章 47: King Zhou– The history of Hua Xia

Northern Wei's palace…..

In the royal palace, situated in northern Wei, the King could be seen in his chambers with a eunuch helping him to put on his official robe for the morning court session.

Unlike the Emperor of Hua Xia whose official robe was imprinted with a 5-clawed-Chinese dragon, the king of northern Wei, who is also referred to as 'his Highness of northern Wei' has a 4-clawed-Chinese dragon-like creature on his robe.

This rule which seemed to be a mistake or a degradation to the royal family of northern Wei was not only applicable to them alone but to all the four kingdoms surrounding Xia Country.

From the beginning of time, every Country including the Xia Country, Du Country, Wei Country, Hua Country, and Yang Country were independent Countries of their own.

The five kingdoms had their own Emperors and ruled on their own terms until the Emperors started to become greedy a few decades ago.

Countries fought against Countries with the intention to defeat and conquer.

Xia Country was at risk of getting conquered because she was situated in the middle of the four other Countries.

Every day, the Generals abandon their families and head to the borders to defend their land.

The unrest continued until the three great Generals came into the picture. From the tender age of fourteen, those great men took upon their shoulders the destiny of their land which their predecessors sacrificed their lives for.

For twenty years, those three great Generals led their armies to war and conquered each of the Countries under the reign of three Emperors of Xia Country.

After conquering the four Countries surrounding Xia, the father of the reigning emperor changed the name of Xia Country and named it Hua Xia Kingdom's Capital.

Just like every other Emperor of Xia Country, the man didn't get to live long and he died before he could stabilize the countries and hold them down with an iron hand.

Thanks to the three great Generals, the conquered Countries didn't cause much trouble.

The reigning Emperor who was only 9–10 years old was brought back into the palace from hiding to succeed his late father.

There were imperial uncles and older brothers of Emperor Yin An who could have taken the throne, but for some reason, the late Emperor crowned Prince Yin An on the day he was born, the Crown Prince of Hua Xia before he sent the child out of the palace.

The people of Xia Country lived on without knowing their Crown Prince and a lot of ministers were dissatisfied about that.

After the Crown Prince returned, he took the throne and the first order he gave was the execution of the three great Generals that had been the backbone of the Kingdom for fifty years.

After the three great Generals were killed, the following day, the young Emperor was enraged and annihilated a few ministers and their families before he settled to rule over the conquered Countries with different rules they never expected.

One of such rules was that Xia would be the Capital of the whole Kingdom of five Countries, all the Emperors of those Countries would be called Kings or Highnesses, their wives would never be addressed as Empresses nor would their thrones be called the Dragon thrones and Phoenix thrones.

Their robes could only have the 4-clawed-Chinese Dragon-like creature and they would always offer tribute to the Capital every year.

The major decisions they make would need the Emperor's approval, likewise, the Emperor can delegate tasks to them.

Of course, a lot of people from the conquered Countries were not happy about these new rules. The late Emperor allowed them to hold on to their titles and didn't make them pay tributes yearly. He also didn't degrade the royal families like the new Emperor did, but nothing they did, no revolt or protest changed the reigning Emperor's mind.

If anything, every time the dissatisfied ones revolted or joined the enemies to try to bring Xia kingdom down, they receive the Emperor's mighty punishment… No single member of the rebellious people's families are left behind out.

However, even though it was so, there were still many who were pleased with the condition of the lands and its changes. A good example was the king right here.

King Zhou was one of the many Princes born by the late King of northern Wei. It was not clear yet why he seemed to be excited over the new rules laid out on them by the reigning Emperor, however, his support for the Emperor cannot be disputed.

Maybe King Zhou felt that the Emperor and him had some things in common or maybe he had an ulterior motive for supporting the Emperor, but one thing was certain. King Zhou is ambitious.

His ambition for power and greed made him wipe out all his brothers, sisters (except one), consorts, concubine, and all the loyal subjects of his family.

Although he killed everyone, two people still survived. He spared the last Princess (his half sister) and used her as a tribute to the Emperor.

The second person to survive the massacre was king Zhou's older brother's son. The ten years old Prince had managed to escape with difficulty on that day, 5 years ago.

Even so, king Zhou never stopped looking for his nephew. Not for anything good though, but to erase him like he did to others. Regardless, no matter how far or near he searched, he couldn't find him.

Not that he gave up. Plus, the meeting of today has something to do with it.

"Your Highness, I'm done," the Eunuch said with a bow of his head.

King Zhou put his hands down and glanced at his outfit in the bronze mirror.

He adjusted his collar before turning around and heading out of the chambers with the eunuch and a few other servants trailing behind him.