On the stuffy, oppressive long street, the night was dark and heavy. Yin Peng rode his horse alongside the carriage carrying Wang Wenqian, unable to help complaining:
“My lord, why did you say so much in the great hall just now? If Tangyi learns of this, won’t it make the young miss look bad?”
“Huaidong’s reduction of feudal authority is already inevitable. Even Ruan Yan recognizes this—His Highness is merely unwilling in his heart. If I hadn’t spoken today and let that old schemer Ruan Yan manipulate things to direct all of His Highness’s resentment toward me, that would have been even worse,” Wang Wenqian said with a sardonic laugh.
Thinking it over, Yin Peng agreed. Even if they needed to consider Tangyi’s interests, they still had to protect themselves first. He thought Han Qian and the young miss should be able to understand their situation. Recalling the many details of the palace coup that Zhang Xian had related upon his arrival, he said: “Tangyi’s reaction speed is truly fast. Even if we said some inappropriate things, at least in the short term the impact on Tangyi won’t be particularly severe. Any hidden dangers are matters for the future—right now we can only take things one step at a time…”
“You still think Lu Qingxia launched the palace coup first, and Tangyi’s people lurking in Jinling for years reacted afterward?” Wang Wenqian asked with a smile.
“Isn’t that how it happened?” Yin Peng asked in shock. “Does my lord believe the young miss and Han Qian had premeditated plans long ago?”
“When Lu Qingxia launched the palace coup, chaos reigned within the Imperial City, the nine gates’ guards were on mutual alert. How many people would Tangyi have needed to lurk in the capital region over these years, and who would need to be in command, to seize the initiative from Lu Qingxia and Wang Chan’er?” Wang Wenqian shook his head. “When Han Qian petitioned to establish the Marquis’s heir, he was already waiting for this palace coup. The initiative has actually always been under Han Qian’s control!”
“…” Yin Peng asked incredulously: “How is that possible? Han Qian establishing Lady Ting’s son as the Marquis’s heir has no direct connection to Lu Qingxia. Lu Qingxia launching the palace coup should have been beyond everyone’s expectations…”
“Everyone feels surprised because they can’t understand why Lu Qingxia would strike at this time. But think about what kind of situation would result if Lu Qingxia’s palace coup succeeded. Setting other matters aside for now, wouldn’t Han Qian’s deployment of troops to Hehuai be completely ruined?” Wang Wenqian asked.
Yin Peng gripped the reins, letting the horse follow its own course as he fell into deep thought.
Wang Wenqian said: “Think about it—at this moment, who most fears Tangyi’s elite troops heading north?”
“In principle, Xu Mingzhen most fears Tangyi’s forces heading north. After all, when Tangyi’s forces go north, the first target would be attacking Xu Mingzhen. If Han Qian doesn’t attack Xu Mingzhen, Hehuai will remain deadlocked,” Yin Peng said. “But Xu Mingzhen shouldn’t have the capability to influence Lu Qingxia, should he?”
Wang Wenqian said: “Besides Xu Mingzhen, those who truly fear Tangyi’s full involvement in the Hehuai campaign at this time are actually the Mongols. After all, if Tangyi’s forces head north now, they still might disrupt their plan to completely eliminate Emperor Liang Zhu Yu and give the Liang forces a chance to recover. Although there are many things we don’t know clearly, looking at the current situation, only the Divine Mausoleum Bureau and the northern refugee aristocrats who have submitted to the Mongols have the capability and means to make Lu Qingxia launch such a hasty, abnormal palace coup. Previously when Zhou Yuan and Yao Xishui came to Chuzhou, weren’t they openly and covertly trying to incite Huaidong to drag Tangyi down together with them? Han Qian was indeed previously caught in the dilemma of urgently wanting to deploy troops to Hehuai but unable to ignore the worries at his rear. But at this moment, think about it—hasn’t the situation become completely favorable for Han Qian to deploy troops to Hehuai? By letting Lu Qingxia and her group flee west by water, Han Qian probably also doesn’t want to see Li Zhigao, Chai Jian, and the others with no way out, finally forced like cornered dogs to submit to the Mongols. Otherwise, could Han Qian have only thought to intercept Lu Qingxia from downstream but not thought to intercept from upstream?”
“…” Yin Peng stood stunned and speechless for a long while.
Wang Wenqian said: “Those suggestions I just made might in the future promote reconciliation between Huaidong and the court, forming a situation where they jointly suppress Tangyi. But at least for now, they’ll more readily allow Han Qian to deploy troops to Hehuai without rear concerns. As for establishing a Crown Prince Brother—in fact, the new emperor is only six years old and cannot possibly marry and have children within ten years. Third Prince Yang Ye is naturally the first heir to the throne within ten years. The biggest difference whether or not to establish a Crown Prince Brother will only make Empress Dowager Wang feel even more isolated and helpless…”
“My lord means that Empress Dowager Wang, isolated and helpless, can only find balance between the aristocratic clans reconciling with Huaidong and the Tangyi regional command?” Yin Peng came to some realization. “So what you said just now is actually beneficial to Han Qian and the young miss?”
“Whether I speak or not might make no difference to Tangyi. Shen Yang, His Highness, and the others will eventually come to their senses anyway. But Han Qian and Jun’er surely won’t think that I still can’t see through their strategy at this point,” Wang Wenqian said with a slight smile. “Of course, if His Highness can truly be receptive to good advice, it would still bring some benefits to the Wang family. Once this matter is settled, I’ll resign my official position, find a place with green mountains and clear waters to establish an academy to finish out my remaining years. What do you plan to do?”
“…” Yin Peng patted his head. “I was just thinking the young miss would blame you when she learned of today’s events—I haven’t even thought that far ahead yet! If my lord resigns to establish an academy, Yin Peng will naturally run errands for you before and after.”
The Wang clan had moved into Yangzhou in the late period of the Jinling rebellion. As long as the Huaidong principality wasn’t abolished for even a single day, they would remain subjects of Huaidong for that day.
But once Huaidong’s feudal authority was reduced and governance of Huaidong’s prefectures and counties returned to the court, prefecture and county officials would all need to accept appointments from Jinling. Wang Yuan and other Wang clan members primarily served as civil officials in Huaidong—none held military posts. Going forward, even if they didn’t resign, they would only need to serve the court, not Prince Xin.
This meant the Wang clan had actually broken free from Huaidong.
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Yang Yuanpu’s coffin rested in the great hall of Chongwen Palace, surrounded by brightly burning candles.
Feng Yi approached and looked at Yang Yuanpu’s corpse in the half-covered coffin. Dehydrated and sunken, the gray-blue face made it completely impossible to imagine what he had been thinking at his final moment.
Besides palace eunuchs, female officials, and officials from the Imperial Clan Court and Ministry of Rites keeping watch by the coffin, twenty or thirty members of the imperial clan were also keeping vigil in the great hall.
During the Jinling rebellion, the vast majority of imperial clan members had been forced to cross the river. Even Yang En had only escaped while crossing the river, but more people had been sent to Bianjing as hostages after Xu Mingzhen submitted to Liang. This even included Du Chongtao’s wife Princess Deqing Yang Wenli, his young son Du Lü, and two daughters.
After Du Chongtao was transferred to Jinling, he had never received important appointments—this was one reason.
Only after the Liang-Chu peace agreement were the abducted imperial clan members returned to Jinling, except for Empress Xu, Duke Chu Yang Fen, and imperial clan members who had directly participated in the rebellion and remained in Bianjing. This included Princess Deqing and Du Chongtao’s three children.
However, except for a very few, most imperial clan members who returned to Jinling were disliked by Emperor Yanyou and never regained their former prominent status and privileges.
Besides needing imperial clan members to keep vigil during the great mourning, since the ministers had decided to change the Inner Attendant Bureau into the Inner Attendant Office and wanted to use imperial clan ministers to oversee inner court affairs, Yang En still needed to select a few virtuous and respected assistants from the imperial clan.
Princess Deqing was among them.
Strictly speaking, Du Chongtao was the biggest winner of this palace coup. Not only did Du Shoutao assume command of the Imperial Guard, but the guard commanders currently leading soldiers to stand watch at Chongwen Palace and Chongyang Gate were Du Chongtao’s recently promoted eldest son Du Tao and Zhou Bingwu’s son Zhou Nan.
Princess Deqing was in the great hall leading a group of palace eunuchs and palace maids who had undergone preliminary screening and been confirmed reliable in arranging the great mourning.
The Empress Dowagers of Changxin Palace and Mingcheng Palace should also accompany the new emperor and Third Prince in keeping vigil in the great hall, but having experienced two days and nights of terror, they were haggard and utterly exhausted. The ministers had persuaded them to temporarily return to their palaces to rest first.
Changxin Palace and Mingcheng Palace each now had two participating ministers, one elder from the imperial clan, and several court ladies ready to attend to their needs at any time.
Han Daoming and Zhang Chao guarded Changxin Palace, while Zheng Yu and Zhou Bingwu guarded Mingcheng Palace. All four ministers were in their sixties, and accompanied by a group of court ladies and clan women, there was nothing to avoid. But Feng Yi obviously had no opportunity to pay respects to the Two Empress Dowagers at this moment. He could only run to the great hall under the accompaniment of Ministry of Rites officials to pay respects to Yang Yuanpu’s remains.
At this moment, Feng Yi was filled with countless emotions. Recalling the carefree days at Marquis Linjiang’s mansion bit by bit, he never imagined that in the blink of an eye twelve or thirteen years would pass in an instant. He wanted to compose something poetic but found it tediously meaningless.
Feng Yi walked out of the great hall and saw Qin Wen hurrying over from the direction of Chongyang Gate. He called out to stop him, walked over and asked:
“Lord Qin is running over in such a hurry—is there fresh news?”
“Prime Minister Shen isn’t in the great hall?” Qin Wen walked under the corridor and poked his head inside to look, answering his own question: “If Prime Minister Shen isn’t here, he should be at Changxin Palace at this time…”
As Qin Wen turned to leave, he lowered his voice and quickly said to Feng Yi: “When His Majesty was assassinated, besides Chen Ruyi, there were four mid-to-high-ranking palace eunuchs and two female officials by his side. They were once detained for interrogation. Before Lu Qingxia fled, she sent people to silence them, but they acted too hastily—they killed five of them, but one palace eunuch was severely wounded but not dead, still had a breath left. He was previously sent to the Imperial Physicians Bureau for emergency treatment. Marquis Yang temporarily transferred over a dozen interrogators from the Censorate. They should have extracted some information from his mouth by now. Sending someone to find Prime Minister Shen to discuss matters—they must have something to report…”
“I just saw Prime Minister Shen at the Government Affairs Hall. He might truly have gone to Changxin Palace to see the Empress Dowager now,” Feng Yi said with a shrug.
Now that the overall situation was settled, even if Lu Qingxia revealed all the secrets, no one would create complications at this time. Tangyi wasn’t worried about what earth-shattering secrets this critically wounded palace eunuch who hadn’t died could reveal.
Besides, regarding some matters, Shen Yang, Yang Zhitang, Yang En, and the others would eventually come to their senses, but that was just how it was.
Yang Yuanpu had indeed died at Lu Qingxia’s hands, and this palace coup had indeed been instigated by Lu Qingxia—could they possibly blame Tangyi?
Of course, Qin Wen rushing over to inform them also hoped to communicate with him and Han Daoming so they’d have mental preparation.
Qin Wen ran to Changxin Palace, found Shen Yang, and together they rushed to the Imperial Physicians Bureau, where he saw that besides Yang En, Censorate Vice Director Zheng Chang and Yang Zhitang were also there. Yang En had insisted on not establishing private palace prisons and advocated for full Censorate involvement in thoroughly investigating the palace coup—this was why Zheng Chang was here.
After questioning the physicians conducting the rescue and the interrogators in charge, Shen Yang learned that this palace eunuch from Chongwen Palace who had luckily survived with a breath and hadn’t been silenced had been rescued after half a day’s effort. They had only been able to question him intermittently for the time it takes to burn a stick of incense before he finally couldn’t hold on and died.
“Did you extract anything?” Shen Yang asked with furrowed brows.
“Chen Ruyi was indeed Lu Qingxia’s person. Nearly half of the palace attendants and female officials serving in Chongwen Palace were planted there by Chen Ruyi on Lu Qingxia’s instructions. His Majesty was actually stabbed to death directly from behind by Chen Ruyi. After His Majesty died, Chen Ruyi and the others brought an assassin into the great hall, fabricating the appearance that he had been jointly counterattacked and killed by everyone. The Empress Dowager was deceived and didn’t directly order His Majesty’s assassination—only after His Majesty died was she forced to accept Lu Qingxia’s control…” Zheng Chang held the interrogation record in his hands, but since the record was lengthy and complex, he picked out the essential points to relate to Shen Yang.
“…” Shen Yang stood stunned for a while, not knowing what His Majesty felt when he saw the favored eunuch he trusted most in life come at him with a blade, or perhaps His Majesty never even saw who stabbed him from behind before he expired?
“Is there anything else?” Shen Yang took the interrogation record from Zheng Chang’s hands, casually flipping through it as he asked.
Zheng Chang said: “For other matters, please see the record, Prime Minister Shen…”
With no outsiders present yet Zheng Chang being so mysterious, Qin Wen guessed that the palace eunuch’s deathbed revelations should concern Han Jun’s illicit affair with Empress Dowager Wang Chan’er that produced a child.
Besides Lu Qingxia, Yao Xishui, Chun Shisanniang, and others, this matter couldn’t possibly be hidden from the close eunuchs and female officials serving by Empress Dowager Wang Chan’er’s side.
Very few should know the secret of Li Zhigao’s parentage. However, with Lu Qingxia currently fleeing west along the Yangtze to Xiangbei, this secret seemed unimportant now.
After reading through the interrogation record, Shen Yang furrowed his brows for a long time before finally exhaling deeply. He held the interrogation record over a candle flame to ignite it, threw it into a copper basin, and said: “According to the account agreed upon by the ministers at the Government Affairs Hall, recopy a new record and transmit it to the ministers for review…”
Yang Zhitang and Yang En raised no objections. Zheng Chang said to the prison clerk handling the case: “Lu Qingxia colluded with barbarian tribes to assassinate His Majesty and abducted the Empress Dowager to flee to Xiangbei—recopy a record according to this…”
After the two interrogators walked away, Yang Zhitang couldn’t help saying: “Besides secretly transmitting messages to Lord Zhang Ping and Lord Jiang Huo, there are several fire sites in the palace that are quite suspicious and don’t seem to have been set by the Huang family’s people in secret. Prime Minister Shen, will you truly not investigate further?”
Shen Yang remained silent without speaking. Yang Zhitang looked at Yang En and asked: “Uncle Hou, what do you think?”
“Great Chu ultimately was fortunate enough to avoid a bloody great chaos and didn’t cause hundreds of thousands more to die in warfare. Isn’t that enough?” Yang En asked in return.
Yang Zhitang was silenced by Yang En’s question.
Shen Yang exhaled deeply, as if finally making up his mind with difficulty: “We won’t investigate further. The Empress Dowager is a sensible person. Even if there was a possibility of bewitchment, she ultimately won’t fail to rely on us old ministers who are utterly loyal to Great Chu’s rivers, mountains, and state. We’ll discuss other matters after Zhang Xian returns from Chuzhou…”
“Does my lord mean Yun Puzi might be Tangyi’s person, and during the palace coup Princess Qingyang was intentionally brought into the Imperial Secretariat by Yun Puzi?” At this moment, Qin Wen also knew that Zhang Ping and Jiang Huo’s resolute request to resign had ultimately caused Shen Yang and the others deep suspicion. For his own deeper infiltration, he could only first expose Yun Puzi. In any case, Yun Puzi’s position was relatively independent—even if he had now joined forces with the Han Mansion, it wouldn’t cause any hindrance.
Shen Yang nodded, indicating he indeed had such suspicions.
Qin Wen kept his mouth shut and said nothing more.
Shen Yang had Qin Wen remain at the Imperial Physicians Bureau to wait for the new version of the record to be copied and confirm there were no omissions before circulating it to the participating ministers and the Two Empress Dowagers. This involved the subsequent righteousness of suppressing rebellion and installing the emperor—Shen Yang didn’t dare be careless, so he had Qin Wen stay here to supervise.
Yang En, Yang Zhitang, and Zheng Chang also had too many matters to attend to and successively left the Imperial Physicians Bureau. Qin Wen walked to the morgue to glance at the critically wounded palace eunuch who had died, then went to the outer chamber to see the two Censorate interrogators bent over their desks recopying the record. No one else was present.
After the interrogation record was copied and the two interrogators signed and sealed it, Qin Wen picked it up and was about to leave when one interrogator said: “Besides the content copied in the record, this Chen Ruyi loyalist before dying also confessed about the Empress Dowager’s illicit affair with the Han Mansion’s eldest son that produced a child, as well as the matter of following Chen Ruyi to kill Shang Wensheng at Shangjia Fort to silence him and frame Han Donghu and Su Lie back then…”
Qin Wen was slightly stunned. He fixed his gaze on the two interrogators, seeing they were around forty years old with hair already showing some frost-white at the temples.
“Minor officials Zhou Chang and Zhang De both once served as clerks at Jinyun Tower but weren’t selected by Chen Ruyi to enter the Jinyun Bureau. We’ve been serving as clerks in the Censorate all these years. Lord Feng instructed that if there were any urgent matters, we could report them to Lord Qin,” the interrogator said.
Qin Wen lightly slapped his forehead and laughed, picked up the record and walked out…
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Dahong Mountain, located on the southern side of Tongbai Mountain, was a remnant range of the Huaiyang Mountains, also known as Lülin Mountain. Liu Xiu of the Eastern Han had risen to prominence here. Its mountains echoed Tongbai Mountain from north to south, stretching hundreds of li across Jingzhou and Suizhou territory, forming a barrier protecting Xiangbei from the southeast direction.
Jingzhou’s administrative city Changshou and Suizhou’s administrative city Suiyang were located respectively at the western and northeastern foothills of Dahong Mountain. They were necessary passages for advancing into Xiangbei from east of the Han River and north of the Yangtze. In terms of importance, Jingzhou’s administrative city Changshou, controlling the eastern bank of the Han River, was more prominent than Suiyang.
Jingzhou’s administrative city Changchun had long been in disrepair. In the thirteenth year of Tianyou, the four gate towers were destroyed by warfare and collapsed. Only after the Jingxiang campaign did the prefecture office allocate money and grain to repair the walls and towers. It dragged on until the fourth year of Yanyou before Jingzhou city was completely renovated, standing between Dahong Mountain and the Han River. Together with Jingmen on the western bank of the Han River, they were the gateway passages for entering the Xiangying valley and Nanyang basin from south to north along the Han River and its flanks.
When Li Zhigao received reliable word that his adoptive father Li Pu had used his parentage secret to coerce Lu Qingxia into launching the palace coup, it was already the day of the coup. No matter how anxiously he jumped, it was useless.
Since he couldn’t seal his adoptive father Li Pu’s mouth nor stop Lu Qingxia from launching the palace coup, Li Zhigao in Xiangbei could only make emergency deployments according to the worst-case scenario.
Besides transferring Li Qi to guard Wuguan Pass and summoning Chai Jian to his side under the pretext of discussions, Li Zhigao also immediately and urgently replaced the garrison commanders of Jingmen, Changchun, Suiyang, and other cities, all with direct loyalists. He comprehensively blocked communication routes through Dahong Mountain, Wujing Pass, and Jingmen.
This way, even if the palace coup failed, he might still temporarily control the information from spreading to Jing and Sui prefectures, possibly buying extremely precious response time.
In such a short time, it was difficult to comprehensively adjust Xiangbei Army’s military deployment, which was weighted toward the northwest but light in the southeast. Li Zhigao could only gather small numbers of direct cavalry, infantry, and small numbers of naval forces to Jingzhou’s administrative city Changshou at the fastest speed.
Whether the palace coup failed or fell into stalemate, he wouldn’t be completely helpless like a caged beast.
On the afternoon of the twenty-eighth day of the seventh month, under the no-longer-scorching sun, over a dozen battered official vessels appeared on the turbid Han River within the field of vision of Jingzhou city’s garrison forces. Dozens of pursuing warships behind them perhaps detected over a hundred naval warships standing guard in the river channel upstream on the Han River. At this point they abandoned pursuit and turned to withdraw downstream on the Han River.
At this moment, no one on Jingzhou’s city walls cheered. They only watched quietly and oppressively as the dozen or so official vessels, guided by patrol boats, docked at the wharf outside Jingzhou city.
At this point, it was already the ninth day since the palace coup. The rebel-suppression proclamation issued from Jinling had been transmitted to Huangzhou and Ezhou five days ago. These two prefectures had immediately ordered their counties to cut off contact with Xiangbei prefectures, gather local militia to strengthen defense of various cities and forts, and blockade water and land communications with Jing and Sui regions.
Li Zhigao could currently only temporarily prevent information from spreading further north from Jingzhou, but couldn’t control information from entering cities like Jingzhou, Suiyang, and Jingmen that neighbored Huangzhou, Ezhou, and Jingzhou.
Fortunately, Li Zhigao had timely replaced the garrison commanders of Jingzhou, Suiyang, and Jingmen with direct loyalists, and had also transferred in some soldiers whose families were all in Deng and Jun regions to garrison them. This prevented the situation in these three cities from suddenly falling into panic—the situation was barely within their control.
However, no one at this moment felt the situation was favorable to Xiangbei. Nor did anyone believe that when the court deployed Zhang Xiang’s Right Wuwei Army and forces from Hunan, Jiangxi, Huang, and E prefectures to jointly suppress them with the even more powerful Tangyi forces, they would truly have the capability to hold Xiang, Jing, Sui, Deng, Jun, Liang, and other prefectures…