The following day, by the banks of the Yellow River in Luo Prefecture.

A heavy snowfall had descended the night before. Riding out today was especially grueling, and by the time the journey to the Yellow River embankment was finally complete, a dense, surging crowd was already visible in the distance, their cries shaking the heavens — a cacophony of voices so tangled together that no particular words could be made out; only a single sweeping wave of fury could be felt, striking ground and sky alike.

Shen Xiao dismounted. The coarse breath he exhaled condensed into vaporous mist in the dry, biting cold.

Relief through work had been in place for only a few days. Everything was moving in a positive direction: the disaster victims had work to do and food to eat, and Shen Xiao had begun to ease back from the crushing weight of disaster management, with a little space now to think about other matters.

That very morning he had been in the county offices working out plans for the planting season after the spring thaw — the land that had been submerged by the Yellow River would now be blanketed with a layer of silt, making it some of the most fertile soil available. The harvest in autumn was certain to be bountiful.

He had not expected the news of a mass disturbance among the laborers at the embankment to reach him.

Li Qin had left Luo Prefecture a few days prior.

The New Year was near, and as an imperial prince, he was naturally required to return in time to take part in the Heaven Offering Rites and the various palace banquets — which meant he had to complete one final inspection of the Yellow River embankment along its full length before his departure, to ensure there were no major issues.

And so for this stretch of the Yellow River in Luo Prefecture, Shen Xiao was the one keeping watch over the work during these days.

How had a mass disturbance suddenly erupted?

Shen Xiao’s thick brows pulled into a tight frown as he strode in great steps toward the embankment. As he walked, the wind caught his cloak and thrust it open, pouring straight into his chest — as though a blade had driven itself directly into his body, and he felt an inexplicable premonition of foreboding.

He had only just taken a few steps when footsteps came from behind him. A personal attendant sprinted over, gasping for breath. “Sir… Sir, someone sent by that person has arrived.”

The attendant held up seven fingers. Shen Xiao stopped walking then. “What is it?”

The attendant caught his breath and said, “Nothing especially important — just that two tall and sturdy guards have been sent to you, along with a change of winter clothing.”

Shen Xiao’s brow furrowed. What was any of that about?

The attendant then added, “There is also… a small slip of paper.”

As the attendant spoke, he reached into his robe to retrieve it — but Shen Xiao waved a hand. “What trivial business to bring up at this moment? Wait until I have dealt with the situation here.”

Winter clothing, guards — it was all probably nothing significant. The Seventh Imperial Prince had suddenly become overly fussy like an anxious mother-hen.

After all, the disaster victims causing trouble was the more pressing matter. Shen Xiao quickened his pace and continued toward the riverbank.

That small slip of paper — torn deliberately from the letter, written in measured, careful strokes like a child still learning its first characters, bearing the words “The days grow cold and the weather harsh. Add more layers of clothing” — was never retrieved by the attendant.

The people’s resentment was at a fever pitch. By the time Shen Xiao arrived, they had already come to blows with the soldiers overseeing the embankment construction. Some had even heaved up hoes and shovels and were smashing them against the dike — the repairs had only just gotten back on track, and now they were being reduced to ruin once more.

When the disaster victims caught sight of Shen Xiao’s blue-green official robes, the surging fury they had been carrying finally found its outlet. One after another they fixed bloodshot eyes on him and came charging in his direction.

Shen Xiao had brought with him only a few constables from the county offices — a motley lot who trembled even at the sight of a drawn blade. Faced with the furious crowd of laborers, each and every one of them shook uncontrollably, rattling like sieves of chaff.

The laborers hoisted their hoes and came rushing straight for Shen Xiao — yet Shen Xiao did not retreat a single step. His eyes, cold as stars, stared directly back at them, bearing down on the foremost of the oncoming crowd until they were forced to a halt.

“What is all this uproar about? If you have something to say, say it properly — does rioting solve anything?!”

His voice was cold and sharp, and he bellowed: “What on earth has happened here?!”

Perhaps it was the sheer fearlessness Shen Xiao’s bearing projected that stunned the troublemaking disaster victims. Perhaps it was that since taking up his post, he had conducted himself differently from the corrupt officials of the past — that he was a man who got things done. Whatever the reason, the crowd gradually stilled.

The man who had charged forward at the front had eyes red-rimmed with rage. “Sir, if you call it relief through work, then we are all earning our rations by the strength of our own hands — so why are we being given rotten, moldy grain?”

Shen Xiao was stunned for a moment, then flatly denied it with iron certainty: “That is absolutely impossible!”

How could it be moldy grain — that was a matter of human lives. No matter how desperate the need to economize, they would not gamble with people’s lives.

He said urgently, “Something must have gone wrong somewhere in this matter. This official will immediately order an investigation and guarantee you a full account. Moldy grain can kill — this official would never do such a thing!”

His words had barely left his mouth when a cold laugh rang out from somewhere in the crowd. “Sir, you say it’s impossible — yet someone has already been killed by it.”

The news of a death hit Shen Xiao like a sudden blow. He stumbled, barely keeping his footing. Looking out at the disaster victims before him — each with reddened eyes, as though stricken with grief, yet far more with anger — all of them staring at him fixedly.

First the disaster, which had taken so many neighbors and kinsmen. Then the long wait for relief grain that would not come, during which yet more had perished. And now, just when the relief through work arrangement had at last brought a few days of full stomachs — it turned out the food they had eaten was a death sentence.

Even the most frail and timid of people, in that moment, had been roused to a fury that coursed through their entire bodies.

A crowd of eyes bore down on Shen Xiao like wild beasts, unblinking. Did these officials truly not consider the lives of common people to be worth anything at all?

The slightest spark could set off an explosion.

Shen Xiao understood that if he could not pacify them now, the consequences would be truly unimaginable.

He said urgently, “Please be assured, this official will thoroughly investigate this matter and restore your justice——”

“—Justice be damned!”

His voice was cut off by an outburst of fury.

Shen Xiao looked toward the direction of the voice. But that person’s face was hidden within the crowd — all that could be heard was his intensely provocative words.

“For no reason at all we have suffered such calamity, lost our land and livestock. Before, we could at least go straight to collect porridge — so why now must we labor and toil just to get a mouthful of food? We are the victims of disaster — why should we be subjected to this hardship?”

With the crowd already in the grip of fury, any capacity for calm thought had long since vanished. The disaster victims’ eyes grew redder still, and they continued pressing in toward Shen Xiao. “Why should we?! Struck down by disaster, and still forced to serve you like cattle and horses — why should we?!”

That voice spoke up again: “What relief through work — pretty words to say. As I see it, this Official Shen simply wants to embezzle our disaster relief grain for himself!”

Shen Xiao’s voice rang out sharp and absolute: “If this official harbors such intent, let heaven strike him down! If you do not believe me, go search my official residence — if you can find so much as a single coin of surplus wealth in it, then today I will lay down my life right here!”

He said under his breath to the constables beside him, “Hurry and drag out whoever is speaking!”

The constables received their orders and plunged into the crowd. But that voice shifted direction, drifting in from a different position entirely — impossible to say from which quarter it now came.

“Think about it, everyone — how much does a dou of fresh grain cost on the market, and how much does a dou of moldy grain cost? He says he is making us work to earn our own rations and help ourselves, yet what he is actually handing out is moldy grain — and pocketing the difference in the middle for himself!”

The voice surged abruptly to a higher pitch, ringing out across the entire embankment: “And now our people have died eating that moldy grain — what a damned corrupt official, he would not hesitate to swallow our very lives whole. Today, let us destroy this embankment! Storm his county offices! Raid his storehouse treasury! We will suffer under his oppression no longer!”

His voice was rough and grating, with a quality that was intensely incendiary. The disaster victims, who were already at the height of their anguish over the death of their companions, blazed at once with fury and began surging forward in a mass.

The constables, seeing the disaster victims about to surge through, immediately took Shen Xiao by the arm and retreated several steps. Shen Xiao, however, shoved the constables away. He had sent messengers ahead to borrow soldiers from the prefecture, but the situation had grown critical before any troops had arrived — and he had not thought it could reach such an uncontrollable extreme as this.

If he truly let these disaster victims break through, burn down and smash the county offices — that would be a common people’s rebellion.

Shen Xiao understood the gravity. He thrust out his arm to block the way before them, and his voice cracked out in a fierce rebuke: “Everyone, stand back! Anyone who takes one more step is committing an act of rebellion!”

At the word “rebellion,” the disaster victims faltered momentarily. They all knew that was a beheading offense — a crime that would exterminate nine generations of family. And moreover, Shen Xiao stood bolt upright in the middle of the road, exuding an air of “if you have the nerve, come trample over me.”

The disaster victims hesitated, wavering over whether to advance further — but then the man at the very front suddenly felt himself shoved from behind, and went stumbling straight toward Shen Xiao.

With someone first to make a move, the other disaster victims found their courage too, and surged forward together. Shen Xiao was instantly swallowed into the crowd — shoved left and right, pushed and jostled from all sides until he could barely keep his footing.

The constables who had come with him were scattered by the disaster victims as well. Just as Shen Xiao stood utterly alone with no one to turn to, he felt a force come from behind him, and a hand pulled him in the direction of the Yellow River’s bank.

In the confusion, Shen Xiao turned his head back — and finally caught sight of the man who had been inciting the crowd.

A stranger. With a pair of eyes sharp as a hawk’s.

He was no disaster victim at all — someone had sent him here deliberately to stir the common people into revolt.

“You——”

The man cut off Shen Xiao’s words. He smiled — a cold, vicious thing. “Official Shen, take care on your journey.”

A splash. The sound of Shen Xiao falling into the water was swallowed up in the furious roars of the disaster victims. For a moment, no one noticed.

*

Eight hundred li express relay — three days later, the news reached Chang’an. When the courier dismounted, his legs were completely numb from the cold. He had relieved himself inside his trousers for the entire journey; by the time he was carried into the palace hall, the stench of filth clung to every inch of him.

“The disaster victims in Luo Prefecture have risen in rebellion. The embankment has been destroyed. The county offices and treasury have been looted and burned. Jingren County Magistrate Shen Xiao has died in service to the realm. The Emperor is entreated to dispatch troops at once to suppress the uprising!”

Emperor Zhengyuan had only recently recovered from his illness and had returned to the Hanyuan Hall to handle state affairs. At the sudden news, he slammed the desk with a sharp crack. The brushes, inkstones, and paper on the table all jumped. “A rebellion?!”

How had disaster relief spiraled into a rebellion? Was it not Shen Xiao himself who had embezzled the disaster victims’ grain, driving them to this extreme?

That was precisely how insurrections had begun in the previous dynasty!

Emperor Zhengyuan blazed with fury. He lunged to his feet, about to stride around the desk to interrogate the courier in detail. But he had forgotten his body’s condition. He rose too abruptly, and the fierce anger that burned in his heart added to it — the two forces combined, and his vision instantly went black. He felt his head ring and drone with an endless din, and before he could even register what was happening, he felt himself pitching stiffly backward.

First Luo Prefecture’s rebellion, then the Emperor’s sudden collapse — bedridden, unable to manage affairs of state.

There was no way around it. State affairs had to be borne by someone; a dragon cannot do without its head. The Crown Prince had only recently been released from his house arrest when he was called upon to serve as regent, taking full charge of governing the realm in the Emperor’s name.

The power of the Eastern Palace surpassed even what it had been before.

Every person in the court turned the matter over in their hearts — with the depths of winter arriving and His Majesty in illness, whether he could endure through it was another matter entirely.

Now it was perfectly obvious whose fire one ought to be stoking.

*

Five days later, in the Hanyuan Hall.

With the Crown Prince as regent, his first act was to issue an urgent imperial summons, commanding the Seventh Imperial Prince Li Qin to return to the capital with all haste.

Whether for the public matter of the disaster victim rebellion triggered by the “relief through work” scheme, or for the private matter of the Seventh Imperial Prince exploiting the Crown Prince’s absence to siphon away his authority — with the Crown Prince now regent, the Seventh Imperial Prince could expect no good outcome. Of this there could be no doubt.

Thick snow pressed down upon the glazed tiles of the palace eaves, making the vermilion palace walls look all the more crimson and fierce.

The Crown Prince was regent and had issued a decree in His Majesty’s name summoning him with urgency. Li Qin dared not disobey. Heedless of the danger of the snow-covered roads, he made his way back to Chang’an at full speed. He had not even the time to change into a proper court robe for entering the palace. After hastily throwing off the travel-worn cloak that bore the dust of the road, he strode at a brisk pace toward the Taiji Palace.

High above, on the broad white marble steps, Li Qin had only climbed a few when a figure in imperial yellow descended from above.

“Seventh Brother has finally returned.”

The Crown Prince looked him over with a sidelong glance, his face a mask of mocking disdain. “The Yellow River management is a great undertaking. Seventh Brother had no experience with such a major affair, taking it on for the first time — it is only natural that some mishap occurred.”

As he spoke, he reached out and patted Li Qin on the shoulder. “How could Seventh Brother agree to Shen Xiao’s foolish scheme of ‘relief through work’? Tsk tsk — just look at what a state you have left Luo Prefecture in.”

The hand resting on his shoulder felt like a venomous serpent. Li Qin pressed down the resentment in his heart and smiled. “Elder Brother, this younger brother has not seen Father Emperor in a long while, and must first go pay his respects. Please forgive this younger brother.”

With that, Li Qin began to move forward — but the Crown Prince stretched out a hand and blocked him. His eyes swept over. “Father Emperor is ill, and the imperial physicians say that above all he must rest peacefully — he cannot be subjected to any agitation or excitement. Seventh Brother had better not go. I would hate for Father Emperor to see you and work himself up again.”

The Crown Prince smiled. “Or is it that Seventh Brother wishes specifically to vex Father Emperor?”

What kind of talk was that?

As things stood, Li Qin could no longer visit Emperor Zhengyuan — for to do so would be unfilial.

Li Qin knew there was no point in contending with the Crown Prince for the upper hand at this moment. He bowed with a humble cupped-hand salute. “Then your younger brother will offer his respects to Father Emperor from outside the hall.”

He knelt bolt upright on the spot and pressed his forehead to the ground in a resonant kowtow. By the time he rose, the lower portion of his robe was covered in snow.

“Regarding the Luo Prefecture rebellion——”

Li Qin began to speak, but the Crown Prince cut him off. “Seventh Brother need not be anxious — it has little to do with you. It all came from Shen Xiao’s foolish scheme of relief through work. I have already dispatched people to search his family’s residence. But then, Seventh Brother — how did you come to be so credulous, placing your trust in a man like Shen Xiao?”

“The year’s end draws near, and you have worked hard these past months. Set aside your current duties for the time being, return to your residence, and reflect carefully on what has passed.”

With those few words, spoken between casual laughter, the Crown Prince stripped Li Qin of every position and duty he held — not just the Yellow River management, but even his former responsibilities at the Ministry of Rites were taken away.

That figure in imperial yellow descended the steps, and a small eunuch attendant rushed forward with an umbrella. The Crown Prince was followed by a long procession of servants, his entourage as grand and imposing as the Emperor’s own.

A new regent’s first three fires lit: first, he had promoted and restored old loyalists of the Eastern Palace; second, he had firmly pinned the root cause of the Luo Prefecture rebellion on Shen Xiao; third, he had used a pretext to strip the Seventh Imperial Prince of every authority he held.

In the space of a few short days, heaven and earth had turned upside down.

The Crown Prince’s faction was at the zenith of its power in court. The Seventh Imperial Prince, who had only just begun to shine, was cast down in an instant.

The winds of fortune shift; in the blink of an eye, all is transformed.

*

At the very moment the Crown Prince was speaking with the Seventh Imperial Prince, Cui Jinzhi had just finished his duty hours at the Ministry of War.

With the Crown Prince in power, how could he possibly be ungrateful to Cui Jinzhi, his foremost meritorious subject?

Using the Luo Prefecture rebellion as a pretext — requiring suppression by military force — Cui Jinzhi, a man of a military family lineage, was re-appointed to the Ministry of War.

His previous record was still on file before His Majesty, and it would not do to promote him too quickly. Thus he received only a sixth-rank post as a Ministry of War section chief. Compared to his previous position as a third-rank Deputy Minister — a post of high authority — this was indeed a low title. Yet Cui Jinzhi had been given full authority over the suppression of the Luo Prefecture rebellion, so his rank was low while his power was high.

Having just finished his duty hours at the Ministry of War, Cui Jinzhi made his way toward the imperial city gates. All along the way, officials kept stepping forward to offer him cupped-hand salutes of greeting.

Their manner was entirely deferential.

With the Crown Prince’s ascent looking inevitable, this man was the Crown Prince’s right arm and left hand — the Eastern Palace’s foremost general. In days to come, he would surely be counted among the highest dukedoms.

Tsk tsk — the Cui Family had fallen from prominence for barely how long, and now they were about to reclaim their towering grip on power once again? One had to admire it.

Cui Jinzhi had barely stepped out of the palace gates when a guard came running toward him in a rush, urgent urgency in his voice: “Sir, Princess Pingyang’s carriage broke through the city gate and drove out — the men sent to watch her were unable to stop her!”

Cui Jinzhi’s phoenix eyes contracted sharply. “Useless!”

He swung himself onto his horse in one sharp movement, whipped the reins, and drove straight toward the city gate.