Second Miss Lu wailed and made a scene, and Li Yiren was completely helpless. She couldn’t bear to send her daughter and grandson to the suburban estate for quiet rest, so she had Fifth Miss go to the Xu family to tell Third Sister not to return to her maternal home recently, lest the two sisters meet and Second Miss Lu cry and beg like this again, putting Third Miss in a difficult position.
This pain of being caught between two sides and torn in different directions—she as a mother would bear it alone.
Upon hearing this, Third Miss Lu could only sigh. Her father-in-law’s promotion to cabinet grand secretary made the whole family happy, but she alone couldn’t rejoice, yet she couldn’t show it on her face—she was, after all, an Xu family woman.
Especially since, according to her husband’s meaning, her father-in-law had so quickly grasped evidence of Yan Shifan’s collaboration with Japanese pirates because Fourth Sister Lu Ying had “extraordinary merit.” If Second Sister knew, who knows how she would cause trouble, saying the two sisters had joined forces to bully her.
“I understand,” Third Miss Lu said. “Fifth Sister, go back and remind Mother not to let anyone gossip in front of Second Sister, sowing discord between us sisters.”
No matter what, her sisters were family.
Speaking of the Yan residence, this family that once had visitors streaming through its gates now had a desolate entrance with few carriages. When Yan Shaoting returned home, Yan Shifan urgently asked, “What did Li Yiren say?”
Yan Shaoting replied: “The Lu family gates will always be open for me.”
Another hope shattered. Yan Shifan flew into a rage, the fat on his face trembling. “That timid, ignorant woman! If Loyalty Earl (Lu Bing) were still alive, he definitely wouldn’t say such words!”
With his father cursing his mother-in-law, Yan Shaoting dared not speak. Instead, Yan Song, who had just stepped down from the position of cabinet grand secretary, stopped his son from speaking ill of their in-laws. “At this point, don’t turn in-laws into enemies. Being able to protect Shaoting is already quite good. Don’t make things difficult for the children.”
Yan Shifan said: “Father, is there really no solution? What collaboration with Japanese pirates—does our Yan family need to collaborate with Japanese pirates? Those pirates aren’t even worthy of carrying my shoes! This is clearly Xu Jie’s frame-up. Luo Longwen has disappeared, and my five thousand taels of gold mysteriously appeared in Xinghua City. Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou, who captured Xinghua City, are both Xu Jie’s people—how could it be such a coincidence?”
Yan Song asked: “If you say it’s not, then it’s not? If the emperor thinks it is, then not is also is. If the emperor says it’s not, then is is also not. You and I, father and son, have lost the imperial favor—everything we do is wrong.”
Usually it was only Yan Shifan who framed others; now it was his turn to become the victim. How could Yan Shifan be reconciled?
Yan Shifan said: “As long as I prove I was framed, the charge of collaborating with Japanese pirates will collapse on its own.”
“I see you’re usually clever, but now you’re confused as an involved party,” said Yan Song. Though over eighty, his mind remained clear. “Your correspondence with the pirates and the five thousand taels of gold were all presented by Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou. Qi Jiguang has merit in pacifying pirates this time—the emperor made him Fujian Regional Commander. Yu Dayou crushed the Flying Dragon Kingdom, chasing the rebel Zhang Lian to islands in the South Seas, and was made Guangdong Regional Commander. Are you suggesting that the two great regional commanders of Daming’s southeastern coast conspired to frame you? Would the emperor punish two southeastern generals for your sake?”
Certainly not.
Yan Shifan was about to explode with anger like a toad. “Hu Zongxian was personally promoted by me. Without me these years, could he have sat securely in the position of supreme anti-pirate commander? Yet he shows no gratitude, giving opportunities to outsiders like Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou. When I’m in trouble, he doesn’t even fart—truly an ungrateful wretch who can’t be tamed.”
Yan Song said: “When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter—don’t blame others. Never mind Hu Zongxian; after your troubles began, has your own uncle Ouyang Bijin said a single good word for you? Even blood relatives act thus—what more can you expect from outsiders?”
Better not to mention it; mentioning it made Yan Shifan angrier. “Father shouldn’t have recommended Uncle for Minister of Personnel in the first place. After becoming minister, he specialized in opposing me. If I wanted to promote someone, he insisted on demoting them. If I disliked someone, he insisted on promoting them. When others gave me money to buy offices, he simply wouldn’t listen. My good reputation for taking money and getting things done was ruined by my own uncle. Those officials stopped trusting me—when walls fall, everyone pushes; when drums break, everyone beats them. Now that I’m in trouble, they certainly won’t speak for me.”
Yan Song finally showed displeasure. “Are you blaming me too?” Honestly, Yan Song also regretted it! One wrong step leads to more wrong steps—who knew his brother-in-law was so incorruptible?
Yan Shifan realized he’d misspoken. “No, I just blame Uncle for being unreasonable.”
Yan Song sighed: “That your uncle doesn’t add insult to injury shows utmost righteousness. Shut your mouth—don’t offend all our in-laws and relatives. For now, we can only retreat to advance.”
Yan Shifan refused: “Retreat? How to retreat? We’ve offended too many people before. One step back is a ten-thousand-foot abyss. So many people are waiting for our Yan family’s downfall to pounce and tear us to shreds.”
Yan Shifan could no longer remember how many evil deeds he’d done for money—enemies too numerous to count.
As for Yan Song, becoming cabinet grand secretary, he had climbed to that throne by stepping on countless corpses. Neither father nor son had clean hands.
Yan Song was also afraid, but he said: “We have no choice. Stay alive first—there may be opportunities to turn things around in the future.”
Yan Shifan was overjoyed at these words: “What opportunity?”
Yan Song said: “Prince Jing ascending the throne.”
Just this… Yan Shifan’s mood truly rose and fell dramatically. “Prince Jing is far away in Anlu, Hubei. After the failed assassination attempt on Prince Yu last time, the emperor became alert, gave Prince Jing’s residence to Prince Yu, and arranged two thousand guards for him. We can’t get close.”
Yan Song said: “As long as the emperor doesn’t establish an heir for one day, Prince Jing has opportunities. You must be patient—both princes still have no sons. If Prince Jing has a son, the emperor might summon him back.”
He continued: “Rest assured, from my years of understanding the emperor, he’s suspicious and never likes court politics to be one-sided. Xu Jie just became grand secretary, Qi Jiguang and Yu Dayou are his people controlling military power, and court ministers are inclined to attach themselves to him. The emperor will definitely use us to check Xu Jie—he won’t let us die.”
With his father saying so, though Yan Shifan was unwilling, he had no better solution than his father’s, so he stopped resisting and adopted an attitude of accepting fate.
This old fox Yan Song had become a spirit and bet correctly.
The father and son retreated to advance, not defending themselves, not crying injustice, appearing to let others slaughter them. Court ministers waved flags and shouted, pushing down the great wall that was the Yan family. Memorials denouncing the Yan father and son fell like snowflakes into Emperor Jiajing’s hands, requesting severe punishment of the Yan father and son.
However, the more fiercely the ministers cursed, the more Emperor Jiajing wondered if these ministers were all influenced by the new grand secretary Xu Jie, joining the Xu faction.
Daming could only have one autocracy—the emperor’s.
Now Xu Jie commanded responses from everyone, his influence too excessive, making Emperor Jiajing deeply wary. Therefore, despite solid evidence of collaboration with pirates, Emperor Jiajing delayed ordering how to deal with Yan Shifan.
Emperor Jiajing was conflicted. On one hand, Yan Shifan’s audacity had reached the point of using the White Lotus Sect and Black Demons as covers to assassinate Prince Yu—though milk brother Lu Bing hadn’t explicitly stated what connection existed between Yan Shifan’s sudden release of Prince Yu’s three years of unpaid stipend, the fire at Prince Jing’s White Deer Temple that killed all the Taoists, and Prince Yu’s encounter with “White Lotus Sect” assassins using fake Black Demons at the dilapidated Prince Yu residence, the suspicious Emperor Jiajing understood the implication.
Though Emperor Jiajing disliked Prince Yu, if ministers assisted Prince Jing in murdering Prince Yu, he absolutely wouldn’t stand by—I can torment my son at will, but if outsiders touch him, that’s disrespecting imperial dignity.
When an emperor suspects a minister, solid evidence isn’t needed—he just lacks a trigger. So when Xu Jie listed Yan Shifan’s three charges, it hit exactly on Emperor Jiajing’s heart, providing an opportunity to uproot the Yan father and son.
But on the other hand, Xu Jie’s influence was too strong—he’d become another Yan Song in the future, making Emperor Jiajing uncomfortable. If he killed the Yan father and son, court politics would become Xu Jie’s autocracy, sidelining the emperor.
When undecided, Emperor Jiajing, who practiced immortality and alchemy, liked using superstitious activities to help make decisions.
After Lan Daoxing’s pills killed milk brother Lu Bing and Lan was executed by lingchi, Emperor Jiajing no longer exclusively favored any single Taoist. The Western Garden now had Taoists like Lan Tianyu, Hu Dashun, and Luo Wanxiang on standby.
Emperor Jiajing had Taoists Lan Tianyu and Luo Wanxiang use the planchette method to ask the immortals how to handle this matter.
Planchette was a divination method—sand was piled in a dustpan with two sticks placed on top, a brush suspended below the sticks. Two Taoists, one left and one right, manipulated the sticks, and the brush drew symbols or wrote characters in the sand tray, providing heavenly guidance.
Emperor Jiajing bathed, changed clothes, and performed rituals, asking: “Since I ascended the throne, why has the realm never been peaceful? Pirates in the south, Mongols frequently invading borders in the north, White Lotus Sect rebellion within—not a moment of peace.”
Lan Tianyu and Luo Wanxiang manipulated the sticks, writing in the sand tray: “Treacherous ministers.”
These two knew the imperial mind well—it couldn’t be the emperor’s fault, so blame fell on ministers or women. But they dared not offend the favored Shang Zhaoyi, so they only wrote “treacherous ministers.”
Emperor Jiajing asked again: “Since the immortals believe treacherous ministers cause chaos, why don’t they send divine punishment to punish them?”
The two Taoists wrote: “The emperor is the Son of Heaven; the Son of Heaven eliminates treachery.”
Just then, Chief Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial Huang Jin brought the latest memorials for the emperor’s preview. Emperor Jiajing casually opened the top one—exactly Censor Zou Yinglong’s memorial impeaching Yan Song and Yan Shifan.
Emperor Jiajing felt this was divine guidance from the immortals, so he ordered the Yan family property confiscated and nationalized, commanding the Yan father and son to leave the capital immediately, banished to their ancestral home in Yuanzhou Prefecture, Jiangxi.
Huang Jin went to the Yan residence to deliver the confiscation edict. The Yan father and son were immediately stripped of silk clothes, wearing only rough prisoner garments, loaded onto prison carts, to be sent to Tongzhou port that very day, taking boats south via the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, then west along the Yangtze River to their Jiangxi hometown.
Yan Shaoting followed the prison cart all the way to Tongzhou port. As the Yan father and son boarded the boat, Yan Shifan said to his son: “Go seek refuge with your in-laws, be a good Lu family son-in-law, don’t worry about our affairs anymore. As long as you live well, your grandfather and I will have no worries. The ancestral graves back in Jiangxi still have ritual fields and houses not subject to confiscation—we’ll have shelter and food. Don’t worry about us.”
Just as he finished speaking, a large official boat docked, and a group of people disembarked laughing and chatting. The leader was actually Lu Ying, unseen for half a year.
Beside Lu Ying was a handsome young man wearing a gaudy pink robe currently popular in the capital, holding a feather fan in his left hand and an oil-paper umbrella for shade in his right, complaining about the weather: “The capital’s summer is stuffy and hot, and the sun is poisonous—it’s darkened my skin. Jiangnan is still better, especially Xinghua City, where it rained every day and was nice and cool.”
Author’s Note: I bet Yan Shifan really wants to stomp Wang Daxia’s dog head right now.