Chapter 127: Biding Time

"Why does Lord Cao not speak?" the white-haired Lady Yu asked earnestly. "Is there some difficulty?"

Cao Jie nodded only after a long pause: "I will not deceive you, my lady. Wang Fu, Yuan She, Feng Yu, Zhang Feng — these men, some now dead, some fled — I alone remain within the Northern Palace, utterly unable to clap with one hand!"

Lady Yu disagreed: "If it is truly impossible to clap with one hand, then simply make some peace with these newcomers. What they seek, after all, are merely the posts of Regular Palace Attendant and Junior Attendant of the Yellow Gates. And as you say, with Wang Fu and the others gone or dead, so many positions lie vacant — what more do they want?"

"At this point, how could I not understand the need for reconciliation?" Cao Jie replied with a solemn expression. "But there is something you do not know, my lady. The newly promoted Attendants already regard me as fish on the chopping block and have no interest whatsoever in reconciling with me. Moreover, with over ten of them spread throughout every corner of the palace, even if I wished to show my true intentions, I would first have to find a way to gather everyone together before I could speak openly and honestly... To approach them one by one in private — given their prior pact of mutual defense, I fear they would hardly trust me. And even if they did trust me for a moment, they would change their minds in the blink of an eye."

"In that case, I truly do not know what to say," Lady Yu could not help but answer helplessly. "I am advanced in years, and none of these palace Attendants take me seriously. Even if I wished to summon them all on your behalf, I fear my will would find no strength."

Cao Jie continued nodding: "This is precisely why this old servant felt I absolutely had to meet with you, my lady. It is not that I am without ideas, but the situation before me is truly far too perilous. Before I stake my life on one desperate gamble, I had to bid you farewell no matter what... After all, both you and I, my lady, have already reached such an age."

As he spoke, Cao Jie removed the two-thousand-bushel Attendant's cap from his head, revealing his grizzled topknot, and there within Lady Yu's bedchamber he prostrated himself fully upon the ground in the grandest ritual obeisance.

Lady Yu, seeing this, suddenly seemed about to speak but held back. In the end, she merely smiled faintly, sat upright without moving, and calmly accepted such a salute from him.

The hour was already extremely late. Once Cao Jie had finished his obeisance, he withdrew with reverent, hurried steps, then left Lady Yu's bedchamber directly and went to his own quarters to rest.

"So, Lord Cao has entered the palace?"

Before the gates of the Cao residence, Gongsun Xun, who had left and returned, rested his hand on his saber and stared straight at the bushy-bearded scholar blocking his path. As for Master Cao the Second, who ought to have been presiding here, he had long since vanished to who knows where.

"Reporting to Gentleman Gongsun!" Luo Mu bowed with the utmost respect. "It is exactly so. My master is, after all, a Regular Attendant of the Northern Palace — how could he remain forever in his private residence?"

Gongsun Xun could not help but sneer: "You too come from a scholar's background, yet you call him 'master' with such heartfelt sincerity..."

Luo Mu lowered his head and said nothing.

"No matter. When one's skill at the game is a move behind, I have nothing to say. But as for where the hearts of all under Heaven and the tide of the greater situation truly lie, I hope you, Luo Zixian, will take care to do what is right!" With that, Gongsun Xun released his grip and prepared to turn and leave.

"Will the Gentleman not enter and conduct a search?" Luo Mu suddenly raised his head and asked. "You are a Supervisor of the Capital Officials — you do hold the authority to enforce the law."

"I came in haste," Gongsun Xun answered sternly. "I did not have time to forge rebellious documents, imperial seals, or tiger tallies. And if I cannot exterminate the entire Cao clan, what use would there be in seizing a few goods and chattels now?"

Luo Mu stood alone before the gates of the Cao residence, not knowing how he ought to reply.

Setting aside that stifling night, the very next afternoon, Cao Jie's counterattack erupted with startling clarity.

"Attendant Yuan, halt." Within a certain hall of the Colonel-Director of Retainers' office, Gongsun Xun, who was handling Yuan She's case in place of Yang Qiu, suddenly interrupted their conversation right in front of Yuan Kui. "I must step out to receive a dispatch."

Yuan She, Yuan Kui, and Yuan Shu — who had appeared there for reasons unknown — all raised their eyes toward Wang Lang, Wang Jingxing, the Chief Clerk of the Imperial Secretariat, who had appeared outside the main hall, and none of them said much.

"What is it?" Gongsun Xun stepped outside the hall, and a sense of foreboding rose almost instantly in his heart.

Wang Lang's expression was grave. He paused briefly before speaking seriously: "Brother Wenqi, there is a matter that Lord Qiao specifically sent me to inform you of. I do not know whether it is good or bad..."

"Speak, then," Gongsun Xun replied, growing even more wary at these words.

"Today, a court gentleman submitted a memorial to the court, denouncing the eunuchs for bringing ruin to the state, and impeaching Cao Jie, Zhang Rang, and Zhao Zhong..."

Gongsun Xun had heard only half the sentence before his scalp began to prickle. Impeaching Cao Jie was one thing, but impeaching Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong at the same time — had this man gone mad? Did he not understand the need to divide and dissolve, to distinguish the primary contradiction? As things stood now, the chief villains of the eunuch faction were, to put it plainly, still Cao Jie and Wang Fu's clique, were they not?

To be honest, if someone like this, hoisting a grand banner while sabotaging the larger cause, had appeared under normal circumstances, Gongsun Xun would simply have assumed it was some fool being foolish. After all, there were as many fools among the scholar-officials as one could want — one could find a full dozen two-thousand-bushel officials who believed the *Classic of Filial Piety* was omnipotent...

And yet, the very moment Cao Jie entered the palace, someone was so impatient to stir up trouble — this could not be mere foolishness; it had to be malice! There was certainly collusion and premeditation here, precisely to bind the formerly isolated Cao Jie together with the other newly risen palace grandees into a single bloc.

One could even imagine that once this malicious actor took the lead, a great crowd of fools would immediately surge forward in a rush of hot blood to follow... And what was even more lamentable was that neither Gongsun Xun, nor Qiao Xuan and Yang Ci, who understood this perfectly well, had any way to stop it. They might even be swept along themselves!

What else could they do? Were they supposed to step forward and say that Cao Jie was a villain, but Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong were good men?!

"That is the matter. Brother Wenqi, take care of yourself," Wang Lang could not help but sigh.

It must be said, after spending a year or so in a place like the Imperial Secretariat, even a pure white lotus would turn into a black lotus — let alone such a clever young fellow.

"I understand," was all Gongsun Xun could say amidst his sighs. "Return and convey to Lord Qiao that I will be careful."

With that, Wang Lang took his leave and departed. Gongsun Xun re-entered the hall to face Regular Attendant Yuan She once more.

"Attendant Yuan." The moment he returned, Gongsun Xun could no longer be bothered with pointless words. He walked with hands clasped behind his back to the seat of honor and sat down, his expression shifting instantly. "Given the current situation, I have only one thing to say to you: do not return to your residence. Leave the city now as a commoner, return to your home village, and live out your remaining years!"

Yuan She was immediately struck speechless, but after a single glance at Yuan Kui, he mustered his courage and asked in a faltering voice: "May I venture to ask Gentleman Gongsun, has something happened?"

"Indeed!" Gongsun Xun replied frankly. "Yesterday, Cao Jie fled alone into the Northern Palace, and we now have practically no way to deal with him. Then today, someone has impeached Cao Jie, Zhang Rang, Zhao Zhong, and many other Attendants, accusing them of colluding in evil — clearly an attempt to muddy the waters and trap us in a position where we can neither advance nor retreat..."

"In that case," Yuan She's eyes could not help but glimmer faintly, "this old and decrepit one..."

"In that case," Gongsun Xun's face suddenly hardened, "it is all the more impossible for me to show leniency to a fish that slipped the net like you! It was only for the sake of your clansman Lord Yuan here that I gave you a measure of courtesy and permitted you to return home. But if you still fail to appreciate the situation, then today I will have no choice but to beat you to death first in this very hall, and then hang you at the city gate to keep Wang Fu company! Do you know that Wang Fu, who was once so wildly arrogant, is now crawling with maggots?"

Yuan She gaped, stammering and at a loss for words. Yuan Kui was likewise dumbstruck, shocked into silence. Even Yuan Shu could not help but scrutinize the wildly outspoken Gongsun Xun once more, inwardly sighing that his father's words had not been exaggerated... Of course, returning to the matter at hand, if anyone else had spoken such nonsense, the three men surnamed Yuan in this hall would likely have taken it as a joke. But the man before them — he might truly be capable of doing exactly as he said, for Wang Fu, Duan Jiong, and Chen Jiu were all cautionary precedents!

In other words, since Gongsun Xun had spoken thus, if you did not believe him, you might very well end up crawling with maggots yourself!

After waiting a long moment and seeing that the hall remained silent, Gongsun Xun grew even more impatient and his expression hardened further: "Attendant Yuan, in the current situation, it is simply a matter of whether you consent or not. Do not imagine you can truly stall here. You must understand, the more difficult the situation becomes, the more I must act with thunderous decisiveness to set the record straight and steady men's hearts! 'Execute the eunuchs, execute the eunuchs' — did you think that because your surname is Yuan, you are not a eunuch?! I have allowed you to keep your life; what more do you want?!"

Yuan She turned his head to glance at Yuan Kui, who remained silent beside him, then clasped his hands and begged for mercy: "This old servant harbors no thoughts of luck or leniency. I merely hope that Gentleman Gongsun, for the sake of the Runan Yuan clan, will permit me to return home and take some goods and chattels before I go back to my village, so that I might purchase some land and a house to live out my old age..."

Gongsun Xun could not help but sneer as he looked toward Yuan Shu: "Brother Gonglu, does your Yuan clan lack the funds to provide for its widowed and orphaned kinsmen?"

Yuan Shu, hearing this, merely lowered his head and smiled: "Listen to Wenqi — if we refused to acknowledge him, that would be one thing, but since he has already been carried through our gates, we will certainly not let this elder want for food and clothing. Don't you agree?"

When Yuan She heard these words, his heart was seized with great alarm, and he felt the heavens spin and the earth reel as he collapsed to the floor!

It must be said, Attendant Yuan was a eunuch grandee who had been mixing in these circles since the era of Liang Ji. How could he fail to grasp the implication in Yuan Shu's words? Setting aside how vastly different this attitude was from the late Yuan Feng's, the meaning alone was clear: they considered him to have lost all influence and now viewed him as superfluous deadweight!

And if that were so, if he truly returned to his old home in Runan with no goods or wealth in hand, would he not indeed be left lonely and destitute? Yet on second thought, with this White Horse Gentleman — who truly dared to kill a man on the spot — standing before him, if the Yuan clan would not support him, how could he possibly speak of keeping any goods or wealth?

Thus, after thinking it over, the situation before him was practically a death trap!

How hateful that Cao Jie could not have delayed his flight into the Northern Palace by just one more day! Then he might have been able to withdraw unscathed!

In short, Yuan She sat on the ground, and the more he thought, the more miserable he became, the more he thought, the more heartbroken he grew. And when his thoughts turned to the goods and wealth he had amassed over the greater part of his lifetime, he finally broke into loud wails right there in the hall... providing quite a spectacle for the clerks and soldiers both inside and outside the hall.

"Uncle," Yuan Shu, seeing this, could not resist tugging at his uncle's sleeve and pulling him outside the hall, where he spoke in a low voice, "does such a figure even deserve the surname Yuan?!"

"In the end, he has rendered service to the Yuan clan," Yuan Kui replied helplessly, steeling himself. "When your father was still in good health, he gave instructions that we must protect him at all costs!"

"Have we not already protected his life?" Yuan Shu grew even more impatient at this. "What more do you want? Uncle, in the current situation, even if the campaign to execute the eunuchs cannot be sustained, it is still a situation where the eunuchs' power has greatly collapsed. Yet precisely because of that matter involving my father earlier, we could not intervene, and we could only sit by and watch the Yang clan gain widespread popular support by toppling Wang Fu... Under such circumstances, if we forcefully protect a eunuch, how will the world regard our Yuan clan? Besides, when my father was still in good health, did he not also instruct us to cultivate good relations with the Gongsun clan and this Gongsun Xun?"

Yuan Kui was a man without firm opinions. Hearing his nephew speak thus, he immediately began to waver. On the other side, Gongsun Xun in the hall had also completely lost patience and was already calling for his clerks to seize Yuan She for interrogation and beating... Consequently, both Yuan Kui and Yuan She panicked at once and dared delay no longer.

In the end, the two sides agreed: Yuan She's family property would be confiscated, and he would leave Luoyang as a commoner, with the Yuan clan guaranteeing to escort him all the way to Runan, never to return.

And with Yuan She thus disposed of, by this point, of the eunuch faction that had once dominated the court through the September Coup and the Second Proscription, virtually only a single, solitary ringleader, Cao Jie, remained in the palace, barely clinging to life.

Of course, as Cao Jie continued to hide within the Northern Palace, the situation grew increasingly delicate.

It must be understood that, in contrast to the helpless Yang Qiu, Gongsun Xun, and their allies, the mood among the scholar-official community grew ever more elated. More and more people began submitting memorials demanding the execution of the eunuchs, their targets extending from Cao Jie all the way to Zhang Rang and Zhao Zhong. Later, as the tide of opinion took shape, some even openly raised the slogan of rehabilitating Grand General Dou Wu and Grand Commandant Chen Fan... Still later, as expected, demands to lift the Proscription also appeared as a matter of course.

Regarding this, Gongsun Xun, Yang Qiu, Yang Ci, and Qiao Xuan all knew perfectly well that such actions would only enrage the Son of Heaven, making him wary of the matter and possibly even causing him to reverse course entirely. Yet they had absolutely no way to stop or refute it. In fact, even Gongsun Xun had to steel himself and, together with his colleagues in the Imperial Secretariat, jointly submit a memorial — the general gist of which was to request the execution of Zhao Zhong or some such... It was, to put it mildly, a pain in the backside.

Of course, privately Gongsun Xun and Yang Qiu were not without their own understanding. They had long since agreed that as long as Cao Jie dared to leave the forbidden palace and its guards, they would ignore all else and directly exploit the flaws on Cao Poshi to stage an "accidental injury"… In short, they absolutely could not let Cao Jie, the leader of the eunuch faction, slip away. Otherwise, not only would this matter be abandoned halfway, but a fierce counterattack might come at any moment.

But despite all this, as time passed into the fourth month and Luoyang grew hotter by the day, Cao Jie remained utterly motionless, like a turtle — even more patient than a turtle.

One must know that the corpse of his former partner Wang Fu had by now not only rotted and bred maggots, but sometimes even dripped pale yellow fluids of unknown origin… Because of this, Gongsun Xun had been forced to order it moved to the side of the city gate, to prevent it from splashing passersby! Yet Cao Jie still did not move, seemingly prepared to cling to his last breaths in the palace until he died of old age!

However, as the outer court grew increasingly turbulent, one day the critical juncture that Cao Hanfeng had been waiting for finally arrived.

The person who stirred up trouble was an old Court Gentleman, a man from Liang State called Shen Zhong. It is said that this Gentleman Shen not only submitted an open memorial demanding the rehabilitation of Chen Fan and Dou Wu, but even called on the Son of Heaven to completely abolish the Yellow Gate system. His language was extreme, and he harbored some selfish desire for fame, much like Cai Yong before him… At this, the Son of Heaven finally lost patience and directly stripped this man, who called himself "a Court Gentleman for fifteen years," of his post and expelled him back to his hometown.

Without a doubt, this was a signal — a signal that the Son of Heaven's attitude was shifting.

And upon hearing of this, Cao Jie, knowing in his heart that the moment had come, finally moved swiftly into action.

"Master Cao." That evening, a middle-aged palace maid suddenly appeared in Cao Jie's room, her face full of terror. These past days, to avoid arousing the hostility and wariness of the other Regular Attendants, he had done almost nothing but sit idly in his quarters within the Northern Palace.

"Is the matter done?" Cao Jie sat facing a bronze mirror, tidying his increasingly white hair into a bun, and asked calmly without turning his head.

"It is done, and yet not done!" The palace maid immediately kowtowed and begged forgiveness. "Please, Master Cao, pardon my offense."

"Those words are rather interesting." Cao Jie, who had already begun to put on his cap of a two-thousand-bushel Regular Attendant, could not help but turn his head in curiosity. "What do you mean, 'done and yet not done'?"

"To answer Master Cao," the middle-aged palace maid nervously glanced back at the tightly shut door behind her before replying in a low voice, "The old Honorable Lady drank that bottle of wine, but she also became aware of something…"

Even with all his seasoned cunning, Cao Jie could not help but feel a surge of panic: "Honorable Lady Yu discovered it?"

"Yes!" The middle-aged palace maid kowtowed again. "But the Honorable Lady was not angry, nor did she make a scene. Instead, she dismissed everyone else and continued to drink all the wine right in front of me, and even asked me to bring some words back to you, Master Cao."

Cao Jie sat stiffly for a long moment before he could speak, his voice trembling: "What words did the old Honorable Lady want you to bring?"

"The old Honorable Lady said… she has always been one of meager fortune. Back then, although she had a son who was established as the Son of Heaven, he died in infancy at the age of two, and she had no blessing of fate. Instead, it brought upon her the jealousy and hatred of the Liang clan. In those days, she scarcely knew if she would live from one day to the next, and it was only through the care of you, Master Cao, and those other Regular Attendants who have since passed away that she barely survived. Then, a few years ago, it was again you, Master Cao, who had a Junior Yellow Gate Officer submit a memorial to grant her and several other consorts without formal titles the ranks of Honorable Lady and Lady, and permitted her to be buried together with the late Emperor Shun after her death. Even for her family, it was entirely through your help, Master Cao, that several of her juniors were able to enter official service… For such kindness and virtue, repaying it with her life is only right and proper, not to mention that at her age, life and death are no longer things to be tabooed!"

Hearing these words, Cao Jie felt his mouth go dry and his heart twist into a tangled mess. It was a long while before he could steady himself: "You may withdraw now. Do not speak of this matter to anyone else. After Honorable Lady Yu is laid to rest, I shall gift you a thousand pieces of gold and send you out of the palace to return to your hometown… I will never go back on my word."

The palace maid offered profuse thanks, still extremely nervous, and hastily took her leave.

As soon as she was gone, Cao Jie could not help but rise to his feet and pace in circles within the room. Several times he thought of going to Honorable Lady Yu's bedchamber, to seize this final chance to beg her forgiveness, but each time he lacked the courage to step outside.

In his helplessness and emotional turmoil, amidst a flood of gratitude, shame, fear, and other feelings, this powerful eunuch who had controlled the government of the Great Han for over a decade could only once again remove his cap of a two-thousand-bushel Regular Attendant, revealing his graying hair, and right there in his own quarters, face the direction of her bedchamber, kowtow in salute, and then let his tears stream down his face.

The next day, the Honorable Lady of Emperor Shun of Han, birth mother of Emperor Chong of Han, the highest-ranking consort in the palace by seniority, passed away in her bedchamber. Because of her advanced age, no one suspected anything else. And because she was an Honorable Lady of Emperor Shun and was to be buried at Emperor Shun's Zhang Mausoleum, the Son of Heaven issued an edict: all officials were to suspend their duties for three days, the entire inner palace was to wear plain mourning garments for two days, and according to established precedent, all officials and inner attendants of rank were to gather for the funeral rites at Zhang Mausoleum.

————I am the dividing line whose leg still hurts——————

"Yuan She was originally a man of Runan. In his youth, due to poverty and low status, he became a Yellow Gate Officer, and later gradually gained power during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han. By the time of Emperor Ling, after the defeat of Chen Fan and Dou Wu and the resurgence of the Partisan Prohibitions, when Wan and Luo were in turmoil, the Grand Coachman Yuan Feng claimed him as a kinsman of the same lineage. They called each other brother and supported one another openly and in secret, and thus the Yuan clan was secure. By the early years of the Guanghe era, when Wang Fu was defeated, She also lost power and returned to his hometown. Being old and without a son, he sought a junior from the same lineage to inherit his estate. At that time, Yuan Feng was already gravely ill and could not attend to matters, so he spoke of it to his son Yuan Shu. When Shu heard this, he flew into a great rage and struck him repeatedly with his hand, saying: 'A eunuch slave only survives because of the Yuan clan's protection — how dare you further seek inheritance? Do you truly believe your surname is already Yuan?' She lamented deeply: 'Having lived my whole life as a Yuan for decades, only today do I finally understand the nobility of the Yuan clan!'" — A New Account of the Tales of the World, Chapter on Arrogance and Rudeness

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(End of Chapter)