Chapter 102: Rumors (Part 2)

"Let me first speak of a trivial matter."

Zhao Jiu smiled knowingly. "There was a bit of trouble outside the palace just now. It's said that rumors were stirring, so I took those measures to respond... But rest assured, what I said outside the temporary palace was all from the heart."

From Lu Haowen on down, the several chancellors and those implicated in this matter, including those who had been granted 'famous beauties,' whether they believed it or not, hurriedly bowed their heads together.

"Besides that, I am a normal man and certainly have no desire to become a monk. If any lady can learn from Han Liangchen's wives and accompany me in military attire, I would accept that too..." Zhao Jiu continued with a smile. "You must understand, what I seek to learn from Emperor Zhaolie of Han is his indomitable spirit, not his habit of abandoning wife and children at every turn. And Xinye lies to the south."

The various ministers still kept their heads bowed, but someone by the sovereign's side felt a slight stir in their heart.

"Finally, this matter ends here!" Zhao Jiu suddenly turned stern. "The temporary court has been wandering for a year. The Jin army has just withdrawn. The entire hierarchy has only just found a place to shelter. Absolutely no trouble is to be stirred up without cause... Zhang Jun!"

"Your servant is here!" Zhang Jun's heart gave a start, and he hurriedly bowed his head.

"You are the Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate. If any censor dares to impeach a Grand Councilor or other key central officials over this matter, or anyone at all, do not wait for him to submit his memorial. First, submit a memorial to dismiss him!" The Zhao sovereign's tone was extremely severe.

"Your servant receives the decree!" Zhang Jun grew even more alarmed but accepted the decree solemnly.

The two Palace Censors, one Hu Yin and the other, recently appointed, a man named Li Guang who was a man of Chancellor Li Gang, also bowed their heads solemnly together.

On the other side, Lu Haowen was naturally moved to tears of gratitude: "Your servant is incompetent. I only thank Your Majesty for your protection!"

Lan Gui, the Senior Palace Eunuch who had caused the great trouble, simply knelt on the ground and also thanked the sovereign for his protection.

Of course they had to thank the sovereign for his protection!

Little Lin Academician, who had recently returned to normal, watched coldly from the sidelines, secretly lamenting the good fortune of Lu Haowen and Lan Gui.

To be honest, earlier on the road, Little Lin Academician had already sensed something amiss with the sovereign. Up to this point, he saw it very clearly: the sovereign was extremely angry about this rumor. However, what angered the sovereign was by no means the farce of 'famous beauties' or rumors, but rather the suspicion that the reason such rumors had appeared was that someone, unable to wait, had seized the chance to stir up trouble the moment things settled down, trying to pull down the weakest of the chancellors, Lu Xiang!

But at this moment, the sovereign's stance was also very clear. He wished to maintain the political stability of the auxiliary capital and was extremely angered by this habit of undermining each other at the slightest provocation. Therefore, he would rather continue to live like a widower himself and forcibly protect Lu Haowen.

As for Lan Gui, it was because of Lu Haowen that he had unexpectedly and safely escaped danger.

Thinking of this, Little Lin Academician swept his gaze over the several suspects—the three of the remaining four chancellors excluding Liu Ji, the already frightened Censor-in-Chief Zhang Jun, and Yan Xiaozhong, the Vice Prefect who had actively involved himself in this matter.

Among these, judging by their conduct and personal style, Zhang Jun was the most suspicious, and Yan Xiaozhong the least... As for the three chancellors, they were simply unable to defend themselves and could not be cleared of suspicion.

In fact, this should be another important reason why the sovereign's earlier proposal to open up the selection of clerical officials had been passed with only slight concessions—the Grand Councilors themselves were all under suspicion.

"Your Majesty!"

Just as Little Lin Academician's mind was gradually returning to normal operation, the dark-complexioned Yan Xiaozhong could not help but step forward directly at this critical juncture. "In this matter, I was absolutely acting with public spirit. With my meager qualifications as the Prefect of Tangzhou, and having been captured before, to be temporarily acting as the Prefect of Nanyang Prefecture is already an extraordinary prospect. Slandering a chancellor at this time would bring me no benefit whatsoever!"

"I said it," Zhao Jiu replied with a rare stern face. "No one is at fault in this matter. Do not bring it up again!"

Yan Xiaozhong had no choice but to bow his head and assent. Seeing this, Zhang Jun and the several chancellors, whose hearts had begun to stir slightly, also became solemn and dared not say anything more.

"As for the matter of military marriages, we must guard against the case of Zhao Yan's 'living wives' from the Wei dynasty. I will not interfere further. Chancellor Lu, you are experienced and knowledgeable, you can handle it slowly." Zhao Jiu relaxed his expression and spoke calmly again. "Let's all talk about Fan Qiong."

Lu Haowen was now completely relieved. Upon hearing this, he said nothing but directly looked at Wang Boyan. Wang Boyan understood and quickly stepped forward to resume the memorial, but his tone was much more serious and concise: "Your Majesty, for Your Majesty's information, in the past few days, while I was studying the matter of Fan Qiong, unlike the other chancellors who were burdened with difficult cases, Fan Qiong is right in Xiangyang. Therefore, I have been able to gather much information and formulate responses. It is all here."

Saying this, the Vice Privy Councilor took a memorial from his bosom, ignored Lan Gui who had risen and hurried over to take it, and instead directly handed it to Lu Haowen on the side, who then passed it to Lan Gui.

"It is indeed detailed... Vice Chancellor Wang, you have worked hard." Zhao Jiu opened the memorial and, after just one glance, could not help but speak slowly. "So Fan Qiong hasn't occupied the entire Xiangzhou, but is only concentrated in the area of Xiangzhou, Dengcheng, and Niushou... Thirty thousand troops? That many?!"

"For Your Majesty's information," Wang Boyan quickly explained seriously. "When Fan Qiong set out from the temporary court, he had only three or four thousand troops. But when he arrived here to confront the military bandit Li Xiaozhong and his brothers, he recruited many soldiers from the Jingxi South Circuit and Jinghu North Circuit... At that time, he was the imperial army, and Li Xiaozhong was the bandit, so the various prefectures naturally cooperated smoothly. Thus, by the time he drove out Li Xiaozhong, he had about ten thousand troops. These ten thousand troops are his foundation and reliance."

Zhao Jiu nodded slowly.

After all, at that time, there was still a possibility of a peaceful resolution with Fan Qiong, so he naturally wouldn't go too far. He was constrained by organization and logistics. In fact, at that time, Han Shizhong, Zhang Jun, and Liu Guangshi all had core forces of around ten thousand.

"After Your Majesty executed Liu Guangshi and Ding Jin, this man became fearful and began to make some preparations, recruiting a few more soldiers locally. But he didn't go overboard either. All together, it was only about fifteen thousand men..." Wang Boyan continued solemnly. "But Your Majesty must not forget that when Wanyan Yinshu left in a hurry back then because of the Shanzhou matter, he only took the Wanhu he had brought from Taiyuan back with him. As a result, many of the defeated local Jingxi soldiers who had surrendered to the Jin had nowhere to go. And precisely because Your Majesty's imperial army was pressing in, they had no choice but to follow the example of that Zhao Zongyin and head for Xiangyang."

Zhao Jiu nodded slightly and said calmly: "So it seems, a single strike will break them, saving us the trouble of wasting time. But, Vice Chancellor Wang, your memorial says that Fan Qiong can still be dealt with using the great principles of the court. What does that mean? Are we still trying to offer amnesty and enlistment at this point?"

"How could that be?" Wang Boyan rarely smiled. "This beast previously sat by and watched Wanyan Yinshu run rampant through Jingxi, and repeatedly failed to answer the summons. Even Your Majesty's final summons at Fangcheng went unheeded. It is clear that this man absolutely cannot be kept... But Your Majesty, although Fan Qiong knows that Your Majesty cannot tolerate him and is determined to be a rebellious minister, the troops and officers under him may not necessarily want to follow him. These men are, after all, Your Majesty's nominal subjects and soldiers of the imperial court in name. Before, when Your Majesty did not come and Fan Qiong's rebellious intent was not obvious, these men could still be at ease. But now that Your Majesty has led the main army to Nanyang, how can they be at ease? How can they not fear for their future?"

Zhao Jiu nodded again... In fact, not to mention Fan Qiong's subordinates, even Fan Qiong himself, who knew he could not be tolerated by the central government, was hesitant and dared not make up his mind to truly rebel. This could be glimpsed from the fact that over the past year, countless taxes and goods from Bashu had been transported from the Yangtze River to the Han River, through Xiangyang to Nanyang, and yet this man had not dared to cut off the transport.

"Therefore, I have two strategies," Wang Boyan cupped his hands and replied, becoming serious again. "First, I ask Your Majesty to issue a clear decree, declaring Fan Qiong the chief of the rebels and offering a public reward for his capture, while pardoning all those below Fan Qiong who are innocent, permitting them to bring their troops and equipment to the imperial camp to report. Second, I ask to borrow the geographical convenience of Nanyang and Xiangyang to send men south to spread rumors in Xiangzhou itself, saying that several of Fan Qiong's main generals all intend to kill him and present his head to Nanyang..."

Zhao Jiu suddenly laughed: "This is a strategy of driving a tiger to devour a wolf. It will certainly work. Vice Chancellor Wang, you were smiling just now, why have you stopped smiling now that you've come to this part?"

"To report to Your Majesty," Wang Boyan became even more solemn. "This is a military strategy. As Vice Privy Councilor, I have no choice but to propose it. But such a malicious scheme, a man of moral integrity should not take pride in it."

Zhao Jiu laughed and asked again: "Then I have said before that I wish to personally lead the army south. Does that count as the supreme sovereign engaging in foul and dirty business?"

Wang Boyan was momentarily embarrassed but could only force an explanation: "Your Majesty is punishing the rebels with righteousness, which aligns with the great Way."

Zhao Jiu knew exactly what was going on. It was simply that facing a man like Fan Qiong, no one felt any psychological pressure. But if it came to facing the Jin army, last time it was only a mere five hundred men, and this group would be extremely difficult to persuade.

However, the Zhao sovereign was too lazy to say more. He simply set down the memorial, which happened to align with Liu Ziyu's strategy, and directly gave a stern order: "This matter is the most urgent of all affairs. We will roughly follow this strategy and issue the decree immediately... Only one thing: those who were under Fan Qiong's command and were watching from the sidelines can be pardoned, but those who surrendered to the Jin and that Monk Zongyin are absolutely not to be pardoned! Besides this, Nanyang must prepare its logistics. Ma Shen in the Jinghu North Circuit behind Xiangyang must be contacted as soon as possible. Once Xiangyang wavers, I will personally lead the army and swiftly dispatch troops to pacify this beast!"

From Lu Haowen down to Yan Xiaozhong, all those involved shuddered and were about to step forward together to respond.

However, amidst the increasingly obvious cooing sounds, Little Lin Academician stepped forward first, cupped his hands, and offered advice: "Your Majesty, your servant requests to go to Xiangzhou first, to personally implement this strategy of driving a tiger to devour a wolf for Your Majesty!"

Zhao Jiu looked at the indomitable Little Lin Academician, secretly admiring him in his heart, and nodded slightly: "I will follow Lin Qing's words."

Having said this, the Zhao sovereign, who had been forced to live like a widower due to bureaucratic infighting, did not even wait for everyone to finish bowing. He simply stood up and went to the rear palace to play with the wild pigeons.

For a moment, the people in the hall could only exchange awkward glances—what was so terrible about finding a few ladies for the unmarried sovereign? But in the end, it had turned into this, on one hand causing mutual suspicion, and on the other hand benefiting this group of people who already had wives and concubines. What was that all about?

No wonder the sovereign was angry.

PS: Goodnight, everyone.