Pan Yucheng’s brows drew together. “That’s against the rules.”
Ning Chen said it one word at a time. “My rules are the rules… What I have in my hands right now is enough to kill Zhang Yuancang ten times over.”
“Somebody. Get a room cleared out.”
Ning Chen had a room cleared.
Then he pointed at Zhang Yuancang. “Take him in there. I’ll question him myself.”
“General Ning, holding a court of your own is against the law of the Great Xuan. It is a grave crime… You have no right to question us on your own authority.”
One of the officials said it, shaking as he did it.
Ning Chen simply produced the imperial sword.
“His Majesty’s imperial sword is here. To see the imperial sword is to see His Majesty in person!”
Every official there was frightened clean out of his body. They all went down on their knees and cried out, “Your subjects present themselves to His Majesty!”
Ning Chen said coldly, “His Majesty granted me the imperial sword, with the right to execute first and report afterward… Wherever the imperial sword is, that place is a court.”
He fixed his eyes on the official who had jumped up to question him and said mildly, “Get yourself ready. You’re the next one to be tried.”
The man shook with fright.
Ning Chen pointed at Zhang Yuancang and said sharply, “Bring him in for me!”
Zhang Yuancang was brought into the room.
Ning Chen waved a hand to send the soldiers out.
There were only three men in the room. Himself, Pan Yucheng and Zhang Yuancang.
Ning Chen walked over to Zhang Yuancang, squatted down, drew his dagger and turned it over in his hand, and then asked, as though it had only just occurred to him, “Lord Zhang. How did my mother die?”
Zhang Yuancang’s eyes went wide all at once, shock all over his face.
He had expected Ning Chen to ask about the gold mine.
It startled Pan Yucheng too.
“I— I don’t understand General Ning’s meaning.”
The dagger in Ning Chen’s hand went hard into his thigh.
“Aah—”
Zhang Yuancang’s screams rang around the room.
The officials outside all heard it, and their souls fairly rose up out of them in fright.
Ning Chen turned the dagger where it was and said mildly, “Li Ji has talked. You told him once that my mother was murdered… Who was the man?”
Zhang Yuancang’s features twisted out of shape. He said in a shaking voice, “I— I don’t know what General Ning is talking about.”
Ning Chen’s eyes were cold. “Not going to talk? That’s all right. I’ll count it against you.”
“You murdered my mother. Killing your whole family for it is hardly out of line, is it?”
“Your miserable little life is in my hand right now. Any reason at all will do and I can slaughter your whole family, and I promise you there won’t be one of your household left alive… What reason should I pick? Rebellion. Yes, that’s a good one. What does Lord Zhang think?”
Zhang Yuancang howled, “That’s a false charge!”
“Does that matter? What goes on your charge sheet is mine to say… If I say you plotted rebellion, then you plotted rebellion, and nobody will care. The man behind you would be glad to see you dead, to save himself.”
“Lord Zhang. Throwing your own family in for somebody else’s sake. Is it worth it?”
Zhang Yuancang howled, “Don’t try to frighten me with that… Working a gold mine in secret already means the entire household to the sword.”
Ning Chen said mildly, “That’s right. What you’ve committed does mean the entire household to the sword… But you were acting on orders. You weren’t the one who planned it. If I write your crime down a little lighter when I write the charge sheet, there may yet be a way out of it.”
“You’re a dead man for certain… But your family might live. The women would likely go into the courtesans’ quarter and the men would be sent into exile, but at the very least they would be alive.”
“Lord Zhang. Do you want your whole household dead to the last one, or do you want to gamble on a way out for your family?”
Zhang Yuancang was silent.
Ning Chen smiled coldly. “Lord Zhang is a faithful dog indeed. Anybody who didn’t know better would think the man giving you your orders had once saved your father’s life, that you would spend your whole family’s lives protecting him.”
“Well then. I’ll oblige you!”
“Somebody.”
Two soldiers pushed the door open and came in.
Ning Chen said mildly, “Zhang Yuancang worked a gold mine in secret, raised a private army and intended rebellion… Go to Lord Zhang’s house now. Old, weak, women, children, it makes no difference. Cut them down where they stand. See that not a chicken or a dog is left.”
“Sir!”
The two soldiers were turning to go when Zhang Yuancang cried out in a panic, “Wait— wait—”
Ning Chen looked at the two soldiers. “Outside. Wait for orders.”
When they had gone, Ning Chen squatted down again. “It seems Lord Zhang has changed his mind.”
Zhang Yuancang’s eyes fixed on Ning Chen and would not leave him. “If I talk, can you really keep my family alive?”
“That I can’t promise you. But confess and the hand is light, hold out and the hand is heavy… If you talk, and talk straight, I can speak to His Majesty for you. If you hold out and say nothing, then I promise you your family will die to the last one.”
Zhang Yuancang hesitated a moment. “All right. I’ll tell you everything I know… But I ask General Ning to keep his word and speak for my family.”
Ning Chen nodded.
“The man who murdered your mother is called Ma Kaicheng. He belongs to the Left Chancellor’s residence.”
Ning Chen’s eyes narrowed to points. So the guess had been right. The Left Chancellor after all.
But at that time he and his mother had been no threat at all to the Left Chancellor, and a man like that would never have noticed people as small as they were… Why kill his mother?
Then all at once a person came into his mind. Chang Ruyue.
Perhaps Chang Ruyue had learned his mother existed and had gone to the Left Chancellor about it, out of jealousy, or fear, or something else… and that was why the Left Chancellor had sent a man to do the killing.
And if that was it, why not kill him along with her?
Ning Chen’s thoughts were running wild when he heard Pan Yucheng say, “Ma Kaicheng. I know that man.”
It startled Ning Chen. He looked at him. “You know him?”
Pan Yucheng nodded. “Not only me. You know him too… He’s the man at the Left Chancellor’s residence you nearly beat to death. The one who drove a carriage into you.”
“Him?”
Ning Chen’s eyes went cold and hard.
He looked down at Zhang Yuancang. “Go on.”
Zhang Yuancang said in a shaking voice, “Your mother was weak in the body and often ill… Ma Kaicheng bought the physician. When the man set the needles in her he did a little something to them, and it made her illness worse.”
“And afterward he had the physician’s mouth closed too.”
Rage was burning in Ning Chen, but he was still puzzled. “My mother was only a frail woman. With what Ma Kaicheng can do, why go to all that trouble?”
“And another thing. If that was how it was, why didn’t he cut the grass and pull the root with it and kill me too?”
Zhang Yuancang shook his head. “That I couldn’t say!”
Ning Chen said angrily, “Then how did you come to know about it at all?”
“When Ma Kaicheng came to Lingzhou he stayed at my residence… He brought several jianghu marvels with him. Every one of them had the art of finding gold and fixing the spot, and it was those men who found the mine.”
“About your mother being killed, I had a man listen in while they were drinking.”
Ning Chen’s brows drew together. “If the mine was found then, that’s seven or eight years ago. Why only start digging now?”
Zhang Yuancang shook his head. “I don’t know. I only did as I was ordered.”
“Ordered by the Left Chancellor? Were there secret letters back and forth?”
Zhang Yuancang said, “No. Every time it was word of mouth, brought by Ma Kaicheng.”
Ning Chen’s face went livid. If that was how it stood, there was no way at all to fix the crime on the Left Chancellor… He could put the whole thing on Ma Kaicheng, or close the man’s mouth and leave nobody alive to testify.
Then a light went on in Ning Chen’s mind, and he saw a way.
Send a man back to the capital in secret, have Geng Jing take Ma Kaicheng with one thunderclap stroke, then have Zhang Yuancang name Ma Kaicheng, and last of all have Ma Kaicheng name the Left Chancellor.
(End of Chapter 148)