Chapter 108 – The Enlightened Years Group Setting Off on Their Own Paths

Without too many pleasantries of goodbye, without too many invocations, without too much sorrow and anger, the members of the Enlightenment Years Group who stayed in this secluded courtyard calmly saluted Fan Xian, and then used the shortest possible time to report on the internal situation of the Academy of Supervision that they had grasped. In these seven days, the military forces of the Privy Council stationed outside the Supervisory Yuan had withdrawn a large number of them, and the internal cleansing and bloodletting of the Supervisory Yuan had also been carried out extremely quickly and efficiently under the strong pressure of the palace’s decree and the cooperation of Yan Bingyun.

These information are extremely sensitive and important, just this courtyard qinian team members, originally the initial time will be the supervision courtyard within the capable officials, this seven days deliberately for the house arrest in the mansion of Fan Xian inquiring, but really pry into a lot of news.

Fan Xian listened in silence and nodded slightly, after Chen Pingping’s death and the removal of his own dean, His Majesty the Emperor’s bloodletting and water-filling of the Supervisory Yuan were all expected things, with Yan Bingyun’s help, coupled with Junwei’s presence, the Supervisory Yuan’s group of dragons had no leader, and no one could possibly forcefully reverse this trend.

“Although this courtyard is unknown to Yan Bingyun, but after all, he has followed your lordship from time to time over the years, we are a bit worried.” A Qi Nian team member looked at Fan Xian and said, “The meeting place within Kyoto needs to be chosen anew.”

This official called Yan Bingyun by his first name, and it was clear that there was no longer any respect, although Yan Bingyun had never joined the Qiyan team, as Fan Xian’s arm and a high-ranking official of the Supervisory Yuan, he had always been extremely respected by the Qiyan team, it was just that what Yan Bingyun had been doing within the Supervisory Yuan these days had caused all the officials of the Supervisory Yuan to have hatred towards him.

Yan Bingyun is Fan Xian s close confidant, but has never been someone that Fan Xian can fully trust, because this little Yan Gongzi, who is long on strategy, is a …… independent person. Fan Xian was silent for a moment and shook his head, neither expressing an opinion on this nor saying that he should continue to choose another joint location. For one thing, he still had some expectations for Yan Bingyun, and was even vaguely worried about whether she would perish in the fury of the Supervisory Yuan, and for another, after today’s meeting, the people of Qinian’s group would have to leave the capital, and the small courtyard that Wang Qinian had spent 120 taels of silver to buy would also be deserted, so why bother with it.

Seeing that Fan Xian did not respond, the official shook his head and continued to report, “As soon as the city gates were opened, the people heading towards Xiliang and Minbei have already gone, I think Lord Deng and Lord Su will surely be the first to get the news, please rest assured, Your Excellency.”

This was the thing that Fan Xian was most worried about when he was under house arrest, Deng Ziyue and Su Wenmao were the two subordinates that he trusted the most after Wang Qinian, so they were also assigned the most important duties by him, one was in Beiqi and then transferred to Xiliang, and the other one was in Jiangnan to keep an eye on the inner treasury, if these two were eliminated by His Majesty the Emperor, Fan Xian was afraid that he would regret for the rest of his life, even though he didn’t know that His Majesty would have the luxury of setting up a killing plan beforehand, since the news had been delivered, Fan Xian was slightly more relieved. Fan Xian was slightly more relieved.

He glanced at the members of the Qiyan team beside him in the courtyard, the corners of his lips curled up and smiled gently, he had been under house arrest in the mansion for seven days, and the subordinates here had been busy for seven days, in addition to prying for news, today they had also finally tried to find a way to enter the Fan mansion, and it had to be said that these subordinates were the most effective group of people in the Supervisory Yuan.

The name of the Qinian group is taken from Wang Qinian, from the beginning of the fourth year of the Qing calendar, until the fall of the seventh year of the Qing calendar Wang Qinian disappeared, the whole three years, all the members of the selection of the entry, are Wang Qinian single-handedly decided. These members originally in the Supervisory Yuan are inconspicuous supernumerary clerical staff, or not reused lower level officials, however, it happens to be in Fan Xian’s eyes, Wang Qinian temperament, once gathered in the banner of Fan Xian, suddenly returned to their initial strong ability to perform, back to the luster, became the Supervisory Yuan within a very secretive but very famous a group, a group directly belonging to Fan Xian.

For example, these days, the response of these members of the Qi Nian group is very much in Fan Xian’s style, once they know that there is something wrong, they disappear into the darkness within the first hour, and under the premise of saving their own lives, they don’t act impulsively to do anything, but rather, they cautiously probe the reactions and intelligence of all parties, and then find a suitable way to be handed over to Fan Xian to make a decision.

Having such a group of subordinates who were loyal without being arrogant, capable without being blind, had to be said to be a blessing for Fan Xian. His eyes brushed over the faces of the people in the courtyard, and his heart stirred, suddenly thinking that apart from Wang Qinian’s discerning eyes, how could there be so many elites within the Supervisory Academy that had been buried and dusted for years, only to be unearthed after he had come to the capital from Tanyuzhou? Does Wang Qinian really have such a poisonous vision? Or were these …… loyal subordinates originally suppressed by that old ancestor of the Supervisory Yuan all along, reserved for his own use today?

Fan Xian’s brow wrinkled, heart messed up, thinking of Chen Pingping treating himself kindly, for a long time speechless, a sigh, but there is no time to ask these subordinates what, directly waved his hand, walked into the back of the courtyard that well beside the quiet room.

In the room a large desk, on top of the special paper cover of the Supervisory Board, and a complete set of fire lacquer secret language tools, ink stone placed in the right side of the desk, the weather in early autumn is not how cold, want to necessary ink is still very simple, but Fan Xian did not go to grind ink, but directly from the bottom of the desk out of the inner treasury made out of the pencil, with two fingers fiddling with it.

The tip of the pencil never landed on the snow-white paper. Having thought of many ways to escape the eyes of the imperial court and come to this small courtyard, there was no doubt that Fan Xian had already thought clearly about what kind of orders he should issue, yet he had finally put the pencil down; once anything landed on paper, it was a handle and a possibility of leakage.

In the winter of the sixth year of Qingli, he had come to this small courtyard from time to time, at that time Si Li Li’s own brother was still being held hostage by him, at that time Haitang was still urging Si Rut to pull the mill in that small courtyard to the north, and at that time Fan Xian often wrote letters to Haitang. When he thought about it, at that time, although he was fighting with the second prince of the eldest princess in the capital, his state of mind was actually smooth and peaceful, and now that Haitang Duo had become an enemy of Qing on the grasslands, and Si Zhe had been forced to go into hiding in the Upper Capital, Fan Xian’s state of mind had long since changed.

All the members of Team Qiyan stood in the room, waiting in silence for Fan Xian to issue instructions.

“Leave Kyoto immediately later. Never come back until you get a written order from me.” Fan Xian took little time to compose himself, staring at the crowd in an aggravated tone, “This is the first instruction, you must survive.”

“Yes.” The crowd answered in hushed tones, then went out under Fan Xian’s gaze, leaving behind only two people.

The Qiyan group had been under Wang Qiyan’s control for the first three years, then it was handed over to Deng Ziyue, and after Deng Ziyue left for Northern Qi, it was Fan Xian himself who was in charge of it, and Mu Feng’er was just in charge of the personal matters. The number of people in the group is not much, these years in the turmoil in the death of a lot of people, now part of the people with Deng Ziyue in the western Liang, part of the people with Su Wenmao in the south of Fujian north, there is a large part of the people were Fan Xian stayed in the city of Dongyi, at this time still stay in the Kyoto, is the only Fan Xian can directly make the move of the subordinates, but also because of this, Fan Xian is reluctant to them to lose anyone again.

Fan Xian stared at one of the two people in the room, fished out a jade hook from his pocket, handed it over and said, “Go to Qingzhou, don’t alarm the people around, directly follow Xia Mingji’s merchant caravan into the grasslands, find Hu Ge, tell him that I need him to launch a feint attack at the end of the fall, and trap Qingzhou and Dingzhou’s armies in the Xiliang Road.”

The official took the jade hook and said directly, “King Zuo Xian has been dead for almost a year, and although Hu Ge has gathered a great deal of power with your lordship’s secret support, I’m afraid that he doesn’t have the energy to say that he needs to move the Hu people to brave the dangerous climate of late fall and early winter to attack my city of Daqing.”

Everyone knew that it wasn’t easy for Fan Xian to come out for a trip, so these subordinates didn’t hide their opinions, but expressed their meaning as quickly and completely as possible.

“It’s just a feint, and besides, he wants to take revenge, and to be able to deplete the strength of the royal court and the Right Sage King, he’s definitely willing to do so.” Fan Xian said, “As for the issue of not having enough energy, you tell him that I will arrange for someone in the royal court to be on his side.”

“But the news from Kyoto will surely reach the grasslands as well, once Hu Ge knows that His Excellency is out of power …… will he tear up the agreement that was made within Dingzhou City?” The official who had received the jade hook still fully expressed his opinion.

Without a hint of impatience, Fan Xian said, “Hu Ge is a smart man, he must place his bet on me.” He glanced at the jade hook held in the official’s hand and shook his head, “If he wants the owner of the jade hook to live.”

The Jade Hook was the ornament of Mashoso, the last king’s daughter of a certain section of the Grassland Hu Clan, since her childhood, and had been given to Fan Xian when he met with Hu Ge in Dingzhou City, and this time the token was the second one. Although she was now housed in the Grand Prince’s mansion, her identity still belonged to the Moon Lantern House, and no matter how out of power Fan Xian was, it would not be too difficult for him to deal with this weak woman.

The official pondered for a moment, feeling that there was nothing missing from Lord Dean’s instructions, placed the jade hook into his arms, exited the study, and left the small courtyard on his own. As for this member of the Qiyan group, how to escape from Kyoto, how to cross Qingzhou into the grasslands, and contact Hu Ge, that was his problem, and Fan Xian believed in the abilities of these subordinates.

“You go to Dingzhou, enter the great general’s residence, and find Shizi Hongcheng.” Fan Xian’s bosom was like a treasure chest, he touched another page from it, the writing on the paper was vaguely a poem, “This is a token, now that Kyoto is in turmoil, I have been kicked out of the Supervisory Yuan, his side must have received the news early, I’m afraid that he won’t believe in the Supervisory Yuan’s waistplate and the Qiyi Nian group’s waistplate, you take this page and show it to him, then he’ll know that you’re one of my people. ”

This page of paper was torn from a book, the book was a collection of poems from the previous dynasty, this is still many years ago when Fan Xian spent the winter season in Cangshan Mountain, the second prince gave Fan Xian a gift through the hands of Hongcheng, I’m afraid that many people have long since forgotten, but Fan Xian knows that Hongcheng will not forget.

“Tell Hongcheng all about what I said earlier, about Hu Ge, about the news that the Hu people will be advancing at the beginning of winter, and tell him to be ready to fight as hard as possible……. “Fan Xian’s brow was slightly furrowed, “Well, he nowadays Should be able to understand what I mean, just want to find a way for him not to be recalled to Kyoto, he should know how to do, just remind him that both sides have to cooperate better, I send him this piece of seemingly difficult to gnaw bones, but actually delicious fat meat, do not really let the hu people take advantage of it.”

“Yes, my lord.” That official led the order and left.

Some people went out, some people went in, and Fan Xian methodically conveyed his will through the members of the Qiyan group to the forces in the world that he cared about and that he could influence.

“You go to Dongyi City. First find Mu Feng’er and tell him what I mean, that the rebellion in the Xiao Liang Kingdom can be utilized somewhat, and keep that fire about the same size, don’t burn too hard, and don’t extinguish it too quickly.”

“After you’ve done that, you’ll go see Wang XIII Lang again and tell him that I’m waiting for him in Kyoto.” Fan Xian sat behind the desk and frowned slightly, provoking civil unrest in Dongyi City can drag the eldest imperial brother over there, just but a little bit sorry for Wang Thirteen Lang, had to hide it from him for now, “In addition …… let him use the Sword Lodge Order Sword on my behalf, pick out two trustworthy ones, and send them to Jiangnan, and send them to Su Wenmao’s side. ”

“You personally send this letter to the hands of the great hall, tell him that everything is fine in Kyoto, do not rush back.” Fan Xian’s brows were slightly worried, because he could speak his mind clearly to Li Hongcheng, but he was not confident that he could control the Grand Prince.

Once Chen Pingping’s tragic death reached Dongyi City, I’m afraid that the anger in that Grand Prince’s heart would be no less than his own, the Grand Prince had called Chen Pingping his uncle since he was young, and regardless of the affectionate relationship between Caijun Ning and Chen Pingping back then, and the fact that Chen Pingping had preserved the Grand Prince who was still in Caijun Ning’s womb, and just talking about the affection between the Grand Prince and Chen Yuan over the years, I’m afraid that with the Grand Prince’s personality, he couldn’t help but to say that he would really come back to Kyoto with a few hundred of his own soldiers to kill him! I’m afraid that with the character of the Grand Prince, he might really come back to Kyoto with hundreds of soldiers!

However, Fan Xian’s greatest fear is also this point, the only order he issued before he returned to the capital in a thousand-mile raid was to let Mu Feng’er and his party return to Dongyi City and tell the Grand Prince not to return to the capital. But how could Mu Feng’er stop the anger of the Great Prince? As a last resort, Fan Xian personally wrote a letter, earnestly requesting the elder brother, who had a fiery temperament and took his mother’s genes, to control his impulse to question His Majesty and his desire to avenge Chen Pingping’s death, and to honestly stay in Dongyi City.

Whether it was Li Hongcheng who was leading the army in Dingzhou or the eldest prince who was controlling 10,000 elite troops in Dongyi City, they were the only two places in the world that Fan Xian could count on in the world of Qing, however, these elite troops belonged to Qing, belonged to His Majesty, and if these two young men of the royal family were recalled back to Kyoto either voluntarily or passively, Fan Xian would not have a single ray of hope left.

Because Fan Xian was absolutely convinced that as long as Li Hongcheng and the Grand Prince returned to Kyoto, the man sitting on the dragon chair would definitely not give them any more chances to lead the army in a few years’ time, and this was precisely because of their relationship with Fan Xian, and their relationship with Chen Pingping.

The order sent to Jiangnan to exhort Su Wenmao also chose someone to go, Su Wenmao in addition to the identity of the members of the Qi Nian group, there is also the identity of the court’s inner treasury transit division officials, the inner treasury for Fan Xian for the Qing state for the emperor is the most important, no one can let go, Su Wenmao can neither hide in place, but also can not leave Jiangnan Minbei, so he is in the most dangerous situation. Fan Xian can only hope that these few years, Su Wenmao has already cultivated enough full-fledged team in the three major workshops, also hope that Ren Boan’s that kindred brother will be able to remember old times, and from his side, in addition to letting Dongyi City Sword Lodge to send masters into Jiangnan to save Su Wenmao’s life for him, there is no too good method.

The members of the Qinian team who went to Jiangnan also had a side mission, to bring a message to Xia Qufei on behalf of Fan Xian, so that he could choose a day to come to the capital in the next two months. Let this Ming family’s contemporary master come to the capital, does not mean Fan Xian has any important task to give him, but just Fan Xian to this person a test, after all, when Xia Qufei submissive to him, is submissive to his representative of the Qing court and the horror of the Supervisory Board, now Fan Xian has already lost the power of the white body, and the Supervisory Board has been sealed into a piece of mud, who knows Xia Qufei’s heart will not rise up to what other thoughts? Who knows if Xia Qufei will have other thoughts in his mind?

The Ming family is very important to Jiangnan, and also very important to the cold war between Fan Xian and the emperor’s son, if Xia Qufei thinks through and worships directly under the dragon chair, what will Fan Xian do? So he must look at Xia Qifei as well as the Jiangnan water fortress on their own actually still have a few points of loyalty, if Xia Qifei this person really forgets that year everyone in Jiangnan’s hard days ……

Fan Xian’s head was slightly lowered, so he had to let the Ming family change masters again, and then let the Merchants’ Money Bank take the lead.

One by one, the order was issued down, the members of the Kai Nian group led the order to go, without the slightest lingering worry, not long, the small courtyard of this lonely and secluded will be empty, leaving only the room behind the desk of Fan Xian and the official in front of him, seemingly extraordinarily quiet, slightly damp autumn wind blowing in the slightly dry air, blowing the courtyard well next to the water bucket rolled up, made a few noises.

Probably no one could have imagined that in just such an inconspicuous courtyard, a young man who had already been stripped of all his official positions and had his ownership authority removed, issued a single directive with the intention of making a last stand against the mighty state apparatus of Qing.

“Why did you change your name to Hong Yiqing?” Fan Xian asked softly as he looked at this last remaining official of the Qiongnian group, gently rubbing his fingertips against the small knife he had just taken out of his pocket.

This subordinate was the person who found out in Qingzhou City that the little emperor of Northern Qi intended to use the North Sea Knife Workshop to sow discord in the relationship between Fan Xian and Emperor Qing, this person made great achievements in Qingzhou City, and was the first batch of Wang Qinian’s manpower that was inserted in the four areas of the Supervisory Yuan, Fan Xian saw that this person thought about the old king, so he transferred him to his own side, and followed him all the way to the city of Dongyi, and the last time Fan Xian returned to the capital to report on his duties, he left him to liaise with the middle of the Kyoto, and because of this, this person had the opportunity to finally face Fan Xian, but he was not able to do so. It was precisely because of this that this person had the opportunity to finally face Fan Xian, instead of being anxious in Dongyi City.

“I heard that in the past, there was an adult named Hong Changqing, who was brave and righteous, deeply appreciated by the adults, and finally died in the battle to quell the rebellion in Tanshou Harbor, and the adults often remembered that the subordinate was not talented, and had received the great kindness of the adults, and also wanted to die to repay the adults for their benevolence.”

“Don’t die.” Fan Xian sighed, also remembering that Qingwa who died under Yan Xiaoyi’s arrows, Qingwa survived the hellish situation of the sailors slaughtering the island and the waterfowl eating the people, and as a result, he was not able to live for two more years after himself.

He handed the small knife in his hand to Hong Yiqing, staring at his eyes and said word by word, “In the end, I left you down, there is something important, you have to listen to it clearly, don’t miss a single word.”

“Yes, my lord.” Hong Yiqing felt a hint of nervousness.

“Already sent two people to Xilang Road, but Deng Ziyue there is still in the open, the court will definitely want to collect him, even if he can escape, but the manpower I arranged there, but I need someone to follow up on it, you’ve spent a lot of time within Qingzhou city, you’re familiar with Xilang Road, so I’ll leave this matter to you.”

Hong Yiqing was slightly stunned, his throat was a little dry and his face was slightly hot, how could he not expect that Lord Dean actually gave such an important errand as the Western Liang Road Chief to himself to do.

“But the most crucial thing is that you also have to go into the grasslands, find the king’s tent, and find a woman called Songzhi Xianling.” Fan Xian’s eyes narrowed as he looked at him and said word for word, “Tell her to forget about Bitter Lotus and Doudou, and mind me first! Tell her to cooperate with Hu Ge and convince Shan Yu.”

Hong Yiqing didn’t know that Fan Xian had already arranged certain things in the grasslands earlier, and was a bit puzzled, but calmly responded.

“You were chosen because the Songzhi Immortal Order has seen you before.” Fan Xian bowed his head and said calmly, “Give her this small knife, then tell her to leave the grasslands and come to the capital to meet me.”

“If she doesn’t leave?” Hong Yiqing subconsciously asked.

Fan Xian raised his head, and after a moment of silence, said, “Just say that I’m going to die, and she’ll come if she likes.”

This was said in a helpless, roguish manner. Hong Yiqing stared at Fan Xian in a daze, unable to figure out how the seemingly omnipotent Lord Dean could say such emotional words, and he couldn’t figure out even more what kind of character that Songzhi Immortal Order was that would make his lordship think so highly of him.

Right at the moment he received the knife, Fan Xian’s fingertips suddenly froze and he stood up from behind his desk. Hong Yiqing realized the difference only a moment later, and with a slightly pale face, he drew the poison-feeding dagger from his boot and quietly walked behind the door of the room.

Because there was a strange movement outside the door, because this secluded little courtyard that absolutely no outsiders knew about suddenly had someone coming.