When the officials came back to themselves, one pair of disbelieving eyes after another settled on the Left Chancellor.
The greatest woodworm in the Great Xuan is the Left Chancellor. Was that possible?
Ning Chen kept one hand on his hilt, watching the Left Chancellor, and said sharply, “Left Chancellor. Do you know your crime?”
The Left Chancellor went white in the face, but he was not alarmed.
He knelt in front of the Xuan Emperor and said, “Your old subject is wronged. I beg Your Majesty to see clearly!”
“Your old subject has served in office for decades, diligently and carefully, and by the grace of the throne and Your Majesty’s regard he stands at the head of the officials… What has your old subject left to want?”
The officials found what the Left Chancellor said very reasonable.
He assists the Son of Heaven and handles the ten thousand affairs of state.
With the position the Left Chancellor held now, he had no reason whatever to sell out to the enemy and betray the country.
The Xuan Emperor’s eyes were ice cold, and his gaze came to rest on Ning Chen.
Ning Chen could not be bothered with more talk. He turned and said a few words low into Pan Yucheng’s ear.
Pan Yucheng gave one nod and went out.
A little while later came the sound of leg irons.
The King of the Left Court, Zhang Yuancang, Kong Yongchun and the rest were brought up.
Ning Chen said, “Your Majesty. Zhang Yuancang, Kong Yongchun… they are both the Left Chancellor’s protégés, and both can identify him.”
The Xuan Emperor’s cold gaze settled on them.
Ning Chen said sharply, “Zhang Yuancang. Kong Yongchun… You are before His Majesty. Will you not confess the truth?”
Zhang Yuancang and the others knelt on the ground, shaking.
Zhang Yuancang said in fear and trembling, “Your guilty subject is Zhang Yuancang, formerly Prefect of Lingzhou. I am the Left Chancellor’s protégé, and by the Left Chancellor’s order I was responsible for working the gold mine in secret.”
Kong Yongchun glanced at the Left Chancellor, saw the cold in the man’s eyes, and shivered.
Ning Chen had it right. As things stood now, the Left Chancellor would have liked to kill his whole family.
The only man he could lean on now was Ning Chen.
And with the King of the Left Court there, denying it would do him no good.
He said in a shaking voice, “Your guilty subject is Kong Yongchun, Army Supervisor of Beilin Pass, the Left Chancellor’s protégé. By the Left Chancellor’s secret order I conspired with the King of the Left Court these several years and had seven commanders of the Great Xuan murdered, and soldiers past counting.”
The noise broke out among the officials at once!
Ning Chen took the moment to bring out a sheaf of secret letters. “Your Majesty. These are the secret letters that passed between the Left Chancellor and these men, seized by your subject.”
Eunuch Quan came over quickly, took the letters and carried them to the Xuan Emperor.
The Xuan Emperor picked up the letters and opened them, and his face went worse and worse.
“Wretch. You wretched thing…”
The dragon countenance was in a rage.
The Xuan Emperor stared coldly at the Left Chancellor. “This emperor trusted you for nothing, then. Is this how you repay him?”
The Left Chancellor shook, and said in fear and trembling, “Your Majesty, your old subject is wronged!”
“Your old subject has never exchanged a secret letter with these two men. I have no idea where these letters come from.”
“Your Majesty misses nothing and must know your old subject’s hand. Whether these letters are your old subject’s writing cannot be hidden from Your Majesty’s eyes.”
The Xuan Emperor’s brows drew together slightly. He looked at Ning Chen. “This is indeed not the Left Chancellor’s hand.”
Ning Chen said, “Your Majesty, the Left Chancellor has served in office for decades… A man who does not know how to leave himself a way out would not be fit to stand at the head of the officials.”
“In a matter like this the Left Chancellor would certainly not put his own brush to paper… Some of these letters came from the hand of Steward Ding of the chancellor’s residence, and some from the hand of the Left Chancellor’s trusted man, Ma Kaicheng.”
The Xuan Emperor’s gaze searched the courtyard. “Where are these two dogs?”
Ning Chen waved a hand, and Steward Ding was brought up.
Steward Ding’s face was a dreadful white. He knelt on the ground shaking, and said in a trembling voice, “This humble commoner Ding Chengye greets Your Majesty!”
The Xuan Emperor stared at him, lifted the letters in his hand and asked mildly, “Did these letters come from your hand?”
“Reporting to Your Majesty, they did not. This humble commoner has never written any secret letters.”
Ning Chen smiled coldly. “Steward Ding, you still dare deny it before His Majesty… The Left Chancellor had you write for him, and I don’t believe you would dare put it into anyone else’s hands. One comparison against your writing and we will know whether these letters are yours.”
The blood went out of Steward Ding’s face.
Every single matter in those letters was a crime that took the entire household to the sword, and naturally could not be let out to anybody else.
So they were indeed in his own hand.
The Xuan Emperor made a cold sound in his nose, and then frowned suddenly. “Where is Ma Kaicheng?”
Ning Chen looked at Geng Jing without thinking. “Lord Geng. Have Ma Kaicheng brought up?”
There was a great deal in Geng Jing’s eyes as he looked at Ning Chen.
Ning Chen frowned slightly. “What is it?”
Geng Jing smiled bitterly. “When I had your secret letter I sent men at once to arrest Ma Kaicheng… but we were a step behind. Ma Kaicheng’s whole household is gone. No living man to be seen and no body either.”
Ning Chen’s face changed.
Everything he had held was supporting evidence to begin with, and now a link of it had been lost.
Ning Chen watched the Left Chancellor hard. It seemed Ma Kaicheng’s household had been silenced.
The moment he learned of Ma Kaicheng from Zhang Yuancang, he had sent a man with a letter to Geng Jing… and he had still been a step behind.
But this time Ning Chen had guessed wrong, because not even the Left Chancellor knew where Ma Kaicheng was. He had sent men to silence him, and he too had been a step behind.
“Left Chancellor. Beautifully handled… Ma Kaicheng was your trusted man, whatever else he was. You kill his whole household to close his mouth, and you aren’t afraid he’ll come for your life when you dream at midnight?”
The Left Chancellor gave him one cold look, and then his eyes went across to Steward Ding.
Steward Ding shook slightly, and his face went through several changes.
But very soon his eyes set, as if he had decided something.
He turned toward the Left Chancellor and knocked his head hard on the ground. “Your Excellency, this servant has wronged you. This servant has failed your trust… Those secret letters were indeed written by me.”
Astonishment came over the Left Chancellor’s face. “Steward Ding, you—”
Steward Ding said heavily, “Your Excellency, it was Ma Kaicheng and I together. We conspired with Kong Yongchun and Zhang Yuancang, stole the gold mine, and got seven great commanders killed and soldiers past counting.”
The Left Chancellor was shocked and furious. He pointed at Steward Ding with a shaking finger. “You— you wretch… How dared you?”
“Your Excellency, this servant is a wretch. This servant failed your trust and has brought a small man’s attacks down on you and damaged your name. This servant deserves to die!”
As he said it Steward Ding turned to the Xuan Emperor. “Your Majesty, all of this was done by this humble commoner and Ma Kaicheng. His Excellency knew nothing of it. I beg Your Majesty to see clearly!”
Ning Chen’s eyes contracted, and he said sharply, “Steward Ding, you want to carry the crime for the Left Chancellor… You are one petty steward. Can you carry it?”
Steward Ding gave a cold laugh, plainly past caring now, and said contemptuously, “Ning Chen, you take the steward of this chancellor’s residence for far too little. Have you never heard that a chancellor’s gate has an official of the third grade standing at it, as the saying goes?”
“I manage the whole internal business of this residence. So long as I use His Excellency’s name, what official in this capital, high or low, would dare refuse me face?”
“Ning Chen, do you know what I am worth? In good land outside the city alone I hold better than ten thousand acres… Do you still think I am only a petty steward?”
“Zhang Yuancang is His Excellency’s protégé, and I have known him a long time… Ma Kaicheng and I wrote to him in His Excellency’s voice and told him to do the thing. Would he dare not do it?”
The Left Chancellor was shaking with rage, and roared, “You wretch, you dared use this chancellor’s name to work as you pleased?”
“Your Excellency, this servant has wronged you. This servant’s crime deserves ten thousand deaths!”
Steward Ding turned to the Xuan Emperor. “Your Majesty, all of this was done by this humble commoner and Ma Kaicheng. It has nothing to do with His Excellency. I beg Your Majesty to see clearly.”
Ning Chen’s rage was past holding. He smiled coldly. “What a faithful dog… Then let me ask you this. Why conspire with Kong Yongchun and have commanders and soldiers of my Great Xuan killed?”
Steward Ding looked at Ning Chen and said, smiling coldly, “Do you know anything about my past?”
Ning Chen watched him and said nothing.
“I too was once a soldier of the Great Xuan. Only my talents went unrecognized and I got no advancement. Years of it and I was still a common soldier… while those idiots climbed step after step. I would not accept it.”
Ning Chen said furiously, “That’s horseshit… Every man you had killed was a fine commander of my Great Xuan, brave and skilled in war.”
“What of it? I was envious that they rose faster than I did. What gave them the right? I can fight too. Why was I not advanced?”
“And you, you contemptible little man. You destroyed everything I built up so carefully in Lingzhou and cut off my income… My only regret is that I couldn’t get you killed.”
Ning Chen was so angry he began to laugh. “Good, good, good… A fine dog indeed. You want to carry the crime for the Left Chancellor, do you? Never mind. I don’t believe for a second that the Inspectorate’s tortures won’t open your mouth.”
“Ning Chen, don’t imagine you’ll torture me… I know the crime I have committed is a capital one, and I will not give you the chance to torture me.”
Steward Ding shouted it, and then all at once his body jerked and blood came welling out of the corner of his mouth.
Ning Chen started, stepped forward and pinched Steward Ding’s mouth open, and half a tongue came out of it in a wash of blood.
Hard, no question. He had tried to bite off his own tongue and die of it!
Ning Chen smiled coldly. “Steward Ding, you meant to bite your tongue off and die? Didn’t you know that biting your tongue won’t kill you at all?”
“Somebody. Take him to the sixth department and get him treated.”
Even if Steward Ding could not speak, he still had hands, and he could write.
If Steward Ding died, all the Left Chancellor would carry was slack management and a failure of oversight… and a charge that size would cost him nothing at all.
And if Ning Chen let this chance go, moving against the Left Chancellor later would be harder still.
Besides, if the Left Chancellor were not brought down, what came next was the Left Chancellor’s revenge.
The Left Chancellor knelt before the Xuan Emperor. “Your Majesty, your old subject managed his household slackly and is guilty of failing in oversight, and has shamed the grace of heaven… Your old subject asks leave to resign his office and go home to his village. I beg Your Majesty’s consent!”
The Xuan Emperor’s brows knotted.
“Your Majesty, the Left Chancellor handles ten thousand affairs a day. An oversight is hard to avoid. I beg Your Majesty’s mercy!”
One of the censors jumped out.
“Your Majesty, the Left Chancellor has worked hard and served greatly. To strip him of office over a small failure of oversight — your subject thinks it improper!”
“Your subject seconds it!”
“Your subject also seconds it!”
The Xuan Emperor nodded slightly. To strip the Left Chancellor of office over a thing like this really would make him a harsh emperor, and the world would find fault with him for it.
Besides, he still needed the Left Chancellor now.
The Xuan Emperor was about to speak when he heard Ning Chen say, smiling coldly, “Left Chancellor. Feeling pleased with yourself just now?”
The Left Chancellor glanced at Ning Chen, and there was a challenge in his eyes.
Hmph. You think you can bring down this chancellor? A mayfly trying to shake a tree. Absurd. The Left Chancellor laughed coldly to himself.
Ning Chen had caught him off guard and he had been somewhat thrown… but he had served in office for decades, and if he could not get over a bump this size, how would he be fit to stand at the head of the officials?
Ning Chen said mildly, “Lord Left Chancellor, don’t be pleased with yourself… I haven’t shown all my cards yet.”
The Left Chancellor’s body tightened, and his expression stiffened slightly.
That little mongrel has more cards?
Ning Chen said sharply, “Somebody. Bring the man in for me!”
Several soldiers dragged a man into the courtyard.
But when he saw the man, Ning Chen was struck blank.
This man… this man was Ma Kaicheng.
The man he had told them to bring in was the Poisoner. Where had Ma Kaicheng come from?
He looked at Geng Jing without thinking.
Geng Jing’s whole face was at a loss too.
“Where did this man come from?”
A soldier said quickly, “Reporting to General Ning, somebody left him at the gate of the Inspectorate.”
“Did you see who?”
“He wore a bamboo hat and his face couldn’t be made out. After he left the man he rode off fast… Commandant Yuan went after him, but did not catch him.”
Ning Chen was blank. Somebody was helping him? Who could it be?
Who had ability of that order? To carry the man off ahead of both the Inspectorate and the Left Chancellor… and then to hand him over at this exact moment?
That person was certainly in this courtyard.
No outsider could possibly know that he needed Ma Kaicheng right now to identify the Left Chancellor.
The Xuan Emperor frowned and asked, “Who is this man?”
Ning Chen had no attention to spare now for wondering who was helping him from the shadows. He bent from the waist. “Your Majesty, this man is Ma Kaicheng.”
The Xuan Emperor made a sound of assent!
Ma Kaicheng knelt on the ground, terror all over his face, and spoke before Ning Chen could ask him anything: “This guilty commoner Ma Kaicheng greets Your Majesty!”
“This guilty commoner will identify the Left Chancellor. He directed your guilty subject to join with Zhang Yuancang and work the gold mine in secret.”
The noise broke out among the officials at once, astonishment on every face.
(End of Chapter 172)