Chapter 800 Disposal [Updated 13/23]
On the West Mountain.
The rebellion of King Kang has calmed down, and the Left Guard is counting the casualties.
If the two armies are evenly matched, both sides will suffer heavy casualties.
But because the difference in the number of Shadow Guards and Right West Gate Guards is too large, they almost collapsed at the first blow, so there are not too many casualties. Most of them were just captured alive.
As for the Left West Gate Guards below, after hearing that King Kang had failed, they were surrounded by the imperial guards who came and put down their weapons. The generals of the guards were all captured by Wu Liehou.
This rebellion lasted for a short time and has been completely quelled.
Tang Ning looked at Chen Zhou who was walking over and praised him: "Well done."
Chen Zhou said embarrassedly: "It's all because of your foresight."
Chen Zhou and Xiao Jue played a great role in this incident, and they will be rewarded afterwards.
Tang Ning looked at the palace in front of him. The sky above the palace was blue and clear. Today was a rare good day in winter, but in Tang Ning's eyes, the blue sky was covered with a thick layer of blood.
In the palace.
Emperor Chen stood with his hands behind his back, his face calm and his expression unclear.
King Kang sat cross-legged on the ground, with his head down, wondering what he was thinking.
After an unknown amount of time, Emperor Chen finally turned his head and asked, "Why?"
King Kang raised his head and asked self-deprecatingly, "Do I have a choice?"
Emperor Chen knew the deep meaning of his words. In fact, if he were King Kang, he would definitely make the same choice as him, or even more extreme than him.
Emperor Chen looked at him and asked, "Did you do that assassination yourself?"
At this point, King Kang no longer concealed it and nodded, "It was me."
Emperor Chen was silent for a moment and asked, "How do you want me to deal with you?"
King Kang remembered what Mr. Xu told him yesterday, but still shook his head and said, "Father, you should kill me. Remember to move quickly. I heard that if you swing the knife quickly enough, people will not feel pain."
Emperor Chen pulled out a knife from the waist of a guard, looked up, and said, "I haven't touched a knife for many years."
King Kang lowered his head, neither dodging nor evading. When Emperor Chen came out, he sighed and said, "If there is a next life, I don't want to be your son..."
Emperor Chen looked at him and asked, "Don't you regret it?"
King Kang said, "If I say I regret it, will you let me go?"
Emperor Chen nodded and said, "Yes."
King Kang looked into his eyes for a long time before shaking his head and saying, "Forget it. Life is meaningless. It's better to die."
"As you wish."
Emperor Chen said lightly, raised the long sword in his hand, and swung it down with force.
Clang!
The blade hit the ground, sparks flew, and from beginning to end, King Kang's stretched head did not retract.
Emperor Chen threw the knife on the ground, his expression dejected, and said: "I am a failed father and a failed emperor."
"No." King Kang shook his head and said: "You are just a failed father. As an emperor, no previous emperor can compare to you."
Emperor Chen turned around, without looking at King Kang again, and said: "Take him away, and summon Tang Ning in."
When Tang Ning entered the palace, he passed by King Kang. Although King Kang rebelled, even if he was a prince, he could not escape the death penalty, but it seemed that Emperor Chen did not want to kill him.
Come to think of it, even a tiger will not eat its own cubs. Tang Ning has seen people who killed their brothers and fathers, but he has never met anyone who killed his son.
Emperor Chen turned his back to him and asked, "When did you know that Prince Kang was going to rebel?"
Tang Ning said, "Last night."
Emperor Chen asked, "Why didn't you report it to me?"
Tang Ning said, "Your Majesty, the bodies of those who said that the Zhang family was going to rebel a few days ago have all rotted... I was just guessing and not sure, so I didn't report it to Your Majesty, but I made some precautions in advance."
To Tang Ning's surprise, Emperor Chen didn't ask too much about this issue. He was silent for a moment and asked, "My son wants to rebel against me and kill me. Am I ridiculous?"
If you want to talk about ridiculous, the one on the grassland is ridiculous. His son not only rebelled, but also succeeded...
"It's not your Majesty's fault." Tang Ning lowered his head and said, "It's all because Prince Kang was confused by ambition. Fortunately, it didn't cause a big disaster..."
Emperor Chen didn't say anything else. After a long silence, he said, "Return to the palace."
...
The court spent countless manpower, material resources and financial resources to hold this sacrifice, but it was hastily ended halfway through.
Although the rebellion has been settled, as an emperor, how could he continue the ceremony as if nothing had happened after experiencing such a thing?
What happened at today's ceremony will definitely become a shame in his emperor's career. For the extremely face-conscious Emperor Chen, this is obviously something that cannot be accepted.
When everyone returned to the capital, all the soldiers of the left and right West Gate Guards were captured by the imperial guards and awaited punishment.
Qi Yu, the general of the Right West Gate Guard, was missing. He had not appeared before the ceremony began today.
In addition to him, all the senior generals of the two guards were captured, and what awaited them would be extremely severe punishment.
The return of the group to the capital surprised and puzzled the people in the capital.
According to the process of the ceremony, they should return to the capital after more than an hour, and it is absolutely impossible for them to return so early.
And judging from the expressions of the accompanying officials, it seems that something extraordinary happened at this ceremony.
Although no one has revealed any information, the truth will eventually come out.
Soon after the emperor returned to the palace and all the officials went home, a piece of news that was enough to shock people came out from all the high gates.
The ceremony did not go through to the end because King Kang colluded with the West Gate Guards and intended to rebel at the ceremony. Your Majesty and the royal family almost fell into King Kang's hands.
Although King Kang's rebellion was quickly suppressed by Zuo Xiaowei, the ceremony naturally could not continue after such a thing happened.
In the process, King Kang and all the left and right West Gate Guards were captured, and the Zhang family actually followed King Kang in the rebellion...
When hearing this news, countless people felt a little numb.
King Kang rebelled and almost succeeded. Doesn't this mean that the capital today almost changed?
The shock brought to the capital by this news was far greater than the rebellion in Jiangnan and the war in the northwest. After all, both of them were very far away from them, while this matter really happened around them.
The price of rebellion is huge. Within an hour of your majesty returning to the palace, several imperial edicts were issued.
King Kang rebelled and plotted treason, which is a great disrespect. From now on, he will be demoted to a commoner, imprisoned in the palace, and will not be free for life.
Obviously, for King Kang, this punishment is still light, but from your majesty's point of view, King Kang is his son after all, and you can understand why he should be spared.
At the same time, Concubine Zhang was removed from the position of Concubine Xian and sent to the cold palace.
As the mother of King Kang, Concubine Zhang could not escape the blame.
The Ximenwei Zhang family rebelled and plotted treason, and all the people in charge, including the head of the Zhang family, were executed immediately.
The rest of the Zhang family, the men, were sent to the army, and the women were sent to the slave class and sent to the music hall. At the same time, all the generals and guards involved in the left and right Ximenwei were exempted from the death penalty because of your majesty's golden words, but they could not escape the crime of living. They were all demoted to official slaves and dispersed to serve in various states.
The aftermath of King Kang's rebellion lasted for several days and Tang Ning did not attend court for several days.
Because Emperor Chen fell ill after the sacrifice ceremony.