It’s hard to break a phoenix’s destiny

Chapter 519 Staying at Xiang's House and Listening to Stories

In fact, what was even more surprising was that Sima Chi, Liang Fen, and General Gou Xi actually conspired to issue a public proclamation within these ten days, which roughly described the attack by Liu He and Liu Cong into Luoyang as a coup launched by Sima Yue, who sent soldiers to raid the palace and killed more than a dozen court officials including the brothers Miao Yin and Miao Bo. Afterwards, they dismissed or directly killed all the middle-level officers that the emperor had just trained and recruited, of course, including the imperial guards killed by Liu He and the soldiers guarding the city, on the grounds that the imperial guards had repeatedly interfered in the political situation and were the culprit for the national war.

Only the people in Luoyang knew what happened in Luoyang. People in other prefectures and counties had no idea. Therefore, when they saw this proclamation, they were all stunned. Wasn't this emperor a puppet supported by Sima Yue? Why did the two of them fight?
But the current situation has indeed become that Sima Chi is in control of the world, while Sima Yue has run away with his troops.

The forces of the states and counties of the Jin Dynasty had to deal with Liu Yuan's army, other warlords, refugees, and even Sima Rui, who was eyeing the south, on the one hand, and had to divide part of their energy to find the route of Sima Yue's army. Every place was suffering, and many officials even wanted to go home and farm.

Sima Yue did not encounter any obstacles along the way, and his progress was smooth. If it had not been for the heavy rain and strong wind, the speed of travel would have been even faster. He was in a much happier mood, especially when he saw the endless boxes of gold, silver and jewelry behind the carriage he was riding in, and he smiled so hard that his mouth could hardly close.

Concubine Pei had a face full of resentment and didn't want to follow him at all. So, she walked slowly behind him all the way.

Sima Yue didn't care, and even thought that the old woman was in good health. She didn't fall ill on such a bumpy journey. Because several of his concubines had fallen ill and died.

In order to show his loyalty and righteousness, the Crown Prince Sima Pi also found many quacks along the way to see if they could treat these concubines and make medicine. He always treated them and then discarded them, so as not to tarnish Sima Yue's good reputation. Sima Yue was more and more satisfied with this son, so he handed more things to him. He liked metaphysics and immortal elixirs the most, so there were many Taoists and monks in the team, each of whom said that he was a cultivator with powerful magic. Therefore, when he was bored halfway, Sima Yue asked these people to meditate on the side of the road to practice the method of becoming an immortal, which made Concubine Pei's face even darker.

Of course, after twenty days of running around, Sima Yue was also tired. When he entered Xiangcheng, he decided to find a rich family to stay in the city, straighten his waist, and eat a few solid meals.

Sima Pi immediately arranged it, and even found a few cooks and maids to help them, so that at least someone could help wash and mend their clothes. Xiangcheng was the fief of Xiang Yu's grandfather, and the largest mansion of the rich here was the Xiang family.

Now, this is where the Xiang family members live together, and they have long lost the courage and boldness of the former King of Chu. They honestly vacated the house and respectfully welcomed Sima Yue to live in.

Sima Yue was naturally very impolite, without even a word of thanks, he walked in swaggeringly, looked left and right, and made some comments with his subordinates. After all, he was old and his body couldn't stand the long journey, so he fell asleep after dinner, and even a concubine came to serve him.

However, in the middle of the night, I heard a very faint crying sound, which should be the crying of a little girl.

For him who had spent half his life in the military, this didn't seem like a big deal, he turned over and fell asleep again. This time he slept very deeply, and at noon the next day, he was still snoring loudly, which frightened the guards so much that they didn't dare to go in and wake him up, and could only wait at the door.

When Sima Yue woke up, he felt deeply happy. It was a rare feeling of peace and calmness. He lay there, even feeling a little reluctant to get into bed.

Of course, the only things that could get him up now were the extremely urgent military reports, all about the expedition against him or the bandits. However, even after reading so much unpleasant news, he still felt in a good mood. After all, he had slept for such a long time and felt that his body, mind and soul were relaxed. Therefore, he had time to walk around the Xiang family's mansion again. When he arrived behind his house, he suddenly remembered the small crying sound last night, and couldn't help asking the Xiang family: "Why is there someone crying here in the middle of the night?"

"Ah?" The clan leader of the Xiang family followed with a look of surprise. "The Xiang family has always lacked female relatives. There has been no girl born in the past fifty years, let alone young women. Because of the war, for fear of causing trouble, those young wives were sent to the Xiang family's countryside to avoid disaster. There must be no women here now."

"No way? I clearly heard the crying sound." Sima Yue's wrinkled face showed some displeasure.

"Your Highness, this is true. Your Highness must have heard it all wrong. It's absolutely not true." The Xiang family's patriarch was the same age as Sima Yue, and he was also from the military. He still acted like a soldier, and he stood straight. He was also very annoyed by Sima Yue's arrival, fearing that the war would be brought to the Xiang family, destroying the ancestral home, and he would not be able to explain to his ancestors after his death.

The two servants of the Xiang family who followed him could not help but cough several times when they heard their master speak so straightforwardly. Sima Yue turned his head to look at them and snorted again, frightening the two servants so much that they immediately knelt on the ground.

"My lord, spare my life."

"Why are you coughing? Is there something shameful?" Sima Yue was a suspicious person, so he couldn't stand these people trying to hide things.

"Ah... no, no, no." The servants quickly shook their heads and waved their hands and closed their mouths.

The more it looks like this, the more problems there are.

"Speak!" Sima Yue's voice became much louder, frightening everyone in the Xiang family so much that they trembled.

Although the head of the Xiang family did not kneel down, he lowered his head and bowed slightly. "This matter is also the fault of the Xiang family."

It turned out that fifty years ago, a beautiful little girl was born in the Xiang family. The whole family was very happy and even held a full moon banquet for the child in this courtyard. But when the child was seven or eight years old, she suddenly hanged herself on the beam of the main house.

It is said that she committed suicide out of fear of punishment because she poisoned the previous clan leader.