Su Yan withdrew his hand from Zhu Helin’s grasp and said, “I am currently suspended from office, so I won’t be going to the Meridian Gate. I respectfully bid Your Majesty farewell.”
Understanding that Su Yan had no wish to face Xie Shiyan, Jiang Chunnian, and the others at a time like this, Zhu Helin nodded. “Then stay home and get some proper rest. If anything happens, I’ll send someone to inform you.”
After the imperial procession departed, Su Yan immediately helped the kneeling Shen Qi to his feet. “Qilang… were you really not injured?”
Shen Qi’s expression remained completely blank. “You believe what I just said?”
“Of course I do. If you hadn’t encountered a truly formidable opponent, how could Su Xiaojing possibly have escaped from beneath your blade? I know you’re disappointed as well but don’t dwell on it too much. There will be other opportunities.”
“But the Emperor doesn’t believe me.”
Su Yan tried to mediate. “His Majesty is still young. When dealing with affairs, emotion and personal likes or dislikes sometimes influence his judgment…”
Shen Qi replied, “The late Emperor wasn’t young. He wasn’t ruled by emotion. He didn’t trust me either.”
Su Yan choked on his words. After muttering, “Don’t call him ‘the late Emperor,'” he tried once more to explain. “It was simply because the two of you never got along. Actually… although the late Emperor often kept you in check, he still valued and relied on you quite a bit…”
A faint, mocking smile tugged at the corner of Shen Qi’s lips.
Su Yan was helpless yet pained: “Even if they don’t believe, even if everyone in the world doesn’t believe, there is still me, I believe in Qilang.”
Shen Qi suddenly reached out and pulled him tightly into his arms.
Su Yan patted Shen Qi’s back: “Alright, stop being angry with Little Zhu. You’ve known him for years, don’t you know his temper? Once things pass, it’ll be fine.” He thought for a moment, then changed the subject, “Although I’m not going to the Meridian Gate, I still want to know what happened. Go take a look for me. And while you’re at it, bring back some Heshang wine from the East Market. Tonight we’ll have a gathering meal, even if we get drunk, it doesn’t matter. Anyway, starting tomorrow I won’t have to get up early to attend court anymore.”
“Alright. Stay home and rest well.” Shen Qi kissed his forehead, let go, and turned to leave.
Just as he stepped out of the room, a thread of sound transmission entered his ear: “I don’t believe you either.”
It was Jinghong Zhui’s voice. Shen Qi’s steps paused slightly, but he did not turn back and continued walking away.
The back of his dark blue flying-fish uniform disappeared into the courtyard. Su Yan held onto the edge of the table and sat down, his face a little pale, murmuring, “Ah Zhui, my mind is in chaos right now…”
Jinghong Zhui placed his palm against Su Yan’s back, slowly channeling inner energy to help regulate the turbulent qi and blood within him, and asked in a low voice, “What is my lord thinking about?”
“…I cannot think about it, nor do I wish to.” Su Yan suddenly picked up the half cup of calming tea on the table that had long gone cold and drank it in one gulp, letting out a long breath. “I believe him.”
***
Zhu Helin, accompanied by imperial guards, hurried to outside the Meridian Gate.
Officials gathered in clusters in the square and the imperial city guards, seeing the emperor arrive, quickly knelt to pay their respects, shouting, “May Your Majesty be safe and well.”
Zhu Helin waved his sleeve to let them rise and personally walked into the center to look.
The courier horse lay to one side, lifeless, its mouth and nose full of white foam, it had clearly been overdriven and died from exhaustion. The courier soldier sat on the ground, being supported as he was fed ginseng broth. A medical officer was removing silver needles from his head and face; upon seeing the emperor arrive in person, he quickly put away the needles and bowed.
Zhu Helin asked, “Has he been saved?”
The medical officer replied, “Reporting to Your Majesty, he has been saved. He can speak now.”
The courier soldier recovered somewhat from his exhaustion and hurriedly kowtowed. Zhu Helin said, “No need for formalities. Speak directly.”
“This, this lowly one… by order of Grand Secretary Yu, delivered an important courier report from Daming Prefecture to the capital, to be presented to the court… a six-hundred-li urgent dispatch, traveling day and night without daring to delay a single moment…” As he spoke, the soldier untied the pack on his body, took out a sealed square box and placed it on the ground, then pulled out a wax-sealed tube and presented it with both hands, head lowered. “This is a memorial personally written by Grand Secretary Yu. Please, Your Majesty, review it.”
Zhu Helin sat on a low stool brought by an attendant, opened the tube, took out the memorial and read it carefully. After a moment, a glow of delighted excitement lit up his brows and eyes.
“The box, quick, open it!”
The imperial guard accepted the order and immediately stepped forward to open the box. A foul, fishy stench instantly drifted out.
Zhu Helin instructed, “Lift it up. Let me see clearly.”
The guard captain Wei Liangzi grabbed a topknot and lifted it; it was a human head preserved in lime. The head had disheveled hair, eyes tightly shut, a red lump the size of a soybean at the brow, twisted facial muscles, and a neck cleanly severed by a sharp blade, making it look extremely ferocious.
Zhu Helin tilted his head and examined it closely, then burst out laughing: “Summon all officials, court assembly at Fengtian Hall!”
The court officials, upon receiving the order, hurried out of their offices and rushed to Fengtian Hall. In less than half an hour they had all gathered. Seeing that the emperor was already seated on the dragon throne, even though they were full of doubts, they did not dare ask what had happened or why there were two court sessions in one day.
After kneeling and paying respects, they heard the emperor speak directly from the throne, his voice clear and bright: “I have just received a human head. Guess whose it is?”
The officials were startled, exchanging looks and whispering among themselves.
“Sending a human head to the emperor?”
“The Ministry of Justice, or the Northern Surveillance Bureau…”
“I heard another courier report just arrived at the capital…”
“From Daming Prefecture? Could it be… Qi Jingtang’s head? Did Grand Secretary Yu capture him and execute him under military law?”
Shen Qi stood in a corner of Fengtian Hall, watching the murmuring officials coldly, saying nothing.
Zhu Helin stood up and suddenly threw the head from the box down the jade steps. The head, carrying the stench of blood and lime powder, rolled across the dark bluish floor of golden bricks. Whenever it reached a minister’s feet, that person would cry out in alarm and retreat backward.
The head rolled, struck a golden pillar, and came to a stop. Its eyelids were rubbed open by the ground, and a pair of cloudy eyeballs tilted upward, staring at the assembled court as if filled with resentment at the moment of death. The officials recoiled in fear, leaving a wide empty circle around it.
Zhu Helin swept his gaze across the officials and declared loudly: “This is Madman Liao’s head!”
Madman Liao… The hall fell into a brief silence, then erupted! The rebel leader who had commanded tens of thousands of bandits, roamed across Henan, Shanxi, Shandong, and the Northern Zhili regions for five or six years, killing officials, seizing grain, looting weapons, and had repeatedly escaped alive even after the court sent troops to suppress him multiple times, Madman Liao?!
“A grave threat to the court eliminated overnight, Grand Secretary Yu has rendered a great service!” a Ministry of War official couldn’t help but exclaim.
“Indeed, worthy of a famed general, able to bring peace through civil governance and quell chaos through military force.”
“With this head fallen, the turmoil in the Central Plains is at least more than half pacified.”
“…”
Xie Shiyan and Jiang Chunnian exchanged a glance; neither looked pleased, though both remained calm. After this campaign, Yu Chezhi’s merit had greatly increased, but compared to other state affairs, he was more adept at military matters and did not often vie for prominence in cabinet discussions. More importantly, Yu Chezhi was already nearing fifty, and the old injuries from his campaigns were beginning to flare up. How many more years could he continue?
Thus, at present, their most significant and dangerous political opponent was Su Yan, only twenty years old, with outstanding achievements and deeply favored by the emperor.
When the excited discussions among the officials gradually subsided, Zhu Helin suddenly let out a “heh” of laughter and said, “What? Before the military report has even been announced, you have already decided this is Grand Secretary Yu’s merit?”
…If not Yu Chezhi, then who else could it be? The officials were full of confusion.
Zhu Helin nodded toward Fubao: “Read it!”
Fubao unfolded the memorial submitted by Yu Chezhi and began to read it aloud in a sonorous, well-modulated voice.
As the officials listened, many of their expressions changed drastically, some flushed red, some turned deathly pale, and others looked like a kaleidoscope.
In Yu Chezhi’s memorial, the entire course of events was explained clearly,
It turned out that when Qi Jingtang suggested to Yu Chezhi to “capture the bandits by first capturing their leader,” he knew that Madman Liao was best at guerrilla warfare and hiding in multiple lairs, which was why the court’s several campaigns had failed to eradicate him completely. Thus, he conceived a plan.
To numb the enemy’s spies, he deliberately disobeyed military orders and had a fierce quarrel with Yu Chezhi, then led twenty thousand troops of the left army on an unauthorized raid deep into enemy territory. The subsequent clashes with the rebel forces were also feigned defeats and retreats, luring the enemy into pursuit.
Because Qi Jingtang was sharp to the point of near cunning and skilled at strategizing, he used himself as bait to gradually lower Madman Liao’s guard. Madman Liao personally led troops in pursuit of the “defeated army” and ultimately fell into the trap, having his head cut off in a nighttime raid on his camp by Qi Jingtang.
Qi Jingtang returned with the head and the remaining troops, knowing he could not escape punishment under military law, so he voluntarily imitated Lian Po carrying thorns to plead guilty, he stripped naked and knelt before Yu Chezhi’s tent to receive punishment.
Yu Chezhi was angry that he had acted on his own authority, yet admired his military talent, so he imposed a lenient punishment, only giving him a solid one hundred strokes of the military rod as a warning to others.
The previous three military reports had been written when Yu Chezhi truly believed he had lost contact with him and that he had perished. Once the truth became clear, he immediately wrote a fourth memorial and urgently sent it to the capital.
Although Qi Jingtang was beaten and lay prone in bed for seven or eight days, unable to move, upon learning that Yu Chezhi had not seized the credit as his former superior once had but instead reported truthfully to the court, he greatly admired his character. The two now got along like “high mountains and flowing water,” becoming close friends despite the age difference.
“It was Qi Jingtang… the one who beheaded the enemy leader amidst tens of thousands of troops, so the great merit actually belongs to that obscure young man from Dengzhou…”
“On the battlefield, both sides compete for advantage and often use tactics to lure the enemy. But to guide the situation so that the enemy cannot distinguish true gain from false, nor foresee the danger within the apparent advantage, drawing them into a deadly trap like moths to a flame, that requires profound skill. Qi Jingtang’s tactic of luring with bait was masterfully executed!”
“This young man is only in his early twenties, yet his use of troops is so seasoned, truly formidable.”
“Th-this… who could have imagined it!”
“Who could have imagined it? Of course Su Gelao did! Otherwise, why would he have insisted on promoting him back then? This is what you call discerning talent with keen insight!”
“Lord Lin, weren’t you the one who previously said, ‘Su Twelve misjudged people, leading to this great defeat, and should be held responsible’?”
“Not me! I didn’t! Don’t talk nonsense!”
“I didn’t say it either… who said it? Anyway, it wasn’t me.”
Some signaled with their eyes for them to look at the two Grand Secretaries. They saw that Xie Shiyan and Jiang Chunnian’s faces were pale tinged with green, and green tinged with purple, embarrassment and frustration beyond measure.
The dozen or so officials who had previously impeached Su Yan aggressively in court, forced into a wager by his vow “If defeated, I resign; if victorious, you resign,” backed by the emperor’s decree, were now all ashen-faced.
Zhu Helin looked at their expressions and felt more satisfied than if he himself had won. With a mocking smile, he pressed them: “If I remember correctly, shouldn’t you few be resigning out of guilt for your baseless attacks on a cabinet minister and for disrupting the court?”
One thick-skinned official tried to salvage the situation: “It was this subject who was blind and failed to recognize Su Gelao’s brilliance, I am deeply ashamed! We can also follow Commander Qi’s example and carry thorns to plead guilty, ”
Zhu Helin’s face changed faster than flipping a page; he immediately slammed the table in anger: “Follow your *ss! After barking and biting wildly, you still want to strip and go lie at Qinghe’s door? Get the he*ll out!”
When the Son of Heaven commands them to get out, they must obey. The Embroidered Uniform Guards immediately stepped forward, removed the black gauze hats from those dozen officials, rolled them on the ground, and then dragged them out of Fengtian Hall.
The onlooking officials, some felt vindicated, some were as silent as cicadas in winter, and some secretly felt fortunate.
In his heart, Xie Shiyan let out a heavy, despairing sigh, knowing that from this day forward, finding allies among the court officials willing to impeach Su Yan would be harder than ascending to the heavens.
Zhu Helin, somewhat addicted to the spectacle, turned his gaze to Xie Shiyan and Jiang Chunnian: “Two Grand Secretaries, I have a task that will trouble you.”
Xie Shiyan and Jiang Chunnian sensed something was wrong, but had no choice except to bow: “We dare not call it trouble. Please give your instructions, Your Majesty; we will do our utmost to complete it.”
“It’s like this,” Zhu Helin glanced sideways at them with a half-smile, “Left Shilang of the Ministry of Personnel and Grand Scholar of Wenhua Hall, Su Qinghe, has suffered groundless accusations and impeachment, bearing injustice and grievance, and is still suspended at home. I will trouble Grand Secretaries Xie and Jiang to make three visits to his humble abode, with utmost sincerity, and invite my beloved minister Su back to court, how about it?”
Three visits to the thatched cottage… utmost sincerity…
Once the emperor said this, wasn’t he plainly telling Su Twelve: go all out! Stir things up as much as you like! Put those two through the wringer until you’re satisfied, then return to court!
Xie Shiyan and Jiang Chunnian were so angry they nearly vomited blood, but what could they do now? The imperial command had to be obeyed, the task had to be accepted. To keep the hats on their heads, they had no choice but to cast aside their dignity…
Shen Qi curled his lips in mockery and quietly withdrew from Fengtian Hall.
