THE REVENGE BEGAN 6

Zhu Su stared at Hu Nayin with great interest. "How can you say that? I'm not even sure whether we can win this war or not."

"I don't know... this feeling just appears of a sudden. After all, this young emperor has tortured many of his uncles. Dai Wang has been demoted to be a commoner, and Xiang Wang has been forced to commit suicide. He is piling many bad karmas."

"What?! Gui becomes commoner?! And... Bai committed suicide?! I haven't yet heard that news?!" Zhu Su shouted in surprise. "How did that happen?!"

Hu Nayin nodded. "In fact, Xiang Wang was initially only demoted to be commoner. But for Xiang Wang, it is something to be ashamed of. When the emperor's emissary came to arrest him, he said to his subordinates, 'I have seen by myself, the ministers who did not want to be captured by my father, in order not to bear the shame then they kill themselves. I am the son of the Emperor of the Great Ming, and just to beg for mercy then I must let myself insulted? I won't do that!' He did not open the gate for the emperor's emissary, instead, he gathered his wife and children together and then committed suicide."

"Poor Bai... you are only 29 years old, you are still young... what a shame. You should model your brothers, actually. There's no wrong with bearing the shame, being imprisoned, or pretending to be crazy and sick, whatever it takes, as long as we are alive, we can try to turn things around and take revenge!" Sadness clouded Zhu Su's face. "But Nayin, how can you know so detailed? Who's telling you?"

"Marquis Xiping."

"Oh, it's Mu Cheng, then..." As for Mu Ying, he had died of illness when the Hongwu Emperor was still in power. Zhu Su and the rest of the imperial family had come to Yingtian to deliver his body to be buried. To say who was the saddest among all the imperial families, we could directly tell that it was Zhu Su. As we had already known, their relations were so close. Although Zhu Su only lived in Yunnan for two years, the bond tied between Zhu Su and Mu Ying was very tight. Zhu Su somehow felt even much closer to him than with his other siblings, especially compared with the next generations alias his cousins.

Zhu Su sighed. "So many things have happened so far, I forget that I have to go on a pilgrimage to Brother Mu Ying's grave..."

"I think the new Marquis Xiping is the same as the previous one. He respects you very much. He already knows that you are banished due to the Politics of Xuefan, and he strongly disagrees with the Emperor, yet he doesn't dare to fight him head-on."

"Besides making a pilgrimage to Brother Mu Ying's grave, I have to visit Mu Cheng, then... But, is it safe for me to come into his residence? So many people there and they are all government officials..."

Hu Nayin pressed her lips. "Later, if I have a chance, I will tell Marquis Xiping that you want to visit him."

"Yes, take it easy. Right now I don't dare to act rashly, it's more important to sit still and observe more. I hope, even if our movement has been caught by the central government in the end, at that moment we have been so powerful that they will no longer have enough power to destroy us."

In fact, no need for Zhu Su to worry too much about the central government. Because Zhu Yunwen was now busy focusing on another business. Even though he was eager to catch Zhu Su, he could not do it either, since he was blocked by this more urgent matter.

"What?! You say, Fourth Uncle is only pretending to be sick?!" Zhu Yunwen screamed in disbelief at the report of Ge Cheng, one of Zhu Di's Changshi who betrayed his former Fan Wang.

"Can it be, Yan Wang pretends to be sick just to free his sons?" Huang Zicheng, another adviser to Zhu Yunwen who supported the Politics of Xuefan, murmured. After figuring out that Zhu Di was badly infected with smallpox (Liu Ku's medicine succeeded in making Zhu Di sweated so much, letting his face turn red and even having small pox-like rashes appear at his whole body), Zhu Yunwen could not bear to keep on cornering Zhu Di. Moreover, at that time vaccine for smallpox had not yet been invented so everybody learned that anyone got infected by it would almost certainly die. Zhu Di also screamed and twisted his body to and fro like someone whose brain had been malfunctioned. Thinking that his uncle would die soon, Zhu Yunwen's heart softened, then he decided to return Zhu Di's sons to their father.

Zhu Yunwen rose out of his feet. He began to pace back and forth, agitated. "How dare the Fourth Uncle fool me! Well then, I won't hesitate anymore!... But what should I do? Even when I get hostages, he becomes the most difficult to be handled with, and now, we have no hostages anymore..."

Qi Tai tried to give suggestions, "Sire, things have turned out this way, there is no other way we can do but act decisively. Order military generals to besiege Yan Wang. Not only Beiping, but we also must siege the surrounding areas such as Kaiping, Linqing, and Sanhaiguan. And we will put the army at Yan Wang's residence. We will siege him, in order to make him out of action!"

Zhu Yunwen nid-nodded. His lack of skill in fighting made every suggestion from Qi Tai sounded good to him.

"Alright! I order Zhang Bing, Xie Gui, Zhang Xin, Du Songchong, Xu Kai, and Geng Huan to carry out this duty. Besiege Yan Wang's residence, right now!"

Zhu Yunwen's movement had actually been awaited by Zhu Di. The smell of warfare could already be sniffed in front of the nose. Zhu Di himself had been ready. He grabbed a sword hanging in the living room of his residence, which was the legacy of his father. His eyes burned with fury.

"This sword has not tasted the flavor of blood for a long time." He murmured. "Zhu Yunwen, you are the initiator of this war. You are the one who forces me to do this. So don't blame me, if this bloodthirsty sword beheads you in a near future."

The war drums were soon bet.

Jingnan Campaign had begun.