Chapter 63 – The Mouth

During the day it rained off and on several times, falling and stopping, after nightfall, the streets and alleys of Kyoto did not even accumulate small puddles of water, just wet to make people feel a trace of sticky boredom. New Locust Lane this messy spring garden, plants grow like crazy, just like human ambition and ambition, but will will be good to contain a lot of rainwater in those grass nests, flower eyes, such as a jar of wonderful and seductive honey syrup.

He Zongwei silent back to the study, looking at the spring garden washed by the rain, the honey syrup in his heart gradually dissolved. He knew that his idea was wonderful, but it was extremely dangerous, and if he was not careful, he would be doomed.

Fan Xian was not that good at killing, and what was even more frightening to He Zongwei was that in these six years of contact with Fan Xian, he could always see a hint of the cold flavor of a good killer in the eyes of that young powerhouse.

He is now the left royal historian, and also the door under the Chinese scholar of the university, the Supervisory Yuan without his majesty personally aimed at the hand, can not move him, in the dynasty against Fan Xian, I do not know how many officials attracted to the door down to cast a time, seems to be unlimited scenery, but only his own heart knows, he is in fact in the road of death, today’s situation is really worrying.

If the trend in the courtroom like now go on, He Zongwei future focus will still favor in the Academy, used to check and balance the Supervisory Yuan, however, if His Majesty the Emperor once went, this situation can still be maintained?

Whether it is the third prince sat on the dragon chair, or what other heavenly changes, for He Zongwei, there is no difference, just to see their own step down sooner or later, as well as the degree of suppression of the difference is just.

He Zongwei for this trend does not have the slightest solution, so step by step, even if they have survived into the door under the Chinese book of the head of the bachelor’s degree, but to face the future of the dragon chair, they can have what power?

He once tried to look for opportunities to get close to the third prince in the deep palace, seeking the biggest dependence in the second half of his life. But any attempts over the past three years had been cut off alive by an unknown force when he was about to approach the inner palace. It was also these several failures that made him realize with some horror how great the power in Fan Xian’s hands was, and how his influence in the palace was far more terrifying than anyone could have imagined.

Because of his fear, and because he knew that his future fate would not be very pleasant, He Zongwei became more and more determined to stand against Fan Xian, especially after His Majesty personally arranged a marriage with the intention of easing the relationship between his two favorite generals, but Fan Xian rejected it in an unusually forceful manner. While disappointed, He Zongwei also knew that there was no other path he could take.

While His Majesty the Emperor might have been angry, He Zongwei was scared from the bottom of his heart. Although the Emperor was Fan Xian’s father, he did not know Fan Xian as deeply as He Zongwei. There was an old saying that the people who knew you best were often not your family and friends, but your enemies.

He Zongwei knew that Fan Xian wouldn’t let himself go, he wouldn’t be like His Majesty the Emperor, he really thought that Fan Xian was just a pure courtier and a lonely courtier, who put the interests of the Qing Kingdom first in everything, in his opinion, Fan Xian was a freak who always put his likes and dislikes first.

It had to be said that He Zongwei’s judgment of Fan Xian was correct.

There was no color of resentment in He Zongwei’s eyes, just a faint self-deprecation and a slice of coldness. He left the chaotic Spring Garden and returned to the study. The study was relatively simple, but the bookshelves on both sides were stacked with a great number of books and ledgers.

He walked to the side of the bookshelf, pondered for a moment, and from an inconspicuous position, pulled out a small booklet, and then sat down at the desk and began to check it up extremely seriously.

This pamphlet was a catalog of the list of martyrs on the Da Dong Shan side that the Ministry of Rites and the inner court had worked together to compile after the Kyoto rebellion. He Zongwei, who was in charge of the Duzhaoyuan, and had the trust of His Majesty, had gotten his hands on this catalog a long time ago, and had looked at it many times in this quiet study, I don’t know how many times.

The third and forty-second pages were the most deeply wrinkled and old, and seemed to be the ones he had turned over the most. Before and after these two pages were the names of the one hundred Tiger Guards who were martyred in the country’s place of origin as well as the personnel of the Supervisory Authority who were martyred in Dongshan Road, and there were two names on them that were very conspicuous.

One was Gouda and the other was Wang Qinian.

Regardless of this pamphlet, the Ministry of Ceremony’s final sealing sheet, the Supervisory Yuan’s merit report, and the final approval to the inner court, all have already determined the death of these two people.

Yet He Zongwei did not believe it. From a long time ago, he did not believe that these two people had died, even if he confirmed afterward that the corpses collected on Dadong Mountain did indeed contain these two people, he still did not believe it because this kind of tactic, the Supervisory Yuan could easily do it.

Still, He Zongwei knew Fan Xian better than His Majesty the Emperor did, and the reason he had this suspicion was because of some minor details over the past few years. First of all, Gouda and Wang Qinian were Fan Xian’s absolute beloved and close confidants, and shouldn’t have died in obscurity like this; in the eyes of His Majesty, these two were insignificant little people, but in He Zongwei’s opinion, these two people had their own importance.

Secondly, he had been keeping an eye on Fan Xian in the past few years, watching his every move, including a few days ago when Fan Xian took Fan Ruo Ruo and the officials of the Supervisory Yuan to go to the mausoleum, and shortly afterward, he had gotten wind of it, and had even gone to check it out himself.

As in the past few years, Fan Xian went to the sacrificial garden, and it was still just as light as ever, and the key thing was that in front of the two graves with the names of Wang Qinian and Gouda, Fan Xian didn’t intentionally stop and burn some paper money.

Fan Xian was an extremely protective official who took great care of his subordinates, especially a dead beloved one like this, who, by all accounts, should not only receive such treatment.

The reason that finally made He Zongwei make up his mind and decide that these two people were not dead was another small detail. When he was suspicious, he began to use the power of the police to secretly observe the pension release. Gouda life did not marry and have children, he died naturally a hundred, but the hall of the Supervisory Yuan in Beiqi chief Wang Qinian, is a wife and a woman have a family with a room, but the Supervisory Yuan each year’s pension is issued, but no one ever knew exactly who is led away.

And the most critical thing is that, after the death of wang qinian, his family is said to have moved back to his hometown, and in the hometown of wang family, but no one found the whereabouts of this family.

If Wang Qinian really died, Fan Xian would definitely be in charge of the Wang family’s living and living, and with his temperament, he would never allow Wang Qinian’s widow and daughter to wander the world in misery.

Wang Qinian didn’t die, and naturally, Gao Da didn’t die either. And why were the corpses of two people who did not die on Dadong Mountain? Why did the Inspectorate help to hide them? On Dadong Mountain, a hundred tiger guards spilled their blood and stopped the fierce swords, and Gouda was in the middle of it, so why didn’t he die? Could it be that he escaped from the battlefield? Wang Qinian was by His Majesty’s side at the summit. If he didn’t die, why didn’t he show up afterwards? Could it be that he ran away when His Majesty was in danger?

He Zongwei slowly closed the scroll, a smile spread on the corner of his lips, thinking that the powerful subordinates brought out by Little Lord Fan really have the style of Fan Xian in critical moments, running faster than anyone else and valuing themselves more than anyone else.

This is the great crime of deceiving the emperor, the crime should be executed by lynching. He Zongwei knows too much about his majesty’s character, as long as someone dares to betray him, or as long as a subject dares to put his own life before the emperor’s safety and security, he will definitely be thunderously angry, deep heartedly hostile carving.

And there were many people who deceived the emperor. If Wang Qinian and Gouda were captured and returned, naturally it would be hard for them to escape death, but what about the Supervisory Court? What about Fan Xian?

He Zongwei took a deep breath, and his young and tired face suddenly appeared to be a little more angry, a little more solemn.

Regarding Fan Xian, he was simply unable to find any open doors to start with, so he could only wait for the miserable day in the future, unless he was able to provoke the relationship between His Majesty the Emperor and Fan Xian before His Majesty the Emperor died.

In order to stir up the relationship between a father and son, of course, one must use a rather vague and ethereal means like thoughts. And the crime of deceiving the emperor was a means to kill the heart.

In the end, this was probably Fan Xian’s only destiny in this life. This person is too sentimental, if at first directly to up to and Wang Qinian killed, where will there be now these things. He Zongwei thought of this, could not help but smile and shook his head, then lowered his head and gently knocked the tea cup on the table, making a tinkling sound.

Not long after, two people walked in. One of them was around thirty years old, with a respectful expression on his face, looking at this person’s facial features, he bore some resemblance to He Zongwei. While the other one was over half a hundred years old, but still doing the costume dress of a Confucian.

“Wang Qinian, Gao Da.” He Zongwei didn’t brew any wording and said very directly, “It’s been more than a year since we checked these two people, do you have any clues or not.”

That person who resembles He Zongwei is actually one of his distant cousins, his voice is a bit slightly sandy, he responded, “I vaguely caught some threads, just that the Supervisory Yuan is doing something, even if it lets you sniff some winds, you can’t catch up with it at all, everything stopped three years ago, even if these two people are still secretly connected with the Supervisory Yuan, I’m afraid that they are also places we can’t touch. ”

He Zongwei frowned and nodded, he was clear in his heart, by virtue of the power of the Supervisory Yuan, no matter if it was old dean Chen himself or Fan Xian making the arrangements, just by these officials in the court, they simply couldn’t set off that piece of iron plate, unless he secretly ordered the Ministry of Criminal Affairs and the Da Lisi to go and make a sea arrest in the world, but the problem was that this matter had to be done in a covert manner, and in the Ministry of Criminal Affairs and the Da Lisi, there were simply the nails of the Supervisory Yuan hidden.

If once one’s own initiative reminded Fan Xian, so that the other party blocked up this opening, or even because of the Yin anger, secretly exerted any cruelty, it was not what He Zongwei wanted to see.

“My lord, this matter can’t be investigated by us alone. The corpses on Dadong Mountain were counted, and although we don’t know how the Supervisory Yuan did it, the number of people just matched the directory, and there was a fire on the mountain path at that time, and with the faces burned like that, it’s impossible to say anything at all.”

That somewhat older Confucian student still did not say a word, speaking or He Zongwei’s distant cousin, this person is also only in recent years began to follow He Zongwei’s work, extremely cautious, already He Zongwei’s beloved cronies, so it was arranged to investigate this big event, and speak more directly.

“When Kyoto rebelled, the brigade of the northern expedition battalion’s personal soldiers just happened to besiege the mountain, at least a few thousand people died in that battle, it wasn’t very difficult for the Supervisory Yuan to secretly make a move and move two corpses.” He Zongwei lowered his head and frowned as he calculated, “Even if there is fire on the mountain path, what about the top of the mountain? Although the Battle of the Patriarchs was extremely powerful, not many people died in front of the ancient temple; weren’t Ren Zhengqing and the adults of the Ministry of Rites alive and well back then? Why did Wang Qinian die? Did he die at the top of the mountain or on the way down? If his body wasn’t burned, something fishy can always be found out.”

“But it’s been three years, the bones have long since turned to ash, and when they say that it’s Wang Qinian buried in the grave, they have no choice but to recognize that it’s Wang Qinian.” That Confucian finally opened his mouth, and as soon as he opened his mouth, he hit the nail on the head, “So to go back and look into what happened a few years ago is, for one thing, too difficult, and for another, it can never be found out, and if Your Excellency really wants to open up a path from this aspect, I think it would be more important to go and look for the living Wang Qinian and Gouda.”

He Zongwei fell into silence. Of course he knew that his strategist’s opinion was correct, but the problem was, if Gouda and Wang Qinian were now hiding in Dongyi City or Northern Qi, incognito, who would be able to dig out these two big living people?

“You go down first.” He Zongwei raised his head and said in a harmonious voice to his cousin, “The matter involves the face of the court, one should be more careful.”

He had already established himself in the center of the court for three years, and had gathered some strength under him, especially since His Majesty, too, had secretly given him certain assistance, only that compared to Fan Xian, he was still too far away, and this cousin was the prime candidate to carry out the unseemly things for He Zongwei.

The He family is clean, in fact, is not false, but He Zongwei in the court to establish a foot, he still need silver, need to support a large number of sincere follow their subordinates, the cousin, is to deal with this aspect of the character.

The only people left in the study were He Zongwei and the aged strategist, which seemed a bit quiet. After a long moment of silence, He Zongwei spoke, “If we can really capture the living Wang Qinian and Gao Da back to Kyoto, what do you think will happen behind the scenes?”

“Little Lord Fan will definitely want to protect these two.” The strategist slightly lowered his head and said, “With His Majesty’s temperament, if this matter has not become a big deal, he might give this face to Lord Little Fan and cover this matter up.”

“Do you mean to say …… that even if these two people have committed the crime of deceiving the king, His Majesty will let them go?” He Zongwei said in a cold voice as a cold aura appeared in both of his eyes, a complex flavor arising in his heart. If His Majesty was really lenient enough to be willing to let those two people go, then what was the point of all this busyness on his part?

“The key is to see what kind of price Lord Little Fan will pay for these two subordinates.” The strategist smiled bitterly, “Everyone under the sky knows that Lord Little Fan is extremely kind to his subordinates. If he really tears his face off and insists on protecting these two people, what would His Majesty do? Would he just kill him? My lord, you mustn’t forget that Little Lord Fan is ultimately His Majesty’s own son.”

“His own son?” He Zongwei slowly closed his eyes, “The crown prince and the second prince, they are also His Majesty’s biological sons.”

“This is true, however …… the Crown Prince and the Second Prince, did not take Dongyi City without bloodshed for His Majesty.” The strategist’s voice trembled when he said the words second prince, followed by a soft whisper, “To exchange a piece of territory for the lives of two subordinates, His Majesty still has this kind of leniency.”

“Of course.” The strategist glanced at He Zongwei, who was showing disappointment, and said faintly, “Even if we can’t force His Majesty to turn over a new leaf with Lord Xiao Fan, we can at least plant a thorn in His Majesty’s heart.”

He Zongwei shook his head and opened his eyes to quietly look at the strategist in front of him, saying, “Fan Wusu, you were originally one of the second prince’s eight generals, and you came to join me because of the death of the second prince’s overnight white head. The two of us have the same goal extremely, so you are also clear that if Fan Xian doesn’t die, it is me who will die, if you want to take revenge for the second prince, you have to think clearly, one thorn is not enough.”

It turned out that this schemer, who looked over half a hundred years old and had an old face, was actually one of the eight most capable generals under the Second Prince back then, Fan Wu Sheng! Back then, the second prince and Fan Xian had a chaotic battle in Kyoto, and the eight generals were killed and wounded, however, Fan Wusu was a long time ago, he could see that Fan Xian was unstoppable, and after persuading the second prince to no avail, he went away sadly.

I did not expect that after many years, the second prince took poison and killed himself, and this Fan Wusu returned to Kyoto, and cast to He Zongwei’s door, single-mindedly for the second prince’s revenge.

After a long period of silence, Fan Wusu said softly, “If we want to make a big deal out of this, then we can’t do it in secret, it has to be known to all the people in the court and the countryside, his majesty is the one who values his face the most, and at that time, no matter how strong little Lord Fan is, I’m afraid that he won’t be able to stop that murderous knife in his majesty’s hand.”

“If His Majesty really kills Wang Qinian and Gouda this time, I’m curious as to what Fan Xian will do.” He Zongwei smiled slightly and said, “And besides His Majesty, besides the inner court, I can’t imagine who else could find those two people in this sea of people under the cover of the Supervisory Court.”

“But there is one most important question.” Fan Wusu looked calmly into He Zongwei’s eyes, “If Your Excellency wants to report to His Majesty in secret, I’m only afraid that you yourself will have to take a great risk.”

“Oh, how so?” He Zongwei didn’t look the slightest bit flustered, and only asked indifferently.

“Because you don’t have any concrete evidence at hand, all you have is some speculation and analysis. Of course, this speculation and analysis alone should be able to talk His Majesty into being suspicious.” Fan Wu Sheng glanced at him again and said softly, “His Majesty should be suspicious of little Lord Fan …… but, he will also be suspicious of you, my lord.”

“I am devoted to the court and loyal to His Majesty, what does His Majesty suspect about me?” He Zongwei pursed his lips tightly and said softly.

“His Majesty will suspect that you’re deliberately provoking the relationship between him and Little Lord Fan’s father and son.”

He Zongwei was silent for a long time before saying softly, “If His Majesty really gets suspicious and stops protecting me back, what do you think will happen to me.”

“If His Majesty doesn’t like a person, there are many ways to deal with them, I think that Your Excellency will probably be given a reason by His Majesty to leave the Kyoto court in three years, and go to serve in some remote place, and then you will definitely remain mediocre in your life.” Fan Wusu said calmly.

He Zongwei smiled bitterly and sighed, his eyes were filled with a calm and resolute look, “If I make a move, there is a possibility that I will be swept away in the future, but if I don’t make a move, I will be crushed to pieces in the future, which one do you choose?”

He looked at Fan Wusai and smiled faintly, saying, “I choose the former, because at least I can still live. And if Fan Xian really flipped out with His Majesty, it would be very difficult for him to survive.”

Fan Wu Sao’s eyes blinked, his flowery white hair looking particularly harsh in the dark night’s study, and he said quietly, “Your Excellency seems to have a grudge against His Majesty in his heart.”

He Zongwei’s face remained unchanged, but the emotions in his heart kept rolling over. He had endless gratitude towards the Emperor, yet he also had endless resentment, if the Emperor had not lifted himself up to fight Fan Xian, how could he possibly be trapped in a precarious predicament at all times, and how could he be so afraid of dying without a burial place in the future?

“Back then, Second Highness was actually in a similar situation as you are now, my lord.” Fan Wu Sheng smiled slightly grimly and advised softly, “So you, my lord, must learn the lesson of the Second Highness and maintain a heart of abject loyalty to His Majesty; if you really uncover Wang Qinian and Gouda, perhaps His Majesty will not suspect you, and the one who will be unlucky will only be Fan Xian.”

“I have always been loyal to His Majesty.” He Zongwei calmly answered, faintly sweeping a glance at Fan Wusu, he knew exactly what this man was trying to test. To avenge the dead Second Highness, Fan Xian was naturally one of Fan Wusu’s targets, and that merciless and cold-blooded Emperor His Majesty could not possibly escape Fan Wusu’s eyes.

He Zongwei said with slight sarcasm, “A person has to know where his ability lies, dealing with Fan Xian is already about to exceed your and my ability, as for those characters above the clouds, it is best to not even think about it, that will …… kill you.”