Chapter 254: The Fourth Defeat (Part 3)
The Thirteenth Brother suddenly opened his eyes, only to find that his fourth brother Yongzheng had suddenly disappeared. After searching for his fourth brother, the Thirteenth Brother realized that he was not in the garden of the Old Summer Palace, but in his bedroom. It turned out that it was just a dream. A dream that was too real.
His nose felt sore and Old Thirteen clutched the quilt tightly. The 43-year-old middle-aged man suddenly choked up and then burst into tears.
The tears were warm, just like the warmth I felt when I held my fourth brother's hand tightly in the dream. The fourth brother in the dream did not look like the emperor, but the fourth brother in his twenties that Old Thirteen saw when he was in his teens. At that time, I felt at ease as long as I was with my fourth brother.
After crying for a while, Lao Shisan stopped crying and wiped away his tears.
This was different from the previous dreams of his fourth brother. No matter what happened in the previous dreams, only a vague impression was left when he woke up. But this time was different. Closing his eyes, Old Thirteen completely recalled everything in the dream.
In the Old Summer Palace, the fourth brother commented on Ortai and Yue Zhongqi with sarcasm and anger. He thought that the two were indecisive and if they felt that they could not win, they should retreat honestly and break contact with Huo Chong's men. If they felt that they could win, why not fight a decisive battle with Huo Chong's men honestly.
Old Thirteen felt that what Fourth Brother said was absolutely right, but he was puzzled. Old Thirteen always said whatever he wanted to say to Fourth Brother, "Fourth Brother, do you think you can't beat Huo Chong?"
But the fourth brother laughed coldly and said, "Haha, how old is Huo Chong..."
After listening for a while, Old Thirteen suddenly felt enlightened. He was thanking his fourth brother when he suddenly remembered that he had been killed by Huo Chong. For a moment, the grief made Old Thirteen feel heartbroken. After finally calming down and trying to sort out what his fourth brother had said to him in his dream, Old Thirteen was shocked to find that he could not remember some of his fourth brother's words.
He quickly got up, ordered people to light the lamp, and hurriedly wrote down what he could remember. Finally, before he completely forgot everything, he wrote down the last few words he could remember.
Then, as if all his strength had been drained away, Old Thirteen felt himself sliding off the chair into the darkness. The last thing he heard was the servants' terrified cries.
Hearing that his thirteenth uncle had fainted, Hong Zhou immediately ordered to leave the palace. When he arrived outside his thirteenth uncle's palace, he saw officials kneeling on both sides of the street outside the door. It seemed that they all came after hearing the news. When he arrived at the door, he saw a group of people who looked very unusual, and the leader was actually his fourteenth uncle.
Hong Zhou felt better. Although his fourteenth uncle had many problems, his father, Emperor Yongzheng, had said that his fourteenth uncle was a fool. But he did not say that his fourteenth uncle was essentially a bad person. This was very different from his father's evaluation of his eighth uncle.
After getting off the sedan chair and helping his Fourteenth Uncle up, Hong Zhou said, "Fourteenth Uncle, let's go in together."
"Yes, sir!" Fourteenth Uncle replied.
Hearing the anxiety and concern in Fourteenth Uncle's voice, Hong Zhou felt better. The two entered the palace, and Thirteenth Uncle's son quickly led them into Thirteenth Uncle's bedroom. Thirteenth Uncle was lying on the bed, his face was frighteningly pale. Although he was lying, his eyes were slightly open. Just by looking at him, he could feel a strange aura.
"Uncle Thirteen...Uncle Thirteen..." Hong Zhou called softly. However, Uncle Thirteen did not move and did not respond. This reaction made Hong Zhou very uneasy. Uncle Thirteen had always been in poor health, but the current situation could not be achieved without Uncle Thirteen's support.
Standing up and walking back to the door, Hong Zhou called the imperial physician outside to come in. Before the imperial physician entered the door, he heard Uncle Thirteen's voice from behind, "Is that Hong Zhou?"
If he was called like this in the court, it would be disrespectful. No matter how high the status of the Thirteenth Prince Yi was, he could not escape the result of losing his office and title.
However, Hong Zhou was filled with joy at this moment, as long as Uncle Thirteen was okay. He rushed back to the bed and held Old Thirteen's hand, "Uncle Thirteen, I'm here."
Old Thirteen still maintained the posture of lying straight on the bed, eyes slightly opened, looking upwards, "Hong Zhou, I saw your father. We walked in the Old Summer Palace for a long time and talked a lot."
When this was said, everyone in the room was dumbfounded. Yongzheng had been dead for more than a year, and everyone knew it. As for the Old Summer Palace, Huo Chong had burned more than half of it.
The emperor was killed in the Old Summer Palace, and no one dared to let Hong Zhou live there, so the garden was closed off. There was no one inside.
Old Thirteen said that he and Yongzheng walked around in Yuanmingyuan for a long time and talked a lot. This is what it means to be possessed by evil spirits.
Everyone looked at each other and saw the fear and uneasiness in each other's eyes. However, no one dared to say the word "possessed". After all, meeting Yongzheng in the Old Summer Palace, it would be disrespectful to say that he was possessed by evil spirits.
At this moment, Old Thirteen continued to talk to himself, "I'm afraid I'll forget what your father said after I wake up, so I wrote down everything I can remember on a piece of paper. Bring me the paper."
Hong Zhou quickly said, "Okay, okay. Uncle Thirteen, please wait a moment."
The Thirteenth Old Man's son was already in tears, but he still hurried to the table to get a piece of paper and handed it to Hong Zhou. Hong Zhou and the Fourteenth Old Man came together and looked at the paper, and then they both looked helpless. They saw that the strokes on the paper were neat, but it was like a ghost's scribble, and no one knew what was written.
Hong Zhou's eyes were red, tears rolled around in his eyes and fell down, "Uncle Thirteen, you should take good care of yourself. I saw it."
"Let me see it again. I can't remember what you wrote. Let me see it again." Old Thirteen said in a voice that exuded a strange spirit.
The Fourteenth Old Man had already turned his face away, with a look of pain on his face. However, Hong Zhou wiped away his tears and held the paper in front of the Thirteenth Old Man's eyes, which were staring upwards in a daze.
"Hold it farther away. It's too close and I can't see clearly." Old Thirteen replied.
Hong Zhou obediently took it a little further away. Seeing such a scene, the Thirteenth Old Man's son couldn't help crying with his face covered, but he felt it was inappropriate, so he simply covered his face and walked out quickly. As soon as he went out, he heard crying and went to the side room.
However, Hong Zhou did not cry or complain. He just followed the order of Old Thirteen to move the paper so that Old Thirteen could see clearly. Suddenly, Old Thirteen's eyes, which had been dull all the time, moved a few times, and that strange expression began to return to normal.
"I...see it clearly...I remember it now. Hong Zhou, I remember it now."
"Yes... Uncle Thirteen." Hong Zhou raised his hand to wipe away his tears, "Uncle Thirteen, take your time to think about it. There's no need to rush."
"Hong Zhou, your father said that he has never heard that Huo Chong has wives and concubines. At his age, he will die in a few years. As long as we wait for him, how long can Huo Chong live? Even if Huo Chong finds many wives and concubines and gives birth to children, can we be sure that they will be boys? He will not live until his son grows up. He is all alone. Humph, do you really think that all his subordinates are Dorgon?"
The room fell silent. The distress on everyone's face was quickly replaced by astonishment. Even the Fourteenth Old Man had wiped away his tears and walked to the Thirteenth Old Man with his eyes wide open.
The Thirteenth Old Man's eyes turned, and his originally powerless hand suddenly grasped Hong Zhou's palm, "Hong Zhou, your father is right. Send an order to ask Ortai and Yue Zhongqi, if they can win, then do it quickly, if not, then don't fight Huo Chong. If the 200,000-man army is defeated again, how can we deal with Huo Chong? As long as we have the green mountains, we will never worry about lack of firewood."
"Yes. Uncle Thirteen."
Old Thirteen seemed to have finally recovered from that strange state. He struggled to sit up, and Old Fourteen quickly put a few pillows behind Old Thirteen and helped him sit up. Now Old Thirteen looked normal again.
"Hong Zhou, your father is right! We can delay, but Huo Chong can't. If we delay for another four or five years, Huo Chong will have no son, and his subordinates will definitely want to fight for the position. If Huo Chong has a son, the fight will be even more fierce. Now Huo Chong is the only one supporting him, and there is not even Huo Guang, let alone Zhuge Liang. A new emperor appoints new ministers. Once Huo Chong dies, Huo Chong's subordinates will be in chaos."
Hong Zhou felt like he was riding a galloping horse, jumping up and down. According to the court's interpretation, what Thirteenth Uncle said was "nonsense". If it was known outside, someone would impeach him.
However, these words were truly planned for the court, and the more I thought about it, the more they made sense.
Before I knew what to say, I felt that Old Thirteen's hand in my palm had lost its strength. I looked up quickly and saw that Old Thirteen lowered his head and his body slid down along the pillow.
Hong Zhou could no longer care about so much, and turned around and shouted: "Imperial Physician! Imperial Physician!"
