Flower Stealing Master

Chapter 388: The Two Prince Mansions

Ake not only inherited the beauty of her mother Chen Yuanyuan who was a country toppling beauty, but compared to Chen Yuanyuan who lost her chastity to different men several times, Ake was still a pure maiden.

Song Qingshu had personally ‘experienced’ the numerous beautiful concubines living in the inner palace, and when such a exquisite beauty like Ake was delivered to the imperial palace, it was normal to expect that a per*vert like Kangxi would lay his hands on her—however, in the end, he had resisted that urge due to Wu Sangui’s awful reputation.

In order to stabilize the Empire, Kangxi vigorously suppressed various organizations that opposed the Qing Dynasty and wanted to restore the Ming Dynasty. On the other hand, he issued many gentle decrees to win over people’s hearts, and it was gradually achieving results. So, if he accepted Ake as a concubine, it would probably chill the hearts of the Han people in his domain.

In Kangxi’s heart, a beauty was nothing compared to his domain. So, not long after Ake was sent to the palace, Kangxi threw her into Prince Kang’s mansion, firstly to avoid suspicion, and secondly to put her under house arrest. That way, he would be able to use her as a hostage to threaten Wu Sangui if he needed.

And now, Song Qingshu was suffering from the same headache as Kangxi. He was having trouble deciding whether he should let Ake go or not.

Soon the quarrel in the pavilion interrupted Song Qingshu’s thoughts, and he heard Mu Jiansheng’s angry voice, “Who can be more deserving than our Young Emperor?”

Zheng Keshuang chuckled, “I’m talking about the descendant of King Tang, not the descendant of Gui.”

Mu Jiansheng’s face turned from green to white. Then he thought for a moment and suddenly said, “Prince Mu has always admired Prince Yanping for their accomplishments against the invaders. I didn’t expect his descendants to be so ignorant. Emperor Chong Zhen died, and King Fu established himself. King Fu was captured by Qing soldiers, and King Tang unfortunately died for his country. Then, King Gui became the ruler of the land. After he died for his people, it is only natural that his descendants will succeed him.”

Mu Jiansheng stoped for a moment and looked at Zheng Keshuang, “I heard that your eldest brother Zheng Kezang is mature and prudent. I wonder why Guo Xing would send you to attend such an important conference.”

Although Mu Jiansheng didn’t use any profanity in his words, his words pointed directly at Zheng Keshuang’s sore points. It was common knowledge that the heir to the Yanping Palace in Ta*wan was his eldest brother Zheng Kezang. Zheng Keshuang has always been dissatisfied about it, so he wanted to appear stronger than Zheng Kezang in everything. So he never wanted to hear someone praise his elder brother.

Hearing the sarcasm in Mu Jiansheng’s tone, Zheng Keshuang was furious.

Song Qingshu finally understood what was going on between them. It turned out to be the long-standing dispute between the King Tang and King Gui.

In the past, Li Chuang invaded the Capital and forced Emperor Chong Zhen to death. Wu Sangui led the Qing troops into the pass and occupied the Ming Dynasty’s Huahua River.

Later, loyal ministers and righteous men from all over the land elected the descendants of Emperor Taizu of Ming Dynasty as kings. First, King Fu became emperor in Nanjing. Later, King Fu was killed by the invaders, and King Tang was proclaimed emperor. This was supported by a group of people from the Zheng family. At the same time, Prince Mu and a few other forces promoted King Gui as emperor, as well as another group of people, who promoted King Lu as the emperor.

These people all believed that they were supporting the rightful emperor, while the other party was supporting rebellious ministers and traitors. They refused to obey anyone. They even sent troops to attack each other even though they had the Qing Dynasty as their common enemy. In the end, they lost everything to the Qing Dynasty.

The line of King Lu had been cut off a long time ago, but the heirs of King Tang and King Gui were still there. In addition, Prince Yanping and Prince Mu’s Mansion were still standing behind them, so they were incompatible with each other.

Song Qingshu, who came from a modern era, naturally had a hard time understanding the importance people in this era placed on ethical status, and he didn’t want to understand either. In his opinion, even if the two factions united as one, it would be difficult for them to shake the rule of the Qing Dynasty. Now that the great cause of resisting the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty was at hand, it was really ridiculous that the two sides were fighting for an imaginary throne.

Song Qingshu was filled with contempt.

Although this group of people were anti-Qing righteous in name, their thoughts were not so pure. They all had hidden agendas and they all wanted to enjoy the glory and wealth from generation to generation. If the Qing Dynasty was finally overthrown, but someone supported by the other party became the emperor, not only would their side not be able to reap any benefits, but they would also probably die without a burial place.

Therefore, no wonder the two sides had been entangled in this issue for so many years.

The middle-aged man who was guarding Zheng Keshuang saw that he was defeated and came to his aid, “Since Prince Mu’s palace is so capable, I don’t know which faction’s troops were wiped out in the battle of Sanshui?”

As soon as he said this, Mu Jiansheng’s face suddenly turned red. It turned out that at the time, King Gui had sent envoys to ask King Tang to step down. Of course King Tang refused, so King Gui ordered his army to attack, but the whole army was beaten back. That incident has always been regarded as a lifelong shame by Prince Mu’s Mansion.

Suddenly being hit by the other party, Prince Mu’s palace exploded. One person cursed angrily, “Feng Xifan, our young master is discussing important matters with your master. What is your status? Do you have the right to intervene?”

“Feng Xifan…that guy who is nicknamed One Sword Thrust that Draws No Blood?” Song Qingshu was stunned. It’s said that Feng Xifan’s martial arts was not inferior to Chen Jinnan, the leader of the Heaven and Earth Society, and considering that there was no expert equal to him in the Prince Mu’s forces it was possible that they would suffer a big blow this time.

Sure enough, Feng Xifan smiled, “Bai Hansong, Bai Hanfeng, your Bai family’s Twin Trees are just rotten wood in my eyes, and you dare to talk so brazenly!”

Bai Hansong has always had a bad temper, so he couldn’t bear the insult. He smashed the tea cup in his palm and reached out to attack Feng Xifan.

Before Mu Jiansheng could stop him, he saw a flash of sword light.

Bai Hansong stepped back with a pale face, and fell on the ground. Bai Hanfeng quickly went to help his brother, but when he held his hand, he couldn’t feel the slightest pulse. He turned pale with shock.

His brother was dead!

Mu Jiansheng was immediately furious, “Feng, you are simply bullying us too much.”

Everyone in Prince Mu’s Mansion drew their weapons and glared at their enemies.

“Big Brother, why did that uncle die when there was obviously no blood on his body?” Miao Ruolan asked curiously.

“The nickname of the sword wielder is ‘One Sword Thrust that Draws No Blood’. Different from other people in the world, he doesn’t use the edge of the sword to kill people, but pours his True Qi into the tip of the sword to specifically hit the opponents fatal points. Just now, that man surnamed Bai was hit on the Tanzhong point on his chest.”

As Song Qingshu explained, he thought in his heart, ‘That Feng Xifan’s swordsmanship is pretty similar to my own…’

Song Qingshu also didn’t rely on the edge of his Wooden Sword to kill people. The only difference was that Feng Xifan could only hit the fixed weak points on the human body, but he could attack anywhere he wanted with similar lethality.

After hearing the conversation between the two newcomers, the two sides, who were at war with each other, turned around and looked at the approaching Song Qingshu with vigilance.

Bing Xue’er had a beautiful face and elegant temperament. In addition, due to being “irrigated” by Song Qingshu every night, she now exuded a kind of sultry and charming aura. It caused all the men to express a look of surprise in their eyes.

Zheng Keshuang had always been quite lus*tful, as he thought in his heart, ‘There are indeed outstanding beauties in the Central Plains, how can there be such a beautiful woman in the world!’

When Fang Yi saw Song Qingshu, she couldn’t help showing a hint of surprise on her face, but when she saw Bing Xue’er beside him, her expression suddenly dimmed and her face darkened.