Ning Chen had absolutely nothing to say to that.

“I’m on my way to be tried. I could lose my life today and you’re all making jokes at my expense… There’s nothing human left in any of you.”

Feng Qizheng laughed. “Well? You’re not nervous anymore, are you?”

“We were loosening you up. When His Majesty questions you himself, use that three-inch tongue of yours that never wears out and make the best case you can for your own life.”

Ning Chen gave a proud little sniff. “I wasn’t nervous to begin with… Life and death are fated, and wealth and honor rest with heaven. I made my peace with that a long time ago.”

“Ooh. Ooh. Listen to him… You little chick who’s never slept with a woman.”

They all burst out laughing again.

Ning Chen rolled his eyes in disgust.

Then Pan Yucheng, walking at the head of them, stopped.

The others stopped with him.

“Chief. What is it?”

“Hush.” Pan Yucheng made a sign for silence and turned an ear to listen. Then his face changed all at once and he roared, “Everybody down!”

The Inspectorate’s men were skilled fighters and well trained. Their bodies moved before their minds had caught up.

Gao Ziping pushed Ning Chen down flat on the ground with the rest of them.

HISS! HISS! HISS!

Out of the walls on both sides came bolts like spears, one after another. They flew close enough to graze the men on the ground, went clean through the wall on the far side, and left holes in it the size of a fist.

Somebody had thinned both of those walls.

“Careful, all of you. War crossbows.”

Pan Yucheng called the warning.

A war crossbow is the large kind used on a battlefield. The bolt is like a spear and it will kill a warhorse without trouble.

“Gao Ziping, Feng Qizheng. Take the left.”

“Chen Chong, Hao Ying. Take the right.”

“The rest of you watch the roofs.”

Pan Yucheng gave the orders calmly.

“Sir.”

The others moved fast.

Feng Qizheng and Gao Ziping were on their feet with a long sword in the left hand and a crossbow in the right, made a hard run at the left-hand wall, went straight over the top of it, and were gone.

Very soon there was screaming from the other side of it, high and terrible.

Chen Chong and Hao Ying went over the right-hand wall, and soon after that came the sound of weapons meeting.

Just then something split the air with a sharp whistle.

Bowmen appeared on the roofs to both sides, a good many of them.

Pan Yucheng caught Ning Chen up by the back of his clothes and dodged left and right, and the long sword in his hand drew a sheet of cold light.

There was a rattle of steel, and more than a dozen arrows were cut in two and dropped to the ground.

“Up on the roofs. Finish them.”

Pan Yucheng gave the order.

Several silver coats brought their crossbows up and sent bolts at the men in black on the roofs, and drove them into cover.

Several more took the chance to spring onto the wall, run along the top of it, and leap from there onto a roof… The left hand came up, the crossbow loosed, and each man went in behind his bolt to kill.

More screams went up.

Several of the men in black took bolts and rolled off the roofs.

The silver coats on the ground were quick about it. They ran in… and whether the fall had killed a man or not, they put a sword into him first and asked afterward.

For a while there was nothing but screaming and the clash of metal.

The assassins knew their work.

But every man in the Inspectorate was a veteran of a hundred fights. They worked together without needing to speak, and they were a cut above.

Gao Ziping and Feng Qizheng came back over the wall.

“Chief. Everyone in there is finished.”

Behind the wall was a courtyard, and the two of them had killed every assassin in it.

Just then Chen Chong and Hao Ying came over the wall on the other side and nodded to Pan Yucheng, meaning the assassins in there were finished as well.

Pan Yucheng said, low, “You four. Take Ning Chen out of here… The rest of you come with me. Not one of them gets away.”

“Sir.”

The four of them cut the incoming arrows out of the air with their swords and covered Ning Chen as they pulled back.

Only when they were out of range did they take him and run for the palace.

Ning Chen narrowed his eyes and laughed coldly. “It seems there are a fair number of people who want me dead.”

Gao Ziping glanced at him. Ning Chen was steady and cool with no fear in his face, and he could not help admiring him for it.

He said, low, “Everyone stay sharp. There may be another ambush.”

“Ning Chen. Can you guess who wants you dead?”

Ning Chen laughed. “It isn’t hard… The list isn’t a long one.”

“First, the Empress and the Third Prince. Both of them want the Empress’s brother avenged.”

“Second, the Left Chancellor. Killing the Empress’s brother is a crime punishable to the ninth degree of kin… The Ning house and the chancellor’s residence are related by marriage, so it reaches him. And this is the imperial city, at the Son of Heaven’s feet. If I die in the street His Majesty will be in a fury and turn all his attention to hunting the killers — and that gives them their chance to get clear of the charge.”

“Third, the high officials of the capital. The Chongzhou officials have been taken, high and low, and some of them are certainly frightened… But they are not likely to kill me. Those men are already in hand, and killing me would do them no good.”

Gao Ziping and the others looked at him with nothing at all to say.

Ning Chen was taken aback. “What? Have I got it wrong?”

The corner of Feng Qizheng’s mouth twitched. “You have it exactly right… But has it occurred to you that you have an extraordinary talent for making trouble?”

“Of the people who want you dead, which one is easy to cross? The Empress. The Third Prince. The Left Chancellor… You really do pick out the great ones to offend.”

Ning Chen was taken aback. He thought about it, and it was true. Every man he had offended was of the very first rank.

And what of it if they are great?

Be willing to have the flesh cut off your bones and you can pull the emperor off his horse.

If he walked out of the palace alive this time, he would find a way to finish every one of them.

Having offended these people, he was left with a simple choice: either he died or they did… He turned it over and decided it had better be them.

The rest of the way went smoothly, at least.

They brought Ning Chen to the palace without trouble.

From there the imperial guards escorted them up to the court.

Outside the hall stood two long lines of men, all of them officials of low rank. The hall could not hold them all.

Winter had come in, the sky was barely light, and this was the coldest hour of it. The officials outside had faces blue with cold, every one of them, and even so they had to stand bent at the waist and make no large movement. They did not dare so much as shift to warm themselves.

Let the imperial guards beside you catch it and they charge you with gross disrespect on the spot.

Look at these little shits, frozen half to death. Ning Chen gloated inwardly.

Inside the hall the censors were leaping out one after another.

These mouths of the court began denouncing Ning Chen, denouncing Ning Ziming for failing to keep his son in order, and denouncing Geng Jing for failing to manage his own men.

The Left Chancellor stood at the head of the civil officials with his head down, and there was no telling what he was thinking.

The Right Chancellor said nothing either. His eyes were half shut, like an old monk gone into meditation.

The Great Xuan has two chancellors.

The Left Chancellor stands at the head of the civil officials.

The Right Chancellor is closer to the generals.

In short, the two of them do not get along, and each is holding in the wish to destroy the other.

And that too, of course, is the art of ruling.

If ministers do not quarrel and do not hold each other in check, where is an emperor’s peace?

The Xuan Emperor watched the censors leaping up and down with no expression at all.

Then a guard of the imperial presence came quickly into the great hall and went down on one knee. “Your Majesty. Ning Chen is here.”

In an instant the whole court went quiet. There was not a sound in it.

Only the Left Chancellor — something moved violently in his eyes… and was gone again at once.

The Xuan Emperor said, mildly, “Bring him in.”

(End of Chapter 65)