Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 123 A painting scroll that could drive any historian mad.
Yin Shi.

Heaven and earth are not yet completely separated.

As was customary, this was the most arduous part of the journey for officials to attend court. The surroundings were deathly silent, with only the orderly footsteps of the sedan chair bearers and the occasional distant sound of the night watchman's clapper reminding them that the heart of the empire was still asleep.

However, things are different today.

As the official sedan chairs passed through Qipan Street and the majestic outline of Chengtian Gate, resembling a mountain range, came into view, everyone sensed something was amiss.

A continuous buzzing sound filled the air.

The Right Vice Minister of the Ministry of Rites, Lord Wang, was the first to alight from his sedan chair. He frowned and looked toward the Meridian Gate, which should have been empty and solemn.

"What...what's going on?"

More and more officials alighted from their sedan chairs, staring in disbelief at the sight they had never witnessed before.

A censor who had just been transferred back to the capital from another region rubbed his eyes hard and said to his colleague in a trembling voice, "Have you gone mad?"

"Crazy?" A well-informed official from the Ministry of Revenue sneered, lowering his voice, "Brother, don't you know? Everyone's saying that His Majesty... His Majesty is going to abolish the imperial examination system!"

"what?!"

This news was like a thunderbolt, exploding in the newly assembled group of officials!

Everyone was stunned.

An old courtier with white hair and beard, who had spent more than 30 years in the Hanlin Academy and experienced the trials and tribulations of three dynasties, was now leaning on a cane, his whole body trembling.

"I have served as an official in the court for over thirty years. What kind of situation haven't I seen?" His voice was hoarse, yet it clearly reached the ears of everyone around him.

"I have seen officials die for their remonstrances, their blood staining the imperial steps; I have seen nobles protest for military pay, besieging the Ministry of War; I have also seen the capital suffer a severe drought, with countless people kneeling outside the palace gates begging for rain..."

The old scholar took a long breath at this point, as if he needed to use all his strength to say what he was about to say.

"But... I've never seen this before!!"

His words expressed the sentiments of all the officials.

This is insane! This is unbelievable!
A censor from the Censorate, his face pale and lips trembling, exclaimed, "This is clearly... this is clearly a coup!"

The moment the words "forced abdication" were uttered, the surrounding air froze instantly.

Yes, it was a coup!

Just then, a commotion broke out at the back of the crowd.

Two extremely grand sedan chairs slowly approached under the complex gazes of a group of officials.

The sedan chairs of Qian Longxi and Qian Qianyi were carried to the very front of the officials through this passage formed by a human wall.

The sedan curtain was lifted, and the two stepped out slowly.

When they saw the grand scene before them, which far exceeded their expectations, even the two planners couldn't help but feel their hearts pound.

The two exchanged a glance, and both saw the same message in each other's eyes.

It was a mixture of overwhelming elation at the huge success and a touch of awe at the massive wave he had created.

But more than anything, it was a sense of certainty that victory was assured.

Become!

……

The Meridian Gate, resembling the mouth of a giant beast, remained shrouded in an impenetrable darkness.

Suddenly, several figures appeared in the darkness.

They walked from darkness to light, step by step, unhurriedly.

The leader was dressed in a bright yellow robe embroidered with a dragon pattern. He stood tall and straight, and his face was somewhat blurred in the morning light. However, his unique imperial majesty transformed into an invisible and overwhelming force, instantly capturing the attention of everyone in the square!
The current emperor of the Ming Dynasty is Zhu Youjian!
He did not appear on the city wall, overlooking the masses.

He personally stepped out from the passage that represented the very core of imperial power, to face this storm head-on!
Behind the emperor, to his left stood Wei Zhongxian, and to his right, Zhou Quan. Both men looked more ashen than corpses. Behind them followed a figure, like a ghost—Tian Ergeng, the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The officials were in an uproar, and the students were even more agitated. No one had expected that the emperor would come in person in this way!

Zhu Youjian did not stop. He led the three of them straight to the gate and stood on the boundary line between the square and the palace.

He stopped right there.

He gave only a brief instruction to Tian Ergeng, who had been silently following at the back.

"Go and take care of your business."

These words were spoken lightly, without any emotion, as if asking a servant to fetch a garment from the backyard.

Tian Ergeng bowed and accepted the order. He then turned around, but instead of retreating back into the darkness of the doorway, he moved like a silent shadow, passing directly through the side of the officials' procession and quickly disappearing into the morning mist at the far end of the square.

As Zhou Quan watched Tian Ergeng's resolute departing figure, a tremendous sense of horror, like an icy tide, instantly overwhelmed his heart.

At this critical juncture, what is Tian Ergeng going to do?
What is he going to do?

Is it to mobilize the Beijing garrison? Or to arrest someone? Why are they only going now?
Zhou Quan's mind was in complete chaos; he was at a loss, but a premonition that almost suffocated him enveloped him.

He felt that something earth-shattering and history-altering was about to happen, and that he, as the director of the Western Depot, was completely unaware of it!
This is something even more terrifying than the scholars causing trouble!

However, Zhou Quan glanced at Wei Zhongxian beside him and found that although the once all-powerful eunuch also had a worried and angry expression on his face, there was a fleeting and extremely complex look in the depths of his cunning eyes.

That was clearly a feigned state of bewilderment, a deliberate act of feigned ignorance despite having seen through everything.

……

As an old dog who had bitten people for the late emperor for ten years, Wei Zhongxian's sense of smell in the court was far more acute than Zhou Quan's.

In recent days, the emperor's various unusual behaviors, Tian Ergeng's mysterious whereabouts, and the clues and scattered evidence he had gathered through the Eastern Depot's spies had pieced together a vague yet terrifying picture in his mind.

He vaguely guessed what Tian Ergeng was going to do, but he dared not think about it too deeply, much less show it.

If the emperor doesn't want him to know, then he absolutely must not know!
In the presence of such an unpredictable emperor, knowing too much is just as dangerous as knowing too little.

Therefore, he could only continue to play the role of a loyal servant who lacked wisdom and resourcefulness. Every wrinkle on his old face perfectly interpreted an old servant's worry for his master's safety and his anger at the situation getting out of control.

……

"Pfft!"

It's unclear who was the first to kneel, but soon, like waves of wheat swaying in the wind, everyone—from the students in the center of the square to the officials on either side of the palace gate—knelt down!
"Long live my emperor! Long live! Long live!"

The roar, like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami crashing, echoed across the empty square, carrying a sense of awe that came from the depths of one's soul.

Zhu Youjian stood there without saying a word.

He quietly looked at the dark mass of people kneeling before him, at the mixture of awe, fear, excitement, and resentment on their faces, but his gaze remained as calm as a frozen lake.

Only when the shouts from the mountains subsided did he slightly tilt his head.

Wang Chengen, standing beside him, immediately understood, stepped forward, and announced loudly in a high-pitched voice:

"By order of His Majesty, rise!"

Upon receiving the emperor's decree, everyone stood up shakily. Many students, due to excessive nervousness, stumbled and nearly fell when they stood up.

The square fell silent once more.

All eyes were focused on the yellow figure standing at the very front.

They awaited his thunderous rage or his words of soothing.

In this silence that seemed to freeze time, a glint of anticipation flashed in Li Feiyu's eyes as he stood amidst the crowd, a glint of anticipation for the mission's imminent completion.

He knew that his last and most important task as a spy was to personally light the last and most crucial fuse.

He took a step forward, breaking away from the crowd, took a deep breath, and prepared to let out a shout that was destined to be earth-shattering and open the curtain on the entire grand drama!
　These chapters have been significantly revised.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)