The Minister of War Zhao Jinzhong was in his ministerial chamber chatting leisurely with a group of officials, laughing about the courtesan incident from two nights past until none of them could stop smiling.

“Whatever you might say, this Cao Du is genuinely something else — he’ll carry out any outrageous act you can think of.”

Zhao Jinzhong said, “When his father Cao Dengke used to come to the capital, I said it back then — this man is no mild-tempered type, you can tell just from looking at his face that he’s no good sort. Who would have thought, after all these years, that meeting his son would show me his son is an even worse piece of work.”

The group immediately burst into laughter.

Just then, someone spoke from outside: “Lord Zhao, someone from the Ministry of War yamen has come to request an audience, saying there is an urgent matter.”

Zhao Jinzhong rose to his feet, thinking to himself what trouble could the yamen possibly stir up. These days the Ministry of War — no soldiers, no generals, and certainly no money. As for authority, the less said the better.

Which local armies still heeded the Ministry of War’s orders?

Whether it was the pacified rebel forces or the regular garrison troops, none of them regarded the Ministry of War’s dispatch orders as binding anymore.

So he was quite content to idle away his days — nothing to do, just muddle through.

If there was one force that was still marginally compliant, it was Prince Wu’s armies, who at least maintained some surface respect for the Ministry of War — though in terms of actual command and control… that too was a fantasy. Prince Wu had been stripped of his military command in earlier days — though that was during the previous Emperor’s reign.

The current Prince Wu led his forces, and if the Ministry of War tried to deploy his troops or strip him of authority, he’d have to cooperate for that to count as his loss.

If pushed too far, he might just bring his army back to the capital and dismantle the Ministry of War building as a first order of business.

A Ministry of War official — the external affairs clerk — was waiting at the door. Seeing Zhao Jinzhong emerge, he immediately stepped forward and lowered his voice to say something.

Zhao Jinzhong listened and frowned slightly: “That Zheng Le again… Lord Zheng the Minister of Revenue is truly lenient with his son — causing trouble every single day. I hear this Zheng Le is even the Chancellor’s adopted son… with two great officials backing him, he’ll dare start any trouble. Sooner or later something serious will happen. I really don’t want to deal with this kind of headache.”

The clerk said, “But he’s sent someone to request help at the yamen — the person is still there waiting.”

Zhao Jinzhong sighed, “If not for giving his father some face, why would I bother with this wastrel son of his.”

He pondered for a moment, then said, “It’s probably just some retired veterans he’s gotten into trouble with — they’ve set him straight, and he’s sulking about it… Send a squad of men over and mediate the situation. As long as Zheng Le doesn’t go too far, let him have his way… Lord Zheng has gone with the Chancellor to the Hero Assembly grounds — otherwise, he could just handle it himself.”

He waved a hand: “Go — so many important matters are waiting for me in the ministerial chamber. Who has the time to deal with this trivial nonsense.”

Having said this, he lifted the curtain and returned to the ministerial chamber, where the officials had already taken out leaf cards and were preparing to play a few rounds. They’d just heard the Emperor had left the palace, so with no one overseeing them, they might as well seize the moment.

Zhao Jinzhong walked back in and smiled: “Leaf cards are so boring — and you can only play with four people. Everyone else just watches. Not enough to go around… Come, come. Let’s bet on high and low instead. Everyone can play.”

Outside, the Ministry of War clerk Jiang Qianneng sighed, turned, and left.

Back at the yamen, he selected a squad of military discipline soldiers and headed out.

The Ministry of War had a Military Discipline Bureau, and he was the bureau’s official. Above him was the full bureau commander at fifth rank — he himself was at subordinate fifth rank, effectively the deputy.

The Military Discipline Bureau’s responsibility was to enforce military regulations. Within the army, they were the yamen everyone despised most.

He deliberately chose several capable men, and Jiang Qianneng led them to the scene of the incident.

When he arrived, what met his eyes was a ground full of wailing ruffians. Seven or eight men against a hundred-plus — and they hadn’t lost at all. Far more than not losing: they’d held complete dominance.

These skills, this fighting style — even Jiang Qianneng felt something was off. Properly speaking, veterans wouldn’t act this impulsively. Even if it came to blows, they’d finish cleanly and leave. They wouldn’t fight and then just stand there guarding the scene like this.

He had no way of knowing that these imperial bodyguards had been ordered by Emperor Yang Jing himself to stand their ground — waiting to see who had the audacity to cause chaos in the capital so freely.

The result was that Jiang Qianneng had terrible luck — this matter had nothing to do with him, yet he’d managed to walk right into it.

“Who are all of you?”

Jiang Qianneng raised a hand, and the dozens of military discipline soldiers immediately stepped forward, surrounding the group.

Seeing this formation, Li Chi watching from the second-floor window narrowed his eyes.

“Interesting,” he said.

Dantai Qi smiled: “By the look of the uniforms, they should be officials from the Ministry of War’s Military Discipline Bureau. Looks like this Zheng Le does have some connections.”

Across the way, Zheng Le saw the Ministry of War men appear and immediately brightened, grinning ear to ear.

He spun around: “Come, let’s go down and take a look. Let’s see how Cao Du gets himself out of this.”

The group followed him down from the restaurant, surging over in a crowd.

Rushing up close, Zheng Le first greeted Jiang Qianneng: “Officer, did His Excellency the Minister send you?”

Jiang Qianneng nodded.

He recognized this famously notorious Young Lord Zheng, but the famously notorious Young Lord Zheng didn’t recognize him.

Zheng Le said, “I am…”

Before he could finish, Jiang Qianneng cut him off. With so many onlooking citizens watching, announcing the name of the Minister of Revenue Lord Zheng would be a tremendous loss of face. As a court official, he had to at least maintain court dignity.

If he didn’t stop him, Zheng Le would certainly say “I am the son of so-and-so.”

Jiang Qianneng said, “Young Lord, I’m handling official business. Please step aside first so you won’t be hurt.”

Zheng Le wasn’t pleased. He made a sound of contempt: “I’m the one who asked the Minister to send you — you don’t recognize me? I am…”

His words were cut off a second time by Jiang Qianneng, who said, “Young Lord, regardless of who you are, please temporarily step aside for now and not obstruct my official duties. I’ve received a report that military personnel were fighting in the streets, and I’ve come to investigate.”

“What military personnel, what official duties!”

Zheng Le immediately grew agitated.

He looked over Jiang Qianneng’s official robes: “You’re just a subordinate fifth-rank petty official — you dare cut me off mid-sentence? Who gave you the nerve to cut me off mid-sentence? Do you really not know who I am? I am the son of the Minister of Revenue. The current Chancellor is my godfather!”

At the street corner, Emperor Yang Jing watched this scene unfold, his expression darkening like storm clouds covering the moon.

He had never imagined — the son of a second-rank official of the current court, the godson of a first-rank official — could be so arrogant and lawless, so utterly without discipline.

Even Hui Chunqiu couldn’t bear to watch. He quickly bowed and said, “Your Majesty, this servant will go and put a stop to it. The citizens are all watching — the longer this goes on, the bigger the spectacle, and in the end it’s the court’s dignity that suffers.”

The Emperor deliberated for a moment, feeling equally helpless, and nodded: “Go.”

But the moment those two words were out, Zheng Le’s voice had already escalated to a full torrent of abuse in the street.

Not far away, Zheng Le looked at Jiang Qianneng and said, “What are you hiding? You are who I called for — the Minister dispatched you here to help me. You’re here to do my bidding.”

Jiang Qianneng’s expression also darkened: “Young Lord, allow me to handle the matter — you can return home first and wait for news.”

Zheng Le said, “Believe it or not, I could have you dismissed? Right now, I tell you what to do, and you do it, without all this nonsense. Now listen carefully—”

He raised his finger and pointed at those seven or eight imperial bodyguards: “Those people — some dog’s dog-lackeys, I don’t know whose — dared to beat my people right here in the capital. You take your soldiers and go drag out whoever their master is, right now.”

Listening to his blustering tirade, Li Chi sighed lightly: “This sort of trash wasn’t really worth coming out to deal with personally.”

Dantai Qi nodded: “Just a whelp spoiled rotten by his father. If someone like this showed up in our Jizhou, appearing in the morning, his ancestors’ graves would be dug up by afternoon.”

Yu Jiuling burst into a snort of laughter.

Li Chi smiled slightly and said, “Let’s enjoy the show. Those seven or eight men seem to have remarkable backgrounds. That Ministry of War official keeps trying to push everything down, but Zheng Le keeps stirring it back up.”

Dantai Qi said, “With a background like his, who would dare truly offend the Minister of Revenue’s son? Whatever he does, the underlings wouldn’t dare tell his father, the people whose rank doesn’t exceed his father’s wouldn’t speak up either — and over time, he raised up this son to be his own disgrace.”

Li Chi listened to Dantai Qi’s words about *raising up a son to be his own disgrace*, and suddenly laughed.

“Looking at the bearing and manner of those seven or eight men, they aren’t without background. This affair was supposed to just be a bit of amusement at a little brat’s expense, but now it seems there may be room to push things much further.”

He looked toward Yu Jiuling, and Yu Jiuling immediately understood.

Without Li Chi needing to say anything more, Yu Jiuling turned and ran downstairs.

Dantai Qi sighed: “That doesn’t seem right. Even though this Zheng Le is such a menace, at most he’ll disgrace his father, who’ll get berated by the Emperor, and at worst it ends in a demotion and investigation — then after a while it’s as if it never happened. With Yu Jiuling going in, this is now aimed at getting the whole family wiped out.”

Li Chi laughed heartily.

Without Yu Jiuling, it’s a fixed term. With Yu Jiuling, nothing less than the death penalty.

Yu Jiuling slipped quietly into the crowd of onlookers. Looking at that still-ranting Zheng Le, he thought to himself: *my dear great-grandchild, let me give you a hand.*

He scanned the area, spotted a loose brick nearby, quietly picked it up, and prepared to wait for the right moment.

As Gao Xining’s junior disciple, his skills were naturally nothing to sniff at.

Just then, Emperor Yang Jing could endure it no longer and sent Hui Chunqiu over to handle it.

Hui Chunqiu immediately brought several men and moved forward — and this scene was caught right in Yu Jiuling’s sight.

Yu Jiuling saw the young man of distinguished bearing not far away in the crowd, and figured that those capable fighters were probably this man’s subordinates.

He thought to himself: *doesn’t matter who you are — get this thing blown wide open first, then figure out the rest.*

He pulled a black cloth from his person and tied it over his face, then slipped back out of the crowd from the rear, circled around to a position not far from the Emperor, then opened his lungs and bellowed:

“Young Lord Zheng! The dog’s owner is right over here! It’s him who ordered his people to beat our men — come get him fast!”

One shout done, Yu Jiuling hurled the brick straight at Emperor Yang Jing.

Whether it hit or not didn’t matter — throw it and run.

Those who could stop Yu Jiuling from running were genuinely few in this world, and the ones who could were mostly still over on Li Chi’s side.

If the imperial bodyguard commander Hui Chunqiu had been at the Emperor’s side, there might have been a chance of catching Yu Jiuling — but at this moment he had just moved into the crowd.

He turned back and saw the brick drifting lazily through the air toward the Emperor.

In that moment, every part of Hui Chunqiu responded.

Pores flared. Scalp prickled. Something elsewhere tightened.

“Protect the Emperor!”

Hui Chunqiu shouted instinctively.

That shout of *protect the Emperor* almost sent Yu Jiuling stumbling over his own feet. He staggered for a moment… his heart crying: *what on earth did I just hit?*

That shout of *protect the Emperor* also startled Li Chi and Dantai Qi. They both looked over at the fleeing Yu Jiuling.

Dantai Qi couldn’t help but raise a hand and clap: “From ancient times to the present — the first person to throw a brick at an Emperor. Yu Jiuling is truly a warrior.”

Li Chi watched that young man very carefully, wondering whether he should… throw one himself.

—