Chapter 102 A man in black leaps up from the cliff below.

The night before returning to the temple, a torrential downpour fell on the mountain, making the mountain road muddy. Monk Jingjue's wooden cart got stuck in the mud and was firmly stuck. This section was uphill, and no matter how much he pulled, the wheels wouldn't budge.

With a mighty struggle, the monk Jingjue finally managed to pull the wheel out of the mud pit. Before he could even catch his breath, the cart, piled high with wine jars and barrels, crashed down on him.

He stretched out his foot and caught one of the wine jars, protecting it in his arms. He couldn't free his hands to catch the others, so he could only watch as the buckets and jars rolled down the mountain. Fortunately, a group of monks returning from begging for alms were also on their way back to the temple along this mountain path. They helped pick up the wine jars and buckets, reloaded them onto the cart, and then helped push the wooden cart uphill.

Having trudged through the mud to reach the gate of Taihuang Temple, Monk Jingjue smiled slightly, bowed with his palms together, and thanked the monks, saying, "Thank you."

Then he dragged the wooden cart alone to the back of the mountain.

The monks all shivered simultaneously.

“Master Jingjue’s smile is even more frightening, like he’s about to eat a child.”

"It's creepy."

...

In the evening, the monk Jingjue delivered a small jar of fruit wine to Yongning Hall, made from sour fruits picked from the mountains. The wine was stopped and inspected by the imperial guards.

This scene caught Rong Jun's eye, and he rushed forward and kicked the imperial guard who was about to test the wine, knocking him to the ground.

The Changning guards all drew their swords in unison.

Upon seeing this, the Imperial Guards quickly gathered and drew their swords.

Rong Jun angrily retorted, "How dare you inspect the Princess's belongings? You disrespectful lackey!"

With the Imperial Guard Commander Jiang Andong absent, the one in charge was a Lieutenant General surnamed Ma named Ma Feng. The phrase "lackey" immediately provoked him: "Lord Rong, the brothers won't like hearing that. They're just following orders..."

"Whose orders are you on?"

"Naturally, it is by order of the Emperor."

Where is the imperial edict?

Ma Feng choked for a moment, "We are acting on His Majesty's orders to protect the safety of the Princess. Since the wine is something the Princess puts in her mouth, we naturally have to check it carefully."

Rong Jun gave a dismissive sneer, "His Majesty's decree ordered the Imperial Guards to protect the Princess. This is clearly imprisonment!"

"Rong Jun, you're spouting nonsense! You used to be a confidant of Crown Prince Yizhang, someone we couldn't afford to offend, and we had to call you 'Master.' But now you're just a lowly head of a guard, what right do you have to act so high and mighty!"

"Damn it, I've put up with you guys for way too long!"

Rong Jun turned around and started fighting with the general surnamed Ma.

The two adults started fighting, and their men, seeing the situation, joined in. In close combat, even the sharpest swords and knives were no match for fists, feet, or a brick. So, some pulled hair, others yanked clothes, and fists and feet flew, plunging the area into a chaotic melee.

Before long, many martial monks who had been watching the spectacle were lying around.

If one didn't know that these two groups were the Imperial Guards, one would think they were two groups of beggars fighting over the boundaries of their begging areas.

While a fierce battle raged outside, the monk Jingjue had already entered the Yongning Hall.

He returned to the temple a day later than usual this time. After delivering the wine to everyone, he waited for Jiang Bojin at the foot of the mountain as agreed, but Jiang Bojin did not arrive until a full day late.

It's almost the end of May.

The Buddhist ritual at Taihuang Temple is nearing its end.

"Someone asked me to deliver fruit wine to the Princess." He tapped the jar. "The wine has been delivered. I'll take my leave now."

Throughout the entire world, Xie Wenjun, who loves fruit wine, is only familiar with one person.

As soon as Monk Jingjue left, Yuanrong and Daiqing hurriedly closed the door to the meditation room. Rongjun was currently pinning the Lieutenant General surnamed Ma to the ground and beating him severely.

It's so noisy.

Xie Wenjun picked up the wine jar and pondered for a moment. She uncorked the jar, which contained sake. She tapped the jar like the monk Jingjue, and sure enough, there was a small spot where the sound was slightly different from the rest.

She picked up the wine jar, poured the clear wine into the incense burner, reached in and felt around, and sure enough, she found a raised area.

It was a bamboo tube sealed with wax.

Scraping away the wax seal on the outer wall, a thin piece of paper was rolled up inside the tube. The paper was covered with dense writing, but it wasn't Chen Liangyu's handwriting.

The handwriting was too small; one had to look closely to see it. Yuan Rong moved two oil lamps and placed them on the table in front of Xie Wenjun.

One of them was an agreement reached with Dongyin, in which Crown Prince Chu Zhang of Dongyin and 10,000 prisoners of war would soon be released and returned to Dongyin.

Secondly, after Ximano destroyed the fields and Chen Liangyu was imprisoned for it, Gu Xie secretly found Xi Qing and promised him that on the day Dai Qing got married, he would give Ximano six books and tell them to continue to cause trouble in Yongdu and make sure the emperor executed Chen Liangyu.

By taking a step back to advance, Xie Yuan's doubts about Chen Liangyu were indeed dispelled.

Thirdly, the rebel army in Xiling was coming on strong, successively capturing two counties in the west. Yan Nian's kneeling at the palace gate forced Xie Yuan to pardon Chen Liangyu's death sentence ahead of schedule and order her to send troops to Xiling to quell the rebellion. Originally, the fastest route would have been to muster troops from Suzhou in the north and march west along the Qilian Road, but since the rebels were heading straight for Yongdu, it was decided to muster troops from the main camp in the northern suburbs and launch a head-on attack.

After the Ministry of War and the Court of Imperial Stud completed the inventory of soldiers and warhorses, and the Ministry of Revenue completed the calculation of military supplies and provisions, Chen Liangyu was about to lead his troops out on another expedition.

The more chaotic the situation, the more likely it is to cause complications. When the Ministry of Revenue calculated military expenditures, there was a discrepancy between the amount of grain tax collected and the accounts reported by the local agricultural and sericulture bureaus. Simply put, the amount of grain tax collected by the Ministry of Revenue was far less than the amount counted by the Secretariat.

This was a situation Xie Wenjun had never encountered before when he was in charge of agriculture and sericulture.

Later, Jiang Xiantang, the Imperial Censor, submitted a memorial to the emperor, requesting that the emperor abolish the Central Secretariat and allow the eldest princess to continue to manage the Agriculture and Sericulture Bureau.

Xie Yuan ignored this completely.

Sheng Yu'an, the Right Vice Minister of the Secretariat, was tasked with checking the grain tax records by transferring them from the Imperial Archives. He started his investigation from Pingsha County, the nearest county to the county. As it turned out, the investigation uncovered a problem.

Deceptive land allocation[1].

Enraged, Xie Yuan executed the governor of Pingsha County and dispatched several imperial inspectors to various regions for inspection.

After Xie Wenjun finished reading, he placed the paper on the oil lamp and burned it. Outside Yongning Palace, the sounds of Rong Jun beating someone grew fainter and fainter.

"Tell Rong Jun to be careful not to kill him."

Dai Qing curtsied, about to intervene, when she opened the door to find Rong Jun already waiting in the corridor with a bruised and swollen Imperial Guard general. She kicked Ma Feng in the calf again, and Ma Feng's legs buckled, causing him to kneel on the ground.

"Your Highness, what should we do?"

Dai Qing said, "They should all be beaten to death. It's one thing to keep an eye on His Highness wherever he goes, but they even dare to search the Princess's belongings? Look at how arrogant they are. I thought you Imperial Guards were here to control His Highness. You took an imperial edict and think you're half the masters of the world?"

Ma Feng bowed deeply to the ground. "Your Highness, I dare not. I am merely following orders. As is customary, I must check Your Highness's personal belongings and food to prevent any treacherous individuals from poisoning you."

Dai Qing said, "You're turning the wine jar over and over to test for poison? Are you on orders to inspect it, or are you looking for an opportunity to poison it?"

Ma Feng couldn't explain himself clearly, so he kowtowed and begged for mercy, "Your Highness, this humble servant would never dare to have any intention of harming Your Highness, please forgive me! From now on, as long as the items are not from outside the temple, the Imperial Guards will no longer investigate anything sent from the temple to Yongning Palace."

Xie Wenjun raised her hand, and Rong Jun left another muddy footprint on her back. "Get lost!"

Ma Feng thanked him and ran away.

Xie Wenjun held the iron letter tube in a daze, the dim light of the oil lamp casting shadows on her exquisite profile.

It is unknown when Chen Liangyu will set off on his expedition.

The forty-nine-day ritual period has arrived. If nothing goes wrong, perhaps we can see her one last time before she sets off for war. Even just a distant glance would be a farewell before the battle.

For ten years, Chen Liangyu fought in all directions, and she could only trace the marks on the sundial day after day to calculate her return.

This has always been the case.

After that night, whether it was due to problems with grain taxes or because Chen Liangyu had recently begun to muster troops at the northern suburban camp, the number of imperial guards at Taihuang Temple suddenly doubled, and the entire temple was placed under strict lockdown, with no one allowed to enter or leave.

Even the monk Jingjue's wine could no longer be transported down the mountain.

Xie Yuan's doubts remained unresolved; it seemed that the Imperial Guards of Taihuang Temple could not be withdrawn before Chen Liangyu set off on her expedition.

In the temple, only the fenced courtyard where Monk Jingjue brewed wine was unattended. That place was far behind the mountain, guarded only by an old monk who looked fierce. Behind the wooden house was a bottomless cliff, so there was really nothing to guard. However, some imperial guards discovered that there was wine there, and every day three or five men would come and carry away a few barrels.

When they came back to move them, they found they were all empty buckets.

"Monk, where's the wine?"

The monk Jingjue ignored him and buried himself in washing his wine barrels and wooden cart.

The fermented sorghum paste in the wooden house had all been distilled into liquor, but the mountain temple was blocked off, so no matter how much was brewed, it couldn't be sold. The last jar of liquor was also taken away by the Imperial Guards, and there was no more liquor left.

The monk ignored them, and they didn't get any wine. The group left in a huff. Ma Feng, having lost face in front of his subordinates after being beaten by Rong Jun, was already in a bad mood. When he heard that the monk refused to brew wine, he immediately grabbed his tools, went up the back mountain, and ordered the monk Jingjue to brew wine.

After finishing his work, the monk Jingjue lay back on a row of wooden barrels and fell into a deep sleep, enjoying the view of the wind and moon over the cliff.

Ma Feng roared, "Smash this place!"

When Monk Jingjue opened his eyes, half of the wine stove had been kicked down. A stick swung and hit Monk Jingjue's shinbone. He opened his eyes and saw a young man with bruises on his face.

"What a pity, so young, yet so reckless."

One end of the stick was grabbed, and before Ma Feng could react, the stick was split in half into several bladed strips. One of the strips pierced through his chest and back. Ma Feng fell to the ground, and the monk Jingjue dragged him by one leg to the edge of the cliff, where he threw him off like a wolf carcass.

The remaining imperial guards drew their swords...

The disappearance of the Imperial Guard Lieutenant General and several Imperial Guard soldiers at Taihuang Temple quickly alarmed the Northern Army and the Sixteen Guards.

Gao Guan, ahead of Jiang Andong, led his left and right elite cavalry up the mountain and surrounded half of Taihuang Temple, effectively encircling the imperial guards on the mountain, ostensibly to search for General Ma and a few imperial guard soldiers.

Gao Guanshang paid his respects to Xie Wenjun at Yongning Hall. After exchanging greetings, he said slyly, "These good-for-nothings from the Northern Army can't even find their own people when they go missing. Since the Imperial Guards have gone missing, Taihuang Temple is no longer safe. When the Princess came, she only brought eighty cavalrymen with her. Since His Majesty is so concerned about the Princess's safety, I took the liberty of bringing the Changning Guard to you."

Two thousand soldiers clad in chainmail suddenly appeared at the foot of the mountain, guarding all the passes and key routes in and out of the mountain outside the Imperial Guard.

Rong Jun smiled knowingly and bowed to Gao Guan, "Thank you, Commander Gao."

Gao Guan changed the subject, "But..."

"but?"

Gao Guan grinned and said, "Yes, there is an uninvited guest. I'm afraid the Princess will have to deal with him personally."

Three days after martial law was imposed at Taihuang Temple, Xie Wenjun met Xun Xian.

I almost forgot that Da Lin also has a Left Prime Minister.

Xun Xian, who had lost the emperor's favor for many years, seemed to have sensed an opportunity to regain favor amidst the recent chaos in the court. He attributed the rebellion of the Xiling rebels and the grain tax issue to the Wanliaolu (a system of officials), and gathered his former cronies to jointly impeach Xie Wenjun.

He presented Xie Wenjun with a red inkstone and forced her to write a confession.

Xie Wenjun knocked over the inkstone, spilling ink onto Xun Xian's official robe.

Yuan Rong and Dai Qing, one on each side, supported Xun Xian and dragged him away.

Xun Xian's servants were at a loss for what to do. If the guards were to take action, they could rush up and snatch the Left Chancellor back. But faced with two defenseless female scribes, they were at a loss. The Princess's personal scribes held official titles, so they couldn't be hit or pulled away.

Gao Guan bumped into Yuan Rong and Dai Qing dragging Xun Xian, and immediately turned around to avoid them.

He simply didn't want to run into Xun Xian.

He didn't dodge. Sure enough, Xun Xian questioned, "What are you Southern Court officials doing here again?"

Gao Guan bowed and said, "Prime Minister Xun, I have come to search for the missing Imperial Guards."

Xun Xian said, "The affairs of the Imperial Guards are handled by Jiang Andong. What business is it of yours?"

“He didn’t come.” Gao Guan spread his hands. “I’m not tired, Prime Minister Xun, you don’t need to worry.”

Who asked you if you've had a hard time?

"It's really no trouble at all. I'll take my leave now."

Gao Guan slipped away, and Xun Xian, lifting his robe, tried to catch up to ask a few more questions, but Yuan Rong and Dai Qing blocked his way. Xun Xian went left, they went left; Xun Xian went right, they went right; Xun Xian could never climb the stone steps.

Xie Wenjun offered the last Buddhist scripture before the memorial tablet of Empress Huixian, carefully wiped the wooden tablet, and then lit incense.

Gao Guan bowed outside the hall, "Your Highness."

Xie Wenjun beckoned him into the hall. Gao Guan approached Xie Wenjun and whispered, "There is a wine-making courtyard in Taihuang Temple. Tonight at midnight, someone will be waiting there."

The back mountain was sealed off by Gao Guan under the pretext of a search, and was guarded by the Left and Right Guards. Even the Imperial Guards were not allowed to enter or leave.

Xie Wenjun walked into the courtyard, righted a tilted wooden wine barrel, and placed the broken half of a gourd on the barrel lid. The monk Jingjue and the imperial guards had vanished without a trace, leaving the fenced courtyard deserted.

The courtyard had been searched again and again, even the wine stove had been dismantled, but there was nothing left to search. The only suspicious place was the bottom of the cliff. Could it be that Jingjue had climbed up the cliff face and jumped off the hundred-zhang-high cliff?

Xie Wenjun walked to the edge of the cliff and slowly leaned down to look down.

As the midnight bell rang, a gentle breeze blew across the cliff.

A hand emerged from the cliff behind the wooden house, gripping the ground tightly.

Xie Wenjun's back tensed instantly, and she took a half step back.

My gaze was fixed on that hand. Suddenly, a hooded man in black, his face covered by a black scarf, leaped up from the cliff below.

Chen Liangyu lifted his hood, revealing an irrepressible tenderness in his deep, hawk-like eyes, and smiled at her, "Your Highness."

Author's note: [1] Deceptive registration of land ownership: Wealthy households falsely register their land ownership under the names of people without land ownership in order to evade taxes and corvée labor.