Chapter 64

Chapter 64

The news of the Minister of War's incident quickly spread through the court. With the military funds case about to be retried, who would suddenly make a move against the Minister of War, and what had Commander Qi Hanzhou uncovered in the Minister of War's residence?

"Is the assassination true?"

"It's true. The Emperor specially sent imperial physicians from the Imperial Hospital. It is said that the Minister of War has lost his mind," a minor official whispered. "Now the Jinyiwei have the place locked down, with only the physicians allowed in and out. He is said to be unconscious most of the time, and they can't even figure out what's wrong..."

Court officials all had their own informants. In a place like the Imperial Hospital, there were even more hidden spies.

When the medical records of Imperial Physician Chu from the Imperial Hospital came out, the spies lurking there had already leaked all this information. It was common knowledge that the Minister of War was in poor health, said to be due to an old ailment. Yet despite his illness, he had managed to hold onto his position as Minister of War.

For a man like that to suddenly lose his mind... who had done this to him?

The court officials exchanged subtle glances, each hiding their own thoughts.

"Grand Secretary, here are the Imperial Hospital medical records." Inside the Xu residence, a spy quietly entered and presented the records to Grand Secretary Xu.

Compared to previous days, Grand Secretary Xu's expression carried a hint more gloom. Ever since the Ministry of Works incident, he had discarded his usual informants and activated spies he hadn't used in years. The message came from a long-term mole in the Imperial Hospital; these records could not be false. The Minister of War had indeed been attacked...

Grand Secretary Xu's expression shifted slightly. "Was it an existing illness, or was it caused by the assassination?"

As early as last year, he had received news that the Jinyiwei had left undercover agents in the Minister of War's residence to protect him. At that time, the Minister of War was already in poor condition.

The Jinyiwei's move had been too sudden, and the Emperor's attitude afterward was ambiguous.

Having been in court for many years, Grand Secretary Xu was more perceptive than others. The spy just said, "Poison."

"As to whether he was already unconscious before the assassination, that remains undetermined," the spy said in a low voice. "The only thing certain is that poison was a factor in the Minister of War's coma."

A poison that even the imperial physicians couldn't cure... remnants of the previous dynasty.

Grand Secretary Xu immediately realized something. Last year, during the Crown Prince assassination case, a suspected spy from the previous dynasty had appeared in the palace. Now, there was a faction in the former palace skilled in poisons. The Suihongzi poison used against Consort Ning had originated from this secret branch. The situation was recurring. No wonder the Jinyiwei were playing it close to the chest... they intended to use the Minister of War incident as bait to draw out the hidden spies.

Grand Secretary Xu's expression tightened.

"Grand Secretary, what should we do?"

Grand Secretary Xu said in a low voice, "Wait."

Outside the Xu residence and the Minister of War's residence, the Jinyiwei who had been watching for a long time signaled to call off the surveillance.

The mastermind was clever. They wouldn't act rashly with a trap like that, and even the Xu family showed no movement.

News of Qi Hanzhou's actions had already reached Ying Fusheng's ears. He was staying at Wanchun Hall tonight, closer to the Qianqing Palace. When the news of Qi Hanzhou entering the palace came, he was the first to know.

"The Xu residence has shown no extra movement. Grand Secretary Xu should have received the news. As for the informants from the Eastern Palace, they have been in and out of the Xu residence several times, but nothing else," Ye Xuanjiu reported, entrusted by Qi Hanzhou to deliver the message.

"The informants didn't stir?" Ying Fusheng asked again.

Ye Xuanjiu: "They didn't."

But if the informants didn't stir, then our plan to plant fake evidence in the Minister's house would go to waste.

False evidence cannot withstand scrutiny. If it isn't used, it's just overkill.

Ye Xuanjiu frowned. Now everyone knew the Jinyiwei had uncovered evidence in the Minister of War's residence. If no one steps up, how do we sell the story? "Those old foxes will see it as a trap."

"Who said it was all fake?" Ying Fusheng said softly. "This assassination will be real, because the Minister really is out of his mind."

Everyone knew the Minister of War was seriously ill, but the fact that he had already lost his mind long ago had been covered up by the Emperor and the Jinyiwei. Hardly anyone in the court knew about it now.

If the assassination of the Minister of War was real, then was the evidence real or fake?

The hardest thing to figure out is what's real and what's fake. As long as there is a kernel of truth in the matter, those people will investigate.

"Do you know what these old foxes, who are always so cautious, fear the most?" Ying Fusheng half-lidded his eyes, the candlelight flickering in his gaze. He sat there in his robe, but his words sent a chill down the spine.

"Losing control."

...

Three days after the Minister of War incident, imperial physicians frequently visited his residence, looking grim.

Court officials kept a close watch, but no one dared to step forward. During court sessions, the sharp officials waited for the Jinyiwei to leak something—even a hint would be enough for them to gauge the Emperor's intentions.

But nothing came. The Jinyiwei all wore solemn looks, and the Emperor didn't say much at court. The only movements were in the Censorate, the Court of Judicial Review, and the Ministry of War. One after another, officials were visited by the Jinyiwei, and several were even taken to the Jinyiwei prison.

If there had been a massive mobilization, it would have been understandable, but everything was handled in silence, making things even more unpredictable.

Inside the Xu residence, when the Minister of Works entered for the third time, they flushed out a spy.

The secret guards lurking in the Xu residence noticed something unusual: Old Fox Xu had launched an internal investigation. Several servants planted in the Xu residence were exposed. This meant the old fox sensed something was wrong and was thoroughly checking the officials and spies within the Xu faction.

The secret guards did not move. Sacrificing a few people to calm Old Fox Xu's suspicions was fine by them.

It was already because of the Ministry of Works case that some of their arrangements had been detected by the Xu family. If they hid too deeply, it would make Grand Secretary Xu even more suspicious. They still needed the Xu family's cooperation; stabilizing the Xu family was crucial at this moment.

As long as the Xu family remained stable, and the military funds case did not burn them... and most importantly, what exactly were the Jinyiwei trying to do?

Just as they were pondering the Jinyiwei's next move, bad news came from the court—

"The Great Prince has gone to Prince Yongjia's residence."

"Vice Minister of War Hu Buyu has entered the palace to see the Emperor."

"A local prefect seems to have arrived in the capital with a new case!"

In an instant, news in the court became chaotic. All sorts of rumors forced the various factions to start moving involuntarily. The old foxes knew that someone was pulling strings behind the Minister of War incident, but they couldn't afford to just sit and watch.

No one dared to gamble on what the Jinyiwei had uncovered. Everyone knew how much attention the court was paying to the military funds case. Whoever got caught up in it now would face total disaster.

By the tenth day of the Minister of War case, the first litigation appeared in court. Someone impeached an official from the Ministry of Works for colluding with a local prefect to deliberately delay court information. Soon after, a second case emerged: the Vice Minister of Revenue was frequently visiting the residence of an important Ministry of War official for unknown reasons.

In the midst of this silence, the Jinyiwei suddenly visited the Ministry of Works and, without saying a word, took away an official. The civil officials at court tightened their expressions. Everyone knew how cooperative the Ministry of Works had been in tracing evidence for the military funds case. But now, the Jinyiwei hadn't even arrested anyone from the Ministry of War, yet they had moved against the Ministry of Works first.

The Minister of Works, Zhou Bingjun, looked very grim. Ever since the He Shui Po case, the Ministry of Works had already lost too many officials' authority. The Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Revenue were constantly meddling in its affairs. Given the Jinyiwei's style, they wouldn't arrest someone without evidence or leads. The arrested official was a member of the Crown Prince Faction, someone who hadn't been purged in the He Shui Po case and was generally considered stable in his work. They would never have arrested him.

"Our men have learned that something extremely incriminating was found in his residence."

This wasn't the first time. In the previous Ministry of Works accounts case, two matters that had not appeared in the ministry's off-the-books accounts had surfaced. The deceased Vice Minister of Imperial Stud had indeed been a member of the Crown Prince Faction, and the Ministry of Works had done him some favors. But such matters were always handled carefully, with proper contingency plans... Yet what was uncovered that time didn't fit the pattern.

The He Shui Po case had collapsed too quickly, and it had involved the Eastern Palace.

They knew well that there were hidden spies within the Ministry of Works or the Crown Prince Faction, and someone was framing them!

"This is bad, Your Excellency! The Court of Judicial Review seems to have extracted something!"

Everyone knew the close relationship between the Court of Judicial Review and the Jinyiwei. No sooner had the official been taken to the Jinyiwei than the Court of Judicial Review extracted information. The Minister of Works hurried over and found that the court was hearing some minor cases. The Jade Beast Statue case had started as an insignificant little case, but it ended up becoming a major Ministry of Works scandal.

At this time, the cases that the Dali Court had uncovered drew informants from all departments rushing over upon hearing the news.

"It's a few courier station cases from the Ministry of War, using this as a pretext to be transferred to the capital and linked to some engineering projects previously completed by the Ministry of Works," someone reported, his face turning slightly pale. "But, sir, the Dali Court did not submit the cases to the Censorate or the Ministry of Justice for review—it seems they were handed directly to the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

The Minister of Works keenly sensed something was wrong.

Only cases directly handled by the Embroidered Uniform Guard could bypass the standard chain of evidence.

If someone with ulterior motives used this to pin blame on the Ministry of Works, even if they had done nothing wrong, disaster would follow. They knew all about the court's dirty tricks: framing others and shifting blame. Now, the entire court hoped the military pay case would be resolved, but the only way to resolve it was to find a new true culprit.

Did the true culprit matter?

No. What mattered was who would be pushed forward to take the fall.

The Eldest Prince Faction, other factions, or someone even more deeply embedded who wanted to oppose the Xu family?

"Audit the Ministry of Works' internal accounts. Bring forward all suspicious cases that haven't been processed by us," Zhou Bingjun immediately ordered. "Send someone to the Dali Court. Find a way to intercept them. Don't let them submit any more cases to the Embroidered Uniform Guard!"

-

Ministry of Works officials moved swiftly. Several officers under Zhou Bingjun's orders rushed to the various departments and archives of the ministry, unaware that as they stepped out of the government office, the Embroidered Uniform Guard agents lying in wait were already shadowing them.

Outside the Ministry of Works office, Qi Hanzhou, who had been waiting quietly, noticed Zhou Bingjun's movements and turned to look at Ying Fusheng, who sat calmly beside him.

The latter had a calm expression, gazing through the carriage window at the officials coming and going from the Ministry of Works. Every move they made was recorded by the Embroidered Uniform Guard agents keeping constant watch.

The backer was too deeply involved with the Xu family. It would be difficult for the Embroidered Uniform Guard to investigate everything thoroughly. No matter how they probed, they would not only alert the enemy but also reveal their own intentions to the informants watching them closely.

But if they let the Ministry of Works investigate internally, whether cases had passed through the Xu family's hands or had been secretly planted by the backer—they didn't need to distinguish; the Ministry could investigate itself, and it would strike at the heart of the matter.

Whether the backer and the Xu family were collaborators or merely using each other didn't matter. For such people, suspicion and probing were the fatal elements.

Ying Fusheng smiled. "See? The Ministry of Works can eliminate most of the dead ends for us. And here come the leads."

The Ministry of Works was desperately trying to sort out the problematic hidden agents within its own faction. If those agents didn't want to be discovered, they would destroy the relevant evidence before the ministry's people arrived. Such people would act faster than others, both in identifying their targets and in acting.

Just then, Ye Xuanjiu appeared hurriedly, his expression grim. "Junior General, we've locked onto the person."

Qi Hanzhou and Ying Fusheng exchanged glances. The real fish had taken the bait.

The case of the Minister of War was just a decoy. Neither the old fox nor the backer would move.

But their target was never the military pay case itself—it was the hidden agents forced to act under its influence.

No one wanted the dirty water splashed onto themselves. So Zhou Bingjun and Grand Secretary Xu would launch a thorough investigation.

If they were to investigate, they would start from the very beginning and go through every layer.

Ying Fusheng had instructed Shen Changcun to gather scattered cases from local courier stations and send them to the Dali Court. For the suspicious Grand Secretary Xu, it was natural to focus on related matters, and the only way to investigate without omission was to go through the Ministry of Works' engineering projects related to the courier stations. But only the backer's hidden agents would skip the tedious process and quickly find the most critical items.

They wouldn't go to departments like the Farming Office or the Water Office. Their target was only the Ministry of Works' core division—the Construction Office.

"Besides Zhou Bingjun, three other Ministry of Works officials are privately moving internal accounts. But only one went directly to the Construction Office. His name is Xu Yong, a Chief Attendant in the Ministry of Works. He has handled many practical matters for the ministry and was one of the few officials who escaped unscathed in the Craftsman Case."

Ye Xuanjiu's efficiency was high; he had people watching Xu Yong closely. But even as he confirmed the target, he felt a chill, because this man was a member of the Crown Prince Faction, yet had never appeared on the Embroidered Uniform Guard's secret watch list. "I heard he was a military student who once served in the army, later became a disciple of Grand Secretary Xu in the capital, and was recommended by Zhou Bingjun as Vice Minister of War. But Hu Buyu arrived in the capital, so this man remained in the Ministry of Works."

Ying Fusheng's expression flickered when he heard the name. He knew this man.

Xu Yong. In his previous life, he was the Crown Prince Faction member who eventually replaced Hu Buyu as Vice Minister of War.

He maintained a neutral stance in court and was a rare pragmatist. Even as a Crown Prince Faction member, he rarely participated in corruption or framing. Later, he became one of Grand Secretary Xu's key protégés. Even at the end of his previous life, this man was known for doing practical work as a Crown Prince Faction official, not among the court officials the Qi family and Ying Fusheng specifically targeted.

It turned out to be him... Such a man was most likely to become a "clean," usable minister—a piece the emperor could deploy at will, and a deeply buried asset for the Crown Prince. In his previous life, the Qi family spared him because he was a rare martial official who was also competent in civil affairs. The new emperor could fall, but stabilizing the court's governance still required capable ministers.

"If they use such a hidden agent, it would be very hard for the Embroidered Uniform Guard to find him," Qi Hanzhou said.

Such an agent suggests that even among the neutral, capable ministers currently trusted by the emperor—those who sway between factions—there might be hidden agents of the backer, and they would have sufficient backup.

No, something was off.

Ying Fusheng sat quietly, thinking.

He felt he had missed something. The Ministry of Works had seen so many officials removed. Xu Yong's position as Chief Attendant was significant in the emperor's eyes. Why would they risk sending Xu Yong to act?

"Why Xu Yong?" Ying Fusheng asked.

Ye Xuanjiu replied, "Ordinary officials can't access the department's archives, right?"

Qi Hanzhou said, "Access or not is just a matter of credentials."

It would be more reasonable for Xu Yong to send a subordinate official than to act personally.

In the River Slope Case, the movements of the Crown Prince and the Xu family caught the backer off guard—that was the first failure.

In this case involving the Minister of War, the backer made a clever move, but the few informants the Embroidered Uniform Guard were watching did not act. The biggest actions were merely going in and out of the Xu mansion, and those involved were Xu family spies or hidden agents.

All these actions were slower than the previous handling of Consort Ning's Suihongzi incident in the palace. One reason was that the Embroidered Uniform Guard's informants had noticed them; another was that the key chess piece, Shuang Yue, had been pulled out, slowing their coordination. Given the backer's ability, if he could perceive the changes caused by Ying Fusheng's rebirth, he shouldn't be oblivious to the covert movements in the court.

"Is it possible that the person orchestrating behind the scenes is not in the capital?" Ying Fusheng suddenly said.

Qi Hanzhou frowned at this novel point. "It's not impossible."

Only that could explain why the backer and his hidden chess pieces moved at varying speeds in the Eastern Palace and in recent old cases. If he wasn't in the capital, all schemes were carried out through the Xu family and hidden agents in the court. These agents had autonomy and mostly watched from the sidelines, only getting involved in major events.

That was why they needed the Xu family's vast network. By hiding within it, the emperor's suspicion would stop at the Xu family.

If the backer was not in the capital, then the hidden agents he selected would not be the type to take risks lightly.

As Ye Xuanjiu moved to act, Ying Fusheng suddenly stopped. "If that's the case, are we the only ones watching Xu Yong?"

"Recall the Embroidered Uniform Guard!" Qi Hanzhou realized the danger.

Someone else was also watching Xu Yong. He was bait thrown out by the other side.

If the Embroidered Uniform Guard acted, they would be exposed!

Ye Xuanjiu's face changed dramatically, and he hurried to leave.

But Ying Fusheng grabbed him at that moment. "We need to act, but not by us."

-*

Inside the Ministry of Works' Construction Office, officials were retrieving case files.

"Sir Xu," an official said, "here are the files you requested. All of them."

The files were numerous, but most were irrelevant.

Xu Yong took them, his expression calm, and said a few words of thanks. Among these decoy files, he found the one he was really after. He placed it properly, left a mark on it, and mixed it in among other files in an inconspicuous spot. After finishing, he picked up another unrelated file and walked out.

In front of the other officials, his eyes flickered to the door. He looked down at the file in his hands, as if making a decision, then stepped out.

But as he stepped out, he did not see any Embroidered Uniform Guard agents at the entrance.

His heart skipped a beat—could it be that everything they had guessed was wrong? Had the Embroidered Uniform Guard not taken notice of the Ministry of Works yet? No, if the Guard had not taken notice of the Ministry, they wouldn't have kept testing it.

But just as he took a few more steps, the door of the Ministry of Works suddenly closed.

A figure stepped in from the side.

Xu Yong quickly looked up and saw the Minister of Works, Zhou Bingjun, his face livid.

Xu Yong’s expression shifted slightly, but he quickly steadied himself. “Lord Zhou, what brings you here?”

Without a word, an official grabbed the scroll from Xu Yong’s hand and handed it to Zhou Bingjun.

Zhou Bingjun took it, opened it, and saw that it contained an unrelated dossier—one not among the scrolls he had ordered to be investigated. “Xu Yong, did I tell you to look into those particular scrolls?”

These were scrolls that Grand Secretary Xu had already reviewed, bearing no irregularities.

“Lord Zhou, this was a precaution,” Xu Yong said, not expecting Zhou Bingjun to appear, but already prepared with an explanation. “I've already handled the other scrolls internally. Taking this one out was merely to throw them off the scent.”

“A precaution?” Zhou Bingjun asked, his eyes fixed on Xu Yong. “I suspect that your purpose today was never to process any files at all.”

At that moment, another official from the Ministry stepped out and retrieved several scrolls that Xu Yong had been handling. Among all the documents, not a single one was related to the Court of Judicial Review case.

Xu Yong’s expression tightened. “Lord Zhou, I can explain this.”

Every move he had made was to conceal the military pay case. The scrolls Zhou Bingjun had ordered him to investigate were utterly irrelevant—there was no need for him to meddle with them. He had come only to mislead the Embroidered Uniform Guard, or to test their actions. Who would have thought Zhou Bingjun would show up!

“Is it something you can explain, or was it done deliberately?” Zhou Bingjun said coldly. “After you entered the Ministry of Works, the Embroidered Uniform Guard made their move. Almost every person I sent to handle the scrolls was captured.”

“Only you remain untouched by the Guard. Why?”

Except for the Ministry of Works, all other departments had been ambushed by the Guard, and all relevant officials were taken away. The attack was sudden, and even the Ministry could not react in time—except for Xu Yong, who had gone alone to the Ministry and emerged unscathed.

“You examined no scrolls, yet you deliberately came to the Ministry of Works,” Zhou Bingjun said, staring at him. “It's as if you knew there was something here worth a special trip.”

Zhou Bingjun’s voice was icy, his gaze piercing Xu Yong.

Xu Yong’s face went pale—the Embroidered Uniform Guard had not followed him here!

He had been deceived!