It probably had never crossed Yuwen Zhi’s mind that Fang Quan would show a total disregard for his overtures after he went to so much trouble to get in touch with the Fang family.
Fang Quan’s reply to his letter first went through the hand of a secret guard of the Ling Mansion, and then that of a subordinate of Yuwen Feng’s before it eventually was delivered to Yuwen Zhi, who had no knowledge of the whole thing.
In the Ling Mansion.
“The Fang family actually rejected Yuwen Zhi’s request. This time he’s probably going to be reduced to vomiting blood from anger,” said Zhang Liu to a couple of others.
“Yuwen Zhi won’t give up so easily,” remarked Ling Zhang, his face hardening into a cold expression. “We still need to keep a weather eye on him. Do not let your guard down because of this.”
“Yes, Your Lordship.”Visit website our Listnovel.com
…
Yuwen Feng heaved a sigh of relief after being informed of the contents of the letter written in reply by Fang Quan. His back which had been tense for a whole day finally relaxed. The relations between his family and his cousin had worsened once again after that incident, and they couldn’t afford to suffer another heavy blow. If it came to his cousin’s knowledge that his father had secretly contacted the Fang family, things would without doubt get ugly.
Yuwen Feng’s eyes went cold as he thought of this. All those who were aware of this matter had to be silenced. Zhao Fugui…
Having no idea that his death was drawing near, Zhao Fugui received rewards in the Ling Mansion and then returned to the residential compound of Yuwen Feng with a good deal of food and wine.
“Zhao Fugui.”
“First Young Master?”
Suddenly Yuwen Feng blocked his path. Zhao Fugui hastily paid his respects to him, but a foreboding feeling rose in him as he saw two guards with murderous faces show up behind Yuwen Feng. “First Young Master, what are you–uh!”
The food and jars of wine in his hands dropped to the ground and smashed to pieces. Yuwen Feng flicked a quick glance around and, after confirming that the coast was clear, instructed, “Take him away. Make sure the butler doesn’t find out.”
“Yes!”
…
In the Ling Mansion.Visit website our L istnovel.com
Miao Shisan hurried into the house. “Childe Ling, something happened to Zhao Fugui. Someone in the Assistant Minister of Rites’ residence sent word that Zhao Fugui died of a foul disease.”
“He died?” said Ling Zhang. “What kind of foul disease?”
“The one who sent the message didn’t know either.”
“Given the suspicious circumstances of his death, it strikes me that his killer was not a foul disease but someone who wanted him to shut his mouth for good.”
“He was killed? So someone found out about his contact with us?”
Ling Zhang gave it some thought and then replied, “That shouldn’t be the case. We’ve been very cautious. There’s no way anybody has found out about it. Besides, Zhao Fugui’s father is a butler who’s very much in Yuwen Zhi’s confidence. Yuwen Zhi wouldn’t have killed him so suddenly. It must be Yuwen Feng who did it.”
“Him? Why?”
“Because he doesn’t want your marshal to find out about Yuwen Zhi’s attempt to cross over to the Eighth Prince’s side. In his eyes, the fewer who know about it, the better. I’m afraid that trusted butler of Yuwen Zhi’s wouldn’t last long either. Yuwen Feng is trying to hush up this matter. Unfortunately for him, it’s very unlikely his father would let him have his way, given what kind of person Yuwen Zhi is.”
Predictably, at dusk, Yuwen Zhi was found to make contact with the Fang family once again. This time, as Zhao Fugui was no longer there to report it to Yuwen Feng, the latter didn’t get wind of it immediately. It was after he returned home from the imperial palace at night that he was informed of it. He knew his father well enough and was aware that his father wouldn’t drop the idea easily, so he had specially made arrangements for a subordinate of his to spy on his father. That very night, the two of them had a fight over the matter.
It was almost midnight and Ling Zhang had gone to bed. Miao Shisan came and reported, “Childe Ling, Yuwen Zhi placed Yuwen Feng under house arrest. All their servants unaware of the truth believe that Yuwen Feng has caught a severe cold. Right now Yuwen Feng’s courtyard house is heavily guarded by Yuwen Zhi’s and Yuwen Qi’s men.”
Ling Zhang raised his hand to knead his forehead. “These guys are nothing but trouble.”
In a cold tone of voice, he instructed, “Stay put and keep watch on Yuwen Zhi. Let’s wait and see what else he’ll do tomorrow.”
“Yes, Your Lordship.”
…
The next morning, Ling Zhang and Ling Zhaowu arrived at the Right Prime Minister’s residence.
There were already a lot of people in the house: Zhao Zheng the Minister of War, Xie Dongsheng the Assistant Minister of Works, Commander Xie of the Northern City Garrison Battalion, to name but three.
As soon as Ling Zhang entered, his eyes swept across those present. As expected, Yuwen Feng was nowhere to be seen.
They first exchanged usual pleasantries. Seeing Ling Zhaowu who was standing beside Ling Zhang, the officials were all somewhat surprised. “May I ask who this is?”
“This is my father.”
“I’m Ling Zhaowu.”
The Right Prime Minister and the others were all rather astonished. Ling Zhang’s father? Hadn’t Ling Zhang’s parents both passed away? What was going on?
The Right Prime Minister was the first to come to himself. “It turns out you’re Childe Ling’s father. Please forgive me for not being discerning enough to recognize you earlier.”
“Your politeness humbled me, Your Lordship. What with my lack of knowledge and insight, I’m afraid I couldn’t be of much help.”
Ling Zhaowu looked a trifle thin, and his complexion was not very healthy, but he spoke in appropriate terms and behaved in the proper way, showing a great sense of propriety, giving every official present a very favorable first impression.
“Childe Ling, Assistant Minister Yuwen is said to catch a cold suddenly last night, so he didn’t come.”
After an exchange of courtesies, the Right Prime Minister first talked about Yuwen Feng. “Maybe it’s because he’s been working too hard lately. The task of holding His Majesty’s funeral was assigned to him without notice, and all staff members of the Ministry of Rites have been fully occupied.”
Naturally, Ling Zhang and Ling Zhaowu were aware of the real reason for Yuwen Feng’s absence. Ling Zhang replied, “I’ll pay a visit to him after the meeting. Since it’s just a cold, he should recover from it soon enough.”
All officials present had been informed that the day before the Right Prime Minister and Ling Zhang put out feelers to each other, so although for some of them, this was their first time meeting Ling Zhang, they knew what to expect and were not being overcautious.
“Last night I received a message saying that the Concubine Jin was rather anxious, but Fang Quan didn’t go to the palace to meet her. It would seem he’s been busy gathering strength,” said Ling Zhang.
Seeing that Ling Zhang even had intelligence about the Concubine Jin, everybody present came to realize that he had eyes in many key positions.
“Fang Quan has gathered quite a few people, all of whom are his close personal friends.” The Right Prime Minister gave a couple of names, the owners of which had all been pretty low-key previously but carried some weight in the imperial court.
“Last night I also received an invitation from Fang Quan. He wanted to have a private meeting with me, presumably intending to rope me in to help with his plan,” said Commander Xie. “I declined the invitation.”
When Yuwen Tong had taken command of the Northern City Garrison Battalion was anybody’s guess. Even Ling Zhang didn’t know much detail about it. He only knew that the personal friendship between Commander Xie and Yuwen Tong seemed to start a long time ago, though few people had knowledge of it. Currently, the Right Prime Minister had half of the commander’s seal of the Northern City Garrison Battalion, and Ling Zhang had the other half, so it would take three people to dispatch the troops of the battalion. It required a complete commander’s seal to move the whole battalion, which meant that Commander Xie couldn’t do it without both the Right Prime Minister’s and Ling Zhang’s consent. Naturally, Fang Quan was unaware of this. Otherwise he wouldn’t have contacted Fang Quan.
“Commander Xie declined Fang Quan’s invitation, but Fang Quan might not necessarily give up. You need to be more careful in case Fang Quan resorts to underhand tricks, Commander Xie,” said the Right Prime Minister.
Commander Xie replied, “I’m sure Fang Quan won’t pin his hopes on me.”
“It’s been a full day. He should’ve sent a message to Jiangzhou already. Given that the whole city is guarded by our men, he won’t dare take any action overtly to help the Eighth Prince. If we are to lure them out, we’ll have to loosen the security a little,” observed Ling Zhang.
The others exchanged glances. The Minister of War smiled, “We have the same opinion about this, Childe Ling. Before you came, we’d been discussing how to delude Fang Quan into believing that the time is ripe for him to make his move. We were worried that it might be difficult to convince you to agree to loosen the security, but it turns out that you’ve thought of this already, that we were being narrow-minded.”
Ling Zhang also gave a smile. “You flatter me, Minister Zhao. I’m sure Your Lordships’ considerations are more thoughtful than mine.”
“Now that we’ve reached a consensus, what’s the proper way to carry it out?” asked Commander Xie. “I’m not very good at thinking of things, so I’ll do whatever you guys say.”
Ling Zhang, “…”
Was it the right thing to do to let the whole military presence in this city be under this man’s command?
But on second thought, if this man was really slow-witted, he would by no means have been promoted to commander. Given that this man had served the former emperor so many years without anybody finding out about his relations with Yuwen Tong, he was definitely more than what he seemed, and he didn’t mean it when he said that he was not good at thinking of things. If anybody bought it, they would be the fool.
The Right Prime Minister and the couple of others mulled over it silently for a while.
Ling Zhaowu flicked a glance around the room and said, “Actually, once Fang Quan manages to reach an agreement with Jiangzhou, he will no doubt take action. The way I see it, instead of thinking about how to loosen the security, you might as well just wait and see how Jiangzhou replies to Fang Quan. If people there have other plans and are unwilling to get involved, then we’ll have to adopt another approach to deal with this matter.”
Ling Zhaowu’s words struck the others as enlightening. With a thoughtful expression on his face, the Right Prime Minister looked at Ling Zhaowu. “You’ve got a point, Brother Ling. We indeed should show more patience.”
Ling Zhaowu said calmly, “Your Lordships are all visionary courtiers, and you’re used to taking everything into consideration, so naturally some details will escape your notice. Luring them out is not difficult. Pretending not to notice will do the trick. The problem is that Fang Quan will make his move regardless of whether people of Jiangzhou agree to cooperate with him or not, because this is his only chance. In fact, I believe it is not the garrison of Jiangzhou but the Jiang family as well as Dai Cheng and that Wang Cai guy who are in Cangzhou that you need to be concerned about.
To my knowledge, Jiang Shennian of the Jiang family used to be the most powerful civil official, and he’s also the former emperor’s uncle. There are a lot of people in the imperial court who have connections with him. Maybe…” Ling Zhaowu’s eyes slowly swept across those sitting in the room and then, in a seemingly calm tone, said something that made everybody’s heart give a lurch. “Some of Your Lordships are connected with the Jiang family in some way.
Although the Jiang family have been laying low with their front gates shut, their ears and eyes used to be all over the imperial court. They will be our biggest threat in this city if they have the intention to assist the Eighth Prince. Besides, I don’t see any reason why Jiang Shennian should support Yuwen Tong instead of the imperial household who bear the surname Zhou and have the bond of blood with him.
Yuwen Tong left because he had to, what with the ongoing warfare in the north-west. His leaving the capital city was a risky move, for both this city and himself. In regard to the situation inside this city, without him in charge, all the other sides are itching for action, and there could be a coup at any moment; outside the city, those who see him as their greatest threat and want to directly eliminate him, naturally, could more easily find the opportunities they need. The current situation is fraught with danger. You have already figured out how to handle those foreseeable threats, and you should start considering those lurking in the shadows. Otherwise, even if Yuwen Tong is capable of protecting himself, you won’t be able to keep this city standing.”
Everybody present was shocked as Ling Zhaowu finished the last word.
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