"Reporting to Your Majesty! A rebel force has suddenly appeared in the city and is heading toward the Meridian Gate!"
Zi Shou started. There were rebels in the city too?
I told you we should have run straight away!
Now it's too late to run!
"Withdraw and find somewhere to hide." Zi Shou dismissed the messenger and thought carefully. He realized there was a problem.
If he wanted to be a foolish ruler, he first needed enough time. If someone chopped his head off before the four-month settlement date even arrived, not even the system could save him.
He had known this all along. Everything depended on keeping himself safe. That was also why he had previously compromised when his ministers remonstrated with him. If he went too far and they forcibly deposed him, the system would surely stop working.
The problem was that personal safety and being a foolish ruler stood on opposite sides. What foolish ruler could comfortably stay on the throne for decades?
It wasn't easy!
He had looked forward to Su Hu rebelling because he had read the novel. In it, Su Hu was too incompetent, and his rebellion failed. Even if his rebellion succeeded in reality, there were ways to keep him penned up in Jizhou, turning him into a reliable source of Foolishness Value without much danger.
But this rebellion was different. One wrong move, and he was done for.
Zi Shou figured it out. To remain a foolish ruler for a long time, he couldn't go too far. Foolishness Value was good, but he couldn't get greedy. Driving people into rebellion was too dangerous. He had to proceed gradually, preferably with a plausible excuse.
Perhaps each settlement would only yield a few dozen or a few hundred points, but accumulated slowly, they would surely be more than enough.
Zi Shou decided that once he survived this crisis, he would draw up a detailed plan. He couldn't keep doing whatever popped into his head. Even a foolish ruler had to work methodically if he wanted to last.
As for right now...
He summoned the three hundred Royal Guards who had remained stationed in the palace, then led them toward the Meridian Gate.
When the rebels at the Meridian Gate saw King Zhou, they shouted:
"Charge!"
"Seize the foolish ruler!"
"Set Great Shang's realm to rights!"
Armor and weapons clashed, restless footsteps stirred, and deafening shouts rang out.
All three hundred Royal Guards felt a little unnerved. Just how many men were there?
"Watch me take that foolish ruler alive!"
Lei Guan, the younger brother standing beside the rebel commander Lei Kai, brimmed with confidence. He charged at King Zhou barehanded. There were only three hundred and one of them. How could they compare to an army?
Zi Shou narrowed his eyes, then abruptly thrust out his hand and shoved!
Lei Guan had been charging straight at him. He didn't think the shove carried much force, so he didn't dodge.
It hadn't looked particularly hard, more like someone pushing an obstruction out of his way.
But Lei Guan's expression changed drastically!
Crack!
The sounds of snapping bones erupted one after another!
Then he went flying. All from a single shove.
Everyone fell silent.
Not a sound.
Not a word from anyone.
They suddenly remembered King Zhou's reputation for valor before he had ascended the throne, when he had held up a beam while its supporting pillar was replaced.
Calling him a match for ten thousand men would be no exaggeration.
Zi Shou already had some sense of his own strength. Previously, he had nearly flattened Chong Yingbiao's residence just by pushing its door. Granted, the construction had been shoddy as tofu, but his strength was truly terrifying.
As though he couldn't see the rebels at all, he gently smoothed the folds of his sleeves and strolled leisurely to one side. Under everyone's bewildered gazes, he wrapped his arms around a supporting pillar.
The rebels froze.
What was he doing?
What was this foolish ruler going to do?
The pillar scraped against the roof and the ground, making a grating sound that raised goosebumps.
Then Zi Shou hauled out the solid wooden pillar, several meters long.
He tossed it.
It landed on the ground with a tremendous bang.
The rebels stared blankly and swallowed.
Zi Shou continued. A second pillar, then a third...
Soon, the piled-up pillars blocked the Meridian Gate.
They couldn't even see him anymore. They could only hear Zi Shou's slightly hoarse voice. "Death to anyone who crosses the Meridian Gate."
Utterly firm!
Without the slightest hesitation!
Death to anyone who crossed the Meridian Gate!
Those words actually stunned the rebels for a moment, bringing their footsteps to an instinctive halt.
At that moment, Zi Shou quietly instructed the Royal Guards beside him:
"Split into four groups and protect the Central Palace, the Western Palace, Shouxian Palace, and Qingxin Palace."
One Royal Guard stared at him. "Your Majesty..."
Zi Shou flicked his sleeves. "Go at once."
Another Royal Guard protested reluctantly, "Your Majesty!"
"Protect the consorts of the Imperial Harem," Zi Shou said calmly. "These are merely treacherous ministers and rebels. They are nothing to fear."
The Royal Guard grew frantic. "Your Majesty, there are many enemy leaders!"
Zi Shou shook his head and laughed heartily. "To my eyes, they are merely men with price tags stuck in their hair, offering their heads for sale."
The Royal Guard argued again, "The rebels are too strong!"
Zi Shou remained utterly unmoved. "Return to the palace at once. If any consort comes to harm, bring me your heads!"
Tears filled the fierce eyes of the fat-faced, big-eared Royal Guards as they kowtowed repeatedly. "Your Majesty, you mustn't! You mustn't!"
Some even tried to pick Zi Shou up and forcibly carry him away, but they couldn't lift him.
Zi Shou shouted, "All of you, leave! I alone am enough!"
In this world, only His Majesty treated them well!
He had trained them personally and given them fine wine and good meat. Now he was only asking them to protect the Imperial Harem. How could they not know that if they fought here, every last one of them would be wiped out?
The Royal Guards clenched their teeth so hard they nearly shattered them, then reluctantly turned and headed into the palace.
The rebels on the other side of the pillars heard their footsteps.
The Royal Guards' Overlord Step was unlike the marching of well-trained soldiers. Their steps were disorderly, making them easy to recognize.
Lei Kai was puzzled. King Zhou had sent all his Royal Guards back to the palace and stayed behind to face the rebels alone?
Judging by the conversation coming from the other side, that was indeed the case.
Was he really that fierce?
Well, King Zhou possessed the strength of nine oxen in a single arm. He could lift cauldrons and hold up beams while their pillars were replaced. In a space as narrow as the Meridian Gate, it really would take several hundred men to bring him down.
But they had several thousand!
With that thought, why keep standing around? They should surround him and kill him!
Lei Kai immediately ordered his soldiers to move the pillars aside. Before long, they had cleared them away.
Lei Kai was nervous, his palms slick with sweat. Next came a fight to the death with King Zhou. Given King Zhou's martial prowess, several hundred men might die. At the extreme, it could even be several thousand.
But as long as they killed the foolish ruler and put Prince Zi Qi on the throne, those sacrifices would be worthwhile.
Then, to his astonishment, he discovered that not only were the Royal Guards gone, but King Zhou was gone too.
"The foolish ruler is over here!"
A soldier pointed into the distance. King Zhou had actually slipped out of the palace by another route.
Lei Kai's mouth twitched. He looked at the Royal Palace, then in the direction King Zhou had fled, and made his decision. "After him!"
Zi Shou was running when he heard Lei Kai's shout, and immediately felt reassured.
These men were all infantry, without horses. They wouldn't catch him anytime soon.
Fight them head-on? One man holding the pass against ten thousand?
Do you think I'm an idiot?
Although King Zhou had once fought thirty generals single-handedly during the lords' siege in the novel, even killing several of them, and he had now taken system-produced elixirs to become King Zhou Plus, there were simply too many enemies for him to withstand!
So making a decisive escape was the wise choice.
By drawing the rebels into pursuing him, he kept them out of the palace and ensured the safety of the consorts in the Three Palaces.
The rebels wouldn't split their forces. Everyone knew that capturing the enemy leader earned the greatest credit. Who would want to attack the Imperial Harem with the Royal Guards defending it?
There were only three hundred Royal Guards, but every one of them was fat-faced and big-eared. In an age when people rarely had enough to eat, the bigger someone's belly, the stronger and more intimidating he appeared.
As long as he could hold out until the system's settlement in the early hours, he could exchange the Foolishness Value earned from the rebellion and his recent infamy in the streets for some equipment. That would probably let him deal with them.
Even if I can't get the Pangu Axe or the Dongfeng series, surely I can get something to clear out the grunts!
Please send recommendation votes and tips!
Before you continue