Wenying Hall was located on the eastern side of the palace city. As Emperor Tianyou’s sleeping quarters, it was naturally also the true center of the state of Chu.
At this time, deep in the night when all was quiet, the doors of other palace courtyards had already been locked. The palace gate from Wenying Hall leading to the Bureau of Military Affairs to the east still stood open, with over ten brocade-armored guards still mustering their spirits to stand guard outside the great hall.
Shen He sat in the small hall outside the second gate holding a ceremonial whisk. Although he was not yet fifty, his energy was noticeably less than before. Even though he had caught up on sleep during the day, it was only the second watch now, yet as soon as he sat down, he felt his eyelids drooping weakly and powerlessly, ready to fall asleep at any moment.
As Palace Attendants Bureau Vice Director, if Shen He really hid away to steal a short nap, even if His Majesty knew, he wouldn’t blame him. But Shen He still stuffed two green thorns into the soles of his shoes, so that when he became drowsy and lax, the thorns’ prickles could jab him awake.
“What absurd words are these?”
Hearing suppressed dissatisfied scolding from inside, Shen He woke with a start. Not knowing what had happened and having no time to remove the green thorns from his shoe soles, he endured the discomfort and trotted into the inner hall. Under the bronze candle lamp, he saw that imposing figure that inspired awe, throwing a memorial onto the corner of the table.
“What memorial has angered Your Majesty again?” Seeing that His Majesty was only irritated by a memorial and nothing else had happened, Shen He asked with a smile.
“Han Daoxun submitted a memorial saying refugees are blocking the roads around the four city gates, creating an unseemly appearance, and suggested that the Metropolitan Governor’s Office expel the refugees—what absurd words are these? Is this about unseemly appearances? Has he truly become confused from compiling books at Hongwen Hall?” The imposing figure under the lamplight raised his head and handed the memorial from the table corner to Shen He to look at.
Han Daoxun’s memorial was only three to four hundred words long, forcefully stating the many inconveniences of refugees blocking the roads and requesting their expulsion.
“Perhaps Junior Director Han has something inconvenient to say clearly to Your Majesty?” Shen He speculated.
Shen He had had some contact with the old Vice Minister of War Han Wenhuan, who was an old fox, but hadn’t had much contact with Han Daoxun.
He only knew that last year, when Deputy Commissioner of Military Affairs, Wenying Hall Scholar, and Chief Secretary Wang Jixiong was at odds with the Crown Prince and was seriously ill and unable to handle state affairs, he wholeheartedly sought to leave. Before Wang Jixiong returned to his hometown, His Majesty had Wang Jixiong recommend officials from prefectures and counties to enter the court. This Han Daoxun was the first person Wang Jixiong recommended.
It was just that Han Wenhuan’s eldest son Han Daoming had just received hereditary succession and was promoted to Chizhou Regional Commander. Han Daoxun’s qualifications in court were quite shallow. When transferred to court, the Bureau of Military Affairs together with the Ministry of Personnel’s Merit Rating Office assigned him to Hongwen Hall as Junior Director of the Secretariat.
When Wang Jixiong left Jinling, Shen He was ordered to see him off.
Wang Jixiong’s descendants and clan members—only his young granddaughter Wang Jun accompanied him. Five carts of luggage contained nothing but books and poetry besides the essentials.
Shen He believed he could never in this lifetime achieve what Wang Jixiong had, but he believed Wang Jixiong wouldn’t casually recommend Han Daoxun. Anning Palace forcibly inserting Han Daoxun’s son beside the Third Prince probably also saw this point, right?
It was just that before Wang Jixiong’s farewell departure from the capital, his recommendation letter led His Majesty to summon him to Wenying Hall for a conversation lasting over an hour. At that time, Shen He was sent away, and not a single palace official was present. No one knew what Wang Jixiong actually discussed with His Majesty, nor how Wang Jixiong actually introduced Han Daoxun to His Majesty.
“Could it be that when speaking to me, there’s still something to hide and conceal? Must I rack my brains to guess the riddles he leaves behind?” Emperor Tianyou said irritably.
Sometimes he wasn’t unaware of the cautiousness of those below him, but sometimes precisely this made him irritable—it made him feel that even as ruler of a nation, he was unavoidably deeply trapped in an inescapable web.
“If Your Majesty truly wants to know what he’s thinking in his heart, summon him to the palace tomorrow, or dispatch someone from the palace to summon him now?” Shen He said, carefully placing the memorial he had finished reading back on the table corner.
“What’s there to summon him to ask?” Emperor Tianyou waved his hand and said, “Han Daoxun didn’t explain everything clearly in the memorial, but thinking about it, where within the Jiang-Huai region is there any place to settle over a hundred thousand refugees?”
“…” Only now did Shen He realize His Majesty wasn’t annoyed by Han Daoxun’s lack of intelligence, but rather by Han Daoxun being too intelligent.
Shouzhou, governed by the Imperial Uncle Xu Mingzhen, had always been the main battlefield where Chu and Liang contested and fought back and forth. This also led to serious population loss within Shouzhou’s borders. If they truly wanted to expel over a hundred thousand refugees from near Jinling, Shouzhou was the largest settlement location.
Besides Shouzhou, even Chuzhou had been peaceful for some years without warfare. All land had its owners—where was there a place to settle these refugees?
So when Han Daoxun inexplicably submitted such a memorial at this time, he actually wanted to curry favor with Anning Palace!
However, turning this thought over again, Shen He thought of another matter and felt something wasn’t quite right.
He’d heard that the water parasite epidemic was quite severe outside the four city gates, with two or three out of ten refugees infected. In that case, the intent of Han Daoxun’s memorial was to expel all these refugees to Shouzhou—was this ultimately a blessing or a curse for Shouzhou?
Shen He stole a glance at Emperor Tianyou, thinking His Majesty probably didn’t know this situation. But thinking that he hadn’t even figured out which side Han Daoxun supported, some words truly couldn’t be spoken casually.
Otherwise, if he spoke openly, he truly didn’t know which side he would be pleasing and which side he would be offending. Muddled accounts were even harder to manage!
“Hold it back!” Emperor Tianyou didn’t want to summon Han Daoxun over to get angry either. With one word, he decided the memorial’s fate—not to approve it, nor to pass it to the ministers below for discussion.
……
……
Han Qian didn’t know what Emperor Tianyou would think after seeing his father’s memorial on expelling refugees. But since no word had leaked from the palace, this meant the memorial had been “held back,” or perhaps it definitely hadn’t reached Emperor Tianyou’s hands at all.
Han Qian’s heart wished for exactly this. He secretly felt his father should be dispirited for a while, so he could continue muddling along at Linjiang Marquis Manor without having to take the risk of producing the “Epidemic Water Memorial” with its unpredictable blessings and disasters!
On the winter solstice day, it was bitterly cold with heavy snow falling.
Instructor Shen Yang caught a cold and took leave for two consecutive days. Han Qian also only arrived at Linjiang Marquis Manor around midday to report for duty each day.
On this winter solstice day, Han Qian first rushed out of the city early to Qiuhu Mountain villa. Besides bestowing winter clothes and other cold-weather festival items to the household soldiers and family members staying at the manor, he also took the initiative to send each tenant farmer family a bag of rice and flour. He additionally prepared gifts and had Fan Xicheng deliver them to Village Chief Zhang Qian and County Captain Liu Yuan’s homes. It wasn’t until noon that, accompanied by Fan Dahei, Zhao Wuji, and Lin Haizheng, he rushed back to the city first, then to Linjiang Marquis Manor to report for duty.
Han Qian had Fan Dahei and the others lead the horses away. Walking into the manor thinking he’d first get something to eat, then go to the archery field to practice mounted archery, he saw several guards standing in the front courtyard talking. When they saw him walk in, they fell silent. Han Qian felt the atmosphere was very strange. Seeing Feng Yi, he caught him and asked: “What happened?”
“You don’t know?” Feng Yi asked strangely.
Seeing Feng Yi ask this way, Han Qian’s scalp tingled faintly. Today was the great court assembly—officials and generals of fifth rank and above in the capital all had to enter the palace to participate in discussions. His father had gotten up just after midnight to change clothes. When he pushed open the door and saw the courtyard covered with a thick layer of snow, he had sighed continuously…
“At today’s great court, your father memorialized His Majesty in front of civil and military officials in Qihua Hall, requesting to expel the refugees from the four city gates to purify the capital region, which enraged His Majesty. On the spot, His Majesty expelled your father from Qihua Hall and also ordered the Censorate to investigate your father’s offense of improper speech. I thought you already knew about this.” Feng Yi said.
When Han Qian first entered Jinling City, he and Feng Yi were kindred spirits. In the past two or three months, Han Qian had been making up for wasted time and hadn’t gone out carousing with Feng Yi much. But during idle time at Linjiang Marquis Manor, he taught Feng Yi some small gambling tricks, allowing Feng Yi opportunities to go out and kill in all directions. Naturally, their relationship had become increasingly close.
With what Han Daoxun encountered today, Feng Yi was quite worried for Han Qian.
“Every time we leave the city, along the road it’s all chaotic mess. Looking at it, people would think our great state of Chu has people suffering and dying everywhere, with a foolish emperor and incompetent ministers. If you ask me, they should have been expelled long ago.” Kong Xirong said in a muffled voice.
Kong Xirong and Feng Yi, these two “why don’t they eat meat” types, naturally wouldn’t think there was anything wrong with expelling the refugees from the four city gates. Han Qian only smiled bitterly.
Coming from the manor into the city, time was rushed—he hadn’t gone back to rest his feet and came directly to Linjiang Marquis Manor. How could he have known his old man was truly so single-minded that, seeing his memorial from some days ago was useless, today he actually directly remonstrated at the great court assembly?
The court levied extremely heavily from the people to maintain state expenses and naturally had no surplus capacity to care for refugees. But Emperor Tianyou was still someone who cared about face and historical evaluation. After proclaiming himself emperor, he often didn’t forget to display an attitude of diligent governance and sympathy for the people.
Today at the great court assembly, his father directly remonstrated, urging Emperor Tianyou to expel the refugees from the four city gates—wasn’t this slapping Emperor Tianyou’s face?
However, amid Emperor Tianyou’s fury, he directly expelled his father from Qihua Hall and ordered the Censorate to investigate his father’s offense of improper speech—this somewhat surprised Han Qian.
Han Qian’s head was as big as a drum. Thinking he’d ask Guo Rong and Third Prince Yang Yuanpu for leave to first return to the residence to see the situation, he had just stepped out of the eastern courtyard study hall when he saw Li Chong walking over from the western courtyard with a dark expression.
“Your father is also known as a capable official in Guangling. Today at court he proposed expelling refugees—where would they go?” Li Chong asked.
“…” Han Qian was slightly stunned, not expecting that upon meeting, Li Chong would use an interrogating tone rather than gloating. He didn’t know how he had offended this harbinger of doom Li Chong again.
“Your father is so considerate for Shouzhou’s sake—did you not notice anything beforehand?” Seeing Han Qian had no intention of acknowledging him, Li Chong blocked his way and pressed with questions.
Han Qian wanted to say where had his father been considerate for Shouzhou’s sake, but seeing Li Chong still had a face full of indignation, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind: When Emperor Tianyou became exceptionally angry in Qihua Hall today, was it because, like Li Chong, he also mistakenly thought his father’s remonstrance this time was intended to drive all the refugees outside Jinling City to Shouzhou?
The refugees outside Jinling City were partly流民 displaced people who had fled south from earlier wars among regional military governors in the Central Plains, and partly难民 refugees who had fled south from the Jiang-Huai region to escape the warfare when the state of Liang invaded southward. The able-bodied had all been selected during successive military expansions, leaving mostly the old, weak, women, and children. Many depended on fish, crabs, shrimp, and snails from ditches, streams, and rivers for survival. The water parasite epidemic spread rampantly—two or three out of ten had accumulated illness for years, sitting and waiting for death.
If they couldn’t effectively control the spread of the water parasite epidemic and wanted to forcibly expel these refugees outside Jinling City to settle in Shouzhou six or seven hundred li away, perhaps nearly half wouldn’t be able to endure it.
And precisely because understanding of the water parasite epidemic in this era was quite superficial, no one dared easily accept infected refugees, fearing the refugees would spread it massively in their territory and bring calamity to the locality.
Even if his father directly suggested expelling all infected refugees to Shouzhou, Shouzhou couldn’t possibly accept them casually.
How could Emperor Tianyou mistakenly believe his father’s remonstrance had this intent?
And Li Chong’s aggressive manner seemed to firmly believe his father was being considerate for Shouzhou’s sake?
Before the “Epidemic Water Memorial” came out, who in this era would think that forcibly driving over a hundred thousand refugees to Shouzhou would be greatly beneficial with no harmful drawbacks?
Could it be that the lofty Emperor Tianyou fundamentally wasn’t clear about the truth of the water parasite epidemic spreading rampantly among the refugees outside the city, which was why he was so furious?