Your Highness, Please Love Me Tender

131. A Mess

 

Translator: Flying Lines

 

All the vice-generals gathered in the camp, whilst Su Jie got on the war carriage once again.

Near the imperial city, lofty sentiments and aspirations rose in the hearts of the soldiers. They were about to attack the imperial palace and obtain the last victory!

Looking back, the young man on the war carriage wore a suit of armor, looking like an unsheathed legendary sword. The golden flower on his face bore a holy glow under the sunlight. This young man was the biggest motivation behind the soldiers charging into the enemy ranks!

“Kill!” Ju Liandao’s voice resounded deafeningly like a large bell.

“Kill, kill, kill!” The voices of the soldiers resounded through the skies with vigor and hotbloodedness.

Xiao Shengnian stood next to Su Jie. He had been in the army for some time. At this current moment, he couldn’t help but feel spirited and passionate when seeing thousands of soldiers, flags, and horses.

Over a hundred of the most elite soldiers were positioned around Su Jie’s war carriage. They seemed like State Yanling’s strongest shield. As long as they were there, it would be impossible for any enemies to approach the war carriage to harm His Highness!

Kill, kill, kill!

Lofty sentiments surged within their chests, and the orderly footfalls resounded beside them. Sharp weapons let out a cool glow under the sunlight. Armor bound their bodies. Their enemies’ blood would be the proof of their bravery!

The bugle sounded, and the army advanced.

The troops reached the city.

Only, the gates of the imperial city remained shut, even though there were no soldiers guarding the city above the gates.

Ju Liandao frowned and looked up at the city gates on his horse.

There was no one on the city gates, just like a dead city no one guarded.

What was Lan Buhui playing at?

An uneasy feeling bloomed in Ju Liandao’s heart.

At this moment, there were already countless soldiers surrounding the outside of the city. The soldiers’ gazes were firm, and they stood erect like green pine trees. In addition to the fact that there were a lot of people, a very oppressive atmosphere formed.

“Break down the city gates.” Ju Liandao gave the order to nearby soldiers.

Originally, he thought the imperial city would be the lion’s den and that it would be the fiercest and the hardest city to conquer. After all, the royal palace and the royal courts were here. Yet, never had he expected that there wouldn’t even be one soldier on top of the city walls.

“Lan Buhui is full of cunning tricks. Who knows what he is up to this time.” Ju Liandao stayed alert. His gaze was pinned on the soldiers trying to knock down the gates, yet he saw the gates of the imperial city open without anything obstructing it.

Ju Liandao froze a little.

“Father, did Lan Buhui escape?” asked Gongsun Yi as he urged his horse to the front and stopped a few meters behind Ju Liandao.

Ju Liandao didn’t say anything as he got a feeling that Lan Buhui would never run away. The Lan Buhui he knew was full of pride when they met in the old days. Ju Liandao remembered very clearly that Lan Buhui once said, “I’d rather have my body crushed to dust than yield to others.”

So it could be seen that Lan Buhui’s personality was extremely fierce. Otherwise, he wouldn’t send people to assassinate Su Jie after consecutive failures.

Lan Buhui had never given up trying to kill Su Jie.

How could someone like this escape?

That was impossible.

However, this was indeed unexpected.

Because Lan Buhui indeed escaped, the streets of the imperial city were empty. The citizens all knelt on the sides of the road with dried streaks of tears on their faces. The stalls on both sides of the road were all a mess like countless people had trampled on it.

The moment they saw the city gates knocked open, the sound of citizens’ wailing sounded. Their separate cries merged into one, causing the streets of the city to be filled with agony and sorrow.

Ju Liandao already started to feel a headache coming on.

He kept feeling like Lan Buhui left a massive mess for the crown prince to deal with.

“Is that the imperial palace?” Gongsun Yi saw the imperial palace for the first time in his life. Unfortunately, the palace was being consumed by a fierce fire, enveloped in huge plumes of smoke. The prosperity of the olden days had become a thing of the past. The only things left in the ashes were memories.

However, from afar, from the look of the flames, the fire had just started.

Ju Liandao’s face turned livid. He really wanted to slice Lan Buhui into thousands of pieces. Someone speculated that Lan Buhui set the palace and himself aflame, but the citizens told them in between their wails that Lan Buhui led some people and fled.

Lan Buhui even told the citizens to pass on a message to Su Jie. The message was that Lan Buhui would still come back and that he would behead the immortal’s descendant as a sacrifice for his Cheng Huan’s spirit.

Who was Cheng Huan?

Gongsun Yi did not know this person, but Ju Liandao’s face changed abruptly.

But since it was not a time to answer questions, Ju Liandao sent Lian Cang and another vice-general to put out the fire. He sent Gongsun Yi and military advisor Zhu Ce to comfort the citizens. Then, he sent the rest of the soldiers to clean up the trampled stalls scattered within the city and searching for the possible remaining men of Lan Buhai.

“Your Highness.” Ju Liandao got off his horse and knelt in front of Su Jie.

Hearing the citizens’ crying and swearing, Su Jie vaguely felt that the oncoming days weren’t going to be easy.

Xiao Shengnian didn’t expect to see such a chaos in State Yanling’s imperial city. The citizens’ houses were all wrecked by Lan Buhui’s sixteen guards before he escaped. The stalls on the two sides of the roads were trampled. There were footprints on fabrics, and ash on the vegetables’ leaves. The tables scattered on the road in pieces.

Two words could be used to describe what the streets looked right now:  dirty and messy.

When the wailing citizens saw the crown prince, who looked like an immortal on top of the war carriage, they all wanted to rush towards him, but they were obstructed and scattered by the soldiers.

“Looks like being an emperor won’t be easy.” Su Jie sighed inwardly. Just the palace being burnt and the losses suffered by the citizens would take a large chunk out of the treasury, even if the treasury had money inside it.

“Your Highness, Lan Buhui… has escaped.” Ju Liandao hung his head as he passed on Lan Buhui’s message.

“Who is Cheng Huan?” Su Jie asked strangely.

“Cheng Huan was… she was once the beloved concubine of the late emperor.” Ju Liandao felt his throat abnormally dry when saying these words.

But Su Jie didn’t ponder long on these words. With all the wrecked stalls, Su Jie didn’t really want to care about the escaped Lan Buhui.

The most important thing right now was to comfort the civilians and see if there were anything valuable left in the palace. The losses suffered by the citizens must be compensated by the court.

Su Jie’s eyes narrowed a little, and the corners of his lips curled into a cold smile.

What a Lan Buhui, to actually leave behind such a wrecked imperial city and run away just like that.

“He’s going to come to collect my decapitated head?” Su Jie’s voice bore coldness. Whether Lan Buhui was going to come back or not, Su Jie was going to find him.

As Lan Buhui killed the emperor to ascend the throne and caused Su Jie to lead a wandering life in poverty, he would make sure that Lan Buhui pay for everything.

“Who knows what Lan Buhui looks like?” Su Jie asked.

Ju Liandao was caught in a dilemma. What he remembered of Lan Buhui remained unchanged for sixteen years. Also, he didn’t know how to draw. How could he let Su Jie see what Lan Buhui looked like?

Soon, the people Ju Liandao sent to put out the fire sent a message, saying that the maids and eunuchs in the palace were all killed. The fire hadn’t burnt the entire palace, but the damage was extensive.

Su Jie and Xiao Shengnian got down from the war carriage. The two of them took a horse each and rode to the nearest palace as quickly as possible.

The fire was mostly put out by their soldiers. However, a few palaces had been destroyed. The bodies of the maids and eunuchs were laid messily on the floor, looking cruel and bloody.

With just one look at such a scene, the normally gentle Xiao Shengnian couldn’t help but reveal a furious expression. “This Lan Buhui is truly poisonous. Killing the servants, destroying the citizens’ assets… such evil deeds make my blood boil in anger.”

Su Jie’s fists were clenched tight. He ordered soldiers to find if there were any survivors.

Everything comes to him who waits. Ju Liandao’s soldiers found two survivors.

One was a maid who couldn’t stop trembling. Her body stayed in a curled-up position. The soldiers found her in a cabinet. Lan Buhui’s people left in a hurry, and they didn’t search too carefully in the concubines’ rooms, letting this maid survive.

The maid was still in a trance. At the moment, she wasn’t in the right state of mind to ask for answers. Su Jie arranged for military advisor Zhu Ce to help and comfort the maid.

The other lucky survivor was a eunuch. He trembled as he begged for mercy, telling them a list of Lan Buhui’s evil deeds. Su Jie waved his hand and entrusted this person to Lian Cang.

“Lan Buhui left you a mess. You’ve got a lot to deal with, Your Highness the crown prince, who’s just about to ascend to the throne.” Xiao Shengnian said with a laugh as he watched Su Jie deal with things in an orderly way.