Duke Changguo’s mansion had lost its former prosperity.
After Li Pu was demoted to commoner status, he hadn’t been directly expelled from Duke Changguo’s mansion. However, the clouds of slaves and servants in the mansion had long been dismissed, leaving only two old servants to attend him at one point. Li Pu himself was restricted from moving freely about Jinling City. But at least the Prince’s mansion lineage hadn’t been implicated. After Li Changfeng, Li Xiu and others successively gained important positions, they subsequently sent over ten or so household guards and slaves to serve and protect him. The estate hadn’t become completely dilapidated.
Returning to the mansion, Li Pu sat in the wooden pavilion in the rear courtyard for a long time without making a sound, as if in a single day he had aged twenty years, becoming a weathered elder in his eighties or nineties.
However, no matter how Li Pu concealed and suppressed it, the complex changes in his expression still fell under Zhou Yuan’s observation.
Zhou Yuan had completely failed to anticipate this turn of events today. At this point, he had no possibility of staying out of it. But seeing Li Pu’s expression, he deeply believed the matter and secretly felt that continuing to drag this out wasn’t a solution.
If Li Changfeng or Li Xiu came to visit at this time and noticed something amiss, that would be utterly disastrous. Zhou Yuan immediately steeled himself to say: “Madam has always had this style—holding something back in all matters. I was perhaps even more shocked hearing this news than you, Duke. But this matter should be certain beyond doubt. However, regarding Madam’s intentions, they may not truly be as sinister as the Mongols claim. The Mongols still want to muddy the waters, hoping to draw Tangyi forces across the river south so they can completely take the Huai River region. Since the Marquis of Xinjin’s true origins are now revealed, regardless of the Mongols’ motives in exposing this matter, I’ll go see Madam and make her give you, Duke, an explanation.”
Regardless, now wasn’t the time for them to part ways. Zhou Yuan feared Li Pu would do something extreme, so he could only steel himself to persuade him, first stabilizing him before saying anything else.
“Take this portrait to see Lu Qingxia. Have Lu Qingxia and Yao Xishui come see me tonight. If no one comes after tonight passes, I’ll risk my old life to memorialize His Majesty and expose your plots,” Li Pu said to Zhou Yuan, pointing at the scroll on the stone table. “Of course, Zhou Yuan, don’t think following Lu Qingxia will have any good outcome for you, and don’t think this portrait is the only evidence in my hands. I think if I claim Li Zhigao is a remnant of the rebel dynasty, probably no one will doubt it…”
Zhou Yuan smiled bitterly inwardly, thinking that if the Mongols directly presented Prince Lu’s portrait, Li Zhigao could still claim the portrait was forged, intended to slander and create chaos in Great Chu. But if Li Pu came forward to testify, it would truly be more credible than this Prince Lu portrait.
Seeing Li Pu summon over a dozen servants to this garden after returning to the mansion—all household guards from the Prince’s mansion—Zhou Yuan felt a secret headache, knowing Li Pu no longer trusted even him at this point. He said helplessly: “I’ll go see Madam immediately, but perhaps this matter shouldn’t be made known to the Marquis of Linjin first, Duke…”
“I have my own measure in this matter, but you must also warn Lu Qingxia—though I’m old and my bones are aged, if three to five assassins want to cause trouble at my mansion, I fear it will only make everyone more unhappy,” Li Pu said.
Hearing the resentment filling Li Pu’s words, Zhou Yuan dared not waste more words. He picked up the portrait and took his leave first.
Dusk quickly descended. Li Pu’s hunched figure sat in the night.
Who knows how long passed before Zhou Yuan returned with the veiled Lu Qingxia and Yao Xishui.
Under the lantern light, their graceful yet thin and strange-looking forms became visible.
“Wait,” Li Pu said sharply.
Lu Qingxia and Yao Xishui stopped at the courtyard gate, allowing Li Pu to have his people search them.
“What do you have to say?” Li Pu stared at Lu Qingxia walking to the pavilion front, gesturing for her and Yao Xishui to stand below the pavilion. Forcefully suppressing his inner resentment, he asked.
“I have nothing to say. If Duke has any instructions, I’ll do my best to carry them out,” Lu Qingxia said softly.
“I don’t care how Yang Yuanpu dies. I want my Li family descendants on the throne within three days,” Li Pu said.
“Isn’t Duke making things too difficult? If this matter were truly so easy, the Xu clan absolutely wouldn’t have fallen to today’s circumstances,” Lu Qingxia said.
“With Zhang Ping and Jiang Huo pushed aside, now only An Jixiang and Chen Ruyi are favored before Chongwen Hall. Apart from Cishou Palace, these two men have the say throughout the palace—knowing you as I do, one of these two must be a direct subordinate you planted. Otherwise they couldn’t have survived so well until today. Whether through assassination or sudden death, I think Yang Yuanpu’s life is probably just a matter of one word from you,” Li Pu said.
“That may be so. Killing is easy, but how do we clean up the aftermath?” Lu Qingxia asked with a bitter smile. “Even if Wang Chan’er obeys our every word, she won’t sit by watching us harm Yang Yuanpu—without Wang Chan’er, how can we persuade Imperial Guard generals like Guo Liang and Zhang Han, how can we persuade princes, dukes, and great ministers like Shen Yang, Yang En, Yang Zhiyuan, Chen De, Zhang Chao, Du Chongtao, Zhou Bingwu that Yang Yuanpu’s death has nothing to do with us? Or are you certain you can persuade your two nephews to advance and retreat with us? You must understand, if anything goes even slightly wrong, we’ll all die without burial places. The Mongols’ scheme is extremely poisonous, but their purpose isn’t to force Xiangbei forces to plot against Shu to attract Tangyi forces’ attention. We might as well first help the Mongols achieve their purpose, then slowly discuss and plan other matters…”
“Unless you now order the assassins lurking outside the mansion to storm in and kill all twenty-some people in Duke Changguo’s mansion without leaving a single survivor, your delaying tactic has no effect on me,” Li Pu stared deadly at the eyes above Lu Qingxia’s veil, saying sternly.
“Only three days’ time?” Lu Qingxia asked.
“You’ve sat secure in Cishou Palace these years—you must have made worst-case preparations. As long as this matter succeeds, you and I need no longer fear the Mongols can use this to threaten us,” Li Pu said. “Of course, I must still remind you—when Zhou Yuan went to see you, I left behind a secret letter. If I die unexpectedly within three days, Changfeng, Axiu, Aqi, and Chai Jian will naturally know the reason! Of course, Chai Jian perhaps no longer deserves my trust, but I believe Changfeng, Axiu, Aqi, and the hundred-some stalwarts from the Prince’s mansion are not yours to manipulate.”
Lu Qingxia’s eyelids twitched. After standing before the pavilion for quite a while, she finally said: “Three days from now happens to be Li Xiu’s turn on palace guard duty, but when His Majesty is assassinated then, can you ensure the mistake won’t fall on him?”
“When His Majesty is assassinated, as long as the assassins leave no survivors, and the Empress Dowager establishes Li family descendants as emperor, Axiu and Changfeng aren’t fools—how could mistakes occur on their end? I think you should worry first about not making mistakes on the Empress Dowager’s side,” Li Pu said pointedly.
…
…
In the narrow alley, the night was deep and dark. At some unknown time, rain began pattering down from the sky.
The rain wasn’t heavy, and it made the previously unbearably hot night somewhat cooler. But sitting in the carriage, the irritation in their hearts couldn’t dissipate at all.
Yao Xishui said with chagrin: “We should never have schemed with Xiao Yiqing from the start.”
“Speaking of this now is useless,” Lu Qingxia said, also leaning powerlessly against the carriage wall at this moment.
“Three days isn’t even enough time to send word to elder brother,” Yao Xishui thought of the difficulties of plotting within only three days and couldn’t help saying dejectedly, “Why don’t we go to Yingzhou now?”
Lu Qingxia shook her head with a bitter smile: “With unsettled hearts and clamoring troops, bordered by Tangyi to the northeast, how could we resist the court’s forces attacking from the south? Han Qian absolutely won’t tolerate our moves to plot against Shu and won’t give us the opportunity to plot against Shu…”
Yao Xishui thought that their going to Yingzhou would undoubtedly be equivalent to rebellion.
Xiangbei’s northeast side bordered Tangyi, and court forces could subsequently attack Xiang, Ying, Sui, Deng and other places from various points along the Yangtze and Han Rivers.
With Xiangbei forces’ hearts unsettled, Chai Jian and Li Qi currently serving as generals in Xiangbei forces wouldn’t be under their control. Zhang Xiang would also very likely kick them while they were down. They would need to retreat into Liangzhou at the first opportunity to possibly preserve themselves.
But would Han Qian give them this opportunity to retreat into Liangzhou?
Most likely, as soon as the court edict came down, Han Qian would send troops to attack Huangyan Pass and Wujing Pass, possibly even circling to southwestern Caizhou to attack Dengzhou. With Tangyi’s thirty thousand elite troops currently concentrated in Shouzhou, going up the Huai River to attack Sui and Deng would absolutely be faster than they imagined.
But if they didn’t go to Yingzhou, could they truly fulfill their promise to Li Pu within three days?
If Yang Yuanpu was assassinated, how could Wang Chan’er still be willing to let them manipulate her?
Regardless of the discord between Yang Yuanpu and Wang Chan’er as mother and son these years, they were still birth mother and son.
Even if they threatened her life to force Wang Chan’er to submit, as long as her expression showed anything amiss and Shen Yang, Yang En, Zheng Yu, Zheng Chang, Zhang Chao, Han Daoming, Du Chongtao, Zhou Bingwu and others noticed something wrong, would they then dare gamble that generals like Guo Liang and Zhang Han controlling the Left and Right Wuyi Armies under the Imperial Guard Bureau would follow their orders rather than be persuaded by the princes, dukes, and great ministers?
Never mind that Huang Lu, Commander-in-Chief of the Left Wuxiang Army, was also the elder brother of current Empress Huang E. Even if Yang Yuanpu truly was assassinated, Huang Lu would inevitably be the first to step forward to support establishing Huang E’s son as emperor.
“The Mongols probably haven’t all left Jinling yet. Since they’re the ones who stirred this up, you go borrow a few assassins from them first as backup,” Lu Qingxia said after pondering.
“…” Yao Xishui nodded. Pinning Yang Yuanpu’s assassination on Tangyi, East Huai, or any other party—old foxes like Shen Yang and Yang En wouldn’t believe it. Only by producing Mongol assassin corpses at that time could they possibly shut their mouths.
“The Empress Dowager won’t believe assassins could so easily enter the palace. Even if she can’t guess we’ve been secretly communicating with Xiao Yiqing, Han Qian will certainly remind her at that time. What do we do about this?” Yao Xishui asked.
“Make her sever mother-son ties with Yang Yuanpu. After all, she still has one son by her side. By then Yang Yuanpu will already be dead, and she’ll be even less willing to let her second son lose his life,” Lu Qingxia said. Having thought through some key points, her voice became increasingly cold. Frowning, she continued: “The only somewhat difficult matter is that Li Yao, coming out of the Cold Palace to become the new Empress Dowager, won’t fail to recognize her own birth son. At that time, she’ll also need to be eliminated simultaneously…”
“Will Li Pu be willing to see his daughter die at our hands?” Yao Xishui asked.
“Where there’s gain there must be sacrifice. By then Li Yao will already be dead. However unwilling he is, he’ll have to swallow this bitter fruit,” Lu Qingxia said mercilessly.