Chapter 228: Chapter 195: Where Does the Road Lead? (2)

"Then we must become stronger."

With a single hand sweeping over the tearing wound on his shoulder, the twisted flesh knit itself back together, causing a slight sweat to appear on the prairie khan’s forehead.

"Stronger, even stronger, only by becoming stronger can we crush those monkeys flipping the tables and press their heads into the chessboard."

Thinking this, the prairie khan, who had treated his injuries, dived swiftly, heading towards the far-off encampment.

When he landed, the form of the golden-winged roc reverted to its thick, fat appearance, which made the leaders in the large tent admire him even more—even just that majestic form soaring through the sky, who could say this khan wasn’t a true Celestial God?

But why does this Celestial God’s complexion look a bit...

"I’m fine."

Taking the robe handed to him by the guards and draping it over his shoulders, the prairie khan waved towards the south.

"Continue the advance."

He had only lost once, but as long as he could rest for a while and absorb the experience gained from this battle, he would not lose a second time.

"One more time, this time I will definitely press that monkey’s head onto the table."

Thinking this, the prairie khan, whose face was somewhat pale, secretly clenched his fist.

But he did not know that behind him, where he could not see, the looks in the eyes of those leaders had become subtle.

...

...

...

In the Jinluan Hall of the Capital City of Jiankang, civil and military officials stood on either side, watching the young emperor on the throne.

If the previous emperor merely looked young, this one was truly too young—the figure in the small dragon robe was so very young, barely having learned to walk, the small figure seated on the grand throne meant for giants appeared even smaller, causing some of the ministers present to be somewhat dazed.

The imperial mausoleum had already been destroyed, the emperor died in that disaster, and the descendants left by the emperor were so young.

Can such a Great Chen Dynasty really continue?

An emperor so young...

"Silence!"

Seeing the civil and military officials actually start whispering, the old eunuch standing next to the young emperor couldn’t help but call out, hoping that the full court of officials would give the young emperor at least a minimal amount of respect.

Perhaps this shout had some effect; at least those ministers indeed stopped whispering to each other, but not speaking didn’t mean they weren’t thinking—despite their efforts to find some sense of loyalty to the sovereign, no matter how hard they tried, what lingered in their minds was the scene of the former Grand Tutor riding a horse on Jinluan Hall.

And now, that Grand Tutor was gone, the young and muddle-headed emperor also perished in a strange disaster, and this new emperor... one couldn’t even say muddle-headed, clearly he hadn’t even learned to walk yet.

Too much information, too chaotic minds, the ministers themselves didn’t know what they were thinking at the moment.

They only knew that an unspeakable thought was growing in their hearts.

Perhaps one day, those thoughts might give birth to something, who can say?

But no matter what, things had to be done, and with the new emperor’s ascent, the troubles he faced were far greater than those of the previous emperor. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

First, there were the internal rebels, despite the former usurper Prime Minister Jia Wen’s previous efforts to purge them, they became active again after his death—mainly because even when Jia Wen usurped power, he hadn’t entirely cleared them out; after all, it takes time to do such work.

And after Jia Wen’s death, it wasn’t long before the previous emperor died too, and these unsupervised rebels once again raised their flags, including remnants loyal to Jia Wen joining them.

This is still a minor issue.

Where there’s internal turmoil, external threats follow, and the greatest external threat now is the northern prairie people. While the previous emperor was muddle-headed, at least there was some resistance shown, but this emperor... does he even know how to pronounce the word ’resistance’?

Of course, if it were in the past, it didn’t matter if the emperor truly didn’t manage affairs; even if the prairie people attacked southwards, it wasn’t unmanageable. Everyone had a last resort, something acceptable within a range.

But what’s coming next is the real issue.

The thing is, everyone’s trump card is gone.

In the past, although the court often talked about dispatching troops against the prairie people, they all knew that even if the prairie people advanced all the way down, laying siege to the Capital City of Jiankang, as long as the noble families took out their heirloom Divine Soldiers and sent in the secretly trained experts with those relics, everything would improve.

But now, there is nothing left.

The experts are gone, and the Divine Soldiers are gone. The catastrophe that hit the imperial mausoleum not only took the previous emperor but also all the Divine Soldiers and experts trained specifically to wield them—that’s the biggest issue now, more severe than rebels or external enemies.

When the Divine Soldiers were still around, all disturbances were just minor troubles, but now that the Divine Soldiers are gone, what was once minor has now become a grave threat.