Standalone Northern and Southern Dynasties

Chapter 402: Bad and Worse
"Your Majesty, your servant Su Ze greets you."

Outside the city of Mianchi west of Luoyang, Su Ze arranged his troops to welcome the young emperor Yuan Xu.

Mianchi is also an ancient city. During the Warring States Period, King Zhao held a meeting here under the persuasion of Lin Xiangru and established the Mianchi Alliance.

There is a mound outside the city, which is said to be the place where the Qin and Zhao alliance met. Su Ze welcomed the little emperor on this mound.

In addition to the little emperor and Su Ze, there were also officials, nobles and powerful people in Mianchi and nearby areas, all of whom witnessed the entire process of Su Ze welcoming the little emperor.

"I have come to welcome Your Majesty in accordance with the imperial edict. I ask Your Majesty to move the people to Guanzhong and rebuild the country."

Perhaps it was because of the fatigue from the journey, or because too many things had happened in the past few days, the little emperor did not resist at all, but followed what Su Suan had told him on the way, and said to Su Ze:

"The Duke of Gaoping is a loyal minister of our Great Wei. The state is in a difficult situation. With the help of such a loyal minister, our Great Wei will not be destroyed."

Su Ze quickly pretended to say:
"Although our Great Wei has bandits and rebellious parties, as long as Your Majesty works hard to govern the country and has the assistance of my ministers, it will surely be able to revive. Your Majesty, please get in the carriage immediately and drive to Guanzhong."

The little emperor nodded, and naturally someone sent him away. Su Ze then said to the representatives of the Hedong County gentry, including the Hongnong Yang family:

"Your Majesty is already in Su's army. Rebuilding the country is not only Su's responsibility, but also requires your help."

"Guanzhong is eager to seek talents. Those who are interested in following Your Majesty can follow me into the pass."

"If you can't give up your family property, I won't force you to do so. I just hope you can remember the alliance we made today."

Su Ze's tone was gentle, which made some of the nobles who were forced by the soldiers to watch the ceremony feel much better.

There are also those who are willing to give up. Yang An, the head of the Hongnong Yang family, took the lead and said:
"We are willing to follow the Duke into the pass and assist His Majesty!"

Delay would lead to changes. After completing this political show, Su Ze immediately took the little emperor and headed towards Tongguan.
-
The second wave of palace envoys arrived at Beizhong City, and Li Shengui led his troops to withdraw from Beizhong City as agreed.

The original garrison in Beizhong City immediately ran towards their homes in the city after crossing the pontoon bridge.

At that time, the soldiers brought by Su Shouzheng took Li Shengui and went directly west.

Erzhu Rong did wait until the soldiers in Beizhong City withdrew before he ordered Gao Huan to enter the city and occupy the small city that had blocked his way for a whole day and a half.

He then sent Heba Sheng to control the pontoon bridge. It was not until the afternoon that Erzhu Rong led his troops across the Yellow River and arrived at the north gate of Luoyang.

Yuan Tianmu was already outside the city gate to welcome Erzhu Rong.

"General."

"Thank you for your hard work, brother. How is the situation in the city?"

Yuan Tianmu rode his horse and stood side by side with Erzhu Rong. He whispered:

"not too good."

"Let's go into the city after that."

Erzhu Rong waved his hand, and the entire army stopped in an orderly manner.

The personal guards automatically made room for Erzhu Rong and Yuan Tianmu to talk.

"The palace is relatively peaceful. The witch queen has stopped making trouble, and the eunuchs and ministers in the palace are all very cooperative."

"What's wrong with that?"

"The princes and ministers are restless, especially Gaoyang Prince Yuanyong, who is a fool who only loves money. After the palace coup, he was busy going back to guard his palace. Today, he asked me for the palace left by Qinghe Prince."

"Minister, the same is true. Some officials from the three ministries and thirteen departments have fled Luoyang with Your Majesty. The entire Luoyang court has fallen into chaos. Many neighborhoods are still in turmoil. The governor of Henan has no soldiers to suppress it. Several gates of Luoyang are wide open, and the gate officers have all dispersed."

Yuan Tianmu finally said:
"The most troublesome one is the emperor."

"When the emperor left Luoyang, he appeared on the city wall. When the palace issued another edict saying that the emperor was in the palace, the officials and the people no longer believed it."

"Now everyone in Luoyang is saying that the emperor sent a secret decree to Su Ze, asking him to lead troops to defend the king. Because the general was rebellious, Your Majesty fled to Su Ze and moved to Guanzhong."

Yuan Tianmu was also very melancholy. In fact, Erzhu Rong had been decisive enough in raising his army, and was only one step away. If it had not been for the blocking of Beizhong City, he would have led his troops into the city and controlled the palace yesterday, and the little emperor would not have run away.

Su Ze had arrived in Hongnong two days ago. Judging from his schedule, he must have picked up the little emperor. Erzhu Rong's men were exhausted and there was no way they could chase the emperor.

A good activity to purge the imperial court turned into a rebellion.

"Can't we appoint another emperor?"

Yuan Tianmu was surprised:
"Originally, the reason we started the rebellion was because the evil queen wanted Your Majesty to take a successor and murder Your Majesty. If we depose and enthrone the emperor again, how can we make the people of the world recognize us?"

Yuan Tianmu was still very politically savvy. It was a good move for Su Ze to only seize the emperor but leave behind the city of Luoyang. Now leaving behind the accumulated city of Luoyang would indeed leave all the burdens and problems to Erzhu Rong.

Erzhu Rong said, "Since we already know that Yuanxu has gone to Guanzhong, what's the point of recognizing him as Your Majesty? Do we still have to pay homage to Su Ze?"

"Let the Queen Mother and the princes establish an emperor in Luoyang and announce that Yuan Xu was bewitched by the treacherous minister Su Ze. Didn't the Confucian scholars say that a monarch dies for the country. How can someone who escapes the capital still be a monarch?"

Yuan Tianmu thought about it carefully and felt that what Erzhu Rong said made some sense.

But Erzhu Rong's reasons always seemed a bit strange.

If we continue to recognize the little emperor, what should we do if the little emperor sends us an imperial edict from Guanzhong in the future? Should we just obey him obediently?
He might as well find a reason to depose the young emperor, and then use the advantage of having the empress dowager and the princes and ministers in his hands to establish another obedient emperor.

It's a choice between a bad answer and a worse answer, and there's no other way.

"Among the royal family, Yuan Zhao, the son of Lintao Prince Yuan Baohui, is the most suitable in terms of bloodline. How about making him the heir?"

Yuan Zhao is of course the most suitable candidate for puppet emperor, otherwise Empress Dowager Hu would not have chosen him, but Erzhu Rong shook his head and said:
"That won't work. The Demon Queen wants to establish Yuan Zhao. If she establishes Yuan Zhao again, it will not convince the public."

Yuan Tianmu also grinned and returned to the question. The new emperor had only two choices, to establish a virtuous person or to establish a young one.

To appoint a virtuous person means to pick out the wise and capable young generation among the royal family. After looking around, there is only one person, Prince Changle Yuan Ziyou, but his age is not suitable.

Because Yuan Ziyou was too old as a candidate for puppet emperor and had been involved in political affairs for many years, he was a very difficult candidate to control.

To establish a young heir requires blood legitimacy, but unfortunately the previous emperor Xuanwu had only one son, Yuan Xu. Most of Emperor Xiaowen's sons had died during the reign of Emperor Xuanwu. The only one who survived was Yuan Yue, Prince of Runan, who was a brutal homosexual.

Among all the kings in Luoyang, there was not a single close blood relative to be the heir apparent.

Erzhu Rong also found this matter annoying, but the emperor was the orthodox one. If it was not settled quickly, Luoyang would continue to be in chaos.

Erzhu Rong once again felt great disgust towards the group of people in power in Luoyang. If they were not incompetent, they would not have allowed Su Ze to snatch the emperor from the palace and leave such a mess for him.

He even had an idea that it would be better to plunder Luoyang like Su Ze did, and then lead his troops back to Jinyang, leaving these insects to fight each other in Luoyang.

But Erzhu Rong still forced himself to suppress this idea. He paid such a huge price to come to Luoyang, wasn't it just for the justice of the court?

The emperor ran away, but Luoyang is still there. With the new emperor and the court in Luoyang, they can at least have some legitimacy.

"The candidates for the new emperor will be decided by the kings and nobles. I will lead the troops into the city first."

Yuan Tianmu looked at the soldiers behind him who were as ferocious as wolves and tigers. He asked again:

"Where will the general be stationed?"

Yuan Tianmu looked at Erzhu Rong nervously, because he knew that his sworn brother was a proud and arrogant person. He was obviously very clear about all the rules. When Erzhu Rong was seeking official positions and giving gifts in Luoyang, he was also very smooth in dealing with people.

But as his power grew, Erzhu Rong disdained to abide by those rules.

To put it bluntly, Erzhu Rong was a madman, which is very similar to Xiang Yu, the King of Western Chu.

Yuan Tianmu was really afraid that Erzhu Rong would bring his troops into the palace as soon as he asked.

Fortunately, Erzhu Rong was not interested in living in the palace. He said directly:

"When I was in Luoyang, the Qinghe Palace was the largest mansion in Luoyang, and it had a tall building overlooking the entire city. This general lived there."

"But didn't Prince Yuan Yong of Gaoyang ask for this mansion?"

"Humph, a mere sycophant dares to ask for this and that? Enter the city!"

Yuan Tianmu stopped trying to persuade him. He knew Erzhu Rong's character very well. He had accumulated too many "disappointments". It was just a mansion. The worst that could happen was that he would give Yuan Yong a few more mansions as compensation. Anyway, many dignitaries in Luoyang had fled.

Erzhu Rong led his troops into the residence of Prince Qinghe. When he was visiting Luoyang, he had a night banquet in this residence. Thinking back to when he was selected as a soldier, Su Ze was just an ordinary military student in the imperial army. He felt that things had changed a lot.
-
A day later, the neighborhood near the Luoyang Imperial Palace finally returned to peace. Yuan Ziyou had secretly returned to his mansion yesterday and began to contact the princes and ministers.

Early in the morning, the sound of armor colliding was heard in front of the palace gate, and Su Shun was seen leading a square-faced middle-aged man dressed as a military general into Yuan Ziyou's mansion.

"King Changle."

"It turned out to be the King of Shangdang."

Yuan Ziyou was very well-informed. Yesterday, Empress Dowager Hu issued an edict to enthrone Yuan Tianmu as King of Shangdang, and conferred him the title of Grand Marshal, in addition to recording the affairs of the Shangshu, establishing a government, and making him the hereditary Governor of Bingzhou.

He was once a marginal and invisible member of the royal family, but he became an important official in the court by clinging to Erzhu Rong. Countless Yuan clan members who were not allowed to be crowned kings envied him and cursed him.

"Prince Changle is still serving as the Imperial Attendant, right? Now the false emperor has abandoned the ancestral temple and fled to Luoyang. The Queen Mother has deposed him. Please ask Prince Changle to go to the Ministry of Personnel to discuss the selection of the new emperor."

Yuan Ziyou was very calm. He did not denounce Yuan Tianmu as a traitor to the Yuan family like some of the princes and ministers did, nor was he as fawning as some people. He just accepted it all calmly and said to Yuan Tianmu politely:
"The court has issued an order, and I will do my best."

(End of this chapter)