Chapter 1699 - The Setting Sun Villa Incident!
Chapter 1699: The Setting Sun Villa Incident!
When the First Prince saw the man who had spoken, his face froze, and all his killing intent vanished.
“Ghost King? What do you mean by that?” the First Prince suddenly asked with deep displeasure in his voice, creasing his brow.
In the Eastern Palace faction, the only one who dared to speak to the First Prince in such a way and was tolerated by him was the Ghost King.
But no matter how tolerant the First Prince was of the Ghost King, such improper words left him extremely unhappy. Moreover, at this crucial moment, the man was casually lying on a sofa and drinking tea.
“He’s just a man. No matter how strong he is, he’s still just a rash brute. Did Your Highness plan for so long just to deal with a single King of Foreign Lands?”
Hou Junji chuckled as he took his tea and lightly blew away the bubbles on its surface, his expression carefree and relaxed.
“You!”
The First Prince’s mouth opened on instinct, but he quickly realized something, and he became powerless to speak.
It was true! He had certainly planned for so long simply over a struggle with Wang Chong. He was vying for the supreme throne of the realm, to become the greatest sovereign of the continent.
“Has Your Highness understood?”
Seeing that the First Prince had calmed down, Hou Junji smiled. Although he was leisurely drinking tea and not even looking at the First Prince, nothing in this hall could escape his eyes.
“Ghost King, just what is it that you want to say?” the First Prince asked, though his expression was no longer so fraught with concern.
“If you seek to seize the world, you cannot focus on success or failure in a single corner. That Wang Chong truly is an obstruction, but not to the point where he can stop the overarching scheme. I have already planned everything out,” Hou Junji indifferently said. He put down his tea cup and lightly rapped against the table, his body exuding a natural confidence and charisma.
Buzz!
The Eastern Palace fell silent. Zhu Tong’en, Meng Tu, and all the other advisors stared at the Ghost King in speechless shock.
Hou Junji’s words carried an implied meaning. This operation had unquestionably been a failure, but the Ghost King seemed to be saying that he had already foreseen this and made arrangements while the rest of them had been unaware.
“Ghost King, you mean…”
“Heh, there’s no need for Your Highness to be in a rush. Your Highness will naturally know when the time comes.”
Hou Junji smiled.
Everyone in the hall turned pensive.
Bong!
In the middle of the silence, the clear ringing of a bell came from the distance. It was an extremely strange sound, different from any other sort of bell, gong, or chime within the palace. It was like a mix between the cry of a dragon and a phoenix, tinged with the hiss of a beast.
The advisors exchanged glances. It was forbidden to intentionally cause a ruckus within the holy ground of the Imperial Palace, and offenders would normally be executed. Moreover, none of them had ever heard this bell before.
The sound of that bell seemed to be coming from Taji Palace, the residence of the Sage Emperor…
While many of the people in the Eastern Palace didn’t understand what this bell signified, two people had entirely different expressions. When the bell resounded, the First Prince and Hou Junji both began to listen.
Once!
Twice!
Thrice!
That lingering bell resounded three times, and then its echoes faded into nothingness.
“Hahaha…”
The First Prince appeared to hear something from the last ring. His eyes brightly shone, and he burst into laughter, frightening all the other advisors.
“Heh, Your Highness, we no longer need to worry about the King of Foreign Lands. Everything was ready except the east wind, and now, even the east wind is here!”
Hou Junji smiled. Flipping his wrist over, he revealed a black chess piece held between his index and middle fingers. Pa! He flicked the black piece out, and it struck the surface of a nearby chessboard.
This chessboard was covered with crisscrossing black pieces. The situation on the board seemed dangerous, but it appeared to be missing something. But when the last black piece landed, the final weakness was filled.
Truly, the ringing of the bell set the final tone!
……
Three days later, Wang Chong was still resting in his residence. Many craftsmen and artisans had been summoned and were in the middle of repairing the damage done by the Tianfu Divine Lord and the men in black. At this time, surprising news came from the northern region of the Great Tang, shocking the entire empire.
All the border generals in the north, including the generals of the Beiting Protectorate, some of the generals from Qixi, and the titled generals east of Youzhou, a total of more than one hundred top-class generals of the Tang Empire, suddenly left their posts without any order from the Imperial Court or the Bureau of Military Personnel, and held a secret meeting at Setting Sun Villa in the northern region of the Great Tang.
When the matter leaked, it set off great waves in the court. The enraged First Prince sent off ten decrees in a row, ordering that all the generals who had taken part in the Setting Sun Villa meeting be seized. Moreover, Beiting Protector-General An Sishun, as the highest commander of the northern border, with Setting Sun Villa right under his eyes, was also deeply involved. The First Prince had already had him removed from his post until further investigation.
In the space of a single day, the hundred-some generals were arrested and a Great General of the empire was removed from his post. This was unprecedented in the Great Tang, an earthshaking shift!
As the temporary Minister of War and the supporting pillar of the Tang army within the capital, Wang Chong suffered the greatest shock of all.
Gallop!
After the incident broke out, the King of Foreign Lands Residence resounded with hoofbeats as horsemen rode in and out. Meanwhile, messenger birds carpeted the skies above the estate. The entire residence was engulfed in a storm of nervous tension.
Everyone had gathered in the main hall as Zhang Que rushed inside. Wang Chong immediately turned his head to look, as did everyone else.
“How is it?”
The moment the incident in the north broke out, Wang Chong immediately sent Zhang Que, and in turn, almost all the spies and scouts under Wang Chong’s command were mobilized to the north.
This incident had been so abrupt that Wang Chong had known nothing about it from start to finish. By the time he had received word, the First Prince had already lashed out with thunderous momentum and seized all the generals involved.
“Your Highness, the situation is not good!”
The travel-worn Zhang Que removed his helmet and crossed over the threshold, fatigue in his eyes. He had been riding essentially nonstop over the last few days, so focused on the matter that he had not taken even a single moment to rest.
“Our investigations revealed that the meeting of one hundred generals at Setting Sun Villa really did take place, and the Imperial Court really did know nothing about it beforehand. In other words, the Imperial Court is not unjustly accusing them of any crimes!”
Zhang Que’s first words made everyone’s hearts sink.
“How could this be? So many generals! Without the Imperial Court’s order, how could they dare to leave their posts?!”
“That’s right! And there were more than one hundred people. They couldn’t possibly have failed to understand the gravity of the matter. Without a proper reason, why would they have done such a thing?”
“Besides that, there were so many generals. Did not one of them sense that there was a problem? Even if they wanted to hold a secret meeting, their conspirators stretched from Qixi to Youzhou, and they’ve never interacted before. Just how did they think they would pull it off?”
It was difficult for the people in the room to hide their shock. Such a major incident had never occurred in the history of the Great Tang, and now that they thought about it, there were far too many suspicious points.
Wang Chong said nothing as he gravely looked at Zhang Que. Some time had passed since the incident, so Wang Chong was sure that someone of Zhang Que’s abilities had been able to investigate the matter thoroughly.
“Our investigation revealed that the generals that day knew nothing. They had all received a decree from the court claiming that the First Prince would appear at Setting Sun Villa in the next few days to discuss the matters of the northern border. Setting Sun Villa was where the Sage Emperor lodged when he was inspecting the northern border in the past, and he would usually summon the generals every three or five years to discuss border affairs. When the generals received the order, none of them dared to defy it.
“Moreover, the First Prince is the current regent, the Sage Emperor’s eldest son, and the future Crown Prince. As this was his first time inspecting the northern border, none of them dared to ignore the decree.
“But when they arrived, they discovered that nothing of the sort was going on. While there were quite a few high-ranking generals at Setting Sun Villa, there was no sign of the First Prince. And given what’s happened, the First Prince seems to have firmly denied ever issuing any such decree!” Zhang Que sternly said.
This entire matter was extremely fishy. The more he learned about it, the colder his heart became. No matter who had planned this scheme, they had been extremely meticulous and vicious. All of these generals who had served the Great Tang on the battlefield for more than half their lives had all been playthings in the palm of that schemer’s hands!
Everyone’s hearts were heavy as silence reigned.
Wang Chong’s eyes were closed, his thoughts inscrutable as he silently pondered