The Eastern Palace had actually been quite decent in handling people in the past—it was only after the Yangzhou corruption case that its reputation in the court plummeted dramatically. There was no other reason: the Crown Prince had been far too ruthless toward his own Eastern Palace people. Everyone only saw the Eastern Palace officials falling one after another without seeing the Crown Prince lift a finger to help. With such a future ruler, who would dare grow close to him in the future? Not to mention the ambiguous affair with Yang Yunyong that had caused such a commotion. At the time, even Minister Cen, who had always been close to the Eastern Palace and appeared to outsiders to have a good relationship with them, couldn’t help but distance himself somewhat from the Crown Prince.
Now that he had lost power, just as Song Chuyi said, wasn’t this exactly a case of everyone pushing down a falling wall? Cui Yingshu was still contemplating this when Song Chengru had already spoken. “You mean to say that Jiang Tianping’s descent into such unconscionable madness was someone’s calculated scheme?”
In truth, for the sake of political achievements and to cope with the Ministry of Personnel’s assessments, local officials underreporting or concealing disasters in their jurisdictions had always existed. Just like the matter of Ma Yuantong’s rebellion in Yangquan—it was because local officials concealed and failed to report it that, over time, it dragged on into a major incident. But even concealment had its limits. Naturally, trivial matters that caused no real harm could be concealed if possible, but for such major matters, how could paper wrap up fire? Either Jiang Tianping was a fool, or his head had been kicked by a donkey—otherwise, if he were a normal person, he wouldn’t do such a thing.
However, Song Chuyi felt that Jiang Tianping doing such a thing also had traceable origins. Although the Crown Prince appeared magnanimous and benevolent on the surface, in reality he truly wasn’t someone with broad-mindedness. Otherwise, during the Yangzhou corruption case, he wouldn’t have seized the opportunity to ruthlessly purge all of Prince Gong’s and Prince Duan’s people in one fell swoop, without thinking about what to do afterward, much less considering whether making such a huge commotion would violate Emperor Jianzhang’s taboos.
He himself was inflexible, and the people he found were similarly somewhat unable to think around corners. Take Yang Yunyong, for instance—hadn’t he been too greedy, his courage growing ever larger, until he was finally exposed by the Jiujiang affair?
Song Chengru, having asked this, shook his head again. “He too is someone long experienced in officialdom. Could he not know how to prioritize matters? If others incited him, he simply believed them? Utterly foolish.”
Cui Yingshu was more open-minded than Old Master Song. He glanced at Song Chuyi, saw her toying with a Buddha’s hand citron in her hands, and reached out to tap her. “Hold it if you must, but children shouldn’t constantly sniff such things under your nose!”
Song Chuyi placed the Buddha’s hand citron on the table, and then heard Cui Yingshu continue. “It’s not that he’s stupid, nor that he would necessarily listen to incitement. I’m afraid that initially the epidemic hadn’t spread and the situation was still controllable. To pass the Ministry of Personnel’s assessment, he wanted to make things look more impressive. Who knew it would spiral out of control? Once it reached that point, Chen Tao and Censor Wang certainly wouldn’t want to take the fall for him, so naturally they had to expose it. He was forced into a corner.”
That meant the incitement was probably true after all. Song Chengru thought left and right—those who bore grudges against both the Crown Prince and Jiang Tianping, and were moreover situated in Hubei where they could still exert some influence, truly didn’t require much thought.
He narrowed his eyes. Seeing that both Cui Yingshu and Song Chuyi were looking at him, he stroked his beard and laughed. “The Chen family.”
Originally, Song Chuyi had actually dispatched Ma Wangkun and others to Xiangfan to handle the silver that Elder Chen had left to the Chen family, and taking advantage of this opportunity, she had reached a consensus with the fourth branch of the Chen family—the fourth branch of the Chen family would act to attack and accuse Wei Yansheng and others whom the Prince of Dongping had sent to complete the transaction, and they had succeeded.
Unfortunately, later the Crown Prince sent Elder Wei to Xiangfan and went directly to the immediate superior of the Xiangfan Prefect—Hubei Provincial Administrator Jiang Tianping. The fourth branch of the Chen family’s long-anticipated enormous sum of two hundred seventy thousand taels thus went up in smoke. How could they not hate the Crown Prince and Jiang Tianping to the bone? When the Crown Prince was in power, they naturally could only swallow this bitter loss and dare not do anything. But now hadn’t the Crown Prince already met with trouble? Taking over was the still young Crown Prince Zhou Weizhao, who had never been favored by the Crown Prince. Their minds naturally became active. With an opportunity to kick Jiang Tianping when he was down, how could they not seize it tightly?
Previously, as a provincial administrator, Jiang Tianping had actually colluded privately with the Crown Prince. This showed his devious mind and extreme attachment to power and position. Without anyone else’s instigation, Song Chuyi suspected that as long as someone showed even slight concern about his assessment scores in front of him, he himself could come up with such a foolish idea as concealing the disaster situation.
Seeing her grandfather mention the Chen family, she also smiled. “I’m just speculating. Actually, Jiang Tianping’s record shows many unusual aspects, which fully reveals his character. That he would do such a thing truly isn’t very surprising.”
But whether it was true or not, they still had to keep one eye open. After all, Jiang Tianping was one of the Crown Prince’s people. If something happened to him, he might well implicate the Eastern Palace. Though the Crown Prince had fallen now, the heir apparent had become the Crown Prince’s son. As the saying goes, human hearts cannot withstand constant testing. Emperor Jianzhang’s patience had gradually been exhausted. Whether this matter was related to Zhou Weizhao or not, once it came to light, Zhou Weizhao would naturally be at fault—when victims are schemed against too often, others inevitably think there must be something wrong with you yourself. Otherwise, why do others have no problems while you repeatedly have incidents occur around you?
Both Song Chengru and Cui Yingshu were shrewd people. Hearing Song Chuyi’s meaning, they knew exactly what she wanted to say. They couldn’t help but exchange glances and both smiled. “When all is said and done, don’t you just want your uncle to personally make a trip to Hubei?”
Song Chuyi stepped forward, took her uncle’s hand, and shook it, not feeling embarrassed in the slightest. “Yes, yes, I do want Uncle to go to Hubei. Disaster relief work won’t allow a return for two or three years. If Uncle goes to Hubei, everyone won’t feel like they’re sitting on pins and needles.”
Otherwise, with the two Cui brothers—one still serving as Junior Minister of the Court of Imperial Stud, holding such a lucrative position in the Ministry of Works, while the other was even the Supreme Commander of Three Frontiers, plus Song Chengru—they were truly too conspicuous.
Better to temporarily leave the capital for now, avoid this critical juncture, and have a quiet period for a while.
Moreover, regarding Hubei, if things were truly as suspected and Jiang Tianping had improprieties, then all the more reason for one of their own to go. And among their own people, Cui Yingshu was naturally the most suitable.
Cui Yingshu reached out and flicked Song Chuyi’s forehead. “You’re particularly cunning!” After laughing for a while, he continued, “Don’t worry. Both my teacher and your grandfather share the same opinion—they all favor me going to Hubei, and I myself feel the same way. Previously, not knowing Hubei’s situation, I was still thinking of going. Now that I know, naturally I should go all the more. First, to avoid some of the attention and prevent others from using me as a scapegoat. Second, although this disaster relief work is troublesome, if I truly accomplish it in these few years, it will be a great achievement for the future.”