Chapter 266

Before the pigeon became dizzy, Wei Shen rescued it.

He snatched the pigeon over to Zhao Bao; Wei Shen took the small paper slip that the Great King was looking at back and forth, and then he too was startled.

Cool Prefecture, Conjoined Prefecture, and Fishing Sun were given to the Xiongnu?! Wing Prefecture and Secluded Prefecture were given to the Tufa Xianbei and Eastern-Western Xianbei?! Oh dear, Secluded Prefecture is gone?! Who decided these peace terms, not fearing condemnation from all under heaven?

The Great King felt faint, "My fief... has it been abolished?"

Wei Shen looked at him sympathetically, never having seen a princely half-way re-enfeoffed, "What should we do, Your Highness Prince You, change fiefs?"

The four words "change fief" struck like a heavy hammer, waking the Great King's muddled mind—changing fiefs? Nice dream!

I have invested so much infrastructure in Secluded Prefecture—change fiefs?

Moreover, can Mengmeng allow him to change his nickname and play? The City Lord's heart lies within his body—if the city falls, the person dies!

My Prince You mansion, my city walls, my military dock, my silver mine are all in Secluded Prefecture—abolish the fief? Dream on! Even if they gave us another place, it would be inland—would I push my warship around on land?

Wei Shen initially nodded, but then stopped, grabbing the Great King: "Wait, you still have a silver mine? Where is it?"

The Great King feigned ignorance: "Haha~ Did I ever say that?"

Wei Shen began pinching his fingers, then flexing his wrists, about to strike his brother; the Great King surrendered: "There are two mines, after all~"

Wei Shen: "Still two?"

Great King: "... there's also a copper mine."

Wei Shen immediately thought of the copper wares the Great King sold at that shop on Vermilion Bird Avenue; now thinking about it, without mines it's hard to come by that much copper.

"I didn't see it coming; you're still hiding your talents?"

"When you discovered it, you weren't there, and you didn't ask either! Such matters certainly aren't spoken aloud—once said, they become the court's. So besides Vermilion Hill, nobody in the manor knows. Now it's the prisoners in the jail and the Eastern Xianbei people mining on the mountain."

Wei Shen began to sneer: "Heheh, it's not just hiding things with your cousin! Silver mine? Copper mine? You must have stashed quite a private fortune, right?"

"What do you want then?"

"Settle your cousin's account in one stroke, or this won't end!"

The Great King, full of resentment: "Fine. I'm about to cease being the Great King, and you're still quarreling with me over a few taels."

Wei Shen: ……

"What are you going to do about it? The court will surely issue an edict, letting you yield your position to the Xianbei—what will you do?"

This made the Great King scoff: "Then ask the cannons on Secluded Prefecture's city walls! Otherwise, ask Wan Niu Yu, crouched in prison blowing a little breeze—ask if he dares to take it!"

Xiongnu, as well as Western Xianbei and Tufa Xianbei, don't rush—I'll receive them all in due time, everyone gets a share.

But the court agreed to this face‑losing territorial appeasement, and the Great King was still quite disappointed.

Peaceful resolution would certainly be good, but signing these rights‑losing, nation‑humiliating treaties, the Bai Li clan truly has no shame left.

"My father emperor… alas! How will he face the imperial ancestor a hundred years from now?!"

But the Great King never imagined this day would come so quickly.

Earlier the Great King told Bai Yang about this, and Bai Yang also said, "If you also had a Divine Merit and Virtue Stele where you are, your father wouldn't get a turn—he's lost too much land in his hands."

When the withdrawal terms were spread, Emperor Ning De's reputation among the populace fell to its lowest point.

The northern border suddenly lost five commanderies; the Xiongnu also took Fishing Sun, which holds the north's largest salt field. Thereafter, Great Jin also lost a useful lever on the steppe.

The people of Everlasting Peace might have felt lucky to escape a great catastrophe and save their families' lives, while distant cities showed no mercy in their spit‑directed curses at the court.

Especially the scholars, hearing that Emperor Ning De was gravely ill, also composed poems mocking his pretense.

Who would have thought, before the matter had even fermented, Everlasting Peace again transmitted news: the emperor collapsed.

Emperor Ning De, he has passed away.

The capital's order to abolish fiefs and the news of the emperor's demise were sent together to Secluded Prefecture; this time the Great King had no mental preparation at all.

The Great King shut himself away in the sleeping chamber, seeing no one, while the chancellor led the officials to kneel outside the Year‑Feather Hall.

The last edict Emperor Ning De left to proclaim to the world designated Bai Li Jin as the heir.

The final edict Emperor Ningde left to announce to the world designated Baili Jin as his successor.

The first edict issued by the newly crowned crown prince was to withdraw the fief of Youzhou, ordering Baili Jing to return to Chang'an and later select another fief.

Actually, the king couldn't care less who becomes crown prince right now; his mind is filled with a single thought that repeats like a galloping horse: "I have no father!"

Although this father hadn't treated him well and often dug pits for him, he was still his father.

The king lost his mother at birth, and now his father is gone as well; he has no relatives left in Chang'an.

The hall was empty except for his few beloved pets; the king didn't bother with decorum, sitting on the ground and letting tears patter down.

"My father, though biased, raised me well, gave me a fief and personal guards. He didn't give me anything extra, but he didn't stint on the allowance either. The people of Youzhou suffer greatly; I, the prince, have defaulted on the tribute, yet my father didn't punish me.... In the future I will go to the Hall of Containing Brilliance to shirk responsibility; no one will strike me again, no one will urge me to govern my fief well. From now on, the master of the Hall of Containing Brilliance will be Baili Jin; when my elder brother becomes emperor, he will simply kill me."

The king also suddenly realized that his biased father was still his father; if it were anyone else, no one would tolerate him anymore.

The king was genuinely heartbroken; the bear grew so anxious it snorted, circling him over and over.

Bai Ze listened for a while, then finally spoke: this is the reason it had long known this day was near, yet never brought it up.

It only adds to the grief.

The king still held his father dear in his heart.

The less one has received, the more one longs for it in one's heart.

He had received little paternal love, yet now this person is gone. Thus there will be no chance anymore; one knows the little fool will be heartbroken.

"Your father lived his life doing as he pleased; for the first forty years he enjoyed smooth sailing, being supreme under heaven, and actually had no regrets. The Great Jin lost so much territory under his hand; his life was also an ordeal, the regime unstable. This person, from beginning to end, could not bear the burden of the realm, letting the world fall into chaos; now that he has departed, it might not be a bad thing for him."

Having escaped the title of a doomed monarch, the hot potato was tossed to Baili Jin.