The pursuers from Shengyang set out from Yuan’an, taking the shortest route straight toward Yongning.
This first wave of pursuers wasn’t actually dispatched by the Emperor himself. When the report arrived that all members of the Pingwu Wangfu—both high and low—had vanished, the Emperor was too immersed in wine, women, and pleasure to pay it any heed. To be precise, he didn’t even regard Shizi Fu Xuanrui as a threat.
From the Emperor’s perspective, even Fu Qingyun, Prince Pingwu, hadn’t dared to rebel while he was alive. Now that Fu Qingyun was dead, how could Fu Xuanrui—a mere Shizi who hadn’t even secured his princely title—pose any concern? He further dismissed the disappearance of a few half-grown youths and a widow as trivial.
However, faced with the disapproving gazes and incessant nagging of the Left and Right Chancellors, the Emperor had no choice but to agree to send men to investigate the whereabouts of Jiang Wanwen’s group.
This inadvertently bought time for Jiang Wanwen’s party—and even for the clever servants of Pingwu Wangfu.
Since Jiang Wanwen’s group wasn’t heading directly to Pingwu Wangfu in Yongning but to Chengshui Xian instead, their destination and route diverged slightly. For safety, they avoided the main road from Shengyang to Yongning altogether, detouring through remote areas.
Thus, after ten-plus days of relentless pursuit toward Yongning, the Emperor’s men not only failed to catch up with Jiang Wanwen’s group but found no trace of them whatsoever.
It was at this point that news of Fu Xuanrui’s rebellion reached the Emperor.
Holding the urgently delivered battle report, the Emperor’s face twisted with complex emotions—disbelief and fury. After reading it, he angrily flung the report aside, then overturned the dragon desk in his rage, even delivering a fierce kick to it.
But years of debauchery had left the Emperor’s body frail. Not only did he fail to move the desk, he nearly tripped over it. Fortunately, Chief Eunuch He beside him swiftly acted as a human cushion, preventing the Emperor from taking a serious fall.
Even so, the incident frightened everyone present.
Only after the Emperor was steadied and seated back on his throne did the Left Chancellor pick up the discarded report and quickly scan it. His face flushed crimson with anger. “Treacherous rebels! Sheer nonsense!”
The Right Chancellor took the report next, his expression also shifting to disbelief. “How could this happen? What were the garrison generals of Yuanzhou and Hanzhou doing? How could they lose two major provinces and six counties? That young brat Fu Xuanrui actually dares to rebel under the banner of ‘securing welfare for the people and removing the foolish ruler for Heaven,’ and even proclaims himself ‘Emperor Yongping’? How overambitious!”
The Right Chancellor, too, held Fu Xuanrui—a mere eighteen-year-old—in contempt. Had Prince Pingwu risen from his coffin to rebel, he might have feared, but this youngster? Not worth fearing.
By now, Emperor Gao Rende had calmed somewhat on his throne, though rage still simmered. “Execute the nine kinship groups of the Yuanzhou and Hanzhou generals and magistrates. And put all relatives of Pingwu Wangfu to death!”
Even an emperor who indulged in wine and women while neglecting state affairs knew it was impossible to execute the nine familial exterminations of Pingwu Wangfu. Such prominent families involved far too many people.
Doing so would empty half the imperial court, potentially driving certain factions toward Pingwu Wangfu. At such a critical juncture, the court needed stability above all.
When the emperor made this statement, the high-ranking officials below fell silent.
Seeing the ministers remain wordless, the emperor grew even angrier. “Do you all believe I should not execute Prince Pingwu’s family?”
His expression clearly warned that anyone daring to object would face collective punishment.
Only the Left Chancellor stepped forward to speak. “Your Majesty, permit your servant to remind you—perhaps Your Majesty has been too occupied to recall. Wangfei and the others have long disappeared. The pursuers sent after them have yet to report any findings. The entire Pingwu Wangfu stands empty, devoid even of common servants.”
The Left Chancellor had no desire to anger the emperor at such a time, but as the highest-ranking official present, he had no choice.
The emperor froze for a mere second upon hearing this—for emperors never seek faults within themselves.
He proceeded to berate everyone in the hall viciously, with the Left Chancellor bearing the brunt of his wrath.
The only consolation was that despite the scolding, the emperor refrained from mass executions.
Truthfully, this emperor wasn’t particularly bloodthirsty. He merely enjoyed collecting beautiful women from common households and indulging in wine. When drunk, he would neglect state affairs for days.
In his view, since he hadn’t touched the daughters of noble families or married women, he saw no wrongdoing. He believed common women entering the palace were blessed by eight generations of ancestral virtue.
As for neglecting governance during drunken spells—he didn’t do it daily, so what did it matter?
Yet his subordinates, eager to please him, committed atrocities—illegal taxation, seizing women by force…
Though the emperor raged, his anger stemmed more from wounded pride, like a beast provoked by its young. He felt little genuine alarm.
The emperor didn’t consider Fu Xuanrui capable of success or posing any real threat.
Regarding Fu Xuanrui’s capture of Yuanzhou and Hanzhou, the emperor attributed it to luck and believed the officials and generals there had betrayed the throne due to proximity to Prince Pingwu’s territory.
After discussions with ministers and generals, the emperor dispatched General Cheng with an Imperial Edict to swiftly take charge at the front lines.
Naturally, additional forces were deployed to search for Jiang Wanwen and her companions.
Jiang Wanwen’s group learned of the emperor receiving news about Fu Xuanrui’s rebellion when Zhong Yuancheng, disguised, entered a city for supplies and saw wanted posters of Jiang Wanwen’s party everywhere.
Even two-year-old Fu Zhuoxu and five-year-old Jiang Ping’an were listed.
Seeing this, Zhong Yuancheng could only stock up on salt and refined rice, realizing future city access would prove difficult.
The children’s distinctive features made them too recognizable, forcing the group to cautiously bypass towns entirely.
Though Jiang Wanwen’s party had traveled for nearly a month, they had covered only one-third of the journey to Yongning’s Cheng County.
At their current pace, they still needed two more months to reach Cheng County.
As for how they would cross into the imperial court and Yongning territories, they could only assess the situation upon arrival.
They still had no idea what conditions were like at the border between the two armies. Information in this era was exceptionally scarce.
After hearing the news Zhong Yuancheng brought back, Jiang Wanwen and her companions fell silent for a while. Then they went about their tasks—some started cooking while others took rest.
For them at present, overthinking was pointless. They had to keep moving forward; stopping meant certain capture!