Although those who support the fourth prince want to be able to do their own thing, in this situation, they cannot help the fourth prince even if they want to.
The people who support the fourth prince also control several states, and they can completely garrison those states to help King Qin. However, many of those wealthy places are in the south of the Yangtze River, far away from the capital. If King Qin wants to be King Qin, water from far away cannot save the fire that is near.
What's even more frightening is that the people in the city who secretly support the third prince may have controlled some city gates. They can open the gates at any time and let the third prince in.
If the third prince hadn't asked the fourth prince to surrender on his own initiative, as he didn't want to hurt the people in the city, he would have probably fought in long ago.
And as the fourth prince was unwilling to admit defeat and take the initiative to surrender, the common people began to have opinions.
I don’t know if it’s the people who secretly support the Third Prince fanning the flames, or the common people think this way, and feel that the panic they are living now is caused by the Fourth Prince not surrendering to this point. Anyway, the common people are becoming more and more dissatisfied with the Fourth Prince. Opinion.
Don't blame the common people for thinking this way. The common people don't care whether the third prince is rebelling or not. They only know that the fourth prince is surrounded in the capital and must be in trouble. If he refuses to surrender, isn't this going to hurt them, ordinary people?
Of course, the main reason is that the fourth prince has a bad reputation among the people. In recent years, Linlang has made people allege that the fourth prince formed an alliance with the Zhang family and the Sun family, and finally broke the contract and refused to marry his original wife. This has been spread everywhere. , and then publicized the fact that Mrs. Zhang and others, as well as some people with good reputations among the people, but who were the third prince before, were finally driven away or executed by the fourth prince, were publicized many times among the people, which caused the fourth prince to have bad reputation among the people. The image is that of a foolish king, a tyrant, and a dishonest villain.
Who is the fourth prince? An ungrateful, dishonest villain with a bad character. After hearing the news, he naturally became furious and ordered people to be arrested. Anyone who dared to say these words would be arrested.
Okay, now it's better. On the surface, everyone doesn't dare to discuss the things he did, but in their hearts, their impression of him is even worse.
The most important thing is that in order to win over those neutral people and give them benefits, the fourth prince spent a lot of money, but the treasury had no money, so he could only increase taxes. People get richer and poor people get poorer.
If you give money to the people, the people may not necessarily be grateful to you. After all, there are always some thorns in the side. They feel that this is what the court should give. Why should I be grateful? But if you ask for money from the people, the people will definitely hate you 100%. So such a person, It is normal for the people not to side with him.
After the common people complained that the fourth prince would not surrender for a while, things became complicated.
Finally, ten days after the siege of the city, this morning, when the fourth prince was about to discuss with his confidants how to deal with the matter now, there was a noise outside the palace gate, and the sound became louder and louder, so that it could be heard even in the imperial study.
The fourth prince was unhappy and asked the palace guards to see what was going on outside.
Soon, the guard came back with an ugly face and reported to the fourth prince: "People surrounded the palace, saying... saying..."
The fourth prince, who had serious dark circles under his eyes, saw the guard hesitating and couldn't help but get angry: "What are you talking about?! He's hesitating to say anything!"
Seeing that the fourth prince was angry, the guard quickly said: "Your Majesty, I told you to open the city gate and surrender."
When the fourth prince heard this, he couldn't help but became furious. He kicked over the table and said, "Cut all those rebellious officials and traitors!"
The guard said: "But... there are too many people outside, I'm afraid they won't be able to kill them. Once the conflict intensifies, the guards in the palace will not be able to stop so many people from breaking into the palace gate. Then... I'm afraid there will be more It’s not easy to clean up.”
In fact, he was still thinking in his heart that he was afraid of listening to the emperor's words and killing many people. If the third prince entered the city later, and during the liquidation, he knew that he had killed many people and dealt with him, that would be bad.
The reason why he is afraid that the third prince will liquidate him is because many people have clearly seen the current situation. The fourth prince is afraid that he will not be able to handle it anymore. In this case, he naturally does not want to continue to listen to his orders and do what he wants. Something that will cause you trouble in the future.
So the guard found this reason to dissuade him.
The fourth prince didn't care about this. He only knew that now even those untouchables who were as low as the mud had the courage to find trouble with him and disobey him. He was so angry with him and hated him so much. How could he endure it, even for the next moment? That bastard, the third child, will rush in, and he will let those people die before he does!
So when the guard said this, he yelled regardless, "Kill me, kill me!! If you don't kill me, I will kill you!"
The guard's hands couldn't help but tremble after hearing the fourth prince's words.
If you kill, you will die in the future; if you don’t kill, you will die now...
How should he choose.
Thinking of this, looking at the fourth prince walking in front of him because of anger, the guard suddenly pulled out his knife and stabbed him.
The fourth prince never expected that this guard would dare to stab him, so he was stabbed by the other party without any precautions. He looked at the guard in disbelief and said: "You... how dare you kill me! ...Come...someone! Kill this traitor."
Without waiting for the other guards to take action, the guard pulled out his knife and said to the surrounding guards: "The third prince is laying siege to the capital. The emperor... the fourth prince cannot escape! If I kill him now, you will still have to die for it." Did he work hard to kill me, and then go out to kill those people? In the future, if the Third Prince finds out what you have done, do you think the Third Prince will let you go?"
The guards couldn't help looking at each other after hearing this.
Although many of the guards in the palace came from wealthy families, there were also some who came from ordinary backgrounds but had strong abilities. After all, they were all incompetent. How could they protect the emperor.
The group of people around the fourth prince, even if they have some ability, are of average background, so they are not those young master soldiers, they come from the families of the fourth prince's confidants. There is no need to think about the fourth prince's death. His family's former ally, the fourth prince, and his future future No more, there is no need to continue working for the fourth prince.
In addition, this guard said that if he listened to the fourth prince, he would go out and kill the people. In the future, if the third prince came in and pursued this kind of indiscriminate killing of innocent people, he would definitely cause trouble for himself. Then the fourth prince was stabbed and bloody. He was bleeding all over the place and was about to die, so why should he follow him?
So someone immediately said: "Since you want to do it, do it big, contact your brothers quickly, open the city gate, and earn this credit."
This is the skill of following the dragon. It is right in front of you and at your fingertips. It would be a pity not to do it.
