When mixing in official circles, which person could truly achieve absolute integrity without being tainted by anything dirty or foul? It was just that everyone closed their eyes and muddled through. Xu Liang and Jia Yingxin had been in the Imperial Guard for so long and were both old foxes—how could this sort of thing still be dug up on them? Moreover, even if it was dug up, with their capabilities, they had plenty of methods to make those censors shut up—those censors couldn’t all be completely clean either. There were always some incriminating handles that fell into the Imperial Guard’s hands.
Guan Hai had always known that Han Zhi disliked others keeping him in suspense. Taking the tea that Guan Shan handed over, he drank it all in one gulp, wiped his lips, and told him the whole process in one breath: “Zhang Tianshi entered the capital and lodged at Qingxu Abbey. Every year when he enters the capital, His Majesty personally goes to see him to discuss Daoist practices. This year was the same—the Yulin Guard and Jinwu Guard had already jointly created defense deployment maps and had already begun stationing troops at Qingxu Abbey in succession. But just a few days ago, when the Imperial Guard went to cross-check the defense deployment maps with the Jinwu Guard and Yulin Guard, they discovered many people of unknown identity lingering near Qingxu Abbey, which should have been cleared, even disguised as hunters—in this season, even rabbits are rarely seen, so where would there be any game to hunt? The Imperial Guard people immediately became suspicious. They arrested a few people and brought them back for severe interrogation, only then learning that these people were bandits roaming around Henan. They came near Qingxu Abbey because they had bought a map at high price from a courtesan they were familiar with. They heard that there was a wealthy household temporarily staying at Qingxu Abbey with a large amount of jewelry, so they came looking.”
Guan Shan couldn’t help but be shocked first. That meant the defense deployment maps formulated by the Jinwu Guard and Yulin Guard had actually been leaked and sold at high price?! If this were true, then it meant there must be a traitor within either the Jinwu Guard or Yulin Guard, and this matter was far from over—that defense deployment map was used to protect His Majesty’s safety. Now that this map had been deliberately leaked, what was the true purpose of the person who leaked it?!
If the Imperial Guard people hadn’t discovered those suspicious bandits, and if His Majesty’s entourage had truly been alarmed… who knew how many people would be implicated.
Han Zhi also had his brows deeply furrowed. Thinking that Jia Yingxin and Xu Liang usually held great power in the Imperial Guard, his brow twitched as he asked Guan Hai: “Then what does this have to do with Lord Xu and Lord Jia? Wasn’t it their Imperial Guard who discovered this first?”
Since it was the Imperial Guard who discovered it first, then logically Xu Liang and Jia Yingxin should have had sufficient preparation space and time. Even if the people they planted really had made mistakes, according to their capabilities, they should have been able to erase the traces. How could it have caused such a commotion?
Guan Hai had been waiting for him to ask this question. Sighing and clicking his tongue several times, he said: “These two lords were truly unlucky. That courtesan who sold the defense deployment map for two thousand taels of silver was immediately arrested. The Imperial Guard at the time didn’t think the leak came from their own people. They were wholeheartedly thinking of catching someone from the Yulin Guard or Jinwu Guard to claim merit, so they interrogated that young woman in front of the Yulin Guard Commander and Jinwu Guard Commander. That young woman simply couldn’t withstand the torture and quickly confessed, saying this defense deployment map was given to her by a Yulin Guard centurion surnamed Zhao.”
So the traitor truly came from the Yulin Guard. Guan Shan frowned, still somewhat puzzled: “If that’s the case, the Imperial Guard could already arrest the person. With their capabilities, how could the subsequent events still break out?”
But Han Zhi raised his hand to stop Guan Shan from continuing, asking Guan Hai without thinking: “That person surnamed Zhao—is he a descendant of the Jinling Zhao family?”
The Jinling Zhao family had risen by following the Grand Ancestor to conquer the realm. They were also the only family to marry a princess of the Grand Ancestor and peacefully inherit their title generation after generation without causing trouble—a meritorious noble house. The entire family was in Jinling, and Zhao family descendants mostly became companion readers for princes and feudal kings. Among the several military generals that Emperor Jianzhang currently trusted most, there was one named Zhao Yunxia who was now garrisoning Liangguang—he had been Emperor Jianzhang’s companion reader in his youth.
Having found trouble with the Zhao family, the Zhao family would be damned if they were willing to take this fall. Naturally they would raise hell.
Once this commotion started, irregularities were discovered. Centurion Zhao himself was so frightened that he immediately sold out Jia Yingxin and Xu Liang in front of the Imperial Guard Commander and the Yulin Guard and Jinwu Guard Commanders, saying he was arranged into the Yulin Guard by them. He originally didn’t want to enter the Yulin Guard at all, only planning to muddle through with an idle position in a place like the Prefectural Guard. But Prince Zhennan’s military discipline was too strict—pulling strings didn’t work either, so he settled for second best and accepted Jia Yingxin’s arrangement, entering the Yulin Guard.
Once the opening was made, subsequent matters became easier to investigate. Some dark secrets not being exposed was just luck, but once exposed, it was like a fierce beast released from its cage—there was no way to stop it anymore. Following the vine to find the melon, they discovered that there were actually as many as seventeen people planted in the Yulin Guard and Jinwu Guard through Jia Yingxin and Xu Liang’s connections!
As for inside the Imperial Guard itself, there was no need to mention it. Randomly grab any person and ask—guaranteed they could trace some relative connection to these two people through seven or eight degrees of separation.
This thoroughly poked the hornet’s nest. That very night the censors received the news and moved at the scent. The next day, memorials impeaching Xu Liang and Jia Yingxin for dereliction of duty, embezzlement, and enriching themselves at public expense arrived before the Cabinet and Emperor Jianzhang like snowflakes.
Guan Hai’s tone carried a faint tremor at the end: “His Majesty was furious and ordered Commandery Prince Consort Ye Jingkuan and Imperial Guard Commander Lai to jointly investigate this case. Commander Lai—just the boxes carried out from the Xu and Jia households filled half a street…”
Fortunately, although he had always had some dealings with Xu Liang and Jia Yingxin, they never communicated by letter, nor did they ever give banknotes—always giving unmarked gold ingots and silver.
Otherwise, never mind distant matters—just the recent matter of Zhang Tianhe would likely be dragged out.
Even though it couldn’t be traced to the Han family, Han Zhi still didn’t breathe a sigh of relief. He glanced at the pitch-black sky outside and finally instructed Guan Shan: “See if Qian Ying has left. If not, immediately have him come see me.”
Prince Dongping had always been close to Jia Yingxin and Xu Liang—who knew if there were any traces that hadn’t been cleared in time. Ye Jingkuan was completely a member of the Grand Emperor’s Grandson’s faction. If he discovered any incriminating evidence, Prince Dongping would have no way to easily escape this time.
All of this was too thorough, as if arranged by someone. Both commanders Jia Yingxin and Xu Liang—not one escaped implication. But with the power they had cultivated over so many years, this was something that fundamentally couldn’t have happened in the past.
Was it that the power struggle within the Imperial Guard had failed, so Jia Yingxin and Xu Liang had to die? Or had someone dug a pit for them, determined to see them dead?
Han Zhi’s well-defined fingers tapped on the table again and again. He inexplicably thought of Song Chuyi.