The candles burned high in Chongwen Hall. Yang Yuanpu’s figure standing behind the imperial desk was cast by the candlelight onto the tall wall, appearing especially imposing.
Before the imperial desk, aside from Chen Ruyi and An Jixiang kneeling on the slightly cool polished stone floor, there was not a single eunuch or minister serving nearby.
In the great hall, only the three—sovereign and subjects Yang Yuanpu, Chen Ruyi, and An Jixiang—either standing or kneeling, yet this made the hall seem particularly vast and empty.
“Your humble servant knows the assassination case is no small matter. The slightest error could destabilize the state and alienate the generals. After leading the Jinyun Bureau’s forces to withdraw, your humble servant changed into plain clothes and returned to Donglu Mountain, wanting to see if the assassin might possibly return. In my heart I thought that if I could personally see the assassin or capture him, it would surely be more reliable than guessing based on build. To my surprise, when I secretly returned near Shangjia Fort, I saw over ten house slaves of the Shang residence rebel and imprison Shang Wensheng in his room. Shang Wensheng had already been severely wounded by the assassin. Being captured by the rebellious slaves as well, your humble servant thought he probably had no way to escape this calamity. To see if anyone was directing these rebellious slaves from behind, your humble servant didn’t alert them…”
Kneeling before the imperial desk together, An Jixiang listened to Chen Ruyi’s detailed account and was secretly shocked. He hadn’t expected that Chen Ruyi, having witnessed the Shang household slaves rebel, would simply watch Shang Wensheng—who could barely be counted as an important court minister—die without saving him, merely to see if anyone else was directing these rebellious slaves from behind?
However, he caught sight of His Majesty standing before the imperial desk looking completely unmoved, apparently having no concern whatsoever for Shang Wensheng’s death?
Shang Wensheng replacing Shen Yang as magistrate of Guangde Prefecture was naturally because many people in the court did not hope for too much peace in Guangde Prefecture.
There were multiple reasons for this.
Some people, particularly officials from aristocratic families of Jinling and even neighboring prefectures and counties like Xuanhu, were the most direct victims of lost interests from the Chishan Army’s rise.
Among the nearly three hundred thousand women and children gathered in Guangde Prefecture, aside from a small portion of destitute commoners, most were slaves who had escaped from nearby aristocratic families. During the slaves’ escapes, there had even been varying degrees of bloody violent resistance, with tens of thousands of aristocratic clan members killed or wounded as a result.
Now that they had transformed into the new emperor’s dragon-following ministers, how could they look favorably upon Guangde Prefecture? How could they not harbor resentment in their hearts?
By extension, in the eyes of most officials from aristocratic families, Guangde Prefecture was a taboo existence.
It was just that before pacifying Shouzhou and Chuzhou, they still harbored some fear in their hearts. Afraid of intensifying conflicts, they had not directly proposed abolishing Guangde Prefecture, nor more nakedly demanded that the women and children of Guangde Prefecture be degraded back to slaves and their land reclaimed.
But regardless, in the hearts of most people in the court, they still hoped to use someone like Shang Wensheng to stir up some waves in Guangde Prefecture, didn’t they?
As for why His Majesty agreed to the Ministry of Personnel’s recommendation for Shang Wensheng to serve as magistrate of Guangde Prefecture, An Jixiang had previously guessed that His Majesty was perhaps eager to recall Shen Yang to the capital and had no choice but to make some compromises. But looking at His Majesty’s current attitude, he thought in his heart that His Majesty probably had intended from the start to use this opportunity to his advantage, having deeper concerns about Guangde Prefecture’s existence, right?
Thinking about it, after recovering Jinling, aside from over seven thousand soldiers of the Left Guangde Army and nearly fifty thousand family members gradually relocating from Guangde Prefecture to be settled as military households in the garrison military offices of various Forbidden Army divisions, and aside from the nearly fifty thousand family members of Longque Army soldiers who had already moved back to Taowu Ji, the number of slaves who were ultimately settled in the three counties of Guangde Prefecture, given good status and registered as commoners, still reached as high as one hundred seventy thousand.
This included the families of Chishan Army (Left Wude Army) soldiers who had fallen in battle. Up to the recovery of Jinling City, the Chishan Army had lost over twelve thousand soldiers killed in battle, with corresponding family members numbering nearly seventy thousand.
Additionally, there were mainly soldiers and their families who were demobilized and settled when the Chishan Army was reorganized into the Left Guangde Army. This portion of the population exceeded one hundred thousand.
No one could deny that in a short time, Han Qian still enjoyed extremely high prestige among these people.
Moreover, had Han Qian really completely and thoroughly relinquished military power previously, without doing anything underhanded in the three counties of Guangde Prefecture?
The Left Bureau had come from Han Qian’s hands—secret intelligence and infiltration could be said to be what Han Qian was best at.
His Majesty’s initial agreement for Shang Wensheng to go to Guangde Prefecture—this was the real reason, wasn’t it?
Furthermore, even if Shang Wensheng caused some major disturbance in Guangde Prefecture, His Majesty could completely kill Shang Wensheng at that time to quell the controversy, and could even use this as leverage to hold accountable those court ministers who had initially recommended and approved Shang Wensheng serving as magistrate of Guangde Prefecture.
Killing multiple birds with one stone—why not?
Fundamentally, in His Majesty’s eyes, Shang Wensheng had always been merely a chess piece.
As long as there were other chess pieces at hand, now discarding one or two pieces that weren’t directly played by him in the first place, His Majesty’s indifference was understandable, wasn’t it?
Thinking of this, An Jixiang secretly felt that serving such a master was truly not easy. His posture became even more respectful as he knelt before the imperial desk, listening to Chen Ruyi continue narrating the subsequent events.
“After the Shang household’s rebellious slaves fled with their families the next day, your humble servant found an opportunity to enter the fort. At that time, Shang Wensheng had already died—there were no new wounds on his body, so he should have been angered to death. There were also six house slaves unwilling to comply who were bound in the room. Your humble servant questioned them and learned that among the rebellious slaves, a house soldier named Su Lie very likely knew the assassin. As for why the assassin broke into Shangjia Fort and went on a killing spree, it very likely wasn’t for other reasons, but merely to avenge a woman killed by Shang Zhongjie.”
Chen Ruyi, seeing that His Majesty’s expression hadn’t changed, truthfully reported what he had investigated clearly over these past few days.
“This woman was Shang Zhongjie’s wife, Lady Wei. Shang Zhongjie suspected Lady Wei of having an affair with Han Donghu, a close guard beside the Marquis of Qianyang, and accidentally beat her to death. It should also be that house soldier named Su Lie who accidentally encountered Han Donghu in Jinling City and told him about this. When Xuzhou sent envoys to congratulate His Majesty on establishing the Empress, the Jinyun Bureau assigned agents to watch every move of the Xuzhou envoys. There indeed was someone whose appearance resembled Su Lie who encountered Han Donghu in front of the Vegetable Garden Wine House. Your humble servant suspects that Han Donghu was most likely filled with indignation that the affair was exposed and the adulterous woman killed, and angrily charged into Shangjia Fort to kill. It should not have been direct authorization from the Marquis of Qianyang…”
An Jixiang looked at Chen Ruyi rather puzzled, wondering in his heart why Chen Ruyi was clearing the Marquis of Qianyang Han Qian of suspicion. Could it be he still didn’t know that His Majesty wouldn’t much like such a conclusion?
“If Han Donghu killed because of an affair, why did he, after killing Shang Zhongjie, proceed directly into the inner residence intending to assassinate Shang Wensheng?” Yang Yuanpu couldn’t help but ask at this moment. He clearly didn’t think all of Chen Ruyi’s inferences were reasonable. The documents from the Ministry of Justice and Jingzhao Prefecture were more inclined to believe that the assassin initially hadn’t found Shang Wensheng’s exact location at the time, or mistakenly thought Shang Wensheng was in the courtyard where Shang Zhongjie was located.
Chen Ruyi continued:
“Shang Zhongjie had no official position. This time leaving Jinling, he apparently wanted to return to Shangjia Fort to manage the family business, but Shangjia Fort at that time was occupied and farmed by over ten households of refugees. After Shang Zhongjie captured these people, he killed them all to vent his anger. The Shang family intended to conceal and cover this up, reporting to Lishui County only that these refugees fought to the death refusing to surrender, and themselves drove the women and children into the buildings and set them on fire—this happened before the assassination. Your humble servant boldly speculates that after Han Donghu assassinated Shang Zhongjie, learning of this matter, he transferred his hatred to Shang Wensheng and temporarily conceived the intention to kill Shang Wensheng. It was precisely this matter that made the Shang household slaves feel disheartened, so when the assassin broke in, more than half of them did not wholeheartedly try to save their master…”
“So the rebellion of those ten-plus rebellious slaves killing their master also arose from this?” Yang Yuanpu stood with his back to the high candles, his face hidden in the shadows beyond the candlelight, appearing even more dark and gloomy as he asked.
“When your humble servant questioned the six bound men, it was indeed that after Shang Wensheng woke up and learned these house slaves had failed to save their master adequately, he wanted to send someone to notify his eldest son Shang Mengtong to come back and deal with these house slaves. But somehow word leaked out and these house slaves struck preemptively,” Chen Ruyi answered. “Your humble servant also verified the personnel list of the Xuzhou envoys. Although in the list of personnel entering and leaving the city, there was indeed someone named Han Donghu, the Xuzhou envoys, when leaving the city, specifically boarded naval warships to go to Yueyang. Your humble servant believes this was attempting to cover up the truth…”
Over these past ten-plus days, although the Jinyun Bureau had ostensibly withdrawn from the Donglu Mountain assassination case, Chen Ruyi had been secretly investigating all along. Although An Jixiang had a competitive relationship with Chen Ruyi, he had to admit that his secret investigation of this case was quite detailed and his analysis quite reasonable. He saw that His Majesty at this moment couldn’t help but nod slightly in approval, acknowledging that Chen Ruyi’s analysis made great sense.
Perhaps the truth was just this—the entire case was fundamentally a crime of passion, a revenge killing. Although the murderer was someone from beside the Marquis of Qianyang Han Qian, there was no direct connection to the Marquis of Qianyang Han Qian himself.
Seeing His Majesty’s expression alternating between light and dark, Chen Ruyi added: “Your humble servant thought that if these matters were to spread, they might draw great criticism and might also cause upheaval in the hearts of Guangde Prefecture’s people. At the time, I took it upon myself to stab to death these six bound house slaves of the Shang residence…”
“…” An Jixiang turned his head in shock to look at Chen Ruyi.
The memorials presented by Jingzhao Prefecture and the Ministry of Justice all had various speculations about the deaths of Chen Xiang and the six other Shang household soldiers. In the end, the discussion leaned toward believing it was the rebellious house slaves who had secretly returned to Shangjia Fort to kill and silence witnesses.
He hadn’t expected that this was actually Chen Ruyi’s doing.
An Jixiang looked toward His Majesty again, not knowing how His Majesty viewed Chen Ruyi’s act of killing to silence witnesses.
Yang Yuanpu pondered briefly and said: “Such small matters—if done, they’re done. There’s no need to request my instruction on everything.”
Seeing His Majesty approve of Chen Ruyi’s actions, aside from feeling somewhat jealous and resentful in his heart, what else could An Jixiang say?
“Does the Jinyun Bureau still need to follow up on the Shang Wensheng assassination case? Please clarify, Your Majesty.” Chen Ruyi asked again.
“Since you’ve already killed all these people, the Jinyun Bureau has no excuse to follow up. Leave it all to the Ministry of Justice to handle. Let’s see what waves they can stir up.” Yang Yuanpu said.
An Jixiang noticed that when His Majesty said this, a strange gleam revealed itself in his pupils. He thought that even though Shang Wensheng was dead, His Majesty still didn’t want to see too much peace in Guangde Prefecture?
“By the way, the Empress Dowager’s birthday is approaching. Although Your Majesty sympathizes with the people’s hardship in prefectures and counties and issued an edict strictly forbidding prefectures and counties from presenting tribute gifts, Shuzhou Defense Commissioner Du Chongtao’s son Du Tao has social relations with officials in the capital and has privately said many times that although Your Majesty sympathizes with the people’s suffering and forbids prefectures and counties from presenting tribute, as subjects they cannot forget propriety…” Chen Ruyi reported again.
“I understand.” Yang Yuanpu waved his hand.
Seeing His Majesty reveal a trace of lazy weariness, Chen Ruyi and An Jixiang tactfully took their leave.
Walking out of Chongwen Hall, An Jixiang cupped his hands toward Chen Ruyi and said: “This time I truly must congratulate you, junior brother. To actually be able to investigate the assassination case so clearly and thoroughly in such a short time, and handle it so cleanly for His Majesty—in the past I truly underestimated you, junior brother…”
“I merely have more thoughts of sharing His Majesty’s worries, that’s all.” Chen Ruyi smiled faintly.
“If this case were completely and thoroughly revealed, it would have nothing to do with that Marquis of Qianyang. But now with it half-concealed, half-revealed, with half-true, half-false rumors circulating in the ears of the court’s princes and great ministers, the Marquis of Qianyang conversely cannot explain it clearly,” An Jixiang said, stroking his chin. “His Majesty is truly becoming increasingly formidable. Fundamentally, he still doesn’t trust that the Marquis of Qianyang hasn’t done anything underhanded in the three counties of Guangde Prefecture, yet it’s inconvenient to directly instruct us brothers to lead the Jinyun Bureau’s forces to turn Guangde Prefecture upside down. So he can only use the Ministry of Justice and those aristocratic families angered by the half-true, half-false news to first go to Guangde Prefecture to flush out the prey. In my view, that Shang family old slave mentioned in Lishui County’s official communication—he entered Shangjia Fort before you, junior brother, and had contact with those six Shang household soldiers imprisoned in the room. Perhaps he already told Wei Zhen about all the minor details…”
“So what if Wei Zhen knows? Didn’t he still torture that Shang family old slave to death? Didn’t he still omit matters like Shang Zhongjie killing his wife and indiscriminately killing refugees, not mentioning them at all in the official documents?” Chen Ruyi said with a laugh. “Since Wei Zhen and those people want to make this matter bigger, why wouldn’t we and His Majesty be happy to watch the fire from across the river?”
An Jixiang pointed at Chen Ruyi, making a gesture of throwing his head back in laughter.
At this moment they were triumphant and smug, yet they didn’t know how big this fire would burn. Or perhaps they believed His Majesty could control the blaze, or perhaps they simply didn’t care how big this fire would burn…