Chapter 71

Chapter 71: You deserve death

On the day Huo Zheng went mad and bathed Prince Ning’s Residence in blood, a heavy rain fell over Nanzhou. Prince Ning drank and made merry in his manor, entertaining guests and enjoying music and dance.

At the banquet, people from Prince of Ning’s Faction brought up Prince Chang’an and laughed that he had jumped into the river for a village girl who sold tofu, then dragged the river for a day and a night.

With music and singing in the background, the crowd kept drinking.

Prince Ning’s men joked: “Officials in the Capital say this Prince Chang’an is the calmest and most steady. I don’t see it. If he were steady, how could he become so embarrassed over a country girl who sells tofu?”

“Prince Chang’an moved the Nanzhou Navy and blocked the river just for a woman. That is beyond ridiculous!”

“The heir apparent went to the river to watch the show. It must look amazing by now.”

“If this news reaches the Capital, those ministers shouting to make Prince Chang’an the crown prince will have no face left to show, hahahaha…”

The Emperor had sent Prince Chang’an to inspect Nanzhou, and Prince Ning had long feared this nephew. From the day Huo Zheng entered Nanzhou, he sent killers, hoping to make him die there.

No one expected that after being missing for a few days, Huo Zheng would appear safe and sound.

He moved into the Nanzhou Post Station and refused to see any official, no matter who asked.

Even the Heir Apparent of Prince Ning sent calling cards several times and never got an audience.

At first, Prince Ning worried that Huo Zheng was quietly planning a big move, but then he thought the prince had been blinded by a roadside beauty and lost in a soft bed.

And now, for a woman, he had made himself into a joke.

The guests kept laughing, putting Prince Chang’an down again and again.

Music filled the hall. The pipa rang; the zither hummed.

Lightning cracked along the horizon. Wind and rain lashed the city.

The people inside the Prince’s Manor were tipsy, chatting and joking, when a waiter stumbled in, shouting: “Bad news! Prince Chang’an has brought troops and surrounded our Prince Ning’s Residence!”

“What?” Prince Ning slapped the table and his face changed. “Isn’t Huo Zheng on the Lishui River dragging for someone? Where is the heir apparent? Where did he go?”

Before the words finished, the clash of weapons rose from outside.

The guests sobered at once. Faces went pale. No one could laugh anymore.

Someone said in a trembling voice: “The heir apparent… the heir apparent has yet to return.”

Prince Ning’s face grew even darker.

“Was the talk of Prince Chang’an jumping into the river to search all fake? Did he spread that rumor to make us drop our guard?”

“Prince Chang’an moved the Nanzhou Navy under Prince’s very nose. Now the Prince’s Manor is surrounded, we… we…”

Everyone knew what Prince Ning had done in Nanzhou. If Prince Chang’an truly moved against him tonight, the people in his faction would not live.

The louder they had laughed, the more panicked they were now.

Prince Ning pressed his voice down: “What are you afraid of? No matter what tricks Huo Zheng has, he wouldn’t dare kill this prince.”

No one dared speak.

As Prince Chang’an’s royal uncle, even if Prince Ning had crimes, Prince Chang’an could not execute him lightly. At most, he would be taken back to the Capital, judged by the Three Judicial Offices, and then sentenced to confinement.

But the lives of the faction followers meant nothing. They could be killed at once.

“Shut the manor gates!” Prince Ning ordered. “Zheng He, leave the city and bring troops at once!”

“Yes!” The military officer named Zheng He answered and hurried toward the door.

He had just reached it when someone kicked him back into the hall.

In the wind and rain at the door, Huo Zheng strode in, followed by a mass of soldiers. They ringed the whole hall. He stepped forward first, walking toward Prince Ning one step at a time. Blood still dripped from his long sword.

A few days ago, Prince Chang’an had been calm like a gentleman. Tonight, he arrived at Prince Ning’s Residence like a god of killing.

The guests shrank back in fear.

“Huo Zheng!” Prince Ning, Huo Kang, forced himself not to retreat. Face iron-blue, he shouted: “You came to Nanzhou as a guest, and this prince welcomed you. Yet you used the search as a pretext to surround Prince Ning’s Residence and even killed your way in. What are you trying to do?”

Huo Zheng’s voice was low and steady: “Huo Kang, you have harmed Nanzhou for years, building a private clique and raising illegal troops. You have long harbored rebellion. You bullied men and women, seized farmland, and threw away lives. You deserve death.”

During his days in Nanzhou, Huo Zheng had secretly investigated Prince Ning. The evidence of his crimes was too many to count, enough to fill a bamboo scroll.

While the common people suffered, Prince Ning’s Residence held feasts night after night.

And now, Huo Kang asked what he meant to do.

With a face like frost, Huo Zheng said clearly: “By imperial duty as inspector, I have come to take your life.”

“Huo Zheng, you brat, mind your tongue!” Huo Kang roared: “I am His Majesty the Emperor’s own Prince Ning, your royal uncle! You have no proof. With empty words you want to convict me? Never!”

“You want proof? Here it is.”

Gu Yuan Jia entered with others carrying several large chests and set them in the hall.

The retainers lifted the lids in unison.

Gu Yuan Jia took out a few letters and read: “In the thirteenth year of Yongding, Prince Ning, Huo Kang, raised taxes in Nanzhou, making the people suffer and sparking revolt. To cover it up, he ordered the slaughter of commoners, killing over a thousand in a single day, and continued the killing for seven days.”

“In the fifteenth year of Yongding, Prince Ning, Huo Kang, raised thirty thousand private soldiers, and by now they number one hundred thousand.”

“In the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth years of Yongding, Prince Ning, Huo Kang, sent assassins after the imperial envoys Yang Mu, Jiang Yu, and Luo Yong Zhou…”

“Silence!” Huo Kang’s face grew uglier as Gu Yuan Jia listed each crime. “If you want to frame someone, you will never lack words. How do we know your so-called evidence is not forged?”

Gu Yuan Jia said: “Whether it is real or fake is plain at a glance.”

Huo Kang grabbed a candle from the table and flung it into a chest, trying to burn the proofs.

Huo Zheng flicked his sleeve and used Inner Force to snuff the flame in an instant.

Seeing this, Huo Kang shouted: “Why are you standing there? Burn it all for this prince!”

But the hall was surrounded by soldiers, and people from the faction did not dare move.

The Gu Family retainers stepped forward together and guarded the chests of evidence.

With no chance to destroy anything, Huo Kang gritted his teeth and said: “I am the reigning Prince Ning. No junior has the right to point fingers at me. Even if I made some mistakes, at most I’ll be scolded when I return to the Capital. If you dare act against this prince, you defy the law and disrespect your elder. You can forget about becoming crown prince in this lifetime.”

Prince Ning knew he would fall tonight, so he shouted threats to make Huo Zheng hesitate.

But Huo Zheng’s face did not change. He advanced step by step with his bloody sword, killing intent pouring off him.

“You…” After twenty years as the local emperor of Nanzhou, it was the first time Prince Ning felt forced to step back.

Huo Zheng did not let him speak again. His sword flashed, and in front of everyone, he cut off Huo Kang’s head.

Blood sprayed. The hall fell silent.

Huo Zheng spoke each word clearly: “Your nephew, Huo Zheng, respectfully sends Uncle Prince Ning on his way.”