Chapter 60: Water Dragon Song (Part 5)-1
The sky was overcast and the fog thick. Dong Yao lay prone in the mud, clutching the blue-cloth-wrapped object tightly to his chest. He glared at the young man in the veiled hat, sword in hand. “You think I’ll believe you based on a few words?”
“Dong Yao, what’s the name of the beggar who travelled with you?”
The voice from beneath the veiled hat was calm.
“What beggar? I don’t know.”
“I know he is Qian Wei Yin, who abandoned his post and disappeared from Fengzhou.” Xu He Xue approached him. Through the veil’s thin gauze, he saw a flicker of recognition on Dong Yao’s face. “It seems he did conceal his identity from you.”
“You, a scholar, dared to go to Daizhou to investigate the sixteen-year-old grain supply case. I must say, you possess the same courage as your father, Lu Heng.”
Hearing his father mentioned, Dong Yao abruptly looked up. “Who are you? How do you know my father?”
“Like your father, I also served Princess Wenduan.”
Xu He Xue’s tone was even.
“Don’t think I’ll believe you just because you say so,” Dong Yao turned his face away. “Princess Wenduan passed away thirteen years ago. How would I know how many of her former retainers are still around?”
“Have you ever considered why everyone who went to Daizhou with you died, yet you returned to the capital safely?” Xu He Xue didn’t care whether he believed him or not. “Qian Wei Yin is shrewd and cunning, otherwise he wouldn’t have survived until now. You’re just starting out. He didn’t tell you the truth, yet he managed to fool you into travelling with him all the way. Do you think the person behind the grain supply case is more foolish than Qian Wei Yin?”
Dong Yao paused, then recalled his journey. Although he encountered many assassination attempts in Daizhou, upon reflection, he hadn’t suffered any real harm. Even the return trip to the capital was uneventful.
He had thought it was his own skill at hiding, but the man before him was telling him that the Daizhou beggar who wanted to go to the capital with him to petition the Emperor was actually Qian Wei Yin, a fugitive official from Fengzhou.
Dong Yao’s face flushed and paled alternately. His heart was filled with suspicion as he heard the man continue, “I don’t need you to tell me. I know who sent you to Daizhou to investigate this old case. But have you considered whether your safe return to the capital was due to your good luck, or whether someone deliberately let you go, using you to draw out the person above you?”
A chill ran down Dong Yao’s spine. “You’re saying that the evidence I brought back from Daizhou will harm him?”
Ren Jun was dead. Whether the contents of the confession were true or false, enough time had passed for those people to prepare a counter-narrative, even turning black into white. The so-called evidence was likely fabricated.
Otherwise, those people would never have allowed him to bring it back to Yun Jing.
“But Qian Wei Yin!”
The more Dong Yao thought about it, the more uneasy he became. “If he’s so meticulous, what if he discovered something from me? What if he goes to find…”
He didn’t utter the words “Minister Zhang.”
“Your evidence is false testimony from a dead man, but Qian Wei Yin’s evidence is himself. He is real.”
When Xu He Xue found Dong Yao but not Qian Wei Yin, he guessed Qian Wei Yin’s plan. But he was too late when he arrived at Zhang’s residence. Zhang Jing had already entered the palace, most likely taking Qian Wei Yin with him.
“As long as it’s real, the Emperor cannot accuse him or sentence him to death.”
Jiang Xian Ming was an upright official, as was Xu He Xue’s teacher, Zhang Jing. But Jiang Xian Ming was the Emperor’s upright official, while Zhang Jing was the people’s upright official.
If Jiang Xian Ming brought up the grain supply case again, even with Qian Wei Yin as solid evidence, he would likely meet a bad end. But Zhang Jing was different. He had many students and disciples. Even after fourteen years of exile, his reputation remained untarnished. Emperor Zheng Yuan had invited him back along with Meng Yun Xian to implement new policies; he needed Zhang Jing.
Emperor Zheng Yuan could easily kill a close minister, but he wouldn’t easily kill Zhang Jing.
“So that’s why you stopped me…”
Dong Yao finally understood everything. He looked up and saw that the man’s previously clean robes were now stained with blood.
“Go find Minister Meng immediately,”
Xu He Xue could barely stand, crimson blood dripping down his wrist. He steadied his voice with difficulty. “Ask him… to persuade Minister Zhang not to harm himself, not to expose himself to danger.”
The doors of Zhong Ming Palace blocked out the light. Princess Jia, Li Xi Zhen, was no longer in the hall, leaving only Prince Jia and his teacher, Zhang Jing.
“Is Your Highness leaving?”
Zhang Jing sat in a folding chair, looking at the haphazardly arranged luggage inside the curtained area.
“Yes.”
Prince Jia had been looking forward to seeing his teacher ever since he received his letter in Tongzhou, but now, sitting with him, he didn’t know what to say.
“Your Highness must be wondering why I sent you a letter but delayed meeting you,” Zhang Jing held his teacup, gently blowing on the hot liquid. “Is that right?”
Prince Jia nodded. “Teacher, I came back to see you.”
“I know.”
Zhang Jing took a sip of tea. “Precisely because I knew, I waited until today to see you. The timing is just right. If I were a day later, you would have left the capital.”
“Teacher, why?”
Prince Jia didn’t understand.
“The Emperor still has no sons. This time, he’s thinking of you. You should know what he’s considering.”
“Precisely because I know, Yong Geng is unwilling.”
“You’re unwilling.” Zhang Jing placed his teacup on the table and looked at his student, whom he hadn’t seen for over a decade. “Why? Because this imperial city once imprisoned you, and you fear it? Or because the Emperor dislikes you, and you fear him? Your fear makes power worthless to you.”
“When my father died, I was still young. I was a pawn in the power struggle between the Emperor and his officials, tossed back and forth. I was foolishly made Prince Jia and never had a good day in this palace.”
Prince Jia’s throat tightened. “I know there are people in this world who crave power, but I grew up in the highest and coldest place in this world. I’ve seen its true face. I don’t want to be manipulated by it, nor do I want to use it to manipulate others.”
“Has Your Highness forgotten that you are a member of the imperial clan, not an ordinary commoner?” Zhang Jing’s expression was cold. He said softly, “Power is also a responsibility. When you wield it, you bear the responsibility you should bear.”
“Teacher…”
Prince Jia was about to speak, but Zhang Jing interrupted him. “I want to ask Your Highness, over the years, have you ever doubted the person for whom you banged your head against the floor outside Qing He Palace, begging for mercy?”
Prince Jia stiffened, memories flooding back like a hand clutching his heart.
Zhang Jing understood from Prince Jia’s silence. After a long pause, he said, “I remember he was sent to me by Princess Wenduan to be my student when he arrived in the capital at the age of seven. At that time, Your Highness befriended him. Later, you were made Prince Jia and entered the palace. He knew you were studying in Zhao Wen Hall and were often bullied by other imperial children, so he asked Princess Wenduan to help him enter the palace to study with you in Zhao Wen Hall for a year.”
“Later, he brought you to my house to meet me and asked me to accept you as my student. That’s how the bond between Your Highness and me as teacher and student began.”
Prince Jia’s breath hitched. “Teacher, please don’t say anymore…”
“It’s a new year, sixteen years since he was convicted and executed.” Zhang Jing didn’t stop. “Your Highness, have you ever paid respects to him, even once?”
Prince Jia immediately thought of Que County. That was the farthest place he and Xu He Xue had travelled to when they were twelve years old. There was a large bell temple in Que County, and they had rung the great bell there.
They had played and travelled together, carefree and unrestrained.
The year Xu He Xue died, he went to that temple again, bringing winter clothes. His wife embroidered words on the cloak for him.
“No.”
Prince Jia’s voice was dry.
“Why? Because even you didn’t know whether to believe him. In your heart, you wanted to believe him, but the evidence was irrefutable, and you didn’t know what to do,” Zhang Jing pressed. “So you didn’t dare to pay your respects, is that right?”
“Then do you dare, Teacher?”
Prince Jia’s voice trembled.
“Like you, I’m also afraid he’ll appear in my dreams, afraid he’ll come to see me and tell me that my best student did something wrong.”
The military report from Yongzhou was too damning. The testimonies of Jiang Xian Ming and the other officials who returned from Yongzhou were flawless. Zhang Jing wanted to investigate, but he couldn’t find a starting point.
After fourteen years of exile, struggling and displaced, he was powerless to do anything.
“I didn’t pay respects to him, and in all these years, he truly hasn’t appeared in my dreams, not even once. It seems he hasn’t appeared in your dreams either…”
Zhang Jing’s voice almost trembled. “But Your Highness, do you know? All these years, we have been heartless to a man who suffered a grave injustice.”
“What?”
Prince Jia immediately stood up and grasped his teacher’s hand tightly. “Teacher, what are you saying? What do you know?”
“You must have heard of Du Cong since your return to the capital.”
Zhang Jing looked at him. “Before he changed his name to Du Cong, he was called Du San Cai. He was the military officer ordered to transport grain from Daizhou to Yongzhou. The grain carts he delivered were actually empty. But for over a decade, no one has mentioned this, and he’s been promoted from a local military officer to a fifth-rank civil official. Your Highness, how do you think he achieved this?”
He took out the letter from Yongzhou, which he had read and crumpled countless times, and handed it to Prince Jia. “This letter is from Yongzhou. It also mentions General Yu Jie leading troops against the Danqiu barbarians. However, supplies from the rear never arrived, forcing the Jing’an Army to fight on empty stomachs initially. But General Xu He Xue lived off the land, using the barbarians’ supplies to feed his own troops, ensuring the Jing’an Army remained strong.”
“Qingya Prefecture has been under the barbarians’ control since the death of Xu He Xue’s father in battle. This letter says that the barbarian leader, Meng Tuo, threatened the lives of the entire Xu clan in Qingya Prefecture, saying that if Xu He Xue surrendered to Danqiu, he would be granted Qingya Prefecture and ten other prefectures as his fief. But if he didn’t surrender, Meng Tuo would slaughter the entire Xu clan and destroy their ancestral tombs.”
“Xu He Xue used this as a ruse, dividing his troops into three routes. He led 30,000 Jing’an soldiers to Mu Shen Mountain to lure Meng Tuo into a trap. The other two routes were to provide support from Nian Chi and Long Yan, encircling Meng Tuo and attacking his royal court directly.”
“The other two routes… why didn’t they go?”
Prince Jia looked at the handwriting on the letter, his eyes stinging with pain, tears welling up. “If this letter is true, why didn’t they go?”
“Because the other two routes never received the order.”
The Jing’an Army was almost completely annihilated. Whether anyone sent a message, or whether the message was intercepted, was no longer known. The only thing Zhang Jing could investigate were the generals of the other two routes.
But they truly never received General Xu He Xue’s order.
Without reinforcements, the initially unstoppable Jing’an Army became isolated and trapped on Mu Shen Mountain.
“If this is true, if this is true…” Prince Jia clutched the letter tightly, looking up, tears blurring his vision. “Teacher, he, he…”
He was choked with sobs.
“I arrested Du Cong. His last words confirmed this letter.”
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