Chapter 2852: The End of Order

Zu An didn’t turn down the marriage. He was no longer the innocent man he was. He understood that marriage wasn't just about love—one had to consider the pros and cons as well.

‘Dorgon’ had many enemies and needed to secure as many aides as possible. Refusing the offer to marry his daughter could sully their ties, resulting in them becoming enemies. It was especially important to band together during such times of danger and avoid making more enemies.

Besides, Zhao Xiaodie had helped him a lot this time. In particular, she'd kept the Little Fiend Empress’ and Jiang Luofu’s identities a secret from even ‘Dorgon’. He had to return this favor to her.

Of course, he didn’t dislike Zhao Xiaodie either, so he didn’t mind them being tied to the same ship.

Dissonant Melody had several sons, but none of them had been born through physical reproduction. He had kneaded them from dissonances in universal laws into cacophonies and granted them a sense of self.

His eldest son, Defiant Providence, wielded the power to distort prophecies and fate, compelling them to flow in the opposite direction. In this world, he took on the identity of Huang Taiji’s oldest son, Hooge. Naturally, he hoped to inherit his father’s authority.

The Conqueror King was on bad terms with him, so he tried to stop him. A bitter fight ensued, and it ended in a stalemate.[1]

Dissonant Melody’s subordinates were more favorable toward having his sons inherit his authority, but the Conqueror King wielded great influence as well. In fact, the Conqueror King had nearly become an Annihilation envoy back then.

Both the Conqueror King and Dissonant Melody had been created by the Deity of Annihilation, making them brothers. The Conqueror King was supposed to become an envoy, but an incident resulted in Dissonant Melody taking his place instead.

In other words, the Conqueror King had the legitimacy to inherit the Annihilation envoy's authority as well.

With both sides wielding comparable power and possessing legitimacy, neither was willing to yield to the other. The situation was extremely tense.

The Conqueror King visited Zu An with flames blazing in his eyes to ask the latter if he had any solutions to break the stalemate. He suspected that Zu An was behind Dissonant Melody’s quiet death, but no matter how he worked his imagination, he couldn’t figure out how the latter had done it.

In the end, he could only conclude that Dissonant Melody’s accumulated traumas had simply acted up. Otherwise, it would be too shocking if Zu An pulled it off alone.

Nevertheless, he still saw Zu An as someone with wits, courage, and luck. The latter could just have a solution for his quandary.

Zu An was already prepared for his arrival. “How confident would you be if it culminates into a fight?”

The Conqueror King spent a moment in thought before replying, “I am 60% confident of winning the battle.”

He was stronger than Defiant Providence, but Dissonant Melody still had many loyal subordinates. That was a considerable force that couldn’t be overlooked.[2]

“Assuming that you win the battle, would you still have the strength to subdue the Order faction’s Ming Empire and the Reproduction faction’s Li Zicheng?” Zu An asked.

The Conqueror King’s face stiffened. He also understood that even if he won the fight against Defiant Providence, it would be a narrow one. The Annihilation faction would surely suffer heavy losses, putting them in no position to deal with the Order faction and the Reproduction faction.

He was well aware that it didn’t matter to the Deity of Annihilation who the envoy was, be it him, Dissonant Melody, or Defiant Providence. But if they screwed this matter up, even if he obtained the envoy’s authority, the Deity of Annihilation would still strip it from him.

“Am I supposed to hand over the fruits of my hard work to Defiant Providence just like that?”

The thought of that outcome made the Conqueror King feel like spewing blood. Even his subordinates wouldn’t accept such an outcome!

“Of course not. Now that you’re at a stalemate, it’s only natural that neither side would allow the other to advance. However, there is a solution, and that is for both sides to take a step back.”

“How?”

“Both of you will relinquish the envoy position and instead grant it to one of Dissonant Melody’s younger and weaker sons. Dissonant Melody’s subordinates will not object to that, and upon losing their support, Defiant Providence won’t be able to stir any waves.

“That son will be grateful to you for supporting his rise to power. Furthermore, he’ll need your power to deal with his other brothers, who are vying for authority as well. You can exploit the situation to become the regent. When time is finally ripe, you can reclaim the authority.”

The Conqueror King’s eyes lit up. “You are indeed a talent! This is the perfect solution!” This fellow isn’t a Memory envoy at all. He’s obviously a member of the Chaos and Enigma faction!

Upon further discussion, they chose Dissonant Melody’s ninth son, Confounding Crossroads. In this world, he was Huang Taiji’s youngest son with Da Yu’er, Fulin.

The Conqueror King noticed that this was part of Zu An’s scheme to make Jiang Luofu the empress dowager in name, but he didn’t mind it. That woman was indeed required to stabilize the imperial harem.

During the Annihilation faction’s upper echelon meeting, the Conqueror King first angered Defiant Providence into marching out before exploiting his absence to reveal the proposal.

Unsurprisingly, many of the Annihilation faction’s higher-ups had grown weary of the ongoing infighting and wanted to avoid the worst-case scenario. When they realized that the proposal was to everyone’s benefit, they swiftly approved it.

Defiant Providence nearly spat blood when he learned about it. He considered declaring war against the Conqueror King there and then, but none of his father’s old subordinates supported him in that. He couldn’t turn around the situation by himself.

In the end, under the elders’ persuasion, he accepted the outcome. It was at least better than letting the Conqueror King obtain the authority.

Both sides joined forces once more to discuss invading the Central Plains and defeating the Order faction and the Reproduction faction.

Meanwhile, much had changed in the Central Plains.

Li Zicheng had made a huge comeback. Fourth Elder Mastema couldn’t stop his rise at all, so Li Zicheng’s peasant rebel army snowballed at a shocking pace.

To make things worse, the Fourth Elder didn’t report the true situation in the northwest to the imperial court. Perhaps he feared blame or wanted to deal with it himself, since Zu An had, at one point, crushed Li Zicheng till he was only left with eighteen cavalrymen. As a result, the imperial court devoted all its efforts to dealing with the Annihilation faction in the northeast.

Due to their previous armies being wiped out, the imperial court had to increase the taxes to recruit and train new soldiers. In their view, they had already quelled the peasant rebel army, so the momentum had already died down. The priority at hand was to deal with the Annihilation faction.

News only broke when the Fourth Elder’s city was breached, and the Fourth Elder himself died in battle. Only then did the upper echelons in Beijing realize that the situation was much worse than they had expected.

They quickly dispatched men to quell the rebellion.

Fortunately, many competent individuals had participated in the Order Ceremony, and they took on the roles of renowned generals such as Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting. These people won a series of battles, but they were unable to reverse the tides.

The power of Reproduction had spread. The peasant rebel army was growing at an exponential pace. The rate at which the Order generals were quelling the rebels turned out to be slower than the rate of the rebel army’s recruitment.

In the end, these renowned generals were outnumbered and defeated in battle. Their deaths caused a huge stir.

Everyone knew that it was over for the imperial court. Wherever Li Zicheng’s army appeared, the local military leaders would read the winds and surrender. It didn’t take long for the rebel army to reach Beijing.

Meanwhile, the Annihilation army was still kept outside Shanhai Pass by the Second Elder’s army. They panicked, fearing that the Reproduction faction would claim ultimate victory at this rate.

So, they sent Zu An to the capital to look for the woman who was the Second Elder’s weakness.

1. There was a fight between Hooge and Dorgon in history over the throne as well, but in the end, both of them came to a compromise and allowed the Ninth Prince Fulin to take the throne instead. ☜

2. In history, Hooge (Defiant Providence) inherited his father’s troops, which were the Upper Three Banners. ☜

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