Nine dragons fight for the throne, I don't want to sit on this throne

On the observatory of the imperial palace, Chu Ning stood with his hands behind his back, watching the signal arrows blooming in the city with cold eyes.

When the eighth signal arrow was launched into the sky, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly: "I can finally hold it in."

Li Junxian quickly climbed onto the observatory, his armor still stained with fresh blood.

"Your Majesty, the Emperor of Chu, the eight great families have indeed rebelled! The private soldiers they have ambushed in the city far exceed our estimates, at least three thousand!"

Chu Ning's expression remained unchanged, he just gently stroked the jade pendant on his waist: "Send out the black smoke signal to notify the ambush troops outside the city to enter the city. Also..."

A cold light flashed in his eyes: "Execute the cleanup plan."

Li Junxian's body trembled slightly: "Do we need to mobilize all the imperial guards now? Isn't it too..."

"General Lee!"

Chu Ning interrupted him, his voice gentle but unquestionable: "If you hesitate when you should make a decision, you will suffer the consequences. Since the eight great families have chosen this path, they must bear the consequences. Go."

As the black smoke rose, three thousand elite Chu soldiers dressed in black began to move silently in the woods ten miles outside the city.

They moved like ghosts, without torches or shouts of killing, and only the occasional cold light reflected by their weapons proved their presence.

At the same time, hundreds of imperial guards in night clothes dispersed from the secret passage of the palace. Their target was clear - the ancestral halls and libraries of the eight great families.

These places not only symbolize the glory of the family, but also contain secret letters and evidence of their dealings with various forces.

In Fengyi Palace, Wu Zhao sat upright on the dragon throne, seemingly calm, but her slightly trembling fingertips revealed the turmoil in her heart.

The shouts and cries of killing outside the palace were getting closer and closer, and there was even the sound of arrows hitting the palace wall.

"Your Majesty, the rebels have reached Suzaku Street!"

A guard rushed in with blood all over his face and reported: "General Li requests additional imperial guards!"

Wu Zhao took a deep breath and said, "Allowed. Also, pass on my oral order: anyone who surrenders will be spared."

After the guards took the order and left, Wu Zhao stood alone in front of the window, looking at the flames rising into the sky in the city.

She suddenly remembered how the eight great families had forced a weak woman like her when the previous emperor passed away three years ago.

The humiliation and powerlessness I felt back then were so similar to tonight.

But this time, she was no longer a weak woman who could be bullied at will.

"Chu Ning is right," she whispered to herself, "some cancers must be eradicated."

In front of Xie's house, the battle has reached a fever pitch.

Xie Qing led two hundred private soldiers to fight with the imperial guards, and the long sword in his hand was already stained with blood.

Xie An stood at the highest point in the mansion, calmly commanding all the troops.

"Father! The east gate has been breached!" Xie Qing shouted excitedly, "The Wang and Cui families are rushing to join them!"

Xie An, however, showed no joy at all. He looked at the black smoke rising from the direction of the imperial palace in the distance, his brows furrowed.

"Something's wrong. Chu Ning must have a backup plan!"

Suddenly, his expression changed drastically: "Quick! Order everyone to retreat back to the mansion! Close all doors!"

However, it was too late. A dense rain of arrows suddenly came from all directions. The kerosene bags tied to the arrows exploded the moment they hit the ground, turning the area around Xie's residence into a sea of fire.

What’s even more terrifying is that these arrows were shot from behind the coalition forces of the aristocratic families - they were surrounded!

"It's the Chu army!"

A blood-soaked guard stumbled over and reported, "They're dressed in black and came out of the secret passage. We've suffered heavy casualties!"

Xie An staggered back two steps and held onto the corridor pillar to avoid falling.

He finally understood Chu Ning's entire plan - the so-called search, coercion, and even deliberately provoking the aristocratic families to rebel, were all for this moment.

A perfect excuse to wipe out the eight great families in one fell swoop.

"What a cruel plot!"

Xie An gave a bitter smile and turned to look at his son: "Qing'er, take the youngest of the clan through the secret passage and go..."

His words stopped abruptly.

A feathered arrow pierced his throat with pinpoint accuracy.

Xie An opened his eyes wide and slowly fell to the ground. His last sight was the grief-stricken face of his son Xie Qing and the towering outline of the imperial palace in the distance.

That night, the sky of Luocheng was dyed red by flames, and the private soldiers accumulated by the eight major families for hundreds of years fought a desperate battle with the imperial guards and the elite troops of the Chu State.

The street fighting continued until dawn, and blood dyed every street in Los Angeles red.

The first ray of sunlight at dawn penetrated the smoke and shone onto the mottled walls of Los Angeles.

The once bustling streets are now littered with corpses, and blood has solidified into dark red ice crystals in the cracks of the bluestone slabs.

Teams of imperial guards silently cleared the battlefield. They piled up the bodies of the aristocratic families' private soldiers like firewood, preparing to transport them outside the city for cremation.

Occasionally, the groans of the wounded could be heard, followed by the muffled sound of a sharp blade entering flesh - Chu Ning had issued a strict order: no one should be left alive.

At noon, the last trace of shouting and killing disappeared.

Li Junxian stepped over the blood-stained steps, with the soles of his boots stained with pieces of flesh belonging to someone unknown.

The blood on his armor had dried, turning a rusty brown in the sunlight.

In the square in front of the palace, more than 300 prisoners were tied up and kneeling on the ground. They were all direct descendants of the eight great families.

"Let's start." Chu Ning stood on the high steps, his voice so light that it sounded like a sigh.

With his order, the executioner's sword fell one after another.

The dull thud of the head rolling down lasted for a full quarter of an hour, and blood flowed down the steps in a stream, finally flowing into the drainage ditch in the center of the square.

Chu Ning watched all this with an expressionless face until the last head fell to the ground.

"Your Majesty the Emperor of Chu, the influence of the eight great families in Luocheng has been completely eliminated." Li Junxian bowed and saluted, his voice hoarse.

He handed over a bloodstained list: "This is the death toll after the count of each prefecture, a total of 4,328 people, including Xie An, Cui Hao and other eight family heads."

Chu Ning took the list and gently stroked Xie An's name with his fingertips: "Did anyone escape?"

"Absolutely impossible."

Li Junxian answered decisively, "The eight aristocratic families' mansions are completely surrounded. Not even a mouse can escape. As for the private soldiers hiding in the city..."

He pointed to a group of white horse cavalrymen clearing the battlefield in the distance and said, "With your elite troops and the White Horse Volunteers cooperating with the Imperial Guards, they were all annihilated."

Chu Ning nodded slightly, his eyes sweeping across Li Junxian's tired face: "You are injured."

Only then did Li Junxian notice that there was a deep wound on his left arm that could be seen to the bone, and blood was dripping from his fingertips.

Strangely, he didn't feel any pain.

"It's just a minor injury, nothing to worry about."

"Go find the imperial physician to bandage him." Chu Ning's tone left no room for doubt, and then he changed the subject: "Where is Prime Minister Di Ying?"

"We are comforting the people in the south of the city. Some houses were affected by the fighting, and more than a dozen civilians died."

A cold light flashed in Chu Ning's eyes: "Order Di Ying to exempt the people of Luocheng from taxes for three years. In addition..."

He paused and said, "Find a few loudmouths to read out the charges against the eight great families in the marketplace, especially the evidence of their hidden storage of armor and weapons and collusion with foreign enemies."

"You will finally understand."

Li Junxian hesitated for a moment: "There is one more thing. The Li family has raised tens of thousands of private soldiers in Longxi. What should we do with these people?"

"You will personally lead 10,000 elite soldiers to recruit them."

Chu Ning interrupted him, his voice suddenly turning cold: "If anyone resists, kill them on the spot. Remember, you have to be quick - get rid of them before the news gets around."

Li Junxian's heart trembled.

He knew too well the meaning behind this order: this was not an ordinary incorporation, but a massacre.

Those private soldiers will not be given the chance to surrender.

"I'll do it right away." He bowed deeply, turned around and was about to leave, but was stopped by Chu Ning.

"Wait." Chu Ning narrowed his eyes. "Are you sure there are no fish that have slipped through the net?"

Li Junxian's back was instantly soaked with cold sweat.

He remembered the dark shadow that slipped away from Cui's backyard in the early morning. He sent three personal soldiers to chase it, but only found three bodies.

But at this moment, he could only bite the bullet and answer: "I guarantee with my life that nothing will be left out."

Chu Ning stared at him for a long time, then suddenly chuckled, "Go ahead."

After Li Junxian walked away, Chu Ning turned and looked into the depths of the palace.

The sunlight filtered through the clouds, gilding his handsome profile and illuminating the unfathomable coldness in his eyes.

"Wu Zhao~" He whispered the name softly, as if savoring a glass of aged poisonous wine: "It's time to discuss our next step."

His footsteps echoed in the empty palace, like the drumbeat of fate, as he walked step by step towards the woman who held the final lifeline of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

And in the sky above Los Angeles, a group of crows were circling down, ready to enjoy the bloody feast after the power change.