“Geng Jing. The man in charge of that warship was called Ye Liao, and he has escaped.”
“Find him for this emperor. Alive, this emperor wants the man. Dead, this emperor wants the body.”
The Xuan Emperor said it coldly.
Geng Jing said quickly, “Your subject obeys the command.”
The Xuan Emperor’s eyes came to rest on Ji Mingchen, and he said flatly, “The men on that warship were all vetted and posted by the Ministry of War. How have you been doing your work?”
Ji Mingchen went down on his knees with a thump in fright, white in the face. “Your subject knows his fault. Your subject begs Your Majesty’s mercy.”
The Xuan Emperor said coldly, “Beloved Minister Ji. Have every man on that ship looked into down to the roots… And every official at the Lingzhou landing, great and small, investigated through and through.”
“This emperor wants to know who has nerve enough to scuttle a warship and try to kill Ning Chen… If this is not done properly, do not blame this emperor for having no feelings to spare.”
The cold sweat stood out on Ji Mingchen’s forehead, and he said in a shaking voice, “Your subject receives the command.”
The Xuan Emperor gave a cold snort and looked at Li Zhixing. “The Ministry of Justice is to assist. Everybody concerned is to be investigated, without exception.”
Li Zhixing said in fright, “Your subject obeys the command.”
At that same moment, in the sealed room of a certain house in the capital.
The Right Chancellor and the plump, pale young man sat facing each other.
The plump, pale young man’s face was cold and dark, and he crushed the cake in his hand to crumbs.
“This Ning Chen has a lot of life in him. Even that could not kill him.”
The Right Chancellor said heavily, “I have already sent the Dark Moon Tower’s men to lay ambushes along his road. The Ghost-Shadow Sect is under the court army’s guard now, and without them to interfere with us, Ning Chen will not get back to the capital alive.”
Something flickered in the plump, pale young man’s eyes, and he said doubtfully, “I am curious. Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng were both drugged senseless. Why was Ning Chen unaffected?”
The Right Chancellor thought about it a while. “The dose may have been too small. Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng are both Inspectorate men and careful in what they do… and Ning Chen more so.”
“So we did not dare put anything in the food or the wine. All we could do was coat the inside of the cups.”
The plump, pale young man frowned. “That does not explain it. Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng are both fighters of the first rank, and stronger in the body than Ning Chen.”
“Both of them were drugged senseless and Ning Chen came through it… The man is uncanny in the extreme.”
What they did not know was that Ning Chen had a habit. Eating away from home, he would rinse the cup out with the tea before drinking, and it was the same with wine — he would rinse the cup with the wine.
So the dose he swallowed was very small, and on top of that he had that breath in him to guard him.
Even so, when Ning Chen got back to his room he had felt heavy and dull… but he had thought nothing of it, put it down to the drink and the pitching of the ship as natural enough, and lain down to sleep.
Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng lay down as soon as they got back to their rooms, and when the drug took hold they slept and did not wake.
The plump, pale young man said furiously, “Such a careful plan, wasted. And it failed after all. This Ning Chen is uncanny.”
They had held off the whole way to make Ning Chen let his guard down.
And Ning Chen had indeed been taken in. It had never occurred to him that anyone would dare move on him aboard a warship.
But it is a thousand precautions and one slip. They did not know about Ning Chen’s small habit, or about the breath in him, and it carried Ning Chen out of that one alive.
The Right Chancellor said heavily, “This has become far too big. Geng Jing, Ji Mingchen and Li Zhixing have all been summoned into the palace in haste… Without being told, anyone can see His Majesty is in a towering rage and has ordered the whole thing sifted.”
“We will have to hold ourselves in for a while. No more large moves.”
The plump, pale young man frowned and gave a cold snort. “Until Ning Chen is out of the way, my mind will not be easy.”
“The man is too uncanny. Think how old he is — poetry and songs come to his hand as he reaches for them, and what comes out of his mouth is a song for the ages… And that would be one thing, but he is master of arms and of strategy on top of it.”
“If he gets back to the capital alive this time he will be made a General of the First Rank… A General of the First Rank may quarter troops in his own house, and killing him after that will be harder still.”
The Right Chancellor let out a breath and said, “There are such things as geniuses in this world. Like the Second Prince in his day — he could write a song for the ages at ten years old. Ning Chen is the same.”
“With the talks brought off and the Wu army pulled back, his merit is too great this time… If he comes back and is made a General of the First Rank, he will be the most powerful military marquis in the Great Xuan. Even I would have to stand a head below him.”
The plump, pale young man gave a cold snort. “Father Emperor is a doting old fool. He has sons of his own and does not favor them, and favors an outsider instead. There is no telling what is in his head.”
“They say too much cleverness breaks early. Ning Chen is as clever as that — why will he not die?”
“And the creature has tangled himself up with the woman emperor of Wu. Talks and a withdrawal — isn’t that one word from him? The merit might as well have been picked up off the ground.”
“Do you suppose there is something wrong with the woman emperor of Wu’s head? What did she see in Ning Chen? Thin as a scrawny chick… She has no taste at all.”
The Right Chancellor listened to the plump, pale young man’s complaints with his face showing nothing.
At last he had heard enough of it, and could not help saying, “Ye Liao has run. That man has to be found.”
The plump, pale young man’s eyes turned vicious all at once. “Greedy for life and afraid to die, and he dared betray me… He makes a mess of it and then dares run? Have his family dealt with, all of them. Leave nobody.”
The Right Chancellor said quickly, “That will not do.”
The plump, pale young man frowned at him.
The Right Chancellor said, “If his family are all killed, Ye Liao is a cornered dog going over a wall. He may well go to Ning Chen.”
“So long as his family are still in our hands, Ye Liao cannot get away.”
The plump, pale young man nodded slightly. “I did not think it through. The Right Chancellor deserves his name. You do think a thing through.”
“Put on more men. Find Ye Liao… The moment anyone sees him, close his mouth.”
The Right Chancellor inclined his head slightly.
He thought a moment, then said, “Wei Feng must be made to hurry. The southern army has to be in our hands as soon as possible… Ning Chen has too much power. Without an army we cannot stand against him.”
The plump, pale young man smiled darkly. “Tong Yuanzhou has hard bones in him. He has held the southern frontier more than ten years… To get hold of the southern army, Tong Yuanzhou has to be dealt with first.”
The Right Chancellor said heavily, “Can he not be won over?”
The plump, pale young man smiled coldly. “It has been tried. The man takes neither soft handling nor hard, and he is loyal to the bone to His Majesty, and His Majesty trusts him. Otherwise, on the strength of these last few defeats, he would have lost his head long ago.”
“But it doesn’t matter. I have it arranged. The next time we fight the Nanyue Kingdom will be the day he dies. If he cannot be used by me, then he can only die.”
The Right Chancellor inclined his head slightly, and looked at the plump, pale young man. “Pan Yucheng and Feng Qizheng must be kept well. Those two are the keen blades for dealing with Ning Chen.”
The plump, pale young man gave a dark laugh. “Don’t worry. Nobody knows where those two are hidden.”
Two more days went by in a flash.
Ning Chen searched along the road the whole way and never found Pan Yucheng or Feng Qizheng.
But he ran into two waves of assassins.
Now he was facing the third ambush.
The light flickered along the blade.
Bang, bang, bang!!!
Every one of the arrows was cut down.
Ning Chen swung down from the saddle, and Diaochan had the sense to run well clear.
Ning Chen took his blade and walked step by step toward the thick wood not far off.
When the assassins in the wood saw that arrows would not touch Ning Chen, they came charging out of it and met Ning Chen hand-to-hand.
About a quarter of an hour, and the fight was over.
Then hoofbeats rang and the dust flew up.
Nie Liang and his men arrived.
Nie Liang and every one of the imperial guards were struck dumb and staring.
Ning Chen stood with his face covered in blood in the middle of twenty-odd bodies, the point of his blade still dripping, like a demon out of hell.
(End of Chapter 420)