A long while later, once the Old General Zhu’s temper had finally cooled, they began to discuss how to resolve the situation with Zhu Erlang. In the end, the Zhu family, driven solely by profit and loss, chose to abandon him. Whether the two nations of Dongji and Nanxin wanted to kill him or release him mattered not; he had been thoroughly written off as a discarded pawn. Things that had lost their utility were meant to be thrown away. Other than the inconsolable grief of Zhu Erlang’s mother, no one in the entire Zhu family mentioned the matter again.
A few days later, Lu Zhaoye returned, bringing news from the Xilei Imperial Palace. The reason the imperial house and the vassal kings had agreed to deploy their troops was indeed due to the manipulation of the Old General Zhu. Previously, when the Zhu family had collaborated with the Nanxin Yuan Clan and the Eldest Princess, they had acquired various poisons, which the Old General had then used to control the Xilei emperor, the vassal kings, and their respective children and kin.
While at the Imperial Palace, Lu Zhaoye had tallied the victims with the young Xilei Emperor. In total, nearly one hundred and seventy people were under the Zhu family’s thumb, including high-ranking ministers and loyal servants. With the lives of those closest to them held hostage, the young Emperor and the vassal kings had no choice but to lend their armies.
Chapter 373