Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong was not surprised that Han Qian had other operatives covertly stationed in Shu who could track their movements at all times. However, these hidden agents had not secretly contacted Han Qian but had openly delivered the sealed letter into his hands right before their eyes, indicating that the information the letter conveyed was extremely urgent and serious.
Watching the shifting expressions on Han Qian’s face, Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong asked with concern, “Has something happened in Tanzhou?”
With Qing Yang set to marry the Third Prince as his consort, Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong’s fate was, to a certain extent, also bound to Tanzhou. At Nanjin Pass, Han Qian had further clarified this relationship. During the past month on the ship, they had spent day and night together, “speaking without reservation.” At this moment, puzzled in his heart, he couldn’t help but ask directly, disregarding propriety.
The position of Metropolitan Governor ranked below Ministers but above Vice Ministers. Besides managing the political affairs and criminal justice of Jinling’s counties, it also had the authority to accept criminal litigation from various prefectures and counties throughout Great Chu. Its powers were equivalent to those of the Ministry of Justice, the Court of Judicial Review, and the Censorate, with the privilege of direct memorials and qualification to participate in Privy Council meetings.
From being the Magistrate of Xuzhou, a lower prefecture, to being appointed Metropolitan Governor was definitely a promotion beyond normal grades.
Although such important news would soon spread to Shu, and Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong would learn of it within a few days at most, how could Han Qian explain to Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong that upon learning of his father’s promotion, he looked as if he had seen a ghost?
Han Qian forced himself to remain composed and said, “It’s good news, just too unexpected. I was quite startled.”
Since Han Qian wouldn’t say what exactly had happened, Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong couldn’t pry it from him. He could only look Han Qian over several times with suspicion, wondering what kind of “good news” would make Han Qian look as if he had encountered a ghost.
After loading two or three hundred boxes of betrothal gifts onto the carriages, Han Qian, serving as a civil envoy to Shu, naturally also traveled by carriage into the city.
Before entering the city gate, he hastily wrote two letters inside the carriage. He called over Zhao Wuji, who was riding on horseback, to the side of the carriage and instructed, “My father has now been summoned by His Majesty to Jinling to serve as Metropolitan Governor. The situation is quite perilous. You must immediately carry my orders to Tanzhou first, deliver one letter to His Highness, then mobilize fifty elite guards to go to Jinling and rendezvous with my father and Feng Liao. The other letter can only be given to Feng Liao. If necessary, you are to escort my father to withdraw to Taowu Military Prefecture to observe changes in the situation…”
“The changes can no longer be reversed by human effort. Perhaps you could make everything clear and advise the elder master to quietly observe the changes in the situation?” Xi Ren, who was riding in the carriage with Han Qian, had also read the urgent secret letter that Zhao Ting’er had delivered. Facing such a thorny situation, she suggested somewhat hesitantly.
Han Qian shook his head. When it came to matters of great right and wrong, his father’s principles were all the more firm.
Zhao Ting’er was correct not to directly reveal the matter of the poisoned candles; otherwise, the situation might have become even more complex and dangerous.
Now he could only hope that when Emperor Tianyou succumbed to the poison, his father would completely recognize that the situation could not be salvaged by human effort and would be willing to withdraw with Zhao Wuji and the others to Taowu Military Prefecture to quietly await an opportunity to restore order.
If he were to reveal this now, Han Qian truly didn’t know what choice his father would make!
Once Jinling fell into chaos, the million or more soldiers and civilians inside and outside Jinling city would instantly plunge into a hellish nightmare. If the Liang army then took advantage of the chaos to invade, the flames of war would thoroughly engulf the Jianghuai region, and who knew how many people would be killed, wounded, or displaced.
Faced with such a terrifying scenario, how could Han Qian possibly expect his father—who was determined to establish principles for the people and had the grand aspiration of a moth flying into flames—to choose to stand aside and watch?
“Is Emperor Tianyou also becoming aware that his health is failing?” Xi Ren asked again.
Han Qian nodded. If Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong hadn’t been personally summoned by Emperor Tianyou when recommending candidates for the wedding envoy, and if there had been any abnormality on Xinchang Marquis Li Pu’s side—indicating that the Imperial Concubine could still occasionally visit Emperor Tianyou to pay respects—he would have suspected that Emperor Tianyou was already completely under the control of Anning Palace.
Emperor Tianyou was not yet completely controlled; the imperial edicts still came from his own will. However, his transfer of Han Qian’s father to Jinling to serve as Metropolitan Governor without ordering the Chuzhou troops to cross the river suggested that he had not yet realized he was deeply poisoned.
Nevertheless, as to whether his own body could hold out, how could Emperor Tianyou—who had spent half his life in military campaigns conquering the realm—not have some sense of it?
Otherwise, no matter how urgently Emperor Tianyou wanted to depose the Crown Prince and establish another, he should have waited until after the Third Prince formally married Princess Qing Yang before transferring Han Qian’s father to the capital to serve as Metropolitan Governor!
The fact that Emperor Tianyou was now pursuing both matters simultaneously precisely showed that he had already realized something was wrong with his body. He mistakenly believed his illness was severe and incurable, but this would precisely prompt Anning Palace to make up their minds and take desperate risks.
Han Qian had originally hoped to delay for another four or five months, but this hope was likely to evaporate at any moment, and the political situation of Great Chu could undergo earth-shattering changes at any time.
At this moment, Han Qian also felt some regret stirring in his heart.
If he had initially adopted Feng Liao’s suggestion and secretly reported the matter of the poisoned candles to Emperor Tianyou through Yuan Guowei and Jiang Huo, although Emperor Tianyou would most likely have chosen to summon the Chuzhou troops to the capital for imperial protection—which would have been extremely unfavorable to their side—at least it wouldn’t have placed his father in such danger!
In fact, even if Emperor Tianyou had not been poisoned, at the time of deposing the Crown Prince and establishing another, the position of Metropolitan Governor would be a great pit of fire where a single misstep meant eternal damnation.
There was no medicine for regret in this world. At present, Han Qian couldn’t abandon the wedding mission here, so he could only urgently dispatch Zhao Wuji to Jinling to act according to circumstances.
Besides Zhao Wuji, Feng Liao, and Jinyun Tower’s forces in Jinling, after the Third Prince received his letter, the Dragon Sparrow Army could also use the pretext of rotation duty to transfer three thousand elite troops back to Taowu Military Prefecture in advance as a precaution. Han Qian believed that when his father realized the overall situation was difficult to reverse, self-preservation would not be a problem.
At this moment, Han Qian couldn’t be bothered to conceal anything from Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong and the others. Through the carriage window, he gave Zhao Wuji some additional instructions, then told him to take two men directly to find Yang Qin and leave the Shu state by boat.
As the wedding envoy, once Han Qian had entered Shu territory, he no longer had the freedom to leave easily. However, if he temporarily needed to send messengers back to Chu, all the checkpoints along the way would let them pass without obstruction.
However, this scene fell into Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong’s eyes and filled him with suspicion.
During the month of traveling together, Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong had naturally long observed the status and importance of Zhao Wuji, Yang Qin, and others at Han Qian’s side.
After receiving the secret letter, Han Qian had actually dispatched his most capable lieutenant directly—how could Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong not be suspicious?
“What ‘good news’ came from Tanzhou that made Han Qian directly send away his most capable lieutenant?” Through the carriage window, Princess Qing Yang saw this scene with both puzzlement and worry. Countless possibilities churned through her mind—she worried that some great change had befallen the Third Prince or the Dragon Sparrow Army, or that some upheaval had occurred in Jinling that had made Han Qian lose his composure.
After entering the city, Wang Yong signaled the driver to slow down so the two carriages could travel side by side, allowing him and Han Qian to speak through the carriage windows.
“Our Great Shu capital is the Chengdu Prefecture city left from the previous dynasty. During the Shu Han period, Chengdu was famous throughout the realm for its brocade and became an important source of revenue for Shu Han at that time. Shu Han once established the Brocade Office and Brocade Office City specifically to maintain brocade production. Although the Brocade Office City was destroyed in war long ago, this name has since become another name for Chengdu Prefecture city.”
Wang Yong spoke enthusiastically with Han Qian about the historical legends of the Shu capital, seemingly completely oblivious to the worry furrowing Han Qian’s brow.
“My royal father is extremely fond of hibiscus. These past two years, he has ordered hibiscus to be planted along all forty li of the city walls. Unfortunately, it’s already mid-November now. As we enter the city this time, most of the hibiscus trees along the main road have bare branches and fallen leaves, so we won’t see the beautiful scenery of a sea of hibiscus flowers.”
“At dawn I see the red wet with dew, the flowers heavy over Brocade Office City!” Han Qian perfunctorily recited a line from Du Fu’s poem about Chengdu as a response to Wang Yong’s enthusiasm.
“Lord Han, you are our honored envoy. My royal father has specially issued an order for the Court of State Ceremonial to set aside a residence from Jinhua Tower for Lord Han’s accommodation,” Wang Yong said rather excitedly. “Jinhua Tower was the residence of the traitorous eunuch Tian Lingzi when he served as Military Commissioner of the Two Sichuan Circuits during the previous dynasty. After Tian Lingzi was defeated by my royal father, this garden became a place for civil and military officials and literary guests of the capital to hold banquets…”
Before Han Qian came here, the scouts that Jinyun Tower had infiltrated might not have been able to obtain other intelligence, but they had long since thoroughly investigated the main buildings and terrain within the Shu capital.
This Jinhua Tower—its garden occupied thirty to forty mu, with hundreds of pavilions, terraces, towers, and chambers. In the southeast corner of the garden stood a five-story wooden tower. Climbing high to view the garden and its surroundings with their profusion of hibiscus flowers like brocade, it was thus named Jinhua, and the entire garden was also named after Jinhua Tower.
The weather was still good today. They had just entered the south city gate, and looking up toward the northwest, they could see Jinhua Tower eight or nine li away, its upturned eaves jutting out. Among the vast expanse of low buildings, it stood out like a crane among chickens. Legend had it that when Tian Lingzi governed Chengdu, he often liked to host banquets in that five-story tower.
Speaking of Tian Lingzi—who had served as Military Commissioner and護軍中尉 of the Divine Strategy Army during the previous dynasty—while others could call him a “traitorous eunuch,” Wang Yong kept saying “traitorous eunuch” repeatedly, and Han Qian could see the corners of Wei Qun’s mouth—the Minister of the Shu Court of State Ceremonial who was accompanying them—twitching slightly, with no intention whatsoever of echoing his words.
Han Qian smiled inwardly. He hadn’t expected that Wei Qun at least knew something about shame.
The Shu Lord Wang Jian had once been adopted as Tian Lingzi’s foster son, and it was through Tian Lingzi’s promotion that he gradually rose to hold important positions such as Military Supervisor within the Divine Strategy Army. In the end, Wang Jian defeated Tian Lingzi and came to dominate the Two Sichuan Circuits.
These events had occurred less than twenty years ago. Although no one usually mentioned them, the people of Shu’s memories weren’t that poor.
If the rumors were accurate, Tian Lingzi had been strangled to death in Jinhua Tower by Wang Jian’s men using fine cords braided from brocade silk.
Han Qian naturally had no qualms about staying at Jinhua Tower. Otherwise, among the major buildings in the Shu capital, which wasn’t stained with blood?
The question Han Qian was now concerned with was this: Tian Lingzi, as the most powerful eunuch official during the reigns of Emperors Zhaozong and Xizong of the previous dynasty, besides controlling the Divine Strategy Army, must have also extended his tentacles of power into the Shenling Bureau.
Although the Shenling Bureau was unknown to the world, when Emperor Zhaozong of the previous dynasty used eunuch officials to govern the Divine Strategy Army and Shenling Bureau, intending to reduce the power of regional governors and reunify the realm, the reins of power inevitably fell into the hands of the eunuch clique. In reality, the Shenling Bureau could be said to be the Divine Strategy Army’s presence hidden in the depths of shadow, and could not simply be cut apart.
Even the relationship between Jinyun Tower and the Dragon Sparrow Army—if it continued—would see their mutual infiltration growing ever deeper.
During the previous dynasty’s affliction with refugee and regional governor rebellions, Emperors Zhaozong and Xizong had fled from the capital region to the Two Sichuan Circuits multiple times to seek refuge. Besides the Two Sichuan Circuits once being completely controlled by the Divine Strategy Army, Han Qian believed that the Shenling Bureau’s influence in the Two Sichuan Circuits was definitely not weak.
As one of the earliest commanders of the Divine Strategy Army to garrison there, the Shu Lord Wang Jian could not possibly have had no involvement with the Shenling Bureau. His ability back then to defeat Tian Lingzi with inferior forces and come to dominate the Two Sichuan Circuits most likely also involved leveraging the Shenling Bureau’s forces in Shu.
Han Qian strongly suspected that after the Shenling Bureau’s remnant forces in Shu had been taken over by the Shu Lord Wang Jian, they had merged with the remnant forces of the Divine Strategy Army to become the foundation of the Shu state’s military and political power.
Therefore, throughout this journey, a shadow in Han Qian’s heart had never been dispelled: just how much did the Shu Lord Wang Jian know about the Shenling Bureau’s remnant forces in Jianghuai—the Wanhong Tower and Xinchang Marquis’s mansion?
How much did Long Xiang Marquis Wang Yong and Princess Qing Yang know about this?
Additionally, what was the attitude of Xinchang Marquis Li Pu, the Imperial Concubine secluded deep in the palace quarters, and the black-veiled woman hidden behind the scenes whose true face he had yet to see, toward Wang Jian, who had usurped the power of the Divine Strategy Army and Shenling Bureau in Shu and continued to occupy Shu as a separatist?
Princess Qing Yang’s marriage to the Third Prince as a secondary consort was far more complex than the world imagined. Thinking of this, Han Qian’s expression also showed a slight tremor.
His father’s transfer to Jinling could place him in danger, but what he could do about it was extremely limited. Moreover, this mission to Shu was far from as simple as he had imagined—he still needed to summon his full attention to deal with matters here first.