Munitions Empire-Chapter 1228: Emperor who died of illness in 1148
"Someone... someone... Why is there no one? Why..." A voice resembling a plea echoed within the vast and empty hall, but no response came. The room was so dim; due to the power outage, the ceiling lights had gone out.
To prevent the risk of shell strikes, the windows were sealed shut with sandbags. The room was pitch-dark, with only faint glimmers of light piercing through the narrow gaps.
Struggling to rise from the soft bed, Zhao Ji felt as though his body no longer belonged to him. His skin was covered in festering sores, making him look like a corpse.
Previously, relying on medicine obtained from the Great Tang Empire, he barely managed to maintain a semblance of humanity. Now, as the medicine was almost entirely depleted and what remained had lost its efficacy, he resembled anything but human.
Like a vengeful ghost, he writhed in his room. Using every ounce of strength he had left, he managed to sit upright on the filth-laden bed.
Sitting up was his limit, as he truly had no energy left. His body ached unbearably; even uttering a single word felt excruciating.
"Someone! Someone!" He shouted furiously, yet his voice barely carried in the desolate room.
Although this had once been a Lord’s Mansion, it was not particularly spacious. Yet somehow, his cries elicited faint echoes—likely because no one was around.
"Where has everyone gone to die?" Zhao Ji’s anger flared, but his shouts were drowned out by the rumbling of shells outside. The entire building seemed to tremble under the deafening bombardment, and he was all but at his wit’s end.
A woman cautiously stepped into the room, placing the basin in her hands onto the floor. She approached Zhao Ji and whispered, "Your Majesty."
Seeing the maid who had followed him all the way from the Imperial Capital, Zhao Ji raised his hand to wipe away saliva from the corner of his mouth. Don’t misunderstand—he simply could no longer control it.
"Where’s Zhao Imperial Concubine?" With barely any strength in his voice, Zhao Ji inquired about the woman who had been his favorite ever since arriving in Caili.
"Your Majesty, Zhao Imperial Concubine has already passed away," the maid answered morosely. "A few days ago, you gifted her to the General guarding the city… Those men were too rough with her, and she stopped breathing by midnight after returning."
"..." Zhao Ji thought for a long time but couldn’t recall how or why he had sent his beloved concubine to others for their pleasure.
His illness had eroded his memory; his mind was muddled, rendering him incapable of remembering the things he had done. His condition had deteriorated to the point where he couldn’t even recall why he’d ended up in Caili City.
In his limited memory, he believed himself to be the Emperor of the Dahua Empire, someone who ought to enjoy the worship of thousands in the Imperial Capital.
Yet now, he was alone, with not even a servant in sight—only a solitary maid to keep him company and talk to.
"What about Zhang Imperial Concubine?" After a few seconds’ silence, Zhao Ji’s nearly non-functional mind managed to recall another beauty.
This Zhang Concubine had once been the wife of a merchant in Caili. Zhao Ji had spotted her during a city-wide hunt for women months earlier and claimed her for himself.
The maid sighed and replied, "Your Majesty, Zhang Imperial Concubine was executed by you half a month ago."
After being seized, she had spent her days weeping incessantly, which displeased Zhao Ji. Enraged, he ordered her death. As for the merchant, his entire family had been arrested and executed.
Zhao Ji fell silent again, as though his mental "CPU" had completely crashed. After a brief pause, his short-circuited mind finally shifted away from women: "Where is General Li Mingshun now?"
"I don’t know..." The maid’s tone turned uncertain as she replied. After all, she was merely a maid—unlikely to know the whereabouts of Li Mingshun, who was supposed to be stationed at the outskirts of Caili City.
In reality, just a day earlier, Li Mingshun—who was meant to lead 30,000 elite troops in holding the lines outside Caili—had surrendered to Zhao Yu’s forces.
The arrangements had been coordinated in advance, making the surrender process surprisingly seamless. It wasn’t until this morning that other defenders realized their commanding General had vanished. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm
Li Mingshun’s sudden defection plunged the city into chaos. Consequently, Zhao Ji found himself… utterly abandoned, without even a single guard at his side.
They had fled! Some escaped the Lord’s Mansion amidst the turmoil, while others looted gold and jewels from the treasury alongside the unruly soldiers. Everyone was busy, except for the dying Emperor, left alone with only a title to his name.
"Outside... outside... cough, cough, cough!" Zhao Ji attempted to ask about the situation outside, but was overcome by a coughing fit mid-sentence. His body had deteriorated so much that even he knew death was closing in.
"It’s chaos out there—soldiers are stealing things, tanks are parked in the streets… cannon fire is everywhere. Rumors say the bandit soldiers have already entered the city," the maid replied with surprising composure.
Upon hearing that Zhao Yu’s forces had breached the city, Zhao Ji began to cough violently once more. A sudden metallic taste filled his mouth, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
Staring at the crimson stain spreading across his blanket, Zhao Ji froze for a moment. When he realized it was his own blood, his weakened body abruptly collapsed onto the bed.
He gazed at the ceiling, unsure what to say to the maid beside him. Then, out of nowhere, he began to laugh—a laugh tinged with delirium, as though remembering something amusing.
Between fits of laughter, he coughed up blood that trickled down the corners of his mouth, seeping into the pillow and staining it red.
The maid moved closer to the bed, gazing upon the Emperor of the Dahua Empire with a look of pity. She remained silent, as though waiting for something.
Having been raised to serve the Royal Family, she felt it was her duty to oversee the Emperor’s final moments, accompanying him through the absurdity of his life’s end.
"The enemy is in the city! They’ve broken in!" A distant cry of despair pierced the chaos, as the sound of gunfire grew louder and cannon blasts shook the crumbling Empire.
"Don’t shoot! We surrender! We surrender!" A voice, cracking with sobs, shouted out in immediate proximity—it seemed the enemy had drawn closer.
Not long afterward, the room’s door was violently kicked open. With the creak of wood and hinges, a group of heavily armed soldiers stormed inside.
Each soldier wore an M35 Steel Helmet, a telltale sign that they belonged to Zhao Yu’s forces—or rather, what now constituted the official forces of Dahua.
The leading officer’s eyes immediately fell on the maid standing by the window. He motioned for his men to quiet down and stepped forward, pistol in hand, toward the bed.
The stench of decay assaulted his senses, prompting him to instinctively cover his nose. Before him lay a corpse, pale and emaciated, its face marred with bloody sores. The rancid smell filled the room, akin to rotting fish and putrid meat piled high.
"Is this Zhao Ji?" The officer forced himself to speak, suppressing his disgust for the sake of his career.
"Yes, this is Emperor Zhao Ji of the Dahua Empire…" The maid sighed as she gazed at the lifeless body on the bed.
The officer had no interest in correcting her phrasing. Instead, he signaled his men to collect the remains. As soon as they lifted the blanket, several soldiers doubled over, retching uncontrollably.
In the end, they had to wrap Zhao Ji’s body in a bedsheet. Procuring a stretcher, they managed—though barely—to remove the foul-smelling corpse from the room.
Thus, Zhao Ji, the dethroned Crown Prince of Dahua who had contested the throne against Zhao Yu for two years, succumbed to illness on his bed, mere moments before his capture.
His life could hardly be considered a success; at its twilight, it was marked by unparalleled excess and indulgence. In the months leading up to his demise, he committed a series of outrageous acts that left him with a tainted reputation in history.
Due to Zhao Yu’s triumph, Zhao Ji was denied even the dignity of a posthumous title. Zhao Yu outright rejected Zhao Ji’s legitimacy, ensuring that official records would forever label him as nothing more than a deposed Crown Prince.
On the same day Zhao Ji died in Caili, Zhao Jie’s forces secured their incursion into Shu Country, establishing contact with Qin Country. Meanwhile, Li Mingshun—whom Zhao Ji had desperately tried to win over—ultimately chose loyalty to Zhao Yu.
After all, Zhao Jie and Li Mingshun’s battle in the Imperial Capital had left a psychological scar on Li Mingshun. Unable to admit his decision there was wrong, he chose allegiance to Zhao Yu—a less troubling option for him personally.
With Li Mingshun’s capitulation, Zhao Yu easily took control of Caili, shifting Dahua’s chaotic civil war from a three-way struggle into a war for Northern-Southern supremacy. Zhao Yu, commanding the North’s population and resources, faced off against Zhao Jie, who controlled the Southern Region.
Three days later, Qin Country’s forces entered the Shu capital, Kangrao. Kangrao’s defenders surrendered without a fight, laying down their arms. Their capitulation preserved Kangrao’s integrity as well as the hundreds of factories located nearby.
Qin Country’s army upheld its promises, refraining from harming Shu’s civilians or merchants. Upon occupying Kangrao, they conducted themselves with remarkable discipline, avoiding pillage or destruction altogether.
The occupation of Kangrao marked the final collapse of Shu Country, a state that had existed for centuries. Strangely enough, even as Shu fell, its key leader Liu Jing never resurfaced.
Liu Jing disappeared, last seen in his office. After that, the Shu leader vanished without a trace—neither alive nor dead.
Curiously, neither Qin Country nor the Great Tang Empire showed any interest in tracking Liu Jing. It was as if no one cared if he was still alive.
With Shu Country under its control, Emperor Qin Ying Duo solidified his reign, becoming a bona fide monarch—his Qin Kingdom now vast enough to truly be called an Empire.
