Chapter 1429: Shunzhi, Your Litigation Master Has Arrived

Tonight, inside Jin Xuanye's Grace-Continuing Marquis residence, everything was naturally steeped in an atmosphere of reunion and joy.

Tonight was a great day of family reunion! Not only had Jin Xuanye, who had been away from home for many days, returned, but even "Shunzhi," who had been missing for over a decade, had been delivered back in a cage — this was truly a heaven-sent joy!

Moreover, Zhu Cilang had rewarded Xuanye with five thousand taels of silver and allowed him to continue as Grace-Continuing Marquis!

This was truly boundless imperial grace!

In addition, there was another piece of news that overjoyed the old matriarch Bumbutai, who had been anxious at home for quite some time, and Xuanye's elder brother Fuquan.

That news was that the real Shunzhi was still alive!

"Grandmother, Second Brother, Eleventh Uncle told me that the Ford lama is my Ama, and my Ama really has not died. He is now the great lama of the Dzungar Kingdom, the junior fellow disciple of the Three Jewels Monk Minister and the Bright Pearl Monk Minister. With their protection, my Ama can live free and at ease in the Western Regions."

Inside the inner hall, Xuanye, wiping away tears as he spoke, relayed the good news that the real Shunzhi was still alive to his grandmother Bumbutai and his second brother Fuquan.

"Third Brother," said Fuquan, now eighteen years old and grown tall and sturdy, instantly excited, "is Ama plotting together with the Dzungar king Sengge to raise troops and restore our Great Qing?"

"Second Brother!" Bumbutai, already advanced in years, immediately rebuked him. "Walls have ears. Our household now has the Embroidered Uniform Guard stationed here!"

The Embroidered Uniform Guard had moved into the Grace-Continuing Marquis residence, of course, to keep watch over "Shunzhi" — the fellow looked fierce, and they could not let him escape, still less let him commit violence in the marquis residence. So the Embroidered Uniform Guard Commander Zhu Chunjie had dispatched a dozen or so mounted guards to watch "Shunzhi" inside the marquis residence. However, they did not enter the inner quarters, and presumably would not spy on the Grace-Continuing Marquis's family.

But who could guarantee that no one outside was eavesdropping on the family's conversation?

Xuanye shook his head and said in a low voice, "Ama is only preserving his life. He does not seem to be plotting anything. And back when he commanded a hundred thousand troops he could accomplish nothing, let alone now."

In his view, his own father was still somewhat of a coward!

"And there are still the two feudatories of Heilongjiang and Andong!" Fuquan said. "Oboi and Yue Le are both loyal subjects who had no choice but to feign surrender!"

"Perhaps," Xuanye sighed. "But the great trend of the world ultimately lies with the Ming, not the Qing. We had better be careful."

Just as he was speaking, a woman's voice suddenly sounded from outside the door: "Old Madam, that Shaanxi man is kicking up a fuss."

What Shaanxi man?

Bumbutai was equally baffled, and said, "Sumalagu, come in and speak."

The door was pushed open with a creak, and in walked a woman nearing fifty, her features regular enough but somewhat plump. She was the old madam Bumbutai's maidservant, who had accompanied Bumbutai as part of her dowry into Hong Taiji's palace, and had followed her ever since. Both Fuquan and Xuanye had been raised with the help of this Sumalagu.

So when they saw her enter, both Fuquan and Xuanye were respectful in manner. But Sumalagu had no time to salute her two young masters, and said hurriedly, "Three masters, please go and take a look. That Shaanxi man, he—"

"What Shaanxi man?" Fuquan asked.

Sumalagu said, "It is your Ama... no, no, not your real Ama, but your fake Ama."

So it was that cheap Ama who was causing trouble.

"What is wrong with him?" Bumbutai asked.

"He really takes himself for the Sixth Master — meaning Shunzhi — demanding food, drink, and women."

"The Shaanxi man" of course referred to that fake Shunzhi with the Shaanxi accent.

In fact, this fake Shunzhi was not from Shaanxi at all, but a horse bandit captured on the Beiting steppe. No one knew his ethnicity, nor his surname; all they knew was a nickname, "Steppe Tiger."

Because many Shaanxi migrants had come to the Anxi and Beiting regions, the Shaanxi dialect was very prevalent there, and he had picked up a mouthful of Shaanxi speech.

Xuanye abruptly stood up and said to Bumbutai, "Grandmother, your grandson will go and take a look!"

Fuquan also rose. "I will go too. If that wretch dares talk nonsense, see if I don't beat him to death!"

"Nonsense!" Bumbutai glared at Fuquan. "Beat him to death? Do you want to commit patricide?"

"But he is not..." Fuquan's face was full of conflict.

"If His Majesty says he is, then he is!" Bumbutai said to Xuanye, "Go with Sumalagu, and remember, speak properly and do not lower yourself to his level. If he wants good food, get him a little. There are not many days left anyway."

"Your grandson understands," Xuanye replied. "Your grandson will not lower himself to that bandit's level."

"Kangxi, get out here! I've had eight lifetimes of bad luck, taking in a good-for-nothing like you!"

When Xuanye followed Sumalagu to the courtyard where the fake Shunzhi was confined, the moment he entered, he heard someone shouting in a Shaanxi accent.

The words were certainly not pleasant, but Xuanye could not quite understand them.

Seeing Kangxi arrive, the man shouted even more fiercely.

"Son, come over here! I am your daddy!"

Daddy... this sentence Xuanye could understand. He thought to himself: can't he just say Ama?

Xuanye glanced at him and saw that this unlucky fellow had already been let out of the cage and was sitting cross-legged on the ground before a small low table in the courtyard. Both feet were still shackled in fetters, and behind him stood two Embroidered Uniform Guard men holding embroidered spring sabers.

On the low table was a little food: plain steamed buns and an empty plate with a bit of pickled vegetables.

The fake Shunzhi hollered, "Where's the roujiamo I was promised? Where's the water-basin mutton? And where are my three palaces and six courtyards? Why haven't they come out for me to choose from?"

Xuanye truly did not know whether to laugh or cry. A lout like this, and he was to be tried publicly? To be made a spectacle of?

Just then, a junior Embroidered Uniform Guard officer suddenly strode in and said loudly to the fake Shunzhi, "Shunzhi, the litigation master your family hired for you has arrived!"

A litigation master? Family? Xuanye was taken aback. He had not hired any litigation master for this counterfeit. Could it have been Fuquan? Surely not... this was not their real father, after all.

He quickly asked the junior Embroidered Uniform Guard officer, "Centurion, you said a litigation master? Who hired him?"

The Embroidered Uniform Guard centurion said, "It was his younger sister, Consort Ning, who hired him... who else could it be?"

The fake Shunzhi knew what a litigation master was for. Although no litigation master could do him any good, he was still rather grateful, and said at once, "It is still my little sister who knows how to care for her brother!"

Xuanye asked the officer, "Is this litigation master well known? Which litigation firm is he from?"

"The litigation master is Master Ji of the Ji Iron Teeth firm!"

"What? Ji Iron Teeth? The former Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review?"

"Right, that's him... He is the foremost litigation master under heaven! With him helping plead your case, your father might at least keep his corpse intact."

The fake Shunzhi was still not quite satisfied. "Only keep my corpse intact? Can't I keep my life?"

"Don't be so greedy. Keeping your corpse intact is already good enough..." Xuanye joined in counseling his cheap father. "Given your crimes, death by slow slicing would be fully warranted!"

Ji Iron Teeth was Ji Kun. Now in his late fifties, approaching sixty, Ji Kun had taken "early retirement" the year before last.

The reason for early retirement was that his official career could advance no further. Moreover, the post of Chief Justice of the Court of Judicial Review still carried something of the flavor of a cruel official... others had even given him the rather inelegant nickname "Ji Iron Teeth."

Ji Kun truly had little interest in such a position, and besides, he had already achieved fame and success — he even held the title of Viscount of Overcoming Hardship, and had scooped up enough silver (back in his Censorate days he had been Ji the King of Hell, a master at confiscating households), so why keep struggling?

He might as well retire and go home! But he was not a man content to fade into obscurity. Retired but not idle, he took up his old trade again, opening a litigation-master practice with a few old friends.

It was not for the money—just for the bustle of it, and to win himself a good name after death. He could not let posterity remember him only as a harsh official, could he?

And today, this famous litigation master had come, entrusted by Ajige, to defend the false Shunzhi...

(End of Chapter)