“Both the assassins and the poisoner were very cunning. I’m still investigating.”
After hearing that the inquiry was still on going, the emperor gave a bob of his head and said with a grave look on his face, “I myself have also ordered the Dali Temple (the Supreme Judicial Court in feudal China) and the Ministry of Penalties to hold a thorough investigation into the two palace guards’ attempted assassination targeted at Ling Zhang. If you have any clues, feel free to tell me. Rest assured, I promise I’ll bring those responsible for this to justice.”
Back then when news of these incidents reached the ears of the emperor, he had almost jumped from horror, since at that time Yuwen Tong was still in Tanyang and could have mistakenly believed that he was the mastermind and decided to stage an armed revolt! Had Yuwen Tong really done that, he definitely wouldn’t have managed to stop him! If it weren’t for the fact that he continued to read the letter and found out that the target of the two assassins was Ling Zhang, he would probably have ordered enforcement of martial law in areas along their way to the capital city.
However, even though Yuwen Tong had not been the target, the severity of this incident was still uncertain. It depended on how much Ling Zhang meant to Yuwen Tong. What had just happened at the city gate seemed to have suggested that Yuwen Tong cared about Ling Zhang very much. However, he had not taken Ling Zhang to meet his family immediately after entering the city. Instead, he had let Ling Zhang go to another place alone. These facts confused the emperor.
As a result, the emperor had taken this so seriously because, firstly, he wanted to state his stand, and secondly, he wanted to sound out Yuwen Tong’s attitude.
“I’m much obliged to you, Your Majesty. Currently, I have not yet confirmed the authenticity of the clues, so I’m afraid Your Majesty will have to give me some more time.”
‘Haven’t confirmed the authenticity of the clues? Exactly what did he find out?’ the emperor wondered in uncertainty.
The King Duan’s attitude towards this issue was much more relaxed. He interposed, “If there’s anything you need my help with, all you have to do is ask, Marshal.”
Yuwen Tong expressed his gratitude to the King Duan, making no further remarks.
“In that case, I think I’ll just wait for the results of your investigation, Aiqing (a term of endearment used by an emperor or an empress to address an official in feudal China),” observed the emperor. “It’s been a long and weary journey and you must be tired. I’ll let you be rid of my nagging voice and have the King Duan see you out of my palace.”
“I take my leave, Your Majesty.”
The emperor’s eyes followed Yuwen Tong and the King Duan until they walked out of the hall. With that, his face instantly darkened. Where Yuwen Tong was concerned, he always had mixed feelings, but distrust and fear definitely accounted for a dominant proportion. No matter how respectful Yuwen Tong seemed, he could never let his guard down and trust him without misgivings.
The reason why the Wan Kingdom had so willingly come to the Great Yue to sue for peace had been that it had suffered several defeats in a row these years, and that people of the Wan Kingdom were having trouble providing enough resources required to proceed with the war. Since the Wan Kingdom had already shown signs of decline, normally, the emperor of an neighboring country, if he was ambitious, would take advantage of the opportunity to invade the Wan Kingdom, expand his domain and even annexed the Wan Kingdom. However, what worried the emperor of the Great Yue was that Yuwen Tong might refuse to obey his orders after entering the Wan Kingdom. The Wan Kingdom covered a good deal of territory, and if by any chance Yuwen Tong grew a desire to become a king himself, betrayed him and launched an attack on the Great Yue, he would undoubtedly be powerless to fight back!
As a result, after the Great Yue overwhelmingly triumphed the Wan Kingdom during this battle, the emperor had, bursting with impatience, ordered Yuwen Tong to return to the capital city for fear that Yuwen Tong might get out of control, but unexpectedly, Yuwen Tong had changed his route halfway, gone to Tanyang and stayed there for half a month. What had angered him even more had been that Zhang Chong had attempted to stage an armed uprising. Had Yuwen Tong not gone to Tanyang, some day Zhang Chong might lead his rebellious forces to the capital city before he knew it.
Apart from everything else, the Concubine Shu and the Sixth Prince had been put under house arrest, and the fraction headed by them had also just been uprooted, so the emperor had been in a terrible fix lately as well.
“Tell Zhang Xi and Zhao Pingchuan to come in.”
Zhang Xi and Zhao Pingchuan had hurriedly come to the imperial palace after returning to the capital city and were waiting outside at this moment.
“Your loyal servant is honored to kneel before you, Your Majesty!”
The emperor’s cold eyes appraised the two of them back and forth. After quite a while, he queried, “Is it true that the two assassins are dead?”
“Your Majesty, one of them bit through a wax ball with poison inside and killed himself. The other one also committed suicide by biting off his own tongue. I examined their bodies and confirmed their deaths myself,” Zhao Pingchuan hastily answered.
“Did any of them confess anything?”
“The one who poisoned himself died an instant death on the spot. Yuwen Tong’s men didn’t have the chance to challenge him. The other one was interrogated but didn’t say anything, as if having some kind of grave misgivings about confessing. Maybe somebody had something on him.”
The emperor lapsed into silence. Uncertain about what the emperor’s intention was, both Zhao Pingchuan and Zhang Xi were afraid to raise their heads to look at the emperor’s face.
“Zhao Pingchuan, were you really unaware of it?”
Zhao Pingchuan was taken aback and hurriedly replied, “I swear on my life they did it without my knowledge, Your Majesty. Both of them had served in the Palace Guards for many years and had been nothing but loyal and honest. It had never crossed my mind that they would suddenly attempt to assassinate Ling Zhang. Had I had any prior knowledge of their plan, I would no doubt have had them executed before they could take action.”
The emperor fell silent once again. Zhao Pingchuan had already broken out in a cold sweat, shuddering all over in fear.
After quite a while, the emperor instructed, “Go back and rectify the situation in the Palace Guards as soon as possible. Keep your eyes peeled for anybody who has questionable allegiance and might dare to betray his commander. If you find any, have them beheaded. It is worse to let a guilty one get away than to mistakenly kill ten innocent ones.”
Zhao Pingchuan felt an instant sense of relief. “Yes, Your Majesty. I will conduct an intensive appraisal of all of them! I take my leave.”
After Zhao Pingchuan left, the emperor inquired of Zhang Xi, “You went to Tanyang. How’s everything going there? I’d told you to pay extra attention to Ling family and that Ling Zhang guy. Did you find anything?”
“Your Majesty, currently the Tanyang Prefecture Guards is under sole command of General Dai Cheng. This is a secret report that General Dai asked me to relay to you.”
Zhang Xi fished out a secret report and, with the emperor’s permission, rose to his feet and handed it to the emperor.
The emperor’s face slightly softened after he read the secret report. “It seems that Yuwen Tong has indeed stopped his intervention in the military affairs of Tanyang.”
Maintaining a bow, Zhang Xi said, “As regards Ling family, I made some inquiries and found out that Ling Xingzhong had no longer been the patriarch for years. It was Ling Zhaowen, his second son, who had been dealing with all kinds of family affairs. However, that Ling Zhang guy is not someone to be taken lightly…”
Then Zhang Xi informed the emperor of some of the things that had previously occurred in Tanyang.
After hearing his story, the emperor commented disapprovingly, “Those were just some trivial performance made in Tanyang which is a small city. He wouldn’t have managed any of those without Yuwen Tong’s help.”
Zhang Xi replied, “I stand awed by your wisdom, Your Majesty.”
…
Meanwhile, Yuwen Tong and the King Duan had just walked out of the imperial study when they saw the Ninth Princess walking towards them head-on.
She was wearing a luxurious floor-length pink gown, followed by a group of reverent and respectful court maids and eunuchs. Wafts of perfume were carried over by breezes before she approached.
The Ninth Princess had taken off her veil and, before coming to this place, applied a dot of cinnabar to the middle of her forehead, which provided a perfect foil for her elegant and well-featured face. In front of Yuwen Tong, she slightly bent her knees in a graceful way and asked, “Marshal, you finished the audience with my father and are leaving the palace?”
The expression on Yuwen Tong’s face was just as bland as it had been a while ago, and there was no amazement in his eyes as he saw the looks of the Ninth Princess. “Greetings, Your Highness. I’m indeed on my way out of the palace. Allow me the honor of making way for you. After you, Your Highness.”
The Ninth Princess briefly twitched her long eyelashes, raised her head and looked at Yuwen Tong, expecting to see in his eyes signs of him being amazed by her beauty. However, to her disappointment, Yuwen Tong seemed totally unaffected by her presence!
Dismayed, the Ninth Princess was at a loss for words. ‘How is this possible!
No matter how good his self-control is, there’s no way he could stay totally indifferent!’
But the King Duan standing on the side knew very well what was going on. He recalled what Yuwen Tong had said in the imperial study –”Never have any women taken my fancy.”
‘So he was telling the truth?!’
The King Duan had extremely mixed feelings, but he was somewhat glad to see that Yuwen Tong was unconcerned with the beauty of the Ninth Princess. After all, the Ninth Princess was not on his side but on the side of the Fourth Prince.
“Sister? What are you standing there for? Go to the study right now while father is still there.”
The Ninth Princess was pulled out of her trance and, for an instant, there was a somewhat embarrassed look on her face. When she saw that Yuwen Tong’s face was still bland and he had even made way for her, in particular, the Ninth Princess felt a twinge of intense awkwardness. She was unable to find a plausible explanation for what had just happened no matter how hard she tried. Never once had she been treated this way by a man!
“What’s the hurry, Brother? Are you by any chance taking the Marshal to somewhere fun?” The Ninth Princess was unwilling to leave just like this. She had come here to see Yuwen Tong, not her father.
“What do you mean by that remark, Sister? The Marshal is tired after the long journey and I’m seeing him back home. As a girl, you are not supposed to have that kind of thoughts in your mind,” the King Duan snapped with heavy sarcasm.
The Ninth Princess’ face changed. “You!”
However, because of Yuwen Tong’s presence, she had no choice but to subdue her anger. “I have no idea what you are talking about, Brother.”
The King Duan replied, “I hope for your own sake that’s true. You are a princess of the Great Yue. Act like one.”
The Ninth Princess’ face turned livid with rage.
Yuwen Tong had no interest in watching his enemies having a dog-eat-dog quarrel in this place. Eager to go back to see Ling Zhang, he said, “Your Highnesses, if you’d like to have a talk, I’ll give you some privacy.”
“No, I’ll see you back,” the King Duan and the Ninth Princess chorused.
The King Duan immediately observed, “Sister, aren’t you here to have an audience with father? Surely you are not here to see the Marshal on the pretext of having an audience with father, are you? It’s not that I take pleasure in lecturing you, but you are a girl. You should have been more reserved.”
Before the Ninth Princess could react, Yuwen Tong walked away.
The King Duan hurriedly caught up with him.
“Y–You!” The Ninth Princess was left behind, face livid with rage, staring fixedly at the receding figure of the King Duan with venomous eyes. “Zhou Mingyuan, I will make you pay for this!”
“Please calm down, Your Highness. Don’t lose your temper. The imperial study is not far away. His Majesty will hear you.” A court maid hurriedly tried to persuade him.
The Ninth Princess clenched her fists, her eyes red. Clearly she felt humiliated and was reduced to tears by fury.
…
After Yuwen Tong left, the King Duan returned to his residence, looking in a good mood.
“Your Highness, Peng Fang came here last night but you happened to be not in. He said that even if Yuwen Tong found out the truth of the poison incident, he would still be able to rid himself of suspicions and at the same time help you eliminate a political opponent, that you might rest assured.” A henchman of his immediately walked up to him and reported to him.
The pleasure on the face of the King Duan instantly disappeared. He reprimanded, “What a good-for-nothing! He couldn’t even handle a commoner, yet he still has the nerve to seek refuge with me? If he dares to implicate me this time, I’ll skin him alive!”
The henchman was reduced to a scared silence.
However, the next moment, something seemed to have just occurred to the King Duan and he suddenly instructed his henchman, “You, go and made some inquiries. Find out as much information as you can about the personality, likes and dislikes of Yuwen Tong’s betrothed, Ling Zhang.”
The henchman was surprised. “Your Highness, may I ask why?”
“Just do it. I have my own plans. By the way, have someone with relevant expertise draw a portrait of Ling Zhang,” added the King Duan.
The henchman was shocked, having no idea what his master’s intention was. ‘He not only wants to find out that man’s personality, likes and dislikes, but also wants a portrait of him. Is this what I think it is?’
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