Chapter 55 Joan the Heroine

Zhu Yunwen's team was extremely professional and quickly devised a plan, intending to use the wolf to swallow the tiger, thereby seizing the opportunity to weaken the power of the feudal lords and complete the reduction of their domains. However, the local situation was far more complex than they had imagined.

Before the plan could even begin, the nobles reacted fiercely. His fourth uncle, Philip, directly rebelled and attacked. The Parisians had never liked the king and had no intention of resisting, immediately opening the city gates to surrender, while the royal family fled in a panic to Orléans in the south.

Zhu Yunwen and his companions were in the city at the time, but his skill at running away had always been quite respectable, and he already possessed ample experience.

Earlier, he had noticed that the citizens seemed very dissatisfied with the king and that the city looked rather unsafe, so he had made preparations in advance.

When the riots broke out, Zhu Yunwen produced a cleric's outfit he had prepared long ago and disguised himself as a friar. In the dead of night, he set fire to a pile of dung on the street and resolutely fled amidst the chaos. The Burgundians searched the city in all directions, but in the end failed to catch him.

At that time, the princess was already pregnant and resting at an estate outside the city. Zhu Yunwen arrived there to reunite with the princess and several trusted aides. By then, the roads leading to Orléans had been blockaded by the Burgundian army. In their haste, the group could only thread their needles through the gaps, bypassing patrols and mutineers, and fled toward the Holy Roman Empire.

In a pro-French village named Domrémy, the party received help from the villagers, allowing them to hide and rest temporarily. The princess gave birth to a baby girl there, whom Zhu Yunwen named Zhu Youzhen.

Several months later, the front lines gradually stabilized, and Zhu Yunwen prepared to travel south to Orléans to reunite with the scattered members of the royal family. Qi Tai dissuaded him, believing that if he took the initiative to seek them out at this time, he would instead be made a scapegoat by the royal family and might even meet the same fate as Chao Cuo.

Zhu Yunwen hesitated somewhat. After discussing among themselves, the group decided to split up. Zhu Yunwen temporarily bestowed upon Zhu Youzhen the title of Princess Jeanne, appointed Qi Tai as Junior Tutor to stay behind and take care of the child, and dispatched Huang Zicheng as an envoy holding credentials to make a detour through the Holy Roman Empire and travel to Dadu to seek support. The princess accompanied Zhu Yunwen southward.

Afterward, Zhu Yunwen and the princess borrowed a donkey cart from a villagers and made a royal progress toward Orléans.

Not long after arriving in Orléans, just as Qi Tai had anticipated, Zhu Yunwen fell out with several key nobles of the royal family. The Duke of Orléans accused Zhu Yunwen of being the mastermind and had him imprisoned.

However, the Duke of Burgundy did not take Zhu Yunwen seriously at all, nor was he satisfied with his current gains, and he refused to make concessions to the royal family for Zhu Yunwen's sake. Shortly thereafter, assassins sent by the Burgundians murdered the Duke of Orléans, plunging the court into complete chaos.

Taking advantage of the situation, Zhu Yunwen persuaded the prison guards, promising them that once he made a comeback, they would all become high-ranking officials. The guards had never encountered this kind of enticement before and were completely dazed by his boasting. Seeing that there was currently no one in charge above them, the jailer quietly set him free.

As the father-in-law of the Duke of Orléans, the Count of Armagnac was pushed forward to restore order. After running around in a flurry and appeasing everyone, he suddenly discovered that Zhu Yunwen had run off God knows when.

Calculating the time, the Count suspected that Zhu Yunwen was connected to the assassination and the subsequent series of chaotic events, and hurriedly dispatched men to search for him everywhere. However, Zhu Yunwen had long since vanished without a trace. The pursuers even discovered a poem he had left on the wall of an inn in a small town outside the city, mocking the French nobility for their stupidity, arrogance, and contempt for their sovereign, while declaring that he would certainly return to teach them a lesson.

The court nobility fell into division. Some were furious to the core and insisted on capturing Zhu Yunwen no matter what. Others could not tell whether his words were mere bluff or reality, believing that they already had too many enemies and that holding him accountable was completely useless, and that that fool in Orléans had only offended him to shirk responsibility.

The Count of Armagnac had no choice but to pressure the princess, demanding that she declare Zhu Yunwen a false cleric, have the Church annul their marriage, and attempting to extract from her the whereabouts of the child.

The princess agreed to suspend the marriage, but stubbornly insisted that she herself had no idea where the child was. Since Zhu Yunwen was an extremely vigilant man, and everyone had witnessed how capable he was at running away, he must have transferred the child elsewhere long ago.

Taking advantage of their hesitation, the princess secretly sent a trusted servant to the village of Domrémy, telling Qi Tai to take the child and run immediately. To prevent him from ignoring her warning, she also had the servant bring the imperial seal that Zhu Yunwen had left behind in his hurried flight, ordering him to relocate immediately upon seeing it.

Yet the royal family and the nobility were not fools; every move she made had long been monitored. This child also possessed a right of succession and would provide other factions with a pretext for intervention. Therefore, the Count of Armagnac and the Queen had already agreed that, come what may, they must first gain control of the child to avoid further complications.

The destination was on the border of the Holy Roman Empire, and they still had to pass through several regions controlled by Burgundy, making it impossible to dispatch the royal army for a direct capture. Thus, the Count sent a squad of mercenaries disguised as bandits to seize the person.

Naturally, at a time like this, mercenaries and bandits were practically indistinguishable, so as long as they did not carry royal banners, outsiders would not be able to tell the difference. The mercenaries tracked the servant and found that he was indeed heading toward that village, trailing him all the way.

Upon approaching the village of Domrémy, the mercenaries concluded that the target's situation was beyond doubt and prepared to spring into action. They deployed their formation and advanced along the road toward the village.

Beside the village was a small stream, and the mercenaries prepared to cross it to enter the village and seize the target. Thinking of the extra wealth they could pillage along the way, everyone was extremely excited. However, at the head of the small bridge crossing the river, a cloaked figure stood abruptly.

In the middle of nowhere, in the dead of night, it was obvious that no ordinary person would be standing here alone for no reason. The mercenary captain grew vigilant and shouted to demand who she was and what she was doing there. At the same time, he gestured for a few trusted veterans to scout the surrounding area for any ambushes.

The person removed her hood, revealing a crop of short golden hair; she turned out to be a woman. She stated that her name was Jeanne, and she was a disciple of the ancient Egyptian Tomb Sect. While on her way home to visit her relatives from the south, she happened to pass by through here. A Seric merchant from the "Gold-E-Wei" firm had told her that someone intended to plot against an innocent child here, and had thus entrusted her with acting chivalrously to drive away these bandits.

The mercenary captain asked the group if anyone had ever heard of this commercial firm, and everyone shook their heads, saying they had no impression of it whatsoever. The largest oriental firm in Massilia was the "Yixiangrong," which enjoyed official backing from the Purple Tent Khanate. They ran a currency exchange business, so most mercenaries were doing well if they even knew about that one.

Meanwhile, the subordinates who had returned one after another reported seeing no one else around.

The captain reasoned that this so-called "Gold-E-Wei" had never been seen before. To run into such an unfamiliar place and yet hire only a single woman meant they must be completely clueless small-fry characters. When encountering such a fat sheep, it would be a waste not to fleece it. Besides, this young woman looked rather attractive, so they might as well capture her together and share her among the brothers.

The captain then shouted for everyone to work hard, promising that the lord would offer a generous reward, and took the lead in charging forward.