Ma Rui was dead, and hearts were unsettled, because no matter how anyone tried to conceal it, everyone knew perfectly well what these so-called rebellions among the Guanlong aristocratic clans really amounted to.
There were far too many examples everyone knew.
Meanwhile, the Grand Princess's body still lay in the Temporary Palace.
For a time, everyone could only be shaken by the sovereign's cold-heartedness.
Perhaps sensing something, or perhaps wishing to escape a certain embarrassment, the sovereign issued another decree, broadly dividing the Western Inspection Tour into two groups. The main party would immediately head east across the Great River into Hedong, turn toward Taiyuan, and inspect Fenyang Palace; a smaller group would remain with Regional Commander Yu Changji to guard the Grand Princess's coffin, awaiting Zhang Shizhao's arrival at Renshou Palace to oversee her burial together.
By now, everyone from top to bottom was already trembling with fear and could only set out in haste.
However, from what Zhang Xing observed, it was only because departure was so hurried and the selection of those remaining had been decided in one stroke that no conspicuous bribery scandal arose-many people had expressed intense envy of those allowed to stay.
Only a few days into their journey, just after Su Wei and the others from Daxing had joined them from the opposite direction, rumors arrived from behind: Ma Hong, the sovereign's son-in-law and the Grand Princess's only maternal grandson, had suddenly fallen gravely ill and died.
Still enormous despite its slight reduction, the Western Inspection Tour seemed to be fleeing these reports, or deliberately fleeing Guanzhong, the homeland where the sovereign and the Grand Princess had grown up together. Without giving anything further attention, it hurried east, reached Pujin in little more than ten days, and prepared to cross the river despite