"Bastards! It's been three years, and you still haven't found the Spring and Autumn Brush? Every eunuch, palace maid, and imperial concubine around me—beat them all to death!"
"Your Majesty, I've been wronged! This servant has followed you for sixty years!"
"Your Majesty, have mercy! This servant absolutely had nothing to do with this!"
Blow after blow fell. The cries grew faint, until they could no longer be heard.
That day, eight words drifted across the sky: "Imperial Palace massacre, tragic, tragic, tragic, tragic."
More than thirty thousand palace maids and eunuchs throughout the Imperial Palace, along with guards and some imperial concubines, were slaughtered to the last. The palace walls and stone-paved floors ran crimson with blood.
After seeing it, most people fell silent in terror, while others were filled with rage.
Ten days later, a proclamation arrived from the remote southwestern mountains.
"In ancient times there were Jie and Zhou; today there is Xuan You. His tyranny is beyond measure, and Heaven is enraged..."
In short, it was a proclamation calling for rebellion.
Before, people had not witnessed the truth with their own eyes and could still pretend to be deaf and blind. But now, that bloody scene hung in the sky for all to see. Who would not be afraid?
If that old emperor remained on the throne, and his killing spree eventually reached their own heads, who could endure it?
That very night, rumors spread everywhere. Some claimed the emperor was going to massacre the city.
The capital erupted into chaos. Civilians stormed the four gates and fled beyond the city walls, while street thugs took the chance to loot and set fires. Countless people were killed or injured.
Once this happened, instability immediately spread in all directions.
On top of that, the Spring and Autumn