Chen Kingdom, Zhaohua Palace.

The rain that had been falling continuously since the beginning of autumn stopped at dusk. Water droplets dripped down from the iron wind chimes under the eaves, and scattered withered leaves soaked in the rainwater that had accumulated on the blue stone floor tiles. A pair of brocade boots hurriedly stepped past, causing the reflection of the gray, hazy palace buildings in the puddles to ripple and wrinkle in circles.

Zhao Bai entered with a letter report in hand: “Princess, a letter has arrived from Liang territory.”

Wen Yu looked up from the desk piled high with several stacks of memorials. The lattice windows behind the long desk were wide open, revealing the courtyard behind the inner hall, where the drooping rice ears had already turned golden yellow, with only the rice leaves still showing hints of green.

She set down her brush and received the letter Zhao Bai handed over. As she lowered her gaze, her long lashes slightly covered her eyes, like a phoenix bird looking down, though revealing a faint weariness. After reading the letter, her brow relaxed slightly as she said: “Lord Chen and General Fan have already captured Yongzhou.”

Although she was nearly nine months pregnant, her appearance looked much the same as before, and even seemed more defined as her features had fully matured and her bone structure became more prominent. Now, even without makeup, her cool and beautiful face revealed a sharp dignity that made others dare not look directly at her.

Zhao Bai said: “After taking Yongzhou, they’ll continue north, and soon they’ll be able to recapture Luodu and Fengyang. This is good news.”

Wen Yu’s gaze fell on the latter half of the letter, her eyes slightly focused, as she said: “It seems quite a few things have happened in Northern Wei recently as well.”

Zhao Bai showed a puzzled expression. Wen Yu passed the letter report over, and after Zhao Bai finished reading, she said: “The former Jin princess that Northern Wei had installed, together with Wei Qishan’s wife, died in a fire while staying at a mountain temple when the meditation hall caught fire?”

She frowned, then said: “This matter is somewhat suspicious, but for us, it’s not necessarily a bad thing.”

Without the former Jin princess as a pretext on the Northern Wei side, their claim to restore Jin could no longer stand.

In the future, after finishing with Pei Song, if they were to face them, they would ultimately be rebellious subjects and usurpers.

Tongque, who was attending at Wen Yu’s side, leaned her head over to look at the letter together with Zhao Bai, then stated with certainty: “This must be another scheme by that traitor Pei Song to cause internal strife in Northern Wei!”

Zhao Bai looked sideways: “What makes you say that? There’s the precedent of Pei’s camp agents killing Wei Pingjin’s siblings and framing that man surnamed Xiao. If he repeated the same trick, but this time there’s no incriminating evidence pointing to that man surnamed Xiao, wouldn’t that be indirectly helping that man surnamed Xiao completely unify Northern Wei?”

The man surnamed Xiao she spoke of was naturally Xiao Li.

Tongque wrinkled her delicate nose: “I think that Pei Song is now being forced into repeated retreats by the pincer attack from north and south. According to what this letter says, the righteous army under Xiao… Xiao Jun’s command had an extremely fierce momentum in their southern campaign earlier, recapturing all the northern cities that General Wei Yuan Fang had abandoned and Pei Song had reoccupied, taking them one by one for himself. With Pei Song having a blade at both ends, he must be extremely uncomfortable.”

She hesitated briefly, still reluctant to call Xiao Li by name directly, and used the respectful title that common people and various factions currently used for Xiao Li.

“His current breathing room still exists because Xiling finally couldn’t restrain itself and began invading Chen Kingdom’s western border. The Princess now has to divide Chen Kingdom’s forces to counter Xiling, and the northern border has been thrown into chaos by the Rongque barbarian tribes. Looking at how Wei’s camp has been desperately begging Xiao Jun to return, if Xiao Jun really does return to the northern border, I imagine there won’t be anything left for that fake princess and the Wei clan afterward. Once all of Northern Wei is reorganized under him, Pei Song’s days will only become harder. So why not just go all out—kill that fake princess and Lady Wei, and however much suspicion it can stir among the Wei clan’s officials and generals toward Xiao Jun, that’s all profit!”

After listening, Zhao Bai gave a slight nod: “According to what you say, it’s not impossible.”

The two looked toward Wen Yu. Wen Yu’s expression remained extremely calm as she only said: “This scheme hasn’t created any public opinion among the people. Whether or not it’s Pei Song’s doing is no longer important.”

Her gaze fell back to the spread-out map on the desk, locking onto the location of Ezhou among the densely marked cities: “Send a message to Lord Chen and General Fan that there’s no rush to continue pushing north right now. Pei Song is best at severing limbs to survive. Once the heartland of Guanzhong becomes inevitably lost, he will certainly abandon the Guanzhong region and lead his troops west to escape.”

Zhao Bai said: “Do we want to cut off Pei Song’s westward escape route first? I’m just afraid that if Pei Song becomes aware, he’ll take precautions.”

Wen Yu’s eyes were calm and peaceful: “Then we’ll openly repair the plank roads while secretly crossing at Chencang.”

Both Zhao Bai and Tongque were stunned and were about to ask more when an Azure Cloud Guard entered from outside the hall to report: “Princess, Miss Yang has arrived.”

Wen Yu’s cousin Yang Baolin came from the scholarly Yang clan, had been well-read in poetry and books since childhood, and was one of the female officials from Liang Kingdom selected and sent to Chen territory.

Since employing female officials was something Wen Yu had only proposed in the spring, and after establishing the women’s examinations, the appointment process through the Ministry of Finance required waiting until after the autumn examinations this year and the spring examinations next year were completed before official positions could be granted, the palace servants still addressed the female officials currently residing in Zhaoyun Pavilion as “young ladies from various households.”

Wen Yu guessed that Yang Baolin’s visit at this time must mean something had come up at Zhaoyun Pavilion, and said to the Azure Cloud Guard: “Grant audience.”

Since she was now heavily pregnant, aside from memorials concerning military and political matters which were sent directly to her, other memorials were reviewed by Zhaoyun Pavilion before being reported to her.

Shortly after, Yang Baolin entered the hall with a somewhat grave expression. After bowing to Wen Yu, she said: “Princess, the court officials led by the Remonstrance Official have memorialized that Chen Kingdom’s warfare continues without rest, military expenditures are enormous, and the Ministry of Finance’s disbursements have become extremely difficult. After this year’s autumn harvest, once the grain is allocated to the western border army, there will be no way to send the outstanding one million five hundred thousand shi of grain to Liang territory. They hope Your Highness will grant permission to make up this shipment of grain after next year’s harvest instead.”

Wen Yu had not yet spoken, but displeasure already appeared on both Zhao Bai and Tongque’s faces.

Zhao Bai exclaimed: “Absurd! After the Jiang family fell, the embezzled wealth seized from their numerous party members long ago made up the treasury’s deficit. After the Princess revised the laws to allow Chen Kingdom to conduct trade with our Great Liang and surrounding small nations, Chen Kingdom’s income over these past six months has been quite substantial. Where does the Ministry of Finance get off claiming disbursement difficulties? With civilian labor taxes reduced and common people opening up wasteland during spring plowing, plus this year’s good rainfall with no drought or flood disasters, this is a rare year of abundance. Where do they get the face to say they can’t gather this shipment of grain? Or are they saying that no one in the entire court knows how much millet a mu of good farmland can produce?”

Yang Baolin lowered her eyes and said: “The Remonstrance Official and others used the tax grain that various prefectures have been able to collect over the years to make estimates, and also said that the Princess had only just issued the decree to reduce and exempt labor taxes during spring plowing. If this military grain were to be forcibly collected from the common people, they fear it would damage the Princess’s dignity in the hearts of the people.”

Zhao Bai immediately understood the stakes involved, her displeasure growing even stronger. But Wen Yu only said with utmost calm: “This palace is aware. Cousin Baolin, you may return first.”

Yang Baolin performed a shallow curtsy and withdrew.

Wen Yu rose with Tongque’s supporting hand. Tongque carefully helped Wen Yu up, but still couldn’t help saying indignantly: “Princess, are the Chen Kingdom court officials trying to renege on the one million five hundred thousand shi of military grain still owed to us? Why not dispatch inspectors to the various prefectures to supervise and see what tricks they can pull with the tax grain!”

The three million shi of grain as dowry was something Grand Empress Dowager Jiang had originally agreed to on behalf of the Prince of Chen.

But because Chen Kingdom couldn’t produce so much grain last year, only one million five hundred thousand shi were sent to Chen territory, with a promise that the remaining one million five hundred thousand shi would be made up this year.

Who would have expected that when autumn harvest arrived, this situation would arise?

The master and two servants had already stepped out of the inner hall. Wen Yu reached out to grasp the rice ears in the courtyard whose stalks had been bent slightly by their weight, and said: “How much farmland truly belongs to the common people? That the Censorate could let this memorial be submitted means it concerns the interests of the majority of officials at court.”

Tongque was somewhat confused.

Zhao Bai, having been at the princely manor before, knew about the arrangements for collecting tax grain in various prefectures that Prince Changlian and his son had uncovered when petitioning for the people. Suppressing her disgust for those people in official circles, she explained: “The vast majority of farmland belongs to those great clans and aristocratic families. Even if it’s not under their own names and has been appropriated by local gentry, they still have to pay tribute money to them. A mu of good farmland can produce two shi of millet, but the local gentry falsely report it as only one shi, the county office records it as one shi, and the common people, under pressure from both the gentry and officials, also claim they only produced one shi of grain. When inspectors go to the prefectures to investigate, what can they discover?”

Unless the common people were pushed to the point of having absolutely no way to survive, who would dare risk offending the local gentry and officials to stand up and tell the truth?

This unreported shi of rice would then be divided up by the local gentry and officials at every level.

After hearing this, Tongque didn’t know for a moment whether to be angry or sorrowful, and cursed: “Those dog officials! Growing fat on the people’s lifeblood, then turning around wanting to make the Princess bear this infamy?”

When the Jiang family had dominated the court, corruption had already run rampant.

Among the court officials, aside from those who were truly upright and incorruptible, few had clean hands—it was just a matter of how much they embezzled.

But to dismiss and replace all these people at this time of internal troubles and external threats would be like draining all the blood from one’s body to cure a stubborn disease—the result would only be that before the disease was cured, the person would have already lost their life.

Therefore, Wen Yu could only proceed gradually, step by step slowly cultivating her own forces, bringing in sons of humble families, and dismantling the power held by these aristocratic clans.

After venting her anger, Tongque couldn’t help but look at Wen Yu somewhat discouraged: “Princess, what should we do? Change it to next year to demand that one million five hundred thousand shi of military grain?”

That net laid down layer upon layer to scrape up the people’s lifeblood—to uproot it completely would be no easy task.

Over this past year, Wen Yu had already moved against too many people’s interests at court, and she was about to give birth. If she were to carry out drastic reforms again, now would probably not be the right time.

Wen Yu slowly rubbed open the golden grain husks, gazing at the lustrous white rice in her palm, her eyes cool: “Someone is testing this palace’s attitude.”

Under Zhao Bai and Tongque’s puzzled gazes, she said calmly: “Summon Lord Qi for me.”

—

When Qi Simiao, dressed in court robes, entered the imperial study, he only glimpsed a dignified and imposing blurred silhouette behind the pearl curtain that hung down to the steps.

He dared not look further, lowered his gaze, and bowed down with cupped hands, saying: “This old minister pays respects to the Princess.”

From behind the curtain came Wen Yu’s calm voice: “Lord Qi, please rise.”

Qi Simiao straightened up slightly but still maintained his posture with cupped hands: “This old minister wonders why the Princess has summoned him—what are your orders?”

Wen Yu did not answer but asked: “Over this past half year, how does My Lord think this palace has governed Chen Kingdom?”

Qi Simiao said: “The Princess has rectified the court, made laws clear and strict, rooted out treacherous ministers to secure the interior; mediated clan disputes, been clear in rewards and punishments, wielded both grace and authority to stabilize the exterior; and furthermore greatly promoted commerce, reduced and exempted labor taxes, showing compassion for the people’s livelihood throughout the realm. To have a wise ruler like the Princess is the fortune of all of Chen Kingdom, high and low.”

“Oh? Then has Lord Qi seen this memorial?”

Tongque, standing by the steps, walked forward and handed a memorial to Qi Simiao.

Qi Simiao hesitated briefly, reached out to receive it, and after hastily scanning through it, knelt down: “This old minister is terrified, this old minister… was unaware of this matter.”

For quite a while, no words came from behind the pearl curtain. Qi Simiao dared not raise his head, but could feel Wen Yu’s gaze falling on the top of his head, carrying a concealed sharpness and scrutiny.

After several breaths, he finally heard her say: “My Lord originally supported this palace for the sake of Chen Kingdom’s ten thousand people. How this palace treats the common people of Chen Kingdom, My Lord has also said you have seen.”

Qi Simiao dared not respond.

Wen Yu seemed to sigh: “When dynasties rise and fall, it is always the common people of the realm who suffer. In this palace’s eyes, the common people of Chen Kingdom are no different from the common people of Liang territory. Pillars of the state like My Lord who think of the common people below are no different from the ministers of my Liang territory. Does My Lord understand?”

Qi Simiao’s gaunt frame kneeling on the ground seemed to tremble, and finally he kowtowed: “This old minister… is ashamed.”

Wen Yu only looked at him calmly: “In the future, Chen Kingdom and my Great Liang will ultimately be unified and once again become the master of this central plain. This palace does not wish for there to be any estrangement between the two territories.”

Qi Simiao said: “This old minister understands.”

Wen Yu said: “At a time when warfare continues at the front lines, there are still people at court who covet those bits of the people’s lifeblood. For Chen Kingdom, this is no different from root-rotting worms. After next year’s spring examinations, there will be another batch of examination candidates entering office, and many of them will need to be sent out to various prefectures to serve as father-and-mother officials to the people. Why doesn’t the court free up some vacant positions and have local officials with outstanding political achievements promoted to return to the capital? What does My Lord think?”

Qi Simiao maintained his posture with both hands pressed to the ground before his forehead: “This old minister obeys the decree.”

—

After Qi Simiao left, Tongque was very confused: “Princess, Lord Qi is an upright minister. Why, knowing that the root of the problem with the autumn grain collection lies with those incompetent wastrels at court, did he still allow this memorial to be submitted before you? Does he also not want to repay the one million five hundred thousand shi of grain owed to us?”