Prince Gong refused to see Vice General Chen, whom Han Zhengqing had sent. No matter how much persuading and cajoling went on, Prince Gong simply would not relent. The Chief Clerk’s lips were practically raw from talking, yet Prince Gong still wouldn’t budge—somehow, he had suddenly developed an aversion to Han Zhengqing to this extreme degree.
But actually, it wasn’t so sudden that he had grown to detest Han Zhengqing to this extent. Everything has its causes—nothing accumulates and explodes in an instant. Prince Gong had been putting up with Han Zhengqing for a very long time.
In truth, ever since Han Yang’s betrayal of him, he had found Han Zhengqing peculiar and suspicious. Otherwise, where was the logic—the father wants to rebel, yet the son helps the court fight against those rebelling?!
Although he didn’t know why Han Yang had stirred things up prematurely, there was one thing he was certain of: Han Zhengqing definitely harbored no good intentions either. This point could be clearly seen from Prince Dongping’s reply letter to Han Zhengqing.
Thinking of Prince Dongping’s reply letter, Prince Gong still couldn’t help but shudder.
All his life, he had most despised parents who played favorites. If you’re going to have children, if you have the ability to have so many, then you should also have the ability to treat them all equally! Why lift one to the heavens while trampling another into the mud?!
Moreover, Han Zhengqing wasn’t just trampling one into the mud—this man was simply deranged! He cared nothing for his legitimate son or legitimate wife, single-mindedly wanting only an illegitimate son. This was simply the biggest joke in the world!
The Chief Clerk, hearing him curse endlessly, waited for a rare pause in his tirade before sighing and approaching to persuade again: “Your Highness, regardless of everything, why do you care about his motives? Isn’t he still helping us fight Cui Shaoting right now? At the very least, wait until he’s taken down Suzhou and eliminated all these future troubles like Cui Shaoting and the others before you turn against him!”
He truly couldn’t understand—so what if Han Zhengqing really was planning to use Prince Gong’s position for himself? At least right now, Han Zhengqing still absolutely had to rely on Prince Gong to maintain his foothold! If someone else tried to rebel without the title of being the Emperor’s son, appearing out of nowhere for no reason, who would take him seriously? And he still wanted to convince Yezhā? Simply laughable.
Since Han Zhengqing still had to curry favor with Prince Gong and depend on him, Prince Gong wouldn’t lose out no matter what. First, use Han Zhengqing to take down Cui Shaoting, completely lure the Tatars into Tongzhou, let the Tatars confront the court’s forces, then become the mantis stalking the cicada while being the oriole behind—just kick Han Zhengqing aside with one stroke, directly establish contact with Yezhā, and negotiate terms with Yezhā directly. Wouldn’t that be perfect?
This wouldn’t hurt or itch—wouldn’t it be best for everyone not to tear off their false faces first?
But Prince Gong didn’t think so. He huffed angrily, so furious that even his beard was practically trembling. He strode forward several steps, snatched up Han Zhi’s letter, and threw it in the Chief Clerk’s face: “Look! Look at what this bastard promised Dongping, look at what he said to Dongping?! He told Dongping that as long as he was willing, they would kill me later and give him that position to sit in!” The more he spoke, the angrier he became, until finally he was even spitting: “This bastard! Who does he think he is?! This prince wants him to die without a burial place!”
The Chief Clerk discovered that nothing he said was of any use. He had spoken earnestly for so long, explained so much reasoning to Prince Gong, yet Prince Gong apparently couldn’t hear a single word of it. In fact, it seemed that from long ago, Prince Gong had stopped listening to what people said, becoming increasingly paranoid. Whatever he said was law; whatever others said, he treated it all as mere farts.
Since he couldn’t get a word in edgewise, he didn’t know why but thought of Former Chief Clerk Ling, who had followed him for so long and even lost an arm for him—yet could be killed at any moment. What was he himself worth then? Thinking this, his heart grew somewhat cold and disheartened. He stopped trying to persuade. If he kept persuading, the Prince would probably consider him an accomplice of Han Zhengqing and Han Yang too, and want to kill him as well. He still wanted to keep his life.
He just no longer wanted to help Prince Gong with affairs. Helping him meant carrying one’s head under one’s arm. This kind of person didn’t think about the bigger picture, didn’t consider the overall situation—whatever whim struck him was what he did, never understanding the principle of knowing when to bend and when to extend.
He sighed, bowed to Prince Gong, and tentatively said he would withdraw. Prince Gong waved his hand dismissively without hesitation, telling him to go, and finally instructed him to have Han Zhi come in.
As he left, he happened to encounter Han Zhi ascending the steps—dressed in blue-green robes, handsome in appearance yet inexplicably emanating a gloomy, sinister air. He shifted his gaze away and passed him by as if nothing had happened.
After turning past the covered corridor and exiting through the moon gate, he saw Zou Yanzheng entering with an armful of letters, shaking his head at him.
Zou Yanzheng raised his eyebrows: “They’re still waiting for a reply outside. Is His Highness going to see them or not?”
“Not seeing them.” The Chief Clerk, full of anger and gloom, waved his hand dismissively: “Don’t go asking for trouble. Better to go tell Vice General Chen now to leave quickly. Any later, and he probably won’t be able to leave even if he wants to.”
“What are you talking about?” Zou Yanzheng thought he was joking and couldn’t help but laugh: “Won’t be able to leave? Is it really that serious? I’ll go see His Highness.”
The Chief Clerk looked at his retreating figure, smiled self-deprecatingly, lowered his head, and simply went his own way.
He couldn’t control it anyway, so better not to try.
Zou Yanzheng hadn’t expected the Chief Clerk’s prediction to be so accurate. He had barely entered when he heard Prince Gong, exceptionally furious, ordering Han Zhi: “Still talking about messengers or not messengers—he still has the face to ask me why I withdrew troops?! Why shouldn’t I withdraw troops? I absolutely must withdraw troops. If I don’t withdraw, am I supposed to take my men and soldiers to make wedding clothes for him?! How beautifully he imagines it! This true scoundrel!”
Zou Yanzheng could barely hold onto the letters in his arms. Glancing at Han Zhi, he felt cold sweat streaming down. Han Zhengqing was certainly a true scoundrel, but the one before his eyes had learned the true teachings of Han Zhengqing—and the student had surpassed the master! The person before him was the real hypocrite, a scoundrel among scoundrels.
He opened his mouth but couldn’t utter a single word.
He had experienced quite enough of the capabilities of the Han father and son. Neither of these two was an easy lamp to deal with. Now Han Zhi clearly wanted to destroy the relationship between Prince Gong and Han Zhengqing, and with his silver tongue, he could talk the dead back to life.
What’s more, he was originally Han Zhengqing’s son. On the surface, he was someone who had long since died. Whatever he said carried more credibility than Han Zhengqing—who told Han Yang, that fellow, to betray Prince Gong by eating from the inside while climbing out, already planting a seed of suspicion about Han Zhengqing in Prince Gong’s heart? Now this seed of suspicion, watered by Han Zhi, had gradually grown into a towering tree, spiraling out of control—the situation could no longer be salvaged.
Prince Gong snorted coldly. Without even glancing at Zou Yanzheng who had entered, he immediately ordered: “Go! Behead that swaggering Vice General Chen for me! Han Zhengqing wants to know why, doesn’t he? This prince will let him know why!”