At this point, the story was more than clear to everyone. The entire country was shocked by this turn of events. Since ancient times, the rivalry between nobles and monarchs was already considered normal, especially due to power struggles. Therefore, even if Xie Xuanchen was forced to rebel, he was still rebelling against the Emperor, which was an act that deserved to be shunned. However, if it was Xie Rui who took over the throne unlawfully by murdering the previous Emperor, then the one who should be looked down upon was Xie Rui.
When the Emperor heard this theory, he naturally brushed it off as nonsense, but Xie Xuanchen advanced step by step and revealed a ton of evidence, such as the criminal doctor the Emperor hired to ‘treat’ Xie Xuanchen and the many letters over the years that contained his intentions to kill his nephew. Most importantly, on the day that Xie Yi was killed, there were people in the palace who heard a cry. After that, Xie Rui had exited the palace with bloodstains on his garments.
Although everything was not clearly pointing towards the Emperor, it was enough for the people’s imaginations to fill in the gaps. Xie Xuanchen officially revealed his anti-flag— the flag of revenge for the previous Emperor and resisted the court orders of the capital.
As soon as his flag was raised, there were men all over who were making their move. The Emperor’s anti-rebellion move allocated the soldiers and troops that Xie Xuanchen had once led back then all over the country. Ma Chong and the others were scattered everywhere so they would not be able to assist. This was done when Xie Xuanchen led his soldiers north to deal with Beirong as they had been given tasks and could not leave the place where they were stationed. Now that Xie Xuanchen was officially taking a stand, the men loyal to him started to disregard their posts.
The emperor heard that the generals were rebelling one after another and he was so angry at Xie Xuanchen that his face started to contort. In order to confuse the public and halt the rebels, he declared that he was denouncing the royal Prince. Therefore, anyone who still supported him or continued to associate themselves with him would be punished severely.
However, even though the imperial court’s rebuke was getting stricter every day, more and more people smuggled themselves to the north. In the end, the court could not do anything but forbid the people from crossing the river. Nevertheless, this made things worse. After the commoners realised that the river was going to be sealed, many of them started to pack up and cross the Yellow River before it was to be sealed.
A court that did not maintain the people’s happiness would definitely not be recognized by the people. The Emperor announced that Xie Xuanchen was rebelling whereas Xie Xuanchen practically revealed to the world that Xie Rui’s ascension to the throne was a mistake. In the eyes of the people, the two of them were both powerful, despite both sides having their own rights and wrongs. However, the performance of these two people during the war was very different.
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