Chapter 133: A secret order was issued by Xie Yuan to merge the Sifang Pavilion into the Ministry of Rites.
At the end of the sixth year of the Zhenyuan era, fighting continued on the northern and southern borders and in the Western Ridge.
Xie Wenjun has been back in Yongdu from the northern border for almost a month.
At the victory banquet a month ago, the officials' flattery almost lifted the roof off the palace.
Xie Wenjun, dressed in a silver-patterned black court robe and wearing an imperial-bestowed travel hat with a gold hook, raised his cup to express his gratitude: "This time, in rewarding the troops, I have fortunately fulfilled my mission. Your Majesty, I request that you generously reward the families of the fallen soldiers and promote the meritorious generals."
She looked up at the throne, her gaze open and honest, yet it made Xie Yuan's mind skip a beat.
Xie Yuan said, "Jiangning has been traveling and working hard, and has lost a lot of weight. He should return to his residence to rest and recuperate. I have already instructed the Ministry of Personnel to select several experienced officials to help manage the affairs outside the residence."
The talented soldiers, having returned to the palace from the war-torn borderlands, were so eagerly stripped of their power. This shows just how wary Xie Yuan was of her.
"Thank you for your consideration, Your Majesty."
Xie Wenjun bowed and said, "The border is bitterly cold, and the soldiers are poorly dressed. I have taken the initiative to arrange for a batch of winter clothes to be sent to them from the Ministry of War's warehouse. I hope Your Majesty will forgive me."
Xie Yuan paused almost imperceptibly in the hand holding the wine glass.
The orders from the Ministry of War and the Treasury required his personal approval in vermilion ink, yet Xie Wenjun directly used the private seal of the Princess's residence. No one in the court dared to speak out; even the usually upright Censor-in-Chief Jiang Xiantang was busy praising the Princess for her compassion for the soldiers, calling it a blessing for the nation.
Zhao Xingli tried to get up to report the incident, but Jiang Xiantang held his arm tightly and pressed him down.
After the banquet, Xie Yuan sat alone in the imperial study until late at night.
Despite Xie Wenjun's repeated probing attempts, Xie Wenjun never showed any sign of disobedience.
In the early years of the Zhenyuan era, when he first ascended the throne, Xie Wenjun toured the country to stabilize grain taxes. Just like today, she returned to the palace weary from her journey. At that time, he had proposed granting her a fiefdom. Xie Wenjun politely declined, saying that her ambition in assisting her elder brother was not to divide the territory, and she only accepted a fief.
In the following years, Xie Yuan took over the Jianren Division from Xie Wenjun and transferred the power of land and grain tax to the Central Secretariat, which she accepted without hesitation.
Today, Xie Wenjun openly defied the rules, implying that she had no intention of withdrawing from court affairs.
For a moment, Xie Yuan couldn't figure out whether Jiang Ning had always harbored rebellious intentions, or whether Xie Yuan's repeated suspicions and tests had pushed him too far.
What made Xie Yuan even more uneasy was that half of the promotion list submitted today by Minister of War Sheng Xiuyuan consisted of generals recorded in Xie Wenjun's military merit book for rewarding the troops.
The emperor summoned Yan Feng and whispered, "Go and keep an eye on the Princess's residence, especially the correspondence with the Ministry of War and the Northern Border. Also, have Jiang Andong mobilize three times the number of Imperial Guards to guard the palace gates starting tomorrow. Without my decree, no one is allowed to move troops into Yongdu."
"Your humble servant obeys the decree."
"Has the Prosecutor's Office given any word yet?"
Yan Feng's face instantly turned to hatred, his back teeth almost grinding to powder. Xie Yuan, seeing him hesitate and remain silent, said, "Give it to me."
"On the first day, the general has not returned from the campaign and his whereabouts are unknown. The wind is quite strong today, and the flag in the central command tent has been waving more than four hundred times."
"The eldest princess rewarded the army, drinking wine with all the generals and soldiers to demonstrate the emperor's boundless grace, and then went back to her tent to rest."
"The general returned wounded at dawn, his armor so dirty that its original color was unrecognizable, and the smell could be detected from a great distance. The princess came out of the camp to greet him, and the two returned to their tent together. I don't know why they started arguing, but I heard it was quite a heated argument."
"The two disappeared the next day, their whereabouts unknown. The food has been delicious these past two days, and the cooks have been generous with the meat."
"At the hour of Xu (7-9 PM), the eldest princess returned to camp alone. The general mobilized troops to the east of the lake, and then disappeared without a trace."
"On the third day, the eldest princess copied the wounded soldiers' register, the military merit register, and all military supplies matters. She returned to Yongdu to report to the emperor at the end of the morning on the fourth day after arriving at the northern border. As soon as the eldest princess left, the cooks removed the stewed meat from the meals and replaced it with cabbage and radishes, without any meat at all."
...
Several dark lines appeared on Xie Yuan's forehead. "From now on, the Inspectorate doesn't need to report these useless nonsense to me!"
Seeing the situation, Yan Feng immediately knelt down and begged for forgiveness, saying, "Your Majesty, it was my fault for not carefully selecting the right people."
Xie Yuan said, "I'm afraid that Ying Rui is already a man of Jiang Ning or Chen Liangyu, yet he dares to deceive me like this."
Local prosecutors and judicial officers all had hostages in Yongdu. It was only by placing their parents, wives, children, and other blood relatives in Yongdu that they could keep the crowd in check.
Where do Ying Rui's parents live now?
Yan Feng bowed and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. I was just about to report that the residence of Xing Rui's parents in the West Market was empty this morning."
Where are they?
"Your Majesty, we do not know where they have gone."
They've disappeared again! It's true what they say, like father, like son; they're all utterly incompetent.
Xie Yuan didn't speak, only glancing at the people kneeling below. Yan Feng held his breath, awaiting his fate. This time, that brat Xing Rui was going to cause his head to roll.
"Go to the Ministry of Justice to collect the beating yourself and have your salary deducted for a year."
"Your humble servant obeys the decree and thanks Your Majesty for your great favor."
Before the end of the year when all government offices suspended their operations, Xie Yuan reviewed the performance evaluation records of the Ministry of Personnel for the year and the year-end accounting books of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War. The day before the suspension of operations, he issued an edict to merge the Sifangguan (a government office) from the Secretariat into the Ministry of Rites.
It is now the 28th day of the twelfth lunar month, and the end of the year is approaching. The Zhongshu Dutang (Imperial Secretariat) is still lit with candles.
The Left Vice Minister of the Secretariat, Gu Heng, held the vermilion brush above the memorial. The ink on the tip of the brush lingered for a moment before he wrote the word "Approval".
The candlelight on the desk flickered in the draft.
"Sir," came a cautious voice from outside the duty room. It was a junior official who had recently arrived in the province. His hands, which were red from the cold, were holding the hand warmer. It was his turn to be on duty at the end of the year. "All the government offices have already sealed their seals. Are you still busy with official business?"
Gu Heng said, "These things can't wait until the end of the year."
The clerk glanced at the frayed edges of the official's sleeves and said, "Lord Gu sent someone to ask you, sir, that the New Year's gifts for your return home haven't been prepared yet. Are you going back to Cangnan this year?"
It's cold and the road is long. If we don't leave now, we might not make it back to Cangnan by New Year's Eve.
"Let her prepare it first."
Gu Heng opened another memorial to the throne. “Look at this page. There are more than two thousand officials in Yongdu, more than double the number during the Xuan Yuan era. This year’s year-end audit by the Ministry of Revenue has already exceeded the budget at the beginning of the year. If it is not settled before the end of the year, the tax revenue of various prefectures and counties will be delayed again in the spring.”
The minor official stood nervously to the side and said, "Headmaster Gu also asked, if Your Excellency is not setting off back to Cangnan today, would you like to have a meal at Lingjiu Academy?"
Gu Heng picked up his pen again. "Go tell the kitchen staff to bring a bowl of hot soup noodles later. Most of these booklets need to be cleared out tonight."
The clerk responded and turned around to see the official buried in his documents again.
The candlelight cast Gu Heng's shadow on the wall, and the wind outside the window had picked up a bit.
"etc."
Gu Heng called out to the clerk from behind. He held a document in his hand, which was the official document that had been prepared to merge the officials of the four regions into the Ministry of Rites.
After the imperial edict was issued, the ministers discussed it briefly, and then nothing more was said.
The Sifangguan was a small and inconspicuous government office, consisting of four branches in the east, west, south, and north, each managed by four interpreters. Together with the Honglu Temple, it was responsible for receiving envoys from various regions and managing tribute. In terms of staff, it numbered only a handful; its duties were mostly trivial matters. Searching through the registers of other government offices, one often had to flip to the last few pages to find it. Even its official correspondence was significantly less than other offices. Unless it was a major event like the Wanhe Street celebrations, when international relations were established, it was usually so quiet and unnoticed. Suddenly, the Emperor issued an edict merging the Sifangguan into the Ministry of Rites, without explaining his intentions.
Gu Heng boldly speculated on the emperor's intentions, predicting that the court would likely revise its diplomatic policies next year.
"Prepare the carriage; I am going to Lingjiu Academy for dinner."
"Yes, sir."
The lower courtyard of Lingjiu Academy was full of orphaned girls, some of whom were picked up on the roadside while traveling for their studies, and others were taken in from poor families. The rest were abandoned children from Pujitang who were sent to the academy by Zhou Pei with all sorts of entreaties and smiles. They had nowhere else to go, so they stayed in the academy's dormitory on New Year's Eve.
The young lady also returned to Lingjiu Academy from the Princess's residence.
Gu Xie was cleaning the ancestral altar in the Mingli Hall, while many servants were sweeping the courtyard. Hu Nu looked around and realized that it was not the time to talk, so she joined Gu Xie in cleaning the altar.
"Girls, come out and put up the Spring Festival couplets!"
At the shout of the Dean of Students, the students, dressed in blue robes and jackets, emerged from their dormitories. The embroidery on their robes varied slightly according to the courses they were studying.
The students first went to the Mingli Hall to pay respects to the ancestors of the Gu family.
Gu Xie, dressed in a blue robe, stood at the forefront, with the students behind him bowing in unison. After the ceremony, they laughed and jostled to a long table pieced together on either side of the Mingli Hall to distribute couplets, each person carrying several.
After the couplets were finished, there were still a few sheets of red paper left.
The woman picked up her brush, spread out the vermilion paper, and prepared to write on it.
Everyone turned around and crowded around the long table. "Swan Girl, you give us the first line of a couplet, and we'll come up with the matching line."
Those who couldn't squeeze in at the back stood on tiptoe to look inside.
The smile in the swan's eyes was clean and bright. She neither agreed nor disagreed, and lowered her high ponytail, tied with a red ribbon, to the side as she wrote with her brush.
The girls were somewhat disappointed, and they dispersed in small groups.
Someone said, "Among the six aspects of a couplet, the swan maiden, your couplet only has the same number of characters."
As the headmaster's personal disciple and the princess's personal lady-in-waiting, I thought she would write a fine couplet, but to my surprise, she wrote such an ordinary two lines.
Gu Xie walked behind her, looked at it, and tilted his head to signal Hu Nu to explain why he wrote those two sentences.
The young woman lowered her eyelashes, spread out the other two sheets of paper, and leisurely added the line, "Civilization exists here, and may it prosper in the future."
The first two lines are about willpower, the last two lines are about ambition.
That was considered an answer to Gu Xie.
Gu Xie looked at the sixteen characters on the paper, a smile playing on his lips, and then reached out to ruffle her hair.
Civilization resides here, and its prosperity will surely follow.
The daughter, having been personally taught by her, grew up to speak and act more and more like her mother.
If my efforts fail, then I will use my blood and body to pave the way for future generations.
Seeing that everyone had dispersed, the young woman seized the opportunity and said, "Teacher..."
Before he could finish speaking, Gu Heng's sedan chair stopped at the entrance of Lingjiu Academy. Mingli Hall could see the main gate directly from there, and Gu Xie went forward to greet Gu Heng.
"Brother."
"Prepare the food, prepare the food, I'll get straight to the point."
Gu Heng arrived hastily and left in a hurry.
He arrived by sedan chair, went into the study and spoke briefly with Gu Xie about the scheduling of the Sifang Pavilion. He then served a bowl of hot soup dumplings on the stove, slurped them down, and drank the soup clean before rushing back to the Zhongshu Dutang to review official documents.
Liu Guxie was left to ponder this matter carefully.
The Emperor's decree was issued suddenly, without any prior warning.
At the victory celebration banquet a few days ago, the eldest princess refuted the emperor for the first time in front of everyone, with a firm and unyielding attitude.
It is clear that the arrangements made by the Sifang Pavilion are to guard against the Eldest Princess.
The Emperor issued an edict the day before the various government offices were to cease operations. Even if Xie Wenjun wanted to reject it, he had to wait until the officials of the various government offices resumed their duties after the New Year to discuss the matter again.
It sounds like the question of whether the Sifang Pavilion should be placed under the jurisdiction of the Secretariat or merged into the Ministry of Rites is insignificant compared to the many important matters such as war, redundant staff, and the national treasury's deficit. But if the Sifang Pavilion is truly as insignificant as it seems, why would the Emperor bother to deal with it?
With numerous important matters at court and one urgent matter following another, the Emperor's issuance of this decree was by no means a whim or a spur-of-the-moment decision.
They must have planned this all along.
The young woman knocked on the study door, which was ajar. She pushed it open and entered, saying, "Teacher, is it because you are puzzled by the merger of the Sifang Academy into the Ministry of Rites?"
Gu Xie looked up and said, "You know. So, the Princess also knows about this?"
The maiden closed the door tightly. "Teacher, this is a secret order from the Princess."
Gu Xie hurriedly got up from behind his desk.
The young woman untied the red silk binding her hair, letting her long hair fall loose. She took out a scroll of paper from her hair and said, "His Highness said to have the teacher find a man named Jiang Bojin and carry out these instructions."
Author's note: Thank you for reading this far!
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