Li Hanru decided to carry it himself.
Shen Min had the same thought.
He had a hand in this too… Better that he step out and take it on himself than that the whole army fall. It would save His Majesty’s face, and it would save Ning Chen.
The Great Xuan truly did need Ning Chen.
Li Hanru and Shen Min came out of the ranks at the same moment.
Each of them looked at the other without meaning to, and each gave a slight start, and in the next second each understood what the other was thinking.
Li Hanru signaled Shen Min with his eyes. He would carry it.
One man was enough to be sacrificed for this.
But Fan Taihe had plainly come prepared this time, and prepared thoroughly.
Before Li Hanru could open his mouth, Fan Taihe said in a low voice, “Your Majesty, beyond this your subject has one more matter to lay before you.”
“When the marquis cut his way through the North Royal Court and took the King of the Left Court alive, the stores he seized were far more than the little that went into the treasury.”
“Of those stores the marquis held back half for himself, and had Feng Qizheng, a silver coat of the Inspectorate, take them to the black market and turn them into silver notes… Seven hundred thousand taels of it.”
“Your subject has already had the black market man who changed the notes taken into custody. He can be brought face to face with the marquis at any time.”
Every eye in the court came to rest on Ning Chen at once.
Ning Chen’s eyes contracted. He had not thought Fan Taihe would dig even this up.
Today was going to be hard to get past.
The scheme to squeeze the ministers’ silver touched the Xuan Emperor, Li Hanru and Shen Min.
Holding back the stores and turning them into seven hundred thousand taels touched many more.
If they dug further, every man who had taken silver would be pulled in with him… Pan Yucheng, Qi Yuanzhong, Yuan Long, and the thousand soldiers who had gone through life and death at his side.
Fan Taihe could not be allowed to go on.
He could not explain away the letters in the man’s hand that passed between him and the Fourth Prince of Nanyue.
Fan Taihe had the black market man who had changed silver with Feng Qizheng. That one man alone was enough to convict him.
His Majesty’s authority and His Majesty’s face had to be protected.
Li Hanru and Shen Min had to be shielded.
Pan Yucheng, Qi Yuanzhong and Yuan Long could not be dug out… or everything he had put in place over so long would come to nothing.
Ning Chen narrowed his eyes at Fan Taihe and said flatly, “Lord Fan is formidable indeed… He is right. The indemnity these lords subscribed went into my own pocket.”
“And of the stores brought back from the North Royal Court, I held back half.”
The Xuan Emperor’s face changed slightly.
An uproar broke out through the whole court.
Now came the censors’ moment.
Fan Taihe, as Censor-in-Chief, was himself the head of the censors.
In one breath the censors were leaping out one after another, hopping up and down to attack Ning Chen and begging the Xuan Emperor to punish him severely.
Li Hanru and Shen Min held their fists closed tight. They knew that Ning Chen was admitting it to protect them.
The Xuan Emperor’s brows locked. He knew too that Ning Chen was defending his face and his authority.
Eunuch Quan’s face was full of worry. He looked at the censors hopping up and down and said sharply, “Silence. Shouting and bawling in front of the sovereign. What sort of conduct is that?”
The court went quiet at once.
The Xuan Emperor looked out over the assembled officials and said coldly, “That million taels of indemnity was put in Ning Chen’s keeping for the time being by this emperor. There is no question of anyone pocketing it.”
“Because it is this emperor’s view that ceding land and paying indemnity is no policy for the long run… Ning Chen said one thing rightly. Cede land, pay indemnity, swallow the insult, and you buy quiet for a moment and nothing more.”
“If we want peace that lasts, Nanyue must be made to learn how sharp the weapons of my Great Xuan’s soldiers are.”
The ministers looked at one another, but they took it in quickly enough. His Majesty was plainly defending Ning Chen.
Fan Taihe bowed. “Your Majesty, even if the decision not to cede land and pay indemnity was Your Majesty’s own, it is a fact that Marquis Ning is in league with Nanyue, and the secret letters prove it.”
“And he held back the stores on his own authority and filled his own purse, deceiving and defrauding his sovereign. May Your Majesty punish him severely.”
A censor came out of the ranks and said loudly, “Marquis Ning holds the law in contempt. May Your Majesty punish him severely, to uphold the law of the realm and to set the record straight.”
“May Your Majesty punish Marquis Ning severely…”
“May Your Majesty punish him severely…”
One censor after another came out to demand that Ning Chen be punished severely.
Li Hanru could not stand it. He said sharply, “Even if Marquis Ning has done wrong, that gives you no right to fall on him in a body… He marched north against the Tuoluo Kingdom, took Mangzhou, won back the frontier, and brought about the peace with the Wu Kingdom. Every one of those is a merit to the altars of the state and a benefit to the common people. You—”
“Merit is merit and fault is fault, and the one cannot cancel the other.” Fan Taihe cut Li Hanru off. “His Majesty has already rewarded the marquis’s merit. But the marquis’s fault cannot be treated as though nothing had happened simply because he has merit behind him.”
“If merit and fault are not told apart, then in time will not every man be able to lean on his own merit to cheat those above him and deceive those below, to fill his own purse and defraud his sovereign?”
“If that is so, where is Your Majesty’s authority? Does the law of the Great Xuan not become an ornament?”
Fan Taihe’s words gave these mouths among the censors their courage.
They fell on Ning Chen in a body at once, counting off his faults one by one… Some of them went so far as to drag up the old account of the Empress’s brother cut down by his blade.
The Xuan Emperor’s face went still and heavy, and the color of iron came into it… In his mind he was turning over how Ning Chen could be saved.
One man attacking Ning Chen, or two, would have been simple enough… But more than half the court was attacking Ning Chen now, and he could hardly kill them all.
This was not going to be easy.
His gaze came to rest on Ning Chen. “Ning Chen. Do you acknowledge your crime?”
“Your subject acknowledges it!”
The Xuan Emperor said flatly, “Ning Chen, you filled your own purse, and it is contemptible… You are reduced from General of the Second Rank to the Third, with a year’s salary forfeit.”
Ning Chen knelt. “Your subject thanks Your Majesty for this great kindness. Your subject accepts the sentence!”
The ministers looked at one another.
That was it?
That did not smart and it did not sting. That was called punishing him severely? Did he take them for fools?
Fan Taihe bowed. “Your Majesty, Marquis Ning’s guilt is deep and heavy. A punishment like this is far too light.”
The Xuan Emperor asked coldly, “And how do you think he should be punished?”
Fan Taihe said in a low voice, “Your Majesty. Marquis Ning has dealt with the enemy and betrayed his country, filled his own purse, and defrauded his sovereign… Every one of those is a crime punishable to the ninth degree of kin.”
“Your subject knows well how Your Majesty favors Marquis Ning. But the law cannot bend for feeling. Your subject begs Your Majesty… grant Marquis Ning death, and have him beheaded in public, to set the code of law straight.”
The censors, and the officials whose silver Ning Chen had taken, took it up one after another and asked for Ning Chen to be put to death.
The Xuan Emperor’s heart sank hard, and the color of iron stayed in his face.
Li Hanru and the others were in such a state that the sweat came out on their foreheads.
Li Zhixing came out of the ranks and said loudly, “The marquis’s standing is high and his record in the field is brilliant… If he is beheaded in public, will it not leave the soldiers on the frontier cold in their hearts?”
Fan Taihe struck back immediately, saying in a low voice, “This minister does not follow Lord Li… The soldiers on the frontier are the Great Xuan’s soldiers and His Majesty’s soldiers. They are not the marquis’s private army.”
“The law of the Great Xuan was handed down by the Founding Emperor. Merit is to be rewarded, fault is to be punished, and the one cannot cancel the other… Lord Li, do you mean to challenge the law the Founding Emperor laid down?”
It seemed Fan Taihe had Ning Chen dead to rights today. He had even brought out the Founding Emperor.
Li Zhixing’s face darkened, and for the moment he could not think how to answer.
Fan Taihe dropped to his knees with a thud. “Your Majesty, your subject is Censor-in-Chief and has the duty of watching every official and guarding the law of the Great Xuan… May Your Majesty grant Ning Chen death, to set the code of law straight.”
(End of Chapter 372)