“Your Majesty, the imperial physician has arrived. Why not let the imperial physician examine you first?” Gao Demao said in a low voice.
The emperor painfully covered his head, extending his hand toward Gao Demao to signal for another ice-cold handkerchief, but didn’t say to let the imperial physician in: “From last year to this year, this Dengwen Drum has never stopped! From Emperor Gaozu to Father Emperor combined, they didn’t have as many drum beatings as these past few months! What… are they trying to use the Dengwen Drum to let me know I’m a foolish ruler?!”
Lu Jin quickly knelt and bowed: “The students have no such thoughts! Your Majesty, please calm your anger!”
“Calm my anger?! Where do I still dare to be angry?” The emperor snatched the ice handkerchief from Gao Demao’s hand and pressed it to his head, closing his eyes with his chest heaving violently. “Death remonstration is false, deliberately embarrassing me is true! They’re stepping on my face… using it as a stepping stone for their empty reputation! Having the censors write me up as a foolish ruler like King Zhou of Shang!”
The emperor couldn’t bear the headache, and for a moment, his rage attacked his heart, causing him to fall rigidly backward onto the soft couch.
“Your Majesty!”
“Your Majesty!”
The great hall erupted in chaos. Gao Demao supported the emperor while his shrill voice called out loudly: “Imperial physician! Quick! Imperial physician!”
Inside the palace, the emperor had fainted from anger.
Outside the palace, the Imperial Academy students all sat cross-legged outside Wude Gate. The students had shouted themselves to exhaustion, with only a scattered few hoarsely chanting in unison…
“Powerful ministers cover the sky with one hand, the people have no recourse for grievances, and noble families protect and collude with each other. We beg Your Majesty to severely punish the killer! Severely punish the brutal perpetrator to uphold Jin’s reputation for the benevolence of the strong.”
One sentence encompassed both Lu Yuanpeng and Bai Qingyan.
“Everyone! Everyone…” the Crown Prince called out loudly. “The Court of Judicial Review has taken over this case. At this moment, the coroner is examining the body. As long as it’s confirmed that Lin Xin’an died from serious injuries inflicted by Lu Yuanpeng, I will not cover it up! Moreover, the coroner examining the body this time is personally led by Liu Sanjin, the most virtuous senior coroner in the capital. Please rest assured, everyone.”
Liu Sanjin’s upright character was famously known. He spoke based on corpses and never avoided the powerful and noble. Many major cases had been solved in Liu Sanjin’s hands. When the old case of Censor Jian Congwen was retried years ago, Consort Tong’s father tried to bribe Liu Sanjin with a hundred gold pieces, but Liu Sanjin directly handed the gold over to the Court of Judicial Review.
This incident had made Liu Sanjin famous at the time.
When the Imperial Academy students heard it was Liu Sanjin examining the body, they looked at each other and nodded one after another.
“We’ll stay here to accompany Brother Lin’s mother and wait for the results!” several spirited students said.
Someone else asked: “How will Your Majesty and His Highness the Crown Prince deal with Bai Qingyan? Brother Lin’s death… cannot be separated from Bai Qingyan. She unauthorized killed prisoners of war, making all nations view our Jin as a brutal wolf-like Kingdom. Bai Qingyan has damaged Jin’s reputation for benevolence and is a traitor to the Kingdom! Yet Your Majesty still enfeoffed Bai Qingyan as a county princess? We refuse to accept this! We beg Your Majesty to severely punish this traitor!”
“You can’t say it like that. We only came to seek justice for Brother Lin!” A student frowned in disagreement. “We didn’t come to ask Your Majesty to punish Duke Zhenguo’s County Princess. No matter how you put it, Duke Zhenguo’s County Princess was protecting the Kingdom. If she hadn’t killed the prisoners when winning with fewer against many, it would be our Jin people being slaughtered by the Xiliang now!”
“Have you forgotten that Wei person’s speech at Fanque Tower? Our Jin has already become notorious among all nations because of this! As Brother Lin said, Bai Qingyan killed one hundred thousand Xiliang prisoners, so in the future, all nations will kill one hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, three hundred thousand, four hundred thousand… or even more of our Jin people! Since ancient times, gentlemen establish themselves in the world through virtue, wise rulers establish their countries through benevolence, and great nations benefit all nations through great benevolence. Our Jin has dominated all nations for decades and has always been a model for all nations. If all nations imitate this burning and killing of prisoners, the human world will become a purgatory.”
“Then why didn’t you use your virtue to repel the Xiliang army at that time?”
The Crown Prince watched as the students began arguing among themselves instead of giving him a chance to speak for Bai Qingyan. He could only stand aside and watch quietly.
Suddenly, a small eunuch secretly emerged from within Wude Gate and whispered about the emperor’s fainting in the Crown Prince’s ear. The Crown Prince’s scalp tightened, and he quickly followed the small eunuch back into the palace.
·
The next morning at the hour of the rabbit, as soon as Bai Qingyan stepped out, she heard that Old Master Guan Yongchong’s carriage had entered from outside the city and was heading toward Wude Gate.
When Bai Jinzhi, who was accompanying Bai Qingyan to the clan gathering, heard this, her hand gripping the reins tightened as she turned to look at Bai Qingyan: “Elder Sister…”
Old Master Guan Yongchong was Bai Qingyan’s teacher, a contemporary great scholar who could be mentioned alongside Cui Shiyan.
The core ideas of Confucianism were benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness.
As a great contemporary Confucian scholar, Bai Jinzhi worried that Old Master Guan Yongchong couldn’t accept Elder Sister’s burning and killing of prisoners. If even Elder Sister’s teacher thought Elder Sister was wrong, then Elder Sister would truly have no hope of vindication.
Those great Confucian scholars and students were far from the battlefield—how could they know the cruelty of war, where it’s either you kill me or I kill you!
Bai Qingyan leaped onto her horse and said: “Let’s go see…”
When Bai Qingyan arrived, Old Master Guan Yongchong’s carriage had stopped outside Wude Gate. The Imperial Academy students, knowing that Old Master Guan Yongchong had come and thinking he was there to support their cause, went forward to greet him, properly performing their respects: “Old Master Guan… how did we trouble Old Master Guan to come personally?”
With the help of his family servants, Old Master Guan Yongchong bent down to get off the four-cornered carriage hung with bright lanterns. His gentle gaze swept over the excited Confucian students holding lanterns as he spoke: “I heard that Imperial Academy students were outside Wude Gate, forcing Your Majesty to severely punish Chancellor Lu’s grandson and my direct disciple Bai Qingyan, so I came to take a look.”
The faces of the Imperial Academy students changed repeatedly—Bai Qingyan was Old Master Guan’s direct disciple?!
But Bai Qingyan was a woman!
“I have long heard about the matter of killing one hundred thousand Xiliang prisoners at Wengshan Gorge! Just now, I heard students say that gentlemen establish themselves in the world through virtue, wise rulers establish their countries through benevolence, and great nations benefit all nations through great benevolence. I deeply agree!”
Hearing Old Master Guan Yongchong say this, the student who had just spoken these words quickly bowed deeply to Old Master Guan Yongchong, showing a smug expression.
But Old Master Guan Yongchong’s tone shifted: “However… when Xiliang invaded, our Jin’s most valiant Bai family army of several hundred thousand fell into a conspiracy and were all killed. Jin’s Tianmen Pass was broken, the gates were wide open, and the people’s hearts were in panic! Jin was no match for Xiliang and retreated step by step—how dare we claim to be a great nation? We should reflect on ourselves and ask why Jin has turned from prosperity to decline.”
Old Master Guan Yongchong’s voice was steady and resonant like a bell: “Benefiting all nations through benevolence is not wrong, but you must not forget that the sage said… ‘When poor, perfect oneself; when successful, benefit the world!’ When Jin’s people are suffering and can barely take care of themselves, how can we benefit the world and show benevolence to all nations? The battle at Wengshan Gorge, though it was using war to stop war, was also a forced response to battle. Otherwise… she, as a woman who was severely injured and had lost all her martial arts, could have stayed in this capital city, perfected herself alone, and avoided the chaos of war.”