The situation reached a stalemate. The officials who had started the commotion initially just wanted to see a joke, but they hadn’t expected Shen Ruhui to be so persistent. Instead, it made them look like villains, leaving them unable to advance or retreat.
As soon as this incident occurred, the Imperial Guards immediately reported it to Zhao Hanzhang, who was reviewing documents in the hall.
The young Emperor became eager to get involved.
Zhao Hanzhang glanced at him, then simply put down her brush and stood with him at the front of the great hall, looking down.
They were too far away to hear what was being said, but just from the movements and expressions on people’s faces, she could tell things weren’t pleasant. Although many wore smiles, they had surrounded Shen Ruhui and Scholar Yu in the middle, completely blocking their path of departure.
The young Emperor quietly stood on his tiptoes, looking around and craning his neck left and right, wanting to see the expressions on Shen Ruhui and Scholar Yu’s faces clearly.
But after several attempts, he still couldn’t see clearly, so he couldn’t help turning to look at Zhao Hanzhang.
Zhao Hanzhang’s expression was very unpleasant. The young Emperor couldn’t see clearly, but she could.
She thought of what Ji Yuan had mentioned—that the generals of Zhao’s Army were becoming increasingly arrogant. Though they hadn’t yet caused trouble, their words and actions often relied on her authority to make things difficult for officials they interacted with.
Changning, as Vice Minister of Revenue, needed to calculate the harvest from military farms. The officials he sent were always given a hard time. Even when Changning went in person, they spoke rudely to him and were uncooperative, constantly causing trouble for him, which greatly increased the Revenue Department’s workload.
August through December was already the Revenue Department’s busiest time, especially from October to December when they had to inventory the taxes sent from various regions. Yet Zhao’s Army still caused him trouble. In the end, they had to ask Zhao Shen to intervene before finally managing to suppress these military officers.
These people had all risked their lives alongside Zhao Hanzhang in battle. Most had been promoted from her personal retainers, so their relationship was naturally extraordinary. Ming Yu had wanted to bring this to Zhao Hanzhang’s attention several times, but Ji Yuan had stopped him each time.
He told Ming Yu: “It’s not appropriate for you to speak of this. Let me do it.”
He said: “You joined midway. Both the young lady and I know how great your contributions are, but you must understand—there are always some foolish people in this world who only see the past, not the present, and certainly not the future. If you step forward, you’ll only offend the military faction.”
“They pride themselves on having risked their lives alongside the young lady and claim their bond is extraordinary. If you step forward, they’ll hate you bitterly. Though they may not be able to harm you immediately, you can catch a thief for a thousand miles, but there’s no way to guard against a thief for a thousand days. One day, they will harm you.”
Ming Yu sneered coldly: “With their three brains combined unable to equal one brain, they think they can harm me?”
Ji Yuan shook his head. “You, oh you, will suffer a loss at the hands of these petty people you look down on one day. They are stupid, but when ants swarm, they can kill an elephant. Throughout history, how many clever and worthy men have ultimately fallen to stupid petty people?”
“Don’t worry about this matter. I’ll speak to the young lady,” Ji Yuan said. “They accompanied the young lady through life and death, but I also accompanied the young lady from nothing to everything. Moreover, I’m a retainer left to the young lady by the former lord. They dare not disrespect me, nor dare they hate me.”
So Ji Yuan mentioned it to Zhao Hanzhang.
Zhao Hanzhang had specifically paid attention to Zhao’s Army because of this, but at the time, seeing no abnormalities, she set the matter aside. She was too busy each day, and it was the busiest autumn season. Within days, she had forgotten about it.
Now, seeing Li Tianhe and the others toying with Shen Ruhui and Scholar Yu, the complaints Ji Yuan had made before suddenly rushed to her mind.
Zhao Hanzhang suppressed her rolling anger, turned to smile at the young Emperor, and said: “Your Majesty, please wait a moment. I’ll go down and take a look.”
Seeing her smile, the young Emperor involuntarily shivered.
How frightening—it had been a long time since he’d seen Zhao Hanzhang smile like this.
The young Emperor was caught in indecision. He wanted to go down and watch the excitement, but he was also scared.
After hesitating for a while, watching Zhao Hanzhang’s retreating back, he still carefully stepped forward. He would just watch from the side and definitely not get close.
Zhao Hanzhang walked briskly down the steps. As she approached, she heard them egging Shen Ruhui on to punish Scholar Yu. “…If you punish him first, the Censorate naturally won’t punish him again.”
Zhao Hanzhang asked in a stern voice: “Punish him for what?”
Everyone turned at the sound. Seeing Zhao Hanzhang standing behind them, they immediately scattered in fright, then quietly glared at the people standing opposite them.
Those standing opposite looked aggrieved. They simply hadn’t noticed earlier. By the time they noticed, Zhao Hanzhang had already approached. They had tried their best to signal with their eyes, but the others hadn’t looked.
With Zhao Hanzhang’s expression so terrible, how could they dare make it too obvious under her gaze?
Zhao Hanzhang’s eyes swept over each of their faces. Seeing them all avoid her eyes and lower their heads, she asked expressionlessly: “What, no one can answer me?”
Shen Ruhui came to his senses and immediately stepped forward to explain. Zhao Hanzhang raised her hand to stop him and pointed at Li Tianhe. “Li Tianhe, you answer.”
Li Tianhe steeled himself, stepped forward, and bowed. “Scholar Yu knocked down Minister Shen and even pressed on top of him, punching and kicking him. We couldn’t bear to watch, so we separated them and believe Scholar Yu should be severely punished as a warning to others.”
Zhao Hanzhang said: “You’ve learned idioms well. Censor Lu, is that how it was?”
Censor Lu, who came from a prominent family, wouldn’t make such obviously biased statements. He stepped forward and stated in a flat tone: “I don’t know what happened before. We just suddenly heard cries of alarm. When we turned around, we saw Scholar Yu pressing down on Minister Shen, unable to get up. We quickly went forward to help both men to their feet…”
Zhao Hanzhang’s expression remained calm as she asked: “Does Censor Lu think Scholar Yu should be punished?”
Censor Lu replied: “Minister Shen says Scholar Yu acted unintentionally and doesn’t wish to pursue the matter. But this humble official believes that regardless of whether Scholar Yu intended it, he did indeed injure Minister Shen. This also occurred in the palace, which constitutes a breach of palace etiquette, so he should be punished.”
Only then did Zhao Hanzhang look at Li Tianhe. “What do you think?”
Li Tianhe lowered his head. “Censor Lu speaks correctly. He should be punished.”
Zhao Hanzhang asked: “On what charge?”
Li Tianhe’s heart was uneasy. He could already sense Zhao Hanzhang’s displeasure, but having come this far, he could only grit his teeth and say: “Breach of palace etiquette.”
“Breach of palace etiquette,” Zhao Hanzhang’s lips curved slightly, but her voice contained suppressed fury. “That’s not a bad charge. You all surrounded Minister Shen and Scholar Yu here, making a spectacle—that’s more than just breach of palace etiquette. I had you follow tutors to study, read, and thoroughly study the law. Have all your books gone into a dog’s belly?”
She turned her head to glare sharply at Censor Lu.
Censor Lu’s face paled. While Li Tianhe and the other military officers had only started studying in recent years, he had been studying since childhood. These words weren’t just scolding Li Tianhe and the others—they were scolding him and the other civil officials present as well.
They all knelt down in unison, lowering their heads to beg forgiveness.
Shen Ruhui and Scholar Yu also hurriedly knelt down.
Zhao Hanzhang stepped forward to help Shen Ruhui and Scholar Yu to their feet, then looked down at the circle of kneeling people. “You toyed with your colleagues. According to law, you shall receive five strokes of the rod. For breach of palace etiquette, you are fined three months’ salary.”
Li Tianhe protested, unable to help calling out: “General, we didn’t toy with them. We were just offering well-meaning reminders…”
Meeting Zhao Hanzhang’s cold gaze, Li Tianhe suddenly found himself unable to continue.
Zhao Hanzhang turned to ask Censor Lu: “Do you accept this punishment?”
Censor Lu’s face flushed red as he bowed shamefully. “We accept. This humble official and the others acknowledge our wrongdoing.”
Zhao Hanzhang said coldly: “You weren’t toying with me, so you shouldn’t apologize to me.”
Hearing this, Censor Lu stood up and bowed deeply to Shen Ruhui and Scholar Yu. “We are ashamed. We should not have toyed with Minister Shen and Scholar Yu. Lu deeply regrets this.”