Wandering the Heavens

"Well, then I, your father, will tell you how good this power is. Let me put it this way! One day I get drunk and say that the sun rises from the west. The next day someone will present me with a book which says that in ancient times, the direction where the sun rises was actually called the west." Xiao Xuan also walked over and sat down against the pillar.

"How can it be so ridiculous?" Xiao Jinghuan said with a wry smile behind him.

"Of course there is. Think about your eldest brother's family, and Lin Xie's entire family. It's because of me that they..." Xiao Xuan's eyes turned red.

"Then, does father regret it?" Xiao Jinghuan asked.

"It has already happened. What's the point of regretting it?" Xiao Xuan lowered his head, which had been raised all the time. "Jingyu, Lin Xie, Jinyang, Le Yao and the others will never come back. There are also 70,000 children."

"What about my mother?" Xiao Jinghuan was a little unconvinced.

"To be honest, I have never taken your mother, Princess Linglong, to heart. But when I saw you being born, I softened my heart and gave you to the Queen to raise. Only she could protect you and raise you. However, as you grew up, you looked like your mother, but your temperament was like mine, which made me more and more uneasy." Xiao Xuan seemed to be muttering to himself.

"So father, I had no choice but to rebel. The moment I found out about mother's true identity, I was afraid that when you passed away, you would take me with you. In the past, I fought for power and the throne, but this time I rebelled to save my life." Xiao Jinghuan's choked voice came from behind.

"How can you have such an idea?" Xiao Xuan was a little disappointed.

"Father, we have come to this point, and you just said that my personality is like yours." Xiao Jinghuan said with a wry smile.

"Yes, we are still real father and son. We have exactly the same temperament and think the same way." Xiao Xuan admitted his failure.

The outstanding eldest son was killed by his own hands, and the rest of his sons were just mediocre.

The father and son chatted casually like this, and finally they both forgot the time and shed tears. Power is not as good as imagined!

They were living a peaceful life, but outside, there was a huge quarrel over the case of Prince Qi and the Red Flame Army. A special court meeting chaired by Prince Ji and Yan Que had disagreements on how to characterize the role played and the responsibility assumed by Xiao Xuan in this case, and there was still no conclusion after several days.

Mu Qing was relaxed. He couldn't have anything to do with Xiao Xuan's case, so he was wholeheartedly helping his sister prepare for the expedition to Yu State. Liang State was in turmoil, and the first country to take action must be Yu State. This time, Mu Nihuang personally led the newly formed Mu Wangfu cavalry, with Yu Xian as the military advisor, across the border between the two countries and marched straight into Yu State, attacking Yu State's capital Yechang (made up, one word from Yecheng and Xuchang), and killed and maimed Yu State's main war faction!

On the southern side, through negotiations with the State of Chu, the navy jointly formed by Prince Mu's Palace and the State of Chu was secretly trained and led by Xiao Jingrui and Yuwen Xuan. They would enter the sea from the rivers in the territory of Chu while Mu Nihuang was on the northern expedition, and then go north to raid the State of Donghai from the sea. After the destruction of the State of Donghai, the land would belong to the State of Liang, and the profits from the salt fields built would be shared equally by the two countries.

With the help of this military victory, envoys from various countries were summoned to Nanjing to discuss the customs union. Based on the results of Hongxiuzhao's investigation, Yu Xian was not optimistic about military unification in the short term, so he had to find another way to achieve economic unification first, and then look for opportunities to gradually annex various separatist regimes through war and negotiation.

There is a real example of this operation, that is the Second German Empire. The economy was unified before the politics, and finally through three dynastic wars, a country that existed in name only became a concrete manifestation.

This process will be long. Fortunately, Liang State has a good foundation and Mu Qing and others are still young. However, Yu Xian will not be able to see the day of unification.

After preparations for the expedition were completed, the court's dispute over the case of treason by Prince Qi and the Red Flame Army came to a conclusion, and it was Yu Xian who took action.

Xiao Xuan didn't know how many days he had been in this prison. Empress Yan and Gao Zhan sent two young eunuchs to serve him, but they were driven away by Xiao Xuan. He was the emperor, not a useless person. He had suffered all kinds of hardships when he traveled around the world with Lin Xie and Yan Que. What's more, this cell was much more comfortable than his palace. Every day he either read books or chatted with his son.

Until this day, Yan Que came in with a sickly young man, saying that he was visiting the prison, and the jailer followed behind him carrying two food boxes.

"Is my time limit up?" Xiao Xuan asked Yan Que and Mei Changsu.

"It's still early! The case has been finalized and the documents have been written. Before that, Xiao Shu and I came to talk to you." Yan Que hadn't spoken to Xiao Xuan like this in many years.

"Okay, Jing Huan is also here, let him come over!" Xiao Xuan nodded.

After a while, the four people were arranged in a spacious room. The jailer placed the wine and food brought by Yan Que one by one and then left the room.

"The last meal for execution in Daliang is not this sumptuous!" Xiao Xuan grabbed a pair of chopsticks and started eating first.

"It's not a last meal for execution. We have been arguing for several days. Later we found that we could defeat you, but were destined to lose to the imperial power." Yan Que picked up the wine jug and poured wine for the three people.

"There's also Xiao Shu's!" Xiao Xuan held a wine glass in his hand.

"Uncle, I fell off the icy cliff of Meiling Mountain and was poisoned. I can't drink anymore." Mei Changsu was very sorry.

"Xiao Shu! I am narrow-minded and totally lack the bearing of an emperor. I have killed so many people and now I am left alone in my old age. Not to mention the throne, even my country is going to perish." Xiao Xuan said as he stood up and poured the wine in his hand onto the ground.

"Uncle, I was listening in on the quarrels among the court officials these days. Thinking back to the past, my cousin and father protected me very well, which made me too naive." Mei Changsu said with a wry smile.

"Cousin! I am the naive cousin. Father asked me to go against my third brother, and I did it. You entered Jinling just to let the seventh brother step on me to get to the top. If it weren't for Qin Prajna, I would have been badly tricked by you." Xiao Jinghuan also laughed.

"What, Xiao Shu is planning to let Jing Yan compete for the throne! That's right, you two grew up naked." Xiao Xuan was a little surprised at this moment.

"It's all in the past. Didn't it fail? When Jingyan was forced to lead his troops to capture the Ministry of Justice and detain its officials, my heart sank." Mei Changsu also admitted it openly.

"You're afraid that he will be like Jingyu, right?" Xiao Xuan said as he took a bite of the food.

"Jingyan is far worse than Jingyu. You also know that Jingyan is stubborn. He wouldn't do such a thing unless he was forced into a corner." Seeing that the words were getting more and more outrageous, Yan Que quickly stepped forward to change the subject.

"Yan Que! I am sorry to you, Le Yao, and the Queen! Can you arrange some pens, ink, paper, and inkstone for me so I can write something? After I die, it is up to you whether to scatter or burn what I wrote." Xiao Xuan looked at this former good friend with deep emotion.

"You are still alive and well, why are you thinking about what happens after death? We don't want your throne and country for nothing, you must live well and see what the Liang Kingdom will be like in the future."

It is impossible not to hate him. Rather than killing Xiao Xuan to pay for his life, Yan Que wanted Xiao Xuan to see another way for Liang State.

"Oh, tell me about it." Xiao Xuan became interested.

……

Many years later, the posthumous work of Emperor Xiao Xuan of Liang was published. The prologue was about him, his fifth son Xiao Jinghuan, his nephew Lin Shu and Prime Minister Yan Que sitting in a cell and talking. It was incredible to everyone that at this time, the great ancestor of the Mu family had already planned to unify the world. What was even more surprising was that despite the complicated grievances between them, they could sit together and talk calmly.

An emperor who was detained awaiting trial, a prince who had just launched a failed mutiny and was captured, a half-crippled body with the mission of redressing injustice, and a powerful civil servant with countless legendary experiences, they sat together to describe and imagine this night of a bright future for the world.

It is the dawn of hope before the unification of this land after hundreds of years of darkness and war...