Ch85 - An Old Friend Visits

Jing Chen directly admitted to Ma Zhuo’s identity; the latter indeed had been his reading companion during his childhood. When the Zhuo family was convicted, he was also exiled. Originally, due to Jing Chen’s pleas, he could have been allowed to remain, but thinking of how his family was full of old and weak women and children who needed him to take care of them, he declined the prince’s kindness and went to the remote place which they had been exiled to.

Mu Hanzhang confirmed Ma Zhuo’s status, and his good impression of him immediately rose.

Jing Chen’s reading companion had been Zhuo Yunji, the eldest son of Minister Zhuo. It was rumored that he was highly intelligent and could recite text he had only seen once. Before the Zhuo family incident, the teacher of the Mu family had often mentioned him.

“How can he be as awesome as the rumors?” Jing Chen shook his head helplessly. Ma Zhuo was just a good talker and had been able to win over their teacher, which was why the latter praised him a bit in public. The teacher of the Mu family was taught by a teacher at Taixue, so when it came to his beloved teacher, he naturally exaggerated his teacher’s words. 

“That’s right, he can’t recite something he’s only seen once!” Jing Shao echoed. When he was a child, he had once caught Zhuo Yunji copying the book he needed to memorize onto his hand. The rascal gave him a handful of candy and asked him not to tell anyone.

Mu Hanzhang heard this and laughed, then switched to talking about what had happened in court recently. “The eldest prince wishes to return to court, but the letter requesting this is still on the way.” During this period of time, it was only when he was helping Jing Chen manage part of his affairs that he found out how powerful he was and how wide his reach extended.

Jing Chen took a sip of tea and looked at Jing Shao. “What do you think?”

Jing Shao frowned. Before the southern barbarian rebellion was even quelled, Jing Rong, that soft and weak idiot, wanted to come back with his tail between his legs. If this wasn’t taken care of, the responsibility would fall on Jing Shao. “He’s not afraid of losing face and we can’t stop him, but Imperial Father will never give up on the Yunnan-Tibet region… No matter what, I’m not going.”

“I didn’t say you have to go.” Jing Chen stared at him, then turned to look at Mu Hanzhang, and asked him what he thought.

“We can send someone else.” Mu Hanzhang slowly rubbed the rim of his cup. The eldest prince wanted to come back. They couldn’t stop the letter from arriving. Everything depended on the emperor’s intentions.

“Who?” Jing Chen had some people in mind, but he still wanted to hear their opinions.

“It is most suitable for the Count of Yongchang to go; maybe he can even be granted a marquis title.” Jing Shao sneered. Didn’t the Countess of Yongchang hate that his Wang Fei had been conferred as a marquis? Then let her husband go to the battlefield in search of a marquis title. 

A few days later, a letter from the eldest prince Jing Rong requesting to return was passed on to Emperor Hong Zheng.

“Useless!” Emperor Hong Zheng threw the letter to the ground in front of the whole court.

“Your Majesty, the southern barbarians have become arrogant recently. If we suddenly withdraw our troops, it might be interpreted as fear and boost their arrogance. It will become even harder to deal with them in the future,” the Minister of War said worriedly.

Since the death of the old prime minister, Emperor Hong Zheng hadn’t appointed a prime minister all these years. He assigned the prime minister’s duties to six ministers, with the princes, dukes and marquis in charge and official positions given to the rest of the nobility. Any miscellaneous duties unaccounted for were directly assigned to the ministers. Hence, the six ministers had a lot of weight when they spoke in court. 

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“Imperial Father!” Jing Yu, the fourth prince, suddenly stepped forth and bowed. “Erchen heard that Eldest Imperial Brother is suffering from the poor air and miasma in Yunnan-Tibet. He has been ill for more than a month. The weather is now getting hotter, and there are more and more snakes, insects, rats and ants in Yunnan-Tibet, which will be very bad for Imperial Brother’s health. Imperial Brother is now earnestly giving up the chance to do meritorious service, but only because his body cannot endure anymore!”

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Jing Chen looked at the fourth prince, who was almost in tears. His eyes were deep. When he was in Jiangnan, Gu Huaiqing showed him the letters sent by the imperial court. The imperial court’s intent to withdraw the vassal status was becoming more and more obvious. The song that the eldest prince and Jing Yu were currently singing had to have something to do with the situation in Huainan. He couldn’t help sneering in his heart. When a good opportunity arose, they could just give up the bad one. How could there be such a free thing in the world?

Jing Shao snuck a look at his Wang Fei. Mu Hanzhang indicated for him not to speak, so he lowered his head and said nothing.

Emperor Hong Zheng was just silent as he listened to the ministers quarreling about the matter. Generally speaking, one side felt that the southern bandits were just a small group who weren’t worth spending too much time on. The other side felt that the overall situation was important, and the prince would lose great face to flee just before battle. Hearing the word “flee,” Emperor Hong Zheng frowned again.

Jing Chen stepped forward after everyone was done making a ruckus. He picked up the memorial which had been thrown down the steps, carefully read the content, gently lifted the hem of his robe, knelt down and said, “Addressing Imperial Father; after reading this memorial, it seems that Eldest Brother truly doesn’t seem well. Erchen sincerely requests that Imperial Father allow him to return to the capital.” 

The fourth prince’s eyes widened abruptly. He couldn’t believe Jing Chen’s reaction. He quickly thought about his motive. He glanced at Jing Shao out of the corner of his eye, but he wasn’t speaking. He then realized that Rui Wang wanted to take the lead and recommend someone to plug this gap to prevent Jing Shao from being sent to Yunnan-Tibet. He sneered; how could he just let them do what they wanted?

“Your Majesty, the eldest prince should naturally return to the capital, but the southern barbarian rebellion has not been quelled, so we need to send a person who is capable of using troops to take command and resolve this situation as quickly as possible,” Duke Mao quickly stepped forth and said.

“Yes, your majesty. Chen thinks…” The Count of Yongchang stepped forth to speak, but the North Marquis snatched the opportunity to get the first word in on the subject. “Chen thinks that the Count of Yongchang is the most suitable.”

The Count of Yongchang immediately stared with big eyes; he didn’t expect Mu Jin, who ordinarily had few words to say, to suddenly push him forward. 

“Chen is soft-spoken, and not intimidating enough in the face of the southern barbarians,” the Count of Yongchang quickly said. Before the campaign had been approved last year, he had already wrangled using this. It was best for a prince to lead the charge against the southern barbarians.

Emperor Hong Zheng heard this, and thought of the noise the Countess of Yongchang had been making before the Empress Dowager. He was suddenly unhappy. He turned to look right at his son who was standing so straight that he was about to become one with the coiled dragon pillar behind him, and asked, “Jing Shao, what do you think?”

Mu Hanzhang’s heart was tight, and his hands hidden in the sleeves of the purple cloud-patterned court robes clenched quietly into fists. The emperor asking such a thing meant that he was annoyed by this troublesome matter, and he wished to send Jing Shao to resolve it quickly. 

“Erchen feels that it’s not necessary to worry about the small group of bandits that are the southern barbarians. It’s most suitable for those who have never led soldiers before to practice their skills.” Jing Shao’s implication was that the southern barbarian campaign was nothing but a small skirmish. Even if they lost, they wouldn’t lose much, and the emperor could send whomever he wanted to test. He was also pointing out that he didn’t want to go. To send him was like killing a chicken with a butcher’s knife for oxen.

At this remark, the expressions of all the people in the fourth prince’s group suddenly changed. The only prince who had yet to lead soldiers in a campaign was Jing Yu. The Count of Yongchang’s face drained of blood. In order to protect the fourth prince, he would most likely be the one pushed to go.

Jing Shao was accustomed to being this unbridled in court. Emperor Hong Zheng just frowned at his straightforward words, but didn’t scold him.

“The Count of Yongchang hasn’t led soldiers yet.” The Marquis of Dingnan seemed to think of this suddenly and slowly spoke. The Marquis of Dingnan was Jing Chen’s father-in-law. In order to avoid suspicion, he seldom spoke in court. However, since the North Marquis had spoken today, it wouldn’t do any harm for him to say just that sentence. 

Soon after, a majority of the court supported sending the Count of Yongchang on the campaign; even several officials from the fourth prince’s faction echoed the sentiment.

Emperor Hong Zheng made the decision immediately. Three days later, the Count of Yongchang would leave for the Yunnan-Tibet region, and the eldest prince would be ordered to return to the capital.

“Your Majesty, you must prevent this. The dangers of the Yunnan-Tibet region are not something my old husband can bear,” the Countess of Yongchang cried in Fengyi Palace.

“The emperor has already given the imperial decree. What can Bengong do?” The empress was so angry that she kept banging the table. Her younger brother really couldn’t do anything right. Every time they asked him to do something, he wasn’t able to do it satisfactorily. Now, he had even gotten himself involved in the mess. 

“Your Majesty, he is your own brother. You can’t just ignore him!” The Countess of Yongchang held her handkerchief and sobbed.

At the end of the day, it was the empress’s brother, and Jing Yu still had to rely on the influence of his uncle’s family to some degree. The empress got angry, and her voice slowed down. “Tell him to relax, and to go to Yunnan-Tibet for a while. Isn’t General Zhengdong still there? Have him take care of everything. After a while, Bengong will find someone to replace him.”

In the same way, the fourth prince told the Count of Yongchang that the most important thing now was to get the eldest prince back. Although he and his eldest brother didn’t really have a common purpose, in any case, he was also a helper. After a period of time, he would wage war against Huainan, and the eldest prince could help him keep an eye on Jing Chen and Jing Shao in the capital; these were matters which his uncle couldn’t help with.

After court was dismissed, Jing Shao rushed to his Wang Fei and said, “I just saw Jing Yu’s face turn green.” 

“En,” Mu Hanzhang answered as he continued walking.

Jing Shao jumped in front of him discontentedly and looked at Mu Hanzhang’s face as he walked backward. “My response today was fast enough, right?”

Mu Hanzhang took a good look at him. It had been a whole year, but Jing Shao still didn’t know what his “begging for praise” expression looked like. He would just stare at the other with sparkling eyes. Mu Hanzhang couldn’t help but smile when he thought of the way he had offered him the pants on the second day after they were married.

Mu Hanzhang’s handsome face was even more handsome now because of his good frame of mind this past year and the nourishing medicinal tonics which Jing Shao had him drink. He was at least 30% even more beautiful. In the bright sunshine of early summer, this smile was really charming. 

Jing Shao was stunned by this beauty. He reached out to touch him, when he suddenly fell backward into a cart of vegetables with an “Ouch!”

“Ha ha ha ha…” Mu Hanzhang saw that a bok choy vegetable cart was coming, but before he could remind Jing Shao, the latter had already fallen into the pile of vegetables. Jing Shao sat back up with a few vegetable leaves stuck to his head. It was quite amusing, and Mu Hanzhang couldn’t help laughing loudly.

The old man pushing the cart immediately wrinkled his face, but he didn’t dare to say anything when he saw that they were wearing court clothes, so he could only look at the crushed vegetables with a sad face.

Jing Shao jumped up angrily. A pile of vegetable leaves fell from his body with a plop as he looked angrily at his Wang Fei, who was still happily laughing at him. 

Seeing that Jing Shao was angry, Mu Hanzhang gave the old man a few pieces of silver and let him go quickly. He then walked over with a smile and pulled the green vegetable leaves off Jing Shao’s head, then helped him straighten his wrinkled court clothes. “You were very intimidating in court today. The Count of Yongchang was almost scared to death.”

“That’s true!” Hearing this praise, Jing Shao immediately grinned. He didn’t feel like he had lost face from the previous interaction with the vegetable cart, and went home happily.

As soon as they got to the gate of their palace, they ran into Hao Dadao, whom they hadn’t seen for a long time.

“Wang Ye, Military Advisor!” Although Hao Dadao had been conferred as a general, he didn’t have to go to court on normal days. He also wasn’t fond of visiting other people and giving gifts, so he hadn’t seen the two of them for a while. 

“General Hao is truly a rare guest. Please quickly come inside.” Mu Hanzhang smiled. He was closer to the people he knew on the battlefield than those he knew in the capital.

“No, thank you.” Hao Dadao was a little embarrassed. “It’s like this: My wife came to the capital yesterday and prepared a meal at home. We want to invite Wang Ye and Military Advisor to a meal and a chat.”

“It’s a good thing that elder sister Hao has come to the capital, what good news!” Jing Shao smiled. Seeing that Hao Dadao seemed pretty embarrassed and awkward, it must have been his wife who insisted on inviting them. It was sudden, but Hao Dadao was a henpecked husband, so he could only come over and wait at the gate for them to come back from court.

“It must not have been easy for your wife to come to the capital. We would definitely like to partake in the meal,” Mu Hanzhang said with a light smile. “General, go back first and tell your wife that we’ll be coming over right after we change our clothes.” 

When Hao Dadao heard this, he gave a simple smile, quickly nodded and returned to report the completion of his mission to his wife.

Mu Hanzhang had a good impression of Hao Dadao’s straightforward and robust wife. Remembering her kindness in helping wash the tiger, he had Duo Fu quickly prepare a generous gift, changed into regular clothes with Jing Shao, and then went to the general’s residence.

The general’s residence wasn’t far from the Cheng Wang’s residence. Although it wasn’t as luxurious as the princes’ palaces, it was very magnificent and grandiose compared with normal residences.

As soon as they entered, they heard the plump lady’s voice, full of vigor, as she shouted, “Hurry up, the Wang Ye and Wang Fei will be here in a moment. Move your hands and feet faster!” 

They couldn’t help but look at each other and smile. This lady truly couldn’t stay idle, no matter where she was.

“Sister, please have a rest. They will be here soon. Why don’t you go inside and clean up a bit?” The two people who were following the servants down a winding path to the door suddenly heard a clear and sweet voice. Jing Shao couldn’t help but stop, and he turned to his Wang Fei and saw that he also had a surprised expression. He quickly scurried forward and stepped over the threshold to enter the room.

There was a large pear wood table in the room carved with floral designs and laden with various kinds of vegetable and meat dishes. The plump madam was putting the dishes she had personally cooked onto the table in a flurry. Hao Dadao was instructed to get the wine. The servants were also rushing about in circles. Only one person sat at the table, leisurely holding a cup of tea and looking at them with a smile that wasn’t a smile.