Chapter 83

Chapter 83

As soon as the words were spoken, the hall fell silent.

The Sixth Prince knelt there, and the words were spoken not as a rash impulse, but after careful deliberation.

Qi Hanzhou tightened his grip on his sword scabbard. The Sixth Prince's proposal to go south of the river was never discussed with him, but the moment he spoke, Qi Hanzhou understood what he intended to do.

Volunteering to go south of the river... If the Deposed Crown Prince was pushed forward as the scapegoat, the resentment of the people south of the river toward the court would certainly persist, and such resentment would be extremely difficult to dispel. In that case, if they wanted the people south of the river to see results, nothing would be more effective than having the royal family set an example, with a prince personally heading south to quell the unrest—undoubtedly the optimal solution before them.

However, with his physical condition, could he endure such a grueling journey?

Not to mention Hu Buyu and Shen Changcun, even the two princes hadn't expected Ying Fusheng to make such an offer. The matter south of the river was not just about popular resentment; it also involved the complex web of officialdom there. This assignment was, to put it mildly, a thankless task. Doing well would only pacify the people, but if handled poorly, the resentment directed at the Deposed Crown Prince might well shift to the prince who went south.

With his physical condition, being thrown into the officialdom south of the river—wouldn't that spell disaster?

Before the eldest prince could speak, the third prince beside him suddenly said, "Your son also wishes to go south of the river."

The Emperor stood with his hands behind his back, his gaze fixed on Ying Fusheng.

Ever since Ying Fusheng spoke those words, he seemed to be either thinking or sizing him up.

Ying Fusheng was also waiting. He knew that, given the Emperor's style as Emperor Wu, forcibly suppressing the situation would achieve faster results. Whether his volunteering to go south of the river could quell the people's resentment was still unknown in the Emperor's eyes. Thus, what he said now was nothing more than a gamble with his imperial father.

A long time passed, so long that Ying Fusheng's knees grew numb.

Only then did the Emperor speak: "Shen Changcun, Liu Yunshi."

Shen Changcun quickly stepped forward: "Your servant is here."

Minister Liu followed.

"You two will handle the news of the flood south of the river properly, especially regarding the princes and marquises." The Emperor walked forward and reached out to help the kneeling Ying Fusheng up. "If anything goes wrong, I will hold you accountable."

Ying Fusheng relaxed instantly. The Emperor had not chosen military suppression.

The Emperor glanced at the two princes: "As for you two, go attend to your duties."

Ying Fusheng thanked him and rose. He knew he could not linger now, so he took his leave and followed Minister Liu out. The eldest prince still had something to say, but his attendant pulled him away. After they left, the Emperor turned to the people behind him. Hu Buyu and Qi Hanzhou were still there.

Both of them knew that the Emperor had kept them behind to ask something.

The Emperor asked: "If a prince goes south of the river, it could resolve all difficulties."

"Hu Buyu, which of my princes do you think is capable of shouldering this heavy responsibility?"

"If a prince is to go south of the river, the best choice is the Sixth Prince." Hu Buyu said after calming down. "Nowadays, the officialdom in both regions is extremely murky. To quell the people's resentment depends entirely on the court's actions. The water conservancy policy was proposed by the Sixth Prince, and the craftsmen of the Ministry of Works are under his supervision. Most importantly, a few years ago, during the snow disaster south of the river, the Sixth Prince's relief efforts are still remembered among the people there."

Compared to the third prince, who was relatively unfamiliar to the people south of the river, the Sixth Prince had left a legacy in three prefectures during the disaster relief. If he went south, it would be the optimal choice. In fact, from the moment the Sixth Prince laid out this entire strategy, the best choice had already been placed before them.

Finally, he looked at Qi Hanzhou: "Hanzhou, what about you?"

Qi Hanzhou spoke slowly.

...

As Ying Fusheng walked out of the hall, Weng Yanqing emerged from the shadows to support him. He felt the Sixth Prince's palm was warm. Minister Liu, worried, looked over and, seeing the Sixth Prince like this, was at a loss. He was eventually pulled away by Shen Changcun.

"Your Highness, taking such a risky move, will His Majesty agree?" Weng Yanqing said.

Ying Fusheng steadied himself with Weng Yanqing's help: "Between us, we are first sovereign and subject, then father and son."

"My imperial father wants to investigate the local officialdom. If he doesn't want to move a single soldier, a prince's personal visit is equivalent to the imperial presence."

He was gambling that his imperial father had the will to conduct a thorough investigation.

At the banquet, when the second prince saw the other princes return with changed expressions, he immediately sensed something. But then an even faster piece of news arrived at the feast.

The princes and marquises changed color. An official from the Ministry of Personnel hurried over: "Second Prince, the news of the flood has spread... but it's different from what we predicted."

When the second prince heard what the official said, and realized there was a flaw in the plan, he suddenly turned to look at the palace gate: "Where is Ying Fusheng?!"

"The Sixth Prince just had an audience with His Majesty, and after he came out, the situation turned like this." The official had no way to enter and investigate. If they appeared before the Emperor, it would arouse suspicion, and they could not afford to lose any more covert agents in the capital. "What should we do?!"

The second prince calmed down: "Find a way to stir up the princes and marquises—"

The official from the Ministry of Personnel said: "Your Highness, it's not easy... The Ministry of War and the Ministry of Works have already started taking action."

The second prince clenched his fists.

Ying Fusheng!

That same night, just as the palace banquet dispersed, before the princes and marquises could react, the news that the Jiangling dike breach was a man-made disaster had quietly spread.

When the princes and marquises heard this news, they were first shocked and suspicious, then sent people to investigate. They learned that the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War had been checking accounts overnight and had indeed found problems. Their doubts eased slightly after hearing these details. Then they received an urgent summons from the Emperor. Especially those near Jiangling, who had expected to be interrogated, but instead heard the Emperor order them to prepare to return and prioritize disaster relief.

No questioning, no probing.

The Emperor could have easily pinned this on the local officials and redirected the people's resentment to the southern officialdom, but he did not. Instead, he told them to go back.

"Is the news from before true or false? Does His Majesty really have no intention of reclaiming military power?"

"The project supervised by the Deposed Crown Prince failed, causing such a great loss of face for the court—could this be fake?"

The next day at court, the news of the Jiangling dike breach fully spread.

The dike at Jiangling, which had been concurrently supervised by the Deposed Crown Prince years ago, had failed, causing a breach. Now, during the grand sacrificial ceremony, the Emperor, hearing this, was deeply pained and immediately ordered the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War to send people ahead to Jiangling for emergency repairs without delay. The water conservancy policy originally scheduled to be implemented after the sacrifice was to be carried out first.

The Emperor ordered at court that the Sixth Prince, Inspector of the Ministry of Works, was to go south of the river.

The Sixth Prince accepted the order at court.

This announcement shocked the entire court. The Sixth Prince had indeed presented a brilliant policy, but with his frail health—prone to illness at the slightest misstep—going south at this time was no joke. However, the Emperor was determined, ordering imperial physicians to accompany him and specially instructing the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War to cooperate fully, clearly entrusting this matter to the Sixth Prince.

When the Empress Dowager heard this, she immediately sent a palace attendant to inquire.

Ying Fusheng personally entered the palace to soothe the Empress Dowager.

Both pieces of news reached the capital's streets simultaneously. The people were first shocked, and discussions among the populace surged. But when the news spread that the Sixth Prince was going south of the river in his frail health, public opinion began to ease. The Sixth Prince's physical condition was known to all in the capital. Yet even so, a prince was personally heading south—this showed the royal family's great importance on the matter.

Because of this, the Sixth Prince fully came into the view of the court's overt factions. The Eldest Prince Faction mentioned it intentionally or not several times, while the Third Prince Faction did not voice it openly, but increased their activities in the Ministry of War.

Inside the Huguo Temple, when Empress Xu heard the news that the Sixth Prince was going south of the river, she was momentarily stunned while praying before the Buddha. The palace attendant recounted the court affairs in detail. The prayer beads in Empress Xu's hand stopped moving. She listened to the news of the Jiangling dike breach and then heard that Ying Fusheng had volunteered to go south. From beginning to end, she simply stared at the flickering oil lamp before the Buddha.

After a long while, she spoke: "Did that child really say that?"

The palace attendant replied: "Yes, Her Majesty the Empress Dowager sent someone to the Kunning Palace, saying you should be informed."

"As for the matter of Concubine Ruan that you were concerned about, the custody of the Third Princess had been delayed again. Her Majesty the Empress Dowager has not yet made a decision, and the other consorts' attitudes were ambiguous." The palace attendant briefly reported the affairs of the palace: "You instructed me to keep an eye on Concubine Xian. Half a month before the incident, Concubine Ruan had visited Concubine Xian's palace."

Concubine Xian, the mother of the Second Prince, was taciturn and inept in palace affairs.

Due to her lowly birth, she had always had little presence in the palace. The Second Prince had once handled affairs for the Eastern Palace, so Empress Xu had ordered someone to look after her a bit. Before the Deposed Crown Prince’s downfall, she had never paid much attention to Concubine Xian. It was only after the Deposed Crown Prince’s incident that, while investigating the Eastern Palace accounts and the gifts exchanged between the Deposed Crown Prince and others, she discovered that a palace maid of Concubine Xian had been seen entering and leaving the Eastern Palace.

But when she went to investigate that palace maid, she found that there was no record of this person in the Palace Internal Affairs Bureau registry.

The palace maid who had dealings with the Eastern Palace seemed to have vanished into thin air, which raised her suspicions. It was not until this incident in the palace—Concubine Ruan's suspicious death—that the Internal Affairs Bureau, during their review, found no issues with Concubine Xian.

How had people from the previous dynasty infiltrated the Xu family, and how had her child been swapped… She would investigate all of this thoroughly, including all suspicious individuals.

"Keep an eye on her and the Second Prince," Empress Xu said.

The palace maid was startled and quickly acknowledged.

The palace maid soon withdrew, and Empress Xu picked up her prayer beads again, her ears lingering on the words the palace maid had just spoken.

Empress Xu gripped the prayer beads tightly and softly recited sutras, each sentence as if praying for peace.

…

In the autumn of the twenty-first year of the Taiyuan Dynasty, the Sixth Prince personally requested to go south of the Yangtze River, sending shockwaves through the court and the country.

The princes and marquises set off to return to their fiefs, and the Sixth Prince’s carriage was followed by officials from the Ministry of Works and other departments. Right after the Grand Sacrifice, they set out for the flood-stricken area. The emperor granted him the authority to act first and report later. As the carriage departed in the drizzling rain, the emperor personally saw the Sixth Prince off at the city gates.

Ying Fusheng sat inside the carriage. Chen Xuqiu, upon learning that he was going south of the Yangtze, had first packed two whole carts of medicinal herbs and, more unusually, performed acupuncture on him to regulate his meridians to ensure his complexion looked healthy in front of the officials, so as not to cause unnecessary trouble.

The journey was tight. Besides the craftsmen from the Ministry of Works, the emperor also specially dispatched troops from the outskirts of the capital to accompany him and protect the Sixth Prince’s safety.

Inside the carriage, everything was arranged for comfort. The Shen family, worried that he might not endure the long journey, had done everything thoroughly.

On the cushion by the carriage wall, he spotted a medicine pouch from Huguo Temple.

He examined it for a moment and finally told Song An to pack it with his personal belongings.

This trip south of the Yangtze, he rarely received a letter from Xiao Yan.

In the letter, Xiao Yan first said that venturing south with his frail health was too risky, and second, he was sending him a man.

The Censorate supervised all officials, not only those at court but also local censors dispatched over the years to the regions south of the Yangtze and Bashu. This time, the person sent by Xiao Yan was traveling with an imperial decree, ostensibly to supervise the Ministry of Works, but in fact, Xiao Yan knew he wanted to investigate the local bureaucracy and had specially sent him as an extra pair of eyes.

This new censor also had the surname Xiao. He was quite old, spoke humbly and diplomatically.

He came to pay a visit only on the first day and thereafter stayed in his own carriage. Knowing that there were the emperor's spies in the convoy, he maintained an appropriate distance from Ying Fusheng.

"Let the convoy proceed normally. Don’t worry about my health," Ying Fusheng said. Chen Xuqiu had accompanied him south of the Yangtze, and with Chen Xuqiu keeping an eye on him, he had been resting in the carriage these days, doing his best to recuperate. The cold he had caught from the rain had improved considerably. "If I feel unwell, I’ll inform the troops."

"The troops this time were personally assigned by the Ministry of War. Lord Shen submitted the roster, and Lord Hu approved it," Weng Yanqing, traveling with him, explained carefully. "Both lords know what you really intend to do. Everyone sent this time is one of our own."

Just then, a falcon landed silently on the window sill, hopping inside, bringing in a few drops of blood.

Song An, startled by the fierce bird, was about to shield the prince when he saw Ying Fusheng reach out familiarly. The falcon hesitated briefly before settling beside him.

This was a wild falcon. Weng Yanqing recognized it—Commander Qi often had such birds of prey around him: "This is…"

The falcons of the northern border were all trained by the Qi Family Army. The falcon’s talons were stained red; it had drawn blood on the road.

Ying Fusheng’s gaze softened slightly as he looked at this falcon. It was not as fierce as the one that had been with Qi Hanzhou in his past life. He reached out then took the secret message from its talons. "The falcons trained by the Qi Family Army can fly a thousand miles and cross a hundred obstacles…"

"Unseen and unheard, they could even come and go in the palace freely."

"Is this… from Junior General Qi?" Weng Yanqing hesitated.

Ying Fusheng said, "He sent the message."

After that night of parting, Ying Fusheng had not seen Qi Hanzhou again. He knew the imperial blade had already moved ahead.

After reading the secret message, he handed it to Song An to be destroyed and then suddenly said, "We will soon cross the boundary."

"Some people must be getting anxious by now."

Five days into the journey, they were about to enter the territory south of the Yangtze.

At a mountain post station, the fast-moving convoy suddenly slowed. A man came running to report—

"Your Highness, ahead is the carriage of Prince Jin… Knowing that you are traveling south of the Yangtze, he has specially stopped here to welcome you."