At night, a gentle, moist rain began to fall.
Shu territory was surrounded on all sides by high ground. The cold currents that froze water into ice couldn’t penetrate here. The climate was mild year-round. The heavy snow before the new year had been a rare spectacle unseen for over ten years. After the new year festival, the Shu people were the first to sense the moist breath of spring.
Deep into the quiet night, the official estate outside Shu capital’s south gate was shrouded in continuous drizzle.
Outside the official estate were two watchtowers where Shu troops monitored the Chu envoy’s soldiers. Several Shu soldiers kept watch in the towers, looking at the several storm lanterns hanging high in the official estate. They only saw two teams of soldiers wearing rain capes patrolling the camp in the rain. Everything was as usual, with no changes due to bride-escort envoy Han Qian staying overnight at the official estate.
Now the two kingdoms had formally allied, and the bride-escort envoy would escort Princess Qingyang back to Chu to complete the marriage in just a few more days. The Shu soldiers responsible for monitoring the Chu envoy’s camp also felt utterly bored. Yet they didn’t know that inside the buildings, over seven hundred Chu soldiers all held weapons and wore armor, not daring the slightest negligence.
Several fast horses trampled the slightly waterlogged road, shattering the silent night, startling awake the Shu soldiers on the watchtower outside the official estate and alerting the Chu soldiers secretly stationed within the camp gate.
“Vice Envoy Guo Rong, Lord Guo, is here. May I ask if Lord Han is in camp?”
Guo Rong reined in his horse. Behind him, a young eunuch called out in a shrill voice toward the tightly closed camp gate.
“My lord is in camp. The night is already deep—what business does Lord Guo have?” Xi Fa’er, using a wooden ladder, poked his head out from above the camp gate. His hand gripped tightly the saber at his waist. Suppressing the fury in his heart with great effort, he tried to keep his tone as light as possible to deal with Guo Rong and these other dead eunuchs who colluded with Anning Palace in their vile conspiracy.
“Lord Han hasn’t returned for two days. Has something happened? Lord Guo is worried and came specially to inquire.” The young eunuch answered Xi Fa’er in a shrill voice.
“Nothing’s happened. My lord just thought that since we’re about to leave Shu territory, he wanted to take some leisurely walks outside the city. My lord has already gone to bed. Please, Lord Guo, rest assured and return.” Xi Fa’er forcefully suppressed the murderous impulse in his heart.
“I am Guo Rong. Xi Fa’er, open the camp gate and let me in to see Han Qian once.” Guo Rong couldn’t be so easily dismissed with Xi Fa’er’s few words. He rode his horse to the camp gate, having those inside bring a lamp to clearly illuminate his face, insisting that Xi Fa’er open the camp gate and let him enter the camp to see Han Qian.
During all these days on the mission to Shu, Han Qian occasionally went outside the city, but to avoid arousing Shu suspicion, he always came and went the same day, never spending the night outside. Yet this time leaving the city, Han Qian hadn’t returned for two consecutive nights and hadn’t shown his face, only sending one person back to the city to report to him and officials of Shu Kingdom’s Court of State Ceremonial. How could he believe Han Qian was merely lingering outside the city to relax?
“Lord Guo, you know my lord has a bad temper. After going to bed, he won’t want to see anyone disturbing him without cause. Please, Lord Guo, don’t make things difficult for us.” Xi Fa’er refused.
Guo Rong’s expression fluctuating between light and dark, stared at the several faces visible above the tightly closed camp gate. By the lamplight, he could see that these people around Han Qian all had unfriendly expressions. Some had even aimed loaded crossbows at him, seemingly restraining themselves with great effort from shooting the bolts.
Had Han Qian been assassinated or fallen seriously ill?
Guo Rong didn’t believe Anning Palace’s assassins would abandon the near to seek the far, infiltrating Shu territory to assassinate Han Qian. But if it wasn’t this, why did Han Qian’s subordinates look at him with such hostility?
Could it be that Empress Dowager Xu had already launched a palace coup in Jinling, and even immediately detained Han Daoxun who went to the capital to serve as Capital Prefect, and at this moment Han Qian had already received the news through his intelligence network?
This was the only possibility Guo Rong could think of. Although not far from the truth, he could never have imagined that Han Daoxun had already died in Jinling from the punishment of being torn apart by five horses in dismemberment by chariots…
……
……
Inside the large residence surrounded by other buildings within the official estate, the atmosphere was even more tense with soldiers at the ready, gloomy and oppressive. Armored soldiers stood guard before the corridors and behind the courtyards, preventing any idle persons from approaching.
Xi Ren walked into the courtyard. Through the doors and windows, she saw lamplight streaming out, occasionally accompanied by the muffled sound of tables and chairs being split apart. She pushed open the door to see Han Qian with disheveled hair, holding a fine steel straight-backed saber with countless notches broken into it, standing before a long table that had been chopped apart.
In just two short days, Han Qian’s eye sockets had sunken deeply. With disheveled hair, he stood in the room like a mad dog, his pupils red, wanting to split, destroy, and tear to shreds everything before him.
Xi Ren walked over, wanting to take the saber from Han Qian’s hands. However, this blade seemed cast from iron, gripped tightly in Han Qian’s hands, motionless. She pleaded bitterly:
“If you continue tormenting yourself like this, I fear before you even return to Chu territory, your body will give out first. How will you avenge the old master then?”
“My heart hates Heaven and Earth—why have they treated my father so unjustly? I hate myself for being so incompetent, causing the old man to die miserably from the punishment of being torn apart by five horses on his fiftieth birthday. The hatred in my heart cannot be eliminated!”
Han Qian roared furiously like a madman, viciously extending his hand to thrust the blade straight forward.
Seeing the straight blade actually pierce directly into the wall, Xi Ren was secretly alarmed. She thought: How intense must the hatred in Han Qian’s heart be to thrust this blade so viciously and quickly that it pierced the rammed earth wall without breaking before entering the wall?
“The old master answered the imperial summons to meet Wen Muqiao, and knew early on this would be a journey with nine deaths in ten attempts. He went with determination to die, fighting for a thread of survival for the common people. This vengeance must be avenged, but the old master absolutely would not want to see you abuse yourself like this!” Xi Ren advised with heartache, seeing that in just two short days, some white hair had actually grown at Han Qian’s temples.
Seeing Han Qian standing before the window without saying a word, Xi Ren signaled the guards to carry out all the tables and chairs in the room that had been chopped to pieces. Then she walked behind Han Qian and saw on the windowsill that letter whose writing had blurred into a mess, saw the accumulated candle tears on the windowsill. She didn’t know how long over the past two days and nights Han Qian had stared at this letter whose writing had blurred into a mess. With heartache, she tightly embraced him with her body.
This was the letter Han Daoxun had written in the rear hall of the Capital Prefecture yamen and left for Han Qian before answering the summons to meet Wen Muqiao.
However, Zhao Wuji and He Liufeng had endured hardships along their journey. Although they had carefully wrapped the letter in oilcloth, at some point while enduring the severe cold and swimming across rivers, river water had seeped in, causing the writing on the letter to blur into a mess, with only a few characters still recognizable.
This was the last letter Han Daoxun had left for Han Qian while alive, yet it was like this, so that in the end Han Qian didn’t know what feelings his father held when answering the summons.
Xi Ren could understand Han Qian’s desperate desire to make out even one more character.
Zhao Wuji and the others also felt immensely guilty, yet it was difficult to remedy. But others wouldn’t blame them either. After all, he and He Liufeng had suffered too many hardships along this journey to get the news to their ears before the Shu people learned of it.
“Five years ago, I had a dream. I dreamed that my father’s solitary and upright nature, spending his life petitioning for the common people, would one day anger all the powerful officials at court and anger Emperor Tianyou, and he would be beaten to death before the court by Emperor Tianyou. I too would be implicated and torn apart by chariots in the marketplace—that dream was so real that for the past five years, I’ve been desperately scheming to avoid the fate of being torn apart by chariots. But no matter how I schemed in every way, I never imagined that the fate of being torn apart by five horses would fall on my father’s head! Do you know I keep waking from nightmares these past days? Do you know what nightmares I’m having? These past days I’ve been dreaming of my father suffering the cruel punishment of being torn apart by chariots in the capital!”
The veins bulging on the back of Han Qian’s hand as he gripped the windowsill, wishing he could tear apart the window lattice marked with blade scars. He couldn’t help the tears flowing down his cheeks.
“When my father served as Investigating Officer in Chuzhou, there wasn’t a single case of injustice for several years. When my father went to govern Gaoyou, it coincided with military devastation and great disaster. Nine out of ten households starved. The streets, alleys, rivers, and harbors were filled with disaster victims crying out for food. When Chuzhou’s grain convoy passed through Gaoyou, my father asked the grain escort official to stop the ships and unload grain to relieve the victims. Everyone opposed him, saying this was a capital offense. My father said: ‘To die alone but save a hundred thousand people—acceptable!’ The grain escort official refused. My father took up a blade, boarded the ship, and bound him, thus eliminating civil unrest. The court transferred my father to the capital to serve in the Hongwen Academy—merely a leisurely position. Prince Xin secretly retained him with the position of Chuzhou Regional Commander. My father refused, saying Prince Xin’s violent nature and powerful position were not a blessing for the court. To carry out the stratagem of deceiving heaven and crossing the sea to save tens of thousands of disaster victims in Jinling, my father disregarded his half-lifetime of integrity and advised before the court to drive away the disaster victims. And this time, my father also guessed at Jinling’s dangerous situation and resolutely took up the post, only for the slightest possibility of eliminating the calamity of war, desperately rushing about, seeking solutions in every direction. But this world is like a prison. He couldn’t break through the southern wall—his heart was already immensely sorrowful. In the end, he actually suffered the cruel punishment of being torn apart by five horses. How can you tell me not to hate!”
Xi Ren fell silent. These past years by Han Qian’s side, she had only seen the brilliance of Han Qian’s frequent ingenious schemes, and felt that the old master in Xuzhou was somewhat overshadowed. Yet she hadn’t thought carefully that the things Han Qian did were so dangerous. Just taking the matter of luring tens of thousands of refugees to flood into Xuzhou—with the slightest mistake, it would have bred uncontrollable civil unrest. If not for the old master stationed in Xuzhou, working tirelessly day and night to comfort and care for the people, it would have been impossible for Xuzhou to have such a solid foundation before the削藩.
Han Qian closed his eyes, letting the tears fall from his eye sockets. He spoke again: “My heart is filled with regret. If I hadn’t concealed it in Xuzhou and had told Father about this death trap early on, perhaps the old man wouldn’t have died so miserably!”
At this moment, Zhou Chu walked in. Seeing the chaos in the room and Han Qian’s ghostly appearance, he couldn’t help sighing, shaking his head and walking back toward the courtyard.
“What’s wrong?” Xi Ren asked.
“Vice Envoy Guo Rong came out of the city wanting to see my lord. He waited outside the camp gate for quite a while. Xi Fa and Kong Xirong blocked him from entering. I came to ask if my lord knows about this…” Zhou Chu said hesitantly.
Zhou Chu had been captured and surrendered when Wuling City fell, only then joining Han Qian’s service.
Although he also felt Han Daoxun’s death was extremely unjust, he didn’t have the same grief and fury as Yang Qin, Xi Fa’er, and the others. At this moment, he was more worried that forcibly blocking Guo Rong outside the camp gate might allow the Shu people to detect something.
He had just gone to see Yang Qin and saw Yang Qin also had a vicious look of wanting to drag Guo Rong into the camp and kill him. Greatly alarmed, he quickly ran over here to check the situation.
“Ah,” Xi Ren was slightly startled, knowing Zhou Chu was right to come inform them. She said bitterly, “None of them are making things easy. Go let Guo Rong in!”
Zhou Chu had just walked out when Xi Ren saw a trace of ferocity appear on Han Qian’s face. Thinking that Kong Xirong and the others, full of grief and resentment, probably wouldn’t be able to hear Zhou Chu’s words, she called to him: “I’ll accompany you over there…”