Upon hearing about the eunuch’s hasty departure from Kangcheng, Gong Sunyin hurriedly sought out Xie Zheng. As soon as he entered the study, he said:
“That eunuch who came to deliver the imperial edict is the adopted son of Wang Xi, the Head Eunuch. You cut off one of his ears, which is tantamount to slapping the Emperor’s face. Are you truly ready to break ties with the imperial court?”
Xie Zheng sat behind his desk, his left arm resting on the armrest of the yellow pearwood Grand Tutor chair. On the desk lay a map of Great Yin’s military deployments. He gazed at the map, a thin smile on his lips but cold fury in his eyes. “The young Emperor is still playing dumb under Wei Yan’s thumb. He doesn’t even care about the lives of the generals fighting for him on the battlefield. Do you think he’ll be benevolent when he truly comes to power?”
Gong Sunyin was momentarily speechless. After a brief silence, he admitted, “His Majesty has been stripped of imperial power for years. First by Wei Yan, then by Grand Tutor Li. In terms of patience and temperament, he could be considered outstanding among emperors throughout history. But precisely because he has endured for over a decade, his desire for imperial power must have reached its peak. There’s likely little room left in his heart for benevolence, only ruthless means to reclaim power.”
Xie Zheng raised an eyebrow slightly. “Your judgment of people remains as accurate as ever.”
With that, he tossed a thick bundle of documents to Gong Sunyin.
Gong Sunyin caught it with both hands and asked, “What’s this?”
Xie Zheng simply replied, “Read it, and you’ll understand.”
Gong Sunyin opened it and began to read carefully. His brow furrowed more and more, until finally, anger was visible on his face. He asked, “Is all of this true?”
Xie Zheng answered, “This is new evidence Zhao Xun provided to persuade me to support the Emperor’s great-grandson.”
Gong Sunyin flipped through the stack of documents, his jaw tightening in anger. “The drought two years ago, the floods in Jiangnan last spring—how many people died? It’s one thing for Li and Wei to engage in factional struggles, but for the inspectors sent by Grand Tutor Li to conceal the extent of the disasters, just to let more people die so they could impeach Wei Yan—and this was all on the Emperor’s orders? Crown Prince Chengde died for tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Jinzhou, but now the person sitting on the Dragon Throne is willing to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of disaster victims to fulfill his ambitions for power?”
In the past two years, Central China and Jiangnan have suffered severe droughts and floods in succession. The court had nearly emptied the national treasury for disaster relief, with the funds passing through Wei Yan’s people. Although the Li faction had sent inspectors along, in the end, more than half of the disaster victims still died of starvation and disease!
The entire country was outraged. At court, the scholars led by Grand Tutor Li berated Wei’s faction mercilessly.
It was also during that time that Wei Yan, under pressure from the entire court and the whole country, suffered his first defeat before Grand Tutor Li. He pushed out several of his high-ranking officials to take the blame, which finally settled the matter.
But Wei Yan’s reputation among the common people had become as notorious as that of Meng Shuyuan, who had been severely criticized as a great traitor after the Jinzhou tragedy years ago.
Xie Zheng spoke with an extremely cold expression, “The ambitions of that old man from the Li family are no smaller than Wei Yan’s. It’s just that he comes from a scholarly background and is more afraid of public condemnation. The young Emperor wants to use him to bring down Wei Yan, but he’s also worried that one day the Emperor’s blade will turn towards the Li family. So he took advantage of the Emperor’s lack of power at the time to leave himself an escape route.
“The inspectors he sent for disaster relief wrote a total of eleven urgent reports to the capital. The postal stations in various prefectures and states all have records of express horses heading to the capital, but there’s no record of the palace receiving these urgent disaster reports.”
At this point, there was nothing Gong Sunyin didn’t understand.
Deliberately concealing the extent of a disaster, resulting in the death of more than half of the victims, was a major crime no matter when it was brought up.
The Emperor wanted to pin this blame firmly on Grand Tutor Li, but Li was too cunning. He had his subordinates send urgent reports to the capital, but since the palace didn’t receive them when the truth came out in the future, it would be a case of the Emperor’s word against his minister’s, and it would be up to the public to judge.
Gong Sunyin couldn’t help but ask, “How did Zhao Xun get hold of those urgent reports sent to the palace by Grand Tutor Li’s people?”
Xie Zheng raised his eyes slightly, “Who do you think is covering for the young Emperor in the palace?”
Gong Sunyin thought for a moment and said a name: “Wang Xi?”
Xie Zheng didn’t speak further, which was as good as confirmation.
Gong Sunyin pondered briefly and understood the various interests at play. With imperial power in decline, the palace eunuchs couldn’t possibly secure just one escape route for themselves.
Wang Xi had been the Head Eunuch for many years. He hadn’t offended Wei Yan and was still valued by the young Emperor, which showed he was quite astute.
Using disaster relief to fabricate a major case as the first step to bringing down Wei Yan, the Emperor wanted Grand Tutor Li to take the blame, while Li wanted to implicate the Emperor. The urgent reports sent to the palace couldn’t reach the young Emperor, so Wang Xi had to intercept all the reports himself.
As long as the Emperor and Grand Tutor Li maintained a united front and didn’t expose each other’s misdeeds, he would be safe.
In the future, when the Emperor and Grand Tutor Li turned against each other, he could support whoever was winning, which would be beneficial without any downside.
If the young Emperor won, he would have destroyed the eleven urgent reports about the disaster, so the blame would firmly rest on Grand Tutor Li’s head.
If Grand Tutor Li won, he could produce those eleven urgent reports and serve as a witness himself, which would undoubtedly be solid evidence of the young Emperor’s lack of virtue.
Even if Wei Yan ended up winning, he could quickly produce this evidence to restore Wei Yan’s reputation and expose the young Emperor and Grand Tutor Li’s conspiracy to frame him.
After his initial fury subsided, Gong Sunyin suddenly felt a sense of sadness. He sighed, “The waters of the Great Yin court have long been too murky to see through.”
The Wei faction might be a group of corrupt officials, but the Emperor and Grand Tutor Li, who used the lives of hundreds of thousands of disaster victims to provoke nationwide outrage just to bring down Wei Yan, were no better.
He turned to look at Xie Zheng and said, “With the one on the Dragon Throne having lost all virtue, and now planning to meddle in military affairs, I know you must be unwilling to serve such a ruler. But even if we cooperate with Zhao Xun to support the Emperor’s great-grandson, who knows if he won’t turn out like the young Emperor in ten or twenty years?”
Xie Zheng only said, “I won’t become a second Wei Yan.”
Gong Sunyin said, “I know your ambitions are different from Wei Yan’s, but even if you retreat to the Northwest and no longer involve yourself in court affairs, as long as you hold military power, whoever sits on that Dragon Throne will always covet it when they grow up.”
This time, Xie Zheng remained silent for a long while.
After standing quietly for a moment, Gong Sunyin sighed, “Well, that’s a worry for more than a decade from now. For now, we should…”
“If the new Emperor has a benevolent heart and loves the people, I can return to military power at that time and become a carefree person. The Xie family wasn’t born to command troops. As long as someone continues to guard Great Yin’s territory, I have no objection to relinquishing power.”
Gong Sunyin’s words were interrupted. He turned his head to look, only to see the sharp, handsome profile of the person sitting in the Grand Tutor chair.
Xie Zheng lowered his eyes, “If he turns out like the young Emperor, I can remove him from the Dragon Throne the same way I put him there, and choose a new emperor.”
Hearing these words, Gong Sunyin was first stunned, then chuckled softly, “Indeed, that’s more like you.”
Changing the subject abruptly, he suddenly said, “The Grand Princess informed me in her letter that the young Emperor plans to move against Miss Fan. It would be extremely unfavorable for Miss Fan to remain in Chongzhou. Should I send more men to protect her?”
Feeling another itch in his throat, Xie Zheng pressed his lips tightly to suppress the urge to cough. He said, “That won’t be necessary.”
Now Gong Sunyin’s expression became extremely peculiar.
He had thought that Xie Zheng was in such a hurry to return because he had received his letter, but now it seemed that wasn’t the case.
Thinking of the news Xie Thirteen had just brought back, he said mischievously, “That’s fine. Although He Jingyuan is no longer in Chongzhou, he sent his prized student over. What was his name… Zheng something Wen? I heard he’s not only handsome but also skilled in both civil and military affairs. More importantly, when Miss Fan was being pursued by Wei Yan’s assassins in Lin’an Town, this man led troops to rescue her. In that sense, he could be considered to have saved her life, right?”
The thick wolf-hair brush in Xie Zheng’s hand snapped in two. His face remained expressionless as he calmly uttered two words: “Get out.”
Gong Sunyin, apparently unsatisfied with his reaction, continued to fan the flames: “I’m thinking, from now on, these two will be on the battlefield together countless times, facing life and death situations. What’s that phrase? Oh yes, love born from long acquaintance!”
Xie Zheng suddenly raised his eyes to look at him. Gong Sunyin instinctively took a big step back.
But Xie Zheng didn’t show anger. He only said, “You haven’t been to the capital for three years, yet the Grand Princess still knows where you reside. Is it that the Grand Princess’s people are too capable, or that you deliberately let someone know your whereabouts?”
The frivolous smile disappeared from Gong Sunyin’s face. He looked at Xie Zheng with some surprise and said, “You’re using this to jab at me. It seems I’ve angered you.”
After Gong Sunyin left, Xie Zheng finally tossed aside the broken brush.
Fine, sharp wood splinters had pierced his fingertips. He pulled them out with an expressionless face. The knife and whip wounds on his back still ached faintly, but the sharp pain in his heart that he couldn’t suppress when he heard Gong Sunyin say she might develop feelings for someone else over time, and that momentary desire for destruction, were equally clear.
He suddenly didn’t want to wait anymore.
When he parted from her, he knew that such a good girl, even if she didn’t meet him in this life, would meet other good men.
But when that moment truly came, he was shocked to find all the blood in his body surging in reverse. In that instant, his mind was filled with endless jealousy and murderous intent, yet he remained outwardly calm.
In a flash, he had even thought of how to make the person she liked die without a trace.
When he calmed down, all that remained was extreme self-loathing, his palms covered in cold, clammy sweat.
He knew his condition seemed to be getting worse. He didn’t want to become the type of person he despised the most.
Xie Zheng leaned back, allowing himself to slump bonelessly into the Grand Tutor’s chair. He draped his arm over his eyes, covering most of his face. The dark arrow sleeves accentuated the sickly pallor of his jaw, an aura of gloom surrounding him.
When the personal guard who had been ordered to prepare troops before Gong Sunyin’s arrival entered the room, he knelt on one knee, clasped his fist, and said, “My lord, the carriages to escort Sui Yuanqing are ready. The army can depart at any time.”
Xie Zheng spoke in a gloomy voice: “Let’s depart.”
When Gong Sunyin finally received the news, he ran to the city wall and watched the departing army, nearly jumping three feet high in anger. He fumed, “No wonder that Xie Jiuheng said there was no need to send more men. He’s taking the army himself. What’s the point of sending more?”
In Chongzhou.
After the death of the Prince of Changxin, the Jizhou army and the rebels inside Chongzhou city had engaged in two small-scale skirmishes. The Jizhou army won each time. Although these were minor victories, they served to boost morale.
After attending another war planning meeting in the central military tent, Fan Changyu received a new order—the vanguard force she led would soon engage in a large-scale battle.
Whether it was due to He Jingyuan’s earlier instructions or not, Tang Peiyi had arranged for Zheng Wenchang to be the commander responsible for supporting and receiving the vanguard troops.