Chapter 167 – Old Ginger Fades Away

The desperate Empress Dowager did not say the answer Fan Xian wanted to know, trembling her lips and closing her eyes with difficulty. Fan Xian looked at the wrinkles on her face, and there wasn’t much in his heart that was too unusual. He had already guessed this outcome, but it was a spiritual comfort to be able to have such a conversation with this woman, who looked kind, but actually had a harsh heart, in the middle of such a late night-especially at a time when His Majesty would soon be returning to the capital.

In fact, Empress Dowager Qingguo really wasn’t considered to have a heart like a snake and scorpion, and over the decades, she hadn’t taken advantage of the Emperor’s filial piety and the power in her hands to hurt too many people and do too many harmful things …… except for the Ye Qingmei incident. Yet for some reason, for Fan Xian, the fact that this old woman was connected to that incident twenty years ago was even more intolerable than if she had tried to kill herself.

What’s more, this old woman had actually always hated him until after the Hanging Temple incident, when the Emperor recognized Fan Xian’s identity, and only then did she show her attitude by pretending to chant some gods in the Hall of Nuns and sending a string of rosary beads.

For people he admired and who were difficult to threaten, Fan Xian could show his generosity and demeanor, but for the Empress Dowager who had the ability to threaten him, he definitely did not appreciate it, and certainly did not show the filial piety and gentleness of a grandson.

When His Majesty returned to the capital and learned of everything that had happened in Kyoto, whether or not he could sympathize with Fan Xian’s compulsion to raid the palace at night and his helplessness in pointing his sword at the empress dowager, Fan Xian wouldn’t leave too many fatal gaps in his own life. He slowly used his hands to push on the empress dowager’s arms, his true qi sent into her body, helping the slow-release medicinal properties of the pill in her body to gradually accelerate, so that the slightest hint of her vitality would gradually emanate.

After doing all this very carefully, the empress dowager re-turned into a person who could not speak or move, at this time even her eyes became dull and blank, like the dementia of an old man on the verge of death.

From the point of view of cleanliness and insurance, Fan Xian should hurry before the emperor returned to the capital and let the empress dowager die very naturally, but he did not dare to take this risk to gamble on the emperor’s heart. If the empress dowager could live until the emperor returned to the capital, her death would not be Fan Xian’s responsibility, while if the empress dowager died in the few days that Fan Xian had supervised the country, he was afraid that he would have to meet the emperor’s unreasonable fury.

Deliberately amplifying his voice to console her, he expressed his filial piety and slight apology, and after waiting for a while, Fan Xian walked out of the Hall of Containing Light. Nodding slightly to the palace maids and sisters at the front hall, he walked to the stone steps in front of the hall under the awe-inspiring gazes of the crowd and glanced at the distant eastern palace, not seeing the firelight and doing nothing more.

At the entrance of the brightly lit palace, Fan Xian saw Prince Jing who had hurriedly arrived. This prince was finally no longer dressed as a flower farmer today, but was properly dressed in the attire of a prince. Prince Jing and Fan’s family had always been good friends, and when Kyoto was in turmoil, he had relied on Prince Jing’s identity to successfully hide his father in the palace. Fan Xian was grateful to this prince, and hurriedly greeted him with a deep obeisance.

He knew the reason why this prince, who had always refused to enter the palace, had hurriedly come tonight. The news from the palace had already been released, and all the officials and people in Kyoto knew that the Empress Dowager was in a state of emergency because of the rebellion of the Crown Prince and Princess, and the siege of the Imperial City, so she had suffered a bit of a shock, and was suffering from a wind chill, and was lying on her bed, so she didn’t have a lot of time to live.

Although Prince Jing often dressed as a flower farmer, not willing to get close to his mother, but he is, after all, the empress dowager’s own son, heard the news, of course, to rush into the palace. He looked at this handsome-faced junior in front of him and couldn’t help but sigh, looking at Fan Xian twice but not saying anything.

Fan Xian’s expression was calm, he had clearly told King Jing that the Empress Dowager no longer had two days. Although everyone knew in their hearts that the empress dowager’s rush of fire didn’t have much to do with the crown prince, he wasn’t worried that Prince Jing would see what he had done to the empress dowager. Some side information confirmed that King Jing also knew martial arts, but if even King Jing couldn’t hide it from him tonight, let alone the Emperor who would soon be returning to the capital.

“Imperial brother …… is still alive?” King Jing asked after sighing.

Fan Xian nodded, “I saw His Majesty’s handwritten letter to Her Highness the Eldest Princess at the Taiping Farewell House.”

King Jing’s face had a complicated expression. This second-generation scion of the royal family had never been involved in any political affairs, yet he knew how far-reaching this Kyoto conspiracy and rebellion was. And the news that His Majesty was still alive allowed him to clearly guess a part of the truth. He said with slight sarcasm, “Imperial brother has such a big heart, such a powerful means.”

King Jing whirled around and thought of someone, frowning slightly as he asked, “How is she?”

Fan Xian knew who he was asking about and responded with a grave expression, “She has resigned and is now in the mansion. I don’t know how to deal with it, please Your Highness ……”

With a slightly mournful look on his face, Prince Jing cut off his words and said somewhat feebly, “You are now the Supervisor of the Kingdom, let it all be at your disposal.”

Worried about his mother’s condition, he didn’t say much to Fan Xian, but only confided in Fan Shangshu’s situation, and then led by several eunuchs, he sped off in the direction of the Hall of Contained Light. Fan Xian learned from the king that his father had returned to the palace peacefully, and his heart was a little calmer, then he thought that there was still a huge mess of troublesome things to be dealt with in the palace, and his brow couldn’t help but furrow.

Too many officials had died, His Majesty had yet to return, and the entire Kyoto was in chaos. There are still no officials in the various government offices, and the Taishang Temple is even more difficult to find, so the Princess’s subsequent problems can only be left to be solved in the future.

After resolving the issue of the Crown Prince, Ye Chong personally led his troops out of the capital to meet the followers from Dingzhou on the plains, and began to pursue the remnants of the rebels who had already collapsed. The eldest prince personally led the forbidden army to guard the imperial city, also can not be lightly away. Shu Hu two university scholar is in the imperial study room to deal with some urgent official documents. Fan Xian look around, although he is a temporary supervisor, but has become a widow, no one hands, nothing can be done.

Fortunately, after his defection, Sun Jingxiu of the Kyoto Prefecture had resolutely carried out his duties, and with the assistance of the Supervisory Yuan, he was endeavoring to maintain security and order in Kyoto.

The people who fled the city had already left the city during the day through the Zheng Yang Gate controlled by the Gong Dian, and the rest of the people who stayed in Kyoto began to wait for the pacification in accordance with the fate of heaven. Late at night, Kyoto returned to quiet. The fires that had been lit during the daytime chaos were gradually extinguished, but there were only a few places that were still flickering with firelight.

Fan Xian stood in the square in front of the palace gates, looking at the traces of broken stones on the lapis lazuli boards, and those traces of blood that hadn’t yet had time to be washed away, and was slightly stunned. Jing Ge’s batch of black cavalry, as well as the secret agents of the Supervisory Yuan who had carried out ambush sniping in front of Zhengyang Gate had suffered heavy deaths and injuries, and those who had survived by chance had already been sent to the Supervisory Yuan’s Founder’s Building for medical treatment at this point in time.

He believed in the medical standards of his brothers and sisters from the three divisions. The eunuchs from the Imperial Hospital were also bandaging the wounded of the forbidden army and the Dingzhou army in the temporarily requisitioned civilian houses. Yet there were still many dead.

In the far northeastern corner, there were soldiers carrying corpses in silence, piling them into small mountains in the darkness, looking eerie. At this time tonight, there was no time to transport these bodies out of the city for burial.

Fan Xian looked at this scene and took out a pill from his pocket and sent it to his lips, not drinking water, chewing it raw and swallowing it in two mouthfuls. It was not an ephedra pill, but a normal healing medicine. He coughed twice and wiped away the blood on his lips with his cuff, unable to stop himself from shaking his head.

This was his first time experiencing a real war, watching scene after scene of magnificent and tragic scenes, happening in front of his eyes, he finally realized that digging up graves and viewing corpses when he was a child did not temper his nerves to the point where they were too superior to be merciless.

He said to himself once again in the depths of his heart: in this world, there is no good war, there is no bad peace, that agreement between Qingli five years and Haitang, he must do it, even if it will face a powerful enemy that he has never encountered before.

“Qingyu Hall should have been burned to the ground.” Fan Xian thought in his heart. In order not to arouse suspicion afterward, naturally the surrounding homes would have to suffer with it. After the military turmoil, there was no telling how many homes in Kyoto would be burned and looted, so he thought that it wouldn’t attract too much attention.

At this time, a rider from the northwest direction galloped, alarmed just quiet night. People up and down the Imperial City were on alert, and the already exhausted forbidden soldiers barely managed to raise the weapons in their hands until they noticed that the arrivals were wearing the official uniforms of the Supervisory Yuan.

Fan Xian’s eyes narrowed as he looked at the subordinate who sped up to him, not saying a word, but his eyes already carried a heavy hint of questioning – the visitor was a member of Qinian’s group, someone picked by Wang Qinian, and there was no doubt about his loyalty, so he had arranged for this person to covertly keep an eye on Tou Zi Jing’s movements, just in case the old proprietors of Qing Yu Tang left the capital when they He had arranged for this person to secretly keep an eye on the movements of Fuji Jing in case the old bosses of Qing Yu Tang left the capital.

And at this moment, this subordinate came rushing in, so it was obvious that something had gone wrong.

The Supervisory Court official looked into Fan Xian’s eyes and lowered his voice to report, “There’s been some accident.”

There weren’t any stragglers around, so Fan Xian said very directly, “Speak!”

The official glanced around and said carefully, “The lighting of the fire went smoothly, and mixing into the fleeing crowd out of the city didn’t cause any problems, but it was only after the brothers who stayed in place realized that they had already alerted the eyes of the original location, and I just don’t know whose eyes these are.”

Whose are they? Fan Xian certainly knew that it must be the eyes and ears left behind by His Majesty the Emperor. The things in these old shopkeepers’ heads were so valuable that there must be a group of specialized personnel in the palace responsible for monitoring them, and even if there was a rebellion in Kyoto, these people would surely be lurking about.

“I don’t have more than a handful of people in total.” Fan Xian stared at him and said in a chilling voice, “Just gave you twenty …… you actually can’t solve these problems!”

The official lowered his head, not daring to make the slightest defense, and said, “The other side has a hard hand, and they ran off with three of them.”

Fan Xian no longer blamed the official, because this matter didn’t dare to let too many people know about it, so it was carried out very subtly, to be precise, he was taking a big risk, the plan itself had many loopholes, and when it was carried out, of course, it would be very unsmooth.

The official looked up at him and said with a very complicated emotion, “Three ran away, we later chased after them and found a dozen dead bodies …… and one left a message for you, my lord.”

This sentence was a little difficult to understand, and made no sense at all logically, how did running three palace eyes find a dozen dead bodies? Fan Xian’s heart thumped as he asked, “What words?”

“That person said …… someone at home is waiting.”

Someone at home was waiting for him, so of course Fan Xian rushed back home within the first hour. Stepping through the door of the mansion for the second time today, he ran directly to his father’s study in the back garden. The unplundered Fan residence was still as beautiful as ever, and the light in the study shone through the glass and shone above the rockery and the water.

As King Jing had said, his father had returned home safely. Fan Xian breathed a sigh of relief and pushed his way in without being summoned, seeing Liu packing up something.

With a sweep of his gaze, he knew that his father’s sour pulp sub had finished. In such a current situation, his father still had the leisure to drink sour pulp seeds, and Fan Xian couldn’t help but feel great admiration for his determination.

“Is mother still well?” He respectfully bowed to Liu, who nowadays was a proper housewife of the Fan residence. Of course, this was still made possible by his efforts when he got married in the first place.

Liu smiled, said something about going to comfort his daughter-in-law, and left the study.

Fan Jian, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, who was sitting on the eunuch’s chair, raised his head and glanced at his son, relief and a hint of reproach flowing from his eyes. This old generation figure who had been hiding around in Kyoto since the incident in Kyoto finally stopped hiding his mind at this moment.

“The eyewitnesses outside of Qingyu Hall were sent by my father to kill them.” Fan Jian gently tapped on the desk, thoughtfully, and said in a harmonious voice, “I don’t know what has made you so radical, and actually dare to carry out …… a plan that is so full of mistakes and omissions Could it be that you really think that his majesty can’t see it?”

Fan Xian laughed bitterly, his own mindset had indeed changed drastically, except that something like courage often meant loopholes as well.

He sat down and respectfully said, “Many thanks, Lord Father.” He knew that his father was secretly training tiger guards for the royal family, and it was absolutely impossible to say that his father did not have any hidden strength underneath. It didn’t surprise him that those eyes of the inner court were sent by his father to kill them. Moreover, the shocking news of His Majesty’s survival, since he had told Ye Chong from his own mouth, of course his father knew about it as well.

“Killing someone is simple, it’s what you say afterward that’s complicated.” Fan Shangshu thoughtfully and slowly said, “Even if Kyoto is in chaos and the chaos army kills …… everyone, have you thought about it, Qingyu Hall several old bosses, could it be so coincidental that they were all burned to death by the fire? You put a dozen or so corpses in the fire, it’s just a cover-up.”

Fan Xian listened quietly to the teaching.

“And those eyes of the inner court, even if you use the power of the Supervisory Court to kill them all, how can you guarantee that your subordinates don’t have His Majesty’s eyes?”

“It was a split operation, and other than the Qiyan group, the rest did not know the inner circle.” Fan Xian explained.

“Fine, even if the Supervisory Court was made ironclad by Chen Pingping, then let me ask you, who explained to His Majesty afterward that all those inner court eyes that had been watching Qingyu Hall actually died out without a single one left?”

Fan Xian was dumbfounded, and only then did he figure out that even if he killed people to silence them, but the deaths of these inner court eyes that should not have died at the hands of the chaotic army would itself arouse His Majesty’s suspicions.

“And these old shopkeepers still have family in Kyoto.” Fan Jian looked at his son and said in a harmonious voice, “Do they really want to leave, dare to leave?”

“I only had Fuji Zijing send four of the old bosses away, Qing Yu Tang must have people alive to be consistent with common sense. Understand?”

“Understood.” A layer of cold sweat seeped from Fan Xian’s forehead.

“As for the person who is fighting with the inner court’s eyes and who has moved against Qing Yu Tang’s old treasurer, it’s not you or me, but the Eldest Princess.” Fan Jian’s eyes went cold as he said, “Those dozen or so corpses, they were dead soldiers from Xinyang’s side.”

“Since we have to convince His Majesty, we have to convince His Majesty that the person who struck has the need. The Eldest Princess knows the importance of the inner treasury, so of course she would think of fighting for Qing Yu Tang, only she has the ability and the idea.”

Fan Xian was convinced.

At this time, Fan Shangshu suddenly sighed and said, “Anzhi ah …… for my father don’t know exactly how you think and why you would do this, but you have to remember that you are ultimately a person of the Qing Kingdom, and my father is also a person of the Qing Kingdom, so no matter what, don’t do anything that would harm the state capital of my Great Qing. ”

Fan Xian’s heart shook, knowing that his father had seen through his intentions in a single glance, and wanting to defend himself, he really couldn’t bear the thought of lying and deceiving his father, so he could only remain helplessly silent.

Fan Jian looked at his son, sighed again, shook his head and said, “I also do not say you, this inner library …… is ultimately your mother s things. Although I, as a minister of the Qing State, am unwilling to see certain things happen, you …… can do whatever you want.”

Fan Xian was shaken, not expecting his father to make such a decision. Of course his father wouldn’t deceive himself and hurt himself, but why would he help himself when he knew the importance of the inner treasury to Qing’s unification of the world?

“I’m old and have little power left.” Fan Shangshu didn’t know if he knew something or not, a few weary and old colors were added to his usual solemn and handsome face, and slowly said, “When His Majesty returns to the capital, I will resign, and I will help you as much as I can in Kyoto, but I can’t watch something happen to you.”

Father wants to resign? Fan Xian’s heart shook again. In the spring of that year, the emperor had openly and secretly condoned the attacks of the court officials and the investigation of the accounts of the Ministry of Revenue, in order to force his father to resign and return to his old age, however, his father was unenthusiastic and silent, and he had dragged on for two years, so why did he suddenly say that he wanted to resign this evening?