"I underestimated you. You actually had a relationship with the generals who led the troops right under my nose."
Murong Zheng's words were mixed with too many emotions: joy, disappointment, and of course, more surprise.
He didn't expect that the eldest prince had actually built up his own power without his knowledge.
"If I really give the position of Crown Prince of Great Zhou to Jie'er, what will you do?" Murong Zheng asked softly.
"I will not let my father do whatever he wants."
In a word, Murong Zheng already understood that he was afraid that he could not contend with the power under the eldest prince.
"Who is it?" Murong Zheng now only wanted to know who betrayed him.
"Father, all the troops that can be mobilized inside and outside the city will follow me." The eldest prince's words were still calm, but his answer set off a huge wave in Murong Kai's heart.
"It was they who worked together to nip the Dong family's rebellion in the bud. Father, are you going to punish them?"
"If so, then Father, please punish me. They are under my command."
"I just don't want my ancestors' foundation to be destroyed by my father, by a woman."
After Murong Kai finished speaking, he knelt down and admitted his guilt with a good attitude, leaving Murong Zheng with no place to vent his anger.
"I'm not stupid enough to be controlled by a woman." Hearing Murong Zheng say that his ancestors' foundation was destroyed by a woman, Murong Zheng was a little indignant. He believed that he was still clear-headed and not stupid to that extent.
However, when you think about it, the Dong family was able to commit regicide and forge an imperial decree. It seemed that destroying the foundation of the Great Zhou Dynasty would only take a single thought.
"Even if you don't want to say it, I know why you can mobilize troops inside and outside the capital." This time Murong Zheng's words were full of certainty.
The eldest prince looked at Murong Zheng with confusion in his eyes. He had never had any dealings with the generals before, so how could his father know this
"More than a decade ago, the Empress Dowager told me that what she was most worried about was that our ancestral foundation would be destroyed in the hands of a woman."
The words from those days and the words of the eldest prince today overlapped in his memory.
Since the Empress Dowager knew that such a day would come, she would have taken precautions long ago.
The Nine Gates Admirals and the generals of the North and South Camps were all veterans of my father's time. They were loyal to the Great Zhou and were extremely devoted to the Grand Empress Dowager. If the eldest prince showed up with the Grand Empress Dowager's token, they would risk the wrath of the world for the sake of the Great Zhou.
So all this was not caused by his son who saved the situation, but by the Empress Dowager who had laid the groundwork for today many years ago.
"Did the Empress Dowager leave you a token before she went to Hanshan?" Murong Zheng asked curiously. When the Empress Dowager left the palace, she left nothing but a message for him. Thinking of his son being instructed by the Empress Dowager, he felt a bitter feeling in his heart.
"No."
"and you… "
"My younger brother told me that Princess Jiaoyang of Bei'an holds a phoenix jade pendant given by the Empress Dowager."
"Show it to me."
The eldest prince took out the jade pendant from his sleeve and handed it to Murong Zheng. Murong Zheng looked at the jade pendant in his hand and his expression changed again and again.
He used to dislike such crude carving, but today, looking at the phoenix pattern that looked more like a phoenix than a chicken, his heart was filled with warmth.
He always thought that the Empress Dowager was extremely disappointed in him, left, and would never care about him again.
But she didn't expect that she had predicted everything that happened today many years ago and had laid the foreshadowing many years ago.
Even though he hurt her heart and broke up with her, and she fled to the cold mountains, she never forgot to help him stabilize the dynasty.
Looking at the jade pendant, Murong Zheng seemed to see the imperial grandmother who looked at him lovingly when he was a child.
Grandmother, I know I was wrong.
(End of this chapter)