Bang!
The wide sleeve of the Right Vice Minister of War swept a fine celadon tea cup off the table, and it shattered into pieces the moment it hit the ground.
The entire room fell dead silent, not a single person dared to bend down to pick up the shards.
The Vice Minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud staggered half a step, then slumped down onto the seat, his lips trembling nonstop: "Great Qian has secured rule over the northern lands for two hundred years. The mausoleums of Emperor Gao, the dynasty’s founder, Emperor Wen, the dynasty’s second emperor, and all successive late emperors are located in the capital vicinity."
"This... this is digging at the root of Great Qian, and severing the nation's dragon vein!"
No one spoke in response.
The Right Vice Minister of War muttered to himself: "The nine major border garrisons, the Zhao clan of Xuanfu, the Ma family of Datong, the Qi clan of Jizhen... all of these are the unbreakable defenses Your Highness has painstakingly built over the years, bound through marriage alliances."
"As for the lieutenant generals and guerrilla commanders of the three capital garrison camps, which one of them was not promoted directly by Your Highness?"
He suddenly raised his eyes, his grey beard quivering, and drew a sharp breath: "Hiss! Once His Majesty the Emperor makes his southern tour and does not return, the entire central government's core administration will move south."
"Military orders from the Ministry of War will then be issued from Jinling... These valiant generals who have guarded the frontiers for Great Qian will in one night become abandoned men left far beyond the reach of the imperial court!"
He suddenly thought of something, and lowered his voice: "Not to mention seasoned, battle-hardened generals like Tie Lanshan!"
"Cut off from the support of the central government, they won't even be able to find a path to deliver a single memorial to the imperial study!"
The Vice Minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud suddenly saw the full picture: "And there's the horse administration! The nine border imperial horse pastures, in Liaodong, Shaanxi, the northern frontiers..."
"All of these are in our hands. That is the foundation we spent over a decade building, accumulating one war horse at a time!"
"The Jiangnan region is crisscrossed with rivers and canals, where people travel by boats. Once we move the capital south, war horses that are worth their weight in gold in the northern lands will become worthless there!"
Xiao Jingxing sat upright behind the large desk, his face dark with anger: "The only thing I still hold in my grasp is this entire northern network."
"The border garrison generals, the capital garrison military power, the nine-border horse administration, plus dozens of related aristocratic clans across the northern lands. I spent twenty whole years weaving this net."
"If the Emperor succeeds in this move to relocate the capital to the south, no matter what his intentions are, he will turn all my twenty years of hard work into rotten wood and frayed rope!"
No one dared to utter a word.
Jiangnan was the old official domain of the Xu clan, the very fief where Xu Youde had been authorized to seize land by imperial decree.
Thinking of this, everyone in the hall suddenly felt as if they had fallen into an icy pit.
The Vice Minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud could no longer sit still, he paced back and forth across the room with his hands behind his back.
All of a sudden, *rip*—
The impeachment draft, thousands of words long and filled with earnest, blood-like remonstrations, was torn in two by Censor Zhou, who threw the tattered pieces violently onto the ground.
The dark-faced censor's eyes were bloodshot, his chest heaving heavily: "Faced with such a catastrophic peril, why are we still bothering to impeach Xu Youde? Xu Youde is nothing but a hound the Emperor has sent out to test all the court officials!"
"Tomorrow, I will go to rally the thirteen circuits of the Censorate. Most of the circuit officials and speech officers have their family properties and ancestral homes in the north! Who would bear to watch their family graves abandoned in the wilderness, so that in the festivals they cannot even find descendants to tend and offer sacrifices to them?"
He thumped his own chest, his voice resounding like a great bell: "We shall submit a joint remonstrance at the risk of death! Even if we have to crash our heads against the coiled dragon pillars of the Fengtian Hall, we will expose this absurd act that shakes the very foundation of the nation before all the civil and military officials of the court!"
"The law cannot punish all of the multitude. Could the Emperor possibly throw every single one of the court officials into prison?"
The Right Vice Minister of War’s eyes also lit up, and he said in a hoarse voice, “We can also quietly fan the flames behind the scenes, and leak the news to several great aristocratic families in the capital. The Li clan of Taiyuan, the Xingyang Zheng clan, the Lu clan of Fanyang… all of them have their century-old foundations in the northern lands, how could they stand by and do nothing? As long as the aristocratic families step forward, we will provide support from the rear…”
“Utterly foolish!”
With a thunderous roar, Xiao Jingxing slammed his palm hard on the desk.
The confidential reports on the desk trembled, and the southern city map spun through the air before landing right over the bloodstained broken shards of porcelain.
Censor Zhou’s knees went weak, and he thudded to the ground. The Junior Minister of the Court of Imperial Studs had the rest of his words stuck in his throat, his face as pale as death.
Xiao Jingxing abruptly rose to his feet, his tall figure casting a shadow that instantly enveloped Censor Zhou.
“To die as a remonstrance? What do you have to remonstrate with?” Xiao Jingxing looked down at him, his voice ice-cold, “Has His Majesty the Emperor ever issued an explicit edict to move the capital south? Has the astrological divination result from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau ever been announced to the whole realm?”
Censor Zhou’s lips moved in a futile attempt to speak, but he had no retort to offer.
“If you were to dash your head and bleed by the Panlong Pillar, His Majesty would sit in the Bright Hall and only need to ask a single question casually…
‘Where did you hear such absurd nonsense?’”
Xiao Jingxing’s words cut like a blade: “If you say it came from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau, the Junior Minister of the Court of Imperial Studs will have his entire nine clans executed! If you say it came from the confidential reports from the south of the Yangtze River, that will be a capital crime for this prince to pry into the Emperor’s whereabouts and form ties with outer court officials!”
“That headlong crash of yours would only earn you, Censor Zhou, a reputation of unyielding integrity, but it would bury this prince’s entire life and all that he holds dear!”
Censor Zhou prostrated himself on the cold floor tiles, shaking like a sieve, his sweat soaking through his heavy robes.
Xiao Jingxing then turned his gaze to the Right Vice Minister of War, sneering repeatedly: “As for contacting the aristocratic families? His Majesty is currently keeping all memorials on this matter without issuing a ruling, just waiting for this prince to make another move. Your actions are not coming to my rescue, you are handing His Majesty a knife with which he can slaughter this prince!”
Hearing this, the Right Vice Minister of War clenched his fists tightly.
The Commander of the Five Cities Garrison stepped forward through gritted teeth: “Your Highness, this subordinate still has the Garrison troops under my command…”
“What? Do you intend to launch a military remonstrance in the capital?” Xiao Jingxing glanced at him sideways, his gaze as if he were looking at a dead man, “If you dare to move even a single soldier or horse, this prince will personally request to be stripped of all my official titles tonight, and go to the Imperial Clan Court to surrender myself for execution.”
The Commander was so horrified that he fell silent at once, and kowtowed forcefully.
The study fell completely silent, save for the occasional crackling sound from the charcoal in the fire basin.
Xiao Jingxing walked to the window with his hands clasped behind his back, and pushed open half the carved wooden window. The northern wind, carrying fine snow, blew inward, making the candle flame on the desk flicker unsteadily.
He faced the wind and snow, raising his head, and a trace of harsh, mocking glint flashed across the depth of his eyes.
“Since His Majesty forbids anyone to block this, this prince will help him to ‘divert’ it instead.”
He turned back around, bent down to pick up that southern city map, brushed the dust off it, and spread it out again on the large desk.
“Since the public petition from tens of thousands of people has already emerged in the south of the Yangtze River, we will let this fire burn even more fiercely!”
“First, starting tomorrow, anyone who dares utter the two words ‘move the capital’ will be executed without mercy. Censor Zhou, you will submit that memorial of yours just as you planned.”
Censor Zhou looked up at him in bewilderment: “But Your Highness just said we have no solid evidence…”
“Precisely because there is no solid evidence, we must cling to this claim even more tightly!”
The killing intent in Xiao Jingxing’s eyes was fully visible.
“You all take the lead in submitting memorials, and the imperial censors and speech officials will surely follow your lead. If His Majesty issues an edict to launch a thorough investigation, the imperial commissioner’s office will have to suspend its work and wait for the inquiry, and the civil construction projects in the south of the Yangtze River will not be able to proceed.”
“If His Majesty forcefully withholds the memorials to shield Xu Youde, all the civil and military officials in the court will surely grow suspicious.”
"A ruthless official who digs up people's ancestral graves—why does His Majesty insist on shielding him? When the time comes, someone will naturally dig up what shady, underhanded business is hidden beneath that stretch of land!"
The Vice Minister of War gasped in cold shock, the realization hitting him all at once. "If we launch a full investigation, the construction will have to halt; if the Emperor forces his protection over the official, the hidden truth will be exposed... Your Highness, this scheme of yours is an open, unassailable gambit!"
"Here is the second step."
"Send two of our most reliable hidden agents, disguised as northern merchants, to sneak into Jiangnan and meet Chen Shichang and Fang Jinhai."
"Drop them a hint that there are forces in the capital who are happy to see their plans move forward."
"Then pour a hefty sum of silver into their hands, to get them to incite the 'joint petition' into a 'street-side public outcry', and then escalate that public outcry into a siege of the yamen offices!"
"Once civil unrest breaks out across Jinling, even with my Imperial Father's godlike power, he will never be able to lay a solid foundation for the new palace walls amid the fury of the rioting masses."
The Junior Minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud hesitated and asked, "What about the Yang family..."
"Yang Bonian has shut himself behind closed doors claiming illness, and refuses to even stamp the clan's official seal. He must have caught wind of what's happening and already climbed onto another, more powerful patron's branch." Xiao Jingxing let out a cold snort.
"Our people are to steer clear of the Yang family completely. Not a single grain of rice from our side is to ever cross their threshold."
His gaze finally fell on the military commander. "You go find out the water route Xu Wuyou is taking south, and the relay stations where he will change his horses. You are only allowed to observe him from a distance, under no circumstances are you to make any reckless move."
The four men below went over the entire scheme in their own minds, and the panicked, defeated look that had been on their faces earlier faded away completely.
"Your Highness, this brilliant plan that clears away the clouds to reveal the sky—we officials offer our full, heartfelt admiration!"
Censor Zhou was the first to bow his head in obeisance, and the other three immediately knelt down in unison, shouting their reverent praise.
Censor Zhou tucked the torn draft of his memorial back into his robes, his eyes now as hard and unyielding as tempered iron. "This lowly official will stay up tonight to rewrite the memorial, and be the very first to knock on the gates of the Transmission Office first thing tomorrow morning!"
"Leave now. Once you step out of this door, everything that happened tonight is to rot in your stomachs, never to be spoken of."
Xiao Jingxing then turned his gaze to the Vice Minister of War. After a moment of thoughtful hesitation, he said, "From the Ministry of War, send a word of well-being to each of the veteran generals stationed at the Nine Border Garrisons. Just tell them that as the new year draws near and the weather turns cold, this Prince is thinking of them. Do not write a single extra word on paper."
The Vice Minister of War nodded, bowing to accept the order.
The Chief Aide led the four men out through the side door in a single file, and they vanished into the vast, swirling snowstorm.
The grand study fell silent once more.
Xiao Jingxing stood by the window, letting the stinging snow grains beat against his face.
After a long while, he released his grip and closed the wooden window, a look of suppressed, unshakable anxiety surfacing in his eyes.
"First thing tomorrow, I must head to the palace to pay my respects to my mother, the Imperial Concubine."
