Yang En walked into the dark, damp, cold prison cell and saw Li Pu collapsed like an old dog whose spine had been removed, sitting paralyzed on the icy mud floor. The entire person looked so aged and pitiful, while Li Chong’s corpse still hung straight from the crossbeam of the cell.

Though Yang En was naturally carefree by nature, seeing the scene before him, he couldn’t help but sigh softly.

He knew Li Pu had three sons. The eldest had died in battle on the battlefield years ago, while the youngest, Li Jian, had grown up following his elder brother Li Yu since childhood, so his relationship with Li Pu couldn’t be called particularly close. Only the second son, Li Chong, had always been at his knee bringing him joy. Even if Li Pu were a ruthless hero with a heart of stone, it would be difficult to accept the scene before him, wouldn’t it?

Yang En walked up to Li Pu and said: “Last night I drafted a memorial intending to impeach him on this matter—I don’t plan to revise the memorial. What does the Duke think of adding a sentence at the end: ‘Li Chong committed suicide by hanging in prison out of guilt’—will that suffice?”

“…That this wretched son didn’t die in the enemy camp—this is already his best end—today I too will cross the river back to Jinling to plead guilty.” Li Pu’s aged, powerless hand pressed against the ground to stand. Li Jian hurried forward to support him.

Watching Li Jian and Li Xiu support Li Pu as they walked out, an old retainer beside Yang En who had entered the cell earlier to verify the identity couldn’t help but sneer: “The Marquis of Xinjin is truly ruthless enough. Those two blood marks on the neck of the corpse don’t look like they could be made by a trouser belt. In this old man’s opinion, perhaps someone snuck into the prison last night and strangled Li Chong with a bowstring.”

“Keep spouting nonsense and I’ll cut out your old dog’s tongue!” Yang En turned to glare at the old retainer, rebuking him in a heavy voice.

Yang En’s eyesight was somewhat dim with age. Standing outside the cell, he couldn’t see clearly if there were other wounds on the corpse hanging from the beam, but he didn’t want to walk into the cell to clarify this point.

In the twenty years since Great Chu’s founding, how many soldiers had died in battle on the battlefield? Li Chong fighting hard, being outmatched and captured—that could still be understood. But to willingly become a Liang spy to save his life—as long as he lived another day, he would be a disgrace to the Li clan for another day.

Even if he didn’t die now, when the court investigated, the best outcome would be a decree to commit suicide. But in this process, who knew how many waves he would create trying to cling to life a few more days?

Yes, Yang En not only felt Li Chong “committing suicide in prison out of guilt” likely involved being silenced, he had even forgotten that having submitted the impeachment memorial, last night he should actually have taken custody of Li Chong and the other numerous prisoners.

Yang En thought Li Chong had served before His Majesty and the Empress Dowager for years and should know many unknown secrets. But he didn’t think revealing all these unsavory secrets and exposing them to broad daylight would truly help the current situation that could completely fester and collapse with the slightest carelessness.

Perhaps letting certain filth and ugliness remain completely buried beneath the surface would make the realm more peaceful?

Committing suicide out of guilt—wasn’t that the outcome too many people would prefer to see?

Thinking this, Yang En sighed deeply in his heart. Walking into the courtyard, he called over several guards standing watch outside. Adding several more lines to the memorial, he had them immediately take a boat back to Jinling, hoping to resolve the entire matter as quickly as possible.

…

…

Han Qian led Tangyi troops to fight two hard battles consecutively in the short span of half a month on the northern foothills of Daci Mountain. Both battles achieved great victories, bringing roughly the Daci Mountain area including the middle and lower reaches of the Zhu River and Tangyi’s riverside region under control, temporarily eliminating the crisis of the imperial capital potentially suffering direct enemy assault.

This was also one of the few pieces of good news for Jinling City after the oppressive New Year festival had passed.

Before Yang En’s memorial and Li Pu arrived in Jinling City one after the other, not only had Zhou Dan returned to Jiangzhou, even Chen Jingzhou had led over a hundred prefecture soldiers back to Guangde Prefecture.

Zhou Dan and Chen Jingzhou returning to Jiangzhou and Guangde Prefecture was a return to their regular posts and didn’t require additional imperial edicts—they only needed to send someone to report to the Military Affairs Bureau and the various departments of the Ministry of Personnel.

Shen Yang, Yang Zhiyuan, Zheng Yu, and others didn’t initially realize anything unusual about this matter. After all, they hadn’t heard any rumors unfavorable to Han Qian in Jinling, nor had they seen other abnormal signs.

They even thought this was Han Qian seeing Tangyi’s situation initially stabilize and entrusting Zhou Dan and Chen Jingzhou to return to Jiangzhou and Guangde Prefecture so they could gather more provisions and recruit more able-bodied men for military service.

This was also something Han Daoming vigorously promoted for Han Qian after returning from rewarding Tangyi troops.

Though the provisions and supplies Tangyi needed, as well as collecting refugees from various places or exiling convicted slaves to Jiangbei to replenish Tangyi troop losses, should be matters presided over by the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of War, Military Affairs Bureau, and Treasury Bureau, these various bureaus and departments couldn’t create something from nothing—ultimately they still needed cooperation from prefectures and counties below.

At this time, the higher the degree of cooperation from prefectures and counties, the faster provisions could be transferred and refugees and able-bodied men could be assembled.

Otherwise, with delays and foot-dragging, who knew how many disputes would arise behind the scenes?

Often, commanding generals, to more effectively mobilize provisions and more effectively assemble and replenish elite combat forces, frequently bypassed central bureaus and departments, directly approaching influential prefectures and counties to requisition grain and recruit troops. The central bureaus and departments would only be responsible for completing the paperwork afterward.

Although from the perspective of centralizing power and preventing military officials from usurping authority, the central government should avoid such situations as much as possible, Great Chu had only been founded for twenty years, and internal troubles and external threats had never ceased—how could this point be completely avoided?

When Yang En’s memorial arrived at the Policy Deliberation Hall, Yang Zhiyuan, Shen Yang, Zheng Yu, and others first detected something abnormal.

However, Yang En’s memorial had already provided a conclusion. The entire matter’s impact on Tangyi could be said to be negligible, and no one would bring up the connection between Chen Jingzhou and Zhou Dan returning to Guangde Prefecture and Jiangzhou with this matter.

Speaking of Li Chong turning traitor to become a spy, what it truly affected was still the accountability for Li Pu’s defeat and loss of armies, and it directly shook Empress Li Yao’s position.

After Li Pu arrived in Jinling, he sent someone to deliver a guilt-pleading memorial to the Policy Deliberation Hall and confined himself to Duke Changguo’s residence. Empress Li Yao also confined herself to Jade Palace.

For the past half month, whenever major court matters required decisions, Shen Yang, Yang Zhiyuan, and other participating ministers discussed results in the Policy Deliberation Hall, then separately went to Chongwen Hall and Changchun Palace to seek edicts from Emperor Yanyou and the Empress Dowager before issuing orders, then promulgating military and political commands in the form of Policy Deliberation Hall decrees.

This counted as the Policy Deliberation Hall acting as regent for political affairs.

The reason this situation had formed was mainly because enormous disagreements existed in court over what title the Empress Dowager should use to return to court.

If the new emperor was young, or weak and sickly and unable to manage affairs, or died suddenly of illness with no new emperor established, or was tyrannical and depraved, hated by the assembled officials—at such times the Empress Dowager stepping forward to rule from behind the screen and wield political power was something with many precedents since ancient times.

Both Li Zhigao and Han Qian commanded troops and dispatched forces following the Empress Dowager’s edicts. The Empress Dowager’s return to court was already a foregone conclusion, but the situation Great Chu currently faced was still quite different from historical precedents of successive dynasties.

Though His Majesty was somewhat impetuous and suspicious of his ministers, unable to fully trust them—the sudden change in the Jianghuai situation could be said to be an extremely critical reason, and the blame couldn’t all be pushed onto Li Pu’s head—Yang Yuanpu overall couldn’t be called a foolish and tyrannical ruler.

Since leaving the palace to establish his own residence and ascending to succeed to the throne, Yang Yuanpu’s every action had been praiseworthy, even counting as an accomplished ruler. His reputation among Great Chu’s military and civilians was not low either.

More critically, His Majesty, as the only son of the Empress Dowager and the Late Emperor, had no replacement among the imperial clan, and absolutely no one had ever considered deposition.

At this time, even if they insisted on requesting the Empress Dowager return to court, if they said they wanted to kick His Majesty into a corner, not just Yang Zhiyuan and Shen Yang—Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang, Zhou Bingwu, Du Chongtao, and other important ministers would all be unwilling.

The disagreement that had dragged on to this day without conclusion mainly focused on what title the Empress Dowager should use to return to court. Behind this lay enormous differences.

Returning to court usually took two forms:

One was regency, meaning acting for court affairs. One could temporarily push Yang Yuanpu aside on the pretext of recuperation from illness, with all court matters large and small decreed by the Empress Dowager.

The other was assistance with governance, meaning assisting with court affairs. Court matters large and small would primarily be discussed and decided by the Empress Dowager leading the ministers, but ultimately His Majesty would still draft edicts to promulgate policies.

Changchun Palace naturally hoped for the former—only this way could it be called truly grasping power.

Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang, Zhang Chao, and others had close relationships with the Empress Dowager’s faction. They didn’t have much insistence on whether the Empress Dowager ultimately returned to court under the title of regent or assistant to governance, nor did they feel it would harm their interests.

Only Shen Yang, Yang Zhiyuan who was loyal to the Yang imperial clan’s interests, and Zhou Bingwu, Du Chongtao, and others who had no entanglement with the Empress Dowager’s faction yet were wary of Evening Red Tower’s power expanding excessively—they insisted on requesting the Empress Dowager return to court under the title of assistant to governance, also hoping to limit as much as possible the power the Empress Dowager’s faction could control.

With this matter at an impasse, the Empress Dowager remained at Changchun Palace in the eastern city, unwilling to return to Jinling City.

It was fortunate Han Qian and Li Zhigao had strong enough control, and fortunate Huaidong formed its own system.

Otherwise, it would be truly unimaginable that under such chaotic court conditions, the morale of troops north of the Huai hadn’t fallen into complete chaos and could actually stabilize their footing in time, not being exploited by enemy forces with overwhelming advantages.

The Policy Deliberation Hall acting as regent for political affairs had no problem maintaining the court’s daily operations, but regarding charging Duke Changguo Li Pu and the deposition of Empress Li Yao, Yang Zhiyuan, Shen Yang, Zheng Yu, and others absolutely couldn’t overstep their authority to discuss these matters on their own. The focus of the problem returned to requesting the Empress Dowager return to court.

The day after Li Pu returned to Jinling, Shen Yang knew matters couldn’t be delayed further. He could only steel himself to convene a Military Affairs meeting at the Policy Deliberation Hall, again raising the matter of the Empress Dowager returning to court.

Shen Yang and Yang Zhiyuan had even prepared to make concessions, yet unexpectedly Han Daoming, who had never taken a position on this matter, publicly stood forth and said: “His Majesty is young and vigorous, inevitably somewhat impetuous in his actions, but His Majesty rose from danger and hardship, experienced many trials, presided over the Jingxiang campaign and the anti-separatist wars, and led troops from various routes to expel rebel forces and recover Jinling—all displaying the bearing of an enlightened ruler. Throughout successive dynasties, few monarchs could surpass him. Requesting the Empress Dowager return to court to assist with governance should be sufficient…”

“…” Han Daoming’s position extremely shocked Shen Yang, Yang Zhiyuan, and others.

Since Han Daoming hadn’t previously taken a position, everyone had naturally assumed he represented the Han family and should maintain a consistent stance with Han Qian, should be a firm supporter of the Empress Dowager acting as regent.

Who could imagine Han Daoming would say such words at this time?

Everyone’s first thought was that when Han Daoming crossed the river to Tangyi to reward the troops several days ago, his relationship with Han Qian hadn’t improved but had worsened instead?

However, even if Han Daoming had fallen out with Han Qian and turned to support Emperor Yanyou, it wouldn’t help.

The entire Han family put together didn’t have the importance of Han Qian alone.

Yang Zhiyuan furrowed his brows, but thought of something. Hesitantly and carefully, he asked Han Daoming: “But I wonder what the Marquis of Qianyang’s opinion is?”

“Han Qian? He says as a commanding general, his duty lies in defending territory and resisting invaders—he should not interfere in court political affairs!” Han Daoming declared in a clear voice.