mesbooks Chapter 455: Provocation
Chapter 455: Provocation
Luo Xiaoran looked over with worry on her face. Chen Ji didn't say anything. He stood tall and straight in front of the Empress Dowager, but his fists under his sleeves were clenched tightly in an instant.
The Empress Dowager did not wait for Chen Ji's response. She just raised her head slightly, slowly withdrew her gaze from afar, and then sighed softly, and then spoke again to herself:
"I know that you have always regarded me as the murderer of your mother and wanted to kill me to avenge your mother."
"But you are growing too slowly. Only God can take my life. You... don't have a chance!"
The hoarse and weak voice was full of sarcasm.
After saying this, a smug smile appeared on her face, which was so pale that even rouge could not cover it.
The next moment, the Empress Dowager uttered another extremely short and contemptuous sneer.
Although this sneer was as brief as a meteor flashing across the night sky, the mockery and disdain it contained was like an extremely sharp dagger that pierced straight into Chen Ji's heart.
——Enough to ignite the raging anger and hatred in Chen Ji’s heart!
The hatred in Chen Ji's heart was like a long-dormant volcano, which was completely awakened by the sneer. It began to erupt and roll violently, and its heat was enough to burn everything to ashes.
But Luo Xiaoran's voice sounded before his, like a downpour, gently and firmly enveloping his heart that wanted to destroy the world.
"I don't agree with what the Empress Dowager said."
"Your Highness the Prince of Yan is a talented young man. He joined the army at the age of twelve and guarded the northern border for ten years. He is only twenty-two years old now, in the prime of his life."
"For the sake of his country, he put his personal grudge aside and buried it deep in his heart. How could he still be ridiculed by you?"
"In your mind, should he disregard the safety of the border and lead his army to overthrow the imperial city, then you think he is growing fast?"
No one had ever dared to be so rebellious in front of the Grand Empress Dowager. Madam Ke stepped forward and scolded her harshly:
"presumptuous!"
"Hey~~"
The Empress Dowager waved her hand. She stared at Luo Xiaoran, who was standing up for Chen Ji, with great interest, as if she was looking at another person through her.
"You know a lot about this. It seems that King Yan really likes you and told you everything."
The gaze she cast on Luo Xiaoran was too scorching. Chen Ji instinctively blocked Luo Xiaoran behind him and met that gaze that was enough to penetrate one's heart.
"I have always believed that the Empress Dowager's long life is a chance given by God to me to kill my enemy one day."
"Therefore, I do not feel the slightest bit of resentment towards the fact that the Empress Dowager has lived for so long. Instead, I feel very fortunate."
Madam Ke's face turned pale instantly. Could it be that the Prince of Yan wanted to kill his mother? This was the inner palace!
Luo Xiaoran's breathing became a little rapid. Is the game so exciting now?
Only the Empress Dowager remained calm. Well, she was going to die anyway, so why did she care whether she died of illness or was stabbed to death by Chen Ji's sword?
It hurts anyway, Luo Xiaoran thought secretly.
"Especially seeing that you are in a high position with great power in your hands, you should be the pillar of stability and prosperity of Daliang, but you allow your relatives to monopolize power and allow them to interfere in government affairs unscrupulously, making the court a mess."
"Not only did you, the Empress Dowager, fail to stop or restrain this, but you turned a blind eye to it, allowing treacherous villains to take advantage of the opportunity to gain power, and loyal officials and generals to be suppressed, causing chaos throughout the court."
"Grand Empress Dowager, you have done what you did. No matter how you died, you will be ashamed to see the ancestors of Daliang in the underworld!"
"You don't need to provoke me. No matter whether your life was taken away by the heavens or by me, for the sake of stability in Daliang, you can only be known to the outside world as having died of illness."
Hearing this, Luo Xiaoran suddenly reacted and got goose bumps all over her body. The Empress Dowager was trying to set a trap for Chen Ji with her own life!
She wanted to provoke Chen Ji to kill her when she was dying, so that Chen Ji would be charged with murdering his biological mother, which was a serious crime in ancient times!
This woman's mind is truly terrifying. To achieve her goal, she is even willing to sacrifice her own life!
Well, she is an old woman about to die, and she got the upper hand over Chen Ji, a young god of war!
"Great! He is indeed the Emperor Taizong's favorite prince. He keeps saying that he wants to maintain the stability of Daliang."
The Empress Dowager clapped her hands in appreciation, but she seemed to have little strength left in her body, and the applause was as light as the friction between two palms.
"But King Yan, is all you have done worth it?"
"Do you think I'm the only one who killed your mother?"
"It was Emperor Taizong who ordered your mother to be burned at the stake!"
"It was Emperor Taizong who ignored you and left you to fend for yourself in the palace!"
"Before he died, he threw you to the bitter cold land of the North. It was Taizong who made you fight on the battlefield at such a young age!"
"And after all these years and all the hardships you've endured, you still have to protect the peace of Daliang for him. Are you willing to do that?"
What a great one - the Empress Dowager who poked Chen Ji in the heart and lungs! Luo Xiaoran got even more goose bumps.
What the Empress Dowager said was indeed correct in some respects.
All of Chen Ji's sufferings originated from the fact that his mother was executed as a demon and Emperor Taizong's indifference to him.
Luo Xiaoran thought that Chen Ji would be in a very bad mood, but Chen Ji didn't even frown slightly, and he faced the Empress Dowager calmly.
"Protecting Daliang is what my heart desires. It is my duty as the King of Yan in Daliang. How can I say whether I am willing or not?"
"If I were still the twelve-year-old Chen Ji, I might have taken the Empress Dowager's provocative words seriously, but I have experienced ten years of military career, and understanding people's hearts is nothing to me."
"Taizong... my father, he ignored me and was deliberately cold to me."
"If he had shown any affection towards me at that time, the Empress Dowager would have been too tolerant to tolerate me."
"It was precisely because he wanted to protect me that my father sent me away from Kyoto before he died, allowing me to hone my skills and grow in the northern border, until I became the commander of the northern border army and became a force to control the aristocratic families!"
"Doesn't the Empress Dowager find it strange? In the years before my father passed away, some loyal officials in the court were demoted to the northern border for various reasons. These people eventually became my teachers and became the growing strength of the northern border army."
Luo Xiaoran's mouth could no longer be restrained and opened wide. She was so shocked.
Is Taizong so good at scheming?
In the name of alienation, in reality protection.
By demoting him openly and sending him talents secretly, Chen Ji was able to accumulate power in the northern border in a low-key manner.
And Chen Ji, who so easily understood the deep meaning of Taizong's various actions, should she say that this father and son have a tacit understanding? Or should she say that they are both extremely wise?