Chapter 136 – Drawing the Dagger in the Boot for the First Time

The news that many people had died in one night was like the first frost that fell in early fall, instantly causing those conspirators and their followers who had been so excited to wilt.

After that deadly struggle of the civil officials in the Taiji Hall, the black night deaths that came one after another finally made these people figure out that there is never a gentle end to a struggle that involves the gods of the earth and grain, not to mention the fact that little Lord Fan is holding the posthumous edict in his hands and stepping on the black water of the Supervisory Yuan under his feet – as long as a person like this is not captured, no one will think of living their own days of glory and prosperity.

The Empress Dowager and the Crown Prince in the palace, on the other hand, understood that this was the attitude that Fan Xian, who was hidden in the darkness, was showing them. The Empress Dowager and the Crown Prince were naturally furious at this attitude, for it was as if Fan Xian stood in front of them and said nakedly: I have the ability to kill anyone I want to kill, and I am threatening you.

This is a kind of extremely rogue terrorist practice, forcing the Empress Dowager and the Crown Prince not to move for the time being, not to move the Fan family, not to move the dozens of ministers in the Heavenly Jail, or else if they really do move, who in the end will be able to kill whom?

From a certain point of view, Fan Xian’s maneuver to intensify the conflict was most likely a foolish choice. Because how could people in the palace be threatened by a minister? If the empress dowager really played the chicken-and-egg game, losing both sides and drawing troops into the capital, what could Fan Xian do? The Supervisory Yuan could only work its magic in the darkness, but once it met a truly powerful army, it would still have to retreat.

The wonderful thing is, for some reason, the Empress Dowager and the Crown Prince chose to remain silent for the time being, and did not make the strongest counterattack.

In the two days immediately following, the forces on the side of the Princess gathered and remained in the streets and alleys of Kyoto, endeavoring to capture Fan Xian’s traces. Such a powerful force of action, at the end of the day, had only destroyed a few dark tsubo’s of the Inspectorate, killed seven swordsmen in six places, and still had not caught Fan Xian.

The Kyoto Mansion, along with some of the city’s resident guard divisions, surrounded the House of Words within the first hour. However, after killing their way into the mansion, they only caught some of the subordinates in the Yan Mansion, not Yan Ruohai, and they didn’t even see the shadow of that Miss Shen, not to mention that little Lord Yan who had helped Fan Xian to secretly liaise with the old members of the Inspectorate in Kyoto.

The army had not yet entered the capital, and the forces of that party could only surround and monitor the Founder’s building by Tianhe Avenue from afar, but they did not dare or have the ability to kill their way into the main headquarters of the Supervisory Yuan. They were only making sure that Fan Xian and Yan Bingyun had no way to enter the Supervisory Academy.

The siege and surveillance of King Jing’s mansion had also intensified, but no one dared to lead their troops into the mansion, because everyone was afraid of Fan Xian’s eyes lurking in the darkness of the night.

Just for one night, most of the secret officers of the Supervisory Yuan, having received secret orders from their superiors, no longer returned to their offices, disappeared into the crowds of Kyoto, hiding their power, maintaining their safety, and returning to the darkness to which they were most accustomed.

In total, more than six hundred people disappeared just like that. And the disappearance of these officials of the Inspectorate was the most direct threat to the nobles in the palace.

The rumored ceremony of the Crown Prince’s ascension to the throne was suddenly without any follow-up news. Although the palace kept the news tightly guarded, the arrest and imprisonment of more than forty ministers was such a shocking event, how could it be kept hidden.

Gradually, the people of Kyoto began to perceive the truth of the matter and knew that there was a big mess in the palace. The people didn’t have the power to change history, and didn’t have the courage to do so, at least in the immediate future, so they had to be forced to face all this calmly, closing their merchants, hoarding enough food, hiding back in their cold houses, burrowing into their blankets, folding their hands together, and praying to the heavenly temples to resolve this matter quickly.

No matter who was the emperor, it was fine, but there had to be someone to be the emperor.

The streets of Kyoto are unprecedentedly solemn and desolate, even if it is only a curfew, but there are not many citizens who dare to go out in broad daylight.

Originally, according to the Rapunzel’s plan, the Crown Prince, who should have become the new Emperor of Qing, has already felt a burst of uneasiness among the people. Now the cause of the chaos is still only in the Kyoto internal accumulation, if once spread out of the Kyoto, extended to the state county, then the country is really going to be chaotic.

So he must stabilize all this in the shortest possible time. And to stabilize, he must find Fan Xian and kill him.

The Crown Prince looked at the mountains of zhangzhi piled up beside him and gave a bitter smile, unable to speak for a long time. It was only three days, and the memorials submitted by the various counties and states of Qing had already accumulated more than 1,700. In the past days, these medals were all taken by a few university scholars in the Central Book Department under the door, and important matters were handed over to His Majesty for decision. The rest of the small pieces are distributed to the ministries to deal with.

However …… nowadays the university scholars are in prison, the ministries officials are also in chaos, Kyoto is a panic, the dynasty gradually to be impassable, the political affairs have been a big mess.

Take down the top of the hill a few zhangzhang, the crown prince slightly looked at two eyes, pupils gradually confused. These letters came the latest, is in addition to the east mountain road outside the other six road governor learned that his majesty assassination news, sent the paperwork.

These several governors spoke respectfully, but the intention of swords hidden between the lines was very obvious.

The Crown Prince sighed and thought somewhat helplessly, when did the civil ministers of Qing become so backbone? He suddenly thought of the dozens of ministers in the heavenly prison, led by Hu Shu two university professors, in the prison stayed up for two days and three nights, but there was no one who let go!

The palace could not wait any longer, so from yesterday onwards they used torture, but still did not polish off the bones of those ministers. I even heard that today at noon, Shu Da Da Shi began to lead a hunger strike!

The Crown Prince rubbed his temples, incomparable headache. Is it really necessary to follow the aunt’s meaning, will these ministers all killed? But …… what about killing them all? Who will handle the affairs of the court, do you want this palace to be a real loner?

Just at this moment, Hou Gonggong suddenly did not ask for a pass, then full of panic walked into the imperial study. The Crown Prince raised his head and glanced at him, narrowing his eyes slightly. He knew that Eunuch Hou was his aunt’s close confidant, a trusted person.

Eunuch Hou came to his ear and said a few words, his face turning a little pale.

The crown prince was violently startled, slapped his palm on the book case, shaking those zhangzhi to fall to the ground, gritted his teeth and said grimly, “Lao San was assassinated! Who gave you the guts to do this!”

Eunuch Hou’s body shook, hurriedly lowered his body and wailed, “It’s nothing to do with the little one, nothing to do with the little one.”

“Nothing to do with it!” The Crown Prince stared chillingly into his eyes, “Nowadays, you are in charge of this palace. Without you reaching out, how could an assassin run into the Chen Lang?”

“It really has nothing to do with slave.” Eunuch Hou hurriedly begged for forgiveness and whispered.

The Crown Prince only calmed his anger after a long time, and with a wave of his sleeve, he walked towards the harem. Yes, he wanted to be the emperor, he wanted to kill Fan Xian, he knew that the third brother was Fan Xian’s student and was the biggest enemy to his throne, but he still hadn’t thought about killing Lao San. Because in his eyes, Lao San was still a child.

If something really happened to Lao San, who knew what the already turbulent palace and Kyoto would go crazy into? All the way towards the harem, the Crown Prince’s face turned blue as he thought. In the end who wants to kill Lao San? Auntie used Lao San’s death to force herself to be more ruthless? Was it Second Brother who used Lao San’s death to intensify the conflict between himself and the world?

But he knew that no matter which way he looked at it, Lao San could not die.

The crown prince prayed secretly in his heart.

Yes, Li Chengping was the third prince, his death or living had too much of an impact, so he needed to be careful. However, the officials in Kyoto did not have such a good treatment, not to mention that the big names who were in the top positions were at this time locked up in the heavenly prison by the inner court and tortured, even if we talk about those officials who still insisted on doing their work in the six ministries nowadays, some of them were also living a very miserable life.

Door under the Central Book Province does not have a consular minister office, but the six ministries of the officials are still working hard to maintain the functioning of the kingdom. Most of the officials acquiesced to the Crown Prince’s authority even though he did not pass through the transfer of the line seal on his tentative approvals in the palace.

Fan Jian, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, was hiding his life in King Jing’s mansion, Yan Xingshu, the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, was busy arranging for new officials to fill the ministries, laying the foundation for the Crown Prince’s ascension to the throne, and the remaining four ministries were running their public offices in a state of trepidation.

As for those officials whose positions were unstable, or who had innate problems, they had naturally been excluded. Those with the deepest ties to Fan Xian’s lineage were even cleanly stripped of their official positions and detained in the house to await trial.

The Heavenly Prison was no longer habitable, having been filled with the group of diehards left behind by Fan Xian’s father-in-law. And Fan Shangshu’s connections in the court were more secretive, not all of which had been dug up by the Princess for a while. Fan Xian himself didn’t have much help in the dynasty, so by all accounts, there shouldn’t be any major problems.

Even the four sons of Fan’s family, who were known throughout the world. Among them, Hou Jichang was still shouldering a dangerous order, watching the movements of the sailors in Jiaozhou, and secretly communicating with Xu Maocai, ready to strike at any time. Cheng Jialin was arranged by Fan Xian in Suzhou, and Su Wenmao mastered the internal treasury. Yang Wanli, on the other hand, has been in the south of the river for a year to repair the dike. Shi Yanli should be in Song at this time, continuing his journey as the world’s greatest tortoise eunuch.

Even if the Eldest Princess wanted to take action against Fan Xian’s four students, she would not be able to extend her hand that far when the situation in Kyoto was still unsettled, the Crown Prince was unable to ascend to the throne, and the attitudes of the Six Road Governors were ambiguous and unknown.

But unfortunately, at this time is the early fall, it is after the summer flood, the water transport governor Yamen after repairing the dike, according to the usual to send people back to the capital to ask for silver, this year sent back to the capital to ask for silver is not the other person, it is Yang Wanli. He was Fan Xian placed to the water cleaner division, in the repair of the dike, quite a water transport Yamen up and down the appreciation, plus know his relationship with the Ministry of households between the family, so it is very natural to send him back to the capital.

This thought Yang Wanli back to the capital to the court to reach out for silver, is a very easy thing, but did not expect his majesty was actually assassinated, Yang Wanli’s door Fan Xian has already been hit with the assassination of criminals.

So, as soon as Yang Wanli entered the Ministry of Public Works, he asked for himself in.

He has been locked up in a dark room on the sidewalk for two days, and in the two days, he has suffered a lot of torture, and his body is covered with scars. But the people from the Ministry of Justice were unable to pry open his mouth, and there was no way to obtain a confession about Fan Xian.

Yang Wanli, of course, was innocent, he simply did not believe that he would do such an outrageous thing, and he was even more unable to know where Fan Xian was.

At twilight that day, the inner court sent someone to escort him. Although his rank was far from sufficient to deserve a place in the Heavenly Prison, the Empress Dowager had given him this honor on account of his teacher-student relationship with Fan Xian.

Yang Wanli squinted his blurry eyes, holding his waist like an old farmer, and walked out of that dark house, intuiting that there was no place on his body that didn’t ache, and the bloody scars on his fingers knotted and broke, and began to ooze blood again.

His heart was in despair, knowing that once escorted into the heavenly prison, it would be difficult to see life again.

Two inner court guards escorted him, cursing all the way outside. Along the road, the Ministry of Public Works officials see this tragic scene, but do not dare to look sideways, only to turn their heads, pretending not to see.

The officials were clear about what happened at the Taiji Hall two days ago, so there was not a hint of surprise at the palace’s iron-blooded disposition. If the Crown Prince wanted to ascend the throne, he always needed these officials to bow down and be soft, and until the final step, the Crown Prince was always unwilling to kill all the court officials. But after two more days, the prince can not wait …… any longer and how?

Row out of the Ministry of Public Works Yamen, on the prison car, traveling through a certain street corner, the prison car but suddenly stopped. A guard frowned and stretched his head to see. His head just happened to stick out of the car curtain, and then fell down with a bone-crunching thud.

The whole thing fell down!

Looking at the headless body that fell in front of him, looking at the blood gushing out of the cavity hole, Yang Wanli’s face abruptly turned pale, his empty stomach was very uncomfortable, acid surging up, wanting to vomit.

Another guard beside him was shocked and wanted to call for help, but his voice was blocked by a brazier that pierced from outside the car.

The curtain of the car was lifted, revealing Fan Xian’s ever calm and handsome face. Fan Xian looked at the stunned Yang Wanli and smiled, asking, “Do you want to come out?”

Yang Wanli’s turbid tears flowed as he looked at his door master and nodded repeatedly, saying in a trembling voice, “Teacher …… is too risky. Wanli is not worth it for you to do this.”

Fan Xian was impatient to hear any more, and directly seized him down and got into the special ordinary carriage of the Supervisory Academy, and within a moment’s time, he disappeared into the quiet streets and alleys of Kyoto, arriving at a certain hidden contact point.

“Recuperate. I’m not purposely saving you, I’m just passing by ……,” Fan Xian said with a sigh as he looked at the extremely injured Yang Wanli, “Of course, if you really die, I’ll probably be sad for a while as well.”

Fan Xian was not being melodramatic, he was indeed passing by the Ministry of Public Works office, his destination was much further away, which was why he had come to this hidden contact point. Looking at Yan Bingyun in front of him, he asked, “All confirmed?”

“The Princess Dowager Empress Crown Prince Shu Guifei …… is all in the palace.” Yan Bingyun looked at him and said, “All confirmed. As long as the palace is under control, the big event will be finalized.”

“The Empress Dowager really trusts the Grand Prince that much?” Fan Xian frowned, “If I were her, I would have already replaced the Grand Prince with someone from the old Qin family.”

“Perhaps the empress dowager thought that no one would be able to save Caiyin Ning under the combined guard of the inner court eunuchs and guards.”

“I can.” Fan Xian smiled and said, “Tonight, I’ll rescue my relatives and lock up some others.”

Yan Bingyun smiled, only his smile was a bit astringent.

Fan Xian could see the unnaturalness of his expression and asked with a frown, “What’s going on in the palace? Or did something happen on Lord Yan’s side?”

“There’s no need to worry about father’s side, I guess he’s at the Qin family at this time.” Yan Bingyun lowered his head and said, “There’s something I think I should tell you before you enter the palace.”

Fan Xian looked at him.

“The Third Prince has been assassinated.” Yan Bingyun raised her head and looked at him, “Your channels in the palace were not given to me, so I cannot check the outcome of this assassination, but I urge you to think …… of the worst, after all, he’s just a child, and Concubine Yi doesn’t have much power to protect him.”

“Are you saying that …… Chengping was assassinated?” Fan Xian’s eyes narrowed, and he didn’t say anything for half a day, only his gradually clenched fists and knuckles that became white and green in color exposed his true inner feelings.

A moment later, he said in a deep voice, “It wasn’t the crown prince who did it.”

Yan Bingyun glanced at him, somewhat surprised, not understanding why he was so sure that the mastermind of this murder in the palace was not the crown prince.

“Blood has been seen.” Fan Xian looked up at him, “The scheduled entry into the palace this night does not need to be advanced, do it as planned.”

“With the help of the Kyoto Prefecture, the Black Riders scattered into the capital, totaling four hundred.” Yan Bingyun knew Fan Xian’s mood at this time, so there was no misunderstanding about his extraordinarily indifferent behavior, but instead calmly said, “Since you have decided to give up your efforts on the side of the city gate division, the action in the palace tonight must be captured in one net, and not a single one must be missed.”

“Which of the nine city gates can I control?” Fan Xian said with a bitter smile, “If I don’t have enough troops on hand, I can’t go head-to-head, so I can only take risks.”

“Of course, I believe that both the empress dowager and the eldest princess would never have imagined that I would dare to force my way into the palace ……” He stood up and said with a smile, “People who are used to the mind of the emperor tend to forget such things as courage. A drunkard may not have a clear mind, but with a kitchen knife, he is still very powerful.”

“They say that my mother in law is crazy, I want to know if my strong attack like this without any sense of beauty will make her curse in anger.”

“This is not a strong attack.” Yan Bingyun said, “At least the forbidden army won’t stop you. But there are only four hundred of us, and the remaining seven branches of the manpower must be set up outside the palace in a suspicious formation …… The palace is so large that we don’t have enough manpower, and if we want to make sure that all of them are captured, we have to be very precise as to where exactly the targets are.”

He looked at Fan Xian and said with a slight sadness, “Raiding straight into the center camp, this is a big no-no in military law, the implication of gambling is too heavy, I don’t know where your confidence comes from.”

“There are my men in the enemy camp.” Fan Xian said with a smile, then touched his smooth cheeks.

Ever since he had learned of the assassination of the Third Prince, he hadn’t exchanged a single word with Yan Bingyun on the matter, only calmly arranging for the night’s raid. However, at the end of the day, Fan Xian couldn’t help but slowly lower his head, a pang of sadness in his chest as he secretly prayed that nothing would happen to this child Chengping.

“You can’t die.” Fan Xian seemed to be saying to himself, and to the third prince who did not know whether he would live or die, “You are going to be the emperor in the future.”

Let’s move forward one hour to a period of court murders that had the potential to change history and change many people – the second major event to shake up the palace after the assassination of Emperor Qing’s Dadongshan.

The target of this murder incident is the third prince, this third prince’s surname is Li and name is Chengping, his mother is Yi Gui Concubine from the family of the Duke of Liu, he once followed Tanya Duke Fan Xian to study in Jiangnan for a year, and is the heir to the throne that Fan Xian has brightly flagged his support for during this year.

And the mastermind in this murder was not known until much later. Because no matter which way you look at it, the third prince is not an important target at this time, although everyone knows that this teenage boy, for the crown prince’s inheritance has caused great influence, but this kind of influence is still mainly based on Fan Xian’s support.

The Third Prince himself didn’t have any surprising magic or powerful forces.

So even if the Crown Prince was worried about his little brother causing trouble, he would only think about killing Fan Xian and not take action against the Third Prince. The death of the Third Prince at this time would do no good to the Crown Prince, except to make the opposition of the courtiers come a little more violently, and to make Fan Xian’s rebellion a little more frantic.

Especially important is that with Fan Xian wearing the black pot, the matter of Dadong Mountain may be forever hidden behind the truth, and if Li Chengping dies in the middle of the palace, how can the crown prince ……, the owner of the palace today, convince history of this little girl?

The Crown Prince, like his father, is a person who cares a lot about his reputation in history, which is why he swings between killing or not killing ministers, so it is unlikely that he would mastermind his men to murder the third prince, which is exactly why Fan Xian concluded that the mastermind was not him.

Then who wanted to kill Li Chengping?

Under the imperial palace’s Chen Lang, the young Li Chengping was full of horror, running wildly with his feet, also thinking about this question in his heart.

Unfortunately, this is not the Hall of Containing Light, the Empress Dowager has no way to save his life. He was calling for help, but the Chen Lang was too quiet, no one heard his cries for help. Li Chengping despaired, thinking that if he honestly stayed in the Hall of Containing Light, he would definitely not be dead at this time, and he should not have fallen for the trick earlier and ran to the Chen Gallery.

However, …… the other party said that the teacher had something to explain to himself, and also showed himself the token, so he fell for it, and secretly hid his mother from the eunuchs and palace maidens in the Hall of Containing Light, and quietly came to the Chen Lang by himself.

I’m going to run like a madman, child.

However, how can a child outrun an adult, Li Chengping fell to the ground panting, looking at the two eunuchs who were advancing step by step, his face was pale, his teeth clenched hard.

These two eunuchs were not practiced, but had obviously received some sort of training, training to kill, against a small child with no hands, it was too simple.

So simple that the two eunuchs had already treated Li Chengping as a dead man, stomping him to the ground with one foot and reaching into their arms with one hand to retrieve their knives.

When the eunuchs stabbed a knife toward Li Chengping, Li Chengping s mouth was dry, his right hand felt the dagger in his boot, screamed, and finally …… pulled it out and stabbed it!