A thousand-year-old family that began with the Battle of Makino

Chapter 1042: The Imperial Palace Mutiny, Chaos in Dadu, Bianjing Assembly Court

Daxia Empire
The autumn wind, bringing abnormal coolness, rushed in through the gaps in the temple door.

Bai Sheng, the Crown Prince of Da Xia, was walking not far from the palace gate when he heard a series of hurried but orderly footsteps.

"Abandon the weapon!"

Then several angry shouts were heard outside the hall, followed by a series of sounds of swords and guns clashing and muskets firing.

Bai Sheng immediately realized that a coup was taking place.

Before he could turn around, the palace door was suddenly pushed open.

A group of young soldiers dressed in the uniforms of the imperial guards broke into the hall.

Leading the group was a young officer of about 23 or 24 years old.

He wore a black silk hat without wings, a light yellow Tang robe with a round collar and buttoned sleeves embroidered with yellow dragon patterns, and black breeches with red edges.

He pressed the scabbard with his left hand, and held the unsheathed Xia-made straight sword at an angle with his right hand. There was an exquisite pistol on his waist while holding the sword.

It can be clearly seen that there is still blood on the straight knife, dripping onto the clean palace floor from time to time.

Behind him followed sergeants of similar age, and judging by their attire, half of them were officers.

Bai Sheng was just about to run in front of Bai Ya to block him when two soldiers armed with muskets quickly rushed out from behind the leading officer, pointed at him and shouted at him not to move.

Bai Sheng was extremely angry and loudly questioned the leading young officer: "How dare you!"

The leading young officer paid no attention to Bai Sheng's anger. He walked forward in a serious manner and stood under Bai Ya's desk, which was overlooking the palace.

Then he put his legs together, straightened his back, raised the knife vertically, and looked at Bai Ya firmly.

Seeing the scene, Bai Ya was not at all panicked. He calmly took off the round mirror on his nose and gently placed it on the imperial desk.

He looked down from above, sitting across the imperial desk, and asked, "Whose sergeant are you?"

"Bai Yuzhe, the head of the Imperial Guard's front camp, pays respect to His Majesty."

When Bai Yuzhe finished speaking, a group of young military officers not far behind him straightened their backs, raised their swords and saluted, shouting angrily:
"Bai Zhanpeng, head of the outer palace guards of the Imperial Guards' Palace Front Division, pays respect to Your Majesty."

"Bai Fenghua, a member of the Right Squad of the Imperial Guard's Front Battalion, pays respect to His Majesty."

"Bai Ruize, the new spear squad leader of the Imperial Guards' Front Camp, pays respect to His Majesty."

"Bai Mingxuan, the left squad leader of the Imperial Guard's outer camp, pays respect to His Majesty."

···
After a series of reports from the Palace Front Division were completed, Bai Ya still asked calmly: "So, is this a rebellion, my soldiers?"

Bai Yuzhe seemed to have been touched upon when asked this question. He said loudly with excitement:
"No, Your Majesty, this is not a rebellion, this is a revolution, a great revolution."

"So, whose life is this going to kill? My life?"

Bai Yuzhe was speechless. At this moment, a more radical officer behind him suddenly shouted:
"Daxia does not need an emperor. This is the teaching of our ancestors, Your Majesty."

After hearing these words, the atmosphere at the scene suddenly became tense, and Prince Baisheng even stared at the officer who was speaking with murderous eyes.

"I remember that you are the child of the Prince of Guangling, right? I personally gave you this sword at the graduation ceremony of the school."

Bai Yuzhe was silent for a moment, then affirmed, "Yes, Your Majesty."

Then he made up his mind and turned to look at another captain, Bai Zhanpeng.

Bai Zhanpeng signaled and called up two soldiers to drag out the officer who had just shouted "We don't need the emperor".

The officer was also tough and didn't say a word after being dragged away.

There was only a gunshot outside the palace, and then Bai Zhanpeng walked in covered in gunpowder, with the pistol on his waist still steaming. He looked at the two soldiers who had been pointing their muskets at the prince, and shouted, "Don't be rude to His Highness."

The two soldiers received the order and put away their muskets without saying a word. They ran back to the back of the line in an orderly manner, with their heads held high.

Bai Sheng was no longer a threat, so he immediately walked up to the imperial throne and helped up the trembling Bai Ya.

"How are you going to deal with me and the prince?"

Bai Yuzhe put away the knife very smoothly and beautifully. He bent the fingers of his right hand, revealing his palm, and raised it towards his left chest, giving a standard military salute.

"This revolution will need to continue for some time. In order to protect the lives of Your Majesty and Your Highness, please stay in this palace for the next few days and don't make things difficult for us."

Bai Ya acted as if the person being held captive was not him, and said calmly, "Yes."

After hearing this, Bai Yuzhe saluted again, then turned and left. The other soldiers followed him in an orderly manner, not forgetting to close the palace door.

Just like that, the Emperor of Great Xia, the common leader of all the Xia people and the biggest enemy of the Western Continent Alliance, was imprisoned in the Qinzheng Hall by his own imperial guards.

Because the emperor was under house arrest in the palace, Bai Yuzhe and others falsely issued an imperial decree, saying that the emperor and the prince needed to meditate in silence for the next two days and that no outsiders were allowed to disturb them.

Therefore, Kaifeng Prefecture could not receive the emperor's order.

It was not until the third day after the Qinzheng Hall Incident that the Dianqian City Defense Army stationed in Kaifeng, with the Youth Association as its core, began to revolt.

They broke into the armory of Kaifeng Prefecture, took out the weapons inside and distributed them to the citizens in the city.

In less than half a day, the rebels captured one-third of the city of Bianliang.

The prefect of Kaifeng and the Grand Military Governor's Office kept sending people to ask the emperor to send troops to suppress the rebellion.

However, Bai Yuzhe and others delayed the meeting by claiming they were ill.

By the fourth day of the incident, half of Kaifeng Prefecture had been occupied by the rebels.

These rebel forces began to attack the imperial palace. With the help of Bai Yuzhe and other members of the Palace Front Department, the palace walls were broken and the rebel forces entered the palace.

Because the eunuchs had been dismissed long ago, there were only a few palace maids and old eunuchs in the palace.

Fortunately, Bai Yuzhe and others still had some rationality left. They gathered a group of YMCA officers and announced that they would protect the emperor until the matter was over.

October 3, the 21st year of Xuantong

The entire Kaifeng Prefecture has fallen into the hands of the rebels.

The soldiers of the Palace Front Division, who had not received orders, chose to withdraw from Kaifeng City because they were afraid that the rebels would harm the emperor and the prince in the palace.

The imperial guards stationed in other places did not dare to move at will because there was no order from the emperor, and could only wander around in the barracks in a hurry.

In this way, the 300,000 imperial guards watched helplessly as Kaifeng Prefecture was isolated from the outside world.

October 5, the 21st year of Xuantong

It was decided by the entire Bian Jing assembly that, given that there were imperial guards all around, dealing with the emperor was the top priority.

So they decided together to set up a temporary court to try the crimes of the Great Xia Emperor Bai Ya.

As for those officials who happened to be in office in the government, they either fled, hid when they saw the situation was bad, or were executed by angry citizens.

Only a few upright officials who refused to go along with the corrupt officials managed to save their lives.

The worst-off was the prefect of Kaifeng, Qin Hui, who was burned to death by the citizens along with the director of the Imperial Guard, Wanqi Xie, for suppressing progressive scholars.

(End of this chapter)