Chapter 456 - Putting Down a Rebellion (1/2)
At first, they thought it was only a small rebellion. However, they soon discovered that there was an expert from the previous dynasty hiding within their ranks and it was even someone that Head Steward Liu knew. In fact, Head Steward Liu was also a remnant of the previous dynasty and had been a small leader of one of the groups of the imperial hidden guards.
When the current emperor emeritus stormed his troops into the Imperial Palace, the emperor of the previous dynasty had sent out his newly born grandson with the then leader of the imperial hidden guards. The leader had originally been a free and arrogant martial arts expert in the jianghu [1]. Once, he had been chased by his enemies who wanted to kill him and he had serendipitously encountered the previous dynasty’s emperor, who was traveling incognito among the people. The previous dynasty’s emperor told his subordinates to save the expert, who was on the verge of dying, and also helped him take revenge.
The people of the jianghu followed their own code of ethics and chivalry, and this particular expert was an adamant adherent to the code. He believed that his life had been saved by the previous dynasty’s emperor and swore a blood-oath to follow his orders to death. Thus, he was the one responsible for building up the imperial hidden guards from scratch and all of the hidden guards within the organization were personally trained by him. Every single hidden guard in the group was a peerless martial arts expert.
When the previous dynasty’s emperor died alone from an illness, his only request was that his last blood-related descendant would live and, later on, regain the throne. At that time, the head of the imperial hidden guards took away more than half of his loyal subordinates and left the rest in hiding in the capital to wait for opportunities and further orders.
This leader had been in hibernation with his little master for more almost thirty years. The hidden guards, who had been left in the capital, went from hope to despair. In this time period, medical science was not very advanced and the survival rate of young children was not very good. It would be difficult to ensure that an infant, who was just a month old, didn’t encounter any mishaps while being taken around with a crude adult man.
There were loyal and devoted hidden guards among those who had been left in the capital. They continued to train their successors and sent them into the Imperial Palace to serve whenever they had the opportunity. In fact, Su Ran was one of those people who had been trained and sent in. There were also those that, as time went on, started to become indecisive about their mission. Within these people, some had left the capital to go live their own private lives, while others wanted to use this giant secret to get some glory and wealth in return.
In the end, a traitor had appeared within their ranks and many of the previous dynasty’s hidden guards who had connections with him were pulled out of their hiding spots. Liu Fusheng, who had been hiding in a remote palace for a very long time, was one of the men who was betrayed by the traitor.
The emperor on the throne at that time was the current emperor emeritus. He had been a military man all his life and had been a god of the battlefields. When he found out that there were so many remnants of the previous dynasty around him, he erupted in fury. A river of blood appeared in the capital as he sent people to chase down and slaughter all of these hidden guards. The results were disastrous for the hidden guards. Only one in ten had survived the massacre. Those who were fortunate knew that they could no longer stay in the capital and secretly fled. They followed the secret messages left behind by their leader and returned to meet up with their leader and their young master. As for the remaining hidden guards in the capital, they had almost been wiped out!
Liu Fusheng had been a head steward in the palace then and had been heavily tortured and punished until his body didn’t even resemble a human being’s anymore. Despite that, he still refused to betray any of the secrets he knew. However, within their ranks, there were other people who were not as courageous and daring as he was.
At that time, the previous dynasty had been destroyed for almost twenty years. These hidden guards had cover jobs in every trade. Some of them, after getting used to a normal life, had lost their courage and loyalty. With these people confessing, it speeded up the destruction of the remnants of the hidden guards. As for those turncoats, who thought that confessing would lead to lenient treatment, they had been executed in secret. On the contrary, those like Liu Fusheng, who stayed faithful to the end, had obtained the appreciation of the emperor emeritus and he kept them around.
The emperor emeritus respected and admired those who remained loyal and persevered. He knew that as long as he obtained their loyalty, he would be able to obtain subordinates who were dependable. After several years of kindness, even a stone would start to warm up.
Liu Fusheng had been castrated before he entered the Imperial Palace but it wasn’t his personal idea to do so. For the sake of the previous dynasty’s emperor, he had forsaken his right to be a man. Furthermore, he had eradicated many dissidents to the previous emperor, so he was a meticulous and dutiful subordinate. At that time, Liu Fusheng had finally started to slowly soften under the years of good treatment and the persuasions of his fellow comrades who had also pledged loyalty to their new master.
During that time period, the emperor emeritus never treated him poorly because he was one of the remnants of the previous dynasty. Instead, he placed Liu Fusheng by his side to manage the large and small affairs of the palace. It could be said that other than the other old experienced court eunuch by the emperor emeritus’s side, he had the most power.
After all, with his status as a previous enemy, it made the rest of the court wary of him and many officials sent up requests to either remove him from office or imprison him. However, the emperor emeritus withstood all of that pressure and showed Liu Fusheng that he was trusted. This was the main reason as to why Head Steward Liu Fusheng became hell-bent on following the directives of the emperor emeritus.
Despite that, in order to avoid having his old leader and previous colleagues use his status against him for their own motives, he had continuously looked for an opportunity to leave the Imperial Palace and the emperor. Later on, Imperial Prince Jing’s youngest son had a problem come up and required an expert to ‘protect’ him. Liu Fusheng volunteered to take that role and had been with his current master until now.
Liu Fusheng truly wasn’t one of the original turncoats. He had never used his knowledge to trap and kill his former comrades within the hidden guards. At most, he only abandoned his previous master and was now following a new one.
Unfortunately, the remnants of the hidden guards from the previous dynasty didn’t know the whole truth! The head of the hidden guards, who had been hiding within the rebel army, had seen his previous capable subordinate following the leader of the army in charge of putting down the rebels. Furthermore, this leader was also one of the members of the Great Ming Dynasty’s imperial family. The head of the hidden guards thought of many possible circumstances. He now believed that Liu Fusheng had used the blood and lives of his comrades to obtain the trust of the Great Ming dogs in return for glory, splendor, and wealth.
Consequently, while the army was putting down the rebels, the head of the previous dynasty’s hidden guards and a few death soldiers he personally trained used the chaos of the battle to mount a sneak attack at Royal Prince Yang and Liu Fusheng, who was by the prince’s side.