Chapter 44: Strategic Planning

Chapter 44: Strategizing from the Shadows

Half a month flew by in the blink of an eye. The turmoil surrounding the Third Prince had gradually subsided, but the struggle for power and influence at court was growing ever more intense.

The Second Prince and the Fifth Prince were going all out to seize the Third Prince's faction—inserting their people, grabbing positions, carving up his influence...

The two of them were at each other's throats, unaware that a hidden force was quietly cashing in from the shadows.

Because of the extreme secrecy, every time a gain was made, both the Second Prince and the Fifth Prince assumed the other had gotten it, which only made them fight even harder.

Beyond that, the position they both coveted most—Minister of Works—got blindsided by an unexpected player while they were busy checking each other.

That person was Xiao Quan, Chief Justice of the Dali Temple, who went straight to the Emperor and recommended the former Vice Minister of Works, Zhou Boqian.

And the Emperor, trusting Xiao Quan, signed off on it on the spot.

Thus, all their scheming was for nothing—they came up empty-handed.

Fortunately, neither of them got what they wanted, which made them feel a little better.

During this period, Cheng Yi had been keeping a low profile at the marquis's estate with his husband and mother. Meanwhile, he received a letter from his uncle.

Zhou Chu and Liu Siming had arrived safely at the northern frontier.

Although his uncle held little hope for two soft, spoiled rich kids, since they were Cheng Yi's close friends, he'd keep an eye on them and put them through the wringer.

Meanwhile, Fang Qingbai had also arrived in the south, and everything was going smoothly.

At the same time, there was one bit of minor gossip: not long after the Mid-Autumn Palace Banquet, Shen Yuzhu had moved into the Fifth Prince's estate as a side consort.

Cheng Yi thought his little husband might find this interesting, so he shared the news with him.

Shen Yichen was caught off guard at first, but upon reflection, he understood—no wonder Shen Yuzhu had been sucking up to Shen Qinglan so relentlessly. So that was his game all along.

He wondered what kind of stunt Shen Yuzhu had pulled that night to actually pull it off.

Still, Shen Yichen was a bit surprised that Shen Yuzhu had his eye on the Fifth Prince.

After all, although the Fifth Prince had the greatest chance of winning, it was precisely for that reason that his estate was already stuffed to the gills with people from every official and minister.

The backstabbing and scheming in there was no different from the palace itself.

Perhaps that was exactly why Wang Shuci didn't want to let his precious Shen Qinglan anywhere near the Fifth Prince's estate.

After all, with a dumb cluck like Shen Qinglan, he wouldn't last a few days before getting eaten alive, bones and all.

Besides, Wang Shuci was the Empress's own brother, so Shen Yuzhu didn't have to worry about him pulling strings through the Empress.

This showed Shen Yuzhu wasn't just cunning—he was ambitious and cocky as hell. He probably figured he could fight his way to the top in the Fifth Prince's harem.

"Hmph, I don't know where he gets such confidence. He always acts like he's better than everyone."

Either way, Shen Yichen hated him—had hated him since they were kids, even more than he hated Shen Qinglan.

A bastard born to a concubine—strictly speaking, nothing but an illegitimate brat who couldn't even be acknowledged. He had no idea where he got off acting so high and mighty.

Cheng Yi, though, was mulling over what his shadow guards had dug up.

He'd sent people to dig into Shen Yunhe's hometown, and they'd stumbled onto something pretty damn interesting.

Back then, Shen Yunhe had gone from a poor scholar to acing the imperial exam and becoming the top scorer, then married the son of a Duke—a move that made waves across the whole world.

Scholars everywhere were proud of him, especially in Xunzhou, Shen Yunhe's hometown.

But the shadow guards had stumbled onto the fact that Shen Yunhe had a fiancé before he ever came to the capital—a rich kid from a wealthy family in Xunzhou. Word was, this guy had bankrolled Shen Yunhe all the way up until he aced the exam.

But most people knew nothing about it, and even that rich family flat-out denied it, which was weird.

Thinking about Shen Yunhe's quiet, low-profile side husband, Cheng Yi started to piece together a hunch.

But until he had the full picture, he wasn't going to tell his little husband and get him all worked up over nothing.

Then one day, something went down at court that got the Second Prince major brownie points with the Emperor, and even made a bunch of people quietly switch sides.

The Second Prince, who'd always been a total slacker when it came to his studies, had actually written a policy paper on how to run the country.

It broke the mold, put the people first, and offered a fresh angle.

Not only did it earn high praise from the Emperor, but it also won him a ton of support and praise from the lower-ranking officials.

All of a sudden, the Second Prince's camp was over the moon, and the Fifth Prince's camp was grinding their teeth.

When Cheng Yi heard about it, his face didn't change, but inside he was getting more and more disappointed in Xie Yulin.

He'd figured that after climbing that high in his last life, Xie Yulin would've gained some vision and skill. But here he was, making the same damn mistakes, always pinning his hopes on other people.

Wasn't his own past life a big enough warning?

But in this new life, his judgment in choosing people was getting worse and worse.

Xie Yuzhang was a degenerate—didn't Xie Yulin know that from before? Hadn't he hated that man to the bone?

And yet he could place his hopes on such a piece of trash?

To be fair, Cheng Yi was truly wronging him this time.

Who knew that Xie Yulin was currently imprisoned in the Second Prince's estate by that degenerate, having tried every possible means to escape his clutches without success?

Handing over the policy essay was utterly out of the question—it had clearly been taken from him by force, with the shameless pretense that it would be delivered to the Emperor on his behalf.

Ridiculous. Did he not know that a degenerate's words couldn't be trusted?

But what choice did he have? In this life, Cheng Yi completely ignored his plight.

He couldn't understand what had gone wrong. Without Cheng Yi, was he truly so helpless?

He refused to accept it. He refused to believe it.

But Cheng Yi didn't care about any of this. His elder brother's wedding was approaching, and he and his little husband had been dragged by their mother to help with the preparations.

As for the Second Prince—let him have his moment for a few more days.

Since he was so eager to jump into the spotlight, then he would be the second target.

A few more days passed, and Mo Zheng brought back good news.

The shadow guards had found the remnants of the three-thousand elite Annanzhou Army troops that had vanished all those years ago.

Back then, the Iron Guard was a legend across the southern frontier.

When enemy forces invaded, fifty thousand elite troops stormed in like a hot knife through butter, trapping over a hundred thousand Annanzhou Army soldiers inside Pan River Gorge.

The gorge's mountain trails were narrow, and the water routes were cut off. The besieged army was running low on supplies, morale was crumbling, and they were on the verge of total annihilation. In that desperate situation, three thousand Iron Guard rode a thousand li through the night to reinforce them.

This elite force was clad in heavy scale armor and wielded spear-breaking lances. They were like emissaries of hell, mowing down enemies like they were chopping garlic.

They fought for three days and three nights, with half their soldiers wounded, and finally tore open the encirclement, allowing the hundred-thousand-strong army to retreat intact.

After that battle, the Iron Guard's reputation thundered across the southern frontier. The enemy trembled at their name and never dared to invade again.

Most importantly, this elite force was utterly loyal to the Duke of An. Even after he hung up his armor and returned to the capital, they remained stationed in the south.

However, when the Duke of An's downfall came suddenly, news reaching the south revealed that his entire family had been executed, and the emperor had immediately sent envoys to take over the Annanzhou Army.

Learning that their commander had been executed for rebellion, the Annanzhou Army was left leaderless and thrown into chaos.

It was then that the three thousand Iron Guard mysteriously disappeared.

From that day on, neither the emperor nor any faction could find a trace of them, as if they had vanished into thin air.

After Cheng Yi obtained the Annanzhou Army's tiger tally, he had Mo Zheng start searching for them.

In his past life, they had only emerged years later, when the previously overlooked eldest prince suddenly rose to power, backed by this very elite force. The eldest prince, using his status as the Duke of An's grandson, rallied these troops and gathered many former Annanzhou Army veterans, finally gaining the strength to contend with the other princes.

Cheng Yi hadn't known in his past life that the eldest prince's military tally came from his young husband, but he had discovered that these men had long been hiding in the Zheyun Mountain region of Jiangnan, living as bandits in the deep mountains. Because they were too powerful and never committed heinous crimes—instead robbing the rich to help the poor—the local populace not only didn't fear them but fiercely protected them. The local authorities, following the principle of "the less trouble, the better," turned a blind eye to them.

And so, these men stayed hidden in the mountains for years without being discovered.

With that lead, the shadow guards quickly picked up their trail.

Cheng Yi handed the tiger tally to Mo Zheng.

"Make the trip yourself."

He told Mo Zheng to deliver a message to Xiao Yong, the leader of the Iron Guard.

"Tell him: if he wants to know the truth about the Duke of An's alleged rebellion, he should come to the capital to see me in person."

The Duke of An had been dead for years, and these men had lived freely as bandits in the mountains for over a decade. The tiger tally might not mean much to them, but as long as their loyalty to the Duke remained unchanged, he would surely come to the capital.

"Yes, I won't let my master down."

Those were the Iron Guard, after all—even old, they were still the Iron Guard. An ordinary person might not even get to see Xiao Yong.

So Cheng Yi had no choice but to send Mo Zheng.

"Master, there's one more thing."

Mo Zheng then presented another report.

"This is a copy of the top three answers from the palace examination two years ago, along with Jiang Wangsheng's original answer sheet."

Every examinee's palace examination answers were sealed and stored in the Grand Secretariat's archives, but copies were also kept in the Hanlin Academy and even the Ministry of Rites.

Especially for the top three—the zhuangyuan, bangyan, and tanhua—their answers were copied multiple times and sometimes even displayed for scholars nationwide to study.

The shadow guards had gone to great lengths to obtain copies of the top three's answers, but Jiang Wangsheng had performed terribly, dropping from a zhuangyuan candidate to the bottom of the third rank, and no copy of his answer sheet could be found.

Cheng Yi's eyes swept over them quickly as Mo Zheng said:

"Following your orders, I've already shown them to Jiang Wangsheng for verification."

Cheng Yi raised an eyebrow. "And?"

"This answer sheet wasn't written by him at all—the zhuangyuan's is the real one."

Cheng Yi let out a cold laugh. Just as he'd expected.

Mo Zheng was deeply impressed, marveling at his young master's sharp perception, able to uncover secrets that ordinary people would never notice.

Cheng Yi hadn't initially thought much of it—he'd merely suspected that Jiang Wangsheng had been silenced by Xie Yulin in his past life. But when he learned that the madman behind the second prince's schemes was none other than Song Zhihe, the previous session's new zhuangyuan, and that this man happened to be the Minister of Rites' prized disciple who had also become his son-in-law after winning the top honor...

The Minister of Rites was the second prince's maternal grandfather.

And conveniently, the second prince's policy essay was said to have been composed under his guidance.

Others might not know, but Cheng Yi certainly did—that was clearly Jiang Wangsheng's governance strategy.

A zhuangyuan-level talent shamelessly stealing another's work was obviously abnormal.

And so, the investigation had uncovered the rot.

What a fine case of examination fraud.

The Minister of Rites and the second prince—not a single one would escape.

However, given the emperor's nature, even a crime grave enough to shake the state's foundations wouldn't be enough to make him kill the second prince.

Unless it threatened the emperor himself.

It seemed this would require careful planning.

Fortunately, his eldest brother's wedding was imminent, so he might as well wait until after the ceremony to stir up another storm.

==========Author's Note:==========

I must say, taking breaks really is addictive.

(Sneaking in a chapter update—forgive me, forgive me.)