Steward Ding took several good men and rode hard to Ma Kaicheng’s house.
The moment he was in the yard he saw several men lying on the ground.
His face changed all at once and he went forward quickly.
These were the men the Left Chancellor had set to watch Ma Kaicheng.
He had his men search the place in haste, but the Ma house was long since empty of people, and there was not so much as the shadow of a ghost in it.
Steward Ding had one of the unconscious men brought round.
“What happened here?”
The man stood there at a loss and shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” Steward Ding’s voice went up an octave. “You don’t know how you were knocked out?”
“We were watching Ma Kaicheng in secret as we were ordered, and then out of nowhere we were attacked. When I woke I was lying here.”
Steward Ding’s face was ugly. “A pack of good-for-nothings. What are we feeding you for?”
“Steward Ding, spare me. Steward Ding— Mm? What’s this?”
As the man was begging he felt something wrong at his chest, put a hand in, and drew out a letter.
On the envelope, in large characters: TO BE OPENED BY THE LEFT CHANCELLOR HIMSELF.
Steward Ding carried the letter back, gave it to the Left Chancellor and explained what had happened.
The Left Chancellor opened it, and when he had taken in what was written there he caught up the teacup from the table and dashed it on the floor, where it went to pieces.
The costly cup had not escaped its fate in the end. It lay in pieces.
The Left Chancellor’s face was as ugly as a face could be. His chest heaved, and his breath came in and out of him in great rasps.
He threw the letter to Steward Ding.
Steward Ding caught it, read it through, and his eyes shrank hard.
There were not many words on it, but every word was a blade, and they put a chill in a man that had nothing to do with the cold.
It read:
My lord Left Chancellor. I have taken Ma Kaicheng away.
It is said that my lord Left Chancellor is on very close private terms with the King of the Left Court of the Tuoluo Kingdom. I wonder whether His Majesty knows of it.
Ning Chen has gone far away to the northern border. If he comes home in triumph, Ma Kaicheng vanishes from the face of the earth.
If anything at all should happen to Ning Chen, Ma Kaicheng will appear before His Majesty… I beg my lord Left Chancellor to think it over three times.
That was all there was in it. There was no signature.
The Left Chancellor’s eyes were cold on Steward Ding, because the thing written in that letter was known to very few men indeed.
Steward Ding caught the look and went white in the face with fright, and dropped to his knees with a thump. “Your Excellency, see it clearly. It was not this servant… If anything befell Your Excellency, this servant would not escape a death sentence either.”
The Left Chancellor’s face was cold and he said nothing. His eyes flickered.
After a while he spoke, slowly. “Get up.”
Steward Ding got to his feet, trembling all over.
“Who do you say could have done this?”
Steward Ding thought a moment. “Could it be the Inspectorate?”
The Left Chancellor shook his head. “Not the Inspectorate… If the Inspectorate had done it, the men set to watch Ma Kaicheng would not have gotten away either, and they certainly would not have left this letter.”
Steward Ding thought that was true enough. If the Inspectorate knew His Excellency was in contact with the King of the Left Court, they would have asked for an edict and come to make a confiscation long ago.
The Left Chancellor said, his face dark, “What this man wants is to protect Ning Chen. So he must be somebody very close to that bastard.”
Steward Ding said, “Could it be the crown prince? They say the Ninth Princess is very close to Ning Chen too.”
The Left Chancellor glanced at him. “Do you have a pig’s brain in your head? If it were the crown prince, would he need to go to all that trouble?”
“Your Excellency, could it be the Right Chancellor?”
“No. If it were the Right Chancellor, this letter would have turned into a memorial and would be lying on His Majesty’s dragon desk.”
Steward Ding said, puzzled, “Then who could it be?”
The Left Chancellor shook his head. “It could be anybody. There are far too many men who would like to see this chancellor brought down.”
Something flickered in Steward Ding’s eyes, and he had the look of a man who had something to say and had stopped himself.
The Left Chancellor said, low, “Say it. At a time like this, what is there that can’t be said?”
Steward Ding hesitated. “Your Excellency, one man has come into this servant’s mind.”
“Who?”
“Lord Ning.”
The Left Chancellor’s head came round. “Ning Ziming? How did you come to think of him?”
“Lord Ning has been doing Your Excellency’s work all along and knows a good deal. And Ning Chen is his own blood. He has the motive.”
The Left Chancellor smiled coldly.
“It cannot be him. The man is greedy for power and in love with show, he is cold by nature, and at bottom he is a coward… He is nothing but a puppet for this chancellor to work.”
“And he does not know that I am in contact with the King of the Left Court.”
Steward Ding shook his head. “Then this servant truly cannot think who it is.”
“Whoever it is, the man has to be found… He is like a sharp sword hanging over this chancellor’s head, and it could come down and take this chancellor’s life at any moment.”
“If this chancellor goes down, not one of you gets away.”
Steward Ding said quickly, “Your Excellency may rest easy. This servant will strain every nerve to find the man.”
“Your Excellency, and the King of the Left Court—”
The Left Chancellor waved that off. “It goes ahead as planned… Ning Chen has Old General Chen behind him, he has His Majesty’s favor on top of that, and he is a silver coat of the Inspectorate. He cannot be left to grow any further.”
“If he comes back alive this time with military merit on him, then with the favor His Majesty shows him he could well be raised to general and given a marquisate… And if that happens, killing him becomes a hard thing indeed.”
Worry filled Steward Ding’s face. “Your Excellency, if Ning Chen dies, the man who wrote the letter—”
The Left Chancellor waved it away and cut him off, and said with confidence, “The man who wrote it cannot know much. If he had evidence enough there would be no need to threaten this chancellor at all. He could take it straight to His Majesty, or hand it to the Inspectorate, and either would be the death of this chancellor.”
“As for Ma Kaicheng, he is a nobody. Even if he were brought before His Majesty… Zhang Yuancang is dead, there is no evidence, and His Majesty will not believe a word he says.”
“So on the northern border, everything goes ahead as first planned.”
“And another thing. Whoever wants to protect Ning Chen must be somebody about him… Get a word to that one too, and have him help with the search. If this chancellor goes down there is nothing in it for him either.”
Steward Ding bowed. “Yes. This servant will see to it at once.”
Elsewhere, Ning Chen was still adrift on the water.
He stood on the deck with the wind in his face.
He did not know his plan had gone wrong.
His plan had been for Geng Jing to set men watching Ma Kaicheng, and to take Ma Kaicheng into their keeping if the Left Chancellor moved to close his mouth… and if the Left Chancellor showed no sign of it, to keep the troops still.
But by the time Geng Jing’s men got there, Ma Kaicheng and his household had already vanished.
Somebody had moved one step ahead of Ning Chen’s plan.
“General Ning. Time to eat.”
Wu Tiezhu had come to call him to the meal.
Ning Chen was a general named by His Majesty’s own hand, and from the moment Wu Tiezhu set foot on this warship he was a soldier of the Great Xuan… so what he called Ning Chen had changed too.
Ning Chen looked back. “Fish again?”
Wu Tiezhu nodded. “Yes.”
Ning Chen smiled bitterly. The men had not brought much in the way of rations and saved what they could, and for days now it had been fish at every meal.
River fish is fine eating, but no matter how fine, a man cannot have it every day.
Ning Chen came into a cabin where Pan Yucheng and the others were already seated, waiting for him to begin.
Seeing him come in, they all rose quickly to meet him.
Friends they were, but the rules were the rules.
“Sit down, all of you.”
Ning Chen went over, sat, and motioned them down with a hand.
“Pick up your chopsticks. A few more days and we’re at Chenzhou, and then I’ll stand you all a proper meal.”
(End of Chapter 154)