Dragon Raja: History Simulator

Page 112

One of the Green Forest Army groups, seemingly the Lower Yangtze Army, has already entered Guanzhong and is approaching Chang'an.

On the other side, the boy opposite, who was none other than the Imperial Advisor Liu Xin, or rather, the Constantine of this generation, laughed heartily upon hearing this:

“Great Lord, I’m afraid I won’t be able to accompany you to the underworld,” he said in a low voice, his tone ambiguous. “A life like mine has always been separate from death.”

Upon hearing this, Wang Mang was taken aback at first, then realized what he meant, shook his head, and said self-deprecatingly, "After more than forty years of getting along, I actually forgot your identity as the Imperial Advisor. I truly deserve to be punished."

He ordered the eunuch beside him, "Bring me wine."

At this moment, one of the eunuchs, Yuan Rang, stepped forward and stopped the eunuch who was about to fetch the wine. He looked at Wang Mang with a pleading expression:

"Your Majesty, you are now nearly seventy years old and suffer from many ailments. The imperial physicians have advised you not to drink alcohol. Please take care of your health."

After saying this, Yuan Rang was also in a daze and completely lost, but he did not regret it. In the past, he was punished by Emperor Cheng for breaking a plate, and it was Wang Mang, the prime minister at the time, who advised him to have a "benevolent" heart.

Later, after Wang Mang ascended the throne, this was even more true. He did not use his supreme position to bully his servants, and Yuan Rang was even more grateful.

Seeing Wang Mang now in his twilight years, he stepped forward to defend him, even at the cost of angering the emperor who had long since changed.

The boy opposite him smiled and said, "This is truly a loyal subject."

Wang Mang nodded, completely unconcerned about the offense made by Yuan Rang, the eunuch who had served him the longest. He sighed, "Indeed a loyal minister."

Then, he looked at the loyal old eunuch with a pleading expression, "Now that I am on the verge of death, all I ask for is a cup of fine wine, how could you not grant my wish?"

Yuan Rang felt a pang of bitterness in his heart, then nodded and said in a low voice, "Please allow me to pour you some wine, Your Majesty."

Wang Mang smiled and agreed to the request.

Before long, Yuan Rang came over with several eunuchs carrying several jugs of wine. He personally held a plate with two glass cups on it and placed it in front of Wang Mang.

Yuan Rang personally poured two cups of wine for him, placed them in front of Wang Mang, and said in a low voice:

"Please enjoy your meal, Your Majesty."

Wang Mang smiled, picked up his wine cup, and took a small sip. The spicy and bitter taste filled his stomach, and a wave of melancholy washed over him. Having not drunk alcohol for a long time, he exclaimed in praise:

"Good wine."

Yuan Rang lowered his head and remained silent. This was the medicinal wine he had sought from the imperial physician; it was neither harmful to the body nor lacked fragrance, though it was somewhat bitter.

Then, Wang Mang said to one of the eunuchs, "Offer a toast to the Imperial Preceptor."

A palace attendant walked past him and placed a glass cup in front of the boy's lips, saying, "Please, Imperial Preceptor, drink this."

The boy smiled, opened his dry lips—which hadn't held a drop of water for over six months—and drank it all in one gulp.

He savored the bitterness in it, looked at the eunuch Yuan Rang before him and his old friend Wang Mang, and praised them in the same way:

"It is indeed good wine."

After downing a cup of wine, Wang Mang was slightly tipsy. Pointing to the glass cup before him, he said:

"This glass cup in front of me originated from the Western Regions, but its production has now ceased."

The boy remained silent.

Wang Mang didn't need the boy to speak; he said to himself, "My aunt passed away ten years ago. Before she left, she told me that I would bring chaos to the world. At that time, I didn't take it seriously, thinking it was just the opinion of a woman."

As he spoke, Wang Mang grew increasingly melancholy. His cousin Wang Yi, standing behind him, also shed tears. At that time, the Wang family's power was no less than it is now, but their prestige was even greater.

He couldn't help but wonder if things would have been different if his cousin hadn't accepted the abdication.

Unfortunately, time flies, and Wang Mang could no longer look back on the past. He lowered his head, so that Liu Xin could not see the bitterness on his face. "At that time, you, the Grand Preceptor, also strongly advised me not to be soft-hearted. I was also blinded by the desire for power and initiated the abdication."

As the boy listened, a look of reminiscence appeared on his face. In the end, this was a project he and Wang Mang had undertaken together, a shared memory, even if Wang Mang had harbored ill intentions from the beginning.

However, history is written by the victors and the vanquished. Even though Wang Mang was the "defeated general" in the world, there is no doubt that Wang Mang was the victor between him and Wang Mang.

He used his power as the Dragon King to ascend the throne, but then turned around and supported a mixed-race family to suppress him. For many years, he was stuck in the ups and downs, unable to make any progress.

Not long ago, he secretly contacted General Wang She, wanting to give his old friend Wang Mang a heavy blow at his last moment. However, he did not expect that Wang Mang was well prepared and that this rebellion was nothing but a joke to him.

They had been friends for many years. Wang Mang was not so wary of others, but he personally attended to everything concerning his "national advisor".

He shook his head and asked, "I heard that the Green Forest Army is almost at Chang'an?"

Wang Mang looked at Wang Yi, who had been essentially imprisoned in the palace for the past few days.

Wang Yi dared not conceal the truth and said repeatedly, "According to the reports from the scouts, the government troops fought a major battle with the Green Forest bandits at the Five Mausoleums the day before yesterday, and four mausoleums were destroyed in the war."

He paused for a moment, then said, "I suppose we're not far from Chang'an now."

After the defeat at Wuling, he also lost control of the army; otherwise, he wouldn't have been guarding Wang Mang in the palace.

The boy smiled, and with a slight movement of his hands, the heavy chains rattled. He looked at his old friend before him, his tone calm.

"Great Lord, you have no future either. Quickly kill me and cut off my head!"

As he spoke, he couldn't help but feel a little dejected. He realized that there had probably never been a dragon king as pathetic as him throughout history. Finally, he said in a deep voice:

"If possible, I would like to ask you, the Great Lord, to do it yourself."

Wang Mang nodded, took out the Chixiao Sword wrapped in chains from his bosom, looked at his old friend, and sighed.

He swung down the hilt of his sword.

Chapter 174 The Death of Wang Mang

Just after Wang Mang killed the Grand Preceptor Liu Xin and beheaded him, he kept touching his head, feeling a headache, as if the ghost of his old friend was constantly haunting him.

Wang Mang then ordered four or five people to quickly move back to the palace.

Halfway there, flames shot into the sky and crashed straight into Wang Mang's sedan chair. Fortunately, they hit the secondary carriage instead, and the old emperor was not injured.

He then ordered the sedan chair to stop, stepped down, and looked into the distance where flames blazed and the sounds of battle echoed through the heavens and earth. He said to the Minister of Works, Wang Yi, beside him:

"That's the direction of Xuanping Gate, right?"

Wang Yi nodded. He couldn't help but recall what the Imperial Advisor Liu Xin had said not long ago: His Majesty the Emperor has no future.

Looking at the distant flames, Wang Mang sighed, "I didn't expect the rebels to arrive so quickly."

Everyone remained silent, except for Yuan Rang, who said, "If Your Majesty is willing to condescend, you may go on a western expedition to Longxi, where there are still loyal ministers of the court."

Wang Mang shook his head, pointed to his white hair, and said self-deprecatingly, "I am old and frail, what use am I?"

He turned around, looked at the palace before him, and fell silent. This was the palace where his aunt had last lived before her death. After the Empress Dowager passed away, Wang Mang sealed the Imperial Seal of the State here.

Now, he no longer wanted to return to his own palace; he only wanted to try to find final peace in this palace.

So he said to Wang Yi, "Cousin, this is my aunt's residence. Would you like to come with me to offer sacrifices to my aunt?"

Wang Yi was filled with anxiety. All he wanted now was to survive. He had no mind to think about his aunt. However, Wang Mang had summoned him, and he had no choice but to obey. Otherwise, the Grand Tutor Liu Xin would be his role model.

So he could only nod silently and climb the tall building with Wang Mang, listening to Wang Mang muttering to himself.

"This place is all crimson, which must have been my aunt's favorite color. I remember she always loved red clothes..."

"It's a pity there are no delicacies before the altar. I've always been frugal, and now I wish to offer a sacrifice to my aunt, but it's too late..."

"That maid was with my aunt in her final moments. By then, my aunt was already angry with me and wouldn't allow me to visit her. She even smashed a piece of the imperial seal..."

As they talked, Wang Mang became increasingly distressed, and Wang Yi also felt pain in his heart.

Finally, Wang Mang ordered all the eunuchs, maids, and guards, "You may all leave!"

Everyone obeyed the order in a daze, except for Yuan Rang, who glanced at the shadows in the corner, clenched his fists tightly, digging them into his flesh, and finally knelt down, saying:

"Your Majesty, please take care."

After everyone had left, Wang Mang trembled as he opened the box before him, pointing to the jade seal with a chipped corner inlaid with gold, and said:

"When the Empress Dowager learned that I had usurped the throne, she was furious: 'These are the ancestral temples of the Han dynasty, and they are all inhabited by spirits. Why should I destroy them? Moreover, if the spirits are ignorant, what use are the temples? If they are aware, I am merely a concubine of another man. How could I possibly disgrace the Emperor's hall and serve him food?'"

He recalled: "Then, the Empress Dowager smashed a corner of the imperial seal. I ordered people to repair it with gold, but it was still not beautiful."

Gold inlaid with jade, and jade inlaid with gold—both techniques are exquisitely crafted, with the latter surpassing the former.

However, compared to a flawless piece of jade, it pales in comparison.

He turned the jade seal over, looked at the words on it, and slowly read:

"If you receive orders from Heaven, you will live a long and prosperous life."

He smiled bitterly and said, "It has now become a joke. The First Emperor cast this jade seal, but it could not last for ten thousand generations. It died after two generations. I, Wang Mang, abdicated and ascended the throne, but it ended after one generation. Does the Han dynasty truly have the Mandate of Heaven?"

Wang Yi dared not answer, but he heard a faint, almost imperceptible sound of someone licking their lips. He was startled and looked toward the source of the sound, which was in the shadows of a corner.

So he drew his sword and couldn't help but shout, "Who dares to do this?"

Immediately afterwards, a figure silently emerged from the darkness. It was a face so beautiful that it could topple kingdoms, and even if the figure was not particularly tall, the flaws did not detract from the overall beauty.

The girl stared blankly at the Imperial Seal of the State in Wang Mang's hand, a greedy look on her face, ruining her serene expression.

But what truly shocked Wang Yi was the figure beside the girl; he couldn't help but gasp in surprise:

"Uncle Liu Wen".

Indeed, the person next to the girl was the one Wang Yi could never forget in his dreams: Liu Xiu, Liu Wenshu.

Who would believe that Liu Wenshu had no destiny, after that Battle of Kunyang and that meteorite falling from the sky?

Wang Yi, in any case, did not believe it.

Wang Mang wasn't surprised to see the two appear, but he was taken aback when Wang Yi blurted out the name "Liu Wenshu." He ignored the almost flawless, almost monstrous girl before him and looked at Liu Xiu instead.

"You're Uncle Liu Wen?"

Wang Anzhi nodded, looking at the old man before him with a complicated expression, "It's me."

Unlike the Dragon Girl, whose eyes were only on the Imperial Seal, he looked at the wooden box placed behind Wang Yi and asked, "Could I also take a look at the Grand Preceptor's head?"

Upon hearing this, the Dragon Girl reluctantly turned her gaze away from the jade seal.

Wang Mang suddenly realized, "The Imperial Advisor once said that Liu Xiu would become the emperor, so he changed Liu Xin's name to Liu Xiu. In the end, it was all in vain, but I never expected that it would come true in this place."

He said to Wang Yi, "Present the box over."

While cautiously holding his sword, Wang Yi placed a wooden box beside the two men. Seeing Wang Yi's wary demeanor, Wang Mang reassured him, "Minister, there's no need to overthink it. I noticed these two just now, and not only me, but Yuan Rang did too."

The Dragon Girl recalled the eunuch's glance before he left, and couldn't help but feel annoyed. She and Wang Anzhi entered Chang'an before the Green Forest Army, and then went to the palace. Seeing Wang Mang enter the palace, they hid there.

The Word of Power: Dark Illumination that was just cast was released by her, but she never expected that it would be seen through by a palace attendant.

However, all of this paled in comparison to the head inside the wooden box. She opened the box and found a familiar presence inside—her brother Constantine. She never imagined that one day he would be killed in such a "execution" manner by a half-blood.