Who among the gangsters wants to fall in love?

Chapter 5: The Pillar of the Troubled Times
The old emperor passed away, the prince was bedridden and unconscious, and there was no successor in the court. The news that the legitimate princess was in northern Shanxi spread throughout the country in just a few days with the intervention of Wu Ming, and the whole world was shocked.

Before leaving the country, the Rong people occupied the northern part of Yanyun for nearly a hundred years, and they always wanted to invade the south of the Yangtze River.

However, the south was in chaos and there were many warlords. The internal strife alone consumed an incalculable amount of national strength. It was not until Emperor Taizu Gao spent 15 years to unify the south, expel the Rong people, and conquer Yanyun that the world was finally at peace.

After the founding of the country, Emperor Taizu recuperated, resumed production, and the national strength was at its peak. However, problems arose during the reign of the second emperor.

Perhaps he wanted to catch up with the great achievements of Emperor Taizu and become a great ruler, but I don't know whose advice he listened to, but he actually targeted the princes in various places, hoping to reduce the power of the princes by his own strength in a short period of time, so as to consolidate the military power and then march north to attack the Rong people.

He first forced the King of Chu to death, and then sent people to assassinate the King of Qin. As a result, the King of Qin did not die, but his wife died. The King of Qin was furious and rebelled in the name of "clearing the court"!
It took the King of Qin three years to fight his way from Chang'an to the capital. At that time, the sun and moon were dark, and corpses were everywhere. No one knew how many people died along the way. Even the King of Qin's eldest son died on the way, leaving only the six-year-old second son... This second son is the current crown prince.

As for why he didn't have more children, some said that it was because Emperor Jingzheng was injured when he came to the capital and he was powerless; others said that his first wife had died and the emperor had sealed his love for him... These were all rumors among the people. Since it concerned the emperor, no one dared to talk about it.

The court had quite a few complaints about this, and every year old ministers would threaten to die in the hope that Emperor Jingzheng would have more children. Unfortunately, over the years, Emperor Jingzheng had only had one illegitimate daughter...and this illegitimate daughter was the legitimate princess who was now stranded in northern Shanxi.

The prince is quite capable. He has several sons. In addition, he practices martial arts, has a strong body, and is free from illness and disaster. The country should have no worries... This is also the main reason why the court allowed the princess to go out to study medicine.

But who could have thought that the prince would be unconscious for some unknown reason?
The court was divided into three factions for this reason: the female emperor faction, the young emperor faction, and the vassal kings faction. The three factions had been arguing with each other for a long time. Generally speaking, the young emperor faction was still the dominant faction. It's not that women can't be emperors. There are many famous female emperors in history. It's just that the young emperor makes it easier for powerful officials to control the government.

But Luo Chaoyan's uncle, the patriarch of the Xu family in Chu, is also a great man. With the help of his sister being the queen, he has developed into the number one family in Chu over the years. He has considerable influence in the court and even has nearly 100,000 navy... Because of him, the ministers in the court would have been arguing until now, otherwise they would have made the young emperor the emperor long ago.

Emperor Jingzheng passed away, and the crown prince was in a coma, as if he was dead. There were many doubts about this matter, but there was no one in the court at the moment. It was winter, and the Rong tribe was eyeing them covetously outside the Great Wall. The court had to find someone to take charge as soon as possible... Even if the court was already controlled by powerful officials, it had to find a puppet, right? Otherwise, the people would be unhappy and it would be illegal.

If the legitimate princess from northern Shanxi could return to Beijing, with her relationship with her uncle, it would be almost certain that she would be the next emperor.

If he cannot come back, the throne will be given to the six-year-old eldest grandson.

This is true according to etiquette, but the prince himself may not want to be emperor. But would the people under the prince not want to be powerful ministers and be granted titles of nobility?
If God does not take it, he will suffer the consequences!
Even the martial arts world was shocked by this. Among the three famous sects and six major factions today, which one has no close relationship with the imperial court?
Even the people in the Demon Sect would like to kill the princess to make the world more chaotic and make it easier for them to do their things.

Whoever kills her will be the one who splits the troubled times apart! On the contrary, whoever can protect her back to Beijing will be the pillar that supports the collapsing building!

Therefore, even a street thug can understand the logic... The journey of the legitimate princess back to the capital will definitely not be easy.

Zhao Wumian carefully rode the black horse that Su Qingqi had borrowed from Qinfeng Village. He looked up at the sky and saw heavy snow. He felt strange in his heart, thinking that he had just woken up for a few hours and was involved in such a big event. He was destined to be the protagonist.

It was strange, as this was his first time riding a horse, but when he sat on the horse he felt as if he was using his own arms and legs, as if he had been married for many years and just clapped his hands and knew when to pull in his waist and stick out his hips... It was really a disconnect, even when he was fighting with Wu Ming.

Su Qingqi talked to the woman without avoiding Zhao Wumian, and mostly talked about how this was the territory of King Jin, and she didn't know whether he would send troops to blockade the area around Jin, or whether the imperial court would send people to support.

Information is not circulated in this world, and the imperial court cannot be contacted, so things like this can only be guessed.

Zhao Wumian listened quietly for a while before he remembered something and tilted his head to say, "I don't know your name yet."

The two of them were still dishevelled and looked a little funny, so the woman smiled and said gracefully, "Luo Chaoyan, this is the name my mother gave me, what about you?"

"Zhao Wumian." Zhao Wumian retracted his gaze and without asking any more questions, he took out a booklet from his arms and started flipping through the secret book. How could a woman be as important as martial arts?
Luo Chaoyan looked at him for a few times, and was ready to be talked to by Zhao Wumian. His cold appearance made her a little speechless... Ever since she entered the palace and became a princess, everyone around her was flattering her, until she concealed her identity and went to Guixuan Valley to study, things got better. But Zhao Wumian's behavior was what she wanted.

The secret book is very old, with "Five Qi Classic" written on the cover, which has a Taoist meaning. After opening it and taking a quick look, I realized that "Five Qi" refers to five kinds of martial arts, namely knife, gun, sword, fist and finger.

Zhao Wumian looked at Su Qingqi and raised the secret book in his hand to indicate, "Will this secret book cover five types of external skills? Isn't it too complicated and unrefined?"

Su Qingqi tilted her head and thought for a while before she said tactfully, "I don't know much about the Five Qi Classic, but the Tie Luosha couple are the Jade Constables of the Detective Division, masters of their generation, and intimidate the martial arts world, second only to Wu Kui. The couple are both masters of swords and sabers, but they only know how to use swords and sabers."

"You can become a master of martial arts just by learning the sword. Do you think you are the Nine Yin Manual..." Zhao Wumian was a little skeptical. Is this manual really so powerful that they both died at the hands of Wu Ming? However, the dead are the greatest, so he didn't say much.

He continued to look through it, and after a while his brows began to frown. He couldn't understand the Fengchi point, Juque point, and other energy-exerting paths.

He does know the Yongquan acupoint...on the foot.

Even though he couldn't understand it, he still read it very seriously, trying his best to memorize the entire book in case he lost it and had nothing to learn.

Su Qingqi was actually intrigued. She was obviously a martial arts fanatic. "What is the Nine Yin Manual? What martial arts did you learn, young master?"

Zhao Wumian recalled the jokes he had with his good friend in the past, and with a little nostalgia, he said with a smile: "The orthodox Taoist sect is abbreviated as Yin..."

"Hmm?" Su Qingqi blinked her long eyelashes, looking puzzled.

"Sorry." Zhao Wumian apologized and sighed. There was no close friend here with whom he could make dirty jokes.

Su Qingqi was even more confused. Her fair and delicate little face was a little cute.

Luo Chaoyan didn't know any martial arts, so he couldn't get a word in. He just listened quietly.

The three of them galloped on their horses. The snow was getting heavier and heavier. When it was almost dawn and the shadow of a village appeared in front of them, they just slowed down. The two horses that followed from Qinfeng Village were so tired that they stuck out their tongues and were steaming in the snow. Only Su Qingqi's white horse was riding with ease, wagging its tail and looking like it was strolling leisurely in the garden. It was obviously a rare good horse.

Zhao Wumian put away the secret book that he had memorized half of. He looked around and saw that the sky was bright, but there were few people in the village. He felt a little scared, "It's just right to avoid the snow, but at this time, why is there no smoke from cooking?"

Luo Chaoyan frowned slightly and rode forward, looking heroic and heroic, not like a spoiled princess at all. "The snow is getting heavier, and it's hard for horses to move forward. Let's go and rest first. If we can buy some dry food, there's no need to risk going to the town."

Su Qingqi squeezed the horse's belly and rushed to Luo Chaoyan's side to protect her. She looked at the village from afar and whispered, "This is Jiangpan Village. I was here yesterday. Most of the villagers were slaughtered by the bandits in Qinfeng Village. Although it is deserted now, it is safe."

The heavy snow suppressed the smell, and when Zhao Wumian got closer, he could also smell a faint scent of blood. He glanced at Su Qingqi, and it seemed that she did not lie to him about this matter.

There were quite a few sloppy mounds of earth outside the village, without even a sign, almost like a mass grave. It was estimated that Su Qingqi had hurriedly buried the villagers yesterday.

Leading the horses into the village, the three found a relatively intact house to rest. They rode their horses all night long. The horses needed rest, and so did they.

(End of this chapter)