Chapter 107 – Seven Days

The servants and maids up and down the Fan Mansion heard this decree clearly, and felt that a thunderbolt had mercilessly and cruelly struck down, sending the entire Fan Mansion to start trembling and shaking, and the people kneeling outside the hall were white-faced and shocked, and were very much feeling uneasy and fearful for the young master.

Not only them, including the whole Kyoto officials and people, all know very well what is the root of the power in the hands of young Lord Fan, and His Majesty’s decree to take away the official is cutting off the root of young Lord Fan. However, when Fan Xian, who was kneeling on the ground, heard this decree, the expression on his face still remained calm, without showing any feeling of shock and sadness, because all this was originally what he had expected, just like what he had judged by tossing and turning on the bed for the past two days, His Majesty would try to gradually cut down the layers of defense of power that were covering the outside of Fan Xian’s body in the meantime.

Counting carefully, from the time he met Wang Qinian on his way back to the capital in Dongyi City, Fan Xian had done many treacherous things in the short span of ten days. The black cavalry roared across the counties, which was already a big taboo, and five hundred black cavalry rushed more than ten passes in a row, but also in the dynasty and the countryside fell a great crime, plus Fan Xian broke into the Kyoto to kill the commander of the Zhengyang Sect, in front of the eyes of the people, stabbed to death a few strong people on the court of law ……

One Tsubo and another Tsubo were all sins, all sins that could not be forgiven in the laws of Qing, and even if he was Fan Xian, he still had to pay for this, and His Majesty’s failure to have him imprisoned was already considered lenient enough. However, this kind of leniency could not quell the discussion and pressure in the civil official circles, and this decree today, in addition to Fan Xian’s post as dean, was also considered to be a preliminary explanation to the world, and to give His Majesty himself a channel to vent his anger.

As for what other decrees would come out of the palace in the future, and what kind of blows and losses Fan Xian would suffer, it would depend on Fan Xian’s response, as well as the winds of the officialdom and the people.

Fan Xian stood up somewhat woodenly and took the decree from Eunuch Dai’s hand, casually handing it over to the Qing guest under the door behind him for placement, not even bothering to read through it carefully, as the charges proposed on the decree were very real, and he was not prepared to fight any lawsuits with the palace in these areas.

“Have a cup of tea before you go.” Fan Xian gently looked at Eunuch Dai. Eunuch Dai’s face could hardly suppress a look of embarrassment and uneasiness, his several years of floundering in the palace was actually all because of this young powerful man in front of him, yet today it was he himself who came to Fan’s residence to read out this decree, and Eunuch Dai’s heart did feel a little bad.

“I still have to return to the palace.” Eunuch Dai glanced at Fan Xian with uneasy eyes, and said in a slightly trembling voice, “His Majesty is only angry for a moment, and will be fine after a few days.”

Fan Xian knew why this man looked like this, and smiled, patting him on the shoulder and saying, “Don’t think too much about it, since his majesty has allowed you to resume the important task of proclaiming the decree, he must have faith in you as well.”

Eunuch Dai bowed respectfully and prepared to leave, but then he heard Fan Xian’s low voice ringing in his ears, “How is Ruo Ruo doing in the palace?”

It is a taboo for eunuchs and ministers to pass information privately, however, after a little contemplation, Eunuch Dai did not hesitate and lowered his voice to say, “Ms. Fan is doing extremely well, she often listens to deliberations in the imperial study, and His Majesty is treating her very well, so don’t worry about it, Your Excellency.”

Fanfu’s family is actually considered to be a legitimate member of the Li Clan’s royal family, coupled with Fan Xian’s favor and authority over Eunuch Dai, this eunuch didn’t care about those taboos, and lowered his voice to tell Fan Ruo Ruo’s situation at the palace in the past two days.

Fan Xian raised his eyebrows slightly, a little stunned, he could not guess what His Majesty had in mind, nor could he understand why his sister could appear so transcendent in the palace, not at all like a hostage.

After the matter of welcoming the decree was done, Fan Xian turned to the main hall and looked at his wife, who had been quietly listening at the back, and said softly, “Today is considered to be the first wave, and there are so many errands I’m carrying on my back, that it will take His Majesty some time to peel them off layer by layer.”

Lin Wan’er glanced at him, gently bit her lower lip and said, “If the name is not correct, then the words will be said, although the position of dean is now empty, His Majesty must be waiting for you to enter the palace to ask for forgiveness, after some days will still give you this position, but …… ultimately the imperial power is boundless, you do not have the position of dean, and you want to these days to gather the power of the courtyard, I’m only afraid that there are some obstacles.”

“His Majesty is also clear about this, so he cut my position in the courtyard in the first cut.” Fan Xian sat down and said in a low voice, “At least for the moment, he doesn’t want the court to be in chaos, so he’s slowly chipping away at it, and also waiting for me to naturally admit my guilt and bow down. Just …… so many years, the Supervisory Yuan has been under the control of the old cripple, His Majesty still somewhat does not understand the doorway, even if the Supervisory Yuan has a lot of people who will be afraid of the imperial power, but in the end, there are still more people, do not recognize the decree, and only recognize the inheritance in the courtyard.”

“Being under house arrest is just as difficult a problem to solve as being suicidal.” Fan Xian said, “His Majesty wants the entire world, even including myself, to slowly get used to my loss of power, and it will be much easier to toss me around that way, so I have to hurry.”

Lin Wan’er’s brows furrowed. She had never understood that even if Fan Xian was able to tear open the wide net outside the mansion and connect with the members of the Qiyan group, but what could be solved with just a single meeting?

“My subordinates are an amazing group of people.” Fan Xian saw the doubt in her heart and said calmly, “And they can help me, who is under house arrest, to get in touch with an even more remarkable group of people.”

If Fan Xian forced his way through the surveillance network outside the mansion, with his cultivation nowadays, it wasn’t really such a difficult thing to do, and as he had said last night, unless His Majesty himself arrived, it would be hard to find a few people who could keep up with him in this world of Qing.

However, he must consider for the lives of his subordinates, as well as those collaborators who are not in Kyoto, so he can’t give the palace any chance to follow him and thus follow the map and clear his true roots.

The fact that the position of President of the Supervisory Yuan had been taken away from him did not affect Fan Xian’s ability to regain control of the Supervisory Yuan through those officials who were loyal to him and to Chen Pingping. And if the imperial court really went through Fan Xian’s line and wiped out all of those classes he had been hiding behind the scenes, it would be much more difficult for Fan Xian to connect with those forces that were extremely far away from the temple again.

So Fan Xian’s movements were very careful, and what he showed to the world was a kind of unreasonable, extraordinarily bloody murderous determination, because soon after His Majesty’s decree to remove Fan Xian from the post of President of the Supervisory Academy spread throughout Kyoto, news came immediately afterward that young Lord Fan had once again struck at the large network of eyes and ears outside of Fan’s residence.

More than twenty people died outside the Fan residence that day.

The next day, the palace decreed that Fan Xian be removed from his position as the head envoy of the Inner Treasury Transit Department, formally stripping the inner treasury, which the Kingdom of Qing relied on as the foundation of its national strength, from Fan Xian’s control.

That night, Fan Xian once again struck, sweeping away the characters in the streets and alleys that existed in a tic-tac-toe pattern around the Fan Mansion.

On the third day the palace decreed that Fan Xian be severely reprimanded, and his title of first-class duke was directly taken away from him, and he was taken captive to the end.

Seven days later, all the official positions on the most glamorous young minister of power in Southern Qing were taken away by a merciless decree, remembering Jiangnan, when the dragon raised its head, the young minister of Qinzhi who stepped down from the boat in front of a long string of prefixes, to this day none of them are left.

From today onwards, Fan Xian returned to the white body, even worse than the Beijing to catch up with the examination of the scholar Xiu Cai, he did not have any official position, any nominal authority, no salary, the year when the spring exams used to part-time Ministry of Rites duties were also remembered by the palace, too, often the temple that the extremely honored position of the Secretary of the Ministry of Justice has also been taken away.

The only thing left on Fan Xian was the post of instructor in the Imperial College, which had also been demoted by three grades, but for some reason, His Majesty the Emperor had not taken this post away as well.

During these seven days, the palace was like a conveyor belt between the palace and the Fan Mansion, transmitting His Majesty’s calm and indifferent decrees, transmitting a chilling decree, and with each decree, a layer of light faded from Fan Xian’s body.

The gazes of the officials and people of Kyoto all gazed at this road in front of Fan’s residence. From that day after the day of the Autumn Rain Law Courts, they all knew that this road would be extremely busy, but they hadn’t expected it to be as busy as it was today.

No one had thought that His Majesty’s punishment of the young lord would be so utterly severe, nor had they thought that Fan Xian would be so raw and hardened that he had resisted for seven days in a row, yet still had not gone to the palace to ask for forgiveness.

Everyone was looking at Fan Fu, waiting to see what direction this cold war between His Majesty and his illegitimate son would take, whether His Majesty would simply arrest Fan Xian and send him to prison in a fit of rage, or whether Fan Xian would not be able to resist the decree and would finally give in.

However, even though Fan Xian is just a man himself, the people of Kyoto are still used to calling him Little Lord Fan in their after-dinner gossip, and the officials who are hiding in their houses and watching the progress of this matter are still used to calling him Little Lord.

Because they all knew that even though Fan Xian had been relegated to the status of a commoner by His Majesty, as long as he didn’t die or go to prison, he could still become a great man under one person and above ten thousand people at any time.

No one dared to belittle Fan Xian’s existence, and even to the surprise of many officials, Fan Xian had clearly violated countless Qing laws, disregarded the imperial court, and killed so many people, and yet there were still not too many unfavorable comments about Fan Xian in the public discourse.

In the midst of this war between His Majesty and Fan Xian, for the first time in the Kingdom of Qing, there was a strange state of affairs where public opinion was not all in the palace. Perhaps it was because although Fan Xian had killed people outside of the Fan residence, he had not done so in an exaggerated manner, and apart from the first and second days, his murderous aura had toned down a great deal, and the people he had killed were all eyes sent out from the palace, so what did they have to do with the general public? Perhaps because many people in Kyoto, once saw that in the autumn rain, Fan Xian hugged the corpse of Chen Pingping cried bitterly haggard appearance, subconsciously born a few points of sympathy.

The human emotion is originally such a strange, one moment may still applaud and applaud, the next moment may begin to silent remembrance, thousands of years since the countless court, in front of countless deaths, in fact, there have been such progress.

But really can let a white body of Fan Xian, still have a lot of folk talk support the root, or lies in what he did in these years. Those glorious old events don’t need to be brought up one by one to calculate the energy, and there is no need to care about how much Chen Pingping had done for Fan Xian by utilizing the eight divisions of the Supervisory Yuan, the fact is, since His Majesty the Emperor who had led the iron cavalry of the Kingdom of Qing to break through the rivers and mountains of the old dynasty and open up countless frontiers in a raw manner several decades ago, the only one in Southern Qing who could be described as an iconic figure was probably Fan Xian alone.

If it is in Jiangnan, perhaps Fan Xian can get the folk support is also a little bigger, because after all, he has been operating there for the longest time, and Lin Wan Er management of Hangzhou will not spare blood local compassion for the people all these years, has long replaced the Ming family, has become the most colorful name in the eyes of the poor people and scholars in the south of Jiangnan.

After all, in Kyoto, the people under the root of the Imperial City, even if they favor Fan Xian, but also unlikely to do anything, so in the final analysis, this war, in the end, is still Fan Xian and His Majesty’s war between the two, just as the war in the Imperial Study Room.

Seven days later, everything was undecided, the world was not peaceful, and outside Fan’s mansion there was still a gust of autumn wind, with intermittent drizzle. However, under Fan Xian’s sweeping like a killing god, those eyes sent out by the inner court were forced to pull that big net outward.

The majesty of imperial power was undoubtedly supreme, and the fear of death was also supreme. In the midst of such a pincer attack, the surveillance of the inner court would undoubtedly reveal a breach. Fan Xian stood coldly at the entrance to the mansion, quietly watching the movements around him, but in his heart, he remembered Wan’er’s words from that day, and a strange emotion flashed through his eyes.

The emperor’s old man actually had many methods if he wanted to deal with this kind of face-tearing defiance from Fan Xian, so why didn’t he use them? Was the outward movement of the inner court’s eyes forced by his own shrewdness, or did His Majesty secretly give some kind of decree? Those eyes and ears can’t be killed. ……

Fan Xian some think don’t understand, also don’t want to think to understand, maybe the man in the palace to himself still some warmth, some hope, but he don’t want to let this warmth and hope to shake his heart again, that in the autumn rain has already cooled the heart.

He turned around and entered the Fan Mansion. After not long, a carriage delivering vegetables also turned into the side alley next to the Fan Mansion and entered the corner gate, but of course outside of the corner gate, this carriage underwent the most rigorous inspections, not even sparing the inner layer of each cabbage or the roots of each radish.

The people in charge of these inspections were all officials who showed their identities, and unlike those inner court eyes and ears scattered around the Fan Mansion, Fan Xian didn’t give these people a hard time, because if he wanted to get out of his house arrest, it was only those eyes and ears that he needed to be careful of, not these officials.

The carriage delivering the food did not have any abnormalities, and the official waved his hand, allowing the carriage to enter the Fan Mansion. Into the corner of the door not far, is the Fan House of the kitchen, there are servants to carry the car on the vegetables and fruits.

The palace’s decree is clear, Fan House inside the people are not possible to go out, and outside the people want to come in is also extremely difficult, even if this carriage is actually directly from the lamp market entrance inspection of the Department of Vegetables sent over from the source will be in the court’s surveillance, should not be afraid of the Fan House or those Supervisory Yuan uneasy officials want to do something.

The coachman on the carriage, however, when everyone was not paying attention, silently rubbed the kitchen and walked to the back garden, and then under the reception of an old servant of the Fan family, directly into a quiet study.

As soon as the coachman entered the study, he saw that there was a woman in addition to Fan Xian, and immediately guessed that it should be the dean’s wife, and after being slightly stunned, he removed his straw hat, knelt down and saluted, “Greetings to the dean.”

After the coachman removed his straw hat, Lin Wan’er covered her mouth in surprise and said, “It really looks like it.”

The cart driver was a bit embarrassed, but didn’t dare to say anything as he stood up and said directly, “The guards outside the mansion are tight these days, so people didn’t dare to move.”

“This is a cadre in my Qiyan group, who did me a great favor in Beiqi back then.” Fan Xian gently explained to his wife. This Supervisory Yuan official, who looked very similar to himself, had been hidden in the Qiyan team, but even he hadn’t imagined that after being blocked for seven days, the person who the Qiyan team had ventured into the mansion to get on the line with him would actually be this person.

“It’s best if you don’t move, nothing is as important as your own life.” Fan Xian looked at the subordinate and said seriously. This was the creed that he had always kept instilling to those around him, even his most loyal subordinates, that nothing was as important as one’s own life, Wang Qinian did it, and so did Gouda.

“The net outside has loosened up a bit, I’m going out today.” Fan Xian bowed his head slightly and said softly.

“My lord, this is too risky.” The official said seriously, thinking that since he had ventured into the mansion himself, he could just pass on any words himself.

“No.” Fan Xian shook his head. Those words were too crucial and had to be personally delivered to everyone’s ears, and the slightest mistake would only lead to great trouble. It suddenly occurred to him that if Wang Qinian was around at this time, everything would be much better, and with the old wangtou’s skills, sneaking into the Fan Mansion under the watchful eyes would not be too difficult.

“The carriage delivering the vegetables is from the Vegetable Inspection Division, how did you guys get in?” Fan Xian suddenly thought of this question, his gaze slightly condensed, a little worried.

“Dai Zhen went back to the Vegetable Inspection Division.” The official answered with a smile.

Fan Xian also smiled, Dai Gonggong re-did declare the decree of the chief eunuch, and with it, his nephew also returned to the inspection of the Department of Vegetables on the post, in order to Supervisory Yuan that year to pick up the Dai family’s means of the two masters, to leave some of the tails, and at this time to take advantage of it, naturally, is an easy thing.

Autumn Kyoto sky, high and distant, rain from those lead-like hanging clouds sprinkled down, so that the surrounding scenery have become blurred but moving up. The seven consecutive days of hard confrontation between the Fan Mansion and the palace, especially the seven consecutive days of that little Lord Fan’s relentless sweeping of the net outside the mansion, eventually chilled the hearts of most of the inner court’s net, because they felt that all these fellow officers of theirs died in vain, and judging by the looks of things, it seemed as if that same His Majesty in the palace would never really take his own illegitimate son down to the great prison, to take vengeance for these fellow officers.

So the net outside the Fan residence had loosened up without realizing it, leaving some loopholes that could be exploited. And the carriage of the Inspection and Vegetable Division, which didn’t seem to have any problems, drilled through this loophole.

Kyoto some secluded place, house alley simple, and no big family deep garden wide building, a small courtyard is quiet in some alley end, outside the street in the sound of selling vegetables in this place can be clearly heard. However, it has been several years, but no one will ever know what this small courtyard actually represents.

With the slight fall rain wiping away the flour and rouge disguise on his face, Fan Xian floated into the small courtyard in a flash, and then saw many familiar faces. Looking at the surprise and the gloominess after the surprise that appeared on these faces, Fan Xian’s heart was slightly touched, but he did not show anything on his face.

This was the most secret residence of the Qinian team, and the officials of the Supervisory Yuan here were Fan Xian’s most loyal subordinates. When the winds in Kyoto sounded different, especially when some subtle signs appeared within the Supervisory Yuan, these members of the Qiyan Group left their posts in silence, and returned to this small courtyard through different channels, waiting for Fan Xian’s call.

Many years ago, when the Qi Nian group consisted of only Fan Xian and Wang Qinian, an old man and a young man, Wang Qinian had spent a very small amount of silver to buy this courtyard. These members of the Qi Nian group were like Fan Xian’s eyes and arms, and now, if Fan Xian wanted to wield the power of those close to him in the world, he had to convey his will through these loyal eyes and arms.

This was the reason why he had spent so much effort and energy to come here in person.