A’Liu was extremely alarmed, his heels trembling along with his fear. He wanted to say something, but before he could open his mouth, his tongue had already started quivering.
An’ran hurried over from the front courtyard: “Why has My Lord returned to the residence at this hour?”
“I left a rare manuscript in the study,” Liu Chaoming’s expression remained unchanged.
An’ran glanced at A’Liu: “Why aren’t you going to retrieve it for My Lord?”
A’Liu hastily nodded and turned to push the door open.
Su Jin was sitting facing the door. When it opened, she looked up, and through the sparse wisps of smoke from the charcoal brazier, her gaze met Liu Chaoming’s.
She didn’t immediately look away, but gazed at him with extraordinary calmness for a moment before standing up and walking toward the inner room.
When A’Liu came out from the study, he paused briefly before locking it.
Liu Chaoming accepted the rare manuscript but didn’t leave immediately. Instead, he turned toward the study in the eastern courtyard.
An’ran followed behind and asked: “Is My Lord not returning to the palace?”
“Not today,” Liu Chaoming said.
A’Liu lagged half a step behind the two of them. Seeing Liu Chaoming’s calm expression, he surmised that having just returned to the residence, he probably hadn’t heard what Master Su had said to him. Just as he was breathing a sigh of relief, Liu Chaoming suddenly stopped: “A’Liu.”
He handed him the rare manuscript: “Take it to the courier station and have someone deliver it to the Liu residence in Hangzhou.”
A’Liu was stunned, only then remembering that over a month ago, when Marquis Wenyuan was going to the Hangzhou Liu residence, he seemed to have asked Liu Chaoming for this book.
Holding the rare manuscript in his hands, he couldn’t help but glance in the direction of the study.
He had already promised Master Su that today he would relay a message to Tan Zhaolin.
Going to the courier station would take him right past the Su residence, and since My Lord had ordered him to go, it wouldn’t arouse suspicion. Third Brother had said that promises made should be kept—this was the perfect opportunity.
He hurried to the residence gate. Without asking Guard Li to help drive the carriage, he personally untied the reins from the wooden post and drove the cart toward the Su residence.
However, A’Liu didn’t notice that the moment the cart’s wheels turned at the end of the alley, several figures suddenly appeared outside the residence gate—none other than Yan Xiu, the Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Imperial Censorate, Wei Jiang, the Assistant Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and several members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.
Liu Chaoming stepped out of the residence gate, glanced in the direction A’Liu had departed, his face cold as ice.
An’ran’s face turned deathly pale. He immediately knelt on the ground and pleaded: “My Lord, A’Liu is simple-natured and cannot distinguish between important and trivial matters in his actions. Please do not blame him, My Lord. It is An’ran who failed to teach his younger brother properly. I am willing to accept punishment in his stead.”
Liu Chaoming didn’t respond to this but instead said to Yan Xiu: “Go to the Office of Transmission and have Zhou Ping follow Tan Zhaolin to the Northwest together. Also send someone to follow the Tan woman—she must know Su Wan’s whereabouts.”
“Yes.” Yan Xiu accepted the order and immediately rode off.
Liu Chaoming then said to Wei Jiang: “Return to the palace and have Qian Yueqian pull Zhu Yiheng out of the Ministry of Justice prison. Tell him it’s time to send a letter to the Muyan Three Guards of Dadan.”
The Muyan Three Guards (note) were a military force from the northern grasslands of Dadan, numbering one hundred eighty thousand men. Originally under the Dadan dynasty, after the establishment of Northern Liang, the Dadan dynasty collapsed and scattered into various tribes. This military force dispersed—some scattered, some left, and the remainder became mercenaries who worked for silver.
In the early days of the Great Sui’s establishment, the Muyan Three Guards would occasionally cause trouble at the borders. In recent years, they had been much more compliant. Even though conflicts frequently occurred at the borders of the Northwest and Beiping, the intermediate regions like Qiongzhou and Qingzhou remained relatively peaceful.
This tranquility lasted only until the third year of Jin’an.
By the eleventh month, an urgent dispatch arrived from Qiongzhou—the Muyan Three Guards were assembling and organizing their troops in central Dadan. General Wuerdi was leading one hundred fifty thousand men southward, encamped outside the border with clear intent to invade Qiongzhou and Qingzhou.
When the urgent dispatch arrived, the court and officials were shaken. Even Duke Gong Quan, who had been ill for a long time, forced himself to attend the court deliberation. For a time, some advocated war while others believed they should first send envoys. But sending envoys was not about seeking peace—since the Great Sui established its dynasty, though internal troubles had been constant, it had always maintained an iron backbone toward external threats, defending every inch of territory. It was just that the Muyan Three Guards’ sudden military mobilization made many ministers believe there must be a reason, and they should first clarify the situation rather than blindly go to war.
The ministers quickly reached consensus and immediately sent a letter to Emperor Jin’an, who was traveling through Qingzhou, requesting instructions on the envoy selection.
Zhu Nanxian was in Qingzhou and actually received the military dispatch earlier than the capital.
Though he also planned to send envoys, with foreign enemies assembling troops at the border, he had to strengthen the defenses in Qiongzhou and Qingzhou.
Of the six hundred thousand new troops from the Northwest, he had left three hundred thousand in the Northwest, distributed another one hundred fifty thousand to various regional military commands within the territory, and the remaining one hundred fifty thousand followed him. He had originally planned to disperse another one hundred thousand and return to the Northern Camp with fifty thousand men, but now—
Zhu Nanxian examined the territorial sand table carefully and pointed to one location: “We can order the one hundred thousand soldiers originally meant to disperse to various border defenses to temporarily station here. After the envoy clarifies the reason for the Muyan Three Guards’ military assembly, we can make other plans.”
Also present with him in the military tent were Zuo Qian and Mao Zuofeng. After thinking it over carefully, Zuo Qian asked: “What about the fifty thousand soldiers Your Majesty planned to send to Lingnan for garrison duty?”
“They still go to Lingnan,” Zhu Nanxian said. “We will only bring five thousand men back to the capital—traveling light and fast.”
At that moment, a guard outside the tent said: “Your Majesty, a soldier surnamed Tan has come outside the camp requesting an audience.”
Zhu Nanxian was contemplating the defensive formations at the Qiongzhou border. Upon hearing this, his brow furrowed.
Mao Zuofeng, waving his sole remaining arm, said loudly: “Don’t see him, don’t see him. We already gave notice—how can just anyone come to see His Majesty?”
From the Northwest all the way to Qingzhou, officials along the route had been extremely hospitable. But when the Emperor lodged in various prefectures, the ceremonial protocols were numerous. Zhu Nanxian found it troublesome, and the officials below were anxious. Eventually, Zhu Nanxian simply couldn’t be bothered to enter the cities. Wherever he arrived, he would choose a place to set up camp. Even so, he couldn’t avoid officials from various prefectures coming to have an imperial audience. One couldn’t blame them—this was protocol. Not coming would be great disrespect.
Zhu Nanxian mentally calculated the troop deployments again, feeling satisfied with the arrangements. Now he just needed to select an envoy to go to Dadan.
At the thought of an envoy, he thought of A’Yu.
She had returned to the capital at the end of June—it had been over four months now.
There were many matters in the capital, and Qingyue had gone to Wuchang Prefecture. Given her decisive and efficient temperament, she would certainly want to resolve immediately whatever was at hand before feeling at ease. He wondered if she was still as busy these days as before.
As his thoughts turned to this, his heart suddenly stirred. What was the name of the soldier who had just come requesting an audience?
Surnamed Tan?
A trace of inexplicable emotion flashed through Zhu Nanxian’s eyes. He turned and strode out of the tent, asking the guard outside: “Where is the soldier who wanted to see Us?”
The guard was stunned. If His Majesty wouldn’t see him, naturally he had been sent away.
But he couldn’t say this, or he would anger the dragon’s countenance. He bowed to Zhu Nanxian, turned, and went to find the person. Fortunately, Tan Zhaolin had stubbornly lingered outside the camp, and before long, he returned with him.
Upon seeing Zhu Nanxian, Tan Zhaolin’s eyes immediately reddened. He fell to his knees and said through gritted teeth: “Your Majesty, I beg you, please save my Lord!”
In broad daylight, amid a hundred miles of military camps, Zhu Nanxian didn’t immediately react to these words. He looked Tan Zhaolin over twice and saw that his face was covered in stubble, his eyes ringed with dark circles, his clothes dirty—clearly he had rushed all the way from the capital.
He was clutching a cage in his hand, and inside was a white parrot that Zhu Nanxian recognized—it was A’Fu.
“Save?” After quite a while, Zhu Nanxian seemed to find the key point. “What do you mean?”
Tan Zhaolin wiped the sweat from his forehead roughly with his sleeve. Just as he was about to speak, Zhu Nanxian stopped him: “Speak inside the tent.”
Once inside the tent, he first took the bird cage and patted it, calling out: “A’Fu.”
A’Fu had been confined for too long during this journey and was somewhat listless. Only when he recognized the person before him as Zhu Nanxian did he flap his wings and fly out of the cage, perching on a nearby weapon rack—perhaps because Zhu Nanxian had saved him when he was a fledgling, he was naturally close to him.
Tan Zhaolin accepted the cup of water Zuo Qian handed him and, after steadying his nerves, began to relate the events.
From Zhu Yushen’s return to the capital in August, to Shen Xi’s attempt to drown the Fourth Prince which was prevented by the Fourth Prince’s consort; from Su Jin investigating the Lingnan merchant case to her mysterious disappearance after returning home on the second of September; and from the Light Snow solar term in October, when Liu Yun ordered the execution of the Vice Minister of War, and Su Jin’s disappearance became labeled as fleeing to escape punishment, to two days later when A’Liu from the Liu residence suddenly came to the Su residence, telling him to take A’Fu and leave the capital immediately.
“After My Lord disappeared, I searched for her day and night, using every connection I had, but couldn’t find even a trace of a clue. Actually, before A’Liu came to find me, I already knew that news from the capital couldn’t be sent out anymore—Commander Yao of the Militant Guard told me. Later, when A’Liu came and told me to take A’Fu to find its original master, I didn’t understand at first, but then I realized that my Lord must have asked A’Liu to relay this message. She must still be alive, just trapped somewhere. I couldn’t rescue her alone, so she sent me to find Your Majesty.”
Zhu Nanxian grew more astonished the more he listened.
Disappearances, executions—so many things happening in just two months, and he hadn’t heard about a single one.
If anyone else had told him this, he wouldn’t have believed a single word.
But it just so happened that these words came from Tan Zhaolin—this burly man who lived his life by one word: “loyalty,” with an upright character who was least likely to deceive or mislead others.
So if what he said was true, then A’Yu was truly in danger?
Zuo Qian and Mao Zuofeng, who had been listening to Tan Zhaolin’s account, also grew anxious and pressed him: “A high-ranking Cabinet minister disappeared, the Vice Minister of War was executed—what about Lord Shen? Hasn’t Lord Shen returned from Wuchang Prefecture?”
Tan Zhaolin replied anxiously: “News can’t get out—how could Lord Shen come back!”
Zuo Qian said: “That’s not right. We received a letter from Lord Su just two days ago saying everything was fine. Lord Su—”
Zhu Nanxian raised his hand to stop him: “The letter was written by Shu Wenlan.”
When he received the letter, he had found it strange. Su Jin was a cautious person—even when writing to him, she would only sign with the two characters “Shiyu.” For some reason, after September, the signature on the letters changed to “A’Yu.” Since this letter arrived around the same time as Shen Xi’s confidential dispatch urging him to return to the capital, he had assumed she was eagerly anticipating his return.
His heart felt as if gripped by a giant hand, suspended, wringing—he could barely breathe.
His mind was flooded with thoughts, but they were chaotic, disorganized, murky and alarming.
He tried to calm himself down.
Leaning on the table’s edge, he slowly sat down before it, waiting for these jumbled thoughts to settle. But the more they settled, the clearer two characters became before his eyes.
A’Yu.
Where was she? Why would she be trapped? Was she—still alive?
The moment this thought arose, the hand gripping his heart suddenly released, and the blood that had been building up rushed into his limbs and flooded his mind, the impact leaving him dizzy. With a sweep of his hand, he sent the teacup, calligraphy, territorial map, and water dropper flying from the table to the ground.
The thunderous sound of shattering immediately made everyone inside and outside the tent fall to their knees.
However, the next moment, what they encountered was not the dragon’s wrath, but an extraordinarily unusual calmness.
“Something’s not right,” Zhu Nanxian said. “How did you get out?”
Seeing that Tan Zhaolin seemed confused, he asked again: “If news from the capital is sealed, and even We and Qingyue cannot receive letters, how did you, a fully grown living person, manage to leave the capital?”