The Dragon Throne: Turmoil Beneath the Waves
Chapter One: Blood Edict, Burning City
Rain poured from the sky. The vermilion gates of the Liu residence burst open amid flashes of lightning. The iron-armored army’s horses trampled through the puddles, stamping the charge of treason into the bricks.
Liu Huaide gripped his ivory court tablet until the veins stood out on his hand. As he watched the palace envoy unfurl the bright yellow imperial edict, a metallic sweetness rose in his throat. Three months earlier, he had advised the Crown Prince to take charge of the government. Now that advice had become the crime for which his entire family would be executed.
“Grandfather!” The eldest legitimate grandson, Liu Mingyuan, shielded his father. The jade pendant at his waist knocked against him as his body trembled. Then a heart-rending cry came from the inner courtyard: his daughter-in-law, Wang Xinling, was in labor.
“Lord Liu, His Majesty’s oral order is that not a single soul is to be spared.” The general in command wore an impassive expression as he raised his spear to knock down the gilded plaque above the gate. Liu Huaide watched the words “Chancellor’s Residence” sway in the rain and recalled how, just the day before, his grandson had grabbed his prayer beads during the one-year-old’s choosing ceremony and laughed.
Inside the birthing room, Wang Xinling’s sweat-soaked hair clung to her pale face. The midwife’s startled cry mingled with the sounds of fighting outside. Summoning the last of her strength, she finally heard a baby cry.
“Madam! The iron-armored soldiers have reached the central courtyard!” Her maid, Chuntao, burst through the door with a swaddled infant in her arms. Her own child had just turned two months old yesterday, but now he was wrapped in the golden-thread swaddling clothes of the Liu family’s eldest grandson.
“Take him away...” Wang Xinling grabbed Chuntao’s wrist with a trembling hand. “Tell Qing’an... he is of the Liu bloodline...” Before she could finish, the roof beams crashed down, and bricks and stones fell with the rain.
Chuntao gritted her teeth, placed her own child in Wang Xinling’s arms, then turned and rushed toward the secret passage.
