Chapter 46. Give You A Ruthless Heart That Belongs To An Emperor
Arc 2 : Historical Power Conspiracy Nightmare.
The people of Yuan Kingdom did not discuss the succession of the throne too much. After all, Prince Yan is the eldest son, and it is legitimate for him to inherit the throne.
The legendary life story of Prince Yan greatly interested the civilians on the streets. According to Qi Zi, a Yin-Yang Master, Prince Yan was destined to suffer a great disaster before the age of sixteen. If he can survive it, he will be blessed with great fortune.
Now that Prince Yan has passed the age of sixteen, he has ascended the throne as king. This has made the people, who were in a state of panic because of the defeat of the generals, feel a little relieved.
The new king with great fortune ascending the throne will surely make the Yuan Kingdom prosperous and even unify the world.
Jiang-Cheng, a two kingdom alliance, however, felt that the new king of Yuan Kingdom ascended the throne and the regime is unstable, which is a good opportunity to attack. King Jiang mobilized almost all the troops at his disposal in a very short time and rushed to the border of Jiang-Yuan.
After Du Yan ascended the throne, the first royal decree he issued was not to rectify the government and had nothing to do with the enthronement ceremony, but to order Lieutenant Wu to take the tiger tally and the royal decree to rush to the border to provide assistance.
The royal decree held by Lieutenant Wu stated that the troops sent to escort the general back to the capital were all to be incorporated under the general’s command and obey his orders.
The army in the hands of Du Yan’s father, King Yuan Chang, was actually inherited from the previous king and existed to curb the power of the Wu family.
However, the army was loyal not to Yuan Chang but to the Yuan bloodline on the throne. Du Yan is now King Yuan, so he got the tiger tally from Yuan Chang and can mobilize the army.
In the plan discussed by Du Yan and Cheng Yu, the news of his accession to the throne was to inform Cheng Yu and start the next step.
Fourth month of the lunar year, Wu Qi, the general of the Yuan Kingdom, defeated the enemy and stopped the army of Jiang Kingdom outside Yuncheng. He then pursued the enemy and recovered the lost territory, and took back Licheng.
The armies of Yuan and Jiang were once again in a stalemate outside Licheng. At this critical moment, King Cheng suddenly broke the alliance and withdrew from the border war between Jiang and Yuan.
In the Jiang-Cheng alliance, the Cheng Kingdom army was not actually too large. King Jiang would not be stupid enough to allow the Cheng Kingdom’s army to enter the Kingdom, so Cheng Kingdom’s withdrawal would not have caused much impact.
However, at the border between Jiang and Cheng, the Cheng Kingdom’s army assembled overnight. The governors of three cities on the border of Jiang suddenly died at the same time, and the border defense line was in chaos for a while.
In addition, Jiang’s domestic defense was weak, and Cheng’s army was unstoppable. In just a few months, they reached the capital of Jiang Kingdom.
King Jiang hanged himself in the palace, and the Jiang army on the front line surrendered upon hearing the news. These former officials of Jiang wanted to fight back to the capital with the help of the Yuan Kingdom, and take advantage of the chaos between the two Kingdoms fighting for the territory of Jiang to choose a prince of Jiang to restore the Kingdom.
Just when the people of Yuan and Cheng were all panicking and felt that a war was about to break out, King Yuan Yan and King Cheng Yu made an alliance to divide and rule the two Kingdoms with the Ru River as the boundary.
It was not until this time that people all over the world suddenly realized that King Cheng Yu and King Yuan Yan had been allies from the beginning.
After the Kingdom’s situation was temporarily stabilized, Du Yan put his enthronement ceremony on the agenda.
If the new king ascends the throne without offering sacrifices to the heavens and accepting congratulations from the feudal vassals, it will always be somewhat unjustified. Even if he will become a deposed king soon and the Yuan Kingdom will no longer exist, the necessary procedures still need to be completed.
When it comes to being a villain, Du Yan is very serious and dedicated.
The preparations for the enthronement ceremony were tedious and long. Although Du Yan had not yet been crowned, the imperial court still began to present memorials proposing the wedding.
Du Yan would certainly not delay an innocent girl, and the Yin-Yang master Qi Zi was his best shield.
Du Yan sat at the top and glanced down at the ministers standing in the center: “Qi Zi once said that Gu needs to have a capping ceremony before considering getting married. This matter will be discussed later.”
(*Capping ceremony= coming of age ceremony boys in China)
After this was said, the ministers thought about the king’s special fate and decided not to say more, so they let it go.
The new king could not appoint a queen, but Princess Yuan Ning, who was of the same age as the new king, was at a marriageable age. Then, some people suggested marrying Yuan Ning to the most powerful dukes of Jiang Kingdom to appease the people.
Du Yan was silent for a moment, taking in everyone’s expressions, and said: “The situation has just stabilized now. Whether it is the appeasement of the people who originally belonged to the Jiang Kingdom’s territory, that is, the registration of households, the repair of the city on the border of Ru River, and the marriage of the princess, officials don’t need to worry about it.”
Next, a military official in armor stepped out and said: “Your Majesty, Chen thinks we should take advantage of the fact that Cheng Kingdom is not yet stable and annex it in one fell swoop to unify the world.”
(*Chen= I, your servant)
A minister stepped out from the line, bowed, and said: “Chen thinks this is a very inappropriate move. The best strategy now is to consolidate the alliance with Cheng Kingdom. I heard that King Cheng is still unmarried, so we can marry the eldest princess to Cheng Kingdom.”
Du Yan frowned slightly. No matter how these people get around, the old one just couldn’t by-pass Yuan Ning’s marriage.
His tone was slightly cold: “Gu has already said that you do not need to worry about the eldest princess’s marriage.”
Seeing that Du Yan was unhappy, the ministers below kept silent and stopped bothering about Yuan Ning’s marriage.
Another month passed, and Du Yan stayed in the bedroom, reviewing documents. He unfolded one of them, and his hand paused slightly. It was a document from Cheng Kingdom, and the handwriting on it was unusually familiar.
Over the past month, Du Yan has been extremely busy with government affairs and has had almost no time to think about Cheng Yu.
Now, seeing the familiar handwriting, the first thought that came to his mind was when could he hand over all the troubles at hand to Cheng Yu.
Du Yan is actually a person without much ambition. Although it is not difficult to deal with these government affairs, he still finds it extremely boring because he is not interested in power.
Now that Cheng Yu sent a letter, Du Yan began to think about whether he should do something to speed up the other party’s progress in unifying the world.
Yuan Kingdom has always been the strongest among the three kingdoms, while Cheng Kingdom is the weakest. Although Cheng Kingdom has become much stronger after dividing the perished Jiang Kingdom’s territory by the Ru River and ruling it, it is still not enough to compete with Yuan Kingdom.
Cheng Yu is not a fool, so he will not act rashly.
In order to speed up Cheng Yu’s process of unifying the land, he had to destroy his own strength and let the Yuan Kingdom lose as it should. When Du Yan seized power, he had already taken these situations into consideration and left a backup plan.
His father, Yuan Chang, and Didi Yuan Jue are both pig teammates who were intentionally left behind by Du Yan to help hold him back and cause trouble at critical moments. However, now that Du Yan completely controls the power of the Yuan Kingdom and has the upper hand, these two people will not jump out to cause trouble as long as they have some brains.
Only when the world is in chaos is there a good opportunity to seize power and cause trouble.
The most critical point at the moment lies in Cheng Yu. In addition to the forces that Cheng Yu controls on the surface, the forces that secretly penetrate into the feudal vassals should not be underestimated.
However, even if Du Yan provoked him, Cheng Yu would generally give in and would not use all his strength to fight to the death.
Du Yan thought so because of the letter in his hand. He lowered his head and read it carefully again, feeling a little helpless.
The letter was sent from Cheng Kingdom as an urgent document, and it contained all sorts of nonsense. If Du Yan hadn’t looked at the title and the signature, he would have thought it was a love letter between a husband and wife.
Du Yan held the letter in his hand, feeling a little confused.
After all, Du Yan grew up with Cheng Yu, so he thought he knew him relatively well. Although Cheng Yu is scheming, determined, and even a little cruel, these traits are integral to becoming an emperor.
However, he is also a grateful and nostalgic person. In the plot of the movie, he took advantage of Yuan Ning to escape and returned to Cheng Kingdom to ascend the throne. At that time, without Du Yan to stir up trouble in the Three Kingdoms, Cheng Yu’s road to unify the land was much more difficult than it is now.
At that time, Cheng Yu had no choice but to form an alliance with the Jiang Kingdom and to fight against the powerful Yuan Kingdom as an ally of the Jiang Kingdom. However, he secretly used all means to make the war between the two Kingdoms a stalemate. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Cheng Kingdom gradually grew stronger and became the ultimate winner.
Even when struggling to survive in the gap between Yuan and Jiang, both kingdoms, Cheng Yu did not forget Yuan Ning, and even used a spy he had planted next to King Yuan, just to rescue the imprisoned Yuan Ning.
That was the only time Cheng Yu acted on emotion. He knew that exposing this in order to save Yuan Ning might make his path to becoming emperor more difficult, but he still chose to save Yuan Ning without hesitation.
After being rejected by Yuan Ning, Cheng Yu gradually became more heartless and unfeeling, cultivating a ruthless heart that belonged to an emperor.
Now, under Du Yan’s intervention, the Jiang Kingdom has been destroyed, and the two Kingdoms, Yuan and Cheng, are divided by the Ru River. Cheng Yu is nostalgic and will not intervene in the Yuan Kingdom in the short term. Even if Du Yan declares war, the other party may choose to cede land and seek peace.
At this time, Cheng Yu had not yet cultivated the heart of a ruthless and heartless emperor.
Du Yan pinched his brows and put the secret letter aside, thinking that he had to completely sever ties with Cheng Yu before he could proceed with the next plan.
His eyes fell on the documents that had been reviewed and neatly stacked. Those were royal decrees to be sent to the various feudal vassals, ordering all of them to enter the capital to pay respect to the new king during the enthronement ceremony.
Du Yan opened the letter sent by Cheng Yu again, and his eyes fell on it. The longing written all over the paper gave Du Yan an idea.
Perhaps Cheng Yu’s thoughts at this moment can help him speed up his progress in cultivating the heart of an emperor. Thinking of this, Du Yan unfolded the snow-white paper and began to write.
Du Yan’s plan was simple. It is normal to invite envoys from allied Kingdom to attend the ceremony when the new king ascends the throne.
In fact, this letter was also a test. If Cheng Yu really came in the group of envoys, Du Yan would take the next step and make him completely sever his friendship with him.
If Cheng Yu didn’t come, it would mean that in his heart, power is the most important thing, and the friendship with Du Yan would eventually fade away. Then Du Yan would try to let Yuan Jue or Yuan Chang get connected with Cheng Yu and start causing trouble in the internal government of Yuan Kingdom.
In short, everything is to speed up Cheng Yu’s pace of unifying the land.
Xiao Ba suddenly asked: “If Cheng Yu comes, what are you going to do?”
Du Yan’s tone was cold and emotionless: “Plot against him, let him know that I only care about power, and even lure him to come with a honey trap in order to unify the land under heaven.”
Xiao Ba was silent for a moment and couldn’t help but say: “Du Yan, I think you are now much more of a scumbag than Cheng Yu in the movie…”
Du Yan put down his pen and paused for a moment: “What do you mean?”
“Cheng Yu is sincere to you. Even though he knows that you have deceived him with a girl’s identity for so many years and even used him for so many years, he has not shown any resentment.”
“To accomplish great things, one must be ruthless and cruel. Moreover, I am a villain. If I am not vicious and despicable, how could Cheng Yu destroy my Kingdom and my family without any psychological barriers?” Du Yan said: “My mercy at this moment will not do him any good.”
“Yeah, that seems to be the truth.” Xiao Ba was convinced again.
Du Yan sent two letters to the Cheng Kingdom.
One was an official document, inviting envoys from allied Kingdom to the capital of Yuan Kingdom to attend the coronation ceremony of the new king, the other was a private letter to Cheng Yu, which implicitly stated that although he was now king and all his goals had been achieved, he would occasionally recall the days when Cheng Yu was with him in the palace.
When the document was sent to the Cheng Kingdom, Du Yan was somewhat in a despondent mood. He threw the bait, but he didn’t wish for the fish to bite the hook.
T/N:- See you next week.
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