When the news reached the Prince of Jin's mansion, the Prince of Jin felt a black screen before his eyes, and he almost fainted like the attendant. He was so angry that his whole body turned cold, and he barely stood up by holding on to the table, gritting his teeth and trembling, "The prince clearly did it on purpose!"
Chu Jiaoping's face also turned ugly when he heard this. The grain collection has ended. From the princes and ministers to the common people and merchants, everyone has donated, but the King of Jin is missing. What will the Emperor of Yan think when he sees this
Chu Jiaoping was angry and anxious, frowning and said, "Your Highness is confused. If the money had been sent earlier, the Crown Prince would have been unable to do anything even if he wanted to. Now he is being constrained at every step, isn't he just shooting himself in the foot?"
Upon hearing this, the King of Jin's face turned pale. He was already in a bad mood, and being accused by Chu Jiaoping made it even worse. He waved his sleeves and said, "Enough, I know everything you said, but now that things have come to this, what else can I do!"
The Prince of Jin stood up and walked around the room, and finally came up with a solution that was not really a solution: "I don't believe that this money can only pass through the hands of the Crown Prince. Tomorrow, I will go to the palace and ask my mother to collect donations on my behalf and hand it over to my father."
Chu Jiaoping closed his eyes and slowly exhaled. The Crown Prince gave a full three days, and Prince Ping and Prince Chang all obediently sent the silver to the East Palace. However, Prince Jin was different and sent the silver to the East Palace through a woman in the harem. What would others think
Chu Jiaoping showed a rare trace of defeat between his eyebrows, and said in a tired tone: "I'm afraid it will be too late to send it tomorrow. The prince's move is clearly intentional. He must have engraved the merit tablet long ago. Even if Your Highness hands over the silver, your name will not be engraved on it."
The King of Jin choked and said, "Then I will order someone to send the silver to my mother right now?"
Chu Jiaoping looked at the sky outside which had already darkened, and shook his head slowly: "The palace gates have been locked, and the time for submitting the petition has long passed. Besides, there are at least dozens of boxes of silver, and how can Your Highness transport them into the palace? It will definitely alarm His Majesty in the middle of the night. When His Majesty asks why you didn't pay the silver within three days, how will Your Highness answer?"
This sentence blocked King Jin's last thought.
The moon was at its zenith, with sparse shadows slanting across it. The bright moonlight poured down, illuminating the ground of the courtyard, and the edges and corners of the cobblestone path shone slightly, forming a winding silver-white road.
Chu Xinian was sitting in the study, drawing on the table. He was not using ink, but turmeric juice. He drew a silhouette of a man in official uniform on yellow paper, with a small blank for the right eye, which looked strange.
The prince lay across the table and stared at it for a long while: "Who are you drawing?"
Xie Jingyuan didn't have so many concerns. He went straight to Chu Xinian to look at him, and then raised his eyebrows: "Are you painting Qin Daoyan?"
Chu Xinian blew on the marks on the paper, and saw that the turmeric dried and the color gradually faded. He asked Xie Jingyuan: "How is it? Is my painting still like it?"
Xie Jingyuan tapped the table lightly with his fingertips and said nothing, not wanting to discourage Chu Xinian.
The prince laughed so hard that he fell backwards. "Hahahaha, Chu Xinian, ah Chu Xinian, I thought you were proficient in both civil and military affairs, but I didn't expect that your painting skills are not even as good as a three-year-old child. It shows that no one is perfect in the world. If you want to paint the one-eyed dragon Qin Daoyan, I will paint it for you. Look at your painting, it's so crooked, just like a ghost."
Chu Xinian said meaningfully: "Your Highness guessed correctly. What I painted was a ghost. I only wanted to resemble its appearance, not its spirit."
Xie Jingyuan sensed something different in what he said. He looked at Chu Xinian and said enthusiastically, "What are you planning? Tell me about it. I can help you with some advice."
Chu Xinian changed another yellow paper: "Then I'd like to trouble you, General, to help me think about which 'ghosts' the emperor is most afraid of."
Hearing that the Emperor of Yan had been unable to sleep at night recently and was so sick that he couldn't even get out of bed, he invited the imperial physician and the monk, but they couldn't find the cause of his illness. Outsiders didn't know the reason, but the prince knew it. He secretly told Chu Xinian that the Emperor of Yan had nightmares at night and always dreamed that someone was looking for him to kill him.
"ghost?"
Xie Jingyuan seemed to be thinking, "Your Majesty once personally visited the residence of the deceased Right Prime Minister Feng Qiuping in order to win over his subjects in his early years. Feng Qiuping had a daughter-in-law who was extremely beautiful."
Chu Xinian continued calmly, "Later, this beautiful lady mysteriously appeared in the emperor's harem, and the right prime minister Feng Qiuping also died suddenly and mysteriously."
This story follows a common path.
Xie Jingyuan smiled at Chu Xinian and said in a cold voice: "No, he didn't die suddenly, but someone chopped off his arms and he bled to death."
As he finished speaking, Chu Xinian had already picked up his pen and drew another silhouette of a man on the paper. He was wearing a prime minister's robe, but unfortunately his arms were missing.
Although the prince did not understand Chu Xinian's intention, he also offered advice: "And my mother."
He gestured in front of his neck: "The emperor personally strangled her to death with a white silk."
Chu Xinian didn't know if the prince felt sad when he said this. The only thing he was sure of was that the prince was deeply impressed by that scene, otherwise he wouldn't have mentioned it repeatedly. The pen tip was thinking, not knowing where to start.
The prince said, "My mother always wears a hairpin with a peacock holding a pearl. If you draw a woman in palace attire, and a hairpin with a rope hanging around her neck, then people will know it's my mother."
Chu Xinian slowly rubbed the messy hair on the tip of the pen: "Don't you feel that you are offending the late queen?"
The prince was silent for a moment and said, "Everyone who should be offended has already been offended. Have you ever seen a mother of a country who was innocent and strangled to death by the emperor himself? Draw it. My mother will not blame you."
Chu Xinian had no choice but to draw a silhouette of a woman in palace dress on the paper, and added a peacock hairpin in her hair. Just as he was about to put down his pen, he suddenly heard Xie Jingyuan say, "There is also General Xie Bi."
He said these six words out of the blue, and even the air became quiet.
Chu Xinian turned around subconsciously, only to see Xie Jingyuan leaning against the armrest of his chair with his arms folded, his face with clear lines blurred in the candlelight: "The emperor has let down too many people in his life, how can he miss General Xie Bi."
"He is used to wearing armor and is good at using a long sword and a silver spear."
"You can just draw the silver spear. That was the silver spear he brought with him when he entered the palace."
"But I don't know how he died. I only heard that he was shot with dozens of arrows."
As Xie Jingyuan told the story, Chu Xinian gradually drew a picture of a general in armor, holding a silver spear, majestic and righteous. With a few arrows on his body, his identity was revealed.
Xie Jingyuan glanced at the yellow paper: "The drawing is quite similar... In fact, I almost forgot what he looked like."
The prince suddenly became depressed: "I almost forgot what my mother looks like."
The two of them gathered in this study, dissecting their own scars, digging up old stories bit by bit, raising not only dust but also a cold, slightly fishy bloody rain.
There is a saying that goes, the person who knows you best is always your enemy. All the bad things that Emperor Yan had done were revealed one by one by Xie Jingyuan and the crown prince. The pile of yellow paper next to Chu Xinian became thicker and thicker, roughly estimated to be more than twenty sheets.
Xie Jingyuan was also stunned for a moment, probably because he didn't expect that Emperor Yan had done so many bad things. He saw the prince exclaiming beside him, and said sarcastically: "Why are you so surprised? These are all things your father has done. Maybe you will be the same as him in the future."
The prince seemed to have his tail stepped on, and almost jumped up: "Xie Jingyuan, do you dare to come out and challenge Gu Dan!"
Chu Xinian shook the paper in his hand and said sarcastically, "Your Highness, why are you so impulsive? If the crown prince of a country dies in the general's mansion, how can I explain it to the general?"
"May the two of you be struck by lightning and die miserably!"
Under Xie Jingyuan's gloomy gaze, the prince didn't say this sentence in the end, and swallowed it with difficulty. He snorted heavily, turned and walked out the door, then clapped his hands and ordered people to bring up a large object covered with a red cloth.
The object was probably quite heavy, more than one person tall. Two big men lifted it with great effort. It fell to the ground with a dull thud, and no one knew what it was.
Xie Jingyuan frowned and walked out of the study with Chu Xinian: "What is the prince doing?"
Chu Xinian seemed to have guessed something in his heart, and said with a smile: "Of course it is something that everyone in the capital wants to be at the top of the list."
As soon as he finished speaking, the prince tore off the red cloth covering it, revealing the merit stele. There were densely engraved names on it, both front and back, of princes and nobles, but not of the King of Jin.
The prince patted the tablet and said, "I will submit the list of people raising funds tomorrow. The emperor will be curious as to why the name of Prince Jin is not on it."
Chu Xinian asked with great interest: "How will His Highness respond?"
The prince had already thought of a plan: "What can I say? It was the officials of the Ministry of Revenue who were rigid and blocked his money. I didn't order it to be blocked. Besides, I gave him three days to pay. If he doesn't pay, who can he blame?"
The prince was also a petty person who held grudges. He touched the merit tablet, which was packed full with no empty space at all, and smiled like a villain: "Tomorrow morning, I will go to the emperor to admit my mistake and take back the money from the Prince of Jin. But unfortunately, this merit tablet is already full and it is impossible to rebuild it."
At that time, the King of Jin would not only be reprimanded by the Emperor of Yan, but also lose his wife and his soldiers.
Chu Xinian had sharp eyes. He glanced at the merit tablet and found that his name was also on the list. He asked with a little surprise, "Why is my name on it?"
The prince said as a matter of course: "You and Jingyuan are from the same family, so you can only be ranked one by one, but I will give you a chance to be remembered for generations, and I will include you in the list. You can't squeeze in at the front, because those aristocratic families are pouring money into the list, and the front is occupied by them, but being ranked 38th is still acceptable."
Chu Xinian said nothing, pointing at the 36th and 37th place, "Since the general and I are from the same family, why should your highness' name be squeezed in between us?"
The thirty-sixth, thirty-seventh, and thirty-eighth places are Xie Jingyuan, Yin Chenghao, and Chu Xinian respectively.
The prince's name stood out among them like a chicken among cranes, and was as eye-catching as a third party.
Xie Jingyuan's eyelids twitched, and he felt it was quite annoying. He frowned and said, "Hurry up and find someone to redo it."
The prince said, "That won't do. If we do it again, what if the King of Jin catches us?"
The amount of silver donated by the prince was just a little lower than that of Xie Jingyuan, ranking 38th. He thought this number sounded ugly, so he "slightly adjusted" his ranking with Chu Xinian's.
He didn't dare to move Xie Jingyuan to the back for fear of being beaten.
Xie Jingyuan turned around and was about to use a knife to cross out the prince's name. The prince stopped him and said, "Xie Jingyuan, you and I are as close as brothers. What's there to be afraid of if our names are engraved together? Are you afraid of tarnishing your name?"
Xie Jingyuan sneered: "Your Highness guessed right."
It is indeed quite defiled. Not only is it defiled, it is also particularly an eyesore.
The prince stood in front of the stone tablet, refusing to let him wipe it. Seeing Xie Jingyuan holding the knife and about to attack, he was so scared that he urged him repeatedly: "Chu Xinian, Chu Xinian, you hurry up and take care of him!"
Seeing this, Chu Xinian finally pulled Xie Jingyuan over, pulled the knife out of his hand, threw it on the ground with a clang, picked up a pebble and stuffed it into his hand, saying softly, "General, use this to fight, no one will die."
He is more vicious than Xie Jingyuan and more petty than the prince.
Xie Jingyuan took the knife and just wanted to cross out the name on the stele, but Chu Xi, young and elegant, helped him divert his target with just one sentence and attacked the prince directly.
thirty eight
Ah…
The prince thought it was unpleasant to the ear, and Chu Xinian also thought it was unpleasant to the ear.
The prince regretted moving the stele of merit to show off to them. He immediately urged his servants to move the things away and left the general's mansion in a hurry.
Xie Jingyuan stood behind and tossed the stone in his hand. In the dark night, he aimed at the prince and threw it out with a whoosh. A scream was heard, and the cicadas were instantly silenced.
The prince yelled through the wall: "Xie Jingyuan! You damned bastard!"
Xie Jingyuan sneered and turned directly into the room.
Chu Xinian couldn't help but sigh. There was already one person who was a worry, and now there was another one.
As the night deepened, Chu Xinian did not rest, but turned over and over the pile of yellow paper he had just drawn, thinking about how to maximize the effect. The candle at hand burned more than half, and the dim light gradually dimmed.
Xie Jingyuan was lying on the bed with his head propped up, watching Chu Xinian drawing on the papers, concentrating on it. Bored, he stretched out his hand and fiddled with the tassels falling from the curtain.
"Chu Xinian..." he said lazily.
Chu Xinian took the time to look at him: "Hmm? What's wrong?"
Xie Jingyuan hooked his finger at him and said, "You might as well draw this general instead of those things that are neither human nor ghost."
Chu Xinian said nothing, but lowered his eyes to hide the smile that flashed across his eyes: "General, aren't you afraid that I will draw you as a ghost?"
When Xie Jingyuan heard this, he thought he was unwilling. He snorted, turned his back to him, covered himself with the quilt and went to sleep.
Chu Xinian watched him quietly from behind, not knowing what he was thinking. After a while, he smiled. Then he pulled out a piece of white rice paper from the table, and without using a brush, he dipped his fingertips in a little thin ink and began to trace.
The handsome face of a man gradually took shape on the paper, with the corners of his eyes raised, showing a mixture of sarcasm and smile. It was Xie Jingyuan.
Chu Xinian hesitated for a moment and did not add the crisscrossing scars. He stared at it for a moment, then slowly wiped his fingertips, blew the ink on the paper dry, and carefully folded it up.
He untied his outer robe and casually threw it on the low couch, walked towards the inner room, and then climbed onto the bed with ease.
Chu Xinian pulled Xie Jingyuan into his arms from behind, and with a smile in his voice, as if he was whispering, he called him softly: "Lanting..."
Xie Jingyuan pricked up his ears imperceptibly, thinking that he was going to say something, but Chu Xinian said nothing. He just hugged him and rubbed against him, then fell asleep.
In the darkness, he quietly stuffed a piece of paper under Xie Jingyuan's pillow.
"… "
The next day, Taiji Hall held an early court session, and all officials gathered. The Crown Prince presented the list of grain collections to the Emperor of Yan, and said, "Your Majesty, I have lived up to your trust and have counted all the silver collected from the locust plague in the north. Please review it."
The Emperor of Yan had been bedridden recently and looked very sick. Hearing this, he pulled himself together and glanced at the list. The huge amount on it was shocking. "Huh?"
Emperor Yan was somewhat incredulous: "Are these all the money and grain you raised?"
The old eunuch at the side quietly stepped forward to explain: "Your Majesty, you have been ill recently, and I don't know the situation outside..."
After that, he recounted in detail the story of the merit stele built by the prince.
The Emperor of Yan suddenly realized and looked through the donation list carefully. However, he felt that he had missed something. He found that all the kings were on the list, except for the King of Jin. He frowned subconsciously and said, "King of Jin, why is your name not on the list?"
Upon hearing this, the King of Jin was shocked and immediately knelt down to apologize: "Your son deserves to die. Yesterday, I raised 70,000 taels of silver and sent someone to deliver it to the Ministry of Revenue at full speed. But... but..."
The Prince of Jin had a good reputation and was used to being a good person. It was not his style to accuse the Crown Prince of deliberately obstructing the court, so he hesitated.
Xiao Da took on the responsibility of understanding Yuhua. Seeing that the King of Jin was unable to speak, he stepped out and said indignantly to the Emperor of Yan: "Your Majesty, this matter has nothing to do with the King of Jin. It was actually when the King of Jin sent someone to deliver the silver that the Crown Prince's men stopped him, saying that the three-day deadline had expired and they refused to accept the silver!"
The Emperor of Yan was indistinguishable from joy or anger when he heard this. He looked at the Crown Prince and asked without being able to tell his emotions: "Chenghao, is this true?"
The prince confessed his crime very straightforwardly: "I deserve to die. Because I set a three-day deadline, the officials under my command dared not disobey, and inevitably acted a little rigidly. Yesterday, I did not accept the silver from the Prince of Jin's Mansion."
Xiao Da snorted coldly: "I'm afraid it's not that he's acting rigidly, but someone is instructing him."
As soon as he finished speaking, a pile of memorials suddenly hit him. Xiao Da saw stars in front of his eyes. Before he could react, he heard the Emperor of Yan coldly scolded: "Why, do you want to say that the crown prince deliberately instructed you?!"
Xiao Da immediately knelt down and pleaded guilty: "Your Majesty, please calm down!"
The Emperor of Yan had been in a bad mood recently, and they had run into a trap. His face was gloomy, and he threw another memorial at Xiao Da: "What a great secretary, Mr. Xiao, donate 500 silver!"
Another memorial was thrown at the King of Jin, sneering: "What a King of Jin you are! You didn't pay the money within the three-day deadline, but on the last day. Are you blaming the Crown Prince for deliberately framing you? Huh?!"