Chapter 477 — Disclosure

The next time he drank with Song Yan, the events of those years unfolded one by one before Song Yan's eyes: "...The Emperor was often ill in those days, and the prescriptions from the Imperial Hospital were nothing but the same safe, mild remedies. The Emperor felt he had not long to live, and meant to choose between the commander of the Shaanxi Regional Military Commission and the Duke of Dingguo. Empress Yi thought the Duke of Dingguo the better choice — a man of noble lineage, bound by marriage to the Duke of Yingguo, one of their own... Later, when the Duke of Dingguo was arrested, the grand secretaries all pleaded on his behalf, while certain frontier governors of the Zhedong region impeached him for courting officials at court from afar. The Emperor was deeply displeased and had the Embroidered Uniform Guard question him... When the censors' secret memorials arrived, they spoke only of the Guard's arrogance and tyranny, of their daring to use torture even upon a pillar of the state. As for what torture the Duke suffered, or how grave his injuries, not a word was said. The Emperor suppressed them and paid them no mind. But within a few days, word came that the Duke of Dingguo was dead.

They would miss the third-day and full-month ceremonies for Zhao Zhangru's child, so Dou Yan set about preparing for the hundred-day celebration.

Song Yan decided to prod Wang Yuan once more.

In mid-March, the commander of the Shaanxi Regional Military Commission returned to the capital to report on his duties. To commend his merit against the Mongols, the Emperor bestowed upon him a hundred taels of gold, ten measures of pearls, a hundred bolts of silk and satin, and the hereditary rank of sub-prefect of the fourth rank for one of his descendants.

Such conspicuous honor was usually Wang Yuan's to proclaim. But this time, while attending the Emperor at his washing, Wang Yuan's foot slipped and he nearly overturned the basin. The Emperor roared with laughter, pointed to the vigorous Wang Ge at his side, and bade him carry the decree, saying to Wang Yuan, "My good man, you too have grown old."

The more Wang Yuan thought on it, the more he felt someone had given him a push. Yet glance where he might, those about him were either his adopted sons or his favored young disciples. He searched and searched, and still could not discover who it was. Wang Ge, by contrast — he was charged with the Qianqing Palace study and had no business being present at the Emperor's washing. Yet there Wang Ge was in the Emperor's bedchamber, and no sooner had Wang Yuan slipped than Wang Ge came hurrying in with several ink cakes to attend the Emperor in writing his large characters.

He quietly instructed a young disciple to hide a memorial on the floods in Jiangzhe beneath the kang cushion.

The Grand Secretariat was waiting urgently for the vermilion endorsement. Liang Jifen himself submitted a memorial requesting an audience, and only then did the Emperor discover that the memorial which should long since have reached the Secretariat had vanished.

The Emperor flew into a rage, and Wang Ge was sentenced to twenty strokes of the rod.

But before the strokes could fall, Empress Yi appeared.

In the end Wang Ge was still given his twenty strokes — yet those twenty strokes left him with nothing but a few welts, beside which the greater honor was Empress Yi's gift of a bottle of wound medicine. The beating was no matter at all; it only made Wang Ge more insolent than before.

This was highly unusual.

Wang Yuan knew that the chief reason Empress Wan enjoyed the Emperor's favor was that she was utterly devoted to him, never forming factions, never going against his will.

He returned to his residence with a dark expression, pacing his study for a long while before sending a young disciple to summon the commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard's Zhenfu Division.

Liu Yu came flying to him and paid his respects with reverence.

Only then did he recall that the commander of the Zhenfu Division had long since been replaced by one of Shi Chuan's men.

Wang Yuan could not help but feel a measure of regret.

He dismissed Liu Yu and called in men of the Eastern Depot to investigate Wang Ge.

He had no sooner looked than he was startled by what he found.

Even before the Prince of Liao had taken up his fief, Wang Ge had already been working for him.

Wang Yuan was struck with sudden enlightenment.

To think that these past days the Emperor had treated him as a doddering old servant with clumsy hands and feet — he felt he could spit blood.

Back in the palace, Wang Ge's young disciple was there, haughtily berating a few junior eunuchs who had blundered.

Wang Yuan's heart grew still more bitter.

So when he saw Song Yan come out of the Qianqing Palace study, he smiled at Song Yan.

Song Yan cupped his hands to him and said, "When does Your Excellency leave the palace? Let me treat you to a drink."

Wang Yuan at once began to suspect that Song Yan had had a hand in things.

But gazing at Song Yan's calm, open, moon-bright countenance, he thought it unlikely, and that he was being oversuspicious.

"Very well!" He nodded with a smile. "We shall arrange it another day, Young Marquis!"

Song Yan smiled, nodded, and took his leave.

Wang Yuan cast a venomous glare toward the side chamber where Wang Ge rested, then bent his back and shuffled slowly into the study.

The next time he drank with Song Yan, the events of those years unfolded one by one before Song Yan's eyes: "...The Emperor was often ill in those days, and the prescriptions from the Imperial Hospital were nothing but the same safe, mild remedies. The Emperor felt he had not long to live, and meant to choose between the commander of the Shaanxi Regional Military Commission and the Duke of Dingguo. Empress Yi thought the Duke of Dingguo the better choice — a man of noble lineage, bound by marriage to the Duke of Yingguo, one of their own... Later, when the Duke of Dingguo was arrested, the grand secretaries all pleaded on his behalf, while certain frontier governors of the Zhedong region impeached him for courting officials at court from afar. The Emperor was deeply displeased and had the Embroidered Uniform Guard question him... When the censors' secret memorials arrived, they spoke only of the Guard's arrogance and tyranny, of their daring to use torture even upon a pillar of the state. As for what torture the Duke suffered, or how grave his injuries, not a word was said. The Emperor suppressed them and paid them no mind. But within a few days, word came that the Duke of Dingguo was dead.

"The Emperor was furious. He summoned Shi Chuan into the palace and gave him a thorough dressing-down, ordering him to uncover the truth within ten days.

"Then came the memorials impeaching the Duke of Dingguo.

"The Emperor was so enraged his liver ached. He said the Duke of Dingguo had been upright and incorruptible; in life, each and every one of them had called him a pillar of the realm; and now that the man was dead, before even the seventh-day rites had passed, they poured every kind of filth and foul water over him — a pack of sniveling, opportunistic knaves!

"He meant to clear the Duke of Dingguo's name.

"But Empress Yi, unexpectedly, counseled the Emperor: if Your Majesty pardons the Dingguo household now, would that not be admitting the Duke's death was Your Majesty's own fault?

"The Emperor began to waver.