Chapter 45 Adult’s heart as one
The second day is the day before the third day, this is not nonsense, because the third day Wan Er will return to the capital, Fan Xian is used to let his wife and family away from a set of dirty things, so he set the time on the second day. This day the wind and sunshine, the snow gradually melted, Tianhe street is wet, there is snow on the street running water stone pool, finally flowed, with the snow with the dead leaves, to the low-lying areas of the line.
Kyoto inside and outside the four to the gates of the city by the thirteen city gate division is responsible for security guards, the thirteen city gate division directly under the palace allocation, not to mention the Kyoto guards can not probe the hand into it, that is, the Privy Council of the military will not be in the open to make too much action. Every night, the Kyoto city gates will be closed, in the history of Qing, in addition to the several bloody coup d’état, as well as several major natural disasters and border disturbances messengers to report, there is no precedent for opening at night.
The exception was the old dean of the Supervisory Academy, Lord Chen Pingping, who lived outside the capital in the Chen Garden, and His Majesty had given this dean the privilege of entering the capital at night.
But there was only this one exception, no one other than Chen Pingping could enter or leave Kyoto in the dead of night without imperial orders, only after Fan Xian took charge of the Supervisory Academy, there was one more person added to this exception.
So even if the Kyoto guard Yuan Tai camp found Yan Shen Duo’s body, reported it up the chain of command, and finally reported it to the level of generals who knew Yan Shen Duo’s real identity,…… the generals in the camp were shocked and terrified, they still had no way to notify the grownups in Kyoto.
The Kyoto guard commander Qin Heng only learned of this news the next morning.
Then Yan Xiaoyi, the Great Governor of the Conquest of the North who had returned to Kyoto to report on his duties, also learned of the news.
His own son had been assassinated in the middle of the camp last night.
Yan Xiaoyi sat on the edge of the bed, his two feet spread extremely wide, a habit he had developed from years of military service on horseback, his eyes somewhat apathetic as he looked at the messenger kneeling in front of the door, slightly tilting his head, somewhat in disbelief of his own ears.
“Master.” The two concubines on the bed forcefully suppressed the fear and uneasiness within their hearts, struggling to get up, dressing Dato’ Yan and fetching water to rinse.
Throughout all of this, Yan Xiaoyi maintained an indifferent calm, his hands rubbing in the hot water basin without a single tremor.
He has been very energetic since he was a young boy, and after joining the army, he has been enjoying himself night after night without any women, and has countless concubines at home, that is, he does not have a wife in this mansion in Kyoto, but he still has five concubines to serve him, and under the wind and rain last night, these two concubines could not withstand it any longer.
Yan Xiaoyi inclined his head to look at the concubines beside him, usually he was used to being secretly proud of his physical strength and energy, but today his heart was a little different, and he felt a hint of loathing towards these delicate women.
Women, he had many, but a son, he only had one.
He calmly stood up, tied a black gold and jade belt around his waist, put on a snow-blocking cloak, and marched out the door. Outside the door there were already personal soldiers waiting with the Kyoto guard full of fearful generals.
Looking at the longbow and the quiver of arrows held by his beloved, Yan Xiaoyi is somewhat lost in thought beside the horse, even so, since hearing the news until now, he is still calm, slightly black with the color of perseverance without a trace of dissimilarity in his face.
The sound of hoofbeats gradually away from the Yan House, the House of two beautiful girls died tragically in bed, blood soaked the entire Cui mantle.
Under the escort of his soldiers, Yan Da Dudu went out of the city gates, and came to the tent of the Yuan Tai camp not far away, with an indifferent face, not even looking at the camp generals who came to pacify themselves, that is, the Qin Heng who hurriedly rushed to the camp, but he also turned a blind eye to him.
He directly entered the center army tent.
Yan Shenduo’s corpse was laid out in the tent, and no one dared to move the corpse, as everyone was waiting for Great Governor Yan to personally take a look.
Yan Xiaoyi stood in front of his son’s corpse, not speaking for a long time, only his brows furrowed slightly, and after a long time, his gaze drooped slightly as he reached out and wrenched his son’s already stiffened palm away.
The grasp of the dead man’s hand was extremely tight, and Yan Xiaoyi wrenched very hard, breaking two of his son’s fingers. He took out something from his son’s palm, then raised it to his eyes, examining it carefully.
The light from the sky outside the tent filtered in, gently bending from the jade pendant and shooting into Yan Xiaoyi’s eyes, causing his pupils to shrink slightly.
He recognized the jade pendant, which had a small sword on it and a few words engraved on the other side, so his heart chilled and swirled and burned.
The rest of the generals in the central army tent, however, did not know what this jade pendant represented, Qin Heng sighed and went forward to pacify him for a few moments while expressing the Qin family’s heartfelt apologies for this matter, a son of a great governor was assassinated in a camp under his family’s control, no matter what, the Qin family had to bear a great deal of responsibility for this.
Yan Xiaoyi nodded slightly and finally spoke, his voice a little hoarse as he slowly said, “Little Marquis needs no further words.”
Qin Heng fell silent, and after a moment said, “I ask the Grand Marquis for his condolences.”
Yan Xiaoyi’s face did not look mournful as he allowed the proper general of the Yuantai camp to lead him to the tent where his son had once stayed, he went in single-handedly and stayed in that tent for a long time.
All the men waited for him outside, not daring to disturb him.
After having a last conversation with his son’s breath inside the tent, Yan Xiaoyi walked out from that broken hole at the back of the tent, his face wooden, looking at the several large spreads of blood stains on the snowy ground that had been somewhat dispersed by the wind, and not saying a word.
Returning to the center tent again, Yan Xiaoyi looked at his son’s corpse, lowered his head, and suddenly reached out, grasped the arrow sticking in his son’s corpse’s heart, and pulled it out with a slight force.
With a puffing sound, the arrow branch left the corpse and fell into Yan Xiaoyi’s hand, he personally inserted the arrow into the quiver carried by his own soldiers, then turned to Qin Heng and said, “Burn it.”
The sound of horses’ hooves rose again, leaving the Yuan Tai camp and heading towards Kyoto. Even though his son had been assassinated, as an important general of the imperial court, Yan Xiaoyi still had to stay in Kyoto, and this was the inconvenience of power.
The cold wind pummeled his face.
The faces of the soldiers of the Northern Expedition Army were filled with grief and anger, they had fought against the Northern Qi people in the northern border of Qing for several years, and considered themselves to have merited their country, but they did not expect that someone in Kyoto would dare to assassinate the son of the Grand Metropolitan Governor!
Yan Xiaoyi remained unchanged, only saying indifferently to his personal follower, “Not the Four Gu Swords, that assassin bled, Ninth Grade.”
That jade pendant explained the assassin’s origin, and Yan Shendou’s strength and the price the man paid explained the man’s caliber. The personal follower rode beside him and said, “After Ye Chong left the capital, there were only a few of the Ninth Grade in Kyoto in the open, and now that the Governor and Lord Fan Jr. have returned to the capital, there are two more people, only hidden in the shadows there should still be some, such as the Supervisory Court.”
Undoubtedly, the first to bear the brunt of Yan Xiaoyi’s return to the capital would be the forces of the Supervisory Academy’s lineage, especially since that day before the Privy Council, the horsewhip that Fan Xian had waved at him had turned this hidden confrontation into an impending conflict.
That was why Yan Shenduo’s death was the first thing everyone would associate with Fan Xian.
“It wasn’t Fan Xian.” Yan Xiaoyi said indifferently, “But it must be related to Fan Xian.”
The city gates were right in front of them, and the arrow-bearing follower glanced worriedly at the Grand Metropolitan Governor, thinking that if it really had something to do with that little Lord Fan, what would the Grand Metropolitan Governor do? Could it be that he would kill His Majesty’s bastard son with a single arrow right there in Kyoto?
Yan Xiaoyi narrowed his eyes slightly and did not say anything, only coughing twice before covering his lips, a trace of blood flowing out from between his fingers.
Last night’s assassination had not been publicized, for one thing, not many people knew about Yan Xiaoyi’s son being on guard in Kyoto, and secondly, it was too short of a time, and even the main office of the Supervisory Court had not obtained the relevant details. The civil and military officials of the Qing court were originally divided into two systems, so naturally not many court ministers were aware of this matter either.
Today was a small court meeting, and the ministers at the palace entrance gathered in twos and threes, each with their own mountain, except that the Eastern Palace had eased up a lot between the Crown Prince and His Second Highness, so those two factions of civil officials didn’t stand too far away from each other.
While the Ministry of the household secretary Fan Jian is in and the door under the middle book of those two university scholar whispering something, in the three people around, no one close.
A whip cracked, the palace door slowly opened, the commander of the forbidden army, the grand prince walked out with a calm face, saluted the several bosses at the head, and the crowd hurriedly returned the salute. Since more than a year ago, his majesty let the big prince is responsible for the Palace Exam program ban after, the whole palace defense is really solid as a golden soup, and the big prince is also a diligent person, every period of the dynasty, will personally on duty, not because of their own identity and the status of the heavenly nobleman and there is a difference.
Because of this, these ministers in the court had a sense of respect and fear for the Grand Prince.
The ministers went into the court to discuss the gossip of the world with Emperor Qing, the palace entrance was quiet again. The square in front of the palace snow has long been swept clean, revealing the wet stone below, the snow was swept away in the square side of the ridge into a half a person high snow pile, such as the short city in general.
A carriage from the long snow pile after traveling over, the body of the horse body driver is a water of black, guard the palace door of the forbidden army as well as the door of the guards immediately know the identity of the carriage in the people, the heart can not help but some curiosity and excitement.
The great prince hand press sword personally welcome up, will carriage on the action is still some inconvenience of young officials helped down, the two people all the way softly say something, together into the palace.
Inside and outside the palace gate soldiers atmosphere do not dare to utter a sound, just a small intention to use the afterglow to watch this scene, until the big prince and the young official’s figure disappeared in the palace, the people only spit out a mouthful of cloudy air, excitedly whispered.
“See? They all say that the Grand Imperial Prince is on good terms with him, so it seems that it really isn’t a lie.”
“What’s so rare about that, they were originally brothers.”
“Brothers?” Someone sneered, “Don’t you remember how Fan Ti Si cleaned up the Second Highness a year ago?”
“Silence!”
Although the Qing national culture was open and there were few things that were punished for speech, but at the entrance of this glorious palace, there was a great deal of gossip about the royal family, so it could not be said that these soldiers who had once followed the great prince in his western expedition against the Hu barbarians, and then returned to the forbidden army to stand sentry, were indeed bold to the extreme.
The two little eunuchs looked at these forbidden soldiers like they were gods.
“That’s the legendary Little Lord Fan, huh?” One of the guards, who had obviously entered the palace not long ago, said with a look of excitement on his face, “It’s just like the legend, born as handsome as a heavenly god, only his complexion doesn’t seem to be very good.”
“Nonsense! Only a few days ago was assassinated once, suffered such a serious injury, how can it be good …… To say it is also strange, Little Fan Lord’s injury is also really fast, actually now can get off the ground to walk, how come in such a hurry to come to the court?”
“Don’t forget, Little Lord Fan is the youngest Ninth Grade expert in my Great Qing Kingdom!”
“But speaking of sniping ……”
All of them fell silent at once, knowing that this matter was too frightening and it would be best to discuss it less.
Fan Xian and the Grand Prince were walking through the palace, unaware of what these people behind them were discussing, but the Grand Prince couldn’t help but wonder why he was in a hurry to enter the palace when his injuries hadn’t healed much.
“Why are you in such a hurry to enter the palace? There’s been some chaos in the palace lately, and it’s all a bit tense over the investigation into your sniping.”
Fan Xian smiled and said, “Forgot? The invitation I remembered to send over to the royal family, it should have been the Grand Princess herself who picked up the …… evening at the Moon Embracing House I’m treating you, having the stamina to treat you but not hurrying to enter the palace to report on your duties, I’m afraid that His Majesty will spank me.”
“You should be called Grand Imperial Concubine, or sister-in-law will do, why are you still called Grand Princess?”
“No need, big imperial consort sounds awkward, always think of Ye Ling’er that girl, sister-in-law this title is even less …… I don’t want to be spit on by the Taishang Temple’s main secretary in front of me, my last name is Fan, you can be surnamed Li.” Fan Xian said this somewhat wildly, at least as a courtier talking to the Grand Emperor, it seemed a bit unruly.
The Grand Prince knew what was on his mind, smiled hopelessly, and suddenly said solemnly, “Did you know about that matter?”
“What is it?” Fan Xian frowned slightly.
“Yan Xiaoyi’s son, he was assassinated last night.” The Grand Prince stared into Fan Xian’s eyes, as if trying to determine from his eyes whether or not this assassination had anything to do with him.
Fan Xian raised his eyebrows, not bothering to deliberately act surprised, and said, “Dead is dead, it’s not one of mine anyway, so don’t guess, this has nothing to do with me.”
The Grand Prince looked at him and shook his head, “Whether it has anything to do with you or not, I’m afraid that this matter will be recorded on your head.”
“Remember it as you wish.” Fan Xian smiled gently, “I have quite a few enemies in this life, and I don’t care about one or two more.”
“That person is …… Yan Xiaoyi.” The Grand Prince reminded in an aggravated tone.
Fan Xian did not respond to anything, but only thought in his heart that this Grand Imperial Prince beside him really did have some strength in the military, and at this time only the city gates had just opened, and he was actually able to know the story of what had happened in the Yuantai camp.
The grand prince saw him ignore, frowned and said: ”This matter is only afraid that it is not so good to be good, think about it, in the guard division camp on the left side of Kyoto, it was actually mixed up by assassins……. Once the matter is exposed, no one will want to have a good day, this matter… . done is also too wanton.”
Fan Xian heard the hidden meaning in his words and couldn’t help but sneer, saying, “Yuan Tai camp? The other day there was someone who dared to move the military’s defensive crossbows to murder the Minister of Qin in the valley …… Just who is a little more wanton?”
The eldest prince saw him get angry and also knew that he had lost a lot of men in that valley sniping, so he only changed the topic and asked, “When will Chen Yaotou come back? Royal grandmother and my mother have been reading about her for who knows how long, and I’m afraid that they won’t be able to let her go to Jiangnan again in the coming year.”
Fan Xian said, “Tomorrow will arrive, by the way, that Hu’s princess I also brought back …… In addition, I bought a mansion in the sheep onion alley, the place is remote and secluded, just suitable for hiding.”
The Grand Prince was stunned at these words, and asked numbly, “What is hiding a pet?”
Fan Xian took out a house deed from his pocket and threw it to him, the corner of his lips curled up slightly and said, “To give you a second wife.”
The Grand Prince did not know how to speak, glared at him in annoyance, and said, “In front of people and behind a poetic immortal’s timeless and elegant face, who knows that it’s a sour and mean fox’s mouth.”
“That’s true.” Fan Xian said proudly, “I’ve had enough of fame, so we’re going to tear this face off and have some fun with everyone.”
The Grand Prince was slightly alarmed and said with a frown, “You invited so many people at night, what exactly do you want to do? Don’t be reckless.”
“How could I? They’re all noble people, I can’t wait to flatter them.” Fan Xian said with a cold smile, “But I know what you’re thinking, and it’s simple to not want sibling rivalry, so hurry up and break them.”
The eldest prince said disapprovingly, “That’s an ugly thing to say, they are all of the same father and compatriots, just wait for the holy judgment, you also have some sense of propriety.”
“Don’t mention it.” Fan Xian shook his head and said, “Still the same old saying, I am surnamed Fan …… but you can also rest assured that I do not have a hobby of cutting off my own fingers, as long as after tonight, they are willing to be more honest, I naturally will not do anything.”
The eldest prince laughed, Fan Xian pondered for a while and then also couldn’t help but laugh to himself, that said, from ancient times to the present day, the history books can be seen, very few young courtiers dared to threaten the crown prince and the emperor to his face like he did, not to mention still using this kind of lecturing tone, this thing does seem a bit ridiculous.
Fan Xian insisted that his surname is Fan, but he knows that if it is not because he should have been surnamed Li’s sake, he does not have enough strength to negotiate with the royal children, and even this qualification is not, according to his own style of behavior, I’m afraid that a long time ago on the dead.
So when he waited for a long time in the imperial study, and finally saw that lifted the curtain and entered, surnamed Li’s old man of the emperor, he behaved quite respectfully, only occasionally revealing a few threads of coldness and stubbornness between his eyebrows.
As the saying goes, a road show is always the same.