Chapter 651

Just as Zhang Ning was about to say something else, a light coughing sound suddenly came from the room behind her.

Zhang Ning turned back abruptly, a flash of surprise in her eyes, and then walked quickly to the door, pushed it open, and entered.

After pushing the door open, the coughing sound in the room became even clearer.

"Father."

Zhang Ning called out softly and then rushed toward Zhang Jiao, who was lying on the sickbed.

Zhang Jiao, whose face was pale and whose body was so thin that it was just skin and bones, opened his cloudy eyes.

"Ning'er... outside... what are they shouting?" Zhang Jiao asked weakly: "Where... where are we now?"

Zhang Ning knelt beside Zhang Jiao's sickbed and reached out to hold Zhang Jiao's withered hand: "Father, we are still in Wei Commandery, in Quliang County."

When he heard the words "Quliang County," Zhang Jiao's brows furrowed.

"I... cough, cough..."

"Didn't I say that entering a city is not allowed?" Zhang Jiao said with a cough.

Zhang Ning looked outside, her teeth biting her lip.

Through the brief words just now, Zhang Ning already understood the current situation.

"Father... Second Uncle..."

"What happened to Chonghuan?"

Zhang Jiao's voice was weak as he turned his head to look at Zhang Ning.

"Father..."

"That day when the Han army attacked, Father, you announced to the believers to retreat and not to have any conflict with the Han army."

Zhang Ning recalled the previous events and said: "We retreated all the way to outside Quliang County, and later, Father, you fainted. Second Uncle and Third Uncle took over from you to lead the believers."

"At that time, the Han army followed, and Second Uncle and Third Uncle wanted to ask for your instructions, Father, but you were already unconscious."

"Later, after entrenched outside Quliang County for half a day, Second Uncle said that if we retreated again, we would probably be caught up by the Han army, and your body, Father, was in urgent need of medical treatment."

"Then Second Uncle ordered the attack on Quliang County."

"Now we have been in Quliang County for several days."

"And there are still Han troops surrounding the city."

Zhang Jiao listened to Zhang Ning's words, his brows furrowing even more tightly.

But after Zhang Ning finished speaking, Zhang Jiao did not get angry, and he didn't even say a word.

"Father..."

Zhang Ning looked outside and said: "Second Uncle... Second Uncle should be..."

"Father knows."

Zhang Jiao closed his eyes, his expression and tone as flat as ever.

And in the room that had returned to quiet, the clear shouting outside could be heard even more clearly.

The Blue Heaven is dead, the Yellow Heaven shall stand.

Zhang Jiao, with his eyes closed, shook his head gently and then sighed.

"Father..."

Looking at Zhang Jiao's expression, Zhang Ning always felt that there was something she didn't know.

"Father, Second Uncle ordered... us to be under house arrest. Father's personal guards... were all transferred away by Second Uncle. I don't recognize any of the people outside."

After weighing it, Zhang Ning decided to say this news.

However, Zhang Jiao was still not surprised or astonished.

"Ning'er..." Zhang Jiao said helplessly: "Human hearts... will eventually change, even if they are as close as brothers."

"Power can confuse people's eyes and hearts."

"This... cannot be blamed on your Second Uncle."

"Actually... I knew it long ago."

Zhang Jiao opened his eyes and wanted to get up.

Zhang Ning hurriedly helped him, so that Zhang Jiao sat up against the sickbed, still covered with a quilt.

"Three years ago, people from the Runan Yuan clan found me," Zhang Jiao said, taking a deep breath: "The people from the Runan Yuan clan said they wanted us to use the name of 'clearing the monarch's side' and then use the trust of the Taiping Dao believers to attack Luoyang."

"They would provide us with help."

"Providing us with money, grain, weapons, armor, and horses from Youzhou, Jizhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, Xuzhou, Yuzhou, Yangzhou, and other places."

"At that time, I rejected them."

"But..."

Zhang Jiao closed his eyes and said: "But your Second Uncle thought this was a heaven-sent opportunity."

"That we could use the power of the aristocratic clans like the Runan Yuan clan to make our Zhang clan ascend to the throne."

"It's just that... your Second Uncle thought too simply."

Zhang Ning widened her eyes, listening to this behind-the-scenes news she had never known.

"The Runan Yuan clan is the Zhong clan of the world, and the so-called aristocratic clans that the Yuan clan speaks of—they just want to use us."

"I knew their intentions, so I rejected them."

"But I also overestimated myself."

Zhang Jiao's expression was dejected.

"I miscalculated the greed of human hearts, which is why I ended up in this situation."

"Your Second Uncle thought that as long as he picked up a sword, he could topple this world, not knowing that as soon as he really picked up a sword, it would become someone else's butcher knife."

Zhang Ning seemed to suddenly understand something, her eyes becoming unusually surprised.

"Father, then... then the assassination was..."

Zhang Jiao took a deep breath.

He didn't say the truth about the assassination.

But Zhang Ning already had a guess in her heart.

The Taiping Dao had developed for more than ten years.

The people who could be by her father's side were all loyal and devoted; it was no exaggeration to say they possessed absolute loyalty.

In Julu, her father was like a god.

And the person who could get close to her father in Julu, in the Taiping Dao headquarters, and launch an assassination, could absolutely not be a simple outsider.

In the Taiping Dao, believers had to go through layers of screening; only those who had been in the Taiping Dao for many years and were extremely devout could see her father.

And there were only two people in Julu who had the ability to plant personnel among the Taiping Dao believers and cultivate their own power.

Her Second Uncle, Zhang Bao, and her Third Uncle, Zhang Liang.

Third Uncle Zhang Liang had a gentle personality and listened to her father in everything.

Only her Second Uncle, Zhang Bao.

"Father, since you knew, why didn't you stop him?" Zhang Ning was very puzzled.

Zhang Jiao shook his head and said: "It's useless."

"By the time I knew, it was already too late."

"I miscalculated human hearts and overestimated human hearts."

"I couldn't even control the people around me, so how could I control all the believers in the world?"