked him in the heart.
“What a crazy bastard!”
Look at how many brothers he has. Who does he think he is?
The Thirteenth Prince had been specially trained in the technique of stabbing with a dagger, but he himself had no martial arts skills and was naturally unable to resist the Fifth Prince’s angry attack.
The Thirteenth Prince immediately flew out like a kite with a broken string, and after landing he vomited two mouthfuls of blood.
Seeing that he had temporarily lost the ability to move, the Fifth Prince lowered his head to check on the Fourth Prince’s current condition, only to discover that the Fourth Prince had already stopped breathing.
The Fifth Prince suddenly stopped moving.
Afterwards, when Concubine Xian came over, the Fifth Prince let go and discovered that the blood flowing from the Fourth Prince’s wound was jet black.
The fifth prince reacted quickly: “You bastard, how dare you poison him!”
In addition to the assassination technique of killing with one strike, the Thirteenth Prince also poisoned the dagger. Even if the Fourth Prince did not die on the spot, the poison would enter his internal organs and even gods would be unable to save him.
From the very beginning, he was aiming to take people’s lives!
The veins on the arms of Emperor Jingwen above him were bulging.
It is true that Emperor Jingwen set a trap, and he knew that the mastermind behind it was Beiting.
Beiting seemed to know the current trends in the court, and he knew that the princes were ready to make a move, so he wanted to kill him and plunge the Great Zhou into civil strife. That was why he spared no effort in these two assassinations.
However, no matter how capable the other party is, it is impossible for him to control his movements all the time.
Unless… there is an insider around me, and his status is not low.
Then Emperor Jingwen traced the blame to the Empress.
Emperor Jingwen knew that the Queen was resentful towards him because of the matter of his legitimate son. Moreover, the Queen once had dealings with Princess Beiting in the palace, and she was the only one who knew his itinerary so well. Therefore, Emperor Jingwen almost believed that it was the Queen.
Even if Emperor Jingwen disliked the Empress, she was still the Empress and the Queen Mother of the Zhou Dynasty. She could not be easily deposed without solid evidence, so this trip to Zilu Peak was planned.
However, what Emperor Jingwen never expected was that the person truly hiding behind the scenes was not the queen whom he hated to death, but his own son who seemed timid and incompetent and hid under the queen’s wings.
The Thirteenth Prince… is only thirteen years old, just a half-grown child.
Who would have thought it was him?
Whether it was killing his brother with his own hands, attempting to kill his father, or colluding with Beiting, it all made Emperor Jingwen want to kill him.
“Do you know that the princess of Beiting is using you? Even if she supports you to be the emperor, you will only be a puppet by then.”
From the fact that he didn’t care who saved him and just killed someone randomly, Emperor Jingwen knew that his purpose was not that simple. He wanted to kill everyone present, so he didn’t care who he killed first.
Such a mentality is truly vicious and cruel.
Emperor Jingwen’s chest heaved.
Upon hearing this, the Thirteenth Prince subconsciously retorted: “Impossible! The princess promised me!”
Moreover, what about being a puppet? Being a puppet now does not necessarily mean it will remain a puppet in the future.
“The princess wouldn’t lie to me!”
Seeing that he was very emotional, he knew that he was deeply obsessed with it. Emperor Jingwen did not want to say anything more. Now that the situation was completely clear, there was no need to continue.
“Take them all down!”
Following an order from Emperor Jingwen, several more secret guards rushed out, and the originally evenly matched situation immediately changed.
No matter how vicious the Thirteenth Prince’s character is, he does not have enough experience and cannot be truly as still as a mountain.
Seeing this scene, he couldn’t help but feel panic in his heart.
Damn it, how come he had been in the temple for such a long time and hadn’t noticed so many secret guards hiding in the dark!
Not to mention him, even Ye Shuo, who was wandering around all day, couldn’t find any trace of the secret guards.
But soon, the Thirteenth Prince forced himself to calm down again.
It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter. Zilu Peak is far away in the suburbs, not in Shangjing, so if the cost is not considered, the princess can mobilise a lot of people.
Also, even if Zilu Peak is defended, what can it do?
When the princess’s troops kill all of Shangjing and occupy it, my father will be powerless to save the situation.
In order to plan this matter, they could be said to have made perfect preparations. No wonder the Thirteenth Prince dared to act so blatantly.
“Be patient, reinforcements will be here soon.”
Under the protection of the assassins, the Thirteenth Prince retreated step by step with them. Just when the Thirteenth Prince was getting extremely nervous, there were sudden sounds of dense footsteps coming from outside.
There were so many of them that just when the Thirteenth Prince thought that his reinforcements had arrived, his excited expression did not last long, and soon the smile on his face froze.
The people who came were not what he had expected. The two faces in the lead were General Xu and General Fang. Who else could they be?
After killing the last assassin, General Xu and General Fang knelt on one knee without thinking: “Your Majesty, please forgive us for being late to save you!”
The eldest prince clearly remembered that he had not had time to pass the message down, so why did they bring people up?
Could it be that the two of them betrayed him?
The eldest prince stared at them intently, noticing the respect and obedience in their eyes, and suddenly an incredible thought popped up in his mind –
Maybe it wasn’t a betrayal, but rather that they had been the emperor’s people from the very beginning.
Emperor Jingwen would not make the same mistake as the Duke of Zhen a second time, and would not allow others to threaten him again, even if that person was his own son. Therefore, anyone who holds a large number of troops would never be able to sit in that position.
However, when Emperor Jingwen first ascended the throne, there was no one else to choose from. Since one of them was destined to be sacrificed, he had no choice but to give up with great reluctance.
Emperor Jingwen had already made a choice between his two sons, the eldest prince and the crown prince, and even paved the way for the crown prince.
It’s a pity that the crown prince didn’t persist to this point and collapsed halfway.
It turned out that everything the eldest prince had was nothing but a castle in the air. The seemingly magnificent building actually collapsed in a matter of a moment.
From beginning to end, the eldest prince was just a tool used by Emperor Jingwen to fight for military power.